Chapter Text
“Hey did you hear?”
“What?”
“Ong and Daniel broke up!”
“No! That can’t be! Are you sure?”
“Yeah! A classmate saw Daniel storming out of Ong’s building,”
“Maybe they had a discussion, that doesn’t mean they broke up,”
“He was carrying what seemed to be a really packed duffel bag,”
“Oh…”
“Yeah,”
“…So? Who was the one to end it?”
“You’re kidding right? Of course it was Ong! There’s no way someone can break up with him!”
“You don’t’ stay with someone only because of their looks! Daniel is so charming, he must have had enough of Ong’s arrogance!
“What did you just say?!”
"Hey Daniel," Jinwoo whispers making Daniel look up from his worksheet ”Can you please look for this book for me? Jaehan didn’t write down the formulas and I didn’t bring mine," Jisung frowns at the request and smacks Jinwoo's hand making the younger yelp and clutch his hand to his chest.
"Don’t order Daniel around! You can go look for it yourself," Jinwoo opens his mouth to defend himself but Jisung turns away from him to look at Daniel instead "And you! Stop complying to his every little whine," Daniel can’t help but chuckle.
Daniel has a soft spot for Jinwoo (it may have to do with how Jinwoo is the physically smallest in their close knitted group of friends) and the oldest knows it and always asks Daniel to do little favors like these for him. Jisung seems to have had enough of it for today, after all, Daniel already carried Jinwoo's bag for him on their way to the library once he complained about it being too heavy and helped him look for and carry the books he is currently using to help Jaehan.
"It’s ok Jisung-hyung, I needed a small break anyways to clear my head," Before Jisung can say anything else, Daniel picks up his phone from the middle of table where they always place them when studying in the library "Text me the name and author Jinwoo-hyung." Jinwoo nods as he reaches for his phone too, sending Daniel a small smile. Taewoong sighs and tries to cheer his boyfriend up who hates being ignored.
Daniel heads for the section where math books are and once Jinwoo texts him the information of the book he needs, he starts looking for it. A couple minutes and he can’t find it yet, maybe all the copies are being used right now? It is that time of the semester. Daniel hears steps getting close and they stop on the other side of the bookshelf.
"Ah Hyeop you won’t believe who I saw in a date yesterday!" An irritatingly familiar voice rings through Daniel's ears and Daniel tries his best to not sigh out loud in annoyance.
It’s Ha Minho from his calculus class, gossiping too loudly considering the location. Daniel tries his best to ignore him and continues to look for the book but Minho mentions a too familiar name that makes him stop, he’s pretty sure there are no more copies available anyways.
"Ong Seongwoo! You know, that hot acting major that also minors in dancing, pinky's ex-boyfriend and-"
"He's the only Ong I've ever heard off, the ex-boyfriend part was not necessary..."
"- he was with this cute boy, a freshman I bet, really pretty, they look good together, way better than when he dated Daniel. Damn what did he see on him? I really don’t get it-"
"Hey Jinwoo, was that book really rare? Daniel's not back yet," Taewoong asks after he glances at the clock that is hung up in the wall before them. Jinwoo looks up from the problem Jaehan tried to resolve to look at the clock.
Jinwoo frowns when he reads the time, it’s been almost 20 minutes since Daniel went to look for the book "No this rare that’s for sure, maybe there are no more copies left. I'll tell him to comeback" He replies, reaching for his phone and unlocking it, with a couple taps opening the group chat that they have.
JinWoah: Daniel don’t worry if you can’t find the book, come back and finish your homework
A couple minutes pass by and there's no reply from the youngest. Jisung worries immediately and sends Taewoong to look for Daniel in the section where he went to look for the book. When Taewoong comes back with no Daniel in town Jisung pick up his own phone and dials Daniel's phone number. It goes to voicemail.
"Maybe he felt sick?" Jaehan suggests but this makes Jisung worry even more. They gather their stuff and Daniel's and head to his dorm room where he must have gone.
