“I sincerely hate all of you.”

These were the seven words spoken by the mighty and powerful Jeon Wonwoo. But then again, everyone pretty much knew that Wonwoo hated everyone in existence. Daehyun spat a spitball at him. This wasn’t new. Actually, Wonwoo saying anything about death, hatred, or anything among the three, was pretty much a norm.

If it wasn’t evident by the fact that he almost tried to put Daehyun on fire the other night, or when he tried to lock Taehyung in the stockroom, it was evident when he spilled nitric acid on Wheein’s hands three weeks ago, and she was still dealing with the repercussions. Wheein had more of a reason to hate him than anyone else. She had to keep her damn hands under water for the rest of the period. She had to be sure that she didn’t feel the burn for the rest of the period. Wonwoo secretly took the blame for that one.

Yet. He couldn't believe he was still with these three idiots. They only came to be because of their last names anyways. Jeon Wonwoo then Jung Daehyun then Jung Wheein and finally Kim Taehyung. Most students grabbed the chance to be with their friends, but these four had no friends in that class. All of Wheein’s homies were in Honors Chemistry, Wonwoo didn’t get lucky and eleven other guys were in the third period chemistry without him (Mingyu didn’t count because he was, well, Mingyu), Daehyun wanted an easy teacher and Taehyung just wanted to burn things. He didn’t even care if his friends told him it was a hard class. He wanted to put things on fire. So, while everyone else was trying to find their partners, the four of them just sat in their assigned seats and waited for destiny to play its game.

Which led to the four of them being in this mayhem. If there ever was a lab, the four of them would always be at lab after school. None of them could properly finish a lab in the allotted time. Most of the time it was Taehyung’s fault, but this time it was Wonwoo’s fault. They could have finished their sparkler lab with everyone else, but Wonwoo ended up helping another group, and he left his teammates hanging. He had all the calculations, the list of supplies, and the key to their lab cabinets. If he just passed over their keys, it would have been fine. But no, Kim Mingyu just had to be in the way.

“It’s your fault that we have to do this lab again. If you just measured the damn thing correctly, the sparkler would have worked,” Wheein muttered as she tried to figure the percentages of each material needed.

Damn, why did Kim Mingyu just have to come on over, ask him how his day was, and pretty much seduce him to do his bidding? Wonwoo wasn’t even vaguely interested in the boy, but Mingyu, Mingyu had a way with people. It was a genetic gift that he'd like to snatch. It was like he was a Greek god or something! How could anyone blame Wonwoo to doing that?

“You are so lucky that I like you because I would have killed you,” she finished. Wheein just didn’t like Mingyu. Mingyu was a full being taller than her so she literally had to look up just to talk to him. The glares she gave Mingyu yesterday were bound to turn him into stone if he was paying any attention. He didn’t because Wheein was never in his field of vision.

Wonwoo rolled his eyes as he measured out the amount of cement glue they needed for the magenta sparkler. It could have been worse. They could have been doing a titration lab and Wonwoo could have spilled hydrochloric acid in the pipette.

Wheein would have been mad. Daehyun would complain, and Taehyung-

The boy was swinging his damn legs over the lab bench, and not giving a that the three of them were glaring at him for not doing anything. Wonwoo felt bad for Wheein. She was his assigned lab partner and he only did work when it was fun. Wheein didn’t cared though, the guy always made it up by doing all the hard lab work for her. It was just he had a tendency to make messes.

“Hey, would it be alright if I put this on fire?” Taehyung asked as Wheein was measuring out the amount of magnesium she needed.

“What, yeah, it’s completely fine,” Wheein distractedly answered, weighing the last bit of her metals. If Mama Wheein said it was okay then it was going to be completely fine to put it in there. She always knew best. Always trust in Jung Wheein.

Wait, this wasn’t a good idea. It was not a good idea.

“No, no, no! Don’t you dare!” Wonwoo started. Sometimes, he thought h was the only one with common sense because Taehyung obviously didn’t.

