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Jongho is a human. Which means he has emotions and feels things. It means he can, in fact, be affected by what people say and do to him, even if his Tsundere and Cold City Man persona may tell others otherwise.
Naturally, it's an inevitable recipe for disaster when, a random group of who one would call the "popular kids," start harassing Jongho seemingly out of nowhere. They claim that he's useless and he has no right to act so high and mighty just because he's a trainee. And the comment that hurt the most?
That his hyungs didn't care about him. Nor did they want to be associated with him.
When he heard these comments thrown at him initially, he just rolls his eyes. But they keep throwing snide remarks at Jongho whenever they pass by him, and it slowly, but surely, has an effect on the boy.
Whether or not Jongho realizes it, the bullying is affecting the way he treats his hyungs.
Wooyoung, for as much as he enjoys screwing around with the other members (especially Seonghwa), he's not cruel. He knows his limits, and stops when he notices he's nearing the crossing of the line; he's incredibly perceptive and has a good sense of awareness.
Hence, when he realized that Jongho doesn't respond with any words or actions, to the crude joke he's just told him, he knows something's up. He immediately sits the boy down in their room.
"It seems like something's bothering you. What's up, Jongho-yah?"
"Nothing, Wooyoung-hyung. I'm alright. Don't worry too much, okay?" Jongho sighs.
And damn, if that doesn't send alarm bells off in Wooyoung's head. The way Jongho said those sentences made him sound tired, and his tone was so... Dull. And the boy didn't even make eye contact with him like he always does.
Wooyoung knows for a fact now, that, something's wrong with Jongho, and that he and the members need to figure out what.
They've seen what the industry sometimes does to all sorts of people, and he does not want that same thing to happen to Jongho.
Jonghyun of Shinee... His mind immediately wanders to him.
Although Wooyoung doesn't say anything for the next few days, he does pay more attention to the way Jongho acts around the others.
It gives him a bad feeling.
Like, really bad.
Worse than when he had a feeling that Mingi had something going on with his body (read: his back pains).
One evening, when Jongho decides to go to bed early, Wooyoung immediately forces the six others to gather around. The others have a look of confusion on their faces, seemingly puzzled by how serious Wooyoung is being at the current moment.
They eventually understand why though. After all that Wooyoung says, getting his thoughts out there, the others become rather concerned too.
"Now that you think about it, in the past days, he's been different. He doesn't talk back to a lot of us anymore like he usually does..." San mumbles.
"Now that you say that, I've been noticing that Jongho doesn't really... refuse us anymore? He does exactly as we ask if that makes any sense..." Yeosang's furrows while speaking.
As the others are talking amongst themselves, Yunho stays quiet and realizes he's literally been in the middle of what's been going on with Jongho.
He noticed that whenever he went to pick up Jongho for some sort of schedule, in the background, there would be some kids giggling at Jongho, pointing fingers, and whispering amongst themselves. And, although he didn't know what they exactly said, he picked up on keywords like, "brat," "annoying," and "nuisance."
Because of this, Yunho decides to speak his mind. "I think Jongho's being bullied."
The others go silent and seem to mull over this idea. Yunho uses the quiet state of the room to explain what he saw happen in the past, and suddenly, the situation becomes much more clearer. Seonghwa clenches his fists because how dare these kids to disrespect their dear maknae like this?
"We need to confront him about this. We need to make sure that it's not just his behavior changing, but also physically. If my hunches are correct... then he's been probably been losing weight rapidly." Hongjoong states and the others seem to have panic rising through their bones.
Jongho has been through hard times before - as a once-trainee, that's only natural - but it's never gotten to the point where he had to see a therapist or go to a hospital for his condition.
To say the least, his hyungs are worried.
"I can talk to him when it's necessary." Mingi blurts out. Hongjoong just nods. "That would be good, thanks Mingi."
Jongho is rather cunning and smart and knows his way around problems. It's how he's able to hide the fact he's been binging food, and immediately regurgitating in an inconspicuous way. Maybe he was unable to hide the changes in his behavior, but as long as he had this, it was all okay.
Maybe then, his hyungs would at least appreciate him for his visuals. Because he knew they never saw him as, and never will, their maknae or a talented member.
Jongho knows he deserves those comments thrown at him at school, even if he was in denial about it at first, claiming that he could and would, "pull his own weight."
He knows that he's untalented. A terrible dancer; clumsy and messy. A godforsaken rapper and just a mediocre vocalist, who could be easily replaced.
He knows he deserves to be hated on.
It's the cold hard truth, even if it hurts.
It's a cloudy weekend, when everything Jongho has been working for, comes crashing down.
He was just minding his own business in the bathroom, trying to quietly bring back up the remains of the food he ate for dinner, when a loud knock comes from the other side of the door. "What?" He manages to groan out.
"You doing alright in there, Jongho-yah?" It's Mingi.
"Yeah, yeah. Just peachy. No need to worry, hyung." He responds back with a fake tone of cheerfulness. He hears a scoff.
"Uh-huh. And I'm Steve Jobs. I'm opening the door. We need to talk. And I mean, all of us." Mingi retorts.
Jongho internally panics when he realizes, of all stupid things to do, he left the door unlocked, and when his hyung walks through the frame, he freezes up. The older uses this moment to grab the boy and lightly grasp his wrist, grabbing him to the living room, where the others are laid out on the couches and the carpet.
Jongho puts on a facade. "What do you guys even need to talk to me about?" He grumbles.
"Well, first off, how about you tell us about those bullies from school?" Seonghwa hisses. "I really want to give them a lesson or two about harassing you."
Jongho just sighs. "It doesn't matter. This doesn't matter. It's not like I matter, or you guys even care about me."
He clenches his fists.
Because although they may hate him, he's always cared for them and - "Who the hell said that? Of course, we do."
And whatever Jongho was thinking about is cut off because, "What? You do? Please stop lying to me." He frowns.
Immediately he's pulled into a hug by Yeosang, and he awkwardly pats the other's back, and it feels nice, admittedly. Being deprived of skinship sucks, and Jongho never realized how much he actually craved it until he purposely distanced himself from the others.
"I know that your self-esteem issues and eating issues won't suddenly go away, but," San starts, "We'll try our best to help you. And, uh, I'm always here to talk, you know, Jongho-yah."
Jongho feels like he ran out of strength, so he just nods in acknowledgment. But how'd they even find out about his eating disorder?
He blurts this thought out loud, and Wooyoung responds. "You went to the bathroom after every meal, which you didn't do before. Not exactly discreet. Although, we probably wouldn't have figured it was because of that unless Yunho-hyung brought it to our attention that people may have been abusing you at school."
"It's not abuse," Jongho mumbles under his breath.
Mingi just snorts. "Yes, it is. They might've not done anything physically, but they definitely abused you mentally and emotionally."
Frankly, Jongho's not in the mood to argue. He just wants to... sleep. He's tired. He latches tighter onto Yeosang, and the older seems to understand what he wants. Yeosang just softly runs his right hand through the youngest's hair.
"We will need to talk about this tomorrow, but you can just rest for the rest of the night alright, aegi?"
"Okay, hyung... I'm sorry for being a burden to you all..."
"Don't say that...you're not," Seonghwa hums, "Just go get some sleep for now, as Yeosang said."
That night, Jongho falls asleep peacefully for the first time in a long time.