Chapter Text
Chan really wasn’t looking at Joshua’s phone on purpose, it was more like an absentminded glance.
Joshua scrolling through his hundreds of unread messages was nothing new to Chan, but this group chat was. It was one Chan had never seen before, and from what Chan could see in the corner, it had exactly twelve people. Enough for every member of Seventeen. Except for him.
And sure enough, as Joshua scrolled, Chan noticed Jeonghan’s KakaoTalk profile picture, and then Wonwoo’s, then Mingyu’s, then Soonyoung’s, then everyone’s except for his and Joshua’s. Chan looks up to the top of the screen. It’s called “Seventeen hyungs”.
The older members all had a group chat without him.
There’s a number of things the group chat could be for—it could be a birthday surprise (if his birthday wasn’t for another eight months, okay, so maybe just a regular surprise), or for all the members that can drink to plan nights out (but no one born after Jihoon is an adult yet, so maybe not). Joshua closes the group chat, pulling Chan from his thoughts.
Chan tries not to think about the group chat, but it keeps coming back to him at the worst times. When Soonyoung is acting cute around him, or Seokmin plays a game with him, or Hansol keeps clinging to him. His mood sours as he remembers the group chat. Chan decides that he needs to see it, or he’ll keep assuming bad things.
So a couple days later, Chan watches Seungcheol type in his password. When he places his phone on the counter and leaves the kitchen, Chan takes the opportunity. Chan picks up Seungcheol’s phone and opens the group chat. There’s a couple unreads, but Chan scrolls up, until he finds a video. It grabs his attention, so he clicks on it. It’s him in the video, and it must have been taken yesterday. He’s sitting on Jeonghan’s lap in the video while Jeonghan plays with his hair. Chan’s heart warms a little seeing the cute video, but still wonders why they couldn’t have just sent this in the main group chat. He sees a message below the video from Minghao. “I want him to sit on my lap like that too” It feels like a weight had been lifted from Chan’s shoulders, finding out that the group chat wasn’t anything bad about him. He had been overthinking the last couple days, thinking that his members had secretly hated him.
Chan decides to scroll up a little more, stopping on a video once again. The camera is covered in the thumbnail, so Chan can’t make out what the video is of.
Chan clicks on it, and the camera is uncovered a couple seconds in. It’s pretty shaky at first, but Chan is able to make out that it’s in his (and half the team’s) room at the dorm. Everyone is changing, but the video is centered on Chan. It zooms in a little as Chan takes off his shirt, revealing Chan’s pale skin and thin body. Chan cringes at seeing his own body like that, from an angle he’s never seen it before. He can’t help but notice the way his ribcage juts out, and compare it to Mingyu, who’s also shirtless in the background. Chan realizes it’s the first time he’s properly looked at his own body from that angle, and feels a little embarrassed about all the times he’s changed in front of the others. Chan exits out of the video and scrolls down until the video is off the screen, not wanting to see himself any longer. He starts reading the messages under.
“Channie is so innocent!” Minghao.
“His body is so thin” Seokmin. Chan cringes at his observation.
“I want to break his ribs” It’s from the owner of the phone. Chan is a little confused, and a little scared. Chan has no doubt that Seungcheol could break his ribs if he wanted to, but he didn’t think Seungcheol disliked him. Sure, their age gap makes things awkward between the two, but he had always thought Seungcheol had liked him, and found him funny at least.
He remembers that he’s reading someone else’s texts (not a good look) and that Seungcheol (or anyone, honestly) could come in and find him, so he promises to himself that he’ll put it back after one more video. Chan scrolls up again until he stops on a video, sent by Soonyoung. The thumbnail is all dark on this one too, so Chan clicks on it.
