“Eh? Aren't you the de-” Mingyu started, but caught himself as he became the target of Ha Eun's death glare. He looked beside the girl and saw Eunseol shifting uncomfortably, showing obvious discomfort to the fact that he recognise her. He lets his sentence hang halfway before correcting himself, “Nevermind, I think I've got the wrong person.”

“Well, I believe we haven't met,” Mingyu's tone changed into a humble one like is was when he was playing with Eunbyeol. “Let me introduce to you this year's MVP player in the National Basketball Tournament and the coordinator for the year one's orientation, Kim Mingyu at your service.” And he proceeded with relieving them of the load of the heavy paper bags.

Eunseol relaxed considerably, thankful that he did not expose her secret, though almost. She let her guard down as she saw Mingyu's face brightened like a kid that got his hands on honey when he opened the bag and saw its contents. There's no way he would blackmail someone. Choi Eunseol, stop worrying. If he does, just pay him to shut up and it'll be fine.

As they walked down a long way, corners after corners, Ha Eun uttered, “I wasn't even aware that this school has a basketball team, let alone a skilled one. Weren't you guys supposed to be arty farty and all nerdy?”

“It has been a short 5 years since the first sports club was founded and it's only two years since the basketball team was established.” Mingyu replied, addressing her doubts. “The management hardly ever updates the school website, maybe that's why you are unaware.”

He led them to a glass elevator, pressing the up button and waited for the lift before continuing his mini orientation. “Some students claim that they needed an output to vent their stress so one of them petitioned for a sports club and soon enough, others joined in and signed on it.” He shrugged as they filled into the small space while he punched in the access code to the top floor.

“In the end, the teachers gave them the green light so they decided to establish a sports club and elect a party president, as we often call, to organise these crazy, post-exams activities for them to release their pent up stress.” The elevator stopped at the top floor and they filed out of the constricting space.

“Wah Kim Mingyu, you seem to know a lot about the school considering that you are only in your second year.” Eunbyeol remarked, slightly impressed with his almost professional tone,

Mingyu smirked, feeling smug about the praise, “If you are in my position as someone who's in charge of the induction ceremony and orientation for the freshmen, you need to be well-verse in these. Otherwise, how are you gonna satisfy their curiosity? Besides, hot guys like me will look even hotter when they sound knowledgeable about such stuffs.” He commented, straightening his posture and tugging on his jacket.

Eunbyeol blatantly ignored the egoistical guy and headed for the wooden double doors in the far distance. She dragged Eunseol and Ha Eun along, leaving four big paper bags for Mingyu to carry.

But of course, with Mingyu's long legs, he easily caught up to them and entered the room when Eunbyeol pushed open the double doors with much force. “Food is here!” He screamed, catching everyone off guard. The people in the room stared at him for a short three second before returning back to their heated discussion.

Mingyu's excitement was killed by the tense atmosphere in the room and his grin was replaced with a sullen look. Eunseol caught his disappointment due to the lack of attention for him and decided to humor him a little. “Just leave those on the table. We can shove it in their face when they don't come and claim their lunch.”

His mood seems to have lifted as the prospect of shoving food in his hyungs' face and immediately set the food on an empty area on the conference table. They began to distribute the burgers and telling each of them to claim their own fries and drinks. It was as if the airport incident did not happen.

“Why are there only 11 burgers?” He whispered to Eunseol who was the closest to him, hands leaving two, his Big Mac and her Shrimp Burger. “Jihoon hyung hasn't got one” He pointed to the pink haired guy swivelling in his oversized office chair, looking very engrossed in the music playing from his earpiece.

“There's supposed to be twelve though." Eunseol claimed. "Just hand him mine, I'll find something else.” She knew her sister and a certain pink hair guy had some misunderstanding between them. She did not want him to assume that Eunbyeol did not order for him which may worsen the conflict.

“But the sauce is spicy, and Jihoon hyung can't take spicy food.” She gave him a what-do-you-suggest look and eyed his burger. Mingyu seems to have gotten the message and ducked his body, shielding his burger from Eunseol's plotting mind.

Nevertheless, he unwillingly handed over his precious Big Mac to Jihoon who was grateful for the source of energy he needed badly. “Good job, you can have mine then.” Eunseol gave him a secret thumbs up and he winked back at her.

