A ROSE'S SEVEN THORNS

CHAPTER 02

"A Sudden Encounter"

Earlier

Then as the one with light brown hair cleared his throat, not meaning anything but to try and cover up the awkward silence that had taken over, Jangmi panicked and shouted the first thing that popped in her head.

The one she had repeated when she first arrived at the abandoned building.

“Delivery for KTH!”

•••

Pabo. Pabo. Pabo.

Jangmi could have face palmed right then and there if her hands were free. Did she really say that just because the guy cleared his throat? How pathetic.

Either this gang of boys didn’t find any humor in her embarrassment or they were nice enough to realize just how intimidated she was, but they did not laugh at her stupid and abrupt statement. Whatever it was, she was going to take it.

Instead, three of the boys (bar the stoic guy aka the dude who saved her) all turned their heads to the remaining member of their little group – a guy with dark brown hair and heavy eyeliner around his eyes. The tallest of the three with black hair furrowed his eyebrows and with wide eyes, he scolded, “V!”

“Yah, what kind of fool orders pizza when we were on a job?” The one with dark orange/auburn hair questioned, obviously referring to the boy.

The light brown haired one, who was closest to him, lightly smacked his shoulder. “What were you thinking?”

The boy ignored them as he stared right at Jangmi with a blank expression. He was scrutinizing her very strongly and she gulped softly. They had called him V. So that meant this was the V that had thrown the teargas bomb earlier and now he is looking straight at her without blinking. And they just scolded him for ordering pizza, so this meant he was KTH. What would he do, or rather throw at her, if his pizzas were cold?

His stare was as blank as the stoic guy, but for some reason he wasn’t as intimidating as the latter. Still, she did not like to be stared at so openly like this. It was making her uncomfortable. And no it did not matter that this boy was quite handsome. She was still nervous and self-conscious of every breath and blink she released.

Just when she was at the point of breaking down from the uncomfortable stare, he blinked and started making his way towards her. If his stare had alarmed her, then his advance on her frightened her to the very core. Why was he walking to her? What did she do wrong to him?

She shrunk as he approached her, but met his gaze. Sure, she was scared less but she didn’t want to seem that pathetic in front of these entirely intimidating guys. After all, she needed to redeem herself after that embarrassing first impression on her part.

She considered herself pretty cool and laidback, and that reaction did not do her justice.

He was back to not blinking again. While the stoic guy intimidated her, this V guy simply unnerved her. Staring was one thing, but the whole not blinking was seriously driving her crazy with anxiousness.

Jangmi could hear the other boys complain about him ignoring them, but honestly they didn’t sound that shocked at his actions. Although one boy did notice her uncomfortable and extremely tense posture, so he spoke up, “Yah V, you’re as bad as Suga. Don’t stare so openly. It’s creepy.”

Suga? She repeated in her head. Don’t tell me…

Slowly, she connected the name to the face of the stoic boy with blank eyes, the one who had saved her. So his name was Suga, or rather a nickname. In the back of her mind, she noted that he also shoved her and well he didn’t seem that sweet. Despite him pulling her out of the way (which she was totally thankful for, don’t get her wrong), his entire persona in the few minutes that had passed was not something she would describe as sweet.

Her eyebrows furrowed once she realized that both of these guys had strange names. V? Suga? Even if they were nicknames, they just didn’t make much sense to her. How could they connect with the names that they were born with? Her nicknames usually associated with her name and they were never anything foreign. Even if they were in a gang, they had such strange names.

What kind of gang has a guy named Suga in it? How can you be hard with a name like that? She glanced at said boy and saw him with that same poker face, and she immediately took back what she said. I was wrong, it seems to be working just fine for him.

She blinked when the boy said, “Uh.” She met his blank gaze again as he leaned closer to her face, making their faces a couple of inches apart.

This only made her that much more nervous and she gasped inaudibly. The action took her off guard and made her breathless. Just like earlier, she held her breath as she watched with wide eyes as he finally spoke, “You’re not the usual pizza guy.”

In disbelief, her eyes widened even more and her jaw fell slightly at the statement.

Well, she could positively say she did not expect that. She was leaning more towards a threat, or perhaps him grabbing the pizzas before shoving her to the ground and taking off. This guy, the same one who fearlessly threw a bomb at a group of men just a few minutes ago, said something that could rival her reaction earlier.

Was this guy serious? Jangmi thought as she stared at him. She quickly glanced at the boys and saw that the one with light brown hair had actually face palmed. The rest were simply shaking their heads even that stoic Suga guy closed his eyes in exasperation.

She looked back to the boy in front of her and saw that he looked quite sincere. He wasn’t being snarky. He seemed to be honestly curious. In fact, he was staring at her expectantly as if waiting for her to confirm his thoughts.

Entirely thrown off, she answered back meekly, “U-Uh, yeah the usual guy was running late…”

As if she wasn’t already lost on how she had gotten in this position, the boy did something she was not prepared for. He grinned widely, showing his teeth and a square-shaped smile. Then he let out a small, deep laugh.

“H-Heh,” She released an awkward chuckle reflexively. This guy didn’t seem intimidating at all at this point. Quickly, she peered at that stoic man – Suga – and saw that he was simply staring at the ground with a blank expression as if he was so done with the world and just wanted to go home. He looks bored and tired at the same time and yet he still looks intimidating!

