41: SHOUTING AT THIN AIR

"Take Me," by MISO

                The second thought that came to Naeil was, oh my gosh, this is my bed.

                It was her first time waking up in her new apartment (or should she say Seokjin’s apartment?). But more importantly, it was the first time she had woken up in a home she didn’t share with her mom. Something in her chest suddenly felt tight. The feeling spread up to , but she just swallowed it back down and sat up.

                Thump, thump.

                Naeil’s brow furrowed in frustration, and she pushed her hair back. Apparently she had noisy neighbors. This was going to be fun—

                Her thoughts were interrupted by two bangs, a crash, and something that sounded like a scream. And it wasn’t coming from her neighbors. It was coming from the next room. She leapt off the bed and swung the door open.

                There she was greeted with the sight of: Taehyung, wriggling on the floor, covered in sauce and rise; Seokjin, furiously stirring a pot whilst scolding Taehyung for being such a klutz and ruining the breakfast; Yoongi, sprawled across the couch and listening to music with an expression of trained indifference; Namjoon, studiously reading something that appeared to be by Faulkner; Hoseok, silently scrolling through his phone; and Jungkook, standing to the side with his head down, watching his hyungs with a cautious smile.

                Naeil breathed in deeply. Stay calm, she told herself, stay calm. They’ve helped you out a lot. They’re letting you live here. It’s not even technically yours so…it’s…it’s fine…

                “Who’s shirt is this?” asked Taehyung, pulling a blue blouse out of the hamper he had knocked over in the process of spilling Seokjin’s soup. There was a large brown splatter across the front.

                “Hey…guys…” Naeil ground out through clenched teeth.

                “Naeil-ah!”

                “Noona!”

                All heads turned to greet her. And it was at that moment that Naeil realized it. She hadn’t put on her bra yet.

                Her head slowly bent down to look at her chest.

                “Um…I’ll be right back.”

                Back in the privacy of her room and digging around for the bra she had taken off the night before, Naeil did her best to get a grip on the part of her that was screaming on the inside. Privacy? What was that? She didn’t need privacy. Personal space? No, no, there was no need for all that.

                When she walked back into the sitting room, she found the boys all seated on the floor around a little table. Seokjin had set out bowls of soup and rice, and Hoseok was placing napkins in the center. As soon as she was noticed, Namjoon knocked Jungkook through the ribs with his elbow. The boy shot up from his seat and turned to face Naeil, bowing deeply.

                “Sunbae-nim,” he began, “I…I’m really sorry…for…for…”

                Against her will, the shaky tenor of his voice made something in Naeil go soft.

                “It’s okay,” said Naeil, reaching out and placing a hand on his forearm. “I’ll forgive you. I’m glad to see you here instead of with Juyoung. And so long as your apology is genuine, I’d be happy to share a meal with you.”

                Jungkook was just looking up with an expression of relief, when Yoongi’s snort made him flinch.

                “That doesn’t make it okay,” he heard his brother grumble.

                Naeil shot him a challenging look. “It’s not for you to decide, is it?”

                For a very painful few moments, no one said anything, just looked from Naeil, to Yoongi, to Jungkook, and back to Naeil again.

                “Aigoo, why am I so hungry?” cried Seokjin suddenly, stretching out to reach the soup ladle. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m going to serve myself.”

                The silence ended with his announcement, and everyone moved to begin the meal, but the cloud of discomfort remained among them regardless. Naeil tried to start a conversation with Hoseok, but his responses were at best dismissive, and looked ready to crawl back into his room for the rest of the day. It was only after a several minutes of eating that Namjoon began talking about why they had really come over (besides just so they could bother her). They had all come to a consensus that they would find some way to fight back against Sa Hyeo Pa. They knew it was a crazy idea, and they weren’t exactly sure how they were going to do it, but they were going to do it.

                “Obviously, Sa Hyeo Pa is too big for us to take on directly, so we need to approach it from another angle. Since Jungkook has joined us now—”

                The air immediately felt thicker again, and Jungkook sunk into his seat.

                “He’s offered to provide us some information on Juyoung. Naeil-ssi, you’ve probably heard the rumors that he’s the son of the Sa Hyeo Pa ringleader. They aren’t rumors. It’s true. We’re hoping if we can get to Juyoung, we may get something out of him.”

                Jungkook sat up a little more at this. “I...I know some of the places hyu—Shin Juyoung, I mean. Places where Shin Juyoung likes to hang out. Some places it was just for Bul-ui Agma, but some places I think we might be able to find him alone.”

                “So, what? We’re just going to beat it out of him? Or—?”

                “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” said Yoongi. “None of this is exactly clean-cut. You should’ve thought about that sort of thing a little more before you got into this with us.”

                “I didn’t exactly have a choice. And what the heck is your problem with me today? I know you don’t exactly have the best relationship with your brother, but why do I—”

                 “Noona,” hissed Taehyung.

                “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t. And I don’t see why you’re in such a forgiving mood. I’m not sure how you’re going to survive out there, if you’re willing to just hang out with every punk who beats you up.”

                Exclamations of protest arose at this. Namjoon, Yoongi, and Seokjin all jumped up from their seats and began shouting at each other, waving their hands about to punctuate their points.  his made almost all of the others stand up. Taehyung turned his attentions toward Jungkook, who looked ready to crumble to pieces. Hoseok stuffed his phone in his pocket and, before Naeil could even process what he was doing, he walked out the door.

                Naeil covered her face with her hands.

                We’re so screwed. Me, and these six idiots. We’re all seriously screwed.

Author’s Note

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