San stays close to Wooyoung's side once they enter the club, now fully immersed in the club scene. The colorful flashing lights are already overwhelming for San, the blaring music reminiscent of Seonghwa's parties that he'd gone to so often before.

"You okay, so far, Sannie?" Wooyoung leans over and whispers his question into San's ear, his lips grazing the shell of it. He keeps a comforting arm wrapped around him as he walks them to a corner of the club that only has a few people sitting down with drinks.

San takes a glance at the group of people they're headed for and is surprised when he sees a familiar face sitting among them.

What is Yunho doing here?

Wait... Does that mean Mingi is here, too?

San can't help himself from wondering if his dealer is at the club too, even though he knows he shouldn't. Seonghwa told Mingi not to sell to him, anyway, so it's a lost cause. San's body begins to itch at the thought, but he tries to push it down and keep himself in check while he's with Wooyoung.

No thinking about that tonight.

You're here for Wooyoung.

"Wooyoung!" Yunho's face brightens with delight as soon as he sees him, "You're here! I've been looking forward to tonight all week-" His voice trails off when his eyes trail to the boy Wooyoung has his arm around, "San...?"

What is he doing here?

San chokes out a nervous laugh as he rubs the back of his head, trying to avoid eye contact as much as he can, "Hey, Yunho..."

Is there a way to back out now?

"You two know each other?" Wooyoung asks, looking back and forth between the two boys with a smile on his face, not realizing the heavy tension in the air just yet.

"We went to high school together back in the day," Yunho says, his eyes lingering on Wooyoung's hand that rests on San's waist.

San just gets everyone he wants, doesn't he? Yunho thinks to himself, but he tears his eyes away. He shouldn't be thinking like that. He's with Mingi now. He's told himself for months he doesn't feel that way towards Wooyoung anymore, but seeing him here with San is rubbing him the wrong way.

Will he come for Min next?

"Aw, were you guys friends back then?" Wooyoung asks, sitting down next to Yunho with San basically sitting in his lap from the lack of room at the small table they're at. San rests back against Wooyoung's chest, trying his best to not be so stiff. He needs to relax.

"Well..." San hums, shifting his eyes uneasily as he remembers their senior year of high school, his stomach churning when he thinks about the scene of Seonghwa and Yunho in bed together. San wished he never opened that door. He just wanted to go home from the party early... Looking back, he realized how Yunho would always try to get Seonghwa's attention.

San mistakenly asked Seonghwa about Yunho once a few months after the incident happened, and Seonghwa explained that Yunho had confessed to him before. His overactive mind couldn't stop from wondering if Yunho was like San and liked Seonghwa so much that he didn't care if he didn't have mutual feelings. If he thought about it long enough, he felt bad for Yunho. Those feelings only increased after rumors about Yunho started spreading not long after that party.

"Don't you know that he sleeps with people for money?"

"Really? I heard he was seeing a guy twice his age."

"What a fucking whore."

"Slut."

San's lips unconsciously turn downwards into a frown, not knowing what to think of Yunho.

Is he Wooyoung's dance partner...?

"I wouldn't say we were friends, but we weren't enemies or anything like that if that's what you're thinking," Yunho chuckles, trying his best to make everything seem cool, but San knew better.

San does find it surprising how much more laid back Yunho seems in this setting, though. He's only known him from the rumors and how he was in the classes they shared in high school. He was a quite timid boy who tried to keep his head down. Before the more vulgar nicknames for him spread, he was commonly referred to as the teacher's pet. San can't remember exact details of anyone from high school, to be honest, his focus was always solely on Seonghwa.

Yunho only caught his attention after that night at the party.

He's seen him with Mingi in recent years, of course, but only in passing when he and Seonghwa would come over to buy drugs. San always hid behind Seonghwa during those exchanges, but Yunho seemed timid when he was there too, now that San thinks about it. But maybe it was because he and Seonghwa were there.

As far as San knows, he and Seonghwa never saw each other after that night.

San knew Seonghwa slept around, he did ever since freshman year, but he was never too worried about it. Seonghwa would always come back to him and didn't leave him alone at parties. He messed around with people there and then came back to take San home, making sure he was safe.

Why can't I just stop thinking about him for one night?

"We liked the same guy back then," San says bluntly, escaping his own mind finally. He subconsciously picks at his nail beds, leaning more into Wooyoung.

"Yeah..." Yunho sighs, resting his chin in his hand after taking a drink, "He turned me down."

Yunho begins anxiously tapping his fingernails on the wood of the table, not wanting to think about the past anymore because if he starts thinking of Seonghwa, he'll start remembering what he did after Seonghwa left him alone in bed that night. It's like it's happening all over again.

God, where is Mingi?

