“What? Oh my god, are you okay?” Yumi screeched through the phone.

Sujin sighed, holding the phone away from her ear at the sudden increase in volume. “Yes, I’m fine. Look, I’ll tell you everything when you bring the homework over after school, okay?”

“Ugh, fine. I gotta—oh hey Jungkook! Wanna go visit Sujin with me after school today? She got mugged or something yesterday—hey, Sujin, Jungkook’s coming, that okay? Good, see you later, love ya, bye!”

“Wai—Yumi! Yumi—crap.” Sujin stared at her phone in dismay. She really did not want Jungkook to see her like this but there was no helping it now.

At least her parents still had to work late—it had taken quite a bit of effort, but she’d managed to convince them not to stay home and baby her—so they wouldn’t make a big fuss about Jungkook visiting. One less thing to worry about. Sighing, she readjusted the ice packs on her body and decided to read until they arrived.

The day passed quickly and she was shaken from the middle of a novel when the doorbell rang insistently, five times in a row, accompanied by heavy pounding and Yumi’s loud voice. Rolling her eyes, Sujin set the ice down and went to open the door, flinching when she yawned and her bruise ached.

“Hi Su—oh my god, your face, what the hell, you look like you were hit by a truck, Jesus Christ!” Yumi recoiled fearfully, unable to tear her eyes away from Sujin’s purple, swelled cheek.

“Yeah, I know, sorry you guys have to see me like this. Hey, Jungkook,” she waved meekly, fighting down a blush. He just stared in silent shock. “Uh, come in.”

She ushered them inside and locked the door behind them before leading them to her bedroom, where she fell back into bed and promptly placed the ice packs back where they belonged.

Jungkook’s face had taken on a scary expression. “Who did this to you.”

Yumi was apparently too busy fretting to notice the dark waves of rage roiling off of him, but Sujin saw right away.

“Oh no—it’s really not as bad as it looks! See, the one on my face is from them but the one on my stomach is actually from Suga! Wait.”

“Suga-hyung!?”

“Suga!?”

“Uh, wait, no that didn’t come out right.” Sujin giggled nervously. “Hold on, let me explain!” And so she told them everything that had happened.

When she was done, Jungkook’s anger had abated substantially but Yumi grew more frantic.

“Wait, does that mean Suga was stalking you? I mean, props to him for saving you but what the hell was he doing there in the first place? That’s too much of a coincidence!”

Jungkook rolled his eyes. “Obviously he followed her in case she needed help, which she did. You should be happy he even bothered. The Suga-hyung I know never protects anyone but himself and BTS. So…this means he’s really interested in you, Sujin-noona!” He grinned brightly but Sujin did not see the humor in this situation.

“Wha—but I don’t want him to be interested! That’s not a good thing. I’m not interesting at all! I—I—he threatened me to stay away from him! Why would he protect me? No, I’m sure you’ve got it wrong.” Sujin shook her head rapidly.

“This is exciting,” Jungkook murmured, completely ignoring Sujin. “He’s changing…I’m gonna have to talk to him!”

“No, Jungkook, don’t you dare—” Sujin warned.

He stuck his tongue out. “I do what I want!”

Yumi elbowed him in the side and he doubled over, exaggerating his pain. “Oh, stop it. I refuse to let you use Sujin for Suga! She doesn’t deserve that.”

“What, then you want Hyung to hurt forever? Oh, that’s really nice of you—”

“Why does it have to be Sujin? Go find someone else to play his savior—”

“It can’t just be anyone! Noona’s somehow gotten under his skin—”

“Oh perfect, just what she needs.”

“—and he protected her. That means something, since it’s Hyung we’re talking about. He’s never been able to get over his past but I think Noona can help him and if she does, then we won’t need to be a gang anymore!”

“And what if she fails?” Yumi challenged. “Just ‘cause she’s interesting to him now doesn’t mean he won’t lose interest later and get rid of her or something. Maybe he’s planning to use her and lose her or something—”

“Shut up! You don’t know him at all, so shut up!”

“Both of you, stop it right now!” Sujin finally shouted.

Yumi and Jungkook glared at her with heaving chests.

She pinned them each with a hard look and said firmly, “Stop arguing about hypotheticals. You’re both being stupid. Now, there’s something else I need help with.” She scowled at them resolutely. “How do I invite Suga over for dinner?”

Several days had passed and Suga hadn’t been attending school. Jungkook was growing impatient; he really wanted to talk to him about Sujin.

He dialed a number. “Hello? Moni-hyung?”

“Yo Kookie, what’s up?”

“Nothin’ much. Do you know where Suga-hyung is?”

“Suga? Nah, haven’t seen him. Maybe he’s at home?”

“At home? Huh…”

“Yo, you know how he feels ‘aout his place. Don’t go to him. Just wait it out. He just needs some time, like always.”

“Yeah, I know, I won’t. Thanks, Hyung.”

“Yeah—oh, you know what? That Lee Sujin girl? Stay away from her.”

Jungkook frowned deeply. “Why?”

“Just do it.” Or she might get hurt. The threat was implicit.

He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. “Fine. Bye.”

He hung up and held his face in his hands, unsure what to do. When V and J-Hope first approached him a couple weeks ago about helping to get the guys out of the gang life, he had hesitantly agreed, thinking it couldn’t be too hard to convince them that fighting and being delinquents was not what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives. But it was much, much harder than he thought.

They weren’t ready to let go of the past yet, and he wasn’t ready to let go of them.

“Dammit,” he cursed. Unlocking his phone, he texted Sujin: Noona, be careful of the other hyungs. If you see them, run away.

His phone pinged after a minute. He read her reply: Okay. Did something happen?

Not really. Just be careful. He thought for a minute and thought, it. She can do it. Hey Noona, about Suga-hyung…it might be a little dangerous, but will you help him?

She took several long minutes to reply. He was on the verge of texting her again, telling her to forget about it when he received her text: I want to but I’m scared. And I know he doesn’t want my help. But I do have to ask him to dinner so I guess I’ll have to talk to him eventually. Alright. Tell me what I can do to help.

He grinned. Yes! He hasn’t been to school since you got hurt. He doesn’t usually take long to come back but I have a feeling he’ll be out longer this time. As soon as you’re feeling better, do you mind going to his house to check up on him? I’ll text you his address.

His house? Is that okay? Are you sure he’ll be okay with that? Won’t he just kick me out? I’m scared…can’t I just wait till he comes back to school?

He rolled his eyes. You’ll probably be waiting for a long time. Look, don’t worry. If it’s you, it should be okay.

Why don’t you go check on him? Or…we could go together?

Suga-hyung doesn’t like it when we go to his house. Jungkook grimaced.

And you think he’ll be okay with ME!? He HATES me! At least he likes you!

Noona, you’ll be fine, promise. How about you tell me when you’re going and I’ll walk you there? I can wait outside and you can just yell if something happens. He conveniently left out that he would probably leave after ten minutes, if there didn’t seem to be any problems.

Fine, I guess…Jungkook, are you absolutely sure this is okay?

Of course! A-okay!

© Copyright 2015 by skyblaze208