one week passed, and jihoon can't express his frustration at soonyoung better. sometimes soonyoung turns into this fluffy guy, voice filled with comfort, personality as sweet as honey. next second, you see him controlling jihoon to say something dumb or dirty.
one week passed, and jeonghan can't figure out what he's feeling towards joshua. he told himself that he was just playing, but he's slowly growing fond of joshua. same goes for joshua—but he doesn't stress himself about it as much as jeonghan does.
one week passed, and chan can't thank vernon and seokmin enough for being his friends. seungcheol, too, but seungcheol is often busy so chan usually hangs out with vernon and seokmin.
one week passed, and wonwoo was only getting smarter. thanks to the reference reports that joshua and seungcheol lends him, his wit becomes greater.
one week passed, minghao and junhui were talking again. the whe issue was still not figured out, but they set it aside for later.
one week passed, seventeen's patched up team was adjusting well. the orphans were starting to feel like they had a permanent home; like they found where they belong.
"WHO DROPPED A BOMB IN THE FIRST FLOOR BATHROOM?!" chan shouts, sounding quite nasal. he was holding his nose. "THE BATHROOM STINKS!"
"GOD, CHAN! DON'T USE BOMB! I THOUGHT THERE WAS AN ATTACK!" minghao replied. "USE THE SEVENTH FLOOR THEN, DUMBASS!" he shouts from the living room.
chan uses the stairs to go to the second floor, checking if there was a nice bathroom he could use. the second floor is the laboratory, where you could perform all sorts of experiments and invent things with the unlimited rescources. chan failed to find one, so he goes up to the seventh floor.
there was a bathroom in each of the members' room, but chan wanted to make it quick so he goes to the main bathroom of the seventh floor. if not, chan would piss himself.
"okay okay okay okay!!" chan opened the door, immediately unzipping his pants to pee. he sighs, but then he stiffens up again once he turned around. "s-seungcheol-hyung?!"
seungcheol blushed and quickly looked away. "i'm not looking!" chan blushed as well, but one thing about seungcheol made his jaw drop. seungcheol was half naked—but chan was not surprised because of his muscles. chan quickly finished with his business, then he went up to seungcheol.
"hyung...." chan says, his eyes tracing the red cracks from seungcheol's right hip, to the ones across his toned abdomen. "what.. what happened?"
seungcheol chuckled, looking at the cracks himself. "it's like i'm a broken porcelain doll, right?" seungcheol looks at chan, who was still looking at the cracks on his skin. "it was pledis mafia's leader."
chan looked up to meet seungcheol's eyes, almost immediately. "you faced him?!" chan asked, surprised. if this was an effect because of an ability, it's news to chan. seungcheol's ability is phasing, and the ability's effect seems like it involved touch. did pledis mafia's leader catch seungcheol off guard? he must not be a joke then. "seungcheol-hyung, why are the cracks...red?"
"his ability is making humans vanish. his ability works like this: he touches the victim, then the skin crumbles. you know what glass looks like when it's hit? it turns like that, and then the skin falls off the body in glass-like fragments. next is the muscles, in the same effect, then organs, then bones." seungcheol looks at his body again. "he touched me for a second, my skin turned like this. see, it looks like broken glass."
"and the red peeking out? those are my muscles." chan gasped at seungcheol's words, to which seungcheol only smiled at. "sometimes, harsh contact with my damaged skin puts me in danger. the skin could fall off anytime."
"seungcheol-hyung!" chan exclaimed, teary eyed. "i-i was being too hard on y-you in training! so you experienced pain for a week!"
"hey don't cry! it's not like i'm dying or something!" seungcheol laughs. chan blinks his unshed tears away, knowing that seungcheol didn't want him to cry. "i can't show you that it hurts, you know. i was making room so you could grow."
chan sincerely smiled. seungcheol smiled back, ruffling chan's hair. "seungcheol-hyung, you know we have jeonghan-hyung, right...?"
seungcheol's eyes widen, and then he beams at chan. chan feels happiness wave over him. "chan, you're a genius! where's jeonghan?!"
"s-so?" chan asked, before the door slammed. jeonghan had just left after chan entered. "is it all okay now?"
"it's good! i feel so great, and it didn't even leave a scar!" seungcheol said, eyeing his body. it looked brand new, all fixed up again. "thank you for giving me that idea, chan. i can go even harder on you in trainings now."
chan visibly gulped, making seungcheol laugh. when seungcheol's laughs died down, chan's gaze dropped to seungcheol's abdomen. subconsciously, he traced where the cracks used to be. seungcheol softly looked at the younger, letting him do so.
chan snaps back to reality, and he quickly retracted his hand from seungcheol's skin. he blushed, while seungcheol blushed a little too.
"so, chan? let this be a lesson for you." seungcheol says, grabbing a shirt. he wore it quickly, then he turns back to chan. "don't meddle with pledis mafia alone. i can't bear losing members to that man, to whom i almost lost myself to."
"i won't, seungcheol-hyung!" chan replied. seungcheol held out his pinky, which chan stared at for a while before realizing what seungcheol was meaning to do. chan locked his pinky with seungcheol's.
"pinky promise." seungcheol said, before their fingers loosened, and their pinkies pulled away. "chan?"
"yes?"
"the day will come when we have to face them, so you still need to be ready." seungcheol placed his hands on his hips. "but you won't be alone. i'll be standing on the same battleground as you."
"i will!" chan said. he was terrified, seeing these terrible wounds and hearing about the boss, and his ability—but somehow, seungcheol's reassurance made chan a little more calm.
little did the two know, a certain angel was listening.