Following the eventful day, Shining High was in uproar, classes were dismissed and replaced with streamers and confetti as both students and teachers celebrated their win. 

The principal awarded Dino an MVP plaque and trophy for his services, and Seungcheol may or may not have gotten teary eyed at the sight. Joshua quickly handed him a tissue before he started bawling in public. 

Later, the host club was back at it again. They received a ton of female clients, though unlike Diamond High, they said it was fine if male clients showed up as well. “We don’t discriminate unlike those guys,” Seungcheol affirmed. 

Since the two schools were the topic of conversation everywhere, they were soon rumors and stuff spreading around that caught their attention.

“Hyung!” Minghao said urgently. “You may want to read this.”
Seungcheol turned his curious gaze to the computer screen to see a picture of him carrying the knocked out Jihoon into an infirmary. He cringed as he remembered the event. Then he read the title of the article.

Shining High Members Playing Dirty to Win? 

His mouth dropped open. Quickly the rest of the host club members gathered around to see what the fuss was.

“It’s no surprise that the two schools are once again at each other’s throats. With the recent sporting event, spectators are wondering if Shining High pulled some cheap moves to win. Diamond High’s Lee Jihoon, pictured above, was knocked out by a soccer ball kicked by Shining High’s Choi Seungcheol, shown carrying him. It’s common knowledge that Jihoon is among the best players, leading some people to think it was done on purpose,” Minghao read aloud, his face getting more and more angry.

“WHAT—”
“Wait, there’s more. Following the event, the 800 meter race was shown in favor of the Diamonds when a Shining member, named Minghao, said something that made the Diamond representative, Jun, slow down. A cheap trick, perhaps?” 
Now Minghao lost it. “Are you KIDDING me?! I just blurted out—”

“Wait, what’s this?” Seungkwan asked. “Soon afterwards, the basketball game seemed to running smoothly, when a Shining member known as Boo Seungkwan distracted the players using words, allowing Minghao to sneak by and score points. How many tricks do these members have up their sleeves?” Seungkwan nearly threw the computer they’d been reading the article from across the room. “They’re blaming ME because of HANSOL?!!?”

The members were shocked by the allegations made against them. Seungcheol was fuming as he searched through other articles online to see what other people had to say about them.

Shining Members Sneak Into Diamond High Host Club?

Joshua felt his heart stop. “Recently, a female appeared at the Diamond High host club by the alias of Jisoo. Little did the innocent members of the club realize that ‘she’ was actually a 'he’ from Shining High school itself! Lee Jihoon, who you may remember as the poor player that got hit by a soccer ball during the sports meet, testified that it was one of the Shining High host club members. The name wasn’t revealed to us because Jihoon demanded we pay him extra to know the name but our stupid secretary said no, but trust me, we all want to know who the conspirator was. Anyway, that’s all for now, tune in next time,” Joshua’s voice dropped to a whisper as he realized that his entire school life was hanging in the hands of none other than their sworn enemy. He turned to Seungcheol in a panic.

Seungcheol saw the look in Joshua’s eyes and cursed internally. “Crap, look dude, it’s fine, your name wasn’t revealed—”
“But it will be! Soon enough! What do I do Cheol?!”
Wonwoo sighed. “I can ask Mingyu to shut him up for you,” he offered.
Joshua turned to him in confusion. “Why on earth would he agree to that?”
“Oh trust me, he annoys him as much as he annoys you. Although I’m not quite sure if he’s brave enough to fight him.”
“Wait a second, since when were you close to a Diamond guy?” Chan interjected.
Wonwoo shrugged. “He’s not acting like a complete jerk, so why not? He doesn’t act like he’s 5 years old unlike…some people I know, so I don’t mind. We exchanged numbers.”

Seungkwan’s eyes widened in horror. “Noooo he’s got you hyung! You’ve fallen for his evil schemes! Soon you’ll blow up and die!”
“What the hell—”
“Oh! I have Soonyoung’s number too!” Seokmin piped in helpfully.
“Not you too!”
“Guys,” Seungcheol cut in, trapped in between trying to reassure Joshua and stopping this fight thing. “Look, everything’s fine—”
“No it’s not!”
“Should I threaten Jun to tell Jihoon to stop?” Minghao mused.
“I’m going to...delete that stupid Hansol, now there are articles against me!” Seungkwan wailed.
“My life…my reputation…my pride as a male…gone…forever…” Joshua whispered, looking empty.
“Seeya later, I’m hungry,” Wonwoo added.
“Oh, Soonyoung texted me a picture! What should I reply?” Seokmin chirped.
“Dad, what do we do?!” Chan cried.

Seungcheol wanted to explode but instead calmly counted to 10. “1…2…3—10! God, guys can you shut up?” Seungcheol exclaimed, finally losing his patience.
Joshua closed his eyes briefly, sighed, and straightened up. “Cheol, we need to talk to them. Straighten out our differences. Or else we’ll keep going on like this forever.”
Seungcheol scoffed. “No way, amigo. You think they’ll listen to reason? They hate us and we hate them. That’s that.”
Joshua hated the fact that Seungcheol was probably right, but regardless, he couldn’t just sit by. Not when my future is at stake.

“All juniors, please report to the front office. Again, all juniors, please report to the front office,” the speakers overhead rang. They all paused in confusion at the announcement, then Seungcheol, Joshua, and Wonwoo left to see what was going on.

“Okay, y'all! So we received incredible feedback because of the sports meet, and a lot of people noticed that we’ve been getting along better with them, so…Diamond High’s Principal Baekhyun and I want to see you guys…collaborate, as it were,” Principal Chanyeol said with a grin. 
Seungcheol crossed his arms. “Collaborate? You mean attempt to murder each other again?”
The principal smiled. “Nope. Instead, the juniors of both Shining and Diamond will be performing in a play together!” he announced cheerfully.

It went dead silent, and you could hear a pin drop a mile away as the Shining juniors stood there, with Seungcheol at the front.

“Wh-what?” he repeated in disbelief.
“We received a lot of publicity because of how well some people got along with each other, so we’re going to act on that by performing a jaw dropping play that’ll shake the crowd and make the public realize the power that we hold.”

The rest of the juniors immediately started arguing, saying that this made no sense and that they would rather die than work with one of them.

Principal Chanyeol grinned. “Oh, you naive children. I never said we had to get along. We’ll perform the play with them, and showcase how incredibly talented we are at acting to make them look bad. The direct contrast will make the audience see how beautifully gifted we are.”

That seemed to work as the group considered the idea. “But…working so close to the enemy is…” 
The principal shook his head. “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right? This is our chance to discover even more weaknesses and flaws in our opponent. Let’s fight!”

The juniors seemed to agree with the notion and cheered. Even Seungcheol seemed to like the idea. Wonwoo couldn’t care less as long as there was food