"Today is the day," Sunggyu exclaims.

"The day I earn my respect from young bright kids of our future"

 

"Yeah, yeah sure," his vice captain said as he prepares for the upcoming day.

 

Indeed, today is the day. As a rites of passage of boys becoming adolescent teenager, the dawning of a new era of a fresh generation the moment they walk through the sacred gates of the school and into a whole new world filled with promises of what the world might hold, a miniature existence of-

 

"When you're done thinking your weird thoughts, I could use a hand with the signs. Or would you rather chase the primary schoolers across the school when they get lost?"

 

Yes, today is the day for the potential new students of the neighboring primary school to visit  their big brother high school across the road. Orientation day.

The idea is to let the grade six children to see the different condition of high school and get comfortable with the idea of being in a new place as the youngest inhabitants once more (and thus would not pee their pants in nervousness or ask too many questions about when lunchtime is and what to do afterwards). Since the primary school is located nearby, quite a number of parents decide to send their children to Sunggyu's high school.

 

So today, as much as twenty children will traipse across the field which separates the two schools and be in Sunggyu's (and the other volunteers of course, but that's not important) care for an entire half-day as he explains the wonders of the world that is his high school. Which explains the big arrows with the words 'this way' printed across that he is holding.

 

"Do you think this is clear enough?" Sunggyu asked his vice for his opinion on Sunggyu's arrows, holding them up in the light for him to scrutinize as if it was money.

 

"Really Sunggyu? Really?" He replies, sighing in exasperation.

"That sign is as big as your head! What else could be bigger?"

 

"Now, wait a seco-"

 

"A kid will have to be blind not to see that sign," Hoya continues flapping his hands as if to wave Sunggyu's comments away.

 

"Here," The grade 11 student s another of their paper arrows onto his hand, "Put this one over there."

 

Sunggyu hesitated.

 

"Don't you think we should put one more around here to make sure they really won't get lost or anything?"

 

"Sunggyu"

 

Hyung, he corrected in his mind. But he has worked with Howon long enough to know it will be futile to attempt such a thing as making him call Sunggyu 'Hyung'. Even though Sunggyu is the older by one year, and by default, wiser and smarter.

 

"Yes?" he answers and pretends he isn't intimidated by the look Hoya is giving him.

 

"You've already stuck two on that side. I don't think going straight down a hallway is that much of a problem even for primary schoolers"

 

Sunggyu fidgets with his paper arrow, almost tearing it into two pieces. Okay, so maybe he is scared. But only a little bit. Hoya isn't even as tall as him!

 

"Well, I just thought that maybe they would get really scared when they see all the taller high schoolers and forgot where the arrow was pointing" Sunggyu replies, happy with himself for finding a perfectly logical reason to dispute Howon with.

 

Said disputee simply snorts and shooed him back to put the arrow to the place where Howon first pointed. Hoya inspects the arrows over.

 

"You know Sunggyu, if I didn't know any better, I would have thought that you're nervous about the kids"

 

Sunggyu's hand slipped on the sharp edge of the paper.

 

"What? No!!! Why would you think that???"  Howon simply shrugged and walked away because it is almost time to meet the volunteers and sweet innocent little children, but Sunggyu didn't like the smirk he glimpsed on his face.

 

When they got to the office, their first sight was of vice principal Jung holding two students by the scruff of their necks. The two boys looks like they were attempting to claw and snarl each other's skins off judging by the state of their uniforms. Sunggyu crinkles his nose because he dislikes both troubled adolescents and untidy uniforms.

 

The tall vice principal seems to also share Sunggyu's discontent about the situation with the boys.

 

"Ah, Howon, Sunggyu" Vice principal Jung greets them as they closed the office doors.
"Come to... brief.......... the volunteers?"

 

"Yes, sir" Hoya replied since Sunggyu still seems busy crinkling his nose.

 

"Go right ahead" Vice principal Jung nodded in the direction of the briefing room since his hands are still quite full with wrestling the boys down.

 

"It's nice to see there is a range of students from different grades who came to help out. That way the kids can se...." The vice principal's voice trails off as a brilliant thought suddenly pass over him. The two boys in his arms quickly tried to take his dazed moment as an opportunity to escape.... With no results. Even in daydream, the man is strong.

 

The vice principal shook his head and focus on the two boys was about to make yet another attempt at escaping his shackles, but then came a smirk so evil the boys felt a sudden chill pass through their trapped bodies and they held their breaths, not wanting to stir whatever demon took over vice principal Jung.

 

"Sir?" Sunggyu enquired, ever the polite student.

The vice principal cleared his throat.

 

"Anyway, it's such a pity none of the volunteers are in grade 10, or 9. It would be nice if they also have some volunteers to explain what happens during that time....."

