V.

Kibum lazily made his way to the library where his best friend, Jinki, was waiting for him.
How on earth did Mr. Choi figure out that he didn’t write that essay, even when he modified some words?

“Hey.” Kibum sighed as he found Jinki with his nose in a textbook.

“How’d tutorials go?” he pushed his glasses up and shut his book. He gathered his belongings and shoved them into his backpack as he got up. “Did you turn in the essay? What did he say?”

“He knew I didn’t write it so he ripped it up into shreds,” Kibum sighed again as they left the library. “And he said that if I had done my work independently he would have still accepted it, even if I didn’t meet the criteria.”

“Aw, I knew I should have let you do it on your own.” Jinki frowned. “Dang, Mr. Choi is really keen.”

“He is…” Kibum agreed. “My head hurts so let’s stop by that new tapioca place! I’ll pay.”

Jinki declared he’d pay for his own tapioca but Kibum was persistent. They argued about it till they reached the store.

. . . . . . .

“Hey, how was work?” Jonghyun questioned as Minho entered the condo. He always got home before Minho and he was fully dressed in casual clothing – ready to go out.

Minho kicked off his shoes tiredly and undid his tight tie, groaning in response as he went to the fridge to get a cool glass of water.

“Kibum giving you trouble again?” Jonghyun guessed. Minho nodded. “We don’t have to go out anymore if you don’t want too,”

“No, no, we can go,” Minho reassured. “You said it yourself – we need to spend time together. Let me just get changed.”

As Minho disappeared into his bedroom, Jonghyun called after him: “Bring an umbrella just in case, it was said that it may rain later tonight.”

“Okay.”

Minho was ready about eight minutes later. He wore dark jeans and a button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Very mundane, but being mundane was Minho’s style.

“You should wear your contacts more often, Minho.” Jonghyun commented. “You look better without those geeky-looking things.”

“Nah, I find putting my contacts in a hassle,” Minho replied. “I’m wearing them only because you and I are going somewhere.”

“Well, I was just saying…” Jonghyun shrugged, grabbing his car keys. “Let’s get going, shall we?”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Where exactly are we going?” Minho questioned, leaning his head against the window. The sky was darkening each minute and Minho was starting to think that coming out was a bad idea.

“We’re basically here,” Jonghyun replied as he parked his Mercedes Benz. “Look.”

Minho looked but he didn’t understand. “What am I to be looking at?”

“Tapioca Dulce!” Jonghyun exclaimed. His voice was filled with excitement. “You don’t know this place?” He gasped when Minho shook his head. “You spend too much time with your dull paperwork! C’mon, let’s go!” He unbuckled his seat belt and was out of the car in a flash.
Minho struggled to keep up with his child-like roommate.

Tapioca Dulce was bursting with all-different kinds of colors and mostly teenagers were hanging around playing board games as they enjoyed their drinks. It smelt strongly of tropical fruits and the atmosphere was very giddy.

Minho felt so out of place here looking at all the youthful people in their very extravagant outfits.

“Hi, welcome to Tapioca Dulce, what can I get you?” the pretty cashier smiled at the two very handsome men before her.

Minho turned and stared at everything else as Jonghyun ordered for the both of them. Seeing that all he did was teach and grade papers in the day and take orders from his dad at night, he never really had time to come out and see things like this. 

Jonghyun grabbed his attention back by nudging him with his elbow since his hands were occupied by the two large drinks.

He handed him the one with pink contents and his own was yellow. “Mines pineapple and I know you love strawberries so I got you that,”

“Thanks,” Minho smiled as he took a sip from it. “It’s good.”

Jonghyun chuckled. “I can’t believe you’ve never had tapioca before, that’s pretty sad.”

“Well sorry for having the most time consuming job ever,” Minho replied just as his phone started ringing loudly. Seeing the collar ID, he gestured to Jonghyun that he’d take the call outside.

Jonghyun nodded. “I’ll just go find us a table.”

“Hello?” Minho answered once he was outside. He leaned against the brick wall and stared up at the dark sky. It still was not raining.

. . . . . . .

“Kibum, I think we should head back home now…” Jinki said, looking up at the dusky sky. “It looks like it’s going to pour.”

“You can’t be scared of a little rain, can you?” Kibum asked, taking a long sip from his fruity drink.

The two sat at a green table in front Tapioca Dulce enjoying their drinks and had been talking about several different topics like sports, school, and fashion.

The bell rang as the door to Tapioca Dulce and Kibum looked up on reflex.

As a tall man who was on the phone stepped out and Kibum noted that he was incredulously cute, and that was only based off his side-profile. Kibum swallowed his drink.

“Kibum,” Jinki whined again while he looked at the sky.

“Okay, fine, fine.” Kibum gave in as they got to their feet.

They walked down the pavement - past that cute tall man Kibum had been checking out before. Now, he had a full view of features and he felt his stomach drop. “It’s you!” he said, pointing.

