Chapter Text
New city, new people. New people mean new judgement stares. He felt them all the time. They stared at him, laughed at him, pointed their fingers at him. Every person he passed stared at him with disgust. Every smile sent his way was laughing at him. They always found something to ridicule him. He checked his look a few times before he went outside, but it still wasn’t enough. Maybe his jacket was dirty? Were his sweats not oversize enough? Was his body shape still visible? He hated these stares. He hated to be noticed. He did everything to not stand out in the crowd. He did everything so they have nothing to laugh at. But it still wasn’t enough.
Never enough.
He was really scared today and people seemed to look at him even more than in his hometown. Stop looking! Just stop looking at him!
He didn’t notice that he gripped the shoulder of the bag tighter and tighter with each person he passed. Finally he was there. His new home. He went inside the dorm and found the right office. There was obviously a huge line before it. He stood there while trying to be invisible. He finally stood before the old bored lady. She even looked mean. Seeing him she sighed and asked.
“Name?”
“Hwang Hyunjin.” He answered the way she would hear him. It was long ago he learnt how to speak so everybody heard him despite the mask constantly covering his face.
“Sector B floor 3 room 25.” She gave him a key and a glare to fuck off. And that’s what he did.
He went to look for his room. The dorm was huge but there was a map on the wall so it was easy to find a way. While walking he only stumbled 4 times, which considering his clumsiness was a success. After five minutes he was before the right door and he was about to go inside, but he heard a noise from inside. It looked like his roommate was already there. He stood terrified with his hand on the handle.
What if his roommate was like other people? What if he would hate him too? Hyunjin’s room was supposed to be his new safe place. What if his new roommate would make it a living hell?
He couldn’t stand there for a long time and not draw attention to himself so he slowly went inside. He nearly killed himself over a huge piece of luggage standing in the middle of the entrance.
“OMG! I’m so sorry! I was so excited to finally be here that I forgot to move the suitcase.” He heard the kind voice and he looked at the boy it was coming from. He was good looking, had puffy cheeks and a contagious smile. He didn’t look like a bully, so in Hyunjin’s heart sprouted hope. “I’m Han Jisung, your roommate!” He spread his hand to Hyunjin, who shook it gently.
“I’m Hwang Hyunjin. Nice to meet you.” Hyunjin greeted him shyly. Jisung stared at him, but there wasn’t judgement in his eyes.
Hyunjin looked around. Their unit consisted of two bedrooms, a living room with an open kitchen and a bathroom. The wall in the living room called to him - if Jisung would be up for it he could already see the painting there.
Jisung turned out to be really friendly. He already chose his room, but was willing to change it if Hyunjin preferred this one. He talked a lot and Hyunjin liked to listen to people so they got around really quickly.
“I’m sorry if my question is rude, but why do you have your mask on all the time?” Jisung asked him when they sat at their kitchen table and Hyunjin drank coffee by staw only pulling back the mask so his face couldn’t be seen.
Hyunjin was afraid of this question, but Jisung really seemed nice.
“I had an accident and now… I’m really ugly. Like really really.” He said quietly, Jisung looked sad hearing this answer. “I’m sorry you have such a weirdo as a roommate.” Hyunjin lowered his head.
“No, no!” Jisung ran to him and hugged him tightly even though Hyunjin jumped at sudden action. “All I see is that I have a new friend. It doesn’t matter what you look like. For me what is important is what you have here.” he put his hand on Hyunjin’s heart “And something tells me that you have a beautiful soul.”
Hyunjin felt his eyes filling with tears and hugged himself into Jisung’s chest. It looked like he found someone genuine here.
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Jisung was his age and they were about to have a lot of classes in the same building even though they were different majors - for Jisung it was music production, for Hyunjin art and design.
After a hug in the kitchen Hyunjin felt that he could open more to Jisung and they talked a lot. It turned out they were very alike and got along really easily. Jisung started to call him his soulmate and Hyunjin felt so appreciated. Someone so cool as Jisung thought of him like that. He was on cloud nine. He was afraid earlier, that Jisung wouldn’t want to have anything to do with him as he was gay, but Jisung himself came out to him as pan and casually told him about all his idol husbands. Hyunjin really hit the jackpot while getting such a friend.
