"Heeseung hyung! Sunghoon! Stop it! I mean it. Stop it or you're going to get us all detention!" Jake desperately tried to separate the two from fighting another group of boys.

    Sunno struggled to keep a restraint on Jay, who was glaring, eyes shooting daggers.

   Heeseung managed to give the other guy one last shake before he was pulled away by his friend. 

    Jay managed to break free and give in a punch. 

  "Jay hyung, stop!" Jake bellowed, signalling for Sunoo to take hold of Heeseung. 

       A few girls in the audience gasped in shock when one of the boys slammed Sunghoon into the wall. 

    "Stop or I'm getting a teacher!" A female voice quietly threatened. 

     The fight quickly broke up before any harm was done, and before the teachers were called. 

    Jake immediately began leading away, down the corridors and out towards the garden. 

 "What were you thinking?" Jake scolded, running a hand through his hair. 

    "They were the ones who said awful and mean things about Ni-ki! What was I supposed to do? Leave them be? No way were they going to get away with it!" Heeseung protested, smoothing out his blazer which had gotten crumpled during the fight. 

    "I didn't like what they said either, but I'd rather you two didn't try to settle it by punching the guys in the face," Jake sighed. 

     Sunoo stayed quiet, not knowing what to say. He had never seen his hyungs do that before. But considering it was about Ni-ki, he could understand their actions. He was angry too.

     "It's not like sweetly chatting to them was going to do anything," Jay scowled at the ground. 

  "No one messes with Ni-ki and get's away with it," Sunghoon said quietly, which made it sound sinister somehow, "No one messes with my maknaes."

    "Yes, well please don't get into any more fist fights," Sunoo pleaded, "It's kind of scary watching you fight."

    Jay's eyes softened. "Sorry if it scared you, Sunoo," He said, wrapping an arm around the younger one's shoulder.

     "There they are," Sunghoon nodded towards their two other friends.

  Jungwon and Ni-ki were sitting on a low wall next to a water fountain.

      "What on earth happened?" Jungwon looked appalled, jumping to his feet at the sight of his friends. 

      "Somebody decided it was a wonderful idea to go and pick a fight with the group of boys who said those things about Ni-ki," Jake grumbled, sighing, sitting on the wall beside the youngest member of their friend group. 

   "Heeseung hyung!" Jungwon groaned, running a hand through his hair. 

 "How do you know it was me?!" Heeseung looked offended. 

     "You're the oldest in our group, you'll do anything for the younger ones," Jungwon dead panned. 

    Heeseung sighed. "Ok fine, yeah, I did start the fight. But it wasn't just me!" He said. 

 "Hyung!" Sunghoon and Jay protested. 

      "Oh for crying out loud!" Jungwon sighed, throwing his hands into the air.  

  "You didn't have to do that for me, you didn't need to," Ni-ki spoke up, quietly, looking down at his hands. 

    "Don't you dare say that," Heeseung immediately said, hugging the boy. 

 "Are you okay? You took a bad hit. There's blood on your forehead and on your nose," A quiet voice said. 

   Heeseung was surprised to see a packet of tissues being offered to him. Looking up, he saw a girl, around Sunoo's age, standing in front of him.

    Heeseung's hand shot to his forehead and brought it back down, with drops of blood on it. "Oh! Um, thanks," He said, accepting the tissues. 

    "You're welcome," The girl smiled, "don't forget to disinfect it. Even if it's just a graze, you could still get an infection." She instructed quietly.

    "I will," Heeseung nodded, "thanks."

  The girl smiled once more before she disappeared. 

      "Wasn't that Park Chae-Yeong? The quiet girl that always looks down at the ground?" Sunoo whispered to Jay. 

     "That is the most I've ever heard her say! I used to hear only two words out of her," Jay whispered back. 

     "You think she has a crush on Heeseung or something?" Ni-ki whispered to Sunghoon and Jungwon, "He just got special treatment!"

    Jungwon burst out laughing while Sunghoon bit his cheeks from doing the same. 

 Heeseung snapped out of his surprise and turned towards them, giving them a suspicious look. 

     "Well? Aren't you going back to the dorms, hyung?" Jake tried to keep a grin back but failed miserably. "You'd better do as she says. Find that first aid kit and disinfect those war wounds."

