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Chapter Text

"Who's that?" Yeonjun asked as he set his biology textbook on the table and slid into his assigned seat, waiting for Beomgyu to answer his question.

Beomgyu took a seat in front of the blonde. "Who?" His eyebrows shot up, clearly not knowing who the other was talking about.

"Are you blind?" Yeonjun rolled his eyes. "The one sitting at the back of the class. He's wearing all black. It's hard not to miss him since he stands out from the crowd."

Beomgyu took a look around the class and when his facial expression changed, Yeonjun knew that he had spotted the newbie. The blondie turned his head to take look at the newbie as well and not long after, the unknown guy was looking their way with a smirk plastered on his face.

Yeonjun's eyes widened, knowing that their cover was blown.

"Oh shit!" He whispered harshly, quickly turning to face the front and Beomgyu faced him subtly to make it look like they were having a normal conversation. "Do you think he saw?" He asked, flipping open his textbook, acting like they were discussing about biology.

"What do you think, Jun?" Beomgyu's eyes widened as he spoke. "Just — play it cool."

The blonde nodded, agreeing to his suggestion and flipped through the pages of his textbook, trying his best to play it cool, while the brown haired male turned to face the front.

Ten minutes later, Ms. Murphy, their biology teacher walked in the class, with a laptop in hand. She sat down on her chair, opened her laptop and called out the attendance. Once she finished, she looked up from the screen and said, "Anyone I missed?" There was a moment of silence until she opened her mouth to speak again, "Yes, you at the back. What is your name?"

"Soobin. Choi Soobin."

Yeonjun heard the guy say with an accent almost like Beomgyu's. Except his voice was slightly softer and smoother instead of low and high pitched like Beomgyu's.

"Well, Soobin," Ms Murphy paused and started typing. "I assume that you're a new student here and there are rules in my class. No one sits at the back row."

Yeonjun heard him get up from his seat and his shoes shuffled closer to where he was shifting uncomfortably in his sit, knowing that the only empty seat in the class except for the back row was next to him.

Jason, the weird kid in class had always been sitting next to Yeonjun until he got expelled from school early this year because of nearly killing a freshman that was picking on him. That is why you always be nice to the weird kids. Who knows what they could do to you with one punch.

The chair next to Yeonjun was dragged out and his heart rate started to increase. He was getting nervous. Nervous about the newbie sitting beside him and embarrassed that he caught him looking at him.

"What is science?" Ms Murphy asked as she got up from her seat, beginning the lesson.

Was she seriously asking that question? How cliché could you be? Yeonjun rolled his eyes and placed his elbow on the table and cupped his chin.

When no one in the class answered her, she sighed, "It's a study of something. An investigation by experimenting and observing. Like being a spy," She waited for reaction from the class. And when she got nothing, she sighed again. “I'm going to give you a simple task today. All you have to do is get a partner and find out as much as you can about them."

"Wait, Miss," Beomgyu stopped her. "What does this have anything to do with biology?"

God, Choi Beomgyu, just shut up before she changed her mind and asked us to do research and write a five page essay instead on what is science? Was Yeonjun exaggerating? Most probably definitely.

"Our next topic is human reproduction. And before human reproduce, they interact first, don't they?" Ms Murphy raised an eyebrow at the brown haired male and Yeonjun saw him shrug.

"So...." Beomgyu trailed off. "Does that mean we can partner up with whoever we want?"

"Nope," She shook her head at him. "I decided that the person next to you would be your partner. Combine tables and start interacting. I want them on a sheet of paper, first thing tomorrow morning."

Beomgyu turned to look at Yeonjun — his bottom lip out in a pout and he did the same. Then, the sound of metal against the floor was heard, breaking their eye contact.

Choi Soobin.

He was dragging his table next to Yeonjun's along with his chair. He sat down next to the blondie, leaning his back against his chair and folding his arms behind his head.

Yeonjun smiled at Beomgyu before he went to interact with his partner. He reached his hand out for Soobin's notebook and pen from his table — hoping he did not mind because he couldn't be bothered getting his own out.

"Right," Yeonjun said, pen poised to write. "Where are you from? Judging by the accent you have, I'm thinking, South Korea?"

"Busan, Gyeongnam."

"Oh, at least I was close." Yeonjun shrugged, wondering where the hell that was as he wrote down, Busan, on the paper.

"Have you been to a shrink?" The ravenette asked and the blond boy furrowed his eyebrows. What kind of question was that? "Or jail, maybe? Have you done anything illegal?"

"What?" Yeonjun's voice full of annoyance at his ridiculous questions he had thrown at him.

"Are you a virgin?"

As soon as those words left Soobin’s lips, the pen that Yeonjun was holding slipped through his fingers. His blue eyes were wide open and his jaw dropped. Was he actually being serious right now? The ravenette smirked at him, obvious that he was doing it on purpose.

"Why can't you ask me something normal?" Yeonjun huffed. "Like what music I like, or what's my favorite color,"

Soobin hooked his fingers under Yeonjun's chair and slowly dragged him closer to himself. The smell of his cologne filled his nostrils and Yeonjun could pick up a hint of cigarettes, too.

Yeonjun wanted so badly to scoot away from him because of how uncomfortable he was with the limited space between them but it will probably show fear and make it look like he was intimidated by him. Which Yeonjun was, a little bit, but he was never going to show it. So, he just sat there, doing nothing, except to stare into his hazel nut eyes as he stared into his dark brown ones.

"But I'm not normal, angel." Soobin whispered.

The hair on the back of Yeonjun's neck stood up and goosebumps started to form on his skin. Then Soobin licked his bottom lip as he leaned back in his seat again.

Yeonjun exhaled until he realized.... “Wait, did you just call me, angel?"

"And if I did?" He raised an eyebrow at him.

"It's Yeonjun but Jun is fine, and not angel. I don't like this pet name that you are giving me."

"It stays, angel." Soobin smiled smugly at Yeonjun making him groan. Did he think this was a game? Yeonjun was beyond pissed right now. "Are your parents married or divorced?"

Yeonjun flinched at his question and looked away, down at his lap, "Neither. They got into a car crash when I was eleven."

"I'm sorry," Soobin apologized and he sounds like he pitied him and Yeonjun hated it. Ever since his parents died, that was all he ever got from people. Pity, pity, pity.

"Don't worry about it." Yeonjun told him, his voice cracking at the end.

"I'm guessing you're living with your aunt?" He said it like he had pulled the guess out of thin air, making the blonde start to question about this guy. Who was he?

"Yeah." Yeonjun replied hesitantly. "You know, normal people usually ask if I was living with my godparents—"

"I told you. I'm not normal and certainly not like other people."

Yeonjun rolled his eyes at that and thought about another question, "What's your biggest fear?"

"I fear heights, the dark, and spiders — especially the tarantulas." Soobin stopped for a second, then added slowly, "I also fear of being contained in a small space." And with that, he ended his sentence by winking at the blondie.

Yeonjun was left speechless.

Was that actually his own fears or was he listing Yeonjun's? Now, this guy was starting to creep him out. Maybe Yeonjun was just overreacting. Or maybe, not. Soon enough, the bell rang and Yeonjun saw Soobin already making his way towards the door. He quickly grabbed his stuff and held his notebook and pen in his hand as he ran out after him.

"Soobin! Wait," Yeonjun called out when he saw him walking down the school hallways. "Soobin! You forgot your things!"

The ravenette turned back, walked towards him and the blonde hesitantly handed him his stuff. He took it from his hand and as he was about to leave, Yeonjun stopped Soobin by saying, "I didn't get anything off you and we're supposed to hand this in tomorrow."

Soobin clicked his pen, took Yeonjun's hand and he watched him scribble something on it. "Call me tonight and maybe we could meet up, yeah?"

Soobin walked away from Yeonjun and he looked down at the numbers on his palm. "I'm busy tonight!" He yelled, which was partly the truth.

Yeonjun had work after school and he finished in the evening. Not to mention how he was always exhausted after. He didn't think he would want to waste his time meeting up with him so that they could do the biology task.

Soobin turned his body so that he was facing Yeonjun and walked backwards. He lifted his arms in the air and yelled back at him with a smug grin, "Too bad!"

They would have finished this in class if Soobin didn't spend the time asking Yeonjun those stupid questions. Was he doing it on purpose so that Yeonjun would fail? He had a feeling he was.

"What do you have now?" Yeonjun heard Beomgyu's voice behind him.

"Um," He stared at his palm with Soobin's number on it and he made a mental note to save it in his phone, just in case if he changed his mind on calling or texting him tonight. "I think I have english. We have it together."

"Let's get going then," Beomgyu linked his arm with Yeonjun's and they walked to their english room. "So, how's the task going with you and the new kid?"

"He was the one asking me questions the whole time. So I didn't get much off him besides that he is from Busan, Gyeongnam," Yeonjun replied him, mimicking Soobin's voice when he told him where he was from. "I mean, where even is that?"

"South eastern part of South Korea. My parents lived a big chunk of their lives there." He simply answered him with a shrug.

"It was a rhetorical question, Beomgyu. How about you and your partner?"

Beomgyu told Yeonjun all about the conversation he had with his partner at biology but half the time, the blondie wasn't even listening. His mind kept thinking about Soobin and how he said he was not normal and not like other people.

Did he mean that? Or was it another game he was playing, or even a sick joke that he thought it was funny to pull on Yeonjun.

Well, it definitely wasn't.

•

•

•

After the last bell of the day rang, Yeonjun got into his car and went straight to work. Once he found a parking space, he locked his car and ran into the mall to where Gloria Jean's Coffees was.

The blondie stepped inside the café and the first thing he saw was Violet behind the counter, taking people's orders with her blonde hair tied up in a messy bun and a black apron on.

Violet was a few years older than him and was in college, but they get along pretty well. Her eyes soon landed on the beautiful blue ones and he flashed her a quick smile and wave.

