-A couple hours later-

“Sungyeol doesn’t eat veggies. Period.”

Myungsoo tried really hard not to roll his eyes at that statement. He really did.

It had only been a couple hours, but Myungsoo already had a very good idea of what Sungyeol’s personality was like. Despite not trading a single word with the taller boy, he quickly found out that Sungyeol was very childish. In fact, he could very well be the most childish person Myungsoo had ever had the honor to meet.

Sungyeol seemed to have some bizarre notion that Myungsoo was his competitor. After Myungsoo got praised by his teachers, Sungyeol, who had been half-asleep before, suddenly developed an interest in his classes, and started actively answering questions. Not that he got them right, anyway; but that didn’t seem to bother him at all.

During their music class, after Myungsoo performed a perfect cover of “All For You,” Sungyeol volunteered to get his singing skills evaluated. What ensued was a scene that would probably haunt Myungsoo in his nightmares for the rest of his life. Sungyeol’s “Couple” couldn’t even compare to the horror of his attempt at “Good Day.” His classmates seemed to be on the same page as him.

But no matter how much Sungyeol embarrassed himself while attempting to “beat” Myungsoo, his determination didn’t seem to waver at all. No, he actually seemed to get more determined the more he failed. By the end of their fifth period, it seemed that Sungyeol was ready to fight with Myungsoo over anything the latter said—while not actually exchanging a single word with Myungsoo himself. And the icing on top was this ridiculous scene happening inside the cafeteria. After he had spotted Myungsoo loading his plate with various greens and kimchi, Sungyeol had loaded his plate with meat.

“He’s not like this usually,” Sunggyu said from next to Myungsoo. “I wonder what got into him today.”

Sunggyu was yet another weirdo. It didn’t take even ten minutes for Myungsoo to completely disregard the class president’s words. It turned out that none of his classmates cared about Sunggyu whatsoever. His threats fell on deaf ears, and even when he approached some of the students, they pretended as if he wasn’t there at all. Myungsoo understood why he had been so keen on trying to get Myungsoo on his side, but he should have at least pretended to have some control over the class if he was going to threaten anybody.

Myungsoo’s train of thoughts crashed as he heard faint screams coming from outside the cafeteria, gradually becoming clearer and louder. If he could trust his senses, it must have been at least a dozen girls yelling their lungs out, which led to only one conclusion—Sungjong was about to enter the hustling canteen.

“Sungjong’s coming,” Sunggyu confirmed his guess.

“Don’t they get used to having an idol in their school?” Myungsoo asked, stuffing his cheeks with a handful of kimchi.

“He doesn’t come to school that often,” Sunggyu explained. “And he does, he’s always in the classroom. Other kids never get to see him.”

“He’s not even that great,” Myungsoo mumbled under his breath. At that moment, Sungjong appeared behind the corner, followed by at least twenty petite girls, giggling and screaming as if they won a jackpot. Which they definitely didn’t win, Myungsoo thought, considering who the person they were following was.

Myungsoo observed the idol as he leisurely skidded toward the buffet table, loaded his plate with a little bit of pretty much everything, grabbed a bottle of orange juice, and started looking around for an empty seat. A lot of people in the room (girls mainly) pointed at their table, but Sungjong ignored all of them. He headed straight in Myungsoo’s direction.

“He’s not coming to sit here, is he?” Myungsoo groaned.

“Well, he always eats at this table with us,” Sunggyu shrugged indifferently. “He barely ever talks to anyone, though, so don’t worry too much about it. By the way, why do you hate Fedora so much? It’s bad enough to watch Sungjong and Sungyeol clash with each other every day, and now you’re here too…”

“I don’t hate Fedora,” Myungsoo denied defensively. “I’m just not a big fan of Sungjong, that’s all.”

“You almost sound like a one of those butthurt fangirls of his,” Sunggyu chuckled.

Myungsoo sent him a deadly stare that he learned from his sister, but it had absolutely no effect. Sunggyu couldn’t even see it.

“Is this seat taken?” Sungjong asked exhaustedly as he reached their table, preventing Myungsoo from jabbing the hamster sitting next to him.

“Suit yourself,” Sunggyu answered. Sungjong sat down and started eating his meal. Myungsoo averted his gaze elsewhere. He wouldn’t be watching Sungjong eat. Even though he was a member of Fedora, Myungsoo’s number one group, he wouldn’t be caught staring at him. Especially not at him, Lee Sungjong. It would be a different story if the boy sitting in front of him was Hoya, of course; there was nothing embarrassing enough to prevent Myungsoo from watching Hoya’s y lips. A smile crept onto his face as he thought about Hoya’s lips…

It was only minutes later that Myungsoo felt the uncomfortable feeling of someone staring at him. He slowly looked back, and spotted Sungjong practically burning his gaze into him. The stare was even more intense than the one from his part in “Be Mine.”

“You—” Sungjong began. Was it possible that he remembered Myungsoo from the SBS building? But they barely saw each other at all! It was only for a couple seconds, and he was sure Sungjong had better things to think about than the high school student he bumped into in a restroom. But perhaps… ? “Did you get your nose done?”

