SUCKER PUNCH! - Jakehoon

THIRTEEN

Sunghoon waddles around aimlessly trying to find Jake.

Usually the older would pick him up at his class, he'd sometimes unintentionally run into people just to get to Sunghoon.

So why wasn't he there now? He was so adamant about not leaving when he dropped him off an hour ago and now that he's finished his class, Jake is no where to be found.

He can't ask around for him either, getting weird looks from even being in Jake's presence alone and being a friend to him makes Sunghoon stick out like a sore thumb for no reason whatsoever.

"Where could he be?? Surely he didn't get hurt or something.." Sunghoon nervously mumbles as he looks around for any possible clue or explanation for Jake's sudden absence.

"Looking for your friend?"

A voice behind Sunghoon makes him turn around hurriedly, eyes wide at the sudden voice and presence behind him.

"Uh, sorry. Who are you?" Sunghoon questions the stranger.

The strange stands back and gives him space before introducing themselves.

"I'm Niki. Is the brunette guy that was friends with Jay your friend?"

'Straight to the point I guess.' Sunghoon wonders.

"Yeah. Do you know where he is?"

There's a pause in Niki's response. Almost too long of a pause.

"I don't know what has been going on, I only happened to been at the right place at the right time but there's something going on with Jay and Jake."

"Everybody knows that. Jay hates the fact that Jakes hanging out with me now."

Niki shakes his head. "No it's not just that, I have a feeling that Jay is scared of Jake. Or at least he feels threatened by him."

Sunghoon looks at Niki in utter confusion. "Scared? Why would he be scared of Jake when he has this entire school and everyone in it in his hands?"

Niki looks around in caution before proceeding, his voice loud enough for Sunghoon only to hear.

"Jay may have the high ground socially but when it comes to facts and secrets? Jake wins by a mile. The only reason Jay hasn't completely lost all his social power is because having Jake around keeps him at the top. You single handedly put Jay in checkmate."

Sunghoon couldn't believe what he was hearing. "All I did though was talk to Jake and be close with him?"

"Intentionally or not, with being so close with Jake you've given Jake a chance to absolutely destroy Jay's entire life. People will believe Jake because unlike Jay he's kind to everyone he interacts with, no one really has a good enough reason to believe otherwise and if they did it would fall on deaf ears.
Having you around has helped Jake so much and you haven't realised it. Without you he wouldn't have enough strength to actually fight back."

Sunghoon looks at Niki once more, his brows furrowed. "Why's that? Wouldn't everyone be in line to help out with him or not?"

Niki shakes his head slowly, his head low.

"Cause even though everyone loves him, nobody likes him."

Sunghoon's heart shattered hearing those words. He always thought that everybody would love to be friends with Jake, who wouldn't? He was so sweet and loving, the kindest and most genuine person he'd ever met. People would kill to have a friend like him.