Standing still, Jeonghan looked up at the number written on the classroom. Room 4-1a was the right room, he recalled. Or at least, he thought so. He wasn’t sure.

Glancing through the window into classroom 4-1a, he saw a few people already gathered there, talking and smiling, like there was nothing wrong. Was this really the right room?

“Are you going to go in or are you just going to be staring?”

At the sound of the familiar voice, he turned around. “Namjoon? What are you doing here?”

The blonde boy cocked his head towards the classroom. “Detention, what else?”

Jeonghan shrugged. He had no idea what else to expect. Namjoon got detention at least three times a week, so this wasn’t that much of a surprise. He didn’t even bother asking why, it probably was something trivial anyway. Teachers didn’t like Namjoon and Namjoon didn’t like the teachers. It was simple as that.

The blonde boy just shook his head, opening the door and entering the detention room. “You coming or nah?”

Jeonghan nodded, following him into the room. As soon as he entered the room, the conversations fell quiet and everyone stared at him. Trying to ignore the piercing stares, he made his way to a desk in the far right corner, sitting down there. Opening his bag, he pulled out the book mr. Park reminded everyone getting because it was next on the reading list for English. He opened it and the people lost interest in him, resuming their conversation.

He got so engrossed in the book, he didn’t even notice there was someone standing right in front of him. Suddenly, a bag from an apothecary nearby dropped on his book. Looking up, he saw Jihye standing in front of him. “Your sister called, told me you forgot your medicine.”

Jeonghan picked up the bag, inspecting the contents. There was his medicine, indeed. But that was not the only thing in the bag. There were hot patches, cold patches, sheet masks and several other beauty products he left at home, albeit not voluntarily.

His father had taken them out of his luggage, telling him he didn’t need those because he was a man and a real man didn’t need that much product. He had also taken his medicine away, telling him that he didn’t need it, but that he just needed to sleep it off. And, since he already slept a lot in general, he must have been the healthiest person on earth.

Often, he complained his son was useless and weak and wondered why the gods were punishing him with a weak child that was not fit to take over the family company. His mother was useless as well, letting it all happen. In fact, she usually pretended she didn’t have a son, unless she was trying to use him to brag to all her stuck up rich friends. Then, all of a sudden he was her precious son and she was proud of his good reputation and perfect grades. His sister was all he had, and he was grateful for everything she did for him.

“Thanks…” He mumbled, quickly packing the plastic bag away in his own bag.

Jihye dropped down in a chair next to him. “Yeah, you better be grateful. I’m in detention because I got caught sneaking back onto school grounds because I was getting this for you.”

Jeonghan just stared at her in shock. “You did that for me?”

She grinned, adjusting her beanie. “Of course, you silly. In fact, this isn’t the first time I got detention because I was out running errands for you.”

“You don’t have to do that for me!”

“I know. But I do it anyways. Who else is going to take care of you?” Her grin turned into a soft smile as she reached out to fix his hair. “I like seeing you happy and healthy, and I’d gladly take up detention if that means that there is someone taking care of you. Besides, detention every once in awhile is not so bad.”

“Jihye…” Jeonghan mumbled, his heart filling with warmth as he watched her fix his hair. He couldn’t have wished for a better friend.

“Yah, Jihye, Jeonghan, we’re playing card games. Wanna join?” Namjoon interrupted them as he sat down on Jihye’s table.

“Isn’t there supposed a teacher supervising us?” Jeonghan furrowed his brows in confusion. They had been here a while but there was no teacher present in the room.

“Oh, mrs. Kim? She drops by every once in awhile to check on us. You were just too busy with your book to notice. Anyways, want to join?”

Jeonghan followed Namjoon and Jihye to the group of tables in the middle. A few people were gathered around it, looking rather beaten up.

