On The Pulse- Chapter 8: Saved By The Paper Bag

"LA LA LA LA LA"

"Sehun-"

"LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA. I CAN'T HEAR YOU. LA LA LA LA-"

"SEHUN!"

"NO! I DON'T WANT TO LISTEN TO ANOTHER DUMB PLAN!"

Sehun then proceeded to stick his fingers back in his ears and continue his la-la chant. Baekhyun groaned and looked at Chanyeol for help. Chanyeol merely shrugged, which made Baekhyun even more frustrated.

"Sorry man, I'm staying out of any more plans. I've learnt my lesson."

Baekhyun looked from Chanyeol to Sehun, one looking like a brooding puppy and the other like a five-year-old brat. Sighing, he finally got up and walked away, muttering something which Sehun couldn't quite catch since, you know, fingers in the ears.

"What did he say?"

"Something about showing us..."

Sehun groaned, praying Baekhyun was not going to do something dumb.

The last thing he needed was Byun Baek doing soemething incredibly stupid when he was literally on the verge of being caught and expelled, or worse, handed over to the police.

Fuck, what would his parents think?

What would his future be like?

What if he could never dance again, or could never get a job and sustain himself?

The reputation he worked so hard to achieve, down the drain in an instant.

"Sehun, bro don't worry so much okay? I'm sure they won't find out, and whatever happens, we're all here for you."

Chanyeol was being as sincere as possible, and it was one of those rare moments where Sehun was actually thankful for their friendship, even though he was still kind of mad at him for coming up with the plan.

Then again, he could only blame himself for following it through.

"Yeah, ironic isn't it? I was panicking over Jongin sabotaging my future that I ended up sabotaging it myself."

Sehun gave a sardonic chuckle, looking down at his fingers picking his nails.

Fuck life.

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A week passed by with Sehun barely getting any sleep every night. All he did was toss and turn, thinking of how the school could come to find out he was the one who stole the club funds. He did contemplate turning himself in, but he just could not find the courage to do so.

Probably because he was still clinging to that small sliver of hope that they wouldn't find out it was him.

Then there was the prospect of Jongin eventually ratting him out. Sure, Jongin did not have solid proof, but he could never know what could happen if he did expose him.

He had never been in such a bad state before.

He rarely had an appetite. He couldn't stay focused in classes for more than 10 minutes. He did not feel like seeing or talking to his friends at all. He was even loathing the next dance practice, which was shocking given how dance practices used to be the highlight of his week.

As he begrudgingly walked into the studio and let his bag fall with a thump at the back of the room, he noticed how the other members were chatting away merrily with Jongin.

Fucking prick.

Jongin seemed to be enjoying the attention, a full beam on his face. For a moment Sehun scowled at the thought of how that idiot was basking in his own glory, but then he noticed something a bit strange.

While Jongin was undoubtedly smiling as widely as ever, it didn't seem to reach his eyes. He was laughing and grinning and joking around, but for some reason, his eyes didn't quite look as happy as the rest of his expression did.

Hmm.

Odd.

Sehun suddenly caught himself staring at Jongin's eyes and shook his head to pull himself together.

Why the fuck was he even noticing something like that?

Who cared how Jongin's eyes looked?

That douchebag was the reason he was in so much shit right now.

Yixing then swung open the doors to the studio and entered with a certain determined bounce in his step, picquing everyone's curiosity.

"Hey everyone, come come, gather around! I've got news!"

Everyone immediately jostled to the front around the leader, Sehun as well though he chose to stay at the back, a horrible feeling creeping into his gut that told him this could be pertaining to the fund theft incident.

"The thief who tried to steal our club funds has been caught!"

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck.

FUCK.

Sehun had practically broken out into cold sweat, his heart rate picking up and his chest constricting. He was finding it harder and harder to breathe, and for a second he glanced at the doo, contemplating making a bolt for it and not stopping till he reached China or something.

"Who was it?"

"Oh my god!"

"Was it someone from the club?"

"It was Johnny wasn't it?"

"Shut the fuck up Ten."

Yixing motioned for everyone to calm down a bit, and if Sehun had looked up from the spot he was staring at with knitted brows on the ground, he would have seen Jongin glance at him with a smirk, almost like a proud vigilante who had just turned in a criminal.

"Great news is, it's not someone from the club."

What.

Sehun's head whipped up, hoping his ears didn't deceive him and Yixing did in fact speak those words.

"Yeah, it was some other sophomore but the school board didn't want to reveal the details of the individual. But rest assured he will be dealt with severely, probably expelled in fact. So, you can all rest easy now that the culprit has been captured. And I just want to say I'm so happy and relieved it wasn't any of you. I knew none of you could let the team down like that!"

As Yixing happily exclaimed his last statement, everyone broke out into whoops and cheers and applauses.

Everyone except 2 people.

While the rest toned down and went about warming up and getting into formation, Sehun stood rooted to the ground, absolutely flabbergasted.

What.

The fuck.

Just happened.

"Hey,"

The sudden voice from right next to him made him jolt out of his stupor, and he turned to find Yixing smirking at him.

"Surprised it wasn't Jongin? See, I told you not to suspect our freshie. Now put it behind you and let's train hard today yeah?"

Sehun struggled to let out a chuckle, feigning coolness when he was still going through a hurricane of thoughts and emotions on the inside. Yixing patted his back and was about to head to the front when Sehun stopped him.

"Wait, so, you really don't know who was the actual culprit? The school didn't say?"

Yixing shook his head, looking down thoughtfully as he tried to remember what all information the discipline master had given him.

"Nope, I was just told whatever I announced to the club just now. I guess they don't want rumors and heat travelling around. Anyway, they've told me they've dealt with the person already so we don't have to worry anymore. We're just going to have to be more careful with the funds from now right?"

