Mark exhaled as he plopped down on his bed, he shook off his sneakers and just closed his eyes.

“I feel bad.”

He opened his eyes, Taeri was standing by the doorway.

“Noona,”

Taeri shook her head before walking towards him and lying down beside him.

“I feel like I haven’t been checking on you like I should. Are you okay?” She asked him while staring at the ceiling.

“I like how problems keep on coming to us lately.” He said sarcastically, Taeri smiled.

“It’s a little unsettling, noona. We’re used to fighting, you know, using our fists or whatever. But this, they’re using guns.”

“Lucas just assigned four bodyguards to me. I can’t even fight him on this.” She shrugged, Mark hid his smile.

“He’s not that bad, huh?” He asked her, Taeri rolled her eyes at him.

“I know what you’re trying to do, Lee Minhyung.”

“Noona, he’s nothing like that scumbag you’re dating. Or fake dating.”

“I don’t do the whole dating thing. Not anymore. Besides,” Taeri mussed his hair.

“I’m too busy right now, mafia leader, remember?”

“You’re not princess anymore.” Mark chuckled before inching closer to his sister, Taer smiled.

“We’re going to be fine, noona will fix this.” She murmured as Mark buried his face on her sleeve.

“Hyung…Hyung will be okay, right?” He asked softly, his forehead creasing.

“We’ll all be okay.” Taeri assured him before squeezing his hand.

Lucas looked up from their table as Taeri walked in the cafeteria, he threw her a smile.

“I asked the bodyguard hyungnimdeul to wait outside.”

“I know. Nobody would dare touch you in campus.” He shrugged at her as she sat down, she exhaled and put her bag away.

“You didn’t get food?” Lucas blinked, he was about to stand but Taeri stopped him.

“Hmm?” Lucas faced her, Taeri pushed his bangs away from his face.

“Thanks for picking me up yesterday. You just stopped me from calling out Bangchan.” She said as she pulled away from him.

“What did you have in mind, gongzhu?” He started to smile as he pushed his drink to her.

“I was~” Taeri’s eyes went to the cafeteria’s doors. Chan and his friends had just walked in, her eyes went to Changbin who kept on flinching as he walked.

“Taeri!” Chan waved her over, she nodded at him then Changbin collided with a female student by accident, he winced as he stood up again.

Then she noticed his sweater was starting to stain by his shoulder. His left shoulder. The lime green fabric had turned into red.

Lucas’s eyes widened, he was about to reach for Taeri but the girl was already walking towards their table.

Taeri was smiling as she joined the guys on their table, Lucas chewed on his lower lip.

“What’s up?” She asked as she sat down, Chan looked up, then he glanced behind him, Lucas was staring at them.

“What were you two talking about? It seemed intense.” He asked her coolly. Minho and Changbin looked at each other.

“We have plans this weekend, right? Movies?” Taeri started.

“Yeah, I’ll pick you up.” Chan recited with a small smile.

“I have to cancel.”

He paused and looked at her, Taeri glanced behind her again, her eyes going to Lucas and Chan caught how she smiled at the other male.

“Why? Did something happen?”

Taeri faced him again, the expression on her face made it obvious that she was lying to him.

“Something came up with Lucas, we’re heading to Jeju for the weekend.” She said with a smile. Chan halted, Changbin and Minho looked up from their food.

“Jeju? You’re going with him alone to Jeju?” Chan repeated.

“Yeah.” She nodded as she took a sip from her coffee.

“Taeri, why would you go with him alone? And, we already made plans.” Chan argued, Taeri slowly blinked at him.

“Why? Can’t I? It’s Lucas.”

“What are you saying? He doesn’t see you just as a friend, Taeri. Surely, you know that.” He snapped at her.

“I didn’t know that. But, well, I don’t really mind.” Taeri replied, Changbin grew confused.

“What?”

“To be honest, I’d rather be sitting with him than listening to you.” Taeri pointed out as she stood up.

“I can’t do this. You’re disgusting.” She spat as she pulled away from him.

“I was just experimenting; I didn’t know you’d really let me toy you around so easily.”

“Ya, Lee Taeri!” Chan slammed his palm against the table and stood up. Other students halted and looked at him oddly.

Taeri just continued walking towards Lucas. Chan’s eyes went to the male, Lucas met his gaze evenly and smirked.

Lucas pulled the chair for her as she reached him, Chan saw Taeri smile before sitting down.

“What?” Minho muttered.

“Not bad, princess.” Lucas smile as he squeezed her knee briefly, making sure Chan saw it.

“We all have roles to play. Can we get food now?” Taeri didn’t seem to mind as she tried to steal some bits of tonkatsu from his plate.

“It’s a party we all have to attend.” Taeyong spoke softly as he shifted on his wheelchair, Yuta chewed on his lower lip.

“I know, you all let Taeri be in charge.” He said, Johnny let out a short laugh.

“How are they?” Johnny asked, Doyoung looked up from his phone.

“Jaehyun’s paying a visit to some of our areas, the others are at school.”

“So, Bangchan and Shownu are related.” Johnny repeated.

“Taeri was playing them all along. I mean, her and Chan. She was trying to trick him. Which…I don’t understand, I thought she liked this guy.” Yuta said.

“My sister…she’s not easy to sway, she may have sensed that something wasn’t right. You know her.” Taeyong nodded as he looked at his fingers.

“What do we do? We just let Lucas in charge.” Johnny mused.

“Dark Johnny is definitely not someone we want to mess with.” Doyoung mused, Yuta grinned.

“He would probably really let Taeri crush that guy with the truck.”

“He did.” Taeyong spoke, the guys looked at him.

“He got on the driver’s seat and crushed his toes to his ankles.”

“We should let him take care of Shownu too while we’re at it.”

“What was that?” Lucas asked as they went down the steps in front of their department’s building. Lucas looked up and saw Jungwoo waving at them before getting inside his vehicle.

“I had to end it. It was getting too much for me.” Taeri chuckled sarcastically.

“I had a feeling. Mark already left for the hospital. Do you wanna go there too?”

“No.”

Lucas paused, his brows rose.

“You saw Changbin, right?”

Lucas nodded.

“It was Changbin, Lucas. He’s still in there, smirking and acting all~”

“Taeri, we’re in school.” He stopped her, she bit her lip.

“You know what to do then.” She said as she went down the steps, Lucas followed her.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m needed at the company; I have to give release statement regarding oppa’s health.” She explained.

“What do you want me to do?” Lucas asked her.

“Changbin.”

“Where?”

“At home. Call Jaehyun oppa for me.” She stated then her eyebrows knitted together as her palm went to his once injured shoulder.

“Don’t worry, it’s healing really well.” He placed his hand over hers, Taeri exhaled.

“It’s just one head, Taeri. I can handle him.”

“If you ever get~” She started to threaten him, but Lucas just smiled and pressed his forehead against hers.

“I wont get hurt. You’re too scary.” He chuckled before waving the guards over, Taeri frowned at him.

“Go on, I’ll call you later.” Lucas playfully shooed her away.

“You better.” She said before letting the males her to the waiting Range Rover.

Lucas watched as the car sped away from the campus grounds, then he turned towards the school building again, his lips quirked up as he walked back to the entrance.

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