A/n: Wordcount = 4790; The request was to have them in Writer's Club, but I altered it slightly and I hope you won't be disappointed in that ㅠ

Kyungsoo stared at the paper on his desk as his teacher handed back all their tests. The A+ on the corner of his was a huge change from all the Ds and Fs he’d had last year. Then again, those had been intentional, but still. It was nice to actually be passing again this year.

The previous year – his first attempt at tenth grade – Kyungsoo had failed all of his classes. His parents had threatened to disown him and offered to put him through therapy, but he failed the grade anyway, which he had hated doing – but it was all for a good cause. Because, although Kyungsoo was always top of his class, he had chosen to fail on purpose, without telling anyone about it or why his grades suddenly dropped below fifty.

Tucking his test into his binder, Kyungsoo stood from his seat, the teacher having told them they were dismissed once they got their tests back. His parents would have nothing to complain about when they saw this test. They hadn’t had anything bad to say for the past two months since he’d started grade ten again, since every test he brought back was scored over 90%. No one understood what had happened last year, why Kyungsoo suddenly began failing so much, but his parents just assumed it was just a funk he’d been in or something. Kyungsoo let them believe that; they didn’t need to know the truth.

Once out of his class, he headed down the hall and then up a set of stairs, happy to have been let out of class a minute early so he could beat the annoying rush through the halls as everyone escaped their own classes and headed home. Kyungsoo just reached his locker when the bell rang, and he grabbed his backpack quickly, stuffing his binder into it and then going off again. Unlike most of the students, he wasn’t going home right now; he had work to do.

Another hallway away, Kyungsoo slipped into a different classroom, already deserted by its former occupants. But he knew it would fill up again soon. He took the time to rearrange a dozen desks so they were in a circle in the centre of the room, and then sat in one of those desks. Just as he was pulling out his binder again, someone came in.

“Oh – hey Kyungsoo!” the boy said, voice cracking in his excitement. He quickly went red, hurrying over to the blackboard and erasing it meticulously.

“Hi Joonmyun,” Kyungsoo replied, feeling slightly awkward. He always felt that way around Joonmyun, though he tried his best not to.

Kim Joonmyun was the editor of their school’s guy newspaper. (Why they had a guy newspaper and a girl one, Kyungsoo had never understood, but the guys basically had a rivalry with the girls, always trying to have the better edition biweekly.) And Kyungsoo was on the news team, although he wrote the academics section, which basically no one but parents actually looked at (his parents included). There was nothing wrong with being on the team with Joonmyun – Kyungsoo was fine around the rest of the team, more or less – but… well, it was sort of common knowledge that Joonmyun had a crush on Kyungsoo, and Joonmyun always embarrassed himself about it. Kyungsoo was constantly torn between suffering second-hand and feeling guilty that he apparently had that effect on the older.

Fortunately, he wasn’t left alone in the room with Joonmyun for long, because soon the other members of the team were pouring in. Kyungsoo was relieved when his friends arrived – Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Jongdae, all of whom were in the same class (and the grade Kyungsoo was supposed to be in now). The former two sat on one side of Kyungsoo, holding hands casually as always. Honestly, Kyungsoo was pretty sure they had accidentally superglued themselves together and just couldn’t ever let go now, because he couldn’t remember a time in the past year that he hadn’t seen them linked at the hands. Even before they were dating, they had been like this, but since they’d gone official it was just ridiculous.

On his other side, Jongdae plopped into a chair, glancing over to Joonmyun briefly. “How long were you stuck with him?”

“Not long,” Kyungsoo replied quietly, not wanting to hurt Joonmyun’s feelings if he heard.

“Well, you’ve been saved,” Jongdae told him before laughing loudly at Kyungsoo’s frown. Kyungsoo smacked him. It was very normal for Jongdae to laugh at things – apparently everything was funny to him – but it was mean to mock Joonmyun’s feelings like that. Not that Kyungsoo was protecting Joonmyun’s feelings or anything – he didn’t like the older back by any means – but it was just common decency (which Kyungsoo was pretty sure Jongdae didn’t have).

