chapter seventeen
Of Bullets and Red Converse
BUSAN ADVENTURES #2
CHANGSEONDONG MEOKJA GOLMOK
After informing his mother about his plan, Jimin placed a hand on the small of Chaekyung’s back as he guided her out of the market. The heiress managed to toss her cousin, who was busy stuffing her face with free seafood samples along with Jimin’s brother, one forgiving look before hurrying to match her steps with her bodyguard.
“Do you think it’ll be okay to leave the two kids out?”
Jimin eyed her warily. “So are you suggesting we take them with us? I mean, you said it yourself, they’re kids. Nothing but trouble.”
“No, just―” Just that I feel bad for leaving another Busan newbie out of the adventure. She knew that she’d be getting an earful from Saera later.
Jimin could hear the girl’s thoughts as clear as day. He knew that she was thinking of her cousin and suddenly he too felt guilty for leaving the younger female out. But this would probably be the only time I get to bring her out alone. He immediately remembered how puppy-eyed his younger brother was in the house whenever Chaekyung was around. He could almost picture the lad with dogs ears and a wagging tail as he pranced about, following Moon Chaekyung around and hoping she’d play fetch with him. With a reassuring smile, he patted Chaekyung gently on the head. “Don’t worry. I’m sure Jaehyung is taking care of her. He can be a lazyass most of the time, but when it comes to younger ones, he likes playing the oppa role once in a while. It’s in his instincts you know, being the youngest.”
“Instinct? You make your little brother sound like some animal.” Chaekyung laughed, stopping by the road and waited for the perfect time to cross.
Jimin took hold of the female’s hand, oblivious of his actions, and lightly tugged her to cross to the other side. Chaekyung, on the other hand, was aware that Jimin’s hand felt incredibly warm despite the slight chilled breeze that blew in her face. She could feel the blood rushing up her neck and cheeks, swearing to herself because if anyone took notice they would say she looked just like a tomato. Her eyes took in his tall and lean form as her legs fumbled along the pace of Jimin’s. The boy was looking ahead and avoiding the other crossing pedestrians and muttering soft apologies to anyone he bumped into.
He looks really good even in casual attires. A dark blue flannel shirt paired with ripped jeans. It dawned her of how young Jimin actually was compared to the way he carried himself. Only a mild three years difference. She wondered how much more did he sacrifice other than his youth when he agreed to get himself into this position, taking care of her.
Jimin pulled the brakes before the entrance and glanced over at the female, finding her staring up at him. The sun was in her eyes, making her baby blues sparkle like sapphires. Only then he noticed their entwined hands. I don’t want to let go, he thought. He met her long, faraway gaze and hoped to be able to pull her out of wherever she might be currently without having to let go off her hand and knocking her on the forehead. Instead, he huffed in her face. His breath stung her eyes, making her blink and coming back to reality.
“I know I’m good looking, but do you know it’s rude to stare?” He teased the girl, smirking even more when he got the reaction he want. Her blushing wildly and stammering on a comeback.
Chaekyung managed to punch him on the gut, playful but sharp, making the boy take a couple steps back while exaggerating his coughing. He still had that smug grin on his face. Chaekyung hated when he knew just want it took to get her heart to stop for a millisecond.
She pinched her nose, creasing her eyebrows. “Ew. Your breath stinks! Go away!” She threw at his face and stomped into the crowded food alley. Jimin chuckled and followed, but only after double checking his breath and making sure.
Changseondong Meokja Golmok was always crowded, that much Chaekyung knew. But she never thought it would be this packed. They had walked past and tasted a few stalls which sold Korean pastries and food-on-sticks and came into the middle. They had found a place to sit in the midst of occupied stools and tables. The smell of food was overwhelming and Chaekyung couldn’t hold back the drool in . She even went as far as to cover to prevent it from coming out. Before she had sat, Jimin peeled off his flannel shirt to reveal a dark grey shirt underneath. He dusted the shirt once before pulling the girl with his left arm from the waist. Chaekyung froze as she felt his arms circling her, his breath hot around the space between her neck and left shoulder. She felt something tighten around her and blinked at the knot Jimin made to secure the shirt around her.
