The main hall of the academy was full of upper level students as they crowded around the announcement board. 

Annoying chatter filled the air as everyone wondered who they got; the girls hoping they got one of the cuter groups while the boys were all but drooling over the Keepers. 

Chizuru winced as she got shoved, again, by a group of giggling girls.  She shot them a glare, which they didn’t see, as they moved further into the swarm of people, screaming about how they wanted to be assigned to EXO. 

Chizuru tilted her head. She noticed that most of the girls in the room were in fact talking about this "EXO" group.

Must be pretty cute if all the girls are reacting like this.

“Yo,” someone said next to her, slightly startling her and breaking her train of thought.

Turning, she saw Hoya, panting and out of breath, looking insanely uncomfortable from being pushed from all directions.

“Hoya!” Chizuru said with a smile, before she wacked him on the arm.  "Don't sneak up on me like that you ."

Hoya chuckled, coughing slightly from still not having caught his breath completely yet. "Sorry Zu-ah."

Chizuru rolled her eyes, not able, though, to hold back the small smile that was forming at the sound of her old nickname.  "Whatever."

“Dude! Where were you earlier?” Woohyun asked, pushing his way through the throng of students to stand next to Chizuru, managing to, at the same time, block her from the tide of people.

“The teacher held me back in class for falling asleep,” Hoya answered with a sheepish grin.

“Hyung, you’re going to end up getting held back a year,” Sungjong teased.

“Shut up,” Hoya grumbled, pinching Sungjong’s arm while everyone laughed at their interaction.

They hadn’t noticed it, but while they were talking, the mass of people had slowly been moving away, giving them space. 

Being the first to catch on to the sudden change in breathing room, Chizuru looked around confused, catching Iori’s eye.

Iori just shook her head.

“It’s because of these idiots,” she said, nodding her head towards the Infinite boys, who were now pinching and hitting each other.

“They’re considered one of the ‘Big Three’,” Rei elaborated, walking to stand next to her friends. "Although, the groups that are in the Big Three generally change depending on who you talk to."

“‘Big Three’?” Chizuru snorted, looking at their guy friends again.  

Rei and Iori looked back at them also.  “I mean, you have to admit, they are attractive.”

Chizuru gave a small conceding nod as she surveyed the girls who were watching Infinite with hungry eyes.  She shuddered a little at their predatory behavior.

Poor boys.

“Oh that’s right,” Chizuru said, suddenly remembering what she had been wondering about earlier.  “Do you guys know who EXO is?  I’ve been hearing girls squeal about them all day.”

Rei scrunched up her face in disgust.  “Popular pretty boys.  They don’t talk to anyone outside their pack, but almost all the girls in school idolize them.”

Chizuru chuckled at her friend's reaction. "Doesn't sound like you like them very much."

"Rei's just bitter that they have a water controller who could actually give her a run for her money," Iori giggled.

"Oh?" Chizuru said, her eyes wide as she played along.  "Is that so?"

Rei just rolled her eyes at the two.

“On a more serious note though, they are very eye-catching," Iori said, going back to the original question. "In fact, that’s them over there.” 

Chizuru followed where her friend was pointing, her eyes widening in actual surprise this time when she realized who she was looking at.

"It's the guy from lunch!" Chizuru frowned to herself before adding, "No wonder he had an attitude." 

"You recognize them?" Iori asked, surprised.

“They weren’t here two years ago though,” Rei said.

"I ran into some of them earlier in front of the cafeteria," Chizuru said, looking over the group of boys, "And actually, some of them are in my class also."

She paused and observed them.  The ones from her class were being loud and rambunctious, with the exception of the one that had the really big eyes and prettily shaped lips. The rest of the pack was either playing some game with rock-paper-scissor, staring off into space, or actually trying to find their name on the giant announcement board.

“They don’t seem all that great,” Chizuru stated bluntly, her expression unimpressed, causing Rei to snicker.
 

“Eh, they’re cute but a bit too standoffish for my taste,” Iori added in with a shrug.

“Yah!  What are you guys still doing back there?” Sungyeol called over to the girls, effectively cutting off their gossip time.

The boys had, at some point, stopped arguing with each other and moved forward, putting them right in front of the board.

“Quit spacing out and come on!” Sungyeol called again, waving his arm to usher them forward.

“Yeah, yeah we’re coming!” Rei called back, slightly grimacing at the commotion Sungyeol was causing by being so loud.

“Let’s go,” Chizuru smiled, “before he decides he needs to come back here and drag us up there himself.”

                                                v   v    v

It was too loud.

That was the first thing the boys thought as they entered the main hall to find out what Keeper they had gotten assigned to. 

“Why is it always like this whenever we go somewhere?” Tao complained, giving wary glances to the many girls giving them flirtatious – or hungry – smirks. 

“They know we can see them, right?” Sehun muttered, moving to stand closer to his pack, not daring to be too far from his hyungs in this situation.

Baekhyun sighed.  “Of course they do, they just don’t care.”

For once I want to be able to walk without this happening, Chen thought.  

