Tick tock tick tock

 

The minutes ticked away painfully slow. Sehun sat in his chair, twirling his pen as he waited for his lecture to the end. World Politics was such a drag, such a nuisance and Sehun never bothered to even pay attention to his professor. If he could, Sehun wouldn’t even attend lecture; Everything his professor said were in the slides anyways, he could always go over them later on when they were posted online.

 

“On to more interesting topics, we now venture into the prisoner’s dilemma..” The professor went on, but Sehun payed no mind to what was being said, he could feel himself almost giving in the a much needed rest. I’m going to fall asleep if this keeps going.

 

As if god had been listening in to his wishes, a distraction had made itself present in the lecture hall. “Excuse me, sorry, ah pardon me.” Sehun turned to the side, looking for the source of the distraction when he spotted someone walking past several people in the seats, he seemed to be making his way towards the aisle where Sehun sat and Sehun knew exactly who he was.

 

“You sure know how to pick you seat,” said voice whispered as he took a seat next to Sehun.

 

“What are you doing here, Baekhyun?” he whispered back.

 

“Why do you even sit right smack in the middle of the lecture room?” Baekhyun continued, ignoring the younger’s question. “You know how hard it is to walk here and not trip over bags?”

 

Sehun rolled his eyes, but he was grateful for the new distraction, anything to prevent himself from falling asleep in lecture. “How tragic, truly challenging,” Sehun whispered, turning away from Baekhyun so he could watch his professor, he had a knack for pointing out people who weren’t paying attention.

 

“Again, why are you here? You don’t even have this class.”
 

Baekhyun faced forward, pretending to be engrossed in whatever the hell the professor was saying. “I’m here to save you from boredom. You have to come with me.”

 

“And why would I do that when I’m learning key information for my final?” Baekhyun scoffed, it wasn’t a secret how much Sehun hated this class. Not a day went by where Sehun didn’t voice his dislike towards the course, too bad it was his major.

 

“Oh please, I guess you don’t want to know who the new Acadeca president is then.” That seemed to catch Sehun’s full attention.

 

The older smirked as he watched Sehun’s expression. “Shame, really. See you then,” whispered Baekhyun, getting up from his seat to leave the lecture room. Sehun packed his things in his bag, following the other outside. ‘,’ Sehun mentally cursed, he was now aware of how truly ‘tragic’ and ‘challenging’ sitting in the middle was since he almost tripped over dozens of bag in the process.

 

“Hey!” he whispered urgently. ‘Why am I still whispering,’ he thought, they were already out of class, so there was no need for discretion. Sehun ran up to Baekhyun, grabbing him by the arm as he pulled him back.

 

“You can’t just bring Acadeca up and then leave!”

 

“What happened to ‘learning key information for my final?” Baekhyun said, mocking Sehun’s voice. Sehun rolled his eyes.

 

“Ok, one: I don’t sound like that and two: I can just read it later, he posts the slides online anyway. Now tell me, are they replacing me?” Acadeca was his pride and joy, Sehun didn’t want to be replaced. He was on the verge of panicking. Who would replace their captain half way through the season?

 

“Chill, man. They’re not replacing you, it’s another school’s captain. I can’t say much cause coach wants us all to hear it from him first.” Sehun breathed out in relief. He almost hit Baekhyun for almost causing him a heart attack.

 

It took them a few minutes to get to the Acadeca meeting room, but when they both managed to enter, the whole group was already inside. Baekhyun took a seat by Kyungsoo and Minseok, trying to bother an unamused Kyungsoo. Sehun walked in behind Baekhyun, his eyes instantly looking for the teams advisor, Luhan.

 

“Prince charming isn’t here yet, lover boy,” Baekhyun spoke, smirking as Sehun’s face reddened at his comment. Snickers from all three boys could be heard and Sehun had half a mind not to kick Baekhyun at this moment.

 

“I wasn’t looking for, Lu. I was just, uh, I was just checking to see if Mr. Kim was here.”

 

Baekhyun smirked. “I never said prince charming was Luhan; I could have been referring to Junmyeon.” Sehun blushed, he supposes he did out himself. Although, he has a feeling his crush for Luhan wasn’t exactly a secret, but Sehun thought he was doing a good job at hiding it. His feelings for the older male could be considered as pure gratitude, after all, former Acadeca Captain, Luhan, was the only reason Sehun had joined Acadeca during in his freshman year.

