Chapter 7

Once again the group was gathered together at Junmyoon’s house discussing what to do next.

Jongin raised an eyebrow when he saw Minho.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I want my wallet back.”

“You they probably already spent the money right?”

“I don’t care, I want my wallet back,” Minho stated.

“So I was thinking we should maybe spy on them,” Bom stated.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Jonghyun said. Actually it kind of was, but he doubted it was a safe option.

Jongin sat there listening which eventually led to him zoning out and rather focus on his encounter with Taemin.

Would eavesdropping on the gang be a good idea? How would Taemin feel about that? He had finally gotten to know the boy a bit more. Just a little bit, it was only a tiny bit, but the boy had finally started to show his vulnerability. His heart ached at the thought of Taemin’s insecurities. He didn’t know why the boy looked like that or what he was scared of, but he simply felt the need to protect the boy.

Yes, the boy was a gang member.

And yes, he was probably quite dangerous.

But he couldn’t leave the boy alone.

He wanted to know so much. Why did the boy join the Zutters? Why did he value the Zutters so much? Why was he nervous? Why did he look so worried? There was just so much he wanted to know.

“Why do I have to do this boring job?” a black haired boy complained.

“Because it was asked of us. You know that Baekhyun and Taehyung are patrolling and so are Zelo and Jongup, and Jimin and Mino,” the boy with a cap said.

“But WHYYY?” the black haired boy whined. One would assume he is younger than most of the Zutters from the way he was whining.

“Come one Jungkook, it’s not…”

“Shhh, I hear something unusual.” The black haired boy slowly walked towards the end of the alley. When he looked left, he saw a group of five people. He grinned mischievously, “They don’t look harmful.”

The black haired boy was praised for his sharp hearing. Jungkook had spent so many nights wandering round the endless alleys that he knew which sounds did not belong.

The guy with the cap was now standing next to him. “Remember to just scare them away. The leader doesn’t want to hurt them because it only motivated them to continue last time,” he told Jungkook.

“Hey I’m not the one who attacked them last time. In fact I’m almost sure that it was you, Namjoon hyung,” Jungkook defended.

The other simply sighed and shook his head.

Jongin had a strange tingling feeling in his neck; the type of feeling you get when you feel you’re being watched. He turned around to check, but saw no one who was staring at him.

The streets were crowded with people. However, unlike when you walk around a shopping mall with crowded people, this was neither comforting nor pleasant.

Jongin was really starting to regret this; it really was not a good idea. Maybe they should have listened to Jonghyun after all. He thought back to when they discussed their so called ‘eavesdropping’ plan.

-Flashback-

When Jongin finally zoned back into the conversation, Jonghyun was already leaving because his dad needed him home.

“Since Jonghyun is totally against us on this one, I think we should just do it ourselves,” Minho suggested.

“In that case we should probably do it at night, because they’re expecting us to go during the day,” Junmyoon suggested.

“Bom should probably stay though,” Junmyoon added.

Bom frowned. Trust Suho to pull the ‘it’s too dangerous’ card. “Ok, but I’ll ask if my little bro wants to go.”

-Flashback end-

In the end, it was the five of them; Suho, Minho, Chanyeol, Senguri and himself.  

It was unnerving. The people around them stood in small crowds ranging from three to about seven or eight people with at least one person carrying some sort of a weapon. Most people wore black clothes so when Jongin’s eyes fell on a red T-shirt, he was alarmed.

The boy he was looking at was standing next to someone who looked like his twin. It didn’t take long for Jongin to identify them as the people who attacked his friends. He pointed them out to the others and they froze as they remembered the last time they encountered the two.

“It seems they scared you after all. I thought they failed miserably.”

The five boys spun around to see a young teenage boy with black hair.

“Your heartbeat sped up the moment the tanned boy here pointed them out to you,” the boy said.

The boy with a cap stood next to him. “You should be grateful though.”

“Why?” Junmyoon asked.

“Their presence here is the reason you haven’t been beaten to a pulp by the other gangs yet,” the black haired boy said with a grin.

Jongin observed the people on the streets. He had noticed that as soon as the black haired boy had spoken to them, people started to move away.

They seemed to fear him.

Jongin then spoke up. “It seems that you scare them away too,” he said with a smile, figuring he was also part of the Zutters.

The boy smirked, “They understand my authority.”

The brothers, whom Jongin thought were twins, walked towards their group. The one with the red shirt looked at them in pity. “You five are ruining your own lives.”

“Tch. You are really scared of them,” Jungkook said with a scowl, taking note of their expressions as Baekhyun and Taehyung walked closer, as well as Namjoon who was already standing next to him.

