Chapter Text
OST Part 1: Jimmy Eat World - The Middle
Unconventional First Encounters.
Kai didn't know why he was sitting in an old classroom with seven other people, being lectured by a teacher who looked like he gave up teaching five years ago. The draining voice of the teacher echoes around the cracked walls of the classroom, the boy in front of him wasn't even listening. He had his head down on the desk, arms wrapped as a pillow; Kai can see the boy's steady breathing, signalling that this boy was fast asleep.
'Now we all know how cool the media shows rebels and recklessness, but you should not be listen-' Kai didn't have the patience to carry on listening to the teacher's lecture, in fact, he wasn't even suppose to be here. He knew he did nothing but was just simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. And also because the teacher hated him. They were probably trying to get an excuse to suspend Kai, but they had to settle on community service, either way, that puts Kai out of their way.
'Hey, could you shut it? I'm trying to watch something', a voice shouts across the room, as the boy across him begins to start a fight with someone Kai couldn't see, but his hair was bright orange and he looked absolutely wrecked.
'Ergh. What is my life', Kai groans to himself, giving in and copying the person in front him, resting his head on the table and going to sleep? It's better than dealing with any of these lots in the room.
5 hours earlier.
'Hey, Kai! Nice tat. That new?', a friend of Kai's shouts behind as they race towards him, finding Kai with a new ink on his neck.
'That looks fucking awesome!', another says as Kai's group of friends pile around him, trying to look more closely at his new tattoo. Kai didn't have many friends, but the friends that he had worshipped him, to say the least. They would always follow him around during lunch, even when he was busy with dance practice. Kai didn't mind. He was a lowkey narcissist, never doing much to gain attention, but once attention finds him, he takes absolute pleasure in enjoying it.
'Just got it done last night', Kai smirks, laughing as they made their way to his locker. Before he can even open his, a teacher slides pass them, eyes fixate on Kai- more specifically his neck- and pointed her fingers towards Kai, gesturing him to follow.
'Kim Jongin, may I see you in the Principal's office', Mrs Seojung commands, holding her books with one arm, whilst grabbing Kai's collar with the other. Shit, it was Kai's maths teacher. Someone who hated Kai to pieces. What the fuck did I do now? Kai thought as he continues to be dragged away by his evil maths teacher, meanwhile bumping into a passerby, a fellow classmate with a mullet hair and a lip piercing.
'What the fuck dude', the boy calls out, but Kai continues to be dragged and as the bell rang, the boy forgot about the morning's happenings.
Kai sits on the multiple chairs assembled behind the principles office, over hearing his maths teacher complaining about his lack of attendance and breakage of the dress code- apparently you can't have tattoos which can be seen in public. Then what's the point of having a tattoo? Kai thought to himself, groaning at the annoying squeaky voice his teacher had, going on and on about how stupid he was.
I can leave. I can leave right now and no one would notice', Kai contemplated on whether to just walk out, but he thought that Mrs Seojung might come and find him again, and he'd just rather get her bullshit over and done with, rather than leave it till later. He looks ahead and notices that the water inside the water dispenser starts to freeze from the bottom, frost making its way around the plastic. Kai looked more intently, trying to figure out what the hell was happening to the water dispenser, but before he could freak himself out, he noticed a boy sitting in front of him, his hand reaching out the direction of the water dispenser, turning his hands ever so slightly to the movement of the ice freezing the water.
Cool.
He must be the guy who can freeze things. He heard all over the school a couple of weeks ago that a new guy came and he had a cool power of freezing things. Being in high school where the cooler and more unique your super power is, the more you might actually like school, because everyone will be wetting their pants for you. Some people are unlucky enough to have useless and uncool powers, like Kai knew one guy from his biology class who could separate salt from water once it dissolved. During middle school that might have been cool, but after high school, everyone found out that they could all do that with a simple distillation experiment. Let's just say, the guy is anything but popular in school. That's why Kai is seen as one of the most popular ones in school; teleportation is quite a rare power and it's also damn useful. Kai might have one of the worst attendance in school, but his punctuality was damn straight perfect.
'Hey, are you the new kid?', Kai asks the boy in front of him, who had completely frozen the water dispenser now. The guy looks up, eyes sly and seductive like a cat, hair dark and ruffled, his school blazer being worn off his shoulder.
'What's it to you?', the guy calls back, his voice hoarse and eyes tired, damn this guy was not friendly.
'Dude I was just asking. Calm down', Kai back out, holding his arms in surrender, he looks at the guy once more, before diverting his attention to the multiple rings he had on his finger.
'Xiumin', the voice in front of him suddenly calls out, making Kai look up again, the boy slouched on his chair, still had a bitch face, but his eyes were staring right back up at Kai.
'Excuse me?'
