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KIM JONGIN

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Part I

Alright! I’ll surrender. Minji actually caught me for once. Well, it took her long enough. It was probably better this way anyway. I mean, I think I’d eventually get really bored if I were actually able to get away with every prank I pulled this entire school year. Still, it’s not like she could really do anything anyway.

I mean, really, what’s the worst she could do? Tell the headmaster? Hah! My father is the headmaster, so even if she did tell him, I wasn’t going to be in trouble with him. She could tell our headmistress, Mrs. Jung, but I think Minji already knows that our headmistress already has enough on her plate right now, especially ever since she got a warning from the school board last week. My mother couldn’t have been any happier about that news.

I guess my Aunt Jo was finally starting to return to health, so my parents were supposed to be coming back this weekend, just in time for the school council elections. The senior class would be allowed to vote all weekend starting Friday, but the ballots would close by Sunday night.

Speaking of voting, I honestly regret voting Kris as candidate for my vice-president because he’d most likely win. I knew he was a shoo-in for the girls’ vote, merely because of his “good looks”. On top of that, he was also particularly well-liked by the guys of our senior class. The only other guy that had the possibility of being voted for vice-president was Yongguk, the school’s wanna-be famous, gangster rap star. And although the guy was pretty well-known around campus, himself, I knew he didn’t actually stand a chance going up against the “Krisus”.

No seriously, that’s what the girls on campus nicknamed Kris. “Krisus” was the combination of the names Jesus and Kris which I guess was supposed to show the “blessing” that Kris was ever since he walked on campus and allowed females to be graced by his presence.

*Eye rolls*

If only they knew what a little p*ssy Kris really was… If he kept this crap up, then I was going to have to…

No, I was going to beat the crap out of him! In fact, that’s what I was on my way to do right now!

Tearing open the door to the auditorium, I immediately received all kinds of bewildered stares from my fellow seniors, but I wasn’t concerned with how I looked at the moment. I was only interested in one face right now. 

“Where the hell is Kristina?” I demanded, dead serious to show them that I meant business. This only earned me more wild stares from the guys and they looked around at each other like they’d never heard the name before.

“You mean Kris,” I heard Luhan say from the right side of me. I looked over at him; he was sitting beside Sehun and they were both sharing a laptop, looking at who knows what, but whatever it was, Sehun seemed rather amused by it, as he continuously grinned at the laptop screen. 

“No, I meant Kristina,” I quipped back, earning a surprised look from Luhan, who’s lips pursed, and he blew air into his cheeks like a blowfish.

Oh, was calling him Kristina too harsh? I thought, snidely. Well guess what?

I didn’t care! I wasn’t going to be calling Kris by his real name anymore until he finally grew back his balls; only then could he earn his name back. Right now, as far as I’m concerned, he’s practically just as much a part of the senior girls’ student body as the actual girls are; he might as well switch dorms.

Luhan used his hand to scratch the back of his head before ruffling his glossy light brown hair as he looked up in deep thought.

“I don’t know where he is actually… now that I think about it; I haven’t seen him all day.”

 He was probably busy hiding off in a corner somewhere on campus. Yeah, he better hide…

“I saw him earlier today,” Sehun said, distracted, not looking up from the laptop. “But now, I think he’s out studying with Minji for some test.”

I winced. Of course he’s out with Minji “studying”.

That’s all he ever did these days.

Studying…psh…if that’s what he wants to call it. I swear, that guy turns into a girl more and more with each passing day. Personally, I think “studying” is actually just “Kristina’s” excuse for having girl bonding time with Minji. Shoot, I wouldn’t be surprised if “Kristina” traded in his Gucci alligator shoes for some stiletto pumps and his black slacks for a girls’ uniform skirt.

The sound of Sehun cracking up, suddenly grabbed my attention and I stared at him and Luhan, curiously; they both looked so completely enthralled by the laptop in front of them.

“What are you guys looking at?”

“We’re editing and animating the video of Jiyeon farting in class, so we can add it to the school’s web site,” Luhan answered, snickering, naughtily.

I smiled. Ah, right. The website.

Amidst all the planning, scheming and what not I’d been doing since school began, I’d forgotten about the website the guys and I were working on. All the little pranks we did within the past couple of weeks were just like little shows before the grand finale. We decided that the ultimate prank wouldn’t actually come until the end of the year, this way no one had to risk expulsion. I believe I mentioned briefly before that we were going to use the footage we caught on camera of the girls in the bathroom right after the explosive diarrhea prank, to post on the front of the school’s website.