While she continued to serve the customers, Yeonjun made his way to the back and got changed into his work clothes. As he was about to grab his black apron that was hanging on a hook on the wall, he caught sight of his palm with Soobin's number on it.

Better save his number, the voice in his head told him. Don't want it to wash off now, do you?

Yeonjun sighed because he knew that he had a good point. He got his phone out from his bag and saved his number, before putting it back. Then, he made his way out of the staff room to see Violet brewing coffee.

"Hey, Violet. How many orders are left?" Yeonjun asked handing her a coffee cup.

"This is the last," She replied and poured the coffee in the cup then placed it on a tray, along with another cup of coffee. "Here. It's for the old couple sitting near the flower painting."

The blonde male nodded, grabbing the tray and bringing the order out to the old couple. "Here you go." He smiled as he placed the cups on their table.

"Thank you," They said at the same time and Yeonjun couldn't help but let out a small laugh before making his way back to the counter, where Violet was still busy brewing coffees.

"Where's Daniel?" He asked her, placing the tray back to where they came from. "I thought he has a shift with us today?"

"Daniel..." She laughed as if his name was a joke. She shook her head, pouring the coffee in a cup and he crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for her to continue. "Please. That shithead doesn't want to work but only wants paycheck."

"I don't get why our manager still hasn't fired him? I mean, he's never here most of the time."

"Eric firing Daniel?"

Yeonjun nodded, shrugging, because honestly, if he was the manager of this café, he would have fired Daniel a long time ago. It would be a miracle if he ever came to work and even when he did, he was only here for a couple of hours then left before his shifts even ended.

"Eric wouldn't do that," Violet told him and as he was about to ask why, she beat him to it. "Daniel is his cousin. Family comes first, or whatever Eric always says."

"They're cousins? Wait, what? Why don't I know about this?"

"I heard Jack and Madison talking about it. And you would've have heard it too if you weren't so busy having your head in books every time you're on break," She teased Yeonjun and picked up the coffee cup. Then, he smacked her arm and she almost spilled it, almost.

Violet glared at Yeonjun and he gasped, not thinking through to what he had done. "Whoops, sorry." She shook her head, a smile on her face when she made her way out to give the coffee to the customer that ordered it.

Well then, who knew what would happen if the coffee actually spilled. Violet would probably make him mop the whole café floor. And speaking of mopping the floors, maybe Yeonjun should. Except he felt like sweeping instead. Besides, there wasn't anyone here that wanted to order anything.

Yeonjun grabbed the broom at the back of the cafe and started sweeping the floors when he heard a bell chime indicating there was a customer coming in. He didn't bother to look at who it was, because he knew that Violet could take their order when suddenly, he felt an arm wrapping around his waist from the back.

Yeonjun jumped, and the person behind him whispered in his ear, "Shh, it's just me."

When he heard that familiar male voice, he instinctively tried to wriggle out of his grip and turned around to see his ex boyfriend, Jeon Jungkook, standing two steps away from him. He was wearing a snapback and a black sleeveless shirt that showed his big arms and a couple of tattoos that were on them. His brown eyes met his blue ones and Yeonjun took a step back again and Jungkook smiled, making anger boil inside of him.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, through gritted teeth. "If you're not here to order anything, might as well leave."

"I just wanted to talk," And when those words left the man’s mouth, Yeonjun couldn't help but roll his eyes. "You know, about, us."

"Us?" Yeonjun mocked. "There's nothing to talk about us. We're over, done, finished. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work." He pushed past him, making his way to the back of the counter. He could tell that he made him angry and pissed off with what he had just said and he knew better than to stand close to him.

Because at the back of his mind, Yeonjun know what Jungkook would do to him and he did not want to go through with it again. That's why he decided to end things with him. Yeonjun was not going to be in a relationship with him if he was going to be used as a punching bag.

"I've been taking boxing classes," Jungkook said as Yeonjun leaned the broom against the wall. "To help with my.... issues."

"Oh..." The blondie's voice trailed as he turn around to face him and he stood behind the cash register. "That's good to hear. So, what can I get you today?"

"Jun, stop," Jungkook raised his voice and Yeonjun backed away a little because yes, he still scared the crap out of him and he was not taking any chances. Jungkook took a deep breath and let it out, probably calm himself from lashing out at the younger and said, "I've changed, I swear to you. We can start over."

Violet walked behind the counter and stood next to Yeonjun, wrapping her arms around his shoulder. "Excuse me sir, are you going to order anything? If not, the exit is that way."

Jungkook glared at her, "Fuck off, Violet."

"I work here, Jungkook," She smiled, making him even more annoyed with her. "So, why don't you fuck off instead."

They both went to the same college and stuff. Yeonjun got to know him from Violet — she introduced him to Jungkook when the three of them hung out. Well, you could say at that moment, they clicked and they were meant to be together and whatnot but that was long before Yeonjun saw the real him.

"I need to pee," Violet whispered to Yeonjun and he looked at her, his eyes wide open, mentally telling her not to leave him alone with the other guy. Was she crazy? "I'm sorry, I can't hold it in anymore."

She ran out of the café since their work place didn't have toilets, which to Yeonjun, was stupid and inconvenient, but it's not his shop so it was not really a problem as long as he got paid.

"Can we talk?" Jungkook asked Yeonjun again and he knew he's not going to give up until he agreed with him. "Like, really talk. About everything. I'm not giving up on you or us that easily."

"I'm working, Jungkook." He sighed, tired of talking about this with him.

"What about after your shift ends? It ends around eight or nine anyway."

Yeonjun looked down at the palm of his hands and saw Soobin's faded number on his palm and he remembered him telling him to call him if he wanted to finish the biology task.

And at this moment, Yeonjun would rather meet up with him and do the biology task than Jungkook explain himself. He really did not want to relive that moment at all.

"Sorry, I can't. I already made plans with someone tonight."

•

•

•

After work, Violet went back to her apartment, saying that she had to finish a project that was due tomorrow which reminded Yeonjun of his biology task.

He sat in his car, staring at his phone, debating whether he should call or text Soobin, making him frustrated with himself. He got a coin out of his wallet and let fate decide what he should do.

Heads, Yeonjun called him. Tails, he texted.

Yeonjun flipped the coin in the air, flattened it to the back of his palm and took a peek at it. He didn't think twice when he hit the call button and brought the phone to his ear as he waited for him to answer.

"Hello?"

Yeonjun heard his voice on the other line after the fourth ring. “Soobin, hey, are you — I mean — do you still want to meet up tonight?"

"Angel?" His voice sounded surprise to hear him. "I thought you said you are going to be busy tonight?"

Yeonjun hated that Soobin called him angel. He hated that he was eating his words. He hated him for rubbing it in. He hated himself for even talking to him right now. "Can we meet up or not?"

"I don't think I can. I'm in the middle of a pool game right now at The Lotus Arcade."

From the background noise Yeonjun heard on the other line, he believed him. He ran his hand down his face in frustration, "Let's do it over the phone. Just a couple of questions and—"

The sound of beeping was heard and Yeonjun stared in disbelief at his phone screen. That asshole hung up on him. If he's not going to do it over the phone then he'd just go to arcade and question him in person.

Yeonjun tapped on his gps app and searched up where the arcade was and off he went. When he reached the arcade, the walls were covered in graffiti just like the people that were loitering around here, except that they were covered in tattoos instead and Yeonjun started to feel uneasy with his surroundings.

Pulling into an empty parking spot, next to his car was a huge black truck and on the other side was large motorbike. Taking a deep breath, Yeonjun slung his bag over his shoulder and slowly got out of his car, cautiously looking around him every second. Once Yeonjun double checked that he had locked his car, he made his way towards the arcade. As he took a step inside, he was hit with the smell of smoke and sweat and everyone in there looked at him weirdly.

This is so not your kind of hangout, the voice in Yeonjun's head told him. Well, thanks for stating the obvious. You could still make a run for it.

He ignored his thoughts and made his way to the counter to pay for his entrance fee. He walked around the arcade, looking for a sign that said where the pool hall was and saw nothing, making him feel like a lost puppy that was out of its comfort zone.

As soon as Yeonjun was about to give up, he turned the corner to find rows and rows of pool tables. A smile crept on his face. That was easy, he thought. He walked down the aisle, looking for a particular face.

"Soobin." He called out and just as he spoke, the ravenette shot his pool stick, driving it into the table top. Then his head turned to the blondie's direction whose grip on his bag tightened. Yeonjun walked to where Soobin was and saw that he was with two guys, one blonde and one with light brown hair. They both stared at him with a smug look on their faces.

"Sorry, I hung up," Soobin apologized. "Bad reception down here."

"Do you need a minute or two with your boyfriend, SB?" The brown haired male said mockingly, nudging the other one and they both began to laugh.

"I'm not his boyfriend," Yeonjun was disgusted and his friends laughed even harder and he wondered what was so funny. Maybe it was an inside joke between them two.

"Whatever you say, princess." The brown haired guy winked at Yeonjun. Did they all give pet names to every person they met or what? Probably. "I'm Taehyung and this is Seokjin."

"Yeonjun," He flashed them a friendly smile, despite them assuming that he was Soobin's boyfriend and calling him, princess. "But I'm cool with just Jun."

"Could you guys give us a minute?" Soobin said in monotone, putting down his pool stick on the table. He eyed them for a moment and they both put up their hands in surrender and left without another word.

Yeonjun set his bag on the edge of the table and took his notebook and pen out. "A couple of questions and you can continue with your game. So, do you work?"

"I bus tables at a mexican restaurant, best one in town and pays good too."

"What's it called?"

"La Casa Rosa,"

Nodding, Yeonjun set the paper down on the table and wrote, La Casa Rosa, and accidentally bumped one of the colored ball but ignored it.