They were in their rooms, preparing for their cinema evening - they wanted to watch the whole LOTR trilogy together. Hyunjin put on his face mask matching his pyjamas and went to the kitchen to prepare popcorn.
“Oh my so cute!” He heard Jisung who was pointing at his mask, it had a white kittens all over it just like his shirt and shorts. Both a couple sizes too big. Jisung complimented him and Hyunjin felt his cheeks getting red. He thanked him and they put popcorn into the microwave. They turned it on for 5 minutes, like the instructions said and waited. They started to talk about who in LOTR was the hottest and why and suddenly felt the burning smell. Then the bang and the lights went out.
“Sungie, I think we fucked something up.”
“Yeah.” They started laughing and went to the microwave to check what happened, but the thing was on fire. They both ran to put it out before the smoke alarm would ring. They succeeded but at the moment when they breathed out in relief they heard a noisy knocking to their door.
“Are they kicking us out already?”
“Only we could get kicked out even before classes started.” Jisung summed up and went to open the door. But there wasn't an administrator standing. There was a very angry boy looking like a puppy and an amused foxy eyed one.
“What the fuck did you do?! Our lights are off and the bang came from your place!” The puppy-like one was screaming at them, making Hyunjin lower his head, but Jisung wasn’t a person who just listened when somebody was screaming at him even if he really did something bad.
“Stop barking! We just made some popcorn, you ass! So either come inside and eat with us or fuck off.”
And that’s how they met Seungmin and Jeongin, who happened to be their closest neighbours. They too were freshmen. Seungmin was a business major and Jeongin was an IT genius.
Jisung was ready to defend Hyunjin if their guests had a problem with his mask, but they were understanding and acted like he didn’t have it. Jeongin quickly warmed up to Hyunjin, which surprised Seungmin: “He didn’t want to talk to me for a few days at first and he’s hugging you the first 15 minutes?!”
It turned out Seungmin was an easily angry puppy and Jisung was an easily annoying squirrel so they argued a lot and Hyunjin and Jeongin had fun watching it.
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The whole four were eating breakfast, Hyunjin had a face covering, so he could easily eat under it with only his eyes visible, and talking about their expectations as today was their first day at uni.
“First day and our Minnie already has a crush!” Jisung announced the whole table making Seungmin grimace.
“It’s not like that, Jisung!” He was cut off by an excited Sung. “You were drooling over his muscles!”
“Drolling?” asked Hyunjin and “muscles?” ended Jeongin.
Jisung energetically nodded his head “When we went for something for breakfast Seungmin bumped into some hottie at the dorm door. He was about to bitch to that person, like always, but he stopped mid sentence when he looked at this man!” Jisung reported to a very curious Hyunin while Seungmin was hitting his head on the table.
“Shut up!”
“But you’re not denying it.” Noticed Hyunjin making Jeongin and Jisung laugh.
Seungmin looked at him “Jinnie, you’re the last one who I would expect to betray me. Jisung is a bad influence on you!”
“So this man was so hot even Seungmin went speechless?” Jeongin couldn’t believe it.
“Maybe he’s not tall, but his arms compensate for it. And he’s definitely older!” Jisung continued and this time Seungmin even didn’t try to stop him.
“Minnie is into older, muscular guys. Noted.” Hyunjin drinked americano with his favourite straw - with cat paws on it. “We should find him!” He decided on their new mission while Jeongin and Jisung nodded in agreement.
“No! Not you guys! I don’t want to traumatise the guy with three walking disasters!” His protests were about to change exactly nothing.
“Ok rudeee.” Hyunjin threw jelly at him.
Jisung whined “We only want your happiness! So if someone sees a short king with huge arms, you know where to call.” he pointed at the other two who agreed.
They continued to eat in comfortable silence, when Hyunjin broke it.
“Do you think they’ll accept me?” he pointed at his mask. He was afraid of unkind stares and angry professors.
“They’ll have to, Jinnie. If not we’ll send an angry puppy at them.” Jeongin tried to cheer him up, earning a hit from Seungmin.
