『 ʙᴇɴᴇᴀᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ sᴜʀғᴀᴄᴇ ⋙ sᴏᴘᴇ 』✔︎

𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕖𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕪

[A/N: please make sure you've read chp 79 to understand this small segment here! <3]

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Things didn't stay as happy and lighthearted, however.

Frankly, neither of the boys knew what was coming in to store for them later, as fate was about to hit them like a truck not only affecting them, but their whole entire friend group as well.

One person specially, Park Jimin.

✈︎   ☁︎︎   ✈︎    ☁︎︎   ✈︎

Lee Chul was livid.

Rather it be pure envy swallowing him up whole, or the pound of fiery anger added onto his soul with every tick of the clock.

Each tick only drove him more and more insane, with each one only getting louder and louder, the volume eventually making it feel as if his ears were bleeding as the unbearable noise roared through his brain as if to test his insanity and patience to see how long it would take until he would break.

Perhaps he was going insane, or over exaggerating.

But in reality, in the reality that felt like a horrible fantasy, his mind was living hell.

Havoc wreaked wickedly amidst every passing thought, not one optimistic one popping in at all throughout the school day since there was really nothing to feed into his merriment.

He was starved.

Starved of genuine happiness that he longed for so long, the happiness he found in Hoseok and Yoongi's eyes when he found them laughing together across the cafeteria or during sixth period, the happiness lacing Jimin's features as that charming smile made its way up onto those cheeks that everyone fell for.

They were all happy.

What was he doing wrong?

Why wasn't he happy?

He had everything: from popularity to wealth, and a bunch of girls drooling over him as well as several admirers that followed him everywhere he went.

But at the same time, he had nothing.

No real friends, not even a personality he was happy with for himself, since that kind and charismatic one he constantly displayed in class was completely fake and used mainly for baiting purposes.

The one that Hoseok fell for.

But Hoseok hadn't fallen for Chul.

He didn't know who Lee Chul really was, or at least used to. Now he did, or was beginning to at least since his unclouded eyes free of any preformed bias were cleared of past prejudices, now letting Hoseok see all the snippets of Chul's ethnic and cruel persona.

One that had only gotten worse over the years, crippling over time as people only took advantage of his legacy and the reality finally dawning on him that he wasn't loved.

And would probably never be.

At least, that's what he told himself, because every small chance that he got from the universe to fix things or make his reputation better with others, he ruined it.