"You're ruining the game." Soobin said smiling and the blondie couldn't help but match his smile.

"Not yet," Yeonjun rolled a couple of the colored balls just to annoy him like how he annoyed him in biology. Then, he looked back at him with a smirk. "Now, it's ruined. Next question. What is your biggest dream?"

"To kiss you."

And once again, the pen Yeonjun held slipped through his fingers. He clenched his jaw and glared at him. "That's not funny."

"It is. The way you react to what I say. It's funny." The ravenette smirked, making him roll his eyes and he took the pen back in his hand.

"I need an actual answer, Soobin."

"That is an actual answer, angel."

"Don't," Yeonjun said firmly. "Don’t... seriously, stop calling me that. I don't like it."

"But I do, angel,"

Yeonjun's lips parted as he thought of something smart to say but he heard someone calling his name. The voice that he was starting to hate with all his guts. It was Jungkook. He turned his head and there he was, standing with his fist clenched by his sides, staring at Yeonjun— wait— he wasn't, in fact, he was staring at Soobin with a mixture of pure anger and annoyance.

"Jungkook? What are you—"

"I can't believe you, Jun." Jungkook cut him off by yelling at him and his heart rate increased. He had a bad feeling that he was going lose his temper. "You chose him over me?"

"Dude, calm down," Soobin said in a calm tone, and Yeonjun could feel the tension in the air growing, and it was choking him.

"I'm not your dude, dude," Jungkook pointed a finger at him. "Get your stuff, Jun, I'm taking you home."

"No." Yeonjun shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere with you, Jungkook. Just leave, please."

When those words left his mouth, it sure made Jungkook more aggravated than he already was but Yeonjun did not care. He didn't want to be anywhere near him and it was the truth.

Jungkook immediately stomped to where the younger was and forcefully grabbed him by the arm, pulling him up from the seat and Yeonjun was so sure it was going to leave a bruise. "Jun—"

Before Jungkook could even finish what he was going to say, Soobin had shoved him away from Yeonjun. He stood in front of him, shielding him from Jungkook, and Yeonjun never thought that he would feel protected and safe with him, ever.

Yeonjun could not see what was happening because Soobin was too tall. All he could see was the back of him and he wondered what was going on and what Jungkook was going to do to Soobin, if he snapped right at this very moment.

"Leave," Soobin said, his voice full of order and demand but still calm and contained, making Yeonjun wonder how he was handling all of this without any emotion.

"Not without him."

"He doesn't want to leave with you, so I suggest you leave by your own will or I will make you,"

"Are you threatening me?" Jungkook raised his voice and Yeonjun flinched, even though he could not see him. Yeonjun needed to do something, now.

He peered over Soobin's shoulder and he saw Jungkook sending him death glares and he decided to make a move by standing fully next to Soobin. They both look down at Yeonjun, waiting for him to say something making him so small and vulnerable. He hated it.

"Jungkook..." He pleaded. "Leave, please."

Jungkook sighed and rubbed his palms against the fabric of his jeans. "Fine." And with that, he left but not without kicking the trashcan out of anger.

Yeonjun watched as he disappeared around the corner and he let out a sigh of relief, because he didn't think that he was going to listen to him. He never did, knowing that he always wants everything his way. What if what Jungkook told Yeonjun at the café was true? That he had changed for the better? That he could control his anger instead of lashing out at people? Could they still work it out? Could there still be a them?

Yeonjun was too lost in his thoughts, that he didn't feel Soobin holding his hand. He looked up at him and he was already looking down at him with concerned eyes.

"I'm fine," Yeonjun mumbled as he rubbed his arm. "He had a firm grip, that's all. Nothing serious."

Soobin's eyes trailed down to the other's arm and stared at it for a moment before he asked, "Who is he? Your boyfriend?"

"Ex." Yeonjun corrected him and pulled his hand away from Soobin's and shoved his things in his bag, then swung it over his shoulder. "Ex-boyfriend. We broke up weeks ago."

"Are you leaving?"

"Yeah." He nodded, because right now, he did not care about not finishing the damned biology task. He was exhausted and feeling nauseous from all that had been happening today, and all he want to do was go home and sleep.

"I'll walk you to your car."

They walked out of the arcade with Soobin trailing behind Yeonjun and the younger felt like he was out of harm's way with the older's company. But somehow Yeonjun knew that it wouldn't last long.

Yeonjun got to his car, unlocked it and got in the driver's seat. Soobin then rested his hands on top of his car and the other rolled down his window. The ravenette ducked his head so he could see the blondie and he sighed, "I own a motorbike and I draw in my free time."

"You draw?" Yeonjun's eyes shot up with the new information. "I would love to see that one day."

"One day, but today is not that day." Soobin flashed him one of his grins and pushed himself away from the car. "Drive safely, angel. Good night."

Chapter Text

Yeonjun had no shift at work today, so after school Beomgyu suggested that they go to the community library saying that he had a history assignment due tomorrow and needed to find a book on Pompeii and Herculaneum. Yeonjun had finished all his assignments and homework prior but he accompanied him anyway. He was playing a game on his phone when Beomgyu called for him.

"Hey, Jun?"

The blondie groaned when he saw the game over flashing on his screen. "Gyu! You made me die."

"Sorry. I just wanted to let you know that you've got a stalker."

"What?" Yeonjun lifted his head up high and scanned the library for someone that he knew. "Who?"

Beomgyu kicked his best friend's leg from under the table making him scowl. He jerked his head to the side and Yeonjun looked to see Soobin a few tables away from them, reading a book. Yeonjun didn't even know he liked reading.

"What's he doing here?" The blondie asked in disbelief. Then, he squinted his eyes. "And what's he reading?"

"I'm guessing a book on how to be a stalker." Beomgyu joked and the other glared at him, kicking his leg under the table.

"Haha, very funny. It's probably just a coincidence that he's here." Yeonjun said with uncertainty. It couldn't be a coincidence that Soobin was there at the same time as they were and judging by where he hung out last night, a library would not be a place for him.

"Sure." Beomgyu rolled his eyes. "You keep telling yourself that but we both know that he couldn't stay away from you."

"Shut up!" Yeonjun hissed and Beomgyu threw his head back laughing at him.

With a quick glance over to Soobin, Yeonjun saw that he had already shut his book and was up from his seat, about to leave. As if Soobin had sensed someone watching, he lifted his head, his eyes locking with the blue ones and Yeonjun's breathing hitched in his throat. He broke away first, but not before receiving one of his smirks.

One hour passed and Beomgyu finally finished his assignment and they left the library going their separate ways.

It's six in the evening and Yeonjun's aunt wouldn't be home till later. But when he arrived home, he noticed his aunt's car was parked on the driveway. Looked like she was home early from her shift in the hospital but that did not bother him. It was the jeep that was parked behind her car. Did they have guests?

Yeonjun unlocked the front door to the house with his keys and pushed the door wide open to see his aunt in the living room, still in her nurse's uniform. She was talking to a woman that was sitting next to her. Something about her was familiar, but the blondie couldn't quite put a finger on it.

"Maria?" Yeonjun called for his aunt as he shut the door behind him and their heads turned to the direction to where he was standing.

Maria gestured a hand for Yeonjun to come over excitedly and he slowly made his way over to them. "Junnie honey, do you remember Fiona?"

"No?" Yeonjun furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at Fiona trying to figure out who she was.

Fiona laughed. "You're right, he does look like his father except for his eyes." She tipped her head sideways, as if to study Yeonjun from a new angle. "He has his mother's eyes. He's beautiful, Maria."

"Isn't he?" Maria nodded and turned her attention to Yeonjun. "Fiona is a good friend of mine and your mother's."

Yeonjun's stomach started to churn and feel nauseas. He knew where this conversation was going. They would end up talking about his father, his parents, the car crash and remembering them made his heart ache.

"Oh uh- if you don't mind, I'm gonna go upstairs and change. It's been a long day."

When Yeonjun left the leaving room and headed upstairs, he heard the doorbell ring and Maria yelling, "Pizza's here!"

Yeonjun ignored her, pushing the door open to his room and throwing his bag on the floor and then himself on the bed. He laid there, staring at the ceiling as the faces of his parents flashed in his mind. Yeonjun's eyes started to water and he couldn't stop the tears from falling when suddenly, a knock was heard and he quickly wiped his tears away.

"I'm not hungry, Maria."

"Is that a nice way to welcome your guest?" A male voice echoed in Yeonjun's room making him sit up from his bed to see a guy leaning against the doorframe.

He looked like the blondie's age. He had black hair and green eyes and was wearing a white shirt and dark blue hoodie over it and maroon jeans. His lips tilted upwards and Yeonjun grabbed his wooden bat that he had not used in years from under his bed and pointed it to him.

"Don't move or I will not hesitate to use this bat against you," Yeonjun warned, ready to attack with his deadly weapon.

The guy broke into a laugh.

He was laughing and the blondie did not know why he was laughing. He bent over and rested his hands on his knees and he continued to laugh till his face turned red as a tomato. Yeonjun stared at him, baffled by what he was doing. He got up from his bed and walk to where he was, lifting the bat up to his face.

"I wasn't kidding. I will hit you."

"You wouldn't dare," He said playfully.

Yeonjun raised an eyebrow at him wondering if he was serious. He decided to show what he was definitely serious about this and hit his arm with the bat using all the strength he had. The guy groaned heavily in pain as he fell backwards on the floor, clutching on his arm that Yeonjun had just hit. The blondie walked to the side of his body with the bat still in hand as he watched him groan.

Soon enough, Yeonjun heard footsteps running upstairs and he tore his eyes away from him to see Maria and Fiona standing on the staircase; eyes and mouths wide open when they saw the guy on the floor.

"Jesus christ, Taehyun!" Fiona yelled running towards the guy and crouching next to him.

"Taehyun?" Yeonjun repeated after her.

