Chapter 29: The Band’s Forced Picnic

Yuna's POV

Thursday mornings were supposed to be peaceful. A time to mentally prepare for the last stretch of the school week, not to be forcibly dragged into an event I had no prior knowledge of.

Yet, here I was, being physically dragged.

"Come on," Kai said, grabbing my bag before I could react.

I squinted at him, barely awake. "Come where?"

He didn't answer. Instead, he slung my bag over his shoulder and started walking off like he was my personal kidnapper.

I looked at Erika, who was casually stuffing books into her bag. "Am I being abducted?"

"Sort of," she said. "We're having a picnic."

I blinked. "...What?"

Apparently, while I was busy not paying attention during yesterday's club meeting, the rest of the band had decided we needed a 'mental reset' after the disaster that was our vocalist search.

And by 'decided',I meant Erika decided. The rest of them just got swept along.

By the time I processed all this information, I was already outside, staring at the open field near the back of the school.

"Why are we here?" I asked flatly.

Leo, who had been laying out a picnic blanket, looked up at me like I had just asked why water was wet. "For the picnic."

"You guys actually went through with it?"

Noah sighed. "It was this or listen to Erika nag us about 'bonding' for the next week."

"Great," I muttered. "I got dragged into a forced friendship event."

Kai dropped my bag next to me and stretched. "Relax. It's just food and fresh air. Even you can survive that."

"Yeah," Lena chimed in, already sprawled out on the blanket, using her bag as a pillow.

"Might as well enjoy it. Think of it as a free lunch, but with slightly more effort."

I sighed and rubbed my temples. This was why I needed to pay attention in club meetings.

One moment I was zoning out, and the next thing I knew, I was being forcibly enrolled in a mandatory bonding activity.

Erika dusted off her skirt and smiled. "Well, we clearly weren't getting anywhere with our vocalist search, and exams just finished, so I figured we could use a little break!"

I stared at her. "And instead of resting like normal people, you dragged us outside like a bunch of lost kindergarteners?"

"Exactly," she said, unfazed.

I slowly sat down, still feeling like I had walked into an ambush.

"Fine," I muttered, accepting my fate.

"But if this turns into some kind of weird motivational team talk, I'm leaving."

Erika gasped dramatically. "Yuna! Would I ever do that to you?"

"Yes," I said immediately.

She just laughed, which did nothing to reassure me.

Once everyone settled, Leo opened a large container filled with sandwiches while Noah passed out bottled drinks. Erika, being Erika, had packed way too much food.

There were rice balls, chips, and even some fancy-looking pastries that I was pretty sure she didn't make herself.

"Okay, so technically I didn't make any of this," she admitted, waving a fork around.

"But I did supervise my sister while she made it, which is basically the same thing."

Noah looked unimpressed. "So you just stood there and watched her cook?"

"Exactly."

"That's not the same thing at all—"

"Hey, it's still effort!" Erika huffed.

Meanwhile, Lena was already halfway through a sandwich, completely ignoring the conversation.

"Not gonna lie, I don't even care where this food came from," she mumbled with her mouth full.

"It's good, and I'm eating it."

Ethan, who had finally caught his breath after running to catch up with us, reached for a rice ball—only for leo to smoothly slide the container just out of reach.

"Hey!" Ethan protested.

Leo raised an eyebrow. "You just got here. Where's your patience?"

Ethan narrowed his eyes and immediately lunged for another one, but leo, without missing a beat, shifted the entire picnic blanket just enough to throw him off balance.

"What is this?!" Ethan demanded.

"A test?!"

"You gotta earn it," leo said, smirking.

Ethan scowled, grabbed a bag of chips instead, and ripped it open aggressively.

Unfortunately, he underestimated his own strength, and half the chips immediately went flying into the air.

Lena, without missing a beat, caught one mid-air with her mouth.

"Nice," she mumbled, crunching.

Noah sighed, brushing crumbs off his lap.

"Can we not turn this into a food fight?"

As if on cue, Ethan, still bitter about his rice ball being stolen, flicked a chip at leo's forehead.

Leo turned to him, unimpressed. "Really?That's your best shot?"

Ethan, never one to back down from a challenge, picked up a rice ball and hurled it—except leo dodged at the last second, and the rice ball hit me instead.

The entire picnic fell into silence.

I wiped the sticky grains off my cheek, set my drink down very slowly, and leveled them all with a deadpan stare.

"You guys," I said, voice deceptively calm

"just started a war."

Lena, grinning, immediately grabbed a handful of chips.

Erika, the only one still trying to maintain order, gasped. "No! I worked hard supervising this food!"

But it was too late. Ethan grabbed a handful of rice balls, Lena was already preparing a counterattack, and Noah had the look of someone who had accepted his fate.

Kai, despite being the responsible one, clearly decided this was not his problem.

"You know what? I'll allow it," he said, leaning back and watching the chaos unfold.

Erika, ever the peacemaker, tried to intervene. "Come on, guys, let's just—"

A slice of sandwich smacked into her shoulder.

Erima closed his eyes, sighed deeply, and then reached for the breadbasket.

The picnic descended into absolute chaos.

Chips flew across the blanket, rice balls rolled into the grass, and Ethan was now using a napkin as a shield while Lena aggressively threw popcorn at him.

"Yuna, do something!" Noah shouted, dodging a cookie.

"What do you expect me to do?!" I shrieked, trying to protect what little food was left.

"You're supposed to be responsible!"

"That's literally not my job!"

Meanwhile, Kai, the actual responsible one, was casually eating a rice ball and watching the madness unfold like it was free entertainment.

