Chapter Text
“Hey Chaeng, where are the noodles?” Jisoo was standing in the kitchen.
“It should be in the third cupboard from the fridge.” Rosie said as she was setting the tables when a knock came from the door. “Can you get it?”
Jisoo went to answer the door, opening the door revealed a man she didn’t know. He was surprised she opened the door as he didn’t recognise her but maybe this was the opportunity he needed.
“Hi there, I’m looking for Brian Littrell.” He leaned against the doorframe.
“Who are you?” She raised an eyebrow.
“I’m Lach-“ And Jisoo closed the door right in his face on the first syllable.
He was absolutely stunned, he didn’t know who she was but she clearly knew somehow that he and Brian had a history.
“Jisoo, who was that?” She walked over to the door, either expecting to agree with her action or profusely apologising to the poor person.
“It was Lach…”
“Oh, Lachlan, what the fuck does he want?” Lachlan overheard the conversation, desperately waiting for someone to open the door.
“Brian.” A moment after Jisoo’s answer, the door swung open to reveal an angered Rosie.
“Oh, Rose.” He scratched the back of his neck. “I came here to see Bri-“
“You are not welcomed here. The last time you made Brian meet you, he came home pissed drunk and I got the details of what your relationship was.” Lachlan’s faced paled as she crossed her arms. “And how you wanted to take advantage of him.”
“So go! You’re not welcomed in Chaeng and Brian’s apateu!” Jisoo leaned her elbow against Rosie’s shoulder.
Lachlan took the signal he was unwelcome at the apateu and tried to leave the apartment complex as fast as he can. He stops in front of the elevator when the doors open to reveal that Brian was in the elevator. He froze in horror at Lachlan’s presence but needed to get to the apateu somehow, so he brushed by him.
“Bri…” Lachlan called out but Brian ignored him. Lachlan gave up on this attempt and entered the elevator, the elevator doors closing like how Jisoo shut the apateu door in his face, hostile and unwelcoming.
Brian got to the apateu to see Rosie and Jisoo acting as guards, which made the twisting knot in his stomach slightly relieved.
“You two are absolute life savers.” They relaxed and walked back into the apateu.
“Your safety is the most important thing for us, Bri.” Rosie booped him on the nose. “What kind of roommate would I be if I didn’t chew out the guy who tried to take advantage of you when you were drunk.” He smiled, but still curious why Lachlan made a cameo.
He turned his head to see fancy table settings on the dining table, realising he might’ve interrupted a date.
“Oh, am I interrupting something?” He put his hand on the right side of his face, feeling remorseful. “I can go-.”
“No! It was Lachlan who interrupted but we’re happy for you to be here! We’re just making noodles for dinner.” Rosie smiled. “So if you want some noodles, we can make some for three!”
———
Kevin was sitting on the couch, he was watching some news channel when he felt his phone vibrate from the coffee table. He picked it up to see a notification from Rosie.
Rosie: so lachlan made a surprise cameo at the apateu
Kevin: Holy shit
Is Brian okay?
Rosie: yeah, me and jisoo shooed him away
gotta use that hatred of men for something
Her text made Kevin laugh, it was good to know that Rosie was reliable on roasting any of Brian’s exes and shooing them away. He put down his phone and finally changed the channel. It was a reality show, he normally never engaged with the genre but something made him stop and watch. Something about hot guys in speedos did something to Kevin.
“Never took Kevin from the Backstreet Boys as the kind of guy to thirst over beautiful men who are barely clothed.” Beyoncé teased him as she sat next to him. “Who is your favorite? Mine’s number 81.”
“Uhh….” He flushed trying to pick a favourite. “Number 19 looks super sexy.”
“Blond, tan and a body sculpted like a greek god.” She observed the contestant. “You have excellent taste.”
His face reddened, this was scenario he wasn’t expecting but he didn’t mind Beyoncé’s teasing.
