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FRIDAY HAS FINALLY ARRIVED, and the long-awaited club presentation is about to begin. White uniforms are busy finalizing their preparations as freshman students get ready to visit the clubs that they're interested in. But while everyone is busy with their clubs, the brotherhoods, who aren't allowed to join clubs, are wasting time while waiting for the bell to ring.

     The senior members of all the brotherhoods, whether they like it or not, are classmates, just like how the junior members are. They share the same room specifically named Class IV-Kings, which can be found at the Hall of Janus.

     Krist, who's sitting at the far back with Brave, stares at Busters who were playing around at the front. Busters are the only brotherhood in the House of Kings where all the members are seniors, so it's natural that they'd dominate the room.

    "Why are they fucking holding us up here? It's brotherhood week and we're not even allowed to walk around campus. Does that even make any sense?" Krist asks Brave who's busy playing games on his phone.

     While Krist and Brave were minding their own business, someone suddenly calls the Jokers' leader out. "Mj!" a low voice shouts.

     Krist looks up and sees Charles Justin Mills walking towards him with two other members of Cigarettes.

     "What did your brotherhood prepare for the Welcome Ball tonight?" Cj asks as he sits on the desk beside the spot where Krist is sitting.

     Krist takes a deep breath and doesn't even bother to look at Cj anymore as he starts watching the game that Brave is playing. "We're Jokers. When did we ever join any of the school's events?" He asks, making Cj nod in agreement.

     "Good point. But you should still attend. After all, that boy might be there," Cj then tells him, and Krist slowly lifts his head back up, making Cj smirk at him. "You might want to thank him for donating a hundred thousand dollars on your first battle. You should make it clear that you're very grateful for it."

     Krist doesn't say anything, but Marcus, who overheard their conversation, immediately stood up from his seat to look at Krist with a deadly glare. The sudden drop of the atmosphere made everyone in the room look their way, even Viktor and Hee-joon.

    "Sit down," Hans, BND's leader, commanded. But Marcus ignores him and walks towards Krist like he didn't hear a thing. Krist got ready to defend himself, but Marcus faces Cj instead and says, "May I ask what you meant by that?"

    The men behind Cj got ready to push Marcus away, but Cj lifts his hand to stop them. He then looks back at Marcus and smirks. "Oh yeah, we have a protective big brother here. What's wrong? You scared we'd do something to your little Max?"

     Marcus wasn't able to contain himself, so he grabs Cj by his collar out of anger. The members of Cigarettes got ready to attack, but Hans and the rest of the members of BND immediately stood up from their seats as well, instantly making them do nothing. After all, BND is still the Dukes, and Cigarettes are clearly outnumbered in this classroom.

    "Touch him once and you'll lose a finger. Touch him twice and you'll lose a hand," Marcus warns, not letting go of Cj even though Hans was already telling him to do so.

     Cj, who didn't even look threatened, smiles at Marcus and answers, "Lose a finger you say? I think I can manage that."

     "You son of a—" Marcus got ready to throw a punch, but someone immediately grabbed his fist to stop him. Marcus turns his head and got surprised when he saw who it was. Because the person who stopped him wasn't their leader Hans, or even Viktor or Hee-joon. The one who grabbed his fist so effortlessly was none other than Crazy 8's leader, Siren.

     "Have you no shame? Fighting in front of the kings like that is out of the question. If you want to fight with each other, pull their banner and declare war. That is how you settle things," Siren says with a feminine yet dominating voice.

     Marcus slowly pulls his hand away for Cj and takes a deep breath. "I apologize," he says. And then he looks at Busters and PHD who were watching them since earlier and respectfully bows. "I apologize for my rude behavior. I'll be careful next time."

     Viktor, whose arm is draped around Hee-joon, nods his head to acknowledge the apology. When Marcus got back to his seat, Viktor looks at Cj and tells him, "I know you're good at manipulating people, but if you want to cause unnecessary trouble, you don't have to get others involved. You and your brotherhood already do that without any effort."

     Cj clenches his fists in anger after hearing Viktor's comment, but he doesn't say anything and walks back to his seat as well. Then Viktor looks at Krist and continues, "And you. I hope you're not easily manipulated. You may be tough, but you're gullible."

     Krist got ready to stand, but Brave, who isn't holding his phone anymore, grabbed him by the arm to calm his leader down.

    Everyone in the room didn't say anything. And after a couple of minutes, their homeroom teacher, Alisa Armstrong, enters the room and says, "Good morning brotherhoods."

     All the brotherhoods stood up from their seats to greet her. And when they got ready to sit back down, Alisa immediately announces, "I won't take up much of your time. I'd usually tell you to continue your preparations for your presentation tonight, but president Janus just announced something to us earlier. He's giving you the permission to head to the courtyard and check the booths."

     "What?!" the brotherhoods asked from shock because they were never once allowed to do that before.

     "But before you go, I want to remind you all of the White Uniform Protection Code. You are not allowed to touch any of the students and ruin any of their booths. President Ian will also be on the lookout, so please, do not embarrass me," Alisa tells the whole class.

