-Chapter Five-

 

The Council’s Dogs

 

 

 

Lee Hyunsoo

 

            “Sir I can explain everything that happened perfectly,” Hyunsoo desperately said the moment she stepped into the Vice Principal’s office.

 

She was called for immediately after the brawl was over; since apparently the Principal had installed cameras in almost every hallway in the whole school which therefore, made the scene of her kicking sense into those boys known to the Vice Principal in a blink of an eye.

 

            “I don't want to listen to your explanations Miss Hyunsoo,” Park Jinyoung said seriously, looking straight at her. Hyunsoo gulped. “Never, in my thirty years of teaching, have I ever seen boys being thrown around like rags. By a girl, in fact; I'm surprised to know that they didn’t even break anything,”

 

            That’s it. I'm screwed. I'm freaking screwed. There goes my post as the Class President.

 

            “Well, that’s because I’ve made sure that they landed accordingly, it was all in my Aikido practices so there was nothing to-”

 

            “You do Aikido?”

 

Silence occupied the entire room.

It took Hyunsoo a while to realize that she had hung open, partly from not being able to finish her desperate attempt of an explanation, but mostly surprised at the fact that the tone in Park Jinyoung’s voice doesn't sound like he’s disapproving at all.

 

            “That’s incredible,” he finally said.

 

He leaned in closer on his desk, a smile formed on his face. “Tell me, Miss Hyunsoo; how long have you learnt to use your fists like that?”

 

            “Uh, since middle school, I think?” she replied. “It was my brother who – wait a minute, I'm not in trouble?”

 

It came even more as a surprise to her when Park Jinyoung started laughing, even clapping his hands at her question. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say that he almost seemed amused.

 

            “My dear, in this school; we needed that. Although I would believe most teachers wouldn't agree to having violence fought against violence, but in this school, it’s exactly what we need,” he said, handing his hand out to her, “I look forward to see how you would manage those monsters under your reign because personally, I'm running out of methods in handling them,”

 

            Hyunsoo's face broke into a smile as she accepted the older man’s hand, “I assure you, sir. By the end of this month, these monsters would be buffed up and polished from head to toe, following every rules and regulations of this school,”

 

            “I know I can expect that from you, my dear.”

 

Hyunsoo was making her way to the door, before Park Jinyoung asked, “Oh by the way, have you heard from your Dogs yet?”

 

Silence followed his question once again. Hyunsoo was beginning to wonder whether Park Jinyoung actually likes asking strange questions like that.

 

            “My...what, sir?”

Park Jinyoung didn’t show any further reaction to her respond. “To be honest I'm not so sure myself. Only Principal Yang Hyunseuk knows about this, but considering that you seem to have no clue at all about this, I suppose they haven’t made any contact with you yet,” he replied rather nonchalantly. Hyunsoo cocked an eyebrow.

 

“Well its best for you to be off now, Hyunsoo-sshi. I have another student waiting,”

 

She bowed to her Vice Principle and exited the room, heaving a sigh of relief the moment she closed the door behind her.

 

That was close. She thought.

 

A light snore greeted her from left below, and she frowned when her gaze fell on a male student, snoozing away on the waiting room’s couch. The first thing that she noticed, was definitely his hair; dyed into a dark shade of red, which seems to have faded a bit, making his hair appear almost brownish under the office lights. She then heard a cough from behind her.

 

            “It’s a pleasure to finally be able to see you, Mr Yong Junhyung. Now would you please wake up and step into my office?”Park Jinyoung said.

 

Junhyung stirred and opened his eyes, searching the area around him, before stopping his gaze on Hyunsoo. “Morning doll face,” he said to her with a wink (which Hyunsoo had to scoff at), before looking at the older man next to her. “And don't be too flattered Mr Vice Principal, I figured this was more worth it than my English class, at least I get to sleep more,”

 

            “Unbelievable,” Hyunsoo muttered.

 

            “Better believe it,” Junhyung said; throwing her what seems to be his winning smirk before grabbing her hand and kissed it. “Yong Junhyung at your service my lady, now may I have the pleasure of knowing your name?”

