Paint The Pool
Smultronstället
If there was ever one sure thing all (or at least most) teachers and students could agree on, it’s that the weekend was much too short. For the students, the weekend brought with it much needed rest and relaxation after cramming all the information their teachers upon them to memorize. For the teachers, it was the peace they’d been craving after listening to loud students and yelling at the tops of their lungs just to ask what two times four equaled.
No, there wasn’t much teachers and students could agree upon, but breaks from the likes of one another were definitely number one on the short list.
As a wise, or rather cruel, man once said, ‘all good things must come to an end’, and so they did when Monday rolled around.
“Will Bang Yongguk and Kim Him Chan please report the principal’s office? I repeat, Bang Yongguk and Kim Him Chan to the principal’s office.”
Yongguk frowned heavily as he listened to his name being paged over the intercom, the look only deepening as it was paired with Himchan’s name; thankfully his name had not been enunciated like the other’s had. He sighed heavily and stood up, casually walking out of the room despite the intense and questioning stares he was being given. They didn’t matter anyway, he’d long become numb to them.
Exiting the classroom, Yongguk turned and began walking the familiar path down the hallway towards the principal’s office, all the while pondering what he’d done and gotten caught for this time to be summoned. ‘Let’s see: had a couple of smokes, graffitied the trashcan, the guys had fun pushing around that clumsy dancer a little and they pushed the tall freshman into his locker…’ He ticked each item off the list, none of them seeming to be the cause for being sent to the principal’s office as the woman was already used to his habits and if it was because of the younger students then his friends would’ve been called.
Shrugging it off, Yongguk pulled himself out of his thoughts and looked up from his intense staring contest with the floor to see that he’d reached principal’s office about the same time as Kim Himchan. Ignoring the other, he pushed open the door and journeyed inside, eyes landing first on the student council president, Yoo Youngjae, who looked… not very happy at that moment and then the pretty young woman sitting behind the desk, Jeon Hyosung.
“You rang?” Yongguk drawled lazily, dropping unceremoniously into one of the two empty seats in front of the woman’s desk.
As soon as Himchan took his seat, his face expressionless as he stared at their principal. The woman stood up, a frown on her lips, tapping a pen against the palm of her hand. “Bang Yongguk and Kim Him Chan - glad you two arrived here without playing around first,” She began, looking over as Himchan stood and gave her an unhappy frown.
“Yah, noona, why do you always pronounce my name like that?” He let out a whine, crossing his arms.
“Yah, Kim Him Chan, don’t disrespect your principal!” She half shrieked, leaning over enough to tap Himchan’s forehead with the pen. Rubbing his forehead with a scowl, Himchan plopped back down in the chair and sighed heavily while Hyosung began again, “Now tell me… do you two know who put red paint in the school pool?” While she spoke, she leaned over her desk and gave them a suspicious stare, obviously hinting that they had something to do with it.
“Noona, why would we know?” Himchan frowned, tilting his head at her.
“Himchan, don’t play dumb!” Hyosung scolded, then looked at Yongguk, “Now look, if you guys just come clean right now, I swear you won’t be punished as severely.”
Yongguk snorted at her, causing her to scrunch up her nose, “I didn’t do it. Don’t look at me like that - I had nothing to do with it.”
“Yeah, same here!” Himchan added in, causing Hyosung to look at him.
Hyosung straightened herself and sat down in her chair, setting her pen to the side, “Alright you two, the pool is draining out now - at the end of the school day, you two can scrub the pool clean and then we’ll refill it tonight.”
Himchan frowned, “But noona!”
“Ah ah! Don’t ‘but noona’ me, Kim Him Chan!” She interrupted, “Youngjae here will supervise and if I find out either of you didn’t show up, you’ll be staying with me at detention on the weekends for the next month.” She nodded and then shooed them out.
Himchan rolled his eyes upwards and left the room, muttering under his breath unhappily. Dammit, he had places to be later! He couldn’t believe he had become the fall guy for some troublemaker.
Yongguk gave an unhappy grunt as he left the office, roughly shoving past Himchan and continuing his trek back towards his history class. He pointedly ignored the string of curses that flew out of the other's mouth, not caring in the least what he was saying as he thought about the prank he and Himchan were taking the fall for.
He knew he hadn't done it because he'd been at the park killing time before school and even though he and Himchan were acquaintances at best, he knew the other hadn't done it. After all, if his reputation was to be used as evidence, Kim Himchan wouldn't use paint in a pool without good enough reason first.
'I guess I'll be having a talk with the guys later...' Yongguk sighed, rolling his eyes upwards at the thought because he had a feeling none of them had done it either. This meant that someone else had taken it upon themselves to become the school prankster and, unfortunately for himself and Himchan, this person had no problems letting someone else take the blame.
Unbeknownst this person... Yongguk had no intentions of letting the matter slide so easily.
—
"Sling water at me one more time princess and it's the last time you'll ever do it..." Yongguk hissed venomously at the boy a few feet away from him.
"Just get to work Yongguk-sshi. It's a pool and you're using water to clean it - it's bound to get on you sometime..." Youngjae stated dryly, playing with his pencil as he stared down at the text before him.
The two seniors had been cleaning for an hour now and they were nowhere near done because they couldn't stop bickering long enough to get through. He himself was just barely keeping his sanity by finishing homework and reading over the next chapters of his textbooks.
'I'd much rather be online...’ He grumbled inwardly, jotting down a reminder to answer a question on the Matoki forums he'd seen that morning, if and when he ever got the chance.
Yongguk rolled his eyes at the younger student's mumbles, a snarky retort on the tip of his tongue. He kept his mouth shut, however, because he knew that, if anything, it would start Youngjae on another lecture of proper school etiquette, respecting fellow students or some other stupid that he would just wind up not listening to.
Instead, he went back to scrubbing the pool floor, making sure it was a bit too rough so that it sent suds flying at Himchan.
Himchan gave Yongguk a dark glare as suds flew up and began sticking to his already wet pants. Why they weren't allowed to use their casual clothes to do the cleaning, Himchan didn't know, but he sure as hell wasn't happy about having to clean his gym uniform of dirty water and sticky paint. He only hoped the paint didn't stain -- he'd have to cover the cost of having it replaced.
As soon as Yongguk began actually cleaning instead of getting revenge on him, they worked at a moderate pace. Youngjae quipped at them every now and then about something they weren't doing right or something they should've done. Needless to say, Himchan and Yongguk were growing more and more fed up with the smart mouthed student council leader, so much so, Himchan would be willing to lay down his differences with Yongguk to team up against the other.
After such a long while of being bent over in the same position, Yongguk straightened himself up, a small grunt leaving him as his back popped a couple of times. He felt stiff all over and his arms were sore from the constant scrubbing he'd been doing. Deciding he'd earned himself a much needed break, he propped himself up with his broom and looked out over the space of the empty pool.
And if he were the type of person to do so, Yongguk would've paled once he'd seen that even after they'd stopped their arguing, he and Himchan still had about half of the pool to clean. But he was Bang Yongguk and so he did no such thing.
'....' He grumbled inwardly, wishing he were home and on his computer more than anything right about now.
"I still don't see how you two could lower yourselves to such a childish prank." Youngjae's exasperated voice filtered in from above the two. "I mean... graffitiing the school walls and spreading nasty rumours about the head cheerleaders’ al status is one thing but honestly! Paint in the pool? And hyung - do you not realize how bad it looks on me as president of the student council with you being one of my choices as a member of the dance committee?"
Himchan stopped his work to glare at Youngjae, “Yah, how many times do we have to tell you that it wasn't us! Most especially me though!" He leaned against his scrubbing broom and sighed heavily. On impulse, he turned to look at Yongguk and growled out, "Yah! Why are you not working, you lazy son of a -- OW!" Before he'd gotten a chance to finish yelling at Yongguk, something came rolling past Youngjae and dropped into the pool right near Himchan, hitting him hard in the shoulder.
While Himchan let out a string of curse words, two younger students came rushing in, both with wide eyes. "Did you... see a skateboard come in here?" One of them asked, obviously worried.
"You mean the one that just smacked me in the shoulder!?" Himchan shouted from the pool, looking up at the two students unhappily.
"We didn't mean to, sunbae, we swear!" The other boy cried out, his skin pale from the obvious worry of getting into trouble over this.
"Everyone, quiet!" Youngjae scowled and stood up, straightening his uniform out as he did. He looked the two students over carefully as they stood fully prepared to give the two a piece of his mind for being so reckless and for staying at the school long after even the clubs had ended. He stopped, however, when he recognized the shorter as Moon Jaebum's younger brother, Jongup, and the taller as Choi Junhong, the boy he and Himchan had helped out not too long ago. The two were incredibly kind kids from the little he'd seen and heard about them - they wouldn't have done this on purpose.
Anger fizzling out faster by the second, the student council president managed to reign in enough irritation to at least find out why the two were here well after school hours. "Why are you two still at school?" He sighed finally.
"Don't you two have better things to do than nail people in the shoulders with skateboards?" Yongguk questioned dryly as he walked over to the place where the skateboard, or weapon of mass destruction as Himchan had so affectionately named it, lay. He picked it up and studied it, paying no mind to Youngjae's snip of 'shut up'.
Junhong didn't respond at first, much too enthralled by the idea that Yongguk was touching his skateboard. He frowned unhappily and gave Yongguk a nasty look. "We had dance practice late, if you have to know and by the way, can I have my skateboard back?" He crossed his arms, his eyes still set on Yongguk.
Himchan frowned at the boy and snatched the skateboard from Yongguk, dropping his scrub brush after to walk to the shallow end of the pool. He handed over the skateboard and then returned to where he'd been to begin cleaning again, muttering under his breath the whole time.
Suddenly, without warning, Himchan turned around and swung his brush at Yongguk who was just leaning there watching the other do all the work. "Yah! Get to work!" Himchan shouted.
Yongguk side-stepped the swing, his timing excellent as the brush would've otherwise made a nice bruise after hitting his side. "You missed." He deadpanned.
"No... He didn't." Youngjae hissed.
Curious, all eyes turned to the junior where they landed on his school uniform which was now modeling the suds of the water/bleach combo. Water was bad enough - dirty, sudsy water, even worse. But water that was filled with dirt, paint and most importantly bleach - it was indescribable.
Oh .
"Kim Himchan, you bastard!" Youngjae shouted, shocking even Yongguk with the boy's cursing - Yoo Youngjae never cursed. "This is a brand new uniform! Do you not realize what bleach and paint do to clothes?! Do you, huh?!?!" He screeched, stomping over to the ladder so he could climb down and throttle the senior.
"Sunbae!" Jongup shouted as he and Junhong rushed over and grabbed the older boy by his arms just as he reached the pool's ladder.
"Dammit! Let me go!" Youngjae shouted, "As your sunbae and student council president, I demand that you let me go so I can erase Kim Himchan's existence from the face of this earth!"
Despite being shocked at Youngjae's quick cursing, Himchan couldn't help but want to roll up his sleeves and tell him to have at it. He was ready for a nice fist fight (even if he'd never had one before). He'd had a horrible day starting with being accused of pulling such an awful and messy prank to having to clean it up! He needed some kind of pent-up anger release because he damn sure couldn't get to a computer at the moment.
Junhong and Jongup struggled more with Youngjae, trying to hold him back even as the senior began grumbling and grunting unhappily. They were shocked by the sudden sound of laughter and almost dropped Youngjae who had all but slumped against them tiredly.
"What the..." Himchan began, looking around to see which direction the laughter was coming in.
He didn't have to look long though, as the person made themselves known by laughing so hard they fell out of the bleachers, obviously hiding up in there for some reason or another.
"Yah! What are you doing here!?" Himchan shouted at the blonde haired teenager who was still holding his sides (and now head) while he laughed.
Youngjae allowed Junhong and Jongup to sit him down on the edge of the pool and looked over at the laughing teen before dropping his head into his hands in exasperation, mumbling under his breath, "Oh god... not him..."
