4:50

Loud.

Too loud.

Joohyun brushes off her hair from her face and rubs her temples. School is already stressful and the cheers outside the room aren’t helping her one bit. She covers her face in her hands and lets out a deep sigh. She’ll never get used to the amount of attention she’s given every single time this event happens.

She groans when a loud voice is heard from the speakers outside.

“We’ll be starting the game soon! Let me hear your screams!” The volume of the cheers and whoots outside have increased drastically and she can’t wait for this to be over. She can already imagine the amount of schoolwork on her desk, waiting for her to finish them in one night. Just as she was to contemplate on her very own existence, the door flies open and a hooded figure walks inside the room

“Unnie?”

Joohyun looks up from her hands and raises a brow. The hooded person closes the door behind them and drops her hood, revealing a girl with black hair and a soft smile playing on her lips. She wore a simple black jacket, had jeans on and her hands were in her pockets. Her eyes were like crescents as she smiled towards Joohyun.

“What is it Seulgi-ah?” The girl named Seulgi leans on the door and shrugs.

“Just came to check on you, in case you try to run away” Joohyun’s face twitched and she stands up from her seat.

“I’m not running away.” She reassures Seulgi and walks to a closet on the other side of the room. It was a small room actually, but the small amount of furniture inside makes it look like any other room. Joohyun mutters a “No need to baby me you bear.” and she smiles to herself when Seulgi laughs. That girl really.

She opens the closet to reveal a black jacket inside, it had a hood and has red accents to it but the intricate letter "i" will catch anyone's attention.

It was blood red and replaced the dot of the i with a red crown, screaming royalty. She reaches out and hesitates but ignores the weird feeling in her stomach, she grabs the clothing with shaking fingers. She touches the soft fabric, trailing her fingers on the "i" lingering there for a few seconds. The loud voice of the speaker outside booms once again and she flinches, snapping out of her trance.

She puts it on with a zip.

“Are the others ready?” She asks and looks over her shoulder to see that Seulgi nodded. Joohyun faces the other girl and smiled when she saw her friend putting on a black face mask. Joohyun shakes her head, she never really liked those things but she has no other choice.

Joohyun puts up her hoodie and walks towards the door, only to be stopped by Seulgi holding out a face mask similar to the one she’s wearing now. This one, however, is almost the same except for the red lining. She stares at it for a brief second before taking it from her friend and putting it on.

Seulgi pats on the other girls’ shoulder before walking outside the room. Joohyun’s eyes follow Seulgi's back until she was out of her sight. She shakes her head and sighs before she forces her feet to walk to the dark room with deafening screams.

Joohyun walks out of memory in the darkness and skids to a stop when she realizes she's beside one of her teammates. She looks up to have eye contact with the tall one, and the other person's eyes scrunched up, indicating that she's smiling.

"Are you ready Joohyun-unnie?" The tall one punches the short one softly and Joohyun chuckles.

The speaker then comes on full force as it is literally just standing beside them. "For the first team!" The crowd cheers loudly as they anticipated what the speaker will say, making Joohyun and her other teammates deaf for just a moment.

"I'm Irene here." She says with a small frown on her face. The tall one throws her head back and gives out a hearty laugh, making Joohyun wonder if this maniac had taken their medicine.

"Unnie" Joohyun looks towards her friend and raises a brow. "What is it Joy?" She can feel 3 other people walk beside her now. Great, they're here.

"It wasn't your fa-" Joy was cut off when a voice booms from the speakers beside her. It amazes Joohyun how she and her teammates can still hear after standing beside these human-sized speakers.

"We have Red Velvet!" The voice says and Joohyun nods to the 4 people stood beside her, queuing them to follow her lead. A spotlight shone from above them and all 5 of them kept their heads low until they walked up the stage. As they arrived on top, Joohyun raises her head and scans the people in front of her. It's packed.

Cheers fill the ears of the 5 people on stage. Joohyun looks to her side to see that Seulgi was eyeing her, the look of concern was evident in those eyes and she shrugs it off.

The person with that loud voice stood on stage and gestured for the team to go to their stations. The crowd goes wild when Joy raises a hand to wave, and Seulgi couldn't resist smiling behind her mask. The 5 of them sat down in their usual arrangement. A boy with the alias Park, Seulgi, Irene, Joy, and a girl with the alias Rose from left to right. All 5 of them wore uniform clothes except for Joohyun, hers had red accents that stood out from all of the others.

Joohyun inspects the computer and types a bit on the glowing keyboard, she then puts on her headphones and checks to make sure everything on the settings is comfortable to her liking.

"Joohyun" she hears a deep voice in her headphones and she rolls her eyes.

"It's Irene here Park." a light chuckle was heard from the other side and she frowns. What was so funny about that? "It's nothing unnie" Wait, did she just speak out her thoughts out loud?

"Yep, you just did" Another voice was heard and Joohyun signals for her teammates to shut up.

"You guys ready?" Joohyun says to her microphone with authority, earning a small uhuh and gotcha boss from her teammates. She looks beside her and sees Joy searching up music on her chrome tab, her eyes turned to the back of her head when she searches up "RBB".

