“I didn’t steal the money. This money is mine,” Sungyeol told Sunggyu, his voice shaking and Sunggyu could see that his student was terrified.

“Why would a student be carrying such a huge amount of money?”  Mr Park continued shooting Sungyeol with questions.

Sungyeol didn’t know how to answer and just stared at the money with widened eyes.

Sunggyu didn’t know how to react to this situation as well.

Suddenly, the sound of money hitting the table could be heard.

The three people at Sungyeol’s table turned around to see Woohyun emptying his bag on the table. On his table were thick stacks of money, all bundled up neatly.

“You were saying, Mr Park?” Woohyun asked Mr Park with a wide smile.

Mr Park frowned and explained, “I didn’t mean special students like you, Woohyun.”

“I just gave some to Sungyeol because carrying too much money can be a bother,” Woohyun simply told Mr Park with his smile still plastered on his face.

“Is that the truth?” Mr Park turned to ask Sungyeol.

Sungyeol nodded slightly, not even looking up at Mr Park.

“Mr Park!” Another familiar voice came and a female entered the 3D classroom. Sunggyu noticed another student coming in together with the female teacher.

He didn’t notice Woohyun and Hoya, who suddenly jolted up.

“Sena-ssi,” Sunggyu identified the female teacher.

Sena gave him a slight smile before rushing up to Mr Park. “I’m so sorry, the money has been found,” Sena explained to Mr Park and 3D.

Upon hearing that, Sunggyu’s face lit up.

“Fine, now that it’s all good, I’ll be returning to the office,” Mr Park commented before turning to leave the classroom of 3D quickly.

“Mr Park, wait!” Sunggyu tried to stop the Head Teacher, but he disappeared quickly with the principal.

“Ah! What’s wrong with the two of them? How can they just accuse you guys like that?” Sunggyu complained.

He watched Sungyeol put the money into his bag once again.

“It’s always like that. We’re used to it,” Hoya commented.

“What?! You mean that’s not the first time?” Sunggyu asked in disbelief.

Mir snorted. “Whenever there is trouble, we’ll be the first ones to be suspected. Something broken, stolen, it’s always our fault,” Mir told his teacher.

“What?! Aren’t you guys angry? How can they do that?” Sunggyu was raging.

“We are! But what can we do?” Dongwoon then said.

Slowly, the class of 3D started berating to Sunggyu about how they were always falsely accused. However, Woohyun didn’t take part in any of this. He simply stared at Sungyeol, who was still sweating and trembling a little.

~

“I honestly don’t believe this,” Sunggyu complained out loud.

He was sitting alone near the garden of the school during break. He needed some fresh air to clear his mind.

Then, he spotted someone familiar.

“Hello,” Sunggyu greeted the student, who was walking in Sunggyu’s direction.

The student was shocked when Sunggyu called out to him.

“Emptying the rubbish?” Sunggyu asked the student when he saw the filled rubbish bags in the student’s hand.

“Yeah, it’s my turn on duty today,” The student finally answered Sunggyu.

“I saw you before when you came in with Sena-ssi to 3D,” Sunggyu told the student.

“Ah!” The student seemed to remember Sunggyu.

“Jung Heechul-ssi, is it?” Sunggyu read off the student’s name tag.

Heechul nodded slightly.

“I’ve heard from Sena-ssi that you were the one who found the lost wallet,” Sunggyu said. “Thank you so much,” Sunggyu smiled at the student.

Heechul smiled back and replied, “it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“I won’t want anybody to be wrongly accused,” Heechul added.

Sunggyu sighed. “Does everybody think badly of the students in 3D?” Sunggyu asked.

Heechul thought for a while before answering, “Surely, there is nobody who thinks of them as angels.”

Sunggyu sighed even louder. “But they aren’t bad kids. They are kids like you too. It’s just that they lost their directions and trust in people,” Sunggyu told Heechul.

Heechul’s eyes widened when he heard that.

‘They’ve lost their trust in people huh?’ Heechul thought out loud which caused Sunggyu to turn to the student.

“Oh, nothing,” Heechul immediately added.

“I guess, if you want to change people’s mindset, you just have to start proving them wrong and showing them your worth,” Heechul said to Sunggyu.

“Hmmm…I think I understand what you mean. Thank you so much, Heechul. For a kid younger than the 3D students, you seem to be a lot more mature than them,” Sunggyu joked.

Heechul just gave the teacher a weird look.

“You’re so much cuter than my little brother,” Sunggyu commented before patting Heechul on the head and left the student there, staring blankly.