The room continued to fill until all the desks in the circle were taken but one, left for Joonmyun. He was still cleaning the board – taking the time to clean every single spot, because otherwise he “couldn’t focus” on the newspaper apparently – so everyone continued chatting while they waited. Across from Kyungsoo, a few of the other guys were talking when he heard his name mentioned.

“I saw Kyungsoo’s test earlier,” a pretty-but-sour-faced boy named Sehun was saying. He was in Kyungsoo’s class, and sat beside him, though they rarely spoke. “Another perfect score. Definitely suspecting he had alternate motives for failing last year.”

Beside him, another boy with very feminine features shot Kyungsoo a suspicious look, and Kyungsoo’s gaze dropped to his desk quickly. “Do you think it’s worth a story?” Kyungsoo heard him whisper. These two – Sehun and Luhan – were the kings of the gossip mill, and it was all they wrote about in the paper. (Their stories actually had a pretty big following, as far as Kyungsoo knew.) They were also a couple, but far more bearable than Baekhyun and Chanyeol were.

“Please,” the boy on the other side of Sehun scoffed. “The only reason he’s doing so well this year is because he already did it all before. He’d have to be pretty stupid to fail twice. He probably has all the answers for everything saved from last year.”

Kyungsoo’s heart dropped. He hated hearing that; it was one thing hearing it from other kids that he didn’t care about, but this guy… he seemed to feel the need to pick on Kyungsoo the most for it, and it made Kyungsoo miserable.

The boy was a troublemaker; he loved bugging other kids and disturbing the class and fighting with teachers to get them sidetracked. He was also the reason Kyungsoo had failed tenth grade on purpose.

“Yeah, and what did you get on that test, Kim Jongin?” Jongdae shot back at him, apparently listening in on the conversation as well. “You better save your answers for next year.” Kyungsoo nudged Jongdae sharply under the table, glancing up at the boy across the room to see his reaction. The boy – Jongin – was glaring, but didn’t say anything more, rolling his eyes and turning away from them.

“Jongdae,” Kyungsoo whined, and his friend raised an eyebrow at him.

“What? The kid was being a jerk.” Jongdae was always like this when it came to Jongin; the only person he wouldn’t laugh at was Jongin, especially when he said those kinds of things about Kyungsoo (which was fairly often). Of all the people Jongdae had to hate – why did it have to be him?

At that moment, Joonmyun finally joined the circle, the blackboard apparently at an acceptable level of spotless now. He wasted no more time, calling them all to pay attention to him.

“Okay everyone,” he announced. “Three days until this week’s edition comes out, which means we need to discuss what we’ve all done so far and then you can give your stories and – whatnot-“ He shot a glance Luhan and Sehun, and Jongdae snorted. It wasn’t a lie to say the two wrote stories, but they weren’t exactly news stories. Their gossip page was practically fanfiction (and was far more fiction than it was based in facts). “-and I will do what I always do and hopefully turn it into something slightly less disastrous than it started out.”

At this, there was a synchronized groan from the group, and Kyungsoo smiled. Their newspaper was a disaster, and they all knew it, but it never improved because everyone blamed everyone else for how terrible it was. In reality, it was just a compilation of horribly done stories that came together to make one big mess.

“You know, our newspaper might not be so bad if someone didn’t have to write the worst poetry of all time about freaking bamboo forests.”

“Tao, don’t start this again please,” Joonmyun said weakly.

“No! Our past 23 editions he has literally written poems about his stupid forests every time! No one cares about bamboo forests!” Tao cried, glaring at a quiet kid sitting beside Joonmyun. The other didn’t even acknowledge Tao’s outburst, but then he never had before and Tao had been complaining since the first poem, a year ago.

“They might be bad,” Chanyeol put in. “But they aren’t as lame as your love horoscopes.”

“Guys-”

“Please, my horoscopes are cherished by our readers. Have you seen the letters they write in?”

“What letters?”

“Yeah but can we talk about the weather?”

“Guys, please-”

“The letters on the Letters to the Editor page, idiot!”

“No, don’t even bring that one up!”

“GUYS!”

