I'm alive lol. Sorry for being gone for so long.

This chapter is a little short, but I'll make up for it. Promise!

Enjoy~

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

S.Coups came to my defense, “As you all know by now, this is Chaeyeon. She’s the new girl at school, and she just walked in on a gang fight and saved Dino. So be nice.” Then, he grabbed Jeonghan and Joshua and dragged them into another room, closing the door behind them.

An awkward silence filled the room, and I was getting twitchy. However, I was also the outsider here, so I kept quiet, not wanting to upset anybody. Finally, a voice from behind me spoke up.

“Noona, come here!”

I turned around to find Dino sitting up and grinning at me. I hurried over to him, my eyebrows furrowed in worry. “Are you okay? Do you need something, like pain meds or water or whatever?” I gushed.

Dino laughed, but stopped short, his face scrunching up in pain. My worry increased, and it must’ve shown on my face because Dino immediately smiled again. “I’m okay! Well, as okay as I can be, I guess. But I’ll heal. I just wanted to save you from the awkwardness of the rest of them.” Dino nodded his head towards his friends, some of whom quickly spoke up in indignation.

“Hey, we’re not awkward!”

“Yeah, she’s the awkward one!”

“What are we supposed to do? Ask her about her day?”

The chatter broke all the weirdness in the room, and I found myself smiling as several of the boys finally moved forward to introduce themselves.

A tall boy with an angular face and a thousand-watt smile came up first. “I’m Seokmin, but you can call me DK!”

He shook my hand fervently, and I responded, “Nice to meet you, DK!” Somehow his grin became brighter and he continued shaking my hand excitedly.

A shorter boy with a rounder face and prominent cheekbones shoved DK out of the way saying, “Don’t be weird.” He didn’t shake my hand but he did give me a small bow. “I’m Boo Seungkwan,” he said.

I bowed back and said, “Nice to meet you, too, Seungkwan.”

I looked up and noticed that almost all the rest of the boys had formed a single-file line behind Seungkwan, waiting their turn. I couldn’t help it and burst out laughing.

Several confused heads peeked around each other to look at me. Seungkwan, still standing in front of me, looked confused and slightly worried. “Um, Chaeyeon noona? Are you okay…?”

Giggling, I managed to explain my actions, “I’m sorry. I’ve just never been greeted by a conga line before.” At that I burst into another fit of giggles.

Seungkwan gave me a strange look before stalking away to do his own thing. The boys all scattered, deciding to just greet me on their own time. Once I calmed down, DK and The8 gave me a tour of their hideout.

On the tour, I was able to meet Vernon and Mingyu, as well as properly meet Jun and Hoshi. On the whole, they appeared much friendlier than I expected, though several were still clearly wary of me. I didn’t mind. After all, I was the intruder.

The hideout itself was pretty sweet. They had a decent kitchen and even a working TV. DK explained that the bedrooms and full bathrooms were upstairs. There was a half bathroom connected to the kitchen down here.

“Wait,” I interrupted, “bedrooms? You guys sleep here?”

DK nodded, his grin dimming a little. “Yeah. Most of us prefer it here over our actual homes, if we still have them.”

My eyes widened. I thought I had it bad, being forced to downgrade, but these guys must have it much worse. I stayed silent as DK continued his tour.

When it was over, S.Coups and the others still hadn’t returned, so I sat down next to Dino and chatted with him for a while. Every now and then someone else would join us. However, I noticed that neither Woozi nor Wonwoo ever came over. Woozi completely ignored me and was working on something on a small, old laptop. Wonwoo would glance at me occasionally, but for the most part, he had his nose buried in a book.

Hoshi had just broken out the cards to teach me how to play Blackjack, when S.Coups flung open the door. Everyone looked up, startled, and then quickly gathered in front of their leader.

I joined them and nervously met S.Coups’ eyes. He gave a tiny smile that eased some of my worries before saying, “Okay! Jeonghan, Joshua, and I have reached a decision!”

All of us leaned forward, hanging onto his every word.