There was confusion in his tone of voice but the name rolled out of tongue as if he had been saying his name his whole life.

Then, the memory of his childhood came flashing in his mind and he gasped, after realizing what he had done to his childhood best friend - Kang Taehyun.

He fucking hit him on the fucking arm with a fucking wooden bat.

•

•

Taehyun was leaning against the head of the bed in the guest room, holding an ice pack on his arm while Fiona and Maria went to the shops to get painkillers for him since had they had run out of them. Before they went, they told Yeonjun to watch over him and he did.

The blue eyed boy sat at the edge of the bed facing him with his legs crossed and he sighed. They had been sitting in silence for a while now and Yeonjun hated it. And what he hated more was that he had been apologising to Taehyun but he did not accept it, making him feel like shit.

"Taehyun-ah, I really am sorry." Yeonjun apologised for the millionth time to him but he still wouldn't budge.

The emerald eyed male was not going to forgive him, something Yeonjun knew since they were younger. He wouldn't forgive someone unless he got something in return. Something that would benefit him of course.

"I still can't believe you hit me with a baseball bat." He shook his head.

"And I still can't believe you're not forgiving me. I already said I'm sorry,"

"It still fucking hurts. I hate you so much for doing this to me."

"I hate you even more," Yeonjun retorted with a scoff.

"If you could show me around this place tomorrow," Taehyun said, "Then maybe I would forgive you."

"I have school. And after school, I have work. Maybe we could do it the day after?"

"Alright, why not? I'm not leaving this place any time soon."

"What do you mean?" Yeonjun asked, curiosity getting the best of him.

"We are moving in to this area. After my parents divorced, my dad got the family business and one of the property back home and mom got a property here. It's an apartment near the beach."

"Sweet."

"Right? Anyway, mum is probably going to enroll me in your school too."

"Oh boy. Now I have to see your ugly face everyday." Yeonjun teased.

"My face is prettier than you, Jun, thank you very much." Taehyun flicked his raven locks away from his emerald eyes.

"Shut up," The blondie crossed his arms and look away from him. "Jerk."

Soon enough, Fiona came running in with a glass of water and the painkillers, and Yeonjun took that as his cue to leave.

Before he left, he wished a good night to the both of them and went to his room, cannonballed on the bed and then burrito-ed himself in the fuzzy blankets before falling in a deep slumber.

•

•

Yeonjun walked past the students in the hallway to where his locker was and opened it to put the books that were not needed in there when suddenly, a hand was placed on his shoulder, making him jump, making him drop all of his books that were in his arms.

"Jesus Christ," Yeonjun muttered, looking behind himself to see Beomgyu.

He was all sweaty and staring off in a distance like he was looking out for something but it didn't bother Yeonjun and he bent down to pick his books off the floor. While he was at it, he tilted his head up to see him constantly turning his head left and right and it's starting to making him worry.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Yeonjun asked and Beomgyu jumped slightly at his question and he furrowed his eyebrows at him. Why was he all jumpy? Like everything he heard or saw was making him scared to death.

"I, uh — c-can you please hurry up?" Beomgyu stuttered, "We have b-bio next."

The blondie held his books in his arms and stood in front of him, "Are you okay?"

"What, uh - y-yeah,"

Yeonjun placed his books in his locker and got his biology textbook out before slamming his locker shut. He turned to look at Beomgyu who was still looking around him. What was bothering him?

The blondie placed a hand on his cheek and the brown haired focused his attention on him and Yeonjun saw fear in his eyes. He knew it wasn't because he feared Yeonjun- he feared something else.

"Tell me the truth, Gyu." Yeonjun demanded in a firm tone. "What's wrong?"

Beomgyu bit his bottom lip, hesitating to tell his best friend slash spirit animal slash soulmate. Then, finally, he took Yeonjun's hand away from his cheek and pulled him down the hall and into a small room. He closed the door and turned the lights on and Yeonjun realised that thet were in the janitor's closet with all the mops and brooms.

Beomgyu double checked that the door was locked before turning to face Yeonjun. He slowly took his shirt off and the other wondered what on earth he was doing. But his question was soon answered.

"Beomgyu," Yeonjun gasped, when his eyes caught sight of a patch of skin on his chest and it looked almost like a branding. He took a closer look at it and it's design was a circle with hand in it. "Who did this to you?"

"I— uh, d-don't know," He said, leaning his back against the door as he looked down at his shoes. "I was walking home from the grocery store last night when a bunch of men came out nowhere, covered my head in a bag and dragged me somewhere. They ripped my shirt off and I struggled myself out of their grip. I really did .. but there were too many of them holding me and that's when something hot was pressed to my chest, burning me."

"What? Did you call the police? Or even tell your mum? This is something serious."

Beomgyu shook his head, his lips trembling with fear. "After they burned me, they said that if I told anyone about this, they would come after me. I'm scared, Yeonjun."

Beomgyu sniffed and Yeonjun knew that he was crying. He pulled him in for a hug, rubbing his back and trying his best to comfort him by repeatedly whispering to him, "It's going to be okay,"

"I need you not to tell anyone about this, okay. I trust you on this." He whispered in his ear as he pulled away.

"No, Beomgyu, we have to tell someone about this so they can find out who did this to you. Who knows, they could be doing this to a bunch of other people."

He shook his head, struggling to put his shirt back on, "No, please. I'm begging you not to tell anyone about this. I was probably at the wrong place, at the wrong time."

Yeonjun wanted to argue back with him because the people that did this to him were psychotic, and were still out there. But if Beomgyu trusted him with this information that no one else knew, it must mean a lot to him.

"Fine," He sighed in defeat. "Let's go to bio. But first, we have to clean you up,"

After Beomgyu cleaned himself up, they made their way to the biology room. Yeonjun repeatedly asked him if he wanted to skip this class and go home instead but Beomgyu insisted on going, so he decided to drop it.

The first thing Yeonjun saw when he walk into the class was Soobin.

The ravenette was sitting in his seat next to the blondie's, writing something on his notebook. Their tables were still combined ever since monday. The day when they had to partner up and do the biology task.

Yeonjun asked Ms. Murphy yesterday, if they were moving the tables back but she told him that there was no need for that and saying that it was fine the way it was. So basically, Yeonjun was stuck with Soobin for the rest of the year.

Beomgyu walked to his seat and sat in front of Yeonjun who took a seat behind him. As the blondie sunk into his seat, he took a quick glance at what Soobin was doing.

Yeonjun saw that Soobin had all his attention on his drawing in his notebook, which consisted of big black wings and they were attached to a person's back. Like an angel.

"Why an angel?" Yeonjun blurted out and once the question left his mouth, Soobin immediately shut his notebook, obviously not wanting him to take another look at his work.

Soobin turned to face at him, and sighed, "It's not just any angel. It's an archangel."

"Oh," Yeonjun nodded at his reply. What the hell was an archangel? Why did he even care? It has nothing to do with school or biology so...

Ms. Murphy came in the class, late as always and took the attendance then began the lesson without hesitation. She opened a drawer on her table and took a marker out.

"Attraction is the first element of all reproduction." Ms Murphy wrote the word attraction on the board. "The complexity of human attraction and reproduction is one of the features that set us apart from other species."

She turned around, putting the cap on the marker and looked around the room and a sigh left her mouth. A sigh that said that she was so done in teaching this class because no one ever paid attention. Half the class were busy talking among themselves and the other half were on their phone or sleeping.

Beomgyu had his head on the table and Yeonjun could hear soft snores coming from him, obvious that he didn't get any sleep last night because of what happened.

"Mr. Choi," Ms Murphy called him, crossing her arms against her chest. "Choi Beomgyu." She said, more firmer this time.

His partner next to him tried to wake him up by shaking him but he only groan in response. Yeonjun gave him a hard kick under his chair and he jolted up from the table, looking around the class with wide eyes.

Beomgyu's eyes landed on Yeonjun's who whispered, "It's okay. You're okay." Yeonjun gave him a reassuring smile and he weakly smiled back at him before turning his head to the front.

"Late night?" The teacher asked, and he nodded, stretching his arms and yawning.

"As I was saying. Attraction," She told the class. "Every human have different qualities that they are attracted to. What are the qualities you look for in a person, Mr. Park?"

"Huh, w-what?" Beomgyu mumbled under his breath, ears tinting red. "Um, could you- uh, could you ask someone else?"

The teacher sighed, "Yeonjun, you next."

Well shit, thank you Beomgyu.

"W-what?" Yeonjun choked out because he didn't see it coming and didn't know why he looked over to Soobin who was leaning back in his seat.

The ravenette's arms were crossed against his chest, grinning at the flustered blondie then he mouthed, "We're waiting,"

"Uh...." Yeonjun's voice trailed as he raked his brain for any word he could think of but got nothing. He was wordless and his mind was blank.

"Vulnerable," Soobin spoke up, taking the attention from the blondie towards himself.

"I look for someone who is vulnerable, intelligent and," He paused and leaned forward, angling his body slightly towards Yeonjun, "Attractive."

Yeonjun could feel his cheeks flush and he quickly turned away. He locked his ankles around the legs of his chair and jerked forward, forcing himself not to wonder why Soobin looked at him when he said those words.

"Excellent," Ms. Murphy clapped and walked towards the whiteboard and wrote a couple of things that were needed to be done by this lesson and for homework. "There will be a surprise test on human reproduction next week. Now, I want you guys to do notes on it. They're on chapter six of your textbooks."

Everyone flipped their textbooks open and Yeonjun sighed, getting his notebook and pen out from his bag then opened his own textbook to chapter six to see full pages of small typed up words. This was going to take a while, he thought to himself.

"Okay," Yeonjun breathed out and started reading when suddenly, Soobin pulled the textbook away from him, "Hey!"

