Chapter 1 - The Beginning to the Beginning

 

“Where are you now? You better not be getting in trouble again.” A girl with shoulder length dark brown hair says into her phone.

“What? Of course not. Why do you always think I’m getting into trouble?” The voice on the other line asks.

“Well because most of the time you are.”

“Am not. Plus I’m with Himchan-Hyung; does that make you feel better?”

“Is Youngjae there?”

“Uhhhhh… yes.”

“Then no.”

“Oh come on Noona, he’s not that bad.”

“Junhong, he somehow made you believe you were the adopted child.”

“Hey, he made very convincing points.”

“Dad videotaped you being born.

“That baby could have been anyone.”

“They have pictures of you right after you were born.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know now.”

“Plus even if you were, it’s not that bad being adopted.”

“But we consider you blood. You’ve been with Mom and Dad since you were like 3.”

“Yeah, but adopted is adopted.”

“You don’t mind though, right?”

“Of course not. My dongsaengs are the best siblings that I could ask for. Even if I do always have to bail you out of trouble.”

“Hey! Lately you haven’t been bailing me out.”

“Yeah I haven’t but Bang has. Plus I have been covering for you. Whenever you’re out running around when Dad calls the house to check up on his baby, I’m the one coming up with stories to cover you.”

“I don’t get why he calls so much to check on what I’m doing. He knows I’m in better care.”

“Well, he’s like that with all of us. But you’re the baby. He can’t help but worry a little bit more for you.”

“Yeah, I guess… Sooo… How did it go with your meeting this morning?”

“Well, good and not.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, she remembered who I was.”

“That’s good.”

“But then told me, ‘Alex, I left for a reason’ Then she got up and walked away.”

“Oh, that’s bad.”

“Yeah, but I had a feeling she was going to do something like that.”

“But you’re still going to go back.”

“Of course.”

“I got to go, Himchan wants to go somewhere. Oh, he says hi.”

“Tell him I said hi back. Also, come home tonight. I haven’t seen you since yesterday morning.”

“Okay, see you for dinner. Bye.”

“Bye.”

 

Alex lets out a small sigh as she lowers her phone from her ear, pressing the ‘end call’ button. She then looks around her. She sat on a bench located in the local neighborhood park.  This Sunday had decided to be a nice day; so she decided to spend some time outside after getting off from work. The walk landed her here and she couldn’t complain.

Taking a pair of headphones from her jacket pockets, Alex plugs them up into her phone. Pressing the screen a few times, music soon begin to flow from the speakers. Putting one of the buds in her ear, she lets the other one hang. She then reaches into one of her pockets, pulling out a folded piece of paper.

Unfolding the paper, Alex holds it up. After taking a few minutes to read what the paper said, she lets out a small sigh. “Agh, I guess I should have read this earlier. Could have told Junhong.” she whispers. Sitting back onto the bench, she crumbs up the paper, shoving it back in her pocket. “I don’t like this.” she whispers.

“Yo, Alexandria.” Looking up, Alex sees a man with black hair waving to her. Pausing the music, Alex does a small wave back to him as he walks up to her. “Hey Bang.” she greets. With a small smile, he stops in front of her. “Again with Bang? Why always the last name? Come on, we’re the same age and friends.” he says. Alex smirks. “Again with Alexandria?” she asks with a small laugh. “What’s up, Yongguk?”

 “Nothing. Was about to go make sure Daehyun and Youngjae wasn’t getting into trouble again.” Yongguk states. Alex shakes her head. “Well, I just talked to Junhong. He and Youngjae are with Himchan right now. He said they were about to go somewhere.” she informs. Yongguk nods. “Good, that means they didn’t do anything today… Yet.”

Yongguk then looks down at Alex. “Now that I know that…” he states. “What’s with you? You didn’t seem too happy a minute ago.” he states moving to the side. Alex frowns as he sits down next to her. “Remember that guy from my job I told you all about?” she asks. Thinking for a second, Yongguk nods.

“Well, I just got this from him before leaving from work today.” Alex says. Taking the wadded piece of paper out her pocket, she holds it out to Yongguk. “He gave you a balled up piece of paper?” he asks. Alex lightly slaps his arm. “Yah, you know there’s writing on It.” she says. With a small laugh, Yongguk takes the paper from her and unwraps it.

After taking a few minutes to read the letter, Yongguk looks at her. “Alexandria, are you being stalked?” he asks. Alex shrugs. “I don’t think so.” she says. Yongguk raises a brow. “You don’t think so? Shouldn’t you know if you’re being stalked?” he asks. Alex looks at him. “Hey, actually a lot of people don’t know they’re being stalked until it’s too late.” she says.

As Yongguk gives her a look, Alex sighs. “Okay, what I meant is that, I see him a lot lately. But I never see him around my house. At first it was just at work and school. It’s just now becoming more frequently that I’m seeing him outside of work and school.” she explains. “Maybe if he sees me out and about, then he comes to talk to me. I don’t know.”

