Recap

Hailey stayed silent. The female looked too young to be the leader of a gang. Hailey was expecting a middle-aged and rather masculine male but the leader standing in front of her was young, petite and to be honest quite pretty.

“Where are my manners? I’m the leader of Fire, Min.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Welcome to Fire. I know this will be a personal question but I’m actually a little curious as to why you want to join our gang. I mean you surely look like someone who would be better off without having ties with gangsters. But... I understand if you don’t want to say anything, I respect people’s privacy.”

Hailey stayed silent. She really didn’t want to repeat everything she had told Sungyeol over again.

“Well ok then. Now, all we need to do is find you a room to stay in,” Min said and clapped her hands.

Min opened the door and to her surprise, Sungyeol was the first person she saw.

“Ah, Sungyeol. Perfect, could you come in for a sec?”

Sungyeol immediately straightened his back and obeyed. “Of course,”

“I was just saying to Hailey here, that we need to find her a room to stay in,” Min announced.  

Sungyeol raised an eyebrow and a look of worry swept over his face.

“You’re not suggesting that she goes to… mine are you?”

“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting.”

Hailey looked shocked. I can’t share a room with him. How am I going to hide my second phone and the other stuff I’ve prepared?

“You don’t have a problem with that… do you Sungyeol?” Min asked but her tone made Sungyeol re-evaluate his response. To Sungyeol it sounded something along the lines of ‘You’re not really thinking about disobeying me right?’

“No, I don’t have a problem,” Sungyeol replied.

“Good. So I guess I can leave her to you now.” Min said and dismissed the two of them.              

Hailey gulped. The thought of sharing rooms had never even crossed her mind. She was going to have to be extra cautious with her every move from now on. However, there was something about Sungyeol she couldn’t quite grasp. It seemed like he had a secret or two of his own as well.

She followed closely behind as Sungyeol lead her to his room. It was located at the end of the building and was isolated from the other rooms as well.

They stepped inside and Hailey noticed that everything was tidy and placed in an orderly manner. The state of Sungyeol’s room was so organised, she just couldn’t imagine that he was this type of guy. To Hailey, he now seemed like a perfectionist rather than a gangster.

“So this is where you’ll be staying.” Sungyeol informed and gestured his hand around the area.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

Hailey had spent the day meeting new faces and trying to adjust to her new environment. No one mentioned anything about their upcoming plans and Hailey had to find ways to kill the time. It was getting late and Hailey didn’t see Sungyeol anywhere. The last time she saw him was when he took her to his room. After that, he said he had to go somewhere and hasn’t been back since.

This was actually the best opportunity for Hailey to look around his room. She let out a fake yawn and excused herself to bed.

Hailey flicked the light switch on and the room immediately brightened.

“Now,” she said as she placed a hand on her hip, “where should I start?”

She walked over to the book shelf and traced her finger along the middle row of books. As she felt around, she stopped at the touch of an abnormal texture.  The spine of the book was covered in red velvet and the title was stitched on with golden thread. Out of curiosity, Hailey took the book from its place and turned to the front cover.

The title ‘Flight’ was printed in cursive and as Hailey tried to find the author she stumbled across a message inside:

This is dedicated to my dearest son, Lee Sungyeol.

I hope this book will inspire you to follow your heart no matter what obstacle you are faced with. Remember, your mind may be in charge of your decisions, but your heart is the one that decides them.

-Your mother

Hailey suddenly got goose bumps. She hadn’t read something so meaningful in a while and this message seemed so inspiring that she was jealous of Sungyeol having such a wonderful mother.

Why would he want to abandon this warmth and live as a gangster? Hailey thought.

She wanted to continue reading on but another book caught her attention.

Instead of a luxurious velvet cover, this book was covered in rough sand paper. The cover was blank, no title, no picture and no hint of who the author was or what the book was about. Hailey opened up the first page only to find blank white pages.

“How strange,” Hailey said to herself.

She placed the book back onto the shelf and decided to look at the desk next to it when the door flung open. Hailey immediately turned around. She instinctively clenched her fists and placed them in front of her face ready to defend herself.

Hailey slowly lowered her hands when she saw who it was.

Sungyeol was trying to catch his breath and looked terrible. He was bending over with one of his hands grabbing onto the door frame for support and the other hand clutching onto his thigh. Hailey could smell the familiar scent of blood in the air and cupped a hand over in shock.

“What happened?” She asked worriedly and ran over to help him.

