[Minjun POV]

I shifted weight from one leg to another as I awkwardly stood in my spot. We were allowed to talk to each other and move around the stage now, but it was so loud in the room while students shuffled out of the auditorium building. I glanced over to my right, where Wooyoung stood and then to my left, where Chaerin was.  Honestly, I have a bad feeling in my gut about this whole situation.  Other than Fei, I have no idea who any of these people are and from the little spat between Wooyoung and…what was his name, Junho? I don’t feel all too good as being a contestant.

                “You know, you guys can speak to each other!” Mrs. Ash, the English professor, beckoned. “There’s no need to be standing as stiff as a board! Come on, introduce yourselves!” The auditorium was already almost completely empty, thanks to the fact that students were leaving rather than coming in so less traffic and chaos resulted.  The corner of my lips twitched slightly as I glanced around again. I might as well try to chat with these people, right? It’ll be best for me in the long run.  If I form bonds with them, they won’t kill me so easily when we come to that point of time.

                But everyone looked so intimidating… I shuffle my feet as I shyly take a glance around again. Chaerin and Nichkhun are talking to each other, Fei decided to chat a bit with that Yoona girl, and I think Wooyoung, Kyuhyun, and Junho are in a bit of a spat. I roll my eyes in irritation as I remember what unfolded just a few minutes ago. Underclassmen, I thought bitterly as I make my way to one of the giants.

                “Um... Taecyeon, is it?” I meekly ask as I put my hands onto a broad shoulder. The stranger turns around and, automatically, I take a step back at his sharp features.

                “It’s Chansung.” The stranger corrects and I give a bow, mumbling an apology. He opens his mouth to say something, but he gets cut off.

                “Yeah, the real Taecyeon is over here!” Another voice pips up and cuts in front of Chansung. He shoots me a gummy smile and holds his hand out. I give a chuckle and gladly shake his hand. “You’re Minjun, aren’t you? I’ve heard a lot about you!”

                “Oh, you have? Well, that’s actually kinda surprising…” I give a rather stiff chuckle. “I actually haven’t heard a lot about you on campus, unfortunately.” Despite the rather negative information, the beam on Taecyeon’s face doesn’t disappear.

                “Of course you haven’t.” He reassures, “I’m not as popular as you! Man, you should hear the things they say about you! They say you have this cool ability where you can turn toys into real life objects and you’ve dated Fei over there for quite the while.” Taecyeon gives a small hum before he continues on, “They said you also had your eyes on Ga In or something but, you know, rumors are rumors.” I swear my cheeks are dusted pink as he starts prying some information out from my personal life.

“Yeah…That’s not actually quite true. I mean, like, with Ga In. We’re just really close friends.”

“Aw, so you got in that zone!!” Taecyeon exclaims and I’m about to snap at him but the lucky idiot manages to run off to socialize with someone else.

                “Aish, damn underclassmen!” I complain at no one in particular, a pout forming on my lips. I can hear Fei giggle in the distance and, even though I’m not looking at her, I swear she’s shaking her head.

                “Stomp on my foot one more ing time and I’ll ing slit your throat!” My head snaps into the direction of the shriek and, before I know it, I see Junho delivering a punch to Wooyoung’s face. The latter stumbles back a bit before letting out a snarl and trying to tackle Junho to the floor. The younger swoops to the left, letting Wooyoung crash onto the hard wood surface of the stage and then he digs his heel sharply into the other’s temple.  Wooyoung cries out and grabs Junho by his ankle, yanking the other’s leg to make him crash down onto the floor.

                “Then do it, freak! Cut my pinky toe off too and rip off my toenails, why don’t you!?” Wooyoung rolls and gets on top of Junho, letting his legs straddle either side of him. He snatches Junho’s wrists and holds them high above his head as the brunette thrashes around. Another scream leaves Junho’s lips and, in a blink of an eye, the brunette once human morphs into a statue of diamond. Although not made of bones and functioning organs, Junho continues to thrash as the gleam of clear liquid streaks down his arms.

                “All bark but not too much of a bite, eh?” Wooyoung taunts and a smirk forms onto his sugar pink lips.