"Do you know what an archangel is?" The ravenette asked, looking at the page on the textbook and he traced his fingers on the sentence that he was reading.

Yeonjun furrowed his eyebrows, wondering why the hell was he asking him this. They were in biology, so talk biology to him. It's his specialty.

When he didn't answer Soobin, he smiled and flipped the page and said, "It means a high-ranking angel."

"Thanks for the info," Yeonjun said bitterly and slid his textbook back on his table. Why would he need to know information about archangels? Or even angels at all? They were not going to be on the test next week.

The blondie continued reading and writing down important notes that could possibly be on the test until the last bell of the day rang. And as usual, Soobin was the first one to leave, probably because he didn't have to put anything away. Heck, he didn't even carry a bag to school except for a pen and a notebook.

Yeonjun packed his stuff and waited for Beomgyu. Then they both made their way out of the class and down the school hallways. He was trailing behind him and he stopped to check on him. He was biting his fingernails nervously as he looked around him.

"Beomgyu," Yeonjun sighed, wrapping an arm around his waist and continued to walk together. "It's going to be okay. Like you said, you were probably at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"That's what I thought but then I kept thinking about it in class, and remembered him saying something about building a ‘nephilim army to over throw them’."

"Them?" Yeonjun furrowed his eyebrows. "And what nephilim army? Is that even a word?"

"I don't know. I think I need therapy after this."

"Or maybe you need coffee and a couple of muffins from the cafè," Yeonjun suggested as they made their way to their cars that were parked next to each other on the school's parking lot as always.

"Hm, maybe you're right,"

"When am I ever not?" The blondie flashed him a boxy grin, fishing for his car keys from his bag.

The word, nephilim kept swimming in his mind and he hated that he did not know what it was. Yeonjun made a mental note to himself to search up what the word mean when he got home after work.

Beomgyu looked around the parking lot cautiously again before getting his car keys out of his pocket, "Let's go."

•

•

After dinner, Maria carried their plates to the sink and while she washed them, Yeonjun grabbed a cloth to wipe the dinner table when suddenly, he heard his phone ring from the living room.

He quickly wiped the table and ran to the kitchen, attempting to throw the cloth on the counter but it hit Maria instead, making her yell profanities at the blonde haired male who just laughed.

The phone kept ringing and as Yeonjun got in the living room, he grabbed his phone off the couch to see an unknown number on the screen. He answered it anyway. "Hello?" He said, walking up the staircase to his room.

"Choi Yeonjun, did you miss me today?"

"Taehyun? How'd you get my number?" Yeonjun questioned as he took his laptop from his study table and took a seat on his bed, placing it on his lap before opening it.

"From a hobo on the streets. I knew you were friends with those people. I mean, have you seen your style of clothing?"

Yeonjun rolled his eyes, "What do you want?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to know what you were up to. Oh, I went around this place by myself today and I must say, it's better than home."

"You went around without me?"

"I'm sorry, babe. You didn't think I would wait around for you, right? Anyway, do you have work tomorrow?"

"Nope," Yeonjun said popping the p as he typed up his password for his login. "Why?"

"Delphic amusement park. It's having a grand reopening tomorrow night. What do you say, Mr. Choi? Care to join me?"

"I don't know. If you're paying, I might just consider going with your ugly ass."

"Harsh. Fine, I will but only for dinner."

"Only for dinner? I don't know....." His voice trailed off as he clicked on google chrome and typed the word nephilim on the search bar, waiting for Taehyun to offer him something else.

"I'm broke as fuck, Jun."

"Okay, okay, I'll go. Only because you're paying for dinner, not because of you."

"Jun, please. Everyone wants a piece of Kang Taehyun." He said proudly, his deep accent shining through, and Yeonjun laughed sarcastically. "Anyway, I'll swing by your place at five tomorrow. "

"See ya," And with that they hung up. Yeonjun saved his number on his phone and left it to charge on his bedside table.

Then, he pressed on the enter button of his laptop and everything about nephilim started popping up on his screen and he clicked on one of them that looked appealing.

~ • Nephilim, is an abomination; a hybrid creature, an offspring of a human and an angel. They were never meant to inhabit Earth. Many people believe the Great Flood at the time of Noah is intended to cleanse the Earth of Nephilim.

We have no way of knowing if they have died out and whether fallen angels have continued to reproduce with humans since that time. It seems logical that they would and would mean that Nephilim race is likely to be on Earth at this very moment. • ~

After Yeonjun read that, out of all the things he laughed thinking that it was bullshit. The people that branded Beomgyu must've been on the internet for too long and got this information stuck in their head while being high on crack or something.

But somehow, his mind went to when Soobin drew an angel - no - an archangel or whatever he said in biology today. Yeonjun reread the passage and the words that caught his attention were the words — fallen angels.

Yeonjun quickly searched it up and clicked on the first link that he saw since he was starting to get hooked on this topic and there was no way of getting out of it.

Skimming down a couple of paragraphs, he read the ones that caught his attention or the interesting ones about this-so-called fallen angels.

It read:

• At the creation of the Garden of Eden, angels were sent to earth to watch over Adam and Eve.

Some angels saw themselves as future rulers over the Earth's population, lusting after power, money and even human women. Together they tempted and convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and opened the gates of Eden.

As punishment for this grave sin and for deserting their duties, God stripped the angel's wings and banished then to Earth forever. •

As Yeonjun read further about fallen angels, his heart started beating erratically, maybe because of the overwhelming feeling that he was having over this information he had just found over the internet.

• Fallen angels are the same as evil spirits (or demons) described in the Bible as taking possession of human bodies.

They roam the Earth looking for human bodies to harass and control, tempting humans to do evil by communicating thoughts and images directly to their minds. And if they succeed, they can enter the human's body and control his or her personality and actions but they can only possess human bodies during the Hebrew month of Cheshvan.

Cheshvan (the bitter month), the only month where Jewish doesn't have any holidays or fasts, making it an unholy month. Between new and full moons during this month, fallen angels invade human bodies in droves. •

At that very moment, Yeonjun's eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets, no doubt about that. Seriously, what the fuck did he just read?

He rubbed his temples and let out a sigh, telling himself that it had been a long day and he needed rest, he wanted rest and that's what he was going to do right now but then, a knock echoed around Yeonjun's room and he quickly slammed his laptop shut, not wanting anyone to see the ridiculous searches he did.

Tilting his head up, Yeonjun saw Maria with a plate of chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk. She asked, "What are you working on?" And set the plate on his bedside table and taking a cookie before sitting on his bed.

"Um-" Yeonjun grabbed a cookie for himself and took a bite. "Studying for a biology test next week."

"Alright," She nodded. "Don't stay up too late. There's school tomorrow."

"I won't," Yeonjun told her and grabbed the glass of milk to drink. "And thanks for this,"

Maria smiled and gave the blondie a kiss on his head and saying her goodnights to him before walking out of his room. Her gesture reminded Yeonjun so much of what mum would always do before he would go to sleep and his heart ached at the thought of her.

He missed her, he missed his dad, he missed their presence around himself. He just missed them both.

Yeonjun drank the whole glass of milk then placed it back on the plate. He got up from his bed and got his biology textbook and his notebook and pen and got started on his notes instead of going to sleep.

Chapter Text

When Yeonjun walked in to English, he did not see Beomgyu anywhere. He sat in his seat and took his phone out to call him to see if he was okay since their teacher was not in yet. But after a few calls, it went to voicemail.

The blondie decided not push it, thinking that maybe the other needed some rest from what had happened so he texted him saying:

I hope you're okay. If you need anything, I'm here :)

and he hit the send button.

After English, Yeonjun walked down the halls to where his Biology class was and stepped inside and the first thing he saw was Soobin, who was already in his seat next to his owns.

Yeonjun pulled his chair from under the table and Soobin turned to look at him with a smirk on his face. The smirk that always annoyed the shit out of the blonde but also gave him butterflies.

"What are you doing tonight?" Soobin asked as the blondie slumped in his seat.

"Not you," Yeonjun answered him coldly.

Why did he need to know what he'd be doing tonight? So that he could follow him and Taehyun to Delphic or something? What a creep.

Soobin chuckled, "Feisty. I like that about you, angel. I really do,"

"I don't care what you like. And for the last time, stop calling me — angel."

"Are you this cold to everyone or is it just me?" The ravenette questioned the blonde in a serious tone. But Yeonjun did not care and rolled his eyes, a sign that said he was not answering his ridiculous question. And when Yeonjun did not answer, Soobin leaned in closer to him and whispered, "Do I make you uneasy, angel?"

Yeonjun backed away a little. If he was being honest, he did. And not only uneasy, but also uncomfortable, and vulnerable whenever the raven haired male was around. He hated it. The blondie never felt like this with anyone, ever, in his life. Why must Soobin be different?

Yeonjun stood his ground and forced himself not to answer him. He saw Soobin from the corner of his eye, about to say something but before he could even get a word out, their Biology teacher walked in.

Ms. Murphy started the class as normal. Half way through the class, Yeonjun kept waiting for Soobin to say what he wanted to say to him but he kept his mouth shut the whole time and concentrated on the work. He must have decided to let it go so Yeonjun might as well.

After school, he called Beomgyu to check up on him since he did not reply to his text before. He answered on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hey, you okay?" Yeonjun asked him through the phone as he unlocked his car and got in the driver's seat.

"I don't know. I guess so?"

"Do you want to get coffee with me?" The blondie said, igniting the engine of his car and waited for him to reply before putting on his seatbelt.

"But I look like shit today. And feel like shit. I don't think I want anyone to see me like this," Beomgyu mumbled.

"Come on, just one coffee. I'm sure it will make you feel better."

"Yeah, okay, I'll be at the cafe in ten."

"Alright, see you there," And with that, Yeonjun hung up and threw his phone on the passenger seat next to him before driving out of the school grounds.

