“You ready Youngmi?” Inho asked from behind me as I stood in front of the counter, paying for the drinks I had just picked out. I looked over my shoulder at my brother and gestured for him to wait for a minute. He nodded and walked over to the magazines, looking around for something interesting to read from.

 

            “That would be 9$, Agashi” said the man standing behind the cash register, smiling politely.  I quickly took out the money from my wallet, and gave the man the money he asked for. After taking the bags filled with the 5 drinks I just bought, I walked over to where Inho was standing by the magazines’ rack, and nudged him.

 

            “Come on, we should get going. Dad is gonna start worrying if we’re not back by 11” I said. Inho hummed his agreement, took the bags from my gloved hands, and headed for the store’s exit with me in tow “What time is it, Mimi?”

 

            I looked down at the watch on my wrist, and a frown etched its way on my face. “Well that’s not good. It’s 10:52, oppa” I said worriedly.

 

            “!” Inho said out loud. He looked around him as we both made our way to our apartment building. It’s a 20 minutes walk to the house, and I was beginning to feel anxious at how late it’ll be when we finally make it home. Dad would probably be fuming in anger, yet overly worried.

 

            “Hey, it’s gonna take forever if we take the usual route to the house. And we obviously can’t take any cabs or catch a bus home since its too late now. I know a shortcut we can take” he finally said.

 

            “You talk too much, oppa. You know you could have easily said ‘Hey, Youngmi, I know a shortcut that’ll take us home a lot faster” I said, imitating a man’s voice. Inho, just rolled his eyes and took my gloved hand in his as he changed directions to take whatever shortcut he was talking about.

 

            The shortcut ended up being a narrow, dark alleyway in between two abandoned buildings. The place was creepy to say the least. It was the sort of place where you’d expect looters, gangsters, or to sum it all up, bad people to show up… or to creep up from behind you. Normally, I would have immediately refused to go through such a place or alley, but we were late, and we needed to get home ASAP. Dad tends to freak out easily and over the simplest of things, and coming home a minute later than 11 P.M, would drive him crazy with worry and that’s not a nice thing to witness at all. God help us when we do make it home eventually. Inho and I are going to arrive home a lot more than a minute late than 11.  So I didn’t exactly have a choice but to agree to take this freaky, but convenient shortcut.

 

 

            My brother, sensing my uneasiness and the fear that was slowly growing inside me as we continued moving forward in the alley with it’s darkness enveloping us as we moved on, held my hand, that was already in his, even tighter. “Mimi, don’t worry kay?! Just give it a minute, and we’ll be out of this place in no time.”

 

            I nodded as a response, but resumed checking around me for any sign of movement that didn’t belong to my brother or me. Seeing this, Inho chuckled and nudged my side, trying to ease the tension building inside me. I smiled appreciating his effort and decided to distract myself by starting a conversation with my brother. “Chanyeol got me in trouble again today in school” I said. Understanding what I was trying to do, Inho played along and said, “Typical of him. What’d he do this time huh?”

 

            “This guy in class was walking towards his seat behind me, but before he got there, Chanyeol stuck out his leg and tripped the guy. He ended up falling face first on the ground. And his nose was bleeding—”

 

            “And let me guess… Chanyeol panicked and blamed the whole on you?” asked Inho, interrupting my story. I smiled bitterly and grumbled a soft ‘yes’. Inho laughed and shook his head in amusement. “Chanyeol never fails to amuse me. That kid is just amazing… God! I wish I was there to see it “

 

            “Yah! Oppa!” I shouted “You’re supposed to be on my side and chastise him for what he did to me. As the big brother of our family, you must discipline those younger than you and reprimand them in best manner suited at the time for whatever transgression or misconducted actions they perform--”

 

            “PFFFT!” Inho broke in laughter and almost dropped the bags he was holding from how much he was shaking with laughter. “Did you really just say all that right now? Who uses these words now-a-days huh? Chastise?  Reprimand? Transgression and misconducted actions? Oh My God this is priceless. God! Where did you get these words from? I haven’t laughed this much in a while. Thanks sis”

  

