Chanyeol forced his best to stay awake, trying to concentrate on whatever things that Choi Jinsoo, his biology teacher had been explaining on the whiteboard for the past two hours. But his body was a total mess, so tired that he didn’t realize he had been yawning for more than 36 times. His lids grew heavier and he had been fallen asleep for a mere few seconds. Chanyeol looked away to the right side of his desk to make himself busy, and then there was Heerin, his only girl-best-friend since they were little, looking so occupied on writing something in her notes. A small innocent smile started growing on his face without he realized, until he felt something hard landed on his head.

“Park Chanyeol! Where are you looking at?!”

Chanyeol sighed and he quickly straighten his sitting position and covered half of his face with biology book to block those stares from the whole class. Red soon decorated his face and embarassment started taking over his mind. He never liked biology class—but then again, he never liked any subjects in this school. He secretly took another glance at Heerin, who was actually chuckling at him. That, that kind of laughter made Chanyeol happy, no matter what mistake he had done in the class, or in public.

Minutes passed by and Chanyeol could finally write a one full pharagraph of human’s inspiration process—which he did with such great urge not to ask Heerin because he didn’t really pay attention to Jinsoo’s lecture before. Sometimes when he asked the girl some help, Chanyeol felt partially intimidated by her. As a girl, Heerin seemed to be capable of anything and everything. Which compared to himself, Chanyeol couldn’t really do anything right.

“Wow, look at that. 389 words of human’s inspiration,” Heerin said, almost as soft as the chirping birds outside their windows. Chanyeol was totally fazed by her expression.

“Y, you count them?” He stuttered.

“Yeah. I just count it again and I’m a hundred percent sure it’s 389 words. You know, after seeing your works here, I’m afraid Jinsoo will think that I’m exaggerating this task because I write up 1000 words,” she said while scratching the back of her neck. Chanyeol stared in awe. He didn’t even know how many words he had written—he just wrote and as long as the page wasn’t full yet, that meant he had to keep writing. Chanyeol downed his gaze to the books tightly clutched in Heerin’s arms and cringed.

“Can you stop reading those books? God, I wonder if you ever have some fun.”

“What, these? Oh come on, Chanyeol, reading this books won’t hurt you,” Heerin chuckled.

Chanyeol shook his head in disbelief. Heerin’s weird little obsession for school’s subjects was a little bit confusing—it was always confusing for Chanyeol himself. But that was also the thing that underlined Chanyeol’s interest on her. She was really different. One word that kept popping out of his mind whenever he thought about her. Different, he hummed.

“Miss Park, are you done yet?” Jinsoo called her from behind his table.

“Oh, yes, Sir. I’m about to collect it,” she replied. “See you later, Chanyeol.”

Heerin jogged towards Jinsoo and proudly handed over her essay, then waved goodbye to Chanyeol and left because it was time for break already. Chanyeol idiotly kept waving his hand even when Heerin was out of his sight and no longer in the class, instead of finishing his essay.

“Park Chanyeol!” Chanyeol earned another yell from Jinsoo again. His sharp gaze this time made Chanyeol rolled his eyes and he quickly wrote down the last few words before running to the front of the class and out to the cafetaria.

★ ☆ ✮ ✯

Six pairs of eyes putting so much focus on another six pairs whose owners were performing their infamous basketball skill down there. The usual players would be Kris’ exclusive little group consisting Zitao, Jongin, Yixing, Sehun, and Luhan. Every single day for the last two years, they would take over the gymnasium after school to play basketball and showcased their masculinity to the poor soul of the young female students (and some poor young female teachers too).

On the other side, on the rearmost seat, there were the Bleachers; Chanyeol, Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, Jongdae, Minseok, and Junmyeon whose function worked as the spectators, or at least that was how Kris would call them. Yeah, those who were labeled as ‘unwanted spectators’ for their three years (two for Chanyeol and Jongdae, one for Kyungsoo) studying in SM High. Those six people rested their heads on their palms while sighing once in a while. Thinking of how their life would totally change if they could be involved in Xueshenghui led by its legendary killer leader, Kris Wu. But then again, none of them liked working with Kris.

Ever since Kris’ leadership in his first year, that highest student organization in SM High had changed its name into ‘Xueshenghui’. The reason was none other because aside from the fact that Kris was a Chinese(-) who lived in Korea. His sidekicks consisted of Zitao, Luhan, and Yixing who were also managing to be the China Line—another group of students who were purely Chinese-born and rich- kids, one of the most popular school group in Seoul.

“Don’t ever think about it,” Kyungsoo suddenly mumbled. The rest of the boys looked at him curiously.

“About what?” Baekhyun asked.

“To challenge the Xueshenghui. Good thing if you can beat them down, the whole academy—heck, even those difficult-to-attract girls from the choir—will like you to bits.”

An idiotic smile quickly grew on each face of the five boys around Kyungsoo, imagining how dreamy it would be for dating with the eight most beautiful girls at school. Heerin used to be one of them before she dropped herself out because of the crazy schedule.