See, what we’re hoping for is that rich parents vying to get their privileged children into the Academy would eventually have to stumble across the school’s website to check out what the school is like. On the front page of the website are all of these short videos of students, teachers, board members and other people talking about how great Cheonan Academy is. The video shows random screen caps of students on campus, as well as the campus lifestyle showing the girls hanging out, talking and what not; it also shows the guys doing guy things, and everybody in the screen caps looks way too happy.

What we’re going to do is change the videos and the screen caps of the videos on the front page of Cheonan Academy’s website, and replace it with the footage we filmed of the girls.

Imagine, a parent trying to get their kid into this elitist academy, they log onto the school’s website, looking for information about the school, and what’s the first thing they see? A video of the girls farting and crapping up a storm in the girls’ restroom!

I couldn’t help but laugh to myself at just the mere thought.

Oh, we could get into so much trouble for this! But if we were sneaky enough, I’m sure we could get away with it. I know we’d originally said that we only wanted the prank to be for us guys to enjoy only, but it just didn’t seem to be enough. We didn’t just want to pull a prank, we wanted to be remembered by all the future senior classes that Cheonan Academy would ever have. We wanted to make a statement:

That we, the guys of the first graduating senior class of Cheonan Co-Ed Academy of 2015, were the best senior class ever, and no one could take our title away. 

We wanted this prank to be legendary, just like the “Spaghetti Lollapalooza” prank we’d pulled a few years ago on the seniors at our old all-boys school when we were freshman. But this prank we were planning to pull on the girls would be so much better than that one.

That must have been what Sehun and Luhan were currently working on right at the moment.

“We’ll send you a little video file to your email so you can check it out, later,” Luhan added. “It’s only a draft, so it’s still up for improvement. If you want to add anything, let us know.”

I nodded, coolly.  

“Speaking of videos,” Sehun started, glancing up at me, before looking back at the laptop. “Did you ever find those two little freshman you like use to do all your dirty work?”

“No,” I answered, sullenly. This was the only problem that was actually delaying our ability to finish up this prank.

Those two little dim-wits were still hiding too. They’d never disappeared for this long; I wasn’t worried about them, but I was growing worried about the whereabouts of the camcorder I had given to them. I was left with so many questions, like:

Where was the footage? Was the camcorder still in the girls’ restroom? Or had they retrieved it like I told them too? And if they had, why hadn’t they given it back to me like they were supposed to? And where the heck were they?!

Looks like I was just going to have to track them down, myself, since it didn’t look like they were going to be coming to me anytime soon.

Sehun shook his head. “I knew using freshman was a bad idea.”   

“Anyways,” I said, diverting the conversation back to what was important right now. “Where do Kristina and Minji usually study at?”

“Why?” Sehun asked. He smirked, knowingly at me. “Are you going to go spy on them?”

I sneered at him. That wasn’t funny.  

Of course I wasn’t going to spy on them! I just really needed to get my phone back from Minji. 

“Spy on who?” I heard a deep voice ask from behind me, right before the sound of the door to the auditorium slamming shut pierced through the room. I turned around to see Chanyeol, Tao and Baekhyun walking in.

Chanyeol threw his bag onto the floor and came up next to my side, looking at me for an answer.

“Minji and Kris,” Sehun said, grinning. I threw a glare in his direction, but he wasn’t fazed by it.

“Ooh! I’ll go with you!” Chanyeol exclaimed, volunteering himself. He looked all excited like spying was going to be the thrill of a lifetime.

“I told you, I’m not spying on them,” I denied, eyeing Sehun, wanting to go over there and get rid of the smirk on his face.

Both Sehun and Luhan didn’t look the least bit convinced as they glanced at one another before turning back to me and smirking.

I was glowering at the both of them, cursing them in my mind, but then, I noticed that it had gotten unnaturally quiet in the usually busy auditorium. I glanced around the room in order to see what everyone was doing, only to find that everyone in the auditorium had their eyes on me.

All the guys were staring at me with the same knowing smirks.

“What?!” I groaned aloud, annoyed that everybody seemed to be thinking the same thing. “I’m not going to spy on them!”

* * *

Hiding behind a bookshelf, I pushed some books on the shelf out of my way, and made a little opening through the books so that I could get a clear view of “Kristina” and Minji together. I spotted the little "couple".

Huh…

So this is where they do most of their “studying” together, I thought, sourly. I on my tongue suddenly feeling a bad taste in my mouth.

“Hey!” Chanyeol’s excited voice rang through my ears. He was maneuvering and inching around me, trying to look through the same opening that I was, but I wouldn’t let him. “I can’t see. Can you see ‘em?”

