chapter ii:

Kai stomped around the corridors, creating quite the mayhem as he almost pushed and shoved the stampede of high-schoolers on their way to the soccer pitch. The brunette frantically searched for two lanky figures out of several that strode out of the chemistry laboratory on the first floor; his eyes finally landing on the unmistakably embarrassing pink atop a tall asian, a smaller one happily trailing behind. With a final smirk, Jongin approached the duo, slinging an arm around Sehun and dragging them to a more secluded area of the hall.

"Sehun-ah!" the bronze boy sang merrily. Sehun rolled his eyes.

"Off of me Jongin, the match is about to start."

"Impatient, are we?"

"Shut the up, knee brain."

"Knee brain?"

"Yeah, your brain's on your knee. So if I do this-" Sehun kicked Jongin hard on his right knee. Jongin doubled up and fell right on top of Kyungsoo's feet. Kyungsoo squeaked and jumped a meter away immediately. "- your brain cells might just disintegrate causing you to lose all of your senses, as you are successfully doing, right now."

"That doesn't r-really make... sense." came a muffled reply from Kai, whose face still remained planted on the floor.

Sehun rolled his eyes "I know, but I got the chance to kick you. Let's go Kyungsoo." with a shrug, Sehun grabbed the shorter's arm and began walking away from the groaning pile of bones on the floor.

Kyungsoo turned his head back "S-shouldn't we... help him u-?"

"Nah, he'll be at the ground before we do. I can bet my arm on it." with a final toss of his pink fringe, Sehun exited the hallways.

"Sehun?"

...

"Sehunnnn~"

...

"Sehunaaaaaaaaaaa~"

The bleachers hadn't been this packed since the Plain White T's had held a 'small little concert' while passing the town on their inter-state tour one fine summer evening two years ago. Sehun himself remembered, in a hazy falshback how Jongin almost got his face stepped on while his father had bought a truck-filled supply of green jelly and concentrated cordial that he had then sprayed all over the student body simply to create more of a 'concert-like atmosphere'. Fortunately for the pinkette, his father didn't even bat an eyelash at Sehun (to which the latter thought that he must have been doped) who tried to save face by almost running into Turner whilst blushing slightly before taking a rain check.

The environment now could be considered just as insane, sans for  Mr. Oh bathing in hulk-skin and a hopefully moshpit free zone (because Jongin was going to be stepped on, again). 

The soccer match between the Wolves and the Falcons was an equivalent to the La Liga Championship's Barca-Real match in Oakwood high. Rivals at all and every cost, Oakwood high and Millner Private had always been more than ready to literally rip each other's throats out just to prove the best out of both. The former being a public high school was recognised as the best in the town for achieving optimum results among other public schools while Millner Private was known for their sophisticated, classy and utterly arrogant ways to educate their children--

"Not to mention the boys in their soccer team were a bunch of saddened wimps, running to their dear mummies for every god-damn thing! I swear this one time, a guy called Patrick...? Or was it Henry? Any how, this Henry guy actually ing cried when one of Turner's little es snapped back at him for touching her hair or something. He was supposed to be one of those popular heartthrobs from a typical Disney movie for 's sake!" Sehun groans.

"And to say that they were supposed to beat Luhan out of all people in a ing soccer match. It's like Peter Parker trying to open up a business in Gotham city... moving on."

A loud cheer erupted from Sehun's right and both him and Kyungsoo figured that must be their side of the bleachers, for only a student from Oakwood would be able to recognize that one nerd from the glee club hitting 4 octaves in the chorus of their 'anthem'. Nodding to Kyungsoo, Sehun lead the way towards the benches only to find Kim Jongin already seated somewhere in the front, in an attempt to woo a cheerleader or two and blushing every now and then. Sehun rolled his eyes.

"Jongin had always been easy to please, that guy has. He turns red even if someone compliments his hair."

When Jongin noticed the two figures, he immediately gave up on the girls (much to their dismay, and minor offence) and waved frantically at the duo, grinning like a child on Christmas morning.

"I saved you two seats!"

"We figured."

