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KIM JONGIN

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Part II

“What the heck is taking him so long?” Luhan groaned. “What, did he get lost in there or something?”

“Maybe he's having a hard time finding a place to hide the camcorder,” Kris said.

That was most likely true. Stupid kid. This was actually the second time we sent the black-haired boy into the girl's bathroom because the first time when he came out he'd told us that he put the camcorder in one of the bathroom stalls!

“Where should I hide the camera?” the black-haired kid had asked me earlier.

“It doesn't matter,” I said hurriedly. I probably should've more been specific, but I was worried that the kid was going to get caught and that our prank would be ruined. I just wanted him to get in there and get out as quickly as possible. “Just make sure it's hidden in a place the girls are least likely to find it.”

“Okay, what if I hide it in one of the bathroom stalls?” he had asked.

Too bad I wasn't paying any attention when he'd asked; I just pushed him in the direction of the girl's restroom and told him to “just get the job done”.

We'd sent him back in a second time so he could hide the camcorder somewhere more discreet while the brunette boy was around the corner on the lookout just in case a teacher walked by. We'd also decided to put up a temporary “out of business” sign like Luhan suggested so that if any girls walked by, they'd see it and wouldn't go in.

But still, every time another minute ticked by, I just got more nervous- and I was never nervous about anything! This kid had already been in the bathroom for the past five minutes! I mean, just what was he doing that was taking so long? Did he decide to stop and take a in there? He was only supposed to go inside, hide the camera, and then come back out. That's it. That's all we asked. If he didn't come out soon, I was going to have to go in there and go after him.

Another minute had passed, and I decided I'd had it. I stood up. “Alright, I'm going in after him-”

“Hey, you guys he's coming out!” Chanyeol called out and everybody turned to see the kid walking out of the restroom. Luckily, the kid remembered to pull the fake sign off of the door, ripped it up and went back inside, probably to throw it away. Once he finally came out, I sighed in relief glad that he was officially out of there, but it only lasted half-a-second because suddenly, my worst nightmare had happened right in front of my eyes.

Minji appeared along with her friend Chaerin right after the kid had come out of the bathroom and they bumped into each other.

Oh ! We were screwed! We were so screwed! Stupid, stupid kid! If only he got it done right the first time, then we could've been done with this already and been out of here. But no, he just had to take his precious little time doing whatever the hell he was doing in there and now we have to face “miss curious” herself. If she asked him too many questions then I had no doubt he would squeal on us.

And how the heck is it possible that Minji was always around whenever we were planning something?

“Crap! That's Minji and Chaerin, isn't it?” Luhan's mouth was agape.

“He better not say anything,” Sehun growled.

I was about to get up and go over there, so I could save the kid's and my own, but before I could even move, Minji had patted the kid on the back and continued on along with Chaerin like normal. The black-haired kid went around the corner to grab his friend and they ran back across the campus, over to us.

“It's done,” the black-haired kid said through his huffing and puffing from running. “I hid the camera in the giant vase of flowers that's in the corner of their restroom.”

“What did those two girls say to you?” I asked seriously, while using my height, to stare the kid down.

He gulped before stuttering, “T-t-they asked me w-why I was in the girl's bathr-room and I told them that I went in there by a-accident.”

“Are you sure that's it?” I furrowed my brows to look more intimidating. “Why'd she pat you on the back?”

He scratched behind his ear in a unsure manner. “She just said she understood. That she too had walked into the wrong bathroom before and she let me go. She didn't suspect anything, honestly.”

I eyed him down for another second before easing up and patting him on the back. “Good! So you made sure the camcorder wasn't visible right?”

“Oh yeah,” he nodded. “Their flower vase is really huge so it was easy to hide. It's also way cleaner in there than the boy's bathroom. And check this out, they even have a little candy dish in there, too.” He suddenly pulled out a couple of ers from his pocket, smiling and handed one over to the brunette boy.

I rolled my eyes. Freshman.

“So is that what took you so long in there?” Sehun asked. Good question.

“Well, I really did have to go to the bathroom,” the kid answered meekly. “So I made a quick pit stop. Like I said, it's way cleaner in there.”

“Well, I'm glad you guys could help us,” I said, now escorting them away from the “senior tree”. Now that the job was done, I really wasn't interested in hanging out with them anymore. “We'll talk more later, bye now.”

“Wait,” the brunette kid stop me before I could send them away. “You said you pay us, right?”

“That's right, I did,” I said pulling out my wallet. I handed him over a twenty dollar bill. “There's half you two can split it.”

I thought they'd be happy, but both kids looked disappointed with the amount I'd just given them.

“This is half?” asked the brunette. “I thought you were paying us full after the job was done? And that was supposed to include the money you owe us from last week.”