 

He trailed off again before gasping rather dramatically as if he has been struck by a wonderful idea.

 

"Hold on a second, you two are in grade 10 and 9 aren't you? Great! Here's two more volunteers. Sunggyu, Howon, meet Sungyeol and Myungsoo" he continued, giving the boys in his arms a good shove.

 

"What!" Exclaim three horribly shocked voices. None of these are Howon's though. He's far too cool for that. Freaking out is Sunggyu's department. Sunggyu is the first one to voice his disagreement.

 

"With all due respect sir, I am much comfortable forming a team with just Howon."

 

"What, do you think we're not good enough for you mister president?" The taller one asks spitefully. And no, its not because he is looking forward to work on the stupid program. He just never wants to agree with Sunggyu. Ever.

 

Sunggyu knew this of course, just as well as he know that was Sungyeol talking. He is the school captain after all, That and he may or may not have been Sunggyu's little buddy during his grade 7 buddy program. Needless to say, that arrangement did not go all too well.

 

"I beg to differ Sungyeol-ssi. I am not questioning your capabilities. I am simply worried this will upset the work that Howon-ssi and I have done."

 

And of course, Sungyeol turns this into a full-blown argument.

 

"So you think that just because we blow each other's lunches up, we will screw up all your hard work just because we volunteer??" He argues, putting quotation marks in the air at the words 'hard work' to emphasise exactly how rigorous he thought the work was.

 

The other boy, Myungsoo, who looks like he is either trying to give Sunggyu a death glare or is badly in need of glasses, was nodding along to Sungyeol's words, before something seems to click in his mind and he quickly turned to Sungyeol instead.

 

"SO YOU DID BLOW UP MY LUNCH. I KNEW IT. SEE VICE PRINCIPAL, IT WAS ALL HIS FAULT. HE DID EVERYTHING"

 

"QUIET." The vice principal decides its about time to raise his voice. "Sunggyu, you will have to deal with these two, it is too much work for just the two of you, and it is good for them to use their brains for something useful for once." Sunggyu sighs dejectedly.

 

"And as for you two..." Vice principal Jung turns to the trouble makers. "You will show respect to your school president in this program. Any complains, and you two will be cleaning gum of every desk in the whole school."

 

"Yes sir," came the glum reply.

 

"Good," the man nods and turns to go back into his office.

 

Sunggyu sighs and once again looks as if he is incapable of doing anything from the wave of disappointment he felt, so Howon saves the day once more.

 

"Come along" he says, snapping his fingers.

 

The two boys rolled their eyes at each other, but follows Howon's instruction. They came to a halt in the briefing room, and Sungyeol had to hold in a loud snort because WOW, it looks like the student council (or specifically the president and vice) has done a wonderful job at gathering volunteers since currently, there are exactly four people in the current room. That is, counting the people who has just walked in.

 

Just as Sungyeol was about to inform the president of this fact,a small boy with messy hair and messy uniform to match stumbled into the room. The almost fall didn't seem to deter him from an attempt to look cool, as it seems, since he simply flipped up his hair Justin Bieber-style and offering a 'Sup' as a greeting to his sunbaes. Nobody seems to be incredibly impressed by that.

 

"You're late", Sunggyu called out.

 

"Fashionably late", Woohyun corrected.

 

"You weren't supposed to be late at all", Sunggyu pinches the bridge of his nose as if
Woohyun's presence gives him headaches.

 

"Yeah, well, can't do nothin about that."

 

"I can call your mom."

 

"Yes, but you wouldn't," he crosses his arms bravely, but Sunggyu can see the fear in his eyes.

 

"Yes I would. Actually, now that I've thought about it, I have her number on my phone",
Sunggyu said, pretending to search his pockets, "Maybe I should just-"

 

"NONONO, PLEASE. NOT MUM. SHE PINCHES TOO HARD. I'M SORRY SUNGGYU, I WILL NEVER BE LATE EVER AGAIN I SWEAR JUST. PLEASE."Sunggyu smiled. Much better. Sunggyu knew all those years of babysitting the little boy next door will pay off one day. He knows all of Woohyun's weakness points enough that he can easily 'persuade' him to volunteer for things. Heh.

 

"I'm sorry Sunggyu.....?"

 

"I'm sorry Sunggyu sunbae-nim."

 

"Good boy. Sit down," he said, gesturing to the row of seats where the two public menace are comfortably slouching. Sunggyu glanced at his watch.

 

"Dongwoo is really late", he muttered

 

"Dongwoo hyung is coming?" Hoya raises an eyebrow. Sunggyu nods distractedly as he leaned out of the room to check the rest of the office just in case Dongwoo got lost in the small building. But if he is in the building at all, Sunggyu would probably have heard him. No one can really not hear the hurricane his friend seems to cause wherever he went. Sometimes, he wondered why he was even friends with the guy when he cant even understand half the things he said. He's almost 100% sure Dongwoo has ADHD. He leaned back into the room in time to hear Howon's question.

