Loren was in the taxi on her way to spend the summer with her grandmother. She’d never stayed more than a few days at a time so she was excited to see what was to come. Once the taxi pulled up to her grandmother’s house, Loren thanked the man and paid him before getting out and grabbing her stuff. After the taxi left, Loren couldn’t help but notice a boy on the other side of the street. He seemed cute, which was why Loren noticed him. However upon looking at him longer, Loren noticed he kept looking around to see if anyone was around. That’s when he caught eyes with her.

J-Hope cursed under his breath as he saw the girl watching him. She was beautiful and he had wondered why he didn’t recognize her. J-Hope decided to go up to her and make sure that she wasn’t going to say anything but before he could, an old lady came out and greeted the girl. He discreetly watched as they took in the girl’s bags and then she was gone.

Until late, J-Hope waited for the girl to come back out. He needed to talk to her. He wasn’t going to be able to do anything until he talked to the girl. Just when he was about to call it a night, the girl left the house and J-Hope ran outside. Once outside, he composed himself and walked over to the girl.

“Hello,” he said. “I live over there and I know everyone that lives here but I didn’t recognize you so I thought I’d come say hello.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you. And I’m just here for the summer to live with my grandmother. After that I’ll be going back to my parents. Oh, and the name is Loren by the way.”

J-Hope smiled and gave a nod.

“I see. Well it’s nice to meet you. I have to go.”

He turned to leave but Loren ran in front and blocked his path.

“Aren’t you going to tell me your name?”

“My name? Oh, right. Just call me J-Hope.”

Loren watched him scurry down the street and she couldn’t help herself from following after. She kept her distance and watched him until he reached an alley. He turned around and noticed Loren who panicked and tried to run. J-Hope caught up to her quick and grabbed her arm.

“Why did you follow me?”

The seemingly nice neighbor was now rough and he scared Loren.

“I didn’t mean to. My feet just seemed to follow you. I’m sorry.”

J-Hope let go of Loren’s arm and thought about what he should do. No one was allowed to know what he was up to. And to him, Loren seemed like someone who would tell.

Looking at Loren who was rubbing at her arm, J-Hope decided to bring her along.

“You’re coming along. Who knows, you might be good luck.”

Grabbing her arm again, J-Hope led her down the alley where he knocked on the door. Loren stood there trying to imagine what was going on. The door soon opened revealing a big buff guy who let them in. Loren learned that J-Hope had two secrets that he was keeping from the ones he loved. He gambled and he drank.

“Can you even drink?” Loren asked.

“You mean without it hindering my skills? Yes.”

Loren rolled her eyes and leaned in to whisper into his ear.

“I meant your age.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

But it’s all she could do as she watched him gamble away a large sum of money. Why would he bring her into this? How old was he? But as the night went on her worries went away and she cheered on J-Hope.

By the end of the night, J-Hope was hopelessly drunk and Loren had to help him get home. He was putting almost all his weight on Loren making it a pain. Somehow though, she liked this. And before she knew it, this was a regular thing.

Loren said goodnight to her grandmother before sneaking out her window and meeting up with J-Hope. She couldn’t help but think about how good looking he was as he stood there leaning up against his car.

“Are we driving somewhere?” She asked, confused.

“I’m sort of out of money,” J-Hope admitted. “But I know a guy, so it’s all good.”

In the pit of her stomach, Loren knew this would go wrong but she couldn’t bring herself to say no. They drove out to a shady looking rundown apartment where J-Hope made Loren stay in the car. She tapped her foot anxiously while she waited for his return. She then heard the sound of fighting and ran inside to see what was wrong. J-Hope was on the ground, his head was bleeding and he was holding onto his stomach.

“J-hope!”

Loren ran up to him and knelt down next to him. She tried to examine his wound but he swatted her hand away and tried to stand up.

“Get your boyfriend out of here before I hurt him even more,” the guy Loren could only assume was J-Hope’s money supplier.

She didn’t even want to argue with him about J-Hope being her boyfriend and help J-Hope get up and outside against his complaints.

“I told you to stay in the car!” he snapped.

If he hadn’t been using the car to hold himself up, Loren might have been scared. But she was more concerned than anything.

“He could have killed you,” Loren said.

“Yeah? Well he could have killed you too!”

Loren tried again to examine his wounds and J-Hope just pushed Loren away.

“Go away! I never wanted you to come along in the first place.”

“You’re just hurt. You don’t mean that. Let me take a look at your head.”

Loren said the first two sentences more for herself. She didn’t want to think the guy she’d fallen for never wanted her around. J-Hope did his best attempt at a laugh but winced when it hurt his stomach.

“Jung HoSeok!” Loren shouted, using his real name to get his attention. “If you don’t let me look at you right now I’m leaving you here.”

J-Hope gave in and let her examine him. He couldn’t help but stare into Loren’s eyes as she tended to his head the best she could with what she had. He knew there was a reason that he had made her come with him the first night. His life was pretty messed up. He had a drinking problem and gambling problem. He owed a lot of money too many different people. But maybe Loren came into his life as a reason to stop all of this.

“This is the best I can do for now…”

Loren was caught off guard when he leaned in and kissed her cheek.

“Thanks,” J-Hope said, playing it off cool.

“Really, it’s simple first-aid training,” Loren said, touching her cheek.

But J-Hope was thanking her for more than that. He wanted to change. Maybe it was the cut on his forehead making him crazy but he could see himself getting better. Becoming someone Loren would want to date.

The two went back to J-Hope’s place where Loren stayed over and took care of him that night. And when she woke up the next morning, Loren found J-Hope asleep holding her hand. She smiled and closed her eyes. This was turning out to be a great summer.