Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
-----
Minghao POV
I held my breath in anticipation as one of our teachers(I forgot his name) stood at the front of the room, a bunch of papers in his hand. I stuff the rest of my 3rd bowl of ice cream into my mouth, I mean, technically I only had about 2 and a half because I shared my last one with Junhui.
He says a bunch of things I don't really understand so I go ask Junhui for help. "What's he saying?"
"He's congratulating us on our performances and that we should all be proud of ourselves regardless of what we do or don't get."
I nod, and my eyes widen when he says 'Seventeen' and my whole table jumps up in excitement, hugging eachother and laughing. Awkwardly, I stand up with them just so I wouldn't look too awkward.
"What happened?" I ask out loud to anyone who'd listen. Junhui wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tightly, "We won! We won first place!" and at that moment I thought I'd yell out of happiness. We quickly settle down to listen to what would happen next and the teacher asked our leader to come to the front to receive the award. We look around for a bit before Bumzu comes and gives Seungcheol a light nudge so he just slowly goes up, shakes the teacher's hand, and takes the certificate and his eyes light up when he sees a small piece of paper at the back.
He runs back to our table and shows us that it's a coupon for 15 servings of fried chicken of any flavour, no wonder he was so excited. That performance was definitely worth it. But like, damn, I can't believe we actually won! The whole table was giddy and soon, Seungcheol had to go back up multiple times to win 'Best Outfits', 'Best Choreography And Synchronisation', 'Best Live Vocals', 'Best Crowd Reactions' and then 'Best Teamwork'.
I felt so proud of everyone, I was so happy that when Junhui went to hold my hand, I just let him do it, I didn't want to ruin his mood. His smile is so pretty, and his hands are warm.
But like, damn, we now have coupons for chicken, arcades, karaoke, and many more. I can't wait to be able to go out with them later because it doesn't seem like we'll be splitting up anytime soon.
---------
We'll be leaving tomorrow afternoon so I decided to start packing up the stuff I didn't need tonight. I'm honestly just looking forward to just passing out in my sleeping bag at this point because of how tired I am. The two Koreans have gone out to look at the stars so it's just me alone at the moment.
However, it wasn't long before the tent zips open and I feel Junhui drape himself over my back. "Hello~" He greets, "I wanna show you something cool." he sounds like he's in his childish state at the moment so I'm kind of looking forward to this. "Ok, show me."
"I can fit the whole world in my hands."
"What no that's impos-"
He cups my face in his hands as he kneels in front of me, looking deeply into my eyes. I blush and look away because his eyes looked wide and innocent, so adorable. "Get away from me, you weirdo." I mutter but it's obvious that he knows I'm not serious and to an extent, I'm glad he decided to stay. I hate being alone, it's kind of scary.
"Are you almost done packing?" He asks, and I nod. "I can't wait to go home! I mean, it's not really home but I live with Mingyu and that's where I'll be living as long as I'm in Korea." I think it was a bit too much information but oh well, it's not like he can do much with it. "I know." He said, and I can feel my heart drop. "Oh." I mean, what did I expect? This boy is a literal stalker, of course he knows where I live.
"But I'm not going to do anything weird about that information, at least, right now I won't." He said but I'm not sure if I should trust him on that or not. Either way, I just decide it would be best to push that matter aside and focus on something more positive.
"Are you excited to go hom-"
"No." He deadpans, not even letting me finish the sentence. I look up, and see that he's suddenly got a sad, angry expression on his face. "Junnie, what's wrong?" I ask, something definitely isn't right. "I just... I just don't want to go back to that place, they're horrible people and I never want to see them again."
He suddenly looks so vulnerable, and I go to hug him. "What people?" I ask, and so he keeps talking. "My mom's friend's family lives in Korea and agreed to let me stay at their house so I can go to school here. He's a raging alcoholic with anger issues and I just... I just don't want to go back, I want to be able to be with you."
Now I felt like I could kind of understand what made him end up like this, coming from that kind of place was sure to cause some kind of problems no matter what.
"Myungho-ah, why are you crying?"
I didn't even realise it until he pointed it out. "It's just so sad..." I mutter, burying my face in his shoulder. "I never knew... it... I...." I was starting to feel myself turning into a blubbering mess, I don't even know how what he told me just suddenly made me feel this way. He pats my back. "Myungho-ah, please don't cry. Junnie-hyung will be ok, he's put up with this for the past 7 years and he's strong enough to push through a few more. There's no need to worry about me." He said it slowly so I could understand each word properly.
No, those 7 years have seriously messed him up, there's no denying it. I just suddenly felt the need to protect him. I just want him out of there as soon as I can. "Nonono, hyung, you're not fine, there is no way you're fine."
Somehow, his confession just completely changed the way I feel about him. Suddenly, almost everything he's done is able to be linked to a reason. Now, I'm not looking forward to going home as much, I just don't want him to go back to that kind of environment.
What if one day, he ends up so messed up that I won't even know him anymore?
------------
I'm so sorry for how messy this story's turned out I don't even have a plan for how this will end so basically, RIP me.
