Baekhyun as a member of the newspaper club was obligated to interview all the candidates for the presidency. So right now he is in a class room with the beautiful Joohyun.

“The more I think about it, the happier I am to be nominated,” Joohyun said with a smile on her face. “The other day Jongin and I were talking about your article just before the class. I think that’s why he nominated me.”

“My article?”

Joohyun nodded. “I know everyone thinks that I'm super busy or whatever but I really want people to trust me that I can help them with the formal and that I want to have a good time as much as them—“

“But you don’t need to beat yourself up over that,” Jongin said. “You can’t do everything, Joo. You are not a super hero.”

Baekhyun didn’t understand why interviewing Joohyun necessitated interviewing Jongin too, but he guessed those two were always together so right now it wouldn’t be an exception.

Joohyun gave Jongin and understanding look and smiled. “Anyway, Baekhyun. You are the one making the questions; what do you want to ask?”

“Actually, I want to stick with the fact that you don’t seem to have tons of time. You make straight A’s, you are the cheerleader captain, you are always helping other clubs. You are obviously qualified for class president, but, Do you have time?”

“You can always make time.” Joohyun assured him.

“Great answer, Are you sure you're not a super hero?”

Joohyun laughed. “Don’t you start, Baekhyun. You are supposed to be impartial.”

“I can be impressed and still impartial.” Baekhyun turned his page on his notebook. “What are your goals as a class president?”

“Making sure the winter formal is a success for everyone. That’s what everyone cares about.”

“And you believe you can do that?”

“Totally. If there's one thing I'm good at, its committees.”

“You’ve never been to one of Joo’s parties,” Jongin said. “She knows how to have a good time.”

“He’s just being too nice.”

“Aren't you worried that it might be hard to create an event that will appeal to all different student groups?”

“Not at all. I have work with must of our school’s groups and I'm confident I can coordinate a formal everyone will enjoy.”

Baekhyun had a hard time imagining Joohyun having a problem with anything or anyone. “I hate to ask this, I really do, but—“

“Kris? It's okay.” Joohyun looked down at her delicate hands. “Of course I'm upset about what happened, but I think it's time to move on. And like Jongin said in class, I know what Kris’ campaign was built on, so I can carry it on.”

“Are you still dating?”

Joohyun shook her head.

“I'm sorry—“

“Don’t apologize. In some ways, it’s a good thing. I mean, If Kris and I were dating, I wouldn’t have time for this.”

Jongin snorted. "Your workload would be exactly the same. The only difference is now you get credit for it.”

“Jongin! You are so mean.”

“Just looking out for you. Joo, why don’t you go ahead and get us seats in history?” Jongin put his hand on Baekhyun’s preventing him from standing. “I want to have a word with Baek.” He kept his hand where it was until the door had shut behind Joohyun. “I recorded this entire interview.”

“You what?”

“If anything appears in your article that Joo did not say, I’m taking this to the principal.”

Baekhyun was angry. He slammed his hands on the table as he stood. “Are you accusing me of making stuff up?”

“You’ve always been better at fiction than fact, Baekhyun.” Jongin grabbed his things. “Though not even very good at that, right?” He walked out.

“Hey! I don’t know where you get off accusing me of—“

Bawkhyun paused Jongin had come to a halt in front of him. Peeking around him, he could see why.

Yerim stood in the middle of the hall. She’d just taken hold of Sehun’s blazer collar, and as everyone watched, she went to her tiptoes to press against his.

Sehun made a small noise of surprise, the only sound in the entire hall. Yerim stepped back and gently pat Sehun on his cheek. “I'll see you after school,” she said. “To work on your campaign.”

As she sashayed away, the rest of the hall exploded into chatter, as if to prove they hadn't been staring.

Jongin snorted “That’s one way to get votes. Going to include that in your election write up, Baekhyun?”

That question brought Baekhyun back to his senses and he couldn’t help to notice the feeling in his chest and how the word jealousy was taking over his mind.

-

Sent

The elction report was done. Jongin couldn’t accuse him of bias. His candidate profile on Joohyun was as polished as her. She’d have no problems running for president—if Sehun wasn’t running agaisnt her.

Baekhyun sighed. Sehun's campaign groups didn’t have all that much time to prepare for the election. They’d probably be hard at work even now. Then he remembered the incident of before.

“You're being ridiculous. You knew this would happen!” He told himself.

He just hadn't expected it to happen so fast.

No, there was no need to dwell. Sehun getting a girlfriend was inevitable. There were other more productive ways of spending his time than wondering if he had enjoyed kissing Yerim. Or how it would felt to kiss Sehun’s lips, and hug him, and pass his fingers through his hair, and having Sehun touching all of his body at the most intimate time--. Stop. His article was completed; He had homework to do.

