Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“There's a car waiting that assistant Park is driving. Eat breakfast and then you can go to school, Seongje! And you too, Beom..seok.” Mr Oh mumbled at the end of his sentence.

Beom-seok knew his dad had always preferred Seong-je more after marrying his now step-mother. Seongje was just the 'perfect child' Beomseok couldn't be.

He knew his father had an immense hatred towards him, never actually caring about Beomseok but only about the elections and his reputation. It made him sick to his stomach. The only reason his father still included him was for Seongje to respect and like him. He couldn't be bothered anyway, he shouldn't be bothered with that fact at all actually.

Both teenagers ate their breakfast in an awkward silence, not even exchanging glances towards each other. Beomseok couldn't even be bothered to give Seongje any of his energy. As soon as he finished his breakfast, Beomseok grabbed his backpack to get out of this godforsaken house immediately.

Stepping outside of the house with a thicker jacket for the winter season wasn't enough, but he couldn't care as he didn't want to go back inside just to get his scarf.

Beomseok got into the car, placing his backpack in the space between the seat in front of him and buckled his seatbelt before plugging in some wired earbuds and put on some playlist he found at 2 in the morning.

He couldn't sleep much lately, his anxiety spiked up with the thought of the new environment he'll be in. He was scared of what people would think of him around him. Would they judge him? Would they hurt him like those other girls did? 

He tried calming himself but he knew once he'd fall asleep he'd be woken up again from a trauma related nightmare. ‘It's better that than no sleep at all.’ he thought to himself.

And as he knew, after his 5 hours of sleep he woke up hyperventilating, clutching at his shirt who has been soaked in sweat. He calmed himself down after 5 minutes and looked at his phone to check the hour. It read 7 am, which mean he woke up 5 minutes too early. Beomseok got out of his bed either way to make himself ready since Seongje takes up 25 minutes in the shower. He gets being hygienic but 25 minutes?! Does he wash himself 3 times and his hair 2 times?? What a weirdo.

As he got out of his room, he was greeted by the sight of assistant Park. He always got woken up by assistant Park when he needed to go to school. Guess he beat him by a few minutes.

“Ah, good morning Byeo— Beomseok.” Assistant Park corrected himself. Even though his dad ordered assistant Park to use his deadname, he corrects himself with using his new name.

Beomseok was supposed to be a cover up name, a name to make him forget about his past. But truly it was a name he always wanted to be referred with. Not just a for cover up but a name he wanted to go through life with.

He doesn't understand why assistant Park insisted on using Beomseok, can't he lose his job for not obeying his father's demands? Whatever, he couldn't care less at this point.

He gave the man in the suit a brief smile and headed towards the bathroom with the assigned uniform from Eunjang High. Locking the bathroom door just incase no one could walk in on him showering.

He began taking off his pyjamas starting with his pants, it was the least dreading part to take off as well as his boxers. Then came a harder part, his top. He always liked wearing tops to go to sleep, even if the season was changing to winter, it was comfortable. And if he was cold he'd just take a sweater to put it on top of it.

Taking it off however, was a more difficult part. He knew he'd have to see his chest, a part of his body he had always hated. A reminder of how he's still a woman from birth, or in his case an immature girl. He sometimes wished he could just cut off the globs of fat with a pair of scissors so he wouldn't have to see them again.

He took off the piece of clothing that had been around his torso in a quick movement and decided to not think about anything and just shower immediately to not spike up his dysphoria.

Once he finished showering, he quickly dried his hair before wrapping it in a towel and dried off his body. He put on two bra's to make it have a binder effect, a new set of boxers and put on his Eunjang High uniform. It was a plain white button up, a navy marine, knee length skirt and some black stockings. There was also a blazer which had the same colour as his skirt, with a name tag written Oh Beomseok and underneath the school logo.

He put on the blazer, put on back his in-house shoes and for a touch put on some leg warmers. Even if it was a bit special, the school surely wouldn't send him back home for some leg warmers.

He unraveled the towel on his head eventually and combed through his dampened hair. Maybe he should've combed it before getting it wet, but he wasn't in a mood to do everything slow. Once it was fully through combed, he dried it with a blow dryer until it was dry. He had always loved the feeling of just washed dried hair for some reason.

He was finally done, he looked at his phone and it read 7:15 AM. New record. He unlocked the bathroom door and stepped outside. It was quiet in the hallway, like usual. It has always been more quiet ever since Seongje and his mother moved in. He liked it, a lot. 

Now back to the present, where he was sitting in the car and his step-brother had joined him in the car to go to their new school. He had read that Eunjang High was a mixed private school for troubled teens. He now prays he won't get stabbed halfway through the week.

As he listened to the music playing through his wired earbuds, he glanced over towards the figure next to him on the left. Seongje was playing a random RPG-mobile game which he was deeply engrossed in. It's a wonder how he's actually built like those Korean idols while being so much into gaming and not those 44 year old grease bags who didn't leave their mom's basement.

Beom-seok ripped his eyes off of Seongje and looked out of the car window and sighed. Despite being envious of his step-brother, deep down he wants to apologize to him for dragging the other teen in his mess. 

Looking out of the car's window, daydreaming about what would happen at this new school. He'll probably be a sad loner with no friends while Seongje would make many delinquent “friends” as usual. He'll just try to not make any enemies and keep his head low for now unless someone asked him for something.

They eventually pulled up to the parking. A sudden spark of anxiety hit and he didn't notice he had been holding his breath in until he stepped out of the car with Seongje.

“School ends at 4:30 PM today, so I'll be waiting at this exact spot again when you guys need to head home. And in the future, let me know if something happened or if you have cleaning duty.” Park exclaimed before drove off back to the Oh residents.

Seongje checked his phone as it read 7:50

AM. “We should head inside the building, it's freezing out here man.” He pointed out with a weird smile. It was infact freezing but Beomseok couldn't show it, so he just turned to walk by the entrance as Seongje followed only a few steps behind.

