Chapter Text
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Someone really should've told Beomgyu, Huening Kai and Soobin that they take Truth or Dare way too seriously, like, 10 months ago.
But, for real, someone really should've called the cops on them by now because the things they've done and the stunts they've pulled in the name of the game should be considered illegal.
Because when they play, they play to win. Truth or Dare was a matter of life or death for them.
The one rule of their games? Choosing ‘Truth’ was the coward's way out.
“Dare.”
“Go to the rooftop and climb over the edge to the window of the next floor down.”
“Dare.”
“Break into Mr Yoo's office and stay in there for 5 minutes.”
“Dare.”
“When you go to the bathroom, you have to piss at the urinal directly next to someone else for the rest of the term.”
When it's Beomgyu's turn again, Soobin and Huening seemed to have joined forces and are whispering into each other's ears deviously. Huening Kai looks so evil right now that devil horns might as well be sprouting up from his head.
Beomgyu won't admit it, but he's a little nervous now. However, he's done unspeakable things for this game before. I am fearless. I'm. A. Superman.
“...dare.”
“Join the swimming team.”
Beomgyu blinks, waiting for more. Drown for a minute, pull down his speedos in front of the swim team and belly dance, drink a gallon of pool water—something worse on top of what he'd been given. “That’s it?” he asks.
Soobin wears an ominous smile. “For the rest of the year.”
There’s the catch.
“Swim with Taehyun? For a whole year? You guys might as well start shopping for caskets because you're killing me here, guys.”
They should really be capping the length of the time their dares last for, Beomgyu thinks. Well, to be honest, Beomgyu is a huge hypocrite because he loves to force Soobin into doing stupid shit for a whole semester—he gets off on that. So, a year isn't really out of the question. Especially because the dares Beomgyu comes up with are always the worst ones, so it is only fair for him to receive the most severe one.
The biggest issue Beomgyu has with this dare is with who is in the swim team. His best friends are well aware of his antagonistic relationship with the current swim team captain, Kang Taehyun. Everyone in their year level knows about this. Every teacher knows about this. Every person and their mother know about this. After all, they have the rivalry of the 'century' (in high school terms, anyway).
They battle over everything: in grades, petty playground insults, looks, confessions received and even how fast they can run. The list goes on. Basically, everything you can think of that is feasible in a high school setting? Yep, they compete over it. It's almost unrealistic the number of the things they clash over; their rivalry resembles that of a corny anime dynamic, where the main characters butt heads over every activity and are both inexplicably good at everything with no explanation ever given for their God-given talents. Not to mention, the protagonists always happen to be extraordinarily good-looking compared to the rest of the student body, and Beomgyu and Taehyun are no exception to this cliche. Oh, to be the main character of a romantic comedy anime.
“Are you giving up?” Huening smirks.
Beomgyu glares at him. “No. Of course not. Who do you take me for—Soobin?”
Soobin whacks him over the head.
“If things get too intense between you two and you're afraid you'll actually commit homicide, we should have a safe word for when that happens so we can call off the dare,” Huening offers.
“How about moist?”
Beomgyu hisses, “What the fuck is wrong with you, Soobin?”
“It’s just so icky and abrasive that we'll know exactly what you're telling us. It's not like we ever use it in conversations so it won't be confused with anything else,” Soobin explains in unnecessary detail.
So, that’s how Beomgyu lands himself in the swimming team's first meeting of the year the very next day. His face lights up upon seeing the plates of snacks on the tables. Score. He's starting to think this would be a reward, after all, as he stuffs his face with chips and pastries.
Taehyun, as expected, recoils at the sight of Beomgyu.
“What are you doing here?”
This doesn’t even come across as a question, more as an accusation. Seeing the shock on Taehyun's usually deadpan face is already a small victory for him. This dare is actually doing him good for once—that was rare. Dares have gone much worse before. And, things haven't been the same since...The Incident™.
Once upon a time, Beomgyu was dared to fart in front of a group of freshman girls (this had been Huening's idea...yeah how mature, right?) and he received detention for ‘indecent behaviour’. It apparently fell under the same category as harassment and for that reason, Beomgyu's been blacklisted by the school and is banned from interacting with freshman girls. For flatulence. Fucking flatulence. He's afraid the petty crime would even appear on his graduation transcript and taint his perfect academic record. Mind you, he did fart directly next to a poor, innocent girl's ear. Loud and proud. Not the non-scented kind either, a real stinker he let out. So, he deserved the detention partially. Still, they don’t ever talk about that Incident™ in their games, and doing anything involving freshman girls is completely off the table.
“I'm here to swim, why else would I be here?” he replies with a shit-eating grin, swallowing down an enormous mouthful of food. Taehyun’s eyes turn into slits, trying to decipher Beomgyu's words as if they had a hidden meaning, an ulterior motive.
He ends up sighing in defeat.
“Fine. Welcome to the team, Beomgyu.”
Beomgyu feels like he's won this battle. Go him.
Taehyun takes control of the meeting with his vice-captain standing by his side.
"Welcome, everyone! Thank you for your interest in the school's swim club. I am the swim team's captain, Kang Taehyun, and beside me is the team's vice-captain, Choi Yeonjun." Yeonjun waves at everyone, grinning.
"—we'd like to extend a warm welcome to the new members joining and returning members."
His eyes fall on Beomgyu and he almost scowls before catching himself. Mr Perfect Kang Taehyun doesn't show emotion, especially not anger. That would be considered unprofessional for a captain.
"Most of you seem to be here for genuine reasons and for your passion for swimming, which is great. Most of you, anyway." He looks at Beomgyu even more pointedly this time.
Beomgyu winks and blows a kiss coyly in his direction. Taehyun purses his lips, stuttering in his next sentence, "I-I would like to take the time this meeting to get to know each and every one of you joining us this year! We're a great, tight-knit bunch here and we've truly earned our place here with our many swim meet medal wins."
Beomgyu snorts under his breath at the clear humble brag, earning an annoyed glare from the guy next to him.
Taehyun continues, "Yeonjun will also be wandering around talking to you all. Feel free to grab some of the many refreshments—"
He sees the now mostly empty plates and blinks rapidly in confusion. Beomgyu chews the biscuit in his mouth slowly to avoid suspicion. Hey, if someone is offering free food, he's taking full advantage of it. It's just everyone else's fault for being too slow. You snooze, you lose.
Taehyun shoots a death glare at him as he walks past him to greet the other fresh-faced members. "You pig," he mutters. Beomgyu smiles innocently back at him, basking in the glory of being able to knock Taehyun down a peg today—knocking the King off his throne and his pedestal. Suddenly, his gleeful expression turns into mortification.
Oh, yeah—there is just one glaring problem with all of this.
Beomgyu has never learned how to swim.