 

"Did you remind him?"

 

"I did!"

 

"Did you remind him today?"

 

"Uh... no," he said and quickly continued before Howon can put on that disapproving gaze on him, "But the last time i did was only yesterday after school!!"

 

"You know how he is. Now, he probably thinks he already did it yesterday or something"

 

It's true. Dongwoo is such a scatterbrain that it's short of a miracle that he managed to not be held back or anything.

 

Howon sighs. The kids are going to come pretty soon. The other volunteers look like they're starting to get restless already. Howon decided it is time to start the briefing, but before he was able to voice this thought, a mild disturbance was heard outside of the room and then Sunggyu is smiling triumphantly.

 

"Hey Dongwoo-yah, you made i-"

 

But instead of the comforting pocket-sized height that is his friend, his face was greeted with a handful of probably non-regulation pink hair. He came to the conclusion that this was definitely not Dongwoo when he heard the somewhat feminine voice.

 

"Uh... hello Sunggyu sunbaenim!"

 

Sunggyu sighs. Out of all the days he has to deal with this particular punk, it had to be today where the vice principal has already shoved two (who blows things up, mind you!) of his kind on his arms.

 

Sunggyu childishly wanted to block all his senses and bolt the door before the boy can do anything because he believes 100% that Lee Sungjong, a.k.a. High King of The School Punks, has the ability to brainwash people. Even one as intelligent, dilligent, and other -lligent words such as he is not exempt from the gift.

 

The school president braces himself so he will be able to tell Sungjong to go back to the class he is probably skipping. Unfortunately, before his mental preparations have finished, Sungjong has caught sight of Hoya and gave him one of those photogenic, brain muddling smiles that even Hoya would return. And he did.

 

"Howon hyung!"

 

"Hey Sungjongie! what are you doing here?"

 

"Umm... well... I heard you guys are looking for volunteers, so I thought I'd come and help out!" He flips a pink strand from his eyes prettily, "is... It too late to join?"

 

"Of course not!", his vice replies, looking happier than he has ever seen him.

 

Sunggyu really really wanted to repute this decision because he doesn't need another punk - beautiful or otherwise- and because Howon isn't the president. He is, and he would like it very much if his decision is followed with finality. Besides, the punk is probably just looking for a way to avoid his classes.

 

"Umm, this... Open day thing lasts for the whole day, right?" Sungjong asks sheepishly. "I mean... Its not that I don't want to go to class or anything... Its just... Stuff happened last night, but my teachers probably wont be accepting my reasons and.. Well..." Sungjong continues with what Sunggyu can only describe as bad acting. Sadly, everyone else seems to believe him. It's the pink hair, isn't it?

 

Sunggyu opened his mouth to inform Sungjong about how there is no use running away from responsibilities, because they will probably haunt you in your sleep and eventually bite you in the tush, but Howon was quicker in voicing his opinions.

 

"Aw, that's all right Sungjongie, we all have our days" Again, sadly, Hoya's opinions seems to be more popular than his. He was just about to voice out the word that they don't need another volunteer, but he took one look at the sparkling eyes of his hoobaes and gave up the war before it started. He should probably give up hope on Dongwoo anyway. And what was it that vice principal Jung say about volunteer diversity? Sunggyu lets out his thousandth sigh of the day.

 

"Lets start the briefing"

 

-----

 

"OOOOOOH! This place is tall! I can finally straighten my back"

"Dude, you're a midget."

 

"The space is good for my growth spurt, which FYI, will hit me any day now, so you better watch out or else my long limbs might suddenly smack you on the face"

 

"Bet you 100 dollars Jonghyun here will outgrow you"

 

"Psh, you're gonna regret that"

 

"GUYS LOOK THEY HAVE BIG TROPHIES!"

 

"I hope they don't think I'm their student. My voice cracked already! Maybe I should just not talk from now on"

 

"No way, you're wearing the primary school uniform man! High school people are not that dumb!"

 

As the voices get louder, Howon notices how Sunggyu's face pales considerably and cant help but smirk a little. This should be interesting...

 

Sunggyu delivers his little welcome speech smoothly, and why shouldn't he when he has memorized all his little palm cards and practiced around 20-30 times (10 of which was done in front of his ridiculing vice). No one has even asked a particularly stupid question during the allocated 10 minutes, although some of them did look more interested in the basketball game going on outside the windows. Nevertheless, Sunggyu is slightly relieved.

 

Only slightly, since Hoya still has that evil expression on him, and the day is far from being over. He needs to keep himself on guard before these evil kids does anything.