They both get through the busy crowds in the hallway reaching the lobby. He sees a bunch of teachers, surely one of them had to be his homeroom teacher.

He and Seongje walked up to the teachers and one of them spots the duo. “Can I help you two?” She asks as she looks from one to the other. Before Beomseok could even mutter out a word, Seong-je has beat him to it. “Me and her are new students here. 3rd year Geum Seongje and 2nd year Oh Beomseok.”

Hearing that sentence was odd, him using her to refer to Beomseok but then using his preferred name instead of that name.

The teacher looked at the both of them, but a bit more intensive at Beomseok and he couldn't blame her. A girl with a dude's name? It's barely heard of. He tries to ignore the stare but it has already been imprinted in his thoughts. Then the teacher spoke up; “Alright. Oh Beomseok, I'll get your homeroom teacher in a minute and Geum Seongje, you'll be coming with me since I'm your homeroom teacher.”

The teacher left them now on their own for her to get his homeroom teacher. Everything around him felt tense all of the sudden, he felt his throught hold his breath. Why was he getting nervous now?

He was thinking about all of the sudden possibilities that could happen to him here. 

He then felt a hand on his shoulder, it was Seongje's. “Dude, everything will be alright. Now stop acting like a bitch baby and man up.” The words were mumbled so only them could hear it, but still had a weight onto them for Beomseok to carry. This dude was so weird. He could be happy one time and then be the most vile person ever.

“Whatever.” Beomseok mumbled back. Sometimes he wished he could just erase his brother's voice from his head, to bleach his eyes so he wouldn't have to see that ugly presence, to rip off that smirk from his damn face and shove it up his—

Maybe he should calm down for a moment. Afterall, this was a rare moment of the older presence beside him being somewhat kind. He exhaled as he looked around him, being greeted by crowds of unfamiliar faces, voices, appearances. 

Seongje seemed quite calm, of course he did. He knew he was strong and could make himself a threat without getting in trouble, he knew he still had contact with Baekjin even after having to change schools.

Beomseok was pathetic compared to him. Skinny and weak, not a single muscle to fight back. Being a total loser blending in with the crowd yet standing out, making him an easy target.

The teacher came back with another teacher. A tiny, old, greying man. He knew he was tall at 176 centimeters (5’7’feet) but he never expected to be towering over a teacher that hard. “Alright, I'll lead you towards our classroom, Seongje. Beomseok, you can follow Mr. Kim towards your classroom.” The teacher explains. Once she's finished, she leaves for her classroom with Seongje trailing behind her.

As he watched them leave, he turned towards the elderly man. “Good morning, Mr. Kim.” he stammered as he politely bowed in front of his new elder. If he wanted to be unknown, maybe he should also be kind to teachers.

“Beomseok..” The teacher read aloud. “Isn't that more of a boy's name?” he then asked.

Of course he couldn't deny that question. Yes, it was a highly masculine name. Yes, a girl him having that name was very odd.

“Ah.. My father wanted a son, and after I was born his mind hadn't changed on the name..” Beomseok excused. It was a fat lie and he knew it. Beomseok wasn't even his biological son but only an adoptee for sympathy votes and have his reputation remain all good.

The two of them walked silently to the classroom. Once they reached the classroom, which read class 2-2, the teacher had opened the main entrance. There we're multiple students talking to each other, little and small groups, having fun with each other. They saw the teacher walk up to the front and paying no attention to that while they were moving to their assigned seats. What did catch their attention tho, was the new face.

He felt every pair of eyes laser focused onto him. Glaring, staring, not letting anything distract them from looking at the new, unfamiliar face who had just entered the classroom. He felt like a deer who was being hunted by a pack of wolves, filled with fear while having almost nowhere to run.

“Alright everyone, settle down. Today we have a new student in our class. It is your duty to make her feel welcomed in this class, understood? Why don't you introduce yourself.” Mr. Kim was now turned with his head towards Beomseok. He stayed silent for a few seconds until he opened his mouth.

“I'm Oh Beomseok, I hope we can all get along.” He introduced himself shortly. The others were looking at him, but not with a mean glare, just looking. It brought him a bit of ease for now.

“Alright. Beomseok, why don't you go settle yourself next to Kang Wooyoung at the backrow.” Beomseok saw an empty desk, destined for him. His legs moved in autopilot and walked towards the desk. On his way, he looked at the boy he was gonna sit next to. ‘Kang Wooyoung' his nametag read.

He had brown, half curly half straight hair that was shaped into a mullet at the back but with bangs that were able to cover his eyebrows if wanted. He had more resting eyes than Beomseoks rounder eyes, but they were pitch black—or just so brown you couldn't see his irises. He wore a grey hoodie underneath his blue school jacket, which stood out the most. 

He sat down in his new seat and looked in front of him. He didn't want to look again at Wooyoung who was now the only person he had actually looked at in the whole school. To look again at his hands who had blooded, obnoxious bandaids on them.

The homeroom teacher left the classroom and it went to people talking to each other again. They hadn't paid him attention, and he liked being left alone instead of immediately getting bombarded with questions. However, one boy did look briefly at him. He had brown hair, straight bangs and wore a red black jacket under his school uniform jacket. Weird.. He didn't get a full glance at the name tag from the other boy but got a glimpse of the surname Ahn.

A new teacher came into the classroom, a tall, older woman. He'd assume late 30's begin 40's. She announced to the class to take out their notebooks out and follow along. 

After 2 hours of straight on going math, there was a 10 minute break where students were allowed to go to other classrooms.

He would've just sat at his place if it wasn't for Seongje spamming his phone that was located in his bag. ‘What the fuck does he want.’ He thought. He hadn't given off his phone to the teachers and neither did Seongje apparently so he took his backpack with him and searched for the nearest bathroom.

Once he found the nearest bathroom, he immediately went into the girls bathroom and locked himself up in a stall. He put down the lid of the toilet and sat down, looking for his phone. By the time he got it, it read ‘9+ messages from: Seongje 🖕🏻’.

