Wallflower [Seungjin]

1

[Chapter one]

"He never went out without a book under his arm, and he often came back with two."

-Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

——➰——

"You have three seconds to let go of my butt or I'll punch you across the face, and I mean this, Lee.", Chan crossed his arms, but made no effort to step away from the younger, who was laughing at him. He chuckled and squeezed the older's butt, making him yelp.

"Guys, we're at school, please.", Hyunjin rolled his eyes, uncomfortable by the exaggerated attention his friend's were bringing to their group. "Can you please keep your horny selfs away from each other for one second?"

That was enough to make Minho pull his hand back.

"You can't take a joke. Plus, those are gone days."

"Agreed, still can't believe I dated this idiot."

Minho rolled his eyes this time, opening his locker as they all waited for the fourth boy, the shortest of them, who had been struggling with his own locker for a while.

"You didn't complain when I was fucking you against a w-"

"Please guys, graphics!", Changbin whined, his books falling for the third time. "God, I hate school."

"We all do.", Chan hit the back of Minho's head. "Now behave, you child."

Changbin finally managed to get all the things he needed, and he smiled at the other's, finally able to go their way. Hyunjin was well aware of how many people talked about them as they walked by, after all, they were the most popular group in their school. Chan was a senior already, while all the other's stood on the year below, but that didn't stop him from getting along with them even better than with some of his older friends. Minho was the dance team captain and Hyunjin was the school's most popular boy. Changbin was their friend and that was enough, but they knew a lot of girls and boys also longed for him secretly.

They were used to the attention, and they took it well.

Seungmin loved it as well, all the attention that group got. It helped him get into school without people noticing him.

That's how things went that morning as well. The guy entered school with his hoodie on, walked a bit strangely but nothing too weird. Not enough for people to notice anyway. He knew damn well the concealer he had on was not enough to hide the bruises on his face, but he had done his best. His open lip was still aching, a bit swollen, but he had been worse at other times.

Lucky for him, he managed to walk all the way to the school's interior garden, the open locker area, without anyone questioning him. Which wasn't a surprise.

Seungmin liked to describe himself as quiet, shy, maybe even solitaire.

He liked being invisible after all. Anything he could do to stay away from the public eye, no matter which public, was perfect for him.

He walked between random people, being pushed around between bodies as if he were a real ghost, as if no one could actually see him.

The moment he opened the library's door, the comforting silence and the scent of roses and decomposed books filling his nose, he felt calm again, his heart rate going down.

"Morning!", he smiled at the lady behind the counter, who smiled back, even though she seemed taken aback by how the younger had presented himself to school. " Can I read here until my classes start? In two hours?", that was normal for him, going early even if he didn't have classes right in the morning, looking for the only refuge he knew.

Books.

"Sure, sweetie.", she smiled, her eyes holding worry, but not daring to say anything.

Seungmin mentally thanked her and skipped to the shelves, looking in between them and ignoring the pain below his stomach. He let his long fingers softly run through the used book spines, feeling their imperfections, the years and years of use, the number of eyes and minds that had read what they had to say, that had stayed with them for a few hours, consuming all the lessons they had to teach them, before leaving it for the next person.

He smiled softly as he grabbed one of his favorites.

Les Misérables. Volume I.

He sat down next to the window, hearing the screams and shouts from a distance, his brain slowly getting immersed in the story he had already read so many times before.

When the bell rang, he pouted and moved to have his classes, appearing in the library again at lunch time, assuring the nice lady at the door he wasn't hungry and preferred to be there. He plopped down on that same spot and kept reading, letting the words and the characters fill up those holes inside of him that he had no courage to see, to admit they existed.

But they were there, solitude, pain, grief.

All those feeling were there, consuming him to the bone.

Better to be invisible than get hurt.

That's what his mom had always said.

But what if you get both?

——➰——

So for another disclaimer I know most of you probably hate Les Miserables but I love it and the story will be slightly important in this story but nothing you can't understand if you don't know it's plot.

It's mainly quotes and cute stuff. :)

Alexa play Runaway by TXT.