A ROSE'S SEVEN THORNS

CHAPTER 09

"You Thought"

Earlier

Her mother asked it as a question, but it wasn’t that at all. It was more of command put nicely. Her mother was the sweetest until you did something she claimed disrespectful. Therefore, Jangmi knew better and answered ‘yes’.

“Oh man, I have to tell Namjoon…” She suddenly trailed off as she recalled Suga’s words from earlier. Then her eyebrows furrowed as she scrunched up her nose and she huffed, “I don’t need a babysitter.”

•••

Chin propped up on his palm, Namjoon sat in the comfort of his dark room. Nothing on but a dim lamp on the desk. In his other hand, he held a pen. With it, he wrote a time on the map before him.

He was doing some last minute touch ups for their job.  Although everything was set, he still went over it as many times as he could. Namjoon needed to make sure it all went accordingly. He need to think of every possible scenario, so that he and his team would be prepared.

After all, it was his job as the leader.

D-Day was approaching quickly, they only had three days. They had the weekend and then Monday would be the day.

That reminded him that he needed to let Sehun know beforehand that they would not be there for Jangmi.

As she popped into his mind, the pen loosened in his hand as he recalled the day before.

He hadn't meant to be brash with his words. Perhaps it hadn't been a good idea to agree to visit the park. He already knew why she wanted to. That specific park had many memories for them as children.

The corner of his lips lifted as one surfaced in his mind.

~

TEN YEARS AGO

An eight-year-old girl with black hair laughed quietly as she ran throughout the park. Finally coming near her destination, she began to climb the tree.

A boy watched her from the bushes where he was hiding. When he realized what she was up to, he shook his head. He was only nine, but Namjoon swore he aged ten years every time he was with her. “This girl…”

“Ready or not,” A voice, obviously male, sounded a few feet away from the two hiders. Another boy, eleven-years-old, suddenly appeared and shouted, “Here I come!”

Jangmi grinned widely as she tucked herself further in the branches, the leaves doing their job of shielding her. He would never find her.

Namjoon continued to watch her, but froze when he heard footsteps approaching. He hadn't really wanted to play, but Jangmi got annoying when he refused so. Anyways, he didn't really want a difficult hiding spot, so he chose the bushes. If he had known he'd be caught so easily, he would've tried a little more.

He held his breath when he saw shoes walking towards him. Maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't bother to look. Maybe Jangmi would sneeze and pull his attention away. Although Namjoon didn't want to play, he still didn't want to lose.

Namjoon swore his cheeks became dark with his lack of breathing. Just when he was going to take a big gulp of air, the shoes stopped and ran in a different direction.

A few seconds passed before he allowed himself to breath. That was close. He didn't hear Jangmi sneeze, but he figured she had been caught.

“Thank you, Jangmi,” He muttered lowly, as he wiped the imaginary sweat from his forehead.

“No,” Namjoon jumped when a hand landed on his shoulder. “Thank you.”

Without even turning around, Namjoon cursed under his breath. Then he stood and turned around to face his friend, lips pulled into a frown. He had been caught.

He only grinned at Namjoon. “One down, one to go. Feel like sharing where she's hiding?”

“I would never cheat,” Namjoon proclaimed loudly. Then he lowered his voice and pointed a finger at the tree. “She thinks she's a squirrel or something.”

pThe other boy turned around and glanced at the tree. As he looked, he caught sight of a long braid flipping. It was as if she had been watching and had to look away.

He sighed, “And our mothers tell us not to be a bad influence on her.”

Namjoon nodded as he dusted some grass off his shorts. “She's the bad influence.”

The boys made their way to the tree and glanced up. Then the boy began loudly, “Jangmi-ah~ let down your hair.”

Her nose scrunched up, realizing she had been caught. Still, she did not move.

“Oi, Jangmi, come down,” Namjoon spoke this time. “You've been caught.”

“Only because you're a cheater,” She retorted as she remembered he had sold her out. She poked her head out of the leaves, “He would've never found me!”

Namjoon deadpanned. “Your hair is too long and can be seen. You're also holding broken branches to cover yourself.” Then he nodded, “Yeah, he would've never found you.”

The boy spoke up, his tone serious, “Yup. I would've never noticed hands holding the end of the branches.”

Jangmi mocked his words in a childish tone. Then she let go of the broken branches and let them fall.

The two boys had to move quickly, in order to avoid being hit by them. “Yah!”

She stuck her tongue out and began moving. Just as she sat at the end of a thick branch, she looked down.

“Uh…”

“Hurry up and come down,” He told her. “We can go to the convenience store to eat.”

Namjoon nodded in agreement. “Yeah, let's go.”

The boys watched as she suddenly grinned sheepishly. Jangmi scratched the back of her neck as she spoke, “Climbing up was no problem, but getting down… Well…”

“It'll take you a while, right?” She nodded at the boy’s question.

Then Namjoon put a hand up, “Well, whenever you get down, we’ll be at the store.”

With that, the boys began to walk away.

“W-What? Yah! You can't leave me! Yah!”

The boys smirked as they glanced at each other from the corner of their eyes. Of course they wouldn't really leave her, but her reactions were priceless. And besides, this was payback for almost dropping the branches on them.

“Relax,” Namjoon started as they both turned back to the tree. “We're only joking.”

“Yeah,” The boy agreed. Then he put a finger to his chin and tapped, “Should we call the fire department and tell them there's some unknown animal stuck in a tree?”

