{panic(king): changki}

13

We all meet in Kihyun and Minhyuk's dorm before the rally. Minhyuk insists on painting pride flags on our cheeks, so we agree to it. He paints three stripes on my cheek; one pink, one purple and one blue. Hyungwon was right. Paint is itchy.

"Changkyun, stop touching your cheek or I'm going to have to redo your flag again," Minhyuk scolds me, not looking away from his current canvas. Hyunwoo's eyelashes flutter over his cheeks at the feeling of the paintbrush against his skin.

"Sorry," I murmur. Kihyun grabs my hand, intertwining our fingers. I look over at him.

"This way, you don't have to worry about trying to scratch your face," he says. "And Minhyuk won't have to complain about it anymore."

"When it comes to his art being touched, he's up to Changkyun's level of complaining," Hyungwon says, scrolling through his phone while leaning against the wall.

Minhyuk stops painting to look over at him with a pout, and I look over at him with an offended expression. He looks up from his phone to see the both of us and his ears redden.

"He doesn't like having to redo his hard work," he murmurs. Minhyuk tilts his head and Hyungwon dips his to mumble something else. Minhyuk smiles at his response and leaves his canvas to go over and kiss him.

"You're next," he says with a grin.

"I thought you said I could go last," Hyungwon says.

"You are. I've already done everyone else." Minhyuk pats at the spot on the couch that Hyunwoo just left. Hyungwon sits with a sigh and allows Minhyuk to stroke a red line across his cheek, his hand placed on the taller boy's thigh. I'm not sure if it's there to keep him still, or to make Hyungwon even more flustered. I get my answer from the sly smirk on his face.

Towards the end of Minhyuk painting the seven colorful stripes on Hyungwon's face, there's a knock at the door. Kihyun looks up from playing with my hand and every set of eyes drift toward the door except Minhyuk's. "I'll get it," he says. He leaves his spot in front of Hyungwon to go to the door. Hyungwon's hand starts to go to the flag on his cheek. "You know it's still wet," Minhyuk says without looking back at him.

The door opens to reveal a guy I don't recognize. He has teal hair and seems to be a little younger than I am. He gives Minhyuk a relieved smile when he opens the door. "Hey."

"Hey," Minhyuk returns. "What's up?"

"So don't be mad, but I may have told a few people you were painting pride flags for the rally," the boy says.

"Jaehyun, you little snitch," Minhyuk hisses. "If you have half the school behind you..."

"No, no, no," Jaehyun says immediately, shaking his head. "But definitely some people you want on your side."

The rest of us look between each other, wondering who exactly this Jaehyun had managed to rope into our rally. And from the looks we exchanged, I could tell that none of us knew.

Minhyuk sighs. "You're lucky a few of my friends are already in the kitchen. Bring them in," he says, waving them inside.

I watch Jaehyun step back to nudge the people beside into the dorm. Space is a bit cramped for a second, but a platinum blonde moves back toward the bathroom, his brunette companion following him. The rest of them try to disperse to give us all enough space to exist in the room.

"I'll see you at the rally, then?" Jaehyun asks, flashing a smile. "Cool, thanks, hyung!" he says as he darts down the hallway.

"Wait you're leavi— Jaehyun!" Minhyuk scoffs and makes his way inside. "Aish, that boy..." He puts his sunshine smile back on to be as hospitable to our guests as possible. He greets them all and introduces himself, as well as the rest of us.

"You're the reason this is all happening," one of the dark-haired members of the group says once Minhyuk gets to me.

I nod politely. "Yes, I guess I am."

He nods back at me, and I notice not only him, but all the members of the group bow toward me. My cheeks heat up at the attention and Kihyun pats my hand, smiling softly.

One of the youngest ones peers over his Gucci sunglasses at us and nods. A small smile curls on his lips and I return his gesture. He pushes the sunglasses up onto his head and looks back to Minhyuk. He's started work on his next canvas.

Kihyun tugs at my sleeve, urging me to look at the canvas again. "That's Jeon Jungkook," he says. "We have the most popular boys in school in our dorm. Helping us with your cause," he adds.

My eyes widen as I realize that he's right. Their faces all start to seem more familiar as I glance at them again. Just how much power this would add to our arsenal, I had no idea. The seven of them do have a pretty big influence on the rest of the students here, though, so it couldn't hurt having them on our side.

After all the faces in the room are decorated with colorful stripes, ranging in patterns of three to seven, including Minhyuk's own, the room starts to empty out again.

Before the seven of them are gone completely, Jungkook approaches me. "Thank you so much for this," he says. "I honestly didn't think I would be safe in the music program much longer. It was wrong of them to kick you out like that because of who you love." He glances to Kihyun with a polite nod. "I hope this can bring something good for all of us."

I nod in agreement. "Thank you, Jungkook, that means a lot."

He smiles at me before the shortest of his friend group pokes his head in, whose name I remember as Jimin, followed by the one wearing Gucci sunglasses, who I now recognize as Taehyung. "You coming, Kookie?" Jimin asks.

"Jin's ranting about changing his name because of this again," Taehyung adds, with a slight snicker. "I think he might actually do it this time."

"Yeah, I'm coming, babes." He turns back to me with a suddenly shy smile. "Thanks again, Changkyun," he says. He heads over to the door where the two are waiting for him and suddenly, it's just me and my six favorite people who helped make this all possible in the dorm again.

"Look at you, Changkyun," Minhyuk says. "You've convinced the most influential people here to join our rally."

"If it wasn't for your flyers and your connection with Jaehyun, we may not have had them on our side at all." He smiles and Hyungwon reaches up to peck his cheek. I then realize he's sitting on Hyungwon's lap. No wonder he looked taller than usual.

"Should we go?" Jooheon asks, settling his speaker on his shoulder like he probably would have a boombox in the 90's. "This rally's not going to start without us."

Everyone looks at me to give the okay. I nod again, something it feels I've been doing a lot of today. "Jooheon's right. Let's get this rally started." I make sure to squeeze Kihyun's hand as we stand. Minhyuk and Hyungwon stand together while Hyunwoo and Hoseok make their way to either side of Jooheon.

We walk out of the dorm building and toward the building that harbors the music program. If this didn't convince them to make a staff change for the better of us students, I didn't know what would.

When we get to the building, there are already 100+ students waiting for us. We make our way to the front of the group, squeezing each other's hands and exchanging glances and nods. At my signal, Jooheon starts the song. I like to think that this is the sound of change.

{a/n: Basically Monsta X featuring BTS in "Painting Before a Rally to Replace a Homophobic Teacher". It's almost sad to think that this book is approaching its true end. Thank you all for the support and love you've shown this book. I really appreciate it.}