Jongin faked a pout as Sehun dumped his bag in front of his legs nonchalantly. "A small thank you would have sufficed." the brunette murmured sadly.

Kyungsoo laughed and ruffled Jongin's hair slowly and Sehun had to be reminded of two things: 

a) How pathetic his life was compared to the doe-eyed angel

b) As much as he hated to admit it, Jongin and Kyungsoo sort of looked good together.

"Although I'm sure it was the gayness talking. I admit that I haven't thought about girls ever since Luhan. Jongin and Kyungsoo included."

"I brought a few pieces of tarts from home for the match. Want some?" Kyungsoo offered. Jongin nodded his hair fervently (Kyungsoo laughed that beautiful laugh again) and Sehun declined with a clenched jaw. He was not going to give into Kyungsoo's trap. Nope. Never. 

"What flavour is it?"

"Chocolate"
 

Damn Kyungsoo and his chocolate tarts.

But Sehun only gave a tight-lipped smile and looked the other way, to search for another 'someone'.
 

Luhan, Luhan, Luhan... where are you, you idiot? He thought to himself.

"He's obviously in the locker room stupid. He's the one supposed to play." Jongin sang. Sehun whipped his head around in shock; since when was Kim Jongin a mind reader?

"I'm not a mind reader, you said it out loud." He laughed again. 

"What the fu--"

"Easy on the language son, Suho's already at the commentator's box. It's starting."

The pinkette jolted up straight, quickly snatching a red Wolves banner from a classmate nearby, preapring himself (and straightening a bit of his hair). From where he sat, a perfect view of the pitch could be seen, save for the constant movement of the stupic canine mascot and the horrifying view of Alison Turner's backside. Sehun inwardly grumbled at how he had to compete with his ex to get to his crush. 

"ing fantastic."

"Jelly Hun is jelly."

"Jongin you little piece of shi--"

"Shush you two!" Kyungsoo intervened, now competely focused on the Vice President who immediately switched on the mic and began playing Pirates of the Caribbean theme song.

"Is he serious?" Sehun blurted the moment the noise from the crowd died out.

Jongin raised an eyebrow "Serious? I think it's genius. Everyone is as quite as a mouse."

Three taps to the mic and...

"Well, well... Welcome to the 55th Annual Oakwood regionals 2013! This is Suho Kim, student of Oakwood high, and beside me is the charming Johnson Jacob O'Gara, President of student council of Millner Private Institute of Education!"

A stream of cheers and boos broke from the student again, each lot either supporting their school and/or bad-mouthing the other at the name of O'Gara.

"Now... let me tell you about Johnson O'Gara. That guy used to be a junior in Oakwood before he was transferred to Millner because of his exceptional grades. Him and Suho, back then... or so I've heard, were attatched by the hip and that's why Suho had to be the only guy in Oakwood, who wasn't hated by the Private. Except Luhan, in my humble opinion.

In fact, the vice pres. had several friends from there... but O'Gara? Oh no, no, no... Johnson's photo from the school toppers in Oakwood was pretty much burnt for his supposed 'betrayal' and . 

Yeeeeeaaahhh, our school can be pretty dramatic like that... Suho and John are still friends though."

"Evening lovelies, and thank you Joonmyun for your ever so kind words" O'Gara began. "Right, the match today between Oakwood High and Millner Private will be taking place in a 90 minute time span. Both teams are out right about now--"

But Sehun hadn't bothered to hear what O'Gara had said next for the Wolves were already on their way out. Sehun gasped. 

Luhan. 

In a jersey.

A sleeveless jersey.

"This guy is going to be the death of me." the pinkette muttered, which Jongin clearly heard and smirked. Kyungsoo was far too busy munching on his tarts.
 

The crowd went balistic, not bothering to listen to the commentators ("From the Wolves are Captain Luhan, Vica Captain Kim, Jenkinson, Smith, Park, Li, Travers, Van der Hampton, Hanes, McManus and Gugliotta. Falcons from Millner Private approaching with Captain Xavier, Vice Yoon, Wood, Dogstar, Pais, Kumar, Gayle, Douglas, Murray, Steve and Kirkbright. Referee Carter, Collins, Brown and Wu--") as all eleven boys from Oakwood emerged waving their hands and clapping simultaeneously, Vice captain Kim showing his gummy smile that made the cheer-squad -sans Alison- squeal because he was just so squishy.

