Chapter 11
 

Taemin took a deep breath and decided it was time to start heading back. He started thinking again about the rich people. He did not want any of the Zutters to get hurt, but at the same time he also did not want them to get hurt.
 

He sighed, why Jongin and the others just stay away, then everything would go back to the way it was before. He felt a bit disappointed at the thought of not seeing Jongin anymore, but it was for the best. Maybe he could go see Jongin occasionally without being noticed by the said person; Taemin was quite good at tailing after people. It was a naïve thought, but he was really everyone to be happy. Even he knew how impossible it was for all of them to be happy again, but he still hoped it would happen. He was so deep in his thoughts that he failed to notice his surroundings.
 

“You know. You never get in fights,” one of the voices spoke, “I can’t imagine you’re all that big.”

Taemin sighed. Here we go again. He often got bothered by small gangs because they clearly did not know what they were getting themselves into. Occasionally he would get bothered by some bigger gangs who wanted control over them or they wanted the territory. Once they got closer to him, he raised his eyebrows at the bunch of vaguely familiar faces.
 

“Who are you?” asked Taemin.
 

“You’re clearly not as well informed as the other people in Zutters,” the one guy mocked.
 

“Ha, he’s probably one of the weaker numbers,” another guy joined in.
 

Taemin was starting to get annoyed at their slight ignorance. “What do you want?” he asked, trying to figure out which category these ruffians fit in.

The oldest of them smirked. He had his hair dyed blond at the tips and on his muscular arms were several tattoos. Taemin rolled his eyes at how typical gangster he looked; he even had multiple piercings. It was not really the blond hair that made him look like a hoodlum since some of the Zutters had also dyed their hair, nor was it his tattoos since Jiyong had several tattoos as well, it was not the piercings either since he was sure Key hid several piercings too. Yet this guy still looked like a typical gangster one would find in those movies.
 

The guy who Taemin was staring at spoke up, “You Zutters are pretty close huh?”
 

The guy then laughed loudly while Taemin glared at them. “But you know what,” the guy then leaned forward until his face was very close to Taemin’s and their eyes were at the same level before he spoke again, “I don’t think you’re all that strong.”
 

The rest of his gang laughed and Taemin felt the urge to punch the guy for his stupidity, but held back. Why did he have to deal with such idiots? He sighed mentally.
 

“Do you want to try me?” Taemin asked with a smirk.
 

The gang paused for a moment before bursting out in laughter again. “We’ve never actually seen him fight before,” one of the men started, “probably doesn’t know how to.” And some of them seemed to find small things amusing. “He’s probably one of the lower numbers,” another person added.
 

Taemin was starting to get more and more annoyed by the second. “Idiots who can only talk,” he mumbled.
 

They seemed to have heard him because one of them was already in the process of throwing a punch while shouting something along the lines of ‘cocky bastard’
 

Taemin simply moved to the side to dodge the incoming punch. He proceeded to trip the guy and landed a blow to his abdomen. The rest of the crowd seemed to follow the first guy; attacking him randomly. Taemin swiftly dealt with the first twenty or so people, but more people joined. Twenty turned to thirty and thirty became eighty. Even someone with the ranking of being third strongest in the Zutters would be exhausted at this point. Some of them played dirty, but then again, there was no such thing as ‘fair’ on the streets. It is a simple eat or be eaten situation. Taemin blocked a heavy blow to his head which resulted in a broken arm.
 

“I wonder how the rest of your friends will react when they find out you’re all beaten up,” the one guy mocked.
 

Another guy decided to join the conversation. “You know how people kidnap for ransom?” he asked.
 

Finally it clicked. Taemin knew what they were up to now, but continued to feign innocence. “What about it?” Taemin asked.
 

The man smirked. “I wonder what we can get done if we catch you.”
 

Taemin looked at the man quizzically.
 

“I heard the police are after you too. Not only have the Zutters, but I wonder how much the rich kids are willing to give for you,” he explained with a whisper to Taemin’s ear.
 

Taemin suddenly pulled out a dagger
 

Another guy also spoke, “We heard that one of the Zutters single handedly took out a gang with more than two hundred people.”

“But this time is going to be different,” the first guy explained, “First of all we have over 300 people, and unlike those pansies that you destroyed, all of us are stronger individually and we know how to work together."
 