 

“Earth to Sehun.” Sehun found a hand being waved in front of him. Sehun snapped out of his daze, turning his attention towards his fellow team mate, Minseok.

 

“Huh?”

 

“You were spacing out,” Minseok said. He retrieved his hand, leaning back in his chair as he watched Sehun with an amused expression.

 

“I was just thinking.”

 

“Of Luha-”

 

“-I was not!” Sehun interrupted.

 

“Since when have you referred to Luhan as ‘Lu’ anyway? Nickname basis already, I see.”

 

“Kyungsoo, help me out please,” he pleaded to the other male. Kyungsoo looked up from his book, scanning Sehun’s face.

 

“Can’t,” he replied simply.

 

“W-why?” Sehun pouted. Out of all the team members, he was sure Kyungsoo would bail him out of this one.

 

“Your face says it all,” was all the shorter male said as he want back to his book, a round of laughter could be heard from the other two members as Sehun groaned, covering his face with his hands.

 

“This is slander!”

 

“As if! Sehun this is not mock trial, that’s two buildings down. This is Acadeca.”

 

Sehun opened his mouth to retort and save what little dignity he had. “Speaking of Acadeca,” spoke a new voice, making Sehun’s words die in his mouth.

 

“I’m sure you all know why we’re here.” Junmyeon, their coach had said as he walked to the front of the room, gaining the attention from the four members.

 

“Baekhyun said was that you wanted to talk to us about the new president, we don’t know much more.”

 

“Ah, I see Baekhyun listened to my orders.”

 

“Oh coach, you wound me,” Baekhyun fake cried, acting as if he was heart broken.

 

Junmyeon smiled at his student’s silly antics. “You’ll live Baekhyun. Now I told Baekhyun not to tell you since he came to me first, but it seems that S.I.A’s former president has stepped down.”

 

“What does that have to do with us?” asked Kyungsoo.

 

“Is S.I.A even in the finals? They’ve never made it passed regionals before,” said Minseok, trying to to recall said school.

 

“Well, S.I.A has been doing pretty well with their season so far. I’m sure some of you have heard that they’ve gone quite far these past years.”

 

“So?” they four members asked in unison. SM.U had a pretty good team, actually, now that Sehun become president, after Luhan had graduated, Sehun thinks they’ve gone a bit further in the ranks.

 

“I don’t see how that affects us. I don’t think a change in captain can hurt us.”

 

“Well, normal- ah Luhan, you made it.” Luhan walked in, shutting the door behind him as he smiled at the team.

 

“Yes, sorry, I’m late. The science department had some difficulty with their research.” Sehun wanted to say that it was ok, he wasn’t even that late anyway, but he knew his other ‘friends’ would make fun of him so he said nothing.

 

“We were just discussing S.I.A’s new president.”

 

Luhan took a seat next to Sehun, not noticing the way the younger male became a bit too jittery. “Hey, Sehun. How are you?”

 

“Fine, good good.” Sehun ignored the snickering besides him.

 

“Good,” Luhan replied, turning his gaze back to Junmyeon.

 

“Going back to Sehun’s question. This might affect us. They have been going up in ranks theses past two years. Unfortunately for them, their president had to step down. Considering how far they’ve gone, I’m sure that Mr. Wu would take into extra consideration who this year’s president will be. Luhan and I have been trying to find out who, but it seems they’re keeping it hush hush. Now, Baekhyun?” Junmyeon said, directing everyone’s attention to the other male.

 

“I believe you have some information on the matter.” Baekhyun sat up from his seat, turning to face all of his team members and eager to spill the news. “He’s a beginner. I thought they were going to give the spot to one of the veterans in the group, but it turns out they’ve opted from a change.”

 

Sehun almost laughed. A beginner as an Acadeca captain? This is what the meeting was about?

 

“Sir,” Sehun spoke. “I hardly think this is anything to worry about. I mean, even veterans have a tough time going through the season, I don’t think a beginner can even touch us.” Both Minseok and Baekhyun nodded, agreeing with their captain’s thoughts. A beginner would have absolutely no chance at surpassing them.

 

“Oh, but that’s not all, dear prez.” Baekhyun smiled even wider, as if the juicer part of the gossip was yet to come.

 

“Word around is that the new cap is an A-prob, s-”

 

“Are you kidding me?” Sehun said incredulously.

