In a blink of eye, they had been working at the shop for almost 2 weeks. The time had seemed to flash by them since they had a blast working together in one place. “Did we get enough, mom?” L.Joe asked as they had closed the shop for the day.

L.Joe’s mother did not say anything as she was still counting the money at the counter. The BAP, Micha and L.Joe were waiting for an answer from the older female. Then after a while, Mrs. Lee put the money aside and looked up with a smile on her face. “We earned more than we needed to. That’s good news,” she informed as she watched the children cheer in victory. “Here,” she gave a white envelope filled with money to Micha.

“What is this Mrs. Lee?” Micha looked at the mother.

“Thank you for helping out. Even though it’s not much, it would be enough for the 7 of you to buy some new clothes or some new books for school,” Mrs. Lee said while putting the white envelope in Micha’s hand.

“No, it’s okay. We wanted to help without asking anything in return,” Micha declined politely.

Mrs. Lee creased her forehead and moved to Yongguk, trying to persuade him to take the money on behalf of his friends. “Mrs. Lee, we sincerely wanted to help you out. Please, keep the money. We won’t feel good to take it from you,” Yongguk slowly pushed the money back in Mrs. Lee’s hand.

“Are you sure about this?” Mrs. Lee asked.

“Yes,” Himchan nodded.

“Thank you,” the middle-aged woman sniffled.

“Guys, thank you,” L.Joe said in gratitude.

“Hey, we’re friends,” Daehyun slung his arm over L.Joe’s shoulder.

The heart-warming atmosphere was abruptly disrupted when they heard the sound of the door banging open followed by the entrance of the 6 familiar looking males. “I see that business had been going fairly well these days, Lee Bomi,” the leader of the gang said as soon as he stepped into the shop. L.Joe’s mother stepped forward in attempt to protect her children.

“Please, don’t hurt us,” Mrs. Lee begged.

“I want the money, now!” the leader barked.

Nodding, Mrs. Lee said, “Okay, I will give it to you, just hold on a second.” She moved to the counter with L.Joe by her side. The mother took out the money that she had owed the loan sharks and had neatly put it into a brown envelope. “Here, I’ve counted to right figure. Please, don’t come here anymore,” she urged while giving one of the men the brown envelope.

After counting the amount of money in the envelope, the leader threw the envelope to his acolyte and voiced out, “The money is not enough.”

“What? How is that possible?” L.Joe looked stunned.

The leader smirked, “You owe me much more than this.” His eyes were fixed on the counter where the money was safely kept away from his sight. “Take all of it,” he motioned to his underlings to take the rest of the money that was hidden in the counter.

As the men were approaching the counter, Micha stood in their way looking as if she was more than ready to throw a ball of fire at them. “Where do you think you’re going?” a soft growl was heard from the back of Micha’s throat.

“Girl, get out of our way or we have no other choice but to hurt you,” the man said.

“Then, I have no other choice but to use the hard way,” Micha snickered.

Intense glares were exchanged between Micha and the thugs as she was crouched slightly, ready to attack when the time comes. The tensed atmosphere screamed dangerous while Mrs. Lee and L.Joe looked at Micha in concern and BAP on the other hand were already behind Micha, prepared to back up their leader. “Are you sure about this?” Yongguk asked Micha.

“Positive,” Micha smirked and lunged forward with a growl.

A fight erupted. Less than a minute, Micha had managed to punch three men and sent them flying backwards, banging on the wall producing a loud thump. She duck down and dodge to the sides to avoid the punches as she did a split to avoid all their kicks. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Yongguk working together with Himchan to fight with the leader of the gang. Frantically, Micha turned around to help Yongguk and Himchan but because she had let her guards down, one of the men had managed to trip her down.

He punched her in the stomach but she just kicked the side of his head and stood back up. A sharp sensation came from Micha’s left ankle as she winced in pain but continued on to fight. After about half an hour, the thugs were on the floor, whimpering and some of them wanted to scurry away but Daehyun had slammed them back on the ground. “Take the sum of money, no more and no less,” Micha said as her right feet was stepping on the leader’s chest.

Since the leader did not reply, Micha added pressure to her step and hissed, “Take it or leave it bastard! Do you ing want me to kill you and wipe off your generation from the face of the earth?! Do you want that?!”

