"YOU look very happy today..." Soonyoung tells with a bright smile as he skips beside Minghao, the younger just gives him a little nod, "care to tell? I'm quite curious."

"Nothing much," Well, that definitely was a lie and Soonyoung was able to tell once his words slipped out. Minghao tries to cover it up with a wide smile, but the blonde only rolls his eyes, "if I'd tell you, you'd freak and tell Wonwoo."

"Did you finally snap at your parents and get disowned?"

"No, I wish," As Minghao let's out a sigh, "I'll have you keep guessing. It's much more fun that way."

"Then I'll be distracted all day! Tell me for the sake of my attention span from the rest of my classes!"

The younger shakes his head, which makes Soonyoung whine even more. "As if you pay attention, well you really don't need to. Sometimes you get the material without even trying."

"Hey, don't try and change the subject. I may be a genius but I'm still trying to figure out what's making you all giddy. Because we have to keep it that way." Soonyoung pokes the boy's shoulder, making him tilt slightly. "So, can you say now?"

"Let's wait for Wonwoo."

"Then hurry up!" Soonyoung doesn't hesitate to grab onto Minghao's wrist, dragging him through the halls like a rag doll. Minghao didn't have any time to react so he let his legs do the work, his mouth yelling at Soonyoung as the older boy lets out a couple of chuckles, "Wonwoo should be getting out of choir right now." They usually walked to the ravenette's classroom once their lunch period came into session. 

"No need to run!" Minghao tries to tell the boy, but of course, they keep running. Dashing past a couple of people. "W-We're gonna bump into-" And before the ravenette could even finish his sentence, his statement became true. Soonyoung's butt glided against the hallway's floor while Minghao was able to catch himself by placing his hands in front of his chest before his face could even hit the ground. It would have been a bad wreck if his glasses smashed against his face, that would've been far from pretty. "See! We could have died!"

"That's an exaggeration," As Soonyoung stands up, rubbing his behind to walk towards Minghao. But, a certain bluenette helps him up from his position. He notices the boy who runs towards the familiar face. "oh.."

"Sorry about that, Soonyoung was in a hurry," Minghao states, shortly blaming his friend. Joshua gives him a smile, accepting his apology without any commotion. "oh, you're-"

"Hao!" Jun yells, out of breath as he was the boy who was running towards Joshua. "Are you hurt? I saw that collision did you break anything?"

"I-I'm fine.." He replies, adjusting his glasses. "You should be asking if your friend is okay."

Jun takes a glance towards Joshua, he didn't even have to question for an answer. "I'm fine Jun, thanks." Dusting his slacks, he lets out a little laugh, "you should watch out, wouldn't want anyone getting hurt around here."

"There you go with your gentleman act, you're making me look bad!" Jun whines, punching the older boy's shoulder a couple of times. Minghao and Soonyoung only watch the one-sided quarrel. Once Jun stops, he walks closer to Minghao who became startled by the slightly taller boy's presence. "Are you okay? I know I already asked something like that earlier b—but I just want to make sure!"

"I'm fine Jun.." Minghao replies, voice becoming small as he rubs his forearm.

"Does your arm hurt? Do you want to go to the—" But, Jun gets cut off as a hand grabs onto the back of his collared shirt. It definitely wasn't Joshua, he wouldn't use such force on the boy — (only when needed to).

"You're making it hard to walk in the halls if you block the whole walkway," The shorter ravenette growls, he grips onto Jun's shirt before pushing him against the wall. "Jun! Stop asking so many questions when the poor boy has already answered them!"

"Jihoon.." Joshua sighs, walking over to the brunette who was just thrown against the vertical surface. "You know how Jun is, he just cares."

"I know that but you're holding up so many people! We don't have all day!" The younger retorts, but of course, that was only an exaggeration. Because the only person who had tagged along with Jihoon was Hansol, the younger stayed along the sidelines without saying a word as he didn't want to get involved with the older boy's business.

As the three begin to bicker, Minghao steps away from the scene as their words become even louder. Soonyoung who puts a hand on Minghao's shoulder whispers a couple of words into his ear, "We should stay..."

"Why?" Minghao turns to the blonde who can only shrug his shoulders as a response, he didn't want to elaborate which made the situation even harder for Minghao to understand. "You're so weird, why don't we find Wonwoo?"

"Oh yeah, you still need to tell me."

"Well, definitely not here." The male firmly states, not wanting the four boys in front of him to know his business. As they turn their heels and begin to walk in the opposite direction, Jun realizes this and turns away from Joshua and Jihoon who are still bickering.

"W—Wait!" Jun doesn't have to run, but he does anyways to ensure that he doesn't get Minghao out of his sight. Grabbing onto the younger's hand, he tries to catch his breath before saying his request, "Can we talk? Or..hang out?"

