Chapter Text
The bell rang its command to gather the adolescence of thy academia, causing a stampede of pupils to hurriedly gallop their strides across the hallways and into their study halls.
The blazing sunshine of Seoul was nonetheless temperate in comparison to the treacherous inferno of Mount Pinnacle, and its never-ending torrents of sizzling, incandescent magma that forged its despairing peaks. Notwithstanding such observations, I had additionally taken notice of my own peers showered in sweat, and blasting devices of the gust known as mini-fans.
I readily anticipated the non-eventful arrival of our lecturer of the day— The said arrival, however, brought unspeakable apprehension to my peers who had launched themselves into a frantic endeavor of rifling through the papers of their book of mathematical entries related to a scholastic assessment that Ms. Park had bestowed upon us for this unremarkable day of study; and not one soul in a single hall of 40 was well-equipped for a trial that was as facile as swinging one's cutlass towards a demonic legion across the stretches of erupting molten rock, and crimson color of what was once a blue yonder.
My two arms intertwined as they crossed across my chest, the blaring colloquy of my peers dissolved as if a mist in the morning sun.
And accordingly under their unfortunate circumstances, they were ought to rely on each other for the self-fulfillment of success. And under this said circumstance, my dress shirt was intentionally brushed by a certain girl's fingers, and her last-ditch, nil efforts to meet the knowledge required for this evaluation.
“Hey, Chan something— whatever. Can I have your notes…?”
— ★
Holy fucking shit I forgot to study last night.
I asked Minjae, and Jerry for their notes, but they GHOSTED ME so I literally spent the whole night doomscrolling and waiting for their reply until I passed out on my bed, and they STILL NEVER GAVE ME ANYTHING.
I wanna rip off their hair so badly, I hate them, oh my god. I have ZERO notes on our calculus test and now I'm here trying to scramble for ANY notes I wrote for the past two weeks. Nada. Books? They're in my locker. Phone? We're not even allowed to bring those!
I've got barely any time and my ONLY SEATMATE is in AWOL, so I'm nearly gonna crash out over this test. If I fail this, my mom's seriously gonna cook my ass for failing AGAIN.
I wanna ask that weird chunnibyou smartass, I don't know his name— right in front of me that unintentionally kinda hides me from the teachers whenever I wanna drop dead and sleep for a bit but he's seriously fucking scary. YEAH I KNOW I really did add a bunch of halloween stickers on his desk before winter break but he surely FORGOT about that, right…?
I still asked him anyway. My fingers poked his shoulder as I forced a big, huge smile that could be compared to big chungus or something.
You know what he did? He literally just threw his math notes in front of me without his eyes gazing back at me.
Does he still hate me for the sticker prank? That was seriously not that bad, though.
Either way, I still opened his notes, only for my eyes to be FLASHBANGED by actual light— like rays of white just attacked my poor eyes. I instinctively yelped from the sudden sight before I closed the book shut.
Everyone heard me scream like a kid. Everyone except for that Chan twink had their eyes laser focused on ME like THEY weren't assaulted either. Look, I like attention, it's lowkey my guilty pleasure, but he probably only did this to embarrass me. AND FOR WHAT? I didn't even do anything to this weird chud… Besides the stickers thing, but he peeled it off already!
I know he was smiling, this guy was trying to hold back a whole ass laugh. No doubt that this guy wanted my downfall PRONTO.
I raised my arm with the notebook in my hand. I was gonna throw this shit back to whence they came or whatever, but Ms. Park that non-fun ass freak was already AT THE DOOR, and everyone warned each other BUT ME.
Fuck that— everyone wants my downfall.
“Ari, what are you doing?”
This looks wrong. THIS LOOKS SO WRONG. I'm dead. Let my friends play My Chemical Romance at my funeral at this point.
I heard Eunhyuk hold back a laugh, and I instinctively threw the book at him.
It looks worse now.
“Ow!” Eunhyuk whined with a baffled face. “What did I do?”
“Stop laughing at me.”
“It was kinda— nevermind…” He cut himself off.
Ms. Park immediately interrupted us, her hands flipping through her filled with test questionnaires. “Take your seats, and get your pen, and one whole sheet of paper. You only have 60 minutes to answer.”
I plopped my ass down, and as I scoured for my own, I realized— I had no pen, no pencil, nada.
Can't just ask the chunnibyou guy again, ‘cause who knows? What if his pen spurts out flames next? Is whatever I'm gonna draw gonna come to life— actually… That kinda sounds fire, but— THAT'S NOT THE POINT. THE POINT IS I HAVE NO PEN.