A similar scene reflected from the Private's side, with deafening cheers almost jarring to the ears while a rapidly growing group tried (and failed, constantly) to begin some sort of mosh-pit. So much for being elites.

Sehun began wolf-whistling the moment their team took their positions while the captains shook hands. The pinkette could see Luhan's casual smile while the opposition seemed rather stoic in his approach and the younger smiled in glee. 

Such a sweetheart.
 

"Luhan! Luhan! LUHAN! LUHAN! LU-- Hey!" Sehun yelled at Jongin who tried to pull the boy back to his seat (Sehun doesn't remember when he had jumped atop the bleachers and joined Luhan's little fanclub with their chants while Kyungsoo looked half-embarrassed, half-amused. Regaining himself, Sehun was about to berate Jongin for stopping his mini parade but stopped when he notices the captain's eye flicker towards him. 

Sehun stared.

Just stared.

With his mouth agape, obviously.

Holy .

He kept staring and eventually, realised that Luhan had looked at him fully now, flashed a grin right at the boy before stepping a few paces back and oh he looked at me. He actually ing looked at me. Me! 
 

my life.

Sehun hadn't even noticed when the whistle blew and the entire stadium erupted like fire.

"THAT WAS A FREE-KICK! THAT WAS A ING FREE-KICK YOU SON OF A BITC--" Jongin clamped the pinkette's mouth before more colours spat out in the form of some very insulting words. It had already been past half-time with the last 20 mintues left of the match and the elder couldn't help but notice the different phases Sehun went into throughout that time. 

First, the boy was a giggling freak (Jongin guessed Luhan must have looked at their direction, or probably just sneezed, to turn Sehun into a teenage girl), then Sehun literally hopped in joy when Luhan scored against the Falcons within a quarter of an hour, and began chanting with Luhan's 'fans' as they called themselves. Immediately after that, Sehun quitened down... too quiet, actually and Kyungsoo nudged Jongin at the side of the captain and vice captain of the Wolves hugging their victory away resembling a couple about to almost kiss. At half-time, Sehun turned back into his snarky old self, acting as if everything was normal, but insisted to "go to the locker room because I think I had left my towel there last week". Jongin rolled his eyes and dragged the younger by the collar, the latter putting as much of a fight as a dog with its tail on fire.

And finally, Sehun was jumped back into the mood of the game along with the angry students of Oakwood when Travers had injured his knee and referee Carter didn't even pass a yellow-card. That was when all of Sehun's vocabulary filtered itself and chose only a few selected ones that caused all girls -and guys-  to turn a beet-red. 

Jongin wondered how Sehun obtained such a dirty mouth, but then drew back the thought when he realised that he may have been the instigator in a few of those anyway. It didn't help matters when Wolves and Eagles drew 1-1 moments after. 

Just when things were heading better, three minutes ago, to be precise, Xavier decided it was a fantastic idea to meet the sole of his spikier than usual studs onto Luhan's shin and Sehun absolutely lost it. 

The boy was this close to jumping out of the bleachers, stomping over Turner and beating the crap out of Xavier. 

No one touched his Luhan.

Jongin and Kyungsoo had to hold him back to save face, but soon realised that the rest of their school was in a similar situation. Everyone was ready to cause a stampede of mass destruction as long as their Luhan was safe, sound and the winner. 

"YOU MOTHERER!" Sehun had begun, and it all went down from there when the staff had begin to make barriers just in case and Suho's commentary only added fuel to the fire ("The crowd seems rather violent Johnson and I wouldn't really blame them, especially the pinkette. I mean, not to offend or anything, but I swear I saw Kim being trampled to the ground at 38 minutes"). Millner Private began flaming rather degradingly and a little fight too, commenced between both teams.

