Soobin jolted awake at 9am, to the feeling of being rather harshly shaken by the shoulders.

"Huh...?" was all Soobin said, his eyes still adjusting to being awake, yet finding himself being practically dragged to sit upright in bed.

"Soobin," the voice of whoever it was harassing him grabbed his attention. "We're fucking late for school, get up!"

At these words, his surroundings came into focus.
Yeonjun could be seen digging through his dresser, pulling out the first clothing items he could find.

"Wear these. There's no time for breakfast so I'll grab something for later," he tossed a bundle of clothes over at Soobin, who caught them, startled.

"Uh— okay, thanks?" Soobin said as he stood up, waiting as Yeonjun grabbed his phone and his schoolbag before heading outside his room.

Soobin groaned to himself as soon as he was alone. Wasn't this the second time this had happened recently? The day after Yeonjun had been at his house, he was late for school too... maybe he needed to start investing in a better alarm system?

He hummed to himself as he shimmied out of his jeans and put on the sweatpants Yeonjun had given him. Even if he was late, at least he was getting a cute boy's clothes out of it.

After changing into the shirt and jacket he'd been given, Soobin wandered out of the room and down the hall. Thankfully he was used to the layout of the elder's house by now.

"Jun, I didn't charge my phone last night," Soobin spoke casually as he stepped through the doorway to the kitchen. "Do you have a char..."

Soobin froze as he stood face to face with a middle aged woman, who was pouring herself a cup of coffee at the counter.

"Oh," she said, briefly looking Soobin up and down. "It's you.... again?"

"Yeah..." he mumbled, not really sure what to say to this encounter. "Um, hi. My name is Soobin...?"

The woman nodded briefly, seeming to be thinking over something.

"You're his boyfriend?" she questioned, before taking a sip of coffee.

"Oh, I'm n—"

"Mom," Yeonjun cut him off, walking back into the kitchen with two water bottles.
"Don't interrogate him, we don't have time."

The woman put both hands up, as if in surrender. "Fine. I'll just have to do it next time he's here," she said teasingly, lightly elbowing her son just to bother him before walking out of the room with her coffee.

Yeonjun sighed to himself as he grabbed a pair of shoes and slipped them on, Soobin lazily following suit.

"Bin, could you do me a favor and pass me that white bottle on the shelf?" Yeonjun spoke as he grabbed some keys from a side table and shoved them in his pocket.

Soobin did so, locating it easily and identifying it as a bottle of ibuprofen. He handed it to Yeonjun, who shoved it in his backpack without a thought.

"You ready?" Yeonjun asked, turning the door handle.

"Yeah! I have everything," Soobin gave him a thumbs up. Yeonjun smiled at this, swinging the door open and gesturing for the younger to exit first.

As soon as the two were out on the sidewalk, Yeonjun let out a heavy breath.

"We've missed half of our first class," he said, glancing at the time on his phone. "Sorry about that. I don't have an alarm because I usually wake up on time."

"Nooo, it's fine," Soobin immediately reassured him. "It's probably my fault, I've been waking up late recently."

Yeonjun pursed his lips at this, not wanting the younger to feel bad, but unsure of how he could argue the point.

After a few minutes of walking, they found themselves in the same city area as the school. Many other people seemed to be out and about, both on the sidewalks and in the streets.

"Why's it so busy over here today?" Soobin questioned, scanning over the area. He took notice of a large group of people nearby, some holding banners or signs and whatnot.

Yeonjun shrugged. "I guess the protests are still going on," he said, glancing around. "It looked like this yesterday."

Soobin couldn't help but stare at the people, filling the rather loud area with their chants and music. In all honesty, it seemed incredibly interesting to him.

His hand found Yeonjun's sleeve and lightly tugged it. "Can I go look?"

"Why are you asking me?" Yeonjun laughed. "Go if you want."

"I'm shy, come with me," Soobin pulled at his arm, dragging a now grinning Yeonjun along with him towards the large crowd.

It was like being swept into an ocean, the feeling of something indescribable crashing over you in waves. People were singing, clapping, holding hands with complete strangers...

A blonde girl made her way over to the pair, holding a stack of colorful papers.

"Hey!" she said, a beautiful smile on her face as she waved a hand in front of Soobin's face. "I'm fundraising for a charity near here. Care to take a flyer?"

