Jungin looks at the boys walking through the hallways with Soohyang and the new kid together through the window. She watches how the new kid seems to get along the most with Junhui, as he often goes to her side and playfully pokes her arms. At the sight, Jungin starts balling her fists.

“It looks like... Yoonji is getting along with them...” Hyejin dares to comment.

“Yeah, totally. And she sticks to Junhui. Wow, what a ,” Taeyeon adds.

Hyejin wants to voice her disapproval towards Taeyeon’s use of crude word, but stops herself as she looks down weakly. She can’t possibly go against her.

“I don’t care if she’s close to Junhui.” Jungin looks away from the sight as she goes back to her seat.

“Oh really?” Jungin turns at Taeyeon, who is looking at her mockingly. Hyejin is still looking at the floor as she also rushes back to the seat next to Jungin.

Truth be told, Jungin never really likes Taeyeon because she’s such a smartass. If not only for the fact that they both share the same fate of never getting the boys’ attention in class, she would never have befriended her.

“Really.” She tries to scoff it off as she reaches her seat.

“Jungin-ah, I hope you don’t get mad...” Hyejin looks at her in worry.

“No, why would I?”

Hyejin, on the other hand, is a nice kid. The whole thing about her bullied past is true, and indeed, it was Jungin who saved her from those bullies. Maybe because of that Hyejin is being nice to her. Jungin doesn’t know for sure.

“You should do a little prank for her, you know, like throwing her bag into the fountain or something.”

Jungin and Hyejin immediately throws weird look at Taeyeon. The girl in question looks back at them, feigning innocence.

“What? That’s just a suggestion, you know.”

Hyejin though looks like she just realizes something.

“Did you—”

The boys, along with Soohyang and Yoonji, arrive back to the class, just as the bell signing for the next class starts ringing. Hyejin gets up and returns to her seat as everyone else does the same.

Taeyeon throws one last look at Jungin, seemingly asking for her opinion about her suggestion. Once she turns back though, Jungin just shakes her head in disapproval.

Yoonji didn’t really expect that she would get closer to the boys and Soohyang this fast. Now she always has her lunch in the cafeteria with them on one table consisting of three to four tables to accommodate all fifteen of them. Sometimes when Yoonji gets some pocket money, she would buy food at the cafeteria, but most of the time, she’s having the lunch packed by her mother. Since her father also recently gets his pay, she doesn’t bring toasts anymore for the time being, instead, warm rice packed with kimchi and also meat and veggies can be seen in her lunchbox. Even the other boys are jealous of it.

“Wow, they look delicious! My mom never packs me lunch... I’m jealous,” Seokmin mutters as he tries to swallow his saliva that’s threatening to come out any time soon.

“Do you want to try it?” Yoonji stabs a piece of meat with a fork and offers it to him. They are sitting next to each other today, so she doesn’t have to cross the table to give it to him.

“Yes, sure!” He smiles brightly at her before devouring the piece of meat from the fork. Then he gives her thumbs up signaling that it’s good.

She also smiles at him before stabbing another piece and then eating it.

“Oh?” Junhui, who was watching the whole scene unfolded before his eyes, pokes Yoonji, who’s also sitting next to him, on her arm.

“What is it?”

“Have you ever had your first kiss?” he asks with a smirk on his face.

Sure enough, Yoonji starts to blush at the question.

“Why are you asking me that suddenly?”

“Nah, just wondering... I mean you just had your indirect kiss with Seokmin,” his smirk turning into an amused grin, “so if you haven’t had your first kiss then—”

“Hey, it’s a common thing to share the same spoon and fork with your friends in Korea, don’t you know that?”

Although she said that, the truth is she doesn’t usually share her eating utensils with people. She doesn’t even know why it was so natural of her to do it with Seokmin. Perhaps because he’s also outgoing so she finds herself getting close with him also rather quickly, just like her with Junhui.

“Oh really?” Junhui smirks again, totally mocking her right now.

“Really.” She continues eating again, intent on ignoring any of Junhui’s teasing.

The day when Yoonji gets her share of cleaning duty finally arrives. She gets to do the duty with Chan and also Jungin, the latter she feels terribly awkward with as they pass each other with brooms in tow. She can somewhat feel Jungin giving her a cold shoulder then.

“Yoonji-yah!” It’s Chan. “Can you fill up the bucket with water? We are going to mop the floor.”

“Oh, sure.” She accepts the bucket from Chan and then goes to the restroom to get the water. When she arrives, she puts the bucket under the sink as the sink is wide enough for the small bucket to fit in. Then she turns one of the tap and the water starts to pour in.

As she’s waiting for the bucket to fill up, she hears a clicking sound and some other bumping sound. It sounds like it comes from the outside of the restroom, so she heads to the door to check it out. But as she turns the knob of the door, her expression turns dark immediately. Surely she can’t get locked in the restroom...?