            After rolling my eyes at my brother and taking a breath to steady myself I continued my little speech, “I’m serious, Inho. This isn’t fair at all. He always gets away when ever he does something wrong by getting me in trouble, while I have to suffer in his place. The teacher ended up giving me a long lecture about acting like a lady in front of the whole class, and then gave me a warning!! Can you believe that?! Me, the girl who never ever got in trouble in class, and NEVER once received a warning?!” I said incredulously

 

            I side glanced at my brother who was nodding along to what I was saying while biting down on his lips to stop himself from laughing. I huffed in agitation when I saw how he was taking my words. He placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed in comfort. “Come on, Mimi. I’m sorry okay? I mean come on, were you even listening to what you were saying a minute ago?” he managed to say before another fit of laughter forced him to stop talking.

 

            I rolled my eyes for the tenth time tonight before saying in low voice, “Whatever, Dumb ”

 

            “YAH! I’m your older brother, show some respect,” he ordered. I stuck out my tongue and said “ Dumb Dumb Dumb and… DUMB ”

 

            “Come here you little--“

 

            I shrieked in surprise as Inho let go of my hand and lunged in to tickle me from the side. Seeing this coming, I quickly moved out of his way and ran away from him. Inho followed me, running just as fast to catch me. I laughed as he held me from behind and circled his arms around me, crushing me in a tight, bear hug from my back.

 

            “That’s a cute laugh you got there, honey,” said a voice from the shadows. Inho and I froze, turning around in place, trying to locate where the voice came from. Just then, 4 --- no 5 men stepped out from the shadows and made their way over to where Inho and I were standing. “Really, the boys and I would love to hear your laugh again, babe” said the man standing in the middle.

 

            Inho, with a serious expression, turned around, giving his back to the men, grabbed for my hand, and started moving away, “Come on. Lets go. We’re leaving,” he said out loud.

 

            “Hey! Hey! Where do you think you're going?" shouted another man from behind us. "So rude, walking away when someone's talking. Teenagers these days, no manners." Said another man. "Hey!" a third man said while marching his way towards us. I felt Inho tense beside me, as he quickened his steps. "Don't stop walking, and don't look behind you,” he whispered into my ears so that only I could hear. Fear swelled in my chest, and I was so nervous and spooked that it took everything in me not to run. 

 

            The man who was walking towards us reached us and grabbed me from my shoulder. A shudder ran down my spine and I stiffened. Inho, in a split second, reached for me and pushed me behind him as he glared at the man. "You better leave us alone, Mister,” he said menacingly. The man just scoffed and said, "Hey, relax buddy. The boys and I just wanna have fun, and you guys seem like a nice bunch."

 

            "Well that's too bad then, because we're not up for having 'fun' at the moment. So, if you excuse us, we will be on our way." Said Inho. Just as my brother was about to turn around, the man reached out a hand to my brother's elbow, not too gently, and said in a serious tone "I don't like to repeat my self usually, but I'm gonna be nice and do just that. I intend on having my fun, and I always get what I want... Right boys?" He looked back to his friends as they muttered their agreements. 

 

            "What do you want?" Asked Inho.

 

            "Your sister there has a nice laugh. Like music to my ears" he said dreamily, while he smiled a creepy smile at me. My heart rate accelerated, and my breathing became shallow from fear. I took hold of my brother's shirt and I held it tightly. "And it got me thinking, how will it sound if other sounds came out from , maybe, just maybe, something like--" 

 

            Before he could continue his sentence, Inho grabbed the man by his collar and punched him so hard that the man fell stumbling on his back. "YOU SICK BASTARD!!" Shouted Inho. My brother was about lunge at him once again, but I quickly grabbed his arm and pleaded, "Come on Inho. Please let's just go" by then fear was just an understatement to what I was really feeling. I desperately wanted to get out of there. 

 

            My brother looked up at the remaining men, whom were surrounding their fallen friend, and realized the danger we were in. One of the men looked at my brother with anger and shouted "GET HIM" 

 

            And just like that, the four men sprang up and ran towards my brother. Inho grabbed my hand and started running away "RUN" he shouted at me. And I ran like I never ran before in my life, adrenaline fueling in me, urging me to continue running. I could hear the men behind us, running to get us.