For a second, he thinks he mistook his hyung’s words, the bright club lights, blasting music and more than he should have drank alcohol messing up with his hearing. Just to be sure he was the only one, Hongbin looks to his side, seeing a just as shocked as him Jaehwan, the green cocktail in his hand forgotten as the oldest boy in the small group gapes at the other boy. “Excuse me?” he asks, taking the words out of Hongbin’s mouth.

The other boy, Wonshik, smiles cockily, sipping his own drink, yellow n’ blue lights hitting his face and giving the handsome face a somewhat wicked appearance “I said, let’s make a bet”

Hongbin sighs, running his hand through his hair, seeing that no, he wasn’t mistaken and yes, his oldest friend had said such stupidity at twenty-three years old. Leaning against the club’s couch, he crosses his arms on front of his body, rolling his eyes at the suggestion, quite offended that Wonshik even dared to make it; they were on their penultimate year of university, after all. To assume he was so immature…

“You’re drunk” he stated simply, annoyed “Otherwise, you wouldn’t be saying idiotic stuff like this”

“Sassy maknae” Wonshik grumbles, throwing Hongbin a dirty glare that still wouldn’t have been frightening even if his face was at its natural color and not flushed from one bottle and a half of soju “I’m being serious here”

“Seriously stupid” Jaehwan speaks, smiling cutely. Devilish in his ways, this one.

Wonshik pouts a little, not satisfied with being called off by both the maknae and the hyung “Not you too, Ken-hyung! Listen to me, okay, and you’ll see why I’m so brilliant, yeah?”

Jaehwan snorts playfully, putting his elbows on his knees and inclining his head forward in a mocking stance. Hongbin stays in the same position, not one to encourage his best friend’s ridiculous drunken ideas. He thinks about getting up and going to the bar to actually pick some girl – the reason why he came to a club on a Saturday, in the first place – and spare his ears, but Wonshik earnest and animated expression stops him. He mentally curses his soft heart, and listens to the supposed ‘brilliant idea’. Jaehwan also appears to have the same idea, masking his annoyance better than himself, large features indulgent.

“We’re a bunch of ing girlfriendless dudes with boring lives” bluntly, the tipsiest of the three says, smirking at the common faces of outrage directed at him “What, you can’t take the truth? We study, work part-time, study again and drink. A hook up once in a while, but lately not even this, since you, hyung, can’t decide which gender you like the most and Hongbin is so damn selective –”

At the accusation, the youngest protests “As if you’re easy to deal with, pabo”

He’s swiftly ignored “– and so, I thought we could spice things up a little. There’s no better idea than a bet”

“Ravi-yah, I don’t have all night” Jaehwan whines “Just go straight to the point”

“Have you guys heard of the ‘B1 Trio’?”

Hongbin actually has. In fact, he doubts there is someone on their university who has never heard of the infamous trio. Suddenly, Wonshik’s idea turns interesting, and he catches himself inclining slightly on his seat, wanting to hear more about what could possibly involve those three in whatever his friend is thinking; to make his seemingly boring life more fun, according to him.

Weird, he didn’t know Wonshik maintained contact with the other three. In fact…

“You’re talking about the Arts Building trio, right? The dancer, the composer and the director”

“Yep” Ravi smirks, popping the ‘p’ loudly.

Ken frowns, rubbing his neck “What ‘bout them?” as an Arts student himself, he knows more than the other two regarding the mentioned group; they’re not the type of people one messes with without facing consequences, such as a heartbreak or a broken bone.

The smirk grows to a full beam, and Wonshik’s face is too cute like this, considering that his intentions don’t seem to be the best; it doesn’t match. Hongbin is fully aware that whatever leaves his mouth will be absurd “I dare you guys to seduce one of them”

See? Absurd.

Hongbin wasn’t drinking anything in the moment, but he chokes on his own spit after the delusional idiot he calls a friend proclaims his dare, he having the courage – or foolishness – to continue to smile, oblivious of just how insane he had sounded.

The B1 Trio is known on the whole school. The three students from the Arts Department – the building which is located called B1, hence the name – are glued to each other, and no one ever was successful in entering their little group; and how many have tried. They are also the stars from their courses, every single professor eating on their hands, like every student. The trio is the most talented, mysterious and untouchable group of all university, being composed by Han Sanghyuk, Cha Hakyeon and Jung Taekwoon.

Han Sanghyuk is nothing but a baby, still on his second year, but his reputation as a great director follows him since his high school years. It’s not a rare sight to see him arrogantly walking around the campus with a whole equip of sunbaes – seniority irrelevant – and hoobaes behind him, carrying dozens of materials for his projects or simply hanging around with a camera – sometimes his own cell phone –, filming the passing of hours almost lazily. The boy is very easy on the eyes too, with bleached platinum hair, cute nose and sharp jawline, an attractive middle term between teenager and adult.

Cha Hakyeon has been a legend for as long as he started to dance, most of his life then, or that’s what most people say. On his last year, the contemporary dancer is target of women and men alike, gender barrier nonexistent when it came to him. Differently from the other two, he’s quite talkative and friendly – Hongbin remembers talking to him twice, once to ask for directions and the other to lightly chit-chat while waiting for his order on a bubble tea place – and yet, evasive and overly polite. His tanned skin and green highlights against the soft-looking brown hair guarantee him an exotic look.