“You know… I have a paper from my psychiatrist that I have to wear this mask to function in society.” Hyunjin revealed a little of his secrets, making the others listen carefully. They all were curious about what happened to their friend, but didn’t want to ask, knowing it’s a hurtful topic.
“So you don’t have to worry about professors. You have a weapon to fight them.” Jisung offered him a toast with jjam, which he gratefully took.
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Hyunjin was terrified. He had his friends with him, but still he looked around to see if someone was staring at him. He made sure to wear something appropriate for the first day on the uni, but at the same time something bland.
To think that fashion was his passion and once upon a time he wore beautiful and expressive clothes. Old times.
He squeezed Jisung’s hand while walking down the hall. The people were everywhere and he cowered everytime they passed a group of laughing students. Jisung noticed that and decided that his suspicions were probably right. Hyunjin’s accident had to be connected with at least one another person. But he couldn’t ask. Even if his heart broke every time this kind soul froze in fear when some random came too close to him.
They stopped before Hyunjin’s class.
“We’re here. I have my first class in the studio two rooms away so you can always come to find me.” Jisung reminded him of their plan. Just in case. All friends were aware of Hyunjin’s fears and decided that he should always have contact with at least one of them. It was very considerate of them and Hyunjin instantly loved them even more.
Jisung patted him on the back and went to his own class leaving him alone.
Hyunjin breathed in and out deeply to calm down and went inside the room. There were already students sitting around, so Hyunjin quickly went to the back. The farest seat he could find was his destination. History of Art was one of his favourite things about art itself- he loved to follow how it changed with the changing world and he got a lot of inspiration from it.
He watched students walk around the room to find seats. He was a little less nervous as it seemed that no one paid attention to him.
When the time was right, the professor came and introduced himself. He was an elegant old man who surely had his whole flat filled with history books. He smiled at them kindly and Jinnie really hoped that he would be nice. He wanted to have good notes from one of his favourite subjects.
The professor checked the attendance list and when he called Hyunjin’s name, Jinnie raised his hand and said “Present!” loud enough for the old man to hear it.
It was enough as the professor looked at him and noted his attendance, but then he asked the question Hyunjin really feard to hear.
“Is there a reason you have a mask on Hyunjin? This class can get really high temperature, so I’m afraid you’ll get too hot.”
All the students were now looking at Hyunjin, who wanted to sink into the ground. Don’t look at me. Please, don’t look!
Profesor waited for his answer and he looked really worried, it wasn’t a mockery.
“I need to wear it all the time. Doctor’s order.” He said hesitantly. It’s not like his doctor forced him, it was Hyunjin who asked him for an explanation paper after the accident happened. But they didn’t have to know that.
“Oh, no worries.” Professor answered and moved on to the next person. Slowly the others too focused on something other than Hyunjin and he was grateful. He still felt the stares somewhere from the right side but decided to focus on the lecture the professor started when he finished the list.
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As it was the first lecture it ended earlier. Hyunjin already knew he would love this class. He went out slowly, having time before Jisung would finish his class. He decided to wait for him before the building. When they were walking earlier he saw a small green place in this huge campus consisting of blocks of concrete, so he decided to wait there.
He was half a way there when he heard quick steps behind himself. He automatically moved away, but it didn’t matter as apparently he was the aim of upcoming people.
He felt the hit in the back which made him fall on the ground. He didn’t know what’s happening.
“You almost got away, freak!” He heard someone scream at him. He almost got up, but he was kicked in his leg which made him lose balance.
He landed on his ass and now could see who was attacking him.
These were his classmates. They just had a lecture together.
One of them laughed at him and kicked him once again “Such a weirdo that can’t even stand upright.”
It made the other 3 laugh as well.
Hyunjin felt tears in his eyes, but he quickly blinked to get rid of them. It wasn’t the time to show any weakness.
“What do you want?” he asked them and thanked God that his voice didn’t show how terrified he was.
“For you to be gone.” said the first at left. “We don’t need sources of diseases or other plagues here!”
“Yeah! Who the hell knows what you have under this mask!” said the one on the right and wanted to kick Hyunjin in the belly but he crouched down just in time to protect it.
“It’s not like that!” He tried to explain between the kicks but they didn’t listen. He remembered the old times. The times he thought he left behind.
