"You'll see. You'll see why I'm doing all of this -- meeting in person to tell you what I know, doubting your friend, and meeting outside of school."

"Oh-okay," now I was a little worried.

Hoseok was staring at me expectantly as I hung up the phone. "Well? can I come? I don't think it sounded good for me if you had to tell him that you trusted me with your life."

"No, no it ended well for you. He said I can bring you with me," I smiled and then started walking down the sidewalk, approaching the crosswalk.

Hoseok followed after me. "So why are we going away from the school if we all attend the same school?" He asked curiously.

"Seokjin said he'd tell us everything when we get there."

"Did he tell you to call him Seokjin?" Hoseok suddenly asked randomly.

We began to cross the street. "Uh.. no..."

"Then why don't you just call him Jin?" 

I glanced towards Hoseok. Why is he questioning something as simple as that? "Uhm I don't know... I guess I'm just not close enough to him to want to use a nickname... but come to think of it, I think he told me to call him that when we first met.. huh... why?" 

"Oh I just thought we should talk comfortably with him. Maybe that would help us get more information."

"Hoseok, what are you talking about?" I wrinkled my forehead. 

"Well that's the kind of thing that they do in those crime shows to get the juicy info from the people they are questioning," Hoseok enthusiastically moved his hands as he spoke.

I started laughing. "Hopie, I think you watch too many investigation shows."

"Whaaat.. I don't think you watch enough of them! You should really get into them, Hyojin. They have hot guys in them most of the time too."

"Haha okay, Hoseok, okay," I chuckled lightly but then got serious as we approached the store we were to meet Seokjin in. "Now then. We are about to find out some information about what happened to our Namjoonie. We need to stay calm, professional, and listen to what Seok- I mean, Jin has to say."

"Okay, okay, I get it. Let's go in." 

With a deep breath, we entered the store. It took a moment to adjust to the indoor lighting but soon I spotted Jin. "Ah, Hoseok, there's Jin."

"Oooo you didn't say he was cute!" Hoseok said giddily and then began shuffling quickly over to Jin's table.

"Hoseok, wait- ah it's too late," I face palmed. How did I not see this coming.

Hoseok had plopped himself down in the chair across from Jin by then time I made it over there.

When I saw the look on Jin's face, I felt slightly embarrassed to have brought Hoseok here. "Jin," I called. 

Jin quickly turned to face me. "Oh Hyojin!" He smiled at me. Then his face changed a little and he looked back at the excited Hoseok sitting across from him. "Is he... is he with you?"

"Oh yeah. Ehehe sorry about him. He doesn't know how to handle himself when he thinks someone is cute," I tried to smile pleasantly at Jin but when I laid eyes on Hoseok, I shot death glares at him as I sat down next Jin. He cowered a little but his backing down only lasted seconds.

"So, I hear your name is Seokjin, right? May I call you Jin?" Hoseok moved slightly closer to Jin as he spoke.

"Uh yes you may. And you are..?" Jin moved back just a tad.

"Ah I'm Hoseok," Hoseok grinned flirtatiously.

"Well it's um nice to meet you, Hoseok," Jin smiled politely. 

"Okay, Hoseok, that's enough," I turned towards Jin and he gladly faced me as well. "Anyway, Jin, it's nice to see you again. But what's all of this secretively?"

"Well I think I've found out who harmed Namjoon."

My eyes widened. "What?! Who? How? What?" 

"Okay, okay calm down. I'll explain everything but you need to keep your mouth shut, we can2make too much noise."

I nodded in response with my lips pressed tightly together. But then I looked at Hoseok whise mouth was open as though he were about to say something. I looked him directly in the eyes and warned, "Not a peep."

Hoseok looked at me with disappointment and closed his mouth dejectedly.

"So it has to do with this low down gang," Jin began. "The gang gets high school age students like any gang does but they also get middle schoolers. The gang is known for being impulsive. That maybe be because of the amount of young members. We know better than anyone else how reckless middle schoolers can be since we just recently got out of there."