When their eyes met, he tried his best to maintain his own heartbeat and controlled his facial expression from revealing the too-wide smile he was about to give. So instead, he had on his usual working poker face and jerked his chin towards her lower half. Chaekyung followed his eyes and looked at her pants. She couldn’t see what was wrong with it.
“It’s white.”
Chaekyung’s head shot up at his voice, being so soft yet the huskiness was present.
“You won’t want to get it dirty.” With his hands now on her shoulders, he lowered her slowly onto the stool, having her sit on his shirt tied around her waist. She still had the little lost look in her eyes. Jimin looked around and took note of the ahjummas preparing meals on the spot. “I’ll do the ordering. Everything here is tasty and with that kick of Busan awesomeness!” He shot her a wink and went about ordering from the ahjummas around the stalls with his attractive Busan accent.
Chaekyung picked at the blue shirt around her waist, flattening her palms against it and weirdly smelling her hands after. It had his smell, and the ends of her lips tugged into a shy smile. “How thoughtful of him.” She mumbled in English, smiling away. She haven’t given a single worry about wearing white because she had no clue that’d be doing any sitting. Saera had however pointed out that wearing white would be trouble especially when it’s worn as pants or skirts. “Don’t come crying at me when you get spat by the fishes or whatever in the fish market later,” said her cousin sister before they walked out of the room this morning.
I’m glad I didn’t listen to her. She was grinning from ear to ear when plate after plate piled before her. She knew what they were, odeng (fish cake) and bibim damyeon and chungmu gimbap (mini seaweed roll). Jimin made himself comfortable on the stool beside her and picked up one seaweed roll from the pile.
“Open wide.” He made airplane noises, bringing the roll closer to . The girl wore a weirded out expression but the smile on her face was big and she opened , ended up being fed by Jimin.
Chaekyung munched on the roll slowly, savouring the taste of the seaweed and the sticky rice. She smacked her lips together, clapping slightly. “That was bomb!” She took one more from the plate and rammed it into Jimin’s mouth when he was about to comment on the chungmu gimbap. He coughed but managing to swallow the roll she fed, laughing after when she stuffed her cheeks with the rolls. They talked and laughed over the meal. Chaekyung who had not made it for breakfast was basically inhaling the food before her. And here Jimin thought he had ordered too much for a portion of two.
When they slowed on the munching and sipped on their sikhye, Chaekyung decided to ask. “Jimin, did you really want to be a bodyguard in the first place?”
Jimin looked at her, surprised by the sudden seriousness in her tone. He finished slurping on the glass noodles and swallowed. After a short hesitation, he replied, “Honestly? No. I never thought I’d be a bodyguard like my dad. But it’s what that was offered to me in life. So I’m embracing, slowly.”
“But didn’t you have something on your mind before? You know, like be something else? Have a better career…”
Jimin crossed his arms over her knees, sighing through his nose as he thought of what his ambitions were when he was younger. “Well, when I was about 5-years-old, I wanted to become Hulk. I always thought he was the best out of all the superheroes I knew.” Chaekyung couldn’t hold back the laughter she had when an image of a small Jimin in green paint over his body making bodybuilding poses in front of the mirror. “And then I found out it was impossible unless I got mutated, so I shifted to becoming a pilot. Since I wanted to fly up and high like a bird.” He continued, despite the girl still laughing at her imagination. “Then, my dad died.”
That made her stop. The air just went dead around them. Nothing seemed to have moved. But Jimin didn’t faze and went on. He had after all long moved on from mourning and grieving over his father. “He was the one who had me got the job, by the way. He knew, that old man, that his time was up. So he got me a secured position in the Moon household. Omma was more than happy to know I had a job and she won’t have to worry about anything after Appa’s death. Uncle Lee had to only focus on Jaehyung’s education. As for me, Mr. Moon helped with everything. With my training and my tutoring.