 

“Baekhyun, where do you get this information from?”

 

Baekhyun sat up in his seat, “Have you heard the saying ‘Citizen of the world’? Well, I’m a student of the world, so I know my school gossip and this one happens to be completely true, I’m sure of it.”

 

“Ok, well even if it is true, I’m sure they can’t come close to even touching us. Come on, an A-prob student? Seriously!” Sehun felt offended. It was one thing electing a newbie, but an A-prob student? It was as if they felt anyone could take on Sehun, SM.U’s valedictorian.

 

“Sehun,” Luhan began but Sehun continued.

 

“Lu, I’m don’t want to sound vain but I’ve been president for three years and I can sure as hell take on any newbie, especially an A-prob student.” Sehun stood up from his seat, making his way next to Junmyeon.

 

“We’ve been going up the ranks these past few years and we finally managed to defeat JYP this year. Guys, we’re going to finals. We can win this year, I know it. No A-prob newbie is going to take our chances of winning away.” Baekhyun cheered Sehun on while Minseok nodded along, Sehun’s words did ring true.

 

Kyungsoo took a few seconds to ponder over the situation. JYP was one of the top elite universities in Korea. Yes, their group had managed to defeat them, but from what he heard, S.I.A wasn’t that far behind. “Whoever this new president is,” Kyungsoo spoke up, attracting the attention of the team, “Sehun, S.I.A beat JYP as well, they might prove to be on the same level as us.”

 

Sehun sighed, feeling exasperated since his team mates weren’t exhibiting the same amount of confidence he was. S.I.A wasn’t even an academic school; The Seoul College of Integral Arts known as S.I.A didn’t even put its focus on STEM related subjects, they instead choose to focus on more theatrical courses, surely people didn’t think they actually had a chance at winning, not against Sehun’s team.

 

“Ok, they might be good as well, but we have to have confidence in ourselves. Plus, this guy is an A-prob, what A-prob student chooses to lead an Acadeca team? He was obviously forced or something. Now, the final round isn’t until next month and S.I.A won’t be the only school there. YGU passed final rounds too, I say we should start worrying only if they manage to beat YG.”

 

Sehun felt a nasty sense of jealousy when he talked about their past rival school. They had lost countless times to YGU and Sehun was intent on leading their team to victory this year, no matter the cost. He already planned to hold practice sessions three times a week this whole month.

 

“Sehun has a point, Junmyeon,” Luhan spoke, walking up next to Sehun to address the team.

 

“I’m confident you guys can do and that our captain here can lead you to victory this year.” Luhan checked his watch and gathered his belongings. “Sorry, but Junmyeon and I can’t stay for very long today. The science department needs us.”
 

Junmyeon nodded, smiling at his students. “As for this years location, I have already informed Sehun about the details, so I’ll leave them to him. Now, one final thing: Let’s take home the trophy this year.” with that being said, both Junmyeon and Luhan exited the room, leaving Sehun to conduct the meeting.

 

“Before I tell you where it’s gonna be, Baekhyun, do you know anything else about the new president?”

 

Baekhyun shook his head, normally he would have his hands on the full story, no matter how hush it was supposed to be, but this time, the information was being well kept. “No, I only know the previous members, but nothing about the new captain except for what I already told you.”

 

Sehun nodded, he couldn’t deny that there was something fishy about the need to keep quiet, who did they appoint? Did Sehun know him or maybe her?

 

“Well, who cares anyway. The final round is next week, so we’ll be busy with preparation this month and as for the location, we’re going abroad. Acadeca is being held in Vegas this year, at the UNLV, The University of Nevada, Las Vegas.” The was a round of cheers from the team, even Kyungsoo emitted a tiny cheer.

 

“We’re going to have so much fun,” Baekhyun said excitedly.

 

“Guys, we have to focus on winning and maybe after we can have fun, but our priorities come first.” Truth be told, Sehun wanted to have fun just as much as the next guy, but it wasn’t often that Acadea was held out of the country, yes Acadeca existed world wide, but Sehun and his team never had the chance to pass to the regionals round, JYP had always defeated them before, but this year that wasn’t happening.

 

“That’s it for today, you guys can go.” The members all headed towards the exit. Sehun waited until everyone had left in order to lock up and go to his dorm.

 

This year, the title belonged to him and no A-prob newbie would take that from him.