“What the fuck is going on here?!” They all heard a low voice and his attacker stopped.
Hyunjin lifted his head a little to see the owner of this voice and saw another student. He had long black hair tied in the back, he wore a black leather jacket and his dark eyes burned with fire. He looked like a typical bad boy motorcycle guy from a romantic novel and Hyunjin immediately knew that he wouldn’t help him.
His attackers seemed to think the same as they didn’t even bother to answer and continued their abuse from the place they stopped.
“Leave him alone!” The romance novel guy screamed and this time it was heard by more people, causing a commotion.
“Fuck off dude. We have an announcement for this loser.” The middle guy screamed back, not even turning around and went back to kicking Hyunjin, but he was stopped.
Stopped by the hit straight in his jaw, making him fall on the ground next to Hyunjin, unconscious.
All of them froze and looked at the one who sent him to sleep. It was the bad boy motorcycle guy.
There was already quite a crowd and Hyunjin could hear whispers “The beast!” “The beast is causing troubles again!” “Are they stupid to fight him?”
“WHAT THE FUCK DUDE? It’s not your business!” one of the attackers screamed, but then someone came closer to them and pulled him away.
“Stop it idiot.” The pretty girl said to the rowdy man and then turned to the bad boy guy who turned out to be Hyunjin’s saviour. “He didn’t mean it. Please forgive him.” She fluttered her eyelashes on him with a fake pleading look and walked away with Hyunjin’s attackers.
Hyunjin wasn’t sure what just happened. The crowd disappeared as suddenly as it appeared leaving only Hyunjin and his saviour.
The guy watched as Hyunjin finally got up from the ground, doing everything in his power to not hiss with pain. He got hit pretty hard.
“Are you okay?” The low voice asked him and Hyunjin now took a moment to take a look at him.
He indeed looked like a bad boy from a romantic drama but there were a couple of things that didn’t match. He had grey jeans and white shirt with chicken which didn’t fit with the leather jacket. He also had a sports bag and looked like he was just out of trening with his sweaty look.
“Yes. Thank you for your help.” Hyunjin decided to keep this conversation to a bare minimum. Reason? His saviour was incredibly hot. Someone so good looking and nice enough to help some random person surely wasn’t interested in talking with someone like Hyunjin.
“No problem. Do you need help to get to the infirmary?” He really was nice and Hyunjin felt stupid that he accused him of being an ass just because of his looks. Like he himself wasn’t judged all the time.
“There’s no need for that. I’m not in pain.” He lied. He looked at his saviour to see if he believed it and it was obvious that he didn’t. Hyunjin with surprise saw that the boy’s previously raging eyes were now concerned. He also noticed the cute freckles on his cheeks, which only gave the stranger even more charm.
He really was gorgeous and Hyunjin wanted to end this conversation as soon as possible. Hot people weren’t good for his health.
“As you wish.” The hot saviour didn’t call out his lie and he was grateful for that. “I’m Lee Felix.” He stretched out his hand in Hyunjin’s direction.
“Hwang Hyunjin” he shook his hand “I’m sorry but I need to go now. Once again thank you for your help.” Hyunjin said and quickly walked away, not looking back.
He didn’t want to appear ungrateful, but at the same time he didn’t want pity and this was the only thing someone like Felix would have for him.
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“So you’re telling me you just ran away?!” Jisung couldn’t believe it when Hyunjin told him and the rest of their gang what happened to him.
They sat at the table in the canteen. Hyunjin didn’t eat anything as his appetite was low after all the kicks he got. It didn’t matter as Jisung ate for two.
“I thanked and walked away.” Hyunjin explained once again. It’s not like he ran away. He walked. Quickly.
“You got your drama moment and just wasted it?!”
“Sungie, please. What was I supposed to do?” Hyunjin asked him while also showing him to lower his voice. Whole place didn’t have to know about his life's disasters.
“Got his number? Get on your knees? Suck his dick as a thank you? There are a lot of options. And you chose the worst one!” Jisung finished his fries and started eating Jeongin’s which earned him a little slap in his hand.
Hyunjin rolled his eyes “Not everyone is so open like you. And you forgot that I have a mask.”