Suddenly, the feeling of Chanyeol’s head colliding into my own nearly knocked me backwards. My hand instantly came up to rub the now sore spot on my forehead.

“Man, what are you doing?” I pushed him away, getting my spot back. He stumbled out of the way and I just shook my head.

Chanyeol had gone ahead and followed me to the campus library; according to Sehun, this is where Minji and “Kristina” do most of their studying. Surely enough, when I’d arrived to the library, they were there just like Sehun had said. 

The two were huddled together, way in the back of the library, laughing, and smiling at one another like two kids with crushes on each other.

To be honest, the sight of their closeness made me sick; I couldn’t help but grimace as I watched on.

The bad taste in my mouth grew more disgusting as my saliva thickened, and I suddenly had the urge to spit.  

“Hey!” Chanyeol yelled at me through a whisper. “What’d you do that for?”

I just ignored him as I continued to watch my enemy socialize with my co-president.

“What are they saying?” Chanyeol whispered loudly again.

I sighed, annoyed by his constant nagging. “Well if you’d shut up, I could listen long enough to actually hear them and find out-”

Suddenly, the sight of Kris’ hand reaching out towards Minji’s face caught my attention, and I completely turned my focus on him to watch what his next move would be. Not even any of Chanyeol’s mutterings could distract me or tear my eyes away from the two.

“Uh, Minji, you have a little something here,” I heard Kris say as he gestured to her cheeks.

Minji looked surprised, and her hands came up to her own cheeks before wiping them off. She looked back at Kris like she was looking for assurance that whatever he had seen on her face was gone.

“No, it’s still there,” Kris said, smirking.

Minji frowned and her hands came up, once again, to wipe off her cheeks. Once she patted them down a few more times, she looked back at Kris again. “Is it gone?”

Kris’ eyes squinted and he moved his head forward like he was trying to get a closer look at Minji’s face; I followed his moving head, intently, as he leaned closer to her. Minji’s lips broke out into a grin, probably because of the close proximity of Kris’ face.

The sickness feeling I felt earlier was back again, but this time it came with a vengeance.

My stomach was more than upset now; plus, the overproduction of the saliva in my mouth kept bothering me, especially because of the awful taste. I tried to swallow it down, but when I attempted to, it went down the wrong tube, and I ended up choking on my own spit.

Hitting my chest a few times, I coughed, trying to clear my throat, while Chanyeol stared at me, concerned.

But that wasn’t it…

If what I’d seen Kris do within the last few minutes surprised me, the next thing he did completely floored me.

Holding out his hand, Kris reached out to hold Minji’s chin between his index finger and his thumb. He then tilted her chin up and gently moved her head side to side as he took a closer look at her cheeks. Immediately following, the corners of Minji’s mouth turned up so high, in an even bigger grin than before: I thought her face would split in two from smiling so big.

Kris used his other hand to touch Minji’s cheeks.

Wait, I said in my head, astonished, and gaping in disgust at the scene playing out in front of me. He was actually going to touch her face with his grimy hands?! And she was going to let him?!

“Here, let me get it,” Kris said. And with that, he continued to gently rub at Minji’s cheeks using his own hands.

I hadn’t even realized that I was practically seething as I stood behind the bookshelf, my breath ragged as I was breathed harder than ever before.  

I guess I also hadn’t realized just how intensely I was staring at Kris and Minji either, because it wasn't until I actually felt something coming into contact with my bottom jaw and then it closing my mouth shut, that I snapped out of it.

I looked over at Chanyeol who was grinning at me trying not to laugh.

“Dude, don’t let a fly go in there,” he joked. Ignoring him, I quickly brought my attention back to the two hormonal teens before I missed anything.

Kris wiped at Minji’s cheeks a few times before cheekily saying, “Oh, never mind. I thought there was something on your cheeks, but it’s just you blushing,” then with that, he nudged her chin up, lightly.

My mouth fell open again. Oh come on! What kind of bull crap move was that?! Minji couldn’t seriously be falling for that, could she?

But when Minji stated giggling like a school girl, I almost lost it!

Wait…

Why was I getting so mad in the first place?

“Awe, aren’t they cute together?” Chanyeol’s voice rang through my ears, but he stopped once I cut my eyes at him so sharply, they probably could’ve sliced right through him. Chanyeol gave me a sheepish grin, before shrugging, but when I wouldn't let up my glare, he began to shrink.

“You know, you don’t have to be jealous,” Chanyeol said, meekly. “There are a lot of girls interested in you too.” He then pointed behind me and I turned around to see a group of girls gathered at a table.