Seongje 🖕🏻

yo

meet me on the rooftop during lunch period i doubt you already have friends

not to be rude i just dont want you to be alone

okay that sounds corny

also you have pe in the afternoon the last 2 hours

you need to pick up a pe shirt so we can do that during lunch

are u alive??

i know ur gonna look at ur phone soon anyway

And the messages kept going on. What an annoying prick. It was kind of nice of him to want to spend lunch together, but he could've at least said it in a nicer way.

Who was he kidding, Seongje was never nice, so why would he be nice towards him? Soon he began typing:

dude are u serious do you have nothing to do with your life??

yeah i havent made any friends thanks for stating the obvious asshole

You

replied to: you need to..

sure we can pick it up during lunch

btw, will you wait for me after school cause idk how much time ill need to change and stuff.

He saw the text bubble going ... and he shut off his phone, he didn't want to be bothered by Seongje 24/7. He's like a clingy child sometimes it drives him crazy.

His phone had read 10:03 AM before he shut it off. As he wanted to get out of the stall, he heard a group of girls going in and immediately retreated back. Now he just realized he put himself in a more awkward situation by just staying in the stall now.

Oh well, maybe he can listen along to some drama. He was bored anyway. And he can just leave if they were all gone.

“Hey, have you guys seen that new girl? What's her name, Beomseok?” Girl 1 had asked. Okay, now he can't leave for sure. He was actually quite invested now to listen to people's thoughts about him, negative or positive.

“Yeah! Isn't Beomseok like a masculine name?” Girl 2 had replied and asked her question now. It's true that Beomseok is a male name, no doubt in that. They'll probably just talk shit about him now, he's used to it anyway.

“Well, regardless, it kind of suits her, don't you guys think? She's so pretty too, I'm jealous!” Another girl's voice had argued to which the girls agreed on. They were complimenting him? He was listening further, expecting some rude, mean words to be said about him but those never came. Only some compliments and then they talked about other boys from the higher years.

The group had left the girl's bathroom and he waited a bit more until he got out himself. He looked at his phone before putting it back into his bag, putting it on Do Not Disturb and it read 10:06 AM. He can get on time to his class and just pretend like nothing happened. He never expected some girls to think that about him tho.

As he came back to the classroom, he suddenly saw a girl sitting at his desk. She had straight hair that just got past her shoulders with purple pinkish highlights at the bottom and straight bangs covering her forehead. And he was surprised that she was talking to her desk neighbor Wooyoung and the guy who had looked at him. The girl didn't have her uniform jacket on so he couldn't find a name on her, but he did get a better view of the other guy's nametag: Ahn Suho.

He must've been staring too long on accident cause now both Wooyoung and Suho were looking at him. He tried to move his gaze but the girl turned her head from the boys to Beomseok.

“Is this your seat?” the girl suddenly asked. She was not from this class, and from her looks she must be a third year. 

“Yes, but... It's fine, you can keep sitting- ” Beomseok tried explaining but suddenly got cut off by the other. “No, you're taking back your seat! Don't let random people just take your shit cause you were away!” 

She had a loud voice, kept it under them tho. She grabbed Beomseok from out of door entrance and placed him in his seat like he was a dog. Once he was sat down, looking again at the other 2 men, she began talking again. “From now on, when I say you can or need to do something, you listen to me, your sunbae!”

Beomseok nodded, cause who was he to disagree with her. She was (apparently) a third year at this school, even tho she looked like a middle schooler due to her small figure.

“Yeong-i noona, give the girl a break. She's literally only been here for two hours. She's the new girl here, remember?” The double jacket man had spoken up. He looked up at the man who had just spoke up against the girl who stood next to his desk neighbor, who was sketching something on a different notebook, probably not interested in the conversation.

The girl, Yeong-i was her name apparently, looked at Beomseok wide-eyed. “Well, Wooyoung should've told me there was someone new cause he's literally sitting next to her!” She argued back to Suho. “Anyway, I'm Yeong-i! Don't worry about these meat heads, they won't bite.” As she began rambling to him, she saw from the corner of her eye Wooyoung violently erasing something on his second notebook while Suho watched what Wooyoung was doing.

“By the way, did anyone tell you that you have beautiful eyes?” Yeong-i had suddenly asked. Beomseok could feel a slight blush creeping up on his face, was someone complimenting him again? 

The bell rang and everyone went back to their classrooms or their assigned desks, “You should come sit with us three, Beomseok!” she said loud enough for Suho and Wooyoung to hear to, before he could protest she had already left the classroom. He was supposed to meet up with Seongje on the rooftop, but now someone had asked to sit with her and her group at lunch? This was overwhelming.

Yet again, he can't say no to Seongje cause he agreed to meetup at the roof first. How was he gonna make it up to Yeong-i?

Class has restarted again and instead of focusing, Beomseok couldn't help but think what he should do now. Seongje will probably kill him if he doesn't come to the rooftop, but then he'll feel guilty and rude for not going along with Yeong-i. As he tried focusing a bit and writing some notes from the lesson, he got the idea to write down a note and pass it to Wooyoung.

He quickly took a random piece of paper and quietly ripped it off, writing the excuse of already having to meet someone during lunch and when the teacher wasn't looking, quickly passed it to his desk neighbor.

He was glancing from the blackboard to Wooyoung frantically, but once he saw the other boy picking up the note, his eyes couldn't be torn off him.

Wooyoung opened the note and read it. Beomseok saw the eyes moving from word to word. He then saw the boy crumbling up the note and putting it in his pencil case. Beomseok was about to whisper, but then Wooyoung locked eyes with him and moved his right arm from the table to rest beside him and gave Beomseok a subtle thumbs up.

Only 5 seconds later, the brown haired boy looked back to the blackboard and continued writing notes. Thank god, he thought to himself. Now Yeong-i won't think he's an absolute asshole and disrespecting his seniors. He picked up his pen again and began writing down notes again.

