There is this thing we do when tending sheep in the field becomes a better prospect than sitting in dull classes and listening to equally lackluster professors. We log in to this program I made about a year ago. The handiwork is mine (well, with a little help from bespectacled friends from the IT department plus I'm sort of a computer nerd myself) but it’s actually Jongdae’s idea. The guy’s insane, no going around that, but his ideas are actually good. Well, most of the time.

So anyway, the website contains features such as our photo shots, hilarious videos and other crazy stuff that only the four of us can access. So it basically contains anything from a candid shot of a hated faculty member picking his nose to Jongdae's rants about anything and anyone. If anybody finds out about it, we'll no doubt be in big trouble because aside from the very incriminating, not to mention, embarassing pictures and videos about various people in the university, Jongdae could very well be guilty of slander by the way he backstabs and throws written brickbats about his ex-boyfriends and "es" who steal his ex-boyfriends and just about anyone who pisses him off. He once told me to make it a public blog but that was until I whacked him on the head and pointed out the glaring flaw in that course of action.

The main thing about the site though, is this chat room where we can while the time away until classes end. Or in some cases, until the professor throws an eraser to our heads or confiscates our phones.

I’m having Humanities with Yixing right now though he’s way down there in the front row, no doubt furiously taking down notes. He has, on more than one occasion, pulled me to sit with him but a kick in his shin always has him backing off. I was never a front-seater so I’m here at the very back, fiddling with my phone and waiting for either Luhan or Jongdae to log into the chat room.

I know Luhan has Literature and Jongdae has Chinese History. Perfect. They’re bound to be online since both of them don’t like their respective subjects.

After sighing for a grand total of twenty seven times (conclusive proof of the boredom I’m feeling because who the hell counts their sighing?), a notification finally pops up on the screen.

too_hot_for_you has entered the room

too_hot_for_you: u r now graced by my awesum presnce

I smile, shaking my head and typing a response, hiding my phone under the table.

colormejaded: i take it you have a new phone now?

too_hot_for_you: is d sun hot? yes, ofcrz i do. d latst ifone, chew on dat, bi-otch! mwahaha

colormejaded: i only have one sentiment for that. poor lu

too_hot_for_you: oh pls, tht guy cn buy a hndrd ifones nd it wnt evn make a dent in hs bank accnt

colormejaded: yeah, but if you keep asking him to buy you stuff, he will probably make a dent in your face

too_hot_for_you: he luvs me too mch 2 do dat, dnt b rdiclous

too_hot_for_you: thrs smthin dat nids 2 b srsly done wd d old lady’s fashn snse. hr msmatchd scarvs r an abominatn.

colormejaded: it doesn’t help when that same lady gets to decide if you pass her course or not

too_hot_for_you: hush. am tryng 2 imgine hw kim jongin’s plmp lips wud tste lyk

colormejaded: your powers of retention amaze me and who the hell is jongin?

too_hot_for_you: i bet u dey tste lyk chclate. jst lyk d rest of hm. jst lookng at al dat glrious tannd flsh is gvng me enuf chills n all d ryt plces. f u gt wat i mean.

colormejaded: sadly, i do.

too_hot_for_you: oh dnt b sch a prude, jia. undrnth al thse absrd layrs of jersys of urs r lady parts dat r waitng 2 b awknd nd b put 2 gud use

colormejaded: I really don’t want to talk about my organs with you, if you don’t mind. And what, I’m a girl now? I thought you had long ago skipped that information.

too_hot_for_you: oh u, i nvr said dat.

colormejaded: you need to have your brain checked then.

too_hot_for_you: my head is fyn, thnk u vry mch. its my loins dat nid 2 b exmned. theyr on fire ryt nw. kim jongin’s side profle s mkng me crzy.

A new account logs in.

