Was this supposed to be some kind of peace offering?

The auburn haired girl blinked, inwardly scoffing in disbelief. As if they really wanted to make amends, do they take me for a fool? Slowly, she took the bus card from Seungyoon’s hand, nodding her head slightly to show that she was grateful that he gave it back to her.

Sorry, but not sorry. If you think I’m going to simply forget all you’ve done, you’re mistaken. People don’t change overnight. “Thanks, but no thanks.” With that, she walked to the opposite end of the bus stop as far as she could get without being too far when the bus would make its appearance—and speaking of the bus, where was it?

Aish, what am I meant to do with his jacket? Her gaze lowered towards the leather item dangling around her waist, she couldn’t well walk into school wearing it as her attire, this was his trademark clothes that he wore all the time, there was no way people weren’t going to recognize it. People could easily put two and two together and get the wrong idea.  

She was halfway in removing it when she heard a voice halt her actions. “Unless you want to give erts a reason to look at you, I would suggest keeping that on.” From the corner of her peripheral, she could see that they were staring in her direction.

“Does that make all of you erts, then?” She idly speculated, tossing a nonchalant glance to her left. “Because I’ve noticed you’ve been staring.” To her satisfaction, more than a couple tensed up slightly, caught in the act. She returned her eyes back onto the road in front of her, folding her arms over her chest as she closed her eyes.

“Well, it’s definitely a sight I could easily get used to seeing.” Her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion, it was something that she would have expected perhaps Bobby to say, but the voice was no way even close to being husky. Then again, the owner of the voice was most certainly no stranger to her.

“It’s almost as if fate doesn’t want to keep us apart, my dear.” As if her morning couldn’t possibly get any worse, lo and behold—it just did. Lee Hi slowly cracked her eyes open, her gaze boring into the sky with an undeniable sense of loathing. You couldn’t let me have one normal day?  The dark haired beauty sashayed over towards Lee Hi, her dark captivating eyes were only focused on the petite girl as a pleased expression filtered across her face. What happened to Gayoon and Jihyun? She was going to ask, when she realized how tense the atmosphere was, thus made a good call just to be silent.

“Or maybe you’re just like an unwanted bug that keeps coming back infect the lives of anyone she can get her hands on.” Taehyun bit out, a scowl pulling at the corners of his lips.  

Hyuna threw back her head to laugh, flourishing her hand dismissively. “Oh come on now, Taehyun. You aren’t still holding a grudge against me since I didn’t agree to go on a date with you all those years ago?”

What? Did I actually hear that right? Lee Hi raised an eyebrow as she merely stood back to watch the scenes play out before her, the older woman’s fingers s around a stray stand of hair as she twirled it around with an air of indifference, though it was obvious enough to the auburn haired girl that she was enjoying seeing the boy squirm under pressure.

“We all make mistakes, you should know that better than anyone, Hyuna-ssi.” Jinwoo stood protectively over the silent male, who had yet to return a response—but by the looks of things, it didn’t seem like he was eager to vocally express anything at all. In fairness, none of them looked like they were content that Hyuna had barged into the group, it was almost as if her appearance had created such high tensions that it made Lee Hi contemplate on whether they would really notice if she were to leave.

Once again, her thoughts were consumed by the inward questioning of where the hell was this bus and why was it taking it’s so long to get here? She was almost one hundred per cent sure that the bus was either late or the bus times were just irregular.  

“What human being doesn’t make mistakes?” The woman scoffed at the gall of the shorter male, though the anger aura emitting from his figure was sufficient enough to intimidate anyone. “At least I got over walking in to see Mino getting it on with Seungyoon in a party, next time guys just lock the doors if you want some privacy or you could have put a sock on the door handle.” With that juicy revelation, she winked at Lee Hi, whose eyes widened a fraction bigger than normal, turning her head slowly to see the two males in question already jumping in to defend themselves as her mind absorbed the information in.

