Chapter Text
“So, in order to really be a member of QQ, you need to do one more task!”
Suan leaned closer to Suji who gestured for her to come closer to her. Suji looked around a few times, before whispering loud enough for both Suan and Wendy, who sat next to Suji, to be able to hear.
“I want to test your resolve in how badly you want to be a QQ. And in this way, I have the perfect idea.” She then gestured to SEM across the gymnasium and then looked back at Suan.
“The Spring Formal is coming up in a few months. Think you can get him to ask you to that dance?”
Suji batted her eyes at Suan with a mischievous smile, as Suan took another look behind her at the young man across the gymnasium. There wasn’t much that she actually knew about SEM. Other than being in a few of her classes, being a loner, heck, she didn’t even know if he was in any clubs.
“Well, umm… you see, I was really hoping someone else would take me to that dance.” She said shyly, then looking over at NOA who was loudly rapping to a group of fans.
Suji rolled her eyes before making a huge huff. She began to rest her chin on the back of her hands, as she probed into Suan’s eyes, as if she could read her mind.
“I wanted to test your resolve, Suan. You can sing, dance, and you have a pretty face and body. You’re talented, you’ve got all it takes to be a QQ-“
“Thank you-“
“But if you can’t get one silly boy to ask you to the dance, and THEN reject him, how can I expect you to keep your fans at an arm’s length distance away? I’m not asking you to go to the dance with him. I’m just asking you to get him to ask you to that dance. Oh, and you can’t pay him or do favors in order to ask you. That’s cheating.”
Suan looked at Wendy who was staring at NOA, before looking back at Suan.
“I’d love for you to be a QQ with us! And… if you like NOA, then… well, Mr. Salieri has us practice after his group a lot after school. So, you’ll have plenty of time to get to know him in between practice sessions.”
“Right, it’s a win-win. I’m not saying you can’t practice with us. You just need to get SEM to ask you to the dance. He must genuinely want to take you. Figure out a way that he wants to take you and that’s that.”
“So I can just be a pretty girl to him and-“
“No way.” Suji snorted before folding her arms. She shook her head as if it wasn’t that simple. “We’ve been in the same grade, and I’ve never seen him once show interest in someone else. Or even the other way around. That’s why it’s a challenge. Maybe you could just be a pretty girl, and wrap some other people around your little finger by batting your eyes or smiling at them, but it won’t work on SEM.”
Wendy and Suan looked at her, wondering if Suji had prior experience with SEM hence why her challenge seemed so specific.
“Why does it have to be SEM, anyway?” Wendy asked. “You didn’t make me do any big challenges.”
“Because you made SuperTonic fall back into TS with just your smile. You know that’s partially why they don’t like each other. Besides, SEM can be standoffish. He could be taken down a few pegs.”
“Oh!” Wendy giggled before looking up, the bell for the next class was ringing and their free period was up. “Well, good luck Suan~ I’ll see you at practice!”
“Yep, I’ll see you at practice, Suan. Remember, just gotta have him ask you to the dance. You don’t need to accept. You can still go with NOA if you want.” Suji leaned into Suan’s ear. “Or you can accept both, and just end up going with NOA, embarrassing SEM. I don’t know, would be good for the newspaper club.”
“That’s a little mean…”
“Idols are meant to be unattainable, put on a pedestal. Besides… you have a couple of months to make it work out. Homecoming only just passed last week you know~”
As Suan watched Wendy and Suji leave the gymnasium, she felt her chest hurt at the idea of getting someone to like her enough to ask her to the dance only to reject them. But she didn’t even know the guy, and NOA was more of her type anyway. Still, she knew if she wanted to officially join QQ, she would do whatever it took to secure her place.
She waved goodbye to Mr. Offenbach, the gym teacher, before hurrying her way to the next class.
Her next class was with Mr. Elgar in English. He was already busy furiously writing down a few riddles for the students to take a gander at and solve before class officially started.
Suan decided to take her seat next to SEM, who hardly even looked in her direction, clearly preoccupied with solving Mr. Elgar’s riddles. She had half the heart to write SEM a note, but then she thought about just talking to him about the riddles. Just as she was taking out a cute sticky note to write a note, Mr. Elgar had already clapped his hands to announce the start of class and the end of their warmup.
