Kyungsoo the Spy

 

In which nine-year-old Kyungsoo attempts to bring the fourth grade’s greatest criminal to justice.

 

Kyungsoo crouched behind Mrs. Byun’s petunias, trying to control his breathing in order to be as quiet as possible. Just when he had achieved the optimum level of quietness, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“What’re you doing?”

The question made Kyungsoo jerk so violently that he almost fell on Mrs. Byun’s petunias. He whipped around to see the bane of his existence, his annoying next door neighbor and classmate, Park Chanyeol.

Kyungsoo didn’t bother to hide his distaste. He rolled his eyes and gave Chanyeol a pointed look. “Go away, Chanyeol.”

The taller boy looked terribly offended, and he crossed his arms. “You can’t make me!” he said indignantly, and much too loudly for Kyungsoo’s liking.

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah! If you try, I’ll tell Mrs. Byun that you’re hiding in her pertunas again.”

“Petunias, Chanyeol. Petunias.” 

“Whatever! I’ll tell her and then she’ll yell at you again!” As much as Kyungsoo was annoyed, the last thing he wanted was to be on the receiving end of one of Mrs. Byun’s gardening-related rants. Sure, he had caused her some trouble in the past, but it had been in the name of science! He had needed to see if ants really could catch fire if you used sunlight and a magnifying glass, and the ant Kyungsoo had chosen had made some pretty poor choices – mainly running into Mrs. Byun’s petunias as it caught fire. But never mind that. Kyungsoo would never be able to finish his present mission if Chanyeol got him kicked out of Mrs. Byun’s garden again, so he begrudgingly allowed Chanyeol to hide with him.

“What are we looking for?” Chanyeol whispered excitedly. But it was Chanyeol, so his whisper came out at what could be considered normal people volume. Kyungsoo sighed. His mission was doomed.

“We’re looking for Baekhyun.”

Chanyeol’s nose wrinkled up in disgust. “Why him? You know, he put glue in my lunchbox last week. We were friends until that. Jongdae thinks I should call a prank war but I don’t have any–”

“Shh!” Kyungsoo hissed. “We’re looking for Baekhyun because I think he stole something from Mrs. Oh’s desk today. And don’t talk to me about the Kim brothers. Jongin laughed at me when I slipped in a puddle on my way home the other day. And then Jongdae jumped in the puddle to splash me more.”

“I’m friends with Jongdae, but only sometimes. And then I–” Kyungsoo let Chanyeol’s ramblings fade into background noise as he watched the front door of the Byun house intently. He had raced home from school, ignoring invitations from his friends to come play video games just to secure himself a prime spying spot in Mrs. Byun’s petunias. He would not let such a time go to waste, no matter what Park Chanyeol did.

“Hide!” Kyungsoo yelped when Baekhyun came into his line of vision. The perpetrator was talking animatedly with another neighbor, Huang Zitao. Kyungsoo shook his head in disapproval.

“How are we going to get what Baekhyun took from Mrs. Oh by hiding?” Chanyeol asked, genuinely curious. In all honesty, Kyungsoo had not yet formulated this part of the plan. “I say we just march up to him and tell him what for. And put glue in his lunchbox. That’ll teach him.”

“I guess,” Kyungsoo mumbled. He wasn’t very big for his age, but hopefully, having Chanyeol on his side would help. Chanyeol was practically a giant.

But Kyungsoo’s noncommittal answer was more than enough for Chanyeol. The giant got up, ran out from the petunias, and stuck his hand in his bag, searching for something. By the time he reached Baekhyun and Zitao, he had whipped his hand out of his bag. “Freeze!”

The two boys turned around, and Zitao’s face scrunched up in confusion. “A water gun?”

“Yeah!” Chanyeol yelled enthusiastically.

“Why do you carry one around?” Kyungsoo asked, having gotten out from behind the petunias.

“You’ll never know when you’ll need one,” Chanyeol said, his eyes still trained on Baekhyun. “LIKE NOW!”

“You wanna go, Park Chanyeol?” Baekhyun challenged before rushing at the other boy. He grabbed onto Chanyeol’s legs while Chanyeol shot him repeatedly with the water gun.

“HELPPPP!” Chanyeol wailed, unable to shake Baekhyun off. Zitao and Kyungsoo began to pry Baekhyun off of Chanyeol, and once they had, they all resumed standoff positions.

“What are you doing here anyway?” Baekhyun said through heavy pants, thoroughly exhausted from clinging onto Chanyeol’s legs for dear life.

Chanyeol raised the water gun again, but Kyungsoo cut him off. “I’ll cut to the chase. Baekhyun, I saw you take something from Mrs. Oh’s desk after class today. You’re a thief!” Kyungsoo accused, pointing at Baekhyun. Chanyeol nodded enthusiastically.

“Well,” Baekhyun said, sneering. “If you were paying attention in class today, you’d know that I got my 3DS taken away in math and she said I could get it back at the end of the day.”

Kyungsoo’s face fell. “Oh.”

“That’s right! So how about you two get your stupid faces away from here?” Baekhyun crossed his arms and smiled smugly. Kyungsoo and Chanyeol quickly exchanged looks before Chanyeol blasted Baekhyun in the face with the water gun and the two took off running, leaving a very angry Baekhyun chasing after them and an upset Zitao telling them to stop.

“You’ll pay for this!”

“Never!”

“Yeah, you will! Forever!”

“Guys, please!”

Kyungsoo was laughing his head off until he heard a “Hey!” that didn’t come from Zitao. He looked up to see Mrs. Byun marching out from her front door. “What on earth are you doing to my garden?”

The boys looked at each other for a quick moment and then all four took to the hills, running until they reached Kyungsoo’s house at the top of the hill, and his mom gave them all lemonade.

“Yep,” Kyungsoo said happily as he watched the others kick a soccer ball around his backyard and sipped on his third glass of lemonade. “Just another day on the job.”