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High School

"Minseok-hyung is on the bar again." Tao pointed out. "The party had just started but he's down four beers already."

"As always."  Chen droned as he take a swig of his coke.

"Are you okay?” Tao nudged the shorter male. "You seem down."

Chen pouts, glaring at the can of chilled soda on his hands, "This. This is not making me okay. Why do Minseok-hyung gets to drink all he wants and we can't?”

"Uh… because we're underage and he's not? Come on, dude. Cheer up! There's a lot of girls here, and all the coke you can chug. Stop sulking!"

Chen sighs, "Yeah, maybe you're right. I bet Minseok-hyung would be so wasted that he won't get anyone to dance with him."

"I bet he'd get someone to dance with him." a girl refuted lightly.

Chen turned abruptly, frowning. "Oh, Joy! You're here!"

"Surprise." Joy drawled as she helped herself to one of the canned sodas.  "I thought they only invite people with brains here."

"Yah! What's that supposed to mean?!" Chen protested.

"Exactly what it's supposed to mean."

"Hey, I'm your senior. Don't talk to me that way."

"This isn't the school grounds."

"Why you little--"

"So! I bet all my allowance for the next month that Minseok-sunbae will dance with at least one person before the night is over, or at least before he passes out from alcohol." Joy stated, opening her cola and taking a sip.

Chen gave Joy an incredulous look before turning back to where Minseok was downing his fifth bottle of beer, not missing how the girls around his area was avoiding him.

"I bet he'd pass out first before he even gets a chance to dance with anybody." Chen smirked.

"It's on." Joy replies with her own smug grin. "Looks like I'd be earning free lunch money for the next month." she added before sauntering away.

Chen gaped at Joy's retreating back. They had known each other only a few years back when Joy had attended the same high school, she being a year lower than him. Joy is a likable girl, a good student… and the bane of his existence most of the time.

He doesn't remember when was the first time he found Joy's quirky attitude a little annoying, but he certainly did find her to be bothersome on many times. Especially when she have that smug look on her face.

"Are you serious about this? What if she won?" Tao asked.

"Are you crazy? Look at Minseok-hyung, he's practically inebriated. He can't even stand on his own. Just look at him!"

The two friends kept their eyes on their senior who was dancing on his own, or more like swaying on the spot and struggling not to topple over face first. Chen is confident that no one would approach Minseok when he was in this state. The older is one of the well-known senior they have in high school, a friendly boy-next-door when sober, but definitely someone who no one wants to deal with when he had too much to drink. If Chen would be honest, even if he respects his hyung very much, he wouldn’t even go near a thousand feet of him, at least not right now.

But low and behold, someone approaches. It’s not a girl though, so Chen is not overly concerned. The guy might just need something from Minseok; Chen hopes that he'd tell the senior to go home since he's already wasted.

The two guys talk, well, at least Minseok seemed to try a response.  

And then they went to the makeshift dance floor and started dancing.

"What the hell--- I didn't know Minseok-hyung was gay!" Tao gawps.

"That's because he isn't!" Chen shrieks, eyes glued at the two. "He's just drunk! People do stupid things when they're drunk!"

The two of them hurriedly went over to where Minseok was flailing about with the other guy, dragging their sunbae away from the dance floor and the unknown person he was dancing with.

"Yah! You little punks! I was dancing with the pretty girl! Let me go!" Minseok protested.

"Pretty girl? Hyung, that was a guy you were dancing with!" Tao screeched. 

"It wasn't a guy, you dummies! She was really hot! And pretty too!" Minseok insisted, staggering backwards and forwards. "What the hell… the ground is spinning!"

"He's so out of it." Chen groans. "We should have just left him with that guy. And took a video or something. It's a good blackmail material, especially when we really need his help."

"Yeah. We should have." Tao agrees.

Chen grunted as he hauled Minseok up and tried to steady him, Tao struggling as well.

"So…" a familiar lilting smug voice ask.. 

Chen looked up only to see Joy and that smirk he hates. "What do you want?"

"Well, I just want to remind you of our little bet."

"Hyung is already passed out. And not one girl had danced with him. I won. What are you so smug about?" Chen scoffed, readjusting Minseok who was already probably drooling, on his shoulder.

"You won?" Joy raised a brow. "Wait a minute, let's make things clear. We bet about somebody dancing with Minseok-sunbae before he passes out or go home. We didn't say anything about it being a girl, a boy, or an animal, just somebody, S-O-M-E-B-O-D-Y. And somebody did!"

"W-what-- what?!"

"What language do you want me to use? Pssh! We only bet about somebody, not necessarily a girl. So that means I won. And I believe you owe me a month's worth of allowance." Joy grins. She waves her hand in the air as she leaves, "I'll see you at school, Jongdae-sunbae."

Chen gapes for a minute, trying to process what had just happened.

"Hyung… are you alright?" Tao asks warily.

"Did I… did that girl really…"

"Hyung, it's just money. You'll get it back. Let it go."

Chen looks at the where Joy had disappeared to. "No. I'll get her back for this. It's not just about money. I'll surely get back at her. I swear."

"Hyung…" Tao could only shake his head. He has a really, really curious feeling about all this. It's not necessarily bad, but he doubts that it'll be the best thing too. It is interesting, though. 

Thus, the start of the Betting Game.

 

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