Chapter SIX.

…Loen’s F4

As with all Monday mornings, this was no different. Chance was giving class announcements, informing us on the events that were to take place within the next few weeks. Because Loen was not your regular school, our Orientation week (or O week for short) happened a couple weeks into the first semester. O week was not only for the freshman at our school but also a means by which various clubs and groups recruit various students. Well the main reason was to build up to Friday’s Clubs Day.

“So all regular club and committee meetings will resume this week starting today after last period so use that time to discuss events and whatnot…” Chance went on and I zoned out half way. Mainly because we got the same speech every year and this really did not apply to me.

I was already involved in “Loen News” as part of the school’s magazine committee so other club activities would only waste my already precious photographing time. Besides, I spent enough hours around these people. I really did not want to spend any more unnecessary time as it was.

As I reached for my scrapbook Sungyeol had stolen from me earlier that morning, I saw Howon with his eyes closed, phone plugged in and his head bopping along to his music. I guess I wasn’t the only one disinterested in school happenings.

Scrolling through my camera, I noted down a few dates and topics in my scrapbook. There were quite a few things I needed to cover this week especially with O Week and Clubs Day happening. I reached a page in my book and immediately cursed as I recognised the scratchy handwriting scrawled across the page.

I turned around and slammed the book on Sungyeol’s desk, startling his sleeping seatmate. The word “Nam Woohyun” was scrawled across the page surrounded in little hearts with my name written next to his. Sungyeol just gave me that “innocent” look of his.

“What?” he shrugged.

I tapped on the double page spread and he feigned innocence, arguing he had no idea what that meant. I sighed and proceeded to hit said male’s head with the back of Howon’s math textbook. Sungyeol screamed and stood up, silencing the class for a second and an amused look from Chance. Our president bowed and apologised, before sitting back down and grabbing the textbook out of my hand.

You might think I was overreacting but everyone knew that this book was mine. And if anyone were to pick it up to see a page dedicated to said male, that would be the end of yours truly. Yes, Nam Woohyun had a very wide fan base and I’m sure other fangirls did the same but there were things one resident photographer could and could not do. Broadcasting her love for said Infinite member was not one of them. It didn’t help that I was the newly appointed Vice President for 2-C either.

Last year VP was a class vote along with Class President but because of the busy week ahead, Chance just handed VP-choosing privileges over to Sungyeol. He picked me, much to my annoyance, but because he was Lee Sungyeol I couldn’t say no. I really hated how he held such power over me. I didn’t even know why he held such power.

“So I’m guessing you’re still texting him?” Sungyeol suddenly said and I shot him a glare.

I could see Howon’s interest pique from the corner of my eye. He had an eyebrow raised while he pretended to have his attention on his own phone. Luckily Min was on the other side of the classroom gossiping with Bae Suzy and Jung Eunji to have overheard this conversation.

“Do you want the girls at this school to murder me?” I hissed under my breath.

“I take that as a yes,” he sung.

Unfortunately he was wrong. I hadn’t really heard from Woohyun after Saturday night when Sungyeol took it upon himself to “be me” and text him. Apparently I didn’t know “how to flirt” but I had tried to explain to him that I wasn’t flirting. He had deleted his conversation thread before I could find out but Myungsoo unknowingly let that slip this morning when we were walking to school.

“I don’t think he will after what you sent him,” I scowled. I was half expecting a gasp of shock of some sort but he didn’t even look surprised.

“Oh come on, you needed me help,”

I scoffed, “I can flirt very well without your help,”

Sungyeol hummed a response just as the bell for first period rang. Our Korean teacher walked in as she told us to turn to page 17 in our books. I think this would be the appropriate time to say I was saved by the bell.

Sungyeol whispered a “we’re not done” but I ignored him as Chansung came and claimed Min’s seat. I peered over him to see Lee Junho’s seat empty but didn’t ask. Junho never did show up to our Monday morning classes.

My phone lit up under my desk and I reached inside and pulled it out. I looked up to see Ms Park making notes on the whiteboard and proceeded to read the message hidden under my desk. Ms Park had eyes like a hawk and she took Korean Literature very seriously. It was rather annoying since she made this class even more tedious and boring than it already was.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be look out,” Chansung spoke up. I shot him a smile and he winked. I sent a quick jab with my elbow to his and he immediately dropped those Carbonara eyes of his.

I opened the message to see Junho’s usual Monday text. He was going to be later than usual and wouldn’t be in school until third period Math. His usual text was mostly just asking me to take notes for him so he could copy later and to pick up any homework assignments we had. After a year, I still didn’t know why Lee Junho was late to our Monday morning classes. He couldn’t always be late every Monday so there must’ve been some sort of explanation. And I’m betting Chansung probably knows.

I would ask but I would always get the same answer. And it always involved that stupid Bro Code. Seriously, if I had a dollar for every time these guys used that excuse I wouldn’t even need to go to school. Yes, that’s how rich I’d be.

Junho arrived just as third period started. Min was still seated on the other side with Suzy and surprisingly Chansung stayed seated next to me. He gave a passing glance to Junho but that was it. Usually Chansung would be next to Junho in a flash but something was off when Junho snuck into class.