The bell had rung at 12 PM sharp, class was over and now he could finally have a break for an hour. He packed his backpack and decided to head immediately to the roof. When he left the classroom he saw through the windows Suho looking weird at him, only for Wooyoung explaining something to him. 

As he went up the staircase to the roof, he noticed some girls sitting on the staircase, vaping and laughing with each other. They looked like third years, slacking off on their last year like their future didn't matter anymore at this point. They soon noticed him but pretended he didn't exist by ignoring him and going back to what they were previously doing.

He passed them by, going up the staircase trying to ignoring the smoke that was currently filling his lungs. At least do it outside. He wanted to say, but chose not to.

He opened the entrance to the rooftop and he was immediately greeted by Seongje's figure from afar, sitting against a wall. The rooftop itself wasn't that huge, but it was a good hideout to say the least.

He walked towards Seongje who was clearly smoking a cigarette, the smoke he breathed out wasn't because of the cold air in the sky. As he got to the wall, he let himself slide along it, getting next to his brother. He pulled out the black vape from his bag and took a long hit from it. He inhaled the nicotine with an extra strawberry flavor and blew out the smoke. God he needed this so bad.

“When are you actually gonna smoke actual cigarettes and not some colorful vapes with a stupid flavor attached to it, it makes you look like a pussy.” Seongje suddenly sneered through the air. He was always someone who had to make unnecessary comments especially when he wasn't in the mood.

Beomseok chose his words carefully to argue back but what did he have to lose honestly. “Once you leave Baekjin and the stupid Union. Then I'll consider actually smoking something better.” He knew he'd never leave the Union, he had built up this reputation for himself in it and he couldn't possibly leave now. “Aren't you hungry to go to lunch or are your cigarettes your lunch.”

Seongje rolled his eyes and threw something at him he had pulled out of his bag. A kimbap roll with tuna. It wasn't a coincidence for Seongje to know this was his favorite. “I snuck out last night to meet up with Baekjin to discuss things about the Union, and I passed by a 24/7 convenience store so I bought these for us.” He explained. “Now eat up and let's go get your stupid shirt.”

They got his shirt at the lobby and went back to their own classes. Nothing special had happened during there lesson periods before their last 2 hours.

He had PE now, and honestly he didn't have much motivation anymore for anything. Luckily there were some stalls for him to undress in peacefully without those girls having to see his damaged body.

He took off his school uniform, except his stockings and put on the shirt, it just covered his shoulders where he had self inflicted scars carved into him. He then took out a black sports short and put it above his navy blue stockings, he could use the excuse that he got cold very fast. He quickly put on his black converse on for sport shoes and he got outside of the dressing stall.

Lucky for him some other girls also had their stockings on, and some even had hoodies on above their shirts.

He went to the PE room where some girls were gossiping and boys were shooting balls into the basketball hoop. He leaned himself awkwardly against a wall, he then noticed a basketball rolling towards his feet. He picked it up to give it back to one of the boys only to get greeted by Suho's face.

“Ah, hey Beomseok. Sad you couldn't be there with us for lunch but it's good you keep your word with your brother.” Suho laughed. Huh. He didn't tell Wooyoung Seongje was his brother, how did he know that..?!

“Ah, yeah.. I already had promised him I would meet up with him. I'm glad you guys aren't mad tho..” He stammered as he gave the ball back, they chatted for a bit until the PE teacher had whistled to gather around the students. 

Today's lesson was volleyball. They were ordered to make duos of two, and Beomseok got paired up with one of the girls who had talked about him in the bathroom stalls. They passed around the ball and the girl across the net accidentally had passed the ball over too hard for Beomseok not being able to catch. He went ahead to go grab it but all of the sudden he froze as another ball went flying towards him and hit him hard in the chest. It was either the impact from the ball or just him being so weak that he fell over, clutching his chest, suddenly breathing very harshly. If he wasn't gonna get killed on purpose it would be on accident instead by his desk neighbor.

Chapter Text

It was 6 AM, on a monday morning nonetheless. Wooyoung was standing on the balcony, giving him a view of infrastructured Seoul. The cold January air was breezing against Wooyoung's figure as he smoked a cigarette early in the morning. The nicotine filling his lungs and breathing out the harsh air. He had been awake at 5:45 AM due to his mother accidentally waking him up by leaving the apartment they live in.

She had been called in for early shifts since begin December for the hospital. The shortage of nurses had began to lessen, but his mother still had to clock in from 7 AM to 6 PM, which made him see her less often due to school and sometimes after school programs he enrolled himself in.

His grades were dropping significantly during the time he was in the Union, neglecting his health and school work which fortunately got put to an end. Suho and his mother had advised him to enroll into a cram school to get his grades up again and it did seem to work. And he began eating more healthier, fuller meals than his daily instant ramens and starving himself.

He couldn't stop himself from smoking however. He had tried multiple things to stop the longing urge for nicotine but everything failed. He has gotten to smoke less instead of smoking 20 cigarettes a day to 6 a day, tho. He had worried and neglected his mother too long and could never forgive himself for all the stress he put her under. 

After his dad left him and his mother to fend for themselves, it had just been him and her. She has never brought in another man into the picture and only focused on raising Wooyoung. He never deserved her as a mother in the first place.

The first time he got introduced by the Union was at 14, when he just beat up a boy from his school because he was paid 80,000 won after going to the gym club. The boy who had paid him was bragging about how he was protected by this delinquent organization and suddenly he was also invested. He had asked the boy about what it was and who it was ran by.

He had intentions of joining the union, but they only had accepted him due to him knowing the boy who was being protected by them. Turns out, the only reason the boy is protected was because his cousin was working for Ganghak's executive. In exchange for him being accepted, he would work under Ganghak and report for Ganghak's executive, Geum Seongje.