The leader put up his hand as a sign of surrender, he said, “Alright, alright.”

L.Joe threw the envelope of money towards the leader and barked, “GO!”

While panting hard, Micha watched the group of gangsters limping out of the shop. She could imagine her clan members waiting for them, outside the door. They’ll be dead in a flash. Satisfied, Micha rubbed her hands together and limped towards Yongguk. “You’re hurt?” Yongguk quickly went to her side.

“Yeah, that stupid jerk caught me off guard,” Micha muttered.

“Glad everything went smoothly,” Zelo said.

“Oppa, are you okay?” Micha looked at Youngjae who was cringing in pain.

“He twisted his hand,” Himchan announced.

“Should we bring the two of you to the hospital?” Jongup asked.

“No,” Micha and Youngjae answered in unison and exchanged a smile afterwards.

L.Joe who had came out from the backroom after calming his mother went to Micha with a serious look on his face. “What the hell was that about?” he asked in total confusion.

“What?” Micha looked away from L.Joe.

“Don’t play dumb with me Micha. My eyes saw everything just now. You were fighting those loan sharks as if you’ve been doing it since you were born,” L.Joe stated.

Micha shrugged and replied, “I can fight a little.”

Frustratingly, L.Joe ruffled his hair and said, “That’s not a little.”

At that moment, Daehyun came in between the heated conversation to say, “Let it slide, L.Joe… Micha’s tired. All of us are tired, so, let’s go home.” Swiftly, L.Joe’s fist landed on Daehyun’s face as he glared at Daehyun. The two started to fight with Micha just beside them.

“Stop it!” Micha barked but they did not hear her.

The rest of the BAP members did not have any choice but to in the fight. Yongguk and Zelo had managed to pin down L.Joe meanwhile Jongup and Himchan had pin down Daehyun. Both parties struggled to keep the two males from tearing each other’s throat and Micha watched them in guilt. “What are you going to do now Micha?” Youngjae whispered at her.

One solution. There was only one way to clear this mess. “The truth,” she said.

After calming both Daehyun and L.Joe, Micha took a sit beside L.Joe and said, “What I am about to tell you is something you can’t tell to anyone. You must take this secret to the grave. Don’t tell anyone, not even your family or your gang members. Do you understand me, Lee Byunghun?” L.Joe nodded obediently, seeing Micha with a deadly look on her face was surreal for him.

From the day she was born to the present. Micha had spurted everything to L.Joe. Her real identity, the reason she was hiding, and also the important secret of all, her position as the leader of the ‘Geomyasaeng’ clan. “So, you’re currently hiding because of the rival clan?” L.Joe asked as soon as Micha wrapped up her story.

“Yes,” Micha nodded.

“Why are you telling me this?” L.Joe questioned.

“It’s because I trust you. Can I trust you?” Micha looked at L.Joe in the eye.

There was a pause. L.Joe stared at Micha before breaking into a smile while saying, “Of course you can trust me!” Then he pulled Micha into a bear hug, squeezing out all the oxygen in her.

“Yah! Get off her!” Himchan pulled them apart.

Yongguk suddenly asked, “You’re really going to keep this as a secret?”

“Yes, I will. You can trust me, hyung,” L.Joe said.

“Yeah! Time to party!” Jongup started to his hips.

Micha rolled her eyes at Jongup and sighed, “Dude, just stay still.”

After cleaning up the shop for another half an hour, Micha and BAP bid farewell to L.Joe as they went off to go home. Due to the bad condition of her ankle, Yongguk had offered to piggyback Micha home. She had hesitantly hopped onto his back and wrapped her hands around his neck. “I’m heavy right?” she asked.

“No you’re not,” Yongguk smiled. She puffed up her cheeks and looked up at the sky.

Judging from the dark sky, it was going to rain soon. She exhaled deeply and tried to smoothen up her tensed muscles. Micha despised the rain. She hated it very much that she would always crawl onto her bed and hide under the quilt to stop prevent her ears from hearing the droplets of rain smashing onto the ground, the loud thunders which made her stomach tighten into a knot and the sight of lightning across the sky caused her to blench in fear.