 

            “Lee Hyunsoo,” came her reply as she yanked her hand from his grasp, before Park Jinyoung continued in her place, “Your Class President, as a matter of fact. Now would you please step into my office so we can talk about your continuous tardiness, and your truancy, Mr Yong Junhyung?”

 

            Junhyung; however, showed no sign of leaving his spot. “So I guess you’re the she-devil that knocked Hoya and that pink-haired pest L. Joe out cold. Quite impressive, for a lady,”

 

Hyunsoo felt her cheeks turning red out of embarrassment, now that the whole scene of her flipping two boys in front of the entire student body was beginning to replay in her head. Not really a good example for a class president, but she couldn’t let herself feel bad nonetheless. “Get your inside already,” she said, sending him a glare.

“I guess I’ll see you around school then, Miss President,” Junhyung gave her a wink, before disappearing into Park Jinyoung’s office.

 

 

**************

 

            “So Park Jinyoung allows you,” Yuri asked for the umpteenth time, followed by groans from the girls – including Hyunsoo. “To kick butts. The school’s Vice President actually said yes, to violence?”      

            “For the last time Yuri, yes,” said Sooyoung, the exasperation in her voice matching the annoyed expression on her face, “He said it’s what we needed, and frankly I pretty much agree,”

            “Me too,” Tiffany chirped, raising one of her hands up. “The boys won’t pick on me anymore now with Hyunsoo around, most of them are scared after they saw you tossing Hoya and L. Joe up against the wall like that,”

 

Hyunsoo smiled and patted Tiffany’s head, before picking up the school’s disciplinary report and flipped through the pages. Their class only starts in about half an hour, so Hyunsoo decided that she’d hang out in the Student Council’s office, checking on the piles of work she had left behind.

            She continued flipping through what seems to be the thickest file on the shelf, scanning the faces of the troublemakers and stopping at a familiar pink-haired boy, which she recognizes immediately as L. Joe.

           

            “Lee Byunghyun?” she read the name.

            “Won’t get much of an answer if you call him that, unless if you consider him throwing chairs at you as a way of answering,” said Sooyoung. She was organizing some files on the shelf with Yuri’s help, saying that it’s time for them to clear things up now that Hyunsoo's back.

 

 First Offence: Vandalising school property (chairs)

 

Well that explains a lot already. “I assume he’s thrown a chair at a teacher before?”

            “Just for saying his name while recording his attendance,” Sooyoung added. “Did I mention that his first offence happened on his first day in school?”

 

Hyunsoo continued to flip the pages behind L. Joe’s. The faces followed were the ones that she remembered from the brawl just now, particularly because they seemed to be on L. Joe’s side – his posse, to be more precise.

            “CAP, Niel, Ricky...” Hyunsoo continued by reading their ‘names’ out loud, scrunching her nose at every syllable. “Seriously, don't these guys ever use their real names?”

            “Some does, but not all. But to be honest the nicknames kind of made things easy, though. At least now you know that any other Lee Byunghyuns who doesn't call themselves L. Joe isn’t a bad apple,” said Yuri, and Hyunsoo had to agree, as much as she despises the idea of nicknames.

            “But you’ve got to hand it to these Teen Top boys, their nicknames does sound pretty cool,” Tiffany chirped in. “I happen to like the name L. Joe, its sounds badass,”

 

Yuri rolled her eyes. “Tiffany has a little crush on L. Joe, mainly because she digs anything that’s pink, so you can pretty much understand why Teen Top has less number of records compared to Infinite,” she whispered into Hyunsoo's ear when she knows Tiffany’s not paying any attention, “I prefer the Infinite boy’s nicknames. Less confusing, and not many of them actually use nicknames, so it’s a lot easier to remember.”

            “Teen Top... they actually call themselves ‘Teen Top’?” Hyunsoo asked, “Shouldn’t it be Top Teens, you know, grammatically speaking?”