Eleven pairs of eyes turned to Joonmyun, who was looking extremely flustered. “You all write very nice things for the paper. Lots of people appreciate Kris’s poems; they’re very… unique.” Their resident poet – who really had only ever written about bamboo forests in every edition for the past year – nodded once and didn’t say anything else. Kris never spoke; Kyungsoo had never heard him say a word. He was just a transfer student – Kyungsoo didn’t even know where he’d transferred from – who had joined the team at the start of last year and only ever gave Joonmyun his poems apparently. And Joonmyun was too weak-willed to ever decline him, so he always published them as-is. “And tons of the girls – and guys – read Tao’s horoscopes.”

“See?” Tao shot at Chanyeol, who scowled in return. Kyungsoo saw Baekhyun pat his thigh with his free hand soothingly.

“Anyway…” Joonmyun went on, heaving a sigh, and Kyungsoo was pretty sure he was just reliving his disappointment over their disastrous newspaper that was possibly the worst thing to ever be published.

Joonmyun had always been very proud of the newspaper, until last year, when Tao, Sehun, Luhan, Jongin, and Kris joined and turned it into a catastrophe. Sure, Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s section tended to be more sardonic than formal (they covered the general news and events, which was pretty boring so they liked to exaggerate and over-do everything to make it more fun), and yeah, sometimes Jongdae’s comics got a little… aggressive (it had started out with dead baby jokes, but it had only gotten worse from there). But then the new wave of writers came on and took over, and their paper went from genuine to – well, there really wasn’t a good word for it. Half of the old writers were so offended that they quit the team, except for Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Jongdae, who just stepped up their game; Joonmyun, who as the editor felt the need to remain loyal to “his baby”; Kim Minseok, their sports writer (who only stayed because Luhan had joined and Minseok had a crush on Luhan, but Luhan had only joined because of Sehun); Zhang Yixing, who wrote stories about animal cruelty and whatnot, and refused to give up his outlet just because a bunch of weirdos were filling up the other pages; and Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo was really only there because his friends were, and no one else wanted to write the academics section.

“Shall we go around and share what we did this week?” Joonmyun asked sadly, likely not really wanting to hear what they had in store for him.

“Well, we all know what Kris did,” Baekhyun pointed out, and they all laughed as he began reciting, “Bamboo forests are really cool. I don’t know why I like them, but yeah, I do.” Kris was nodding again slowly, as if he didn’t realize they were sort of mocking him. (But then, maybe he didn’t.)

“I’m sure it’ll be great,” Joonmyun lied weakly, and Kyungsoo shot him an encouraging smile, appreciating his attempt at being considerate. It was at least a step up from his own friends. Then Joonmyun turned to Sehun and Luhan. “Dare I ask you two what your story is this time?”

Sehun was smirking as Luhan said, “A new girl transferred to the school last week. First day was on Thursday. We’ve already dug up lots about her; she has a very interesting past.”

“Is she hot?” Jongin put in, and Sehun offered him a thumbs up at which Jongin smirked.

Joonmyun looked less than impressed, certainly not as satisfied as they did. “Oh, good,” he said bleakly. “What a great welcome to the school for her. I can’t wait for her to see it.” He looked tempted to hit his head off his desk repeatedly. “Is it bad that I don’t want people to ever read our paper?”

“Probably,” Baekhyun answered.

“Yeah, you jerk,” Chanyeol added with a grin.

“They do anyway, though,” Jongdae noted, much to Joonmyun’s dismay. “And our paper is more popular than the girl’s edition, so what does that say about them?”

At this, Joonmyun’s brow furrowed, and he seemed to consider it a moment before brightening. “Fair enough. You get a promotion for that.”

Jongdae snorted. “What does this promotion entail?” he prodded.

“You’ve stepped up from crappy comic guy to crappy comic guy who had a good point once,” Joonmyun offered, and Jongdae just laughed again. Then Joonmyun’s eyes moved back to the other side of the room; beside Sehun, Jongin was lounging and waiting for his turn, but Joonmyun just looked at him and said, “Pass,” before he looked over to Tao.

This didn’t sit well with Jongin. “Hey, hey, wait a minute, you can’t just pass me!” he outburst. “I’m an important contributor to your damn paper.”

“Jongin, we aren’t discussing this. You literally just provide inaccurate weather forecasts and your ‘weather news’ is never even related to the weather. And you never actually talk about it when I ask you anyway, so why do you care today?”

“Because you can’t just skip me,” Jongin retorted. “I’m not Kris. And people love my weather, thank you.”

