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KIM JONGIN

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Part 1

Okay, so I lied. Minji should be worried; in fact, she should be very worried. Because I'd been given a mission (all thanks to my parents) to turn this academy upside down. And I planned to carry out this mission.

You remember the little chat I'd had with my parents over the weekend about their “plan” to get rid of Mrs. Jung as headmistress so that my mother could take her place? And afterward, how they'd given me the “okay” to pretty much destroy the academy by any means necessary? Well, ever since that day I'd been formulating a plan big enough to cause all kinds of havoc within the academy. Alright, so I'm exaggerating a little; my parents never actually said that it was okay to “destroy the school” but I knew that they wanted something big enough to cause some serious trouble. Actually, what they'd really said was to “stir up a little trouble”.

Oh, I'll stir some up alright. And because they're the ones who asked me to do so, they'd have to deal with all the repercussions that followed, that is, if there were any.

I'd decided that if I was going to do something, it was best to do it on Friday, the most obvious reason being because that was the day the superintendent was coming to the academy, but that wasn’t it…

See, my father had to take an unexpected leave of absence for the week because of a “family emergency” and wasn’t going to be back until mid-next week, which means that Mrs. Jung has had to take on the responsibility of the academy by herself and it would remain this way up until my father got back. This also meant he wasn’t going to be here on Friday to greet the superintendent. For me, all of this was perfect; my father having to leave couldn’t have come at better timing because in my head:

My Father, The Headmaster Gone + Mrs. Jung, the only Headmistress + Superintendent here on Friday

= The Perfect Time To Pull A Prank!

My parents are the ones who wanted to make Mrs. Jung look like a bad, unfit headmistress incapable of running a co-ed academy, so if I could pull off a huge prank on Friday just in time for the superintendent to see it, all of the blame would be on Mrs. Jung. Even more perfect, none of the fault will be on my father because he won’t even be here on Friday since he’s on “leave of absence”.

Once the superintendent is here to see the prank, he will think the students are out of control, blame Mrs. Jung for being a “terrible headmaster” unable to control her own students, he’ll go back and tell the school board, and maybe they’ll think that she isn’t capable of heading the academy without the help of my dad…maybe they’ll even fire her.

Even if they don’t fire her, it will still look bad on Mrs. Jung’s record as a headmaster, and my parents can use it against her later, when my mother tries to take her position.  

Perfect plan, right? I know, I’m a genius!

I already had a plan in mind, and all the senior guys were in on it, of course. After all, we stuck together. Of course, when I told them about the plan, I'd had to leave out the part about this all being a scheme to push Mrs. Jung out of her position as headmaster so that my mother could take over. I didn’t think they’d help if they knew about my parents’ ulterior motive.

So earlier this week, we'd had a little meeting in the auditorium, our usual hangout spot, to discuss my plan for Friday. Most of the guys were totally up for it, while others or should I say one other had to make things difficult...

* * *

I'd walked into the auditorium to see the guys hanging around like usual; however, most of my friends were huddled around Kris for some odd reason, and from the amused looks on their faces, it looked like they were teasing him about something. From the looks of it, Baekhyun and Chanyeol were doing most of the teasing as they crowded Kris, getting up in his face and making “kissy” faces at him.

“Seriously guys?” moaned Kris, embarrassed.  His head was down and his mouth was covered by his hand like he was trying to hide his smile. “Seriously?”

Luhan, Tao, and Sehun too as they pointed and laughed at the scene before them.

I situated myself in the second row of the auditorium, right beside Sehun, who bumped fists with me before turning back to the three messing around in front of us.  Luhan, Tao, Sehun and I sat in the second row while Baekhyun, Kris and Chanyeol sat in right in front of us in the front row. I stayed silent while trying to figure out what they were all teasing him for.

“Awe, look,” said Sehun, the tone of his voice higher than usual, teasing Kris. He reached one of his long arms out and touched Kris’ cheek who immediately swatted his hand away. “He’s blushing!”

“I am not,” Kris remarked, bitterly, his head sinking further into his palms.

“You know what I don’t get?” asked Baekhyun, suddenly, pausing from making stupid faces at Kris. “Why did you choose a girl who’s so much shorter than you to be your girlfriend? At least your ex came up to your chin, but this girl barely reaches even your shoulder.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” muttered Kris from his palms.

“Yet,” finished Chanyeol, chuckling.

