The final for the national highschool chemistry competition is here, contrary to sports competitions, intellectual competitions were held weekly (sometimes multiple times during the week), they mostly didn’t require any preparation besides the students, well, studying the subject, and then showing up to the competition site. With that, all intellectual tournaments progressed much faster then sports tournaments and the kids would be ‘free’ of their intense club activities much earlier in the year.

Now, that absolutely does not apply to our favorite trio, these boys will be as competitive and invested all through the year, a trophy sitting in the club room or not, especially when not. Sunmi was glad they loved chemistry, but she really wanted them to not come to the club for a while after the competition period was over, you know, like any normal student would. But our favorite es aren’t about that life, and Sunmi was already suffering because she knew she would be stuck alone with the three for two or three meetings after these finals.

Today, however, felt a bit off. Nayeon was very quiet and was looking ashamed, maybe the fight and the talk Sunmi had with him after got the boy to settle down. Jihyo was chirpy, he never really looked gloomy or anything, but he was definitely happier. Jeongyeon was obviously mad at Nayeon, but he wasn’t saying anything, by the looks of it, and Jihyo’s energy was getting to him a little. All three were very focused on the competition ahead, however, and neither Sunmi or the other contestants were about to complain for the peace they were having.

It was a thursday morning, and the competition was being streamed live, for the parents who wanted to watch but couldn’t be there, meaning all parents, there were only college scouts and teachers at the venue, this should take all morning and it’s not as grand as a game final. It was alright, though, the kids were hyped and the ones competing were very focused on comparing notes and last-minute-reviewing as much as they can. Sunmi had a great feeling about this day.

The final round went as well as possible, they won, but didn’t taste as good. The other team was caught cheating and was disqualified halfway through, Sunmi’s kids were winning regardless, but it was just anticlimactic (?) to have their opponents out of the competition just like that. They just went back to school and got dismissed for the rest of the day, most kids went home, others went out, our trio hung out in the library until lunch so they could catch the afternoon classes. And that was when things lost their brakes going downhill. The boys had messaged the group chat with everyone, telling them they would be waiting in the cafeteria, very wrong move, but they didn’t know it yet.

On the way to lunch, Mina ran into Sana and just decided to drag his friend along to their table. Sana was the cheering squad’s baby and everyone knew that, and nobody (not a single teenage soul) would ever dare to defy the ladies, they knew how to pay people back with a vengeance. But Mina was one of the squad’s sweethearts, along with Jihyo, Seungwan and Dahyun, Mina had gained their favor because him and Sana were really close and the girls loved coming up with plots about them, Jihyo was the gentleman jock who was always completely respectful and came to the defense of all ladies, Seungwan and Dahyun often ended up helping the squad with their routines giving ideas and testing out moves with the girls.

Dahyun arrived at the table and was suspiciously chirpy as well, he came along with a tray with too much food, but the boys knew he had been trying to get Jihyo to put back some weight because the older one had been very weak lately, all the stress from the wrestling team and the fact he had to drop a lot of weight very fast took a toll on the boy and everyone was very worried. 

“Nayeonnie, can you get my phone from my back pocket, please?” The younger Bae asked as he prepared to take a seat.

“What do I get out of it?” Nayeon was still sulky about the competition.

“A chance to touch my ?”

“You know you could have asked anyone else, right?” Jeongyeon chips in.

“Shut up!” The older boy shushes his friend hurriedly. “Let Nayeonnie get it for you.” His voice got too sweet.

“Thanks, Yeonnie.” Dahyun says and turns, he was busy setting the tray down and making sure it was more towards Jihyo than himself.

Nayeon humms in agreement but his attention doesn’t break from the relic he had just gained access to the grail, namely, Dahyun’s . Everyone knew the older had some sort of fascination for the younger Bae’s glutes, Jihyo and Mina found it amusing and had a few bets going on about it. Now, Im Nayeon is certainly not a man to turn down great opportunities when they present themselves, so we have him grabbing two handfuls of Bae Dahyun’s , the phone had quickly been disposed of on the table and Dahyun was deeply reflecting if cheering his friends up had been worth the trouble.

“How did he manage?” Mina asks as he arrives at the table and sees his boyfriend going at it.

“Dubs had his hands full and asked him to get his phone in the back pocket.” Jihyo answers with humor. “Oh, Sacchan, it’s great to have you with us.”

“Hey Ji.” Sana looks troubled. “Do I want to know what those two are doing? And why are you both looking thoroughly entertained?” The taller japanese questions, but takes a seat anyway.