Never mind that. “Excuse me?”

“Your nose,” Sungjong repeated, still staring intently at Myungsoo’s face. “Its shape is really good. Where did you get it from? I might want to check out the place.”

“I’m sorry, but my nose is perfectly natural,” Myungsoo gritted his teeth. Sungjong was even ruder than he had imagined.

“You can tell me,” Sungjong continued, completely oblivious to Myungsoo’s irritation. “It’s not like you have to be ashamed of it. I personally-”

“I really haven’t had a surgery on my nose,” Myungsoo interrupted him angrily.

Sungjong gave him a skeptical look, but didn’t ask more. At that time, two girls approached the boys’ table. Myungsoo vaguely remembered that he had seen them earlier in the morning. They didn’t look like they were going to faint anytime soon, which was a relief, as dealing with fainting girls wasn’t something Myungsoo especially enjoyed. The shorter one of the two was carrying a small box in her hands. They were both looking at their feet, blushing heavily.

“Sunbae,” the taller one said almost inaudibly. “We made something for you.”

“Thanks,” Sungjong nodded with a fake smile. “You can leave it on the table.”

“It’s not for you, sunbae-nim,” the shorter girl shook her head.

“What?” Sungjong blinked. “You’re saying you’re not giving it to me? Who else-”

“Here,” the shorter girl handed the box over to Myungsoo, much to his surprise. “We baked the cake in our cooking class. We hope you enjoy it, sunbae.”

Myungsoo was speechless. This has never happened to him before. True, he was getting a lot more gazes from girls than he ever had before, but this was the first gift he’d ever received. Was he suddenly becoming popular?

He looked around, unsure of how he was supposed to react. Sunggyu looked as if he was about to burst into laughter. Sungyeol made a silly face that somewhat reminded Myungsoo of an owl. Sungjong just looked as if someone had just slapped him in the face.

“Thanks, I guess?” he tried a faint smile and reached for the box. He was really bad at things like this. The girls seemed to be very excited nonetheless, as the shorter started squealing like guinea pigs the moment his fingers brushed against hers, and the taller erupted in tears of joy.

“Thank you, sunbae!” they both cried, bowing repeatedly on their way away from them.

“Seems like we have a new Mr. Popular at our school,” Sunggyu grinned, sending Sungjong a nasty look. The idol seemed to have finally awoken from his trance as he scoffed at the class president, stood up, grabbed his barely touched plate of food, hissed at Myungsoo, and cat walked away.

“I have a feeling he doesn’t like you,” Myungsoo commented as he watched Sungjong disappearing behind a corner.

“Me?” Sunggyu chuckled. “I’ll be the last of his worries with you and Sungyeol around.”

“Why doesn’t he like Sungyeol anyway?” Myungsoo asked, opening the box to see a cute little strawberry shortcake inside.

“Who knows?” Sunggyu shrugged. “It’s not like cousins need a reason to hate each other.”

“They’re cousins?” Myungsoo asked with surprise.

“You didn’t know?” Sunggyu raised an eyebrow. “Everybody here knows it. They’re the two big rivals of this school. Sungjong is winning right now, being an idol and all of that, but now that you’ve entered the race, things should get interesting around here. You know, whenever there’s someone more popular than them around here, they get together and attack the common enemy. Maybe you’ll last longer than a month before transferring out.”

“But I don’t want to be in any popularity contest with them!” Myungsoo exclaimed, a hint of panic glinting in his eyes.

“Well, that’s too bad then,” Sunggyu pointed at the front of the cafeteria. There stood at least twenty girls, holding present boxes in their hands, all eating Myungsoo up with their eyes.

“So much for a peaceful senior year,” Myungsoo sighed to himself.

“Veggies are for the weak,” Myungsoo overheard Sungyeol saying. He looked in the boy’s direction, only to see Sungyeol stuffing his mouth with a large chunk of rib-eye steak. As he chewed on the meat, he glared directly into Myungsoo’s eyes, and slowly, painfully slowly, he bit on another chunk of beef. Myungsoo couldn’t help but feel as if a war had just been declared by the Lee cousins.

I really want to thank you all for your continuous support! Your comments make my day, and I always try to reply to them as long as there's space for a reply. Please subscribe, upvote, and comment your thoughts on the story! It takes only a few moments ;)

Just today, someone went as far as advertising this story for me! I still don't know who it is, but thank you so much for it! I really, really appreciate it ^_^ Please tell me if it was you, so I can thank you personally and give you a virtual cookie! ^_^

My midterms are over and now I'm on my spring break! There's a high possibility that another chapter will be posted some time in the middle of next week, before the scheduled Saturday update. So definitely do stay tuned for it! In the next chapter, "Pride? What Pride?" Myungsoo will be looking for a way to make money. But with zero work experience and lazy attitude, will he be able to find anyone willing to hire him? And, a new big character is going to be introduced as well. Are you ready? You'll have to wait a couple of days to find out!

Karma~