Chapter 9

“What was that?” Senguri asked Jongin, teasingly.

The rest of the group were also looking at Jongin expectantly and Jongin could only groan in embarrassment. Why did he do that? He chose not to answer Senguri’s question because he didn’t really know how to answer the question.

“I was just thanking him,” Jongin defended even though he knew it was illogical. It wasn’t the gratitude that Senguri was referring to, but rather the actions he took in the process of thanking Taemin.

“The ambulance is here,”Junmyoon stated even though it was pretty obvious from the flashing red light.

They quietly climbed onto the ambulance and sat in silence for the duration of the trip to the hospital.

“It seems a bit unfair, don’t you think?” Namjoon said his thoughts out loud.

Jungkook stared at Namjoon for a few seconds with sad eyes which contradicted his usual cheeriness or rather cockiness.

“If only we could call the ambulance that day,” Namjoon carried on speaking.

Jungkook sighed, “I know, but we can’t complain”

Things could have been different. They could have been, but they were not. But even then, they were grateful for having a new family when they had lost their parents. The Zutters had managed to bring hope back into their lives again and to accept that tragedies do occur and not everyone is lucky but it’s possible to overcome the past and the self-pity.

After walking quite a distance, they arrived back at their base. Namjoon walked to a nearby wall and sat down with is back leaning on it. Jungkook also sat down near Namjoon, but was not seated near the wall.

 “They’re dangerous for us,” Namjoon stated with certainty, “But there’s no way I’m going to let them harm us.”

“What are you going to do?” Jungkook asked curiously.

Taemin suddenly walked in and slumped down against the wall, next to Namjoon. Both Jungkook and Namjoon were taken aback by Taemin’s strange behaviour.

“What’s going on?” Namjoon asked.

“Jiyong hyung said that it’s better if we stop seeing the snobs. But they’ll get themselves killed,” said Taemin.

Although Taemin didn’t outright say anything, but Namjoon knew that if anything happened to them Taemin would feel guilty.

“I’ll see if I can prevent them from coming here,” Namjoon said as he pushed himself off the ground to get up.

“What are you planning to do?” Taemin asked, surprised.

“Just wait,” Namjoon assured with a smile.

Namjoon silently walked down the streets and listened in on a conversation that could benefit him a great deal.

“How could something like this happen?” A voice of an elderly woman said angrily.

“We were walking around and I guess we pissed some people off,” Jongin answered.

Namjoon smirked when he heard that half lie.

“But there must have been some reason,” the woman whined.

“We didn’t do anything,” Jongin said.

The woman was crying silently. Namjoon debated on whether to do this or not because he knew he would hate himself for what he was going to do, but he would do it for the sake of helping many others.

The woman had left the room. Namjoon waited a while before walking towards her. “I’m sorry I’m looking for Kim Jongin. I heard he got into trouble again because of the school assignment.”

The women looked at him strangely. “What do you mean?” she asked while holding back her urge to cry.

“The school assignment. He studies people in the ghetto.”

“What?” she asked, clearly confused, “He never told me about it.”

“Oh. I’m sure that’s because he didn’t want you to worry. I shouldn’t go against his wish then,” Namjoon stated, knowing that she would definitely want to know about it.

“Can you explain it to me?” she asked.

“I’m not too sure I’m supposed to tell you,” Namjoon stated.

“Please,” the woman begged.

Namjoon sighed. “Well he had a school assignment to study a group of a different social standing. He’s been studying people in the ghetto for a while now,” Namjoon stated, “They’ve been beaten up before, but not as serious.”

The woman was almost choking on her tears.

“I guess it’s a bit late now and I’m sure they need to rest. I will step by later. I hope they get well soon,” Namjoon said before turning around and leaving. He hated himself for messing with a family, but this was for the best.

Jongin cursed. It was like he was practising a new choreography for a dance competition, but he got injured and wanted to stop him from competing.