———
“When do you think you’ll tell him?” Rosie asked Brian as they were walking to the campus. It had been a few weeks since the Lachlan cameo and both of them were on high alert as they were walking out in public at the potential of him appearing out of nowhere.
“I should soon.” He stared at the horizon. “But what if it’s a make or break moment for our relationship?”
“If it is, then let it be.” Brian wasn’t expecting Rosie’s response to be quite blunt. “How he reacts is an indicator of how your relationship survives after it.”
“And how do you know it’s a gamble?”
“One time, a guy I dated freaked out because I told him that I am an insomniac.” She shrugged. “It really depends on who they are and how they can handle sensitive information.”
It was an awkward walk now as Brian was flooded with doubts in his mind and Rosie couldn’t afford to sugarcoat the situation as it would give Brian a false sense of security. If she thought her track record was bad, Brian’s was like an earthquake that ripped through a waterfall.
It was about ten minutes of agonising silence when they finally arrived outside their Songwriter’s Artistry classroom, with Jennie and JC waiting outside.
“What took you guys so long?” Jennie teased them as she playfully punched Rosie in the arm. JC kissed Brian’s cheek, which made all the swirling thoughts in his head calm down a bit.
“Well, it’s one of those mornings where neither of us could find the keys. Despite the fact Rosie has an entire capybara attached to her keys.” Brian glared at Rosie.
“Well, the capybara decided it wanted to sleep in.” She stuck her tongue out at him.
“Enough with bickering, let’s go in!’ Jennie rolled her eyes.
———
“Excuse me ma’am, I’m here to visit a student.” Lachlan leaned against the reception desk.
“And who is this student?” The receptionist asked him.
“Brian Littrell.” She moved the monitor screen and searched for Brian in the system.
“He is in classroom 211, it’s down the music corridor from the left of the cafeteria.” He nodded.
“Thank you.” He walked off towards the his destination.
Kevin had a free morning since his class had been cancelled, so he was enjoying the lazy morning to himself. His lazy morning would be interrupted when he spotted a figure leaning against a pole that shouldn’t be here in the first place.
“Lachlan?” He looked up and met eyes with Kevin.
“Kevin.” He crossed his arms. “Surprised to see me here?”
“Yeah, why did you come here?” Kevin was inching closer, knowing that this situation was a ticking time bomb.
“I wanted to see Brian, but him and his roommate have made it pretty clear I’m not welcomed at his apartment, so I came here.” He smirked. “Is that a problem?”
“Why are you so obsessed with Brian? It’s been years since you two were together and you broke his heart.” Kevin clenched his fists, his anger flaring. “Even now, you still treat him like he’s the same 16 year old boy from Kentucky.”
“Well, I was the one who taught him the ways of love and he will always be mine.”
Rosie was scribbling something in her note book when there was a huge crash outside. The whole classroom perked their heads up at the unexpected sound. Maybe it was a rubbish bin falling over.
“You’re a fucking asshole!” Rosie and Brian realised that was Kevin yelling and that only meant one thing. The two jumped off their seats and ran towards the door. Rosie slid the door open to reveal a full own brawl between Kevin and Lachlan.
Both of them were already covered in blood and were throwing each other across the hallway. Rosie looked at Brian who froze in his spot, turning ghostly pale. Jennie and JC hurried over, as well as the entire class to witness the brawl.
“Rosie, who is that?” Jennie clocked that Rosie and Brian must’ve known who the guy was.
“Lachlan.” Jennie’s jaw dropped, she’d heard about the cameos but him showing up in person was unexpected to everyone.
A crowd started forming around the two men, who were surprised that Kevin was fighting so recklessly in the middle of the hallway. Things had become more bloody as the two had blood dripping down from their faces and any other spots. Kevin managed to get Lachlan down on the ground, Kevin pinned him under his body weight and started punching Lachlan’s face repeatedly, taking years of resentment and anger out on him.
Rosie knew this was the opportunity to drag Kevin so she risked it and entered the fight zone and dragged Kevin away by the scruff. He was still fuel by rage but her dragging him away finally snapped him out of his animalistic rage. Lachlan sat up and caught his breath before standing up.
