Minseok hardly counted himself as the most intelligent in the group. In fact, sometimes he did things that ended up being downright stupid. Not because he was stupid, but certain decisions were...well, everyone had bad ideas sometimes.

    s still wouldn’t let him live down that day with the stoned monkey, despite the fact that Minseok himself hadn’t been in his right mind at the time. Doctors were really free with sedatives even when the injury wasn’t actually that bad.

    Pot-smoking monkey and other past mistakes aside, Minseok honestly didn’t believe that he’d win the Yoo In Na Volume Up Survival Game. Not with eleven other men playing, and especially not when the questions came from manager-noona, who Minseok was sure tried to get him in trouble on purpose.

    But the questions were just so easy.

    There was no possible way that they spent three thousand won per day on food alone. Not with the continuation of their diets. And considering the fact that they went grocery shopping on a weekly basis instead of daily, and manager-noona wasn’t even in charge of finances...it had seemed so simple.

    Yet somehow, Tao, Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, Sehun, and Joonmyun got it wrong. Joonmyun was the most surprising, as he paid a lot of attention to how much money they spent, and should’ve known better.

    Still, stranger things had happened, and now Minseok and Luhan were alone on their side of the table. Minseok, already having accepted defeat, was really gearing towards Luhan to win. Luhan was smart, and he knew an awful lot about what went down in the group and out of it. Luhan would definitely win.

    Then came the second question, and once again Minseok was hit with a fiery blast of confusion. Of course they got up thirty minutes early every day. They had to, otherwise manager-hyung and manager-noona would castrate them. In fact, Minseok was so terrified of losing his privates that he went the extra mile to make sure that he didn’t sleep in. And he was also scared for the privates of s, so he usually tried making sure they were awake too. Which Yixing, bless him, pointed out after Baekhyun decided to be a troll and make ual innuendos about Minseok and his early mornings.

    But honestly, it wasn’t a hard question. So it took a minute for Minseok to understand how it was possible that Luhan, Baekhyun, and Jongin got it wrong. Especially Luhan. Then, of course, Minseok realized that they’d had a little bit of trouble understanding the question, and maybe that was why they pulled up an ‘x’, instead of an ‘o’.

    Which was completely understandable.

    Now, with only him, Wufan, Jongdae, and Yixing left, Minseok wasn’t sure who would beat him. He knew one of them would - they were all so smart! - but he’d really been betting on Luhan, so it was strange having to expect someone else.

    The third question, like the last two, were simple. North America wasn’t the largest continent. End of story. Admittedly, Minseok couldn’t quite remember which one was, but at least he knew what it wasn’t. As expected (finally) everyone answered it correctly.

    Minseok was really hoping to at least make it to the last question, because he didn’t want to have to stand up and dance, and by the way the fans watching acted, he wouldn’t be allowed to get away with standing still for long. So when question number four came along, Minseok was nearly sweating.

    And then when he heard what the question was, ‘nearly’ became ‘actually’, and he sent Luhan a horrified look.

    Minseok had no idea how long Super Junior had been number one on Taiwanese music charts. In fact, half the time Minseok forgot that Taiwan existed (not that he’d be mean enough to admit it). But A hundred and twenty weeks...that seemed like an awfully long time. Over two years, if he was doing the math right.

    He looked over at his three seated friends across the studio just as DJ-noona finished counting down. He scrambled for the ‘o’ card, because that’s what his band members were holding up, and if they all agreed on the same thing then either they would all win or all lose. Either way, Minseok wouldn’t have to dance. Yet.

    “Are you sure?” DJ-noona kept saying, making Minseok doubt himself. Surely she wouldn’t keep asking if they weren’t all wrong. He glanced over at Luhan again, expecting some sort of encouragement. And Minseok got it in the form of Luhan leaning over him to grab the ‘x’ card and shove it in his hand.

    The suspicious part of Minseok worried that Luhan wanted him to lose, but Luhan would never do that to him, so when he called out ‘x’, and won, the surprised relief was only minimal. Of course Luhan would keep him safe. Luhan wasn’t mean like that.

    Minseok was feeling really proud of himself - and really grateful to Luhan - for beating out his eleven bandmates. Until DJ-noona announced what his ‘prize’ would be. Minseok didn’t mean to be so vocal about how getting kissed by a bunch of guys could hardly be considered a prize - or a good thing at all - but he was ignored anyway.

    As DJ-noona played ‘Black Pearl’ upon request, Minseok silently cried for being forced into something so horrible. When the other members got prizes, they never had to do anything so weird. Why was it always Minseok?

    He was so busy drowning in self-pity that he didn’t notice the way that Luhan leaned over to Tao and murmured “See? I told you manager-noona would help us with the Showdown.’

    “Best prize ever,” Tao agreed, causing Chanyeol to begin laughing maniacally beside them.

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A/N: I'll post chapter 1 up tomorrow. Promise.