Part 1 of the double update!! (6/13/2015)

My day is average. Working on a Java data leakage detection system while my teachers ramble on about god-knows-what, spending another lunch eating in the library, glaring at Preet across the history classroom. The paranoid feeling in my gut subsides. By the time school gets out, I’m almost not scared anymore.

The next day is equally uninteresting. Jungkook- this time accompanied by all his friends- trips me in the hallway. I scroll through a few forums discussing the best coding languages. A package of souvenirs from my parents in Belgium arrives, accompanied with a handwritten note: Belgium is beautiful! We’re having a wonderful time touring... we thought you might like these chocolates! My trash can becomes a little bit fuller.

Thursday arrives, and with it goes Friday. Before I know it, an entire week has passed. Life is as mundane as usual. That one night seems like something from the distant past, a crazy nightmare from the deepest parts of my mind.

It’s not until next Wednesday that goes down.

My day was going normally.

The only thing that was abnormal was Jungkook’s behavior.

He’s usually obnoxious as hell, always trying to critique my English papers and tell me that I’m “married” to my laptop and laugh at me for stupid things. Today, though, he’s... weird. Markedly quiet- actually, his entire group was really quiet today. I can feel their eyes on me. It is unnerving.

“Alright, y’all,” Mrs. Wringer, my simpering, squeaky-voice chemistry teacher says. “Tomorrow, we’re going to have a test on ionic compounds! Our favorite!”

A collective groan rises up from the class. I roll my eyes. A few days ago, my top concern was infiltrating a South Korean gang’s website and murder. Today, it’s a freaking chem test. The period of excitement in my life has abated. Guess that’s how interesting things are going to get around here.

Though I'm not complaining.

The final bell rings, signalling the end of the school day. I don’t move; I am planning to stay in Mrs. Wringer’s room a little longer, in order to ask her a few questions about ionic compounds and material on the test.

When I hop up to walk to her desk, however, someone’s shoulder slams into me.

“Ow,” I hiss, turning around. “Thanks a lot, Jungkook.”

He’s not smirking. Instead, he is wearing a cold, unreadable expression.
 

“What?” I ask irritatedly.

Jungkook opens his mouth, like he’s going to say something, but then thinks better of it. After a pause, he says in a low voice, “Where’s your laptop?”

“In my bag. Why?”

“You....,” He shakes his head. “Nothing.”

That was weird. I head back to my desk, shaking my head.

An hour passes; Mrs. Wringer leaves and tells me to lock up for her.

Finally, about ten minutes later, I grab my stuff and head out the door.

Suddenly, my phone buzzes. It’s Lina.

“What?” I snap.

“Ami, where are you?” Lina asks in a shaky voice.

“I’m leaving Mrs. Wringer’s room and going to the girls’ bathroom. Why?”

“No! Ami, meet us in B391. Please.”

“Us? God, do you mean the Anime Club? I don’t want to see Preet, dammit.”

“Ami, please listen to me-,”

“I have to pee. Bye.” I hang up and head into the girls’ bathroom.

Five minutes later, I am washing my hands, peering at myself in the mirror. The dark circles that were so prominent a few days ago are now fading away. I can finally get some sleep, now that the fear of being murdered in my bed has receded.

I wonder what Lina wanted. She sounded so scared. Maybe she wanted me to get some more info on the 4 Flames-

A click-click makes me freeze. My eyes glance up to the mirror again.

7 boys are standing behind me, holding guns pointed directly at me.

7 boys who are wearing vicious expressions.

    7 boys who are all too familiar.

    Yoongi, Namjoon, Hoseok, Jin, Jimin, Taehyung, and...

    Jungkook.

    My body is completely frozen.

    “What are you doing?” I utter, my voice cracking.

    “Want to hear a funny story, Ami?” Jungkook asks in a quiet voice, stepping towards me. “There’s a website, protected by passwords, encryption, firewalls. Virtually impenetrable. But last Monday, someone managed to hack into it. Do you know who that person is?”

    I am in a state of shock. No way. Jungkook and his group- no. They can’t be connected to the 4 Flames.

    “I think it was you, Ami.” Jungkook finishes. His finger clicks off the safety of his gun.

    My instincts finally kick in and I bolt towards the door, attempting to escape. Unfortunately, Jimin slams his foot on the door, preventing it from opening. He lazily his gun in my face.

    “Don’t even try to escape,” he scoffs.

The funniest part about being cornered against the wall with 7 guns pointed at my head is how the only thing on my mind is my chemistry homework.

    I spent so much time memorizing all those ionic compounds, I think as multiple menacing faces glare down at me. If I get killed, then studying would’ve been such a waste of time. What is this? I can’t go down like this! I spent so much time memorizing all those ionic compounds!

    “I’ll ask you one more time,” Jungkook growls. A sickened expression involuntarily flits across my face. “Were you responsible or not?”

    I glare back into his disgusting face. My face betrays no emotion (I think).

    What would Mrs. Wringer say if I got shot? She would be so pissed! I would die with a 92 average in Chem! Bull!