•

•

"He's been asking about you." Violet said as Yeonjun approached the café counter.

His eyes widened and the first thought that came in mind was Soobin. "Who?"

"Jungkook, of course. Who else? He has been begging me to put some sense in to you to give him another chance. He misses you."

Yeonjun let out a sigh of relief. Of course it was him. How stupid he was to think it was Soobin when Violet had not even met him yet. "Tell him that I don't care and I've moved on."

"Yeah! That's my babe."

"Hey, Violet. Another latte, please." Yeonjun heard Beomgyu's voice next to him. He leaned against the counter and when he looked at him, his face was pale and had chapped lips. He looked sick and lifeless. "Do you want anything?"

"I'll get whatever you're having."

"Will that be two then?" Violet questioned.

"Yeah, make it two," Beomgyu nodded and handed Violet the money before Yeonjun could even offer to pay it for him.

"When did Beomgyu arrive?" Yeonjun asked Violet.

"He was here ten minutes earlier than you and and got a large latte," Violet told Yeonjun before leaving the register to go make the drinks.

"Did I miss anything in school?"

"Nah." Yeonjun answered Beomgyu. "The same old routine. Nothing's changed." And he nodded at that. After a while, the blonde whispered, "You're not still thinking about it are you?"

"It's just—" Beomgyu ran his fingers through his hair in frustration and groaned. "No matter how much I try to forget it or to distract myself from remembering it, it just pops right back in my mind."

"It's okay," Yeonjun said, rubbing his shoulder to comfort him. "Mind is a tricky thing, it makes you forget the things you want to remember and remember the things you want to forget."

"Here," Violet handed them their lattes and they took it. "Delphic is reopening tonight. What do you say?"

"I, uh—" Yeonjun paused, remembering that he had planned to go there tonight with Taehyun. "I'm going there with someone tonight but we could all go together?"

"Who?" Violet and Beomgyu said at the same time, startling Yeonjun.

"Taehyun."

"Oooh, Taehyun," Violet cooed and smacked his arm, knowing what she was thinking. "Nice name. Who is he?"

"Yeah, who is he?" Beomgyu added, taking a sip from his latte. "You never talked about him before."

"He's a childhood friend of mine." Yeonjun simply said and took his phone out to text Taehyun about the extra company but before he could even type a letter, Violet interrupted him.

"Is he hot?" Violet asked excitedly and Yeonjun shrugged. He never looked at him that way, just as a friend, nothing more, nothing less. "I have to see him. We will all go tonight."

A bell chimed, indicating that a customer had just walked in and Yeonjun turned around to see it was an old lady, making her way to the counter.

"I'll text you where and when to meet tonight." He told Violet and she nodded.

Then, he grabbed Beomgyu's arm and pulled him out of the way so that the old lady could order. He tapped on the message app on his phone and texted Taehyun.

~~ Two friends of mine want to tag along with us to the amusement park. Is that okay???

Soon came a reply, ~~ If they're hot, I don't mind.

Yeonjun rolled his eyes at his text message. The same thing Violet had said about him. They would definitely get along with each other.

He quickly typed a message — ~~ there's only one way to find out. By the way, you're still picking me up right??

Then a new message popped up on Yeonjun's screen— ~~ Yeah I'm coming around five, and wear something nice ;)

Yeonjun rolled his eyes ~~ don't tell me what to wear. And don't send winky faces at me.

And then there was a new message — ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) — which made Yeonjun groan, annoyed with Taehyun's childish attitude.

He locked his phone before putting it in the back pocket of his jeans and looked up at Beomgyu who was on his phone as well, while drinking his latte.

"I'm not going," Beomgyu shook his head, his eyes still glued to his phone as he continued scrolling.

"Why not?" Yeonjun pouted, "It's going to be fun. And plus, it might get your mind of it for a while."

"Alright," He sighed and shoved his phone in the pocket of his jacket. Then Beomgyu grabbed Yeonjun's hand and pulled him out of the café. "But first, I need to get new clothes."

•

a/n - next chapter will be interesting ;)

Chapter Text

The doorbell rang and Yeonjun took a quick look at himself in the mirror one last time before going down the stairs. Halfway down, he realised he forgot his bag in his room. He turned back around and groaned, "For fuck's sake! Can I ever get anything right?"

Yeonjun went up the stairs as fast as he could - almost tripping over his feet which made him annoyed with himself. And what made him more annoyed was when he was grabbing his bag, Taehyun kept on pressing the doorbell like there was no tomorrow.

Once Yeonjun got everything, he trudged down the stairs and Taehyun was still pressing the doorbell. He stopped when the blondie opened the door and saw him smiling like an idiot infront of himself but it fell as soon as his eyes laid on him.

"Aw, Jun, why the long face?" Taehyun asked and he ignored him, pushing him back so he could step out of the house and lock the door. "And what are you wearing?"

Yeonjun looked down at his clothes and wondered what was wrong with it. He was wearing a white t shirt and black skinny jeans with a dark blue jacket since it was going to cold tonight.

"Tae, not today please," Yeonjun said and walked towards his jeep.

He got in the passenger seat and seconds after, the raven haired did the same, getting in the driver's seat and inserting the key into ignition. While Taehyun was putting on his seatbelt, Yeonjun leaned forward to turn the radio on but before his fingertips could even touch it, his hand was slapped away. "Ow! What was that for?"

Taehyun held a finger up, "This is my car so, my rules. And you're not allowed to touch anything in here."

"Then, how am I suppose to put on my seatbelt huh, smartass?"

Without answering Yeonjun, Taehyun leaned towards him and reached his hand out to grab the seatbelt next to him then pulling it over his body before buckling it up. He said, "There. Happy? All sorted out,"

He placed his hands on the steering wheel and slowly backed out of the driveway and into the streets, to Delphic.

"Do you know where you're going?" Yeonjun asked him when he noticed that they missed the turn to the amusement park.

"Yeah, why?"

"Really? 'Cause I'm pretty sure you just missed a turn. There's only one way to get there."

"Oh," Taehyun pursed his lips and made a u-turn while Yeonjun took his phone out from his bag to see that he had missed a couple of missed calls and texts from Beomgyu, Violet and of course, Jungkook.

As he unlocked his phone to see the text messages, he said to the other, "Just to remind you, you're getting me dinner."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Taehyun waved him off, keeping his eyes on the road.

Yeonjun texted Beomgyu — we are on our way.

Soon came a reply from him — Okay. We're at the tickets area. Please hurry up. Violet is being extra annoying tonight. She keeps talking about Taehyun.

Yeonjun laughed, knowing exactly how it felt to be around her when she started talking about boys. It can get really annoying but you get used to it. He was half way through his text message to Beomgyu when another message came through.

It was from Violet — bITCH YOU TEXTED THIS MIDGET FIRST AND NOT ME IM SO OFFENDED RIGHT NOW!!!!

Yeonjun laughed mentally before typing — calm the caps, we're on our way.

Then there were multiple texts from Violet — with Taehyun?? FUCK YES! I dressed up real sexy for him, Tae, he better be as hot as zac efron—

Yeonjun replied with red cheeks — oh my god, you slut apdjsk

Then there was another text from Violet — takes one to know one ;)

A couple of minutes passed and they finally arrived the amusement park. It was packed with hundreds of people and there was absolutely no parking space around here. Taehyun slowed down the jeep infront of the Delphic gates.

"I'll drop you off here," He told the blonde. "I'm gonna find a parking space further up."

"Alright. We'll get the tickets. I might as well get one for you."

"Ah, thanks babe," Taehyun winked at Yeonjun who glared at him for calling him that while he just laughed. "You need to loosen up, Jun."

"Whatever," Yeonjun mumbled before getting out of his jeep.

He made his way to where the ticket booths were and there, he saw Violet and Beomgyu. And Violet did dress up for Taehyun. The clothes she was wearing were much more tighter, shorter and a bit more revealing than what she usually wore. But she still looked beautiful either way. And plus, she's got a good body. She should be proud of it.

They got the tickets and wrapped the wristbands around their wrists that the counter lady had given them and Yeonjun held one for Taehyun. After a while of waiting, he came along and Yeonjun put it on for him before introducing him to his friends.

After everybody knew everybody, they all went into Delphic and hit the ferris wheel, the bumper cars and a few game booths.

While playing, Yeonjun noticed that Violet kept lingering around Taehyun, something she tended to do when she was interested with someone. And Yeonjun couldn't help but smile at the thought of them together.

"What do you guys wanna do now?" Violet asked, panting from all the games and rides they had tried on.

"What about The Archangel?" Taehyun suggested and that caught Yeonjun's attention. He remembered Soobin in biology class, saying something about that.

"What is it?" Yeonjun asked, curious because he was no familiar with a ride with such a name.

"It's a roller coaster. It has a really big drop," Beomgyu told him.

Yeonjun's heart pounded. He hadn't been afraid of heights for years, probably because he had avoided them and he was not sure if he was ready to find out if time had faded his fear of them.

"Could we try out the arcade first?" Yeonjun tried his best to keep his voice steady so that he could convince them not to ride it and also not to show his fear of heights.

They all nodded agreeing to his suggestion and the blondie was proud of himself for sounding convincing. And off they went into the arcade. They had just walked through the doors to the arcade, when his eyes fell on someone familiar.

The person Yeonjun was hoping not to see at this time. The person who made Yeonjun question and wonder who he was. The person who made Yeonjun feel anything but positive feelings.

Soobin.

He was playing on one of the video games and was wearing his usual clothing that consisted of the colour black and a thin silver necklace that flashed against his fair complexion.

If Yeonjun was lucky, Beomgyu had not seen him because if he did, he'd go on about how he had told him so about Soobin stalking him. Yeonjun kept convincing himself that it was a coincidence he was here, but instincts told him otherwise.

"What do you guys want to try on first?" Taehyun asked, looking around the place.