Manchester07 has entered the room

Manchester07: KIM JONGIN AS IN THE KOREAN DUDE WITH THE REALLY HOT GIRLFRIEND?

colormejaded: luhan! you’re here, thank goodness, you deal with him. this convo is getting gross.

too_hot_for_you: ugh go awy Jia, I dnt nid u hir. luhan, talk 2 me. jongin hs a gf? tel me d nme of d i hv 2 gt rid of.

Manchester07: I’M NOT SURE BUT I THINK I SAW HIM ON CAMPUS TWICE WITH HIS ARM AROUND KWON YURI’S SHOULDER.

too_hot_for_you: kwon yuri. d nme genrlly drips wd nes and sxualy trnsmitd diseases

Manchester07: THAT’S YOU, NOT HER.

too_hot_for_you: oh tkng syds nw, r we? does ur gf knw ur balls beat 4 anothr chick nw?

Manchester07: THE ? LEAVE MY BALLS OUT OF THIS OR I’M CHOPPING YOURS LATER.

I cover my mouth to stifle my laughter. I join in the conversation again.

colormejaded: I wouldn’t recommend that, Lu. it’ll probably just divide into pieces that will grow into more Jongdaes. the end of the world as we know it.

Manchester07: ROFL. =D

too_hot_for_you: harhar. so funy. luk at me, im pissin myslf lafing, wht r u stil doin hir? ur bannd, u buzzkill

colormejaded: I made this program, you , you can’t ban me.

Manchester07: AND I HELPED TOO, RIGHT? I HELPED IN MAKING THIS WEBSITE

colormejaded: uh, no? you were busy whispering to your girlfriend on the phone about who knows what while I painstakingly created the layout.

too_hot_for_you: typcal luhan. he ws probbly hvin fone wd tiffany agen

colormejaded: one word. eww.

Manchester07: THATS IT. I’M OUTTA HERE. YOU GUYS ING .

Another account pops out on the screen.

Professor_Xingxing has entered the room

Professor_Xingxing: No, actually, all of you . If you’re so keen on wasting your time chatting and talking about stupid things, then why do you even bother going to school? And Jia, if you have the time to look up from your phone, you’ll realize classes already ended three minutes ago.

Professor_Xingxing has left the room

I do as Yixing tells me and snap my head up, only to realize the classroom is already empty.

Oh shoot.

 “, Jia, are you even listening to me?” Jongdae throws food at me, but I duck just in time and it hits the person beside me.

Yep. Just another normal day at lunch.

“What the hell is your problem, man?” exclaims the huge bear-like guy, glaring at Jongdae.

Intimidation is alien to Jongdae so he regards him with a passive variation of condescension. “It’s only French fries, geez. How about you pick ‘em up, shove em’ in your mouth and we’ll call it even?”

“If he decides to kill you, please know that I will pray for your soul.” I whisper to him, leaning close while eyeing the 200 pound specimen of a jock who looks like he’s ready to rip somebody’s throat open.

True enough, he abruptly stands up, slamming his meaty hands on the table, creating a little earthquake and grabs Jongdae by the collar. “How would you like to die, ?” He rumbles, pulling their faces closer.

“With the state of your breath, I’m guessing by toxic air pollution.” Jongdae smirks at him, not a hint of dread in his eyes.

I facepalm myself because as it stands, the situation calls for me to do more than just praying for an unfortunate soul.

The guy raises a fist that could no doubt cause permanent nerve damage to whichever part of body it would land and which, by the look of things right now, is my friend’s face. I stand up and quickly take hold of the guy’s arm with both hands before it reaches its destination.

“Hey buddy, wait, wait, you really don’t want to do that.” I tell him, trying to sound as calm as possible while my whole body is struggling to stop his mere arm.

He turns his attention to me and I gulp when his eyes land on mine. Holy . The guy is enormous.

“Stay out of this, shortie.” He sharply tells me.

At that moment, I begin to recognize who the guy is. “Hey wait, I know you. You’re the guy who couldn’t get into Lu’s soccer team.” I say, finally remembering.

“Literally.” Jongdae remarks and the boy snarls at him.