Eunseol was digging for food at the refreshment corner when half of a burger materialize before her. She followed the hand and was greeted with Mingyu's burger stuffed cheeks, beaming at her. He resembles a very cute hamster right now. Does he know it himself? Eunseol wanted to squeeze those cheeks but she figured it would be inappropriate seeing how they only met officially half an hour ago. 

“Itsh pho u,” Mingyu spluttered, trying to speak with a full mouth. Eunseol was containing her laughter, amused by his efforts to form a coherent sentence. He blushed slightly and brought the half eaten burger into her palms before walking away searching for his drink before he chokes.

Thanks, Kim Mingyu. For the burger and for pretending not to know me just now. Eunseol silently thanked the adorable giant and unwrapped the wrapper, taking a huge bite of the burger.

“Alright, peeps, let's gather around and introduce ourselves to the baby sisters of Seungcheol and Jeonghan.” Seulgi's voice roared over the noisy boardroom. One by one, they dropped what they were doing at the god-knows-which corner they were at and scurried to the huge oak table, impatiently starting on their self-introduction.

“Quiet!” With one word, Seulgi effectively shut the mouths of the talkative boys. No one wants to be under her claw, so zipping their mouth would be a smart move on their part. “I don't think you need Seungcheol and Jeonghan to start on themselves.” Seulgi mentioned, but was cut by Jeonghan's not very intimidating threat.

“Choi Eunseol, come over here, I've yet to get you from your disrespect yesterday.” Eunseol was about to hide behind the giant that was conveniently standing beside her when she saw a girl holding him back.

“Oppa, don't be so childish.” She came out from behind Jeonghan and start the ball rolling. “I'm Shin Hyosun, Seventeen's female vice-president.” She heard a cough behind her and rolled her eyes then adding in that she's Jeonghan's girlfriend.

“I'm Jisoo.” It was short and precise. Both Ha Eun and Eunseol turned their head to the voice, finally catching sight of the Chinese restaurant waiter that had served them just yesterday. He did not pay them any attention, attitude leaving them puzzled considering that he seemed pretty ecstatic when he got a date yesterday with Ha Eun.

There was a Jun, who was also in charge of inducting freshmen and another year two called Seungkwan who has too much energy despite working overnight consecutively. A chorus of hello's and hi's flew by and after Mingyu re-introduced himself, their gaze dropped significantly to eye level, fixated onto a pink haired guy who was almost the same height as them. “I'm-”

“You don't need to know who he is anyway, he's-” Eunbyeol's words were cut off when Jihoon forced her into a headlock, completely ignoring the fact that she is a girl. “I'm Jihoon and I think I already like you better than this twin. So much better.” His voice strained as he tried containing Eunbyeol in the headlock, while directing the words to her, intending for Eunbyeol to hear.

Eunseol and Ha Eun both snickered at Eunbyeol's predicament before she broke out of his strong grip. They were about to engage in a diss battle when Seungcheol snapped his fingers, “Well, we still have another member in this committee, his name is Hansol. Jisoo ain't one of us but he's helpful so he's here. As for the rest, they are busy being pigs doing what pigs are doing – sleeping and lazing around. You'll meet them soon, I guess.”

Many of them had dispersed after that mini gathering, back to doing what they were assigned to. Eunseol decided to help Jihoon since he looked like he was having trouble trying to rearrange a song. She reckoned that she may be of help since she was very experienced in it.

Eunseol and Jihoon got along really well and the project was running very smoothly, save for some interruptions from Eunbyeol who was dying of boredom. By the time they have wrapped up their the composing and arrangement work, it was nearing seven. As if on cue, both their stomach rumbled and they glance at each other, embarrassed.

Eunseol looked around, finding most of them dozing off in weird positions. She spotted Mingyu, trying to cuddle up with Jun, and the latter desperately fending off his advances. Seungcheol oppa had pulled Seulgi onto his lap and snuggled into the warmth of her back while she typed away at her MacBook.

