I looked at the time and saw that it had already passed my working shift. I quickly stood and left while they were engrossed in their dancing. I ran towards my workplace and quickly got in. I apologised to Manager Shin and quickly took the extra hours, since no one was able to take it and as to cover the hours I’ve lost. I also told him that I’ll be resigning within the month as Mom didn’t want me to be distracted from studies. He understood and accepted my resignation letter, but he did say that if I needed some extra cash, he would open up a special position just for me. I nodded and went back to work.

It was already in the middle of the night and there was hardly anybody coming in to get stuffs, probably because the government has included the law where no one’s allowed to buy alcoholic drinks 2 hours before midnight. I was restocking when I heard someone walking in, in fact a group of people. “So this is where you left us for.” I turned to see 49 boys, some were looking at me while others were scattered around, looking at the items our store sells. I apologised for leaving without notice and they shook it off, saying it was alright since I had a good reason. “What time do you end work?” I looked at the clock and showed them my index finger. They nodded and then said, “we’ll wait for you to end your shift and shall walk you home.” I shook my head, telling them I would be fine even with walking home alone but they insisted. I then told them that their parents would be worried but they didn’t budge. Then the youngest named Alex, he was studying in a nearby middle school, told me that they sort of wanted to eat together with me. I was shocked. I mean, why? He looked at San and San just smiled. Mr Shin came out and was shocked to see 49 boys standing in the store. Feeling that they needed to make it seem less questioning, they took a bottle of drink and something to munch on and came towards the counter. They left it there and made Doha, the eldest in their group of friends, pay. “The total is 89 thousand and 4 hundred won. Would you like to try out the scratch card to see if you would win something?” I fought with my inner laughter and he took the card while passing me his credit card. He scratched it and widened his eyes before showing me. I called for Mr Shin and he took out the passes to the newly opened theme park and passed them to him. “Congratulations sir, you’ve won one of our amazing prizes. Hope you and 3 other friends will enjoy it.” And just right, it was time for me to end my shift. I tapped out, took my belongings and left the store.

I walked out to see 49 boys sitting along the street, including the one who just walked out a few minutes before I went out. “You look like you’re waiting to start a gang fight.” They stood up and then walked towards me. “I’m really tired and sleepy so you boys go ahead with eating without me. Plus, eating so late at night would just add on more calories to burn.” Some of them made the ‘aww’ sound and pouted, made me feel real guilty. “I’ll make it up to all of you one day, alright? See you tomorrow or rather, later in school! Nights!” I walked back home alone and quickly took a shower before starting on my first assignment.

My phone vibrated and I picked it up to take a look. An unknown number sent a message.

[Hey, it’s me. Yoonhyeong. Thank you for the bento and didn’t know you’re classmates with San and Hocheol. Hope you wouldn’t stay up too long on your homework, must be hard on you to balance work and school at the same time. Have a good rest aight? - Yoonhyeong]

I quickly saved his number as ‘Brother Yoonhyeong’ and sent a quick message.

[You’re welcome~ I’ll take my rest soon and hope you’ll get enough rest too! Don’t eat so late next time, alright? It’ll cause indigestion. Nights. - Jaemi]

I went back to working on my assignment and when my alarm rang, I switched it off, reset another timing for school and went to sleep.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

It has been days since I’ve gotten to know Boys24, that was what they’ve called themselves, and I felt like I just joined a huge family. I even got to know my own brother better, like how some girls would have mistaken him for SHINee’s Minho and he would blush. Man, it was such a funny thing to see. As I’ve gotten closer to Boys24, I was also getting distant away from Seventeen. I felt bad for them but I just wanted to know more about my own brother. One day, as I was waiting for class to start, Seungcheol walked into the class, grabbed me by my wrist and pulled me out. He pulled me all the way to the rest area, where the others were at as well. He finally let go and they looked at me. “So you’ve gotten new friends, and you’re gonna ditch us? Abandon us?” Those words that came out of his mouth hit me right in my heart. “Ever since the new students joined this school, you’ve been distancing away from us. Not just after school, even morning. Jang Jaemi, do you know that you’re hurting us?” I didn’t know what to say nor what to do, I stood there in silence. “So you’re admitting that you do want to leave us, you want to leave us and abandon us like how your own biological family did to you?!”