“Shut up, will you? You’re making things worse.” I hiss at him. I turn my back to the guy who’s starting to grow impatient. “We’re Luhan’s friends. If you want, we can talk to him about getting you on the team.”

He snorts. “Luhan? That arrogant son of a who called me fatass?”

Jongdae bursts into laughter again. Okay, maybe I should seriously start evaluating my friends after this.

I try again. “Trust me, he can be conceited, sure but Luhan is a really nice guy inside. I’m sure he’ll consider taking you. I’ll talk to him. I promise.”

“Why should I believe you?”

Good question.

“Um…well, uh…how about this? If Luhan doesn’t take you in the team in three days, you’re welcome to find him” I gesture at the squirming Jongdae in his hands, “and beat him all you want.”

I can feel his arm relaxing until he lets go of Jongdae altogether. “Okay, deal. Three days. If there’s nothing, he’s dead.”

“Got it.” I nod.

When the big guy walks away, Jongdae throws food at me again and this time, I’m not able to evade the onslaught of nachos and fries.

“What the hell was that?” He almost screeches at me.

“We usually just say thank you.” I deadpan, sitting back on the table and giving the evil eye to the students on the lunch table who were still staring at us.

“Thank you? For what? ‘You can beat him all you want?’ Gawd, Jia, did anybody ever tell you that you have a twisted understanding of heroism?”

“Are you even hearing yourself? Did you skip the part about how it all started because you’re a douche who couldn’t keep his mouth shut? You could use a little discretion, for crying out loud! Especially when dealing with people who are five times larger than you.”

“I’m not afraid of him.” He says haughtily.

“So you wouldn’t have any problem when Luhan refuses to recruit him on the team and he comes to find you then.” I shrug, looking smugly at him.

“ you, Yang Jia.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome.”

He sticks his tongue out at me and checks his phone. “Speak of the devil. Luhan sent as SOS.”

“What is it now?” I ask.

“He’s stuck in a two-hour Trigonometry session right now. Wants me to bail him out or he’ll go bananas if he stays there any longer.”

“Better get going then. You’ll need him to owe you if you want to be alive three days from now.”

He shoots me a weird look. “I’m proud of you. You’re beginning to think like a Kim Jongdae.” He makes a show of wiping a non-existent tear at the corner of his eye.

“Oh shoot me now.” I raise my eyes heavenward, vaguely realizing at the back of my mind that he’s right.

“Hey, another genius idea from yours truly has hit the station.” He says, eyes twinkling.

I roll my eyes but he continues anyway. “I get Luhan, you go get Yixing and let’s skip the rest of the afternoon periods.”

I perk my head up. I’m not really in the mood for school right now so his scheme plays right into my field. “I’m game.” I tell him.

“Of course you are.” He grins. “Let’s meet at the parking lot. You know where Lu parks the Audi. Wait, where’s Yixing now?”

“It’s Monday so he’s having meeting with the university newspaper club.” I muse.

Jongdae visibly cringes. “Eww. A room full of pseudo-intellectuals.”

I shake my head at him while standing up, gathering my things. He follows suit but then he starts giggling like a five-year old girl out of the blue.

“What?” I ask.

Jongdae snickers. “That guy called you shortie. Ha! Told you your 5’4’’ was short.”

Only he can afford to mock the person who just saved his .

I laugh together with him while beckoning with my hand. “Oh come here, you.”

He does so and when he’s close enough, my hand shoots up and I accomplish what the giant jock attempted to do.

I slowly slide the door open a little, only enough for me to see Yixing. Soon, he’s in my line of vision. He’s sitting behind his desk, shoulders hunched over the table, hastily writing whatever it is their editor in chief is yapping at the moment. I wait for him to look up and when he does, I wave my hand at him. No dice. The thing with Yixing is that once he’s focused on something, everything else just doesn’t exist for him at the moment.

I sigh. It can’t be helped then.

I count from one to three then slide the door completely, barging into the office and trying to look as distraught and panicked as I can. Everybody’s surprised eyes are on me.