He's really missing his love right now with all these unwanted thoughts trying to invade his mind. He has been working so hard, only for these damned thoughts to break down everything he tried to build back up again.

Yunho is over Wooyoung, just like he's over Seonghwa.

He hums as he thinks about when he first met Wooyoung, remembering how well they meshed together with their respective dancing styles. They began to hang out more and more and started to create their own routines that they would perform here at the nightclub together.

The more they hung out, the more Yunho started to look at Wooyoung in a different light. This led to him eventually developing feelings for his newfound best friend, the first time he's been interested in someone since he found the courage to leave Jaehan. They spent so much time together and he was always so kind and thoughtful, it was easy for Yunho to fall for Wooyoung. He helped him through a lot and he could never thank him more for that, he only wishes his fragile heart wasn't so easy to fall again.

Yunho coincidentally also met Mingi at the nightclub, the very same one they're at tonight. If he's honest, this is where he's met many men, even at the young age of seventeen. Mingi came up to him after one of his and Wooyoung's routines and things went from there... To Mingi's house, to be precise, is where it went.

Yunho even surprised himself that night, not having slept with someone since Jaehan, and that was two years ago from the time he met Mingi.

Mingi started to become a bit possessive over Yunho and wouldn't like it so much when he and Wooyoung would do a performance with more suggestive moves, moves that would always get the crowd roaring. It was awkward to explain the situation to Wooyoung when Mingi wasn't even Yunho's boyfriend, but merely someone he would mess around with.

Yunho doesn't like to think about it this way, but he knows that he fell in so easily with Mingi because he reminded him so much of the older men he would see. Yunho was already comfortable with the possessiveness, always used to molding into what others wanted him to be.

It was what came naturally to Yunho, always having been a fiend for male attention, especially after properly receiving it for the first time.

Yunho wanted to blame Seonghwa for ruining him the moment they slept together for the first time, but as he grew up, he knew it was a two-way street. He gave Seonghwa his virginity willingly, just like he crumbled under the eyes of Jaehan, the man that Yunho has absolutely no problem blaming. He had him in his claws before he even reached eighteen.

Mingi didn't want to settle down with Yunho at first, but one day he came to him and things just felt different. They've been together ever since and Yunho truly thought his feelings for Wooyoung were gone... He really did...

"Aw, who would turn you down, Yun? You're too adorable to say no to!" Wooyoung shows a pouty face at his dance partner as he tries to lighten the conversation by teasing him, "San, did he accept your feelings?" Wooyoung looks up at San after he sees Yunho roll his eyes at him, who's busy staring at his hands, still picking around the cuticles.

"No. He didn't," San answers, and it's true. Seonghwa never wanted him in that way no matter how much San wished he did. No matter how much San loved Seonghwa, he just couldn't reciprocate that same love back to him. It feels like he was always destined to love people that never loved him back, and if they did, they loved him wrong.

Like his parents. That familial love between parent and child that's supposed to be instinctual felt so misplaced and wrong.

Yunho narrows his eyes in confusion when he hears that come from San's mouth, about to take another sip from his drink, but he sets the glass back down.

Seonghwa never accepted San's feelings?

But that night, Seonghwa ran after him so quickly...

"San, no, Sannie," Seonghwa's voice breaks mid-sentence, forgetting all about Yunho and immediately getting off of him.

Yunho watches as Seonghwa doesn't spare him another glance, hurrying to pick up his pants and put them on the fastest he's ever seen, discarding the condom full of nothing but shame and disappointment on the floor.

"SAN! Come back to me, baby," Seonghwa yells out exasperated, running out of the room in pursuit of the pained boy that had to walk in on something he knew was happening, but never wanted to actually see.

Yunho stares at the open doorway, not realizing the tears overfilling his eyes and streaming down his cheeks until they hit his bare chest. He quickly lifts the soiled bedsheets over his exposed body, wiping his face before he sinks down and hides beneath the blankets.

He's just going to leave me here...?

Yunho doesn't even want to look down at himself, a sudden feeling of shame pouring over him and filling him with dread. He feels so raw, lying naked and afraid in an empty room of some high school party.

He and Seonghwa had slept together at a couple parties previously, and he thought he felt happy when he was giving himself to Seonghwa, but now... He feels like he's just been used and thrown away.

Is this how it's always going to be for me...?

Yunho curls up into a fetal position, not wanting to think anymore, not wanting to feel anymore.

Yunho is lost in painful memories of the past, but he's thankfully brought back to the present when a deep voice comes over the loudspeaker in the club.

"Can we get our regulars Jung Wooyoung and Jeong Yunho to the middle of the dance floor? I hear they've prepared something special for us tonight!"

End of Chapter Thirteen