Joonmyun rolled his eyes. “I prefer Kris to you,” he muttered, and Jongin’s eyes darkened but he didn’t say anything else. “Okay, Tao. Tell me your horoscope for me this week. The past few weeks have all been good news, and I’m starting to think you’re onto somethi-”

Clack!

Everyone in the room froze, heads turning to look at the chalkboard behind Joonmyun where a small chalk mark was making itself present. A piece of chalk was rolling away on the floor, and Kyungsoo glanced over to Jongin to see the younger with his arm outstretched, chair leaning back, and a tiny smirk ghosting over his lips. Joonmyun didn’t even look at the board, but he was tense, and he didn’t look at Jongin either, but it was clear he knew the culprit.

“Did you,” he said slowly. “Just-”

“I’m kind of like a chalk mark I guess,” Jongin returned coolly, voice almost a purr, filled with venom and satisfaction. “As much as you want to ignore it, it just – won’t – let you.” And despite how purely evil he sounded, Kyungsoo couldn’t help thinking it was incredibly y, and he swallowed hard, mouth going dry.

Clearly, Joonmyun was not as impressed by the boy. Jaw taut, he stood and headed over to the board, picking up one of the erasers and wiping away the mark before sitting back down in his seat. Kyungsoo swore he heard the older utter under his breath, “I wish you were that easy to wipe out.” Jongin was sitting back in his seat, grinning smugly.

“Would you like to share your weather with us, Kim Jongin?” Joonmyun asked heavily, sounding very, very close to snapping.

“Nope, no can do,” Jongin replied brightly. “The weather is a mystery, now and always.”

At this, Jongdae cracked up beside Kyungsoo, and Kyungsoo turned to shoot him a questioning look, thinking that for some reason his friend was amused by Jongin (when Jongdae had always adamantly refused to ever show any signs of humour at anything Jongin did, no matter how funny). But Jongdae wasn’t looking at Jongin – he was reading a note Chanyeol had passed him. Kyungsoo squinted at it and read, “Kim Joonmyun, cause of death: that one missed chalk spot” and underneath that another handwriting (which looked like Baekhyun’s), “Death by chalk-olate?” This was followed by a crudely-done drawing of Joonmyun, his head exploded, and a tombstone with his name on it.

“Brilliant,” Jongdae said under his breath, quickly folding the paper into an airplane and throwing it at their editor. It bounced off Joonmyun’s head and the older yelped, redirecting his glare from Jongin to Jongdae. “That’s my submission for this week,” Jongdae told him. “It’ll need a little work.”

Joonmyun scowled but unfolded the paper, eyes scanning over briefly before he turned dark red and crumpled it up in frustration.

“That’s it!” he cried. “I’m done with you hooligans today!” And Jongdae had to duck his head to conceal a snort as Joonmyun rose again angrily and grabbed his bag, shoving his chair into his desk. “I’m tired of your shenanigans and your crappy submissions and – I need a day off. Kyungsoo, I’m leaving you in charge of this mess for today. Good luck.” He offered Kyungsoo a half-sympathetic look and then stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

Silence fell for a few seconds, and then Jongdae – who had his head down on his desk – put in, “He said hooligans.” Chanyeol snorted, and a few of the other boys broke into grins and giggles. Kyungsoo didn’t join in, feeling sorry for Joonmyun and also not really sure what he was supposed to do now. Eventually he sighed, and Jongdae nudged him, telling him to give them some orders.

“Right,” Kyungsoo said, feeling a wave of nervousness. He was never very good at being in charge, or being put on the spot. And now he was both. “Um, well, since the whole going-around thing was a flop, let’s all just pair up and discuss things with each other, and… yeah. You can give your stuff to me and I’ll pass it on to Joonmyun tomorrow.” Everyone just sort of stared at him, which was slightly terrifying, but no one objected so he figured he was doing okay.

“Alright then. Baekhyun and Chanyeol, you work with… um, Minseok,” he suggested, earning three nods. This wasn’t so bad. “Sehun and Luhan can – can go with – Tao.” He was trying to plan this out in a way he thought would be the most productive, but he honestly had no idea what he was doing (and he couldn’t look at Jongin, not wanting to see the other watching and probably judging him). “Jongdae, you and… Yixing.” Jongdae just laughed but gave Kyungsoo a thumbs up. “And – J-Jongin can work with Kris. I’ll just – go around and see what everyone else is doing.”

