Chapter 5: Halloween Festival

Kai walked into school a few weeks later not realizing a few band members already in position. “This is Wonderland, do you copy redhead? We have visuals on the target.” Helen walked into the classroom. She raised an eyebrow seeing Alice and Ethan standing around the corner.

“Tell everyone else who’s involved to stop. If Erin is still telling you to keep tabs on Kai or Joshua, stop.” Their bodies shook under Helen’s gaze. “I will not ask again. If I find you guys doing something like this again, I will not hesitate to tell your band director everything I know and tarnish your “perfect” records, so stop watching my friends.” Helen closed the door behind her and sat next to Kai. “I can’t stand people sometimes.”

“Hey, don’t think like that. The performance is tomorrow. We need to prepare.”

“Says the one who hasn’t even finished his costume yet.”

“I’m telling you it’s basically done. Who are you even going as?”

“I told you it’s a secret. We only had an edgy theme listed, so I’m just going to let it hang in the air.”

“Mine will be done.”

“Please tell me you got better at dealing with eyeliner.”

“I did.”

Tension hung in the room as Helen was waiting for an opportune moment. “Are you ready to go get Mina soon?” Both of them didn’t see Joshua come in.

“Yes. I plan to get her during winter break. She’ll be legal by then.”

“That’s great.” Helen then looked up to see Joshua who looked a little confused. “Hey Josh. We were just talking about-mmh!”

“Nothing. It’s nothing.” Joshua nodded and sat in front of Kai feeling goosebumps on the back of his neck. Helen glared at him. “What’s the matter?”

Helen rolled her eyes, crossed her arms over her chest, and looked between the two. “Dramas.” Kai sort of understood her. When Helen says dramas, she means that it’s a literal cdrama action. Kai sighed and tapped Joshua on the shoulder, but the teacher thought it was a good time to start class before the late bell rang.

By the end of the next day, Kai and Joshua could feel eyes on them from everywhere. Kai ran over to the dance studio after 4:30 hit and ran right into Helen the moment she opened the door. “Hi Kai, nice to see you too.” Helen said with her face on the floor and Kai on top of her.

“Someone is watching me.” Kai breathed out as he tried gasping for air. Helen moved her glare towards the door.

“Hold this.” Helen threw the remote at Kai and slammed the door shut behind her. A few seconds later, Kai heard a loud scream. Helen came back a few minutes later smiling. “That should do it. I’m going to get Erin and Joshua here.”

“W-Why?”

“Joshua got roped into working as a stagehand with Erin until our performance.” Helen was about to call when Erin came barging in with Joshua scurrying behind her.

“Hey Helen, sorry for getting both of you roped in with the band cult.”

“W-What do you mean?” Kai asked, his eyes widening as he started to feel fear again. The band cult is known to be very good at planning and tactics. Erin gave him a sympathetic look as Joshua wouldn’t even look at her.

“Come on guys. We were great friends in middle school. What happened?!”

“Nothing. You don’t need to hear about this.”

“Just because I’m two years younger than you doesn’t mean anything.”

“It does, Erin. Please respect my wishes of not telling you anything.” Joshua glared at Erin and wordlessly walked into the office going in himself. Erin sighed and motioned towards the door. “Erin, many things happened. And no one needs to fully understand here.”

“Okay, on a new topic. Go get changed. We need to prepare.”

“You’re not going to make Kai try to talk to him?”

“Nope. Now come on. We need to talk. Kai, go change. I need to talk to Erin. Take Joshua with you, please.” Kai nodded, but it took a long while. Kai stood shaking in front of the door holding up his rapped knuckles trying to find the courage to knock.

Joshua looked up feeling eyes on him and opened the door being greeted by Kai. “H-Hi, we need to leave.” Kai gave him a sheepish smile. Joshua returned the smile trying to look anywhere but Kai’s eyes. Kai held a hand out to Joshua, since he wasn’t moving. Joshua chuckled bashfully and took Kai’s hand. Kai pulled him out of the room and into the hallway. What they didn’t see was Gavin and Alice standing at the ready.

Kai and Joshua both felt a hand on their shoulders right before they were pushed into the bathroom. Alice came and locked the door giving Gavin a high five.

Kai ran to the door trying to open it up. He started to use his foot to kick open the door, but nothing seemed to work. “Kai. Kai! It’s okay.” Joshua put a hand on his shoulder trying to pull him away from the door, but he didn’t expect Kai to go down to the ground screaming.

