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A week had passed with no great excitement. Since the run in with iKon a while back, I.M has been keeping his distance from Borah out of fear that something bad might happen to her. She would approach him at school once in a while and ask how he was doing and I.M would just give her one word answers and despite his cold attitude towards her, she would keep trying to talk to him in hopes that he would be his usual sweet self. Whenever Borah was at work she would find herself constantly staring across the street at the boys who hung out like usual.

“Are you ever going to talk to her again?” Shownu asked as he pulled his head out from under the hood of a car with a busted piece of the engine in his hand which he threw to Minhyuk who screamed and threw it away. Minhyuk then went on to complain for the next few minutes about the oil that was going to stain his clothes and of course, he was wearing his most favourite outfit.

“We talk.” I.M replied as he rocked back and forth in his chair beside Jooheon and Hyungwon.

“She talks; you just act like an idiot and ignore her.” Wonho shot back which made I.M just roll his eyes in annoyance. “Go over there and get us something to drink.” He ordered and I.M ignored him and stared off into the distance. Kihyun and Minhyuk gave each other worried glances as Hyungwon shifted in his chair. He put his foot under the raised leg of I.M’s chair and with a gently push he toppled over the chair and I.M fall flat on his back with a loud crash. The air was knocked out of his lungs and he coughed a few times to try and catch his breath.

“What the Hell!” I.M sat up and stared at Hyungwon who stood up from his chair with an icy expression.

“Stop acting like a child.” Hyungwon said as I.M stood up and brushed the dirt from his clothing.

“I don’t want her to get mixed up in anything bad.” I.M blurted out and the other guys just stood by and felt a little uncomfortable. Although they knew they were trouble makers it was just a little unsettling to know that they purposefully kept people out of their lives because they didn’t want to be burdens to anyone else.

“Well, she clearly doesn’t care because she hasn’t stop trying to be your friend. You’re just acting like a giant jerk and I am getting tired of it. We’re all getting tired of it.” Hyungwon motioned to the rest of the guys and they all silently agreed. I.M looked across the street at Borah who was standing at the stall with a customer. Almost as if she could feel his gaze, she looked over and locked eye contact with him. Feeling his heart beat faster, I.M was the first to look away. He grabbed his backpack and stormed away from the group.

“Where are you going?!” Kihyun yelled out after him.

“Home!” I.M replied without looking back. Shownu looked over to Borah who looked disappointed that I.M wasn’t coming over to talk to her like he used to. He shook his head in disapproval and went back to fixing up the car. The rest of the guys might be too deep into trouble to form a meaningful relationship but they didn’t want I.M to pass up the chance to be truly happy.

Later that night, Borah was left to close up the stall and clean up by herself. She looked across the street at the empty auto shop that had a single light on outside that painted it in a hazy shade of orange. All of the boys had slowly disappeared after I.M stormed away and for the past hour she had been practically all alone on the street. Once everything was locked up, Borah slung her purse over her shoulder and pulled out her cellphone as she walked towards the bus stop up the street. A few passed Borah, most on their way home from a long day but besides that it was fairly empty on the street.

“Yo.” She heard a voice and looked up to see Bobby standing a few feet in front of her with a wicked smirk on his face. Borah froze on the spot and could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. “Come here.” Bobby beckoned her to him and Borah took a step away from him which clearly didn’t make him happy. She turned to run but when she turned around she noticed Jinhwan coming towards her. Without a second thought, Borah took off running across the street to try and get away from the guys who started chasing her. She ducked in an alley between some buildings and hid behind a large garbage bin. Borah could hear the boys of iKon calling out her name and searching all over for her.

“What do I do?” Borah muttered as she sat in the darkness, thinking that she might have to possibly hide their all night. Then she remembered that I.M had given her his number a while ago and she dug through her purse for the napkin that he had given her. Once she found it she dialed it into her phone. She could hear the boys closing in on her and with tears in her eyes and shaking hands; she hit the call button and held the phone to her ear.

I.M was sitting in his room, staring at his homework that he really didn’t want to do. He spun around in his computer chair and stared up at the ceiling in a daze. I.M thought about going out to get something to eat from the store but then he heard his phone vibrating against his desk. He looked over and saw an unfamiliar number lighting up his screen. He quickly hit the decline button and sighed in frustration as he stood up and got changed to go out.