As soon as he was done, they all got up and shuffled themselves around. Kyungsoo lingered around Baekhyun and Chanyeol for a minute, but they were quick to get into a discussion with Minseok over his story – he had covered the soccer game last Friday (one of the biggest of the year) – and Kyungsoo figured that group was okay without him. Next he went to Jongdae, but his friend was just sketching out what looked like a comic strip while Yixing ranted on beside him about his story – something about some cute pig named Carrot who had watched his family be slaughtered for bacon, and he had been spared his life for some reason, etc. That wasn’t really a conversation Kyungsoo wanted to join either, because Yixing was a vegan and, well, Kyungsoo wasn’t but he’d probably end up feeling really bad about it. He didn’t need the guilt trip.

The moment he tried to approach the next group – Sehun, Luhan, and Tao – Sehun looked up and sent a deadly glare his way. Feeling worried about what might happen if he got any closer, Kyungsoo backed off immediately. Thus, he reluctantly headed towards the final pair, the last place he wanted to go.

Kris and Jongin were sitting side by side, not talking, not acknowledging one another at all. When Kyungsoo pulled up a chair in front of them, keeping his eyes down, Jongin glanced up at him with a scowl. “What do you want?” he sneered.

“Just – wanted to see how you guys were doing,” Kyungsoo mumbled, feeling his cheeks warming up already. He was pretty sure he’d never actually been this close to Jongin before; it wasn’t exactly how he’d expected – or hoped – this situation would go.

Last year, Kyungsoo had always seen Jongin around – in the halls, the cafeteria, and of course at their meetings – and he’d thought Jongin was kind of nice. Sure, he liked to stir things up, but he never noticed Kyungsoo and was thus never mean to him. Now, Kyungsoo was like his target number one, and it was a huge letdown. There was no way he could ever hold a real conversation with the boy, because Jongin just thought he was an idiot and a loser. Why had Kyungsoo ever thought failing his grade to get closer to Jongin would be a good idea?

Well, it wasn’t. It had been a really dumb idea. He should’ve just signed up for tutoring or something and helped Jongin out; then they would’ve probably become friends and hung out at each other’s houses and fallen in love (Kyungsoo was pretty sure that was what had happened with Sehun and Luhan). But no, he couldn’t be that lucky.

“How do you think?” Jongin shot at him. “You put me with bamboo mime boy; he won’t talk to me and I don’t want to talk to him anyway.” Kyungsoo looked over at Kris, but the older was just writing on a piece of paper – in Chinese, by the looks of it. He wondered if he was writing another poem.

“Um, well… you can talk with me about your story,” Kyungsoo posed shyly. Jongin merely scowled further.

“You can’t talk about the weather, okay? And don’t say we should talk about your stuff, either,” he added, rolling his eyes. “I don’t even understand how a kid who failed a grade gets to write the academics page anyway.”

No sugar-coating with him, I guess, huh? Kyungsoo stared down at his hands, feeling a little bit like crying, a lump forming thickly in his throat. He shouldn’t have come over; he should’ve stayed with Jongdae and been guilted by Yixing about eating meat. That would’ve been a lot easier than thinking he could maybe have a decent conversation with Kim Jongin today. Or ever.

A moment later, Jongin was breaking into Kyungsoo’s cloud of self-pity. “Here,” he muttered, and Kyungsoo looked up to see him holding a thick, concealed envelope. “That’s my story. I’m going home now.”

Wordlessly, Kyungsoo took the envelope – which was awfully heavy; what, had he written a book or something? – and nodded, dismissing the younger boy who got up and left the room without another word. When he was gone, Kyungsoo just continued to stare at the envelope for a long time, composing himself while the rest of the team talked around him.

“Hey, are we allowed to go?” Tao called across the room after Jongin left.