~5 minutes earlier in the dance studio~

Helen closed the door behind Kai and Joshua’s retreating form and turned to Erin. “Look, it’s not just because of your age, now. You are getting in way over your head. Call off the band kids, they are currently scaring Joshua and bringing up bad memories for Kai. If you know what’s best for them, you will stop this. This is way above you. I have tried reasoning with you for days now. Do you not see what you are doing to them?”

“I see it, but it’s not that bad.”

“Erin, you’re sixteen. You may not see it because you’ve never experienced this kind of fear, but Kai and Joshua feel like they are being watched every second of every day. Would you want that?”

“You don’t need to talk to me like I’m a child. I know what you’re insinuating.”

“Then answer my question.” Helen crossed her arms over her chest. “Also, what do you think I’m insinuating then?”

“Sky already told me it’s because of you!”

“You can’t lie to me. Sky is under patient doctor confidentiality, so save it. Tell your team off, now.”

Erin looked around sheepishly trying to avoid Helen’s death glare. “Yeah, that might be a bit of a problem.” Helen didn’t hear the rest as she ran out the door running into a few other members.

“Get changed and I’ll be back soon!” She shouted over her shoulder as she ran downstairs to the band room. She found a few members there. “Ethan, Jacob, I saw you two following us at different points. Where is Gavin and Alice? You guys are way in over your heads.” Ethan shrugged and turned to look at Jacob praying he had a better answer. Helen pissed is something no one wants directed at them.

“Alice went with Gavin to the third floor bathroom hidden in the corner. I told her we should stop after you told us the first time. I’ve been staying here.”

“Thanks.” Helen said breathless and ran back up the stairs.

~Back in the bathroom~

Kai went down screaming bloody murder as everything around him started to turn black again. All he could hear was the constant “shits” that were coming from Joshua’s voice.

Joshua rapidly ran to the door to try and convince Gavin or Alice to let them out of the room. He thought with the screams that would mean something, but that didn’t work at all. Joshua’s leg was bouncing at inhuman speeds as he tried to figure out what he could do to bring Kai back. He tried reaching for him as Kai covered his ears and curled into a fetal position.

The floor started to swallow him whole. He couldn’t breathe as Joshua’s voice was replaced with one he hoped he would never have to hear ever again.

“Come out here you little shit!” Kai covered his ears and made himself as small as possible praying that the voice would go away. “Get out here, now or your sister is next!” Kai tried to move, but he couldn’t.

The door slammed open as a feminine voice seemed to silence the male’s. Kai looked up as his vision started to come back to see Helen and Joshua over him. “Thank fuck I got here in time.” Helen breathed a sigh of relief. Joshua looked just as scared this time as he did two years ago. “J-Josh-ua, I’m s-s-sorr-”

“Shush, don’t apologize. I’m not letting the past repeat itself.” Joshua came over and helped prop Kai’s head on Helen’s lap. Helen gave him space to breathe as Joshua reached for Kai’s hand. Kai reached out and wrapped their hands together.

“Thank you.”

“We’re here until the end. You can’t get rid of us as easily as you’d like.” They all stayed there until Kai calmed down completely.

After ten minutes, Kai’s breathing had stabilized. “Are you good? Do you need to take today off?” Helen asked a line of questions checking over every part of Kai to make sure he hadn’t hurt himself. Kai shook his head no to all of the questions and pulled himself up.

“It’s almost time for the Halloween party. We need to go perform.”

“Okay, but the moment we’re done, I’m making Joshua your guardian. He’s responsible enough.” Joshua’s jaw dropped as he saw the faint smile on Helen’s lips. Helen left the bathroom after making sure that Kai was good, leaving Kai and Joshua alone.

Joshua chuckled and made a move to leave. “Hey.” Joshua stopped dead in his tracks and looked at Kai.

“Uh, y-y-yeah?”

“C-Can you help me? Uh, this costume requires a couple of hands.”

“S-Sure.” Kai pulled out the outfit; however, the sight of that outfit made Joshua’s knees almost give out. Kai had a full harness in his hands. “U-Um. . .I. . .uh.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s not going to look that good on me. My long legs kind of steer their eyes away from this.” Kai chuckled, motioning towards his torso. Joshua didn’t get a second to ask why Kai changed his shirt then and there. Joshua felt his jaw fall to the ground as he got a good look at Kai. ‘Dancer bodies are really-’. That’s when his eyes landed on Kai’s back. They were pale, but they were still there. There were countless pink/old lashes that were still healing or scarred over on Kai’s back. “Hey, can you hand me that shirt over there?’