“Suan, did you solve my riddle today?”
“Oh er… I umm… didn’t.”
Mr. Elgar sighed deeply before using his pointer to point at SEM. “SEM, did you solve the riddle?”
“It sounds like it was about love.”
“And love it was! Today’s class is focusing more on the concept of love and how we as humans have conveyed love to one another for centuries! I want each of you to group up with a partner-“ at this the whole class groaned. “and brainstorm a way you would present your love to someone in a creative manner” An even louder groan was heard from the class. “Perhaps you don’t understand now, but you will! Just as though I love my dear Alice and Carice-“
At this point Mr. Elgar was droning on and on about his family, Suan took the moment to write out her note on a rabbit shaped sticky note.
“Wanna be partners? :)”
She slid it over to SEM, who looked at it briefly before writing something quickly and sliding it back.
“OK”
Suan mentally made a fist pump in the air, before sliding her chair closer to her desk. SEM was quick to give her a look of discomfort before scooching his chair slightly further from her to get some space.
“What do you think of when you think of people presenting their love? Whatever that means?”
“I think of… weird… prom proposals. It may not be love, but it’s a confession or a declaration.”
“Oh!” he wasn’t completely far off the mark that prom proposals could be over the top yet… “A confession is still love based, y’know!”
SEM gave her a nod in agreement, though it looked like he didn’t quite agree. Suan felt her smile slightly falter. If she was supposed to get SEM to ask her to a dance, this was actually going to be tough, since he wasn’t going to talk very much unless prompted.
“I think… love letters are still popular! And love songs!”
“Love songs… yes, that’s pretty popular. But so are break up songs.”
Suan forced herself to smile, she really didn’t expect him to be so negative in the first place. She was sure that Mr. Elgar was simply trying to make students understand how wonderful love was, but SEM seemed anything but.
“Well, what about those corny Valentine’s day cards we used to get as kids? And sometimes you see someone else gets a special singular rose from a secret admirer and you spend the entire day trying to find out who it is, but you find out in an hour!”
SEM finally looked up at Suan, studying her face. He made a deep sigh, once he stopped looking, writing down an answer.
“That sounds oddly specific.”
“H-huh? It does?” Suan then put her hand on her chin, perhaps she actually had that happen once or twice in grade school. And it wasn’t like the person who gave her the rose was actually secretive, since they stared at her the entire time to see how she reacted. “W-well, maybe it does!”
“Valentine’s day cards… I only got the obligatory ones from my classmates.”
“Oh, but sometimes you got candy or stickers with them too! That was fun, don’t you think?”
“I guess…”
From the other side of the room, SHK looked over at both SEM and Suan, deep in thought. He then gave a poke to his partner, Apple Soda to look at them.
“They’re being kind of loud- er, Suan’s being kind of loud, don’t you think?”
“Maybe she’s just excited, SHK.” He responded back before writing down his answer. “Why, what’s up?”
“It just seems weird… I’m sure Suan would’ve picked anyone else to be her partner and not SEM. Well, not like a lot of people want to talk to SEM but-“
“You do!” Apple Soda said with a cheeky smile. “You want him to join the composer club! You know how most of our teachers who were alumni of this high school used to write a few songs. You heard something he wrote and started hounding him and-“
“Yeah, that’s the thing. SEM actively avoids me now. But why would Suan want to pick up the pace after he just barely got me off of his tail?”
Apple Soda then looked more closely at the duo, while he wasn’t close enough to SEM to tell, he could tell from his more furrowed eyebrows that he was rather upset and didn’t want to be talked to so aggressively by Suan. He looked back at SHK who raised his eyebrows as if to say “well?”
“I bet you, someone knows. Maybe it happened over free period?”
As if a lightbulb lit up in SHK’s head he then whipped his head back to Apple Soda, and then talked in a very hushed manner.
“Who does she have free period with?”
“Uh…I think Mr. Offenbach, the gym teacher. I think SEM does too. Why?”
