Kyungsoo is making the line at the cafeteria; he has picked his lunch and reaches for the milk but there’s none.

 

“What?! There’s no more milk?”

 

He looked really upset. It sounds silly but he was craving milk since this morning.

 

“Here, you can have mine.”

 

Kyungsoo heard the deep voice and as he looked up he saw Chanyeol gave him a side smile. Kyungsoo muttered a low ‘Thanks’ and went to the table he usually shared with his friends. 

 

He drinks his milk with a straw while admiring his all time crush Park Chanyeol.  All that mystery and gosh he is so tall! What can he say? Chanyeol is not one for much conversation and is always deep in his music but Kyungsoo has been in love with him since he helped him reach a book from a tall stand at the library. Or was it perhaps when Chanyeol helped him when Kyungsoo almost fell? Or maybe it was that time that Chanyeol helped him pick the contents of his backpack from the floor? And now, he actually gave him the last milk box! How thoughtful!

 

Unknowingly Kyungsoo starts smiling and then he feels how the milk that was previously on his hands is being slashed on his face, courtesy of Kim Jongin, of course.

 

Jongin is a popular kid, let’s rephrase that, he is the ultimate popular kid. He gets everything he wants, he has followers and fans and he is a jerk. For some reason he likes to pick on Kyungsoo. He doesn’t really know why. Well, Kyungsoo is a smart kid but is not the ultimate nerd. He likes manga, anime and video games but his life doesn’t revolve around it and he is on the photography club but that is not the worst one. Kyungsoo knows he is not one of the school’s golden kids, but he shouldn’t be this kind of outcast. Why? Why did Jongin decided to bully him?

 

The milk is now dripping from Kyungsoo’s face and even his hair got wet.

 

“What’s that? You hadn’t finished that? That’s your problem dumb face!”

 

Jongin left, laughing along with his friend who always laughed to anything Jongin did. Kyungsoo didn’t even think his remarks were even that clever.

 

Junmyeon came to sit down next to Kyungsoo handing him some tissues, a look of pity on his face.

 

“I have milk. Do you want it?”

 

“No, that’s alright Junmyeon. I’m just going to wash this off. Wait, you have milk? But I had the last one…”

 

“They just put a new tray.”

 

Of course they did, how silly of Kyungsoo to think the school would not have more milk to give them.

 

Luckily for Kyungsoo, Chanyeol was oblivious to the small scene. If it weren’t for Jongin, Kyungsoo’s high school days would be all right. He would even enjoy some of them, but Jongin and his click of friends made him spend his days on edge, not knowing when he would embarrass him.

 

Kyungsoo finished cleaning himself and went to his next classroom just to be away from Jongin’s reach. When he entered the room he found Minseok sleeping on one of the desks.

 

Minseok was like an alien of the popularity ranks. He spent time with the nerds but he was also popular. He basically did whatever he wanted but was still cool. He was with everyone, but with no one. But, what Kyungsoo cared most about is that Minseok was one of his dearest friends.

 

He tried not to make noise but Minseok woke up none the less.

 

“Is it time for class already?”

 

“Not yet.”

 

“And what are you doing here? Did you not have lunch?”

 

“Just milk. All over my face.”

 

“Jongin?”

 

“Yeah…”

 

Minseok nodded sympathetically.

 

“I have some crisps, come and have some.”

 

Kyungsoo joined Minseok and they ate crisps and talked about anime until is was time for class.

 

Unfortunately the class after that was home economics and he had to take it with Jongin. The teacher would come, tell them what they needed to cook and 5 minutes later would excuse herself and be back 5 minutes before the class ended. So the place was no man’s land. They had to make soup today. At the end, if you made it you got points, if it tasted good you had bonus points so basically people didn’t put much effort on it. Kyungsoo was teamed up with his friends as usual. Junmyeon, Jongdae and Kyungsoo had been friends since primary school. Now, they divided the work to cut potatoes, boil water and prepare seasoning while making plans for the weekend.

 

Only 9 minutes for class to end and their soup was ready. It tasted kind of terrible but at least it tasted like something. Just then, barely 4 minutes for the teacher to come in, Jongin came looming over followed by Sehun and Yifan.

 

Every nerve on Kyungsoo’s body turned to panic. Jongin usually bothered him once a day and his requirement for today has been reached. The three towered over them as Jongin fumbled with the pot containing the soup.

 

“I wonder what it would taste like if we added some things.”

 

He dropped a banana in the pot and then added some flour.

 

“I feel like something is missing…”

 

Jongin kept looming over their things. The rest of the classroom standing still watching all the drama unfold. Kyungsoo kept thinking ‘It’s all right we can take it out before the teacher comes in’. Jongin found some remnants from when Jongdae sharpened his wooden pencil and dropped them into the soup.

 

“This would do. Guys what do you think?”

 

Sehun looked into the pot and smirked.

 

“It looks disgusting.”

 

“You are right, it does look disgusting. Why do you make something un-edible?”

 

Jongin threw the contents of the pot to the floor when he finished his statement. The three friends left, leaving Kyungsoo, Junmyeon and Jongdae to panic over what happened.

 

For them everything happened in slow motion. It was as if time decided to stop altogether and then leap forward when the teacher came in. All the soup was on the ground.