“Everyone, this is Jeonghan. This is his first time here, so be nice to him. Jeonghan, these are Taehyung, Jimin, Seokmin, Seungcheol and Soonyoung. These guys over here are the four transfer students we got from China last year; Yifan, Luhan, Minghao and Junhui. Yeah, I know, it’s a lot.” The nine boys just grinned at them, even though they had bruises on their faces. He wondered why. “These two over here making googly eyes at each other are Wonwoo and Mingyu. Note that their red string of fate has formed, so they’re stuck with each other forever. And then there’s us. But you already know us.”

Wonwoo and Mingyu briefly flashed him smiles before going back to staring at each other. Honestly, it was a little creepy how they could keep it up. Jeonghan really wished at that moment that he and his soulmate wouldn’t be as cheesy as them.

Jihye nudged both of them, and they looked up, blankly staring at her. “Yah! This is the moment where you show him your marks!”

They blinked slowly, whilst rolling up the sleeves of their school uniforms. Jeonghan’s eyes widened. The marks on their wrists looked like unfinished 17’s, just like his own. The only difference being that their red string of fate not only wrapped around their wrist, but also seemingly completed the mark.

Unconsciously he touched his own wrist.

Averting his gaze, he noticed that all the other boys had rolled up their sleeves, comparing their marks. Namjoon’s, Taehyung’s and Jimins looked like some kind of piece of clothing. A vest maybe? Yifan’s and Luhan’s like it could be part of some horoscope. But what drew his attention the most was the fact that Seokmin’s, Seungcheol’s, Junhui’s, Minghao’s and Soonyoung’s also looked like unfinished 17’s.

Four more wrists came into view. There was yet another sort of vest, another unfinished 17 and two that looked like some sort of intricate flower. The sight was all too familiar. Looking up, he saw the rest of his friends grinning at him. The flowers belonged to Chanhee and Taekwoon, who were playfully bumping each other, trying to get the others wrist out of the way. The vest belonged to Yejin, who pulled her arm away soon after. The 17 was Joshua’s.

“Jihoon, Jihye, show us yours!” Jihoon and Jihye both looked at each other, noticing that they were not the only one not showing their wrist. Jihoon stared down at his wrist, staying silent.

“I don’t want to.” Jihye mumbled, pulling at her sleeve, seemingly uncomfortable. “And I don’t think Jihoon wants to either.”

“Aw c’mon, you’re no fun!” She glared at Seungchol.

“Then I’d rather be no fun. If I don’t want to, I won’t show.” The piercing glare seemed to shut him up. If looks could kill, he’d probably be dead by now.

“Speaking of fun, there must be a fun story behind the bruises you guys seem to be grinning about?” Junhui shot a confused look at Minghao, who quickly explained the situation in Mandarin. Junhui had only been in Korea for about a year, and sometimes the language still confused him. But overall, he was picking it up quite quickly. Minghao just helped him out whenever things got a little confusing. Truth be told, he was still learning himself, but since he’d been in Korea a year longer, he knew more than Junhui.

Seungcheol patiently waited as Junhui talked to Minghao.

“Oh, it’s no big deal. You know how the college students in the west building basically think they’re entitled to everything because they’ve been here the longest and ? Well, this time, they come up to us and act all friendly n . We didn’t trust it. Tryna give us food, offer us some cigs. Of course we refused, turns out they wanted us to do the morning chores that were assigned to them as punishment for smoking on school grounds. So we refuse, and they get all mad because they were being nice to us and the least we could do is do what they asked from us.”

Next to Seungcheol, his friends seemed to be pretty pissed off, thinking back to the event. But they kept silent, not interrupting as they absentmindedly rolled their sleeves back down and fixed the cufflinks on their uniforms.

“Anyways, they got mad and threatened us, and that’s how we got in a fight. But someone must have warned campus security because the fight was broken up not long after. Otherwise, things would have been far worse than they are now. If you think we look beaten up, you should see the other guys.“

Jeonghan didn’t listen intently, but enough to still hear the story. Instead, he was checking out the boys that also wore the 17 mark. Wondering how such a big group of people with the same mark could have found each other and become friends, he missed the question fired back at him.

Jihye nudged his shoulder and he tore himself away from his thoughts. “Sorry, you were saying?”

