Part 2 of the double update!! (6/13/2015)

I look like .

The dark circles- which had finally started to fade away from my face- have made a dramatic comeback. My skin is ragged and pale, my nails are bitten to the core, and I am wearing one of Lina’s baggy tshirts and yesterday’s Nike shorts (we couldn’t risk returning to my house last night. In fact, I don’t think I’ll ever be returning. It’s too dangerous going there).

It doesn’t matter, though, because the entire school is in chaos.

Swarms of policemen are roaming through the halls, talking to teachers and checking the video cameras. When they discover that the video cameras weren’t on- they haven’t been for 8 years- the police officers swear in anger. The somber tone of the adults, however, is directly proportional to the excitement of the students at Brookhaven High. Everyone’s buzzing with gossip, trying to hypothesize who created the explosion in Mrs. Wringer’s room.

Lina, Preet, and I are walking to Calculus when a police officer blocks my path. "Aemin Hwang?" he asks in a curt tone. When I nod, he says, "You'll have to come with me for questioning about the explosion yesterday afternoon."  

The color drains from my face. "W-What? I didn't do it!"

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but we have a few questions for you. As I understand it, you were in the chemistry classroom after your teacher left. No one else was present."

           "I left ten minutes after Mrs. Wringer did," I protest weakly. "I just studied-,"

           "Sorry, ma'am," the officer repeats, and leads me away from a horrified Preet and Lina. A crowd has gathered around us; gaping bystanders who can't believe that Ami Hwang, the computer-obsessed loser, was responsible for this explosion. Despite my will, tears begin welling up in my eyes. This is not happening.

I am practically shoved into Principal Stucker's office, where Mrs. Wringer, two Assistant Principals, 6 police officers, and Principal Stucker himself are seated around a long table. Everyone is glaring at me- except for Mrs. Wringer, who is giving me a malicious smile. That .

Principal Stucker clears his throat. "Miss Hwang, the explosion took place in Mrs. Wringer's storage room- which you had immediate access to- at approximately 5:30. I understand you stayed after Mrs. Wringer left at about 5:15. The times you were in her class and the time of the explosion matches up almost perfectly."

"I didn't do anything," I whisper. "I just locked up the room, and then... I left."

"You left."

"Yes." I swallow. I am not going to bring up what happened yesterday afternoon. It is way too incredible to believe.    

One of the police officers brings his face close to mine and stares me down. "We need to contact your parents, young lady."        

"Go ahead. They're somewhere in Europe right now. They can't come here."

The officer looks at one of his colleagues, a triumphant look on his face. He is about to say something when someone knocks on the door.

"Mr. Stucker, a student insists that he was with Miss Hwang at the time of the incident. He has a solid alibi for her, with evidence."  

"If it's another one of her friends trying to fabricate excuses for her, I don't want to hear it," Mrs. Wringer says in a smarmy tone.

"No... this is a credible source."   

"Send him in," a police officer commands. A tall boy walks into the room and my jaw drops.

Jungkook Jeon.

What the hell.

"Jungkook!" Mrs. Wringer exclaims, her demeanor turning warm and pleasant. "What are you doing here?"

"Jungkook." Principal Stucker claps him on the back. My stomach burns with resentment. Of course, everyone mistrusts me. But oh, dear, wonderful, murderous Jungkook is so perfect and loved.                              

"Who is this?" a police officer asks suspiciously.

"Oh, this is Jungkook Jeon. Model student, varsity basketball player, his parents are on the school board- and have made some very generous donations as well-,"

Jungkook grins. "Thanks, Principal Stucker. I'm here to vouch for my girlfriend."

I swear I almost burst out laughing.

The sheer insanity of his words is utterly unbelievable. Mr. Stucker and Mrs. Wringer must think so, too; their eyes bug out of their heads.

"After Ami finished studying, I picked her up and we went to the mall. Here- we took pictures. Check the times and dates." Jungkook withdraws his phone from his pocket and pulls up the camera roll. Multiple images of the two of us sharing ice cream, feeding each other chocolate, and hugging tightly appear on the screen.

I stare at Jungkook, incredulous. How the hell did he make these pictures? How did he get them to have yesterday's date and "5:36 PM" on them?

And why in the world is he covering for me?

"If you don't believe me, you can check footage from the mall security cameras," Jungkook continues. "We visited Forever 21, Hot Topic, and the food court, in that order."

"There's no need," a police officer chuckles, grinning at him. "We believe you. Frankly, we didn't really think that this young lady committed the crime at all!"

"Yeah, right," I scoff under my breath.

Another police officer peers at Jungkook. "Say, your mom wouldn't happen to be Sarah Jeon, would she?"

"That is my mom. How'd you know? "

"Oh, so you're Sarah's son! She has been gushing about you for years." The officer sticks put his hand. "Nathaniel Robertson. Pleasure to meet you. Your mother's attended the police force's annual fundraising banquet every year. We really appreciate all she's done for us."

"Nice to meet you, Officer Robertson," Jungkook grins. A sick feeling creeps up my throat. So the police are buddy-buddy with a gang? This is ridiculous! Do they not know about everything that Jungkook is involved in? Or do they purposely turn a blind eye because he's so influential?