Before Namjoon could speak, Jangmi yelled out, “Yah!”

The boys laughed. They knew her patience was wearing thin – after all, she only had a pinch of it to begin with.

“Alright, alright, let's see,” Namjoon said as he looked up and down at the tree. Approaching this like a math problem, he guesstimated the distance Jangmi was off the ground.

If Namjoon got onto the boy’s shoulders and leaned against the tree then Jangmi would be able to reach them. Maybe she could shimmy down easier.

Telling his plan to his friends, they agreed and began to get in position. Once Namjoon was in position on his shoulders, they leaned against the tree.

Jangmi looked down and gulped softly. Then as she neared them, she pointed a shaky finger at them. “If you drop me…”

“Yeah yeah, threats later please,” The boy holding Namjoon said, adjusting him. “I'm dying here. Namjoon, what have you been eating?”

Namjoon swung one of his legs back and was satisfied when the boy grunted. Then he turned back to Jangmi and reached out to her. “I swear we won't drop you.”

-

“You swore,” Jangmi told them as the nurse put her arm in a sling.

“He did, not me,” The boy retorted, making Namjoon huff.

Jangmi had fallen onto her arm, which caused her to sprain it. Luckily, she hadn't fallen from too high or she could've seriously hurt herself.

Everything had been going fine until she shimmied down. What had happened was she slid down the tree and reached Namjoon then she began to move down to the other boy’s shoulders. That's when her foot slipped and she tumbled to the floor. Thus resulting in a sprained arm.

“It's your own fault for climbing the tree,” Namjoon told her with his arms crossed. “You know you're not supposed to.”

“Valid point,” The boy agreed with a nod. “I mean it always turns out this way. Well not the whole injured thing, but you never being able to get down on your own.”

“It's easier getting up than down,” She told them, trying to explain her logic.

“Which is why you shouldn't do it,” The three children turned to face Jangmi's mother, Mrs. Lee. She had been talking to the doctor. With a stern expression, she scolded her only daughter. “What if you had been seriously hurt?”

Jangmi waved it off with her only good arm. “But I wasn't. I'm fine!” Then she grinned widely, making her mother and two friends sigh.

~

Namjoon shook his head with a large smile that made his dimples appear. Even then, she was causing trouble. She got injured and yet she still was able to smile and be her usual self.

Even now, she still smiled and went on with her day as if nothing had happened. Like she hadn't been threatened by a gang. Either she was good at hiding her emotions or incredibly dense. He was betting on the latter.

Namjoon knew, sooner or later, the truth would come out. She would find out what had happened after she left. But for now, he would let her wonder.

Besides, he had something to focus on right now. The job was the main priority, although Jangmi was taking over. He'd focus on the job and once it was over, he'd focus on her. Everything should be fine as long as she didn't stir up any trouble before that.

But alas, trouble always found Jangmi.

•••

“See I knew it,” Jangmi muttered as she turned the corner. “I can totally handle myself.”

She did not need someone to hold her hand and walk her to the store. She was nineteen years old, an adult and the store was just around the corner. Besides, nobody had bothered her for a week. VIXX was AWOL and that other dude wasn’t around, so she’d be fine.

She’d show that Min Yoongi.

Instead of going past the thirteen houses, she went the other direction. Just a block passed the corner, there was a small grocery store. She’d be in and out before anyone noticed.

Since she wasn’t in any hurry, she’d take her time walking to the store. Note: she also took her time to just be obnoxious and show that she could go out by herself and nothing would happen.

Legally, she was an adult. Mentally, not so much.

She passed by some high school students as they laughed loudly. Then she saw some kids playing in a front yard. She smiled at that.

Just as she passed that house, everything seemed to become silent. It was like everyone disappeared. There was no one around. It was just her walking down a street that seemed to be longer than usual. It was around 6:15 when she left her house and it hadn’t been that dark. The sunset hadn’t begun to form yet, but she was getting nervous.

Jangmi tried to shake off the feeling. They were probably just nervous jitters from going against Namjoon and being alone. She was fine. And incredibly stubborn – there was nothing wrong. It was all in her head, there was nothing happening.

She was fine.

Then a tingle passed through her and she tried to move faster. She had felt this after she caught Ravi staring at her from the pizzeria’s window. She hadn’t felt his stare, but once she caught him she felt a small tingle of fear go through her. And she was feeling it again.

Nervously, she glanced around, trying to tell herself again that it was all in her head. That nothing was going to happen.

Still, her eyes moved on their own. She glanced everywhere, checking every visible place. She needed to be sure that she was just being paranoid.

She glanced behind her, but saw no one. In fact, she didn't even hear footsteps. She began to relax a bit and started to walk with a bounce to her step.

She felt silly for even thinking something was going to happen. Jangmi shook her head. Clearly she had been around too much action ever since meeting BTS. This was just a casual walk to the store, nothing more.

Freaking out for no reason. She thought as she crossed a small neighborhood street. She was near the store and she felt more confident now.

See! I'm almost there and nothing has happened. Take that, Suga.

She continued to walk when she heard a car coming closer. She froze just the slightest, thoughts like earlier flying through her head. Jangmi took a deep breath and turned her head slightly just as the car passed. When she realized nothing had happened, she smiled.

Just as she was going to turn back, she noticed something.

Across the street on the other sidewalk was a figure walking slightly behind her. It didn’t seem suspicious, but when she made eye contact with him she felt that tingle again.

And she just knew this guy was not safe at all. She knew her feeling