    The click-click! of a gun’s safety trigger echoes through the dank girls’ bathroom. My throat feels like it is swelling up, cutting off my windpipe. It is 5:30 PM. There’s no way anyone could be walking in the hall outside, let alone in the school.

    “You know what, I think we’re done playing with you,” Hoseok says chillingly. He smiles, and I feel my blood go cold. “It’s time for you to go.”

    Half of my brain is still stuck in Chemistry Land.

    I close my eyes, clenching my fists-

    Before a roaring explosion rocks the school.

    The fire alarms go off, and water gushes down from the sprinklers above. Their heads whip around in confusion. I take this opportunity to yank open the door and sprint out of the girls’ bathroom and down the hall, attempting to find some place to hide. “Damn!” I hear Namjoon swear from somewhere behind me. The sound of thundering footsteps echoes in my ears as I race away from them as fast as I can, my heart lodged in my throat. I’m going to die, I think, as I hear bullets ricocheting off the walls, barely missing me. One nicks the side of my face, leaving a thin gash of blood. If they don’t catch me, the policemen and school officials who will be at the school in 10 minutes will. I’m actually going to die, holy .

    I turn into another hallway, trying to lose my pursuants. Suddenly, someone opens a door and yanks me inside.

    “Oh my god,” I whimper, on the verge of tears, but take a deep breath when I realize that Marcus was the one who pulled me away. Lina stands by another exit in the room, her eyes wide with fear.

    “Follow me,” she urges, and she pulls me through the connecting doors of the classrooms, until we have reached the debate classroom- the room at the very corner of the building. A small exit door is at the corner of the room. Lina pushes me outside and we rush towards her car, which is parked right next to the door. Preet and Annabelle are inside already. She jumps in, starts the engine, and races out of the parking lot at a speed that would be considered “too fast” for the highway.

The distant whine of police sirens is already audible as we drive through neighborhoods, taking right turns and left turns and heading further down the array of suburban mansions that comprise Brookhaven, California. I belatedly realize that tears are streaming down my face. The faint stench of urine hangs in the air; someone- probably Preet- has peed their pants. Annabelle’s entire body is shaking so hard that her seat is vibrating with her.

    Finally, Lina stops in front of a narrow, four-story condo with tinted glass windows and a sleek silver exterior. “Go,” she says in a choked voice. We all stumble to the door. Lina sloppily shoves a key into the doorlock and enters the condo.

    I collapse face-down in the doorway. My shirt is sopping wet from the fire sprinklers. Blood from the bullet-induced cut on my cheek has smeared all across my face. I feel like I am dead.

    Annabelle bursts into loud sobs. No one moves to console her. We are all too shell shocked from the events that just transpired.

    Finally, I turn to Lina.

    “What the hell just happened?” I ask in a hoarse voice.

    “Jungkook, Jimin, Jin, all of them... they’re part of the 4 Flames..” Lina says faintly.

    “No. No way. Jungkook Jeon is a gang member? He can't be-,”

    “He is, okay?” Lina snaps. “Did you not see his face as he was shooting at you? Preet was leaving 7th period when he heard Taehyung and Jin talking about you. They were talking about how ‘HQ’ had finally caught the person who hacked into the website from the school. I don’t know how they knew it was you. We've been waiting here for hours. God, they were going to kill you!”

    My mouth is dry. “They wouldn’t kill me,” I squeak.

Lina grits her teeth. “They. Almost. Did.”

“How did you make the explosion?”

“Pyrite,” Preet whispers. “Annabelle and I broke into Wringer's storage room and mixed all her aluminum and iron oxide and it all exploded. We did something illegal. I’m going to jail. We’re all going to jail.”

    Annabelle is still crying. Marcus is sitting on the couch. He has not moved an inch the entire time. He is completely expressionless.

    “What do we do?” I breathe. “What am I going to do?”

    “We’re going to accompany you at all times,” Lina says. She reaches out, grabs for her backpack, clutches a stray piece of notebook paper and a pen in her hands, scribbles a list down. “You can never be alone. Do you live alone?”

    “Yes.”

“Then you’re going to stay with me or Annabelle. And... we’ll you to all your classes, and the bathroom, and... everywhere. Actually, all of us should stay in groups. We need to go to school: that’s probably where we’re the safest.” Lina is writing all of this down in messy handwriting. Her fingers are clenched tightly around the pen, like it is a lifeline. “Second thing: we can’t let them know that we were in on the hacking. Then they’ll target all of us, and we can’t protect you anymore, Ami.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“And.... and then... oh my god, how are we going to deal with Namjoon and them at school?”

Annabelle cries louder. Preet buries his face in his hands. The thought of seeing Jungkook in class sitting at a desk and goofing off with his friends after he nearly shot me makes me want to vomit.

Marcus stands up. “Avoid them at all costs.”

“Of course.” Lina stares at the piece of paper she was writing on, and then in wild, jerky movements, tears it to pieces.

“This was a mistake,” she utters, and I start crying again.