Nudging Chansung, I motioned to Junho but he just shot me this weird look. He shook his head as he went back to solving the question on the board. The rest of the lesson we spent in silence. Chansung kept sneaking glances at Junho and vice versa. It was beginning to feel like a couple who just had a fight. Something seriously must’ve gone done between those two.

…

My favourite time of the day arrived. Lunch. Junho had left class as soon as the bell went and Chansung followed behind him before I could even ask if he was gonna eat with me. I shoved my books in my desk and pulled my camera out of its bag. Just as I stood up to turn my chair around, Sungyeol grabbed me by my blazer sleeve and pulled my out of the class along with a very amused Howon.

We-- we’ll he decided to go back to the cafeteria for lunch because apparently Sungyeol needed to keep up appearances in public or something. It had been a while since we had gone back to sit in the caf. We hadn’t sat there for lunch ever since the beginning of last semester when there was that little incident between myself and Park Jiyeon.

As we walked to the cafeteria, Sungyeol sided up to me and placed and arm around my shoulder and reassured me that Jiyeon wasn’t here today and that the T-ara girls wouldn’t bother me with him around. I hate to admit that he was right. I don’t know if they were scared of Sungyeol but when he was with me, they seemed to leave me alone. Which would explain how I’ve managed to survive being in the same class with Park Jiyeon all this time.

“Hey you’re coming to club tonight, right?” It wasn’t really a question.

Said club he was referring to was Infinite. Yes the same Infinite he tried to recruit Howon into. And the same one Nam Woohyun was a part of.

“No, why would I?” I automatically replied causing a snigger from Howon.

“What do you mean why?!”

One, I was not exactly part of the club so me being there would defeat all purposes of having a club.

Two, to my knowledge it was a boys only club despite them having one female member which wasn’t really their member but their manager.

And three, I did not need to be another victim to the crazy fangirls at this school. I already had enough of an anti-fan club at this school. I did not need more members added to it.

I just shot him a look and he just rolled his eyes. I had only been to Infinite’s club meetings a few times and as much as I loved the company, I don’t think Leader Kim Sunggyu would appreciate my disruption. Especially since most of the time was me and Sungyeol fighting.

“You know I’ll protect. I’m your White Knight remember?” he said in a suggestive tone, adding a wink for good measure.

I stopped walking to proceed to kick him in the shins. He screamed as I walked off. I could hear Howon laughing away as he caught up to me and a whinging Sungyeol in the background.

“White Knight huh?” Howon mocked.

“Shut up if you don’t wanna end up like that,” I motioned behind us.

“Yes Ma’am,” he immediately clammed up and bowed.

When we reached the school cafeteria, there was a crowd forming around the outside entrance. Howon gave me a confused look and I shrugged. We joined the crowd and from the hushed whispers, I managed to make out that one of the most prestigious groups were arriving for lunch.

Being the shortie I was, I couldn’t see anything from the back so I jumped up and down in hopes to see which group it was. Not that we had many so-called prestigious groups. I could probably list them all on one hand. Howon must’ve noticed my awkward hopping, as well as realising it probably wasn’t good idea to jump up and down with a DSLR around my neck, as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards the front.

I looked up and it was like that opening scene of Boys Before Flowers when F4 enters the school. The four male students walking in had this glowing backlight as they walked through the cafeteria doors. I snapped a few dozen photos of…well I guess you could call them Loen’s F4, as they easily passed through the wave of students.

Here I thought Infinite were Loen’s Flower Boys but I guess F5 didn’t have the same ring.

“Who are they?” Howon questioned, that amused expression gracing his face again.

These four were collectively known as 2PM. Originally, there were five of them but Jay Park had left last semester handing the leading reigns over to Jang Wooyoung. When Jay came back, the group had welcomed Jay back with open arms but the b-boy declined. I figured it was because he was technically a year older than all of us and didn’t really want to lead some “high school” group. All he wanted to this year was to graduate without making any noise. That was probably why he declined the nomination of Class Prez too.

2PM were actually a dance team so I’m not sure how they managed to become Loen’s F4. Maybe it was the fact they were the only club on campus to consist of only third years or that there were four of them. And I guess it didn’t help that they were all very attractive and swoon worthy.

I should introduce them.

First we have Nichkhun. He was throwing winks here and there as girls swooned and fainted (yeah, girls actually fainted no lie) over Blondie Number One. Nichkhun Horvejkul was an international transfer student who came in the middle of his first year. He was known as the Thai Prince as he was everything a Prince was. A true gentleman. He was the only member of 2PM I actually knew. Mostly due to his connection with Dongwoo as they would spend a lot of their time in the greenhouse bonding over flowers. Yes, because that’s the manliest thing ever okay?

Then there was the original grease machine himself, Ok Taecyeon, as he was going around accepting fangirls’ presents and doing all sort of cringe-worthy aegyo stunts that made me want to hit him. Howon squeezed my shoulder in an attempt to keep me from wanting to kill myself. He pushed his glasses up every now and then and threw those hand guns around. Not much people knew this, but Ok Taecyeon was actually a real geek. I had caught him a few times reading textbooks for fun and helping out teachers with marking. He wanted this to be kept a secret so I got him to tutor me for free as payment to keep my mouth shut. I know, I shouldn’t be blackmailing one of the most popular guys in school but how else was I supposed to get that Arts scholarship for university.

