One day late!!!! Plz forgive me ;-;

Only when he burst through the front door, panting for his life, did Hoseok feel his senses returning back to him.

“What the hell, Hoseok?!” his sister dropped her plate in fright when the door slammed open, an exhausted Hoseok almost falling through the doorway.

He had no energy to breathe, but lay on the ground, gasping for air.

Jiwoo-noona bent down to pick up the shards of porcelain as Hoseok felt himself slowly turn back to normal. He had been terrified by that towering behemoth of a man.

As Hoseok felt the life return to him, his mind began to clear.

He was not the only one who had been petrified. Lee Youngmi’s own eyes had glittered with a sheen of terror when she’d seen the man behind him.

It was only logical that the man was her family, but why did Lee Youngmi look so… scared? What sort of relationship did she share with the man that would make her so terrified?

Hoseok slowly began to piece together the puzzle.

Lee Youngmi detested it when he ever mentioned her parents. And now Hoseok knew why.

She’d insisted that the soju bottles weren’t hers, and her father had shown up at the door with a beer bottle in his hand. Therefore, it only made sense that her father was the one who had been drinking all that soju…

His thoughts flashed back to the look in her eyes when she’d recognised him at her doorstep.

What was she so afraid of?

---

I cradled my right arm tenderly. Shards of glass were pierced through the skin, powdered remnants of the bottle dusted all around the bruise that was definitely growing where he’d aimed the bottle at.

I cringed in pain as I gingerly plucked out the pieces of glass with my fingers, slowly but gently rinsing the blood away with the cold tap water. It was definitely going to leave a bruise and a few scars, judging from the strength he’d used to smash the bottle against my arm.

Somehow, I knew it had been coming, but I didn’t move fast enough. I could only thank the heavens that I’d blocked just in time for it to have hit my arm instead of my head, where he had aimed in the first place.

I stubbornly refused to let myself cry. I knew that he would only look upon it as weakness, and I would get beaten even more as a result.

I did however, let out a small strangled sob of emotion.

Why was I letting myself get abused like this?

Why don’t I… run away? Take up residence with Zico-oppa… change schools… get a new name, a new life… but I knew that it would be a failed effort.

I would never be able to escape him. My heart was tied to this man. After all, only monsters give birth to monsters. As a monster myself, did I have a right to leave this situation? I’d been placed in this situation as punishment for all of my sins.

I was a beast who preyed on the weak and crushed the fearful in her jaws. I only deserved to be beaten red and raw by my father, right? What goes around, comes around, after all.

My thoughts shifted to the boy who’d been staring at me with eyes bright with fear when I exited Jungkookie’s car.

What on earth was that idiot doing at my house?! He could have been hurt by my father and that would never have left my conscience.

I mean… I don’t really care about him that much, but I’d feel insanely guilty if he had tasted the knuckle sandwich my father was really fond of making for me. He wasn’t my friend, but the idiot had somehow… wormed his way a little bit into my heart.

I felt my heart drop to the pits of my stomach. Why was my mind focusing on him not being hurt when it really should be focusing on what he could do with the information that he’d just gleaned from seeing my father?!

If he even let one word of that slip… My reputation would sink. I would be a goner. I felt the blood rush from my face as I imagined what life would be like if my schoolmates found out.

The people at school were not nice people. They were monsters just like me, and any weakness that I showed would immediately be pounced upon.

The old me, before Jungkook and Superhero-sunbaenim, would have immediately taken steps to threaten the guy and make his life hell. However, I had already tried that at the cafeteria the other time, and it didn’t work, and my attitude was changing… slightly.

There had to be a way to ensure he’d keep his mouth shut without causing him public humiliation.

I sighed and walked back to my room, the pain of my arm forgotten in the stew of my thoughts.

---

I tossed and turned in bed, reflecting on the day.

I’d hung out with Jungkook for the first time, and he was pretty good company. Though he didn’t talk much, we enjoyed each other’s company in comfortable silence, and the ice cream was pretty damn delicious. He’d told me about his story and I really did empathise with him, regarding my current situation. And somehow, he really was quite a cutie, and surprisingly it didn’t make me want to bully him, but instead made me want to befriend him even more. He was a curious chap, and I kind of liked that.

We’d then exchanged phone numbers and he’d gotten his chauffeur to fetch me and Hinsaek home.

I’d come home to discover Superhero-sunbaenim on my doorstep, face to face with my father. We’d had a fight earlier in the day about me contacting Yoo Youngjae-ssi, but I didn’t consider it anything major. I understood why he was worried after all. The poor guy seemed to get himself into all sorts of scraps for his friends and even strangers like Jungkook had been before and me too, and if he considered me a friend, I supposed he would be concerned for me too.

I think we were still good. I had to believe that he wouldn’t be so petty as to spread gossip about me.

I had to believe.

---

Jungkook collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion as the music stopped playing. Jimin-hyung took a swig of his bottle and V-hyung poured his water all over his head, shaking vigorously.