The doorbell rang. Baekhyun went to answer it. “Sehun? What are you doing here?”

He held up a DVD. “You told me to start watching more movies right? I was wondering if you wanted to join me.”

--

On Wednesday morning Baekhyun walked through the school. Seunghee got permission to do a pre-election special. A simple broadsheet featuring each candidate’s platform and interview on either side. The halls looked dim even at midday. This early in the morning, the light seemed even more inadequate.

Baekhyun smirked as he passed the election posters. They were everywhere. Sehun’s were a mishmash of different styles. He’d refused to let his photo be taken, so his campaign posters were mostly text based, urging people to “Vote Sehun!”

Joohyun’s had a photo of herself holding one of the many trophies she’d won for the cheerleaders and her slogan “A winner for the school; A winner for you.” Simple but effective. The cheerleader uniform gave her more points showing her school spirit. Baekhyun paused to admire her poster when he noticed something.

“What the--?”

He stared at the poster, shocked. Someone had scrawled over the poster in sharpie “Biggest ”. “But that’s vandalism!” Who would do such a thing? And to Joohyun? She would be so upset when she sees it!

If she saw it. He tugged the poster down, ripping it in half and then in half again It was only then he realized he should have kept it intact to show a teacher. Would there be anyone in the teacher’s break room at this hour? Clutching the ripped pieces, he turned—

And came face to face with Jongin. “What are you doing?”

“Holy crap!” Baekhyun collided with the wall. “Jongin, where did you come from?”

“Answer the question.”

“It's not what it looks like. The poster—someone wrote on it.”

Jongin’s frown grew. “Show me.” As he held up the pieces, his mouth tightened. “And you just found it like this?”

“No. It was on the wall. I took it down and tore it up. I didn’t think; I was just shocked anyone would do this!” Baekhyun noticed how Jongin’s hand clenched a tightly rolled up paper. “Wait. You found one too? Whats going on?”

“Someone’s playing malicious tricks on Joo.” Jongin showed Baekhyun he held several posters. “I had a feeling something like this might happen, so I came to school early today to check. Good thing, too. Whoever this is, I think they got every single one of her posters.”

“That’s horrible!”

“I've only done half the school. You’ve got to come with me so we can get the rest before anyone sees them. I'll take this side of the hall, and you do the other.”

“Right.” Baekhyun hurried after him.

Jongin worked quickly, his jaw set as he methodically took down every offending poster. Baekhyun glanced over his shoulder at him as he worked, trying to remember if he’d ever seen him so serious. “Not a word about this in your paper, Baekhyun, or to anyone, especially Joo.”

Jongin was that worried about her? “Wait. Yesterday, when you told me you’d recorded the interview—you thought it was me bullying Joohyun!”

“You were the most likely candidate,” Jongin said unapologetically. “No one in the school has a bigger reason to have a grudge against Joohyun’s group of friends and her than you, with, well…Yixing.”

“Tons of people have a reason to dislike them,” He reminded Jongin. “And yeah, I'm mad about Yixing, but if it was me, don’t you think I’d go after him?”

Jongin didn’t said anything.

Barkhyun stopped. “Is Yixing being harassed?”

“Look,” Jonginsaid, grabbing his arm. “I don’t know, so don’t get any stupid ideas. This has been going on awhile, and I noticed Yixing’s been acting odd, so I wondered…But this is none of your business. Or the paper’s business, Baekhyun. You got that?”

Slowly, Baekhyun nodded. “Got it.” It stung, but Jongin had a reason not to trust him. “So what will you do? Tell the teachers?”

“With how useless they are? No, I'm taking care of this my way. So if you don’t mind, I have a lot of posters to replace.” Jongin turn, walking away.

Baekhyun bit his lip. Jongin was kind of a jerk. But if he’d thought that it was Baekhyun bullying Joohyun…”Hey, Jongin? Do you have a good copy of Joohyun’s poster on you now?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because the newspaper club has a meeting now, and we have a free access to the copies for our special edition.”

--

Forget parachuting, skinny-dipping or Black Friday sales. Nothing is more adrenaline inducing than fighting a print deadline down to the very last second.

Baekhyun ran down the hall at full tilt toward the doors. He could see students already making their way up them. Hastily, he placed his prints in the newspaper stand. The rest of the club had come to help him. He heard the bells chime and the doors were thrown open.

“Out of the way, Freak.” Baekhyun was roughly shouldered aside.

He drew back against the wall for safety, rubbing his arm.