 

 

“And what do you expect me to grade here?”

 

The teacher looked stern at the contents in the floor.

 

“But… but… we made the soup. We didn’t intended for it to be on the floor.”

 

Junmyeon was almost pleading to the teacher.

 

“Well, I cannot taste it if its on the floor can I?”

 

“But, professor it wasn’t our fault!”

 

Kyungsoo’s desperation was palpable on his words.

 

“I don’t want any excuses Kyungsoo, just clean this up.”

 

The teacher moved on to the next group. Kyungsoo was furious and he was shooting daggers with his eyes towards Jongin who was smirking from his workstation.

 

Jongin had done many things before, but he had never played with his grades. This had to stop.

 

 

Kyungsoo had suffered many things from Jongin. Some were silly at first. He experienced being pulled, pushed, shoved, his books being dropped to the floor, getting buckets of water over his head, his backpack being misplaced, his shoes on top of the basket ball hoop, milk splashed to his face, among others. But things were getting out of hand. Since the last incident with the soup - that made the guys lose the points for that class- he had found his chemistry book with missing pages and magic marker damaging other parts and his sports uniform being cut in important parts making it un-wearable. Now Jongin was messing with school stuff and Kyungsoo was already sick and tired of it.

 

 

Today Kyungsoo was feeling tired and was glad the day was finally over. On his way to his locker he saw Chanyeol who was getting a guitar out of his. A small smile formed in Kyungsoo’s lips. Maybe he would find out more about guitars and talk to Chanyeol, or perhaps convince his mom to get him one so he could ask Chanyeol for lessons! While wrapped in his own daydream Kyungsoo felt himself being pulled back and dropped to the floor. Jongin was at it again, only this time Chanyeol was watching. Kyungsoo hated that Chanyeol would see this weak side of him.

 

“You are still around here? Good because I got you something.”

 

Jongin was holding a chocolate milk box. He opened Kyungsoo’s bag and emptied the content of the milk box inside. All of Kyungsoo’s books and notes were getting wet and brown from the milk.

 

Kyungsoo looked up helpless but no one was doing anything about it. Sehun was holding him to the ground while all his things got ruined. And Chanyeol was also seeing all this, seeing him weak. That was the moment when Kyungsoo snapped. He pulled with all his might out of Sehun’s grip. This took Sehun by surprise since Kyungsoo never fought back before. Kyungsoo got up and shoved Jongin hard against the lockers.

 

“What? Do you have something to say?”

 

Jongin once more.

 

“I’m sick and tired of all your ! Let’s fight! You and me, one on one!”

 

Kyungsoo wasn’t really sure what he was saying. He was sure to lose any fight against Jongin. The other one was bigger than him.

 

Jongin laughed.

 

“So you want to fight? Ok, let’s do it. I’ll wait for you in the basketball court in 10 minutes. But if you bail you are dead.”

 

Jongin left and everything around Kyungsoo became chaos. Everyone seemed really excited about the fight. Well, for some reason people always liked executions. He was sure he even heard an ‘Off with his head’ being shouted in the distance. Sadly he didn’t think people were rooting for him.

 

Junmyeon and Jongdae were quickly by his side dropping too many ‘Are you insane’ ‘You are so dead’ ‘That was pretty cool’ ‘Can I keep your manga collection when you die?’

 

“I think I’m going to be sick.”

 

Kyungsoo ran to the bathroom and emptied his stomach, getting rid of the nerves as well.

 

“I don’t think you can beat him Soo.”

 

Junmyeon, always stating the obvious.

 

 “I think you can. Remember that time he nearly choked me to death? Just do that!”

 

Jongdae, always positive.

 

“You are right. There’s no way out of this. Let’s just go and I’ll give him my best hits.”

 

“I’m so proud of you.”

 

Jongdae hugged Kyungsoo.

 

“You are so dead.”

 

Junmyeon said but joined the hug all the same.

 

 

Kyungsoo arrived at the basketball court. It was insane how many people were there. He could swear there was more people that in the actual games or school assembly. How could the teachers not notice this massive student exodus? At least he could not see Chanyeol in his quick scan of the crowd.

 

Jongin was standing near one of the hoops looking at him defiantly. Kyungsoo walked towards him.

 

“We should set some rules.”

 

Kyungsoo ventured, trying to save his life.

 

“Alright, first to put 10 hoops in wins. That simple.”

 

“What?”

 

Hoops! What was he talking about?

 

“I thought we were going to fight.”

 

Jongin just laughed.

 

Damn it! Jongin wasn’t as stupid as Kyungsoo expected. Fighting was against school rules. They had already planned that if things got ugly Jongdae would run and warn the teachers. That way Kyungsoo would just roll into a ball and looked like the victim so Jongin would get suspended.

 

“What? You don’t want to do it anymore?”

 

Kyungsoo looked towards his friends. They urged him to take the chance. Junmyeon actually looked very relieved. But Kyungsoo was panicking, he wasn’t good at basketball and Jongin was so much taller.

 

“O…ok, but then you will stop bothering me at school!”

 

“I will stop bothering you…if you win.”

 

“And if I lose?”

 

“If you do, you will be my boyfriend.”