Minho chose to avoid eye contact with his parents. He knew they were sad and he did not know what to do. They didn’t mind that he was doing a school assignment, but they thought he went about it the wrong way and picked the wrong group of people to study.

Junmyoon’s parents weren’t any better. They did not mind him continuing the assignment as long as they did not go back to the ghetto again.

Chanyeol and Bom’s parents were surprisingly not angry or disappointed. They were only confused as to why they chose to.

The question that bothered all of them, however, was who told their parents about the project.

Jonghyun had heard about Jongin’s stupid plan. He was still confused about the Zutters. He had labelled them as heartless and stupid, but it didn’t seem like it was true, at least not the latter.

They could be smart and decided to help them to make it seem like they owe the Zutters now.

Jonghyun’s phone rang. “Yes?” he answered.

“We aren’t allowed to continue.”

Jonghyun sighed; he had expected this to happen since the beginning. But he thought that maybe they could have found some way around it. He was motivated to get to the bottom of this case and he wasn’t one to give up, but he couldn’t do this alone. He just thought none of his friends would be dumb enough to tell their parents.

“I can’t stop like this,” Jongin said across the line.

“I know,” Jonghyun answered, “I’ll try think of something. By the way who told your parents?”

“I’m not sure.”

Jonghyun nodded. “I’m not sure what they’re hiding, but I’ll make sure to get to the bottom of it.”

“The deadline for the assignment is in two weeks,” Jongin said.

“You want it in the assignment?” Jonghyun asked. He wasn’t sure if they would figure it out in two weeks.

“We already finished most of it last week. We could even hand it in the way it is.”

Jonghyun laughed. “You were just using it as an excuse.”

Jongin did not reply.

“You’ll continue going if your parents disagree?” It was more of a statement rather than a question.

Jongin didn’t reply because he knew that Jonghyun already knew the answer.

Jonghyun hung up. He smiled a bit knowing that he would need to ask for help from the son of his dad’s colleague.

Jiyong had found out about what Namjoon had done and he was surprised that he did not think of it before.

Seunghyun looked at Jiyong with a smirk. “Jiyong is amazed by what Namjoon did.”

Jiyong smiled, he was also amazed at Seunghyun’s accuracy.

Key laughed, “Looks like we have another genius in our group.”

Sure everyone knew that Jiyong was pretty genius, and they knew that Namjoon was smart and did well in school until he dropped out, but they never knew how smart Namjoon was.

“It’s kind of cruel though,” Taemin said with a smirk, “Using their own families against them.”

“That way it’ll be more difficult for them to come here,” Key stated.

“They’ll keep coming,” Jiyong said.

“There’s just one more thing their parents need to hear and then everything will be close to impossible.”

“You’ll help right?” Namjoon asked Key.

Key smiled slightly. “Of course,” he answered. He felt jealous somehow. The parents of those brats cared so much for them, unlike his own.

Minho had underestimated the ability of his parents. He always thought he could easily dodge any rule they made. He had always believed that they only succeeded in raising him because he was easy. He had been dead wrong and he wasn’t the only one.

Jongin had always been able to avoid following rules and he never got caught. He thought that this time would be the same. He tried to go to sneak out. Tried. He tried and failed.

Junmyoon had never considered breaking any rules so when his parents set out a bunch of extra rules for extra precaution, he was surprised. He never needed to deal with so many useless rules before because he never considered breaking them.

All they could do was depend on Jonghyun for now.

Jonghyun didn’t get in trouble yet. In fact, his father was proud that he had taken an interest in a case. So when he asked if he could meet with his father’s collages’ children, he immediately agreed to it.

That is how he ended up standing in front of two of his old friends.

“Sounds interesting.” The smirk spreading across his face was enough to make everyone see that he was up to no good. “I already heard about them. I have some information about them,” Suga said casually.

“Like what?” Jonghyun asked, barely interested because he believed he already knew about whatever Suga was going to say.

“Many say they had been found about three months ago, but in fact they have been around for much longer.”

