Day 4

I swept stray strands of hair off my hair. They quickly fell back in place as I kicked the fan and cursed. It blew harder in my face, taunting and mocking me.

Mr. Shim found a dusty old fan in the storage room of his classroom and saw it fitting to place it next to my mat. I couldn’t sleep all night as Seungri had secretly switched our positions. Little brat.

I rested on my elbows, glancing around the gym. Everyone was snoring cozily; of course, they didn’t have a fan blowing dust bunnies up their noses. But why did it seem like half the students were missing? I creased my eyebrows. I did a quick headcount and tried to pull out faces. Seungri and Daesung were beside me. Where was Ms. Kwon (cough, aka, Commander Venus)?

I slowly sat up. Mr. Rain wasn’t here either. The first thought that came to my head: Oh crap. Who’s gonna serve me my food then?! Then I shook my head, mentally slapping myself. What a stupid, selfish thing to think. I glanced around the room one more time before thinking: Where are the teachers to serve usour breakfast?! This would not be selfish if I weren’t secretly hoping they planted more bribery food under my pillow. I quickly swept my hand under it. Nothing. Nothing at all?

Carefully, I stood up, stretching in the process. My bones cracked. I spotted Mr. Jung and skipped—I mean—walked in a collected manner towards him.

He looked up before I was even close enough to say anything. I was still thinking of how to start up a conversation. He must be a secret ninja, I secretly noted. Yeah, that must be it. ‘Cause ninjas are always y. Unless they use their masks to hide their ugli—

“Everything okay, Ms. Park?” I blinked a couple of times. No, not really. What the crap happened to everyone? Did you ninja assassinate them all overnight?

“Uhhhh…” What a doofus I sounded like.

“’Uhhhh’,” he mimicked. I attempted a glare. Y’know, like how the girls try to flirt, I think. But it seemed more like a squint because he laughed. He laughed in my face. “Are you hungry?” He asked, motioning to a chair beside him. I almost tackled it but he held me back. “Oh, sorry. Where are my manners? Here, have mine. It’s warm,” Mr. Jung said with a wink. I gasped slightly and plopped down. WAAAIIIIIIT A MINUTE. Warm seat under …farts? I shuddered. Maybe I was being a little too paranoid, but paranoia is a survival skill I learned from my many years with these people. Who knew when someone would stick a lame “Kick Me” sign on your back? Who knew when someone would replace your oatmeal with actual barf (although it wouldn’t have tasted that much different)? Puh-lease, paranoia has saved me a dozen times.

“Where’d everyone go?” I finally managed to ask. I was having so much fun keeping my off the fart seat with my wimpy arms I totally forgot.

“A lot of people went to sleep in the A Wing last night. It’s kind of warmer in there,” he explained. I scoffed.

“Why weren’t we informed of this?!”

“Maybe because you guys are brighter than the other kids.” Mr. Jung grinned. It was almost as if…as if he was trying to send me a message through his eye smile. Too bad my head’s too thick.

“Eh?”

“Mr. Rain went to go check on them this morning. Turns out the moths in the science room have sprung to miraculous life again. Too bad he’s too nice to wake everyone so early in the morning.” I covered my mouth with my hand, giggling and half gasping.

“Ms. Kwon! She’s not in there, is she?” I stared at him. I NEED INFORMATION. And possibly you. Wink, wink. Mr. Jung? You receiving this telepathic message? Gimme a lip-two if you may. HAHA, GET IT? Yeah? No? I thought so.

“Oh. Nah, she’s washing the extra clothes. She’s too nice for all these kids sometimes. It’s not like they can’t wash their own clothes—“

I cleared my throat. ‘Scuse me, but it appears I am one of these kids.

“Oh, sorry. I get a little carried away sometimes. But she’s really caring,” he muttered, staring to our left. I followed his gaze. The commander herself was emerging from the locker room with Latex gloves and a bucket and towel. She spotted us and shot us a warm smile. I quickly ran over to help carry the load.

“No, Joonhee, it’s fine. I just gotta get these over there—“ Before she could finish, I had grabbed them and rushed to “there.” “Um, a little to the right! Someone might trip if it’s, like, right in front of the bathroom,” she called after me with a hint of laughter.

“Riiiight…” I said over my shoulder with a thumbs up. Uh oh. Everything dropped with a clattering sound, which awakened most of the students. “Sorry! False alarm, people.” I dropped to my knees, picking the equipment up in a flash before Ms. Kwon had even come halfway. She had overworked herself already.

“Joonhee? You need some help?” Ah, it is Agent Doraemon to the rescue!

“Duh, man. Help,” I said. He rolled his eyes and made his way over.