Joshua blinked a couple of times before seeing Kai’s face. He was silently asking to leave it. Joshua pulled out the shirt looking at it wide eyed. “This is a shirt?”

“Nope. It’s my secret weapon.” Kai gave Joshua a smile. “It’s the thing that will attract the crowd.” Kai pulled the crop top out of Joshua’s shaking hands. The crop top landed just an inch above Kai’s pants. “It’ll make them want more.” Kai held a finger up to his lips and shushed him cutely before holding a hand out for Joshua. “This is where I’ll need the help.” Kai changed his pants quickly and helped Joshua get the harness on him.

The laughing breaks made a five minute process take a good fifteen minutes. Finally, Kai was done and left to go practice with the others while Joshua just stood there for a good few minutes trying to memorize what Kai looked like in that moment. (Imagine Hyunjin's 2020 MAMA performance, but more Hot Topic before Disney vibe)

“This is going to be a very interesting performance.” Joshua gathered his stuff and ran out of the bathroom to meet up with the others. He was on camera one.

Kai came back to the dance studio seeing everyone getting their makeup and hair done. “Great, Kai, come help me with this eyeliner.” Helen said the moment she saw Kai come through the door, but she couldn’t say another word. She finally got a good look at Kai’s outfit. “Holy hell, we said edgy not sex on legs!”

Kai chuckled and looked away bashfully. “Is it really that good?”

“Did my plan work when I left you and Joshua in the bathroom?”

“W-Well, it did take a minute for us to get this harness on. And he was red in the face-”

“Can you be any more dense?”

“Possibly.”

Helen smacked him on the arm before giving him a serious look. “Are you sure you’re okay to go on today?”

“I’m fine. I’m positive.”

“It wasn’t the biggest one we’ve seen, but I’m still worried. As your work mom I have to be worried.”

“I know. I’ll be fine. I swear.”

“If you’re lying, I will take all of your toys and burn them.”

“I don’t have any toys.”

“Want to bet?” Helen quirked an eyebrow at that statement. Kai shook his head no quickly and ran to get in his spot for a last review before 8.

The set list was:

Wonderland - Ateez

Fancy - Twice

Overdose - EXO

Kick It - NCT

Back Door - Stray Kids

Fire - BTS

They would end on BTS as a thank you to the group that brought Kpop to the light. There were a few breaks in between but they all knew this was going to be hard. This was what they were going to take to the festivals and competitions.

Kai and the others stood off to the side as Helen introduced their group. Cheers sounded through the open football field as the lights turned off overhead so that the others could get into position.

Helen looked over to Kai and gave him a thumbs up before the lights shined brightly down on them. Let’s say the football team isn’t happy they aren’t allowed to flex their abilities, but no one can say no to Helen when she’s able to bring a great argument that kpop will bring a lot more together than men flexing.

She was right. The rest of the festivities that were happening around the football field had almost completely stopped the moment many of the students heard the opening for Wonderland. This was the first year that Monster was doing something for the school.

They finished with Fancy before they had a break. They all walked off the stage and had a towel and a bottle thrown at them. Helen came off the stage last laughing. Kai gave her a weird look, but he didn’t get a word in because Helen pointed towards a camera guy. It was Joshua, and he was so not drooling. “Looks like you have a fan. How will they feel at ‘Kick It’?” Kai shrugged as they stayed in the stands for a ten minute break to let the others have their fun.

When Overdose came on, not many could recognize it in the beginning, but by the end, they had almost everyone back at the same energy they did when they left.

When Kick It came on, a few people in the stands started to do the moves with them. Woo Yong couldn’t keep his smile down as he saw a few of the people start to scream “new thangs” louder than the speakers. The last few seconds of Kick it had Woo Yong throwing his vest off and showing a couple of muscles. No one missed the couple of thuds behind them.

They ended this one with Back Door. The moment everyone found out Kai was doing Hyunjin, so many girls were screaming seeing the similarities in the color scheme with his outfit and the one from MAMA 2020.

When they left the stage this time, encore could be heard above the principal's words. Everyone was resting and trying to make sure that they were okay. Kick It and Back Door back to back is intense.

“How are we?”

“Maybe another five minutes.” Woo Yong said from the back as he took care of a new member. “We need a little second to cool down.”

“Okay.” Helen stood near the curtain and saw the crowd of people as the drumline for the marching band played their set for their break. “Make sure you’re all doing good. I don’t want anyone getting hurt and or faint.” Everyone held thumbs up. The moment the drumline ended, they went back on stage for their last performance.

