➪The Man|| WINRINA

𝙵𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚢-𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚛

“I wonder where Taehyun and Soobin are.” Winter muttered, taking a seat on an empty lunch table in the dining ball. Her two friends were excused for the day. She wondered why. It was Jaemin who announced it two days prior.



This left her alone. Jaemin was pushing her away for some strange reason, Yeji was too busy or out of reach, and she hasn't seen Karina since last week. She wondered why.



Not to mention how she realized how little her circle was. Sure smaller circles were better than large ones but with everyone gone, she was left all by herself in this testosterone-filled school.



“Even seeing Jeno would be nice.” She muttered, picking up the sliced chicken fillet with her chopsticks. Even her tormenter, Jeno Lee, was away. Were they on vacation? Who knows.



She didn't even spot Chenle and that boy was everywhere. Well, not everywhere but he was somewhere.



“Mind if I sit here?”



Winter lazily looked up, expecting one of gucci gang or jeno to stand in front her here. She spluttered, seeing sungchan stand in front of her table carrying his tray. What was he doing here?



“Minjeong?” Sungchan asked, seeing the male suddenly spit out a few bits of chicken fillet.



Winter covered her lips, “Sure sure. My bad. Was kinda shock.”



Sungchan shrugged his shoulders, taking his seat across him. “What are you doing all alone? Aren't you supposed to be with Taehyun and Soobin?”



“You know them?” Winter was surprised. As far as she knew, sungchan never once interacted with them. “How?”



“Taehyun's part of the school paper I think and I'm pretty sure yeonjun likes Soobin. Yeonjun and be noisy.” Sungchan answered. He never asked but Yeonjun always found a way to make the conversation about his happy crush toward Minjeong's friend. “Actually, I can here to ask, do you know where Karina is? I haven't heard from her in like, two—or was three? Days already.”



Two or three days? That's the same when Jaemin started acting all nice to her. What? It was weird for her. She's traumatized.



Winter shook her head no. “I haven't seen her.”



“people are acting weird.” Sungchan pointed out the obvious. People were acting weird. You can't suddenly change and disappear within two days. That was unrealistic.



“Yeah like you hanging out with me.” Winter retorted, changing the subject. On another note, why was sungchan hanging out with her (or him)? He had his own set of friends, she guessed. “Sungchan?”



Sungchan opened his mouth to answer but closed it, debating. Should he tell the truth or should he, you know, play it cool? “Because I want to.”



Winter was not convinced, frowning. “Let me guess, Xiaojun—”



“Hendery.” Sungchan corrected, “He—I know you don't know him well but he means good. He asked me because he noticed how everyone was avoiding you because of the Jaemin fiasco.” He did jazz hands to emphasize, “Jaemin can't touch me.”



Winter was discouraged. Here she thought someone was being genuine. “I don't need your company.”



Sungchan placed his chopstick on his tray. “Look, I know you don't trust me, I get it. ” He meant, Karina thought he was only her friend because they were formerly engaged. Jeno didn't like for some strange reason and that dislike made him lose shotaro. And shotaro, well, they weren't talking anymore. “I'm here as a friend.”



“I don't need friends.” Winter sighed. Thinking Jaemin would be her friend got her into this mess. Maybe if she actually made an effort to avoid him, this wouldn't have happened. She dropped her chopsticks onto the tray. “How about you? Aren't you supposed to be with your friends?”



“Hendery's too busy trying to make sure you're safe for the sake of Jaemin's safety. He's been keeping Kun distracted.” Sungchan told Winter. That explained why Kun was unaware of the bullying. “Yangyang, you haven't met him yet, is busy I guess trying to woo Renjun from section A. Mark, again, you probably don't know about him, is trying to make amends with donghyuck.”



“and may I know why?”



Sungchan picked up an apple slice from his tray and popped it into his mouth, chewing loudly. “Because Donghyuck is fighting that they keep your harassment a secret from Kun. It's not right, obviously, but they can't have Jaemin reported. He'll get expelled.”



Ain't that going to be a miracle. “You don't have that much friends, huh.”



“That's coming from someone with only two friends?”



Winter scowled, “I have plenty of— ”










❝Sungchan?❞



The two turned their heads to the voice, seeing a short (he was taller than winter) male with light tanned skin and big brown eyes. He resembled an otter in Winter's opinion.



Winter turned to Sungchan for an answer, slapping his hand. He looked back at the standing male. “You know this person?”



Sungchan scoffed, turning briefly at Minjeong before looking back at the male. “He's shotaro, Jeno’s boyfriend.”



Winter gawked, scanning shotaro up and down. How can seemingly innocent looking shotaro be in a relationship with someone like the devil Jeno? She'd rather believe Jaemin and Jeno were together. Not Jeno and Shotaro.


“Whaaat?” Winter was flabbergasted, slapping sungchan's hand again to grab his attention. “You're not joking. This,” she gestured to the clueless Shotaro, “Is Jeno’s boyfriend. Like real, official, legal boyfriend.”



Sungchan nodded his head.



Winter gawked once more. “How?”



“That's a—”



“Hi I'm Osaki Shotaro, Jeno’s...uh, boyfriend.” Shotaro took the seat beside Minjeong who scooted backward on the bench. “You're minjeong right? Minjeong Kim?”




Winter nodded her head. “Y-yes. Is there something I can do for you?” What if she was being fooled by his innocent exterior? He could be evil like Jeno. Maybe even more vile!




“I was wondering if Jaemin is in his office. I need to talk to him about something.” Shotaro answered.



He noticed Jaemin acting differently, like he was void of emotions. Not to mention how violent he has become. Jaemin was never violent, only weird. It didn't help that Jeno was constantly tailing after him, mind only at Jaemin and his wellbeing whenever they were together.




“Ah yes. I mean, he should be. Last I recalled, he had some proposals to go over.” Winter replied, racking through her memory for Jaemin's schedule. “Would you like for me to check if he is in the office? I can always message you if he is.”



Shotaro shook his head no. “It's fine. I'll go there by myself.”