o_o

...

>_<

o_o

>_<

o_o

...

O_O

"How the heck did YOU get in, Haneul??" your friends ask, crowding around you from behind. 

"I... don't know..." you reply lifelessly. 

"Well, congratulations, Haneul~" Donghae cheers as he lifts your arms up in the air. Your facial expression remains in shock. 

"Ya know, I don't really know whether to give you my congratulations or condolences..." Heechul says, scratching his chin. 

"Hey, maybe Haneul can handle it though," Youngwoon says. "He's done quite a number of things around here anyway. I'm sure he can handle himself. This might even be good for him!"

"Thanks, hyu--"

"I mean, look at him!" he continues. "He's so frail that he can't do anything vigorous so he might as well be stuck in that office and be productive with his mind, right?" 

Uhhh... that ended up not so encouraging... 

"Don't mind them, Haneul," Sungmin says. "Being part of the student council is a prestigious title. You've earned it!" 

You smile at him.

"He's not part of the student council yet," Hyukjae says. 

"What the heck are you talking about??" they all shout. 

"Look," he points at the small print at the bottom of the names list. 

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

**Congratulations, 2nd screening passers! 

You've come this far and there is one more screening to go before you can be an official member of the student council. Your individual interviews will be scheduled later this evening.

SCHEDULE:

Choi Seunghyun       6:00pm

Kim Soohyun            7:00pm

Kim Haneul               8:00pm

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

I hope the other two guys with me aren't nerds. Haraboji in heaven, could you please ask God to make my student councilmates at least a teeny bit good-looking to make it more endurable for me?? Dx

At that moment, Kibum passes by. 

"Oh, Kim Kibum!" Heechul calls him. 

He stops and looks at you and the others. "Hm?" 

"You're part of the student council, right?" he asks. 

"Yeah, why?" 

"Which of the rumors about the council," Sungmin starts to ask. "Are true?" 

Kibum looks at your friends. Then his eyes shift to you. He blinks indifferently.

"All of them," he says monotonously as he walks away. 

Whaaaaat the heck did I get myself intoooo????? @_@

5:30pm, SHRINE

You tell Kyuhyun about earlier's happenings and how you passed the 2nd student council screening. 

He looks surprised and straightens up on the shrine's steps at the news. "O-oh... Congratulations," he tries to smile. 

You tilt your head at him. "What's the matter with everyone? It's like they don't want me to be in the student council. Including you. I was hoping for a bit of encouragement instead, to be honest." 

"Well... if what Kibum said was true, then it might be more of a bad thing to be part of the student council..." Kyuhyun tells you. 

"I do know that it's gonna be a pain in the , a pain in the head, and it's gonna take away some of my free time but in other schools, lots of other kids try out for the student council. Ryeowook tried out for it. He seems fine. I don't understand why all the negative hype."

"But that's Ryeowook," Kyuhyun explains. "You're Haneul. You might be different. It's not that I'm telling you not to join though, but just please think this through very very carefully." 

"It seems a little bit more like you want me to NOT join though." :/

"Haneul, you don't know what they do in there. Everything they do is strenuous and it's all boy stuff. It's not for girls. It is, after all, student council of an ALL-BOYS school." 

"What makes gender so different in that aspect? Even girl's schools have student councils! We're all human anyway so what's the big deal? How different could a boy's student council be from a girl's one?" o_O

"Haneul," he faces you squarely and holds your shoulders firmly. His face is so close to yours that you feel your heart thumping away again. You bite your bottom lip and try to focus on what he's trying to tell you. 

"Haneul," he says again. "You're a girl in an all-boys school. The student council knows everything about each other. Once you're in it, your privacy will be gone. And once you're an official member, you will not be able to withdraw from the council so easily. Your biggest problem of being a girl... it will be much easier for them to find this out. Your story might end before it even begins. It's dangerous..." He cups your hand in his hands and squeezes it tight. "Please think about it, Haneul." 

.////.

"Um... Y-yeah, sure, okay, I will," you squeak. 

7:00pm, ROOM 107

You are lying down on Hyukjae's mattress with your hands behind your head. Donghae is lying on his belly beside you. Hyukjae is busy fiddling with something on the table. Some kind of tiny electric fan on chopsticks. But that doesn't matter right now.

