chapter 3.5
「Love Story」━ unfolding。CHAPTER 3
JANUARY 10, 2012
The next time the club met up again, was on the following Tuesday. To no one's surprise at all, nearly everyone has forgotten who they were supposed to be paired with so when Kwangsoo showed up a few minutes into club hours, the students were on edge and terrified out of their wits end. Kwangsoo had entered with a solemn look, offering the misconception that the kids were in for some deep . And they had a feeling if they told Kwangsoo they all forgot who their partners were, it'd be the key to opening the gates to satan.
"With the utmost sorrow, I have terrible news to announce," His eyes scanned the large room overfilled with students, looking each student in the eye as he continued, "The principle has decided to handpick only a few students of each club for the merge due to the overcrowding." Kwangsoo wiped an imaginary tear, expecting the other students to be just as sad. Kwangsoo heard screaming and when he looked up, the whole class was cheering instead. Most of the star clubs were jumping around from the excitement of the announcement and even some baekho members were very visibly happy. Kwangsoo rolled his eyes at the scene. Why did I think they'd be upset at the news.
Kwangsoo then pulled out a piece of paper featuring a much shorter list than from the last time. "If you hear your names, get your belongings because we'll be moving to another club room. As for the rest of you, you guys can go back to your original clubs." Kwangsoo paused to see if the students were listening, and surprisingly, they were. So he continued, " Ji Taehee, Kae Inyoung, Park Minhi, Kim Soojin, Lee Jaejoon, Oh Sehun, Seo Kangjoon, and Kim Ian." While the lot of the named kids were groaning and whining, the others around them were merely laughing at their misfortune until Kwangsoo spoke up again. "The eight of them would be the test group, so there would be other groups or more people who would be following in their footsteps. Watch out for it!" Kwangsoo had a grin on his face when the students' quieted down in unease. And just like that, the members of Baekho went back to their room and the members of Star club continued with whatever they were doing before hell swept over.
The group of 8 had settled down in another room where the small number of desks were turned to face each other. In the first row, Taehee sat in seat 1 followed by Sehun, Soojin, then Kangjoon. In the second row, Inyoung was first then Jaejoon, Minhi, and Ian. There was much less savagery happening amongst the small crowd seeing as most of them had some sort of relationship. Taehee was Sehun's cousin, Minhi and Ian were his best friends. Soojin was his other best friend's little sister and Jaejoon was one of Minhi's closest friends. And Kangjoon is friends with all the present Star Club members. Even for Inyoung, these were the Baekho members who didn't constantly shoot him dirty looks when he tried to tell a joke or tell him to shut up cause he talked too much. He actually got along okay with these Baekho members.
"So, how do you know Sehun? Y'all seem pretty tight." Minhi watched Soojin's expressions hoping to get some kind of idea of her relationship with Sehun. Soojin had her notorious blank face though, leaving Minhi to continue guessing. Soojin on the other hand, quickly caught the hint of.. jealousy? Annoyance? Whatever it was, Soojin was sure that Minhi was quite bothered by her existence, for whatever reason.
"We're both in Baekho and he's close with my brother. He's one of the few friends I have in Baekho but we're really not that close." Soojin continued to watch Minhi's reactions, hoping to solve the negative feelings Minhi had for her. They were partners and it'll only be reasonable to be on good terms with her. Plus, it wasn't like Soojin had anything to hide. She could visibly see Minhi relax, now displaying a toothy grin instead.
"I'm Park Minhi, " Minhi offered her hand as she intoduced herself to which Soojin briskly shook before continuing, "Please help me pass the chemistry finals coming up." Minhi finished her introduction with a short laugh, probably out of embarassment that there was a sure 100% chance she would fail the upcoming finals or because the girl really thought it was funny that she can possibly be so bad at chem.
"I'll be helping you pass all your tests." Soojin returned a friendly grin at Minhi's giggle.
She doesn't seem too bad.
Sehun returned after a bathroom break (missing Minhi and Soojin's whole conversation while everyone else was too busy settling down), taking his seat across Jaejoon and well, the first thing he did was give the poor boy a stare down. While the boy chuckled nervously, he decided to introduce himself. Maybe Sehun would stop giving him the look that Jaejoon just stole all his candy and return the initiative with friendliness.
"Hi." Again, Jaejoon gave a nervous chuckle accompanied with an awkward wave but Sehun remained unfaltered. Until Jaejoon saw someone smack Sehun on the arms, successfully catching his attention.
"Yah, Jaejoon just greeted you, you rude . You're supposed to say hi back. " Minhi had a scowl on her face as her eyes moved between the pair. Minhi and Soojin had successfully engage in small talk until Minhi's attention was taken away when she saw Sehun sit down across Jaejoon and witnessed the animosity.