As soon as they're in front of Daniel's door Jisung starts knocking loudly and rapidly. When a few moments pass by and there's no answer Jisung rummages through his backpack looking for the copy he has of Daniel's room key. The others can only stare in shock as Jisung fishes out the key and procceds to unlock the door.
"He has a copy of Daniel's room key?" Jaehan grimaced looking back at Taewoong as if waiting for him to explain his boyfriend’s actions but Taewoong only shrughs nonchalantly.
"I bet he made a copy of everyone's knowing how much of a mother hen he is," Jinwoo and Jaehan can't deny that. Jisung opens the door ignoring them and walks inside.
Daniel is lying down on his bed, facing the roof with a blank stare, his hands are clasped together and resting on his chest. Jisung is sitting by his side on the bed in seconds. He rests the back of his hand on Daniel’s forehead checking his temperature."You don't feel too hot, are you feeling sick Niellie?" Jisung asks worriedly in a similar way a mother does to their child. The rest of the boys walk in, Taewoong closing the door behind them. Daniel shakes his head no.
Jinwoo sits next to Daniel's head and reaches to play with the boy's hair. Daniel is a creature that needs skin ship all the time, even more when he's feeling down. "Do you wanna talk about it?" Jinwoo asks softly as Taewoong and Jaehan also sit down in the small bed.
Daniel sighs and closes his eyes as he tells his friends what has gotten him like this.
"Seongwoo is dating someone."
Silence
When no one says anything Daniel opens his eyes again and glances at each of their shocked faces "I overheard Ha Minho when I was trying to find the book," He explains and this breaks the trance they were all in.
Taewoong quickly stands up and starts pacing in the small room, Jinwoo cards his fingers more softly through Daniel's pink locks, Jaehan grasps one of Daniel’s hands in his and Jisung is left with his jaw slack.
“That asshole! He is always acting like a kicked puppy and telling everyone how much he misses you and he goes to the first piece of ass he finds when it’s only been two months I’m going to kill him with my bare hands and-“ Taewoong mutters enraged under his breath, face quickly turning a red shade. Jinwoo shoots him a look that says it’s not the time for him to get angry, they need to comfort their friend first. Taewoong forces his mouth shut and tries to calm himself down.
“But Daniel, you broke up with Ong yourself…so why are you this affected?” Jaehan carefully questions. Daniel turns his gaze to him and thinks of a way to explain it but Taewoong beats him to it.
“He didn’t break up with Ong because he didn’t like him anymore Jaehan, that douchebag was too busy for him and it was hurting Daniel to stay with him,” Taewoong clarifies in an ice cold tone. Daniel flinches at the adjective his hyung used for his ex-boyfriend but says nothing to defend him.
Ong was too busy for him, he was getting so many opportunities to model and audition for different CFs, he could see how his then boyfriend felt stressed and guilty they didn’t spend time together anymore. Daniel was holding him back but he knew Ong couldn’t see this, so he decided to take the burden and break up with him, it was the best option for Ong even if he didn’t realize it right now.
But if Ong is already dating again, then Daniel may have been wrong about how much the older man had loved him.
“Can you really trust Minho’s words though? He just loves talking shit about you, he must have seen you and –“Jinwoo tries to console him but Daniel shakes his head again.
“Even if he did it to spite me, he was too elaborate about it, says it’s a freshman, a really pretty one,” As soon as Daniel says this Jisung finally closes his mouth and he takes his phone out of his pocket, unlocking it and starts typing at a surprising speed.
The others stare at him for a moment before they focus on Daniel again. Seeing the younger so down breaks Jinwoo’s heart. Daniel had been trying his best to move on and it seemed he was finally doing it but now Minho had to mess it all up again.
Just like Daniel has a soft spot for him, Jinwoo too has a softness for him and only him. Jinwoo leans down and pecks his cheek “Didn’t you tell me yesterday you were starting to get over him?” Jinwoo asks softly. Daniel smiles sadly and looks into Jinwoo’s eyes.