She was never afraid the rain, thunder or lighting when she was a child. Micha actually loved it. The thrills she feels every single time she sees the lightning striking thorough the dark clouds and the loud thunder which follows after it was exciting. Micha and her brothers would play along with their imaginations on rainy days, enjoying the cooling and dark atmosphere but it stopped 6 years ago. One particular incident had made her fear rainy days, the incident which had occurred 6 years ago where she was kidnapped by a rival clan as a hostage.

“It’s raining,” Youngjae voiced out while looking up the sky.

The female on Yongguk’s back seemed as if she had shrunk in size. Her heart started to accelerate and her breathing quickened. Micha held onto Yongguk and shut her eyes. It started to rain heavily, soaking her hair and clothes as she trembled in cold with a mixed of fear. She truly hated this. The feelings which she had felt on the night she was kidnapped came back to her that she was on the verge of hyperventilating.

Yongguk was looking around the place and spotted a bus stop. He realized that Micha was shivering on his back, so, he scurried to the bus stop to take shelter. Carefully, he placed Micha on down and when he was about to touch her shoulder, Micha flinched backwards. Himchan saw Micha flinching, so, he went closer to her but Micha was being distant. She kept on moving to the back, hugging her body tightly.

“Hey, are you okay?” Himchan asked.

Micha realized that her act was worrying her friends. She calmed down and uttered, “Sorry.”

“Are you okay?” Daehyun sat beside her.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry, I’m just not too fond of the rain. It reminds me of a bad memory,” Micha forced a smile and tugged her jacket tighter.

Youngjae inched closer to her and said, “Want to share it with us?”

“It’s a boring story,” Micha mumbled.

“Come on, try us,” Jongup crouched down in front of her.

Micha bit her lips. Tell them? Should she? She did not want to share such painful memory with them. “It’s okay, take your time. We won’t force you,” Yongguk patted her head. She stared at their faces. How can they just let it slide? Why are they being so patient? She bit her lips harder and hung her head low.

“I was playing in the park,” Micha suddenly started to say. Her 6 friends perked up their ear and listened to her story closely. “A few men from the rival clan kidnapped me to make me as a hostage. I was so scared at that time because they had covered my head with a sack, so, I wasn’t able to see anything,” she took in a deep breath and wetted her dried lips.

She continued on, “Then we arrived at this abandoned building. I was chained, put into a small cage like an animal and was left outside.” One tear leaked from the corner of her eyes and wiped it away with the back of her palm. “It was raining heavily that night and it was so cold. While I was dying outside, those bastards were enjoying a mug of hot coffee inside the building.”

“When did your father manage to find you?” Zelo asked quietly.

“After 3 days, because the place was isolated,” Micha muttered.

The boys went quiet and the atmosphere turned sullen. No of them had spoken anything and Micha had took notice of the sudden solemnest that were resonating throughout the surrounding. “Guys, don’t look so depressed, you look ugly,” Micha tried to joke around but Zelo pulled her into a tight hug.

“You’ve went through a lot,” Zelo said.

“You can say that,” Micha smiled bitterly when they broke off the embrace.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to be scared anymore, we’re here,” Jongup tried to cheer her up.

“I know,” Micha nodded. “And I’m thankful for that.”

Himchan puckered his lips and went to Micha to give her a hug but Yongguk caught the back of his collar to say, “Come on guy… The bus is here.” They hopped into the bus with Himchan trudging towards the bus while glaring at Yongguk for stopping him from hugging Micha. “Stop staring at me,” Yongguk sighed at Himchan and climbed the flight of stairs to get into the bus.

In the bus, Micha was seated in between Zelo and Yongguk. On her left, Zelo had already drifted off to dreamland with his head resting on Micha’s shoulder while the others eventually followed Zelo’s step except for Micha and Yongguk. “When did it happen?” Yongguk asked Micha in a low tone.

“6 years ago,” Micha mumbled an answer.

Then, Yongguk reached out for Micha’s hand while saying, “Something like that would never happen again as long as you got me.”

Micha genuinely smiled and said, “Thanks oppa.”

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Hi and hello!!! Keke~ Yeyeye! Another chapter!><

So, L.Joe knows about Micha already^^ Yey? And, Micha getting kidnapped... I wanted to show her vulnerable side and that was how this chapter was invented! LOL! But what do you guys think about this chapter? Comments are loved:D Peace out^__~