How 21 Students Saved the World

8 - Disperse

"I miss Si Chengie," Yuta said for the third time since the 127 meeting started. It started at 6:00, and it was now 6:02.

"I miss silence," Taeil mocked the latter, who was typing on a computer next to him. "I can't believe I have to type 2000 words for this scholarship, it's only giving me $500!"

"Hey, $500 is $500." Johnny took a sip of the soda that Taeyong had brought for the group today. He didn't plan on being productive today. "Let me tell you, y'all think tuition is bad here in Korea? In the US it's way worse."

"This is why we should all go to college and get a good education to get good careers and destroy capitalism and the patriarchy," Doyoung said, doing his homework while at the same time writing an essay on the computer. Who knows, it was probably too smart for them to understand, anyways.

"Hmm, okay boomer," Johnny continued, taking another sip.

Doyoung frowned. "I'm younger than you."

"That sounds like something a boomer would say-"

"Johnny, you're the one who was actually going to eat a tide-pod," Yuta reminded him. "Until Ten stopped you and called you an idiot."

The seven of them (Si Cheng was not there, since he decided to watch a movie instead of suffering like the rest of them; Mark and Haechan also didn't show up since they thought doing karaoke was a much better use of their time) were in the classroom like usual, not doing what they had originally planned – well, only three of them were doing it. Not even Taeyong himself, as he was too busy staring at a blank document on his laptop and has been in that position for five minutes.

Jaehyun took a bite of the Pocky that he had brought with him before poking Taeyong's cheek with it. "Hey, you good?"

Taeyong jolted in his seat before realizing it was Jaehyun. "Yeah, sorry, I'm just stuck on this assignment."

"A feeling I can relate all too well," Jaehyun agreed. "Do you want-"

A pounding on the door interrupted everyone's conversations in the room.

The door must have been locked by accident because of Jungwoo, since he went to a drink of the water fountain ten minutes before, so Taeyong got up from his seat to open it. It must have been someone from the Dream or WayV units.

His guess was confirmed when he opened the door, revealing to be a very out of breath Kun, who continued to gasp for air. "Taeyong," he managed to sputter out, taking another few seconds before saying his next words. "You don't happen to have the keys to the nurse's office, do you?"

***

It has been only five minutes into karaoke, and there was already a fight.

Well, it wasn't really a malicious fight, more like Jaemin and Jeno trying to wrestle each other for the one and only caramel popcorn bag that Renjun brought. Chen Le had gone up first, singing some NEX7 song in Chinese, and Jisung was the only one paying attention to him. Donghyuck usually would have sang along, but he doesn't even know what Ni Hao means, so he and Mark took turns grabbing Pocky sticks (there had been a sale at the supermarket the other day) while watching the Jeno vs Jaemin fight.

"This is way better than doing homework and college with the boomers," Donghyuck said, grabbing one of the matcha Pocky sticks. He would literally kill Ten for a Pocky stick at this rate.

"True, true." Mark wrapped the blanket that was covering them two tighter around them. "$5, who do you think will eat it-"

"Oh, definitely Jeno," Haechan answered. "He takes a weights class for his PE requirement-"

Right at that moment, the YouTube video that they had been using to play the songs showed a no internet signal, causing Chen Le to cry out and everyone to stop and stare.

"Right when it was about to end, gosh dang it!" He slammed the microphone on the teacher's desk, which was next to the whiteboard where he was standing; they had been using the projector to display the lyrics. "The internet at this school sucks."

Jisung got up from his spot on the desk and went to the computer, refreshing the page. The dinosaur on the chrome page appeared, meaning that there was no signal. "Uh, guys, there's no internet."

"Don't worry, we can just play it on our phones." Donghyuck took out his phone from his pocket and opened up the YouTube app, showing a white screen with the refresh button. "Shit, I don't have signal!"