Heechul blushed a little when the teacher called him cute and patted him on the head. Heechul swore he had never seen a teacher do that before.

‘What a weird teacher…’ Heechul thought to himself.

~

Sunggyu rushed to class after break and was shocked to see everyone already in class. Though, it was like a fish market with a cacophony of noises.

“Class! I have a great proposal here!” Sunggyu announced.

The class went silent and listened to Sunggyu attentively. Sunggyu was surprised by 3D’s sudden obedience.

‘Had he clicked with them?’ Sunggyu wondered.

“So, I was reading this poster and I think that we should start trying to change how the teachers and other students think of us! And to do that, I suggest, we enter the school’s annual sports competition!” Sunggyu announced.

The whole class broke into laughter at once, causing Sunggyu to pout. Even Woohyun chuckled a little, amusement vivid on his face.

“What’s wrong with it?!” Sunggyu demanded to know.

“Are you kidding, teacher? The Class 3D never entered any school competition after the fight in 2005,” Mir told his teacher.

“What?!” Sunggyu gasped in disbelief.

“I guess it was useless trying to convince the school that 3D isn’t really that bad,” Dongwoon commented.

“But you guys should be good in sports! And the poster didn’t say anything about 3D not being able to participate,” Sunggyu tried to convince the class.

“Well, now that you mention it, for the main event, the basketball tournament, Sungyeol’s quite good at it,” Mir said.

Sungyeol jolted up at the word basketball.

“Oh yeah, he used to be the hidden card of the basketball team, didn’t he?” Dongwoon recalled too.

Myungsoo and Woohyun’s eyes shifted to Sungyeol to see their friend’s reaction.

“Sungyeol? Won’t you join?” Sunggyu asked his student.

“I won’t want to,” Sungyeol replied, averting his eyes from Sunggyu.

‘This was weird. So unlike the normal and cheerful Sungyeol,’ Sunggyu thought to himself.

“Why won’t you, Sungyeol? Come on; take it as doing the class a favor. There’s also the prize money,” Sunggyu encouraged his student.

Sungyeol’s eyes lit up at the mention of the prize.

“I’m sure with you, the class will have no problem in winning,” Sunggyu continued.

“Stop it already! Nobody asked you to join the tournament thing so stop asking Sungyeol!” Myungsoo just shouted in the middle of lesson scaring everyone in class.

“Myungsoo,” Woohyun called his friend sternly.

The class was dead silent and Sunggyu shifted his stare from Myungsoo to Woohyun.

“I’ll do it,” Sungyeol’s voice shocked everyone in the class.

Everyone turned to stare at the tallest student in the class. He had a rather determined, yet hesitant face.

Then, the bell rang, signaling the end of school.

“Well then…I guess we can go register?” Sunggyu’s voice was hesitant and doubtful. He was waiting for the students to have any protest but nobody made a sound.

The whole time, Myungsoo and Woohyun didn’t stop staring at Sungyeol, who averted his eyes from them.

“I’ll tell you all about the details tomorrow, class. So Sungyeol, would you please come with me a while? We need to register you as the team captain,” Sunggyu explained and told Sungyeol.

Sungyeol managed a quick nod and immediately followed Sunggyu out of the classroom, not looking at his two friends.

As soon as they left the classroom, the whole of 3D broke into cheers. Even though they didn’t seem interested, everyone was actually excited about the tournament. They too, were influenced by Sunggyu into believing that winning this tournament might really help them gain some foothold in this school.

“Wow, this teacher is not bad,” Mir commented, draping his arm around Myungsoo’s shoulder.

“Yeah, I’m starting to think this might actually work out now that Sungyeol’s helping,” Dongwoon added, grinning at Woohyun.

The whole of 3D was celebrating except for Woohyun and Myungsoo, who exchanged worried glances.

~

“And so, we want to register for the tournament,” Sunggyu told Mr Park, who was in charge of planning the whole event.

“What?! I beg your pardon?” Mr Park gasped in disbelief.

The teachers in the office were too, all startled and surprised by Sunggyu’s request.

“Are you saying the students of 3D are participating?” Mr Park repeated.

“Yes, we are allowed to, right?” Sunggyu didn’t understand the massive reaction to his request.

“You are kidding are you, Mr Kim?” Mr Park reconfirmed.

Sunggyu just glared at him, hoping to get his message across.

“Sunggyu-ssi, is 3D participating too?” Sena just stepped in the office and was a little shocked to see Sunggyu requesting for permission to enter. However, it sounded like something Sunggyu would do.

“Yes. I see 3A is participating too,” Sunggyu inferred after seeing a tall, handsome student behind Sena.