“That, or you can embarrass yourself and lose your dignity. Or worst of all, you can never enjoy your last year at school and end up being school’s clown,” he continued flatly. Now the once wide smile that lingered on the other five had gone, only frowns remained, thinking about the idea itself was a terrible terror already.

“You’re right.”

They sighed and burried their heads in their arms altogether. If only they could trade their positions with the members of Xueshenghui, only to know how it felt to be popular and full of control.

Chanyeol looked up and started imagining himself wearing the Xueshenghui’s exclusive badge sewn perfectly on his blazer’s pocket, walked around the school with face full of proud and happiness because he would earn respect from all the students. Teachers would praise him and the best of all, he could get even closer to Heerin without minding everyone’s thoughts, spoken or not. Heerin was exactly the type of girl who got impressed easily by other people’s achivements. And if Chanyeol were granted the chance to be in Xueshenghui, much expected Heerin would have no excuse to refuse him.

BAAANGG!

Stars. Chanyeol was seeing stars.

“Chanyeol! Chanyeol, are you okay?!”

Baekhyun shook the taller male worrily, a faint bruise was starting to emerge itself on Chanyeol’s temple. His right eye looked swollen and Chanyeol sounded like a dying puppy for a few seconds. Every students in the hall only stared at them, some of them even laughed. Junmyeon looked at the ball that was still bouncing behind Chanyeol as if teasing him and he quickly swung his head back again, facing Kris and his sidekicks who seemed to be ready having yet another ‘game’ with the Bleachers. None of them wanted to approach Chanyeol to ask for apology.

“You!” Junmyeon shouted harshly, his index finger was pointing at Yixing from afar.

“Well, it was an accident. I was too strong, and he wasn’t supposed to be there.”

Junmyeon started losing his patience and decided to get down from his seat, before Minseok and Jongdae stopped him and told him to just sit down. The Xueshenghui giggled looking at Junmyeon’s furious emotion. His eyes met with Kris’.

“You’re their leader, take care of your bloody kids!” Junmyeon started losing his control and struggled from his friends. The little guy made sure to put emphasize on his words. He wished Kris would back away that way.

“Uhh, where am I…?”

Chanyeol blinked his eyes a few times. It seemed like the bruise on his right eye made his sight a little bit out of sync.

“Chanyeol, are you okay?” Kyungsoo sounded so worried.

Baekhyun tried to help Chanyeol into his sitting position. The bruise on his temple could now be seen even from afar because of its dark color. When Junmyeon saw Chanyeol who just got his consciousness back, he quickly went back at his friend to check on him and forgot his raging emotion. The bruise was no joke. Yixing must be really strong for throwing that ball from that distance. The question was, did Yixing mean it or not?

“Chanyeol, quick, how many fingers do you see?!”

“Uhhh, umm, errr…. 13..?” He said with head still spinning.

“Dammit I haven’t even raised my fingers!” The other just groaned.

Everyone—well, the six of them—was getting panic. Slowly but sure while holding on to Baekhyun, Chanyeol tried to stand up and reached for the basketball behind him. He could hardly see where he went with just one eye down the stairs. It took him ten minutes for Chanyeol and his five best friends to take him to Kris’ group.

“Here’s, uh…” Chanyeol tried to balance himself, “…your ball.”

He handed over the ball to Kris, who bit his lips trying to hold back the laughter behind his head seeing Chanyeol’s effort waltzing down the stairs one-eyed. Kris glanced at Zitao and casually gestured him to take the ball from Chanyeol.

“Thank’s a lot, Pirate,” Zitao, the raven-haired kid—also the soon-to-be successor of Kris—mocked and took the ball in Chanyeol’s big hands in one single movement. He then threw the ball again at Yixing, the other playfully caught it and chuckled.

“I, I guess you didn’t really mean for the ball to hit me…” Chanyeol stuttered. His head still felt heavy on his own.

“Yeah, of course. But I’m glad I kind of did,” Yixing grinned proudly. “Soft spot.”

Junmyeon was on his peak when he saw Kris and his gangs high fived each other for returning Chanyeol’s words just like that. Unlike Junmyeon, Chanyeol who was the real victim here still looked so calm. He still needed to lean on Baekhyun and Kyungsoo because Jongdae and Minseok had to be ready to stop whatever the was Junmyeon going to do.

“You know, Junmyeon, I suggest you to just stay behind the line, take your friend to the sanitary and do something with his bruised eye, instead of talking to me and waste your time while you’re embarassing yourself.”

Cunning laughter quickly erupted from behind the giant blonde. Poor Junmyeon, he had to keep looking up to face the other’s eyes, if not, he could only talk against Kris’ well-built chest.

“You. You’re such an , you know that?” His tone was much calmer this time.

“What did you say?”

“Yeah, you,” Junmyeon stabbed Kris’ well-built chest with his tiny index finger, “are a coward. Chicken. You didn’t apologize first. A loser.”

He was trying to provoke the anger within Kris, but even the taller one could handle his emotion very well compared to Junmyeon.

“C’mon guys, let’s get going,” Kris called out to his friends, leaving Junmyeon in awkward situation.

