#chenris

“What the fuck?”Yifan repeated.

“Oh,” the man said. “Umm. I’ll leave.”

“Who the hell are you?” Yifan growled.

“I live next door,” the man said, still on the ground andunmoving. “Umm. And I’ll leave. Any second now,” he said, remaining motionless.“Any second.”

“You aren’t moving,” Yifan pointed out.

“Seems so,” the man groaned, pushing against the floor withhis hands in an apparently futile effort to sit up. “Umm. I don’t think I canmove?”

“I’m calling security,” Yifan deadpanned.

“Wait! Please! I-I’ll try!” the man said, huffing andgroaning as he leveraged himself upward, managing to lean his back against the couch.“Sorry! It’s just, you know, I live next door, like I said, and your door wasunlocked, and I was desperate—“ he explained, revealing a face half-swollenwith bruises and flaking dried blood.

“What the fuck,” Yifan repeated, taking a cautious stepforward. “What happened to you?” He felt less threatened the closer he got,seeing that the man was so injured that it was unlikely he could hurt anyone,much less anyone as large as Yifan. The injured man was thin and short, with afull head of dark hair and a pained yet sardonic expression.  

“Well,” the man sighed. “I would say that I got in a fight,except that would be giving me too much credit, because I didn’t do muchfighting, just getting punched.”

“I can see that already,” Yifan sighed. He wanted nothingmore than to collapse on his bed, which at least the intruder had been kindenough to not sleep on. “You still aren’t moving.”

“Umm,” the man said, wincing as he shifted slightly. “Theremay be a chance that—that the person who…you know…is still in my apartment?” hewheezed, hand pressing against his side. “So, could I just…could you let mehide here for a few hours more? I-I’ll text someone to pick me up. Look, here,I’ll do it right now!” A few tears slipped down his cheeks as he struggled topull a phone from his pocket. “They’re just—they’re in class now, and I…” hesaid brokenly. “I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“Who are you hiding from?” Yifan questioned suspiciously.

The man blanched. “It’s…a long story.”

“You aren’t moving,” Yifan said wryly.

“I guess that’s true,” the man sighed. “I’m…well, I toldsomeone I would do something for them, and then I found out some things that Ididn’t know before. Because of that, I backed out. And then they got angry, and…”he managed to lift his arm and flap it in the general direction of his face.But his face definitely wasn’t the only thing that was hurt.

“Something illegal?” Yifan asked critically.

“What? No!” the man said hurriedly. “Listen, stop looking atme like that! My name is Kim Jongdae, and I’m in my third year of the businessprogram, and I know that you’re Wu Yifan in the science department. We go tothe same school!”

“How do you know that?” Yifan said, suspicious.

“I saw your face in the student newspaper after you won thataward! We’ve passed each other in the hallway in this building at least a dozentimes!”

“…I don’t remember that,” Yifan muttered.

Jongdae huffed. “Yeah, given your reaction, I figured.” Helet out a little pained noise as he tried to push himself up further. “Ah,shit.”

Yifan sighed, his pathetic heart softening at the sight. “I’llget the first aid kit.”

Yifan dabbed at the injuries with a cotton ball dipped inperoxide, the man wincing every time he made contact with skin. Yifan wasn’texactly the gentlest of people, so he kept his mouth shut and focused onfinding everything. “Are your ribs bruised?” Yifan asked bluntly.

“Ah,” the man hesitated. “Yeah, but…there’s not much to bedone for something like that.”

“Okay, who did you piss off so much that they beat the fuckout of you?” Yifan questioned.

“I…” Jongdae sighed. “I’m friends with a lot of people inthe acting department. We went to high school together, and some of them justhappened to pursue careers as idols. I mean, I think that’s great, and all, butit never changed our friendship any.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

Jongdae sighed again, hand resting against his injured ribs.“I…I met someone. I thought…actually, I don’t know what I thought. That theyliked me, maybe? I can see how stupid it was now. But…it wasn’t really me theywanted. They wanted to use me to get closer to one of my idol friends. When Ifigured out what they were trying to do, I told them in no uncertain terms thatI wasn’t going to let it happen. Except…I probably should have considered thatthey were a lot bigger than me…”

“Well why the fuck didn’t you call the police?” Yifan said,brow furrowed. “You said they could still be in your apartment right now?”

“Because if I called the police, then my friend’s name woulddefinitely come up,” Jongdae said. “They handle these scandals differently inthat world than in ours. I can’t just have my friend’s name attached to apolice report. I can only imagine all the negative press.”

“Ugh,” Yifan said. “You just had the shit beat out of you bya psycho stalker, I think your friend can deal with it.”

Jongdae smiled sadly, shaking his head. “I can’t risk that. Anyway,I…thanks for not calling the cops on me. I promise that I’ll leave as soon as Ican stand up!”

Yifan grimaced. “Look, don’t worry about it.” Leaning down,he helped the man slowly back onto the couch, ignoring the sympathy pangs asJongdae bit his lip to stop from crying. “You can stay on my couch for howeverlong you want. I’m going to go to my room and sleep because I’m about to die.”

“Thanks,” Jongdae said softly, looking down at his lap.

“It you’re still here when I wake up, I’ll walk you overthere,” Yifan said. “He’s not bigger than me,is he?”

Jongdae chuckled painfully. “No, definitely not.”