“I thought I was.”
Taewoong and Jaehan are out buying Daniel’s favorite snacks in an effort to make their youngest feel better when Jisung abruptly stands up and claps his hand once gaining Daniel’s and Jinwoo’s attention.
“What is it hyung?” Jinwoo asks warily. Jisung had been typing and swipng nonstop on his phone for almost 20 minutes.
“I have a name!” Jisung announces proudly. Before Jinwoo or Daniel can ask what he means the door opens and both Jaehan and Taewoong walk back inside, both carrying a plastic back each, both filled to the brim with snacks. Jisung turns around to face them and repeats himself.
Taewoong smiles at him and presses a quick kiss to his left cheek. “Of course you do babe,” Jisung smiles broadly at his boyfriend. The other boys only can stare confused as to what is going on.
“I have the name of this supposedly new boyfriend,” Jisung states as he stands up straight and looks directly into Daniel’s eyes “I repeat: supposedly new boyfriend,”
Daniel quirks an eyebrow up “Supposedly?” He remarks confused, not wanting to get his hopes up.
Jisung nods quickly before explaining himself “Bae Jinyoung, Minho was right about the freshman part. He is friends with the ever popular Park Jihoon, who is friends with Lee Daehwi -the cute boy that is a musical genius, he worked once with you didn't he? Helped you make a track for one of your dances? - who in turn is close friends with Im Youngmin -a tall red haired boy? Also majors in music, people say he looks like and Alpaca and I can see it too sometimes- well he is dating Park Woojin – you know him, he’s also majoring in dance- and he –"
“Ok! Ok! We get it, you somehow got this boy’s name, you gossip king,” Jaehan cuts Jisung off before the oldest keeps ranting on and on “Explain the part of this kid being supposedly the boyfriend?”
“Ah! That part!” Jisung exclaims as if he had forgotten, maybe he had, “No one mentioned anything about him dating Ong, they say he is majoring in acting and that’s the only relation there is between them,”
Daniel feels like he can breathe a little easier now, but not completely, the doubt is now ingrained into his brain.
“So, Daniel are you’re going to go for him again? You were pretty upset with the idea of him dating someone else,” Jaehan questions the youngest as he takes a couple of snacks out of the plastic bag and throws one at each of his friends (Everyone catches their snacks except Jisung who instead is smacked in the face with his).
Daniel sits up and lets out a deep sigh as he thinks about it. He’s not sure what hurt him the most, the idea of Ong dating so soon after their break up or the idea of him dating at all. He did tell Jinwoo yesterday he was feeling like he could get over him, but now…now he was not so sure. He was supposed to be getting over him, he made the decision to break up with Ong and he should take face the consequences of his actions.
“Wouldn’t it be too selfish of me to do that? I was the one to break up with him, I can’t just go up to him and ask him to forget about it and date me again,” Daniel mumbles under his breath. He can still remember the hurt in Ong’s eyes when he told him he couldn’t be with him any longer.
”Why? I know I’ve been busy but-“Daniel had lifted his hand up, asking Ong to stop.
“You never have time for me Seongwoo, I can’t be the only one trying in this relationship,” He knew he was hurting the other, his words cutting deep. He knew Ong felt guilty about not spending time with him like before.
Ong had shacked his head desperately “I’ll try harder! I promise Niel, I’ll make time for us, I’ll make sure of it so please don’t do this,” Ong had begged as he closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around him “I love you baby, I know you love me too so please don’t do this,”
Daniel had wavered back then, feeling the warmth of his lover around him, his arms wrapping perfectly around him like they belonged there, the smell of his familiar cologne tickling his nose. He could just give in, tell Ong he was just pulling his leg and ignore this ever happened, they could go back to how it was before. He believed Ong when he promised he would make time for him, but at what cost? He would stop accepting the offers he was receiving and Daniel could not allow that.
He had to do this.
