Woah, he's gorgeous!

chapter 13

mega content warning for this chapter
mega content warning for the notes at the end

!!!

"Yes but.. But.." Jeonghan shook his head, taking a deep breath, "I think something happened to Minghao. When he was younger. Or.. Whenever. I don't know."

Seungcheol furrows his eyebrows, "I don't like where this is going.." he exhales, sitting up straight and preparing for what Jeonghan has to say.

"Take what I'm going to say with a grain of salt, I-It's just a theory." Jeonghan's body winds up with a tight inhale, letting his breath out slowly to prevent himself from crying.

"I think Minghao was molested."

Jeonghans words cut through the silent room, and it was like a fear that Seungcheol never knew he had became true.

They've known Minghao for almost half a year, and yet they still feel like they failed as packmates despite—if this situation actually happened—it must have happening a long time ago, before they even knew Minghao.

The two stayed silent, Seungcheol sitting with his elbow on his knee and mouth covered with his palm, his posture no longer straight as he had bent with the weight of the information.

"I read about.. CSA victims and- and it only makes sense. I-I really hope that it's not that.." Jeonghan rubs his eyes, sniffling and lifting the collar of his shirt to wipe the unshed tears.

"How did- How did you come to this conclusion, exactly?" Seungcheol's voice attempts to remain steady despite he himself and Jeonghan knowing that he is anything but steady right now.

"You remember what happened when we were.. Messing around. But we- we saw Seokminie and Soonyoungie making out and he didn't care. The difference is what those situations looked like. One didn't seem consensual.. The other was normal." Jeonghan explains, running his fingers through his hair and stopping to just hold his head.

Seungcheol stares at the ground, "What do we even do..?"

"That's why I'm telling you this. I-I have no idea, Seungcheol."

Seungcheol purses his lips, "Should we tell Jisoo-yah?"

"I-It's bad enough I told Minghao's private stuff to somebody else, no one else needs to know. And we- we don't even know if it's true!" Jeonghan reasons, practically going through the stages of grief as he tries to convince himself he's just wrong.

"Hanie.. I think the best thing to do right now is just love him. He can open up to us when he's ready. He's safe now." Seungcheol stands up, helping Jeonghan up and placing his hands on his shoulders while he was talking.

"But there was one point in his life where he wasn't .." Jeonghan sniffles, holding one of the hands atop of his shoulder.

Seungcheol doesn't have an answer to that.

-scene end-

Yes, Minghao is about to get the special favoritism treatment from the two eldest of the group, but no one needs to know that.

What else are they meant to realistically do?

And it helps build trust, and also show Minghao that they really really really love him. And if Jeonghan's theory is correct, it also shows that he has a safe space.

After their talk , Jeonghan and Seungcheol came home a teensy bit later than the rest.

Minghao is of course in his living room spot, there are three other people in the room - that being Chan, Hansol and Seungkwan.