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo responded quietly. “Just leave your stories and go whenever you want…”

They all took their leave soon after that; Tao going first, then Kris, Minseok, Baekhyun and Chanyeol. When Yixing went, Jongdae finally looked up from his work and said, “See ya. Enjoy your salads, and don’t forget to eat lots of carrots!” Yixing looked appalled, and went out quickly after that. Kyungsoo went over to Yixing’s vacated desk and picked up his story that he had left behind (too offended to even deliver it to Kyungsoo since that meant being in the room with Jongdae longer).

“He’s nice,” Jongdae said cheerfully, folding up his own papers and sticking them in his backpack, trading them out for another page that he handed to Kyungsoo. “This is for this week. Feel free to read it, if you’re bold enough.” He winked exaggeratedly. Kyungsoo just sighed, adding the piece to the pile of everyone else’s things. “What’s up with you?” Jongdae wondered.

Looking around, Kyungsoo saw Sehun and Luhan packing up their own things, and he simply shrugged, saying, “Later.” Jongdae seemed to take the hint, plunking back into his seat and pulling out his phone. A moment later, Luhan gave Kyungsoo his and Sehun’s story, and the two left the room, leaving Kyungsoo and Jongdae alone.

“So what’s up?” Jongdae asked after a moment, sticking his phone back in his pocket. Kyungsoo heaved another sigh.

“I failed tenth grade, like an idiot,” he said miserably.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Jongdae returned, raising an eyebrow at him. “That was like, months ago, are you just figuring this out now?” Kyungsoo couldn’t even find the will to tell him off, just sighing again. Realizing Kyungsoo’s seriousness, Jongdae sobered up, reaching out and touching Kyungsoo’s arm lightly. “You wanna talk to me about it?”

It was times like this that Kyungsoo appreciated Jongdae as one of his closest friends. Sometimes Jongdae was a jerk, admittedly, and he never really took things seriously; but he was also a good person to talk to when Kyungsoo needed someone. And it was about time Kyungsoo opened up about the things that were going on in his life.

“I like someone,” he began slowly, words catching in his throat as though reluctant to come out.

To his surprise, Jongdae’s response was simply, “I know.” But when Kyungsoo opened his mouth to ask – what, or how, or something – the other cut him off. “You know how I am with the whole love thing; people are totally see-through for me when it comes to that crap. I’ve known for a while, Soo, and I know who it is.”

“You do?” Kyungsoo whispered, and Jongdae just shrugged.

“I didn’t think you’d go so far for him, but I couldn’t exactly stop you, right?”

Kyungsoo nodded slowly, briefly contemplating whether he wished his friend had intervened. If he had, I wouldn’t have to have feelings for someone who basically hates me. “Is that why you hate him then?”

Another shrug, and Jongdae scowled slightly. “Because he’s an idiot and makes everyone’s lives difficult and is a total jerk to you? Yeah, it’s something like that.”

Kyungsoo felt his heart sinking somewhere into the pit of his stomach. Of course Jongdae was right, about all of it. And Kyungsoo didn’t even know what it was about Jongin that made him keep liking him, but Kyungsoo hadn’t stopped anyway, and he was just making it worse for himself. “What am I supposed to do?”

“That’s not my field, Soo. Go ask Tao or something.”

“Jongdae.”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Jongdae said defensively, and he stood, giving Kyungsoo a half-hearted look of apology as he slung his bag over his shoulder. “Other than to get over him. You saw how he was with Joonmyun today; that’s the kind of person he is – a jerk. That’s what you’d be signing yourself up for. You should just… set your sights on someone else.”

And when Kyungsoo didn’t reply, Jongdae just gave a frustrated sigh and headed for the door, leaving the other alone with the team’s stories and a lot of misery.

Out in the hallway, Sehun heard this conversation. He and Luhan had been suspicious when Kyungsoo started acting strange, and then told Jongdae they could talk later. Their gossip radars sprung to life, and Sehun and Luhan decided they needed to know what Kyungsoo had to say. So Luhan had gone off and Sehun eavesdropped, hearing all of it and doing his best to retain it. It didn’t take much for him to put everything he heard together, and when Jongdae’s footsteps began approaching the door, Sehun scurried off, looking forward to his plans for Kyungsoo’s big secret.

A/n: I have so many plans already :D But its 3am now and I need to sleep. Please feel free to tell me your thoughts~ <3
Also, shoutout to fellow wtnv fans who understood references made here. This is going to be a bit wtnv inspired ;P