Minghao, filled with confusion has no words. Soonyoung who tries to hold back his expressions fails as he becomes a beat red, "Hey Jun," With the name said, Jun's attention is quickly caught and he listens to what the blonde has to say. "you can hang out with Minghao, I can take care of Jihoon and Joshua."

Jun tilts his head, hand still wrapped around Minghao's. "But, you don't know them that well?"

"That's okay, I'll make them my new friends." Soonyoung doesn't say another word and walks off, Minghao who wants to shout doesn't want to create a fuss nor more commotion. So, he allows Soonyoung to go on with his odd whereabouts. Minghao got the slight implication that he should make friends with Jun and just accept the fact that this would happen sooner or later, or maybe he was just overthinking the blonde's words.

"You're not uncomfortable right?" Jun questions out of the blue, afraid of how to start off everything since the commotion was still continuing behind them. He even finally let go of Minghao's wrist. 

Minghao shakes his head, "Oddly, no I'm not. In all honesty, I would have walked away the second uh...Jihoon came in.."

"You're right, he's Jihoon." As he points to the shorter ravenette, "He's a nice guy, he's also very talented. Don't get the wrong impression."

"I'm not," The younger clears up, "I'm just wondering why you're not like, in the cafeteria, or whatever with all your friends."

"I usually hang out with Shua only, keeping things small is what I prefer since I'm not as outgoing as it seems."

"That's interesting to hear from you captain."

"Just 'cause I'm captain doesn't mean I like socializing with people," Jun states, beginning to walk away from the scene behind them. Minghao isn't unaware that his own feet begin to move on their own and taking him away with Jun. "besides, some people don't even like me I think. They like my status, but as a person, they know nothing about me."

"Oh..." Minghao replies, unsure of how to answer back to his words, "I'm sorry.."

"That's okay, it's not like they'll be in my life forever. Let's make the most out of things." Jun states, and he was absolutely correct. It was slightly similar to what Minghao said the other day to Wonwoo. But, the only difference was that Minghao didn't change while Jun set himself free. "You okay? You're spacing out."

"Just thinking," He softly replies, Jun becomes curious from his answer.

"About?"

"You."

Jun's eyes widen, looking away from Minghao and avoids eye contact with the younger boy as his heartbeat immediately raised. Him, maybe he was implying a different message. What did that mean? 

"Oh," As Minghao comes to the realization that his answer wasn't clear at all. His own face flushes from embarrassment, "I-I didn't mean it like that. It's just...something about you that I'm thinking about.."

The older brunette gulps, letting out a nervous laugh. "Like..what?" He wanted to curse to himself in Mandarin as his reaction made things a bit awkward, but of course, he couldn't as Minghao would understand every single bit of it. 

"It's just, you seem so carefree right now even though you seemed really stressed about what other people think of you. You know, since you're the captain and all that. Keeping an image is like, crucial I guess?"

Oh. That's what he meant is all Jun thinks, letting out a relieved sigh as he thought it was something negative. He did have a point, Jun was stressing over the predicament he was in less than twenty-four hours ago, but here he was, giving two shits about what he was doing in school. "I guess, I came to the realization that it doesn't really matter anymore...being your own person is important and if you force yourself to uphold a certain image it'll only lead to your downfall in the end." 

"But isn't it hard not following what you're accustomed to? It's like you're forcing yourself to change..."

Jun shrugs, finally looking at Minghao who was giving him a confused expression. He was obviously waiting for a response, Jun wasn't sure if his words were going to be what he was seeking for, but he doesn't hesitate to say them anyway. "Change can be good, there's nothing wrong with being yourself. Besides, why follow an image that doesn't define who you are. It makes you question, are you really...you?"

 Minghao turns away and looks in front of him, "Well... what if someone is forcing you to be someone you're not. Then what do you do ?"

"Well, if you're in a tough situation it would be hard to rebel against that person. But, if you want an analogy or whatever. We aren't actors Hao, we shouldn't follow a script someone gives us because that's their expectation or desire. You know what's going on behind the scenes, dump their script, and make your own. Because it's your life, you're your own person and nobody has the right to take that away from you. I mean, if this situation applies to you of course..."

"Change my script?," Minghao repeats softly, Jun nods with a smile on his face. "will people accept that?"

"Who cares if they do or don't. There's always gonna be people that will be unsatisfied, but, why live up to their expectations? We only live once Hao, make the best of it. I'm somewhat angry at myself that I decided to follow those words now, so don't have any regrets."

The younger boy stops in order to face Jun. The brunette does the same and he watched as Minghao tilted his head, giving him a little nod as his adorable smile once again appeared on his face. "I won't, thank you..."