     The others couldn't hold themselves any longer and burst into peels of laughter. 

  "Oh shut up," Heeseung grumbled, standing to his feet. 

      "Maybe we should take you to the nurses office instead? Don't want to die from those war wounds!" Jay teased.

    "It's just a scratch! I'm not in a dire position," Heeseung sighed, "and stop calling it 'war wounds' for goodness sake!" He added. 

  "My! What a headline in the news! 'Lee Heeseung, returns from a bloody battle on the front, near death with his wounds, and gets tended to by a sweet, kind and gentle nurse.' Oh how wonderful!" Sunoo exclaimed, wheezing from his spot on the ground where he had collapsed a few seconds ago from all the laughing. 

    "You lot are no help," Heeseung groaned, beginning to make his way to the dorms, "I'm leaving!" 

    "Wait, after hearing her voice, do you think it was Chae-Yeong that broke up the fight?" Sunoo asked, "it sounded like the voice that threatened to call the teachers."

    "She probably didn't want to see Heeseung get hurt!" Ni-ki grinned, looking teasingly at the older boy up ahead. 

    The other six laughed and joked as they trailed along behind, unaware of the fact that they were being observed.

⚓⚓⚓

      "Would one of you kindly explain what on earth is going on?" The Head Teacher leaned back in his chair, looking first at the seven boys to his right, then at the five boys on his left. 

    "Well?" He pressed, raising an eyebrow. 

  "They started it!" One of the boys pointed. 

     "Us?!" Jake snapped, turning towards him, "You're the ones who talked bad about Ni-ki!"

 "Not our fault he's a -" The boy began again.

    "Don't you dare finish that sentence!" Heeseung growled threateningly. 

  "And what are you going to do about it, huh?" Another boy shot back. 

      "Wouldn't you like to know," Jay retorted. 

   "Come on then, bring it!" The first boy challenged him.

  The school head just sat there; the tips of his fingers pressed together tightly as he watched the boys argue. 

    "Alright, enough!" He finally spoke up, raising his hand to get them to stop. 

  All twelve boys turned their heads in sync towards him, waiting. 

     "You five were wrong to say whatever it was you said," The headmaster then turned to the others, "but you lot shouldn't have started a fight as well."

      The boys didn't say a word, only glaring at the other group now and then. 

   The headmaster sighed. "You're all getting afternoon detention today. Cleaning the football pitch, the basketball courts, the netball courts and the garden paths. Do you understand?" He said.

     "But sir!" The group of five protested. 

   "Today and tomorrow for you five then!" The headmaster scowled. 

  That shut them up. Two would be enough. They didn't want it to clean for a whole week.  

       "You're dismissed," The headmaster nodded towards the door. 

     He watched them leave, not taking his eyes off them until the door shut. 

  He trusted the group of seven to get the job done well, the group of five on the other hand, not so much.

    "What am I going to do with them?" He sighed, shuffling around some documents on his desks, "those seven are my best pupils. And those five causes me more trouble than I have paperwork." 

    There was a knock on the door.

  "Come in!" He called out. 

      A lady came in, a clipboard in one hand and a laptop in the other. "Sir, there seems to be a mistake in one of the first-year groups' timetable. They have been given two English teachers," She began, setting the laptop down in front of the headmaster. "See look, for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, they have Miss Choi, and on the last two days, they have Mr Han."

    "Send me the names of the pupils who need their timetable changed," The headmaster said, "I'll sort it out."

    "At once, sir," The lady bowed and hurriedly left the office. 

 The headmaster sighed. He took back his words. Paperwork was more troublesome. 

⚓🛳️⚓

     Ni-ki felt guilty as he looked around at his friends who were brushing the paths of the garden near him. He felt like it was his fault that they were in this situation. The sun was already starting to set, meaning that they had been cleaning the gardens and sports areas for hours. 

   He suddenly felt like someone was watching him, and looking up, he found Park Chae-Yeong sitting in a tree, a book in her hand, looking down at him. 

   She smiled at him, giving him a small wave. She jumped down, brushing the leaves off her uniform, before walking towards him. 

    "The headmaster gave you all detention?" Chae-Yeong guessed quietly. 

  Ni-ki nodded. 

