The lunch bell rings and Doojoon scrambles to fix his stuff and get out of the classroom as soon as possible to get to the cafeteria. Today, he and the guys would be planning on a way to put their 'How to Become Popular' plan into action.

He walks inside the cafeteria and makes his way toward their usual table only to find that Junhyung, Hyunseung, Dongwoon, Gikwang and Yoseob are already seated around it.

"What took you so long, hyung?!" Dongwoon asked the moment Doojoon gets there.

"Yeah! I thought you wanted to do this…" Yoseob added, smiling cheekily.

"Shut up!" Doojoon snapped. "I didn't even take that long."

"Whatever you say…" Gikwang mumbled, stuffing his mouth with a chicken nugget.

"What did you do, YooDoo?" Junhyung asked, smirking.

"SHUT UP!" Doojoon said, irritated.

"Geez. We were just joking." Yoseob said, laughing as he wiped his mouth clean of chocolate sauce.

Doojoon turned toward their group's fake maknae. "Why are you eating chocolate for lunch?" He wondered aloud to the boy.

Yoseob shrugged. "Dunno. I eat dessert first." He said simply.

Doojoon stared at Yoseob blankly, waiting for more snide remarks from his friends. When that didn't happen, he took it as his cue to speak.

"So, I guess we'll start!" Doojoon said excitedly, sitting down on one of the empty chairs around the table and pulling out a packed lunch from his backpack.

"Wait, we haven't laid down the rules, yet…" Hyunseung said.

"Oh right…" Doojoon mumbled. "Err, well, how do you suppose we go about it?"

"No cheating!" Yoseob said immediately.

"Hyung, that's so vague…" Dongwoon told Yoseob, stuffing a forkful of pasta intp his mouth at the same time.

Doojoon scoffed. "You guys keep talking with your mouth full!"

"Ani!" Gikwang protested. "We talk and then we feed ourselves." He said defensively.

"Dropping the subject…" Doojoon said, brushing off Gikwang's comments.

"So, what are the rules?" Junhyung asked. "Yoseob's 'no cheating' is very vague."

"Yeah, there's a lot of forms of cheating…" Dongwoon said.

"Okay, so what we can do is lay down what we could consider as cheating for this bet." Doojoon started. "Like..." he trailed off, thinking about it for a long while. "Like no asking help from other people!" He finally finished.

"'Other people' being…?" Hyunseung questioned.

"Uh, you know…" Pause. "Them…"

"Them?" Yoseob and Dongwoon raised an eyebrow.

"What the are you talking about? 'Them'? WHAT 'THEM'?" Junhyung snapped.

"Yeah! And there are many different forms of help a person could offer!" Hyunseung added in.

"YAH! Help from who?!" Gikwang yelled. "And why would anyone help us?!"

Doojoon shrugged, "We have other friends…" he trailed off.

"Yeah, who?" Gikwang pressed.

"Uh…" Doojoon scratched the back of his head, thinking hard. "…Err…well…'them'..." he murmured.

"WHO IS 'THEM'?!" Everyone sitting around the table shouted.

"Hey guys!"

Everyone looked towards the person that just arrived. Jinhong had just greeted the table in her usual happy manner.

"There!" Doojoon pointed to her happily, "Them! Her!" He said, referring to Jinhong. He gave her a smile that read 'Thank you for your perfect timing, Moon Jinhong!'.

The rest greeted her with bright smiles among other things, forgetting Doojoon's idiocy and remembering they did actually have other friends besides themselves.

"Jinny!!" Yoseob said happily.

"Wassup, Jinny." Gikwang said, flashing her a smile.

"Don't forget Jamie!" Jinhong exclaimed, moving aside to show her best friend.

"Jamie!!" Yoseob chirped, greeting SeonJi just as enthusiastically.

"Hey." Jamie smiled.

Jinhong moved toward the empty seat beside Doojoon and set her tray down on the table. Jamie followed suit, sitting on the empty seat next to Jinhong and then smiling over at Hyunseung, who was seated beside her.

"Where were you guys yesterday?" Dongwoon asked, leaning over so he could see Jinhong and Jamie more clearly, for his view of the two was partially blocked by Doojoon.

Jinhong shrugged. "Uh, we were busy..."

