Chen turned in his comfortable swivel chair when the door to the student council’s office burst open, revealing one of his upperclassmen. This was a common occurrence, and so he didn’t even bother nagging the elder to close the door, instead standing to do so himself before retaking his seat.

“Chennie, is Lay here today?” He sighed and rolled his eyes, holding back a comment about how he didn’t particularly like his nickname.

“No Luhan-hyung, he isn’t. You know he’s never around this early into the semester.” He replied tiredly, watching the older boy drop onto the couch at the opposite end of the room from his own seat. Although Chen didn’t mind having the blonde around, in fact the only reason he even had access to the spacious room was thanks to said boy, he did mind the constant pouting about his classmate Lay. It was an eternal struggle to keep from gagging the older once it started – something he under no circumstances would ever seriously consider doing.

He turned a bit back and forth in his chair, leaning back and staring a bit absentmindedly at Luhan where he lay tossing and turning in his now wrinkled uniform.

“What did you want with Lay anyways hyung?” He asked casually, hoping that the other wouldn’t be in a bad mood; because Luhan being in a bad mood wasn’t a very desirable scenario, and if he was Chen would be out of the room in ten seconds flat. He let out a breath of relief when it turned out that wasn’t the case.

“I don’t know, just wanted to have a chat I guess… Why’s he never here anyway? Stupid Lay, always going off somewhere without contacting me…” Chen couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at the older boy’s pouting face. “Chennie, tell me something fun…” The blonde sung, eyes reflecting both boredom and bitterness.

“Mm… we have two new students, one first-year and one third-year. Seems like the little one got away from Tao unscathed earlier.” Chen said with mirth. It was clear that the rumors had gotten out of hand, but what he’d told the other had been the essence of it, and it was truly fascinating.

“You know, according to Baekkie it’s really no big deal if that kid lets someone off the hook; he says it’s all got to do with his daily mood and judgment of the person in general… something like that.” The way Luhan said it as though he had complete faith in that Byun Baekhyun was slightly disturbing, but Chen decided to keep quiet about his opinions of the puppy-eyed freak.

“True as that may be, it’s still curious, don’t you think?”

“Maybe… well, as long as I’m not the one in trouble with that assassin I don’t really care who he sends to the graveyard.” Chen snickered at the elder’s careless attitude, just barely able to refrain from telling the blonde that he should at least act worried since, in the end, there was no way of telling who the next victim of the first-year was going to be. “So, what about the third-year?”

“Hm? Ah, well, some of the second-years have been muttering things about how he broke up a fight the minute he got here, but that doesn’t really make sense does it?” A frown had etched itself on Chen’s face when he thought about this – you didn’t stop fights in the jailhouse, you just didn’t. It was an unspoken rule that even outsiders knew about.

“Did he get in trouble?” His senior’s face was suddenly bright with mischievous excitement, and Chen could help but grin along.

“Sorry, but I haven’t heard anything about it; I think he got away in one piece. This time.” Chen added the last two words simply for good measure, as Luhan was and always would be the most fun to be around when he was worked up about something he deemed interesting. As expected the blonde had started giggling where he was curled up on the couch, gaze unfocused as though he was imagining a bunch of scenarios, very unlikely ones of course. Chen saw this as an opportunity to leave the crazy person behind and slip out of the room. He was aware that although Luhan would come in for some reason or another, the boy would always end up forgetting about it and fall asleep, and Chen was of no mind to risk waking him.

“Well then, where to…” He mumbled to himself after closing the door behind him. The corridor was almost empty, a rare occurrence so early into the school hours. Empty hallways always meant something interesting was going on; more often than not it was either the top dogs barking amongst themselves or some brats trying to start some sort of revolt against the tyranny. Chen chuckled at his own silly imagery as he trod down the stairs to the third floor. Loud voices echoed up from below so he continued down one more set of stairs, stopping to see what the commotion was about. It was hard to tell though with a small crowd blocking his sight, so he pressed up against the wall and swiftly slipped past most people, arriving at the front of the herd to finally have a look at the situation. He had to admit that he was a bit caught off guard, and stood with an amused grin on his lips for a few seconds before interfering. With a loud whistle he managed to get the attention of the group that had previously been busy throwing wild punches at a single target.

