Four
Of Maids & Men- - - - -
L U H A N
I was drying glass cups when I heard the front door open, two familiar voices following it. Their footsteps sounded slow and sluggish. Since I was the only maid downstairs at the moment (the others were on the upper levels cleaning or tending to Mr. Kim's guests), I decided to see who it was. I peeked around the corner.
Jongin and Sehun had just returned home from school. I frowned when I noticed that both of them were injured. Sehun was clutching the right side of his waist. Jongin was supporting a very visible limp. That wasn't the only thing I noticed. The two brothers were clinging onto each other tightly, both supporting the other as they slowly shuffled towards the livingroom couches. Jongin had his hand resting on his younger brother's shoulder, and Sehun had his hand firmly placed on Jongin's side. I felt a small smile making its way on my lips at the image in front of me. This morning they had an intense fight, now they were helping each other.
"We're almost there, Sehun." Jongin whispered. I heard the pain laced in his words.
"Y-Yeah..." Sehun replied, his words sounding strained like he said them through clenched teeth. For some reason, it pained me to hear him so hurt. I shook my head, heading to the refrigerator to get them a drink.
When I entered the livingroom, I was surprised to see Sehun and Jongin already on the couch, both of them panting loudly. Sehun had his head tossed back, revealing his milky white neck. One arm was draped over his eyes as he continued panting. The other hand was squeezing his waist. Jongin hadn't even paid attention to me yet. He was busy scowling at Sehun, but I saw the concern in his eyes. He tore his gaze away and rested his forehead on the palms of his hands, mumbling angrily to himself.
"Uhm, Jongin-ah. Sehun-ah." I spoke up quietly, almost in a whisper because I was afraid to disturb the moment. Jongin's head snapped up to meet my gaze.
"Stop standing there and make yourself useful." he snapped. I was a shocked at how demanding and impatient he sounded.
"I-"
"Get some ice for Sehun." he commanded.
I rushed into the kitchen, not wasting any time at all. I put the drinks back in the fridge. Soon I returned with twobags of ice. One was for Sehun, the other for Jongin. He snatched a bag out of my hands and gently nudged Sehun. The younger took his arm off his eyes and he grabbed the bag. For a second, I thought I saw his eyes glistening. Did he have tears in his eyes? I mentally gasped. The cold and harsh Sehun was on the verge of tears?
The rainbow-haired boy tugged his uniform down a bit so that he could place the icepack on better. "Jongin," Sehun whined, almost inaudibly. "It hurts." he whispered. My breath caught in my throat at how hurt he sounded. Jongin's gaze softened. He gently brushed the younger's hair out his face.
"I'll take you to the doctor's tommorow, okay?" he offered, his voice warm and genuienly caring.
Sehun weakly nodded. "You need to get your ankle checked too, Jongin." Sehun told his older brother, but Jongin stubbornly shook his head. He turned to look at me, a frightening glare already on his face. "My mother and father don't need to know about this. If they, or any other maid, is told about this, I will get you fired. You will be accused of causing our injuries." Jongin hissed his warning at me. I blinked in confusion.
Could he really do that? Falsely accuse me of hurting him and Sehun? It seemed impossible. I was too small to even hurt Sehun, how could I hurt Jongin; whom was more built and strong?
"I've done it before, I'll do it again." he said as if he could hear my thoughts. He roughly snatched the second ice bag out of my grip, pressing it to his swollen ankle. "Just ask Krystal. Her sister was the one who was fired."
"Leave."
I knew that voice that spoke so suddenly. I quickly looked at Sehun, only to be met with his icy scowl. Where had the crying boy gone so quickly? Biting my lip, I left the two brothers in silence.
- - - - -
With Xiaoling gone, I turned my body to face Sehun. His face was twisted up in pain and I saw his jaw clenched tightly.
"How bad is it? On a scale of one to ten." I asked him softly, my hands grazing over his waist. He shook his head, looking at his lap.
"Eight." he muttered. I sighed, feeling like the biggest failure yet.
"This is my fault, Sehun-ah. I'm so sorry." I pulled his skinny frame towards me and hugged him. He was grateful, resting the back of his head on my shoulder.
"No. Don't blame yourself, Jongin. It's fine."
I frowned. "Is it?"
- - - -
S E H U N
I was the last in the halls, as usual. I stuffed my earphones in my ears, played a song and adjusted the volume to a moderate level. Fixing my bookbag over my shoulders, I winced slightly when the strap brushed against my bandages, but I continued walking to my class. My hip hurt, but that was my own fault. I could tolerate that.
"Look who it is, boys." I froze in my tracks, keeping my gaze forward.
A group of four boys stepped out from behind the lockers to face me. My heart instantly dropped.
One of them with jet black hair and an angelic face came forward. "Jinyoung." I greeted with an emotionless expression.
"Lispy." he returned the greeting, throwing in a sickeningly sweet smile. I bit the inside of my mouth so that I wouldn't say anything back.
Lispy.
Another male came forward. He was fairly tall and slim, his face looked rodent-like. Gongchan. "Hyung, it's better if we call him the Emo Boy." It was like a slap to the face.
Emo.
I laughed suddenly. It sounded bitter and empty. Jinyoung rose his eyebrows, also cracking his neck in the process. "Why you laughing, Emo Boy? Should we beat you to a pulp?"
Go ahead. I deserve it.
