Chapter Text
Wednesday, 3:12 PM
A knock on the door disrupted Chenle from his thoughts, removing his focus on the homework in front of him. He put his pen down and stood up from desk, making his way over to his dorm door. Once opened, he saw Doyoung standing there, smiling as he held up a small notebook.
“Thought I’d help you make your way to your club meeting.” He had said as Chenle invited him inside.
“Oh. I forgot about that.” Chenle laughed. “Good thing you came over otherwise I wouldn’t have even gone.”
Doyoung laughed with him as Chenle neatened up the homework he was just working on and grabbed a small notebook before turning to the older boy. “Would I need this?”
Doyoung shrugged his shoulders. “Possibly. I always bring one along just in case.”
The door reopened and Chenle’s roommate had walked in. Doyoung had recognised the boy, as he had just been showed his ability not even 20 minutes ago in class, but he didn’t realise that the two shared a room.
“Hey, Jisung right?”
The boy nodded and muttered a quick ‘hi’ back, putting his pencil case down on his desk and notebook away from the previous class before grabbing a folder, a different notebook and the pencil case again. He had quickly checked a piece of paper stuck to the wall, and Doyoung recognised it as a club form, so he subtly leant in for a peak to find out what club Jisung had signed up for.
“I’m Doyoung. You in the Ancient History Club too, huh?”
Jisung nodded again, before changing his expression to confusion. “Too?”
“Yeah, I got it too. I can drop Chenle off at his club, then show you to ours, if you’d like to tag along?” Doyoung suggested and Jisung took him up on his offer with a nod.
Doyoung softly laughed. “Alright, if you’re both ready to go, then let’s go.”
The three walked out of the room, Jisung closing the blinds and locking the door behind them.
3:26 PM
Chittaphon sat comfortably at the back of the art room, the supervising teacher had just walked in and was setting up the projector while chatting with some other senior he didn’t know. His guess was that it was the Art History Club Project Manager who will be the organising student. Chittaphon was offered the role because of his high artist skill and knowledge, but ultimately, he had too much on his plate already and turned down the offer.
Sat next to him was Renjun, scribbling away some drawings in his sketchbook. They sat together in art too and were already quite friendly with each other. Chittaphon was first introduced to him from Kun during a holiday meet-up that had planned with others before Renjun had joined the school. Renjun had needed some more art supplies and had asked Kun to come along his trip to meet his friends. Kun being Kun agreed and Chittaphon got to find one hell of a little artist, so when school started up and Chittaphon saw Renjun sitting in the art classroom, he quickly had gone over to reintroduce himself.
Now, they sat happily together and talked about anything.
“Drawing anything fun?” Chittaphon questioned.
Renjun flipped the page and quickly sketched something else before presenting the page to him. It was a cat with a big head and small body, with devil horns attached to it. An arrow was pointing to it, and on the other end ‘TEN’ was written. Chittaphon laughed.
“It’s because you’re short but with a cocky attitude and big head.”
Chittaphon looked offended but wasn’t actually hurt by the comment. “You say that like you’re not shorter than me.”
Renjun turned away from him. “I’m happy with my height.”
“Sure.” Chittaphon rolled his eyes and they both laughed.
3:32 PM
When Sungchan walked into the classroom, he was expecting a group of people to be sitting down at average tables with a teacher yelling at them for choosing this club activity. But instead, he was met with excited yelling and laughter as students were playing all sorts of games displayed around the room.
On the back wall, there were numerous arcade games, some joystick and others wheel-based, others pinball, while board and card games on tables, TV’s with consoles plugged into them, dart boards and a pool table were scattered across the room.
Sungchan didn’t know why he wasn’t expecting the Gaming Club to actually be playing games. He expected a little more than just playful activity.
Someone called him over. He recognised him from one of his classes, the ability one he had with Jeongin. Sungchan thought about his name as he walked over to him.
‘Yang? No, that is Jeongin’s surname.’ He thought, but it sounded correct.
‘Maybe it was close? Yang… Yang… Yang…’ He kept thinking over and over again, before his eyes lit up.
“Yangyang!”
The boy who called him over laughed. “Yeah? You sound excited.”
Sungchan felt a little awkward but laughed it off, noticing the game Yangyang was playing with another boy he knew. Shotaro, who was in his cooking class, smiled at him and turned his attention back to trying to beat Yangyang in the game.
“You can face the loser, K?” Yangyang noted towards Sungchan and the three agreed.
3:41 PM
Sicheng walked down the main hallway, making his way away from his club meeting and towards the library. He opened the door and was met with silence and a couple of people looking up towards him. He walked past what he presumed was the Book Club and waved back to Mark and Dejun, who had waved first, and made his way towards the Endow history and information section.
He had been here many times, trying to make sense why he got this Endowment after it disappeared from the world. He never got any complete answers and teachers always tried to distract him with new work whenever he made any new discoveries. And yet, here he is again.
People were hiding things. People knew things. Probably not just about him, but his brothers as well. Why all three of them got abilities that were supposed to be heredity but weren’t present in either of their parents was unknown. Sicheng had even looked around for the possibility of adoption records, but nothing showed. Besides, his brothers and him shared too many physical similarities to confidently consider adoption.
