Junmyeon sighed as he stared blankly out over the room. He hadn’t seen a group of near-adult guys argue over something so painfully unimportant since his first year in the stuck-up boarding school, when someone was accused of peeking at another student’s answer sheet for some pop quiz. It was seriously starting to give him a headache. He considered yelling at them all to shut the up, but then, finally, it all stopped.

“Where are you going Yongguk?” He heard Kris ask, and tried to locate the other guy – the names still hadn’t really stuck.

“I’m out. There’s no point in sitting around and getting all stressed out over crap like this – if that D.O. kid decides to go after us that’s his problem; I don’t need to work with your lot to get rid of one ing person.” Well now…

“Just don’t come to me if you get your damn handed to you.” This might not be so good.

“Whatever. Zelo, Jongup, let’s go.” Junmyeon kept his mouth shut just until the three had left the room, but couldn’t hold back his newly formed question longer than that.

“Can someone please tell me why that kid’s called Jell-O?” He could see some people holding back laughs, but he wasn’t sure if it was because of the question or the extremely frustrated expression Kris was making, pinching his nose and gritting his teeth as he answered.

“It’s Zelo, Junmyeon; Z-e-l-o.” His childhood friend spelled out venomously. Lay was sneering at him from his spot in the opposite corner of the room, and Junmyeon glared back intensely. It seemed to him like he was being hated for no apparent reason; he had apologized to the kid… sort of, but the guy just wouldn’t drop it! It was just eighty-seven thousand won; hardly something to get so worked up over. Besides, it was the kid’s own fault for being so freaking careless. And hotheaded. Hell, he found himself taking every opportunity he could find to annoy the other just to see that fuming expression on the guy’s face – he wasn’t entirely sure why he enjoyed it so much, but it worked well as a pastime.

At the moment however Lay was hardly the priority – half their manpower just walked out. To Junmyeon, who’d just taken it upon himself earlier that morning to act as Kris’ personal advisor, this was nothing short of a disaster. Well, at least if he was to judge by the vivid tales about the so-called enemies that he’d been told; they pretty much raised the brats to the heavens like they were some sort of legends. It would be so much more impractical to try to form some sort of plan with only forty or so pawns to spare.

He jumped in his seat when the door slammed open, hoping for and half-expecting the previous group of three to walk back inside, but instead found that it was just the two who’d slipped out at different points earlier. But there was something slightly ominous about their attitudes – the dark-haired one, Chen if he remembered correctly, just sat back down in front of his laptop with a vacant expression, and the blonde, Luhan, was grumbling what were most likely curses under his breath as he reclaimed his seat next to Junmyeon himself on the couch. He sharpened his ears a bit in an attempt to make out the poisonous Chinese words, but they just kept streaming out at a such rapid pace that he had no chance of keeping up with them.

“What took you so long?” He looked back to Kris who was currently staring darkly at the hacker, the latter seemingly paying no real attention as he stared at the screen in front of him. “Well?” The second-year’s glare at the blonde seemed to have everyone else in the room gasp.

“If you don’t tell me what the you needed me up here for I swear to you that I’ll literally erase every proof of your pathetic existence from the face of the earth.” Junmyeon’s mouth formed an ‘o’ at the snappy reply before curling into a smirk – he might actually have some use for this person.

“He started with this attitude the minute we left the library.” Luhan spoke up from next to him with an offended huff, muttering something about stairs and oversensitive brats.

“Look, Chen, you can hang out with Xiumin as much as you want as soon as this is completely sorted out but-“

“Did you have something for me to do or did you just want me here for the hell of it? Because I personally have no reason, and I sure as don’t have enough patience, to follow every ing whim of yours.”

“That’s enough Chen!” Kris’ roar almost seemed to shake the walls, and Junmyeon was painfully aware that the guy would be in a pissy mood for the rest of the day. “I don’t know what you’ve got stuck up your , and frankly I don’t care, but if you don’t shut the up and listen so God help me I will-“

“Rip him apart limb by limb and dump the remains in the Han River?” Everyone turned their attention to the boy who’d just stepped through the door, and for a second even the raging blonde seemed at a loss for words. “I just came from the library and thought there’s something you all might want to know…”

“Spit it out Baekhyun.” The boy, who Junmyeon still thought looked at least as out of place as he himself apparently did, what with the eyeliner and dyed hair the guy sported, ignored Kris’ order to make himself comfortable next to Luhan at the other end of the couch.

“You guys were right about suspecting the worst.” Was all the guy said, and Junmyeon cocked a brow at the silence that followed. Was this supposed to come as a surprise? Because he sure didn’t see how it could. How was that even possible considering all these precautions and long group chats they’d had?

“So we have to deal with both of them after all…” Kris muttered finally, a deep frown on his face as he twirled his stupid silver cross between his fingers.

“Actually,” Baekhyun started, pausing for a moment at the glare he received before huffing and finishing his sentence. “Their group consists of at least five people.”

“Names. Please.” Junmyeon requested, throwing the courtesy in as a safety measure.

“Tao, D.O., Park Chanyeol, Kai, Oh Sehun.”

“What’s he doing here?” Junmyeon asked aloud, his speech filter failing to do its job as opposed to usual at the familiar name popped up. At the clearly confused looks the rest were giving him he hurried to explain himself. “My old dealer’s name was Kai, sold me some pretty nice stuff but then just cut all contact a couple of months back. Funny coincidence if he ended up here.” The sharp stare his childhood friend was giving him told him he should stop, so he held his tongue and waited for the question he knew would follow.

