동삼대학교

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

Chapter 4

3 days ago

Pulling up to the new SM building, I barely have the time to appreciate the prime slice of real estate before my attention is pulled elsewhere.

More specifically, to the hoarde of girls gathered around the entrance.

"Crap," I mutter as the taxi pulls up to the building, parting the sea of girls. At first curious as to who might be in the taxi, the fans soon lose interest in me as they realize I am neither famous nor a cute guy.

Paying the driving, I get out of the taxi and check my phone.

Good, I still have some time to get up there.

A good thing, too, as looking out at the crowd in front of me, it won't be easy getting through.

Hugging my bag to my body, I duck my head down and try to push through the the girls. The first few ranks are easy; it's the fans closer to the actual building that get pretty territorial about their spot.

"Yah! What do you think you're doing?!"

I stumble and trip as someone suddenly shoves me from behind. My phone falls out of my hand and skids across the pavement, lost in the sea of sneakers.

"Some of us have been waiting here all day! You think you can just walk right past us?"

Well isn't this embarrassing.

Hovering over me is a trio of high-school aged girls. Dressed in the same uniform, I safely assume that they are all at least classmates, if not friends. I notice one girl has long fingernails, painted fire engine red. Things must've changed since I graduated high school, because I never wouldn't gotten away with that.

"Yah! Don't feel like talking?"

I frown at them and jump to my feet, brushing dirt off my soiled jeans.

"I don't need to explain myself to brats like you," I say in what I hope is a mature, threatening tone.

I spin on my heels and continue walking towards the building. At this point, the other girls around us are watching the altercation with mild amusement.

Kids these days...

"'Brats'? How dare you!"

I feel a hand grab me and yank back, pulling my hair and snapping my head back painfully. Surprised, I'm sent stumbling back and nearly fall.

"What are you, fifteen? Sixteen maybe?" As the high school girl talks, spittle comes flying out of and onto my face. I'm more than a little bit disgusted. "You should respect your seniors!"

"Bull," I say, taking my chance to pull out of their loosening grip. I step back a bit so that they can't pull the same trick again. "I'm nineteen. A university student, you ignorant twit."

"Liar."

And she slaps my face so hard I almost fall.

Suddenly I find myself struggling to hold back tears, and I find it hard to breathe. Rather than get in the building, I just want to go home.

Just when I think things can't get any better, the already-chaotic situation takes a turn for the worse when a grey van pulls up to the building. At that instant, I'm forgotten. As sasaeng mode is initiated, everyone instead begins mobbing the cars will all their power.

Lost in the crowd, I am dragged along with the masses despite my attempts to break free. In the glimpses I catch between the people, I see the car door opening.

"Move, I can't see!"

A hand thoughtlessly pushes me forward and to the side. The strength of the girl surprises me, and stumble forward, tripping on something that sends me to the pavement again.

"This really isn't your day, Jooyi," I mutter to myself, beginning to get up, only to by pressed back down by the mass of bodies. Crap, now what? Is this what it's like to be stampeded?

"Back up!"

The commanding voice sounds oddly familiar, and I would look up to see who it is if I wasn't already so preoccupied by not getting a boot to the face.

"Ah, Miss Hwang Jooyi, I thought it was you."

A hand gently pulls me up, and guarded under my mysterious benefactor's watch, I'm quickly guided away from the crowd of fan girls and, at long last, into the SM building.

"Thank you so much," I say, turning my gaze up from the ground to-

"Byun Baekhyun."

"Aha, so you remember me," he says cheerily. "I heard from the other - hey. What happened?"

He begins to stare intently at my face. And he's not the only one. Suddenly conscious that I'd begun to cry while outside, I hurriedly wipe away at the tears with my sleeve. To my horror, I see bright red staining the cloth and my hand. More drops of blood trickle freely down my cheek. I realize that the girl with the bright red nails must've cut me and that my face was probably smeared with a mixture of blood and tears.

"I, uh, I-"

"Uwaah!" Behind me, a tall blonde boy recoils at the sight of me, bumping into the guy behind him.

"Tao, watch where you're going!" The guy complains, walking around his friend...and stopping at the sight of me. "Sasaengs?"

"Probably," one of the other members agrees from across the lobby.