     Chae-Yeong mysteriously looked around, checking that no one was looking before she beckoned him to follow her. 

    He hesitated. He barely knew her, why on earth would he follow her just because she said so? After a quick debate, he ran after her, ducking behind trees and bushes. 

   Ni-ki came to a stop beside her. Looking around, he saw... nothing. 

  "Um, why are we here? And more importantly, why did you bring me here?" Ni-ki asked, so confused. 

    "Look," Chae-Yeong pointed down to the ground in front of her. 

   Ni-ki looked and saw grass, dirt and something shiny sticking out. After staring at it for a few minutes, he turned to the girl. "And? What am I supposed to do about this shiny coin buried in the dirt?" He asked, scratching his head. 

    "Dig it out maybe? I've been in this part of the campus so many times, I would have noticed if something was buried here by now. Somebody has obviously left it," Chae-Yeong explained in her quiet way. 

     Ni-ki sighed, once again debating on what to do. Eventually he got down and started brushing away the dirt and using his fingers to dig up a bit of the soil. 

    "Here's the first one," He finally said, handing her a very ornate hair stick. 

  "First... one?" Chae-Yeong slowly said, kneeling down next to him. 

       "The more dirt I'm brushing away, the more shiny stuff I'm seeing," Ni-ki explained, handing her the next object. 

    Chae-Yeong held it up to the sunlight to inspect. 

   It was a gold circular pin with a curved slash through it, almost like the blade of a sword or a branch through a moon. 

     "Here's two, no, three more," Ni-ki passed her some more jewellery, "How many more are there?"

      Chae-Yeong shrugged, diverting her attention once again to look at the new additions. 

    The first piece was a silver ring, engraved with designs with small emerald stones set in it. The second one was a gold lapel pin with a gold chain which had a gem set into it. The third one was a set of gold bracelets set with rubies. 

    "Whoever buried these things also buried a fan," Ni-ki said with a baffled look on his face as he held up a black fan. He opened it, shaking and fanning the dirt off. It was black with intricate gold designs hand painted on. 

    Chae-Yeong sneezed. 

 "You alright, noona?" Ni-ki asked as he went back to digging with his hands. 

     "I'm fine," Chae-Yeong brushed it off. 

   "I think these are the last ones," Ni-ki finally said, "A silver earring with a chain, and a green pendant necklace with a gold chain."

    "That's eight pieces altogether," Chae-Yeong said, holding the jewellery while Ni-ki tidied up the mess they had made.

    "We'll take it first to Jungwon hyung and Heeseung hyung, they'll know what to do with them," Ni-ki said, "Come on. But for goodness sake put them in your pocket or we're going be in huge trouble."

     "Do you think a robber broke into campus and buried them in the ground?" Chae-Yeong whispered as they walked back to the main building. 

    "Shh, save the questions and suspicious talk for later, when we're not out in the open," Ni-ki whispered back.

     "Ni-ki? Where are you going?" Sunghoon asked, spotting the two walking towards him and the others. 

     Chae-Yeong eagerly beckoned them to follow as she skipped into the building. 

  "Don't ask," Ni-ki sighed, "just come on. She's scaring me."

       Confused, the other six boys followed Ni-ki into the building. 

⚓🛳️⚓

       "How did you get into my dorm room?!" Jake's eyes were wide opened as they stood in the doorway looking into the room which he shared with Sunghoon. 

     Chae-Yeong was sitting in a bean bag chair, the jewellery laid out neatly on the low coffee table in front of her.  

     "Better question," Jungwon interrupted, "did you both rob a jeweller or something?" He asked, looking back and forth from Chae-Yeong to Ni-ki.

    "No, we did not," Ni-ki rolled his eyes, shoving his friends into the room and closing the door.

 "Well then? Did you rob a rich landlord?" Jay asked, "Because that is some expensive and fancy jewellery, even the plain pin."

    "No!" Ni-ki gave him a look, "She found something shiny in the dirt and asked me to dig it up. We ended up finding that there was a lot more." He explained

     "And?" Sunoo raised an eyebrow. 

   "We don't know who put them there, or where they came from or what to do with them," Ni-ki said. 

    "That still doesn't answer the question on how she got into my room without a key?!" Jake exclaimed. 

     Everyone turned to look at the girl sitting comfortably as she watched them talk. 

  "I can pick locks," Chae-Yeong spoke, in her soft, gentle and quiet tone. "it's not hard to do with some practice."

     "So, what are we doing with... this?" Heeseung gestured to the shiny objects on the table. 

  "We were hoping you would come up with something," Ni-ki sighed. 

      "Noona," Jungwon turned to the girl, "how did you notice these in the first place?" He asked. 

   Chae-Yeong thought for a moment before beckoning Ni-ki over. She gestured for him to bring his ear closer to her before she began to whisper for a long time in his ear. 

    Ni-ki straightened up. "She said she was sitting in a tree nearby when she suddenly thought she saw something shiny on the ground," He said. 

    Chae-Yeong waved him to come closer again. More whispering. 

   "And she said that the reason why she found them was because the sun caught it. If it wasn't for the sun, she wouldn't have found them," Ni-ki added. 

     "How long ago was this?" Sunghoon asked. 

  Chae-Yeong whispered her answer to Ni-ki once again. 

      "She said it was after she gave you the packet of tissues earlier this afternoon," Ni-ki said, looking at Heeseung. 

    "That was around, 2 o'clock? Nearly 3?" Jay guessed. 

 "So, what do we do?" Sunoo sat down in front of the table.

     "We'll take them to the police station tomorrow and hand them in," Jungwon said, "we can also ask if anyone has lost some jewellery."

     "But what about tonight?" Jake interjected, "we can't have them all in this room! What if whoever buried them came back? Having them in one room can be dangerous!"

    "There are eight pieces, and eight of us, we can pick one to guard," Chae-Yeong suddenly spoke up.

      The boys jumped at the sound of her voice and turned to look at her. 

   "What were you whispering your answers to Ni-ki for then if you can talk at that volume!" Jay exclaimed, clutching at the left side of his chest in shock. 

    Chae-Yeong shrugged, "Sometimes I feel like speaking, sometimes I don't," She said. 

  "She has a point though. We can guard one each, that way, whoever buried them, even if they do find one of us, he or she won't get all of them," Jungwon nodded. 

    "Any preferences?" Jay asked, "No? Okay, I'll take the bracelets." He said. 

 The others looked at him weirdly. 

     "What? If we're guarding them, might as well guard the ones we like or think look pretty," Jay shrugged. 

    Sunoo shrugged, "Why not." He looked at the pieces before choosing the fan. "Are these hand painted on?! Talented designer!" He said.

     Heeseung picked up the earring. "Nice and plain, but it still looks like it costs more than a car," He chuckled. 

    Jake handed Chae-Yeong the hair stick. "Do you want to guard this one?" He asked. 

"Ok!" She smiled and carefully took it from his hands.

    Jake then picked the green pendant necklace with the dragon designs. "This looks like prop for a historical drama. Except it costs more than the budget of the drama itself," He carefully inspected it. 

    Jungwon took the pin. "Do you think it's a moon with a branch through it? Or a hula-hoop with a tree branch?" He asked, holding it up.

    "I'll go with the moon," Jay guessed. 

  Ni-ki took the lapel pin and fastened it to his own school blazer. "How does it look? I've never worn one of these before," He said.

    "And it's obvious," Sunghoon laughed, "You've got one if the pins upside down!"

  Everyone laughed. 

     Sunghoon picked up the last item. The silver ring with the small emerald. 

   "Are we wearing them to bed?" He asked. 

     "It might be better actually, so then we don't lose it or forget where we've put it," Jungwon agreed. 

     "I'll meet you all in the morning then! Goodnight!" Chae-Yeong smiled before bouncing out of the room. 

    "She's a queer girl," Heeseung looked at the door with a bewildered look on his face. "But I kinda like her like that. Queer, but that makes her more interesting."

    "I agree," Jake nodded, "now come on, get out of my room. I want to sleep." 

 "You mean our room!" Sunghoon corrected him, "This is my room too you know! Stop calling it your room." 

   The other boys laughed before they disappeared to their own dorms. 

⚓🛳️⚓

     This is the first chapter!!! Hope you all enjoyed it!!! The adventure starts in the next one!!! (Fast, yeah I know! lol)

     Anyway, thank you all for reading and I hope to see you all in the next chapter!

 Claire ⚓