That was when Sunggyu realized that the student was glaring right at Sungyeol, who was standing behind Sunggyu.

Sunggyu turned behind to see Sungyeol’s reaction but his student was once again, averting his eyes from everyone’s.

‘Sungyeol’s really weird…’ Sunggyu thought to himself.

Then, Sunggyu went to the student behind Sena and started a conversation, “Hello, this is our class captain, Sungyeol. Are you 3A’s captain?”

The student seemed a little shocked but replied politely anyway, “Yes, I’m Lee Joon.”

“Sunggyu-ssi, my captain here is the captain of the basketball team. Even though we’re friends, I’m not planning to go easy on you,” Sena smiled at Sunggyu.

“Of course, Sena-ssi. I’m going to go all out on this too!” Sunggyu answered.

He was rather surprised that 3A’s captain was the basketball team captain. Still, it seemed like Lee Joon knew Sungyeol.

“Okay, students you are allowed to go,” Mr Park finally entered the two classes’ registration details.

“Thank you,” Sungyeol and Joon thanked the Head Teacher and they both walked out of the office.

Sunggyu couldn’t help but feel tension between the two students. Hence, he followed them.

~

“What are you trying to do?” Joon was the first to speak.

Sungyeol who was walking ahead, stopped and spun around to face Joon.

“Nothing in particular,” Sungyeol replied.

“You hadn’t joined the tournament for years. Why now?!” Joon’s voice went a notch higher.

“I really don’t plan to do anything, Lee Joon,” Sungyeol told 3A’s captain.

Joon looked at Sungyeol skeptically. “Whatever you’re planning, I won’t let you win. Whatever you do, I’ll win over you, Sungyeol. I’m not the guy I was two years ago,” Joon challenged Sungyeol.

Sungyeol didn’t say anything and let Joon walked past him. Sungyeol was about to walk back to class when somebody called out to him. He spun around to see his teacher running up to him.

“What’s between the two of you?” Sunggyu asked.

“It’s not good to eavesdrop, teacher,” Sungyeol didn’t answer directly.

“I know, but I couldn’t help but feel that something is amiss. Like Myungsoo shouted such a thing in class before,” Sunggyu explained, feeling a little guilty.

“I’m really worried. Won’t you tell me, Sungyeol?” Sunggyu asked again.

“I’m sorry teacher. I promise I’ll be fine,” Sungyeol managed a slight smile to his teacher before turning his back and walking to class.

Sunggyu tried to stop Sungyeol but he himself was stopped by someone else.

Woohyun went up to his teacher and shook his head.

“Can you please leave it like that, for now?” Woohyun asked his teacher.

Woohyun’s tone wasn’t harsh or demanding but Sunggyu still felt a little sad when Woohyun said that. It just meant to Sunggyu that Woohyun was hiding something from him and he didn’t like that.

“You got what you wanted already, didn’t you?” Myungsoo pointed out. “So stop trying to act close to us,” Myungsoo continued in a low tone.

At Myungsoo’s words, Sunggyu swallowed everything he wanted to say previously. Myungsoo was right. He did manage to get 3D into the tournament already, so that should be fine, right? But was it wrong to be concerned about your students?

Sunggyu felt hurt at Myungsoo’s words. ‘trying to act close?’ Was that how it looked like to Myungsoo?

“Please,” Woohyun repeated once again before leaving with Myungsoo.

All alone, Sunggyu stood rooted to the spot.

Sunggyu considered Myungsoo’s words. ‘Was that how it looked like to you too, Woohyun?’ Sunggyu asked internally.

Sunggyu had thought that they had become closer and were starting to understand each other, but now, it appeared that it wasn’t like that. Woohyun still had that much he hadn’t told Sunggyu.

‘When can I finally understand you, Nam Woohyun?’ Sunggyu thought to himself.

Author's note: hehehe, as promised, one chap update! tmr i wun b updating but i guess after tmr, i will try my best to give a double update. i needa study for a weird test i signed up for =.= lol. kkay. so erm, ppl hu thot Sungyeol was framed, u're not quite right but u're not wrong cause Sungyeol didn't do it anyway! As for why he had that money and why he suddenly agreed to the basketball tournament, will b up next chap! ^^ kkay so erm i need more woogyu scenes! ohhhh n i love lee joon!!! hheehhee apparently, lee joon n sungyeol r frens!! ^^ heheheh does anybody not like it when i digress from woogyu? im starting to miss writing short fics >< i wanna write a oneshot soon >< but i'll finish this. i promise ^^ i hope it dun ! lol pls continue supporting the fic! thanks for all the sweet comments!! :D