Sungyeol waved his hand to dismiss the need and took a step forward. He stumbled a little and Hailey extended her arm to aid him but only received an icy glare. She hesitantly took her arm back and watched as the sweat on the side of Sungyeol’s face slowly dripped.

He unsteadily walked over to the bed and let his back fall onto it. Hailey rushed over and stared at the blood soaking his pants.

“I’ll go get some help ok?” Hailey suggested and began to walk away when a strong hand pulled her back. The force was so strong she ended up falling back onto the bed. Sungyeol had swiftly moved his position and was now hovering over her.

“Don’t.”

Sungyeol winced at the pain of moving too quickly and Hailey gulped. She felt her face warm up as Sungyeol looked into her eyes.

“Don’t tell anyone. And that’s an order.”

Hailey nodded and Sungyeol flopped back beside her. Hailey sat up and tried to get an understanding of what happened. Sungyeol had his eyes tightly shut and his chest moved up and down in quick motions.

“Look, I’m not just going to watch you suffer in pain and do nothing. I’m going to walk out that door right now to get some bandages and you better not stop me.” Hailey said forcefully and walked towards the door.

Sungyeol looked up but he was in too much pain to prevent her actions.

As Hailey was about to exit the room she turned her head to face Sungyeol.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. It was an order right?”

After that comment, Hailey went to the bathroom in search for anything that could stop the bleeding. She opened the basin cabinets and found a fresh pile of white towels. It wasn’t anything professional but it was good enough. She quickly ran back towards the room with what she needed and made sure she was quiet enough so that the other gang members wouldn’t find it suspicious. As she entered the room she saw that Sungyeol was now sitting up on the edge of the bed with one side of his pants rolled up.

Hailey gasped as she saw the wound on his thigh. She quickly shut the door and went down on her knees to examine the cut.

“How did this happen?” She asked.

“Nothing you should worry about,” He replied and looked away to avoid any eye contact.

“Fine. Don’t tell me then.” Hailey said quietly and gently touched the area around the cut.

Sungyeol closed his eyes in pain.

“You’re lucky this didn’t cut any of your major veins. It isn’t too deep so it should heal pretty quickly, just don’t move your leg around to carelessly.”

Sungyeol felt a little guilty not saying anything about the cause of his injury. He didn’t expect Hailey to actually try to help him moreover actually care about his condition.

“Hold on I’ll be back with something. Stay here and don’t move your leg, otherwise it’ll start to bleed again.” Hailey informed and went out the room.

This gave Sungyeol some time to think and reflect. He let out a small laugh and looked at the white, now red towel over his wound. He was beginning to develop a soft spot for the girl that had just entered his life without even realising it.

Hailey came back with another towel but this time it was wet.

“Is that vinegar?” Sungyeol asked when the strong smell hit his nose.

Hailey nodded, “I heard vinegar was good at not leaving scars and could help disinfect wounds.”

Hailey pressed the vinegar soaked towel onto the cut and Sungyeol felt a rush of pain. He tried his best to not let out any cries and clenched his fists to control himself.

Hailey wrapped a clean towel over the cut and secured it so it would stay tightly in place.

“There, this should stop the bleeding,” Hailey said proudly and let out a warm smile, one that she wasn’t faking.

“I was fighting some guys from Layla’s gang,” Sungyeol unexpectedly said.

“They were just some thugs picking on a teenage boy who was out buying medicine for his family. I just couldn’t let them get away with that. That medicine could’ve saved a life. What gave them the right to take that away from a kid who was already worried sick?”

Hailey listened in awe. These words, these feelings that Sungyeol expressed, were they really the qualities of a cold blooded gangster?

“You see, this is why I hate the people from Layla’s gang. They don’t think before they act. It’s disgusting.”

Hailey stayed silent and just listened. She finally understood why Sungyeol asked if she was one of Layla’s. 

“You’re probably thinking, why would a cold hearted gangster care about something like that? It’s out of character right?”

Hailey couldn’t deny the fact that what he said was true. She did have second thoughts about him, and definitely not the negative kind. It made her wonder what else he was trying to hide behind his cold and scary image.

Hailey spent that night wondering if it was ok to be the fraud she was. She seemed to have gained Sungyeol’s trust and it would be horrible if he found out she was lying to him this whole time.

No, I have to find out who they’re going to attack. Even if Sungyeol seems like a nice guy, Fire’s motives aren’t. I can’t let my own emotions get caught in protecting my family. I can’t…

Authors note

Thank you for being patient! I've been busy with exams lately so I couldn't update as frequently.

But as always, thank you for reading! ^^

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