'My name's Xiumin', the boy repeats again, slouching further into his chair.
'And what are you doing here in the principal's office Xiumin', Kai asks, curious to see what the new boy's been up to, to have wound himself at the principal's office.
'Hanging out'
'Hanging out?'
'Yeah. Trying to avoid those people that have been following me around since I got here', Xuimin replies, eyes rolling in frustration and Kai can only imagine how much-unwanted attention this kid must have.
'Well I know a great hiding spot next time you see them running around', Kai smirks as the boy in front of him laughs along, the silence corridor now filling with jokes and laughter.
On the other side of the school building, sits a boy with a lip piercing and a mullet with red highlights he just did on himself last night, although no one can see it as his hood is all the way over his head, eyes hung low, avoiding all eye contact. He was not a friendly student, in fact, he didn't have any friends in school. He was known around the school as the kid who just exists; no one knew anything about him, he hasn't shown up to one party since freshman year and he just minds his own business. He sits in his usual space, at the back of the canteen, where a small round table is placed in the bins, where no one wants to sit. It was perfect for Baekhyun. No need for conversation or people asking to sit next to him. He minded his business, observing the canteen hear and there, hearing the same old gossip from the table in front of him.
They are loud when they speak, Baekhyun thought, biting into his sandwich, switching to drowning himself in music instead, he'd heard the same story over and over again during the pass week; some girl getting pregnant. It was then that he noticed a certain pastel pink and purple haired, tall boy, walking like an absolute dickhead, thinking he owns the school with his cool fire power and a massive group of friends. Baekhyun can only gag at the group as they tried to walk in like models but just ends up looking like total shitheads. But maybe that's just what Baekhyun feels, as the rest of the school gives them a high five or a wave. Baekhyun rolls his eyes and continues to drown himself in the music, stuffing his face with all the food in front of him.
'Hey, Chanyeol! I was hoping maybe you'll sign up for the charity swim competition that I'm organising. It'll be amazing if you're there', Suho, the valedictorian, class president, teacher's pet of senior high. He has a warm smile and curly dark brown hair, wrapped in a headband. He's also famous for having water bending powers, the shit he does with water, he's like a living fountain and a swimmer faster than Michael Phelps. Chen laughs, talking hold of the leaflet, before winking at Suho.
'Don't worry love, I'll make sure Chanyeol's coming', he smiles, folding the leaflet in half and putting it inside his back pocket, Suho gleams brightly, but before he can say anything, the was caught in the middle of the crowd as Chanyeol began doing tricks with his powers, holding his pinkie finger out like a matching stick and showing everyone his fire tricks.
'I think he likes me', Suho gleams, sitting back down to his seat, where a hundred more copies of his swim charity event lays beside him. D.O, also known as Kyungsoo, sits beside him with a gloomy face. Sometimes this hyung can be so naive, he thought to himself, he has a book held on his hand, he's been reading Dante's Inferno for the fifth time this week, whilst eating the canteen's spaghetti.
'Yeah sure, hyung', he mumbles, not leaving his attention from his book. The two students continue with their meal, sitting across Chanyeol and Chen and a whole crowd of other people.
'Hey, we still have time to grab some lunch before afternoon period starts', Kai rushes ahead, towards the canteen, followed by his new friend. Kai stood outside the principal's office for ten more minutes, before he was called in to have a 'word' about his behaviour, but it wasn't anything new or out of the norm, so the principal quickly dismissed on the matter, and as for his tattoo... He told them he'll just wear turtle necks from now on. He was grateful that Xiumin waited outside for him and felt guilty that the boy might not have lunch because of him. Luckily, they reached the loud and messy canteen in time to buy themselves a meal.
'The place is pretty crowded', Xiumin states, looking around to find loads of students fumbling and messing around the canteen, food everywhere.
'Look over there. I found some spare seats', Kai calls Xiumin over to the back corner of the canteen, where the bins where placed. 'Sweet, pretty quiet compared to the front', Kai praised himself, as he made his way towards a table with empty seats.
'Hey, do you mind if we seat here?', Kai asks the boy sitting on an empty table, the boy's face was covered by his hoodie and no reply came to the pair holding their trays. 'Um, hello? Excuse me?', Kai continues to call over the boy, gently patting his shoulder, to reveal a boy with red hair who looked oddly familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.
'Do you mind if we sit here?', Kai asks once more, and the boy nodded lazily in approval, not looking pleased with all that he was interrupted. Kai ignored the boy's irritated face and sat done, gesturing for Xiumin to sit with him as well. The three sat in silence for a while, with Kai and Xiumin exchanging a few words here and there. Baekhyun has had enough of unwanted people on his table, so he started to make move, packing his bag and throwing his trash in the bin next to him, hurrying along the canteen so he can get out of here and maybe into a quiet classroom before the bell rings. He was in such a hurry, he didn't notice his wallet drop.