Helen came up and looked over at the crowd. Placing both of her hands on both ends of her jacket, she said one word and ripped it off revealing the shirt that just had the word Fire on under it.

“불타오르네”(Burning up) The crowd went crazy as the familiar lyrics came on and many in the crowd were really getting into the performance. By the end of the performance, the principal came over and explained the voting as the members left the stage.

“That was so cool!” One of the new members, Caelen screamed. Helen chuckled and ruffled his hair as she and Woo Yong had to go back to represent their group during the picking.

Kai stood near the front of the stage, but he couldn’t keep his eyes off a certain someone, and neither could they as Kai saw the camera tilt a little towards him. Joshua stood high in the stands looking down at Joshua and trying not to think about how good that outfit looked on him.

Kai turned and waved slightly with his hand tilted to the side of his head. He chuckled lightly as he saw Joshua visibly jump and the red that spread through his face.

“The performances we’ve seen today have been tremendous! Give it up for these talented groups and individuals. Now students, you have voted and given us an answer as to who should be able to use the prize money and represent our school with honor. And the winner is. . .Raylay!” This group of three girls got up and started thanking everyone, and dear god the bad reaction they got from the crowd was deafening.

“They don’t deserve it! They were basically modeling their clothing!” Someone screamed over the rest. By the end of it, the faculty had to go back and talk with the sponsors.

Kai stood in the crowd surrounded by the other members all looking confused as well. “Why the hell did they get the award? There are so many more qualified people here. They just did a modeling runway. They said they were singing, but no one was looking away from their chests!” Caelen sighed. Kai chuckled and ruffled his hair.

“Welcome to real life, kid. It happens. We’ll win the next one.” The faculty came back looking like complete idiots with their tails between their legs. The sponsor came out also holding up the check that they had already made out.

The woman came to the front of the mic and sighed. “Hello everyone, I’m sorry, but the faculty have made a mistake. They were not looking in the best place when they were picking up the cards. They read the card that said best effort. Anyway, the real winners are Monster.” Everyone oohs changed to full blown screams as Helen and Woo Yong accepted the gift from the sponsor.

Both of them motioned for the other members to come up. They all jumped the barricade and got on stage hugging it all out before someone came to the stage and made them all pose for a picture.

The festivities finally ended around 12am. The members of Monster were all celebrating on the field and having a good time. Helen caught a glimpse of bright bleached blonde hair. She moved over and tapped Kai on the shoulder. “Be a dear and go talk to him.” She didn’t give him a chance to say no when she shoved Kai into Joshua, and Joshua being the graceful man he is fell right on top of Joshua.

“H-Hi.”

“Hey.” Kai smirked down at Joshua’s flustered face. “U-uh, you did very good out there. I-I wish I had that kind of coordination.”

“Thanks. Do you want to go talk somewhere more private?” Joshua nodded and pointed to an empty spot in the bleachers. Kai grabbed Joshua’s hand and was led by him up the stairs. Helen started the whooping as Kai and Joshua left.

“YES KAI! GET SOME!” Everyone was screaming something making the two chuckle nervously as they got out of earshot from the others.

Joshua stayed basically planted to his spot on the bleachers as Kai came around and sat in front of him on the fence. Joshua took a big gulp of air trying to breathe properly with Kai looking like and I quote ‘a full course meal in front of a starving artist’ end quote. Joshua finally figured out what he could make from that big blob of blacks, blues, and purples now, but he had no idea what to say to Kai.

Kai rubbed at the back of his neck and sighed making the first comment. “Um. . .I kinda heard. . .what you said. . .uh before you left my apartment that day a couple weeks back.” Kai wavered in his statement trying to find the best words to use so that Joshua wouldn’t go and try to make a run for it again. He was notorious for doing that in freshman year. Kai kept rubbing the back of his neck as a nervous habit trying not to panic.

Joshua’s jaw was on the floor. He knew what he said that day and could not stop mulling over every single word, so that meant that Kai heard every single word as well. His nightmare had come to life. He started to laugh in a nervous way before bolting for the stairs. Kai got up and chased Joshua down the stairs and through the backdoor to the art building. They finally ended up in a practice room that the band and orchestra kids shared when Kai pulled Joshua into the closest one and blocked the door with his body.

Kai was bent over panting as he tried to gather his breath, but Joshua was pacing in a circle almost pacing a hole into the floor in his panic. “Joshie, don’t pace a hole into the floor. We can’t replace another one like we did with Mrs. Wilkins.” This made Joshua stop and look at him. Joshua’s eyes were glazed over, but there was a small chuckle coming out as he too remembered that encounter. That was between him, Kai, and Mrs. Wilkins to only know.

