--Chapter 18--

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“Don’t forget to tell your parents to visit me, okay? Be safe kids!” With that, my brother drove us away to home and I gave my grandma a last wave before we completely disappeared from her sight.

It had been a great day today with accompanying our grandma to the traditional market and eating watermelon together at the backyard. It had been a long time since the last time we did those activities and it made me and Taemin felt happy about it.

Grandma always lived alone in Incheon ever since our grandpa died 10 years ago because of cancer. She was a faithful and hardworking wife who never wanted to live with her children because she knew she was just going to be a burden for them.

My father once had a fight with grandma because of that, but she was just as stubborn as him (or maybe more) and she threatened him to move to China if he still insisted to take her to our house. Of course it would be more dangerous to let her live alone in China, so he agreed to let her live in Incheon instead of moving to China.

The trip to Seoul was really fast because Taemin had sped up when he remembered that he was supposed to be at Chohee’s to have a dinner with her family. He suddenly pulled over at a market and asked me to get a bus because he was already late for the dinner and he couldn’t make it if he had to take me to home first.

“Jerk.” I muttered while walking out of his car.

“I’m so sorry Soyoung-ah, but I really have to go. I’ll make it up to you, kay? Bye!” He gave me a little wave then drove away to his girlfriend’s house, leaving me with my school bag and a jacket that he bought today at Apgujeong.

I checked my baby blue Guess and sighed as I saw the clock had strike number seven. I lazily walked to the bus stop while singing to SHINee’s Sherlock when I caught a glimpse of something in the dark alley. I was supposed to run away from it and waited for the bus instead, but curiosity took over me.

Slowly, I moved my feet closer to whatever it was and flinched as I saw what (or who) was that. His face looked so red with some scratches here and there and he had a little cut on his bottom lip which looked so terrible. There were several bruise on his arm and legs and I think he had some other bruises on his body.

His bangs covered his eyes, so I pushed his bangs aside and gasped as I realized who it was. His beautiful dark orbs looked really weak but it still gave me a chill whenever I looked into them. I knew it was really hurt if he moved his lips to talk or something, but he still managed to give me his infamous smirk and said,

“Treat my bloody body first then I will tell you what happened, princess.” I stared at Jongin in disbelief and was about to ask something when he suddenly rise from his position and pulled me up from the ground. He dusted his leather jacket then dragged me to the bus stop where the bus had arrived and waited for us.

As we walked in, every passenger in the bus gave us a curious look and whispered to each other as they saw our intertwining hands. I bet they were assuming him as a cold hearted boyfriend and I as his angelic girlfriend who almost got in the dark alley. Even though his face were covered with scratches, girls still find him good looking and giggled as we passed their seats.

We took the most isolated seat at the back, still with our intertwining hands which grew tighter as I treated his scratches with cotton (I always brought aid kit whenever I go). He winced a little when I pressed the cotton a little bit too hard on his face and I laughed.

“Jonginnie can’t stand the pain, isn’t it?” He frowned. “Don’t call me that! That sounds so…..girly.”

“Girly…. I like that. I’ll call you Jonginnie from now on. Jonginnie~~~”

“Yah!” He shouted, making some passengers diverted their eyes toward us with knitted eyebrows. I grinned.

“You shouldn’t do that Jongin, they look so pissed now.”

He scoffed and leaned forward. “Why should I care about them? Are they my parents?”

“U-umm… No, but you should err respect them.” I knew he could feel the nervousness in my words, so he grabbed my wrist forcefully and pinned it to the seat.

“Who said you could tell me what to do, Soyoung?”

“I…. I…….”

“Who…?” He inched closer to me ‘till I could feel his hot breath on my lips. Our intertwining hands made it harder to pull away, did he intertwined our hands just so he could do this? His upper lip had slightly brushed mine, I already shut my eyes to avoid his intense gaze on me when suddenly….

“Umma! They are going to kiss!” I quickly opened my eyes and found Jongin was already back in his seat, staring at me while wiping his lips with the back of his hand. The kid that yelled to his mom earlier had covered his eyes with his hands while her mom was sending me a glare and mouthed something that I couldn’t get.

Was it b word?

“Soyoung-ah, let’s go.” I turned to Jongin again and got pulled up from the seat because we had arrived at the bus stop near my house. Once the bus left, he gently squeezed my hand, giving me signal to walk to my house.

The walk to my house from the bus stop was not that long. With only five minutes, we already arrived at my house which left by its owner for a whole day. I inserted the key to the hole then turned the doorknob, revealing my dark living room.

Jongin switched the light on once we entered the house and went to the couch while I taking the aid kit to treat some bruises on his body. When I walked back to the living room, Jongin was already put his shirt off and laid down on the couch. I felt my cheeks getting hotter as I stepped closer to where he was.

“Aww you’re blushing~” He teased. I didn’t say anything and started to treat his bruises which already changed to purple-ish. There were so many bruises on his body, he must had gotten into a huge fight and lost.

“Tell me what happened.” I said, focusing my eyes on his body while waiting for him to answer. He sighed. “Nothing much. I just got hit by a motorbike and the driver ran away. That’s all.”

“Why did you get into a fight?” This time, I looked up to see his expression and like what I had expected, his expression was a mixture of shock and anger. I didn’t want to back off now. Not until he gave me the truth.

“I….. My friend got injured because of them, so I planned to take a revenge on them but got beaten up with five of them. Pathetic.” He confessed, looking away from my eyes as I pressed one of his bruises with my hand.

I sighed. “Tell me Jongin…… Tell me, what you have been hiding from me.” He turned his eyes to me again with no expression on his face. I already knew something wasn’t like what it seemed, but I never thought it would be this ed up.

Taemin and Chohee already knew about this since God knows, that’s why they tried to warn me before but they didn’t want to give me the actual thing.

Jongin  sat up from his laying position, didn’t break the eye contact between us and said,

“I’m part of a gang.”

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A/N: Hello! Another new chapter for you guys teehee ~ now you know why Taemin and Chohee warned her about Jongin right? Actually I didn't have a plan to add something gang-ish to this story, but it suddenly popped up in my mind lol. Next chapter would be a long one maybe but you guys have to wait :(

Anyway, thank you for those who have commented and subscribed to this story, 99 subscribers? I never thought I would get this much love from AFF users hahaha. It would be nice if someone subscribe to my story to make it 100 :D

Comments and subscribers are loved <3