“And those guys that you crushed didn’t see you coming,” a girl added.

Taemin cursed silently. He had crushed bigger groups before, but this time the odds were not in his favour.
 

“You can pick,” the man smirked, “Be nice and come with us or sustain an injury and forcefully get dragged.”
 

Taemin curses again before attacking.

Junmyoon seemed extremely tense. He was the type who couldn’t hide his feelings well. Jongin on the other hand looked extremely calm while walking.
 

“Calm down,” Jongin said to Junmyoon, “People will think you robbed a bank or something.”
 

Junmyoon said nothing, but looked at Jongin worriedly.
 

“You only snuck out of the house and you’re coming back soon,” Jongin said casually.
 

Junmyoon looked unconvinced.
 

“We’re going to meet up with Jonghyun and his friends in a few minutes.”
 

Jonghyun and Jin walked together to the place they agreed to meet up with Jongin.
 

“I bet Junmyoon is nervous as hell, said Jonghyun.

“I think scared might be a better word for it,” Jin said and then added, “I'm pretty scared myself, in a different way from him though.”

“There’s like a ninety percent chance that he’s feeling guilty,” Jonghyun added humorously.

“There’s a chance that he won’t feel guilty?” Jin questioned.

“It would have been a hundred percent if it was last month, but it decreased the moment he decided to sneak out,” Jonghyun laughed.

Eventually they met up with each other and Junmyoon could not believe they were having a discussion based on whether he felt guilty or not. Moreover they were having this conversation in the ghetto.

Jongin suddenly froze.

“What’s wrong?” Jonghyun asked as he focused his attention away from the conversation and to his friend who halted his step. He finally focused on his surroundings and only then did he realize what made Jongin stop. Coming from a relatively wealthy sided of town, the scenery in the ghetto was always far from pleasant. The streets looked dirty with trash and the grey buildings looked dull and broken. All of them could agree that it never looked great. And now all of them could probably once again agree that they prefered what that dull grey compared to what they see now.

There were bullets imbedded in the walls as well as several marks probably made from other blunt objects and knives, but that was not the worst. The worst was the unconscious bodies spread out over the area and the red stains all over the wall and on the ground. The stench of blood in the air was strong enough to mask the previous smell of alcohol.

Jongin and his group could only cringe and look away. This was a classic scene that one would have imagined to have happened in such a slum, but expectations and realities never agree. It was so much worse than what they had expected, considering every time they visited previously have been relatively mild.

“What happened here?” Jonghyun questioned nobody in particular.

Jongin then caught sight of Jiyong, part of him wanted to blame them for all of this, but he knew it probably was a situation where it could not be helped.

Slowly people started gathering around Jiyong. Some of them they recognised, mixed among the strangers. It took a while for them to realize that they were the Zutters.

Jiyong looked around and immediately noticed who was not there. “Where is Taemin?” he asked quietly. Jiyong looked directly at Jongin’s group. “Tell me if you know.”

Usually they would see most of the Zutters smiling or at least smirking. Now there was none of that; they all looked very serious and sad, some were even silently shedding tears.

Jonghyun who recovered slightly from the shock tried again. “What happened?”

“Key, you can explain to them, I’ll be going now,” Jiyong stated.

Key stared at them and staying quiet, not knowing what to say.

“This is ALL YOUR FAULT!” Jungkook yelled at Jongin’s group.

“There’s no point in yelling at them,” Rap Monster stated.

Key sighed before he started to explain what they knew.

Jiyong looked up at the grey skies after he walked a bit away from the group. He couldn't cry in front of the group. He was supposed to be their main pillar of support, he could not afford to break down in front of them. Slowly and agonizingly he felt a tear rolled down his cheek.

The boy sat down next to him on the ground, pulling his knees close to his chest and looking down sadly as his arms wrapped around his legs. Jiyong looked at the boy and then turned back to looked at the ground again before speaking.

“Are you alone too?” Jiyong asked.

The boy sniffed a little before nodding.

Jiyong smiled sadly at him, “Me too.”

After a short period of silence, Jiyong spoke up again.

“My name is Jiyong, what's yours?”

“Taemin, Lee Taemin.”

AN: So sorry I've been MIA for a while, but I promise that I'll update ASAP

Also I was wondering if this story is too confusing with so many characters and would you guys like me to put up a profile of who is who in the story?