“I just… don’t have a good feeling about this.” SHK said quietly, “I just don’t.”
Mr. Elgar clapped his hands again to end the group partner activity, before waiting for responses from each pair of partners. As he made his way around the room, he nodded appreciatively in response to everyone’s answers before finally asking SEM.
“What kind of love do we demonstrate today that you found? I heard you had a good discussion with Suan.”
SEM looked at Suan before clearing his throat. It wasn’t hard to ‘hear’ they had a good discussion, since Suan was considerably louder than he was. Most of their answers were already said already, and he didn’t want to answer with the same exact answer that everyone else did.
“We do a lot of… public confessions. Like prom proposals." Mr. Elgar nodded at the unique response, while SEM began to talk about the next example nervously."Then there's valentine’s day cards where you…you… give someone a rose…? And then find out who your secret admirer is?”
Mr. Elgar blinked at SEM, clearly noting that he was saying things more as a question, as if he didn’t quite understand what he was saying. He then said a quick thank you to SEM who quickly looked down at his desk, both hands on his face in embarrassment as the class snickered at him.
“Suan, do you want to elaborate on the second part?”
“Oh, uhm sure!” she then perkily looked around the room with a smile. “It’s like back in grade school where we gave everyone in class a valentine. But sometimes there would be someone who got a special rose from a secret admirer, and you would find out and it was like a little love confession!”
The rest of the class nodded in quiet understanding. Kid love confessions. Versus prom proposals, teenager pseudo-love confessions.
At this the bell rang, making Mr. Elgar jump. He then quickly asked all the students to hand them their assignment with their partners before leaving. SEM was quick to get out of his desk to high tail it out to his next class, only for Suan to quickly follow behind. SHK and Apple Soda looked at each other with unease before following suit.
“SEM, wait!” she called out to him, speed walking down the halls. SEM was rushing to his next class, his jacket almost falling off of him before tripping and hitting the floor hard. His glasses had fallen off his face, and he grabbed them forcing them on his face in a crooked manner before trying to make his escape. He got up before Suan could catch up to him, before he started almost running to his class.
“I just want to talk!”
By this point, he rounded to the art and music wing, he was nearly at his next class, before he felt someone clutch at his jacket, forcing him back, only before he could hear a very distinct ripping noise. At this moment, Suan realized her mistake and let go, only for SEM to find himself crashing against the floor again. His notebooks, papers, and books were flying everywhere. Only this time, instead of being able to escape without anyone noticing him, many of the students exiting Mr. Salieri’s and Mr, Liszt’s classes seen him get pulled back hard enough by a girl to rip his jacket.
“isn’t that SEM? Did he really get pulled back by a girl?”
“Guess he’s a really easy target. Maybe I should do that to him. Might be easier on his ego if he got tripped by a guy!”
SEM felt his face burn hot with embarrassment; he swallowed hard as he tried to fix his glasses before trying to find his belongings strewn about, while trying to ignore his ripped jacket.
“Let me help you there, SEM.” SHK said quickly, picking up several of his papers, and handed them back to him, only to have SEM snatch them back, only to utter a small sorry and a thank you to SHK as he collected the rest of his belongings and turning into Mr. Liszt’s classroom.
Suan stood in the middle of the hallway not sure if she should continue on to talk to SEM or to go to her own class with Mr. Chopin in his fashion and design class. She made the sudden movement to follow before Apple Soda pulled her back and then looked at her incredulously.
“You just embarrassed the poor guy, twice! I think the last thing he wants to do is talk to you. Maybe get the hint?”
“I just want to know SEM better!”
“And I’m sure SEM doesn’t want to know you better.” Apple Soda’s face softened as he looked at his friend, she almost looked like she was about to cry. “I don’t know what’s going on, but if I were you, I’d give him some space. I don’t know what or why you’re trying to get close to him for but… I wouldn’t do it if I were you. Just give SEM a break.”
With that said, Apple Soda rushed to his next class with Mr. Liszt, leaving Suan alone with only a few milling students around her.
“I can’t just give up… not when I’m so close to being an idol…”