Jonghyun raised his eyebrow. “They existed before that?”

“Yes. Some say they’ve existed for over four years.”

“That long?” Jin asked, clearly surprised, “Then why didn’t we know about them before.”

“Because they don’t leave any traces. The only reason we thought it was three months ago was because that was when we first spotted them,” Suga explained.

Jin scowled. “I should have known they were to skilled to be beginners,” he said as he thought back to when he got knocked out by one of the Zutters that time they decided to go as a large group.

“And they seem to know each other for much longer too,” Jonghyun added even though he was just as frustrated as Jin for not figuring it out.

“And you said that Choi Seunghyun disappeared about four years ago?” Jin asked.

Jonghyun nodded.

“Then I guess they started around the time he joined them. And Jiyong and Taemin were there before that so we have to assume they started all this mess,” Jin summarised.

Jonghyun nodded again in agreement.

“So if we know more about them, we have a solid base,” Suga stated.

“I guess we have to go find them,” Jin stated.

Jonghyun deadpanned. “Not possible.”

“Why?” Jin asked, “They seemed to appear pretty quickly the last time and besides I heard you guys searched them out countless times.”

“That was when they were curious about us,” Jonghyun stated, “I’m sure their curiosity has died now and they just want us gone.”

“They want to protect themselves,” Suga proposed.

“Yes, but they seem to want to protect others as well, at least to some extent,” Jonghyun stated thoughtfully.

“So what’s your plan?”

“I’m not sure.”

“We can try to find out who Jiyong and Taemin are,” suggested Jin.

“Not possible,” Jonghyun said with a resigned voice.

“There are tons of people with those names,” Suga added, “I mean even I once had a friend called Jiyong.”

“Had?” Jonghyun asked curiously.

“We haven’t seen each other since his parents’ funeral seven years ago,” Suga answered, “But back then we lived on the other side of the country. I think he still lives there somewhere.”

“Ah,” Jonghyun said. He had hoped that it was the same person for a second, but the chances were so slim so he just let it pass.

“Anyways, let’s at least go meet the Zutters, I’m curious about them,” Suga suggested.

The Zutters had watched the three people from a distance, without attempting make contact with them.

J-hope was sent off to figure out who the other two people were. He came back twenty minutes later with a complete family history of the two.

Key watched in amusement at how different Jonghyun was when he was with friends. He felt something stirring within him the first time they met. He had labelled it as a random interest.

This random interest hadn’t only bothered him but also some of the others. Seunghyun was always a more reserved person, but he was openly talking to the Park siblings and he seemed to be affected especially by Park Bom. Jiyong seemed awfully interested in Seungri, even suggesting him to join the Zutters. Who knows if it was really a joke? And Taemin. Key sighed. Taemin probably doesn’t even realise that he’s letting that Jongin person into his life. This was a dangerous game they were playing.

If the Zutters continue being so distracted, they’re bound to get into problems with the police.

Jungkook had been watching from a safe distance and did not get attached to any of them. He hated strangers and these people were destroying his perfect family.

“I don’t like them,” Jungkook muttered.

J-hope stared at him strangely, before rolling his eyes. “Everyone knows that already, tell me something new.”

Jungkook was silent.

“You see that guy there who hasn’t seen us before?”

Jungkook nodded.

“We need to keep him away from Jiyong hyung,” J-hope stated.

“Why?” Jungkook asked.

“He knew Jiyong hyung in the past and it could bring trouble.”

Jiyong smiled. “I think you’re even better than J-hope when it comes to such things. I’m really grateful that you’re here.”

The boy nodded with a smile as well.

“I don’t want anyone us to get hurt,” the boy stated, “I’ll do anything I can to help. This is the least I can do”

“Thanks again, Luhan.”

AN: So I'm really sorry for taking so long. I've just been very unmotivated in life. I apoplogise if it feels like this chapter did not have much interaction, but it's vital for the story to progress so you're gonna have to deal with it for now :P