I was actually surprised to see that they were right behind us; well, not right behind us, but their table was close enough that I should’ve known that they were there. I guess I was just too engrossed in what was going on in front of me to even pay attention to anything else.

The girls were giggling together, staring at Chanyeol and me, but the moment I turned around to face them, each of them diverted their attention away… well, except for one.

A bleach-blonde girl; she looked oddly familiar. I knew I’d seen her around, but I couldn’t place her name or recall exactly where I’d first seen her.

She wasn’t even the least bit shy like the rest of her friends were. Her tinted red lips were upturned in a sweet smile, and her double-lidded eyes were gazing at me, giving me one of those flirtatious stares, clearly letting me know that she was interested in me.

I smirked. Well, she was hot.

Oh…

The word “hot” seemed to ring a bell because that’s when her name came to me- Krystal! She’s one of the girls I’d chose as a candidate for one of the committees. But in her photo I remember that she’d had black hair; I guess she dyed it. Well, blonde made her ten times hotter than she was before.

I mean like, damn!

I eyed her up and down from where she sat, having absolutely no shame in checking her out right in front of her friends who were still giggling to one another and whispering things to Krystal like, “Oh my gosh, he totally likes you, girl!”

I chuckled looking away. I thought the girl was hot and all, but they were taking it a bit far with the whole “liking” her part.

“Do you?” Chanyeol’s voice was right in my ears again. I shook my head.

“She’s hot, but I’m not really interested in her type.” Well, I was interested, but only in a “hit it and split it” kind of way.

“Ah, right. Too busy keeping your eyes on Minji now, huh?” Chanyeol nudged me with his elbow a couple times, grinning at me.

Hearing Minji’s name immediately brought my attention back to the opening I made through the books and I stared back at the bright red-headed girl who was smiling and talking to Kris. They looked like they’d scooted their chairs closer to one another since the last time I looked at them.

The grimace I previously held had now sunken lower into a full out scowl.

Kris was starting to lean in too close to Minji for my liking; he looked like he was going to whisper something into her ear.

No, no… I couldn’t have this going on anymore.

“Hey Chanyeol,” I called; he looked at me, expectantly. Scooting him closer to the very end of the bookshelf so that we were near the alley way, I told him, “I need you to do me a favor.”

“What?”

“Fall.”

“Huh?” Chanyeol looked so confused.

I looked at him and simply repeated, “Fall.”

After that, without further warning, using all of my force, I shoved Chanyeol straight to the floor, making sure to push him far enough so that he landed right into the alley way. Chanyeol’s long, gangly frame flew forwards with him screaming “AHH!” and he crashed straight into the carpeted floor.     

“Oh my gosh!” I heard Minji’s concerned voice, exclaim. “Chanyeol, are you alright?”

“Uh…”

And that was my cue to come out.

“Hey Channie! I found the book we need for- dude…what are you doing on the floor?”

Chanyeol’s now fire red eyes, glared up at me from his position on the floor. “Oh, well you know…sometimes hands just come out of nowhere and unexpectedly shove you straight onto the ground.”

I discreetly gave him the stink eye, mentally telling him that he better not blow my cover, all while helping him up off the floor.

“Hey guys,” Kris said, staring suspiciously between me and Chanyeol. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Funny, I was going to ask you two the same thing,” I said, trying to keep my real reasoning behind being in the library inconspicuous in order to avoid getting caught.

“Oh, we were just studying for English,” Minji answered this time, with an innocent looking face.

That comment made me pause to stare at Minji only.

I raised a brow. Who was she trying to kid?

Please! Anybody could see that there was hardly any “studying” going on between these two.

“You don’t have to explain anything to him, Minji-ah,” Kris butted in, still sitting in his spot at the table, unlike Minji who was still standing. She turned around to look back at him, but Kris was smirking at me as he said, “Kai probably only came here to spy on us again.”

“You’re right,” I admitted, before sarcastically adding, “There was nothing else good to watch on TV so...”    

Now Kris’ smirk grew bigger until he was grinning.

“Actually, we were just checking out a few library books for our English project so we can study.” I lifted up the book I was holding, showing it off to Kris and Minji. Then I remembered Krystal around the corner behind the book shelf. “Oh, then I stopped to chat up my girl, Krystal.”

Right after I said Krystal’s name, an expression I couldn’t quite read swept across Minji’s face but just as quickly as it had appeared, it had vanished; her groomed brows had inverted, slanting downwards on her forehead, making her look a little angry, irritated, and serious all at once.

She looked up and her eyes moved past me like she was trying to look in the direction I’d pointed to where Krystal was at. She then looked back at me, but her face had turned blank once her eyes met mine, like she was surprised to get caught by me watching her every movement. I smiled.