"I don't know, Haneul," he says. "I think you shouldn't care what other people think. You got in because you are capable of whatever it is they do there. If I were you, I'd be proud of myself and just go for it~!"

"But... what if being part of the student council..." you say anxiously. "will just give me bigger problems? Wouldn't it be wiser to not go through with it anymore?"

"Haneul," Donghae says. 

"What do you want to do when you grow up?" 

"Me? Um, I dunno..." you reply. "I just want to... live quietly..." 

Is that all I really want? 

"Don't you have dreams?" 

Dreams? 

"I... I..."

I've forgotten about myself. Thinking too much about my family has made them the center of my life now... hahaha... I don't even remember what I wanted to be before. Even before haraboji died, I just thought of pleasing them all the time. Doing whatever was expected of me. Now, I've just turned into a robot.

You close your eyes and cover them with your arm. 

"I don't have one," you whisper. 

Donghae is silent for a while. You hear him take a deep breath and exhale. Then he says in a soft warm voice, "Maybe it's about time you had one." 

You feel his fingers gently your hair. You feel your face flush and decide to wait it out but he doesn't stop doing it. You remove your arm from your face. He is smiling at you in a very un-brofriend-like manner, still your hair. You give him a veeery disturbed look. He suddenly realizes what he's doing. He stops mid- and his eyes go wide. 

"GaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!" he explodes backwards, hitting the wall. 

"Hooooooly crap, I did NOT just do that," he shouts, going crazy and twirling around Hyukjae's top-bunk mattress, almost ripping out his hair. "I'M NOT A HOMO, HANEUL!! PLEASE DON'T BE FREAKED OUT!! GAAAAHH I JUST TAINTED OUR FRIENDSHIP FOREVER!!! NOOOOOOUUUUUUU!!!!!" 

o_O

"Um, it's okay, Donghae. Just... don't do it again." 

"I got so carried away that I went full-oppa mode and forgot that you were a guy too!! Why does your face have to look like that, Haneul, jinjja?? Auughhh... TT TT "

"Wooooh, way to go, Donghae," Hyukjae butts in. "I knew it by the way you look at me~" 

"Shut up, Hyukjae, aiiishhhh," Donghae whines. His face is really red now. You giggle despite yourself. "GAAAH HANEUL STOP MOCKING ME, YOU'RE ACTING LIKE A CUTE GIRL!!! TT TT Aish, I wanna die!!!" 

7:45pm, OUTSIDE THE STUDENT COUNCIL OFFICE

"I say go for it," Joongki tells you through the phone. "Your friends are both right though. Although there IS the danger of being found out, it's going to be fun going ninja on them like that. Well, that's just me. I love danger and excitement~" 

You chuckle. "It might be fun for you but it might mean the end of the world for me." 

"But hey, you're going to regret not joining this. Didn't you say you wanted to be part of the student council to find out the secrets of whoever that guy was?" 

"Well, yeah... and he very obviously doesn't want you in the student council with him," Joongki points out. "See? And who knows, he might just be exaggerating the rumors. He's not the student council president. That Kibum guy is not credible because he's biased!"

"That's true..." 

"So I suggest that you go join that thing, pass the interview with flying colors, be a hidden legend, the new lotus flower lady undercover among savages (sorry, I like exaggerating my fantasies), and reach your dreams without anyone nor anything stopping you."

"Reach my dreams, huh?" you smile to yourself. "I'll have to find them first."

"What better way to do so than joining the council and being among the school's finest?" you hear Joongki almost smiling through the phone. 

"Thank you for being very encouraging, Joongki," you tell him. "It means a lot to me. Thank you." 

"Anytime, cupcake," he says. "Aaaaand it's almost 8:00pm. You should get going."

"Yeah, I should," you straighten up. "Bye, Joongki. See you soon?" 

"You betcha."

You hang up. A deep breath and you stand up straight. Right in front of you is the door to the student council office. You feel like you're dying and flying at the same time. A bit dizzy too, but you need to make a decision. 

Walk into the student council office.

Skip the interview.