Jung Taekwoon is the personification of mystery on this Earth. Few are those who have heard his voice outside of the moments where he’s singing, musical directors looking out for him all the time since one appearance from him on a play is the same as declaring it a success. Even though he could live as a musical actor or a ballad singer, he’s on the last year of the composer course, preferring to stay behind the piano and studio. His presence is just as rare as his voice, Hongbin himself only having seen him, on his translucent white, dyed blonde glory a couple dozen of times in the four years he’s been studying Veterinary, and this, from a considerable distance.

To seduce one of them is impossible. Not even a probability, a vague chance; impossible.

Jaehwan thinks the same, judging the way his already big eyes widen comic-like; something snaps on him, and the older boy is laughing out loud, noisier than the blasting music – an American track Hongbin doesn’t bother to know the name – at immediate premises; a couple of girls turn their attention to the noise, giggling after they see how handsome he is. He’s not cocky – not exactly –; it’s only usually like this.

“Very funny Ravi-yah” Jaehwan says in between small puffs of laughter, cheeks reddening cutely.

Wonshik smiles fondly at his hyung, but replies “I’m not joking, Hyung, I’m serious”

“You can’t be”

“I am”

“Noooope”

“Hyung…”

“I refuse”

“Ken-hyung’s right” Hongbin butts in, receiving a groan as answer “You’ve always been stupid, but I never thought you could reach the ultimate level”

The Arts student nods. Wonshik grabs his forgotten drink to gulp it down “You’re no fun, just think about it! The mighty trio at our feet! You know we can do it; we never failed in conquering whoever we wanted, when we really did! Come on! There’s no other thing in this damn college that would be so challenging and fun!”

He urges to roll his eyes “Even if I agreed, what I would receive?” life is made out of interests, the youngest concludes.

“Aha, now you’ll agree” joyfully, Wonshik intertwines his hands; a merchant ready to display his products “I have a ticket for the V.I.P area, plus one for the Showcase for Park Hyo Shin’s upcoming concert and, for Jaehwan-hyung, I offer three months of free paint. This, if you win” victoriously he finishes his sentence, for a matter of fact taking pleasure in seeing two jaws dropping.

“W-Where… W-Wh-When did you… Park Hyo Shin’s…” Hongbin babbles incoherently, flabbergasted.

“My sister wanted to go, but she gave up to go on a school trip”

“Paint for three months… Free, like, completely free?”

“For you, yes. For me though…”

Jaehwan looks expectantly at Hongbin, chewing his bottom lip in anxiousness. The younger boy runs his hand on his black hair, tousling it to the point it is half up and half down.

He’s not drunk enough to accept enthusiastically, but… Park Hyo Shin, his idol since God knows how long, whose tickets for the approaching concert were sold out before he could gather money to buy one – his part-time salary going for his rent and food and textbooks – is more than needed to convince him to do this craziness, or at least, plant the seed of doubt on inside his heart. Damn Wonshik and his sister.

“Hypothetically speaking…” he starts, nodding at Jaehwan as a ‘let-me-take-care-of-this-hyung’ signal “If we agreed with this, how long would we have? And in case you lose? Or me? Or hyung? Or course, hypothetically”

A pause “I didn’t think that far off” the stupid Literature student admitted.

“How about the last three months? The semester will end by then” Jaehwan offers, fake coughing after saying “Hypothetically”

“Sounds good… Hypothetically” Wonshik catches the whole ‘hypothetical’ situation, the corners of his mouth barely curling to form a grin “If I lose and you two succeed, I will give what I promised. If you guys lose–”

“–I won’t bother you about cleaning duties and I will make your part” Hongbin interrupts before he can make a ludicrous offer, since the most of their fights involve the older’s inability to clean his mess. “For Jaehwan-hyung, I’ll hypothetically give that expensive as hell set of brushes he got his eyes on for the entire semester” how he will make enough money to buy it if he loses it’s a non-important detail for now.

“I’ll buy Wonshik-ah that weird pillow that massages the head and for Hongbin-ah… I’ll give you a cat, hypothetically”

A ticket for Park Hyo Shin’s concert AND a cat? The doubt in his mind withers and fades into nothing. He’s gonna win this bet before his friends can see what’s happening.

“We start Monday”

He can’t quite manage a defeated sigh; his wins by the end of this will be worth everything.

They pick one napkin on the table, Jaehwan conjuring out of nowhere one pen – not surprising; Arts, yeah? – to write down the three names. He folds the pieces carefully under watchful pairs of eyes, letting go of them so each one can choose who they’re going to seduce. Wonshik goes first, proclaiming he had the idea so he had the right; Hongbin follows him quietly, wishing to pick Hakyeon’s name – he’s by far the easiest choice, gentle and more open; he’ll have trouble if he has to deal with Sanghyuk’s cockiness or Taekwoon’s… entire being, starting from finding the place he hides – out of the three. Jaehwan goes last to show the others he has no intention to cheat.

“In three we open it” Jaehwan suggest, gaining concordance nods “1, 2… 3!”

They open the pieces of napkin.

“Han Sanghyuk!” the oldest shouts, face grimacing at the name, teethes instantly digging into his bottom lip in one concerned expression.

Hongbin just stares at the name displayed…

“YES! Cha Hakyeon!” Wonshik punches the air in victory, standing from his place.

… with dread.

Jung Taekwoon.

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Well, I hope you all liked this first chapter.

Please send me your love, my beloved Starlights~