“You’re focusing on the wrong thing,” said Seungmin.
“Exactly!” Jisung agreed. “You could do it in the dark room for example.”
“Not Hyunjinnie. You.” Seungmin pointed at Jisung. “Not important is the saviour. Important is the fact that our friend got attacked and beaten today.”
“How are you feeling Jinnie?” asked Jeongin, giving up his french fries to Jisung and looking worryingly at Hyunjin.
Hyunjin shrugged “Good. Nothing I’m not used to.”
He facepalmed himself seeing his friends' reactions. Sometimes he forgot they didn’t know everything about him and he didn’t want them to know. He wanted to leave the past in the past.
Once again he got lucky today, because before Seungmin said something he surely wanted to say, Jisung raised the alarm.
“It’s Minnie’s crush!”
Hyunjin and Jeongin immediately turned in the way he pointed out. They saw a handsome man in glasses and with coffee in his hand. He was talking to… to fucking Lee Felix.
Hyunjin sighed which made the rest look at him in question.
“Minnie’s crush is talking to my saviour,” he explained.
Jisung got even more excited “OH MY GOD! Don’t you see it? It’s all fate! It's a romantic fate! It’s destiny. Two best friends in love with two besties!”
“Wait, what?!” Hyunjin tried to stop him and his delusions.
“How do you know they’re best friends?” Jeongin asked, pointing at still talking boys.
“That’s not the question here!” Hyunjin made them all silent with his calm but determined voice. “The problem is that Jisung is delusional. Maybe Minnie has a crush on the guy. He didn’t even deny it now.” He noticed and Seungmin wanted to interrupt him but he didn’t let him. “But I don’t. I don’t have a crush on Lee Felix. Yes, he saved me. Yes, it’s nice of him, but that’s all. I don’t have a crush nor will I ever have.”
“You don’t know it. He can be cool.” Jisung didn’t give up yet.
“I know it, Sungie. Just look at him.” They once again all looked at two boys. Now there was the third one with them. “He’s hot and kind. Having a crush on someone like that will only hurt me.”
“But why?” Jeongin didn’t understand. “Maybe he’d like you too?”
Hyunjin smiled a little even if they couldn’t see it.
“He won’t. I’m too ugly and broken.” He picked up his things. “See you after the next class.” and he left the canteen, not looking in Felix's direction even once.
He didn’t know that one pair of eyes followed him to the door.
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Life sucked everyday, but on the first day of the new academic year it sucked even more. He didn’t want to get up, but he was sure as hell that his cousin wouldn’t let him be if he didn’t go to his classes on the first day.
It would probably surprise everyone that Lee Felix was afraid of someone, but at the same time they wouldn’t be as much if this person is Lee Minho.
He finally prepared himself mentally to get up from bed. To be fair, today's classes were easy ones. Going to the bathroom, he smelt the breakfast made by Minho hyung. He also heard him and Chan hyung talking in the kitchen.
He quickly got dressed and went there. He was met with them seated next to each other. Minho poured coffee into Chan's cup and Chan prepared a toast just like Minho liked and placed it on the plate before him. Felix rolled his eyes at them. This married couple.
His annoyance was a fond one. Felix loved them both dearly and was happy they were so perfect together. Maybe he was a little jealous. He wanted that for himself.
He wanted to have someone like this. To love him unconditionally. To make breakfast together. To have this married couple vibe. But he knew it was impossible for him. Not with his temper.
He greeted his cousin and his boyfriend and ate breakfast with them. Then he packed his sports bag and went to class.
They didn’t live far from uni. Only a few metro stops. Standing next to the door, he listened to music, pretending to not notice the stares of the group of girls on his left.
They were whispering to themselves, laughing and pointing at him. He was used to it. He knew he was hot and he was successful with all sexes. The problem was that he wasn’t interested. The fact that he was gay didn’t help these girls either.
He walked the uni campus and still felt stares. Some of them were fear, some indifference, some respect. He liked indifference the most. He hated when people were scared of him, but didn’t like when they respected him only because he could really fuck you up if you pissed him.
Felix majored in sports as it was the only thing he could do. His passions were martial arts. When he was younger he mastered taekwondo, then he got interested in other types of martial arts. Now he trained the box the most.