“Kibum,” Jinki hissed, grabbing his elbow. “Don’t point at strangers, especially when they are on the phone…”

The man seemed to stop his conversation and looked at Kibum with those big orbs of his.

“Don’t you remember me?” Kibum questioned and it only made Jinki tug on his elbow harder. The man’s already big eyes widened at him and it gave Kibum a little bit of hope that he probably did remember who he was. “The time we met I was a blonde though…”

Jinki was practically dragging him by now; going off about Kibum was crazy for speaking to a stranger out of the blue like that.

As he was being dragged away, the man disappeared back into the store.

Kibum stared at the floor sadly. He failed to get that drop-dead gorgeous man’s name… again and it was all Jinki’s fault!

“Let me go!” he hissed, ripping his arm out of Jinki’s firm grasp. “God, I can talk to whoever I want too.”

“Yeah you can talk to whoever you want too, but not an old man at Tapioca Dulce.”

“He wasn’t an old man,” Kibum rolled his eyes in annoyance. “You know what, just shut up. Let’s go.”

. . . . . . .

Minho returned into the store stunned. That kid that he thought about nonstop for the past forty-eight hours… That kid was his ing student, Kim Kibum.  He made out with his student in a club! What the hell was that kid doing there in the first place? He thanked God he decided to wear his contacts out and he especially thanked the heavens for Jinki for dragging that crazed kid away. No way would he have the feels for that little thing at night any more.

He took this as a sigh that he needed to be more discreet.

“Minho!” Jonghyun’s voice snapped him out of his deep thoughts. “Over here!” He waved him over with enthusiasm.

“We need to go,” Minho said in a serious voice. “My father needs to see me. He said it’s an emergency.”

His father had been the one who called but, it wasn’t an emergency. He just knew it was the quickest way Jonghyun would get him out of this place.

“What happened to him?” Jonghyun said, rising. “Is it serious?”

“We need to just go,” Minho replied, quickly.

“Okay, okay, I’m coming.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Here, drop me off right here,” Minho threw off his seatbelt and was hopping out of the car before Jonghyun could even come to a halt.

“Minho, do you need me to come inside?” Jonghyun probed.

Minho shut the door behind him and poked his head through the opened window. “Go home and get to bed, alright hyung?”

“A…Alright…” Jonghyun nodded slowly. “See you?”

“No, don’t wait up for me just go to bed like I said.” Minho instructed sternly. “Bye.”

He waited for Jonghyun to drive off into the night before he made his way towards his father’s apartment door.

The door wasn’t even locked (which he noted needed to fix it later) and he just easily made his way in. “Dad?” he called. He didn’t bother to take off his shoes and just made a beeline towards the bedroom.

“Minho,” his father said. He sat on the edge of the bed; a woman in her undies lay next to him sound asleep. “What was the reason for your call?”

“I need you to deliver something to that man we met last night,”

“Since when do we play delivery boy?” Minho asked skeptically. “If they want something, they come to us. That’s how it’s always been. That’s how it should stay.”

“Listen Minho, this man is a special case,” In Guk said. “Remember I said I’ve seen that man’s face before. And so I’ve done my research and figured out he’s the CEO of a toy business: Kim Daeho.”

Minho crossed his arms as he listened to him talk.

“He called me. Don’t know how the man managed to get a hold of my number, but he asked me to prepare this for him.” He reached under the bed and pulled out a dark brown suitcase. He tossed it towards Minho, who caught it without effort. The suitcase was light and it felt as if there was nothing in it. “I would do it myself but uh,” he looked back at the girl on his bed. “I have some other things to attend too…”

Minho sighed. “Okay, let me know the address.”

After Minho had the address written down on a piece of paper, In Guk interrupted him from leaving.

“When you get there, the back doors open and he should be waiting for you in his kitchen.” He explained. “It’s a simple process. Just get in and get out. Understand?”

. . . . . . . .

When Minho arrived at the house via bus, he was amazed at how big and beautiful it was. This man sure was a CEO.

You didn’t come here to marvel at the house. Minho thought to himself as he slid his black sunglasses on. He stealthily made his way towards the backyard. The black gate was tall - taller than Minho even. He squeezed the suitcase through the opening and took five big steps back.

Minho applauded himself for changing prior to coming here. Now he was free to move about in the loose sweats he wore and more comfortable wife beater. He ran towards the gate and managed to get a hold on the top bar. With great agility, he flipped himself over and gracefully landed on the luscious, green grass with a soft thud. He grabbed the suitcase and continued on with his mission without any more obstacles.

The doors were open just like In Guk had said, but Daeho wasn’t there. All lights in the house were off and Minho assumed the residents were asleep. Minho felt stumped. Was he supposed to look for Daeho now? That wasn’t part of the plan though.

Nearby he hears something crash and immediately pressed his back against the bare wall near the doorframe on the right hand side of the kitchen. He peeked but he couldn’t see anything clearly.  

Then out of nowhere he hears a click. He turned to look and came face to face with a silver pistol.

So I’m slowly (but surely) getting into the plot!