“One of our rival gang has seen Chaeyeon’s face, and unfortunately, they’ve lived to tell the tale. This means Chaeyeon is at risk,” S.Coups said solemnly.

I looked down at my toes, anxiety building up in my stomach. Those guys in the suits know who I am and might come after me? I don’t even know basic martial arts; how will I defend myself?

“Because of this, we’ve decided to temporarily let her join our gang,” S.Coups concluded.

There was a moment of silence as we all processed his words, then suddenly everyone spoke at once.

“But she’s a girl!”

“You can’t just let anyone join our gang!”

“Does this mean she gets a tattoo, too?”

I grew alarmed at that and snapped out of my daze. “Wait, tattoo?”

Hoshi grinned at me. “Just kidding. We’re all too young, so no one will give us one.”

I turned to S.Coups, “How on earth can I join your gang? I know nothing about gangs or fighting or anything like that.”

S.Coups laughed a little, “Are you sure? You had amazing aim with that purse earlier.”

“I got lucky,” I mumbled, a little embarrassed for some reason.

“Don’t worry. You won’t actually be joining our gang,” Jeonghan said gently. “We’re just going to pretend you are until we can get rid of those guys. You’ll be safer if everyone knows you’re associated with us.”

I nodded, my mouth forming a slight “o” shape. I suppose that makes sense. I’ll certainly feel safer knowing I have a supposedly powerful gang on my side. Before I could say anything however, Woozi spoke up.

“Are you out of your goddamn minds? She’ll only be more on the radar if she’s associated with us. Besides, none of us has any time to babysit,” he stared at S.Coups as he said this.

“She’ll be on the radar either way, so we figured this way we could keep her safe. Weren’t you the one who saved her the other night?” Joshua said, raising an eyebrow.

“Th-that was a coincidence! I didn’t know who she was at the time. I just didn’t want anyone getting attacking by that disgusting old man,” Woozi spluttered. It wasn’t entirely truthful, and the rest of the gang knew it. He hardly ever bothered helping people he didn’t know. It brought too much trouble usually, so he preferred to turn a blind eye. However, no one thought it was a good idea to bring it up right now.

I decided to speak up. “I don’t need any ‘babysitting,’” I said. “For now I”ll go along with your plan, S.Coups-ssi. I suppose you know more about this kind of stuff than I do. But, I’m also not completely helpless. I’ll only bother you guys if I feel like I’m in danger, I promise,” I looked directly at Woozi as I said this, hoping he wouldn’t be angry anymore.

He looked away, but didn’t say anything. The others were nodding and mumbling in agreement that, for now, this seemed like the best course of action.

“It’s settled then! Welcome to the gang, Chaeyeon!” S.Coups exclaimed cheerfully.

I smiled nervously at him, wondering what I’d just gotten myself into.

The rest of the weekend passed rather uneventfully, except for the multitude of texts I received from several of the guys (we’d exchanged numbers just in case). Seungkwan and DK especially enjoyed sending me random selfies of them doing the most mundane things.

Still, it was nice to have made some more friends, even if they were a gang. I hadn’t told mom just yet because I wasn’t sure how she’d react. I don’t think going up to your mother and saying, “Mom, I joined a gang,” is the best idea.

I was currently lying on my bed texting Youngmi.

You’ll never guess what happened to me

Her answer came quickly.

Omg did you get hurt? R u ok? What happened???

I could almost see her panicked expression and giggled.

Lol I’m fine calm down. I’m friends with 17 now tho

Barely thirty seconds passed before I received her reply.

WHAT

I laughed.

Yep. Lots happened. I’ll tell u tomorrow~

You better!!!

I grinned, then turned off my lamp and snuggled under the covers. I was actually looking forward to tomorrow. I wondered how Seventeen would behave around me now. Seunghee and her buddies would probably explode with envy. I suppose I’ll have to deal with them again… Still, something tells me school is about to be a lot more interesting.

Once again, sorry it's short. 

I also apologize for being gone for so long. I did a lot of traveling and then the semester started up and I've been swamped with work...

I also got to see SHINee!!! Best night of my life <3

Anyway, I'll talk to you all soon, I hope!