Woop. I'm back. Quick warning. This chapter is a bit violent. Some blood and stuff. The usual.

The rest of the week passed with hardly an incidents. Seunghee and her friends were currently ignoring me and pretending I didn’t exist. Of course this was perfectly fine for me, and I hoped this trend would continue.

Even though it was Saturday, mom still had to go into the office. The apartment was too lonely and quiet without her, so I took this opportunity to scout out the area. After all, I needed to learn my way around if I was going to walk or take the bus everywhere.

The weather was nice, so I put on a cute pair of vintage-style floral shorts and a loose-fitting pink blouse. Satisfied with my clothes, I grabbed my over-the-shoulder purse. I made sure the door was locked behind me and went on my way.

Because it was the weekend and the day was nice, there were more people outside than usual. One of our neighbors, whom we had yet to meet, was making his way down the stairs. He was an elderly man who lived on his own. He was slowly and carefully making his way down the stairs, but I was getting nervous. The railing was old and rusted and even broken in some places, and he was little unsteady.

I hopped down the steps and landed next to him, taking his arm. “Here, let me help you, sir,” I said politely.

He turned to face me, surprise etched onto his wrinkled face. However, the surprise quickly turned into a smile. “I’d appreciate that, dear. One does find that going down stairs gets harder and harder with age.”

I smiled kindly at him and said, “That’s what I’m here for, sir.”

“I’m Oh Ilsung. What’s your name, dear?” he said.

“I’m Jo Chaeyeon!” I answered as we stepped off the last step.

He took his arm out of mine and bowed in gratitude. “Thank you, Chaeyeon. If you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to call on me.”

I nodded and said, “The same goes for you, Mr. Oh.”

After the two of us separated with promises of him having me over for a cup of tea one day, I debated on where to go. Since I hardly knew the neighborhood, I settled on just wandering and seeing what there was to see.

I wandered around aimlessly, discovering that despite the neighborhood’s sketchiness at night, it was actually fairly busy during the day. Little shops lined the main streets, with hole-in-the-wall restaurants hiding around corners. I ended up eating lunch at one owned by sweet family. The soup I had was amazing, and I promised to come back, perhaps with my mom. She’d love the food because it was very spicy.

I wandered around a little more, scouted out places I could possibly apply for a job. My favorite place was this small bookstore that connected with a flower shop. The two elderly couples who owned them had been friends since they were young.

After I left the book/flower store, I looked up to see the sun was starting to go down. Mom would probably be home soon, and I’m sure she’ll want help with dinner. However, when I looked around me, I had no clue where I was. None of the streets names sounded even remotely familiar. Perhaps wandering aimlessly wasn’t my best idea...

I pulled out my phone, sighing in relief when I saw that it still had plenty of battery left, and opened up my GPS. Then I realized I couldn’t remember my street name…

I walked in a circle, trying to jog my memory and cursing myself for not learning it already. What kind of high schooler doesn’t know her own address?

While I was silently berating myself for being forgetful, I suddenly heard shouts in the distance. No one else seemed to hear them, or they were ignoring the noises anyway. Curious, I made my way towards the shouts. I hesitated when I found they were coming from an alleyway, memories of my previous encounter in one of those flooding my mind. However, my fear subsided when I heard a voice that sounded incredibly familiar.

“Hyung! Look out!”

I peered around the corner of the building to find a sight I wasn’t entirely expecting. Several guys around my age were fighting off a group of adult men in crisp, dark suits. A familiar flash of pink crossed my vision, and I gasped quietly. Jihoon!

I then noticed another of my classmates, Woonwoo, as well as several of the other guys I’d seen sitting at Seventeen’s table during lunch. Dino was also among them, and I quickly grew worried.

The Seventeen boys were badly outnumbered, and as a result, things weren’t going their way. Despite his fierce glare and angry punches, even Woozi had several cuts and bruises on him.

A yell of pain distracted me, and I turned my head just in time to see Dino go down, surrounded by a few of the suited men. One of them stepped forward, a sinister smirk on his bearded face. He lifted up a baseball bat and was about to bring it down hard on Dino’s skull.

“No! Dino!!” one of the boys shouted, his moment of distraction earning him a punch in the gut.