"I was just thinking of something to say, you idiot. No need to get all KungFu Panda on me because of your little boyfriend here."
"What can I say? Angel Jaejoon needs to be protected from the devil's advocates like your ugly . Whether you're satan is up for argument as well."
"The only reason I'd even be considered the devil himself is if you forgone your throne."
Minhi shrugged casually, "There's nothing I can do about the fact that you bring out the worst in me." Instead of wasting his breath in trying to get the last word in the argument, since Sehun knows Minhi never gives up, was direct his attention to Soojin instead.
"Hey Walrus, good luck tutoring the devil herself. You'll definitely need it." Soojin waved off Sehun's words, intercepting Minhi from kicking Sehun.
"So do you want to pass the upcoming tests or not?" Minhi glared at Sehun one last time and returned her focus on Soojin. Although that attention was quickly disrupted again, leaving Soojin to just sit back and sigh as Minhi and Sehun engrossed themselves in another childish banter. She turned to look at Sehun's supposed partner, offering a small smile which Jaejoon replicated before looking down at his desk shyly. Soojin tapped his arms to get him to look at her then waved Jaejoon over, seeing that he wanted to work on chemistry as well and the pair finally started to do what this club session was supposed to be for. Sure Soojin completely abhored science. But she was still understand the overall concept of it to help out those that needed it. Plus chemistry had some math in it and that was one of her best subjects.
Kangjoon laughed when he overheard the banter between Sehun and Minhi before Soojin took his interest. Soojin was focused on teaching Jaejoon valence electrons and covalent bonds although her gaze always seemed to wander off when Jaejoon worked to solve one of the problems by himself. And Kangjoon was determined to find out just what was making the girl space out so often. She's been catching his eye quite often but the only thing she always seemed to be doing was fending everyone off with her blank face. But Kangjoon did see Soojin frown for the quickest second when Kwangsoo finished calling names, as if the name of the person she was hoping for wasn't called. Or it could just be because she really didn't want to be here. Maybe he was just overthinking but when Kangjoon had a gut feeling, he went with it.
Since Kangjoon wasn't paying much attention to him, Ian himself had focused his attention on Sehun and Minhi who were too busy smacking each other's hand that it looked like they were doing the doggy paddle upright. Ian caught the hint of red on Minhi's hand from the violence, deciding that he can't just sit back and watch any longer.
"Sehun, quit it man. Minhi's hand is getting red." True to Ian's words, Minhi's hand was the lightest shade of pink and the boy would've felt bad if not for the fact that the girl took this chance to wack him again.
"You ing brat," Sehun whined as he caressed his hand, which was evidently more red than Minhi's. Cause unlike a certain someone, Sehun actually held back. Minhi cackled at seeing her friend in pain, sending Ian a cheeky grin. When Minhi turned her attention back to Soojin to see that she was teaching Jaejoon instead, Minhi backed off. Mostly because she knew she would only be wasting Soojin's efforts and Jaejoon actually tries his best. So the girl gave Sehun the finger then dragged her chair over to Ian.
Taehee and Inyoung were in the front and as the oldest, were half over looking the others and another half watching Kwangsoo to see if he had any instructions for them. Instructions he did not have though, because he was now snoring away at the teacher's desk with his neverending legs propped on the desk and leaning back in the chair. And well, studying really wasn't on the seniors' minds at the moment so they left him be. The two finally looked at each other after they've looked everywhere else and Inyoung offered a friendly grin when they exchanged eye contact. Taehee naturally returned a smile, beginning to speak when she was cut off, "I'm-"
"Taehee. I know. You're not exactly one of the unnoticed girls in Jeguk." Inyoung has heard his fair share about Taehee, mainly of the long lines of boys that she had to reject and that made him jealous. He would consider them similar in the broadest terms possible, so why did the reactions they receive differ so drastically. Taehee was one of the most popular girls in school and Inyoung was the annoying pest that people tried to stray far away from. And with both of them having entered Jeguk in the same year, in 2008, he has been there through Taehee's transition into the school's flower and to put it bluntly, he didn't see why the girl was so popular.
"And you are..." Taehee has heard her fair share of rumors about Baekho and its members as well although their names never did stick to her. She had enough problems to deal with so remembering who is who in Baekho was the last of her worries.
"I'm Inyoung." Taehee shook Inyoung's extended hand, offering one of her smiles. There was silence between the two, Inyoung somewhat unsure whether he really wanted to work with Taehee but decided that he shouldn't dislike the girl based on rumors. Who knows, maybe he'll even fall for her charms in the future? With that thought in mind, Inyoung's face lit up again.