“She’s going to have to climb a latter just to meet your lips if she wants to kiss you,” Sehun teased, bringing the conversation back to Baekyhun’s topic about kissing. Chanyeol started busting out laughing.

“Yeah, she might have to take an escalator just to reach him,” Chanyeol added.

“Or she can strap on a jet pack,” Luhan added, making the guys crack up, myself included. He then pressed an invisible button and yelled, “Blast off!”

“I don’t see why you’re laughing,” Kris suddenly sneered, glaring at Chanyeol. “Dara’s practically half your height. She’d have to rocket launch herself if she ever wanted to kiss you.”

The grin that was on Chanyeol’s face suddenly disappeared right before his very own cheeks started to tint a crimson shade.

“What?” he asked in a small voice, looking down. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You too?” Baekhyun asked, staring at Chanyeol- all of us were, actually. This was the first time I was hearing anything about Chanyeol liking any of the girls. 

So, Channie-boy is making the moves on Minji's friend, huh?

“Actually, I think Bom is pretty cute,” Luhan admitted, causing another round of staring and gaping mouths. Luhan shrugged in response. “What? We have Drama together, and between her antics and funny personality, she makes the dull class so much more entertaining. Plus, she’s got a great set of legs. In fact, I think I might want to ask her out on a date one of these days.”

“Speaking of dates,” Tao said, changing the subject, looking back at Kris. “Where are you two going for your date?” He wiggled his eyebrows at the word “date”.

“It’s not a date,” Kris said, firmly. “We’re just studying. She wants to get to know each other better first.”

“Isn’t that what dating is for?” asked Baekhyun, clueless. “To get to know each other?”

“I’m learning Minji is a bit old school,” said Kris. “She’s not fast like other girls. She likes to know the guy before she goes out with him.”

Minji? My ears perked up at the mention of her name. So they'd been talking about Minji all this time? Did that mean Kris finally got the balls to ak the girl out?

“I guess as president, she has a rep to protect,” Chanyeol figured. “She probably doesn't want to go out with just anybody.”

“Kris, you really did it?” I suddenly asked, genuinely surprised. I honestly thought he'd never be able to do it. “Did you finally man up and ask Minji out?"

The other guys stared at me as if it was the first time they even noticed that I was there, probably because I'd been so quiet earlier when they were all talking.

“Mm-hm,” Chanyeol answered, nodding before side-eyeing Kris, slyly. “You should have seen him this morning. Kris turned into a total mack daddy pimp when he told Minji that he liked her. He used all his moves on the girl and had her all blushing and ." 

Chanyeol nudged Kris’ shoulder, grinning at him while Kris just looked down again, trying to hold back a smile.

Minji blushing? I thought, skeptically as I stared at Kris. Hm... that's odd. I wondered just what he’d told her to make her blush. I’d never seen her blush and I’d hung out with her more than Kris had. Minji also doesn’t seem like the type to get easily flustered by sweet talk, but then again, she is still a girl…

“Well congratulations, Kris,” I heard myself say, but in my mind, I knew I hardly meant it. Something about the tone of my voice must have rubbed him the wrong way because he stared at me, his face twisted in confusion. Still, he didn't say anything, but just nodded.

Strangely, I found myself feeling slightly disgusted at the idea of him and Minji dating even though I was the one that volunteered to set them up in the first place. When I first pointed Minji out to Kris, I thought she'd just be a nice distraction for him that would keep him from moping over his ex all year (Kris can mope around for an extensive amount of time after a breakup). But it seemed like Kris had more than just a crush on her, he looked like he really liked her, like really.

By now, for reasons unbeknownst to even myself, I was glaring at the back of Kris' head imagining that I was zapping him with laser beaming eyes.

This was stupid, I thought begrudgingly, my arms now folded across my chest as I leaned down in my chair.

Helping get them together was probably one of the dumbest ideas I’d ever come up with. It's just, Minji didn’t even really like him! She would've never have even looked his way if I hadn’t told her that he liked her. They’d probably figure out sooner or later that they didn’t mesh well. Minji was a stiff, stubborn, overachiever who needed someone to help her unwind and loosen up, while Kris was a heart-broken sissy who hid behind a cold, expressionless facade.

Plus, Minji would never have the time for him. She was my co-president after all, and spent most of her time with me anyway (with the exception of this week because I was too busy secretly planning the prank so I had to hide from her all week).

And how lame is it that their “dates” revolved around studying? I could come up with something way better than that.