Without thinking, I pulled off my Converse and chucked it as hard as I could at the man threatening Dino. My aim was perfect, and the shoe nailed the thug square in the face. Everyone froze as he recovered from his shock to bend down and pick up my pink shoe. He looked up and met eyes with me, a sneer forming on his face.

One of his buddies, who was closer to me, grabbed my arm tightly. I shrieked and, once again without thinking, swung my purse around to hit this guy right in the face as well. He dropped my arm and brought his hands up to cradle a now bruised nose.

I backed up into a wall, and looked frantically at all the men now advancing upon me. Then I met eyes with one of the Seventeen boys whom I thought I recognized as the leader. He seemed to snap out of his confused daze and yelled, “Guys, now!”

He and the other five remaining boys used the opportunity to attack while they men were distracted. Woozi grabbed the collar of one who had to be at least two feet taller than him and pulled him down onto his back, aiming a kick on the main chest. Then, Woozi turned around to grab hold of another man. “Vernon,” he said, and one boy jumped forward to punch the struggling gang member in the jaw. The two of them went at it while Woozi turned to help the leader. Together, they formed quite a team, turning in a circle and knocking out anyone who came too close.

Meanwhile, Wonwoo had placed himself directly in front of me and was behaving like some sort of silent bodyguard. He made sure no one came anywhere near me. If they did, he either tripped them or shoved them into the other two boys, who were using some sort of martial arts to defeat all their opponents.

In no time at all, though it felt like forever to me, the Seventeen boys had sent their rival gang packing. All the boys collapsed to the ground, panting hard when they realized danger had passed.

I looked anxiously between each of them, still processing what just happened. But then my eyes landed on a still figure on the ground. I gasped, “Dino!” and ran to him. Carefully turning him over, I felt relief rush over me as his brown eyes blinked up at me. But that relief disappeared when my hand touched something warm and wet on his leg. I looked down and found my hand was stained red, as well as Dino’s pants.

Blood was bubbling out of an open wound on Dino’s leg. I reached for my purse and pulled out a travel-sized first aid kit. It had a single packet of gauze and some medical tape, which I yanked out and immediately started trying to gently roll Dino’s pant leg up. Apparently I wasn’t gentle enough because he let out a whimper of pain to which I cried, “Oh no, I’m sorry! I’m trying to be gentle!” Then I turned to the others and said, “Aren’t you gonna call an ambulance? He’s hurt!!”

They looked at each, then the leader stepped forward and said, “Uh, that may not be the best idea. We have medical stuff back at the base, so we’ll just treat him there…”

I glared at him. “You’re not moving him until I wrap this around his leg. He’s bleeding too much!”

He held up his hands in surrender and knelt down next to Dino to roll his pants up better for me. I thanked him and carefully patted the wound with a disinfectant wipe. Then I placed the gauze on his wound and wrapped the medical tape around it securely.

When I was finished, the leader gestured to the martial arts guys. “Jun, The8, you two help him up.”

Dino blinked at us in daze as two of the boys helped him up to his feet. They started slowly walked away, helped Dino limp in between them. S.Coups looked at me one more time before hurrying after his friends, Woozi, Wonwoo, and Vernon not far behind. I, too, started after them, but S.Coups whirled around and said, “Go home. We’ve got this all under control.”

I raised an eyebrow at his commanding tone. Who does he think he is? I thought, then said, “I don’t think so. Dino is my friend, and I want to make sure he’s okay before I go anywhere.”

Woozi snorted. “Your friend? You’ve only talked to him once.”

I glared at him. “So? He was very kind the other day when he brought me food. I’m not about to ditch him because someone I’ve never met orders me around.”

“I hate to interrupt,” one of the boys helping Dino said with a slight accent, “but he’s gonna pass out soon.” He nodded at Dino who was bravely trying to keep his head up.

“Right, Jun, you and The8 go on ahead. We’ll catch up. Vernon, go with them,” S.Coups said, worry seeping into his authoritative voice. He turned to me, “Please. Just go home. We don’t need any more help.”

It was my turn to snort. “As if. I’m coming with you and that’s that. As soon as I know Dino is okay, I’ll leave, alright?”

S.Coups looked like he wanted to argue some more, but in the end, his worry for Dino won him over. “Fine.” Then he hurried after the retreating figures of his friends.

