For a short moment it felt as if all movement, breath and life around us had stopped. Only silence was present as well as a cold breeze that started playing with my shoulder length, black hair. It wasn’t the fact that Jia said she had a plan; It was the way she said. Calm and confident, she even called it a perfect plan. And it wasn’t that nobody else had tried to stop the list and its chaos before, but every single one of them had failed miserably and afterwards gone through hell, until they eventually transferred to a different school.

“What do you mean? What perfect plan?” Min suddenly asked, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence. She looked at Jia with scepticism written all over her face, and both her hands placed on her hips.

“Well, whether it’s perfect or not I’m not sure of yet. But let me tell you about it” Jia started while leaning against the fence, her back viewing the school yard and front gates. “Today’s the last day of October and the voting started at 12pm, which means that tomorrow at 12pm, the list will be updated.”

“We already knew that, so what?” Sehun asked while crossing his arms, and I could spot some irritation and impatient in his voice, and the way his back was leaned against the door which led to the rooftop.

“Let me finish,” Jia continued. “Excluding Sehun and Jongin, the other six boys are probably deciding who they should vote on. The other five girls are doing the same. The only difference is that the two groups aren’t voting on the same people.”

“So while the boys might all vote for, let’s say, Kim Taehyung, the girls will vote for someone else, like Amber” Fei said, trying to understand where Jia was going.

“Exactly! So in that case Taehyung would get six votes and Amber five votes. And that’s why we’re here!”

“What are we going to do?” Suzy asked insecure and confused about the whole thing. To be honest I was pretty much a big question mark myself, and If Suzy hadn’t asked, I’d probably done it.

“We, all seven of us, are going to vote for the same persons. Then the people we vote for will without a doubt get the highest and lowest places on the list! And if we do this every month, we’ve secured our spots on the list. It’s pretty simple actually.” Jia smiled proudly and I could see that she was pretty satisfied with her “perfect” idea.

“Well.. Who are we voting for then?” Fei asked while adjusting her ponytail. She didn’t seem scared or doubtful at all. Actually I think she was kind of anticipating the outcome.

“I say we vote for Jin!” Jongin said firmly and with a glint of anger in his eyes. Thinking of all the horrible things Jin had done to Sehun throughout the whole month, it was no wonder he was angry and wanted revenge.

“No that would be too obvious. Suddenly going from the top to the bottom isn’t something that has happened often. If the others get too suspicious, they’ll find out and the plan will only stand a month.” I looked at Sehun while he was talking, amazed at his sudden analysis. I guess that’s what you get from someone who always scores 2.place in every test, out of three classes.

“Then let’s vote for Krystal! She hasn’t been on top of the list for ages, and I’d love to see her face when she realises she’s hit rock bottom” Min said with a mean smirk.

“Min, this plan isn’t for us to tyrannize the others but to secure our places. We don’t have any interest in being bullies” Jia answered, but Min didn’t really seem to bother listening. Her hatred for Krystal was big, so she was probably already thinking about in which ways she could humiliate her. I remember a year ago when we first started at this high school. I weren’t friends with Min back then, yet I remember how Min and Krystal were always together and talked about their memories from middle school, which no one else could join them in. It’s kind of strange how I don’t know how or why she hates Krystal so much. It happened all of a sudden.

“Who are we voting for to be on top?” Fei asked, breaking my train of thoughts. I stared at her for only a short moment and then turned my gaze towards Jia with a smile. “I say we vote for Jia then!”

“And why should we vote for Jia?” My eyes met Sehun’s, who had an intense stare and it felt like it would pierce right through me. Though, instead of the annoying tone he had before, now it seemed more like he was being defensive.

“Well.. Because Jia came up with the idea, and wouldn’t it be best if she was the first one to try it out?” I tried to convince him. He opened his mouth, as if he was going to say something but closed it again and nodded slightly. I looked back at Jia, who was smiling now. I knew Jia, she was going to do this like she did everything else; thorough, fair and with a simple smile.

“Then it’s settled; we’ll vote for Jia to be on top, and Krystal at the bottom.” Fei stated as she picked up her black and pink schoolbag, and started walking towards the door. The rest followed Fei out the door, and Jia and I were the last ones to go down the stairs. I smiled as I linked arms with Jia. It actually seemed like a decent plan.

It was the 1^st of November and the weather had drastically gotten much colder, from one day to the other. The four of us had just arrived at school and we were patiently waiting at the front gates. When Jia finally showed up, there were no kinds of greeting or physical contact exchanged, and we just headed straight through the gates, towards our classroom. We were all waiting for the same, one thing and throughout every class and every break it felt as if we were holding our breath. Stealing small, insecure glances at each other, while awaiting the unknown outcome. At the moment we were sitting in the canteen, not even daring to look at our food, as if even the smallest movement would be fatal. Then finally the clock hit 12, and we all felt our phones vibrating in our pockets.

I saw all seventeen of my fellow classmates look at their phone with eagerness. I took a deep breath before I let my hand slowly reach down my skirt-pocket and slide out my phone, as I unlocked it and faintly looked at the message.

“The 24 hours are up, all votes have been casted and the final result is out.

At the top: Mong Jia.

At the bottom: Jung Krystal.

Remember to follow the rules if one wishes to avoid the consequences. Enjoy the month.”