He had never had any conversations outside of Union work with Seongje, but apparently he was the real deal. Felt like punching someone? He would immediately act on instincts. He has seen people being beaten up by the older boy into a pulp without mercy and it even frightened him sometimes.

During his time in the Union, his mother began worrying more about his grades and well being. She had found multiple used cigarette butts in his room as well as ashes from sometimes dropping his ashtray or just leaving it in his room bare. He lied to her and told her everything was fine, but it wasn't. He had beat up multiple people who were on the Union's target list without any remorse. They liked his cold and rude nature he had built up from all the years of being bullied for not having a dad to take care of him.

He had enrolled in Ganghak Highschool to set further in the Union to serve by Seongje's side. He tried to get better grades since everyone cared about going to universities abroad or the top 10 in South Korea, but he was almost failing every class. Those frustrations went into releasing his anger onto people he needed to beat up from Seongje, but it wasn't enough. Until he met Suho.

Whatever, he didn't want to think of the past any longer, it made him do unforgivable actions and gave him too much guilt. He needed to focus on the present.

As he finished his cigarette and flicked the butt of it to the ground, he went back inside and was greeted by his beloved cat, Salmon. An orange tabby cat he had found in an alleyway over a year ago and took her in. She was shivering in the cold rain with fleas all over her. Even if he was a rude, cold hearted person, how could he be cruel to an animal? Even he had his kind side.

His mom said no at first on keeping her. She had told him to just get her to the vet and then immediately after she was treated to go to a shelter, but after some time she gave in and decided to let Wooyoung keep Salmon.

Salmon was estimated to be around 5 to 6 years old when they found her, the vet trip wasn't the cheapest but they both didn't regret spending money on her.

She's a lovely cat who didn't cause much trouble around the house. She mostly slept during the day when both him and his mom were gone and if she was bored she'd just play with her toys that are scattered around the apartment.

He picked her up from the floor and cradled her against his chest. He walked towards the counter of the kitchen to take his phone from where he left it and snapped a picture for Suho and sent it.

Suho loved his cat more than he did, or so he claimed. Suho was a good friend. While he was in the kitchen, he found a sticky note; 

“I'll be back around 8:30 PM today, sorry they want to keep me longer since 4 people called in sick :(, I already made dinner so just reheat it for 5 minutes :)! - mom”. 

He looked in the fridge for the meal, he wondered what lunch would be at school. That reminded him he needed to get ready to catch the bus soon. He placed Salmon back in her bed and headed over to the bathroom. He already had his uniform and a spare hoodie laying around so he didn't need to go back to his room unnecessarily.

He undressed himself and got into the shower, turning on the water to let cold water run down his body. During his showers he liked planning ahead of time. Today he had his monthly therapy session with Doctor Baek for his anger management issues. When he'd be home again, but since he has to take the bus back home and then immediately go to the doctor's office, he'd only need 10 minutes to walk home.

He stepped out of the shower once he's done, drying himself and putting on his underwear and undershirt before pulling on his uniform. He slipped himself into his uniform pants and his white school shirt, buttoning it up.

He waited a bit to put on his hoodie and uniform jacket so he won't be too early at the bus stop. He left the bathroom and went to the kitchen again, to take out a bowl and cereal from the cabinet. Once he placed the bowl and cereal on the counter, he opened the fridge to take the milk carton and find a spoon. In the meantime, Salmon had gotten out of her bed and jumped on the counter to watch Wooyoungs moves.

Salmon loved watching Wooyoung for some reason, even if it'd be him studying on sleeping, that cat loved him so much. He found a spoon and quickly assembled his breakfast. As he took the first bite, he looked at the time on his phone again. 6:30 AM. He needed to leave in 20 minutes.

His bus stop was 15 minutes away from the apartment complex and the bus arrived at 7:10 AM. It was the earliest and only bus he could take or else he'd be too late. It wasn't the most ideal thing while living so far from Eunjang, but he can live with it.

He finished his breakfast, snapped some more pics of Salmon, put his empty dirty bowl in the sink and got ready to leave.

As he got done slipping himself into one of his grey hoodie and his navy blue Eunjang jacket, he refilled Salmon's food bowl and gave her some fresh water.

He put on his worn out adidas sneakers and left the house with his backpack slung over his right shoulder while putting on his headphones and letting music play.

The walk to the bus station was quiet as always, no one was there to bother him nor many people out at this early hour anyway.

He has always loved the winter hour more, it was still quite dark but with the sun slightly rising. The air had a beautiful color difference with a yellow blending into the blue nightshade. 

On his way, he lit up his second cigarette of the day. It was early, but during school he had his friends to distract him a bit and putting his thoughts of smoking aside.

As he arrived at the bus stop, he checked his phone to see multiple notifications on his screen. Of course there was Suho asking about Salmon; Yeong-i complaining about her single life (he wasn't bothered by the fact he himself was single.); his mom who had sent random videos she found on the internet; the groupchat between him, Yeong-i, Suho and Sieun, and a text message from his grandma.

He barely got messages from her since she and his grandpa lived in Pohang's countryside, across from the whole country so he opened that message first if there was something wrong.

Grandma 🩷

Hi Wooyoung! I hope you are doing alright at school and outside of school, of course. I was wondering if you could ask your mother when you two would visit again, I've been missing you a lot. And bring you're lover along if you have one! ;-)

He was relieved it wasn't a horrible message about grandpa dying. Even tho he knew she'd call his mother first, it still sometimes scared him.

Hi grandma :) I'm fine, thanks for asking. I hope you and grandpa are doing fine in Pohang, and I'll ask mom once she's home. Also, not to disappoint but I still don't have a girlfriend or boyfriend haha

He sent the message. His grandparents knew about him being bisexual and surprisingly they were very accepting. He had heard multiple stories of elders shaming their own family members for being queer or transgender, so he was lucky his elders loved him for who he was.

He didn't like using emoticons a lot, but he made an exception for his grandma. She was the sweetest person in his life and she was always there when he was in trouble or just feeling down, even after all of the shit happened between him and the Union.

