It was Monday, September 14. Only a few weeks of school had passed, and Sophia was already getting sick of it. Everybody wanted to be her friend. It isn’t every day that popular eighth-grade girls ask a sixth-grade nobody to sit with them at lunch—well, at least she thought she was a nobody… .. . All Sophia really wanted to do was read peacefully in the library, but that wasn’t goanna happen any time soon. She had complained to her older brother about this, but he seemed too busy to help her out.

                 The seventh-period bell rang, and Sophia proceeded to go to English class. She had no idea why they placed her in an English class, because she already knew English. And she was getting a bit fed up with reading “PULL UP ON YOU WACKS WITH THE MAC FULLY LOADED” sloppily written on the chalkboard every day. Today, however, she saw something new when she sat at her desk. It was a drawing of….. something. There was a note on the bottom of the drawing that read: Please give this to your brother for me!.

                “Oh my gawd,” Sophia mumbled to herself. “Igeot mweoyaeyo?”

                She usually got stuff to send to her brother, but this drawing was just a disgrace! Like, she couldn’t even decipher what the drawing was supposed to be!

                After cringing through forty-five minutes of bad English, the bell rang again. As she walked down the hallway, Sophia noticed a small set of students loitering around her locker. This happened every time.

                “GUYS!” Sophia yelled as she approached her locker “Fan signing is every Friday at sixth period! How many times—”

                “We know that!” Said a tall boy. “We came to tell you that SEVENTEEN is here!”

                “WHAT?”

                “YES!”

                “No…”

                “JINJJA!”

                This was not what Sophia needed right now.

                “Where are they?” she sighed.

                “In the sigdang.”

                “Okay…” she said as she opened her stuffed locker. Her locker was so packed with fan gifts that she had to carry all of her books for the whole day. After two minutes of struggling, Sophia successfully inserted the “abstract” art into a compartment and closed the door. She turned around and found the same bunch of students still surrounding her, as if they were waiting for some type of command.

                “You can go now,” Sophia said.

                The students must have sensed the irritation in her voice, because they scattered immediately. Now, it was time to find Hansol. She believed that the tall kid said they were in the cafeteria…. But why would they be here at all?  This will just give her even more unwanted popularity. Sophia rounded the corner and came face-to-face with a mob of students who were obviously cutting class to meet SEVENTEEN.  Now, how can I get in there without being noticed…. Sophia must have pondered on that question for too long, because a few students noticed her.

                A seventh grade boy was the first to see her. “OH LOOK! THERE’S HANGEOL! SHE KNOWS WHERE THEY ARE!”

                Sophia tried to make a run for it, but it was too late. In 1.5 seconds, she was hit by a swarm of SEVENTEEN fans.

                “WHERE ARE THEY?”

                “I don’t—”

                “ARE YOU REALLY RELATED TO VERNON?”

                “Yes, but—”

                “TELL US! TELL US WHERE THEY WENT!”

                “So they’re not in the—?”

                “ASK HOSHI IF HE LIKES YOUNGER GIRLS!”

                “Wut?”

                “IS JEONGHAN’S HAIR REAL?”

                “I’m not exactly sure…”

                “DOES IT HAVE MAGICAL POWERS?”

                “Most likely—”

                The questions and shouts from the mob of students began to blur together into this throbbing background noise. Sophia had to get away. Now. But she couldn’t. The students kept closing in on her. Right when she thought that she might burst, the most miraculous and embarrassing thing happened. Out of absolutely nowhere, Jeonghan and Joshua ripped through the crowd, dressed in hazmat suits. Literal hazmat suits.  

                “ALRIGHT MOVE BACK PEOPLE MOVE BACK!” Jeonghan yelled.

                No one moved. The students were probably so shocked that Jeonghan was an actual physical human being to even think correctly. He could have been a unicorn for goodness sake!  

                “WE SAID MOVE BACK!” Joshua repeated. But some students actually moved closer by the sound of Joshua’s voice.

                A little sixth-grade munchkin stepped right in front of Joshua.

                “Can you say it again?” the little boy asked.

                Joshua looked puzzled.

                “Saw what? What do you want me to say?”