Seungri woke up when we “accidentally” spilled soapy water on his face. He said it was “kind of sort of REALLY RUDE” of us, but I thought it served him right. It looked like he was pretend-sleeping anyways to get out of work. Pandas are getting lazier and lazier these days.

“Hey, pass me the scrub!” I called to Daesung. He whipped his head around in all directions before catching sight of it somewhere. He ran off, leaving me and Seungri—excuse me, I meant, Seungri and me. Got it, Ms. Kwon.

“Guys, come here!” Daesung suddenly yelled from the locker room, his eyes urgently calling us towards him. We hopped up and jogged to him.

“What’s up?”

“It’s…Khuntoria!” he chirped, slapping his palms against his cheeks and looking up dreamily. My eyes followed his, just out of curiosity.

“Oh my gosh, where?!” Seungri squealed, looking from side to side. I, on the other hand, leaned against the wall, almost not caring. But of course I did. JUST WHERE IN THE WORLD DID KHUNTORIA COME FROM?

“Whatever—“ I was about to say. Daesung cut me off.

“Over there! They’re in the gym office~” he sang. Seungri and Daesung skipped towards it. Darn. I followed behind casually at first but soon, curiosity got the better of me (again).

“Omo, they’re so cute!”

“I wonder what they’re talking about.”

“Aish, I wish I was her.”

The dreamy responses were natural from the girls, but coming from the guys?! I cringed. The girls were as laid back as ever.

“Awesome. Now where’s our food?” Taeyeon asked, raising an eyebrow.

Awesome, you’re so awesome, Kim Taeyeon.

 I didn’t approach her though. There was just something about her; the very ground she walked on turned to stone, the stare she’d give you that froze you on the spot. Or maybe it was all the piercings and blond streaks that gave me a slight chill that maybe she wasn’t so friendly.

We used to call her the ice queen. At first, it had been princess instead of queen, but it was quickly decided unofficially that she wasn’t a princess at all. She wasn’t spoilt at all and she just didn’t have that Cinderella/Snow White/ Sleeping Beauty-parade-girl aura about her. She didn’t seem like the delicate waving type. Queens, though, were allowed to be es and could slap a king if she didn’t get hot tea in the morning. I want to be a queen.

But it wouldn’t hurt to talk to her, right? After all, we arein a dead trap. I took a careful step towards her. Her black eyes stared at my shoes warningly. I changed course and walked around her. Phew.

I was too worried to turn back. My feet took me to an uncharted place. Rags hung above me, entangled in spider webs. I pushed aside racks of moldy towels. I thought of going back. There wasn’t much to be afraid of. I was just a coward after all, scared of the small details.

But then I thought: what did they used to think about me?

Was I just a loner because I didn’t want to make friends? Or was it because of a physical thing? Like that kid who always seems to have snot running over his lips and across his cheeks. Or probably the emo girl everyone’s afraid of. Am I scary or gross?

My fingers slid across the bench, collecting clusters of dust. They were barely visible at first, but then I had to have another thought. DAAYYUUUM, this place needs some cleaning. And that’s when I decided to leave my safety zone to search for my minions—er, companions.

I found them still trying to peer through the cracks to the locker room’s office. Those little nosy erts.

“Hey!” I yelled, purposely expanding my voice.

“DUDE! SHUT UP!” Daesung growled. Seungri was still staring into the crack with big, bambi eyes. No, scratch that. Big panda eyes. It seemed like he barely got any sleep last night.

I got closer and heard the SAME, EXACT lines from a cheesy romance film, except it was Khuntorified. Oh darn, I’m using that word.

“Nichkhun, I can’t do this. Gyuri’s my cousin! I just can’t have her hating me.”

“Look, if she really cares about you as much as you do her, she’d understand.”

“Why me? I’m nothing special. Just your average foreign exchange student.”

“But there’s nothing average about you.” He paused. I felt like this was the time for the commercials to slip in. Time for me to gag in Daesung’s pants. “I love you. Why can’t you see it? Why do you only look at the obstacles in the way? Is it that hard to see me as a lover?”

Geez, how cheesy could this get? All this mushiness was turning my insides out and my outsides in. I didn’t like it. I felt like I was growing more distasteful by the second since my face was heating up.

“It’s not that. You’re perfect, Khun. Every girl wants you—“

“But I want you.”

Aw! I mean, EW. My A’s and E’s slip sometimes. I backed away slowly. Seungri and Daesung were left behind.

I was back in the gym. All the students were sleeping again. I scanned the room for Mr. Jung and Ms. Kwon.

They were in the far corner, slowly leaning in. Their eyes were half-lidded, lazily closing as they grew nearer. Now THAT’S an AW moment!

