14: Changing Hearts

“Yah, Jung Jieun!”

I can’t believe this Witch! She dared to faint in front of me just when I was asking a very crucial question!

But why is it even a crucial question in the first place? Does it matter whether she likes me or not? It’s not like it’s anything new. A lot of girls like me!

So why…why the hell does it bother me?

“Whoa, she fainted,” Hakyeon commented even though it was already obvious. “I guess your question was too much for her to take.”

I rolled my eyes at him and carried the Witch. If it wasn’t for me catching her during her fall, she would have crashed against the floor and broke her skull. “This is unexpected.” I walked towards the couch where that Leo guy was quietly sitting and slightly kicked his leg. “Yah, let this woman lie down on that couch.”

He didn’t move and just gave me a glare. “As far as I know, this is our couch—“

“Sheesh, be a gentleman, will you?” I said as I adjusted the Witch on my arms. It’s not like she’s heavy but I’ve been carrying her for a while now and my arms are getting sore. “Move. Quick.”

Leo sighed as he finally stood up and allowed me to place the Witch on the couch. As soon as I made her lie down, I noticed that her breathing was abnormally fast and she was sweating. “Is it really because of the question? Nah, that’s too over-the-top.” I decided to touch her forehead. That’s when I found out that she’s burning with fever.

“I have to get out of here,” I said as I took my phone out and started dialing our driver’s number. However, it failed ‘cause it turns out that there’s no signal in this underground hole. “Aish! What kind of ty place is this?”

Ravi smirked. “Yo, don’t talk about our beloved hangout place like that. And don’t even think we’d let you escape, yo. This is our chance to get our revenge, fool! We started from the bottom, but we just do it now, ha! Finally our time has come!”

“Can you please stop talking, Mr. Swagger-Jagger? And can’t we do this some other time? I have to get that woman to a hospital,” I said nonchalantly as I walked around the room with my phone raised in the air. Damn, there’s really no signal. “I don’t even know you guys and I don’t know about the revenge you’re talking about.”

Ken gasped. “You sound as if you’re looking down on us! Heck, you’re not even paying any attention to us! We could beat you into a pulp right here, you know!”

“Yeah!” Hyuk agreed as he rolled his sleeves up and prepared his fighting stance. “We’ve only established this gang last year but we are pretty strong! We’re also getting ourselves known around this city!”

Then how come I’ve never heard anything about you? But I don’t want to say that out loud ‘cause I might hurt their feelings, especially this Hyuk kid who’s the same age as Sungjong. “Look, I would love to beat your asses up right now but as I said, that woman needs to be taken to a hospital.”

“So she really is special,” Hongbin said with a grin. “It’s a good thing we also managed to lure her here. We could use her.”

“What—that woman is not special!” I defended. Really, what makes them think she’s special to me? She’s only important because she knows all my embarrassing secrets. “What would you use her for? You’ll only waste your efforts! She has nothing to do with this, so don’t touch her.” Ugh, why do I sound like an overprotective knight-in-shining-armor? “Just let us go quietly, okay? I promise, I’ll remember your gang,” I’ll just remind myself of vaporub. “And I’ll settle things with you for sure.”

“Ha! Our gang is not the type that delays action! We get into it straightaway!” said Ken as he proudly placed his hands on his hips. Ugh, he’s so annoying. And very loud, too. “So we settle this right here, right now!”

THESE IDIOTS ARE SO FRUSTRATING! “Look, why are you so eager to do this right away? Why are you holding a grudge against me in the first place?”

Their thrilled faces suddenly turned serious and…depressed? Anyway, that’s what I looked like when Hammy died.

“Do you remember EXO?” Hakyeon asked.

“EXO?” I searched my mind for any memories and finally came upon an encounter with a gang which happened months ago. “Oh…yeah, I think I remember them.”

“I know this may sound stupid but our gangs formed an alliance with them. We actually got along pretty well.” What Hakyeon said made me want to snort but he sounded very serious and sad so I just remained quiet. “We go to the same school. Before we became a gang, we were just a normal group of guys. We also worked as models before and we really didn’t know anything about fighting.”

I knew it. They definitely look like the model type.

“To be honest, we were a bunch of weaklings,” Hakyeon continued. “Well, except for Leo. He was the captain of the soccer and taekwondo club and he had a muscular built so he was quite strong. Anyway, the six of us worked in the same modeling agency and that’s how we became close. We were all going home one night when we suddenly got blocked by thugs. They kept insulting us by calling us pretty boys. They said our faces annoyed them so they wanted to beat us up. Leo said he was prepared to fight but we all knew that we couldn’t do anything against the five of them.”

I’m actually getting kinda immensed in this. I wish I had popcorn, though.

“I’ll continue, hyung.” Ken said as he placed a hand against Hakyeon’s shoulder. “We wanted to run but those guys had us surrounded. We were also in a dark alley during that time and it was late at night so no one was passing by. We were about to get beaten up when out of nowhere, EXO suddenly appeared. We recognized them since they were a popular gang from SM High but we never paid them any attention since we didn’t care about gangs and stuff.”