Baekhyun made his way in front of the canteen, but not without being pushed fiercely by someone running in the canteen, his feet entangled itself around each other as he loses his balance, falling over someone's back. A loud scream came afterwards, the whole crowd worrying. Baekhyun, after he got his shit together from the fall, turns around to find a fuming dickhead with a burnt hole in the middle of his shirt.
'Damn, what happened to your shirt', Baekhyun asks, looking at Chanyeol's bare chest through the burnt shirt.
'You happened! You little shit! You pushed me whilst I was in the middle of doing something!', Chanyeol shouts, stretching his shirt out to see the damage, 'Shit. This was new as well', Chanyeol utters to himself, still looking down on his shirt.
'You mean while you were showing off? Great. Then you deserve it. Everyone knows you're not allowed to use your powers outside lessons', Baekhyun spites back, grabbing his bag which was still on the floor. Chanyeol was now fuming at the boy in front of him, grabbing a hold of the boy's hoodie, he raised him up to his face, almost lifting the boy off his feet.
'You better take that back', Chanyeol threatens, hands tightly wrapped around the boy's clothes. Baekhyun laughs, shoving his arms and punching Chanyeol's bare chest.
'You fucking wish', that was the last straw, Chanyeol's hands held tight around Baekhyun's sleeves, smoke escaping between his fingers.
'Ow! Motherfucker! What the fuck!', Baekhyun screech in pain, kicking Chanyeol in the shin, trying to force his arms out of the boy's firing hands, being able to shove his left arms from Chanyeol. Chen races his way towards Chanyeol, terrified at the small sparks lighting on Chanyeol's hands.
'Mate, I think you need to stop now', Chen warns, hands forcing his friend to let go, but just as Chanyeol was about to let go, Baekhyun flashed a beam of light towards Chanyeol, surprising him and in the process making him put more pressure on his hands, igniting a fire on Baekhyun's sleeves.
'Shit! Fucking fuck!', Baekhyun screams, dragging his arms out of Chanyeol's hands and quickly taking off his hoodie which was now in flames on his right sleeves. His right arm was burning red and blistered all over from the burn. Suho made his way over the sight of the fire and with the pressure of trying to drown the growing fire in the canteen, he waves his hands around and hoped for the best, leaving the whole of the front canteen completely soaked. Baekhyun, who is now soaking wet, his fringe stuck to his forehead, water dripping from his nose, looks at his bleeding arms in pain, looking back at Chanyeol who was in front of him.
'Hey, dude. I think you left you're wallet back here', Kai approaches the front of the canteen nonchalantly with Xiumin, looking up to see the disaster which just unfolded a few minutes ago.
'What the fuck...', Xiumin whispers, looking at the disaster which surrounded Baekhyun and Chanyeol.
'You motherfucker!', Baekhyun screeches, making all the light bulbs around the whole school explode, teachers inside the staff room wondering why the hell the light bulbs exploded all of a sudden. 'Look what you did to my arm!', he continues to scream at Chanyeol.
'Damn. He done that to your arm?', Xiumin repeats in shock, looking at the tall guy with a burnt hole on his shirt, soaking wet and shocked.
'It was your fucking fault for being a dick!', Chanyeol fights back, gaining sanity and going after Baekhyun who was ready fight him.
'So what if I was being a dick? That doesn't mean you should burn the shit out of me!', Baekhyun shouts, voice being heard all over the school. It won't be long till the teacher's find them fighting and with that, many of the people in the canteen starts to make their way out of the canteen, rushing out towards the back exit. The only people who didn't leave was Baekhyun and Chanyeol who were too busy confronting each other, Chen who was trying to pull his friend back, Suho trying to stop the fight in any way he can and D.O trying to stop his friend from interfering. And with them, all stands Kai and Xiumin, too interested to leave immediately, with Kai still holding Baekhyun's wallet.
'I'm ganna fucking kill you', Baekhyun threatens, beaming his light towards Chanyeol, forcing him to move back, trying to avoid the bright light.
'Shit! Motherfucker', Chanyeol shouts out, beaming out a ball of fire for defence, missing Baekhyun by a slight inch.
'Guys! Guys wait! Let's not get into a dangerous fight! Why don't we just talk about it?', Suho screams over the two boys, leaning his head down in case one of them fires again.
'For fuck's sake Suho, leave them alone! Let's go before we get into trouble!', D.O grabs onto Suho's clothes from the back, trying to pull onto Suho lightly, but Suho wouldn't budge, prying away from D.O and making his way towards Chen who's holding onto Chanyeol's arms.