When Joshua crinkled his eyes, a tear slipped, so Kai reached out and rubbed it away.

Kai saw how Joshua had relaxed a bit and motioned to a chair that was in the room. Joshua sat down and placed his elbows on his knees with his hands clasped together and his chin on top of his hands, looking up at Kai with a bit of hope and a lot of fear. “Well. . .I guess the secret is out of the bag.” He chuckled dryly. Kai chuckled too and put his hands on the back of the chair and caged Joshua in giving him a small smile. “W-What are you doing? D-Don’t you not li-like me like thi-s-s?” Joshua stuttered through his words trying to concentrate on Kai’s onyx eyes burning holes into him.

Kai was using all of his willpower not to move from this position, but that sentence made him stumble a bit. “What would make you think that?” Kai pulled back confused beyond belief. “I don’t care that you’re a guy.”

“B-But I heard you-?”

“Why do you think I ran when I turned sixteen?” Joshua’s eyes widened. “I only told you that they kicked me out because I was a problem child so no one would completely question everything. Not many know this for obvious legal reasons, but whoever told you I don’t. . .uh.” Kai tried to calm his raging heartbeat as his hands got super clammy on top of the chair in the practice room. Kai’s tongue felt large now as he could barely find the words to express himself. “Whoever told you I don’t lo-like you then they need t-to go suck something.” Yeah, Joshua is the only one that can make this baddie become a puddle of self-doubt and a stuttering mess. Joshua felt the heat rush to his cheeks as Kai pulled the other chair and sat backwards on it facing him. “I thought you knew I liked you since middle school, and that’s why you started to date Erin.” Kai looked away. He didn’t feel proud of this.

Joshua looked at Kai bug eyed. “Have you grown some kind of parasite or hit your head?” Kai let out a puff though his teeth in a laugh at Joshua’s sudden mood change.

Kai leaned his head over to the side and gave Joshua a cute side smile. “I don’t think so.” Kai said smiling. He tried to hide the fact of his shock.

“I’m not dating Erin. Who gave you that idea?” Joshua started to slip into Korean as he got a little frustrated. He started to pace the room as he ranted a bit. Kai had a hard time keeping up with how fast Joshua was speaking at that point.

“Sorry. Ego said so.” Joshua looked back knowing that Kai was still having a hard time speaking Korean ever since his parents kicked him out and nodded.

“Kai, I’ve never dated Erin. For one, Erin likes this guy from New York called NYU. She has no time for us like that.” Kai laughed at that as he laid his face in his crossed arms above the chair’s back. “You know, you can be really oblivious sometimes. I swear. Apparently you even heard me pouring my emotions out on Hobi and you still didn’t believe me!” Joshua held his hands up slouching in his chair looking up at the ceiling. Kai looked at Joshua with his eyebrows raised. “What? Wait. . .what did you hear?!” Joshua slumped into the chair and put his face in his hands preparing himself for what he was about to hear.

“Well, you said ‘god I wish I could talk to you properly’ and rubbed my cheek. I could feel your heartbeat speed up too. . .” Joshua looked up a little relieved.

“Then that means you didn’t hear all of that that I told Hobi. We’re good.”

“But I’m not good. I want to know everything you said to him. I know you were talking about me.” Kai had a smirk plastered on his face as he saw Joshua become more and more flustered with his words. Kai got up fluidly, bent over, and stared up at Joshua with pleading puppy dog eyes. Those eyes were reserved for Joshua and Helen only.

“I-I can’t say a t-thing like that-t out loud!” Kai chuckled.

“Then what do you call it when you were talking to my dog about it?”

“It was under the confidentiality of humans and dogs!” Both Kai and Joshua couldn’t hold back their laughter of how stupid that sounded. While laughing, Kai, with his long ass legs decided to trip on the just cleaned tile floor of the practice room.

This trapped Joshua between a chair and Kai’s body. Aka, a literal rock in a hard place. Kai’s entire face turned as red as a tomato. “U-Um.” Joshua saw just how close they were. It took a split second, but Joshua somehow found the courage to grab Kai’s crop top and hugged him tightly.

Kai’s eyes went as wide as saucers before he wrapped his arms around Joshua and sat down in his lap melting into his embrace.

“WHOO!” A high pitched voice said outside the door. Kai and Joshua chuckled, touching their foreheads together, completely ignoring the entirety of Monster outside the practice room cheering them on.