[CONTENTID1]

twenty-three: extracurricular activities part three [/CONTENTID1][CONTENTID2]

["I don't know what I was thinking, pretending I could be like a Problem Child."] [/CONTENTID2][CONTENTID3]

The crowds, originally screaming in joy, were now screaming in fright. There was a mad rush all around Juyeon, as though they were fighting to run away. Bodies smashed into her, elbows jabbing and hands pulling. Helpless, she placed her arms over her face to protect herself as best as she could and slowly moved with the rush. Through the panic, the blind chaos, Juyeon heard the sound of clashing bodies and fists somewhere in the center. 

"Guys?" Juyeon yelled out in confusion. She couldn't see anything. All the light seemed to have been away. Not even the moon was visible anymore, which seemed to be doing something to her. She couldn't think straight, and the craziness around her made it all the worse when she couldn't see anything. Her voice turned higher as her fear increased. "Guys! Suho! Baekhyun!" Someone pushed past her so hard she almost fell, and something whistled, loud and keening, past her, as though a body was flying through the air. A small sob left . "Kai!"

"I'm here, sweetheart," came a voice right by her ear. An arm wrapped itself around her waist, and suddenly the screaming stopped.

"W-w―" Juyeon felt a wave of nausea wash over her, and tried to push Kai away. He held on, voice low and soothing. "Breathe, Yeonie, breathe. It's just motion-sickness."

Juyeon took several deep breaths, and the dizziness faded. She suddenly could see the moon again, and the calmness of its light helped clear her mind.

"What happened?" she gasped out, looking around. They were back in the small clearing just outside the High Class doors in the forest. With the light of the two lamps posted on either side of the doors, Juyeon could see a few other students stumbling around in the forest, a few spinning small pocket flashlights all about as they yelled for their friends. "Did you teleport me?"

"Yup," Kai sounded proud of himself. "Who's a knight in shining armor now, darling?"

"Yeah, thanks. Mind letting go of me?" Juyeon was now uncomfortably aware that she was pressed against his body.

Kai snickered. "Nah. Why, princess? Feel a little nervous?" He leaned in even closer, and the proximity made Juyeon's head spin, this time not from teleportation sickness (did all guys smell this good? She decided that was a thought she didn't want to have again for a long time).

"Nope, I'm feeling nauseous again." Juyeon swooned violently, making exaggerated convulsing noises in and rolling her eyes back. "I think I'm going to throw up."

"Wait, what? No! Get away from me!" Kai immediately tried pushing her away, and Juyeon grabbed his jacket. "Oh no, mister shining knight, didn't you say you didn't want to let go of me? Uh-oh, here it comes! Blaaaaargh!"

Kai shrieked girlishly in terror and fought harder, frantically grabbing for her wrists. Juyeon almost doubled over laughing.

"Yah, that's not funny!" he whined. Juyeon ignored him. "You are such a pansy," she said, snickering. "I didn't know your voice was always that high."

"Shut up!" Kai's cheeks were turning an interesting shade of dark pink. Juyeon noticed that their new position, with him holding her wrists, was not much better than the first. "Okay, now I'm uncomfortable, let go of me."

Surprisingly, Kai conceded. He let go and drew back, sulking. Juyeon decided to some more, secretly thankful that he had helped her out in her moment of weakness. "What? Are you sulking?"

"No."

"You totally are. Are you a child? Aww, is baby Kai afraid of vomit? Is he upset I tricked him?"

"I can teleport you into the bottom of the ocean so you explode from the pressure," Kai threatened darkly. Juyeon rolled her eyes. "Ugh, you PCs are always the same. The second things don't go your way, you have to start threatening creative ways of death to be back on top. It's pathetic."

"Whoever said they were threats?" someone called from behind her. "I think they're more like promises."

Juyeon whirled around, but there was no one. "Look up, moron."

She and Kai looked up. Sehun was balanced precariously on a small ledge protruding out of the third floor of the High Class building. Kai just scowled at him. Juyeon panicked. "Get down! You're going to … fall …" She stopped when she realized her own stupidity.

Sehun hopped off and, with the help of a light breeze, gently landed on the ground. "Fall? Was I going to fall?" he said mockingly. Juyeon's cheeks burned. "Shut the hell up. I forgot, okay?"

Sehun rolled his eyes. His hair was more brown than blond today, a sort of light brown-caramel in the darkness. Juyeon wondered if he dyed his hair two different tones every couple of days or if that was just the beauty of his hair colour in different kinds of light.

"Looks like Baekhyun went all out," Sehun said, sounding calm compared to the panicky, rushing students running past them. "I hope he didn't kill Jonghyun sunbae. He's pretty cool."

Kai recovered from his strange fit of sulking and nodded. "Yeah, well, what can you do? He wanted to show off to Yeonie."

"Look what you did," Sehun said to her. Juyeon glared. God, he was such a jerkass. "Is everything my fault?"

"Yes," Sehun responded back coolly. Juyeon wondered which version of Sehun she hated more: his silent, grumpy version who wanted to kill her or at least hurt her considerably, or the current annoying version who wanted to constantly get under her skin. "When you were there, he was holding back because of something you must have said to him. When you told him to go all out, he complied and will most likely kill sunbaenim accidentally."

Juyeon wanted to strangle Sehun, but some part of her saw the truth in his words. As always, Sehun knew exactly what to say to knock her ego down a couple notches. She was aggravated, but knew he spoke the truth in his own, way. "You're right," she agreed, and both Sehun and Kai blinked, looked surprised. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have gone to this in the first place." She subconsciously clenched her hands into fists. "I don't know what I was thinking, pretending I could be like a Problem Child."

Neither of the Exo boys answered her, and for that Juyeon was glad. She probably wouldn't be able to handle it if they agreed with her or tried to comfort her. Both sounded awful.

Juyeon was a normal. These guys were Problem Children. It didn't matter whether they became more normal-like or Juyeon became more PC-like, the two just couldn't mix. Juyeon did nothing but cause more problems since Sumi was willing to introduce her deeper into the PC world.

"I think you've got it wrong―" Kai started to say, but there was a sudden shout from deeper into the woods. "The fight's over!"

Sehun shot up in a mini-whirlwind, and Juyeon shivered when the wind blew against her. Kai took hold of her arm and, with a gust of black tendrils and smoke, they were suddenly standing in the stadium again. Juyeon gritted her teeth and tried to breathe as the nausea hit her.

She felt something smooth and silky slide over her shoulders, followed by Kai saying gruffly, "Here." Then she felt him leave her side, running off and yelling "Baekhyun!"

The black spots dancing in her vision cleared, and Juyeon realized Kai had placed his school jacket over her shoulders to protect her from the wind. Huh. Guess the guy had some decent chivalry after all.

Juyeon noticed the crowd in the center of the clearing and pushed her way through, earning many nasty looks and curses before she broke free.

In the center of the