He took part in illegal fights too. There was an unofficial fight club at their uni. The one no one knew about and everyone knew about. He even saw professors taking part in bets. Felix didn’t do it for money, now he didn’t need it. It was all for adrenaline and taking out his emotions somewhere. He was on the highest rank now. Champion of champions. They called him ‘the beast’.
Nickname wasn’t accidental, it’s because of what happened to him when he fought. When he got angry he couldn’t control himself and turned into the real beast. His friends called it beast mode. When he was in his beast mode no opponent could defeat him.
He knew that being in this state wasn’t good, but he didn’t have patience for therapy he knew he needed. Thank you childhood.
He entered the dressing room. He had to change and go to his training. His uni coach was probably one of the few people in this world who believed in him. That he was worth more. That he could be someone more than an ordinary brawler, he and Felix’s friends were the reasons why he didn’t drop out of college yet.
His training was like the usual. He beat up his training partner a little, listened to the coach's tips and had fun. Then he took a quick shower, but he was still too hot, sweating just coming from under the water.
He had time before the next class, so he walked in the direction of some food. Suddenly he heard cursing and the sounds of fighting.
Felix went to check it and saw a cuddled man on the ground and four men kicking him, screaming bullshit. The crowded man was hit hard, but he didn’t make any sound. Felix was surprised at that, screamed at the fuckers to leave him alone.
Still it didn’t help, the attackers probably didn’t know who he was, otherwise they would have already ran from there. Sometimes his fame was useful.
He even knocked out one of them - not that he wanted to go this hard, he just punched him once, how was Felix supposed to know that the man wouldn’t even try to stay conscious?
They only went away when some girl pulled them away. Felix recognized her from somewhere, but he didn’t really care. He focused on the guy on the ground.
Felix could finally look at him as he, free from kicking, stood up.
The guy had blond hair which looked so silky you wanted to touch it. He had a mask on his face, covering it almost fully. He wore baggy clothes so you couldn’t really tell his figure, only that he was tall. But the most important thing - something which captivated Felix instantly.
His eyes.
They were shiny and cute. They had a whole constellation hidden there and Felix knew he could look at them forever. Now they tried to hide the hurt the guy - Hyunjin as he introduced himself - felt. It was obvious for Felix that Hyunjin wanted to end this conversation and ran from there. He tried to talk without staring into his boba eyes as he didn’t want to scare the guy.
He heard what the attackers said about Hyunjin’s mask and felt anger. Seeing how much it hurt him, even if he was determined to hide it angered Felix even more.
Hyunjin thanked him and ran somewhere, leaving Felix there to cope up with this anger. Why was he so pissed off? He didn’t even know the guy…
He went to annoy Changbin. He knew where to find him.
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Felix firstly bumped into Chan, who already heard about the fight and scolded him. Chan was the law student, the one who knew everyone and everyone knew him. He also knew every gossip at the speed of lightning.
“Even if it’s for a good deed, Felix you can’t get into more trouble. You know that they’ll kick you out of the uni!” Chan reminded him like he didn’t remember. Unfortunately he got into fights a lot and his supervisor professor threatened to expel him from the university. He didn’t care about it a lot, but he knew that Minho and Chan wanted him to get his degree.
“Yes. I remember hyung. It won’t happen again.” He promised but they both knew it was a lie.
Then he went to the studio and didn’t find Changbin there. The only other place where you could find the music production major could be the canteen. That became Felix's next destination.
And there he was. He waited in the line for cakes. Not that Felix was surprised, Changbin had a sweet tooth just like him. He had to bake something for him soon. They started talking about trivial things. If Chan was the one who always knew things first, Changbin was the last one to know everything. It pleased Felix as he could relax with him without getting scolded every second.
When Changbin finally got to order the desired cake, Felix looked around the canteen and saw him. Hyunjin.
He was sitting with other boys, probably his friends if you could say from how relaxed and at ease he looked around them. They talked animatedly about something and Hyunjin laughed. Felix didn’t hear him as he was too far from him, but you could say that he laughed as his eyes went crescent. It looked adorable.