Borah cursed under her breath as she figured that I.M ignored the call. She thought about trying to make a break for it since it seemed to have gotten a little quieter but she figured that she had to try and call him again. I.M heard his phone vibrating again and saw the same number on his phone screen. Something in the back of his mind made him think that he should answer the call. He pulled his sweater over his head and stared at the phone, contemplating if he should pick up. With a frustrated sigh he picked up the phone and answered the call.

“Hello?” He said in an annoyed tone.

“I.M?” Borah said back with a shaking voice that she tried to keep as low as possible but the adrenaline running through her system was making her almost yell.

“Borah?” I.M suddenly was on full alert. He could tell something was wrong because she had never called him before and there was something off about her voice. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” I.M headed out of his room and went straight to the front door to put his shoes on.

“N-No…I’m…iKon are looking for me….” Borah poked her head out from behind the garbage can and could see one of the boys walking on the opposite side of the street and she instantly drew her head back and tried to hide again. “I.M…I’m scared….” She could feel the tears burning her eyes as she tightly held onto the phone.

“I’m coming to get you. Where are you right now?” I.M was already heading to his buildings elevator and was hitting the call button a few times. The elevator wasn’t moving fast enough for him so I.M decided to just take the stairs and he ran to the opposite end of the hallway and burst down the emergency stairs.

“I’m hiding right now…I’m down the street from my work…” The more Borah talked to I.M the more comforted she felt.

“I will be there soon, okay?” I.M was panting as he flew down the steps two and three at a time. He had come from the ninth floor and hated that he didn’t just wait for the elevator.

“Okay, I will try to-“

“There you are.” A voice said and Borah looked up to see Yunhyeong peering over the bin. His hand shot out and grabbed a handful of her hair. Borah screamed and instantly dropped the phone to try and get herself free from his grasp.

“BORAH?!” I.M burst into the lobby of his apartment building just when he heard Borah’s scream on the other end of the phone line. “Borah?! Are you there?!” I.M ran onto the street and saw the bus he needed to catch to get to Borah, drive right past him. Borah was dragged out of the alley and thrown into the awaiting car that had the rest of the iKon members in it. Yunhyeong headed back to the alley and picked up the phone that she had dropped and saw the she was calling someone. He held up the phone to his head and could hear I.M’s panicked cries for her. Instead of saying anything, he brought the phone over to B.I who was sitting behind the driver’s seat in the car. He gave him an odd look when Yuhyeong handed him the phone but once he took it and heard I.M he just laughed.

“Who is this?” I.M asked when he heard the man’s voice laughing. Since he missed the bus, I.M was busy running over to Wonho’s place that was only a few blocks from his. He knew his friend had the best cars and was one of the best drivers around so it only made since to go to him.

“Who do you think it is, lover boy?” B.I said and loved the way he was in total control of everything.

“Don’t touch her.” I.M warned him but B.I just laughed.

“Too late for that, my boys are already having fun with her, can’t you hear it?” B.I held the phone in the direction of the back of the car where Borah was being held down by his lackeys. I.M could hear her pleading for them to let her go but they just laughed at her.

“She had nothing to do with our group, let her go B.I.” I.M was now pleading with him in hopes that if he acted pitiful then he would just let her go or at least not hurt her. 

“Oh, then you won’t care if we keep her?” B.I teased and I.M seriously wanted to smash his phone onto the ground and shatter it into a million pieces. Just hearing B.I’s voice was making him furious.

“I swear to God B.I! I am going to mess you up when I get there. Your own mother won’t be able to recognise you, you piece of scum!” I.M screamed onto the phone, not caring that people were staring at him and older women were terrified that the young man was going to lose his mind. B.I just laughed as he started up the car and gave the boys a thumb up.

“Then I’ll be waiting patiently for you at the Han River. Your girlfriend said she wanted to go for a swim. Maybe we could go skinny dipping, wouldn’t that be fun?” B.I laughed and hung up while he heard I.M screaming at him again. He threw Borahs phone out the window of the car and drove off with her struggling in the back, terrified that she was going to get hurt and even more terrified that I.M would be in trouble because of her. 

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