04

The cheers got louder by each second as Baekhyun made his way out with the group of gamer friends he often visited this PC bang with. They didn’t know anything about him apart from his gamer ID and had only ever seen him in this get-up. None of them studied at his university so that just made it easier for Baekhyun to be his real self as much as he wanted without the fear of exposure.

As he stepped over the stairs leading to the footpath, they ran into another group of friends and Baekhyun accidentally bumped into one of them but caught her right before she landed on her .

  “I’m sorry.” She said and Baekhyun gently pulled her back up by her shoulder.

  “I’m sorry too.” He apologized for almost making her fall too but before he could take a proper look at her he was met with the sight of Johnny and his gang waiting for him at the exit.

Baekhyun made sure he appeared unaffected but his heart could’ve exploded any moment then out of sheer nervousness. He just got beat up two months ago and his knee wound still stung. Making up excuses in his mind, he waited for Johnny to approach him but then his eyes spotted the baseball in the scary guy’s hand and his heart might have actually exploded. I’m ed.

  “I didn’t see you! I really didn’t!” the girl screeched and Baekhyun dropped his head down to see that girl named Hei covering her eyes.

Baekhyun wanted to pull his hair out. She always popped up in front of him at the most random places as if the universe was making fun of him. This, however, was the last place he wanted her at because this was his safe haven and he wasn’t going to let anybody in.

He had an earful ready for her but before he could even begin ranting, she pushed him aside with her insane strength and ran past into the PC bang. One thing’s for sure, this girl knew how to get on Baekhyun’s nerves whenever she ignored him like that. He turned to follow her back in but got pulled harshly by Johnny. Baekhyun gulped as they began forcing him to move towards the alley two shops ahead.  The other gamers tried to stop them but they were just as feeble as him and got shoved around by the goons instead.

  “Go on ahead. I’ll be back.” Baekhyun heaved a sigh and gave them a sorry look. He knew getting them involved in his mess was just going to result in more injuries than necessary. Besides if they learned the truth, they might as well come to hate him.

  “We’ll see about that.” Johnny scoffed as he gave him a final harsh push into the wall once they were out of public sight. “What happened to our deal?”

Baekhyun chose to remain quiet but that earned him a punch to the guts, causing him to bend in pain. “I never agreed to it.”

 “So ya didn’t grab the cash either?” Johnny punched him in the jaw next. “ing idiot. That was double than last time.” 

  “Why do ya even agree to rig if ya keep pullin’ out last minute?” the Jaehyun guy kept hitting Baekhyun’s head and when he grabbed his arm to stop, Jaehyun twisted it in the opposite which caused Baekhyun to scream in agony.

  “Beat me to a pulp like you always do then.” He replied with a grunt, the pain shooting to his entire arm now.

  “That’s exactly what’ll happen to ya. Say bye to these bones.” Johnny lifted his nailed bat to strike him.

Baekhyun shut his eyes tight. He was prepared for the consequences ever since the match ended. This wasn’t his first time to get hit for backtracking; he was more or less used to it now. But goddamn he still hated how much it hurt and how difficult it was to cover his bruises under layers of foundation.

And just when he had grown past the mindset to believe in miracles, a very familiar annoying voice yelled from the start point of the alley.

  “Not his face!” Hei yelled.

Baekhyun had the most confused frown on his face, mirroring that of the goons. Johnny dropped the bat back to the ground with a loud sound and turned towards her.

  “The ya want?” He asked and Hei started marching towards them with nonchalance.

  “Let him go.” She said coolly, flexing her hand in circular movements.

  “Lil’ lamb, stay out.” Jaehyun warned this time as they began surrounding her. 

  “They’re dangerous!” Baekhyun yelled at her, breath trapped in his chest. Hei stopped glaring at Johnny and gave him a teasing smile.

  “Do you want my help?” She asked.

Very funny. Baekhyun rolled his eyes. This was not the time for her to play with words. These were harmful guys and he didn’t want her to willingly throw herself to the wolves like that.

  “You think I’m being funny?” She spoke out, as if having read his mind. Baekhyun shook his head and pointed at the back to signal her to run away.

  “Quite a stubborn one.” Jaehyun rose his hand to hit her in the meanwhile which Hei caught within a swift moment and kneed him in the guts.

  “Shut up when I’m talking.” She then caught his head in her hands and slammed it on the same knee.

Jaehyun rolled to the ground in pain. Hei dodged Johnny’s bat and twisted his arm backward, snatching the baseball bat away and using it to hit the side of his waist. He cursed when the nails dug into his muscles and fell to the ground too, his shirt beginning to seep with spots of red. Hei then hit another one’s shoulder with the bat and another one’s leg and scraped his thigh. In a few minutes, she managed to paralyze the four men in sheer soreness.

  “That’s it? Easy.” She huffed out of breath by the quick actions. “Listen to me now,” Hei bent to grab Johnny by the collar, “Come near Baekhyun again and see what I do to you.”

Baekhyun just blinked at the blood-stained bat in her hands and took his good seconds to digest what just happened. All of which was still pretty unbelievable. He flinched when she walked towards him but her hand gently met with his as she took him out of there, throwing the injury inducing item aside.

They had been sitting on the pavement for a while in silence as they sipped on the Coca-Cola she bought for him out of courtesy. He sat awkwardly, she sat with a grin that she tried to hide behind every sip. Once every moment he would catch her peering at his lips, and then she finally informed that he had a bleeding cut which he wiped with the sleeve of his hoodie.

  “So, are you ever gonna tell me why you almost died back there?” She asked as she tried to dump her empty can into the public garbage disposal a