— ★
The assessment was what mere mortals of this plane would like to categorize as ‘Child's play’ since I had acquired another testament of my own intellect, causing my peers to fawn over my result as if they were an oasis upon a band of desert dwellers.
I peered over at the girl behind me whose eyes were dimmed with gut-wrenching hopelessness. Her own results bore marks of a mere 40%, as the murmurs behind me revealed.
A mere mischievous act against me— for instance, the stickers— ought to have condemned her into the depths of magma, for she tried for conspiracy against the Demon Lord.
Fortunately for the girl, I no longer possessed Dominion over the raging lava. Not after he had overpowered my strength with the Holy Blade. Not forgetting that perhaps, her ill-starred assessment results may be fueled by the karmic energy of her rebellions.
Perhaps the numerous Deities of this world above the ethers have a moderately agreeable moral stance as well. This world isn't so bad after all.
I heard the admiration of my peers, who uttered flattering remarks of envy and acclaim as if I were awarded a Nobel Prize. Howbeit that many among my peers as well found it nearly customary for me to do so— though, that is an issue that shan’t be paid any mind to.
“Yo, Chuuni— can I thare notes with ‘ya again? Holy fhit your notes are crathy good.” A tall, familiar subject approached my chair.
It was Oh Sehun. An active associate of the Theatre & Film Department at this school. Though I find him largely unremarkable beyond such descriptors regarding this peer, he has braces on his teeth, and he seems to be incapable of pronouncing the letter S.
Otherwise, I handed over my other notebook onto his palm. “You are permitted to do so.”
He broke into an enthusiastic smile once he heard my reply.
“Thanks Chuuni, you're the freakin’ goat! Caufe of you, I got an eighty-percent thith time!” He exclaimed happily, his hand patted my back.
I simply observed the subject depart in chase of merely upholding his newfound academic improvements by means of my records tabulated in such a manner that a mere child can understand its contents.
— ★
I FAILED. I WAS FAR OFF. OH MY GOD if it wasn't for him or everything else I swear I could've done well like I got a 75% on our last sem HOW DID I FAIL THIS BAD oh my god my mom's going to slime me so bad…
That Channibyou or whatever can act buddy-buddy with that theatre kid, but SOMEHOW I HAVE TO BE EMBARRASSED?
He does all this to me, but he can act all snug and close to that theatre kid??? Oh my god this petty bitch has to be kidding because no way the stickers offended him this badly.
I don't even care anymore. If he's got a chance to mess with me— I'll mess with him even more. If he's petty, I'll be petty too.
Soon, I see that guy head out to the bathroom, and give me an absolute OPPORTUNITY.
I mean… I don't have a pen and I had the balls to borrow Eunhyuk’s pen… So…
I quietly stood up, opened his bag, and scoured that thing like I'm a raccoon to a trash can or something. But I know I have to be kinda lowkey about it so… I just felt my way through it!
Anyway, I did get a pen…
…cil. A mechanical pencil.
When he returned to his seat, I immediately found that he brought his pen with him, which I wanted to steal by the way!!
And all I did was steal something he could just never use again because WHO USES PENCILS FOR TESTS?!
But, you know what? That's fine! As long as I made the letters dark enough, it would barely look obvious that it's from a pencil!
Right after my sad attempt of a robbery, he looked down to see his bag entirely unzipped ‘cause of me, and all I could just do was look away and stare at the window with a big ass smile like I didn't do anything.
“...I do not recall opening my baggage.” He murmured.
He looked at the classmate in front of him, then at me.
I'M DONE. IT'S JOEVER HOW DID I LIVE THROUGH ALL THIS MAN… ALL I JUST DID AT THIS POINT WAS JUST LOOK AWAY AND FIDDLE HIS MECHANICAL PENCI….
…
..
.
I was still holding his pencil.
“...May I help ail your sufferings, Ari?”
It was so fucking obvious I stole this shit from him. HIS NAME TAG was plastered on that damn pencil and it had “Property of Park Chanyeol” type bullshit on it. He's gonna tell me off, won't he???
He finally looked down and noticed his pencil on my hands— but he didn't react weirdly?? ACTUALLY that's good because I can still explain myself… Hahahaha….
“You… dropped this earlier.” I fumbled for words like a total dumbass, immediately handing over his pencil.
“Did I do such a clumsy act?” He hummed curiously before he took the damned pen from my hands.
I sighed a breath of relief like he just brought out entire burdens from my shoulders. I mean— he kinda did, but like STILL. At least I won't look like a pathetic robber…
I failed this time, but it doesn't mean I'll fail my other attempts.
Watch me. Park Chan whatever actually I don't give a fuck about your name I literally just hate you.