"Air hockey," Yeonjun immediately said, pointing towards it. It was on the other side of the arcade and further away from Soobin which was good. But as he was about to make his way towards it, someone pulled him back.

"Isn't that Choi Soobin?" Beomgyu said and Yeonjun tried his best to look confused. "Over there. That's him, isn't it?"

"Who's Soobin?" Taehyun and Violet said at the same time and laughed.

"Choi Soobin. Part time biology partner and part time stalker of Choi Yeonjun," Beomgyu told them, nudging his arm.

Yeonjun shut his eyes and envisioned banging his head against the wall. All he wanted was to have fun tonight with some friends and Soobin just had to show up and ruin it all for him.

"Is that so?" Taehyun raised an eyebrow, taking a step closer to Yeonjun to look over his head to see the guy that Beomgyu was talking about."Seems like one creepy dude. Someone needs to talk some sense into him." He said and Beomgyu nodded in response, crossing his arms over his chest as they both continued to watch Soobin play. After a moment of silence, Taehyun spoke up, "You know what? I'll go talk to him."

Yeonjun's eyes were bulging out of their sockets. That took an unexpected turn. Taehyun was about to walk towards him when he put both his hands on his chest to stop him. Even though he could be really mean and annoying, Yeonjun did not like the idea of his childhood best friend going head to head with Soobin.

Soobin was intangible, scary, and unknown. Who knew what he was capable of doing. Yeonjun certainly did not want to find out, not yet at least.

"I'll just..." Yeonjun's voice trailed off as he looked over his shoulder at Soobin and sighed. "I think it's best coming from me. You guys head to the air hockey. I'll meet you there after."

They all did as they were told except Taehyun. He stood there giving Yeonjun the look that clearly said, “I can do it if you don't want to,” but Yeonjun shook his head and told him that he would be fine and it wouldn't take long.

He wiped his palms on his jeans and after taking a few steady breaths, he started closing the distance between Soobin and himself. Yeonjun had no idea what to say when he reached him, so he stood there, watching him play, and mentally told himself to think of something quick.

Before Yeonjun could stop himself, he asked, "What are you playing?"

"Donkey kong," Soobin replied nudging his chin to point at someone behind him, his attention still to the video game. "What's his name?"

The ravenette was obviously not asking about Violet because she's a girl. Or Beomgyu, as he sat infront of them in biology. It's not that hard to miss a cute, brown haired haired guy.

"Taehyun." Yeonjun told him. "Listen, I just—"

"Up for a game?" Soobin cut him off. He looked up at Yeonjun, the sound of firebombs erupted from the video game that he was playing and the other didn't relize how beautiful his eyes were.

"W-what? But I'm here with my friends—"

"Come on, just one game. If I win, you will tell them that something came up," Soobin obviously had no intention on being refused. He was being too arrogant and it got the best out of the blondie.

Yeonjun said, "And if I win?", raising an eyebrow at him.

The hazel eyed male chuckled. "You won't." Soobin straightened his back and pushed his long black sleeves up his forearms, revealing tattoos that Yeonjun had not seen before. "I'll make sure you won't."

"Jerk," Yeonjun mumbled and crossed his arms over his chest. Something he realised he did a lot when he felt defeated or defensive.

"One game of pool," Soobin tempted. "And look, a table just opened up. Go claim it, angel."

I dare you.

Those three words crept into Yeonjun's mind and he stiffened. He told himself that he had imagined all of it because Soobin couldn't be channeling thoughts into his mind, could he? Unless he was delusional.

It scared Yeonjun. The thought of the idea that Soobin would breached the normal communication methods and could, at will, speak to him without ever opening his mouth.

"How did you do that?" Yeonjun asked him, his voice firm and full of authority.

When Soobin didn't immediately deny it, Yeonjun felt a squeeze of panic. It was real and it was happening. He was not delusional. He knew exactly what he was doing.

"H—how did you d-do that?" Yeonjun repeated, his voice shaky this time.

Soobin gave him sly smile, and the other's heart pounded. "Do what, angel?"

"Don't," Yeonjun warned him. "Don't pretend you're not doing it, Soobin,"

The ravenette took a step closer to the blondie so that he was towering over and the other had to crane his neck to look up at him while he looked down at him and said, "Tell me what I'm doing."

"M—my thoughts."

"What about them?"

Yeonjun placed his palm on Soobin's chest and pushed him away slightly, giving space between them — he did not like how close he was to him. Now, Yeonjun was starting to feel like he was talking crazy. Maybe he was crazy. He'd never felt like this before, not until the day Soobin walked into his life.

Yeonjun raked his fingers through his honey locks and tucked them behind his ears, trying his best to stop himself from thinking about what was happening but it was not helping.

"Forget what I said. You scare me, Soobin, and I'm not sure you're good for me."

"I could change your mind," Soobin spoke. "Meet me at The Archangel."

"No," Yeonjun said on impulse, taking step back away from him.

Soobin just gave the blondie his signature smirk before coming around behind him and a chill shimmied up his spine.

Yeonjun could feel Soobin's lips graze on his ear before he whispered to him in a low voice, which somehow made his blood run cold. "I'll be waiting, angel."

Chapter Text

Yeonjun walked back to the where his friends were, and they were playing Air Hockey, Violet versus Beomgyu. Taehyun was leaning his hands on the table, criticising both of them; something that was normal for him to do.

"Who's winning?" The blondie asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he rested his head on Taehyun's shoulder, debating with himself on whether he should meet up with Soobin at The Archangel or not.

"Obviously, me," Beomgyu smirked as he hit the hockey pucks and it almost went in the goal but Violet was too quick for it.

"Talk shit, get hit, Gyu." Violet made a comeback making him frown and Taehyun laughed out loud, which encouraged her more to win to impress him.

"How'd it go with..." Taehyun whispered to Yeonjun and his voice trailed as he tried to remember what the name was.

"You mean, Soobin?" He cracked a smile and the other nodded. "Uh, it went well. I told him not to bother us and he left. That's all."

"But he didn't look mad when he left."

"You were watching us?" Yeonjun's eyesbrows shot up. Taehyun shrugged and the blonde playfully smacked him on the shoulder. "You're such a creep."

"Easy, Jun," He said, putting up his hands in surrender. "But you got to admit — it's not as creepy as him."

Taehyun made a good point. Yeonjun faked a laugh and his eyes darted to the arcade doors behind him. He bit his bottom lip, knowing what he had in mind was a bad idea even after he had mentioned to him.

"I need to use the toilet," Yeonjun said urgently.

"Alright. But be quick though. We're gonna go get dinner in ten minutes or so."

The blonde nodded in response and quickly made his way out the doors. As soon as he stepped out, he saw the sight of the roller coaster, The Archangel. It rose up above the tree tops and a train of cars zipped over the lighted tracks and dove out of view.

Yeonjun wondered why Soobin wanted to meet and he wondered why he was out here to actually meet him when Soobin obviously scared the crap out of him after he had spoke in his mind back at the arcade.

Yeonjun felt a jab in his stomach and he knew his gut was telling him to turn back around and go back to where his friends were. But despite his best intensions, he found himself continuing down the walkway towards the roller coaster.

As Yeonjun closed the space between the roller coaster and himself, he felt his heart rate increase making him feel sick and he was not even on the roller coaster yet but just by looking at it.

Yeonjun looked around the area to find Soobin, but no matter how many times he turned his head, he could not see any sight of him. And this made him wonder if he was just playing with him, thinking that it would be a funny to see him fall for his tricks.

"Whatever," Yeonjun muttered and turned around, planning on going back to the arcade but he ran smacked into someone.

Soobin grinned down at him, "I'm hard to resist, aren't I?"

"Leave me alone," Yeonjun tried to sidestep him but he caught him by the elbow.

"What's wrong?" The ravenette asked, his voice full of concern. "You look like you're about to throw up."

"You have that effect on me," The blonde haired snapped and the other laughed, making him resist the urge of wanting to slap him.

"Here, you could use a little drink." Soobin suggested and still had Yeonjun by the elbow as he tugged him towards a lemonade cart.

The blondie dug in his heels and the ravenette turned to look down at him, "No, I don't want a drink. I want you to stay away from me."

Soobin ignored what Yeonjun was saying and brushed a strand off his face making him quickly slap his hand away. He pulled his arm out of his grip and brushed his hair with his fingers to calm himself.

"Ride The Archangel with me." Soobin tilted his head towards the rollercoaster. "It's two people a seat."

Yeonjun gulped and craned his neck, staring at the roller coaster. High pitched screams echoed down as the cars thundered over the tracks, making him nervous and scared.

Then, Yeonjun replied with a, "No," in a firm tone.

"You know," Soobin hummed, "If you keep running away from me, you are never going to find out what is going on."

That comment right there should have sent Yeonjun running but it didn't.

It was almost as if he Soobin knew exactly what to say to get him curious and thinking about the what happened at the arcade, when he spoke into his mind.

"And what exactly is going on?" Yeonjun asked.

"Only one way to find out," He held out a hand to lead him to the line of people.

"I can't. I'm afraid of—"

"Heights, I know." Soobin cut him off. "It's one of your biggest fears."

Yeonjun blinked at his words. He knew that when they were in biology and asking questions to one another, Soobin was magically actually listing his fears. It was impossible to believe that they were Soobin’s owns.

"Well, there you go, Soobin. And besides, everyone is waiting for me inside."

Soobin shrugged, "Suit yourself."

And with that, he made his way to the back of the line that led up to the Archangel alone without another word while Yeonjun stood there, staring at the back of his head and watched as he shoved his hands in the pockets of his black jeans to keep warm from cold, breezy air.

Yeonjun sighed and walked up to him. Maybe Soobin was right. He was hard to resist. And he even knew that. That's why he said it.

