o3. Mends
Black Pearl and the Seven Wild Men ( restarting )
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Being a fast, athletic man, it didn’t take long for Taecyeon to pick up his speed and race after the couple. However, Mr. Number One, Nichkhun wasn’t going down without a challenge. His hand tightened around Yuri as they reached the café and he quickly opened the door and the couple went in, a few seconds before Taecyeon arrived.
“Looks like we have free drinks and food princess.” Nichkhun winked at Yuri, loosening the grip.
“You are so dead Ok Taecyeon; I’m going to make your wallet so thin it’ll be like paper.” Yuri added with a teasing smile.
“I get it, I get it,” Taecyeon muttered in an angry tone, “I’ll treat you two, alright?”
“Because we won,” Yuri promptly said and Taecyeon resisted the urge to leave. Although he was the one who had invited Yuri here, it seemed more like a date set for Nichkhun and Yuri, equipped with hand holding and maybe some lip locking later.
“Welcome to Lollipop, the café that will sweeten up your-” The cute waitress that had stepped out to greet the group of friends momentarily paused and blinked at them; to be more specific, she was staring at Nichkhun.
“Excuse me?” Yuri coughed out, feeling a bit intimidated by the girl’s intense stare at Nichkhun.
“O-Oh, my apologies,” she quickly said, blushing a little. Yuri took note of her slightly accented Korean. It reminded her of Nichkhun’s wrong pronunciations.
“Can we get a table now?” Yuri raised an eyebrow but the girl didn’t respond. She was still staring at Nichkhun with her large eyes.
“Ahem,” Yuri coughed louder and quickly read the nametag on the girl’s shirt, “Victoria-ssi, can we get a table now? It is awkward standing here with you staring at my oppa.”
Instantly, Victoria jumped back to reality and blushed even more, “Y-Yes, I understand, I’ll-”
“Wait,” Nichkhun cut through her sentence and stared at her, “you wouldn’t happen to be Victoria Song-”
“You remember!” Victoria exclaimed and Yuri felt Nichkhun’s grasp on her slipping away. With an annoyed feeling growing her stomach, she turned to shoot Nichkhun a glare. But Nichkhun was oblivious to the death look he was receiving; he was too busy conversing with Victoria.
A few minutes passed with Victoria and Nichkhun talking, Taecyeon and Yuri standing before Yuri dropped the bomb. Flipping her hair, she turned to Taecyeon with puffed out cheeks.
“Let’s get out of here Taecyeon-ah,” Yuri announced and Taecyeon examined her with observant eyes. She looked angry, angry at Victoria and Nichkhun. A sickening sensation filled the bottom of his stomach. It couldn’t be that-
“Come on oppa,” Yuri said, reaching for Taecyeon’s arm and pulling him towards the door, “I’ll treat you to shaved ice!”
Once outside, Yuri let go of Taecyeon and stomped forward, her fists clenched at her sides.
“Are you mad Yuri?” Taecyeon asked, re-asking the obvious.
The question struck Yuri and she stopped midway in her tracks, her heels of her sneakers almost scarring the cement sidewalks. With a turn of her heel, she faced Taecyeon.
“Of course I’m mad!” Yuri said in a solid tone, “I hate it when you guys choose girls over me! It makes me feel-makes me-it makes me feel like I’m going to be all alone again, like I was before. Pretty soon, all seven of you will find a girl better than me and I’m going to be by myself.”
Taecyeon’s eyes softened at the image of a broken Yuri. He was aware of her lack of contact with others; he had found out when Yuri, at age six, proclaimed that they were the first people to ever play with her. To be honest, he was surprised at that time. Yes, Yuri was more of a tomboy then a girly girl, but she still carried a loving heart. Still, Yuri had told her tale of not fitting in and sitting alone during recess and lunch. His heart had broken for her then and he had sworn from that moment on to protect her, to be her knight.
With small steps, he walked towards her and enveloped her into his arms. Even though Yuri wasn’t short for the standardized girl height, she still felt tiny in his arms. Perhaps it was because she was feeling fragile herself.
“Oppa?” Taecyeon tightened his arms around her, savoring the melodic voice that called him the name he always wished to be called by her.
“Don’t worry Yuri, oppa will always be with you. You’ll never be alone again.”
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Junho pressed the phone closer to his ear, as he tried to balance the stack of overflowing papers in his hand. He never found out how his professor managed to live a normal life with all the handouts he gave. Songsaengnim Park seemed to have papers on every single topic the class could imagine. Meanwhile, on the other end of the phone, Chansung was playing his spoiled maknae role and barked out items Junho had to buy for him.
He sometimes wondered why he had befriended the stuck up boy.
“I got it, I got it,” Junho rolled his eyes as he leaned to the left to steady the pile, “look maknae, can I call you back I-”
Before he could even finish his prediction, the stack of paper fell and Junho groaned. He angrily clamped his phone shut, ignoring Chansung’s commands. He was dealing with his temper and there was no need for Chansung to oil it more.
“Do you need help?” A husky yet feminine tone asked and Junho glanced up to see a long, wavy haired girl smiling at him.