They had just finished practice on their newest song, and it was… tiring, to say the least. Jungkook could barely keep up with the tempo, and Suga-hyung and Rapmon-hyung had been particularly displeased with their performance today.

“Hey hey hey, don’t dirty my apartment,” Suga-hyung scolded feebly from the ground.

J-Hope-hyung uncharacteristically sat by himself in the corner, staring at the mirror blankly. In fact, he’d been out of it for the whole day. Usually he’d be really critical about the dancing, but this time round he’d missed steps and fumbled all over the place. Rapmon-hyung and Suga-hyung had taken him out of the practice room to talk, but he still wasn’t concentrating on the dance.

“Hyung, you alright?” Jungkook squatted next to him and prodded his side. “Something seems off with you today.”

‘What?” J-Hope-hyung shook himself awake, before quirking up one corner of his mouth weakly. “I’m cool, yeah.”

And then he looked troubled again. Jungkook stared at him doubtfully as he seemed to wrestle with his feelings.

“I’m just… I went to Lee Youngmi’s house yesterday,” he started.

Jungkook took in a sharp breath at the sound of her name.

“I saw her dad and he looks… terrifying,” he continued. “Turns out he drinks too. He’s the one who dumped all the soju bottles outside her house. And I’m paranoid I guess but I think something’s kinda wrong in the family, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

Jungkook couldn’t help but feel a little ticked off that J-Hope-hyung had the nerve to visit her house of all things, as if they were so close to do that, but he ignored it.

“Maybe you can talk to her sometime,” Jungkook suggested. “Ask her what’s up.”

“Whenever I do, she’s so closed off…” J-Hope hyung trailed off. “I don’t know how to approach it.”

“Lee Youngmi-ssi doesn’t trust people easily,” Jungkook replied, thinking of their earlier meeting. “She’s the type who would need a lot of encouragement before she can tell you anything. Maybe you should spend more time with her, so that she’ll trust you.”

J-Hope hyung shot him a grateful gaze as Rapmon-hyung cleared his throat, calling for attention.

“Okay, we really have to settle what we’re going to do about Jungkook’s problem now,” he said firmly. “We’ve been putting it off but we won’t be able to perform if Jungkook isn’t okay. Can you update us on how you’re doing?”

“I’ve started talking to one girl now,” Jungkook mumbled shyly as six pairs of eyes swivelled towards him. “Lee Youngmi.”

Jimin-hyung’s eyes got big and round. “Her? Seriously?”

“You’re talking to Youngmi?” J-Hope-hyung finally looked awake, but also a little flabbergasted. “Is that why you know so much about her? Were you the one who dropped her off yesterday? What was she doing with you? Why were you-”

 “No matter how many times I warn you guys, you never listen, do you?” Rapmon-hyung interrupted J–Hope-hyung, who looked a little angry now and was scaring Jungkook a little bit.

“Why were you out with her?” J-Hope-hyung asked again, a little quieter this time, confusion clouding his eyes.

There was a lull in the conversation until Suga-hyung piped up.

“Ignore the , let’s build on that relationship between you two and hopefully you’ll get more comfortable around girls,” Suga-hyung said cheerily

J-Hope-hyung looked confused and more than a little hurt.

Jungkook couldn’t help but feel a little defensive.

It wasn’t like she was dating J-Hope-hyung anyway, and if Jungkook wanted to talk to Lee Youngmi, why couldn’t he? In fact, she looked like she wanted to talk to him too! And as far as he knew, why couldn’t he make friends with Lee Youngmi? She was an interesting person, and she seemed to understand what he was going through with his old family.

The fact that she made his heart beat faster and his head a little woozier had absolutely nothing to do with him wanting to spend some time with her.

“How about we have some small performances too?” Jin-hyung suggested, interrupting him. “We could just invite some people. It can’t be too big, of course, but maybe two or three people? So that Jungkook can slowly get used to performing in front of crowds again.”

“Minhye would love to come,” Suga-hyung piped up. “Provided she ends classes on time.”

“I’m sure Hyuna would like to come too!” Jimin-hyung said thoughtfully. “Provided that girl doesn’t come of course…”

Obviously he had been referring to Hwang Mirae, and Jungkook couldn’t help but feel a little curious now about what had happened.

“Jungkook maybe you’d like to invite Lee Youngmi-ssi too?” Jin-hyung smiled kindly at him as Jungkook processed the thought.

Friends go for each other’s performances, right? And plus, she’d never really seen him in action before. He felt a need to show himself off a little, for some reason.

“Okay,” he finally nodded.

“Great, so we’ll hold a small performance for them maybe next week and slowly increase the audience numbers until we’ve gotten to a comfortable size,” Rapmon-hyung said. “Today is dismissed then. See you guys tomorrow!”

---

I heaved a sigh of relief. All seemed normal today, which meant that my hope in Superhero-sunbaenim was a good choice. My classmates were acting pretty much as usual, and nobody seemed to want to interact with me today, which was good.