“Yixing, thank goodness you’re here, I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” I say, walking to his table.

He looks utterly confused. “Jia? What are you doing here?”

I hear someone clear loudly. “Excuse me, we’re in the middle of a meeting here.”

I turn around and lock gazes with the stern editor in chief.

“Yes, I’m sorry to interrupt. It’s just that our friend is in trouble. And we really need to help him right now.” I explain.

She gives me a look of suspicion. “Is it that big of a trou—“

“What? Who’s in trouble, Jia? What happened?” Yixing interrupts, taking hold of my arm and standing up, a fretful look on his face.

Damn. I am torn between thinking I’m that good of an actress or Yixing is just that gullible of a person.

“It’s Jongdae. He…um, he choked on his…uh, food…nachos. He choked on his nachos and now he’s having trouble breathing and we really need to move, Xing.” I stutter, looking as convincing as possible.

He looks even more alarmed. “Oh no. We have to help him.” He turns to their editor in chief. “I’m sorry, I have to go, it’s an emergency. I’ll make it up to you guys next time.”

Before anybody in the staff could protest, Yixing and I are out the door and sprinting.

“Where is he now? Did you guys try the Heimlich maneuver?” He asks.

“Dude, we can’t even spell the word, let alone execute it.”

“Right.” He concedes, probably re-acquainting himself with the fact that his friends are idiots. “Where is he, anyway? Didn’t you bring him to the clinic?”

“Just follow me.” I say, running faster. Just enough so I can put enough distance between him and me, preventing him from asking any more questions that I would have to answer with more lies.

When we arrive at the parking lot, I can already hear Jongdae’s and Luhan’s voices echoing around the area. I run faster with Yixing keeping up behind.

We finally reach them and see the two of them lounging around Luhan’s Audi, bantering and laughing.

 “All right! You guys ready to ditch this joint?” Luhan announces, opening the car door.

“To the skating rink!” Jongdae announces, getting in the front seat.

At this point, Yixing begins to put two and two. He slowly turns to look at me. “Please tell me you did not interrupt my meeting with the staff, drag me here under the pretense of coming to a choking friend’s aid and end up actually cutting classes.”

I give him a sweet smile. “Uh, I could. But then I’d be lying.”

Jongdae pops his head out the window to regard the two of us. “Can you two ers get in the car already? We don’t have all day.”

Luhan adds in the sound of the car’s horn for good measure.

“I can’t believe you lied to me.” Yixing eyes me.

“I did you a favor, . Now you can always go back to that boring meeting or you can actually have fun with your friends. Your call.” With that, I got in the back seat, leaving him there.

Luhan turns around in the driver’s seat. “What’s his holdup?”

I hold up a hand, signaling for him to wait and I do little countdown. “Three…two…one.”

Then Yixing gets in the car and closes the door. “Okay, fine, but just this once.”

Jongdae regards him in the front view mirror. “You know that’s not possible, right?”

Luhan starts the car and then we’re speeding off the streets. Jongdae turns on the music and soon, we’re all loudly singing along to SuJu’s Swing.

“What happened to your nose?” Yixing innocently asks when he catches sight of the band-aid on the bridge of Jongdae’s nose.

Luhan meets my eyes in the mirror, a silent question and I send him a look, promising to fill him in later. We share a laugh.

 “Just shut up and sing, Yixing.” Jongdae bites back.

I wince as I witness Yixing stumble down for the umpteenth time. The guy has never been able to learn ice skating. Jongdae picks him up but because he’s laughing so hard, he slips on the ice as well and falls down on top of Yixing. I guffaw at the sight before going back to my own business.

I’m across the rink, practicing little spins when Luhan skates over to me.

“Tell me the name of the person who’s responsible for Kim Jongdae’s broken nose so I can shake his hand and thank him properly.” He says in mock seriousness.

I laugh. “You’re looking at him now…well, her.”

“Nice.” He beams at me and we share a fist bump. “What happened?” He asks.

I raise an eyebrow at him.