 

The next part of the day, requires the group of non-voluntary volunteers and their guests to walk the halls of the school as they look at all the hardworking classes and stopping at some facilities of the school where the future students may ask questions to the teachers stationed there.

 

It went pretty smoothly. Despite a whirlwind of Dongwoo running to catch up to them after seemingly running out of his own class. Although the teacher will probably understand anyway.

 

The kids were quite a chatty bunch, but most of them would shy away from the high school students present. Sungjong did get a few interesting questions from the two boys walking nearest to him.

 

It began with a tentative,"So, um... Do you have different uniforms for every season?"

 

Which eventually snowballed into things like, "Do we all have to have different hair colours?"

 

"Do we eat lunch outside of the classroom?

 

"Will we get taller quicker?"

 

"Do you guys hit your head in the ceiling all the time?"

 

"Is it true that all the teachers have sharp teeth and glare a lot?"

 

"Oh! Where is the playground?"

 

"Yeah! Are we gonna pass it later?"

 

"Umm... Well....", Sungjong isn't quite sure how to answer those last questions.

 

He didn't really want to be the one to break the news and the innocence of all these little children. His peripheral vision caught a glimpse of the high school uniform and he turned into it, hoping to get some advice on how to proceed from a wise sunbae. Instead he sees the small-statured grade 7 volunteer (whose name is still unfamiliar to him because all those grade 7 babies still look the same to him).

 

He was dragging his feet, making scuff marks in his shoes and probably thinking that he looks cool in those weird looking shades (Sungjong isn't sure where he got them but he was sure he was wearing nothing of sort this morning). Asking for his advice doesn't seem too wise for Sungjong.

 

And so that was how Sungjong was forced to make the hardest decision in his 13 (going on 14) years of life. He took a deep breath and gave his answer.

 

"You'll know once you guys are actually a high schooler", he says, giving a wise nod and a secretive smile for good measure.

 

The two boys seems impressed and they drifted back into their group of friends, whispering to each other as the entire group halts and Sunggyu announces the lunch break. Sungjong smiles. When his brother's entire ant farm may have been tragically smashed last night (it was a very tragic and difficult time at the Lee's household, the ant farm was magnificent), he has unfortunately forgotten that he has responsibilities to do homework and opted to mourn alongside his brother, but of course Sungjong has remembered to pack a wonderful smelling lunch. It was even overflowing his lunch box.

 

He should probably share with his sunbae, because Lee Sungjong is generous like that. And what was that he heard about their lunches being blown up? Or maybe Hoya hyung would like to share? Indeed, the prospect of his lunchtime sounds very satisfying.

 

 

Sunggyu is sort of happy, since his morning has gone pretty well and his lunch has been quite nice (regardless of the wonderful item of food that pink haired punk gave him. He was probably up because of something anyway. Sunggyu needs to investigate this as soon as possible), and the break has been exactly what his legs needed (Sunggyu doesn't exercise as much as his vice, but that is sort of stating the obvious). After his 30 more minutes of personal relaxation, he will probably be ready to face the children again.

 

Although, one of the primary school teachers approaching him doesn't seem like they will say anything that will help his personal relaxation.

 

"Er, I'm sorry to say this guys, but a couple of our students seems to be missing. They're not around, or in the toilet that you pointed out before..." Sunggyu sighs.

 

"We still have 30 minutes of break and they can't have wondered too far. We'll look for them" He can't believe he managed to make himself say that. Or perhaps that was Howon.

 

"Sorry about your personal relaxation time Sunggyu" Yeah, that's Howon.

 

"Personal relaxation? What-"

 

"Ok guys, since we've all finished our lunch anyway, lets split up and each look up one hall that leads from here and we'll probably find them quicker"

 

For once Sunggyu is glad for Howon's quick tongue. He doesn't think he can handle Sungyeol's comments about his perfectly reasonable relaxation time.

 

"Oh my god, I'm soo excited, it feels like we're doing a secret mission!" Six heads immediately turned to the person who has spoken up. Of course, a comment like that would only come from Dongwoo.

 

"Um... Maybe we should have partners?"

 

As much as he doesn't want to agree with Sungjong, he agrees. "Two heads are better than one after all..." He says unnecessarily as Howon has already agreed to the brilliant idea.

 

"Sungyeol and Myungsoo, you guys go together. Try to run away and the vice principal will hear about it" The two seems to be used to such threats, although it doesn't seem likely for them to run away now.

 

"Sunggyu, you take Woohyun and Dongwoo. Me and Sungjong will go together"

 

"Wait, what?? Are you seriously making me go with those tw-", Sunggyu tries to whisper secretively to Howon before he was cut off once more.

 

"Everyone understand what to do? Good. Lets go!"

 

Sunggyu sighs.