                “You two, quit it!” Kyuhyun commands as he grabs a tuft of Wooyoung’s platinum blond hair and yanks him back. Wooyoung struggles and tries to make Kyuhyun let go of him, placing a moist hand onto the other boy’s wrist. At the contact, Kyuhyun cries out and jerks his arm away and shoves Wooyoung. The blond, being at the edge of the stage with Junho, falls off on impact and drags the diamond boy with him. A loud thud is heard, along with a string of profanities, and I look away.

                Other than the whole ordeal between the underclassmen, everyone else is silent. Taecyeon kneels at the edge of the stage, amusement in his eyes as he watches the two twerps attack each other. Fei gives me a concerned look and all I can do is shrug. Mrs. Ash looks pretty pissed.

                “Alright you two,” Nichkhun says with a sigh. He walks off from Chaerin and kneels against the stage, next to Taecyeon. “Playtime is over. Behave and save the fighting for later on, alright?” His voice echoes out and the shouting automatically stops. It’s completely silent for a while until Nichkhun clears his throat.

                “You cheap son-of-a-!” Junho flares and shoots up from the floor. He gives Nichkhun a glare. “Don’t use your damned mental abilities on me again!” Back in his human state, Junho climbs back up on stage. I see angry, red streaks on his arms from the liquid Wooyoung had excreted out.  Wooyoung lets out a mumble and sits up, shaking his head a bit.

“Fighting before the competition even starts…” Mrs. Ash complains before clapping her hands. “Alright, everyone, gather together. We’re going to meet at the front of the gates in an hour from now.  I expect you all to pack a few things before you come to the destination. We’re going to get onto a bus and eat at a restaurant for your last suppers in Seoul before everyone gets discharged to the helicopter. On the helicopter, you’ll be sent to the island and expect a few interviews, okay?” She claps her hand one more time and a sugar-sweet smile is placed on her plump lips. “With that being said, I hope you guys have a great time fighting out there!”

                [Chansung POV]

We’re supposed to be bonding with each other. How absurd if the whole point of being a competitor of the Taekyung Games is to go against all but one of the nine other contestants. Why form bonds if you’re going to be killing them in the end? I’ve never spoken to any of these students before, but I can already sense that no one in here will be sparing anyone in the long run when it comes to their own well-being and chances of winning the competition.

                Taecyeon and Minjun made us have our last supper at a five-star restaurant. It was suppose to be a group choice but, seeing as though those two had the loudest voices of us all, it was inevitable that whatever they wanted was what we were going to get. Our destination was a European-styled, Greek-influenced restaurant. They have everything but Korean cuisines in here, ironically.

                We were placed on a long-end table by Mrs. Ash. While the teacher got to sit in the single seat at the foot of the table, she gave us assigned seats because of the ruckus these dolts created during the name raffle. She put, in this exact order by the way, Taecyeon, Minjun, Fei, Wooyoung, and Kyuhyun on one side of the table. On the other side of the table and across Taecyeon was Junho, a space between him because of “safety purposes”, Nichkhun, Yoona, Chaerin and…Well, she didn’t assign me a seat. 

                In a passive-aggressive act, I stood by the side of Mrs. Ash’s chair. I was staring at her head and it wasn’t until two minutes later that she realized she hadn’t placed me in a seat.

                “Oh my goodness, did I forget about you?!” She exclaimed. The middle-aged woman bit her lip and glanced around. “Well, you can always sit in between Nichkhun and Junho or at the other end of the table by Junho and Taecyeon.” Technically, there wasn’t a choice but to sit next to Nichkhun and Junho since I didn’t want to stare in this old woman’s face while eating.

                Junho was preoccupied with his sketchbook but, when I scooted the chair from his right side and sat down, he perked ups attention up at me and stared. I gazed back at him and we held gazes until he looked back at his sketchbook, muttering something under his breath. I decided to break my gaze too and took a glance at the trio in front of me.

                “Let’s all eat spa—spaghetti!” Minjun declared, holding the menu up high as he tried to pronounce the foreign word. “Is that how you pronounce it?” With a goofy grin plastered on his face, he looked at Taecyeon.

