AJ's POV:

Man, eight hours of the photoshoot and interviews really drained my energy.

I swear I couldn't walk for the rest of the day. How are we supposed to pick ________ up now since we're all dead tired?

We eventually reached ________'s school and waited for her outside the gates.

Once the bell rang, a flood of students ran out the gates, catching the buses, walking home, or getting picked up by their parents.

_________ wasn't in sight just yet.

"Damn, why does she have to be so short?" Eli said, stretching his neck to see above the crowd.

Your POV:

I waited at the lockers with Chi Hoon for a while until the crowd would die down a little.

HyunRi couldn't join us because she has work.

JaeHyun was at his locker grabbing some stuff. By then, the hallway only had about 5 people in it.

"Oppa, can you wait here for a bit?" I asked Chi Hoon.

He sighed. "Okay..."

I went up to JaeHyun and tapped his shoulder once. He jumped and turned around in surprise.

I gave him a sweet smile and waved. "Hey!"

He looked down and blushed a little. "Um, hello..."

"Did you get away from Seungmin and his gang while you had the chance?"

"What?"

"This morning, when you were ganged up on by some bastards. Did you get away from them?"

"Uh, um, yes, I did...you were there?"

"Pfft, I was the one that distracted them so you could run."

"Y-you were?"

I nodded.

"Did you get hurt?"

I blinked a few times, looking in different directions before answering him. "Not entirely..."

"You got hurt." he said, pointing at my reddened cheek.

I touched it. "Don't worry. It's nothing."

"I-I'm sorry..."

"There's no need. It's only right to defend the helpless."

"But you're...a girl..."

"So what? I may be 30 centimetres shorter than you, but I am pretty strong. Don't judge a book by it's cover."

He nodded slowly. "Thank you..."

"No worries! Do you want to walk home with Chi Hoon and I?"

"No, thank you. I can handle this."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded again.

"Okay...if you need any help, or anything, just say the word, arasso? They ain't got NOTHING on you."

"Arasso..."

I nodded and skipped back to Chi Hoon. "Let's go, oppa."

I linked my arm with his and we walked out.

"What was that all about?"

I bit my lip. "I just had to tell him about this morning."

"Oh." was all he said until we reached the almost empty school gates, where UKISS was there to greet us.

"Hey guys!" I said when I saw them.

"_________, finally! What took you so long?" Kevin asked worriedly.

"I just had to see someone."

I felt kind of guilty that I wasn't talking to Chi Hoon as much as before.

After all, he loves me no matter what, right?

Sigh, I guess I was really upsetting him now...

"So is Chi Hoon coming with us?" Kiseop asked.

I nodded and tugged on Chi Hoon's arm. "Let's go guys."

"Yah, _______, why is your cheek red?" Soohyun pointed out as we were walking down an empty street.

I bit my lip again, feeling Chi Hoon's gaze on me.

"You got into another fight again, didn't you?" Eli said with a smirk.

Damn. They figured it out.

"What for?" Dongho said.

"She was trying to defend a helpless kid." Chi Hoon replied.

"________-ah, how many times did we tell you? DON'T. GET. INTO. FIGHTS." Hoon nagged.

"Why are you doing this?"

"What did the people do to you?"

"You should stop trying to be so-"

"SHUT UP!!!!" I finally yelled in frustration. There was a sudden silence, the only noise was my heavy breathing from anger.

UKISS looked at me with a shocked expression, even Chi Hoon was surprised.

Crap.

WAY TO GO, _________!! WHAT A WAY TO IMPRESS YOUR IDOLS.

Realising the tense atmosphere, I let go of Chi Hoon's arm and stormed off, hoping that UKISS wouldn't think too badly of me.

Yeah, call me a coward, because I am...

"_________, wait!" UKISS called.

There was a cluttered stomping of feet behind me, but I didn't care. I just wanted to get away from UKISS for now so they won't think I'm a monster.

"________! We just only wanted you to-"

I turned around, but my anger didn't die down. "GET INTO ANYMORE FIGHTS?!"

They stopped, still startled by my sudden outburst a minute ago.

