chapter seven
Of Bullets and Red Converse
Nara touched the corner of his lips. She brought her trembling fingers to her eyes and saw the red liquid that stained her skin. Her friends gasped at the sight and immediately rummaged their purses for wipes to clean their captain’s face. However, the girl didn’t wince from all the fussing. She had set her eyes straight ahead at the person who hit her. Moon Chaekyung clutched on her fists hard as they stared down at Nara.
“This … Did you just h-hit me? Did you just punched me in the jaw?!”
Chaekyung held her head up high and nodded. Their little audience grew larger as people started spreading the news about the fight that was about to happen between the Queen of Olympus International and the New Kid. Chaekyung knew it was a bad move but the evil witch’s words rang through her mind the whole time. Everything sort of blurred out when she started spitting words at Jimin. Sure, he came from a less wealthy family. Sure, he wasn’t from a superior background. And yes, not going to deny, he was hired to work for her family. But no way did she had once graded him so low as how Nara did. Saying as if money could solve everything and she could flash some money in front of him and he’d come prancing to her side like an obedient puppy. He was human. He was her bodyguard.
“He is my friend. And you, Min Nara, have no right to say as if he is some object that can be bought with money. You might be rich and superior by background, but Jimin is rich and superior by heart. I know my friend better and that means you’re in no position to say those things you just said.”
Jimin stared at the petite girl that stood in front of him now. Usually, he would be the one stepping up and front to protect her. When she was younger, he remembered shielding her from bullies that threw rocks at her because she had blue eyes. People said bad things about her and called her a demon for having eyes like blue crystals. She’d always cry herself to sleep but every time that happened, he would always be there to hug her tight and stay up, singing to her till she shut her eyes and travel to dreamland. She’s all grown up. Moon Chaekyung. My Moon Chaekyung.
Nara’s eyes flared even more and felt the fire that lit in her burned even more vigorously as if someone poured gasoline all over her. She pushed herself up and slapped away the hands that touched her hair and patted napkins on her busted lips. “Oh… You’re going down, you little !” With that said, Nara lashed out at Chaekyung and grabbed fists off her hair, pulling on it harshly. Chaekyung screeched and reached out to do the same, yanking her head back and forth. She felt her own hair fighting to keep in tack with her scalp. She decided to take a change in her acting and pulled her hand back before throwing another blow on the girl’s temple. Instantly, the grip in her brown locks loosen and Nara stumbled back, holding on the side of her thumping head. Chaekyung rubbed her sore knuckles and waited for the other girl to come charging at her once again. She ducked the other female’s attempt punch swiftly but she failed to miss the kick that slammed into his shin. Jimin wanted to jump in and pull her away from the fight but people were holding him back, wanting to see how the outcome of this fight would be.
“You!” Nara curled her fingers into a cat-like paw, perfectly manicured nails looking like claws of a cat. “Deserve to die!” She reached out and scratched Chaekyung right across the cheek. The girl covered her wounded cheek and dodged another kick from the other. She could hear the chants around the crowd, “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!”, still loud and clear. No one was helping. She saw how Eden and his basketball friends held Jimin and Junhyeon back. Jimin looked so close to turning into Hulk seeing how Chaekyung’s face bleeding from the scratch. He kept yelling something that she couldn’t really make out before Nara’s angry cry rang through her ear. Chaekyung turned just in time to see her hand coming close to her face and wrapped her fingers around her arm. She gripped on Nara’s wrist hard, earning a scream of pain from the cheerleader before twisting it around and locking it behind her back. Chaekyung then rammed her knee against Nara’s back, dropping her onto the floor and held her in position. However, Nara didn’t stay down flat too long and wiggled out her hold before yanking on Chaekyung’s hair. She screamed and tried to pry her hands free from her hair but it only strengthen her grasp.
“You…gave…me…,” Chaekyung raised her fist once again. “No choice!” She boxed her square in the eye hard and the cheerleader released her hair, rolling on the floor while clutching her eye. Nara pushed her off and just as she wanted to lash out again at her, someone held her back. A boy, probably a couple of years older than she was—because of the lack in height—and red hair, wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her away, her arms flailing around and she cursed and swore. Chaekyung’s blood boiled even more and ran to deliver a high kick she learned from her long ago Taekwondo lessons when Jimin broke free from the crowd and restrain her. He held her close to his chest as her arms and legs kicked around in the air. He whispered into her ears but she couldn’t hear any and only focused on Nara, glaring at her and wishing lasers would shoot out of her eyes so that her looks could kill.