"With what?" Gikwang asked.

"Stuff…" Jamie said as she opened her can of orange juice.

"What stuff?" Yoseob inquired, curious.

Doojoon was getting annoyed. They were getting extremely off topic and he wanted to put his plans into action as soon as possible.

Jinhong shook her head. "Not important!" She said impatiently. "What are you guys up to?" She asked, unwrapping a sandwich she bought.

'Thank you, Jinny!' Doojoon thought exasperatedly, extremely thankful that his girl best friend was changing the topic. She had saved his for the second time in less than 5 minutes and didn't even know it.

"We're talking about our bet~!" Doojoon answered.

"What bet?" Jinhong and Jamie asked at the same time.

"No, technically," Junhyung started, "we were arguing over the bet's rules…"

"WHAT BET?" Jinhong raised her voice. She didn't like being out of the loop.

Jamie just chuckled, "You know you can't do those things around Jinny." She said calmly. "She'll rip your head off."

"Jamie." Yoseob looks at her with a weird expression. "What the hell?" He chuckled.

Jamie just shrugged and continued to eat her food.

"Anyway…" Dongwoon began, trying to lift the awkwardness that ensued because of what Jamie had said. "The rules?"

"Yeah, where were we?" Hyunseung asked.

"'Them'." Junhyung replied bitterly.

Yoseob, Dongwoon and Gikwang tried to hold back guffaws at Junhyung's comment, but were unsuccessful. Doojoon started to blush a bit; that whole scene was a little embarrassing.

But, being Yoo Doo Joo, he composed himself quickly. "Like I said, no asking help from other people. Like these two." He said, referring to Jamie and Jinhong.

"And like I said," Hyunseung said, a slight tone of annoyance in his voice, "what forms of help are they not allowed to offer? Or what are we not allowed to accept or ask for?"

"And like I said," Jinhong started, "WHAT BET?!" She finished icily.

Doojoon shuddered. "Who wants to explain to Jinny?" He called out to the table.

"You." Gikwang and Junhyung said flatly.

"Yeah! You do it, hyung!" Dongwoon agreed enthusiastically, and then paused. "Hey wait. Yoo Doo Hyung!!!" He said, realizing his play on words.

Yoseob rolled his eyes. "Aigoo, maknae!" He sighed. "That was lame!"

"Mianhe." Dongwoon bowed his head and stuffed his face with a meatball.

"So, YooDoo, are you gonna tell me?" Jinhong asked, turning toward Doojoon.

"Yah! Who told you that?" Doojoon questioned Jinhong, his annoyance apparant.

"Didn't Dongwoon just call you YooDoo hyung?" Jinhong retorted. "Someone called you YooDooJoo, didn't they?" She laughed.

"How did you know?" Doojoon mumbled quietly, sinking in his chair.

Jinhong laughed and slapped Jamie on her arm. "Yah! James! You were right! That girl you were talking to yesterday was talking about Doojoon-ah!"

Jamie started laughing as well. "Hahaha! Oh god, the whole time were wondering who the hell YooDooJoo was!" She exclaimed through her giggles.

"Yah! It reached you guys?!" Doojoon was flustered now, and the rest of the table was laughing at Jinhong and Jamie's story.

"Uh, yeah." Jinhong mocked Doojoon. "She was so irritated that you walked away from her yesterday."

"I mean really, Oppa," Jamie said, "that was so unchivalrous of you…"

"Ooh, big words." Yoseob said, Dongwoon laughing at his comment.

"Leaving a girl who's asking for help…" Jamie shook her head in disappointment.

"Yah, SeonJi-yah! You know I'm not really like that, right?" Doojoon reasoned. "I mean, you gotta understand. She called me Yoo Doo Joo!"

It had been a day, and yet everyone was still laughing at the name.

"Whatever!" Jinhong waved off Doojoon's pity speech. "So are you telling me what this stupid bet is about?"

"Exactly that!" Doojoon said, answering Jinhong.

"Exactly what?" Jinhong snapped.

"The fact that… that girl called me Yoo Doo Joo means I'm probably a non-entity in this school!" Doojoon explained.

"So?" Jinhong and Jamie said in unison.

"We know you, Oppa!" Jamie added.

"Aish! That's not good enough." Doojoon shook his head.