Yixing laughed and patted Sehun's back again before heading to the front to start the music.

Sehun was still as flabbergasted as ever, but at the same time, he also felt a huge wave of relief wash over him.

Perhaps this was the plan Baekhyun was talking about?

Whatever it was, he wasn't going to complain. By some miracle, he was not caught and everything somehow worked out. Letting out a large exhale, Sehun couldn't help but smile as he rolled his shoulders and looked at his reflection in the mirror. The music was starting and he noticed Jongin scowling at him from the other side of the studio in the mirror, making Sehun smile even more.

Take that, jackass.

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"Muack! Muack! Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you! Muack!'

Chanyeol couldn't help but laugh at how Sehun was literally showering Baekhyun with kisses and thanking him endlessly. At first Baekhyun revelled in the affection but after the 12th kiss or so, he was starting to get annoyed.

"Okay okay, yah, get off!"

Despite being pushed away, Sehun still had a dopy grin on his face with his eyes filled with adoration for his friend.

"How did you do it Baek? What did you do? How did whatever your plan was actually work?"

Baekhyun straightened himself out and fixed his clothes, wiping away some of Sehun's love from his cheek at the same time.

"I'd love to take credit, but it wasn't actually my idea. It was Kyungsoo's."

Sehun and Chanyeol both looked at Baekhyun in puzzlement, which prompted the latter to go on to explain how Kyungsoo and him saved Sehun's ass the previous day.

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"What on earth are you talking about Kyungsoo?"

Baekhyun never thought he would find himself sitting in the office of the headmaster of the college, next to Chanyeol's hacker ex-boyfriend, with a paper bag over his head.

"You heard what I said, this is my friend who tried to steal the dance club funds but regrets his actions and is very sorry. I don't want him to be punished."

Baekhyun couldn't see anything but he was sure there was either a confused or a startled look on the headmaster's face, which to be honest he wished he could see as the headmaster had one of those very expressive faces which looked funny whenever they were filled with emotion.

"Is- I mean...what do you... as in- wait-"

Baekhyun struggled not to laugh under his paper bag as he heard the headmaster stutter from being at a complete loss for words. He didn't blame him though. If he were the headmaster he would be completely dumbfounded by the situation as well.

It was not one of the coolest plans to exist, but it was definitely better compared to that shitstorm Chanyeol came up with.

"You, did you really steal the club funds?"

Crap, okay Baekhyun, years of impersonations have finally come to this moment, don't let yourself down.

"Y-yes, I did."

Wow, not bad.

Baekhyun was rather impressed with himself, he actually managed to sound like a mix of Chanyeol and Sehun, which was exactly what he was going for.

"I was having a bad time at home and I really needed the money. I knew the dance club had the most funds in the school, so I hacked Yixing's accounts to get the security passcode. However, once I did it, I immediately regretted my actions and went to return the funds. But there were people in the studio, so I decided to just leave the envelope outside as I was scared. I really am sorry."

There was a pause, and Baekhyun was praying the headmaster wouldn't question why he sounded like there was a frog stuck in his throat, or worse, reach out and yank the paper bag off his head.

"Well, while it's good that you returned the money, you still did something very wrong, practically illegal, and I cannot let this matter slide."

"That's why I'm here. He has already confessed to you, and I want you to forgive him and let the matter slide."

"What are you even doing here, Kyungsoo? Why does this involve you?"

"That doesn't matter. What matters is you owe me a favour, and this is it. I'm asking you to please let the incident go, the money is anyway back where it belongs and I can assure you my friend here will not repeat his mistake."

There was another pause after Kyungsoo spoke, and with every pause Baekhyun was getting more and more anxious. His life was literally in the hands of Kyungsoo and a paper bag, and he was beginning to think perhaps this was not the wisest plan ever.

Again.

Honestly what was up with his friends and coming up with the dumbest plans and-

"You really have them huh?"

Baekhyun's attention shifted back to the headmaster's now rather low and hesitant voice, to which Kyungsoo gave a low reply as well.

"That's correct. As I showed you a few days back, all the screenshots which I'm sure you wouldn't want Aunty seeing right?"

Oooooooh.

Being completely honest, Baekhyun was a bit turned on by how threatning Kyungsoo sounded. Of course not completely turned on.

The only person who could completely turn him on was Jongdae.

Fuck, even his laugh could make Baekhyun harder than a rock.

Suddenly, a wave of sadness came over him as he thought of Jongdae and how pissed off he was that he was spending so much time with Kyungsoo. He really did want to tell him about the plan from the start, but Kyungsoo and him agreed it was too risky to let it materialize and reveal it to the others before getting solid backup. That was why he waited for Kyungsoo to successfully hack his uncle's computer and obtain blackmail material before going to tell the others.

Which did not really work out well, seeing as to how Jongdae stormed off and refused to speak to him for a whole week and the other 2 did not even want to know the plan.

Ungrateful shits.

"I cannot believe my own nephew is blackmailing me."

"We made a deal. In exchange for not telling Aunty about your rather impulsive and risky online gambles, you owed me a favour. Anything I ask, no questions. Well, this is the favour I'm asking for now."

Baekhyun could hear the headmaster sigh, and by this point he was practically praying to every diety out there that he would give in and let them go. It was already a blessing that Kyungsoo just happened to be the headmaster's nephew, and the headmaster just happened to have some skeletons in his closet which he would do anything to prevent from being revealed to his wife.

Now, he just needed one more blessing in the form of not having the plan fail and him kicked out of school.

Finally, after a few moments of anxious waiting and heavy breathing in the ridiculously thick paper bag, Baekhyun heard the most beautiful word to leave the headmaster's lips.

"Fine."