So he with a heavy heart he took a step back escaping from Ong's embrace "I really can't, it’s not worth it. This is not worth it." Daniel had lied through his teeth and if Ong had seen past the hurt he was feeling back then, he would have read Daniel like he always did.
But he didn’t.
Daniel grabbed the duffel bag he had packed his stuff in this morning before Ong woke up, the things that made Ong's room feel like theirs - a couple notebooks he always forgot, his accessories that he left everywhere no matter how many times Ong told him to be more careful since he could lose them like that, the clothes that filled a part of the closet and dresser, his favorite cologne that Ong gifted him for his last birthday, his must have products that help his damaged hair- and left the room without looking back, he was not sure he could leave if he looked at Ong’s heartbroken face.
“Daniel,” Jisung called forcing Daniel to focus on the present again. All of his friends are looking at him worriedly except Jisung who has a bright smile on his face “I didn’t want to say anything when you told us why you broke up with him but I won’t stop myself this time ok?” Daniel nods letting the oldest know he will listen to what he has to say.
“It was stupid. Real stupid.” Jisung beamed. Daniel is too shocked to even react and he can only watch as Taewoong reaches to pull Jisung back, ready to chew him up for being so careless with his words. “No, stop! Let me elaborate!” Jisung complains smacking his boyfriend’s hands away from him. Taewoong sighs and gives up but not before shooting him a look asking him to think before he opens his mouth.
“I mean it was stupid because what you had was really good ok? You both made each other so happy and look at the both of you now. You haven’t seen Ong since that day but we’ve had,” Daniel looks down in shame, he knows he hurt Ong really bad, but he had to do it, it was the right deci- “And no, maybe it was not the right decision so stop thinking that,” Jisung continues, knowing Daniel would think along those words.
“But-“ Daniel tries to defend himself but Jinwoo cuts him off this time.
“Let Jisung finish, Daniel, you can try to defend yourself once he’s finished.” Daniel shuts his mouth and nods. Jisung sends Jinwoo a thankful smile before continuing.
“Did you ever stop to think that maybe Ong was managing to do all those shoots and keep studying because he had you at his side? Instead of thinking you were weighing him down?” Daniel’s eyes widened, he of course had never thought of it like that.
“Had it been you getting all these opportunities, would you have thought of Ong like that?” Jinwoo asked and Daniel didn’t have to think about it twice before shaking his head no. There was no way he could think of the other man like that.
“You think Ong is too good for you don’t you?” Everybody turns surprised to stare at Jaehan, everybody but Daniel looking ready to fight him “You told me back when he first asked you out in first year, you said you couldn’t believe someone so out of your league had asked you out,” Jaehan reminds and Jisung gasps as he turns to look at Daniel who quickly looks at the floor, hiding his face from his friends.
Jisung quickly reaches for his face, caressing both his cheeks and starts cooing at him “Oh you never told us you felt like that! Why didn’t ever say anything?” Daniel shrugs not wanting to give an answer to that question.
“Did you ever tell any of that to Ong?” Tawoong wants to know and Daniel quickly shakes his head “Of course you didn’t. You should had told him,”
“Why?” Daniel mumbles but everyone manages to hear him. Taewoong goes to crouch down in front of Daniel so the younger doesn’t have to raise his face, he obviously doesn’t feel comfortable facing all of them right now.
“He would have told you how wrong you are for thinking that,” Taewoong may never give his opinion on Ong but that’s because unlike his boyfriend, he doesn’t like to give his opinion until asked. “He seemed to be heads over heels for you, he looked at you like you were the best thing he had ever laid his eyes on,” Taewoong smiles as Daniel can’t help but blush.
“If anything, he would be the one that doesn’t deserve you, have you seen how freaking broad your shoulders are?” Jinwoo blurts out making everyone in the room laugh, even Daniel who finally looks up.
He doesn’t have to say it out loud, his friends know him so well they must all know it already but he still feels the need to let it out, to say it out loud and make it feel more real.
“I’ll talk to Seongwoo,”