As he clicked out of the contact, his bus had pulled over. He put his phone in one of his hoodie pockets and grabbed his transportation ID. The doors of the bus opened and when he got inside, the bus was completely empty. His stop was the first stop of the route anyway. He showed his ID to the driver and went to the far back of the bus.

He opened his phone again and there were more messages from the groupchat. As much as he loved his friends, they could be very annoying with all of their spam. It was mainly Yeong-i and Suho spamming the chat, Sieun barely talked in it but when he did it was through Suho. He'd just look at the recent messages only and shut off his phone again.

FANTASTIC FOUR 😋😋🫡

loveless yeong-i

suho can you fucking stop sending pictures of u and sieun it makes me feel lonely 😒

sieun lover

sent attachment (the image contained an older picture of Sieun and Suho leaning against eachother)

This better?? 🤗

loveless yeong-i

YOU BITCH??

btw @You @sieun lover @suho hater I'll be later again due to my bus being late AGAIN.

suho hater

Thanks for sending actual important information, Yeong-i.

loveless yeong-i

everything I say is actually important asshole 😒😒

You

replied to: everything I say..

Not really honestly but alright

loveless yeong-i

WHY AM I GETTING GANGED UP ON?? @suho hater TELL THEM TO STOP.

sieun lover

HAHAHA at least wooyoung is saying the truth unlike someone

suho hater

Suho, Wooyoung, stop. Yeong-i doesn't deserve this at 7 in the morning. Bully her at another hour.

Also Suho, I'm almost here.

You

Ofc you said you're almost at the bus station so he wouldn't be too pissed

suho hater

I only said that because I don't want to be around an annoying Suho today.

sieun lover

FIRST OF ALL, i woke up hateful today and yeong-i just annoyed me more than wooyoung

SECOND OF ALL, okay I'll wait at the bus stop 😋🩷

THIRD OF ALL, I AM NOT ANNOYING.

You

replied to: THIRD OF ALL..

Tell that to the judge LMFAO.

Before he could see what Suho sent back, he clicked out of the groupchat and texted Sieun privately that he'd be arriving at his usual time.

He shut off his phone and let the music play through his headphones. It was an underground band he recently had discovered and quite liked, surprised they only had two thousand monthly listeners.

His mind wandered off as more passengers got on the bus, they were mostly business workers or students from other schools who appeared to be taking the same route.

As his bus finally began to riding to the final stop, he paused the music playing and went back to seeing his text messages. 

sieun lover

hey, r u available tomorrow to go to the gym?? if not lmk homebro 😛

He had been too busy recently to go to the gym. It was either cram school filling his agenda, his therapy sessions or just helping out his mom. He checked his calendar and it seemed like he didn't have anything to do on Tuesday. He quickly went to the chat again.

Bro I'm actually free tmrw holy shit

At which time do I need to come? Tell me on the way to school cause my bus is abt to stop

Just as he had sent the message, his bus came at halt, having reached the final destination. He waited until everyone else got off so he could peacefully get off himself. It didn't take long to spot the two sitting as they were the only ones looking like they were waiting for someone. He walked towards the bench and made a subtle note of them holding pinkies.

It was cute, knowing that Sieun hated every single thing about PDA, but still allowing Suho to do this very small thing. They've been together since middle school. They were in the same class, and shared a lot of interests once they knew each other better. He remembers when Suho told him the story of him accidentally confessing. They lasted longer than any couple he has known, even longer than all the crushes Yeong-i had throughout her life.

The three walked to school since it was no use in waiting for the girl since she'd be late again. They were talking about random TV shows again, occasionally having Sieun talking with them.

As they approached the school gate, Wooyoung had asked them to already go along since he'd smoke one more before entering school. 

Litting his cigarette and leaning against a wall, he noticed 3 unfamiliar figures in the parking lot. One man in a suit and the other 2 in Eunjang uniforms, a girl and dude. But then he saw the boy's face, it couldn't be, what was HE doing here?!

He could recognize that shit eating grin, the glasses and brown hair. What the fuck was Geum Seongje doing at Eunjang, in an Eunjang uniform nonetheless?!

Beside him was a smaller girl, but only by 5 centimeters- he estimated. He himself was only an inch taller than Seongje. The girl, she was very tall. She wasn't even wearing tall shoes, she was wearing flat Converse sneakers. But he had never seen her around Seongje when he was still enrolled in Ganghak, not even once. Who was she?

The man in the suit got back in the car and drove off. That was his cue to leave. He threw away his cigarette, extinguishing it with his foot and walked into the school building.

As he reached his class, he saw Suho talking with Yeong-i at his seat. Didn't she say she'd be late?? He tried calming himself down mentally, Seongje was a year older than him anyway, they wouldn't have to talk ever again. But the mystery girl was still on his mind.

He walked up to his friends, and sat down in his seat. “You alright Woo? You seem like you saw a ghost!” Yeong-i laughed at him. She was sitting in the seat that had been empty since someone dropped out. He can put his thoughts aside since Yeong-i was now talking and she always had something to talk about.

“I'm fine, dumbass. I was thinking about something.” He excused, it was true he was thinking about something, but he rather didn't want to talk about it at all.

The three were talking to each other until the bell rang which meant Suho had to go to his assigned seat and Yeong-i had to go to her own class. He sometimes forgot she was a year older than them.

Their homeroom teacher, Mr. Kim, walked in the classroom and everyone was now going back to their assigned seat. Normally, their usual math teacher would walk in, but he didn't pay much attention to it, until he saw her.

The same girl who was with Seongje, the mystery girl, walked into the classroom trailing behind Mr. Kim.

“Alright everyone, settle down. Today we have a new student in our class. It is your duty to make her feel welcomed in this class, understood? Why don't you introduce yourself.” Mr. Kim turned his head to her, expecting an answer anytime soon.