Soobin glanced at Yeonjun, who took it as his place to answer.
"Sure," he said, the girl's face lighting up at the answer. "We'll take a couple."

"Great! Thank you," she said, passing a flyer to both Soobin and Yeonjun.
"If you're interested, donate to the location on the flyer. Tell them Jungeun sent you!" she gave the pair a wave before skipping off, presumably to find more people.

Soobin and Yeonjun shared a look before glancing down at the papers.

"Support fund for homeless demons..." Yeonjun read off of it, turning it over to read the smaller details.

"Sounds nice. If I have some spare cash, I might..." Yeonjun trailed off, now staring somewhere into the crowd.

Soobin raised an eyebrow at him. "What?" he asked, having seen Yeonjun's expression change.

Yeonjun seemed to take a breath, before bringing a hand up to his face.

"Beomgyu!" he yelled off into the crowd. "Why the hell do I always find you here?!"

Beomgyu?
Soobin followed Yeonjun's gaze to where a brunette boy whipped around at the sound of his name, not expecting to be called on.

"Oh!!" he said, recognizing the two immediately. Beomgyu waved briefly at the people he'd been talking to, before rushing over to where he'd been called from.

"Soobin, Yeonjun! Did you guys come to protest?" Beomgyu said as he stopped in front of the two, patting both of their shoulders.

"Well, actually, we were going to sch—"

"Yeah!" Soobin interrupted, his tone way too eager. Yeonjun gave him a brief look, but immediately shut up as he saw the hyped look on his face.

"Come on, then, I'll get you a couple masks and signs. And Soobin, there's some people here you should meet!" Beomgyu beckoned for the two to follow him deeper into the crowd.

Within an hour, the pair felt like they'd been fully initiated into the crowd.

Beomgyu had ever so kindly provided both of them with black masks and water bottles, and Soobin was currently sat down at the curb, talking to a random stranger who was passing out water bottles to the people around them.

Yeonjun strolled over and sat down next to him.
"Aren't you hot? It feels like the damn Sahara out here," he complained, lightly fanning himself.

Soobin shook his head.
"No? I'm fine. Drink some water, maybe?" he suggested, grabbing one of the bottles from next to him and passing it to the other boy.

Yeonjun took a swig of it and sighed, knowing it probably wouldn't do much. He rested his head on Soobin's shoulder, closing his eyes for a moment.

"So we're just not going to school today, then," he brought up, making Soobin's face go blank.

"I guess not," Soobin answered.
"I don't feel like it."

"You having fun?" Yeonjun questioned, sensing that Soobin seemed rather into the whole protest idea.

Soobin shrugged. "At least being here feels like I'm doing something to help, yknow?"

"You really weren't kidding about the demon thing then, huh?" Yeonjun grinned at him.

The younger huffed at this.
"Of course not! Who would joke about liking demons? Most people wouldn't even pretend."

"True," Yeonjun had to agree. "Still, though. A lot of people are only fine with them up until a certain point," he continued, lightly placing his hand over Soobin's.

Soobin paused for a moment, distracted by a group of people in the distance starting up a new chant.
"Huh?" he questioned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know," Yeonjun insisted. "People say they're fine with demons, but when it turns out their friend is one, or their coworker... suddenly they're uncomfortable."

"I can guarantee you I would not be uncomfortable," Soobin dismissed the idea as if it was crazy.

"Well... what if it was your boyfriend?" Yeonjun suggested more quietly.
"Just for example."

Soobin stared at him for a second.
"Why should I care?"

Yeonjun only blinked at this.

"I... you wouldn't care? At all? It'd be fine?"

"Yeah?" Soobin raised an eyebrow. "Are you okay? Isn't that kinda obvious?"

Yeonjun only exhaled at this, squeezing Soobin's hand.

"It's whatever. Just met some people before who have been weird like that," he shrugged it off.

"Anyway!" Yeonjun stood up from the curb, still holding Soobin's hand in his own.

"You wanna go buy some snacks? If we're gonna be here all day, we might need 'em," Yeonjun suggested, lightly tugging Soobin up with him.

"Alright, alright," Soobin agreed, getting up as well and following alongside the elder.

He already knew the next few hours would feel like an eternity.