I was walking out of my first period Korean class the following morning when Kim Jonghyun accosted me for the second time in as many days. He grabbed my forearm in the same place as the day before, hard fingers digging into the bruises there, and dragged me off down the hallway. Several people stared in mild entertainment and curiosity as we passed, but no one made a move to stop us.

Jonghyun didn’t slow down until he’d dragged me into an unused science classroom and slammed the door behind us. He finally released my arm and I winced, rubbing at the sore spots.

“Nobody tattles on me,” he hissed through clenched teeth, hands balled into fists by his side.

I frowned, still rubbing my arm. “What on earth are you talking about?”

“You thought you could just go tell Ms. Lee about our little chat yesterday, did you?” he spat. “I just got in a lot of trouble with that old hag! She threatened to give me a zero for the social sciences project! If I fail this project, I won’t be able to graduate! You should’ve just kept your big mouth shut!”

I was losing my patience quickly. “I really have no idea what you’re talking about,” I snapped in annoyance.

He barked out a short laugh, and it was not at all a pleasant sound. “Don’t play dumb, Kitten. It doesn’t suit you.”

“I’m serious,” I muttered, crossing my arms over my blouse and blazer. “I didn’t say anything to Ms. Lee. When would I even have had the time to? She left after our class yesterday since she doesn’t have a seventh period class and I arrived late to school this morning. I haven’t even seen her since class yesterday, and that was before you decided on our little arrangement.”

He frowned, squinting at me as if he was trying to determine whether I was telling the truth or not.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Look, Jonghyun-ssi, I’m not looking for any trouble-”

He snorted and, like his laugh, it wasn’t exactly full of mirth. “Well now we actually have to do this lame- project together. Do you want to meet at my house or yours this weekend?”

“Yours,” I answered immediately. The thought of someone like Kim Jonghyun strolling down the streets of my rundown neighborhood was downright laughable.

“Fine.” He ripped a corner off a scrap piece of paper in his bag and scribbled down his address in messy, barely-legible handwriting. “Be there at one o’clock on Saturday. And for the love of god, don’t tell anyone we’re actually meeting up.”

Without waiting for me to answer, he pushed past me and left the classroom.

Even though I had to go to Jonghyun’s the following day to work on our assignment, I gave in without putting up much of a fight when Zelo asked me to hang out with the guys that night. They mostly hung out in the apartment building down the street from the one Zelo and I lived in, in an apartment that Yongguk and Himchan shared.

“Hey Rae-yah,” Yongguk grinned when I came through the front door with Zelo, wrapped in a long-sleeved shirt that had once belonged to one of them ages ago. The apartment was a disaster, as usual. Himchan was a bit naggy when it came to cleaning the place, but with so many people coming and going at all hours of the day and night, it was next to impossible to keep everything clean and tidy. “Long time no see.” Yongguk wrapped his arms around me and I didn’t even have to see myself in the mirror to know I was blushing like mad. Even though Yongguk was five years older than me, I had had a crush on him since I was twelve.

“I’ve just been busy with school,” I mumbled, face pressed into his chest.

Himchan ruffled my hair in an affectionate way. “Our Narae-yah is so smart,” he teased.

“Shut up,” I grumbled, jerking away from his touch. “That school is going to be the death of me, I’m sure. Well, that and you guys.”

Zelo looked up from where he was rolling a joint, perched on the armrest of the sagging loveseat. “They’re not still bullying you there, are they?”

“Want us to come and beat them up for you?” Yongguk winked, lighting up a cigarette and taking a long drag.

I laughed out loud. “Yeah, I’m sure my teachers and the school board would just love it if a bunch of delinquent drug dealers showed up at Seol Chong on my behalf.”

“At least those stuck-up little princesses would stop picking on you,” Himchan grinned.

“We’re got a run tonight,” Yongguk said then, tipping the ashes from his cigarette into the overflowing ashtray sitting on the cluttered coffee table. “Nothing too serious. You in?”

I nodded. It had been a while since I’d been on a drug run with Yongguk and his crew thanks to school, and I sort of missed it. Sometimes the runs ended up being dangerous, but most of the time things ran smoothly. The drug runs didn’t bother me at all. In fact, the only time that I ever really got nervous about my friends’ lifestyle was when we went to visit the main house.

Yongguk, Himchan, and the others were the Jugeumui Hamjeong – a small faction of the Chimyeongjeog Tagyeog, which was one of the most prominent and lucrative gangs in Seoul. They had their hands in a little bit of everything from what I understood: drugs, weapons, ion, assassinations, armed robberies. And at the heart of the Tagyeogs’ operations was the main house, where the Tagyeog leader lived. He scared the living hell out of me.

I knew that I probably should’ve been more wary about hanging out with gang members, but I had grown up with the Hamjeongs – I was friends with them well before they joined the Chimyeongjeog Tagyeog. They stayed out of the messier Tagyeog business for the most part; they only sold drugs in our neighborhood and that was it. They had practically raised me, after all. With an absent mother and a father who may as well have been dead, it had been Yongguk and Himchan and the others who had tended to my hurts growing up, both physical and emotional. They had been there for me through everything. It had been Himchan who had given me the speech about the birds and bees, Yongguk who had taught me how to fight, Youngjae who had bandaged me up when I scraped my knees. Even though I knew they were capable of doing some very nasty, unethical, and illegal things, I trusted them with my life.

There were only five seats in the ancient rust-bucket Himchan called a car, and, since Youngjae and Daehyun had joined us for the run, that meant we were short one seat. As the smallest, it was decided unanimously, as always, that I would have to sit in Youngjae’s lap.

“Now Youngjae-yah,” Yongguk grinned in the rearview mirror. “Remember to keep your hands to yourself. Our Rae-yah is at an impressionable age.” He stomped hard on the gas pedal and the car shot forward into traffic with a screeching of tires.

“I don’t really think that’ll be a problem,” Daehyun smirked, leaning over to kiss his boyfriend. I could hear their lips smacking right behind my ear.

“Oppa!” I wailed, tugging on Himchan’s sleeve desperately. “Youngjae and Daehyunnie are making out with me in the middle! They’re stealing my innocence over here!”

“Innocence my ,” Youngjae grinned, giving my bum a cheeky pinch.

The whole car laughed and I couldn’t help but smile as I leaned back into Youngjae’s familiar embrace, Daehyun’s arm resting comfortably on my shoulder. They may have been a ed up sort of family, but they were the only family I would ever want. 

So this chapter is a little short, but here we have the introduction of BAP ^^

And thank you to everyone for commenting and subbing! I love you all! <3