The guys were still gushing over Kris and Minji when I sighed aloud, gaining stares from all of my friends. “Well, if you girls are finished gossiping about dates, and other stupid ,” I mocked them all, earning a few glares in the process. “I have something I want to talk to you guys about.”

“Uh-oh,” said Chanyeol with his classic “this can't be good” expression on his face. His lips were puckered and his eyes were bugged out in the way that only Chanyeol could make them.

“What now?” Kris asked sternly, face expressionless as ever.

I sat up straight in my chair before explaining to them my plan, but the moment I said the words “I need you guys to help me pull off another prank” they were all in uproars.

“WHAT?” Luhan yelled, his soft baby features now marked with shock as his eyes widened twice their normal size, and his brows raised, and his mouth hung open.

“You want do another prank?” a bewildered Kris asked. “Please tell me this prank isn't targeting the girls again.”

I shook my head and explained before anybody else could get a word in. “No, this isn't just about the girls, but they will be apart of it- well if they so choose. But that's why I need all of you guys' help.”

“Well, what do you want to do?” asked Sehun.

“Well,” I started, looking up at the ceiling, trying to phrase my words carefully to keep from disclosing any information I didn't want them to know. Last thing I needed was to blurt out that this whole prank was all for my greedy parents. “First off, you guys should know that something is happening this Friday. I don't know what, but the head office is going to make an announcement asking all the students to be on their best behaviors, but that's not what I want you guys to do. In fact, I want you guys to do the exact opposite.”

“You want us all to act like delinquents for no reason?” asked a displeased Kris, his brows slanted downwards making his already expressionless face look much colder.

“No, I want to do something even better; something I can describe in three words,” I told the guys whose eyes were all focused on me, each of them hanging onto my every word. I held up my hand and added a finger with each word I said, “Epic. Food. Fight.”

Chanyeol instantly grinned. “A food fight? We haven't had a food fight since...since...,” he trailed off, frowning, before looking up into the air, tapping his chin with his forefinger.

“Since the big Spaghetti Lollapalooza back in ninth grade,” Luhan finished, looking up as well, his Bambi eyes filled with a reminiscent glimmer.

“Oh yeah!” Baekhyun exclaimed, brightening up. Sehun and Tao, high-fived one another, clearly still excited from that memory. “I remember that, back when we were all ninth graders we got together to take on the senior class. Man that was epic!”

Yeah it was. When we were all just little freshman, as our own personal payback to the seniors for targeting us during prank week, we decided to band together and start a food fight targeting our upperclassmen. We had to wait until the very end of the school year to do it though so that no one would get suspended or expelled. What was really cool was that the janitor of our academy was on our side (since a lot of the snotty seniors used to give him a hard time because of his occupation, he wanted to get them back too), so he helped get us get into the kitchen in the middle of the night so that we could steal the spaghetti we were supposed to have for lunch the next day, and then he let us store it in his janitor's closet.

On the very last day of school, when lunch time came, it was on! We all stationed ourselves on the outskirts of the cafeteria so that all the seniors were in the center of the room. They of course didn't find anything weird about this since it was sort of an unspoken rule that the center tables was a spot for “seniors only”. At every freshman table was a bucket of Spaghetti (of course it was hidden so that it wouldn't be suspicious) and once the entire cafeteria was filled with our upperclassmen, we waited for the sound of the janitor's whistle. The moment the sharp whistling pierced through the cafeteria, we unloaded on the seniors!

Spaghetti and meatballs was flying left and right! Some kids even got crafty and built rocket launchers to shoot further. And the seniors? Man, was it awesome to see the looks on their faces!

Of course it all came to and end and way too soon, I unfortunately have to add. The headmaster (my father) caught wind of the food fight and broke the whole thing up with one pull of the fire alarm. The punishment was harsh: since it was our last day, instead of immediately getting to leave campus to enjoy our summer, all freshman had to stay a few extra hours to help clean up the cafeteria. Still, it was worth it. What we did made us legends in our academy since no one ever dared to prank the seniors before. The legacy followed us all throughout high school as we got older and moved through each grade, making our underclassmen respect us even more.

I sighed in satisfaction. “Yes, those were the days,” I mused aloud, now feeling nostalgic.

“Okay, how would we even pull something like that off again?” asked Tao, looking at all of us. “Last time we had a food fight, Headmaster Kim broke it up way too quickly.”