But I had to interrupt it. Because I felt I had to play my part! You see, in movies, there’s always that character that interrupts the kiss scene. Now what would the scene be without the actress who played the center of attention? I wasn’t going to play an “N” but I approached them anyways.

“Hey, whatever could have happened to those students sleeping in the A wing with all those disgusting, filthy moths?” I raised my palms to my shoulders.

“HOLY-“ Mr. Jung began after they had jumped apart and overcome the awkwardness. He looked up at me with worry-filled eyes.

“What if they wake up and—“

As if on cue, a scream was heard through the door. I suppressed a snort. Snorts aren’t ladylike. I snorted anyways after that thought.

“OH MAH FACKIN’ PICKLES!” A deep voice screamed. Respect man. Nice vocab.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH” and so on.

The doors burst open and out came a crazy flood of students. They clung to the floor-sleeping kids for dear life while I doubled over in laughter. I slapped my knees and wiped away laugh tears. Oh my, this is a good day.

“CA-LM DOWN, K-KIDS! IT’LL BE ALLLLLLRIGHT!!!” Darn. Mr. Kim found his bullhorn again. He did not sound calm himself. I watched as he attempted to swat a moth off his professional suit, which looked more like a tux. Silly Mr. Kim. Swatting is for flies! HAHA. I felt like laughing in his face so I ran up to him.

“HAHA!” I pointed and laughed. Mission accomplished. He glared at me. And it was not one of my fail glare-but-squint-instead attempts.

After the screaming kids had stopped screaming and the moths had stopped mothing around (because flies fly, so it can’t be logical for moths to fly to, right?), we had to wait another hour for breakfast to be served. Turns out I woke up at around three. Stupid Mr. Shim’s fan and him.

We were served corn. Corn? Really? Nah, I’m just kidding. I LOVE CORN. And I wasn’t going to give it to…

“OMO! CORN?! I want some!~” PARK BOM whimpered, clasping her hands together for Mr. Xiah. She tried to bend her knees so she was at least at eye level with him, or staring at his forehead.

Mine…My corn.I hugged my can of corn tighter against my chest. Uh, I feel violated.

Nevertheless, I ate it slowly, enjoying the sweet taste of each…pellet? I don’t know what it’s called.

We the happy munchers were soon joined by a cheering crowd followed by Khuntoria. CRAP. Whatever. It’s easier to just combine their names then say their separate super, duper long names. That’s why everyone should be named Joonhee. See? SEE HOW THAT JUST SLIDES OFF YOUR TONGUE? Exactly.

“Ooh, corn!” Daesung exclaimed in my ear. I flinched, almost elbowing him. Good thing he ran off in time! Or I would’ve knocked him half dead.

“Hey, Joonhee,” Seungri greeted, plopping comfortably next to me. He had an awkward, uncomfortable grin. I shifted my weight to my other cheek.

“Hey, you.” I glanced down at his corn. “Wow. Corn before me, isn’t it?” I smirked.

“N-no! It’s not like that!” he protested, dropping the can carefully and throwing his hands up in defense.

“Oh that’s what they always say. You redundant boys.”

“I can explain! Really. I can. You see, I was walking in and then! AND THEN! I was so freakin’ hungry. I just had to eat. Then Bom said “CORN!” and I just RAN. Man, you should’ve seen me! I was like…WHOOSH LIKE DA WIND! (wink wink)” He sped his hand past me in a whoosh-like-da-wind motion.

“Cool.”

“NO PLEASE DON’T HURT ME—eh?” He blinked rapidly.

“Um, I think Bom’s trying to take your corn.” I pointed my chin to his can. Sure enough, Bom was crawling towards it, staring beadily at her prey. He snatched it up before she could whip her hand out.

“DARN!” she cursed, pouting and crawling back to her own spot.

“Thanks,” he muttered.

“No problem. Now let’s FEAST LIKE KINGS!”

Daesung returned after a while with his clothes ripped and his can half empty. His hair was a tangled web, rising up like a beast.

Speaking of beasts…where were our school beasts? Ah, there they are, trying to jump off the bleachers. Dumb donkeys.

Kikwang took the lead, leaping off with a crazed, psychotic look. It spread like a phenomenon to the next boy, Dongwoon, who somersaulted to his near death. Bye-bye.

I followed their freefall with my eyes and almost tipped over my empty can when I saw they had landed on a safe pile of mats.

Hyunseung landed in between them and almost fell off the pile of mats. But he smoothly backflipped off the edge and landed on his feet, suavely brushing off the invisible dirt. He caught my gaze. Please don’t wink. It’s kind of lame and overused. He nodded. HOLYJKBSDGBGEGIUO. Creeper.