“But those guys became our saviors that night,” Hongbin inserted. “They completely overpowered those thugs and saved us from danger. Then they advised us to learn how to fight in order to defend ourselves. Since that night, we began to look up to them and asked them to teach us how to fight.”

“After a year, we decided to form a gang. We wanted to be a gang like EXO that would fight against the thugs who beat people up for fun. We may be a gang, but we don’t just fight for the heck of it,” Hakyeon explained. “And this might sound cheesy for you again but we want to fight for justice. That’s what EXO taught us.”

Normally, I would laugh at that statement, but somehow, I didn’t. And it’s not like I was suppressing my laughter. I just didn’t find anything funny. It was actually…enlightening. I can’t believe I said that word on my mind.

“But a few months ago, EXO had a fight with your gang, Infinite.” Hyuk bit his lip down and looked like he was about to cry. “Suho-hyung said one of your members played around with his sister and broke her heart. He tried to talk to your friend about it but your friend said he was not serious about Suho-hyung’s sister anyway. That pissed hyung off so it ended in a fight. The other members of both gangs somehow got involved so it became chaotic.”

Oh, I remember now. That idiot Sungyeol met an older, rich woman so he decided to play around with her but it turns out that she was the sister of a gang leader. We were all present during the time when Sungyeol was talking with the gang leader so we started throwing insults at each other. They were quite defenseless against us, except for their Chinese members who were really strong.

“EXO got beaten so badly,” said Hakyeon. “They were absent for many days because some of them were hospitalized. Suho had it worse because his father found out he was leading a gang. He was eventually sent abroad and we never heard from him again. The Chinese members were also asked by their parents to return home. Those remaining decided to just disband the gang since they lost many members and they were getting dissed and insulted by the people at school for losing to another gang.”

I gulped. Wow, I didn’t know we caused that much damage. I didn’t know there was more to EXO than just simply being a gang. In fact, I never knew that there is more to being a gang than just being a gang.

We were similar to VIXX in the sense that we were never a gang in the first place. It just so happened that our good looks and family backgrounds intimidated a lot of people so we ended up in fights against them. Before we knew it, we were labeled as a gang, and we kinda just went along with it. It wasn’t so bad, after all. People started looking up to us, even those from other schools and districts. No one looked down on us anymore. We felt invincible. I felt invincible.

I wanted to fight against other gangs because I thought it was fun. Because I wanted to pass time. Because I wanted to show off my strength.

But these guys…they fight because they want to defend themselves and other people from thugs. Thugs like us. Like Infinite.

Wow, we’ve been acting like a bunch of s all this time. I somehow feel ashamed.

“Well…this is awkward and embarrassing,” I said as I scratched my head. “Hearing your story makes me feel so low. I never thought it was like that—“

“KIM MYUNGSOO!”

I was in the middle of my heart-to-heart talk with VIXX when the Infinite members suddenly barged inside the room. “Yah, what are you guys doing here?!”

“We came to rescue you, of course!” Sunggyu eyed me from head to toe. “So, you’re not beaten up yet? I thought we were already late.”

I rolled my eyes. “No. And I’m not—“

“JIEUNNIE!!!” Upon spotting the Witch on the couch, Sungyeol immediately shouted and ran like the wind. He was already beside her after I blinked. Did he just teleport or what? “What happened to her?!”

“Yah, don’t be so dramatic,” I told Sungyeol. “She just fainted, that’s all.”

“WHAT?!”

“It’s nothing, really.” I said in order to calm Sungyeol down. “And it’s not the fault of these guys.” I pointed at VIXX. “She fainted because she has a fever.”

Sungyeol placed his hand against the Witch’s forehead for confirmation. “She does! And it’s high! We need to take her to a hospital, now!”

That’s what I’ve been telling these guys earlier but we ended up in a gang-history-sharing-event instead. Well now that I know where VIXX’s anger is coming from, I don’t want to run away from them. I guess we can only do this the gangster way. “Yah, Lee Sungyeol, I’ll entrust that woman to you. Take her to a hospital. The rest of us will stay here and deal with VIXX.”

“Oh, okay—wait, they’re named after a vaporub?”

I immediately kicked him on the leg in order to shut him up. “Don’t say it out loud. They don’t like that kind of comment.”

He just gave me a confused look before he picked Jieun up from the couch and carried her in his arms. Wow, this woman has jumped from one man’s arms to another. She must have saved a country in her previous life for someone as plain as her to be carried like a princess.

Wait, what am I thinking? She could be carried around by any men, for all I care. That’s her life.

“Yah! Where do you think you’re going?” Ken asked as he blocked Sungyeol who was about to exit the room with the Witch.

“If you don’t let me pass through, I’ll punch your insanely huge and sharp nose. Wait, that’s natural right?”

Ken have him a smug smile. “Of course. It runs in the blood.”

“Okay. Good to know. I wouldn’t want to break such a beautiful nose.” Sungyeol said with his eyes opened wide like an owl. He always does that whenever he wants to scare people. “So move.”

Ken