“We’ve said it a hundred times, that was all a misunderstanding! Nothing happened—“

“Yah, stop spreading such lies. It’s not my fault that he’s clumsy as hell when he’s drunk and ended up dragging me down with him!” Mino jumped in with a look of panic written all over his face, Lee Hi wasn’t entirely sure if he was trying to convince the rest of them or himself. For some strange inconceivable reason, the scene wasn’t that difficult to imagine in her mind, now that she really gave it some thought, she didn’t even notice that her blank face was melting into one with a smile as she sniggered for a few seconds. Then the image appeared again, which caused the small giggles to erupt into full blown laughter.

I—I can’t breathe! What the heck did I just think about? She bent forward slightly, her eyes forming into small crescents—which weren’t as perfect as Suhyun’s—as she slapped her thigh, the laughter was practically pouring out like a water flow, no longer being held back by barriers. She looked so carefree. Hyuna shot her a surprised look for a few seconds before a smile erupted onto her face too which was accompanied by a few chuckles.

The YG males on the other hand, looked completely and utterly gobsmacked that the usually emotionless—sometimes chic, but they wouldn’t tell her that—girl was actually showing some kind of human emotion. Even if it was at the expense of two specific individuals in the group. Whether it was consciously or subconsciously, smiles from a scale of being microscopic to vast graced their handsome features.    

As if the timing was perfect, the bus came swinging around the corner and Lee Hi hopped on, still sniggering away. Her less than perfect morning already forgotten from her mind as the males who were the root cause of her amusement scrambled after her. With the others following at their own pace and lastly Hyuna who took the seat closest to the girl much to their annoyance, who merely winked over her shoulder in triumph.

“—Argh, I can’t do this. I can’t believe the teacher gave us so many deadlines for this week when we only transferred here!” Suhyun let out a whine until her head fell forward into her open textbook, not moving in the slightest. Whilst her brother pushed back his glasses, having slipped forward when he was reading, looked towards Lee Hi as he rolled his eyes in feigned exasperation.

“I heard that, oppa.”

“What exactly did I do, my dear sweet sister of mine?” He simply flipped over a page, his eyes focussing on a piece of text that he was looking for as he scribbled down something in the margin. It seemed that he also wrote something else on a separate piece of paper before practically shoving it in the auburn haired girl’s direction.

As you can see, she’s gets extremely grumpy when she’s hungry.

“I wasn’t born yesterday, besides I could have sworn I heard you roll your eyes for the umpteenth time today.” She mumbled into her book, not bothering to lift up her head to reply as if all her energy that the younger girl usually radiated to the absolute fullest had been drained out of her.   

I’ll make the sacrifice to go get some food from the shop before she starts eating one of us in hunger.

Was Lee Hi’s reply as she passed the note back, to which he grinned as he gave her a thumps up before he looked back towards his dejected sister, once again rolling his eyes.

“Oppa! Stop rolling your eyes at me!” The pair sniggered at her as she finally lifted up her face to glare at him, her face fell slightly as she noted the look of amusement on her friend’s face, pointing an accusing finger in her direction. “Unnie! You’re a traitor!”

The older girl raised an eyebrow as she stood up from her seat, grabbing her bag. “So, I’m guessing you don’t want anything from the shop then?”

It was scary how fast her emotions could shift from mildly annoyed to happy in a split second, it definitely remembered her of the sibling’s mother—who had generously baked some cookies for her to bring home with the insistence of coming over as much as she liked along with the agreed sentiments from the siblings too.

“You’re the best unnie!” She chirped, an eye smile gracing her face before she jokingly scowled at her brother. “Unlike some people.” To which, Chanhyuk poked his tongue at her as he placed a finger under his eye and dragged it downwards in the shape of a mehrong.

But what was to come, he obviously didn’t expect as she practically lunged towards him with a growl, causing stray piece of paper to go flying airborne into the air and pens to fall off the side of the table as the cat eyed girl did her very best to ruffle up her brother’s hair as much as humanly possible, her impressive efforts was enough to knock off his glasses clean off his face.

“Go Lee Hi-ah—go on without me and save yourself!” He reached out his hand in the air with a flare of exaggerated motions before Suhyun swatted him lightly over the head. “That’s karma, my dear brother. Take care, unnie. Text me when you get to the shop and when you’re walking back to school, please!”