The way they act so calmly shocks me, but I don't say anything. It shouldn't be normal to have to deal with that constantly.

"Ah, Hwang Jooyi, I heard you have a meeting with the higher-ups soon."

Im Hyunkyun approaches me, tissue box in hand.

"I doubt you want to meet him looking like that."

"Thanks," I say, taking the box and rubbing away at my cheeks with a tissue. I wince as I make contact with the deep cuts in my cheeks.

"Not a good idea," Baekhyun says, snatching the box away from me as I go for a new tissue. "You're just making it worse."

Unable to defend myself with anything substantial, I'm thankful for the following interruption.

"Ah, aren't you the girl from the concert?"

Suho (the only one I know well, considering Minyeong never stops talking about him) appears on the stairwell holding a Starbucks cup in one hand. Looking at me, his eyes widen.

"Med room. Now."

---

The trip to get a few bandaids from the medical room almost became an ordeal as the EXO members couldn't contain their curiosity about the newcomer. Observing me like some new exhibit, I'm thankful when Lee Seunghwan and Noh Yongmin pull away some of the members for schedules, leaving me with Hyunkyun, Suho, Baekhyun, Luhan, and Chen. Which isn't so bad, considering there were twelve of them before.

"Ow ow ow ow ow," I repeat, flinching back from the cotton swab Hyunkyun was using to clean my cuts.

"Stop moving," he scolded, pulling back. "Your meeting starts in just a few minutes. You can't be-"

Three sharp raps on the door interrupts him.

A small woman peeks her head in and looks around. "Mr. Im Hyunkyun, you're needed at the front."

Sighing heavily, he tosses the cotton swab and takes off his gloves. "Someone else deal with her while I do this."

The door slams, leaving us in awkward silence. Eventually, Suho stands and dons a pair of sanitary gloves.

"So you became a trainee, huh?" Chen reclines in his chair, playing with a cup of pens on the desk.

I shrug sheepishly. "My family and everyone was telling me I should try it, so..."

It's a lie, but what else do I say? I need the money to pay bills, and no one else was hiring? In actuality, Minyeong is the only person who actually encouraged me to try. Honestly, not too many people close to me know about what happened at the concert. And I'd rather keep it that way.

The guys nod, save for Luhan, whose expression betrays a feeling of...jealousy? I shake the thought. What reason does he have to be jealous?

"Ah!"

"Sorry!"

Suho drops the alcohol-drenched cotton swab in surprise, and I cup my cheek in one hand as a fresh wave of pain hits me and my eyes begin to tear up.

"I don't think this is helping."

"You don't say?"

Baekhyun moves from his seat and rifles through one of the drawers.

"Oh, you're trying to be manly," Chen teases, making the others laugh.

"Yah, be quiet," Baekhyun scolds. But he doesn't say much else and instead takes out a few bandages. "Anyway, don't you have to get to that meeting? It's probably more important to put something on it temporarily."

"Do you know where you're going?" Luhan asks.

"Um, not really," I reply, watching Baekhyun wearily. "I'm supposed to go to the chairman's office, but I don't know where it is."

"Ah, I can show you," he says. "What time do you have to be there?"

"Um..."

I look around, trying to find a clock in the room. Oh, how I wish I had my phone.

"Crap, it's in two minutes!"

"We need to hurry, then. The last thing you want is to be late."

Shocking me, since I'd been keeping an eye on Baekhyun to make sure he wasn't going pull out bottles of rubbing alcohol or something, Suho proceeds to slap some sort of cream on my cut cheek, which Baekhyun and Chen promptly cover with a sloppy mess of character band aids.

"Let's go."

Suho leads the way as we hurry out of the room. When the elevator refuses to come, we dash up the stairs. Running down halls, turning corners, and finally catching an elevator to the top floor, the five of us make it with seconds to spare.

"Go get 'em," Baekhyun says with a grin as we stop in front of the chairman's door.

"Thanks guys," I say, bowing towards them.

"No problem. Make sure to get that checked out afterwards, though," Suho replies.

"And watch out for sasaengs," Chen says. "Direct approaches don't work out. Trust me."

I smile. These guys have no obligation to help me out, but they still took time out of their day to help. I can't be more grateful.

"Go go," Luhan says, shooing me forward. "You can't be late."