She stayed quiet for a few seconds and then finally opened her mouth. “I'm Oh Beomseok, I hope we can all get along.” She introduced herself shortly.

She had a very quiet but deep voice, and that's what stood out to him. He then it hit him, hard.

She's Geum Seongje's stepsister, from the Oh family, as in Mr. politics Oh. He remembers a vague memory right before leaving the Union and Ganghak, Seongje complaining about how his gold digger mother had gotten remarried to a politician and that he now had a sister. He also remembered vaguely about him answering a phone call with the same deep, female voice coming through.

Mr. Kim's voice cut through his train of thoughts. “Alright. Beomseok, why don't you go settle yourself next to Kang Wooyoung at the backrow.”

Okay, now he really wished the other dude didn't dropout mid semester. He watched the girl moving towards the seat and suddenly they locked eyes. For a brief moment, he thought he'd get absorbed into the void of her black eyes.

She seated herself and after that Wooyoung looked straight forward. Did Seongje get expelled? Was he out for revenge on Wooyoung? His homeroom teacher had already left and now the math teacher came in. He'll try to focus on this now.

He was able to calm down during these two hours of math. The bell had finally rang and he put away his notebook. He looked at Suho, who was already heading towards him. He stretched out, looking left and right and noticed Beomseok had left the classroom, bag and all.

“She's very mysterious, isn't she?” Suho said. She was mysterious indeed. Why did she need to leave with her whole backpack to somewhere? No one wanted to steal anything from a new student.

“Guys, does anyone wanna go to the snackbar?” A voice came out from outside the classroom. Yeong-i just came from her classroom and immediately went to theirs. She sat herself in the empty desk next to Wooyoung's. Should he tell her that seat is finally taken? 

“No, Yeong-i, unlike you we're actually focusing on our health instead of eating snacks early in the morning.” Suho replied and that set off Yeong-i.

Those two loved bickering like little toddlers, even in public they didn't seem to care about their surroundings and make fun of each other like they're in a diss battle.

Their bickering went on for so long he didn't even notice Beomseok re-entering the classroom, looking at her seat being taken by Yeong-i. 

“Hey, Woo, who's actually right between us?” Suho asked him, but when he didn't get an answer, he looked at Wooyoung who had his eyes on someone else.

Eventually, Yeong-i joined them to look at the individual and all three of them saw Beomseok staring awkwardly at the trio.

Wooyoung wasn't going to say until blabber mouth Yeong-i had to open her mouth of course. “Is this your seat?”

“Yes, but... It's fine, you can keep sitting- ” She tried explaining but suddenly got cut off by Yeong-i. “No, you're taking back your seat! Don't let random people just take your shit cause you were away!”

Wooyoung and Suho watched as Yeong-i manhandled Beomseok to sit down in her seat, clearly it was making the new student uncomfortable as hell. He noticed Beomseok looking at both him and Suho before Yeong-i opened her mouth again. 

“From now on, when I say you can or need to do something, you listen to me, your sunbae!” She scolded at her, to his surprise he saw Beomseok nodding, probably not wanting to stir up drama.

“Yeong-i noona, give the girl a break. She's literally only been here for two hours. She's the new girl here, like I just told you.” Suho interrupted her. He must've been staring too long at Beomseok to not remember Suho telling Yeong-i that.

Not being interested in their conversation anymore, he grabbed his smaller sketchbook and began scribbling in it to clear his mind. His therapist had recommended keeping himself busy if he didn't have anything to do, and he quite liked drawing much. He began drawing, but he didn't like the results so he erased it a bit too hard for his liking.

The bell finally rang, he put away his sketchbook in his backpack. Suho was getting to his seat and Yeong-i was about to leave until he heard her say something before leaving. “You should come sit with us three, Beomseok!” loud enough for Suho to still hear it.

Fuck. He has been trying to avoid her all day cause of motherfucking Seongje, and now Yeong-i clearly wanted him to suffer even more. She left the classroom and then their new teacher came in for their next subject.

Whatever, it's not like Wooyoung couldn't defend himself even if both of them tried to do shit against him. 

He focused on the lecture until he got a note passed to him from Beomseok. He was so confused, what does this universe want from him to be constantly in a forced proximity with her?!

He opened the note, she had a nice handwriting. 

“hey wooyoung, i know this is random all of the sudden, but can you tell yeong-i & suho i wont make it to lunch? im meeting up with someone!!” 

His eyes were glued to the note, she couldn't make it because she was already going to meet up with someone? That someone was definitely him.

He didn't want anything to do with him, and now she's telling him she couldn't make it? She was beating the universe's forced proximity that was placed onto them.

He crumbled the paper in his fist and rested his arm against his body to give her a thumbs up, making it clear he got the message. Even if he didn't want anything to do with her, it was polite of her to say the least.

The rest of the lectures went well, he wasn't bothered further by her. The bell eventually rang, making it clear that it was lunch time. He packed up his backpack and stood up from his desk. Beomseok had already left the classroom again with her bag, she took one glance at him and Suho through the classroom windows before moving further.

“Where is she going? Didn't Yeong-i ask her for lunch?” Suho asked him.

“She said she needed to meet up with her brother on the roof.” He exclaimed before realizing what he had said. Fuck. Was he even allowed to say that he knew that?

“Alright then, let's go meet up with the others!” Suho cheered. Of course he was happy, he was now able to see his boyfriend again after 4 hours of hell.

Sieun got into too many fights with others who had been bothering him resulting in him having to repeat his year. Luckily he made friends in his year who were actually nice and not too problematic.

They went to the cafeteria to meet up with the rest and peacefully ate their lunch. Yeong-i complained about Beomseok having to ditch them but forgot about it as soon as she got her food. Sieun and his friends joined along too.

For the rest of the day, nothing special happened during his lectures. Him and Beomseok didn't have any interaction anymore and Suho was dead asleep like usual.

His last 2 hours contained PE, which he as usual, kinda liked. He undressed himself and got into his PE clothes as all his male classmates in their homeroom class. He took out his double helix piercing and went to the PE room.

