"Chenle, save those fists for when you truly need them. Step Number Two towards reforming you: keep your reactions under control."
"Ew, imagine having self-control."
⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒
in which a police office...
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"I'm thinking maybe... The Temptations."
Renjun's lips tightened. "We have to be original. Mr. Kim said no band names."
Chenle sighed. Donghyuck sighed. The first sigh was for sadness that his idea was rejected, the second sigh was for Donghyuck's will to live slipping down the drain.
"I don't think we have to be hugely imaginative, this is just an investigation." Renjun looked down at the blank piece of paper on which they were asked to write the name of their group. The biology classes were merging for a small excursion around the school garden to carry out an investigation on the flora and fauna. Their ecology booklet was bare so far, as no one had been permitted to leave the twice-as-full classroom yet.
Classmates Chenle had never shared a single class with before were in the room. Donghyuck, who was in his biology class usually, was sitting opposite Renjun, who was from the other biology class. Mark should've been here too as he and Renjun shared the class, but the boy was down with another cold.
"I think we should call ourselves The Sex Pistols."
"Chenle, I'm so glad that you aren't the leader of a band. I'd cry for you. I really would."
He hit Donghyuck's shoulder. "Where are your bright ideas, huh?"
Renjun just wanted to get their name down on the page and get outside. The teacher seemed ready to launch the ecology investigation at any moment. "Alright, we're going to be called The Flora Boys." He scribbled it down quickly, then looked up for complaints so that it was too late to argue with the verdict.
Chenle shut himself up. Soon enough, they were up and moving to go outdoors, sunshine smiling down on them, luckily. There was a rain forecast earlier in the day that left the garden a sparkling attraction of dew and preserved droplets on the blades of green, green grass. For the most part, in response to the sun's forcefulness, the pathway that the boys often walked along to sit at the bench underneath the detention room window was evaporating its water. The bushes around the path were full and a dark green colour, perfect for cataloguing whatever lived inside them.
"Okay guys," Mr. Kang called and they gathered around him near their favourite bench. "We'll meet back here in half an hour. Make sure someone keeps an eye on the time. And if you need help with anything, I'll be sitting over there."
"Contaminating our bench," Donghyuck added.
"I'll use the pooter," Chenle's voice mentioned from a few metres away.
Renjun and Donghyuck turned to see him rummaging through the box of equipment which Mr. Kang had kindly carried the distance for them. Other students were rooting through it too. The ravenette re-emerged with a quadrat and a beating tray in one hand, a pooter and grimy pitfall trap in the other.
His groupmates inspected them and Renjun insisted he took the pitfall trap back. "There's already a slug in there. How long do you think it's been living inside it? Anyway, we need a key guide as well, otherwise we'll have no idea what we're looking at."