I nodded in agreement and couldn't help but ask, "If they know how rash the middle school aged members are, why do they keep inducting them?"

"That's a good question that I don't know the answer to. I mean, I can guess. I'd guess it's because they believe that if they start early, their members will grow into loyal and well trained gang members," Jin explained. "Anyway, I think Namjoon somehow had some type of connection to one of the members and they weren't happy with him for some reason or something."

Though I had this weird feeling of trust towards Jin, I wasn't quite convinced. "Why do you think that? Where did you even get this information?"

"When I was leaving the hospital that day, I happened to pass someone who was talking to a hooded figure, saying that he didn't think this was going to happen to Namjoon even though he should have seen it coming. He said something about some dispute he had with someone."

"A dispute he had with someone? Namjoon had a dispute with someone or the guy had some dispute?"

"Yeah some dispute Namjoon had with someone. I didn't really know if that was something I could trust though so I looked back and... I recognized him."

"You recognized him? Who? What?!" I leaned quickly to the edge of my seat.

"I don't know his name.. but do you remember that kid from our middle school rivals's soccer team that had a bunch of rumors going on in our school? Like the one where he pushed Taeyeon while she was cheerleading for our school's soccer team? And rumor was that that was how she broke her ankle? Yeah he's the one."

"Wait is it the same guy that was rumored to have saved Yuri from getting abducted by that creeper ?"

"Yes, the same guy. He has a lot of strange rumors about him but I don't know what his name is. I think everyone just called him the rumor."

"No, no, the rumor doesn't quite sound right..."

Hoseok opened his mouth, hesitated in fear of me getting angry at him, and then spoke. "Wait wasn't it the mystery?"

"Oh yeah. It's not much better than the rumor though. Man, middle schoolers are so unoriginal. " I joked.

"Haha I agree. But we all know the guy, right?" Jin looked between Hoseok and I.

"Actually, I don't think I know what he looks like..."

"Really? You never saw him?"

"Yeah, I don't think I remember ever seeing him either," Hoseok added.

"Well that makes sense since it seems you two are always together so if one of you didn't see him, neither of you would," Jin laughed.

"Well does this 'mystery' go to our school now?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. You know, when we got to high school, the rumors from middle school didn't really carry, they just kind of died down. So I haven't heard anything about him in a while."

Hoseok, deep in thought, began to speak, "What does he look like? Maybe we've seen him and we just don't know it."

Jin considered his question for a moment. "I guess you guys could have... Well he has fluffy looking hair -- like most boys this age do -- and really... I guess 'cute' eyes. He kind of has chubby cheeks too."

I thought for a moment. "You know, I think I saw someone like that today."

"Really?" Jin was a little surprised.

"Yeah, in my class right before this, with Hoseok."

Hoseok tilted his head to the side, "Who?"

"The one you were staring at the second we entered the classroom," I explained. 

"Ooh the cute one! Oh yeah he did kind of look like how Jin described," Hoseok nodded slowly, processing the information. 

"So, Jin, you think he's in a gang?" 

"The mystery?" Jin asked.

"Yeah, him," I confirmed. 

"Yeah I think so but I can't be sure. I mean, who knows, he could be just friends with that gang."

"I think we should talk to Namjoon about this," I suggested. 

"Did you try asking him about what happened to him before?"

"Yeah I tried. But he would only say short things like 'I got in a fight' or 'I just got in the way of someone' or 'I don't fight well', you know? He's very cryptic," I shook my head a little in the disappointment of remembering trying to get information out of him.

"Well how about, after school, we go to the hospital and meet with him and try to get more information," Jin proposed.

"Do you think he's going to talk to us about it though?"

"I think if we can convince him, then yes."

"I'm in, what do you say, Hyojin," Hoseok questioned. 

"Let's do it."

__________

Okay this is a bit short but I wanted to give an update for my 3rd year anniversary on aff so here is my gift to you all!

Who do you think "the mystery" is? Comment your guess!