“I asked how you ended up here in detention. It was quite the talk during lunch, one of the schools princes in detention.”

Jeonghan had to tear his eyes away from Seungcheol’s lips. They were distracting. The fact that he was surrounded by such good-looking boys didn’t help either. “Well, you’re one of the school princes yourself, and you’re here too.”

Seungcheol laughed at the remark. A few of the surrounding people cracked a grin as well. It seemed like the tense mood was finally start to clear up. “Yeah, but I get in trouble from time to time. So me being in detention isn’t a big deal. You on the other hand, you have this perfect reputation, so it’s kind of a big deal among the girls at this school.”

Jeonghan nodded. Seungcheol wasn’t wrong. “It’s actually not such an interesting story. I wasn’t paying attention in class, and it looked like i was sleeping apparently. When the teacher called me out on it I told him I was awake, he asked me to summarize the class. Told him I was awake, not that I was paying attention. When he asked me ‘what’ I told him the same thing and added a ‘sir’ at the end. And that’s why he gave me detention.”

It was silent for a bit, before Yifan burst out laughing, Junhui following soon after. Mingyu and Wonwoo threw each other confused glances while the rest burst out in laughter as well. They had been too busy staring at each other to pay attention. Jeonghan thought it was funny how they both looked so helpless, surrounded by laughing people.

"Oh man, you really are something,” Soonyoung exclaimed before his eyes went wide, signalling everyone to stop. Everyone immediately shuffled around to their original positions, Yejin, Chanhee, Woozi, Joshua and Taekwoon quickly spreading through the classroom to sit down as well.

Jeonghan, sitting in his original spot, saw a young boy giving Soonyoung a thumbs up before sprinting away. Soonyoung noticed Jeonghan looking, and gave him a knowing smile before focusing on the book in front of him.

A few minutes went by before the door opened, and a teacher walked in. Well, it was more of a staggering he noticed as she came towards him. The smell of alcohol wafted all around her as she came standing next to him, lingering before walking away. He dared not look up again, afraid of what might happen if he did. Everyone else seemed to be doing the same thing, so he rather not find out what would happen.

Mrs. Kim went by everyone, checking their names of a list before leaving the room again. They waited a few minutes before the same young boy came sneaking back in. “She’s all gone guys, you can relax!”

Everyone dropped their books, gathering in the middle again. Soonyoung messed through the young boys hair, much to the youngers dismay. “Ya did good, kid.”

Jihye laughed as she pulled him away from Soonyoung. “Come on Soonyoung, you know he doesn’t like it when you ruffle his hair.”

“But it’s so fluffy!” Soonyoung answered, watching Jihye fix the fluffy black hair.

“Hey Dino, who’s baby are you?”

Dino, who seemed to be startled by the use of his nickname, looked around, effectively undoing Jihye’s efforts to fix the hair.
There were only few people who actually called him Dino, and Jeonghan was one of them.
“Hyung, are you really making me do this?”

Jihye sighed. “Yah, Chan, stay still. I can’t fix your hair like this!”

“Sorry, noona.”

Jeonghan’s grin grew wider, and slightly evil as he asked Chan the question again. “Who’s baby are you?”

Chan slumped his shoulders, trying to keep his head still as Jihye  fixed his hair.

“Jeonghan hyungs.” He grumbled. “He makes me do this every time!” He whined, looking at the group in front of him that burst out into laughter.

Yejin joined Jihye in fixing Chan’s hair, whilst Seokmin took the opportunity to pinch his cheek. “Ah, our cute little watchdog!”

“Why is everyone trying to steal my brother away?” Chanhee complained, sitting on a desk nearby.

Soonyoung tilted his head. “Oh, so you’re the peacock haired sister?” He asked, making Chanhee pout.

“I’m not a peacock! They’re unicorn colors, not peacock!”

Soonyoung laughed as Taekwoon held an arm out, as if to hold Chanhee back, but she stayed seated. “Haha, okay, it’s unicorn, whatever you want.”