He waits for the camera to be uncovered, until he realizes that the video itself is dark. It’s in his room, probably at night. It’s confirmed when the video stops on him, asleep in bed. The camera stops when it approaches him, and moves down. The camera shakes a little, stopping when Soonyoung’s hand reaches out. His hand reaches out to Chan’s shirt, pulling it up a little, showing his belly, then his chest, and then back down. The camera starts to move again, moving down Chan’s body. It stops at Chan’s crotch area (or at least he thinks, the video is super dark). The hand reaches out to Chan’s pants, a lot more careful this time. It takes at least 30 seconds for the cameraman to clumsily pull down Chan’s pants and underwear with one hand, but the video gets a shot (one that’s a little too grainy and dark to make it out well) of Chan’s penis. Chan’s eyes widen at the video, and he exits the video, not wanting to see anymore. Chan thinks he sees Soonyoung reach out to grab his penis as he closes the video, but he doesn’t want to go back to check. He forgets the promise he made to himself to put the phone away, and scrolls down to see the messages instead.
“Take it with flash, Soonyoung-ah” A rare message from Joshua.
“He’ll wake up if he takes it with flwsh”
“flash” Mingyu, of course.
“Just come to the room next time” Soonyoung.
“We should drug him and do something” Junhui.
“It’s kind of difficult to see on video but he’s fucking tiny” Soonyoung again.
“I’ll suck his baby cock” Jeonghan.
“I bet I could jerk him off with just my fingers” Jihoon.
“I wanna ride it” Wonwoo.
“You won’t feel anything lol” Jihoon again.
Chan nearly jumps out of his skin when he hears a door open. He turns around to find that it was Seungcheol’s door, and nearly drops the phone out of surprise.
“Dino-yah,” Seungcheol says, looking over, “have you seen my…” Seungcheol trails off, as he sees the phone in Chan’s hands.
“Oh,” Chan gulps, trying his hardest to speak without his voice cracking. “Your phone? I was just about to come give it to you.” Chan tries to pretend that he had just picked up Seungcheol’s phone to give it to him, but he’s sure he got caught. He’s sure that Seungcheol can see the goosebumps on Chan’s skin, and hear the way his heart is about to beat out of his chest with anxiety.
“Thanks Dino-ah.”
Seungcheol walks to the kitchen, taking his phone from Chan, but instead of going back to his room, he starts unlocking his phone, standing in front of Chan so that he’s trapped between Seungcheol and the corner in the kitchen counter.
“Hyung, I’ll go back to my room,”
“Hm?” Seungcheol says, not moving.
Chan tries to squeeze between the counter and Seungcheol, but Seungcheol sets his hand on the counter nonchalantly, blocking Chan from leaving.
Seungcheol exhales, “I don’t remember opening KakaoTalk?” He says it to himself as a question, and Chan knows he’s caught.
“You must have read a lot. You scrolled pretty far up.”
“Hyung-“ Chan starts,
“Did no one ever teach you not to go through other people’s phones?” Seungcheol sets his phone down on the counter, and grabs the counter with his other hand, too, blocking both sides. He leans down to be eye level with Chan. Chan feels his breath hitch and hopes that Seungcheol won’t notice.
“I-I-“ Chan’s words fail him.
“You what?” Seungcheol says with a fake smile on his face. Actually, Chan isn’t so sure if it’s fake, since from what he’s read it’s quite possible that Seungcheol enjoys torturing Chan.
“I didn’t read that much, I swear,” Chan says, as if it makes it better. “I only read eight- nine messages.”
“Then why is it scrolled so far up?” Seungcheol says, holding the phone up.
“I-I was just looking at the videos.”
“And what did you think of the videos?”
“Hyung, I’m really sorry,” Chan says, bowing the farthest he can with Seungcheol standing right in front of him.
“No, no. You didn’t apologize when I caught you, so don’t do it now.” Seungcheol grabs Chan’s hair and yanks him up, and Chan hopes that the older boy can’t see the tears that are pricking at his eyes.
“Hyung, I’m sorry, seriously, I’m really sorry-”
“Whatever, just come with me.”
He grabs Chan’s wrist, dragging him towards Seungcheol’s room. As Chan realizes where Seungcheol is taking him, he starts to struggle under his grip.
“Hyung, we can talk out here!” Chan yells out another “Hyung!” when Seungcheol remains silent.
“Just get inside.”
Seungcheol pushes Chan into his room, and Chan can’t help but think he won’t leave with all of his bones intact.