I felt a light prod on my arm. I turned to look at Jungkook, who was looking more hesitant than usual.

“Do you want to come for my performance?” he asked unsurely. “Since we’re friends now, I think it’ll be nice if you could make it.”

“Okay,” I nodded as he brightened.

He fished out a namecard from his bag and passed it to me, looking happier than I’d ever seen him before. I couldn’t hide the grin from sprouting on my face. He looked really cute.

As if he noticed, he flushed a deep red and looked away.

“When is it?” I asked.

“Next Wednesday, after school,” he replied. “It’s to help me with my issues.”

“Okay, I’ll be sure to come,” I said.

And then the thought crossed my mind that Superhero-sunbaenim would be there. I felt my heart drop as I remembered his terrified face when he’d been at my house.

Superhero-sunbaenim had seen my father yesterday, there was no denying it. A terrifying thought crossed my mind. What if he’d already figured out what happened?

But that couldn’t be possible, I chided myself. Firstly, I’d never given off any inkling to him that my father was connected to my injuries.

Plus, he’d said he was my friend, and I was pretty sure that entailed not spouting trash about the other person even when you had fights.

But still… I cradled my arm in worry.

Could I trust him?

Mr Kim walked in, ready to start the lesson as I put all thoughts of Superhero-sunbaenim aside.

---

“I thought you were angry at me,” her voice was dry and sarcastic.

Hoseok whipped his head up. Her eyes stared at him calculatingly, but her stance seemed open, as if she wasn’t really pissed.

He cracked a grin in relief.

“Cafeteria was too full, so I decided to come here instead,” he said playfully, getting up to his feet.

“You don’t even eat at the cafeteria, do you?” she snorted, before opening the door.

Hoseok followed behind her obediently, hiding a sigh of relief that it hadn’t been awkward between them. Step one accomplished. Now step two was getting her to trust him.

As they ate together in silence, Hoseok stared at her.

When she wasn’t frowning at anyone, or beating people up, she could be mistaken as… kinda cute actually. Her long bangs brushed past her eyebrows, as she took small nibbles of her food. Her eyes were a dark brown, framed by long lashes.

His gaze fell to her forearm, which was wrapped haphazardly in a bandage.

“Give me your hand,” he instructed firmly.

She raised an eyebrow at him, but continued eating.

“Please?”

With a deep, drawn-out sigh, she stretched her bandaged arm towards him.

He undid the bandage deftly, barely reacting as a large purple bruise unveiled itself to him, dotted with flecks of dried blood. His fingers prodded the area carefully, his ears noting each hiss of pain she let out.

“Who did this?” Hoseok asked quietly as he worked on re-bandaging it.

“I thought you said you didn’t need to know,” was her response.

“I can’t just stand by and watch you get continually hurt over and over again,” he looked at her, eyes filled with pain. “It hurts me when you get hurt too. There has to be something I can do to help, right?”

---

I couldn’t look at him. The blood was rushing in my ears; I could barely hear anything but the words he said.

Why did he care so much? Why couldn’t he leave me alone?

And why couldn’t I chase him away?

If it were the old me, I’d have gotten rid of him in a heartbeat. Here he was, so close to finding out the truth. He’d even seen my father in the flesh, for Pete’s sake. How much more time did I have before he found out?

But the new me, the one who had an annoying-as- conscience and a new naïve faith in people, itched to tell him. I didn’t want to suffer anymore; I wanted a way out.

But how could I? A monster like me deserved to be treated this way, especially with how I had treated others before.

“You can trust me.”

I looked into his eyes. They swirled with foreign emotion: concern, a dash of horror, another foreign one I couldn’t describe…

“Next week.”

The words tumbled out before I could stop them, encouraged by the support in his gaze. Suddenly I realised how much I actually wanted to confide in someone, how much I wanted to get out of this toxic relationship with my father, how much I wanted to start afresh…

“I-I’m coming to your studio next week,” I continued to blurt out, hating myself more and more with every word I said.

What happened to not telling him? How could I give in to weakness like this and completely ignore my comeuppance? This was my penance for being a horrible person from the start and-

And then I felt his arms wrap around my body, his chin nestling into my shoulder.

I flinched painfully, my eyes springing open. My mouth went dry; I couldn’t feel anything but the warm grip of his arms around my frame and the tickling of his hair against my face. The scent of his cologne filled my nostrils, and it smelled… familiar, like the first time I’d opened up to him. I sat there, bewildered, my heart racing as he hugged me tightly yet gingerly, like he was handling a precious vase covered in jewels.

“Thank you for telling me,” he breathed into my ear, his tone sincerely grateful.

I shivered, my eyes snapping shut as his cool breath brushed my ear.

And then he disappeared as the bell for class went.

Disoriented, I spent the rest of the day sitting in that very spot, in a daze until it was time to go home.

THIS CHAPTER MADE ME REALLY SQUEE ALRIGHT