{SIXTEEN}

Month 01 Day 17

Winner, Winner, Winner. 

That was all Kyungsoo could think about on this particular nerve-wracking day. The past few days were spent on discussing battle strategies and improving their skills on fighting, which was made all of them exhausted. Today was it, their next gang fight.

He drummed his fingers on his desk as he stared up at the clock of the classroom, heart beating nervously with each tick. He wasn't the only one with the feeling of uneasiness in his heart, Baekhyun and Chanyeol were having the same emotions. Why was time going so fast today? Only a few minutes were left until the bell would ring and he wished they could stay here forever.

"Remember class, read the whole of chapter five in your history textbooks for the upcoming quiz," Mr. Gu reminded, earning some groans from the students or positive nods, but Kyungsoo couldnt've cared less if there was a test or not. It was the least of his worries.

"Hongdae, in about an hour," He murmured to himself as he slung his bag over his shoulder, looking over at his other two members who were looking rather excited. 

"Are you ready?" A hand rested on his shoulder, and he turned to see Chanyeol smiling at him, determination noticable on his face, "We're doing this together, we're not backing down, no matter what."

"Mhm," He nodded back in response, the same went for Baekhyun. 

Honestly, he didn't want to see s nearly getting defeated just because of him. He told himself he couldn't bear seeing their faces covered in blood and them crouching down on the floor, helpless. They were lucky they were able to defeat BTS because Sehun came to the rescue, and they played their part in taking them out too, but they couldn't be so sure this time. For all they knew, Winner must've had some type of plan up their sleeves.

Plus, if they lost, then an amount of their hard earned money would go down the drain too. All their hard work would mean nothing in the end, and he was definitely going to prevent them from surrendering. 10 million wasn't just a mere amount to him, who'd lived in poverty for most of his elementary school years. It meant so much, it reminded him of their teamwork that seemed unbreakable to him.

The sound of foosteps neared their classroom, not just of one person, but of multiple. Their heads turned to the door straightaway when they heard it slide open, four people stepped in, with grins on their faces, with the acception of Sehun. There, standing at the doorway were Luhan, Minseok, Sehun and Minjae greeting the three of them.

They were speechless as they comtinued to stare back at them, but Chanyeol broke out into the most wonderful grin anyone had ever seen him pull. It gave off a more delighted feeling. Compared to his other happy grins, this one looked the happiest, and they were glad to see him that way.

"Sorry if we're a little late," Luhan scratched the back of his head with embarrassment, "But Sehun already briefed yesterday us on what's going to happen, so we got a good idea on it. Minseok and I found our own method on how to balance soccer and these 'activities', and now we're certain we've already thought about this." He walked over to Kyungsoo with slow steps before he stuck his hand out.

Just this once, he gave the two new members a smirk as he gripped on the elder boy's hand, "Welcome aboard, we'll count on you guys too."

"But why did you guys bring Minjae..." Baekhyun pointed at the girl, not that he had anything against her, but she wasn't supposed to know anything about this whole gang thing.

"Oh yeah..." Minseok bit on his lips and whispered to them without the girl noticing, "We sort of met her when we were entering the the school and we decided to bring her along... Sorry, Luhan kinda forgot the reason why we were coming here."

Kyungsoo sighed. Great. How were they going to drive her away without her noticing anything suspicious. They were great in keeping this a secret from her for a month, they could surely keep it from her longer. However, they all remained silent and stared back at the girl, each of them having no idea what to tell her. Kyungsoo clearly understood she wanted to assist him, but now wasn't a good time, what if she got hurt? And since she was the daughter of possibly one of the richest people who had a million times more power than him, he would be in deep trouble if he was held responsible.

"Minjae, you need to go," Luhan informed the girl hesitantly, giving her an apologetic look, "It's not because we don't want you to tag along or anything, but the place we're going to, and what we're going to do, it's really dangerous..."

Her face was crestfallen, her shoulders had begun to slump in disappointment. Earlier, she'd looked really excited on following them, like an eager child who was anticipating a trip to an amusement park. They were all guilt stricken when the smile disappeared from her face, being replaced by a frown. Kyungsoo had no idea about the others, but a part of him felt responsible for the reason why she wasn't able to go. Minjae was always thrilled at the thought of hanging out with them, she never got to often because they were so occupied with fighting, like now. It couldn't be helped, Kyungsoo couldn't risk getting her injured and he had no choice but to fight with other gangs if he wanted to live.

"But you said all of us were going to hangout," Everyone knew Luhan was partly to blame for placing them in this situation.

"We can hangout another day," Chanyeol patted her shoulder in hopes to comfort her, "But right now... it's not the best time, we're running late for some important event." She still didn't look convinced at all.

"Are you going to deal with her?" Baekhyun turned to Kyungsoo, who nodded, "There's no helping it, I have to, in some way."

When the two of them were the only ones left in the classroom, Minjae spoke first, "You said that I could help you, and whatever idiotic thing you guys are going to do to hurt yourself again, at least I'll be there to call for help." 

"It's a different thing, Minjae. We're not talking about mere incidents with people where we give each other nosebleeds or roll on the floor while holding each other's collars.  The stupid things you think we're doing now, are actually much more worse than you can imagine, but we have a reason why we're doing this. I can't tell you now," Because I don't want you to hurt yourself while trying to save us, I don't want you to isolate yourself from us when you find out what we've been doing, He placed his hands on her petite shoulders gently, his gaze still, "I'm being serious this time. I'm not going to be a total jerk to you when I say this, but really, really, just stay out of it, will you?" 

He looked at his watch to check the time, realising that he was running late, "We need to hurry..." Without another word, he dashed out of the door where s looked alarmed since he burst out so suddenly. Kyungsoo ran down the hallway s following behind him, but he stopped and turned around to see Go Minjae at the other end of the hallway. She looked concernedly, and he could see that she had the urge to follow them. 

That stubborn girl. He shook his head before the two of them made eye contact. Kyungsoo cupped his hands close to his mouth, shouting loudly with all his might for the girl to hear him, "REMEMBER WHAT I SAID! DON'T YOU EVEN DARE THINK OF FOLLOWING US, GO MINJAE!" And with that, he dashed down the stairs.

Hongdae was packed. As usual.

How were they going to fight when such big hordes of people were walking at every corner? The 6 of them examined the area, their eyes were alert, body movements careful. No one could be certain, those Winner boys could've planned a sabotage for them, so they had to watch their backs and their fronts. Deciding that the they were safe for the moment, all of them settled down near a playground where a bunch of buskers were playing instruments.

"It's already five," Sehun complained, looking left and right, but the sudden ringing of his phone made everyone's breaths hitch. With all eyes on him, he brought the phone to his ear, "Hello? Yeah, we're already in Hongdae. The money?" He looked at them, and they realised they didn't bring any. Baekhyun mouthed for the younger one to lie. "We have it, so you better prepare yourselves... At Multi Pool Lounge? Whatever." He hung up.

"So, what did they say?"

"They want us to go to some place called Multi Pool Lounge near here," Sehun replied.

"A pool lounge? Who the heck would fight there?" Luhan gave a weird look and shivered, "We'll get knocked into pool tables, may