Luhan catches on. “Oh, right. The case of anybody punching Jongdae should be self-explanatory.”

“Yeah.” I nod at him. “Hey, um, Lu. Something came up. You remember that guy who wanted to get into your team but isn’t qualified?”

“I think you have to be more specific. A lot of guys fall into that category.”

“Big guy, about six feet tall, greasy hair and a constant murderous look in his eyes. Does that ring a bell?”

His face lights up in comprehension. “Oh, you mean Papa Bear Fatass?”

I fight the impulse to roll my eyes at the lousy moniker. I give him a run-down of what happened at the cafeteria during lunch time, especially about letting “Papa Bear” in on the soccer team. After my explanation, the only thing I could say to describe Luhan’s reaction is disbelief.

“Why the did you do that, Jia? We can’t take him in even if I wanted to. Have you seen the size of the dude? This is soccer. Not sumo wrestling.” He scratches the back of his head impatiently.

“Well, what was I supposed to do? He was ready to turn Jongdae’s face into pancake batter. I couldn’t think of anything else. And don’t yell at me, will you?” I answer back.

Luhan skates off in anger and I watch his retreating back.

~~~O~~~

Luhan was the last addition to our ragtag band. It had been Yixing and I from the start then came middle school and I brought in Jongdae. When we were in high school, Yixing brought Luhan in. The minute he stepped into our school, he was a screwed man. With his doll-like features and wealthy status, he became the embodiment of every girl’s dream. Two days in as a newcomer and Luhan already had his own fanclub in school. Ridiculous.

And normally, for someone who wanted to fly under the radar, that person wouldn’t join any sports club, an avenue to gain more attention. Not Luhan, though. Despite the sea of girls that stalked his path, he still had the guts to join the soccer team. Really stupid move, I once thought. And as if that wasn’t enough, he joined the dance club too. This was where he got acquainted with Yixing.

Yixing, being the ignorant guy that he is, became the obvious choice to the school’s most popular boy as someone to make friends with. Yixing regarded Luhan the way he regarded any classmate and Luhan liked that. He liked Yixing’s easy casualness and that he neither patronizes nor antagonizes him.

One thing led to another and he was soon introduced to me and Jongdae.

“If you fangirl over me, I might have to ignore you.” Were the first words he said to me after giving me a thorough once-over.

I blandly stared him. “Do I remotely look anything like a fan girl to you?”

Yixing and Jongdae laughed their pants off.

Our became a foursome from then on.

~~~O~~~

I determinedly chase after Luhan. “Luhan! Wait!”

“Why couldn’t the motherer just ing keep his mouth shut in the first place? Then we wouldn’t be in this mess.” He huffs when I reach him.

I try to match his speed. “My thoughts exactly but what’s done is done. Just please…do something. Comeon, Lu.”

He glances at me and slows down. “I’m not even sure if I can do something about it. I mean, I’m just the assistant captain.”

I grimace. “Maybe Minseok can help then? He’s the team captain, right? I’m sure with his help, you two can talk to the coach about it, put in a good word for the guy or something. He doesn’t even have to play at first. He can just be a benchwarmer for a while.”

Luhan sighs. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Sorry, Lu. I didn’t mean to drag you into this.”

There is silence as we both stop to look at Jongdae who is teaching Yixing how to skate.

This is a friendship that we have and who says that friendship is all about bonds, togetherness and empowerment? There’s damage too.  

“I told you we should have killed him a long time ago.” Luhan suddenly remarks.

I couldn’t help myself so I explode into laughter. “Next time. Definitely.”

Luhan grabs my hand and drags me to where Yixing and Jongdae are. “Comeon. We don’t have all day.”

I smile. That may be true. But we certainly have right now.

What's up, guys?

Despite the many scenes and plans I have for this fic, I'm still not entirely sure if I should go with building up any obvious pairings in the story or just stick to the friendship theme. Plus, if I do, what pairing? What do you guys think? Little help?

And as always, thank you for reading and subscribing!