"Who was it? Someone asking for Wonwoo from you?" Mingyu asked Jeonghan when he finished talking on the phone.

The three of them were sitting in Wonwoo and Mingyu's dorm room. Jeonghan and Wonwoo had just returned from their strange but unfruitful trip to the uni hospital, something Mingyu was still having trouble grasping.

"It was Soonyoung," Jeonghan said. "He was asking about you, Wonwoo. What is happening? Do you know each other?"

Wonwoo had not said a word since they had returned, obviously disappointed over something.

He isn't even playing his game. What happened? Mingyu had asked, only to get no answer.

But now Wonwoo looked up quickly. "Kwon Soonyoung? What did he say?"

"Alright, calm down, dude. Care to tell me what is going on or am I just talking to myself here?" Mingyu asked.

Wonwoo ignored him, clutching at Jeonghan's arm. "What was he saying? Can we go meet him?"

Mingyu sighed, turning away. "Okay, I see how it is. Replaced by a fairy today. Don't mind me. I'm fine. I always loved Seokmin more."

Jeonghan said, "Uh, well, he didn't really say much. He asked if I had a friend with your name and I said, yeah, he's here with me, want to talk? And he cut the phone saying...uh, some choice words."

Wonwoo was quiet.

Jeonghan chewed his lip. "Are you okay?"

"No," Mingyu groaned. "My best friend replaced me for a new guy."

Wonwoo cleared his throat. "It's obviously a mistake. Sorry, guys, I'm feeling tired. I'm going to turn in for the night."

Jeonghan and Mingyu exchanged glances and then, the latter mouthed, Out, now!

Once outside the door, Mingyu turned to him. "Look I don't really interfere but care to tell me what is going on? He is behaving strangely."

"I don't know. I at the cafeteria earlier—"

"I thought the other guy called you," Mingyu said.

"Oh did he?" Jeonghan scrunched his forehead thoughtfully before shrugging. "Well, that's not important. I don't even know you guys properly to be honest. I'm just as lost as you. Your friend just heard that Soonyoung's friend had an accident and demanded to accompany me to the hospital. It happened in front of you all. Don't blame me..." his voice trailed off as he looked at the floor. "I...I just wanted to be friends with you. Seokmin was so nice to me and..."

Mingyu's gaze softened. "No, no, you're misunderstanding me. I'm not blaming you. I'm really sorry if you felt that way. I was just..."

"I understand." Jeonghan smiled. "You're just worried."

Mingyu returned the smile, beaming. "Yes, exactly. And he's not big on communicating so I thought it's better to ask you."

"I guess, they have some history together. Wonwoo seemed like he knew Soonyoung and I've just recently got to know Soonyoung too so I can't say what exactly it is but seems like Soonyoung knows him too."

Mingyu looked at the closed door beside them. "I suppose we'll know if they ever meet."

Jeonghan's face was determined when he answered. "When they meet." Not if.

-

He had waited till it was well past two before getting up and walking across his room. He opened the dorm room but didn't step out into the corridor outside. Instead he stepped into hospital wing, walking noiselessly to Joshua's bed.

Yoon Jeonghan stared at the sleeping boy, watching almost in fascination as moonlight lit parts of Joshua's peaceful expression. His eyes followed the turn of his lips, the slant of his nose and stopped at the tired dark circles beneath the eyes. He made a face.

He stood for a moment, as if silently debating something and then reached for Joshua's wrist, fingers grazing the bronze bracelet. Something like wild electricity crackled at the touch and Joshua moved slightly, sighing almost in relief whilst still asleep.

"You're weak," Jeonghan said, a sneer rippling across his features, and turned away, disappearing as silently as he had appeared.

Behind him, Joshua's face looked healthier than before.

-

"Wait, are you sure it's okay for him to be discharged so quickly? He fainted yesterday!" Soonyoung argued with the nurse.

Joshua smiled. "Soonyoung-ah, I'm totally fine and kind of embarrassed so drop it. Let's go before we miss our first class."

"You're not going to any class as far as I am concerned. We're going back to our dorm room where you will lay in bed and I will baby you around until you get better."

Joshua's eyes crinkled up as he laughed. "Okay, Mom. Let's just get out of here. I hate hospitals."

Soonyoung and Jun looked at each other at the mention of 'mom' but didn't say anything. Later, the message was clear.

But at the dorms, Joshua shooed them all away. "I'll stay with Jihoon. He doesn't have early morning classes and you all can go study."

Soonyoung and Jun left finally, promising to attend the first so Joshua didn't have to feel that they were missing out on their "absolutely important education". They walked out of the door in silence but soon Soonyoung spoke up, "I'm worried about him."

"Me too. All he does is work on his laptop and study. I don't even remember the last time he did something apart from studies and drama club. It's burning him out," Jun said.