“Seungcheol, you’re going too far!” Too late, his words hurt me and tears started to pour out of my eyes. I ran off, without caring whichever direction I was running to and suddenly, bumped into someone. The person held me up and I got to see who it was. Yoonhyeong, my brother. I hugged him tightly and cried my heart out, standing in that position for hours without caring if I would get demerits for it. After I’ve cooled down, the rest of Boys24 came to the area which Yoonhyeong had brought me to, San took my belongings with him as well. I didn’t tell them what happened as I didn’t want any problems or faults between them and Seventeen. I just sat there staring at the floor with my face covered with tear stains and the boys wondering if they should ask me for the reason. “San, just tell the teacher that she isn’t feeling well and I’ll bring her to the nurse’s office.” San nodded and left with others who have classes as well, leaving me with Yoonhyeong and Yonghyeon. Would have gotten their names mixed up if Yoonhyeong ain’t my brother.

We walked towards the nurse’s office and they told the nurse that I was having headache. She asked them to bring me to the bed and let me have a rest. They were about to leave when the nurse said she needed to go to the general office to do some documenting work and asked them to stay there to take care of the office until she gets back and they nodded. They sat beside the bed I was resting on and suddenly, Yonghyeon started rapping to Be Comfortable that Team AOMG did with a rapper named One. Unknowingly, I fell asleep. When it was about time, the nurse woke me up and I took my leave. I walked out of the nurse’s office to find Seventeen and Boys24 staring each other down. They turned and saw me, then quickly walked towards me to check if I was alright. Seungcheol apologised to me and the rest of Seventeen did as well. Boys24 took it that they were the reason for my hours of crying and pulled me away from Seventeen. “Did you know that she cried for hours and hours? She didn’t say a word after that and was about to faint the moment she stood up? She might have known you guys for years but hurting her like this? What have she done to get this to happen to her?”

“If it weren’t for you guys who took her away from us, I wouldn’t have spouted nonsense and hurt her heart.” Seungcheol answered annoyedly, oblivious of his ridiculous excuse. I couldn’t stand to see this fight to go on and took a step in between them. “It’s my fault for not telling you that I went to get to know Boys24 more. It’s my fault for not balancing well between them and you guys. It’s my fault for failing my part as a friend. I just wanted to make more friends to make my life livelier, but I’m sorry if I’ve neglected you guys and hurt your feelings.” I walked away and headed home. When I the shower, I started crying and stayed in there for an hour or so. When I dried myself and put on some clothes, I walked out to the kitchen to get a cup of water when I saw Seventeen. Jihoon walked up to me and hugged me tightly. “Sorry for hurting you, princess. We never should have thought of negative thinkings about you. You were just trying to make some new friends and to get to know your brother as well… Please forgive us for being selfish and for being idiots.” I apologised too, for not making my reason clear for them to know, especially when half still didn’t know what has happened during the weekend when I was back home with the rest. Jihoon calmly explained everything and I cleared some things up. “Can we have you on the odd days and then you hang out with them on the even days? You’ll get your weekends with your parents.” I gave Mingyu the straight look and he pouted. “I’ll just try to balance things out. I’ll have my mornings with you guys, lunch as well and then after school with them? At least until I’m totally off from work.”

“But that’s like 1 more week! Too long away from my princess!” I was about to say something but Junghan said, “She has been away from her brother for 18 years. It’s rather too short for her to catch up quickly with her brother than too long from us.” I whispered a ‘thank you’ to him and he patted my head. “As an apology, I’ve ordered chicken and cider.” Then Seunggwan joined in. “And also, as an apology, Seungcheol shall not touch a single piece of the chicken and — OW!” The rest of us laughed as Seungcheol chased Seunggwan around the house. Since it’s a Saturday after that night, they fell asleep on the sofa and floor. I walked towards the balcony and looked up at the stars. “Mother, please take good care of brother and protect him wherever he goes.” I shut my eyes and held my hands into the praying form. “What about yourself?” I opened my eyes and saw Wonwoo, yawning with one eye opened. “I’m pretty sure she has protected me through the thirteen of you, Mom and Dad. I’m contented just like that.” He ruffled my hair and then stood beside me, before placing his arm on my shoulders. Suddenly, I asked a totally weird question. “What if… what if I were to go get a boyfriend like Mom asked me to?”

“Nope! You’ll not have a boyfriend with us around! You’ve just made me—I meant us—get our protective side on.” I laughed at how serious his face looked and calmed him down. “I was only joking. I will never get a boyfriend, not anytime soon.” He softened and continued to gaze at the stars. “Say… what would you think if I were to be your boyfriend?” No response. He turned and saw that I was sound asleep. He carried me into my room and placed me on my bed. “I will protect you from any danger that comes in your way. I promise.” He kissed my forehead, tucked me in and left.