“I’m not scared,” Senguri bluffed.

“Your excessive sweating speaks differently,” Jungkook replied casually.

Senguri wanted to hit the cocky black haired boy, but when he raised his hand, the guy with the cap stopped him by grabbing his wrist.

Baekhyun smirked at Chanyeol, remembering that he had once kicked him in the face before. “You better run before you get beaten up,” he warned them.

In their rush to get away, they got lost.

“That’s why you shouldn’t walk around in the dark, especially in unfamiliar places. You’ll get lost.”

The five boys turned to face the source of the voice.

All of them already knew who the voice belonged to.

Three boys were standing at the end of the alley they walked into.

Seunghyun, Jiyong and Taemin.

“You’re the pickpocket!” Minho exclaimed when he saw Taemin.

Taemin cocked his head to the side innocently. “Do I know you?”

Minho grumbled.

Jongin smiled. He waved at Taemin who purposely ignored him by turning to the side.

Jongin pouted a bit, but decided to let it go. He turned to Jiyong and Seunghyun. “You guys are familiar with this place though.”

Jiyong chuckled. “Well, we do live here after all.”

“Could help us get out of here?”

Jiyong thought for a bit, “We could, but why would we help a bunch of people who were trying to eavesdrop on us?”

“You knew?” Senguri asked, sounding surprised.

Jiyong laughed. “We could leave you here,” Jiyong said, “But you’re sure to get into trouble then.”

“You won’t do that,” Jongin said confidently.

This surprised everyone.

“The five of us are all heirs to…” Jongin started, but got cut off Chanyeol.

“I don’t think they’re going to help us just because we’re rich.”

“That wasn’t my point,” Jongin said, “I told Jonghyun where we were going before we left. Don’t you think that if the five of us go missing people will come after you?” Although he pretended to be confident, he was lying. He hadn’t told anyone where they were going, knowing that they would disapprove the idea.

“Maybe,” Jiyong said, “But we didn’t do anything.”

“You left us here when we asked for help,” Chanyeol stated.

Jiyong smirked threateningly. “But you can’t prove it if you’re dead.”

Everyone became very nervous at that.

“There are a lot of people who know about our contact with the Zutters. Don’t you think they’ll suspect you first?” Jongin said.

“Maybe, yes. But here nobody cares. It’s a risk you take when you walk around here anyways. Anyone could have done it. They wouldn’t suspect anyone in particular. Even if they did, we have a reputation you know? I believe Jonghyun-shi told you. We never kill anyone,” Jiyong said with a smile.

Jongin was hitting a dead end. He was running out of valid arguments. “Why did you come here if it wasn’t to help us?” he tried.

“We only came here to tell you that this is a result of your stupid actions. It’s just a warning to never come back here if you ever get out.”

The five boys chased after the three gang members who left, but eventually lost sight of them.

“You sure this is a good idea?” Taemin asked doubtfully.

“Who knows?” Jiyong said indifferently.

“They’ll probably get out by the end of the night,” TOP had said, “It’ll be a good lesson.”

Taemin however wasn’t so sure it was a good idea. He didn’t like the idea of people getting hurt because of him. He remembered his previous encounter with the slightly more tanned boy. The way he had shown his weakness. He did not want them to get hurt, but Jiyong had said that it was necessary for them to leave for good. They needed to leave; no matter how much he Taemin hated the idea of people getting hurt they needed to protect their secrets.

TOP shared Taemin’s sentiments, but he was not as protective of the people who were trying to disturb their now peaceful lives.

Jiyong was protective of his friends or family and he was merciless towards anyone who tried to harm them. Jiyong had learnt how cruel life was, just like many of the other members of the Zutters, the least he could do was lessen the cruelty of life for his friends and family.

Senguri, Jongin, Chanyeol, Junmyoon and Minho had been wandering around the dark alleys for a while now.

“I cannot take this anymore, I’m going to call a car,” Junmyoon murmured.

“How are you going to tell them where you are?” Chanyeol deadpanned.

“I can tell them to track my cellphone,” Junmyoon stated.

“We really don’t have a choice do we?” Minho asked, “So not looking forward to our parents’ scolding.”

“You never should have come,” a voice could be heard behind them.

They turned around to see a blond man in his twenties with multiple piercings. Many more joined him. “Thanks to you, the Zutters are irritated,” another man said, clearly annoyed.

Another man with a rough voice spoke up. “They’ve been walking around at night further than their base, they never did that before.”

“It’s all your fault,” the first man yelled.

More people appeared and soon the five boys were surrounded.

Baekhyun in red ^^