At one point, Ethan tripped over the blanket, causing Lena to spill juice all over herself. Instead of being mad, she just sighed and said.

"Honestly, this was inevitable,"

Before wiping herself off with the least-destroyed napkin she could find.

Finally, Kai, deciding that enough was enough, stood up and clapped his hands.

"Alright, truce! Truce! Before we run out of food!"

Everyone paused, mid-throw.

A collective glance at the ruined remains of our once-perfect picnic made it clear, we had gone too far.

Kai exhaled. "Okay. We are never doing that again."

Ethan coughed. "So, uh... sandwiches, anyone?"

I groaned and flopped onto the blanket. "This is why we can't have nice things."

Once the chaos died down, we finally had a moment of peace. Leo tapped his fingers absentmindedly against his knee, Ethan had found a stick that he was now using as a pretend conductor's baton, and Milo—who had finally shown up after we had already eaten—plucked lazily at his bass.

Lena, still lying in the grass like a tragic painting, groaned. "Unbelievable. You show up now?"

Milo flopped down onto the picnic blanket like he had been here the whole time. "I was busy."

Erika narrowed her eyes. "You forgot, didn't you?"

"No," he said immediately, but the way he avoided eye contact completely gave him away.

I sighed. "Milo."

"Okay, fine," he admitted, still unbothered. "I may have forgotten. But I made it, so that's what counts."

"You forgot picnic, but you somehow remembered to bring your bass?" Leo asked, gesturing at the instrument Milo had slung over his shoulder.

Milo blinked, like he was only now realizing the absurdity of it. "Huh. Guess I did."

"How?!"

"Muscle memory, probably," Milo said, as if that explained anything.

"Why do you have your bass, but the rest of us don't have our instruments?" Ethan pointed out, frowning.

"Kai's the only other person who brought his guitar."

Kai, who had been tuning his strings like this was a normal day and not complete chaos, grinned. "Because we're the only responsible ones."

I stared at him. "You? Responsible?"

"You all just chose to be irresponsible," Kai countered, strumming an easy chord like he wasn't trying to start something.

I groaned, throwing my hoodie over my face.

"I refuse to participate in whatever this is."

"You say that," Kai said, still playing, "but I know you're listening."

I wanted to argue. I really did. But his stupid guitar was already filling the air, and—of course—Milo was following along with his bass.

Ethan sighed dramatically and tossed away his conductor's stick. "Fine. If we're doing this, let's at least not sound bad."

Leo smirked, tapping out a rhythm on the picnic blanket. "You're saying we ever sound bad?"

Lena groaned again. "I literally just wanted a quiet lunch."

Erika just shook her head, already resigned to our nonsense. "You knew what this was when you joined this band."

Kai's guitar filled the air with an easy melody, smooth and unhurried, like he had all the time in the world. Milo followed along with his bass, not even looking at his hands as he played. It was effortless, like breathing for them.

Leo, naturally, couldn't sit still. He started tapping his hands against his knees again, adding a rhythm that was only half-serious, but still weirdly good.

Ethan sighed, muttering something under his breath, then started drumming along on the picnic blanket, using his hands since he obviously didn't have his keyboard.

Somehow, it still worked.

Lena looked completely done with everything. "This is not how a picnic is supposed to go."

Noah, who had been unusually quiet this whole time, pulled out a small notebook from his pocket and flipped through it, brows furrowed like he was deep in thought.

Erika glanced at him. "What are you doing?"

Noah didn't even look up. "Finding lyrics that fit this vibe."

"This vibe?" I repeated.

Kai's grin was far too smug. "See? This is why we're the best."

I groaned, lying back down with my hoodie still over my face. "You forced this situation."

"You keep saying that like you don't enjoy it," he teased.

I refused to dignify that with a response.

Milo, who had been largely unbothered by everything, glanced at Noah. "What kind of lyrics are we talking?"

Noah flipped another page. "Something chill, but with depth. Something about running away from your past or—"

"—or about how we're literally just eating lunch in the schoolyard?" Lena interrupted.

Noah ignored her. "It needs a hook. Something poetic, but not too obvious."

Ethan groaned. "We're really doing this? We're writing a song here?"

Kai just smirked. "Why not?"

Leo, still drumming out a beat on his knees, looked far too entertained. "I mean, it's either this or we go back to throwing food at each other."

Milo considered that for a second, then shrugged. "Fair point."

"Okay, but I am not singing," I said immediately.

Kai, of course, zeroed in on that statement like a hawk. "Yet."

I sat up just to glare at him. "Ever."

He just strummed his guitar like I hadn't said anything at all.

Erika, the only actual responsible one here, sighed. "Can we at least try to keep this picnic normal for ten more minutes before we turn it into another band meeting?"

Leo smirked. "You mean before Kai tries to make Yuna sing again?"

Kai just grinned at me. "We wouldn't be struggling this much if someone"—he fake-coughed—"had a decent voice."

I narrowed my eyes. "I swear—"

Before I could finish my threat, Milo, ever the agent of chaos, plucked a particularly deep note on his bass and said,

"Hey, what if Yuna wrote the lyrics?"

Noah actually looked interested. "Oh, that's a thought."

I gaped at them. "No. No, it's not a thought."

Kai leaned forward, resting his chin on his palm. "What? Scared?"

I grabbed my hoodie, pulled it back over my face, and flopped back down on the blanket.

"I refuse to be part of this conversation."

Leo laughed. "That's not a no!"

"It is a no," I groaned.

Kai just kept playing his guitar, far too smug for my liking.

I had the distinct feeling this was not the last time we'd be having this conversation.

To be continued.