Jongup and Junhong, now free of their sunbae, finally glanced over at the blonde teen who was still laughing like he'd been locked in a room full of laughing gas. The former's eyes promptly widened upon seeing him, recognizing him as the prankster at the party he'd gone to, Daehyun. "Hey... it's that guy I was telling you about earlier..." He whispered to his friend.
"What the hell's so funny?" Yongguk barked suddenly, growing more and more irritated by the second from the constant laughter.
Junhong looked at Jongup and then to the laughing boy, Daehyun and back to Youngjae who obviously knew the boy as well. He seemed harmless enough, though why he was laughing so hard was still a bit of a mystery...
"’What's funny?’" Daehyun laughed, finally rolling onto his stomach to give Yongguk a grin. "Well, you two being cleaners is a start, but I think Youngjae takes the cake for most curse words said by a student council president in less than 3 minutes."
"You little - get your down here and I'll show you a cleaner!" Himchan threatened, waving his soaking brush around, slinging suds and nasty water everywhere. That only made Daehyun laugh harder, which prompted Yongguk to start after him. He quickly stood and rushed out of the pool room, still snickering under his breath.
"Okay... I'm going home - that was a little too... random for me..." Junhong mumbled, shaking his head and hugging his skateboard to his side as he headed towards the door they came through.
"Go ahead, Junhong-ah..." Jongup murmured distractedly to his friend, eyes still staring intently at the doorway where Daehyun had scampered off through. There was something quite suspicious about the other's presence here of all places and he had a feeling he knew what it was. Turning to the older teens then, he bowed respectively to them, "Good evening, sunbaes!" He called and then rushed out the same way Daehyun had.
"At least he's gone now..." Youngjae murmured, voice filled with relief from Daehyun's disappearance. He turned his attention to his uniform and sighed mournfully when he noticed the stains already setting in. Muttering a curse under his breath, he stood up and pointed at Himchan. "You should consider yourself lucky I have an extra uniform at home."
"Or what? You'll throw another temper tantrum?" Yongguk questioned, snickering softly under his breath.
Youngjae smirked, "No... I'll make him attend the 'Ladies Proper' tea parties on Sundays for the next two months. Cross me again, Bang Yongguk, and I'll make sure you get to sit between a couple of really sweet grannies who like to kiss strapping young men such as yourself." His voice was calm and even as he spoke, no hint of venom to it at all, but it made Yongguk's skin crawl like it had right before his first fistfight.
Himchan looked in between the two for a few minutes, noting the look of disgust on Yongguk's face before he howled in laughter, holding his sides. The simple look was hilarious enough but coupled with the slight shiver he saw, it turned even funnier. He knew Yongguk was planning his revenge on him as he laughed, but he could care less - this was what made all the trouble worth it.
Yongguk's head snapped away from Youngjae's still smirking face and over to a laughing Himchan, eyes narrowing almost to slits. "Shut up, you! He said he'd sign you up for it too, you !" He snarled at the other senior to no avail; Himchan just continued laughing.
Growling under his breath, Yongguk snatched up his broom and stomped over to an area far away from the two where he began scrubbing the pool floor once again, intent to finish this so he could go home.
Youngjae allowed a small but very satisfied smile to appear on his lips, not bothering to hide how pleased he was seeing Yongguk's irritation. Once assured that Yongguk was going to be out of his hair for a while to come, he let his eyes land on a chuckling Himchan. He watched as the other boy wiped tears of mirth from his eyes and the growing grin on his lips from lingering amusement.
Unfortunately, Himchan looked right up at him, obviously having felt his staring.
Youngjae swallowed thickly and turned sharply from the other's curious eyes, making his way back to his seat at the side as he ranted, "Y-yah! You've gotten what you wanted - Yongguk-sshi is working now. Get back to work yourself, you lazy bum!" He plopped down on the bench when he'd reached and snatched up a book to hide his scarlet face.
'Aish... what's wrong with me? Blushing? Because of... HIM?' He questioned, groaning inwardly. Even so... he couldn't deny the enjoyment he'd felt seeing Himchan laughing because he'd made Bang Yongguk so uncomfortable.