She also hears the sound of the pouring water getting louder and turns to see the bucket is overfilled. She rushes to turn off the water tap. After that, she goes back to the door to try to open it, but it’s still locked.

“Hello! Anyone outside?” she screams out loud. “Help me!”

She moves on to knock on the door loudly as well, but no response.

“Let me out!!!!” she screams again as she keeps knocking on the door.

Jungin comes back to the classroom with a bucket full of water in hand. Meanwhile, Chan eyes her suspiciously as she puts the bucket on the floor.

“Didn’t I ask Yoonji to get the water?”

Jungin looks at him confused.

“You did? I thought she bailed.”

“No, I gave her a bucket and ask her to get the water! Where did you get that one?”

“Well I got it from—”

Chan dashes outside the classroom immediately without waiting for Jungin to finish her sentence.

“Get me out of here now!” Yoonji screams again as she keeps knocking on the door. Her energy depletes rather quickly though, so after some time, her screams and knocks are getting weaker. She would’ve searched for a way to get out through an opening in the restroom, but now she’s getting tired and she thinks she might not make it there.

“Just let me out... please...” She keeps knocking on the door weakly as she hears a rustling sound behind the door. That wakes her out of her myriad as she looks expectantly at the door. Once she hears a clicking sound, she feels like shouting Hallelujah.

A head is peeking through the door, and it turns out to be Mingyu.

“Yoonji? What are you doing here?”

“Oh my God. Thank God you’re here! I’ve been locked here for I don’t know how long...” She feels like crying already, and she also feels like she needs a hug right now. So she just does it. Without thinking, she wraps her arms around Mingyu and starts letting her tears flow, making the boy flustered at first, but after some time, he starts patting her back.

“It’s okay, it’s okay...”

“Wow!” Mingyu and Yoonji immediately break themselves away from the hug though as they heard that loud exclamation voice. Sure enough, Chan is there, looking quite flustered himself.

“I—I’m sorry for bothering you guys—”

“No it’s not what it looks like!”

“It’s not what you think it is!”

Both of them retort immediately, looking even more flustered than Chan is.

Chan and Yoonji go back to the classroom with Mingyu trailing behind. Surely Chan looks pissed as they arrive to the sight of Jungin busily mopping the floor.

“Park Jungin!”

The girl in question looks at them with totally confused eyes.

“What?”

“You did that to Yoonji, didn’t you?”

“Did what?”

“You locked her in the restroom!” Mingyu shouted from behind.

“What? I didn’t do that!”

“Then how would you explain you getting that bucket full of water instead of Yoonji?” Chan asks back with a sharp glare.

“That bucket I got it from—” A look of realization dawns on her face, and after that, it’s replaced by an angry look.

“Lee Hyejin!!!!” She dashes to the exit, and now, the three students remaining in the class are looking more confused than ever.

Junhui just returns from the library to borrow a book for a science project. He’s ready to go back home, but coincidentally, he catches the sight of Jungin with one of her minions standing right next to the fountain. Instinctively, he hides behind one of the pillars of the building to spy over them.

“Did I ever ask you to prank the girl? Huh?” Jungin looks totally angry as the girl in front of her just keeps her head down.

“I’m...sorry! I thought you would like it...”

“Why would I like it? It’s the same thing as being a bully, don’t you know that? I hate to go down to their level!”

Somehow, Junhui feels like he’s hearing something wrong. Jungin doesn’t like being a bully? What?

“I’m sorry! I won’t do it again!” the other girl sounds like she’s about to cry.

“Promise me you won’t do it again for real?”

“I... promise! Promise!”

If Jungin was angry before, she looks annoyed now. That’s a rather quick downgrade, considering how hot-tempered she is, Junhui thinks.

“Fine. Where’s Taeyeon anyway? Did she go back home earlier than us again?”

“W-well, it seems so...”

“It is. Wait for me until I finish cleaning. On second thought though, you come with me. You have a lot of explaining to do.”

The two of them are now heading to the stairs to get to the classroom. Junhui finally comes out of his hiding with an amused smirk on his face.

“You hate going down on bullies’ level, huh?”

And it's the end of chapter 6! I'll update you guys on the vote count immediately!

Seungcheol - 6 votes
Wonwoo - 6 votes
Jihoon - 3 votes
Soonyoung - 2 votes
Hansol - 1½ votes
Jisoo - 1 vote
Junhui - ½ vote

So Seungcheol and Wonwoo are tied now! Wow!

I'd like to ask you guys though, should I just make a poll or voting with these two only or should I continue just like how it has been? (Which means I still accept every Seventeen member as the candidate for the lead)

Also if you have anything to say about the story so far, please say it! I accept any comments from "good update!" to constructive criticism (but no bashing ofc)