            Sooyoung laughed, “Honey, in the world of badass people, grammar don't matter no more, and plus, you live in South Korea, English itself doesn't really matter,” she said, in a failed attempt of sounding ghetto. “And I think they actually call themselves the ‘Teens on Top’, which was then shortened to Teen Top,”

            “And people actually succumb to these group names?” Hyunsoo asked again, not even hiding the disapproving tone in her voice. “Names like Teen Top and Infinite?”

            “Like I said, nicknames and group names kind of makes things easier; and a lot more fun on our behalf too. Kyuhyun oppa loves making fun of them when we’re in our council meetings,” said Yuri with a giggle.

Hyunsoo was about to ask on the whereabouts of Kyuhyun, who was the oldest member of the council (and probably the laziest) when the said boy walked in with his earphones stuck in his ears, the faint sound of the song he was listening emitting from the buds of his earphones. He grinned when his eyes met Hyunsoo's, while Hyunsoo raised an eyebrow as she stared back at his cheeky-looking orbs hidden under the messy brown locks hanging nicely on his forehead.

Finally, Hyunsoo thought when she eyed his uniform, a guy who actually follows the school’s dress code, although she wanted to disagree with his choice hair colour, but that can be discussed another time.

            “Ah, Miss President is already here,” Kyuhyun greeted, clearly he was amused to have finally met the Class President, who, clearly had earned her reputation back then among the seniors – even before she met with the accident.

            “And you’re late, sunbae,” Hyunsoo replied with a somewhat stern smile, letting him know that she doesn't really like to tolerate tardiness, regardless of the person’s age. But then again, despite his lack of appreciation for time and slacker-like appearance, Hyunsoo sort of liked him already.

            “Meeting ended ten minutes ago,” she added, eyeing the clock above his head.

            “Good, I intended to show up late anyway,” he said with that same cheeky grin, taking a seat on one of the tables by the windows, “So, what did I miss?”

            “Nothing much really, just that Park Jinyoung says it’s now legal for us to kick butts too,” Sooyoung said, and Kyuhyun looked even more amused.

            “Gee, now wouldn't that be fun. A bunch of girls and a wimpy old gamer like me fighting off the high school’s biggest badass teams,” he remarked. The girls laughed, and so did Hyunsoo.

            “Sunbae, you’re only a year older than me. And who said anything about you guys doing the fighting?” Hyunsoo said, putting the files she was reading on her study table. She’ll have to bring that back and study them tonight. “Just leave all the fights to me. You guy just deal with the paper work,”

            “I know I could depend on you, Pres,” Kyuhyun said, winking at her as he air-gunned her.

 

A thought suddenly flickered into Hyunsoo's mind; “By the way, do you guys know anything about the Dogs?”  

            “You mean the Council’s Dogs?” Yuri asked. “Of course,” she said again as a matter-of-factly.

            “Wait you do?” Hyunsoo asked in disbelief.

Yuri looked at her as if she had just stated the obvious, which she might have in fact had, and looked around the other occupants in the room. “All of us knew them,” she said.

            “They’re like the second Student Council,” said Sooyoung.

            “That does our dirty work,” Kyuhyun said, “Not that we had much dirty work to be done in the first place,” he quickly added when he saw Hyunsoo raise an eyebrow alarmingly at him.

            “They took care of the school when you weren’t around; at least that’s what these people have been saying. I don't know,” Sooyoung lightly shrugged her shoulders, waving her hand in dismissal, “These are just rumours, if you ask me they’re not real,”

Yuri hissed at her, looking around the room and standing up abruptly to walk towards the door and looked left and right as if to check if the coast is clear.

             She took a deep sigh before sitting back down and gave Sooyoung a look as if to warn her about something. “Mind your words Sooyoung, you know they’re like, everywhere,” she said softly, almost a whisper.

            “Okay, I need an explanation.” Hyunsoo finally said, pulling a chair out and sitting down.  “Who are these Dogs? What do you mean they do our dirty work and what the hell do you mean that they’re everywhere?”

            “Okay, okay. Calm down, you don't have to freak out. They’re pretty much harmless,” said Yuri.