Unable to look away from my phone, I slightly blinked in disbelief and noticed that my mouth was agape. I finally looked around me and saw Jongin at another table with a silly grin plastered on his face, giving me a short wink which I couldn’t stop smiling over. I looked back at the very table I was sitting at and saw Min faintly punch Jia’s arm, with a proud smile on her face. Even Suzy seemed a bit relaxed as she started to eat the food in front of her, which she otherwise neglected. Suddenly I heard a series of different sounds coming from one of the other tables. My eyes wandered to the source of the noise and I saw Luna, Victoria and Jinri standing up with their trays looking at the still seated Amber. I saw Luna’s mouth forming words and with that Amber stood up with her tray, and walked away with the three others. The only one left at the table was an awfully lonely looking Krystal, and I immediately remembered rule nr. 2:

“For one month, all else except Master is forbidden to have contact with the Slave- the Slave is an outcast- unless access to have contact is given from Master. If one fails to obey this rule, they will have their name written on the bottom of the list for the upcoming month.”

I guess the other girls were just following the rules, but for some reason I felt regret upon seeing Krystal like that. She was mean and could be really annoying, but does anyone deserve such a treatment? I gulped while looking away, trying to eat my food but couldn’t. Gosh, why was I feeling so guilty?

Whatever it was that they served at the canteen it couldn’t possibly be good for anything, as a matter fact it did they exact opposite. I had just finished doing my business in the toilet and could conclude one thing for sure; the canteen food was poisonous and the school was trying to kill its students, no doubt about it. I was about to unlock the lock on the door when someone unexpectedly pulled the handle down and I took a step back.

“It’s occupied.” I heard Jia tell the unknown person.

“Yeah, I can see that.” It took me less than a second to recognize the voice, and I froze on the spot. It was Luna. For some reason just hearing her voice sent a shiver down my spine and as soon as I came back to my senses, she started talking again.

“To be honest, whether you cheated or how else you did it, I’m a little confused. But that part aside, I have to congratulate you on finally making it on top.” Luna said, and I couldn’t figure out if she was being sarcastic or not.

“Thanks.. I guess” Jia said, and after a short while continued. “What’s that?”

“I’m holding a party tomorrow night, and since Krystal can’t come I thought maybe you would. I know people see me as this ice cold and mean person, but I have my moments too. Who knows, maybe you’d like my company.” After that there was a long silence and I figured that Luna must have left. I quickly unlocked the door and proceeded to wash my hands, as I stole a quick glance at the note Jia was holding.

“What’s that?” I asked, already knowing the answer to my question.

“Huh? Oh, nothing. Just.. Just a piece of paper.” She answered absentmindedly while putting the paper in her skirt-pocket. The sudden lie had caught me off-guard but I still tried to remain my poker-face as I dried my hands.

“Wanna go back to class then?” I said still smiling my fake smile as I walked towards the door. Jia started mumbling something about me just going ahead, and even though I wanted to confront her, I guess it would be best leaving for now. I still have confidence in Jia and trust that she would tell me if it was important. So with a couple of heavy steps I walked out of the washroom, towards class.

From the hallway I could hear all the noise coming from my class, which wasn’t really a surprise. Everyone knew of us as the nosiest class on the whole school, and teachers feared being put as substitutes in our class. I walked inside and spotted Min sitting on one of the tables, talking to Suzy. As I was walking towards her and almost stood in front of the table, I was abruptly pushed from the side and almost fell on top of Jongin, who was sitting at the nearby table. I looked up to see my offender and saw an annoyed Krystal glaring at Min.

“You’re sitting on my table” Krystal began.

“And you’re staring at my face. Guess we both have something to be annoyed over.” Min folded her arms, and didn’t move a single inch from the table.

“Listen, just move your giant away from my table!” Krystal almost yelled, and all noise in the classroom started fading. All eyes were at the two girls and their stares alone were beginning to raise the tension in the room.

“You know, you’re awfully cocky for someone who’s got no friends for an entire month.” Min replied, and finally got up, though still standing in the way.

“Ya, Jia, get your stupid friend away from me, unless you want her name to be written at the bottom for next month.” I looked from Krystal to the door and saw Jia entering with an open water bottle in her hand. She looked slightly confused as she got nearer the two girls, who looked like they could break into a fistfight at any moment.

“What’s wrong?” Jia asked while standing in between the two girls, and drank a little of her water.

“Oh my god, are you both stupid and deaf? I said get your annoying monkey of a friend away from my table!”

“Hey, no need to talk like that, ju-“

“I talk as I’d like to talk. Now if you’d just listen to me, all of this would be long gone.” Krystal interrupted.

I saw Jia stare in awe at Krystal, before she finally pulled herself together. After knowing Jia for so long, I knew that even though she had a lot of patience and reason, she couldn’t stand being talked down to.

“If you hadn’t noticed, Krystal, I’m the one in control right now. So you better talk to me like that.”

Krystal scoffed at Jia’s reply, before she continued. “You, in control? Just ‘cause you’ve gotten lucky and got on top for a month, you think you own me? Come again tomorrow and let me see if I’ll care then”

What happened next no one, especially me, had seen coming. I stared as if my eyes were going to pop out of my head, and didn’t even notice the sound Jia’s now empty water bottle made when it hit the floor. Krystal was soaked from head to shoulders, and her mascara was running down her red cheeks, and around her wide open mouth. I quickly looked at Jia who was standing with her hands on her hips, as a vague smirk was appearing on her face.

“I’ll only say it once, Krystal; I’m the Master, you’re the slave.”   

So that's it for this chapter!

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