“Oh, uh, sure.” The girl then bent down and began to pick up the scattered papers. Junho quickly did the same. With four hands, the work went by fast and she placed a neat pile of papers on top of Junho’s messy one.
“Looks like a heavy load there.” She humorously commented.
“It sure is,” Junho nodded, “thank you, uh-”
“Hyoyeon,” she smiled at him, “call me Hyoyeon.”
“Thank you Hyoyeon-ssi,” Junho shyly said, feeling heat rush up to his cheeks, “I’m-”
“Lee Junho,” Hyoyeon finished with a wink, “you’re quite famous around campus.”
“I am?”
“You sure are Junho-ssi,” Hyoyeon said with a small laugh, “see you next time when you drop your papers?”
“Y-Yeah.”
“I was pulling your leg,” Hyoyeon said and waved goodbye to him, swiftly walking away.
Junho blinked at the back figure of her, momentarily mesmerized, but his trance was broken by the ringing of his phone which blasted out SNSD ‘The Boys’. He inwardly groaned as the song faded in, knowing he was about to receive a long lecture and complaint for the royal Chansung.
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Nichkhun let out a tired sigh as the ring of the phone abruptly stopped and Yuri’s cheerful voicemail message came on, for the umpteenth time. He knew something was wrong when he spotted Yuri pulling Taecyeon out the café. Although he had ended his talk with Victoria with a quick goodbye and raced out, he still hadn’t been able to catch up to the two. He knew Yuri was mad, probably even furious, but what had he done wrong? All he had done was stop to talk to his long lost noona.
Victoria Song was the daughter of his parents’ close friends. Before Nichkhun left Thailand to move to the United States, Victoria and her folks had visited them. Nichkhun remembered having a grand time with the older girl who taught him many unusual things and fascinated him with dance moves she learned back in Beijing. When Nichkhun moved to California, he recalled seeing Victoria again there. That time she had matured to a beautiful preteen, and flaunted her unbelievingly flexible body. However, that visit the last time he ever saw her until today.
Sighing, he momentarily stopped his pointless search and sat down on a park bench. When Yuri was mad, she was mad. A few minutes passed by before he stood up again, deciding to give up and apologize to her tomorrow. Just as he stood up ‘though, he spotted Taecyeon and Yuri, on the other side of the street, a cup in each of their hands as they walked alongside each other, laughing at something.
Narrowing his eyes, he dashed to the crosswalk and crossed it as fast as possible. He reached them just as they headed to the corner of the street.
“Kwon Yuri.”
The girl was obviously surprised when she saw him, her eyes widening.
“Nichkhun?” The Thai prince tried hard to conceal his anger at Yuri’s breezy attitude in addition to using his name. It had been years since she had called his name in that tone, the tone she used to call everyone else.
On the other end, Yuri was suppressing her now rising anger level. He had the gut to call her by her full name after so many years of calling he by random nicknames.
“Why did you leave?”
“We didn’t know when you were going to be done.” Taecyeon stepped up, his eyes fixing into Nichkhun’s, “We weren’t going to wait all day for you.”
“Still,” Nichkhun leveled his gaze to meet Taecyeon’s, “you should’ve told me where you went. Do you know how worried I was?”
“I bet that pretty girl soothed you.” Yuri crossly said, her hand gripping tighter around her shaved ice cup, “You didn’t need us to hang out with you; she can easily cover both of us.”
Nichkhun turned to see Yuri’s hurt look and instantly he felt the previous anger melting away. Lowering his eyes to see the girl fully, he pulled her to him, feeling her press against his body.
“I’m sorry princess,” he whispered into her ear, nestling his head into her neck, “but you should know, no one can ever replace you.”
“You promise?” Yuri felt her eyes water and Nichkhun nodded.
“Am I forgiven then your royal highness?”
“I suppose so.” Nichkhun released Yuri who blinked back her tears, “But you owe me a month’s worth of coffee at Starbucks.”
“Sounds like a deal to me.” Nichkhun winked and Yuri laughed. Everything was fixed once again with the Prince’s smooth words. Taecyeon watched the two giddy looking people with a forced smile. He liked Yuri, he liked her a lot but she was the Black Pearl to all seven of the boys. As much as he wanted her to be only his, it couldn’t be done. Yuri would always have a place for the Thai Prince in her heart, and not only Charming, but also Quirky, Intelligent, Mannered, Funny, Haughty, and himself, Beast. This was their tale of Black Pearl and the Seven Wild Men.
“Yah! Ok Taecyeon, why are you standing there?” Taecyeon broke out of his thoughts to stare into a cockily posed Yuri.
“What?” He asked, rolling his eyes.
“I’m hungry,” Yuri announced with a smug look, “last boy there has to teat me and the other boy to a meal.”
“Hey,” Taecyeon frowned, playing along with Yuri’s game, “that isn’t fair.”
“Life is never fair,” Yuri shot back in a confident tone, “so now, let’s go to the ramen shop. On a-”
“3”
“2”
“1!”
Yuri watched as the two boys leap forward before starting herself, laughing along the way. It was fate that they met, fate that they were her seven best friends.