“You win this time, Richardson.” He pushed through the crowd and disappeared from sight.
The crowd slowly dispersed and it was Rosie, Kevin and the Songwriter’s Artistry class left. Kevin got up, still bloody and injured and walked off without even trying to explain the situation.
“Okay everyone, we’ll take a moment before we continue.” Everyone filtered back to their seats, Rosie was perplexed but she was more worried for Brian. He’d completely shut down and JC was struggling to understand what was going on.
“Hey professor, could I take Brian on a walk?” The professor looked at Brian and she nodded. Rosie walked over to Brian and gestured with her head to go.
He nodded and he got up and they left the room. The moment they left the room, JC turned to Jennie with s somber look.
“Is there something she knows that I don’t know.” His brain started to overthink everything about his relationship with Brian. “Does he not feel comfortable telling me what’s going on?”
“JC.” Jennie gave him a comforting smile. “You’re doing the best you can. The only reason Rosie knows what’s going on is because she has experienced the guy Kevin was fighting first hand as he dropped by the apateu.” She took a deep breath. “He’ll open up, I know that for sure.”
———
Kevin was washing himself in one of the bathrooms, taking off any of the blood from his face. He didn’t register the footsteps entering the bathroom as he haphazardly was throwing water onto his face.
“Kev?” He turned his head to see Nick leaning against the bathroom wall near the door. “What went through your head? I know you have Brian’s safety as a top priority but to beat a guy senseless in the middle of the hallway.”
“How would you feel if it was an obsessive ex of any of your siblings?” Kevin turned off the tap. “It’s something I’m not proud of but it did communicate the message that he needed to get.”
“I think Headmistress Ward is looking for you, I saw her checking any premise she could.” Kevin sighed, this whole commotion must’ve reached her desk in mere minutes and he wasn’t sure how hard she was going to bring down the hammer.
———
It had been around 15 minutes since Rosie and Brian left the classroom. He was finally managing to regain any sense of coherency and his first action was a disappointed sigh.
“God, why did he come here?” Brian slumped against a wall, every voice in his head at this point was screaming that he shouldn’t have even approached Lachlan in the church. “Maybe I should’ve let him-“
“No.” Rosie’s stern no snapped him back to reality. “Brian, he came to a school he doesn’t even go to because he wanted to track you and catch you off guard by being here, that’s a new level of desperation.”
“But what about Kev?” He sighed again. “He’s probably being chased by the headmistress as we speak.”
“There’s not much we can do on that front.” She shrugged. “We should probably get back to class.”
———
“Any news with Kevin and the whole showdown?” Jennie and Rosie were walking to the Pink’s tree. It only had been 2 hours but the institute was already buzzing about it. Only Rosie, Kevin, Brian and Jennie knew it was Lachlan and the former three knew the whole situation behind the brawl. “He was steaming with fury.”
“No, Brian’s freaking out that Kevin is probably going to get severely punished by the headmistress.” She sighed, it was just an absolute shit show.
They were halfway to the tree when a voice cut through the silence, they turned around to see who just cut through the silence.
“Miss Roseanne Park.” The formal address from the woman was a clear indicator that it was a serious matter. “May you come with me?”
Jennie nodded to Rosie and walked off, leaving Rosie and the woman in the pathway before the woman gestured Rosie to follow her. It was walk that seemed to drag onto an eternity and when they finally got to the headmistress’ office, it opened to reveal Brian and Kevin.
Oh shit.
The woman nodded and walked off. The chair swivelled around to reveal Candolin Ward, the very headmistress that sent her the acceptance letter all those months ago.
“Miss Park, come take a seat please.” Rosie walked over and took a seat on Kevin’s left. “The reason you’re in the office is because we need to discuss the events of today and the circumstances behind them as this isn’t the first time Mr Richardson has used violence against an individual who has been romantically involved with Mr Littrell. However, it seems that you’ve been directly involved with this incident.”