It was too late. It was way too late. Taehyung put something on fire. He put a fragment of something into the Bunsen Burner. Who even lit the Bunsen Burner!? Wonwoo shot Daehyun a glare while he gave him a sheepish grin.

“Whoops. I was going to roast some marshmallows. Mr. Yoo said it was okay.”
 

Wonwoo was going to kill them at some point. Those two together were always a bad idea. It was more probable that he was going to die because of the two of them more than anything else. Wheein, hearing the commotion, spun around and saw what Taehyung was doing. Her eyes widened. Taehyung put something on fire, again.

Even with only the four of them there, Taehyung conveniently picked the worst possible time to start a fire. He picked the time when Mr. Yoo, their favorite human being slash supervisor, was looking for the rest of the materials they needed in the stockroom. (Three weeks ago, he left the Bunsen Burner unattended because he found it was more interesting to see what everyone else was doing. They stopped bringing it up after the school interrogated them about the incident. )

And yet, Taehyung was still holding the metal with the tongs and smiling devilishly at all of them. Why was it that Taehyung just had to be the most troublesome one out of the group!? Daehyun cried out in pain while running for the fire extinguisher, Taehyung teased Wheein, who was still on the ground, while Wonwoo ran to the other side of the room to get the jug of water that Taehyung always brought with him.

Wonwoo poured water onto Taehyung’s light pink head. In that instance, they knew then and there that Taehyung despite being a nice person, would be the worst companion to have during the labs. He didn’t put just anything on fire. Oh, he put a quarter on fire. A quarter could have helped him buy some food for that day. It wasn’t even his quarter. It was Daehyun’s quarter. His quarter that he was going to buy a bag of chips with after this blasted lab. When he realized this, Daehyun jumped on Taehyung’s back and started a fight three lab benches over.

The supervisor was still gone. At this point in the school year, they all knew that Mr. Yoo didn’t need to be there because the four of them cleaned up all their messes, most of them, anyways. It was mostly Daehyun’s fault though.

Daehyun accidentally poured some of the lab waste down the sink on the first lab day. He learned from that mistake. The sinks were backed up for weeks and when accused, Daehyun caved under the pressure, then ratted out the other three. They took their lab safety test five times and a lab practical seven times as their punishment and now everyone knew where to put lab waste. Taehyung only passed because he cheated off Wonwoo. No one wanted to tell anyone that. It was too much of a hassle.

“Are we going to do something?” Wonwoo asked as Wheein returned to weighing the grams of metals. The girl shrugged her shoulders, still fiddling with the scale. It was a daily occurrence.

“No.”

The girl then spun, shoved popsicle sticks towards Wonwoo, and whistled. The two other boys stopped what they were doing. Sparklers made any pyromaniac happy. It also fascinated foodies.

“Go make the sparklers!” she commanded. The two other boys ran back to the lab bench, grinning from ear to ear. Sighing, she stood on the other side of the lab bench and gave Wonwoo a grin. He smiled back in response.

“Well done.”

“You're doing such great work.”

This may have been the most troublesome lab group he ever worked with, but they were his favorite. If he was going to fail chemistry, he was going to fail with the brightest underachievers (minus Wheein) and it was going to be a legacy. He could feel it.

“Taehyung, go wear your ing goggles!”

“Fine, Mama Whee…”

Yeah, Wonwoo was pretty satisfied with his crappy lab group. The sparklers worked even though Taehyung almost turned the lab into fireworks.

A lab ending off like that was a good omen. It was, until the fire alarms went off. The four of them weren’t sure what happened until they saw their supervisor in the halls, running in the opposite direction with a fire extinguisher. (In these situations, the four of them would hum the James Bond theme, but he was a little too frantic this time.)

Apparently, something caught on fire, a vending machine. Daehyun was devastated. He wouldn't be buying chips after lab even if he did have the quarter.