I have an awesome feeling about this guy.

I turned my head away in an attempted blush/cover-of-face-to-hide/show-embarrassment. Then I remembered my man. Mentally, of course.

“Hi Seungri.”

“COUGH, SPUTTER, CHOKE…HUH DON’T TAKE MAH CORN!” His face was creamed with yellow juice and his eyes were rabid. I shook my head and ruffled his hair.

“Don’t worry, kid.”

“Oh, okay. Hey…wait a minute. Aren’t I older than you?” I hopped up before any more corn flew at my face.

I fell back against the bleachers and floor, taking in a deep breath. It did not smell good.

“Hey, Joonhee,” a voice said form beside me. I jumped up ten feet before regaining my posture.

“Hey, Hyunseung.” I smiled up at him. He looked hotter up close. His hair was capped under a black beanie and his eyes were crinkled in the corners. His face was not smeared with corn juices.

“Have you eaten yet? I heard the corn is really good,” he said, staring at me.

“Yeah. It’s great. You didn’t eat yet?”

“Um, we can’t really get detentions here so Mr. Xiah said we couldn’t eat breakfasts for a few days,” Hyunseung explained. I scoffed.

“He’s probably hoarding them for Ms. Choi,” I muttered.

“Ha, no doubt about that. There’s no way he’s ever gonna get her though,” he said with a chuckle. I giggled and nodded.

“I know right? How long has he been kissing up to her? Two, three years?” I raised an eyebrow.

 “Man probably stalks her too. He knows, like, everything about her. The other day, when me and Kikwang were sitting in detention, we heard him just being plain weird. He said “Happy First Car Day” to her. Talk about creepy.”

I burst out laughing. Then I caught the detention. “Detention? I thought…”

“Um, before we were stuck in the school.”

“Right…”

“How’s it been for you?” He suddenly asked. Did he seriously want to know?

“It’s been way better than normal school,” I replied breezily. It was that simple.

“Really?” He cocked his head to the side, as if deep in thought. “Haha, yeah I guess. I mean, no homework, no nothing? Damn, gotta love that.”

“I do,” I replied smugly. He chuckled.

“But don’t you miss your family?” No. No, I don’t miss them. Not at all.

“Um…Well, I guess there’s been so much drama going around here, I haven’t even had time to think about them,” I lied.

“Oh…Right. Have you heard about Khuntoria?” He gave me a timid smile. Have I heard of them? DAMN, I’d like to say I gave him that huge shove towards her!

“Duh! And why are you so shy about it? Do you have a secret crush on one of them?” I winked.

“W-what?! No!” He whisper-yelled.

“Sure…” I nodded my head.

“Really! It’s just…I… thinkit’sreallycutethattheyfoundloveinthisWinterHorrorland.”

“Aw…that’s so sweet,” I gushed, pinching his cheeks. He blushed crazily and averted his gaze.

“Maybe. It makes me wonder if I’ll find someone here,” he whispered, staring right at me. OH MY GOD. RIGHT AT ME?! I bit my lip. Hehe…

“Joonhee!” DARN SEUNGRI. COULD YOU HAVE PICKED A BETTER TIME?! Hyunseung looked up and his tensed up beside me. Could they be any cuter? JEALOUS? Scenarios of them fighting over me ran through my head. Wait. Why would they do that? Guys at this school are just naturally competitive of others. I sighed.

“See you later, Hyunseung,” I said.

 “Bye, Joonhee. A-and, uh, you can call me Hyunnie i-if you want. U-um, yeah, bye!” He waved.

“Okay, Bye Hyunnie.” I tried my hardest to make my voice all soft and cutesy. It cracked.

“Karma,” Seungri whispered in my ear. I slapped his arm and successfully glared at him. How’s that for karma, huh?

He led me ALL the way out the gym and to the A Wing. Kwon Jiyong was waiting for us there. I kind of didn’t dislike him, him being Ms. Kwon’s little brother and all. But beside him was TOP. And for that, I slightly disliked him. BUT! To the other side of him was Taeyang. And so that balanced out the dislikeness. So it was neutral.

“Come on, Pikachu! Let’s play with these guys,” Seungri chirped, suddenly all happy and hyper again.

“WHAT?! No thanks.”

“Please? They’re my friends! I’ll just quickly introduce you guys and I know you’ll like them!”

“F-friends?” I think I may have a minor stuttering problem around (hot) guys.

“Duh. Big Bang? You never heard of us?”

“Well, I didn’t know you were friends with them! You know…you could’ve told me,” I pouted. This apparently shocked Seungri speechless. I didn’t tell him I was practicing for Hyunseung.