                There was a collective “sigh”s and “awww”s among the students.

                “Whoa!” the little boy said gasped “Your voice is like a warm cinnamon roll!”

                “With milk!” added another student.

                “And flowers!”

                “With a pinch of sunshine!”

                Sophia looked at Jeonghan. By the pissed-off look on his face, she could tell that their plan was going wrong—whatever it was. They needed backup.

                Once again—out of the bluest sky—came another member of SEVENTEEN. It was Soonyoung, and he was dressed in—you guessed it—a hazmat suit!  But before Soonyoung could get a word out, some random girl jumped on him.

                “HOSHI I LOVE YOU!”

                “GET OFF!”

                “DO YOU LIKE YOUNGER WOMEN?”

                “WHAT THE—”

                “TEN YEARS ISN’T MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE IS IT?”

                “GET. TF. OFF!”

                Jeonghan moved in and tried to pull the girl off of Hoshi. But she clung on like a magnet. Joshua came to aid, and they finally pulled the saseng velcro of off Hoshi.

                Sohpia honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She might as well laugh. She took out her phone and began videotaping Jeonghan, Soonyoung, and Joshua’s failed attempt to protect her. She would send this to her brother later. Fifteen seconds into the video, someone snatched her phone.

                Getting really angry, Sophia whipped around.

                “OH MY GOD WHO TOOK—”

                “Now, what did I tell you about saying ‘oh my God?’”

                It was Hansol.

                Sophia wasn’t sure what exactly happened after that, because she accidentally got knocked out by someone’s elbow. She heard a deafening wave of screams and shouts of “VERNON!” then sudden silence. Hansol’s voice shouting. Some thumps, a shriek, and murmuring. Hansol shouting. A sudden stampede of footsteps that seemed to be receding….

                When Sophia came to, three faces were looking down at her.

                “Thank you, God!”

                It was Joshua.

                “I was praying so hard!”

                “Me too!”

                That was Jeonghan.

                “Oh, look! Your awake…. Ouch!”

                It was Soonyoung. He had an icepack on his head. At the sight of the icepack, Sophia jumped and sat bolt upright. She was about to reach out to him, but a wave is dizziness hit her first.

                “Now, don’t worry about Soonyoung, Sophia. Take it easy,” said Joshua in English.

                Laying back down, Sophia took a scan of her surroundings. There were green walls.

                “Where’s… where’s Hansol?”

                “I’m right here.”

                Hansol came over with some cups of tea and handed one to each person. Jeonghan stood up so that Hansol could take a seat next to his sister.

                “What…. What happened?”

                “You got knocked out.”

                “But, all those kids… …”

                Sophia was binging to feel utterly confused.

                Jeonghan made some nervous laughter. “See, here’s the thing…”

                “I saw all your texts about how school was giving you trouble,” Hansol responded. “But I didin’t answer because I was creating a plan to fix your problem once and for all.”

                “So dressing in hazmat suits while wooing thirteen-year-olds was your idea of a plan?”

                “Well….”

                “We were trying to figure out the best way to shoo those kids away once and for all,” Joshua said. “And we figured, ‘why not make her seem dangerous?’”

                “WILL YA STOP SPEAKING IN ENGLISH?”

                “I can think better in English, okay?! Anyways… Hansol told all of the students that you have this highly dangerous and contagious disease and only people that you actually like can’t catch it.”

                “And they believed that?”

                “They think I’m an anime unicorn who turned into a human,” Jeonghan snorted. “Of course they believed it!”

                “So…..”

                “So” Hoshi started, “this means you’re home free! No more annoying fangirls!”

                “THANK GOODNESS! So…. What happened to you?”

                “That girl…” Soonyoung said the word “girl” with such spite a fear that one would have thought he was referring to Professor Umbride* or something. “She’s crazy, I tell you!”

                “And I cleaned out your locker for you, Sohpie” Hansol added. “I really like the fan art.”

                The craziness of the day must have affected their sense of humor, because the five of them burst into uncontrolled laughter.

*Professor Umbridge is the hated evil Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series. She secretly works with Voldemort. If you have not read the series, I suggest you do!