            “No one really knows about the Dogs in detail, but well, their purpose is pretty much to serve you, Pres,” Kyuhyun said, looking at Hyunsoo intently. Hyunsoo could only give him a puzzled look. But then she remembered Park Jinyoung asking her whether the Dogs had contacted her yet.

            “They’re serving me? Then how come they haven’t contacted me in any sort of way yet?”

            “Exactly why some people think they’re not real, we don't know who the Dogs are, how to get to them, or even the place that they had their meeting,” said Sooyoung.

            “Rumour has it that these people would only contact you, the President and also the Principal. No one knows how they operate either, they just seem to know,” Yuri added.

            “Then how come the last president didn’t say anything about this to me?” Hyunsoo questioned, looking absolutely not amused by the news at all. “I mean, he handed the job down to me, but nothing about the some pets we had,”

Yuri and Sooyoung said nothing to this but then Kyuhyun cleared his throat and spoke in a very serious tone, “Well you just wait until they come and contact you then,” Hyunsoo nearly laughed at that but Kyuhyun was still looking serious. “They handle things differently from us, that’s all I can say,”

            And the bell rang, signalling the end of their lunch break.

           

*****************

 

 

 It was in the middle of English when two boys suddenly barged into class, no greetings whatsoever and obviously no signs of panic evident on their faces for being late to school. Their English teacher said nothing; in fact the man seemed like he was too scared to say anything and simply just told the two boys to take a seat. The first guy simply grunted at him, making his way through to find his seat at the back of the class.

            Hyunsoo examined the first guy from head to toe, disapproving every inch of his appearance starting from his hair colour, which was in fact a shade too light for what that can be considered a dark brown, the multiple piercings he had on both ear, the dishevelled uniform – if she can still consider it the school uniform from the alterations he’d made and that think black eyeliner his eyes. His partner in crime was no different from the uniform department, except for the fact that he had a Mohawk for his hair, patterns shaved on the sides of his scalp resembling some sort of a tattoo and gaudy necklaces hanging around his neck. No eyeliner, to her surprise.

Hyunsoo had to hold back her scoff when the two walk past her, because their badass image is just plain typical. She turned her head when they both reached their seat, their bored faces staring back at the front as they made themselves comfortable in their seats; the first guy placing his two feet on the table, while the other slumped deep into his seat, looking like he was preparing for a nap.

            “Well, carry on,” the first one said boringly.

And Hyunsoo just can't take it anymore.

            “You’re late,” she said. She could feel the eyes of her classmates staring at her, and she noticed Yuri was staring at her with hanging open. The two guys didn’t respond and so Hyunsoo tried again. “You’re late. In fact this is already the last period; I'm surprised you even made the effort to show up,”

            “What’s it to you?” the first guy muttered, he looked like he was lazy to even open up his mouth to speak.

            “What’s your name anyway?” Hyunsoo asked again, purposely ignoring his reply. The guy quirked an eyebrow at her, clearly he was surprised to know that someone had just asked him name. He squints his eyes at her, and then turned to look at his friend.

            “GD,” he replied. Hyunsoo rolled her eyes. She’s had enough of nicknames for one day.

            “Real name,” she said; her tone more demanding. Soft gasps followed her words as she spoke and when she turned to look at Yuri, the girl was shaking her head frantically mouthing the word ‘no’.

            “Kwon Jiyoung,”

And the whole classroom was quiet. His friend was looking at him with a somewhat unreadable expression, but he seemed to be just as surprised as the rest of the class was.

            “Well then Kwon Jiyoung, you’ve got detention after school today, and your friend there will be having his tomorrow,” Hyunsoo said with a smile.

The gasps were louder this time.

            “What did you say?”

            “I said you’ve got detention after school today, for being late. Think of it as a way to make up for the hours you’ve missed today,” Hyunsoo said calmly.

            “You don't have the rights to put him in detention,” his friend spoke. “Do you even know who he is?”