I remained silent, a small smirk fluttering on my lips.
"CNU. Hold him back. Let's knock this freak out." Jinyoung commanded the tallest male wearing fake spectacles.
Freak.
One of the last males I knew because we had class together, Sanduel, stepped up, smiling at me. I eyed the wooden bat he was swinging around carelessly. I felt CNU pin my arms behind my back, his hand gripping the bandages on my wrist. I grimaced, knowing that the wounds would open up again. CNU rolled my sleeves up and cackled.
"Yah! Look at this! Emo Boy is so pathetic!" he pointed to my bandages. "Trying to put himself out his own misery," he scoffed.
Pathetic.
The others laughed at me, mocking me. Calling me weak, crazy, insane, psycho.
I didn't deny their words, only kept silent. They were simply stating the truth. However, the words still dug deep into my heart, leaving an ugly imprint in my mind.
It was only after Jinyoung slammed my waist against the railing of the stairs that I heard a familiar deep voice shouting my name then some threats towards Jinyoung and his crew.
Jongin.
No. Stay away.
"Move it!" Jongin snarled, shoving past Gongchan and prying Jinyoung off of me. "What do you think you're doing?" Jinyoung stepped in front of me.
"What's it look like, dumb ?" he growled, pushing Jinyoung away. The leader stumbled back and fell on his . Sanduel turned his head to throw a glare towards Jongin. I watched as my brother yanked me out of CNU's hold, cradling me close to him.
He turned to face me, his features softening. "Sehun, are you alright?" he immidiently checked me up and down.
"Yeah. They just hurt my waist a bit. I'll be-" I took a step forward, swaying and nearly bursting into tears. "Fine." I hissed and blinked furiously.
He rolled his eyes, but gasped when the ball of his ankle was suddenly hit with a wooden object. He let out a string of loud curses as he fell to the ground on one knee. I looked at his attacker. Sanduel.
Jongin's ankle had been hit with the baseball bat. It was starting to turn purple already. I kneeled beside my brother, ignoring my throbbing waist.
"Jongin." I wrapped my arm around his waist supporting him so he could stand. He bit his lips, struggling to get up. However, we were angrily pushed back down to the ground by Jinyoung who was now on his feet again. I put on a scowl and scooted up so that Jongin was behind me, not wanting him to get hurt even more.
Jinyoung snickered.
"The baby protecting his brother. How nice." his foot was flung out to give me a harsh kick to my throbbing waist. I closed my eyes and accepted each of his continuous kicks over and over again.
"Stop! Don't. . . don't hurt him." Jongin pleaded. He tried to stand again, only to be shoved to the wall by Gongchan.
Jinyoung smirked. "How about we-"
"Oh? What's this?"
The group of four whirled around. Their eyes widened in fear. In front of them was a short brunette male. At first glance, he was cute and harmless. Innocent even. But they knew better. Everyone knew Byun Baekhyun and his amazing hapkido skills. Everyone also knew the giant beside him; Park Chanyeol. The two were barely seen without each other.
"I suggest you leave now." Baekhyun said smoothly, slowly approaching the males. They started sputtering.
"Baekhyun-ah! We. . .uhm. . . "
"It's not what you think-"
"We just. . . I . . ."
"Go." Chanyeol uttered one word and it was enough to send the bullies scrambling away. I sighed in relief. I looked up at Jongin who was leaning against the wall for support.
"Thanks," he muttered to the duo who had assisted us. The two gave us warm smiles and offered to help us to the nurse.
- - - -
"Sehun?"
I blinked a couple of times and looked Jongin.
"I've been saying your names a couple of times now."
"Sorry. I spaced off. What were you saying?"
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I asked if they called you any names."
Emo
Freak
Pathetic
Lispy
Psycho
Weak
"No. They didn't."
Jongin smiled a little. "Good. I'd be-"
The doorbell rang. Jongin scowled. he gently pushed my head off of him then stood up to head towards the door.
"Jongin, your ankle." I tried to push him back down but he shrugged me off.
"It's fine." he muttered.
"Get a maid to open it, pabo. Sit down." I tried to convince him. He rolled his eyes at me.
"Sehun-ah, I've had worse injuries in dancing. Stop worrying so much." he said stubbornly. I rolled my eyes, knowing it was too late to stop him now because he was already in front of the door.
J O N G I N
"What the hell do you want?" I snapped as swung the door open, expecting it to be one of my stupid hopeless fangirls from school. Instead, I was met with an unfamiliar face. An adorable, squishy unfamiliar face. It was a short male with skin almost as pale as Sehun's and huge round eyes. He stared up at me in fear with his plump red lips slightly parted.
The smaller male messed with the hem of his shirt. "I...uh....I'm the uh...friend of uh....your newest maid.......uh-"
I couldn't help but laugh at his cute awkwardness. "Xiaoling? Her? The Chinese one?"
He frantically nodded his head, making his brown hair bounce.
I flashed him a smile, causing him to blush and look down. Why was I being so cheerful to a stranger? "I'll go get her for you. Come in...uhm..."
"Do Kyungsoo." he introduced himself quietly.
"Well, come on in Kyungsoo." I stepped aside to allow him to enter.
- - - - -
A/n: Thanks to those who subscribed to this ;u; and thank you to those who even comment ;;u;; fgsadhjfsksf
Hope new readers subscribe and comment????? yeah okiie :D
- tea-with-nuest
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