[Heena]

“Zelo,” I said, sitting up on my bed.

“Yeah?” he asked without looking up from his phone. He was watching dance videos as usual.

“I hate this school,” I said.

“Same,” Zelo said, his voice sounding light but I knew we were both being serious. When Zelo had heard about Zico being the principal’s son…

“And,” I continued. “Our covers have been blown too. The whole good kid thing is done.”

“So you’re thinking what I’m thinking?” Zelo grinned, finally looking at me.

“Yeah,” I said. “Let’s drive this school crazy.”

[Zelo]

“Bye Mom,” I called out as we left our home.

“Have a good day at school, kids,” she said.

“Hella yeah it’ll be fun,” Heena muttered under her breath.

As we made our way towards school, Heena began ing her shirt, stripping it off and just wearing her tank.

“Café’s don’t serve students during school hours,” Heena said. “Take yours off too.”

We entered a café and ordered breakfast, enjoying every bit of it and taking our time.

“Mm, that was good,” Heena grinned. “Ice cream next? I don’t want to go to any morning classes.”

“Only thirty minutes till lunch,” I said, checking my watch. “Ice cream sounds perfect.”

***

“Hey, you two!” the tardy lady called out as we walked past her.

“Yah?” I turned around slowly, slurping on my cone.

She seemed a little baffled as if she’d never had to deal with this sort of situation before.

“Sorry, we won't do it again,” I said, waving my hand as Heena and I made our way to the cafeteria.

[Heena]

“Hey guys,” I said casually, sitting down next to Zico at the lunch table, about halfway done with my ice cream cone.

Zelo sat on the other side, next to Taeil.

“Where were you?” Taeil asked Zelo. “Class was so boring without you.”

“Breakfast date with that loser,” Zelo said, pointing his chin towards me. “By the way hyung… what do you think of food fights?”

“Food fights?” Taeil asked, laughing. I could tell the whole table was listening to their conversation. “I’ve never been in one, but I feel like it would be fun.”

“Fun, right?” Zelo grinned, looking at me.

Simultaneously, Zelo smeared his ice cream on Taeil’s face as I did the same to Zico.

The whole lunch room hushed as Taeil and Zico didn’t move, their faces white and dripping from vanilla ice cream.

“You…” Zico said quietly, his voice steadily growing into a yell. “You did not just go there.”

He grabbed a cup of soda and dumped it on my head as Taeil squirted ketchup onto Zelo’s face, screaming, “FOOD FIGHT!”

The whole lunchroom erupted into screams as some people fled and others joined the chaos.

“Payback for what you did to me,” Zelo yelled, dumping a bowl of spaghetti on Zico’s head.

A glob of pudding whizzed past me and hit PO square in the face. PO grabbed for whatever was on his tray and smeared it into the nearest person’s face, Park Kyung.

“And this,” I growled, shaking a can of coke violently. “Is for your annoying cockiness that I had to deal with for the past week.”

I pointed the can at Zico’s face and opened it, brown fizz exploding all over him.

“Stop, stop!” I heard teachers and lunch ladies yell hysterically.

***

“So, who started this?” the principal asked, pacing his office. Zico, Taeil, Zelo, and I were sitting in his office, all wearing our gym clothes and wet hair from quick showers in the locker rooms.

We all kinda glanced at each other. When no one said anything, I opened my mouth to say that I started it, but Zico cut me off.

“I started it Dad,” he said, his signature -off expression on his face.

“Stop trying to take credit for my deed,” I whispered to him.

The principal raised an eyebrow.

Taeil shrugged, “I guess we all kinda started it at once. Not one person.”

I glanced at Zelo. He shrugged.

The principal sighed, “You guys are making this troublesome. Then I guess I’ll have to give all four of you the same punishment.”

I waited, wondering if we would be lucky enough to be graced with expulsion.

“10 hours of volunteer work,” he finally decided. “Two hours every day after school for a week; picking up trash, working on the honor garden, cleaning classrooms, whatever needs to be done. Starting tomorrow.”

“Dad, we’re not janitors,” Zico growled.

“I could make the four of you clean the cafeteria too,” the principal threatened.

The two of them stared at each other, neither backing down. Tension filled the room.

“Quit it,” I smacked Zico’s damp head. “Stop being a and just accept the punishment.”

Zico me and threw me a dirty glare, but didn’t say anything. The principal looked surprised and slightly impressed.

As we left the office, Zelo and I high fived each other.

“Pretty successful day, I’d say,” he snickered.

“But damn, I wanted suspension or expulsion,” I muttered. “Ten hours? That’s gonna be a pain in the .”

“You two are a pain in the ,” Zico growled.

“You’re the one who stuck out your own neck. I would’ve been cool with taking the blame,” I shrugged.

“We would’ve shared it,” Zelo whispered to me, winking.

“A man’s gotta take responsibility for his actions,” Taeil declared.

“Oh hot damn,” I whistled. “Sunbae, I'm starting to see you in a new light.”

“You wanna sleep with me, then?” Taeil winked, instantly bursting into laughter.

“ hyung, since when’re you so direct?” Zelo laughed.

Taeil pounded his chest with his fist, “It’s ‘cause I'm a man.”

“Starting to feel a little tempted to take up that one night stand offer,” I snickered.

Taeil raised an eyebrow at me, trying to put a seductive look on his face.

Zelo put a hand on my shoulder, “She’s kidding hyung.”

“You guys are too loud,” Zico said, sticking his hands in his pockets. “And Haemi, since when do you talk like a pissed off druggie?”

“Oh, the swearing?” I shrugged. “This’s how I normally talk. Didn’t want to scare y’all in the beginning, so toned it down.”

“Oooh, BA,” Taeil teased.

“They’ll probably themselves if they meet Yongguk oppa,” I snickered to Zelo.

“Eh, hyung’s nothing compared to Jiyong hyung,” Zelo laughed.

“Sometimes I miss that school,” I muttered.

“Me too,” Zelo grinned.

Then we said in unison, “But not really.”

a couple extra pictures/gifs to enhance the reading experience