“Let me through. Let me through!” Principal Shin’s voice came from the crowd. A lane came in view and the man pushed past the students. He stood in the middle of the two girls, staring at both of them. He looked at Nara and rubbed his temple. When he saw Chaekyung, he had a shocked expression slapped across his face. He stared at her bruised face before shaking his head in disbelief. He gave both the girls a hard look and pointed them towards the school building. “You two ladies. In my office. Now!”
Of course, the atmosphere in the office was as tensed as earlier. Even without words passing around, the heat each of the girls emitted were enough to set the world on fire. The annoying ticking of the grandfather clock that stood at the edge of the room made Chaekyung restless as she stared hard at the principal, waiting for him to make a final decision about this. He had dragged both Nara and Chaekyung along with Jimin and that red haired boy—Min Yoongi, elder brother to Nara— into his office. Both had been bickering throughout the walk and the boys had to pull them away from each other before anymore hair could be pulled off and anymore punches could be delivered. Chaekyung had never fought with someone, better yet a girl, in her entire life. Though her opponents in Taekwondo classes didn’t count, no one had ever been brave or ill-mannered enough to charge up at her for a punch. The scratch on Chaekyung’s cheek burned like Hell but it took her a lot of willpower to hold back any desires of wincing and fidgeting about the pain. She just kept silence until…
“I’ve came up with my final decision. Min Nara, you’re to be suspended for a week and barred from participating any cheerleading practices or to the upcoming games for a month considering how you’ve thrown a bucket of green goo over Miss Moon, yes I do have my witnesses for that unfortunate event, and soaked Miss Moon’s uniform and also tried to push Miss Moon in front of a moving vehicle—,”
“I DID NOT PUSH HER. SHE SLIPPED!” Nara’s voice rose to interrupt the principal but with a raise of his hand, she closed and folded her slender limbs over her chest.
Principal Shin cleared his throat and tugged on the knot of his tie. “I have a few recordings of the event from some reliable sources and it was clear that you pushed her.” He gestured to his phone on the desk, signalling that she should see the footage for herself. Yoongi did the honours of doing so and was clearly surprised by what his sister had attempted to do. He diverted his gaze upon his sister and waved the phone with the paused screen in her face. “What in God’s name did you try to do?! Murder?! What, you want to be a killer now, Min Nara?” Nara turned a deep shade of red as the tears in her eyes streamed down her face. She didn’t reply though, only picking on her broken fingernails.
“Well, I don’t think I have to go further with your case now, Miss Min. On to you now, Miss Moon.”
Chaekyung gulped. I’m so dead. Oh no, Mother and Father are going to kill me… Principal Shin pushed his glasses up to rest on the bridge of his nose as he spoke. “You are one lucky girl. Your father went overseas for a meeting and so, I’ve rang up your guardian for the time being. However, I’ve written a letter addressed to Mr. Moon about this very unfortunate event. You’re to be suspended for two days since you did involve yourself in the fight.” With that, the girl groaned and slammed her head into the palms of her hands. After handing out the letters to both the girls, the principal rose and dismissed them out of his room. Nara was quiet all the way and Yoongi had made sure to rush her straight into the car. Jimin stood next to Chaekyung when the red haired boy approached them both. He had an apologetic smile as he acknowledged the both of them. “I’m incredibly sorry about my sister’s behaviour. Well, you know how it’s like, being the youngest and having your parents spoil you. She never had someone say no in her face before. I hope you’d accept my apology on her behalf. Please tell me if you need me to cover your expenses for your injury.” He gestured at Chaekyung’s bruised and bleeding corner on her face, making her cover them subconsciously. Jimin took over by standing between them and just nodded at the male.
“I hope you teach that sister of yours to control her temper too. It’s definitely not good for a lady to be cursing and swearing in public.”
If Yoongi was offended in any way, he sure did well in hiding it. Nodding just a slight bit, he flashed another smile behind Jimin to Chaekyung before entering his car. Nara was glaring from the back seat. As her brother started the engine and begin to drive off the parking lot, she flipped Chaekyung the finger (make that a double since she flipped both hands at her). Chaekyung growled and was so close to running up to the car and kicking on the classy body kit when Jimin pulled her back with a grip around her wrist.