     "Understood Ms. Alisa," Viktor answers on everyone's behalf.

     Soon after, the bell rings, signaling everyone that the club presentations have now started.

     "Be back at the stadium after your lunch break so you can finalize your preparations for tonight's welcome ball. Now scram," Alisa commands, and all of them bow to her again and finally take their leave.

     Krist and Brave got out last, so when they went out of their classroom, they were welcomed by four of the junior members of Jokers. "Master Joker," they greet, and Krist nods his head to acknowledge them.

     "Looks like we're about to have a lot of fun. Do you want us to put stink bombs around the courtyard? Or maybe toy snakes, just to scare the white uniforms a little," Rome, their youngest, suggested.

     While Jokers walk down the hall, Krist takes a deep breath and says, "We're not allowed to ruin the booths. I don't want us to get in trouble because of that. And besides, I was already scolded enough."

     Rome and the rest of the members of Jokers look back at their leader with confused expressions. "What do you mean by that? Did something happen?" Van asks, and Krist just clenches his fist in irritation instead of answering him.

     Jokers soon arrive at the courtyard with the rest of the brotherhoods. The white uniforms couldn't believe that they were there, so the clubs instantly started going full out in hopes of getting noticed by them.

     "Wow, this looks like a carnival," Brave says as he stares at the different booths. He then looks back at Krist and says, "We should use this as an opportunity to recruit more underlings since we don't have a presentation tonight. Who knows, maybe we can find a gem in the rust." He then says, and the rest of the members of Jokers nod in agreement.

     "Please, don't mind us. Pretend like we're invisible." Jokers suddenly heard Hans when they walked past the Literature Club. Students were swarming around them, and the attention they made only annoyed Krist.

     "What's so special about those guys anyway?" Krist asks, and Brave, who was already busy tasting the food given by the Cooking Club, stuffs his mouth with cookies before answering, "Duh, they're good looking."

     Krist looks at Brave with disgust and pulls him away from the Cooking Club. But as he was being pulled away, Brave grabs a handful of other snacks, and the members of the Cooking club couldn't even scold him because of how terrified they were.

     The rest of the Jokers laughed at their senior brother.

     "Seriously, we're asked not to ruin their booths. This means we're not allowed to finish up all the food they prepared for freshman students," Krist says, and Brave just shoves more cookies in his mouth and smiles as if nothing happened.

    The member of the Jokers continue with their stroll in peace, but as soon as they walk past the Broadcasting Club, someone immediately grabs hold of Krist's shoulder. The members of Jokers raised their defense, but when they saw who it was, they instantly bow except for Krist.

     "Barons," Ian greets with a friendly smile.

     Krist doesn't return the smile, but he slightly bows his head and greets back, "President Ian."

     "I'm glad you're not causing any trouble for the students. It makes it easier for me as the president. But would you like to check out our booth? Maybe if you hang around a little, freshmen students would swarm us," Ian asks, gesturing at the Broadcasting Club's booth.

     Krist puts his hands inside his pockets and stares at Ian. "Thank you for the invitation, but we're fine. I think your presence alone will interest the freshmen," he answers, and Ian nods his head in understanding.

     "Then how about you check the booths there instead?" Ian suggests, gesturing at the booths that were already crowded. "They've been grabbing everyone's attention since we started. You might want to check them out."

     "Alright, thank you. Enjoy the rest of the day, president Ian," Krist says, and Jokers turn around and take their leave. When they were already far from the president, Dhanin looks at their leader and says, "President Ian seriously gives me the chills. He has this laid-back aura around him, but at the same time he looks like someone who has the ability to step on your face and praise you at the same time."

     "If you want to live longer I suggest you don't say that in public," Krist tells Dhan, who immediately covered his mouth, checking if someone heard him.

     "Wait, aren't we heading to the societies? Alpha and Beta are usually the clubs where some brotherhood members came from. It's pretty impressive. Even Leo himself came from the alphas and now he's a Duke," Brave tells them.

     "That's nothing special. We didn't join clubs during our Freshmen year either but we're barons. See, clubs aren't that important," Rome says, and Brave playfully messes his hair and tells him, "That's because that's part of our criteria, you dimwit."

     Rome pouts, making Krist chuckle.

     "Anyway, we should check Alpha Society's booth. They're always so—" Brave suddenly stops in the middle of his sentence, making Krist and the rest of the Jokers look at him. When they notice that Brave is staring at the ground, all of them did the same thing.

     "What the hell...is that fucking blood?" Dhan asks with shock.

     Krist goes lower to check it out. "No, it's paint."

     "There's more there," Van then notices as he spots more 'blood-stains' leading to one of the booths.

     "What gimmick is this now?" Krist asks curiously, and he and the rest of the members of Jokers follow the tracks to where the society's booths are found. Everyone expected it to come from the Alpha Society, but to their surprise, the booth that was being crowded was not from any of the two popular ones, but instead...

     "Is that the Omega Society?" Brave asks with a confused expression.

     Jokers approach the crowd. As soon as everyone saw them approaching, the students moved away to give them space. Jokers got closer to the booth, and what they saw next left them entirely speechless.

- END -