It was easy to recognize every emotion as Hyunjin’s eyes were very expressive. The boy probably wore his heart on the sleeve and Felix admired that. It wasn’t easy in a world like that.
He didn’t know the boys who sat with him so he supposed they all were freshmen.
Felix got curious about Hyunjun’s major.
He was thrown out from his thoughts by Changbin slapping his arm. “Who are you looking at?”
“Not your business.” He rolled his eyes and they went to sit somewhere. They found a free table closer to the table Hyunjin sat.
Felix once again looked at them and it looked like they were slightly arguing now.
“Once again our boy Felix looks in this direction.” Changbin became a commentator.
“Isn’t that the guy he got into a fight for?” He heard Chan sitting next to Changbin.
“He got in the fight? I never know anything!” Changbin got frustrated and asked Chan for details. Felix ignored them and focused on not being obvious with his staring at Hyunjin.
He turned to his friends hearing Changbin’s scream “Felix doing charity?! Impossible!”
“Shut up! You’re too loud.” Felix stole the piece of his cake as a penalty which immediately calmed Changbin down. He didn’t joke about food.
“And you talk too much.” Felix pointed at grinning Chan.
“I’m just surprised that our coldhearted Felix did something noble.” Chan raised his hands in defence.
“What was I supposed to do? Look like they beat him up when he can’t defend himself?” Felix got irritated. He hated people bullying the weaker ones.
“Ok. Sorry. You’re right.” Chan stopped laughing. “Maybe you’ll finally get someone?”
Felix shook his head “He didn’t look like he wanted to have anything to do with me.”
Changbin and Chan looked at each other “So you wouldn’t mind?” asked Changbin suggestively.
“I don’t know him for fucks sake! Now shut up.” Felix ended this conversation.
It looked like Hyunjin also ended his own as he picked up his things and walked away. His friends looked sadly after him. Felix was curious what it was about.
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Hyunjin went to his next class. He feared another encounter with his attackers. He knew they had the same class as him.
Indeed they were there, even the one who got knocked out. They didn’t look at him, but Hyunjin didn’t hope it would be the end of his problems with them. It would be too beautiful.
This class was graphic design, so everyone was focused on their own tablets. Hyunjin also focused on his own one, creating a model professor told them to.
The time ran fast and he didn’t even notice when the class ended and students packed their things and left.
He heard his professor’s voice “Such a focus had to result in a great project.” And she stretched out her hand for his tablet silently asking for permission to look. He handed it to her, while getting up to pack his things.
“It’s great for your first work.” She returned him the tablet and looked honestly impressed. She smiled kindly, “It looks like you’ll have a future here.” And she went back to her desk.
He felt the fireworks in his chest. He was honoured to get praise so early.
He looked around while walking out of the class. He had a feeling that the creeps would wait for him.
He wasn’t wrong. But this time he wasn’t surprised. He dodged the blow and started running. He hoped that they wouldn’t attract him with people around.
He ran and ran, he patted himself for practising dance once in his life. Now he at least had the fitness to run away. Unfortunately he didn’t have a lot of luck, so he ended up in a corridor without an exit other than the one where his attackers already were.
Hyunjin sighed and prepared himself for another beating. Was it going to become tradiction?
The same guys that attacked him earlier got closer to him, but then they all heard a clearing of a throat and they looked in the direction of the sound.
“There’s no way…” Hyunjin whispered to himself and the four guys seemed to think the same.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Felix knew these kinds of losers and he knew that they didn’t give up. So he may have followed Hyunjin when he left the canteen leaving confused Chan and Changbin. And maybe he checked what class there was actually that Hyunjin attended to know what major he was and what he would do after it.
And if he skipped his own lecture about healthy eating to wait for Hyunjin to come out of his class and make sure that he wasn’t attacked… he wouldn’t admit it.
He waited until the students left the class and he was about to state that he was wrong and Hyunjin’s not there but he saw the losers waiting. So he waited too.
And indeed Hyunjin left the class later, looking around like he also was expecting an attack.
Before Felix could do anything the losers went to Hyunjin who started running as fast as if he was an olympic champion. Wtf.
Losers after him and Felix after them. It had to look comical from the side. He even started laughing at the situation a little until he saw where Hyunjin ran in. Poor boy wasn’t very loved by Fortune.