He felt so mentally drained from having to go through this, and the fact that he had to sit through two more classes before being able to go back to the dorms to sleep wasn't exactly helping either.

Wonder if I can skip.

“Don’t even think about it,” Luhan said, flicking Chen’s head.

“Ow, hyung~ don't just use your powers on me,” Chen whined.

“If we have to suffer through our classes then so do you," he answered, a cheeky smile plastered on his face.

Chen pouted as Baekhyun and Chanyeol laughed next to him, earning both of them hard hits from an annoyed looking D.O.

With Kris and Suho leading the way, they had cut a clean path to the front, giving them a clear view of the board.  It really wasn't that hard, though, since no one dared to get too close to them. 

Everyone knew that the EXO boys weren’t above picking fights.  Everyone ALSO knew that EXO was considerably stronger than most of the students at the academy, the only thing stopping them from becoming star students being their propensity to slack off. 

While the two leaders were busy with locating their name, the other members had started to talk and play little games to keep themselves entertained. 

They had just started a rock-paper-scissor tournament when Chen noticed a commotion going on behind them. 

Turning around he could see Infinite rough-housing with each other, causing the surrounding girls to giggle and scurry away to avoid accidentally getting hit. 

“‘Big Three’?”

Chen had been turning back to his pack when his ears picked up the sound of a light, sweet laugh.  He automatically turned his head back, looking for the voice’s source, eyes landing on the smiling face of Min Chizuru.

It was her, huh?

Chen watched her talk with her two friends, smiling in a way that she didn’t when she was around others or in class.  His lips slightly tugged up at the ends.  He couldn’t help but think that smiling suited her. 

“Yah, Chen…Chen…Jongdae quit spacing out!”

Chen whipped his head around to glare at Chanyeol.

“What?” he growled, raising a hand to cover the ear that had just gotten assaulted by Chanyeol's booming voice.

“We were taking guesses about who we were gonna get,” Tao said with a smile.

“I said we were probably going to get Rei, since she's strong,” Kai continued.

“And I said that we would get Iori,” Sehun added in.

Luhan snorted.  “More like you want to get Iori.”

Sehun blushed.  “Hyung~ It’s not like that…but, don’t you want a cute Keeper also?”

“Isn’t Rei pretty too?” Xiumin said as he and Lay joined the conversation.

“She’s not exactly friendly,” D.O grimaced.

Baekhyun shuddered.  “She's always so cold whenever I try to compliment her.”

“Pfft, flirt is more like it,” Chanyeol laughed.

“How about her then?”

Chanyeol had lowered his voice as he gestured over to where Chizuru and her friends had moved to stand. 

They were closer now to where EXO was standing, and Chizuru had separated herself a bit to look for her name on the list, putting her in the boys’ direct line of sight.

They watched as she bit her bottom lip in concentration, her hands held behind her back while she played with the hem of her skirt.  She would occasionally tip-toe to try and see further up the list, her balance perfectly steady.  At that moment the boys couldn’t help but wish that the skirt was just a little bit shorter.

“The rumors about her though,” Baekhyun trailed off, his eyes following her hips sway as she switched from one foot to the other.

Lay sighed, needing more effort than he thought he would to pull his eyes away from the sight in front of them.  “Guys, we really shouldn’t be staring.”

There were a few sounds of protest but the boys all turned away, some a bit more red-faced than others. 

“They’re just rumors though,” Kai said after clearing his throat, his cheeks still slightly pink, “Right?”

“People wouldn’t start a rumor like that though if there wasn’t any truth to it," Baekhyun reasoned.  "Wouldn't that be too...vicious?"

“People are mean,” Chen sighed, glancing back at Chizuru who was currently trying to pry Iori off of her arm to no avail, “Especially when they’re jealous.”

“Guys come over here!” Suho called, “I think we found our name!”

At their leader’s words, the boys dropped the conversation and moved over to where Suho and Kris were standing.

“Who did we get?” Luhan asked.

“EXO,” a soft, now recognizable voice cut in, startling Chen.

The boys all turned to look at the speaker.

Chen couldn’t stop the warmth that crept up his cheeks when he noticed how close Min Chizuru was standing to him.  She wasn’t looking at him though.  She was looking up at the list of assigned teams, a slight frown on her lips.

“You!” Kris blurted out, his voice cracking in a comical way towards the end, “You’re the girl from earlier that spilled my drink!”

At that, Chizuru turned to face them, narrowing her eyes a bit as she stared them down head on.  The boys unconsciously held their breath.  The expression she had on her face was clearly peeved, but that didn’t change the fact that they were being faced with a beauty.  A very intimidating beauty.

She shifted a little, seemingly uncomfortable from their blatant staring, but she didn’t back down.

“My name isn’t ‘girl’, it’s Chizuru, and you should try to remember it since apparently,” she ground out before pausing, nodding her head to the board, “we’re a team from now on.”

The boys’ eyes widened -- some from shock, some from happiness – as they turned their heads to look at where she had gestured.

And sure enough, there it was:

Pack – EXO, assigned to Keeper – Min Chizuru

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Third chapter edited and up~