Mei lay flat on her back, stunned.

Her ears were ringing due to a mixture of the loud explosion and the shock of falling -first on the ground. All around her was an explosion of colorful confetti, covering all of her and then some.

She blinked dazedly at the sky, trying to process what had just happened.

Sehun appeared in her line of vision, looking gigantic from her place on the ground. He looked down at her and she must’ve looked as shocked as she felt because he snickered.

What happened next shocked her even more than Luhan confettisioning in her face – and that was an 8 on the Richter scale to begin with.

Before she could say anything, snap at Sehun for laughing instead of helping her up, there was a strangled noise, like an animal growling and something… someone leapt over her to land on Sehun, making him stumble and fall back.

Mei sat up so quickly, her head felt dizzy but she shook it off, eyes widening in horror at the scene unfolding before her eyes. ‘Sehun!’ she screamed, shocked, as Luhan – Luhan! – landed a punch square on his face.

After that, it was all chaos. She jumped around the fighting boys, who were rolling around on the floor, not sure what she could do to help. She could try and pry them off each other but they were moving so quickly and violently, she would probably get hit for no reason.

‘Stop it please! Luhan!’ she pled, eyes closing in phantom pain when another punch made it to Sehun’s face.

Sehun, who’d been pliant in his shock when Luhan had first attacked him, was now fighting back with equal force. Instead of flinching, like Mei, he took the opportunity to grab Luhan by the neck and rolled them over so that the smaller boy was beneath him, and pushed his head back. It landed on the ground with a thud and Mei winced.

‘What’s going on here?’ A loud voice echoed around the hallway and the gathered crowd parted like the sea. Mei could safely say she’d never been happier to see Suho.

‘They’re killing each other!’ she squealed, grabbing his arm and shaking it. ‘Stop them!’

Before she could say anything else, there were running footsteps and Luhan’s friends – she recognized Lay because he was in the dramatics club with her but the others she only knew by face – rushed over. Two guys, one very tall with large ears, and another, shorter one who vaguely reminded her of a puppy – Baekhyun? –  ran to Luhan’s side while Suho hurried over to Sehun.

Mei watched with wide eyes as the two boys were separated. Sehun let go easily when Suho asked him, breathing heavily and looking mightily pissed off.

Luhan wasn’t so easy; he kept glaring at Sehun while his friend rapidly spoke in his ear, grabbing his hands – which were gripping Sehun’s collar – and squeezing it. It still took him some time before he let go, hands loosening slowly.

Mei rushed to Sehun’s side, appalled at the state of his face. His lip was bleeding and there was a vicious-looking cut on his eyebrow, the blood dripping down into his eye; an ugly looking bruise was forming on his cheek. Mei’s eyes filled with tears at his condition – it must be hurting so much!

‘Sehun…’ Her voice wobbled as she reached up to wipe his blood, flinching at the wet feeling.

There was commotion behind her and she turned to see Luhan being restrained by his friends again as he tried to attack Sehun again.

Mei frowned, not at liking this side of Luhan. She didn’t care what Luhan had against Sehun, he had no right to attack her friend. She was getting sick and tired of people just abusing Sehun and pretending they weren’t the bullies they thought he was. She had just opened to give Luhan a piece of her mind when the teachers showed up.

And just like everyone else, assumed the worst about Sehun. A large number went over to check on Luhan while the only person who came over to Sehun warned him to stay where he was or he’d be in bigger trouble.

Mei’s fists clenched at his accusing tone. Were they blind? Couldn’t they see that Sehun had only been defending himself and was even now, standing down while Luhan lost his ? She looked up at Sehun. His jaw was clenched, his fists balled but his eyes were resigned, like this was exactly what he’d expected. Just like he’d been in Teacher Kim’s class.

And that just pissed Mei off. To hell with Luhan and his confettision, if he bullied Sehun again he was going to get it from Mei. And so would anyone else who tried to pick on her friend.

She whipped around, jabbing a finger at Suho. ‘Luhan started it; he attacked Sehun for no reason!’

Suho nodded, looking a little surprised by her vehemence. Before she could rant more, the teachers called Sehun to go with them to the principal and Suho hurried after them.

With the boys gone, there was a sudden silence. The gathered crowd dispersed, everyone buzzing and going their own ways while Mei stood, in the middle of the school hallway, covered in confetti and mind reeling with everything that had just unfolded.

Suddenly exhausted, she squatted where she was, throwing her head down and trying to catch her breath and that was how Minyoung found her.

…………………………………………………

Mei didn’t go back to class. Instead, she and Minyoung went the empty dramatics club room and after making sure no one was around, they slipped inside.

Once there, Mei unloaded everything on Minyoung. While retelling the story, she got angry once again at the unfair treatment Sehun was getting and she started ranting.

‘I don’t care if he’s my crush, I will not tolerate this kind of behavior!’ she declared mindlessly, not realizing her slip up.

Minyoung, on the other hand, immediately picked on it and suppressed a smile. Sure, she was worried about Sehun – way more than she was letting on to Mei – but at least her best friend had had her crush confess to her; even better, Mei had just accepted that Luhan wa still her crush. Not to gloat or anything but Minyoung had totally called it.

When Mei was done ranting, she sat down and threw her head down. ‘Luhan beat him up so much…’ she bemoaned, remembering Sehun’s face and wincing in sympathy. ‘For no reason at all.’

Ah yes. Minyoung’s face fell, worry taking over the temporary gloating. Sehun had been badly hurt from what she’d seen.

She’d been minding her own business, waiting by the window for Mei to come back from wherever she’d vanished with Sehun when there had been a loud bang. The bang itself wasn’t troublesome – confetti