                “No, you pronounce it as…Spuh-gew-tzi.” The other lied, “You need the accent.”

                “What accent?” Fei questioned, leaning against the table to look at Taecyeon. “I’m pretty sure it’s spaghetti.”

                “Shhhh.” Taecyeon raised his hand up, “I know English.”

                “Isn’t it Italian?” Nichkhun piped up, turning his head away from Chaerin. Taecyeon’s grin was washed away from his face in an instant.

                “I don’t think we were talking to you, Nichkhun.” After that was said, Taecyeon looked back at Minjun, the cheerful tone returning to his voice. “But it’s totally spuhgewtzi.”

                “We’ll ask the waiter when he comes then.” Minjun concluded, ignoring the rather stale atmosphere between Taecyeon and Nichkhun. “I’ve got my hands down for spaghetti.”

                After a while, I didn’t find watching these three interesting anymore. The waiter came to ask what drinks we wanted and, before we could even say anything, Mrs. Ash said everyone wanted to drink water.

                “I don’t know about you but, uh, I’m pretty sure I would have enjoyed a good ice cold coke alongside some steak.” I hear Taecyeon grumble. I avert my attention to the right where Junho was still occupying himself with his sketchbook. With no one paying attention to him, he was actually pretty quiet. On the other hand, I could hear Wooyoung and Kyuhyun from the other side of the table.

                I watched as Junho held a picture of a Russian Blue in one and, in his other hand, he was currently making details for the kitten’s pelt. He flicked his pale wrists for each strand of hair he made, some shorter and others lighter than most to get a realistic effect. My eyes wandered from his pale hands to his face and, for a moment, I wondered if he ever got out in the sun.  As I examine his face, I fail to notice that Junho’s staring back at me again.

                “I didn’t recall saying that you could stare at me.” He remarked and I realize that I was, indeed, staring again. I clear my throat and tear my gaze away from him and over to the waiter that just arrived with the tray of water. As he passed us our drinks, he asked everyone what we wanted to order. Minjun and Fei asked for spaghetti, Nichkhun wanted meatloaf, and Taecyeon wanted steak. I didn’t understand what the hell was on the menu so I ended up ordering what Taecyeon got. Whatever, if it was edible then I’ll eat it. It seems like everyone else ended up ordering steak too, minus Yoona who ordered Caesar salad in order to keep her body “fit for the competition”.

                “Do you like cats?” I turn back to Junho and ask him this. It’s a lame question to ask out of the blue, but what else could I say without crossing the line with this guy?  It’s not that I want to get close to Junho but no one else is recognizing me within the group right now.  I could hear him take in a deep breath and I see him looking at me from the corner of his eyes until he shifts his gaze back to his sketchbook. He doesn’t say anything for a while and all he does is smudge a bit of graphite from the pencil against the drawing paper.

                “…I have one back at my apartment.” He answers after a while.  “Or, I had one. I had to let her become a stray because I didn’t have enough time to pack and walk down to the city to give her to a shelter.” He hands me over the small poraloid photo of the Russian Blue that he was using as a reference picture.

                “None of your friends offered to shelter her?” I question as I take the photo. I run my thumb over it and gaze at the small picture. The kitten is plump, obviously spoiled as it stands with its tail curled around her paw. Her piercing green eyes are staring at the camera lens and it’s no mistake that this is Junho’s cat, even the feline is oozing out elegance.

                “They don’t like cats.” He replies as he closes his sketchbook. “I don’t trust them with Ggomaengii anyways.” I slowly nod and continue to examine the photo.

                “Ggomaengii looks just like my cat, except Jeonggam has blue eyes.” I hand back the photo, offering Junho a warm smile. Unlike what many would expect, Junho flashes me a grin back and takes the photo, the bitter remark he had given me quite a while ago forgotten.

                “I guess Russian Blues are beginning to become more popular nowadays.” Junho stated. He placed the picture back into his sketchbook and slips the pencil into the rings. “Where’s Jeonggam at now?”