Feeling ignored, Junmyeon quickly landed his full fist toward Kris’ head, before Tao quickly restrained his fist with just one hand. Junmyeon was surprised and went panic. Cold sweat started streaming down his temple. He forgot that Kris got Seoul’s national wushu champion for five years in a row behind his back. The tall blonde tilted his head back with cunning smile plastered on his face.

“Bad Junmyeon,” Kris swung his index finger, he emphasized his words. “You should’ve listened to my words.”

While he had his attention on Kris, Tao suddenly punched Junmyeon on his stomach until the older flew back a few meters behind. He could feel the pain that was starting to creep its way onto his side because of Tao’s strong fist. Kris and his group laughed endlessly like a mad wolf pack. was going down for real.

“Junmyeon!” Minseok and Jongdae quickly approached the older.

“It’s okay. You can let me go now,” he replied while holding his stomach in pain. It felt like as if his organs were being pulled inside out.

“We drive too many attention. Please stop,” Minseok tried to persuade him while looking around at the people in the gym. But Junmyeon’s glare was now directed at Zitao with an even worst anger. With all energy (and pride) he had left, Junmyeon rose without holding on to Minseok or even Jongdae. With face full of proud, he challenged Zitao (again).

“Is that all you’ve got, huh?!” Junmyeon shouted.

Zitao smirked and shook his head in disbelief, he cracked his finger, relaxing them. Junmyeon had to admit, the sound of the cracking fingers itself had made him scared to the bone. But words had been spoken. And he had to do it if he didn’t want to be labeled as a coward.

“This one will hurt you to hell,” Zitao whispered, much to himself rather than to Junmyeon.

Junmyeon shut his eyes while in his fighting position, scared of seeing how his life would end. Right when Zitao started running into him, a small figure of a student prevented him to.

“Huang Zitao, 停止 [tingzhi]!”

What Zitao faced right then and there was Heerin’s pair of greyish green eyes. She practically stretched her lean arms to protect Junmyeon from getting hit. Kris quickly moved from his place and lurged his long arms around Tao’s waist to stop the younger, making the both of them fell straight to the floor because of the abrupt stop. Heerin didn’t care for the two giants in front of her now and ran back to Junmyeon.

“Are you hurt, got bruises, broken bones, anything?” Heerin worriedly asked.

“No, no, I’m fine. But Chanyeol’s…”

Heerin and Junmyeon looked at Chanyeol who was still leaning on Baekhyun and Kyungsoo for dear life. The both of them were so small compared to Chanyeol’s big and tall figure.

“Hi, Rinrin…” Chanyeol limply called out.

“Oh God, Chanyeol!”

Heerin rushed to Chanyeol’s side. She even let all the books in her arms to fall out scattered around the floor so she could hold Chanyeol. Heerin’s eyes were starting to clouded with fear.

“Are you okay?”

Chanyeol nodded and smiled, “I’m fine. Don’t worry,” even a few seconds later he cringer when Heerin danced her fingers on his bruised eye.

“Who did this…?” She whispered to Baekhyun.

“I—we didn’t really see it. I, it was so fast. But Junmyeon-hyung yelled at Yixing-sunbaenim and we all assumed he was the one who threw it,” he explained in a voice even lower than a whisper. Heerin turned to Kris, watching the tall Xueshenghui leader being stunned in place.

“Hey,” he was still sitting on the floor with Tao. Heerin took a large angry steps toward him. Arms tightly crossed on her chest, waiting for explanation.

“Wait, listen, it wasn’t my fault, okay? Yixing threw it.”

“Hey, it was an accident!” But Kris ignored Yixing’s protest.

“And it was something pretty much normal for him, or for ing anyone that is, to accidentally throw the ball and somebody gets hit. You know the risk, right?” Heerin completely ignored Kris’ excuse and just waved it off.

“You can’t blame me, 情人 [qingren].”

That word again, she felt like her heartstrings were being pulled. Heerin spoke in so many languages including Chinese, Japanese, and English fluently and unfortunately, Kris always seemed to forget about that fact. She didn’t like being called that way—especially when the words came out from Kris’ mouth. She just clenched her palms and her eyes grew even wider than Kyungsoo when he was shocked. Seeing this, Kris and Tao quickly rose from their position and took a few steps behind.

“Heerin-ah, please don’t do this to me,” Kris pleaded.

“Of couse,” she put a crafty smile. “I know the risk. But you did it on purpose. What’s there left to be forgiven?” Heerin spat him all her building anger with no hesitation at all. Junmyeon and the other only watched in surprise.

“Qingren!” Kris called her out for the last time before she walked back to Chanyeol and helped him to the sanitary with the Bleachers. This time, Junmyeon could laugh all he wanted because Kris just lost his dignity in front of Park Heerin. But few seconds later he realized he also just lost his own dignity after Heerin saved him from Tao’s attempt on putting him down.

First chapter is up! I don't know how many chapters this will be, because at first this was just a one shot, but then I went over the limit and decided to make it as a chaptered fic. Let me know what you think! Comments are loved ❤

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