"So then what's good enough for you, Doojoon?" Jinhong asked seriously.

"I wanna become popular!" Doojoon blurted out in an uncool manner.

Jamie and Jinhong exchange confused glances, and then start laughing at Doojoon.

"What?! You? Popular?" Jinhong said incredulously.

"Yah! Not only me! All of them wanna become popular too!" Doojoon defended, motioning to the rest of the guys, who suddenly stopped smiling and looked down in embarrassment.

"So that's what your bet is about?!" Jinhong shrieked. "Becoming popular?!"

"BINGO!" Doojoon said proudly, seemingly not embarrassed at all. Jamie shook her head, and Jinny elbowed her.

"Tell your boy to cut the crap!" She hissed in her best friend's ear.

"Boy? What boy?" Jamie answered, cheeks turning slightly pink.

"Okay, if you wanna keep playing that card…"

Jamie rolled her eyes and turns to the boys. "So, what about this bet? Could you elaborate?"

"…Is it still me explaining?" Doojoon asked around the table, recieving nods in reply.

"Yes. Please, continue." Junhyung drawled.

"Fine." Doojoon huffed. He looked at the two girls. "Well, the bet was to see who, from the six of us, could become popular first."

A pause.

"And then?" Jinhong urged him on.

"Well…the prize of the winner --"

"I don't care about the prize," Jinhong snapped. "What are the mechanics?"

The table was completely silent, and Jinny sighed.

"Here we go…"

- - - -

It took the group of eight the whole lunch period to come up with the rules and mechanics to win the bet; and at the end, they came up with three.


1. Acknowledgement of the "It Crowd"

2. Cheaters Never Win

3. The "Jackpot"

 

Acknowledgement of the "It Crowd". It means that the complete "It Crowd" of their school, composed of the 12 most well-known boys and girls, need to know their correct full names and acknowledge them as a person. Among other things, the "Acknowledgment of the 'It Crowd'" rule includes that when being acknowledged by the It Crowd, the 12 of them cannot be together for fear of cheating when one answers and the rest follow. Also, this acknowledgement needs to be witnessed by any of the 5 other contenders or the 2 girls, who were decided as the Officials for the bet. And first to complete all 12 wins.

Cheaters Never Win. This rule covers the forms of cheating that the 8 agreed on.
They consider cheating to be:
1. Asking for help. A contender cannot ask anyone else for help on how to become popular. No asking or bribing other people to promote him. However, one can seek help in the form of, giving ideas and helping him carry out a plan he can't do by himself. They can ask for opinions from other people, though. But strictly no promotion by means of other people. The Officials will see to it that they become popular by self-promotion and are punished accordingly if they become popular otherwise. Also, Officials have the option to accept or decline requests of help from the contenders.
2. Teaming up. Contenders cannot team up with each other behind the others' backs. They can however coordinate plans with each other if they feel like their plan needs to be executed by more than one person. Anyone who tries to form a team needs to inform the Officials. This rule was set up in hopes that teams don't succeed and instead end up fighting.
3. Sabotage. The contenders are not allowed to sabotage each others' plans. Simple as that. Any forms of ing will result in immediate disqualification.

And last, but most definitely not the least:

The "Jackpot". This is considered the grand slam. SRSLY.
The "Jackpot" is achieved when everybody in school starts talking about you-- note that your full name must be known, so they have to be talking about you properly-- and a contender is suddenly surrounded by a crowd full of admiring students. This form of acknowledgement will lead to an automatic win.

First person to complete the 12 acknowledgements or the Jackpot wins the bet. Break the rules more than 3 times and a contender is automatically disqualified.

- - - -

"Well, the rules look good," Doojoon said as the bell rang, signalling the end of lunch, "Let the games officially start tomorrow. Be ready!"

Annyeong ~ ! Ella (aka. Octoberettes) here to post the second chapter of 'The Popular Games'! SapphireSwoon and I had (too much) fun writing out this chapter, and even more fun planning what was to happen in the upcoming chapters. This is totally going to be a comedic story full of YooDooJoo jokes and stupidity x3

It would be really great if anyone reading out there would COMMENT ON THIS STORY. We love readers' love, and we don't bite (well, at least I don't)!

And I'm honestly curious; who do you think will win the bet? :3