“Sorry! I’ll make up for it RIGHT NOW.” I was pushed towards them and fell at Taeyang’s feet. Great, now it looks like I’m worshipping him. Although…he DOES look pretty y down here too…

“Um, are you okay down there?” He held his hand out for me. I hastily took it and grinned.

“Hi.” OH GEEZ. What a dork I sound like. But then again, all I said was “hi.”

“Hi.” Hehe, he said it too.

The introductions were boring and I fell asleep halfway through. (If that’s even possible) I let Seungri tell me their life stories and I stared at him with my eyes half closed. “They” didn’t seem to notice.

TOP was already feeling up his abs, Jiyong was running his fingers through his hair, and Taeyang was giving me that disappearing-eye act again. GOSH, I have got to learn how to do that.

“So? How about it?” Seungri finally said, looking at me with expectant eyes.

“W-wha…about what?”

“We’re going to have a dance competition and you get to be a judge!” A judge, eh?

“Can Hyun—um, other people be in it too?” I asked. He nodded.

“Duh! Who would we beat then?” Jiyong asked, mocking me. And that smooshed the last of my standing respect for the guy. Not that he’s a bad person or anything. He just says the wrong things at the wrong times.

“Oppa!” I heard behind me. Um, excuse me? I turned to collide face first with Lee Chaerin, of CL. She was Jiyong’s girlfriend. I liked her, therefore, Jiyong had gained those respect points again.

“Hey, baby.” He grinned. They embraced and he spun her around.

“Aw, so cute!” Minzy said from behind me. I totally didn’t notice her there. Maybe she’s a ninja too! It’s a conspiracy of ninjas in here!

“What’s cute? Me?” Daesung suddenly popped out of nowhere, grinning like a fool. He slipped his hand into hers. I did a double take.

THEY WERE DATING. BEEP BEEP. THEY’RE DATING.

“D-Doraemon…You have a girlfriend?!” I gasped, eyes wide as saucepans. He nodded back gleefully.

He cuddled into Minzy’s back. She giggled and tried to turn around. They were too cute.

“Nuh-uh, no more! Minzy is not a toy!” CL snapped from beside Jiyong. She wrapped her fingers around Minzy’s wrist and pulled her forward. I rubbed my own wrists. Ouch.

“So when’s the battle?” I asked.

“Tonight,” Seungri answered with a suspicious-looking smile.

“Er, okay. I’m gonna go…tell people.” I ran down the hall, sprinting effortlessly with paced breaths. It felt better than the game of hide-and-go-seek.

I turned a corner and came into view of the door...and a very beastly man named Ok Taecyeon. I liked to call him Okcat sometimes. I don’t know why. The name just stuck after it slipped and now it forever remains. I swear, the yearbook committee has discovered my pet name for him and are already putting it to work.

He was accompanied by a chubby bunny I liked to call Woobaby. His cheeks were supposedly filled with poison, but I didn’t care. I’d kiss poison on Jang Wooyoung’s cheeks any day. Just not today.

“Excuse me,” I muttered, trying to push past them.

“Oh. Sorry for blocking your imperial highness,” Okcat said with a mock servant tone. I frowned. What’s his deal?

“Look, I don’t have time for your BS right now. MOVE,” I said firmly. He stood like a wall with his arms crossed.

“Of course. You wouldn’t have time for anyone anymore since you’re all high and mighty with the Big Bang boys. I don’t see what’s so big about the,” he smirked. Scoffing, I shoved him aside.

“What do you want?” I asked after my failed attempts.

“We heard they’re having a dance battle. We want in,” Woobaby spoke up. I gulped.

“But you guys kind of scare me,” I admitted. They narrowed their eyes. “EXCUSE ME FOR SPEAKING THE TRUTH THEN!” I threw my hands up in defeat.

“If you’re not gonna let us battle, then who are you gonna ask then, huh?” Taecyeon shot. I shrugged.

“Cool people.” They looked like they were preparing to tackle me to the floor. “Move.” They moved. A few feet later, I reconsidered. “Room A-12 tonight!” I yelled over my shoulder. From the corner of my eye I watched them pump their fists into the air.

Back in the gym, Jia and Min were stretching for their cheerleading routine. They were one of the most underrated dancers in the school.  No one expected the usually bubbly cheerleaders to have actual dancing skills. The majority of the population thought it depended on their hotness, but they didn’t know that the football captains don’t actually judge the tryouts.

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OKAY, so this will just be part one then. Because I can't think of anything else to write yet and i really want to update. This chapter took me like 4-5 hours STRAIGHT. -_______- Part two...coming soon?