Kim Minjun walked with this swagger-like aura as he nodded to everyone that greeted him. He had his hands in his pockets and his headphones around his neck. Although he walked with this sort of rhythm, he was actually the worse dancer in 2PM. I don’t really know how he got in but it was most likely due to Jay Park. The two had been friends from Junior High and Jay owed Minjun a lot. Helping out with his Korean and all. Taecyeon was Jay’s translator (and BFF to which Jay Park would out rightly deny) but the two had only met in Loen. So really, Minjun was in 2PM by default. But he has gotten much better.

And lastly, Jang Wooyoung. He was their leader. Mostly due to the fact that he was the best dancer of the four (the exception was Jay Park but he was Jay Park. He was always the exception) and well pretty much the entire school. He was from Busan and was everything that Busan Men were said to be. At least Lee Howon was warming up and he was a more of a dork than I thought. Wooyoung on the other hand was not. Majority of juniors feared him just because of his reputation. He spoke in short sentences but they definitely hit like a bullet. It didn’t help that his hairstyle screamed “don’t mess with me”. His jet black fringe covered his left eye and he always had this cold look in his eye. Oh and yeah, it was the same Jang Wooyoung that was rumoured to be dating Mai Tran.

“Oh, Hoya?” Wooyoung stopped in front of us. My eyes widened as it looked like he was addressing Howon.

“Wooyoung-hyung?” Howon bowed but Wooyoung stopped him. He pulled the male in for that handshake-hug thing guys did and it was the first time I heard Wooyoung speak in full sentences. And his tone was actually human for once.

The two males began to talk and I felt really awkward just standing there. I drew my attention elsewhere and my eyes landed on a figure by the buffet. Junho had his attention locked on Wooyoung and Howon’s conversation and I could see a bitter smirk growing on his lips. He scoffed and rolled his eyes as he took his lunch out of the caf. Chansung called out behind him. Looked like the two made up.

“We’re looking for two new members to join us,” Wooyoung’s voice brought my attention back to him. “2PM are having a little showcase on Clubs Day--”

“Wooyoung-ah,” Minjun called out to their leader. He signalled for the group’s departure as Taecyeon and Nichkhun were waiting at the stairs towards 2PM’s club room.

“Just drop by Friday,” he concluded. “See you round, Hoya,” Wooyoung patted Howon on the shoulder. With that, Jang Wooyoung and the rest of 2PM disappeared into their dance quarters.

Howon still seemed a little shaken up with his meeting with Wooyoung. It was awkward standing in the middle of the entrance so I dragged him to a small table on the other side, tucked away in the corner. I came back with a tray of food for two and pushed it towards him.

“Do you…know Wooyoung-sunbaenim?” I asked cautiously, grabbing the frozen strawberry drink.

Howon nodded, his head still in the clouds.

“Why does he call you Ho…Ya?”

“My close friends call me that,” he replied simply.

“You guys must be close,”

He hesitated but gave a little nod and then shook his head. I raised an eyebrow in confusion. This was a different side to Howon. Usually he was that cool, relaxed kid but as soon as Wooyoung approached him, he became so vulnerable.

“I’m assuming from Busan then?”

Again he nodded. “We were in the same dance academy…until--”

A slap was sent to my right arm and I yelled. I stood up to find myself face to face with Lee Sungyeol who just stuck his tongue out and claimed my drink for himself. Mine and Howon’s conversation stopped as Sungyeol joined us.

“You okay?” I mouthed to Howon. He nodded and gave me a small smile.

Sungyeol started talking about that freshman Lee Sungjong and how he thinks with his help, he’ll have a chance with Kim Taeyeon. I just rolled my eyes and told the guy to keep dreaming. He protested, saying that no one could resist his charm to which I hit him upside the head.

Lee Sungyeol was delusional when it came to Kim Taeyeon.

“I’m delusional?! What about you and Nam Woohyun?” Sungyeol snapped back.

“What about me and Nam Woohyun?!” I retorted with just as much snap. There was nothing to talk about. There was no me and Nam Woohyun anyway. And I was not delusional. At least I had his number. And he knew my name.

“So you think you have a chance with him?” he mocked.

I gaped. “I never said I wanted…him…like that…” I stuttered in a bit of confusion at what Sungyeol was implying. “At least I don’t try fake attempts at aegyo whenever he’s around,” I stated.

“I do not! And have you seen yourself with Woohyun-hyung?”

Howon chuckled under his breath as he ate his ramen. “You two are like an old married couple,” he muttered under his breath.

“SHUT UP!” Sungyeol and I shouted in unison.

Howon flinched and turned his attention back to his ramen.

“I need to find new friends,” he said to himself as Sungyeol and I returned to our shouting match.

And like that lunch passed and we found ourselves back in class, counting the minutes till class was over. 

Spot the cameos anyone haha