"Look, you guys wouldn't know ANYTHING, okay?!" I continued furiously. "I HAVE MY REASONS THAT LEAD TO PULLING MYSELF INTO A FIGHT. I CAN'T STOP IT, NO MATTER HOW HARD I TRY. DO YOU KNOW THAT MORE THAN HALF MY SCHOOL IS FULL OF BASTARDS?! THOSE BASTARDS ARE THE REASONS I GET INTO FIGHTS. LIKE THIS MORNING, A KID IN MY GRADE WAS ABOUT TO GET THE BIGGEST BEATING OF HIS LIFE BY THOSE DOUCHEBAGS. UNLIKE ME, HE'S NOT STRONG. HE'S NOT STREET MATERIAL."

"But-"

"NO, JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN!" I continued yelling, pointing my index finger to them. "I HAD TO DISTRACT AND BEAT THE OUT OF THOSE IDIOTS TO GET THAT KID TO RUN AWAY - IT'S CALLED SELF-SACRIFICE. EVER HEARD OF THAT?! NO? I'M NOT SURPRISED, BECAUSE IDOLS DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO SACRIFICE THEIR LIFE, DIGNITY, AND HEALTH FOR ANOTHER HELPLESS PERSON. FIGHTS ARE A PART OF LIFE, REAL LIFE, OKAY?! OF COURSE YOU WOULD NEVER EXPERIENCE ONE BECAUSE YOU PEOPLE ARE ALL RICH AND GO TO A PRESTIGOUS SCHOOL THAT'S ALL PERFECT AND-"

"________, enough..." Chi Hoon said gently. I turned my attention to him. He placed his hands on each of my shoulders and looked at me. His gentle eyes extinguished the flames in me, returning my breathing back to normal. "Calm down..."

I nodded and took one last big breath to control myself. My throat felt as if some weak acid was poured into it. It was so sore from all the yelling.

"Shhh..." he whispered, tucking a lock of my hair behind my ear. "Calm down...I think that's enough of real life they've been exposed to for today."

"You think so?"

He nodded.

I felt tears sting my eyes at his patience and gentleness. I quickly wiped them away before anyone noticed.

Sniffing, I went up to the stunned UKISS to apologise to them. "Guys...I'm sorry...I really am...I shouldn't have gone off at you like that..."

"No, it was our fault. We shouldn't have so ignorantly bombarded you with questions and orders like that." Soohyun said.

"Yeah, we're here to experience what real life is like, not tell you what to do..." Kiseop trailed.

"After all, we're idols, not street dancers. We have no idea what your life is like, so it's pretty wrong of us to judge you like that..." Kevin murmured.

I let out a happy scoff and wiped my tears again. "Okay, guys, you can stop it now. At least you know my reasons for getting into fights now, right?"

"Yes, they do, but you should really try to stop." Chi Hoon answered.

I heaved out another sigh. "I know..." I looked up, spotting a small figure, someone wearing a hoodie, from the other side of the street in the alley.

I squinted my eyes and took a closer look.

"_______, what's wrong?" Hoon asked.

That's when I realised that the person was pointing a gun at me.

My eyes widened. "EVERYONE GET DOWN!!!"

That's when shots were fired and all the guys got down. Luckily, there were cars in front of us, so we were less likely to get shot. I crawled across the pathway to sit against one of the cars, making the guys do the same thing. I placed my head in between my knees to avoid becoming deaf.

Glass rained on my head, shattering from the windows of the cars in front of us.

DAMMIT, VORTEX!!

After a few minutes, the firing eventually stopped.

I waited for a while to make sure that no one was there to shoot at us again.

Kevin began to stand up, but I motioned with my hand to make him sit down again.

I creptup the car to check.

"Coast is clear." I said and stood up slowly, the guys followed suit.

"W-w-what was t-t-that?" Dongho stuttered nervously.

"Someone from the enemy crew." I answered sharply.

"Who?"

I hesitated at first before answering. "Vortex."

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

keke, did you guys like this chapter? I was thinking of the "Get down, get down, ge-ge-ge-get down~" part in Warrior by BAP ^_^

there'll be some more awesomeness in the next chapter!!

comments and subbers are loved!!!

BOOM SHAKALAKA~