“There it is!”

Baekhyun flattened himself back against the wall as the stand was swarmed by girls. The paper was circulated, the girls turning quickly to the part that most interested them. “Nothing about a girlfriend—Baekhyun! Is it true what it says about Yerim?”

Suddenly the wall had gotten crowded. “Personal space, ladies!”

“You wouldn’t make that up, right?” Of course, I wouldn’t.

“He wouldn’t! He’s in the newspaper! That’s why no one likes him.” Jihyo tucked her hair behind her ear carelessly, “ ‘When questioned about his romantic life, Sehun only had this to say..that he respects and admires Yerim’s independent spirit too much to want to tie her down to the role of ‘girlfriend’. He is planning to devote himself to his studies, and if successful, the role of class president.’ You questioned him, Baekhyun?”

Still pressed against the wall and with no space to breathe, he had enough professional pride to be injured. “That’s a direct quote.”

Jihyo smirked, tucking her copy of the paper into her bag. “Let's go.”

As the girls walked down the hall, he could see a familiar figure. “Sehun!” He grabbed his bag and turned to the door only to bump into Yoobin.

“Geez, I'm so sorry—“ He paused.

She was usually serious but he had never seen her with such an expression. She took a deep breath and walked out the door, heading toward Sehun.

Sehun smiled at her as he saw her, slowing his steps as she approached. Baekhyun couldn’t hear what they said, but he didn’t need to. Yoobin looked down, nervous as she played with a strand of hair, Sehun was his usual charming self, He nodded and smiled, the action reflecting in his eyes.

With difficulty, he forced himself to step away from the door and walk toward his first-period class. Not everything that Sehun did was newspaper business but still made Baekhyun curious. And jealous.

--

Sehun was late to English. He was nearly late to Art.

The nervous energy that had sustained Baekhyun all morning had disappeared. He was lying on the desk, using his sketch book as a pillow, when he heard a scrape as the chair next to him was taken.

“Are you hoping Mrs. Choi will be so happy you’re not talking that she lets you sleep through drawing?”

Baekhyun opened his eyes. Not many people look good from below, but Sehun was one of those lucky few. “I think it's worth a try.” He paused. His plan would only work if he didn’t talk. But there was a reason he was in the newspaper. “That’s your second near miss this morning.”

“What?” Sehun was unpacking his bag.

Baekhyun sat up. “You were almost late. Not all teachers are as relax as Mr. Kim.”

“I know. I got told off by the Biology teacher. This was actually my fourth near miss.”

“Whats going on? It’s not like the future class president to be late.”

“That’s exactly what the Biology teacher said.” Sehun winced. “I've been rushed off my feet since I got to school.” He glanced at Baekhyun. “You didn’t happen to write that I wanted a study partner did you?”

He shook his head. “No. Why?”

“I've had at least twelve girls and one guy offer to tutor me this morning alone,” Sehun said, positioning his sketchbook on his lap. “I figured it was something to do with you and your newspaper.”

“Not everything that happens to you is my fault.”

“No,” Sehun agreed. “Just most of it.”

Baekhyun paused. How was he supposed to argue that with Sehun smirking at him? “A lot of presidential candidates would be grateful to have such enthusiastic and unbiased press coverage.”

“I’m sure. Though on that note, I can't give you a campaign update tonight, Baekhyun. I've got plans.”

“Biology with Yoobin?” He shouldn’t have sounded like that. But it was inevitable.

“Jealous?”

“Not even a little.” That didn’t sound convincing, Baekhyun. He told himself.

“Don’t worry it won't be as fun as watching Casablanca with you.”

Baekhyun paused a moment. Were they flirting? No, it couldn’t be. “How someone who has the worlds best films right there in his living room never got around to watching any of them.”

“I guess I've never been a fan of watching films alone.”

--

At Lunch, Sehun collected his tray and walked across the cafeteria, apparently blind to all the girls trying to get his attention, until he reached Yerim. “Is this seat taken?”

Yerim only needed a moment to gain composure. “It’s a free country.”

Sehun sat down, leaning slightly toward her. A moment later, Yerim laughed. The rest of the table shared their mood of hilarity. All eyes were on them.

“Seriously. He has to be magic. He doesn’t just turn Yerim down in a way that allows her to save social face, but sits with her at lunch so everyone can see they're totally cool.” Baekhyun shook his head. “Who does that?”

Minji rolled her eyes. “God, Baekhyun. You like him so much; why don’t you ask him on a study date?”

Baekhyun removed his gaze from the scene in front to give Minji his best hurt look. “My interest in Sehun is purely professional. I'm a journalist; he's a story.”