She turned back to the boy, V, and he spoke, still smiling, “I see!” Then his eyes flickered down to the pizzas in her arms and she swore his eyes sparkled. “Ah, the pizzas! Thank you very much for delivering them!” With that, he bowed at her.

Jangmi was so utterly lost.

V stood up straight and grabbed the bag of pizzas. Realizing he needed assistance, he started situating Jangmi’s arms so that she would hold the bag as he ped it. She simply let him, still amazed at his childlike actions and words.

Once he ped it all the way, he sniffed the air and let out a loud hum. He looked at her with his wide, squared grin as he jumped in place excitedly, “It smells so good!”

She turned to one of the boys in question. Was this guy for real?

The first person’s eyes she met was the light brown haired one and he simply shrugged at her with an apologetic nod. It was almost as if he was sorry for the way was acting right now and that he was so used to this behavior and just learned to accept it.

Then V his lips and began to open the first pizza box. The same boy she made eye contact with realized what he was planning to do and quickly shot forward. He slammed his hand on the box before V had a chance to even get a glimpse of the pizza.

“Hey…” V pouted, eyes wide and voice childish.

The other boy was not falling for it. Wow, he’s good. If that was directed to me, I would have fed him myself. Seriously, this boy is way too cute. Jangmi shook her head at the thoughts and focused back on the scene.

“Can’t you read the situation?” The light brown haired boy told him, his eyebrows slightly furrowed. Jangmi agreed with him. It seemed like someone knew how to read a situation and take things seriously.

“Yeah,” She watched as the boy with the dark orange/auburn hair moved closer to the three. With a smirk, he continued, “Jamless is right.”

Again, Jangmi was at a loss when the boy, who she thought was the only serious one, the one who was going to set things straight, suddenly let out a loud whiny groan. What really got her was that he actually stamped his foot after.

Oh my god… She thought incredulously as she watched him complain and the rest of the boys (bar Suga, who simply sighed tiredly) laugh at his reaction. I was scared of them?

“That’s not my codename!” His voice had turned high-pitched, still masculine with a whiny tone, as he argued. “I told you to call me Abs!”

At that statement, Jangmi’s eyebrows shot up. Then her eyes unintentionally fell to his shirt and down to where his stomach was. Once she realized where she was looking, she brought her attention back to the laughing, not scary at all group of boys.

The light brown haired boy (Jamless?) continued, “You know I was recently said to have jams, so you could just call me Jams instead of Jamless.”

“Ah, but why would we lie to you like that?” The dark orange/auburn haired one responded with no hesitation. This caused V to laugh with his eyes closed and mouth wide open, barely any noise escaping.

“Hyung!” Jamless (I’ve decided to call him that because whatever jams he had disappeared when he stamped his foot, sorry not sorry) whined loudly, obviously upset. Then he spun around and faced the other boy who had first scolded V. He moved very close to the black haired boy and asked, “Don’t you agree that hyung has jams, huh maknae?” Jamless was practically pleading with boy, hoping he would agree with him.

The boy who did not whatsoever look like the maknae of this group looked at his hyung and said, “Huh? What did you say, Jamless?”

Jamless shot back as if he had been struck physically by the boy. He even held his chest in shock and gasped so dramatically that it could rival ahjumma.

The maknae shook his head and bowed his head slightly at his hyung. “Ah, ah I’m sorry,” As he apologized, Jamless instantly straightened and leaned forward in anticipation. “What did you say, Jamless-hyung?”

Jangmi could have sworn she saw the sharp arrow that pierced poor Jamless’s heart at the maknae’s words. His face fell considerably into a pout as V and the dark orange haired boy started to crack up. She even caught the ever stoic Suga’s lips twitch upwards.

But Jangmi had to give it to the younger boy. That was a very nice blow at his hyung. That kind of humor reminded her of Sehun, but this boy made it look cute. And so long as he didn’t direct it to her, she would have no problems.

Jamless continued to whine and get all in the maknae’s face; the latter trying to escape his skinship. The other two continued to laugh. In fact, the dark orange haired one even threw himself to the floor earlier and was now getting up.

“Yah.”

At that voice, the four boys instantly stood straight. Then they looked pass Jangmi and right at Suga, who now looked even more intimidating. How is that even possible? I swear he breathes intimidation.

“What are we going to do about her?” He asked without even so much as glancing at Jangmi.

Her eyebrows furrowed considerably. Why was he talking like she wasn’t standing a few feet away from him? And just what exactly did he mean? What did she do wrong in the first place besides accidentally getting caught in gunfire?

Then he explained further, “She saw everything and she knows who we are.”

“Should we take her to Rapmon-hyung?” The maknae thought aloud.

Her eyes shot to him and narrowed in betrayal, unbeknownst to him. I thought we had something.

Jangmi was now frightened again. Just a few moments ago, they seemed like huge dorks and not an intimidating gang at all. Then the King of Intimidation aka Suga said one word and they all transformed into the guys she feared in the beginning. While they couldn’t compete with Suga, they all released some kind of intimidation and it was suffocating her.

Just what would this Rapmon (what is it with these guys and their weird freaking names like is that some kind of exotic animal or?) do to her for…what? Seeing them run and throw a bomb at the other gang? In all honesty, she had her eyes closed almost the entire time so really what did she exactly see?

And frankly, she didn’t even want to remember this night. She just wanted to give V or KTH or whatever his name was the pizzas they ordered then go home and forget this night ever happened. If they were worried about her talking, they were wasting her time.

She didn’t have many friends to gossip with. She had