“You personally talk to him, right?” Yongguk asks. Alex nods. “Well yeah. He’s in some of the same classes, share some friends, and we’re co-workers. Since we don’t have a lot of employees at the moment because of that decline, I regularly worked with the same people. Whoever we do have.” she explains.

Yongguk nods. “Have you ever been too friendly with him at anytime?” After asking the question, Yongguk stops, he then looks at Alex, who was looking back at him. “Okay, I don’t even know why I asked that. You’re always threatening someone. When are you ever nice to people?” he asks.

Alex scoffs. “What? I’m nice to you and the boys.” she says defensively. Yongguk shakes his head. “Yeah, now you are because you know us.” he states. “But before Zelo started constantly hanging out with us, and the few times we met before that, you almost always gave me the cold shoulder whenever we met in or out of school. And I’m sure you did that to all of us except Himchan and Youngjae.”

“Yeah, Himchan seemed like the responsible one.” Alex states. Yongguk looks at her. “You didn’t think Daehyun is responsible?” he asks. Alex shakes her head. “At first no, he seemed like, and turns out he is, one of those devils disguised in innocence.” she asks making Yongguk laugh. “And I’m related by blood to Youngjae and spent part of my childhood around him, I know how he is. I’ve heard stories before moving and him paired with Daehyun makes it worse.”

“What about Jongup?” Yongguk asks. Alex shrugs. “Oh, he looked and still do look like one of those silent troublemakers.” she says. “One who controls people like Youngjae from behind the scenes. He turned out to be the adorable innocent one.” she states. Yongguk lets out another laugh. “And I’m the leader of the troublemakers huh?” he asks. Alex looks at him. “You were a gang member.” she states.

“Yeah, but don’t forget, I stopped once Zelo officially became a member of the group. Have to be a great role model.” Yongguk says sitting back onto the bench. “Anyways, back onto topic.” he says after a minute. “You haven’t done anything special toward this guy?” he asks. Alex shakes her head. “And how long has this been going on for?” he asks. Alex tilts her head to the side, thinking.

“Ah, well I didn’t really notice his advances until last year when a classmate pointed it out when I had lunch with her. As for the notes, that didn’t start until like four months ago. Every now and then, he’ll just give me the note before he or I leave work.” Alex explains. “By the third one, I told Junhong and had him stay near me when we didn’t have work or school. And at school, that’s when I have Himchan or you in class with me, or DaeJae hanging out with me.”

“Have you ever tried the fake boyfriend trick?” Yongguk asks. Alex nods. “Yeah, but I guess he asked around or something and determined that I was lying, so that failed.” she states. “I’ve been seeing him whenever I go somewhere, like to the store. That could just be coincidence, I mean; we live in the same area but we all know how weird I am about things. And now he gives me this letter and asking me to meet with him.” she says. “I’ve told him no already and I don’t want to meet with him, especially not by myself.”

“I would say then don’t.” Yongguk states. “But then he might start bothering you at work.” he states. Alex sighs. “Actually it seems that work and home are my two safe places.” she says. “But that probably because he could be fired and it’ll cause a commotion or he could get arrested for trespassing. I mean, he’s a nice person and all. And I don’t want him to waste his time on me and something that isn’t going to happen. He hasn’t been creepy or anything.” she states. Yongguk looks at her. “Yet.”

Alex opens to say something, but freezes. “Ah, Yongguk, that’s him.” she says patting him on the shoulder making Yongguk look up. He then looks back at her with a raises brow. “He’s the one talking on the phone at the entrance.” she whispers loudly as she looks down. Yongguk looks again in the direction. Standing not too far from the entrance of the park, stood a man with dark brown hair, talking on the phone while looking around.

“Oh I know him, and he just spotted you.” Yongguk says looking back at her. Alex looks at him, a small panic showing in her eyes. “What? Do something. Please.” she whispers. Yongguk shrugs. “Eh, I don’t know.” he says. Alex smacks him on the arm. “I’ll hurt you. You are so choosing the wrong time to be mean.” she says. Yongguk snorts. “There you go threatening people again. And when is there ever a right time to be?”

Yongguk lets out a small laugh when Alex looks at him with puppy dog eyes. “Okay fine.” he says. “Turn toward me.” he instructs as he slides closer to her. Doing as told, Alex immediately notices that the space that was between them on the bench completely disappeared and Yongguk’s left arm was now resting on the back of the bench behind her.

Raising her head, she finds herself face to face with Yongguk. Her amber eyes instantly connecting with his chocolate brown ones. As Alex lets out a small gasp, Yongguk’s eyes begin taking the form of half moons. “Did my handsomeness take your breath away?” he asks with a small chuckle.

“How does this help me?” Alex whispers. Yongguk tilts his head slightly to the side. “Because it’ll look like you’re with a boyfriend. It just might work.” he says. Alex raises a brow. “Might work?” she asks. Yongguk vaguely nods. “Yeah, he’s still coming this way.” he informs. Alex’s eyes widen. “What?” she asks. Yongguk smiles. “Let me do some of the talking and play along with whatever I say.”

 

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And that Chapter 1. Hope you like it.

Thanks again for reading.