“Seulgi unnie,” the said girl turned her head towards Eunseol, waiting for her to continue, “Should we wake them up for dinner?” Seulgi glanced at the time on her monitor and nodded, “We are nearly done anyway. It's a Saturday. They deserve a hearty dinner.” Eunseol nodded and tapped on Jihoon's shoulder, who slipping in and out of sleep. Jihoon quickly understood and stood up, stretched his body while letting out a big yawn, then proceeded to wake the rest.

Eunseol went to Ha Eun who was sitting alone at the far end of the couch. There were tear stained on the corners of her eyes. Eunseol made a mental note to ask her best friend about her date with Jisoo yesterday and why she had brawled her eyes out before falling asleep.

Jihoon had already woke Jun and Seungkwan up and they announced that they'll be going back to the dorm for dinner. The rest of the gang had no dinner at home or at the dorm so they decided to celebrate their end of five weeks of extensive planning at a traditional Korean restaurant nearby.

They treaded down the streets of Gangnam after scarfing down their very generous dinner which consisted of mainly of spicy marinated chicken and cheese fondue. They were walking about aimlessly when Eunseol perked up and commented, “Yah Ha Eun, we haven't gotten our uniforms. Have we?”

Ha Eun's face lit up when she heard the word uniforms. She has always been jealous of the girls in Korea as their uniforms were know to be cute and fashionable. Just nice, they were also as the district where the outlet of their uniform supplier shop was opened at. So when Ha Eun saw the shop, she ditched the rest of the gang and ran forward, embracing the glass display while looking up at the pretty uniform being modelled on mannequins. Eunseol was just glad that her friend no longer had a frown on her face and that the her best friend Ha Eun was back.

It took them a record of an hour for Ha Eun to stop shopping, primarily because the shop closes at ten and because Jisoo wasn't paying her compliments unlike Mingyu towards Eunseol. Mingyu had evidently showed his appreciation for Eunseol in a uniform by wolf-whistling (which earned him a slap on his head from Seungcheol) and winking not-so-subtly at her.

Jisoo, however, remained silent throughout the whole process of uniform fitting, which was weird because the date between Ha Eun and him should have gone well, judging by the smile on her face last night when they video-called.

“Jeonghan oppa, I'll be staying over at Eunseol's tonight.” Ha Eun casually remarked, earning two You are? from the above mentioned. Regardless, Eunseol agreed with the impromptu sleepover knowing that Ha Eun needed a girlfriend to confide in.

Eventually, Ha Eun and Eunseol's night ended at three in the morning, only after much sobbing and complains from Ha Eun. The two of them wordlessly fell asleep, both exhausted from the afternoon's activities and late night chatting.

Sunday came along and ended without much happenings, apart from a near fire that Seungcheol oppa had started when he tried an elaborated breakfast for his precious sisters. It was then that they came to a decision that Seungcheol was not allowed near an oven for the sake of their safety and their house.

“Are you nervous? For the first day of school.” Seungcheol had entered Eunseol's room upon seeing the lights in her room has yet to ceased. He had identified a bump under her duvet and dog-piled her before she could sense his presence. Eunseol had struggled against the crushing weight before giving up, laying limp under the covers. Right now, they were sitting on her bed, cross-legged, discussing about what the future would bring.

Seungcheol watched as his baby sister snoozed into a deep slumber while he was talking. He then pull the covers up and lay a kiss on her forehead. Thank you for coming back, baby sis. I really miss you.

 

---

 

Characters: 

Choi Eunseol

Kim Mingyu

Choi Eunbyeol ; the twin sister

Yoon Ha Eun ; the best friend / sister of Jeonghan

Choi Seungcheol ; the older brother / the President of Seventeen Elite Committee

Lee Seulgi ; Seungcheol's girlfriend / the female Prresident of Seventeen Elite Committee

Yoon Jeonghan ; Ha Eun's brother / the Vice-President of Seventeen Elite Committee

Shin Hyosun ; Jeonghan's girlfriend / the Vice-President of Seventeen Elite Committee

Lee Jihoon ; Party President

Boo Seungkwan ; Party President

Moon Junhwi ; Head Coordinator of Year One Orientation

Hong Jisoo ; Seungcheol and Jeonghan's best friend

 

I'll be overseas from 14th to 20th so no laptop :( I'll see if I can access AFF in between.

Meanwhilie, enjoy the story!

 

Word Count: 2326