Last chapter:

Leon felt his head twirl, his hand coming up his mouth as he ran to the nearest bush he could find where people wouldn’t see him and he vomited pure bile from his empty stomach.

.

Back at the entrance, John, Nick and Moonie stood there as they saw Leon vanish from their sigh.

A loud slap sounded right after as Moonie landed her hand on the back of Nick’s head. “You really never know when to stop!!”

“Ow! Damn it Moon, that hurt!” Nick yelled.

“It was supposed to hurt you dimwit.” She answered coldly. “Couldn’t you see the boy was feeling sick? Have some limits, will you?” She bit out her words, making them sound worse than if she was screaming.

“I thought it was an act!” Nick whined “I thought he was trying to mess with me!”

“By making his own skin turn green? Are you blind?” The girl snared. “Go fix this!”

“But I–”

“Now” Her voice growing colder and colder “I’m saying this as the club president, not your friend.”

“... alright” Nick ruffled his own hair.

.

Leon did not know if he had the face to go back. He was embarrassed from running away and he didn’t feel any better after vomiting his stomach out. God, that was pathetic, he thought as he leaned on a tree, eyes closed as he tried to even his breath. Was there even a point in going back knowing Nick would just fail him? Despite himself, he let out a pitiful laugh.

“Have you finally gone mad?” The older boy was in front of him, arms crossed, when Leon’s eyes popped open.

“Urgh” The first-year scrunched up his nose “Can you go away? I don’t have enough energy to deal with you right now” He looked away.

Nick didn’t answer him immediately, he just stopped to really see what was going on. And he saw.

He saw the dark circles under Leon’s eyes. He saw the boy’s pale skin gleaming from cold sweat. He saw the slight tremble in his hands from low blood pressure. He saw the pink tint on his ears that were peeking from under the half bun Leon’s hair was in. But that’s not all he saw.

He saw the whole last week that Leon had been practicing until late at night. He knew of course, he had been there to mess with him. But what Leon didn’t know was that Nick had been in the building every single night, waiting until the trio went home.

He followed them from afar together with Moon, the third year girl, who was both his friend and the club president, to make sure they got to the dorm safely. They were their seniors after all. It was also a secret tradition from the club to keep an eye out for the hard workers from the shadows.

As creepy as it sounds, hard workers show themselves better when practicing. Lots of them didn’t do great at auditions, but performed beautifully on the stage with everyone else. The club needed people like that, a performance was not made from just the main character after all. So the club kept observing them quietly. Moon had also done the same for Nick when he was a first year.

And as much as it hurt Nick’s pride to admit even to himself, he was sympathetic to Leon’s efforts. He even found himself excited to see the younger boy’s audition.

Inhaling and exhaling deeply, Nick reached down his pockets and took out two bottles, one smaller than the other, pushing them right into Leon’s line of sight. “Hm” He murmured. The boy was surprised but he did not move to grab the bottles. “They are for you.”

Leon looked at the objects suspiciously then looked back to Nick’s face “No thanks”.

A vein popped on the elder's temple, but he just took another deep breath. He grabbed one of Leon’s hands with his free one and shoved the bottles on it. “Drink it” He pointed “Small one is for the nausea, it will keep you from vomiting again. The other one is protein, John told me you didn’t eat anything today.”

Leon was baffled to say the least. He looked dumbly from the meds to Nick’s face and back to the meds, his head not quite wrapping around what was happening. Nick snorted a laugh and moved to lean on the tree trunk, right by Leon’s side. He put his hands inside the pockets of the pants and waited patiently as the younger one analyzed if he was being pranked.

The first-year came to the conclusion that it would be dumb of the elder to try to poison him or anything of the sort, so he gulped down the small bottle first.

“Bitter” He whined, sticking out his tongue between his teeth.

“Did you even sleep last night?” Nick asked plainly “You look like a panda”

“Why do you fucking care?” Leon rolled back his eyes. Nick just shrugged, refusing to answer. The first-year gathered the little courage he had left. “Why are you helping me if you’re only going to flunk my audition?” He whispered, not exactly expecting an answer.

Nick blinked, confusion smeared on his face. “What?”

“Like I said–” Leon started, his voice a little louder.

“Who said I’m flunking you?” The black haired boy was indignant.

“You did!!” The younger threw up his arms leaning off the tree.

“I did not say that!”

“Yes, you did! You said there was no way I was passing the audition because you were the judge! You asked if I was ready to fail!!” Leon yelled, his anxiety was bursting out.

“Y-yeah but-” Nick was taken aback.

“You turned off the electricity from the practice room!” Leon was now in front of Nick, the older boy caught between him and the tree.

“I know but-” Nick shrank back on the trunk.

“You told the professors to slave me all week so I was tired!” Leon stepped up, not even a full hand separating the two boy’s bodies.

“Wait, wait, wait-” Nick was flustered.

“You-!”

“Leon!” Nick snapped, his own hand coming up to shut the younger’s mouth “I am sorry, ok?!” He blurted out “I’m sorry” He repeated.

As if it was a switch, Leon’s anger disappeared immediately, shock taking its place. He did not know what he was expecting, but sure as hell wasn’t an apology. Their noses were almost touching and he could see the glint of sincerity on Nick’s eyes.