“Honestly, you’re worse than our mother sometimes—Yah Suhyun, this means war—“ But Lee Hi didn’t manage to catch the last part as she strolled out of the library, trying to walk as fast as she could before the librarian would have eventually approached the table where the siblings were currently residing in. They were causing a big enough disturbance that a few heads were sticking around bookcases in an attempt to see where the noise was coming from in the silent library.

It’s a wonder how they haven’t killed each other yet by the way they’re acting. She idly pondered as she walked through the school hallways, her hands swaying by her side as she walked in silence. Though, she couldn’t suppress the emotions of bitterness and envy from watching their interactions. She wished she had someone in her life like that, someone she could easily joke around with.

It could be worse, I could be alone again. Back to being an observer and not being social. With some aspects, there were those rare times where she did miss being able to slip into the crowds, not having anyone pay a speck of attention to her as she became one with the sea of faces. She glanced down towards her waist, Mino’s leather jacket still remained in the same place from the moment it was attached to her. She could still faintly smell the strong, nose-wrinkling scent of his cologne lingering on the material. The petite girl received her own share of stares from her fellow students, especially when their eyes reached the jacket that was became a trademark for Mino with its stitched white ‘M’ letter on the back.

Much to her surprise, neither of the siblings however uttered a word to her about it, whether they were oblivious to the jacket or they were simply ignoring it, was a mystery to Lee Hi.

It didn’t really matter though. She told herself as she walked through the back gate of the school, her mind elsewhere as her body was put onto autopilot. She was planning on giving back the jacket today, for some strange reason she couldn’t put her finger on, the jacket made her feel…uneasy. It also feels as if I owe them a favour for helping me.

The convenience store wasn’t too far from the school building, it took roughly around quarter of an hour if you took your time and it wasn’t as if she was in a hurry anyway. It was lunchtime and she had a free period afterwards and of course, it was the extracurricular day of the week. Which was basically an voluntary session which lasted an hour or two depending on whether the club continued afterschool, it offered the opportunity to students to take part in any club they wanted to. Lee Hi, on the other hand, wasn’t really fussed on joining any of the available clubs, she wasn’t before all the drama happened in her life, that wasn’t going to change now.

Even with the insistence of Suhyun, who had left to give up on trying to drag her to the dark side—meaning the Woodland club. Camping and sleeping outdoors plus Lee Hi was not something that could be a combination that would end well without at least a few people losing the ability to hear soundly. 

She hummed to herself as she walked down a lane, blinking when she could swear she could just about make out the sound of club music pumping into the air. What the hell? It’s only just gone midday? What kind of a club is open at this time? The auburn haired girl glanced upwards to see a sign that read out: The Gentlemen Club.

Inwardly shrugging her shoulders, she continued on her journey to the store so she could get back to school promptly—in case Suhyun and Chanhyuk got kicked out of the library for making too much noise. She decided to busy her mind by contemplating her possible food choices, should I pick up some tuna mayo kimbap and chocolate milk? She pursed her lips together, feeling a craving for sweet potatoes stir within her.

Ah, why did I have to start thinking about that? She grumbled under her breath in annoyance, as if her stomach was thinking along the same lines, it let out a long winded grumble as if demanding to be fed.

“—Yah, you bastard stop!”

Is there even a sweet potato stall around here and within a reasonable walking distance? She mused to herself, feeling the hope of feeding her cravings beginning to dwindle like a swirling haze. She ruffled her hair in evident disappointment with a resigned look. Aish, looks like I’m going to have to make do with kimbap.

She could distinctively hear the sound of pounding footsteps quickly approaching her as she fully returned back to reality and that’s all it took for her instincts to kick in, her mind instantly going on overdrive at the prospect of being assaulted or even mugged.

What happened next processed too fast in her mind, she promptly turned around to see a menacing figure rapidly approaching her with something clenched in his fist. It literally felt like her actions were playing in slow motion with her bag swung around roughly, just in time to hit the guy square in the face. Which was probably one of the only good points about having to carry around heavy textbooks that she could think of at that precise moment. Then, as a sort of grand finale, she stuck her leg out as he ended up stumbling over it, causing him to fall a few feet away from her and whatever it was that was being so held tightly in his hand was flung into the air.