It was a massacre.

A loud whistled only eased the stadium a bit, but they were sane enough to stop ripping each other's throats. At the raise of a yellow card, a series of 'yays' and 'boos' echoed through the region. Johnson mentioned 'Free-Kick' and Sehun lied back down on his seat, relieved but utterly aware. 

The whistle blew again and Luhan passed the ball to Kim who dribbled it until he reached two defenders, one of them a good head taller than him (Wu) while the other only smirked. The vice captain smirked back and eased his way to the right, before passing it smoothly to Hanes who bubbled in laughter and passed it to Luhan who kicked it back to Gugliotta and finally the goal-keeper. 

The next few minutes had passed in slow-motion, with Kyungsoo and Sehun gripping each other as tightly as possible everytime the Falcons made it towards their D-Line (Sehun would have killed himself a million times if he were concious of how he was holding the scholar). After a final swap from Traves to Burton, the Wolves spent the last 4 minutes carefully passing among each other, possessing the ball 68% and ensuring it was never off-side when, during the final 90 seconds, Sehun saw both vice-captain and captain share a look before giving those -eating grins and stepped their game up three notches, enough for the Falcons to distract themselves as they entered the latter's D-line. 

80 seconds and the defenders surrounded vice, who jumped over the slightly stationary ball almost teasingly, his legs almost playing with the ground before he somehow -just somehow- managed to cut through all three of them (Sehun gaped and Kyungsoo and Jongin dropped their pies because what the did he just do. Oakwood screamed cheers) and leisurely passed it to Luhan who looked playfully at the almost-empty-save-for-the-goalie goal post and... scored.

Just like that.

As if he wasn't even trying.

Another grin ripped his jaw as he jogged towards his team-mate and crushed him into a hug and a deafening roar of Oakwood's victory snapped Oh Sehun out his trance.

Sehun blinked.

Once, twice.

And slowly, a smile began to creep up his face; one of those rear, eye-smiles that caused his eyes to crinkle at the sides.

" YES!" he roared, jumping happily. They won, Luhan won.

And he looked at me too. 

"WE WON! WE ING FUN JONGIN. FALCONS CAN KISS MY WE FREAKING WON!" Jongin laughed at Sehun's cheery outburst and Kyungsoo clapped hard among the 'fangirls' who had tears in their eyes. 

Sehun noticed that the audience was already beginning to fill into the stadium to celebrade success and turned to Jongin to do the same. Nothing could beat this happy, cheery mood of his. Not for today at least. His shoulders had eased in utter relief and his heart thudded just so loudly in his chest; Sehun felt lightheaded. The good one of course. 

Just as Sehun was about to descend to the ground, he stopped short in his approach. His pupils dialated and his jaw hung open.

Luhan.

His Luhan (not really, but he preferred it that way).

Look at him.

Him.

And nodded before turning back to his mates.

And peeled the jersey off his skin.

Sweaty skin.

And was hauled into the air by two shoulders as he spun the damp cloth around, laughing like a maniac.

And Oh Sehun could get the perfect view.

Of Luhan.

Shirtless.

Bare.

Sehun fainted.

"Although I was lucky enough to have not seen the sheer romantic hug Luhan at that cat Turner shared from what Jongin told me."

Sehun woke up to the sound of Kyungsoo's murmurs and saw him talking to a red-headed person discussing something in rapid... Korean?

He squinted his eyes and his focus cleared. It was Suho, the vice president, with the mop of maroon hair listening intently to Kyungsoo. Suho turned an inch, only to find Sehun awake and smiled kindly at him before nudging Kyungsoo towards his direction. 

"You're awake!" the older chirped.

No Sherlock.

"Where's Jongin?" Sehun didn't beat around the bush. He tried to show his obvious distaste towards the doe-eyed boy even if he really didn't completely feel that way. From the corner of his eye, he saw Suho raise a neat eyebrow.

"He said something about going to some class and left ten minutes ago." 