"The nurse said he is exhausted and he looks it too. Maybe we should let his pa—"

"We should help him have some fun."

Soonyoung and Jun jumped at the sudden voice.

"Ah, did I startle you?" Jeonghan smiled, his eyes sparkling with charm. "I came to see Joshua but I heard you two first."

"You have a really soft tread." Soonyoung laughed.

Jun nodded. "Felt like you teleported here."

The three of them burst out laughing.

"But seriously," Jeonghan said, as they settled on the park benches near their dorm, "I feel like he needs to have some fun, take his mind of studies and maybe date someone nice. I don't know, maybe I don't even have the right to say all this. I really want to be there for him but sometimes I feel like he doesn't like me..."

Soonyoung looked at him with pity. Jeonghan's eyes were downcast and he was fidgeting with his sleeves. "Jeonghan, that's—that's not true."

Jun puffed out his chest. "In fact, according to my shrewd judgement, he has the hots for you."

Soonyoung spluttered. "Jun!"

"What?" Jun raised his eyebrows. "I know sexual tension when I see it."

Jeonghan coughed. "Jun, you're really funny. But coming back to what we were talking about, how about we host a party for him?"

"A party?" Soonyoung contemplated.

Jun's eyes immediately lit up. "A Glad you're okay and we love you to bits party? Can we have a proper huge party with good drinks and games and a DJ and a huge guest list because there's this guy I really want to ask out?"

"Exactly," Jeonghan reacted with equal excitement. "Let's go big!"

Soonyoung interjected. "How will we host a party when all of us are broke?"

The other two nodded, shoulders slumping.

Jeonghan looked around the campus park and he smiled. "Maybe we won't need to host one at all. Get everyone ready for the best Friday night party of your lives!"

"Wait—"

But Jeonghan was already gone, shouting "Dino-ya! Dino, hey, wait up!" to someone walking out of the park.

"Isn't Friday today?" Jun asked.

Soonyoung sighed.

-

"And why are we going to this party again?" Joshua asked, making a face, as Soonyoung fussed with his jacket one last time.

His friend stood back and looked at him, obviously happy with his work of stealing Seungcheol's faux leather jacket and having Joshua wear it. He messed up his hair a bit. "You look like you're going to steal a few hearts tonight."

Joshua rolled his eyes. The jacket felt odd on him and he wished he was wearing a band t-shirt over ripped jeans like Soonyoung minus the choker that his friend was obviously happy wearing.

"We are going because our friend Dino is hosting a Friday night party and the average college student attends parties on Friday nights so here we are!" Jun grinned.

Jun looked drop dead gorgeous and confidence flashed out of his excited smile. He did a turn, his jacket and jewellery glittering against the moonlight.

"That reminds me. Since when did we have a friend named Dino. You all are such liars," Joshua said, trying to turn back.

Jihoon put a firm grip on his arm. "I hate to be here but there's no way we're going back." He had turned up in a hoodie and sweatpants, looking the picture of annoyance, and Joshua wondered how they had convinced him.

"Let's go!" Soonyoung said, opening the door and walking in.

Joshua sighed and followed his friends inside. He was the last to enter but he felt the room's energy shift into something darker as something whistled through the air towards Soonyoung. He lunged forward to pull him back but he knew he was already a second late. There was a sickening sound of an object hitting a hard surface and he closed his eyes fearing the worst as several voices screamed out.

The DJ stopped the music.

"Well, fuck, that was a near save."

He opened his eyes at the voice and looked at Soonyoung who was smiling weakly, pointing to a dart lodged into the wall beside, a dart that landed a considerable distance away from the dartboard, a dart that had narrowly missed Soonyoung's eyes, missed them by a hair's breadth...Joshua felt like he couldn't breathe.

From somewhere in the crowd, Seungcheol could be heard saying loudly, "Which idiot threw that?"

Someone walked up to Soonyoung and said in a shaky voice, "Are you okay? I am so sorry. I don't even know how it went there. I promise I'll never even touch a dart from now on. This was actually my first time. Oh God, are you okay?"

"Nothing happened so it's all cool. No worries," Soonyoung said, smiling, as the colour returned to his face. "Though you should stay away from darts for a bit." He stretched out his hand. "Should we just introduce ourselves and pretend like we didn't meet over my attempted murder?"

The DJ turned on the music again and the crowd went back to dancing and talking, seemingly disappointed that there was no drama.

The other boy reached out to shake his hand. "Really sorry and yeah, I would like that. I'm Wonwoo, by the way, from History department and those over there are my idiot friends who told me playing darts was a good idea."

Soonyoung's smile slipped. "You're him."

[ hi! so sorry it took ages to update but we were busy with work and studies.

hope you all liked this chapter. there is so much going on and lots of little easter eggs scattered across the story for our lovely readers so let us know how you are liking the story so far and what you think might happen next?

next update soon(woo)er than you think~~ ]