                “He’s with my mom now, I think. She’s supposed to pick him up from my apartment complex.” At the mention of my mom, Junho frowns. He gives a slight nod and doesn’t reply. Instead, he starts taking interest in the cloth wrapped around the utensils. The air between us is stale, a hint that the conversation is already over, and I let my eyes wander around in attempt to pre-occupy myself with something.

                It takes forever but, finally, the food arrives. Right after my plate of steak is placed in front of me, I get my knife and fork ready and waste no time eating. The chatter stops in our table as everyone occupies themselves with their food. Everyone but Junho, anyways. I swear he just ate the lettuce leaves and started dumping A1 sauce all over the steak.  Any thoughts of him being elegant were thrown out the window as I give him a judgmental look before I continue eating. He reaches out for the hot sauce but Minjun bats his hand away.

                “You used half a bottle on your steak already!” Minjun exclaims and snatches the hot sauce away so he could use it on his spaghetti.

                “I don’t want to eat it.” Junho groans as if he were a five year old. At the mention of someone not wanting food, Taecyeon perks up and automatically starts taking Junho’s plate away.

                “I’ll eat it then!” He chimes, “You’re lucky I like steak drenched in this kind of sauce! Wait, you’re not infected with herpes or rabies or anything, right?” Junho scoffs at that remark and I can already see his hand reaching for the steak knife.

                “Taecyeon, you haven’t finished your steak yet.” Nichkhun cuts in and reaches out to snatch the plate away. Taecyeon gives him an incredulous look and yanks the plate of steak towards him.

                “So? You haven’t either!” Taecyeon whined, “So shut the up!” He successfully gets the plate from the Thai man’s grip and blows him a raspberry. Then, he puts it on queue as he continues his chomping down his steak.

                The dinner comes to a calm end. Because Wooyoung and Junho were on opposite ends, the two didn’t even bat and eyelash towards each other. Which was, in my opinion, great. I didn’t want to be in the midst of two immature students who were ready to rip each other’s throats out for a reason no one but the two of them knew. Taecyeon and Nichkhun weren’t too much of a problem, although I could sense the occasional glares they directed at one another. It seemed like everyone had some sort of rival or companion already, expect me. I wasn’t going to complain. It was frustrating being the shadow of the school but, now in this type of situation, I had an advantage. No one was going to drag me down in the Taekyung Game with fake tears and broken friendships and I had no one already out to hunt my down. No one notices me either, another plus. If I stay low, I can easily avoid conflicts. If I blend into the background, I’ll have a better chance resulting as a winner. Then, when there are only half of us left, I can let all hell, literally, break loose.

                After Mrs. Ash paid for the bill, we were rushed back into the van. Taecyeon took shotgun seat and the rest of us just scattered around. I was in the middle of the car with Junho, in those individual seats so that I wouldn’t have to be squished against someone. Behind us were Minjun and Fei, who chattered about…video games? Nichkhun, Yoona, Wooyoung, and Chaerin squished themselves in the back seat while Kyuhyun had to sit in the trunk with our luggage.

                No one says anything in the van as we watch our surroundings through the tinted black windows. We’re being driven to an airport, our last destination of freedom and peace until havoc breaks loose between the ten of us.

Authors Notes

This chapter is dedicated to Bommiebb, you know who you are yo! Anyways, another long, boring chapter without action, drama, or anything really. Chapter 3 will be the last chapter before the Competition! I'm still decided who to partner up with who and I might end up using some random, jank generator tbqh. 

Anyways, don't get too use to me updating like, every day since I'm actually really lazy (hence why this chapter seems so rushed LOL).  Anyways, I've hinted it in this chapter and the last I think, but there's already some disputes between the competitors.

Taecyeon and Nichkhun aren't the bestest of friends right now. Taecyeon has the ability of controlling dreams and Nichkhun has the abiltity of controlling nightmares so, naturally, they don't clash all too well together. 

Nichkhun is well-known for using his mental manipulation against people to make them do whatever he wants and he doesn't have any good intentions with whatever he does. Taecyeon and Wooyoung have experienced being under Nichkhun's trance, which is why they don't quite click with him.

(P.S. Happy 4th of July!)