Dance class? But it was a Monday. Sehun didn't have time to ponder further because Kyungsoo spoke again. "Time for introductions I guess. Suho, Sehun, Sehun, Suho. But his close friends call him Joonmyun-- ouch!" he shrieked when Suho calmly leaned in and flicked Kyungsoo on the forehead. "-I... his family. Only his family can call him Joonmyun. So it's Suho." Sehun nodded. "And he's having a party at his place tonight to celebrate our victory and he's invited you too."

"Me?"

"Yes." It was Suho who answered this time. "I was hoping to invite you and your friend personally after the match, as I did to every one of mine, and Kyungsoo's friends but I suppose you... you just... sort of... fell unconcious." he shrugged his shoulders and Sehun honestly found the gesture quite sophisticated. Sehun half wondered if the older was British or something. His accent seemed... unique.

"O-oh." Sehun remembered the events prior to that aka a half- Luhan and felt heat cover his face entirely, including his ears. His ribcage thrashed loudly and he cleared his throat, the match slowly coming back to him. He then recalled how Suho-- Joonmyu-- Suho especially mentioned his own pink head while up at the commentary box. "Nice commentating by the way." Sehun added.

"Ah, about that." Suho rubbed the back of his head, not quite sheepishly though. "I couldn't help it, sorry about that. I was just as infuriated as you were though, although my ways of expressing it were restricted to being more... cencored." Kyungsoo laughed at this and Sehun flinched in conciousness. He was a pretty bad audience, after all. "But in all seriousness, I despised Yoon too much the entire time, especially after what he did to Kim M--"
 

"Aw, since when were you and Min best buddies Joonie?" a voice startled them out of their conversation. Sehun a lot more, as he turned half of his body to the other side of the room. 

Atop a bed were two figures, one cackling loudly, while the other rolling his eyes with a side-smile gracing his features. "Must I remind you that this man right here is mine?" The one with the honey locks s his arms around the brunette before turning to Sehun. "Hi!" he waved and Sehun gasped.

"H-hi-- what?" Sehun looked like a fish out of water. Luhan, The Luhan, was talking to him. Him. Hi and all that . 

"Got yourself a fanboy, have you Lu?" the other figure smiled gummily, teasing Luhan slightly. What? Why? Now? Really? He had to meet Luhan here, out of all places? When the reason for Sehun for being here was Luhan himself? What the hell were they doing here anyway?

Sehun's eyes then landed on a bandaged knee and realisation dawned upon his that this might have been Yoon's work, from what Suho had just told him. Sehun raised his head to meet the other boy.

"Kim Minseok. Kim. ing. Minseok. ing Senior who is a ing genius, even more so than Kyungsoo goddamn it. I mean, the guy is ing phenomenal and everyone doesn't even feel intimidated by it because of how down-to-earth he is. He tops all tests, and is so freaking cool! I mean, I mean he's like... the official advisor, school counsellor be damned. He's so chill about everything! He's a clean freak, I've heard, but that's okay because that man is the most level-headed and patient person this school could every freaking have.

The best part is that... he's best friends with Luhan. I just... argh!" Sehun ruffles his hair in frustration.

"Kim Minseok for president. I rest my case." 

"Naw, you're the only one I'll ever have darlin'" Luhan replied and cooed against Minseok, who shifted his leg slightly to give the former more space. They actually looked like a very gay couple, had Sehun not known about Alison. But his blood boiled none the less.

A short cough snapped his attention back to Kyungsoo and Joon-Suho, damn it. 

"So, it'll be great if you and Kai could make it tonight, only if you feel any better." he gestured towards Sehun's state and Sehun found himself pinking again. "We all need a break and Kyungsoo's coming too" he added.

"Um... I don't think I'm up for it. I'll ask Jongin to--"

"Oh bull!" Luhan interrupted, almost like a little child (with very mature words). "It's going to be great fun man! The more the merrier, besides, Minseok and I are going too! And they'll be everyone from the team! And cheerleaders. Dude, cheerleaders--"

But Sehun only managed to hear the part where Luhan was going.

He turned to Joon-Suho. Suho! Suho!

"What time is it?"

"About 8:30"

"I'll go."