He and another classmate were the first ones to be there so they took a basketball to busy themself.

The room got fuller and eventually some more dudes, including Suho, joined them to shoot through the hoop. 

As he tried shooting it again in the hoop, he missed and shot against the hoop, the ball falling the opposite direction. “I'll go get it!” Suho exclaimed as he went to get the ball.

That's when he noticed Beomseok standing there against the wall while following Suho's figure with his eyes. She picked up the ball and when she noticed Suho, gave it back to him and chatted for a bit. The conversation went well until he saw her eyes widening a bit. Did Suho tell her something bad? Seeing from the distance he saw her adjusting her eye expression to not worry Suho.

The teacher blew his whistle to gather everyone around and explain the lesson. It was planned out to be volleyball and when he told everyone to get in pairs of two and get a singular ball, Suho and Wooyoung immediately looked at each other to know if they're on the same page.

They passed the ball to each other when all of the sudden Wooyoung got the idea to spike the ball to Suho, so why did it just so happen when he threw the ball in the air he spiked it with all his strenght, why did the ball decide to go to the right and why was Beomseok standing there.

Did the ball hit her so hard that she fell over, forcing a groan out of her mouth. Did the universe really have something against him?! “Beomseok, are you okay?!” her duo partner suddenly shouted.

He immediately followed the girl as she went up to check on Beomseok, Suho also went over to her and kneeled to ask if she was okay. She was breathing a bit heavier than a normal human should breath, fuck he didn't mean this.

“I'm fine, just some chest pain.” Beomseok answered, but she clearly wasn't fine. “You should go see the nurse.” Suho interrupted, but she didn't listen. So Wooyoung did what anyone like him would do.

He switched himself to stand by her side just a bit behind her, took her left arm, got under it and placed his his right hand on her waist to support her. He stood up which also forced Beomseok to stand up, letting out a startled yelp sound from her. “I'm taking you to the nurse myself if you don't wanna.” He argued back to her and just like that went to the nurse's office.

The walk to the nurse's office didn't take long since it was only one hallway. Once they got there Wooyoung explained what had happened to the nurse and Beomseok got assigned a bed.

“I'll go get an icepack from the teacher's lounge. Wooyoung, please stay here with her.” The nurse had asked from him as she left to get the icepack.

There was an awkward silence between them as Beomseok layed there in the bed. Both not knowing what to say to each other until she decided to open her mouth.

“Wooyoung, how did you know Seongje's my brother?” She asked.

Wooyoung stayed silent for a moment. He couldn't just overshare every detail of his past. “I was in the Union under him, that's all.” He decided to say.

She hummed as an answer and it was silent again. It stayed silent until the nurse was back with the icepack. Wooyoung was told to get back to his class and Beomseok had to stay in the nurse's office until 10 minutes before 4 PM.

He returned to the PE class and followed along with the class during the exercises they had to do.

It was finally time to get dressed to go home again. Wooyoung went to the homeroom to put on his uniform again and once he was done, he waited outside for Suho.

Once Suho got out of the classroom, they went downstairs. Wooyoung then saw Beomseok leaving the girls dressing room and approached her. “Hey Beomseok, you okay now?” he had asked her, who was now seeming to be better. Should he ask for her number so he can formally apologize? Maybe even ask if she likes certain foods?

“Yeah, I'm doing better. Thanks for asking.” She replied with a faint smile. He noticed her smile fading and looking somewhere else. “Don't you have a double helix in your right ear?”

“Huh.” Deadpanned. He brushed his fingertips against his right ears helix and he didn't feel the metal studs. “Fuck, I must've forgot them back in class. I'll be right back, also, can I get your number?”

Okay, maybe he should've worded it differently. Beomseok had a weirded out expression on her face and he knew Suho was trying to hold in his laugh. “Uh, it's for Yeong-i. She wanted your number to ask you something! Give it to Suho while I'm gone.” He excused.

It wasn't entirely a lie, Yeong-i did want to ask her something but it was just a cover up for himself. He ran up the stairs back to the homeroom and found his piercings still untouched in his desk. He blindly put them back in and went downstairs again.

By the time he got back, she was already gone. “She had to leave immediately, her assistant was apparently waiting.” Suho said when he was back. “Let's go to the rest and Yeong-i, she's probably gonna be pissed at us again.” Wooyoung agreed with him and they both got out of the school building to meet up with the others.

––––––

Today was surely a first new school day. Multiple people had complimented him, even an older year said he had beautiful eyes and one of his classmates almost killed him on accident.

As he stared at his room's ceiling, he suddenly heard a notification sound coming from his phone. Who's texting him this late at night?

When Beomseok opened his phone, he was greeted by a text message from an unknown number.

He put in the code from his phone and opened the text message:

+82 XXXXXXXXXX

Hey, it's me, Wooyoung from class. I just want to apologize again for what happened today during PE, I hope you're alright now. Can I make it up to you somehow?

Ah, it was Wooyoung. For someone he only knew less than 24 hours, he was very sweet to say the least. He added the number into his contacts, making the contact name ‘Killer Wooyoung’

Hi Wooyoung :), again, I'm fine thanks for asking! And please, you don't have to do anything for me, I didn't tell Seongje anything about today!! (>ᴗ•) !

Beomseok sent the message back. He had already assumed Wooyoung wanted to do something for him since he used to work under Seongje, but apparently it wasn't the case.

Ah, no regardless, I want to apologize with something and I feel kind of guilty already almost killing the new girl so please tell me if there's something you like 

Well then, if you insist

I really like those tuna kimbap rolls and I really like strawberry milk

And go to bed, it's 11 PM! •︡ᯅ•︠

Beomseok shut off his phone after sending that message and closed his eyes, pulling the covers over him. He found everyone very nice.

Maybe he should ask the three of them to be in their group. Hopefully tomorrow was a better second day at Eunjang.