'The second ball of fire which Chanyeol beamed, landed on a table, straight onto a milk carton, catching fire instantly.
'Holy shit!', Kai bursts out, taking out his phone and taking a video of the huge scene. Xiumin stands nervously, urging Kai for them to go.
'Guys! There's always a better way than violence!', Suho screams, running to Baekhyun's side and trying to grab hold of his arms. D.O has had enough, he raced his way in between Baekhyun and Chanyeol, just as they were about to beam at each other again.
'Hey, kid! Watch out!', Kai shouts, eyes staring at the screen which shows D.O just about to interfere with the fight.
'I said stop!', D.O bellows, stomping his feet with a force, the ground begins to crack with the impact, causing a massive shake in the almost empty canteen, tables and chairs shake viciously, the floor showing cracks around the foot of the small boy.
'Shit... I didn't know hulk attended this school', Xiumin blurts out, staring, eyes wide at the cracks on the floor. The whole group was staring intently at D.O's doings, looking at the massive cracks on the floor.
'Everyone! What in God's name is going on here?!', bellows a low and deep voice angrily, as footsteps of teachers can be seen entering the back door of the canteen. The principal leading at the front and looking straight ahead at the damage done.
'Oh shit... Xiumin... Let's go...', Kai whispers, trying to grab hold of Xiumin so they can teleport out of here.
'Don't even think about it, Kai. You stay right there. All of you!', Mrs Seojung shouts at the unlikely group of people, the teachers gather around, shocked and disappointed at the state of the canteen.
'Everyone, go to my office right now! Except for you young man. Go get that burn healed, boy', the principal orders, asking a teacher to guide the boy to the healer's office, his eyes fixate on the six other teenagers left in the canteen.
And so here they all were now. Sitting in a two-hour detention after school, being lectured by a teacher who wasn't even in school during lunch and had no idea what had happened. Kai did notice however, an oranged hair boy Chanyeol is fighting with right now, was not present during the lunch time fiasco. Hmm, wonder what he's in for. Can't be worse than the rest of ours', Kai thought to himself.
'I told you we should have busted out before the teachers came', Xiumin hisses at Kai for about the fifth time, blaming him for the fact that they both had to do ten hours of after-school detention, two months of community service and one month of volunteer work in school. Kai can only shrug, technically it was his fault, but his plan was to teleport out before the teachers can see the two of them in the crowd. It wasn't his fault Mrs Seojung had eagle eyes just for him.
'Hey, why the fuck are you eating so loud?', Chanyeol shouts across the room to the orange hair boy, who looks tall even whilst sitting down, but his yellow coloured lanyard that was different from the senior's blue coloured lanyards shows that this orange haired boy was a sophomore.
'Hey, quit shouting at the kid will you?', Xiumin calls out, getting more pissed at Chanyeol's attitude, after all, he was mainly the reason why everyone was in this mess. Thank God, the principal didn't decide to expel them, the shit they pulled in the canteen was enough for permanent exclusion.
'And what are you going to do about it?', Chanyeol calls back, eyeing Xiumin from across the room. Both guys stare intently at each other, looking like they might start a fight.
Oh shit.
'Guys. I really don't want to be in any more trouble then I am now. So if you're ganna fight, please give us time to leave, so only you two shits can get into trouble', Chen intervenes the argument, stating what was in everyone's mind, especially D.O's, who after being sent in the principal's office for the first time ever, began crying on the way in, completely having a panic attack over his chances of getting into the Universities he wants and how they all ruined it. They would have totally started making fun of him there and then, but he was the main reason why the principal was lenient on their punishment and the fact that his power is earth bending, which meant he can cause an earthquake with just a stomp of a foot, therefore all six of them kept their mouth shut and let D.O be.
'Orange boy, unless you have the power to suck out organs, don't even try to talk to him. He'll just burn you to death', Baekhyun's voice bellows across the room, he sits a table away from Kai and Xiumin at the back, his right armed wrapped in bandages, whereas Chanyeol, who was at the front gave Baekhyun the finger.
'You fucking asked for it'
'And apparently, to his intellect, calling him a dickhead means please burn me to ashes', Baekhyun shouts back, sarcastically imitating Chanyeol's face when he's angry. This follows in screams of argument by different people from across the classroom, Chanyeol and Baekhyun shouting at each other once again, Chen screaming at Chanyeol to stop, Suho bellowing above, trying to be a peacemaker once more, with D.O, Kai and Xiumin, following in pursuit, trying to calm everybody down.
'Alright, everyone! Detention is over! And your community service starts Monday after school! Got it?', the teacher screams over all the other voices, fed up of hearing the petty arguments running across the room, 'You got it? Now get out!', he orders, as he begins to stand up and make his way out of the classroom first.
Next week was going to be a torturous adventure...
translations: