Minsung | Rule Number Five

one

today's theme: thought

----- Arc One: Commencement -----

Jisung frowned at the empty page of ideas in front of him, barely listening to the lecture on integrals and tangent lines going on at the front of the class. It was the first day of school, which meant that clubs could start advertising themselves to the incoming freshmen body. 

For the football team, there was no need to worry. A child's drawing up on the club board could gain them thirty new recruits.

But for something like debate? It was hard, for even harder reasons.

Debate, to the average person, is the nerd's game. It's the uncool younger brother of student council, the best friend of the Glee Club, and in some nearly incestuous relationship with Model UN. Simply put, golf is to sports as debate is to clubs.

And to Jisung, nothing was more nonsensical and irritatingly stupid than that idea and whoever came up with it.

What, did they really think smart people couldn't have drama and live cool lives?

There was the time Hyunjin sneaked vodka into a tournament and Chan almost suspended him from competing for a month. (It wasn't so much the alcohol, but the fact that he almost accepted an orgy invitation from another school.)

Then there was Changbin, who once rented out the penthouse suite at a hotel solely for the purpose of flexing all the other schools at that tournament. The fact that he always wore that one Gucci belt to his rounds never broke his rich bitch image, either.

And if the two of them hadn't brought about that much already, then the existence of Seungmin and Jeongin's debate partnership filled out the rest. Jisung struggled to count the number of times they had been issued warnings at tournaments for "using language that was too harsh" that could be "interpreted as personal attacks".

But really, how hard was it to refrain from swearing and telling people that even Donald Trump wouldn't screw them? Chan even had to apologize once to the captain of another team because their opponent started having flashbacks of her dead mother.

Jisung shook his head. There was no way he could advertise their team like that. Not only would their image be stabbed at even more, but they'd probably get a few calls from the principal about their, well, behaviour. 

He sighed, defeated, and leaned over to his desk mate. "Help me brainstorm ideas for the recruitment poster." 

Hyunjin looked up from his half-assed notes, pondered for a moment, and then smiled smugly. "I'll take my shirt off, you take some photos of me, and we instantly get some notoriety."

A light thud came from Jisung's palm onto his shoulder. "Take this seriously, you oaf!"

"I am taking this seriously! If Jay Why Pee Junior can prance around in plastic pants on YouTube and instantly double the size of the theatre club, why can't I?"

Jisung threw up in his mouth a little. Screenshots of that video made it into the yearbook last year, and it took everything in his power to not rip out that page. 

Jackson, a now-graduated senior, on the other hand, made no hesitation to chase after Jay and burn his pants in the back alley of the school.

 "The theatre club only got more people because he promised everyone that his famous dad would throw them all a lavish party and they'd get to meet IU." 

Hyunjin's eyes lit up at that. "Convince Bin to donate some money and bribe everyone with Prada umbrell—hey!" Jisung slapped him again.

"Think, dumbass! Our team is on the verge of disappearing! The only new people we got last year were Wonyoung and Yuna. We need new people or else this school's debate team is going to die."

Hyunjin just shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know," he said casually, leaning back in his seat. "I mean, I really just joined because I saw some cute boy walk in. It just so happened that I ended up liking this activity a lot." 

"Besides," he eyed Jisung, "you're the best person on our team. If anyone's going to find anything, it's you."

Jisung put his head in his hands and stifled a groan. "We're literally debaters," he grumbled. "How can we so easily argue about forestry laws and investment taxes but not get this?"

1/28/21

Song of the Day: 4 Memory by Dreamcatcher

Movie/Show of the Day: Bling Empire

Thoughts of the Day: Goddamn I hope this works out well lmao welcome to the world of flippity flop flopped stories

sometimes i update like two chapters per day. each chapter has it's own theme, so i'll make one for each of them even if they're uploaded on the same day lol