It must be important if he was holding it so protectively. She rushed around the fallen male in case he would stand up to catch the airborne object. By the time she caught it, there was yet another male who was running towards her direction—don’t tell me he’s with that guy on the ground?!

Lee Hi resisted the urge to groan as she readied her bag as her choice of weapon. It was only when she realized that the suit clad male was actually focused on jumping on the thief—that’s what she presumed anyway—with a phone practically glued to his ear as he was shouting at whoever was at the other end of the line.

…Uh, what am I meant to do? She returned her attention to the object in her hand that seemed to be the root cause of the trouble, only for her expectant face to fall flat instantly. If she's not mistaken, wasn't the ‘normal’ thing stolen was usually money? What would he need this for? Her gaze drifted over to the—now struggling—guy on the floor with the new arrival casually sitting on him as he spoke more calmly on the phone.

“I’ve got it under control, just send a couple of the security guards over so we can properly give this bastard the punishment he deserves. Just look after my clients until I return, alright?” With that, he placed his phone back into his trouser pocket. “Yah, unless you want a concussion, stop trying to elbow me.”

Lee Hi blanched instantly. Is he in some kind of gang? Feeling an increasing desire to run as quickly as she could, she seriously gave the idea of throwing the idea at his feet before he could even put two and two together.

Well, she was about to carry out her plan when of all the bloody times he could have looked up, he did. He double backed in surprise, evidently not expecting her to be there at all and Lee Hi wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the face, she had more than enough people causing havoc in her life to allow more troublemakers in.   

So, she did what any other sane person would do in her situation, she threw the ring at his feet and ran as if her life depended on. Or even like the times when she would go for a toliet break during the commercial run during a binge of drama episodes. Only to have make a break for her TV once she heard the commercials end so she wouldn’t miss any of the show. She could vaguely make out his voice shouting at her retreating figure but she merely brushed it off. The last thing she wanted to do was to involve herself with the wrong crowd...again.

I really should start seriously considering becoming a hermit to test whether or not I’ll still attract trouble because this is becoming ridiculous. The auburn haired girl made an instant U-turn around the area until she was approaching the school, relief setting in her system as the hunger pangs were temporarily numbed. I just hope Suhyun’s understanding…and doesn’t unleash her wrath on me.

 [Extra]

Lee Hi was just leaving the library, feeling like her brain was fried from all the reading and note taking—especially after yesterday’s disastrous lesson where she barely grasped the work—due to a few select individuals—of whom had not bothered her during the school hours apart from that morning. She was about to walk through the main doors when a few other students barged past, giggling as they ran outdoors. Geez, some people are a bit too eager to leave school.

It was only when she walked through the exit from the building that she could just make out the swarms of students that were crowding around the school’s front gates, trying to elbow their way to the front of the growing crowds. Well it was quite a difficult sight not to notice, though due to her lack of height—she had little to no idea what was the root cause of this crazy attention. But she could give at least one guess on one particular group that were involved in whatever exactly this was.

“Here for a fight huh, pretty boys?” Ding, ding. We have a winner, would it be so hard for them to not get into fights? Her ears perked up though at the words ‘pretty boys’, she wasn’t the most knowledgeable of all the students who attended this school, but she was certain that she would have constantly overheard if there were some good looking seniors from her fellow classmates in the library, as they did on a regular basis.

“Believe it or not, the world doesn’t revolve around you bunch of brutes.” One responsed in distain.

“We’re not here to cause any trouble, we just need to find someone.” Another seemed to try and placate the situation.

“Let me guess, this someone ran off because you couldn’t do your job right?”  

What’s their job have to do with anything? She frowned slightly, her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. The auburn haired girl tried to take a peek to see if she could try to walk around the circle, however once again her height failed her.

“They’re the top class host club members, only those who can afford to pay for their time can go into their exclusive organisation, at least what’s I’ve heard anyway.” Suhyun suddenly appeared out of nowhere as if she was a mind reader, causing the petite girl to jump in surprise as she attempted to slow down her racing heart.

However the younger girl didn’t seem too overly concerned, Suhyun went on her tippy toes in an attempt to look over the many, many heads with a dreamy look etched on her face as she just barely managed to stare at the 'fine specimen'—not her own words, she can assure you that much—ahead, whoever the hell they were.   