"I'm Inyoung." Taehee shook Inyoung's extended hand, offering one of her smiles. There was silence between the two, Inyoung somewhat unsure whether he really wanted to work with Taehee but decided that he shouldn't dislike the girl based on rumors. Who knows, maybe he'll even fall for her charms in the future? With that thought in mind, Inyoung's face lit up again.
"Can you believe we're actually graduating this year? Just like that, high school is almost over! That's crazy. Where did time go."
A bit surprised by his sudden energy, Taehee just let out a laugh. "I know what you mean. What did we even do during our high school career that it's almost ending."
To Soojin, the club hours has gone by rather quickly since she was more focused on helping Jaejoon out than wasting time being stupid. As she gathered her stuff and left the room, she couldn't help but become bummed out about the fact that Joohyuk wasn't chosen for this. Maybe because he was also on the basketball team? Soojin shook her head. That other dude from the soccer club was here so that wasn't a legitimate reason. All that it came down to was really, bad luck.
"Hey Soojin." The girl perked up at the familiar voice and couldn't help the tiny blush forming on her cheeks.
"What are you doing here?"
"Waiting for you, of course. Our precalc test is coming up and I'm not confident with my logs. I was hoping you could maybe help me out a bit? Although I understand if you don't since you just finished tutoring someone for the past two hours."
"What are you doing here?"
"Waiting for you, of course. Our precalc test is coming up and I'm not confident with my logs. I was hoping you could maybe help me out a bit? Although I understand if you don't since you just finished tutoring someone for the past two hours."
Soojin thought to herself for a moment. If she said yes now, wouldn't that make her seem too convenient? Like she'd always be there for him when she wasn't even sure he liked her? Besides, there wouldn't be much time to help Joohyuk since she would have to rush home and she was tired of tutoring for the day.
"I'm actually tired. How about we study together tomorrow instead? We can meet up afterschool. We can get more studying done too."The frown on Joohyuk's face when he heard her decline the offer was quickly replaced with a jolly grin.
"I'll pick you up after class and we can go to the nearby cafe." Soojin nodded in response, a bit mesmerized by Joohyuk's smile and might very well have sighed dreamily in response if she wasn't able to control her expression.
"Great! I'll see you tomorrow!" With his parting words, Joohyuk jogged off, heading back to the basketball team. One of the guys had put him in a headlock, making him face Soojin again. He waved at her before yelping at his friend tightening his grip and being dragged off to the courts. Soojin stood there until they all disappeared and let out a bashful smile, one very much out of character with the usual poker faced Soojin. She thought everyone had left but her thought was proven wrong when she heard someone clear their throat.
"Cute how you also like Nam Joohyuk." Soojin's eyes widened in surprise, making an abrupt turn to face the speaker. Kangjoon waved at her with a cheeky grin plastered on his face, "I wonder what he would say if I tell him about your little crush. But then again, would he even care?" His words shouldn't have any impact on Soojin, but it did.
"I'm actually tired. How about we study together tomorrow instead? We can meet up afterschool. We can get more studying done too."The frown on Joohyuk's face when he heard her decline the offer was quickly replaced with a jolly grin.
"I'll pick you up after class and we can go to the nearby cafe." Soojin nodded in response, a bit mesmerized by Joohyuk's smile and might very well have sighed dreamily in response if she wasn't able to control her expression.
"Great! I'll see you tomorrow!" With his parting words, Joohyuk jogged off, heading back to the basketball team. One of the guys had put him in a headlock, making him face Soojin again. He waved at her before yelping at his friend tightening his grip and being dragged off to the courts. Soojin stood there until they all disappeared and let out a bashful smile, one very much out of character with the usual poker faced Soojin. She thought everyone had left but her thought was proven wrong when she heard someone clear their throat.
"Cute how you also like Nam Joohyuk." Soojin's eyes widened in surprise, making an abrupt turn to face the speaker. Kangjoon waved at her with a cheeky grin plastered on his face, "I wonder what he would say if I tell him about your little crush. But then again, would he even care?" His words shouldn't have any impact on Soojin, but it did.
But then again, would he even care? His words resonated in her head over and over again. And for the first time ever, she couldn't control her expression and glared at Kangjoon. He doesn't deserve her time. With that, Soojin turned back around to leave the school building. Kangjoon was left there dumbfounded at the glare Soojin gave him. And he grinned. That same grin he does whenever he finds a new target to blackmail. Turning the other way, Kangjoon headed for the exits on the opposite of the building, whistling as he walked. Soojin's eyebrow twitched at the sound of his whistle. This wasn't a good sign was it?
