Popularity Is Being Loved | seongsang

Nine

"I want to be with you." Seonghwa replies.

"Me too." Yeosang agrees. "Can we be together?"

"Okay." Seonghwa says. "But could we keep our relationship a secret for a while? A secret from everyone?"

"Why?" Yeosang asks. "Is it because of your popularity?"

"No." Seonghwa immediately says. "My popularity is the least important thing to me now."

"Okay. Let's keep it a secret then." Yeosang agrees. He's also not ready to tell everyone he's dating THE Park Seonghwa. If others hated him before, it'll be even worse now.

"Thanks for understanding." Seonghwa pulls him into a hug. Yeosang just smiles. He's obviously not too happy about keeping his relationship with Seonghwa a secret. He's finally with the guy he likes. He doesn't like the idea of guys and girls being all over him thinking he's single, but he respects Seonghwa's decision of keeping it a secret and knows it's for his own good too.

-

As Yeosang is standing by his locker with Jongho, San, and Mingi, Seonghwa walks up to them.

"Hey guys."

"Hey." San says.

"So how was the party?" Seonghwa asks them.

"It was actually really fun." Jongho tells him.

"Yeah, really fun." Mingi nods. "What about you? You were nowhere to be seen that night."

"Oh, I was just there." Seonghwa says. "There was so many people that you didn't notice me."

"Yeah, I guess so." Mingi says even though he knows exactly where Seonghwa was and who he was with.

"Class is starting soon, let's go." Jongho says to them.

"I still have some things to take out of my locker." Yeosang says. "You guys can go."

"Okay." They all walk away, except Seonghwa.

Seonghwa walks closer to Yeosang and rests his head on the locker next to his, not taking his eyes off of him. "How was your weekend?"

"It was good." Yeosang replies. "How was yours?"

"It was good, but I missed you." Seonghwa pouts.

"I missed you too." Yeosang closes his locker and looks at Seonghwa.

"I'll drive you home later, okay?"

"Okay." Yeosang nods and smiles. He would like to give him a hug, but their relationship is supposed to be a secret.

-

Since school is over, Yeosang walks out and waits for Seonghwa while he sits on a bench. No one has come out yet since Yeosang's last class ended a little earlier than usual. 

"Oh look, it's the loser." Yeosang hears Jisung say but pretends he didn't hear him.

"Hey, stop ignoring us." Felix makes Yeosang stand up and pushes him.

"We'll teach you a lesson." Jisung walks over to Yeosang and punches him, making him fall to the ground, then kicks him.

They would always push him and call him names, but it hadn't gotten this bad before. They're now kicking him and punching him. They're beating him up. Yeosang said he wouldn't let anyone treat him this way, but he's honestly scared. When Yunho and Wooyoung were the bullies, it never got this bad and he wasn't too scared of them. He's actually talk back to them, but he's really scared right now. He's really scared of Jisung and Felix.

"Hey guys, I think we should stop bothering him." Hongjoong says once he sees what Jisung and Felix are doing. He tries to stop Felix and Jisung from hitting Yeosang, but Felix pushes him to the ground. Yeosang covers his face and cries in pain. Felix is just standing still now, Jisung is the one beating Yeosang up.

"Jisung, stop it!" Hongjoong says. "He didn't do anything to you!"

"You shut up before I beat you up too!" Jisung yells.

"Please stop." Are the only words Yeosang can let out.