“What the do you want hyung?” One of the torn-up first-years asked, another walking up to him with a bit too much swag than he could handle with what appeared to be a swollen ankle. Chen flashed a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes, and sneered at the boys when they all cooled down a bit.

“Now that you’re listening properly, would you mind telling me what this is about? Because you do know it’s not fair play to gang up on someone, don’t you children?” He asked whilst giving them the same disapproving look you’d give a kindergartner who’d started a food fight. He thoroughly enjoyed having the power he did, despite earning it in a less violent manner than others.

“They wouldn’t shut up is all.” Chen’s eyes landed on the boy the others had been troubling, sighing with fake disappointment at the innocent-looking first-year who was wiping some blood away from the corner of his mouth.

“Don’t you think you should relax a bit D.O.? The semester is just starting.” The boy just glared up at him stubbornly.

“It’s not my fault these apes forgot who’s in charge.” He muttered, and Chen’s eyes dropped to the baseball bat the first-year was holding in his hands. He himself never really understood why anyone would start using tools – that would just give the opponent an excuse to do the same, which was hardly what you wanted in a fight.

“Wouldn’t you have cleared this up faster with the metal bat though?” Chen inquired with a raised brow, and D.O. let out a hearty laugh.

“And where’s the fun in that? Besides, we wouldn’t want to risk permanent damage, would we?” The boy’s sarcastic last question was directed to the classmates, who looked about ready to jump him again. He seemed to notice and pulled up his shoulders and hands in an inquiring gesture, and Chen couldn’t do anything but laugh and shake his head once, waving his hand lazily in defeat; if the first years wanted to fight among themselves what right did he have to stop them?

“Just make sure someone gets them to the infirmary when you’re done.” He called as he left, snorting in disbelief when he heard the bat collide with something… or more likely someone.

While he walked Chen caught himself thinking back on how his year had been when they first came along three semesters ago. No matter how deep he dug he couldn’t think of anyone who’d been as strange, or strong, as the two first-year powerhouses this time around. If it was the current third-years they might’ve been like that from the start as well, but as it was it unfortunately seemed like the second-years were the weaklings. That’s harsh – what would happen once their seniors graduated? There was no way in hell they’d be able to control all the students then. Hell, if keeping it to small skirmishes in the corridors was the best this year’s oldest could do he wasn’t even sure he wanted to be around for his final year of school.

Suddenly weighed down by dark thoughts Chen found himself trudging down the first-floor hallway towards an all too familiar room, but it wasn’t until he was standing outside of the library that he realized where he’d actually been headed. He mentally slapped himself.

“Might as well go in huh?” He muttered, pulling the door open without knocking, which lead to a book being thrown in his direction. “Damn it hyung!” He whined as he closed the door, tossing the book right back at the boy who was sitting on top of one of the desks to the side of the bookshelves. Chen could hardly claim that the two of them had ever really gotten along, what with their constant squabbling, but at least he knew no one would be barging in to bother him.

“You know you’re supposed to knock; blame yourself.” The older yawned, stretching his arms high above his head and snapping his neck from side to side.

“And you know I’m the only one who doesn’t do that so stop throwing these blocks of dead wood at me every time I pay you a visit.” Chen grumbled as he splayed himself out on the table next to his senior, sighing at the cool surface. “Isn’t it sort of unfair how this is pretty much the only room with functioning AC?”

“That’s not really my problem is it?” The round-faced boy snickered, poking him not-so-delicately in the ribs and effectively causing him to yelp and curl up where he lay.

“Why do you keep doing that Xiumin?” He wheezed, glaring at the older who simply laughed at his state of discomfort. “Seriously, why? You’re always so unnecessarily violent.” The attempted pout had the elder laughing even harder.

“Yah, what happened to your manners Chenchen?” At this Chen threw his head back and groaned in frustration; why in the devil’s name did his feet lead him to the lord of the library?

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A/N: Gosh, never thought I'd finish the second chapter so soon since I had no idea where to start. So, a few more characters made their way into the story... yay? Heh, no but really, I'm pretty glad that I managed to put them in somewhat smoothly... 

And really - 15 subscribers already?! Kissies and hugsies to you all! <3<3<3 And again, extra love for your encouraging comments andreab990619 and Aliceee17! <3<3<3

I might actually spend some more more time on the next update to keep it from becoming as slapdash as this, so don't be surprised if it takes a couple of days or weeks. 

So, thanks for reading... bye now!

~Fi