I saw that.

“Also, I came here to find Minji so that I could retrieve my cell phone.”

“Oh,” Minji said, looking off into the distance at nothing in particular; her innocent looking face kept still as she looked like she was remembering something. “I actually don’t have it on me right now. I forgot it back in my dorm.”

“You have his phone?” Kris’ voice suddenly piped in, looking at Minji for an answer. “Why?”

“She stole it from me so that she could check out my selfies,” I joked, sarcasm evident in my tone.

The sight of Minji’s face turning from one of innocence to scrunching up in both embarrassment and shock amused me so much, and I couldn’t stop from grinning. Her red lips separated, hanging open for a second, before closing again; she then broke out into an embarrassing smile. Her cheeks enflamed bright, crimson red, and I had to bite down on my bottom lip to keep from laughing. Her reaction was both cute and funny, especially when she looked away from me while muttering, “I did not!”

I could practically feel Kris’ eyes burning a hole through my forehead as he glared at me from across the table.

“Do you want your phone right this moment?” Minji now asked me.

Well, yeah. But I didn’t necessarily need it right at that moment.

“Kai, do you really need your phone, now?” Kris asked, placing a very noticeable irritated emphasis on “now”. He looked slightly worn-out, like he was exhausted of having to talk to me; he probably couldn’t wait for me to finally leave. “Don’t you have like, two or three other cell phones. Can’t you just use one of those for the time being? Minji can give you back your phone later, after we finish studying.”    

I smirked. Kris was trying so hard to get Minji alone, but as long as I was around, I wouldn’t let that happen.

But he could have his little moment with Minji for now; it most likely wouldn’t last for very long anyway.

My mind suddenly filled up with images from just a few minutes earlier when Kris was practically all over Minji, and how she’d responded to his advances.

I felt my smirk fall.

“What if I just finish up studying here and then when I go back to my dorm, I’ll grab your phone and meet you in the student’s lounge to give it back,” Minji reasoned.

I stared back and forth between Minji and Kris a few times before finally nodding.

“Sure,” I said, placing one of my hands into my pockets, trying to look casual, though my mind was still plagued with the images of Kris and Minji together, but once my eyes landed on Kris again, I felt a surge in confidence again. “I’ll just go ahead and leave so that you two little ladies can finish up your little study date.”

I didn’t even have to look at Kris anymore to know that he was scowling at me.

I turned around thinking Chanyeol would still be behind me, but I was surprise to find that my goofy friend was out of sight. When had he left?

I then heard a bunch of girls giggling; it sounded like it was coming from behind the bookshelf that I was once using to shield me when I was spying on watching Kris and Minji.

I maneuvered around the bookshelf to get a glimpse at what was going on only to find Chanyeol sitting at the table with Krystal and her friends. As the “happy vitamin” he truly was, he was chatting up the girls, and joking with them, making them laugh and smile.

I leered at the sight of him talking with those girls.

Chanyeol was supposed to be a “one woman man”, especially with how faithful he’d been with liking Dara.     

He must have felt me staring at him because he suddenly looked up and caught my eyes. He raised a brow, questioningly, before mouthing “You ready to leave?”

I was getting ready to nod, when Krystal’s blonde head that was once turned in Chanyeol’s direction, now turned around to glance back at me. I didn’t need further proof that she clearly liked me once that same smile returned, and she blushed, before turning back to the people at her table.

I smirked. Oh, she was going to make this too easy for me.

I turned back around to Kris and Minji who were now opening up their books again, looking like they were going to continue their study session again; only this time, Minji looked like she was all business now, and actually trying to get work done, instead of flirting with Kris.

The sight pleased me. If they were going to be studying, this was exactly how it should’ve been: actual studying; not Kris trying to make passes at my co-president, like some horn-dog.

“Alright ladies,” I told them, gaining the two’s attention once again. “I’m out. See ya tonight, Minji-ah.” I then specifically looked at Kris, and I couldn’t help but to add a “bye Kristina” afterwards just to piss him off. 

And with that I sauntered over to Krystal’s table. I gave Chanyeol a signature fist-bump and sat down next to Krystal, who was all out blushing now and trying to hide her smile.

“What’s up?” I asked, casually, but kept my eyes locked with hers in a manner that was anything but casual.

Her white teeth bit down on her tinted lips as she smiled sweetly, and she eyed me up and down, shamelessly. “You tell me?”

Oh yeah, I thought to myself while smirking at her. She’s definitely the “hit it and quit it” type.

* * *

There's not much here yet... the real trouble doesn't come until next chatper... Stay tuned!