Hyunsoo gave him a look that said she couldn’t give a . “The hell I do, he broke the rules, and he gets detention. The same goes for you. I don't care who you people are,” she replied. “I’ll be accompanying Mr. Lee during your detention hours today Mr. Kwon Jiyoung, and if you’re wondering why your friend here is not joining to you today is because I know the likes of you. It’s best to just separate the two of you than have you guys cooped up together in the same room,”

            Jiyoung smirked. “You know what you’re up against.”

            “I don't need to Mr Kwon Jiyoung, now shut up and pay attention,”

 

Class was dismissed early, and while the students were making their way out of the class, Hyunsoo was called out by her English teacher. “I can't stay for detention hours Miss Hyunsoo. I’m very busy today so I'm hoping if you could just take care of Mr Kwon?” he said.

            Hyunsoo nodded, watching the teacher leave in a rush before he gave a rather fearful glance toward Kwon Jiyoung’s direction.

It didn’t take Hyunsoo much to know this Kwon Jiyoung isn’t someone to mess around with. From the way her teacher spoke of him and also the reaction she got from her classmates from the punishment she gave to him was a clear giveaway.

            “You’re coming with me,” she told him, before leading him to the Council room where she decided to go through her paper work while watching over him. Jiyoung said nothing, and he simply just followed her. Hyunsoo already told Yuri to inform the others to just go home for the day, where she also had to shush her friend up before she could even burst into her fits. For all she knows, Yuri’s probably going to tell her just how bad the situation is, for what it seems like she’s dealing with school’s biggest troublemaker. Not that she’s worried about it or anything.

But Kwon Jiyoung seemed harmless, from what she’s seen so far in the first twenty minutes. He was sitting quietly at his table at the other end of the council room, while Hyunsoo flipped through her files and reading all the reports from six months ago. Of course, that’s what she thought initially.

 

            She lifted her head to look at Jiyoung’s direction, finding him staring at her intently as if she was something new to him. “Stop staring, and do your own work,” she said, looking back to her papers.

            “You’re new aren’t you?” he suddenly asked.

            “So what if I am?” she replied nonchalantly, still not looking at him.Jiyoung let out what seems like and amused chuckle.

            "How old are you?" 

            "Seventeen,"

She had to wonder why did she even bother answering but it'll be great if he could just shut up.

            "Hm, you're young,"

            "We're the same age!"

            "Exactly,"

 

Hyunsoo threw him a nasty glare before she resumed to her work. What does that even mean? And will this guy ever stop staring? She'd be lying if she says that she's comfortable under his gaze.

 

            “No one’s allowed to call me by my real name here,” he said suddenly. “Technically you’re the first,”

 

Hyunsoo had to snort at that.

 

            “Should I even be flattered?”

 

 

She felt a presence next to her, letting out a gasp when she found Jiyoung standing behind her, his head only inches away from the side of her face. “You should,” he whispered in her ear, pressing his nose into her hair.

            Hyunsoo flinched as he took in her scent.

            “You smell nice,” he said, taking another whiff of her strawberry scented shampoo. “I wonder if you taste just as nice,”

            “Just what the -”

 

And his lips landed on hers.

 

His soft, skilled - very skilled lips pressing themselves against hers before they devoured them thoroughly, to which Hyunsoo didn’t even realize that she had actually respond to his kiss. She was literally paralysed, her hands clenching on Jiyoung’s shirt so hard that her knuckles had turn white. Jiyoung had to pull off eventually, the taste of his lips still lingering on her as she silently stared at him as he slowly backed away; his face smug and that smirk- that bloody smirk.

 

            “I’ll see you around milady,” and with that he just left.

 

Hyunsoo sat there completely dumb-struck, her chest heaving up and down from the emotions bubbling inside her body. She could feel the strange warmth spreading across her body and reaching up to her face, and she instinctively touched her left cheek. It’s hot. She thought, and she knows just exactly what is it that she’s feeling right now.

 

She’s furious.

 

 

 

 

**************************

 

Been so long since I updated this eh? 

I hoped you guys enjoyed this :)