Sicheng grabbed a couple different books and made his way to a table, opening one and a notebook he had brought with him and clicking a pen on. He started reading the pages and taking notes as fast as he could before a teacher realised what he was doing and took his resources away.
Time was scarce and dangerous. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be here. The Book Club supervising teacher probably did as well, alongside with many of the students in it. ‘Quick and quiet’ was Sicheng’s motto throughout this.
If there was anything Lucas loved more than making food, it was eating it. And Chenle found that out pretty quickly.
When Doyoung and Jisung dropped him off at the Food Club, he had been showed to a table with three other guys on it. Doyoung had asked one the guys to make him feel welcomed, and the other, who he found out to be Lucas, had immediately welcomed him in warm hug and loud voice.
He found out the one Doyoung had talked to was named Jungwoo, who evidently enough, was his brother’s roommate. Chenle promised him that he’d give him some tips for dealing with Sicheng’s constantly annoyed attitude. The other boy was Donghyuck, who he recognised from Choir.
Chenle found that Lucas liked to eat, which is why he choose the Food Club. Donghyuck also made a comment about being a puppy and following Jungwoo around, but Chenle wasn’t sure if that was correct since they both responded quickly to denying it.
But Lucas liked to eat. That was the one take Chenle had from the whole meeting.
4:07 PM
Sicheng huffed as he put his hands in his pockets, striding away from the door. He was eventually removed from the library and his notes were once again taken from him. Taking photos was an option, but that would risk his phone being taken too, even if he were to get a burner.
He needed a way to grab the information and retain it to study further later. He could ask Yuta to burrow out some books, but that would also be suspicious and could get both of them in trouble. Sicheng didn’t want that for Yuta, no matter how much that boy was a troublemaker. Yangyang or Chenle wouldn’t be best either. If the school wasn’t allowing Sicheng to gain this information, why would they trust it with his brothers?
Sicheng walked down the hallway again as he thought about who he needed.
Someone who he didn’t have any relations with, but was also an Endowment, otherwise it would be strange for them to borrow out books. Someone who didn’t mind getting in trouble if they were caught or someone who would get off easy because of their innocence. Someone super sneaky and fast.
His eyes lit up and he stopped in his tracks.
“Or maybe… Someone who resents the school but has enough trust from the staff inside.”
Sicheng quickly started walking towards his club meeting, hoping it was still in session to talk to the person he needed. The first meetings don’t normally last too long, so he wouldn’t be surprised if they were gone, and he’d find just that.
As he turned the corner, the Yearbook Club he was supposed to be in was exiting their designated room. Sicheng stood against the wall and waited for them to past while searching for Jaehyun.
Johnny, followed by Kun walked out, and after they stopped briefly and looked inside the room, Jaehyun soon exited and run-skipped along to them. As they came to pass him, Sicheng quickly joined them, and they all gave an excited yell.
“Where were you?” Kun asked.
“Library.” Was Sicheng’s simple answer.
Johnny tutted. “You get caught this time?”
Sicheng rolled his eyes and stayed silent.
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’.” They all laughed as they made their way out the main building, walking towards the dormitories.
Everyone in their clique all knew that Sicheng was constantly searching for his Endowment answers, and they didn’t blame him at all; having a powerful ability that doesn’t make sense as to why you have it, they would be asking questions too.
Eventually, Taeyong had joined them in their walk, talking about his club’s first session. Sicheng lost focus but remembered him saying something about Mr Byun getting into a game war with one of the new freshmen. Apparently, this kid was an incredible gamer and Mr Byun was sure to beat him in the game they had been playing. When Taeyong had mentioned his name, Jaehyun laughed.
“Sungchan? Like, my brother Sungchan?”
“Oh yeah.” Taeyong looked stunned, forgetting Jaehyun’s new stepbrother was starting this year.
As the story was over, and all of them except Sicheng laughing, they split off into two groups. Taeyong, Johnny and Kun in one, making their way to the senior dorms, with Jaehyun and Sicheng headed towards the junior ones.
Jaehyun slung his arm over Sicheng’s shoulders and asked about his day.
“No time for that.” Sicheng said as they started heading up the stairs. “Can I ask for a favour?”
“Sure. What’s up?” Jaehyun asked.
“Get your sister to burrow out some Endowment books for me.”
Jaehyun raised an eyebrow. “Why do you need Soojung for that?”
“Because they won’t allow me to do it, and no one questions when she does it.”
“Because she’s popular?”
“No.” Sicheng frowned his eyebrows. “Because your other sister did some crazy stuff and now you and Soojung have respect, but if you get the books, then it’s suspicious.”
Jaehyun made a sound of understanding and started responding. “I wouldn’t call it ‘respect’ –”
“Fear, then.” Sicheng finished as they reached his dorm.
Jaehyun walked to the next door over, his own dorm room, and turned back to him. “I’ll ask her. But knowing Soojung, it’ll come with a cost~” He sung the last part as he walked into his room, Sicheng rolling eyes as he reached into his pocket for the key to his own.