“And I will,” I told them, putting both my hands back in my pockets. “After the job is done. See, we still need you guys to go in there and retrieve the camcorder and get it back to us after enough footage has been filmed. Only then will I pay you the rest.”

“Oh,” the kid sounded even more disappointed.

“Don't worry, President Kim always keeps his word,” I said, and patted the hair atop his head. As I backed away, I told them, “Now remember, don't say anything to anybody, alright?”

They both nodded and I turned and went back to my friends.

“Where's the 'that was easy' button when you need it?” I joked and we all laughed together.

* * *

Over the weekend, the both of my parents came to the school (unfortunately) and they'd told me they had something very important to discuss with me so I needed to meet with them ASAP. I was making my way down the hall of the front office to my father's private room in the back. Once I made it to his door, I opened it without knocking and instantly frowned at the eyeful of ick I just got.

Right there, on the top of my father's glass table, my parents were making out like two little teenagers, alone for the first time in their lives. Gross.

I averted my eyes as the both of them jumped apart and straightened themselves up like they weren't doing anything.

“It's too late now,” I mocked, walking further into the room and sat down. “I already walked in on you two having when I was eight, remember?”

I involuntarily shuddered as the visuals came back. That was a horrifying experience no child should ever have to go through.

“Oh Jongin, you were always so... inappropriate,” my mother said, getting down from the table and coming around to give me a hug. I only half-hugged her, not bothering to get up out of my chair that'd I'd already taken a seat in. “How was your first week here sweety?”

I shrugged. “Not much different from my old school.”

“Are you getting along with the girls here?” she asked, sitting on the table in front of me. She threw some of her long black hair behind her shoulder and looked at me expectantly with a wide white grin. I inwardly rolled my eyes. My nosey mother; she was going to start the twenty questions game with me. But then again, I did always answer her in short responses that didn't give her much to work with.

“Yep.” In fact, we'll get along famously after the guys and I pull off this prank.

“Have you made any girls as friends?”

“Sure.”

“What about that female co-president of yours?”

I frowned. She knew about Minji? Wait, of course she knew about Minji. After all, it was just last year that my mother used to work here.

“Yeah, she's cool too,” I answered not sure where she was going.

“Well are you two-”

“Oh Jan-di, stop beating around the bush and just get straight to the point,” my father interjected from behind her. He was sitting across the table in his big desk chair looking less than amused at my mother's attempt to ease her way into telling me whatever it was she was trying to say.

My mother rolled her eyes, and I smiled at being the only one who caught it.

Her dark, almost black eyes focused on me as she raised a brow at me curiously and I stopped grinning.

“Alright, I think your father already briefly informed you about the plan we are coming up with?” she asked.

I nodded. I remembered a couple of days back, him mentioning something about a plan that he and my mother were working on after mumbling something about Mrs. Jung and what and what a horrible headmistress she was.

“Good. Now Jongin, I wanted to know how would you feel about me becoming the new headmistress of this co-ed school?”

What?! My breath actually stopped short for a second. My mother as headmistress?

“Um... how would that work?” I asked, lost. We already had Mrs. Jung as headmistress and I'm pretty sure she wasn't going anywhere. “What about Mrs. Jung?”

“Well see, that's what the plan is going to take care of,” my mom told me. “See, I'm planning to not only get my job back this year, but I also plan to take what was rightfully supposed to be mine in the first place. Your father and I are going to convince the school board that Mrs. Jung isn't fit for headmistress of this school and that I would be a much better candidate.”

Wow, was all I could think. I knew my mother was secretly jealous of Mrs. Jung ever since she had fired my mother from her position as vice principle a little over a year ago. See, my mother was the disciplinarian of the school because she was good at being tough on the students that stepped out of line, but one day, a student falsely accused my mother of having used physical force on her to “discipline” her and my mother was fired immediately by Mrs. Jung before she could even plead her case. Later on, my mother was cleared of all charges once the student admitted that she'd lied, and Mrs. Jung even offered my mother her job back, but she refused to work for “that wretched woman” ever again.

It was bad enough my mother didn't like Mrs. Jung in the first place especially because she thought she was "old and washed-up" but my mother also had always wanted the position of being headmistress back when the school was all-girls, and she planned to take the throne someday; however, all her hopes were destroyed once she was fired. My mother thought she was a much better fit for the position, plus, it was practically my father's "wet dream" to have his entire family being the head of the school like he always wanted. He'd be able to show off the “perfect family” to the media, where he was the headmaster, my mother was the headmistress and I, their son, would be the head senior president of Cheonan Academy. It would be the perfect little family affair.

I didn't really care about my parent's little dream, but I did like power and control, so I was encouraged to go along with whatever plan they scheming up.

“I fail to see where I come in with all of this,” I told them.

“Well, your father told me you have been keeping an eye on Minji, your co-president, am I correct?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I agreed turning to him. “You said to look for weaknesses or anything I can use against her.”

“Right, continue following her,” my mother said. “Learn about her inside and out and see if we can get any good dirt on her to use. Once I take over the position as the new headmistress, that girl is going to be removed from co-president so that my son,” she rubbed my chin affectionately, “can be the only president this school needs. And then we can run the school together. Like a family.”

Like a family. I scoffed inwardly at this statement. Yeah right, we don't even spend Christmases together.

“Also Jongin,” my mother called me in her sweet tone she usually used whenever she wanted something. “It would also help a great deal with my case if you helped stir up a little trouble in the academy between the students. If the school board thinks Mrs. Jung is incapable of handling the students, I can show this to the the board and they'll be more likely to remove her from her position. This will help bring me one step closer to getting my job back.”

Okay. This plan was pure evil; even I had to acknowledge that. Sabotaging Mrs. Jung so that she could get fired from her job all because my mother was greedy? Finding evidence to use against Minji to get her kicked out of her co-president position? We could really win the “worst family of the year” award if there was one.

I looked to my father who had his eyes downcast on me, waiting for me to agree. In my head, I could hear the motto he'd always told me since I was a child: "no matter what, family before anything else". 

So nonetheless, I nodded agreeing to everything they said. “I'll do whatever I can.”

* * *

“Kai we need to talk,” I heard that familiar husky, but feminine voice say from behind me. I stopped eating and turned to see my co-president standing behind me, staring intensely at me.

“Why hello Minji, it's nice to see you too,” I said sarcastically. Gosh, couldn't she at least say "hi" first. The girl sighed and sat down across from me at the lunch table.

“Why don't you ever eat off campus like the rest of the seniors?” she asked me.

“Why would I do that?” I asked, picking up a handful of french fries and cramming them into my mouth. “The school already spends a fortune on the best chiefs in Seoul to make us the best dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

“And yet everyday, you choose to eat fried chicken and french fries,” Minji teased me. I chucked a fry at her, which she dodged, just in time. She giggled as she straightened herself and her clothes back out. Since it was the weekend she was wearing her regular clothes like the rest of us. She had on this sheer yellow long-sleeved top with a bunch of crazy designs on it. The top had splashes of the color red here and there, matching the color of her reddish-brown hair as well as her red lips. It looked very feminine on her. She looked pretty.

I shook my head. Whoa, where the heck did that come from?

“So, was this what you needed to talk to me about?” I asked, taking a sip of my drink.

“Actually, I wanted to tell you that we need to discuss the candidates for the school's committees,” she told me seriously, now getting down to business. “Plus, next Friday is the first day that the superintendent is coming to the school and its our responsibility to show him around the academy so we need to get prepared for that as well.”

“It's already time to choose the members of the committees?” I asked, bewildered by the news. “Damn, that was quick! Where was I when the elections were going on?”

“They haven't started yet, Kai,” Minji told me, frowning, probably concerned by my lack of knowledge in school affairs. Great, I mused, slightly irritated. She was probably going to be lecturing me about this later. I listened as Minji continued, “The flyers went out last week to inform the students that they could start signing up online for the committees. Now its up to you and I to go through the candidates and narrow each committee down to two candidates. Then the seniors get to cast in their vote for who they want.”

“Oh,” I ruffled the hair at the back of my head. “Well why didn't you just say that instead of getting me all worried like I'm some sort of dead-beat president who doesn't pay attention to anything?”

Minji rolled her eyes at me and stood up. “Because you are a dead-beat president. Anyways, we should go discuss in our office instead of out here where people can hear.”

“Office?” I repeated, surprised. Well, this was news to me too! “We have our own office? Since when?”

Minji turned to me and looked at me just as strangely as before. “Where else did you think we were supposed to get our work done?”

I shrugged, standing up and threw my trash away. “I just never knew we had an office.”

“Oh, that's right,” Minji snapped her fingers, realizing something. “I forgot that you never read the school newsletters. That's why you never know what's going on. By the way, you really have to get better at that. As president, it doesn't look good. But luckily you have me.”

She smiled at me cheekily and I narrowed my eyes at her. “Oh please, I make a much better president than you do.”

“You just keep thinking that,” Minji teased me again. “I hear if you believe in something hard enough, maybe it'll actually come true.”

“Oh I will be the best president Miss Gong Minji,” I told her. And pretty soon I'll be the only president, I finished in my head.

I followed her as she lead the way to our “office”, while watching her from behind, which might I add, was rather entertaining to look at from a male's perspective.

Hopefully, she wouldn't be too sad about losing her spot as co-president, because if Kris didn't make any moves on her soon enough, then maybe I would.

* * *

Author's note: And so it looks like you guys got mad at the guys anyway. Eeep! Sorry, but somebody's gotta play the jerks in this story. Thanks for the comments though. They're very much loved. And funny!