"Ugh..." He groaned softly, shaking his head at himself.
Himchan snickered softly as he slowly got back to work, noting the blush on Youngjae's cheeks. He didn't make a big deal out of it and instead focused on scrubbing the dirty, paint stained water off of the pool. They were almost done really, it wouldn't take much longer to finish, especially if the two of them worked like this for the next half hour. Still - who put paint in the pool and why? Surely they knew it would cause a big disaster…
—
"Hey! Wait up!" Jongup called out, voice a bit breathless as he finally caught up with Daehyun. He made sure he'd caught his breath before saying anything to the other boy. Once he was sure he would be able to form a complete sentence without gasping for air, he straightened himself and pinned the other boy with a curious stare.
"You... you put the paint in the pool... didn't you?"
Daehyun paused in his footsteps and turned to Jongup, his backpack hanging precariously on his shoulder. He almost didn't answer Jongup, but the boy had run out after him, which is something he hadn't been expecting (and he really liked too). So he figured he may as well admit it, it's not like Jongup would tell - he hoped not anyways. "And if I was?" He asked, laughing when Jongup pinned him with a 'tell the truth' stare.
"Yup, it was my handiwork," He admitted quickly and easily.
Jongup gave the older boy a stunned look, more because of how casually he'd owned up to the prank than actual prank itself. After the party, he had no doubt that Daehyun was a lover of mischief but even the greatest pranksters wouldn't just outright admit to doing a prank. At least, that's how he thought it worked...
"Why'd you do that though?" Jongup found himself asking next, "Out of all the pranks you could've pulled - you pick painting the pool. Was there a reason or did you just feel like it?" He questioned, not really sure why he was so interested in knowing himself. He just was.
Daehyun gave a laugh at the stunned look on Jongup's face, quite pleased with that cute look. It seemed whatever face the other was pulling, he was cute. He mentally patted himself on the back before he answered Jongup, "Well.." He began, clearing his throat and grinning brightly. "Is there a reason you're so interested?" He shot back finally, the brief pause giving him a moment of genius.
He waited until Jongup gave a thoughtful frown before he answered properly, "I saw the swim teacher eating the last slice of cheesecake at lunch the other day, so I thought of a way to get him back." He nodded smugly, obviously unfazed that his reasoning was a bit... childish.
Jongup blinked once, twice and then a third time, not actually believing he'd just heard right. "You did it... because the swim coach at the last slice... of cheesecake?" He questioned finally, slowly to make sure it hadn't just been his imagination.
When Daehyun's head bobbed up and down in an affirmative way, Jongup couldn't help the small snort of laughter that left him, he really couldn't. Seeing Daehyun so proud of himself over something so utterly juvenile and not being bother about in the least was just too funny. "Is... is that why you did all those pranks at that party? Because someone ate the cheesecake... or was there another reason?" He questioned, snickering under his breath.
Though he was pleased it made the other laugh, Daehyun froze when he brought up the pranks from the party. He shuffled his feet nervously and coughed some to clear his throat. What could he say now? He couldn't very well tell him that he'd done it to impress him - at the time he hadn't even known his name! He just saw him and thought he was cute... He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, about to stammer something out only for his cell phone to ring.
He frowned, scrunching up his nose and answering the phone. "Yes, sir? Ah, yes sir... yes..." He gave a big pout and then hung up the phone. "Ah, sorry, Jonguppie, I have go now - don't get into too much trouble!" He called, turning and running to the gate and off the school grounds.
Jongup opened his mouth and then promptly closed it, staring at the other boy's retreating back. "Me, stay out of trouble?" He questioned the air around him, not at all surprised when it didn't answer back. "I'm not the one who goes around putting bugs in ice cubes and paint in pools..." He mumbled, looking at the ground and kicking at a small rock with toe of his shoe.
Sighing softly, Jongup began walking towards the exit of the school grounds himself so he could go home, thoughts about a certain blonde prankster swirling around inside of his head.
TBC
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