{TWENTY-TWO}

Month 03 Day 28

As Minjae watched her friends tackle the thugs on the bustling street, she couldn't help but glance at the woman shrinking behind her toppled snack cart. She was sure she'd seen her before, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She tilted her head to the side and she tried going closer to see if she could get a better view. She still couldn't recognise her from afar, so she decided to brush it off as nothing.

Back to the fight : it was a catastrophe. Things were being thrown at each other, there were tons of bloody noses and jaws. The whole place was literally a mess with tables from the convenience store thrown over. Minjae watched as the scene got more chaotic by the second. Some people were already starting to call the police.

"Ah, this is going to be big trouble, big trouble," Luhan watched as he finished the last of his snack, "We'll have to make a run if the people are going to call the police. They'll misunderstand us or something, and then boom, we're behind bars until a guardian picks us up."

"But what they're doing is right. Those thugs are the ones in the wrong... I mean, did you see them harming that lady?" Minjae shook her head and stomped her feet to show her disapproval, "It's just so... inhumane."

"I know, and I'm not disagreeing with you," Luhan leaned against the brick wall from where they were watching their friends, "But we have no power against those thugs. After all, we're high school students, what say do we have? It's better to not get involved."

"We could pay her debt for her."

"Yah, are you crazy? Didn't you hear what I just said? It's better not to care. There are tons of people like her," She could feel Luhan knock his fist against her head, "Seriously, when you're told something does it just go right through your head and out of your left ear or something?"

"Maybe," Minjae grinned at the boy before looking at Kyungsoo from afar, "I don't know. Lately, I've really taken an interest to butting in."

That emotionless jerk, who had no sense of romantism at all and who would dismiss events if they made him embarrassed. That mysterious jerk, who she really didn't know anything about, but feel as if they'd been close for years. It was truly puzzling, on how even the slightest smirk from him could make her heart beat in the fastest possible way. 

She stood stuck to her position, staring at Kyungsoo taking down the thug in awe. You could say she was sort of admiring him from a distance, but she would assume it was none of that. Her mind convinced her to deny it.

Kyungsoo locked the thug's arms behind his back, and turned his head, coincidentally meeting eyes with Minjae. The two of them stared at each other for what seemed like a few seconds, before she saw both sides of the boy's lips quirk up, giving her a sincere smile. Her face turned a noticeable shade of bright red as she felt her heart doing somersaults inside of her.

That smile was so mesmerising, it was so warm, so full of emotions he'd seldom shown her. Minjae shook her head before squishing her face, unaware of Luhan's weirded out face he was giving her.

Soon, police sirens filled the air while Minseok, Sehun, Chanyeol, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo tried their best to hold the thugs down. Several police cars drove in the scene, and instead of being questioned in a negative, they were praised instead. Minjae made fun of Luhan for that, since his assumption was false. From there, the police handled everything.

"Now, that was something," Minseok grinned as the five of them approached Minjae and Luhan, who were proud to see their friends safe after something like that. Luhan ran over to his best friend, slinging an arm around his shoulder.

"Did the both of you see us, we were like pow!" Chanyeol exclaimed like a child, punching his fists up to mimic the successful fight earlier.

All of them were happily chatting, some people had even come to praise them for saving the lady. Kyungsoo looked nonchalant about it, but as they were talking, he let out a small smirk. After a few minutes, a man who seemed to be the head officer walked over to them.

"Were you the students who fought those loan sharks?" He asked. They nodded, and he smiled, "I'd like to gratefully thank you on behalf of the police station nearby. Those thugs were always lurking around and disturbing people, and we'd always be too late to catch them. It's fascinating, I never even believed my members when they said you lot had taken the thugs down, but I guess I was wrong."

"No worries, we were just doing what model citizens did," Baekhyun held his nose up high before Sehun kicked his leg, causing his self praising to cease.

"It's no problem.. but is that woman alright?" Kyungsoo asked out of curiosity.

"Ah, right, she's over there," The officer pointed to the woman who was walking over to them before waving his goodbyes.

The woman walked closer and closer, and finally, Minjae could get a decent view of her face. She stared at her for a few seconds, realising that she indeed had seen this lady before. It was the lady that insisted to tell Minjae her story at the cosmetics store. She looked like she was in her late 40s, with faint wrinkles on her pale complexion. But what the hell was she doing selling snacks on a bustling street like this? She was supposed to working at the cosmetics store instead of here, that job seemed much more preferable.

Minjae watched the woman stand infront of Kyungsoo without uttering a word. She just... stared at him. The expression on her face was unreadable.

"K-Kyungsoo," She muttered, loud enough for everyone to hear.

"You know her?" Sehun asked, looking at the elder boy, but there his sudden expressionless face gave no answers.

Minjae blinked, what in the world exactly was wrong?

Kyungsoo was fairly disappointed. After their hard work, they hadn't received any reward such as money from those police officers. They'd just gotten a simple thanks, but despite his disappointment, it was alright. He pulled a life out of danger, and he was satisfied.

After the officer bid them goodbye, he watched the woman walk towards them. However, when she stood before them, she said nothing. Her eyes were fixed on him intensely and he found it uncomfortable. 

"K-Kyungsoo."

His breath hitched, and his eyes widened when the name rolled off the woman's tongue. All the emotions disappeared from his face and he stared back at the lady. How she'd said his name really sounded