seungkwan walked into the house, being greeted with thumping music and nearly blinding lights. he slowly pushed his way through the people standing around the entryway who were dancing and chatting with each other. it seemed that he bumped into a different clone of joshua and junhui with every step he took, the boys glancing and quietly leering at him. seungkwan tried his hardest to ignore their judgmental comments and stares as he continued to walk.

exiting the study room with bright smiles on their faces, jeonghan and chan stepped out, hands intertwined as the oldest of the two led them back to the party. as his eyes landed on the young friend of chan's who looked uncomfortable in the living room, jeonghan's smile dropped, his face morphing into a look of irritation.

jeonghan felt vexed at the sight of the first year, but didn't let it show as he turned to chan and asked him sweetly, "hey, chan. could you go get me a soda, please?"

chan smiled shyly. "anything for you." he said sweetly, walking away to get a drink for jeonghan.

jeonghan smiled as he watched the boy walk away, his expression falling again as he walked towards seungkwan.

now cloned down, joshua and junhui stepped in front of seungkwan with their arms crossed over their chests. with similar expressions of disapproval, junhui asked with venom in his voice, "who invited the sidekick?"

joshua smirked as he added, "yeah. what's the unremarkable doing here?"

"leaving." jeonghan chimed in, a scowl on his face as he sauntered towards the three boys, crossing his arms as seungkwan turned to face him in surprise.

seungkwan wasn't the type to fight, and he especially hated confrontation. so being approached by the three most popular boys in school, who were his seniors, left the young boy feeling extremely troubled.

seungkwan couldn't help the quiver in his voice, a wild look in his eye as he asked the older boy, "where's chan?"

"honestly? avoiding you!" jeonghan spat, not caring as he saw the younger boy's face fall. "look, chan knows you have a crush on him." he added with a smirk, placing his hands on his hips as he looked down at the younger boy.

seungkwan's face fell further as he mumbled in disbelief, "he does?"

"everyone does." jeonghan replied, shaking his head as he looked the boy up and down. "chan's just too nice a guy to tell you he's not interested. not that you can take a hint."

jeonghan smiled mockingly, gesturing around to the groups of people around him as he said, "i mean, hello? he's going to the dance with me. he threw a party, and didn't invite you." he gestured towards the younger boy, tossing a fake pitiful smile towards seungkwan.

"you're just embarrassing him. you're just embarrassing yourself."

seungkwan just stood there and let the verbal assault happen. having had enough of it, he swallowed back the lump in his throat and smiled. he clenched his jaw as he said, "okay. i understand."

seungkwan glanced away momentarily, trying his hardest to collect himself so he wouldn't cry pathetically in front of the beautiful senior who just chewed him out in the middle of a party at chan's house that chan didn't invite him to. why was seungkwan even bothering any more? it was clear that the two of them ran in different circles, and with jeonghan around, it became increasingly obvious that seungkwan didn't belong there.

seungkwan gulped again, looking back up at the older boy with a soft glare. his voice quivered slightly as he added, "um... when you see chan again, can you tell him that i never want to talk to him again?"

jeonghan smiled sweetly, cocking his head to the side as he said mockingly, "i'll give him the message."

chan walked up next to jeonghan not even two seconds later, a smile on his face as he spotted his best friend. "seungkwan." he breathed out, frowning as he saw seungkwan glance at him and walk away.

chan looked ahead and saw joshua and junhui waving mockingly at the retreating figure of the young boy. he turned to jeonghan, who was leaning onto his side with a sweet smile, and shrugged the older boy off as he ran after seungkwan and called out for him.

once seungkwan opened the front door, he turned around quickly to face his best friend, tears in his eyes and his voice wobbly as he spat, "have fun with jeonghan. you two deserve each other."

chan watched with a look of disbelief as seungkwan slammed the door shut between them. he turned around and hurriedly walked towards jeonghan, calling out the older boy's name in confusion.

jeonghan, who was deep in conversation with junhui and joshua, turned around with a smile on his face as he grabbed the soda from chan's hand. "oh. thanks, chan!" he chirped sweetly.

"what did you say to seungkwan?" chan asked the older boy, his voice dropping to a whisper despite the loud music blaring around them.

jeonghan had an innocent look on his face as he shrugged softly and shook his head. "nothing." he leaned forward a bit as he added, "i just told him the truth."

chan looked at the older boy in confusion as jeonghan continued, "you're a hero, he's a sidekick. an unremarkable. chan, you're remarkable. he was holding you back." he placed a gentle hand on chan's shoulder, his face dropping as chan nudged his hand away.

"what? why would you do that? seungkwan's been my best friend since we were in preschool."

jeonghan smiled in amusement. "well, you've got new friends now." he said, pulling the boy closer as he said, "and i think that you need to figure out whether you want to hang with us or with those losers."

"come on, let's go." jeonghan grabbed chan's hand and began to walk away, stopping and facing chan as the younger boy stood in place and yanked his hand away.

"no. forget it." chan shook his head as he took a few steps back. "i'm not going anywhere with you. not now, or to the dance. might as well just find yourself a new date, jeonghan."

jeonghan's jaw dropped in disbelief, the older boy clenching his jaw as he asked, "you're dumping me?" he huffed out, stepping towards chan and pointing a finger at him as he began to yell. "whoa, whoa, whoa! let's get something straight, okay? you do not dump me. not the night before the dance!"

chan looked mildly amused, concealing his smile as he leaned forward and said, "sorry, jeonghan. i, uh... just did."

jeonghan blinked at the younger boy in surprise, at a loss for words as chan continued. "you're dumped!" chan's annoyance grew as he took a few steps back and began to shout, "no, that's it. everyone, out!" he turned around as he shouted louder, "party's over!"