“Easy,” I smirked, mischievously. “My father is taking a leave of absence right now because of a family emergency. He won't be here all week.” The guys seemed to understand now, as they all exchanged similar devilish grins. “Now, how many of you are willing to help me pull this prank off on Friday?”

“What's all this I keep hearing about a prank?” I suddenly heard a deep voice from above me ask. I looked up to see none other than Kim Heechul, one of the nosiest, most outspoken guys in our grade. As he leaned onto a fold-out chair, he eyed us all with one eye since his side-swept bangs hung over his other. “You guys planning another prank?”

I nodded before saying, “Yeah we are actually, and we could use lots of help to make it happen.”

Heechul nodded before turning around and whistling, grabbing the attention of some of his friends who were also hanging out in the auditorium. He waved at them in a “come hither” motion and soon, we were joined by Heechul's close friends: Choi Siwon, Eunhyuk, Donghae, and Kyuhyun.

“Hey, what's up?” Siwon greeted everyone, smiling so his dimples showed. He sat down next to Heechul. “You guys are all huddled over here like your planning another prank or something.”

“That's because we are,” I said, smirking deviously.

“What?” Eunhyuk, the bleach-blond jokester asked, surprised. “Another prank? Gosh Jongin, you really don't quit do you?”

Some of the guys laughed and I rolled my eyes.

“What is this prank for?” Siwon asked.

“Do you guys remember the big food fight we had back in ninth grade?” I asked.

“Oh yeah!” Eunhyuk exclaimed, giddily. “The Spaghetti Lollapalooza of '09!”

“That was the most epic food fight ever in history,” Heechul said, the other guys nodding in agreement.

“Well, we want to recreate a food fight that epic again, this Friday,” I told them.

I continued to explain to them what I was planning for Friday but left out the part about the superintendent arriving that day. By the time I was finished, the reactions I received were mixed with both Siwon and Donghae looking apprehensive, while Eunhyuk just sat there smiling his gummy smile. Heechul and Kyuhyun, on the other hand, were both mirroring the same devious smirk I had on my face.

“I don't care who we're targeting,” said Kyuhyun, grinning. “I'll help you pull off another prank on anyone or anybody.” At this, my grin grew wider, and I reached up to bump fists with Kyuhyun. I should've known Kyuhyun would be up for another prank, after all, he was pretty devilish himself. He was even nicknamed the “evil maknae” amongst his peers.

“So this prank,” Donghae started, eyeing me as he spoke slowly like he was trying to fully grasp everything about the prank. “Is to target the girls again?”

“Yes,” I admitted, looking down, because even I felt slightly guilty for this one...but not that much. At least, not enough to not go through with it.

I'd thought about it, and I realized that I had to have some reason for wanting to pull off another prank and I couldn't tell them the truth. I couldn't tell them that this was for the superintendent or even that the superintendent was coming, because then they would ask questions like why I wanted the superintendent to be there to witness the prank in the first place, anyway? Then I'd be forced to tell them about my parents' plan, and I definitely couldn't do that. So I decided to stick with the notion that this was all just to trap the girls into another prank.

“Wait,” Kris suddenly spoke up for the first time in a while. “You just said earlier that this prank wasn't going to target the girls. Now, you're saying it is. Which is it?” He held up both hands, teetering either of them up and down like he was weighing both answers in his hands.

I rubbed my chin, thinking. I hadn't actually said that, had I? “I never said that we weren't going to target them, I said that they were going to be apart of the prank if they chose to be. The only difference I'm making now is that they no longer have a choice, since they're going to be our sole targets, I'm assuming they will want to fight back.”

“Okay, what is it with you and the girls, like seriously?” asked a demanding Kris, his demeanor seeming to become inexplicably livid. It was a split second change really. A second ago, Kris seemed content but now he looked pissed as ever and I had no idea why. “Do you have some sort of secret beef with them or something?”

“Beef?” I questioned before jokingly saying, “Dude, are you thinking about dinner right now? I can have beef anytime. I don't need to make unnecessary beef with the girls.”

Kris rolled his eyes; clearly he wasn't in the mood for jokes.

“Then why are you trying to prank them again?” he stressed the word “again” making it sound like this was the millionth time I pulled a prank on them. “It's our second week into school and your already going to pull your third prank on them. It's called prank week, not prank month!”

ing my head back, I groaned, frustrated. Leave it to Kris to make things more difficult than they had to be. What was his deal anyway? It was just a food fight, it's not like I was planting a bomb in the cafeteria or anything dangerous.