Wonwoo followed him without even a second glance at me. Woozi, on the other hand, matched his pace with mine. “What are you doing? Haven’t you caused enough trouble already?”

“I helped you! My shoe stopped that guy from hitting Dino with a freaking baseball bat! You should be thanking me!” I cried in frustration. Are these guys really so against outsiders being near them?

“And because of that, all those men saw your face. Trust me, you would’ve been better off staying far away from us,” Woozi muttered, then hurried ahead, leaving me alone to wonder what he meant.

We walked for quite a while, probably over a mile, before we came to this sketchy looking warehouse. There was nothing special about it, just brick walls and a white garage door, but the guys made a beeline straight for a little door off to the left of the garage door. I cautiously followed, suddenly feeling very insecure. What would I find inside that warehouse?

I didn’t have to wait long as the guys filed inside one by one, Jun and The8 still supporting Dino. I heard voices inside that raised in volume when Dino came through the door. Most of the people inside seemed to be… panicking?

Surprisingly, Wonwoo help the door open for me. I nodded at him in thanks and received a blink back. I stepped inside to see a large group of boys surrounding a very pale Dino. All the boys were talking at once, and I could feel a headache coming on. S.Coups was trying to calm them down, but the bloody bandage on Dino’s leg had them all riled up to the point where they couldn’t hear him.

I shook my head and stepped up. I cleared my throat, took a deep breath, and shouted, “Quiet!!!”

Even though S.Coups had been attempting to do the very same thing, the boys froze and turned to stare at me. I continued now that I had their attention, “That wound needs cleaning and a better bandage. Do you guys have a first aid kit?”

A familiar face stepped forward. “I’ll go get it. Put Dino on the couch in the meantime and let Chaeyeon see to him,” said Jeonghan.

I smiled at him briefly before following Jun and The8 to the couch. They carefully laid Dino down and stepped out of the way for me to come forward. I knelt down next to him, and he grinned at me. “Hi, noona.”

I smiled bemusedly at him. “How are you so cheerful right now?”

His grin widened, and he said, “‘Cause you’re here.”

I made a face at him, and he laughed which quickly turned to a grimace. “Though I have to admit, this really stings,” he said.

“It’s bled a lot already, so try not to talk much. Save your energy,” Jeonghan said, appearing behind me with a red bag. He pulled out some bigger disinfectant wipes as well as a proper gauze and medical tape. He handed me the wipes, and I gently took off the old bandage. I tried not to flinch at the amount of blood. Wiping as gently as possible so as to not reopen the wound, I cleaned up all the blood.

After I was finished, Jeonghan got to work wrapping up the wound and gauze. I suddenly became aware of the amount of people surrounding us in silence. It was so quiet, I’d thought all the people from before had left. Instead, they were all watching us, worry evident on their faces.

After he was finished, Jeonghan gave Dino some painkillers and water. Then he stood up and said, “Chaeyeon, help me clean all this up please.”

I nodded and gathered up the bloody wipes and bandages. I followed Jeonghan to another part of the warehouse that looked like it had been converted to a kitchen of sorts. We threw everything into the trash and washed our hands.

While washing ourselves up, Jeonghan said, “Didn’t expect to see you here. S.Coups never lets anyone besides us in.”

I shrugged and said, “I kinda forced him to let me come. I was worried about Dino.”

Jeonghan laughed. “You forced him? I think our dear leader is going soft!”

I frowned at him. “What’s that supposed to mean? I can be tough if I need to!”

Jeonghan continued laughing but said, “I don’t doubt it. Now come on. I think you have some explaining to do.”

I turned my head to the side, curiously. “Explaining?”

Jeonghan held the door back to the main room open. “You’re a random stranger who followed several members, on of whom was injured, of a powerful gang back to their base. There’s gotta be some story behind it.” He smiled encouragingly at me.

I stepped through the door to find eleven very curious faces staring up at me. I gulped nervously. Oh yeah. Gang.

I fidgeted as no one bothered to speak up. Instead, they all opted to stare unabashedly at me.

Finally Vernon spoke up saying, “Well, now what?”

Good question, Vernon. Good question.

Well there ya have it. What's gonna happen next I wonder? 

Also I didn't edit this (if you couldn't tell) because I don't have the energy. If you saw any really bad typos, let me know. It'll save me time when I have to go back and edit it lol

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