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"At this point, who knows what other stupid shit they'll threaten to do." Jiseol rolled her eyes.
Donghyuck's gaze remained glued to Jiseol's phone that displayed a photo she took of the message from her computer in the Astral office. He read it repeatedly, so many thoughts in his head yet none left his lips. For what could be the first time, Jiseol was doing all the talking between them.
"We really need to find out who this annoying bastard is as soon as possible because if they do what they say they're going to do, you'll be fucked, Donghyuck," Jiseol said in a rather soft tone, eyebrows knitted together with concern.
An almost inaudible murmur of agreement came from Donghyuck; he agreed that they desperately needed to find out who it was but he wasn't thinking about what the consequences were going to be for him. All he could think about was people finding out that Jiseol was living with a man. Not just any man, but the same man who shared the tale of her cherry's popping with the whole school. He could already imagine the shit people were going to say whether in front of Jiseol or behind her back. He swore he thought this type of crap only happened in TV dramas, yet he'd seen the aftermath of the Grand Reveal and it had never been pretty.
"—like that. What do you think? Lee Donghyuck, are you listening?"
"Huh?" Donghyuck turned to Jiseol, still holding her phone in his hand. "Yeah, yeah, sure. Whatever."
Jiseol put a hand on her waist and stared at him with a knowing look. "You better not do what I think you're going to do."
"What do you think I'm going to do? I'm going to go and...eat dinner, take a shit, go for a walk. Why can't I do that?" Donghyuck casually got up from their couch and would've escaped into his room if Jiseol didn't catch him by the arm.
"Don't fuck with me, Donghyuck. Do not even think of turning yourself in. And especially don't do it for me."
Donghyuck scoffed, putting on his best mischievous grin as if to brush off this whole situation like it was nothing.
"I wouldn't fuck with you, but if you want me to fuck y—ow!"
"I'm being serious, asshole," Jiseol said sternly after kicking Donghyuck's shin. "You have to keep working with me."
"Look, dollface, let's look at the facts. Number one: we are hopeless," Donghyuck paused, then shook his head. "Yeah, that's pretty much it. Might as well give up right now and not waste any more of our energy. If I turn myself in, what's the worst that could happen?"
Jiseol sighed. She knew that Donghyuck himself knew the answer to his question and it wasn't something as easy as getting suspended from the football team. If word got out, Donghyuck would be at the risk of not just getting expelled, but facing multiple lawsuits. His life would quite literally be finished.
Yet the face he was showing to Jiseol right now was his typical smug expression, like there wasn't a thing to worry about in the world.
"You can't stop me from doing what I want to do, Jiji." Donghyuck said, showing clearly what decision he had made.
"Yes, I can. This is about me too. Why do you have to turn yourself in? There's only one difference whether you turn yourself in or that bastard exposes you, and that difference is me. If people find out I'm living with a man—with you—so what? I don't care."
"I care, Park Jiseol!" Donghyuck finally snapped. His fake smug expression gone, replaced by a face full of far too many different emotions at once. Worry, fear, pain and maybe a slight tinge of an emotion that Donghyuck had yet to realize he felt for Jiseol.
"I don't want there to be the slightest room for people to talk shit about you or to you ever again. I haven't stopped blaming myself for that video and I never will, and the least I can do is to prevent any more damage to you. I don't give a fuck about what happens to me but I'm never going to forgive myself if I'm the reason people hurt you."
"They're just a bunch of college kids gossiping! It's not a big deal, Donghyuck, it won't fucking kill me." Jiseol argued.
"No, you don't know," Donghyuck slowly shook his head. "You can pretend like the things that people have said to your face haven't hurt you. Fine. But you don't know what people have been saying behind your back. You don't know how I got suspended, do you?"
Maybe if I get to sleep with Park Jiseol, I'll record it and leak that video so more girls would be into me, followed by an eruption of laughter and lewd movements which included high-pitched moaning that meant to resemble Jiseol. It got even worse when one of them decided to mock thrusting motions against Jisung while saying, "This is what I can do to your hot sister!". The next thing Donghyuck knew, a nose was broken and it wasn't his. Luckily for him, those ugly pricks knew better than to press charges.
Avoiding lawsuits had seemed to become a new talent of his. He would be needing it anyway at the rate they were going.
"You don't have to know," Donghyuck said quietly. "The point is you can't stop me. I'm turning myself in."
"Give me until Thursday." Jiseol blurted out.
"What?"
Jiseol pursed her lips. "If by Thursday, I don't figure out who did it. You can turn yourself in."
"Are you serious?"
"When am I not?"
Donghyuck stared right into Jiseol's eyes as he contemplated. The eye contact somewhat made Jiseol's heart skip a beat, probably because she'd never seen Donghyuck this serious in all the years that they'd known each other. She awkwardly shifted in her stance, crossing her arms and avoided looking at Donghyuck while waiting for his answer.
"Alright, fine. Thursday."
"Fine."
The two roommates shook hands on the deal, both bearing different burdens. The thought of how on earth she was going to find out who did it weighed heavily on Jiseol's shoulders, while Donghyuck worried about his future—and Jiseol's.
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omg yall heyyyyyyyy im alive and this is a short update just to apologize for my disappearance the past few months. basically i turned 21, got covid, then school was crazy for so long and now it's already 2022??? where did the time go. hope everyones doing okay and hope to see all of u more often now <3