“Kris, would you please stop acting like a girl,” I said, irritated. He flinch in response before his face scrunched up in anger and his mouth formed into a snarl. “What's your problem? It's really not that big of a deal. Everybody else is just fine with it.” I used my palms to gesture at the rest of the guys around us who'd been silently watching us argue.

“My problem?” Kris repeated, angrily, like he was offended. “You think I'm the one with a problem? Dude, your the one that came up the prank to give the girls explosive diarrhea-” Kris suddenly had to stop because Sehun and Luhan busted out in laughter along with a few of the others who joined in. Kris just glared at them all.

“Actually, we can't allow you to put all the blame on Kai,” Luhan defended me, between laughs. “I was the one who took the medicine from home for us to use for the prank, in the first place.” 

Kris ignored Luhan as if he hadn't said anything and continued, “And then it was your idea to film the girls when they were in the bathroom, so you tricked two kids into hiding cameras in the girls' restroom- who of which, haven't even returned the cameras back to us yet like they were supposed to.”

That's right. The kid I had forced into the girls' bathroom to hide the cameras along with his friend who was on “watch-out” have both been completely AWOL since that day. After enough footage was recorded, they were supposed to sneak back into the restroom, retrieve the cameras and then bring them back to us, but they never did. It's been four days since then, and no one had seen either of the two boys at all this week. I figured they had to be hiding from us for some unknown reason. They just better have not of told anyone anything.

Kris was still rambling by the time I came out of my thoughts. I don't ever remember him talking this much, like ever. He had always been the “silent and brooding” type, so hearing him talk this much now, especially since he was nagging, was actually pretty exhausting.

“And now you want to throw food at them-”

“Kris, I'm not changing my mind!” I nearly yelled, cutting him off in the process. I was feeling frustrated now, so I raked my fingers through my hair. Maybe I could reason with him, since the prank seems to bothering him this much. “If it'll make you happy, this is the very last prank we will pull for the rest of the year.”

“Fine,” Kris stood up from his chair and grabbed his backpack off the floor, slinging it over his shoulder. He then grabbed his jacket, and I knew he was getting ready to leave. Was he going somewhere? We weren't finished talking, yet. Just before turning around to leave the group and I, Kris said, “If you guys want to prank the girls, that's fine; I just don't want any part of it.”

“Where are you going?” asked Tao.

Kris' brows furrowed, and he stared at Tao, looking at him as if the answer should have been obvious. “I'm going to go meet Minji, duh.”

Oh that's right, they have a "study date". I inwardly chuckled at the last two words.

Smirking at Kris, as he was now headed towards the door to leave, I turned to the guys and spoke to them loudly enough so that even Kris could hear, “Now, let this be a lesson to all of you guys, that when you start hanging around these girls too much, then you start turning into one too.”

Kris knew that my comment was directed towards him, because when I turned around to look at him, he flipped me the finger and I grinned.

“Oh, and Kris,” I called, making him stop again. “You know that whatever we discuss in this auditorium, stays in this auditorium. You may not want any part of this prank, but you're still sworn to this brotherhood. So don't even think about telling anybody anything.”

Kris looked away immediately, looking taken aback by what I'd just said. He bit his lip, before nodding and said, “Just because I said that I didn't want to be apart of it, doesn't mean that I'm going to turn into a snitch.”

With that, Kris pushed the door open to leave, but seeing his back turned to me, knowing that he was about to go meet Minji, I suddenly felt something weird stirring inside my chest, like I still had something to say, so I called him again.

Kris sighed impatiently, before stopping to glare at me. He had a “what do you want, now?” look on his face.

I waved at him before saying, “Tell Minji-ah I said hi.” I watched as Kris' glare sank even further, now turning into a glower. That comment must have pissed him off.

He stayed silent for a moment as he glanced around the auditorium, looking at all of us before finally saying, “If you ever see Minji and I hanging out together on campus, don't bug us.” It was an order directed at all of us, but I could tell he was specifically talking to me as his eyes landed on me last. With that, Kris finally left the auditorium, the door slamming shut behind him.

Me? Interrupt you Kris, on your study dates with Minji? I thought, sarcastically. No, I would never do such a thing!

Kris, he could be so touchy sometimes. Chuckling to myself, I turned back to the guys.

“Alright, now that Kristina is gone,” I said, making a joke out of Kris' name, causing the guys to laugh. “Let's get back to planning our last prank.”  

* * *