To others it was just a game.  To us it was war.

                The premise was simple – an unbiased non-player would go and hide an ancient high-backed chair somewhere on the school property.  At night, the players search for it until someone finds the chair and sits in it.  The winner is named the king and gets to choose a player as their servant.  The servant then must do one thing the king orders. 

                Since the tradition started, I was the undefeated champion.  And every single year, I picked Lee Jihoon as my servant.

                By now, the other people playing weren’t really in it to win.  Most of them were there as spectators to the vicious competition. 

                Jihoon needed to salvage what was left of his pride.  Last year, I made him do the cutie song in front of the entire incoming freshman class.  The year before that, I made him suffer through a marathon of my favorite girly drama.  And the year before that, I made him walk around school during lunch in drag.  The list went on and on.

                Frankly, I was surprised we were still friends.  But then again, there was no such thing as friendship on the battlefield. 

-x-

                “What should I make you do this year?” I asked Jihoon at lunch the day of the competition.

                He glared at me from over his hamburger.  “I’m going to win this year, just you wait.”

                I smirked.  “Right.”

                “Ugh, they’re at it again,” said one of my friends sitting beside me. 

                “Don’t worry.  They’ll kiss and make up after it’s all over,” replied another friend with a suggestive raise of his eyebrows. 

                Jihoon choked on a sip of his drink and elbowed the person who’d said that.  I rolled my eyes and threw a cherry tomato at him. 

                During gym the boys were doing races around the track.  When Jihoon was put up against one of the more athletic, muscular boys, I held back a scoff.  In the past years of the game, one of the reasons Jihoon always lost was because I was quicker on my feet.  How was he going to win against a jock?

                “Ready?” the coach called.  Jihoon and his opponent lowered into position.  “Go!”

                My eyes widened as I watched Jihoon shoot across the track, leaving the other boy struggling to catch up.  He passed the finish line easily and came to a stop in front of me.  He looked at me, chest heaving and beads of sweat dripping from his face.  One corner of his lips ticked up as if to say, Did you see that?

                I felt my face getting hot and I stomped away.

                That night, I walked up to the darkened school building and tilted my head from side to side.  Jihoon might have improved his running skills, but I was still better at this than him.  He was always the unlucky one, and today should be no exception. 

                “Still think you’ll win?” Jihoon asked, suddenly appearing beside me, looking up at the sky.

                “Of course.”

                He grinned as if he was humoring a little child and leaned in close to my ear.  “You won’t,” he whispered.

                The horn signaling the beginning of the game sounded from somewhere on campus.  Jihoon waved and walked leisurely away.

                A feeling of dread dawned on me.  He knew something.

                I searched more desperately in that first half hour than I had in the history of me playing.  I thought of all the places it could be and came up with nothing.  I searched inside all the classrooms, all the storerooms, even in the woods surrounding the campus but all I got were sore feet and twigs in my hair. 

                My mind went to Jihoon.  He hadn’t given off any indication of knowing where the chair was hidden until tonight.  He’d looked up at the sky—

                No.  He was looking at the roof.

                I ran as fast as I could, pounding up the stairs and swinging the door of the roof wide open.

                There was the chair, placed a few feet in front of me.

                My heart sank.  In the chair sat none other than Lee Jihoon. 

                I fell to my knees, suddenly exhausted. 

                “How did you…”

                “I wasn’t going to let you win again.  Thankfully, I had a source.”

                I glowered at him.  “Cheater.”

                “You probably couldn’t have outrun me anyway.  Are those sticks in your hair?”

                He was taunting me now.  I guess I deserved it after all these years of tormenting him. 

                “So, what’s your wish, King Jihoon?” I asked with a note of sarcasm in my voice.

                “There’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”

                “Are you going to do my make-up blindfolded and then send me on a tour around school?  Because that’s what I had in store for you.”

                He shook his head.  “Come over here.”

                I crawled over until I sat directly in front of him.

                “My command is for you to close your eyes.”

                I tensed in fear as I hesitantly shut my eyes.  Was he going to put a bug on my face or something?

                Then I felt his lips against mine.

                My insides melted and warmth rushed all over me.  He pulled away and I opened my eyes again.

                He laughed at my shocked and flustered expression and leaned back in the chair.

                “It feels good to be king.”