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Jaebeom pinched the bridge of his nose as he flipped through chart after chart. All the graphs were giving him an awful headache. Deciding to take a break, he excused himself from his “team”: Taeyang, Siwon, Seungri, Younghwa, and Hongki.
“You’re abandoning us?” Hongki demanded as soon as Jaebeom stood up.
“How can you do this hyung?!” Seungri agreed, breaking into a pout.
“Yah, shut up you two,” Younghwa smacked each of the whining boys with the manila folder he was holding, “you each take more breaks then the rest of us combined.”
“You just had to bust us out don’t you?” Hongki glared and Younghwa shrugged.
“Take a long one bro,” Taeyang nodded at Jaebeom, “this project will take a few more hours to complete.”
“Bring us back something to eat!” Seungri shouted.
“And something to drink!” Hongki quickly added just as Jaebeom reached the door.
“Hey, I don’t have that much money.” He said in a teasing voice before walking outside the library. The proposal for the group’s product was taking forever. Not only did they have to find a cheap one to advertise it, but they also had to record the sale rates that would most likely happen if the ad worked or didn’t work. The team was tired, he knew. He’d bring back some burgers and soda after his break.
Fresh air was what Jaebeom really needed so he decided to walk to the closest McDonalds instead of driving his car like he normally would. With his iPods already plugged into his ear, he walked towards the front of the campus. Just as he neared there, he saw a group of boys surrounding a girl. Curiosity took the better of him and he found himself walking closer to the group.
“Come on Barbie, we’re nice oppas.” The boy with the blue hoodie said in a nauseating voice.
“We’ll have loads of fun.” The one with the baseball cap turned backwards added.
“Just play with us.” The one in the leather jacket winked.
“No, I said that already!” The girl, unsurprisingly beautiful, said in a shrill voice, “LEAVE ME ALONE!”
For a girl her size, she had a pretty loud voice.
“Yo, stop playing hard to get,” the one in the green said in a cold tone, “I’m getting pissed.”
“Piss all you want,” the girl glared at the boy and kicked him directly in the shins, “because I’m getting furious.”
“You .” The green shirt boy grunted and painfully motioned for his friends to take over the girl.
Jaebeom couldn’t watch any longer.
“Don’t you know ganging up on a girl is extremely rude?” Jaebeom demanded, pulling out his earphones and marching to the taller boys, bravely standing in front of the star stricken girl.
“Y-You don’t happen to be Park Jaebeom right?” Even in the midst of the chaotic and wrong scene, Jaebeom still encountered a fan girl.
“Yeah,” Jaebeom tilted his head to get a view at the girl, “and you are?”
“J-Jessica, Jessica Jung.”
“Nice to meet you Jessica,” Jaebeom said in a suave voice, “no need to worry, I got your back.”
“You little ,” the leather jacket boy spoke up, “we’ve been trying to get your name for fifteen minutes and you give it to this little punk in a matter of seconds?”
“Yo, Joonki-ah,” the baseball hat dude tugged on the leather boy, “you don’t want to mess with him. He-He’s the Park heir.”
At the mention of Jaebeom’s true identity, the boys’ eyes widened, and even the boy that was kicked in the crotch quickly scrambled up and dashed off. As he watched them run off, he relaxed his muscles, angry that they had run away because of his background.
Park Jaebeom was not a normal boy; he was the first child of the Park family. The Park family owned half the stores and factories in South Korea. Thousands of dollars were like pennies to the Park family. Still, Jaebeom never wanted to use his family to defend himself; in fact he didn’t even spend their money anymore. He wanted to be standing on his own feet hence his strong dislike for people mentioning his family.
“Are you okay?” Jessica asked, momentarily breaking Jaebeom’s train of thoughts.
“Yeah, are you?”
“Yeah, thank you.”
“Keep safe then,” Jaebeom nodded at her before turning back up his iPod.
“W-Wait,” Jessica grabbed a hold of the boy before he could walk away, “do you want me to repay you?”
“Aniyo,” Jaebeom gently shrugged her off, “there’s no need for that.”
And with that, Jaebeom strode away, leaving behind Jessica who was impressed at his attitude. She always knew that the Seven Nobles of the school were cool, but this one was way out of her expected level.
Here's the new chapter after over a month! I hope you all are still with me. This will probaly be my last update for a while since I have finals coming up that I need to study for. I hope you all understand. And there's no need to worry, I am continuing this story, just stay with me readers! ♥
And I think some of you have misunderstood by my note in the beginning (that I have now altered to make it more clear), the story's main triangle is between Taecyeon, Yuri, and Nichkhun not Minho. Minho will just be a character that will be join in the messy triangle but he will not be a main choice; the choice will still be Taecyeon and Nichkhun unless announced otherwise.
This question will come up a lot: Do you support Taecyeon or Nichkhun?
Judge by the way they act towards her; which one should she choose or deserve? Answer honestly! :) Without further ado, I'm going to dance my way out of here (I hope I don't fall). Bye!
--- Nichole ♥
Feeling: stressed
Listening to: Love You Like a Love Song cover by Cimorelli, originally by Selena Gomez
Currently Obsessed With: Frozen Yogurt and Hongki
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