“Our business with this student has nothing to do with you, if you aren’t going to cooperate with us then leave.”

“Heh, you’re on our territory so you’ve made it our business by just being here.”

How long is this going to go on for, exactly? Lee Hi suppressed the urge to roll her eyes, this was becoming tiresome already. She glanced sideways at her friend, who was doing her very best to keep the group in front in her line of vision with Chanhyuk standing by her side, looking as if he would rather be anywhere else but here.

“Should we just leave through the back exit, it looks like this could take a while?” She motioned behind them, where there were still rows of curious students forming all wanting to know what was going on. Suhyun was the only one who gave off the impression of being disappointed, her eyes kept straying back to the front every once in a while as the trio stumbled out of the circle and back towards the school to walk around to the other exit.

“I can’t believe you guys, the only one time I get to see them and you’re dragging me away.” The cat eyed girl whined, stamping her feet to prove her point as a pout curled itself onto her lips.

“I’m sure we’ll do something worse, just give it some time.” Was Lee Hi’s dry response, sharing an amused look with Chanhyuk over her head.

The trio had managed to catch the strangers' gaze as they practically stood out like sore thumbs from the horde of curious students, one nudged the others as he nodded over in their direction. As if they already understood the internal message, they walked straight through the crowds which parted instantly like the red sea. The YG boys, on the other hand, frowned as they moved their eyes over to try and find out who had caught the other group’s attention. Once they found who they were looking for, it didn’t even take a second for disgruntled expressions to flit across their faces. Of course, who else could it have been?

The auburn haired girl blinked, suddenly feeling the weight of a ton of stares boring into her back. Uh, is this all just my imagination? Why would people be staring at me if the interesting people are on the other side by the gates?

However, in hindsight she would have wished she didn’t ask such a question. When she heard Suhyun gasp, she didn't have time to check on her friend as in a split second she found herself being twirled so fast, her eyesight turned blurry. Now that she could now see this group up close and—much to her annoyance—personal, she could understand why they garnered such a dramatic response from the students. She would never admit it out loud, but they most certainly weren’t terrible to look at.

But there were some things in life that Lee Hi liked and one was not having her personal space intruded.

“Sorry to startle you, Miss. We just wanted to personally thank you for your assistance earlier, it must have been scary for you.” A dark haired male told her with a gentle smile etched on his face. She didn’t even bat an eyelash as she turned to stare at the arm that was holding lightly onto her arm. Suhyun, on the other hand, looked like she was on the verge of either hyperventilating or fainting, or both.

“We don’t normally do this, but you saved us a lot of trouble so we wanted to give you this.” Another reached into his inner pocket of his black fitted jacket to extract a golden envelope, which—for some unknown unbeknownst to her—caused gasps and squeals to escape into the air.

What is that? Instantly, her face frowned at the item in question, whatever it was, it had a significant impact on the audience who decided to migrate over from the gates. She didn’t want such a flashy gesture as a unnecessary substitute for gratitude, a simple thanks would have sufficed with little to no people around would have been better.

Lee Hi shrugged the arm off her. “It seems like you have many other admirers here,” She mused out loud, silently observing their modest faces. “I’m sure they would appreciate whatever it is more than I ever would care to.” With that, now that the main exit was clear to walk through, she walked past the frozen group with the siblings quickly moving to catch up.

The YG boys, whether they were aware of it or not, released the breaths they were holding as relief was evident in their features. “Better luck charming next time, huh gentlemen?” Mino called over, smirks all around as they too left in the trio’s footsteps.

Little did Lee Hi know, she had just unknowingly opened a whole new can of worms. 

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I wasn't going to add the extra part in, but since I've got uni deadlines, I wasn't sure when exactly the next update would be, so ta daaa! 

And thus, the entrance of the rival group ^-^ Can you guess who they are?

Thanks for all the support! It's been so lovely having people read and like this story! :) I appreciate it more than you know!

If you ever have any questions thoughts or you just want to talk, you can either catch me (not like a pokemon haha) either on tumblr or twitter. Let's be friends haha ^-^

Until next timeeeeee~ Take care!