“Quick version.” Jihyo decides to fill his friend in. “Nayeon preaches that Dahyun’s is the best that has ever been put in this earth, and he will take any opportunity to touch it. Dubs, in turn, is a very conservative young man, and gets incredibly shy when Yeonnie does these things in public, he is flattered don’t let him mislead you.”

“But Dubs is Hyo’s man.” Mina continues. “And he is set on being very faithful, although we both encourage Yeonnie to try and grab that , Dubs is really strong and he also knows how to fight properly, that bunny is the biggest softie and the worst fighter you’ll ever meet.”

“Dubs threw the absurd amount of zero punches and Yeonnie got scared and begged for mercy.” Jeongyeon had gotten enough footage and decided to join the conversation. “Since then, Yeonnie always tries to sneak some grabbing when he knows Dubs won’t hurt him too much.”

“Okay, can I feel said and make a judgement for myself, though?” Sana was intrigued, and this whole thing was just too ridiculous to let go.

“You most certainly can.” Dahyun agreed and hopped over to Jihyo’s other side where Sana was sat. “Anything to get away from those hands.”

Mina giggles and sits down on where Dahyun was, trying to get his boyfriend to not start talking and just sulk quietly. It worked. Jihyo laughs heartily as Sana’s face goes from confused to wonder then happiness in the time it takes for the pale boy to get to his side and his hands to reach the . Nayeon laughed loudly, knowing he had won this round, won what and from whom was a mystery. Tzuyu had arrived in the middle of it all and grasped the situation quite fast, but decided to entertain Jeongyeon, the only other person just watching the mess happen. What the group didn’t notice was the small pack of frustrated wrestlers lurking, well, at least that’s what said wrestlers thought.

In truth, Mina had heard two of them, who he shared the previous class with, talking about how ‘that Park ’ dropped the team and would pay for making them look like fools and almost getting late to the last competition. So he set out to grab Sana and have them tail Jihyo for the rest of the day, those idiots would pounce very soon, he had shot Jihyo a message as soon as his class was over and they agreed the three would stick together to prevent anything bad happening. Nobody really knows Mina and Sana are master fighters, and those who do, mostly don’t believe it, it’s not like they are intending to really fight, but one can’t be too careful about these teenage jocks who think they are big manly men and will be obeyed.

The group had their lunch and played around with each other, and had a pleasant meal overall, the entire group was aware of what was happening, but they just kept alert and didn’t really let it get to them. But lunch period would be over soon and Jihyo would be off to the other side of the school for P.E., and this might as well get resolved before then. With that in mind, the group gets out of the cafeteria, sure enough the angry wrestlers follow, and make their way to the most strategic point they could think of, a small garden just behind the teachers’ lounge, that could be clearly seen from the inside, but not many knew that, and these boys definitely didn’t. 

Making sure the lounge had, at least, a few teachers inside, they settle the closer to the window they could manage without making it obvious, although Jihyo did tell his friends those boys were too dumb to lok around when they thought they got an advantage. In truth, Sunmi had been talking with a few colleagues when she saw the boys settle down in the shade, when asked why she was smiling, she pointed to the group and told them it was nice seeing her boys not trying to kill each other. They all laughed and agreed, as the trouble trio had given headaches to most teachers at this point. A few minutes later, the greco-roman boys approached the group and started yelling.

Jackpot, they were so caught up on calling Jihyo names and trying to taunt him that they never noticed the teachers had opened the window and started watching them, mrs Choi, one of the teachers watching, had taken upon herself to write down their names, they would already be in a lot of trouble just for the verbal abuse, but Xu Minghao, the captain, wasn’t satisfied with just spitting insults, he stepped forward, followed by his goons, and grabbed Jihyo off the ground, and went for a big swing. Sana managed to grab the fist and made a show of trying to stop his friend from getting hurt. Some of the teachers dashed out and towards the group, mrs Choi had already finished taking names and screamed for the boys to halt.

What nobody needed to know was that Sana, Mina and Jihyo were very well capable of finishing off all of them without breaking sweat. With Minghao’s arm safely locked by Sana, he was the only one left behind when the other boys bolted, in the hopes of avoiding punishment. Jihyo and Sana, the ones directly involved in the imminent beating, along with the wrestling captain who was about to do the beating, were escorted to the principal’s office, Sunmi allowed mrs Choi and coach Kim to go with the boys, the other teachers went back to their tasks, lunch time was over and they had classes to teach.

And that was the day over half of the greco-roman wrestlers were suspended, their captain expelled and the team lost their place in the tournament and coach Zhen was ratted out as the instigator behind the harassment. Jihyo was immensely grateful for Sana helping out with making them seem scarred and shaken about the violent boys.