Principal Stucker is beaming at Jungkook like he's his own son. On the other hand, Mrs. Wringer is giving me a thinly masked death stare.

"I didn't know you two were dating!" she chirps in a fake-excited voice. "Actually, all your teachers and I thought that you two hated each other!"

"W-Well-," Jungkook stutters, but I cut him off.

"Well, a few weeks ago, Jungkook asked me out, and I said yes." I sigh, but pretend to act embarrassed and shy about the situation. "We don't want our friends to find out, or they'll make fun of us forever." My cheeks turns bright red and I bury my face in my hands.

"These teenagers," Principal Stucker chuckles. "How adorable. Well, get to first period, you two! It's almost over, but you might as well show up. Oh, and by the way... good luck with everything." He throws a little wink at us, like we're all somehow part of this hilarious inside joke now. I force myself to giggle.

Jungkook firmly shakes Officer Robertson's hand. "It was nice meeting you, sir. Have a good day, Principal Stucker!" He turns to me, his hand outstretched and a gentle smile on his face. "Let's go, Ami."

I slip my fingers through his and giggle, "Alright!"

The instant we are outside Principal Stucker's office, I yank my hand from Jungkook and try to slap him across the face. When he catches my hand in mid-air, I draw the other one into a fist and aim for his stomach. Jungkook effortlessly grabs that hand, too, and pins my wrists up on the wall above my head.

"Let go!" I growl, writhing around in his grip, but he doesn't budge an inch.

"That's no way to treat someone who just saved you from incarceration," he smirks. I glare at him furiously.

"You tried to kill me yesterday, you monster," I hiss. "You and your friends are part of a ing Korean gang that is apparently after my right now. How have you hidden this for so long?"

"That doesn't matter," Jungkook says in a low voice. "What matters is why you hacked into the 4 Flames website, and what you did with the information that you found. And don't even try pretending like it wasn't you. You're the only person I know who's skilled enough to do that."

"After I tell you, are you going to kill me?" My voice betrays a note of fear. "You've always hated me. I guess you can finally take care of me now."

A flash of some unidentifiable emotion passes through Jungkook's eyes. Gradually, he loosens his hold on my wrists, backs away from me.

"Calm down," he says.

"How am I supposed to stay calm? Why did you try to shoot me? And why in the world did you make up that story for the police and school

administration?"

"Because you're a liability." Jungkook tells me frankly.  "We discovered that someone hacked into our website last week, and we believed that I had- that we had- successfully terminated the one responsible." His mouth twists unpleasantly, like he's bitten into something sour. "I realized that you just ditched the laptop you had used on a bus. After that, I went back and surveyed all the camera footage from every bus station in the city, as well as the footage from the school and every other place with a camera in the surrounding area. Your face popped up on a video from a bus terminal."

So by some unbelievably horrible coincidence, my face was the only one that was visible. Wow! I have the best luck in the world!

But something still doesn't make sense. Why would Jungkook suddenly want to keep me alive after trying to put a bullet in my brain the day before?

"Now I have a few questions for you." Jungkook takes a step towards me, focuses a piercing glare on me. "How do you know about the 4 Flames?"

I swallow. "I- I don't know. I just stumbled upon it a while ago."

"Bull."

"No, really." I stare back at him defiantly. "When I get bored, I look for secure sites to hack. I cracked into, uh, Goldman Sachs' hedge fund database the other day. Then I found this website. It seemed challenging enough, so I went ahead and broke in."

Pure bull. Please let him buy it. He clenches his jaw. "Of course. You have no social life, so you have to resort to doing crap like this. How did you manage to make that explosion, anyway?"

"I didn't-," I begin to protest, but catch myself. If I reveal that Preet and Annabelle were responsible for that, Jungkook will eventually deduce that they were involved in the 4 Flames hacking incident, too. So I say, "It was a precaution. I knew someone from your gang might come after me."  

"You moron."

I scowl up at him. "So what now?"

"You have two options." Jungkook exhales. "One. We go back to class. You permanently stay on the 4 Flames' radar. One of us will be tracking you at all times. Any sign of suspicious behavior equals instant termination. Someone might wipe you out for less of a reason than that. You live your life in fear."

"Wonderful. What's my other option?"

"You join us."

I blink. "What? You want me to join the 4 Flames? Why?"

"Your technical skills have been determined to be of use to our operations. You would have protection around the clock, anywhere you are. Plus, we'd give you money, status, and power. You want to go to Stanford? Harvard? MIT? Consider it done."

I look at Jungkook. "What do you want me to do?"

He clears his throat, looks away. "Join us. Obviously."

"Why?"

"I just listed all the reasons why you should."

"Yeah, but why would you want me on your side?"

"I don't 'want' you on 'my side'," Jungkook snaps, rolling his eyes. "Stop being annoying and make a decision already."    

I smile sweetly. "I have. I picked the obvious choice."

"And?"

"And I say off."

The bell rings, allowing me a chance to whirl around and hurry away from Jungkook's thunderous expression. The smirk- along with the false bravado- I was wearing slide off my face the moment my back is to him. I push through the crowded hallways, cell phone in hand.

To: Lina, Preet, Annabelle, Marcus

WE NEED TO TALK NOW.

A/N: Yeah I was just REALLY excited about this story so LOL double update