Minji smiled sweetly at him. “That’s how you lie to yourself? What happens when he’s no longer your story?”

“Wow. Just because you hate everything isn't any reason to bring me down.”

“On the contrary, what better reason is there?” Minji smirked, ending the conversation.

It was an odd day. Minji usually ignored him, preferring to listen to her 80’s rock songs, but here she was, with a question that made Baekhyun doubt himself even more.

He looked over to the “popular” table. Junmyeon was glaring at the back of Sehun’s head, speaking out of the side of his mouth to his friends. They laughed loudly, but Baekhyun noticed Yixing frown.

Jongin ignored them completely, talking energetically to Jenny and Lisa, who listened with their disinterest. Joohyun nodded occasionally, attention clearly elsewhere. Probably planning her campaign speech. Sehun wasn’t the only one with magic.

Baekhyun finished his lunch later and noticed how Joohyun wasn’t there anymore, he didn’t pay much attention to it and went to the classroom he had used to interview.

“Baekhyun?”

“Joohyun! I didn’t know anyone was in here!”

Joohyun stared back at him. Her eyes were red and there was a smudgy trail down her cheeks. opened, but she made no sound.

A loud clatter called Baekhyun’s attention to the students in the hall. He shut the door behind him. After a moment, he locked it.

Joohyun breathed out. “Thank you. I mean. I know I must look terrible, right now—“

“Not at all, Joohyun. What happened?”

“Nothing happened!”

“Was it the posters?”

Joohyun’s face fell. “How did you know?”

Too late. He remembered Jongin’s instructions to stay silent. “I saw one when I got to school. Jongin and I went around taking them down and replacing them, but we must have missed one.”

“No.” Joohyun pressed her lips together and shook her head. “It was pushed through my locker. I only found it now.” She wiped her eyes on the back of her hand. “You and Jongin? He didn’t say anything to me about it.”

“He didn’t want you to know. I guess he didn’t want you distracted on the final day of your campaign.”

“That is so Jongin, Baek, you don’t even know.” Joohyun took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “And you helped him? That’s awfully sweet of you, Baekhyun.”

“Of course. But, seriously, are you okay?”

Joohyun nodded. “It's all right. Whatever something horrible like this happens, something nice always happens to make it right. Knowing that you and Jongin worked really hard to take care of me, that’s really special.”

How was it possible that someone could be this together? “Where did you learn to be so mature?”

Joohyun laughed again. “It's not maturity. I sort of suspected something like this would happen. I know I can't make everyone happy and that trying to only wear me out, so I have to focus on whats important to me..and whats important is that I have friends like you, Jongin, Seulgi, Jenny, Lisa behind me. That’s way more important than someone’s jealousy.”

Baekhyun nodded. He felt the exact same about Seunghee, Chanyeol, Jongdae, and Minji.

Joohyun continued. “That’s what I really admire about you, Baekhyun. That you’re so strong and independent, and you do your own thing no matter what people say or think.”

“I do?”

“Standing up to the Coach took a lot of guts.”

“And you got your boyfriend kicked out of school.”

“It's no one’s fault but Kris’ that he got kicked off the team. Trust me. You did the right thing.” Joohyun stood up. “I wish I had your courage, If I didn’t care so much about making people happy, I might have been able to make him listen to me.” Joohyun it her lip. “I look like a mess, don’t I?”

“A hot mess?”

“I'm not sure that helps.” Joohyun took a small purse from her bag and spread the contents out on the table.

Baekhyun leaned forward, interestedly. He has always had a thing for makeup.

Joohyun studied herself in a fold-up mirror. “It could be worse.” She used concealer to patch up the puffy skin around her eyes and looked down at the implements on the table in front of her. “Do you know anything about makeup, Baekhyun?”

“You're kidding?

“Jenny and Seulgi always do it for me. I've got such a problem with eyeliner. Whenever I try it myself, I make a mess and end up looking like a raccoon.”

“You are lucky that I know a thing or two about makeup.”

He carefully applied the eyeliner and up-close Joohyun was even more beautiful, her clear skin made Baekhyun feel insecure.

“Thanks, Baekhyun. I really appreciate this.” As Joohyun stood, she impulsively stopped toward Baekhyun, arms out.

He returned the hug. This really was the weirdest day ever.

---

I'm back!!! And I'm so sorry!!! But now I'll upload more!! Please tell me what you think of this chapter!!! There weren't a lot of moments between Sehun and Baekhyun but we got to know more about Joohyun and how she feels about Baekhyun, Kris and being a candidate! Also we saw more about Jongin and how Baekhyun's feelings are more obvious! I'll update really soon~