The others had already made their way out of the building, Inyoung following behind the rest of the members quietly. He felt a bit out of place seeing that everyone knew each other in the group. Sehun and Taehee were talking amongst themselves while Minhi was introducing Ian to Jaejoon.
"Jaejoon, if you need any help, you can ask Ian. Cause obviously, Sehun would be too dumb for that." Sehun rolled his eyes but returned his focus to Taehee, mostly teasing her about her relationship with Jongin. Jaejoon let out an awkward smile at her words, mostly because he wasn't close enough with Sehun to laugh at an insulting comment about him. "I am smarter than Sehun." Ian added jokingly. Minhi cracked up at his words, requesting a high five. As Ian tried to talk with Jaejoon some more, seeing as he's one of Minhi's closest friends in Star club, Minhi looked around to see Inyoung trailing behind, slowing her pace for Inyoung to catch up.
"Hi! I'm Park Minhi hehe." Minhi waved her hand in Inyoung's face to catch his attention.
"I'm Inyoung."
"Yeah I know. I knew everyone else's names so when your name was called, it wasn't much of a mystery who it was." Just hearing that someone made the effort to learn his name made Inyoung happy and he couldn't help but smile.
"You should help me with that then. I still don't know the others' names besides everyone in Baekho and Taehee. And now, you."
"No problemo! You basically know everyone's names besides Kangjoon and Jaejoon then. Jaejoon is the one in front with Ian and Kangjoon was the creep who stayed behind watching Soojin." Inyoung nodded in understanding.
"I know we're both very aware of the tension between Baekho and Star but I just wanted to say, I don't agree with that. As a matter of fact, I really think you guys are awesome. All the pranks you pulled. How you guys piss off the principle everyday. It's honestly great and something I look forward to once a day." Inyoung laughed, remembering the time when Darim turned so red in the face because of Star's ruckus but they just broke out into a song instead in an attempt to calm her down. Although it didn't work, it was still funny.
"Ehh I don't care about the tension either. To each their own you know. Not everyone in Baekho are s and not everyone in Star is a bumbling idiot. The clubs don't determine who we are."
"Maybe one day, the clubs can co-exist! This is the first step."
"That will be a sight to behold haha. By the way, we're going to grab some grub before going home. You wanna tag along?"
"Of course!"
"Don't hurt Jongin's feelings, dream crusher. You know how good you are at that." Taehee wacked Sehun's arm in response, leaving the boy to whine about a bruise forming on his arm.
"You should be more worried for me, Sehee. But it's cute how you're looking out for your best friend. If Minhi knows about this, she might just get jealous."
"Ya!" Taehee laughed at Sehun's ridiculous face expression, his trademark mocking of a laughing face.
If not for something catching their attention, Sehun might not have let Taehee off the hook with this. The cousins squealed and ran up to a gift shop window with a full display of Rilakkuma plushies.
"Pinkupinku would love a companion."
"The one with the sleeping hat is so cute! Or the strawberry headed duck!"
And the cousins continued to spazz about the cutest ones as they made their way into the gift shop. And it wasn't until they bought nearly all the plushies did they walk back out, even making everyone help them hold some of the bags. Taehee shoved bags at Jaejoon and Ian who eyed the cousins weirdly but quietly accepted the task. Minhi broke away from the conversation with Inyoung to basically bulldoze Sehun, looking through all his bags and ultimately picking a plushie to hold. The biggest one. To hold back all the way to her home. Her room. While Sehun cursed at her outside her window until Taehee and Ian dragged him back to his house.
"You little thief!"
"Stop being a cheapskate!" Sehun could faintly hear Minhi's retort, flinging a bag at her open window at the absurdity. The nerves of this girl when he was the one who bought these. You know, she could always just ask! Oh and he lost that bag too cause it landed in her window and the girl decided it was his parting gift for her, mostly to prove he wasn't a cheapskate.
"Aww thanks!"
Ch 3.5 is finally up lel. I had to make last minute changes after I've made the seating chart for everyone who've applied. Which accumulated to nearly 40 students, including love interests. So I decided to make the chosen applicants and their love interests, the test group instead. I'll try to update more often but college just started and if there's one thing we all know, it's that school is an LOL so no promises. Next ch would be 2022 btw, see you guys there!
P.S - I know it might seem like Minhi has more screentime than everyone else, but that's only until everyone become friends with each other.
Reminders : Chosen applicants should comment every 1-2 chapters. The more non chosen applicants comment, the higher the chance for their character to have guest appearances.
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