Before Jonas knew what was happening, he was pulled into the common room by Travis.

"Take off your shirt." Travis ordered.

Jonas raised an eyebrow trying to see if there was an alternative reason for Travis's request. Honestly, Travis was hoping to see what he would look like without a shirt. He could feel his muscles flexing on his back when he gave Travis a piggyback ride.

Jonas hesitated. Everett joked about him working out topless, but that was a lie. Last year he never took his shirt off around people, including the gym. He sighed and turned his back to them as he started to lift his shirt, unaware of the lustful gazes. He peeled the shirt off, revealing a muscle shirt. Travis gulped looking at his arms. They were completely sculpted.

Jonas moved and pulled off his muscle shirt, but while the shirt was over his head, he heard a click of a camera. He tossed the shirt to the ground and caught Travis with his phone out. "I can't help it. I mean... wow..." He said, staring at Jonas's backside.

Travis quickly moved and sent it to the group chat.

: New eye candy

: Who the fuck is that

: Jealous. Same question as Brandon

: Stop Travis! No one look!

: I'm here in person and can't believe it

: STOP!

: Seriously?

: Be proud of that body, Jonas

: STOP LOOKING AT MY SWEETHEART!

They only saw his back, but it was well defined and sculpted with muscle. It was more than what other normal 17 year olds would have. But concern flickered in their eyes when they saw a number of scars on his back.

Hugh ran and jumped onto Jonas' back. "Make them stop, sweetheart. I'm going to get jealous!"

Jonas twisted a little and threw Hugh on the couch. He landed on top of Hugh, one leg on the ground, the other between his thighs. His pulled Hugh's hands over his head, pinning him.

Click.

Then a new message.

: I'm shipping it

: Still here in person... and yeah... shipping it

: Shit

: Hot

: ...

: Wow. I thought they were joking

: Wow. No wonder he's a King

: Um... Does this make me gay now???

Jonas grabbed Hugh's phone that fell to the ground and checked the messages. He showed it to Hugh before he sat up, creating a little distance between them. Hugh was now out of Jonas' grasp and grabbed his phone

: Mine!

: *Middle finger emoji*

: Stanning this so hard right now

: *Middle finger emoji*

Jonas moved off of the couch and stood up, watching Hugh who was laughing uncontrollably. Hugh's eyes glanced over Jonas' front that was now exposed. He had a chiseled chest, abs for days, and a v-line so sharp it could cut someone. But the scars from his back carried over to his front. Especially a large scar from the lower part of his ribs to his hips. It was too jagged to be a surgical scar.

Although they had questions, they did not point it out. Hugh put on a smile. "Seriously, dude, why are you hiding all of this? Is that a tattoo?"

On his ribs were the words "Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men".

"Book of Five Rings." Jonas explained.

"Figures. I bet you don't even need these glasses." Hugh picked up the glasses Jonas always had on, and placed them on his face. "Called it. Non-prescription."

Jonas figured that while living with them, he couldn't hide much - his body, scars, fighting, and glasses. "I was hoping to go unnoticed."

Hugh laughed until tears fell from his eyes. "No matter what you do, you will be noticed sweetheart. I mean, the first day of school, you become a King."

"I think that was mainly your fault, babe." Jonas said with a groan. He ran his hands through his hair, which reminded Travis of his original goal. He really wanted to see Jonas's face without those long messy locks.

Travis squeaked and grabbed on to Jonas' arm and pulled him to a chair in the dining area. "Don't worry. I do everyone's hair here."

Jonas looked over to the guys and they all nodded. Jonas sat down and closed his eyes while Travis started to play with his hair and brush through it.

Soon he heard the clippers started taming his messy hair but opened his eyes when he heard a gasp behind him.

"Jonas..." Travis' voice was meek and he was sniffling. He just shaved over the part with the scar on the back of his head.

Jonas knew what he saw and his hand instinctively went to the scar. "Did you cut too much? I'm sure you can fix it." He hoped to take Travis' attention away.

But the other guys already noticed something was wrong. They were standing around Jonas and Travis joking around, but went quiet when they heard the pain in Travis' voice.

"But that scar... it's still pretty fresh..." Travis' lip trembled. He didn't want to push too much, but he really liked Jonas as a friend and didn't like knowing that his friends were in pain.