"don't stop on our account."

chan's head whipped to the sound of the voice, his face paling as he spotted his parents standing in the entryway. they were still in their super suits, hands placed on their hips as they stared at the crowd of teenagers lounging around in their home.

the music fizzled down to nothing, the strobe lights immediately being switched off in favor of the regular house lights turning on. the kids stared at the commander and jet stream in nervous anticipation. it seemed like the entire room of kids froze in place, each of them too scared to move a muscle or make a noise.

"your father and i fly to europe for two hours and you throw a party?"

"unbelievable." chan's father muttered, enunciating each syllable as he glanced around the room, each teenager avoiding the older man's gaze.

"when i reach the count of three, i want everyone out of this house." juwon bellowed, holding up his pointer finger to signal the start of his countdown. it was unnecessary, seeing as the kids sprinted and flew away from the house before the commander could even start counting. they left through multiple exits, all of them shouting in fear as they leapt through windows and ran through the front and back doors.

this left just the family in the entryway. the couple glanced at each other and nodded, juwon taking a step towards chan as he said, "son, i'm only going to ask you this–"

"dad, i swear. i didn't plan this." chan mumbled, looking exhausted as he stared at his parents.

juwon just nodded, clapping his hands as he said, "all right. that's good enough for me. hmm."

juwon turned to face jia, the woman looking at him in disbelief as she whispered, "juwon. i have got half a mind to not let him go to the dance!"

as the couple were about to argue, chan walked away and said, "that's fine. i'm not going, anyway."

the couple turned to chan, confusion on their faces as juwon spoke up. "whoa, whoa, whoa! your mom said she had half a mind."

chan turned around to face his parents, keeping his hand on the banister of the stairs as his father continued. "chan, we have to go to the dance. we all have to. because we're introducing the world to the stronghold three," juwon and jia slipped into the casual superheroes stances, their hands on their hips as juwon finished, "the greatest family of superheroes mankind has ever known."

chan just stared at them with a blank look on his face.

jia dropped her hands, a concerned look on her face as she asked, "did something happen, chan?"

"i don't want to talk about it." chan mumbled.

juwon spluttered as he said, "well, we're gonna talk about it, because," he glanced at his wife, flustered as he continued, "we promised jeonghan we would go to the dance!"

"and when we make a promise, son, that promise is kept!"

"i promise you, dad, i'm not going." chan mumbled, turning towards the steps and going up them two at a time. his parents shared a look as they watched the boy climb up the stairs.

in his room, chan was trying to call seungkwan, not having much luck as his calls were going straight to voicemail.

"hello? seungkwan? pick up, seungkwan." he mumbled, sitting down at his desk as he began to drum his fingers onto the desk. "pick up. pick up. pick up. all right. fine. don't pick up." he let out a sigh as he heard the call go to voicemail again.

chan frowned as he said, "um, it's me. i'm going to the paper lantern, and if you get this message, meet me there. okay?"

chan hoped seungkwan would meet him. he didn't know what else to do.

◇※◇※◇※◇※◇※◇※◇※◇

"you said that?" a beautiful woman asked, a flirty smile on her face as she clung to the arm of mr. medulla. her twin sister was on the teacher's other side, laughing along to the man's humorous story.

coach boomer, the one who convinced mr. medulla to join him on the double date, just tossed back another shot as he watched the three of them with a bitter scowl on his face.

mr. medulla looked at the coach and said, "thanks, boom, for inviting me."

coach boomer just forced out a mocking laugh.

on the other side of the restaurant, chan was still trying to get a hold of seungkwan. he kept muttering to himself as he urged his best friend to pick up his calls, sighing each time it went to voicemail. he continued to leave messages and continued the vicious cycle of calling the boy, and the boy not answering.

chan left another message, frowning as he locked his phone and put it aside. he felt someone creep up to him and he looked up as he heard someone ask, "what are you doing here?"

chan saw wonwoo standing in front of him, holding a tray of clean glasses and a rag on his shoulders. he didn't pay the older boy much mind as he mumbled, "i'm... looking for seungkwan. do you know where he is?"

wonwoo glanced down, shrugging as he said, "how should i know?"

chan shrugged as well. "i don't know. you're taking him to the dance?"

"oh, yeah. right."

chan sucked on his teeth, sighing loudly as he looked ahead. "well, you don't have to worry about me ruining your night."

"and why is that?"

"because i'm not going."

wonwoo hummed softly, setting the tray down as he sat across from chan. "well, that sucks." he said, placing the rag down on the table as he added, "cause we're only going together to make you jealous."

chan glanced around, leaning forward slightly as he faced the older boy. "huh?" he asked softly, tilting his head in confusion.

wonwoo just sighed, shaking his head in disbelief as he said, "dude, you're so stupid. he's totally into you."

chan just looked away, a sad frown on his face as he mumbled, "not after tonight." he looked up at wonwoo as he continued, "i wouldn't be surprised if seungkwan or any of the other guys ever want to talk to me again."

wonwoo snorted softly. "man. you must have been a real jerk. because no matter what i do, i can't get them to stop talking to me."

chan rolled his eyes. "thanks." he mumbled, a playful smile on his face as he looked away.

wonwoo shot the younger boy a somewhat supportive look as he moved to stand up. he slapped the rag over his shoulder as he walked away to continue his work, leaving chan alone to think about what he said. mostly about seungkwan, but also about how mild-mannered wonwoo seemed to be outside of school.