“Fast forward a couple of years,” he looked at Chaekyung whose eyes were wide as she listen to his story. A few years after you left the house for the States. He didn’t want to say it out loud because even though it had been years, it still pained him to speak of the day Moon Chaekyung got taken away and he lost his only friend. “I was walking about the park on an off-training day and I saw this group of hyungs. They had skateboards and roller-skates which were super cool at that time. And then there was music. Then, they were dancing. B-boying actually. That point was when I fell in love with dance. I saw how cool they were, how their body moved with the beat. I started YouTube-ing for all sorts of dance videos and I got stuck with contemporary. I tried learning on my own during my free time. It got up to that point where I wanted to run away from the mansion and back to Busan to ask permission from Omma to pursue dance instead of being a bodyguard.”
Another sigh. “But then Omma fell sick and ended up in the hospital. The restaurant was too much for her growing age and Jaehyung was causing problems. He failed a couple of times and skipped classes a lot. Played video games all day. She was in bed for days and the doctors were demanding too expensive things to get her better. Then, your father helped. Paying for the bills and having Jaehyung undergo some counselling and tutoring. He managed to pass and get into better education and Omma got out of the hospital healthy as ever. I knew I had to repay the debt. That’s why, dance became a long buried dream, and here I am.”
He gestured around, at life specifically, and Chaekyung could not let her eyes off the boy’s sudden gloomy expression. She knew how he felt about dance. She witnessed it first hand at the Halloween party in school. She saw how his face lit up at the sound of music and how his body moved like liquid along the beat. She knew how much he loved, love, dancing. And it broke her heart there seeing the boy who had the biggest dream being chained in this position. Chained to her. For God knows how long. Till she marries and dies of old age perhaps.
She stretched her fingers out lightly, grazing the top of his hand. Jimin turned his palm over and Chaekyung linked their fingers together. A faint spark shot through their hands when they held hands for a moment. Jimin searched her blue orbs, heart aching to see how dark they’ve gotten. He made her sad. This was supposed to be a happy trip, he scolded himself.
Chaekyung’s voice was a mere whisper then. “I’m so sorry you got stuck with me.” She was going to cry, Jimin could tell. Her voice was soft, she does that so it won’t break and show that she was on the verge of tears. To lighten the mood, Jimin picked on a fallen grain of rice from the seaweed roll and flicked it at Chaekyung.
The rice got stuck in below her eye. The girl whined, stomping her feet like a little kid as she practically scraped the rice off her cheek. The icy glare she shot only made the boy laugh and he went back to slurping on his noodles. The atmosphere went back to normal, with Chaekyung eating and almost choking on her bibim damyeon while Jimin secretly took candids of her with her face stuffed like a chipmunk. For future blackmail.
Back in the car after Jimin and Chaekyung returned from their little food adventures stuffed and happy, Jaehyung and Saera got stuck at the back and were fuming. They were bumped to have been left out by the older siblings. If looks could kill, Chaekyung and Jimin would have holes drilled through their brains from the amount of glaring the younger ones did.
Saera jabbed Jaehyung by the elbow, earning a hiss from the lad. “Hey! Watch it! Don’t take it out on me!”
Saera tossed him a careless look, not caring about how her bony elbow actually hurt a lot to the boy and pulled him closer to her. “I’ve got a plan.” She whispered. Jaehyung’s ears perked at that and he nodded once, urging her to go on.
“I overheard that Jimin oppa is going to take Chaekyung unnie out tomorrow first thing in the morning somewhere. We are again to be left behind.” Jaehyung was already boiling at this, the thought of the image of his pretty Chaekyung noona hand-in-hand with his older brother somewhere only existing in the pages of a fairy tale. “So,” Saera went on. “What do you say we let them get a taste of what it is like to mess with the dongsaengs? Hmm?”
The look that crossed between the two whenever they walked by each other in the house was so suspicious and scary at the same time that it made Jimin and Chaekyung uneasy.
What could these two brats be up to… Jimin and Chaekyung could only cross their fingers, hoping the duo won’t cause any trouble.
I'm so sorry for being absent for so long. Uni has been taking too much of my time and I couldn't find the right moment to update. Now that I'm on break, I'll try to update more often. So here's to the second part of the Busan Adventures and thank you for loving and waiting for this fic till today. xoxo
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