Travis continued with a meek voice. "And so are a lot of the other ones on your body. You back and arms especially."

His last fight of his Junior year was the worst one he had been in. It was hard won, but left lasting scars physically and emotionally. He still looks over his shoulder to watch his own back.

No one expects to be jumped, especially so ruthlessly. He was starting to leave campus when suddenly a bat cracked across his head. He remember lifting his hand and touching where the bat hit, and found his hand was covered in blood. He was dizzy and his eyes were unfocused. He forced himself to stay alert, just long enough to see the other bat coming towards him. He tried to defend himself and took the blow to his arms, but when it became too much, he had to turn his back towards his attackers, letting it take the brunt of the damage.

He fought the urge to slip into unconsciousness and did the only thing he could... he fought. And he fought mercilessly.

He was broken inside at the time of the fight - angry and ruthless. A year of hell led up to that point. While dazed and bleeding, he let every boy in that fight feel his wrath.

When his attackers were piled on the ground and unmoving, Jonas realized that his whole life had been a joke. Socialite, Elite, popular. It was only a set up for his fall.

His tattered heart could only do one thing. Laugh. He laughed in the middle of his carnage, dripping with his own blood.

He dragged his body to the gym, bloodied and dazed. Chuck and the others understandably were panicked. Jonas refused the hospital, despite their protests. But they were all trained in some form of first aid, so his gym patched him up and took him in.

But as a result, he gained a number of scars.

Jonas shook the memories from his mind. "They are just scars. Everyone has them. Mine are just a bit more visible than others."

By Travis wrapped his arms around Jonas' neck and let out a little cry. "But they are not just scars. What happened?"

Hugh quickly came up and patted Travis on the shoulder. "Come on, Travis. He just moved in. You can't just ask that."

Jonas gave Hugh a grateful look as Travs peeled himself off of Jonas, his cheeks wet with tears. Jonas stood up and ruffled his hair. "Thanks for caring." His gratitude was genuine.

"Will you tell us what happened one day?" Travis asked nervously.

"It's nothing super secret. I just got into a fight." Jonas said with a shrug.

"A fight did that? It looks like you got in a fight with a bat!" Hugh said with a little anger laced in his voice. He wasn't mad at Jonas or Travis, but the person who would hurt Jonas like this. He only knew Jonas for a day, but already felt a deep connection with him.

Jonas flinched when he heard Hugh mention the bat and tried to hide it. But Hugh's eyes were shrap. "Fuck. You fought someone who was using a bat?"

Jonas gave them an exasperated look and Travis was looking at him with hopeless eyes. "Why would you do that?"

"Didn't have much of a choice." He mumbled but immediately wanted to take his words back. He noticed that Hugh picked up on the smallest of queues.

The atmosphere changed in the room. Each boy was fiercely loyal to each other, including to new kid who was accepted into their group.

"Sweetheart, who did it?" He tried to ask gently but his tone was stiff.

Jonas shook his head. "It doesn't matter now."

Hugh was clenching his fists and wanted to roar with rage. He knew that Jonas was the Wolf, but the stories all seemed fanatical, especially the story of him fighting 20 armed kids versus 1. But now, small truths were being revealed.

Jonas groaned loudly. "Can we please just do my hair. I feel ridiculous standing around with only a patch shaved."

Hugh decided to take a step back and nodded. Travis nodded and Jonas sat back down. Travis was shaving more of his hair and his sniffles returned. The room was gloomy as well and Jonas sighed, realizing that he must have more than just the one scar on his head. He stopped trusting people for a while. He only has his gym mates who patched him up and took care of him. However, even they didn't know the extent of the abuse he suffered. He didn't understand why but he was starting to feel a strong camaraderie with this group.

Jonas bit his lip a little and sighed. "A group of guys caught me unaware. They thought the only way to beat me was with a bat to the head and in numbers."

"That's terrible." Travis mumbled.

Jonas shrugged a little. "It's over now, and I technically won. I'm here now, and that's not a bad thing."

Despite his difficult past, he truly believed that being here was the best thing for him. These people had somehow encroached in his closed off heart. Friendship. It seemed so foreign, but now there was a glimmer of hope.