“What do you know about him?”

“Not much… he’s a pretty happy-go-lucky guy, but takes business seriously. I don’t think he’s very strong in a fight, but he was an experienced drug dealer even when I got in touch with him about two years back. If you just look at him he doesn’t seem to be much of a threat, but you never know…”

“Baekhyun, this Sehun guy-“

“First year, fairly big but doesn’t seem to hold a real interest in anything. Stops by the library from time to time, but other than that he seems to disappear the second he gets past the gates.” Junmyeon exchanged looks with Kris, which the boy seemed to notice since he soon continued with the important part. “He’s strong, most likely at least – got in a fight with D.O. last semester and stood up to him pretty well before his collarbone and ribs were bashed up pretty bad. He doesn’t pick fights unless he’d in a bad mood or has another fair reason – if he doesn’t he’ll just walk away… I think he’s gotten himself a decent amount of injuries simply by not fighting back, claiming he was too tired or some crappy excuse like that.”

“Basically they’re all just a bunch of oddly matched nutjobs.” It was Lay speaking now, from the looks of it more than ready to leave the room. “I’ll be off to the side on this one; things are getting too troublesome for my taste.”

“So what, you’re running off with your tail between your legs? Man the up – if there’s any time to choose a side it’s now.” Junmyeon advised him with an almost exaggerated sneer, earning him an equally blunt one in return.

“Choosing sides means you either win or lose – I don’t have any real reason to get myself into that I can easily avoid, right? I might have a few tricks up my sleeve and I’ve played along with this group for a while, but I sure as hell ain’t putting my on the line for this.”

“So you’re saying you’d rather just sit back and enjoy the show?” Luhan guessed with a slight frown, apparently not happy about his friend deciding to drop out. Lay chuckled with a sly smirk as he walked over to the door, sighing lightly before responding.

“Pretty much, yeah. That and the assassin scares the out of me.” Again a question about the nicknames of people around the school formed in Junmyeon’s head as the brat slipped out with a quiet snicker, but this time he refrained from asking – he had a feeling he knew who was referred to either way, despite having seen no one from the other group yet. This reminded him that he’d have to ask Chen for information on all of them, but after a short glance in the second-year’s direction he decided to put it off for an hour or two… or possibly a couple of days.

The mood in the room was unnecessarily glum, and he wasn’t particularly enjoying watching his stupid childhood friend muttering either prayers or obscenities whilst everyone else in the room were sulking and pouting about the crappy situation they’d landed themselves in – apart certain group however, who were staring at the floor and looking pretty ashamed and guilty instead. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that they were the ones who got the group involved in the first place, what he couldn’t wrap his head around was what they were still doing there.

With a deep sigh he stood from his seat, clearing his throat to get Kris’ attention before gesturing for the giant to follow him outside. The second the guy closed the door behind him his previously annoyed expression changed into a tired frown.

“This is bad Suho; I have no idea what the I’m supposed to do about all this! If it was just D.O. I could’ve handled it, but even I can’t do a ing about-“

“Yifan, calm the down.” He cut the guy off before he really started ranting – he’d expected the other to have grown up a bit, but since he moved in it was like the years he spent away never happened, and Kris’ behavior when it was just the two of them was quite frankly unsettling. As advisor however he should try to hand out some useful advice, and so spent half a minute thinking things over before meeting his friend’s troubled gaze. “For now just have Chen gather all he can about the five of them, make sure everyone understands that they’re retarded if they walk around alone at night and please, for the love of your ing God, kick out the freaking asshats that got you into this goddamn position in the first place.” Judging from Kris’ frustrated sigh the point seemed to have gotten through, but the guy didn’t seem happy about the current solution. “Look, I know you’re crappy at coming up with strategies and whatever; that’s exactly why I’m trying to point you in the right direction. Just give me some time and I’ll think of something. Just get back in there and take some ing charge before they start digging their own graves – did you see the looks on their faces?”

“Jeez, I got it. But remember, if it’s not a good plan you’re gonna lose your job as advisor…” The blonde grumbled before returning to the office, leaving him alone in the empty corridor. He looked around a bit, mind wandering for a few seconds before he concluded that he’d get nothing done by hanging around without any objective – he might as well go home to think things through whilst lounging on the couch instead.

When he started on his way there was one thing that kept drifting into his thoughts – choosing sides means you win or lose. As aggravating as it was the kid had been right about that one thing, but there had to be some way to change it. Now the problem was how – and whether or not he’d have time to figure this out before everything went to hell.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: This... took a long time, despite the shortness of it... sorry about that. I seriously had no idea what to do with this chapter, so I'm sorry if I disappointed anyone, but I just had to move on or I never would've updated and gotten on with the story. *le sigh of despair* I think I'll have to give the boys with shorter chapters a lil' bit of extra attention later on~ That'll work as compensation, m'kay?

I've also learnt that some of you find this story line a bit confusing - don't hesitate to ask if there's anything you don't really get or that seems off, though sometimes this might be intended I'll try to clear things up a bit~

Now, since I've introduced an entire eleven out of twelve characters we all know who's next don't we? *hysterically maniacal cackle* 

Thank you dear subbies and commentists~ love you to death! <3<3<333 *sobsob* Thanks for being patient~

Please look forward to the next chapter lovelies~Thank you for reading! <3

~Fi