The two of them kept staring at each other until the second-year realized his hand was still on the other's mouth. He awkwardly took it off and used it to push back his own hair.

“Look…” He started, pink coming up his cheeks “I was pulling your leg, okay? I was just messing around” He sighed, the words sounding ridiculously childish even to his own ears “Isn’t that what we do? We piss each other off?” He cringed, every word sounding worse than the last one.

“But–”

“I’m not done.” Nick huffed out, his eyes sharp “Drink your protein, and let me finish” surprisingly Leon obeyed, too stunned to answer. “First things first, I did not sell you out to slavery. One teacher asked me if I knew someone strong to help her out because I was busy that day and you were the first person that popped on my head” Nick signaled Leon’s body with his hands as if to make a point “I had nothing to do with the other ones calling you out, the professor must have bragged about you or something”

“Wha-?” Leon’s protein drink got caught in his throat. He went on a coughing fit as Nick continued.

“Second” He held two fingers up, it seemed to be a habit of his “I did turn off the electricity to mess with you, but I also did it because it was almost midnight and the dorm was going to close”

“You could have just told me!”

“Well, that wouldn’t have been half of the fun it was, would it?” Nick tsc-ed and Leon mumbled a curse at him “Lastly” He opened his arms like he was a host in a show “I knew you wouldn’t give up on it just because of me”

“And how in the flying fuck’s name, could you know that?” Leon was not even yelling anymore, he was just shocked through and through.

“Because you are more stubborn than that” Nick deadpanned. He raised a single eyebrow and crossed his arms, his elbows touching Leon’s chest in the process. Leon was suddenly very aware of their proximity. “I mean, are you not here right now?”

“I-I guess?”

“Also…”

“There’s more?!”

“I know you applied for the scholarship the dance club gives out every year.”

Leon’s face fell. He had not told that to anyone. Not even to Mark.

“How…?” He felt defeated.

“I saw it when I glitter bombed your backpack” Nick shrugged like that wasn’t a big deal.

“Can you just kill me with fire?” He facepalmed. Leon wanted that to be a surprise if he were able to get it. No one was supposed to know, he thought it would be embarrassing if he failed.

“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about” Nick said as if he could read Leon’s mind “The cherry on the top here is: besides all that, I still wouldn’t fail you out of spite” He continued. “Seriously, once again, what the hell do you take me for?” He frowned. “Look, if you’re good, you’re good. If you can be an asset to the club I, and everyone else, will receive you gladly, it would be stupid of me not to.”

They both stopped talking for a moment. The words took a second to fully sink into Leon’s head, and when he noticed it, his nausea was gone. Nick was not going to fail him, he still had a chance. He could still dance. Maybe even get the scholarship.

A gleam of excitement shone in Leon’s eyes, an expression that the second-year had not seen before grew on the boy’s face. Before he could stop himself, Nick ruffled Leon’s hair, a gesture that seemed way too intimate and caring for the relationship they both had. He had messed up the hairdo of the younger boy, who didn’t even notice, startled out of his body.

Nick cleared his throat, shyness crawling up his neck at his own actions, and pretended his intention from the beginning was to let Leon’s hair down, much like the first week of college.

“Your hair looks fine down” He muttered “Now shove the rest of that damned protein drink down your throat, go back there and give me a kickass performance so this whole conversation was not meaningless and I can keep living with myself.” He finished loudly and stormed out, not waiting for a reply. “You have five minutes to get your butt inside the practice room!” He yelled again, his voice muffled by the wall that was already separating them.

Leon stayed still for a whole other minute. He couldn’t even piece together the entire conversation yet, but some parts stuck.

Nick had said he was strong. Nick had said he was not going to fail him. Nick had believed he wouldn’t back down. Nick said his hair looked fine.

Leon smiled confidently, drank the rest of the drink and decided that for once he would indulge his senpai: he went back and gave everyone a kickass performance.

—

Later that day, Leon reached out to the club’s president after all the auditions had passed and all the names had been called already. Moon, who told everyone they could call her Moonie if they wanted, smiled sweetly at him.

“What, aren’t you and little John going to celebrate?” She asked.

“We will!” Leon beamed, his and John’s names were called in the first ten admitted names. “I was just wondering if Moonie-senpai could… uh…”

“If I could…?” She teased, echoing the young boy.

“If-Moonie-senpai-could-tell-me-if-Nick-gave-me-a-bad-score-or-not” He said really fast, almost tripping over the words. Leon felt very silly but he was just curious about it after what happened earlier.

“That…” She paused “would be confidential” and gave him an apologetic smile.

“O-oh, ok, sorry, I was just wondering” He scratched the back of his neck shyly. “Alright… then I’ll be leaving, thank you Senpai” Leon fidgeted then gave her a little wave before turning around.

“Ops” He heard Moon say. When he turned back to look, she had lots of papers on her hands and one of them had slipped to the floor “How clumsy, Leon could you be a dear and get that for me?”

Leon nodded eagerly and skipped back to pick up the paper. He looked it over before straightening up with the brightest smile on his face.

“Thank you” He whispered and put the paper back on the pile in her hands.

“I don’t know what you are talking about” Moon replied, gave him a wink and walked out of the room “Have a nice evening, Leon”.

“I will” He said to himself as she was already gone.

Leon’s smile could not fit his face.

Nick had given him perfect scores.