“Enough. Enough. Enough, Chaekyung-ah!” Jimin spun her around and made her face him. Her bruised face brought an aching pain to his heart. Slowly, he traced a careful finger across the wound on her brow. She flinched, biting down hard on her lip. He stared into her cold blue eyes, looking at how broken she was inside. A bubble of pride rose inside of him as he remembered how she stood up for when Nara was indirectly insulting him and her. She’s so grown up already. How the 6 year old little girl I knew changed.
Chaekyung felt her face heat up from his intense gaze. A burning sensation crept up her neck and onto her cheeks. She wanted to look away but she couldn’t; She wanted to blink but all she could do was stare right back into his deep, dark brown pools of warm and comfort. Suddenly a loud honk came between them and Chaekyung jumped away from his hold. Her black limousine parked next to them and the back seat window rolled down. A furious looking Dahee signalled the both of them to get into the car and drove back to the mansion.
“Ouch! Ouch! Hey, could you be more gentle?!”
Jimin dabbed the cotton bud lightly against the gash on her cheek, holding her in place as she tried to pull away. After dealing with the light scratches from Nara’s nails, he searched for a band aid for the nasty one on her cheek. He peeled the plastic of the band aid and plastered onto her wound. Chaekyung frowned, “Pororo band aid? Seriously, Jimin. You had those with you all the time?” Jimin just glared at her as he turned to wash his hands in the kitchen sink, throwing the bloody cotton wipes he had used to wipe her dried blood. Chaekyung sat on the kitchen counter, swinging her legs and launched off the marble surface. As soon as she landed, her world spun and she felt faint. Jimin spun just in time to catch her waist before she managed to fall flat first onto the tiled floor. He settled her lightly against the bar stool and flicked her forehead lightly. “Why can’t you just keep still, you little worm? Let me fix you properly.” Chaekhyung touched her throbbing temple and reached out for the mirror on the counter.
She managed to hold back her scream when she saw the girl in the mirror. Her ‘twin’ was in a shade of dark blue and black all over. Her face had scratches as if she had been thrown in a middle of a cat fight and the Pororo band aid stole the spotlight. Chaekyung touched her wounds lightly and hovered over her eye, happy to see that Nara didn’t manage to take a nasty blow on it.
“You know,” Jimin brought out an ice pack from the freezer and handed it to her, taking her hand to hold the pack in place. “you fought well there. I didn’t know you still had the Taekwondo skills in you.” Strings of chuckles flowed out of her slightly bruised lips as she nodded. “Even I didn’t know I still had them. Do you think she’ll be as beaten as I am now?”
Jimin lifted his shoulders in a shrugging manner but that wicked grin on his face told it all. Chaekyung pumped her fist in the air. “That served her right! No one messes with Moon Chaekyung! Man, did you hear what she called me? And how she flipped the finger at me in the car? I swear I could have went straight up to that and kick her to high heaven!” Chaekyung then felt a jab in between her eyebrows and looked up at a stoned face Jimin. “I know you don’t like her but that doesn’t give you the right to use the term in which you call a female dog upon her. It’s inappropriate for a lady.” As he lectured, he kept his finger in place and Chaekyung had to swat it away like an irritating fly.
“As if you have never called someone in bad terms before.” Chaekyung mumbled.
Jimin rolled his eyes playfully and cleaned up the first aid kit before keeping the box back into the closet. “I don’t see how it’s necessary to call someone that.” Chaekyung scoffed at him and used her toes to poke his back. “Oh c’mon, don’t act like a total Saint. I sure even if you never swore, you would have laid eyes on .” She saw how Jimin’s body tensed from the back and broke into fits of laughter. Jimin turned around to face her and raised his eyebrows. “What’s so funny, miss Moon?”
“Oh, damn Jimin! You don’t think I’ve never noticed how you always slept so late at night and how you always have your door locked whenever you’re inside. Then those weird noises I hear occasionally—,”
Jimin’s eyes grew wide as he shook his head in denial. “W-what?! No! I never did- What, I can’t leave my door wide open for you to see me- I mean what if I was in the middle of undressing?! That doesn’t mean I’m watching ! And what noises? I was sure I had muted—.” Jimin slapped his hand against his mouth and bite on his tongue.
Chaekyung blinked at him. “I was just kidding about the part… I never heard anything from your room before. Wait…don’t tell me. Park Jimin, you watch ?!”