"And for the opposing team! We have Evangelion!" Equal amounts of cheers have erupted from the crowd when 5 boys in blue shirts came up the stage and hyping the crowd up. Red Velvet seems to be unfazed by the support given by the opposing team's fans, Seulgi looks at the speaker and impatiently taps the watch on her wrist.

The speaker's mouth formed an "O" and he hurriedly urged the other team to sit down.

"You're going down scrubs!" One boy from the opposing team exclaimed causing their teammates to mockingly laugh at Red Velvet. Joohyun and the others kept their mouths shut and ignored those egotistical hormonal boys.

"Okay, okay, no thrash talking on the stage please." The speaker shoots the boy a glare which caused them to shut up.

"Remember folks!" The speaker says with a smile, going through the rules "The Team who wins 3 games in a tournament draft wins the grand prize of 1000 $"

Joohyun leans back on her chair and puts a hand to her chin. That prize money would allow her to survive another month and she honestly can't wait to beat those monkeys up.

"Already counting your monthly expenses huh?" Joy's voice comes through and Joohyun smiles.

"I can already feel my wallet filling up," Seulgi says softly, earning a laugh from all 4 of them. "It's not my fault I'm currently broke you ducks"

Rose brushes her hair back and sighs "That is... if we beat them" Park leans forward on the desk and chuckles. "They're rookies, but they're good too"

Seulgi nods and Joy's smile falters. The atmosphere was tense and awkward but it was broken by a simple phrase from their leader.

"But not good enough" Joohyun insists with a mischievous smile on her face behind the mask. Her teammates let out a deep sigh and smile, their leader surely boosted their morale.

"We got this Red Velvet" and with that, the picking and game have started. With Park taking the top lane, Joy and Seulgi at bot lane, Rose in the jungle and Irene in mid.

The objective was simple really, destroy the enemy nexus to gain a victory.

8:05

"Remember the school work tomorrow" Joohyun reminds her teammates with a stern look on her face. All 5 of them wore simpler attires and were now walking to their dorms.

"How about we celebrate first?" A deep voice asks from her right.

Park or Park Bogum was a tall, nice and attractive guy, he's good at his role in the game too. He wore a white shirt and jeans, with a black cap on his head. He's nice but definitely not Joohyun's type.

Rose throws her head back to laugh "I'd rather stay home eating cup noodles than waste my prize money in one night" Bogum groans and humphs from what his teammate implied. Rose was a beautiful girl, she wore a pink hoodie and black pants on. Don't let her looks fool you, in the game she's the best at helping the other lanes when they need help.

Joohyun puts her hands inside her hoodie and looks up the sky, it was dark but the moon lights their way to safety. School and her position as council president flood her mind, but the voice of her friend stops her thinking.

"Hey, Sooyoung" Seulgi asks the tall one beside her. Sooyoung or her alias Joy is a tall girl, the fact that she's just 19 makes her teammates doubtful and Joohyun has to look up to meet the eyes of that girl. Stupid genes. She's currently wearing a red crop top and leggings and has this chic vibe around her.

“What is it bear?” despite her feminine vibe and appearance, she’s the best at being the ADR (attack damage ranged) but she couldn’t be the best without the support of her partner Seulgi.

Seulgi was an actual care bear, her kindness and adorableness surely fit her role as a support. Right now, Seulgi wore a simple button up shirt with pants. Everyone else stops when the bear stands still.

“Carry me” The tall one an eyebrow when Seulgi opens her arms.
“You’ve got to be kidding me” she ignores the chuckles given to her by her other teammates.

“My feet are tired” Sooyoung rolls her eyes, sometimes Seulgi can be a little bit childish but not in a bad way. She looks at the older one and can’t help to smile when the latter pouts. it.

“Fine fine, I’ll do it.” Seulgi giggles with glee as she forces Sooyoung to turn around then launches herself on the backside of the tall beauty with a small hup. After a few tries and wobbling, the pair managed to gain their balance.

“You know” Bogum states when they start walking again “This is an actual representation of a support getting carried by its adr”
A laugh erupts within the group, except for a certain blushing bear clutching on to a tall beauty.

“Shut up Bogum”

Minutes pass and the group slowly breaks apart when each and every one of them arrive at their destinations. Bogum leaves first, then Rose and lastly Sooyoung, Seulgi and Joohyun since the trio live nearby. When Joohyun stops in front of her building she waves farewell to her friends.

“Don’t forget the files Seulgi” Joohyun states as she opens the door to her building.

“Aye Aye Ms. President” Seulgi mocks her with a salute and walks away hand in hand with Sooyoung.

With one last goodbye, Joohyun proceeds to enter her apartment on the 4^th floor. She cleans up her bag, and school belongings before doing her night time routine.

Her phone vibrates in her pocket indicating that Seulgi and Sooyoung messaged her that they arrived home safely. She sent a quick reply and plops down on her somehow comfortable bed.

She stares at the envelope with the prize money inside and smiles to herself before drifting to a peaceful slumber.