Yejin softly patted Chan’s head, as if to indicate his hair was done. “You sure go around, knowing all these people.”

“It’s a gift,” Chan grinned, before dashing off to keep watch again.

Watching him leave, they noticed him signing to sit back down. They rushed back to their respective seats and pretended to be working when mrs. Kim staggered in again.

“Dino, how sweet to wait for your sister!” she purred. Mrs. Kim was definitely a goner. “All of you. You're the reason that I drink. Now shoo, detention is over!”

She didn't have to slur that again. Within the minute everyone had packed up and was out the door. Chanhee went over to her brother, trying to hug him, but he would have none of that. Ducking under her arms, he fled to seek cover behind Soonyoung.

“Oppa!” Yejin suddenly exclaimed, running over to the college student standing close to them in the hallway. “Did you come to pick me up?”

He smiled, patting her hair, careful not to mess it up. “I sure did. Mom and dad wanted to go out for dinner and stuff. Said they had something good to tell us.”

Yejin frowned. “Did we get permission to leave school grounds for the evening?”

Her brother nodded. “Yeah we did. Are your friends okay with me stealing you away though?”

Looking around, he noticed that nobody but Chan was impressed by his cool demeanor. He expected it from Yejin’s friends, since they already knew him, but he had hoped to at least impress the other kids his sister just had detention with.

“Oh yeah, we’re totally fine with Yejin going with you… what’s your name again?” Jeonghan smiled innocently. He knew the name perfectly well, but a lot of people seemed to forget his name, and he would always reply the same way.

As Yejin’s brother opened his mouth, Jeonghan could hear Seungcheol, Soonyoung, Yifan and Jihye softly whisper “dibidibidis” under their breath.

“My name is Minho!” he whined, causing everyone to burst out in laughter. Well, so far for acting cool in front of Yejin’s friends. But the better he looked, the more familiar faces he saw. All people that knew he wasn’t as cool as he wanted people to believe.

“Oh, Minho. My mom wanted me to give you this.” Minho looked confused at the envelope Jihye handed him. “It’s an invitation for the dinner party my parents are hosting this weekend. They wanted me to invite you personally.”

“And here I was hoping you were asking me out.”

“Not in a million years, loverboy.”

“How about you, Chanhee? My heart is broken now, will you nurse me back to health?”

“In your dreams.”

Minho shrugged and walked away. Jeonghan laughed. He saw them have these kinds of conversation every time they met, and they always ended with Minho being rejected.

“Bye guys!” Yejin waved as she followed her brother.

“Yeah, we also gotta bail guys. Might not be a bad idea to have these bruises tended to by the school nurse.” Seungcheol motioned his friends and they left to head to the nursery.

Chanhee put an arm around her younger brother. “We have to go too. Gotta get ready for that benefit we told you about. Bye!”

Chan looked displeased with his sister's affection, but he let her do it anyway as they walked off.

Taekwoon sighed. “Gotta go. Bye”

“Oh, hyung! We have vocal lessons!” Jihoon exclaimed, practically dragging Joshua and Jeonghan away. Joshua managed to turn around for a second, waving his goodbye before disappearing around the corner.

Jihye looked at Namjoon. “Cafeteria?”

“Yeah”

---

Lee Jihoon → Woozi
Hong Jisoo → Joshua
Choi Seungcheol → S.Coups
Lee Seokmin → DK
Kwon Soonyoung → Hoshi
Wen Junhui → Jun
Xu Minghao → The8
Lee Chan → Dino
Wu Yifan → (Former EXO) Kris
Jung Taekwoon → (VIXX) Leo
Kim Namjoon → (BTS) Rapmonster
Kim Taehyung → (BTS) V
Choi Yejin → OC
Lee Chanhee → OC
Boo Jihye → OC

---

A/N : Sorry for taking so long! I already had this chapter (and several others) ready, but I was waiting for my proofreader. I usually don't work with those but I thought I'd give it a try with this story... But things took kinda long because we are both busy persons. But I hoped you enjoyed the new chapter ♥