Before the boy could answer, loud noises were heard making its way into the kitchen. Then, familiar faces poured into the room. Dahee dashed up but it was too late, their friends from school had already made themselves comfortable in the kitchen. Hoseok and Taehyung were raiding the fridge while Sonia, Sanjana and Yoomi were fussing about over Chaekyung’s injuries.
“What? How did you guys know where I lived? And what are you all doing here?” Chaekyung scanned the room, needing an explanation from the crowd.
Yoomi chuckled and punched the girl on the arm but immediately apologized when Chaekyung winced in pain. “Hey, what? Friends can’t visit an injured member? We got worried when we saw Appa dragging you and Nara into the office. And of course we heard of your little ‘punishment’. So, you’ll be free from school for two days huh?” Chaekyung nodded solemnly and sighed.
When the phone rang, Dahee had picked it up and handed it to Chaekyung. “Call from Madam Moon, milady.” Chaekyung sighed once again before pressing the phone to her ear. “Hey, Mother. So how’s everything?” She tried sweet talking but that didn’t keep her mother from blabbering her about how a lady should never, ever pick fights in schools. Then, her father took the phone.
“Hey, princess. I got the letter faxed from Mr. Shin. You better have a good reason for high kicking her in the face.” Chaekyung muttered a yes and waited for a huge lecture but—
“One thing. Did you give her a black eye? Did you use those techniques I taught you before if anyone were to mess with you? No girly cat fights but WWE style remember?”
Chaekyung laughed at her father from other the line. She could clearly hear her mother slapping her father across the back and blamed him for her daughter’s ‘un-lady like behaviour’. It was fun to hear her parents together again since both are always away due to work. Now coincidently, Father’s meeting was held in the States closer to Mother so they could spend some quality time together. After some ‘serious’ lecturing from Father, they hung up. “Father says hi by the way, Jimin.” Jimin nodded back and flashed his boyish smile, eyesmiles and all. Taehyung wrapped an arm around Chaekyung’s shoulders and pulled her close. She eyed him warily but smiled back after. “So… what will you plan on doing tomorrow since you’re free?” Chaekyung went into deep thought at Taehyung’s question. Hmm, I could chill at home and read. Or I can finish up some assignments? Nah, I’d rather keep up with We Got Married.
Chaekyung’s friends stayed over and spent time with her. Dahee had to keep Taehyung out of the kitchen at all times since by the rate of him eating, she’d have to redo her grocery shopping. “You, black hole! Keep out of the kitchen, got it?” Taehyung pouted and tried begging his way into the kitchen but Sonia held him back and knocked her knuckles against his thick skull. Chaekyung only chuckled at the two of them. Man, they quarrel like a couple… I wonder if they were ever an item though. Sanjana and Hoseok were bickering about which movie they should play, Step Up and Make Your Move. Jimin sat next to Chaekyung on the couch and waited for the two dancing partners to figure out which movie to play with a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. All the way, words were running through his head as he rearranged them to form proper sentences. He was planning on asking Chaekyung out after school since she’d be at home and he wanted to show that he was grateful for what she did for him that fateful afternoon. He kept thumping his feet against the carpet and avoided Chaekyung’s glances all the way. The girl sensed something was off and slowly bumped her shoulder against his. He looked up, finally. She jerked her chin, mouthing a worry about his quietness.
He bottled up his courage and went through his lines completely a few times in his head. When Chaekyung was so close to strangling the words out of him, he finally whispered.
“Chaekyung-ah, I wanted to thank you properly about today and so I was wondering…,” he glanced around their companions to see if any were paying attention to them before going on. “I was wondering if you would want to spend the afternoon with me? If it’s alright with you.”
Chaekyung didn’t know what to feel at that moment. Something fluttered inside of her and she felt weirdly happy. Her ribcages were trying their best to hold back her wild beating heart. Slowly, her lips curved into a slight smile and her head bobbed once. Jimin was so close to fainting when he saw how she was hesitating at that point but when she agreed, he cheered on the inside. Then, he leaned closer to her. Chaekyung froze at her spot. She felt his breath tickle her cheek and suddenly it came to her ear. His breath blew against her ear and she fought hard to not shiver in her seat.
“Wear something pretty. Be ready at 2.30pm.”
I'm so sorry for not updating in quite awhile. I had my finals to deal with and now FINALLY am having a 2 months break. Anticipate more updates and do note there'll be a special chapter after this ;3 Oh oh and do check out something new of mine. It won't be updated too soon but I have in up for those to see.
SOME SHAKING FROM THE DUMB 95 LINE
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