"Taeyong?" The name hung in the air like a saturnine weight, and Jeno forced himself to nod. "What about him?"

"I killed him."

"What? Jeno, my cousin slit his wrists and bled out in the tub." Donghyuck's voice broke as he said that, and Jeno began to shake.

"It was Jaehyun's idea to toy with him before. I thought they really liked each other, I really did, but Jaehyun had me start leaving notes on his locker and in them. Only later did I find out they were threats, blackmail, insults, everything. I didn't mean to, I didn't want to, but I delivered the letter on the last day."

Everyone knew about that letter. The letter that had sprayed red confetti and was written in red blood, saying to kill himself. And Taeyong did.

Unreadable emotions flashed over Donghyuck's face, but the prominent one that emerged was undiluted pain and rage. "Why did you keep doing it?"

"Jaehyun threatened to tell my dad," Jeno whispered, not looking at Donghyuck. "My dad can't know I'm gay, he's conservative and he's a cop and I'm terrified if he knows he'll throw me in jail - which he did to my brother, saying he was abusing us when it was him and my brother died in there. He died. He died because he was himself in front of my parents, he brought home his boyfriend."

"That's terrifying," Jisung whispered. "Why would be know?"

"I kissed Taeyong," Jeno said, sighing. There, he'd said it. "I had a crush on him for a while - surprise surprise, I had a crush on him. How could I not? I kissed him and Jaehyun saw. He threatened me."

"So you took my cousin's life?" Donghyuck asked, deadly and quiet. "How could you?" His voice rose, and he stood up and kicked Jeno in the stomach, hard. "How could you do this to him? He wanted to be a doctor! He wanted to help people!" Donghyuck was kicking, punching, and Mark tried to hold him back.

Jeno just took it. He took the broken nose, bruised lip, bruised stomach, everything. He took it.

Donghyuck didn't stop until Jisung joined, helping hold the smaller boy back and Renjun knelt next to Jeno, who only made a soft noise of pain when Renjun touched the bruising mark on his temple.

Once he saw what he'd done, Donghyuck dissolved into sobs, and Mark led him away to another part of the library while Chenle raced away to his backpack, grabbing a first aid kit and bringing it over.

"Jeno?" Renjun asked, gently turning the boy so that Jeno's head was on his lap. The boy was now knocked out cold, and Renjun sighed as I came over cautiously. Gently I pulled out a tissue and dabbed the blood away from his nose, Chenle coming back with the kit.

Sighing, Renjun looked up at me. "Maybe he's not that bad."

"He never was," I whispered back.

≓

Mark looked at Donghyuck, concerned at the boy's shaking breath. "Donghyuck?"

"What?" Donghyuck asked, shrinking within himself. Wordlessly, Mark pulled Donghyuck into his arms, letting the boy break down into desperate sobs.

Mark sat down, Donghyuck on his lap, taking deep breaths in hopes they'd help the younger boy calm down.

Mark smelled like watermelon and faintly of cologne, trace amounts of weed mixed in. It was strangely comforting in the weirdest way, but Donghyuck was happy to be in his arms.

Mark had been Donghyuck's crush for almost a year, almost a year of his biting comments and angry eyes. Something inside of him turned to mush when he saw Mark, and he didn't quite like it.

He didn't know Mark's heart also melted at the sight of him, or that all he wanted to do was to make Donghyuck a little happier.

Donghyuck's breath caught as Mark's fingers ran through his hair, softly humming as he did so. "Mark?"

"Yes?" Mark replied immediately to the weak voice.

"You're nice," Donghyuck said softly.

"Nice?" Mark asked, and Donghyuck nodded, looking up at him softly.

"Yeah, nice," Donghyuck said, pulling Mark in for a passionate kiss, climbing onto his lap and looping his arms around Mark's neck easily.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Mark asked, pulling away and panting lightly. "Donghyuck, what are you doing?"

"Do you know how long I've pined for you?" Donghyuck growled. "Do you know how your touch right now is making everything feel better? Do you know this?"

"Donghyuck, I don't want to hurt you." Mark tried to pull the boy off of him, but he was latched on.

"You won't," Donghyuck whispered. "Because if you do they'll find only your testicles dangling from the front doors of school with enough of your blood to drown a man."

"That's terrifying," Mark whispered back. "But also kind of hot?"

"I know," Donghyuck winked, lacing his fingers in Mark's hair and pulling his head to the side, biting and sucking on his neck enough to leave a visible bruise. "Good thing you're the only one I want."

≓

"Get a goddamn room!" Renjun shouted, hearing some sort of sinful moan come from the vicinity of Mark and Donghyuck. They moved into the conference room, and Chenle blinked as Jeno stirred.

"Hey," Renjun said softly, and Jeno burst into tears.

"I'm so sorry."

"You already apologised."

"Not to you," Jeno whispered, then looked at me. "Or you."

"Really, it's okay."

"I like you both."

Well, whatever we were expecting, it was definitely not that.

"I didn't know how to deal with it, and I thought if you hated me it would go away, but it didn't. And Jaemin, I've admired you since honestly, about the second grade. By the time I knew what I was feeling was actually liking you two, and accepting that, I haven't even fully accepted that."

Jeno took a deep breath and closed his fist, closing his eyes before looking up at us. "I know I want to be with you two. But I also know that you two don't like me very much right now. Or at all. I want to change though."

Renjun looked at Jeno sadly, gently running his fingers through the locks of hair. "You know I won't forgive you that fast."

"I know," Jeno said miserably.

"But I think I speak for both of us when I say we'll give you a chance. Thirty days, and at the end of those thirty days, you can take us on a date."

I nodded. It sounded fair enough, and it didn't seem bad. At the very worse, we would get free food. "It'll just be thirty days of learning about each other okay?"

"Alright," Jeno said softly. "Jaemin?"

I looked at him curiously, and he shyly blinked away from my gaze. "What are you okay with? You too Renjun, I don't want to overstep my boundaries."

"Just ask before you do anything?" I asked, and Jeno nodded.

"I'll give you a list," Renjun replied, and Jeno closed his eyes again, looking at peace enough to fall asleep.

≓

"They all cute," a soft voice said next to Jisung, and Jisung looked over at the blonde boy fondly.

"You are cuter Chenle," Jisung whispered, pouting as Chenle took his cheeks and pinched them. "What's that for?"

"Mochi," Chenle giggled. "My mochi."

"I see. You are my princess though." Jisung gently bopped Chenle's nose, making him giggle.

"And, there is pillow and blanket here!" Chenle exclaimed. "Librarian keeps when children sad."

"Oh!" Jisung knew exactly what Chenle was talking about and went into the storage closet, pulling out fourteen blankets and eight pillows, along with ten tatami rolls.

Jungwoo was a very strong believer in naps during school, and especially during exam week you could find people sprawled on tatamis, sleeping.

The couple set them up, a bed for each of them, and sighed.

Finally they could rest, with secrets off their shoulders.

≓

You guys still reading this book are the REAL M.V.Ps, honestly.

But it's coming to an end :(