He quickly went inside the corridor following them all and cleared his throat to emphasise his appearance.
Hyunjin looked at him with surprise in his cute boba eyes and Felix felt that all his today’s doings were reasonable and right.
“You really won’t let him go, huh?” he said angrily, lowering his voice to make himself scarier.
“What did you do to get protected by the beast?” one of the losers asked Hyunjin, who looked disoriented. So he didn’t hear about Felix’s reputation yet. It made him weirdly happy.
“Or maybe you just have an animal kindness day?” the second one asked Felix.
“You should know when to shut up!” Felix growled. He hit the first two and dodged attacks from the third then he kicked the fourth and once again hit the first one. They didn’t have a chance with him and they seemed to understand that too.
“Look dude we only want him gone from here. Who knows what he has under the mask! It’s for the safety of us all!” said the second one just before Felix got to him again.
“You stupid shits!” They heard Hyunjin and stopped all fighting. “I don’t have an infectious disease! I’m just fucking ugly!”
It made them all freeze.
“But the doctor’s order?” the third digged in.
“From my psychiatrist! I’m so ugly that I have to wear a mask to calmly come out of my house!” Hyunjin screamed at them, evidently pissed and Felix didn’t know what to do. “So if you could just fuck off and leave me alone I would be grateful! You can’t get infected with ugliness!”
He spoke with so much tiredness, boredom and irritation that Felix didn’t know if he should cry or laugh. The situation once again seemed more comical than it should be.
“What are you doing?!” They heard a new voice and it was Felix’s superior professor. Not good.
It made the attackers run away from the place leaving Hyunjin and Felix alone to face consequences.
“Felix, are you out of your mind? Another fight? I told you what will happen if you make trouble again!” His professor said making Felix freeze. He will expel him. Felix thought about the disappointed faces of his hyungs.
“It’s not his fault!” Hyunjin tried to explain him. “I was attacked and he defended me.”
Professor sighed. “If that’s true, you won’t get expelled. But you should report it, not choose violence. You still will be punished.” He decided. Felix would do everything he wanted if it meant he wouldn’t disappoint his family.
“20h community service per week for…. a month let’s say.” And Felix wasn’t able to do it.
“Prof it’s too much! Please I have training, you know that!” Felix practically begged him.
“You should have thought about it earlier.” Professor was implacable.
Fuck him. Felix had fights he had to train for and now he didn’t have time for that.
“I’ll do half of it.” They looked at forgotten Hyunjin. “He saved me and I should have gone and reported it but I didn’t. If I did, he wouldn’t fight. So it’s my fault too. I’ll do half of these hours so he can train normally.”
It was a brilliant idea and Felix wanted to jump with joy. If only the prof would agree.
Old man was tired so he agreed and left them there.
“Thank you for saving me. Once again.” Hyunjin started after they stood for a while in silence. “But don’t think I’m some damsel in distress!” Felix could swear Hyunjin pouted at this moment.
“I know you for one day and I already saved you twice, so it really looks like you are in need of a knight.” He had an irrational need to make Hyunjin angry, to tease him a little.
“And you would be my knight? Please, you were this close” Hyunjin showed him two fingers with a little gap in between “from getting expelled. And it wasn’t because of my affairs.”
Felix nodded in agreement “Yes, you’re right. But still I nobilly helped you.”
Hyunjin chuckled, “I didn’t ask you to. Yes, you helped me and thank you for that. Now I will help you with your punishment in gratitude. But it doesn’t mean I can’t fend for myself.”
Felix probably enjoyed this conversation too much. Hyunjin looked annoyed like Felix accused him of lacking survival skills by saving him.
“I’m sure you can cope up with a lot. And I think you should give me your number, Hyunjin.” Hyunjin furrowed and Felix laughed, “So we can contact about punishment.”
Hyunjin agreed and gave him his number. Felix sent him a text, saving his number as ‘Damsel in distress’.
Hyunjin started to walk away, but still stopped when heard Felix screaming after him “Don’t hesitate to call for your knight, my damsel!”
Felix could swear he heard a curse after that.
Now, how would he explain all of that to Minchan?