"One ride," Yeonjun stated and from the corner of his eye, he could see Soobin's lips curl upwards.

By the time they made it to the boarding platform, the only empty cars were at the very back of the roller coaster and both of them headed towards it.

The roller coaster's construction didn't inspire Yeonjun's confidence and the artwork paintings on the side of the car that they sat in was even less inspiring.

There were four paintings.

The first depicted a mob of horned demons ripping the wings off a screaming angel.

Second, showed the wingless angel perched on a headstone, watching children play from a distance.

In the third painting, the wingless angel stood close to the children, crooking a finger at one little green eyed girl.

And the last was a painting of the wingless angel drifting through the girl's body like a ghost. The girl's eyes were black, her smile was gone and she'd sprouted horns like the demons from the first painting.

Yeonjun quickly tore his eyes away from the artwork and assured himself it was the frigid air making him tremble. They both got in the car and buckled their seat belts across their laps.

The cars rolled backward, then lurched forward. Not in a smooth way, they headed away from the platform, climbing steadily uphill. Yeonjun's could smell the smell of sweat, rust and saltwater blowing in from the sea filled air.

"You look pale," Soobin said, leaning closer to him so that he could be heard over the clicking tracks.

"I f—feel pale," Yeonjun stuttered under his breath and clenched the metal bar drilled into the front of the car.

At the crest of the hill, there was a moment's hesitation. Yeonjun could see for miles, but his attention was to the beach where he saw a bonfire and people scattered around it, probably a party. Without meaning to, he stole a look at Soobin and was glad that he was right here by his side at this very moment because he was starting to feel his insides churn.

Soobin flashed the blondie a grin, "Scared, angel?"

A shaky laugh slipped out of Yeonjun and as soon as he felt his weight tip forward, his grip on the metal bar tightened.

Their car seats flew demonically fast, Yeonjun's honey locks flapping out behind him. Swerving to the left, then to the right, they clattered over the tracks. Inside, Yeonjun felt his organs float and fall in response to the ride.

He looked down, trying to concentrate on something not moving and it was then he noticed his seatbelt had suddenly come undone.

He paled.

Yeonjun tried to shout at Soobin but his voice was swallowed up in the rush of air. He felt his stomach go hollow and he let go of the metal bar with one hand, trying to hurriedly secure the seatbelt around his waist with the other.

The car lunged to the left and Yeonjun slammed his shoulders with Soobin's, pressing against him so hard that it actually hurt. The car soared up and he felt it lift from the tracks, not fully riveted to them.

They were plunging.

The flashing lights along the tracks blinded Yeonjun and he couldn't see which way the track turned at the end of the dive.

It was too late.

The car swerved to the right and Yeonjun felt a jolt of panic and then…. it happened.

Yeonjun’s left shoulder slammed against the car door and it flung open. He was ripped out of the car while the roller coaster sped off without him. He tumbled over the edge, plunging straight down through the black air.

The ground rushed up at him and he knew this was it, and he opened his mouth to scream.

• •

• •

• •

The ride screeched to a stop at the unloading platform and Yeonjun's heart was racing and his breathing was shallow. He looked around himself and thought about what the fuck just happened to him.

Yeonjun was still not at all certain of what had just happened because all he could remember was him being thrown out of the car and falling to his painful death.

"Now that's what I call a scream," Soobin grinned at the terrified and wide eyed blondie and placed a hand over his ear as if his scream still echoed there.

Then, Yeonjun's eyes moved down to where his seatbelt was previously undone, but was now secured around his waist. His lips begin to tremble, "M—My seatbelt. I t–thought—"

"Thought what?" Soobin asked, sounding genuinely interested as he got out of the car and held out a hand for him to hold.

"I thought I flew I out of the car." Yeonjun told him while he unbuckled his seatbelt, then grabbed the other's tatted hand as he pulled him out. "I literally thought I was going to die. I think I did die, I mean, it f—feels like I died a little." He was mortified, the ride scared the living daylights out of him; he was rambling and his words were failing him.

"I think that is the point, angel." Soobin chuckled and they both made their way out.

At Yeonjun's sides, his arms trembled and his knees wobbled slightly under the weight of his body. He looked back over his shoulder at the ride and saw the next group of people getting in the cars, "The Archangel.”

"I told you this before, in biology." Soobin reminded him while fixing his hair. Of course Yeonjun remembered what he had been told but he thought that it was pointless. "It means high ranking angel. The higher the rise, the harder the fall."

Yeonjun's lips parted, about to tell him again about how he was so sure that he'd left the car for a moment and forces beyond his ability to explain, had put him safely back behind his seatbelt.

But instead, Yeonjun said, "Then I think I am more of a guardian angel boy."

Soobin smirked, but didn't say anything as he guided the other male down the walk and into the arcade. They cut through the crowd and when the air hockey tables came into view, none of his friends were at any of them.

"Looks like they left," Soobin said, with a hint of amusement. "And it also looks like you need a ride."

"They wouldn't leave me," Yeonjun snapped and the other put up his hands in surrender.

The blonde stood on his tiptoes to see over the top of the crowd and saw nothing but that did not mean they were not here. They must be somewhere.

The two boys walked around the arcade in hopes to find them but there was no trace of them anywhere and Yeonjun groaned at the thought that they might just leave him, because they were hungry. He dug his phone out of his bag and soon realised that it refused to turn on.

"Are you kidding me?" Yeonjun furrowed his eyebrows, pushing the on button again and again, but nothing happened. The battery couldn't be dead, right? He had charged it right before he left.

"My offer's still on the table," Soobin smiled, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

Yeonjun stared at him blankly. Not in a million years. It would be safer hitching a ride from a stranger than him.

Yeonjun sat on the floor of the arcade and buried his face in his hands. He was still shaken over what had happened on The Archangel and no matter how many times he tried to flush it out, the image of falling repeated through his head.

Falling.

Yeonjun was falling, and then, just like that, the ride was over. It was the most terrifying thing he had ever been through. Almost as terrifying, he was the only one who seemed to noticed. Not even Soobin, who was sitting right next to him in the car.

He looked up from his hands and mentally smacked his forehead. "Taehyun's jeep. He must have parked it outside somewhere."

Pushing himself up, Yeonjun ran for the doors and to the parking lot and the streets. He scanned the area for any one of his friends car but none were insight. But he did not give up. Thirty minutes passed and he still found nothing.

"Out of options yet?" Soobin asked and Yeonjun bit his lip, looking around the place for one last time.

On an ordinary day, he exuded danger. Tonight there was a mix of danger, threat and mystery all thrown together.

When he didn't answer, he saw Soobin walking towards a shiny black motorcycle that rested on its kickstand. He swung on and tipped his head at the seat behind him as if telling Yeonjun to hop on.

"No," Yeonjun shook his head. He was certainly not going to ride a motorbike. Not after what had just happened on the roller coaster.

"Come on. You took on The Archangel just fine. I am sure you can handle this too."

"But—"

"I'll take you straight home, angel." Soobin assured hin, grabbing a black with tinted visor helmet to him, "Promise."

"Straight home," Yeonjun said and hesitantly took the helmet from him then putting it on himself. It smelt just like the ravenette. "Is it hard to drive?" Yeonjun questioned him as he swung his leg over the bike but what he meant was that if it was safe.

"No," Soobin simply answered his spoken and unspoken questions. "You're tense. Relax, angel."

After Yeonjun told him where he lived, he pulled of the parking space and the explosion of movement startled him. He had been holding on to Soobin's shirt with just enough fabric between his fingers to keep his balance. Now he even wrapped his arms around him in a backward bear hug.

Soobin then accelerated onto the highway and Yeonjun's thighs squeezed around him. He hoped that he was the only one that noticed.

Soon enough, they reached his house and he eased up on the driveway, behind his aunt's car, who probably just got home from work, then he killed the engine. Yeonjun quickly swung off and removed the helmet, balancing it carefully on the seat in front of him and as he was about to say his thanks to Soobin, he heard the front door open.

"Where's Taehyun?" His aunt asked, walking towards them with her pyjamas on. "I thought you went with him?"

"I, uh — we got separated and my battery ran out so I couldn't contact him," Yeonjun told her and she nodded but it seemed as though she didn't care except for the guy who was with her godson right now. "This is Soobin. He's my bio partner and—"

"Where'd you get the bike from?" She cut the blondie off, examining it. "Didn't steal it, did you?"

Yeonjun's mouth hung open at her question but Soobin just chuckled, "Actually, I got it myself."

"Right." She said with a hint of sarcasm eyeing him from head to toe, obvious that she did not like him or his appearance. "Your accent. Not from here, are you?"

"No, he's not," Yeonjun answered for him and both of them looked at him surprised. "He's from Busan."

Yeonjun's aunt looked down at her imaginary wrist watch and said, "It's getting late and Yeonjun should be inside getting some rest."

"Of course," Soobin nodded and grabbed the helmet from the seat behind him. "I'll see you in bio then. Have a good night."

As soon as he left, Yeonjun glared at Maria, "What was with that attitude? How can you accuse him of stealing?"

She crossed her arms over her chest with an eyebrow cocked up. "You're sticking up for him? Is there something you're not telling me?"

Yeonjun paused, his lips parting at what she had said. Was he actually sticking up for him? Soobin screamed danger and all but it's no excuse to treat him that way. "I just thought it was rude."

"Well, I apologise if it seemed that way. I was curious, that's all. But there is something off about him and I can't quite put a finger on it," Maria spoke honestly before walking back in the house.

"You're not the only one." Yeonjun mumbled to himself, looking down the street where Soobin disappeared.

• •

• •

The blue eyed male was yanked awake by the sound of his phone ringing. He groaned and tugged his pillow over his head and tried to block out the noise but it kept ringing. Soon enough, it went to voicemail but as soon as he thought he could go back to sleep, it started ringing again.

Yeonjun threw his pillow away and got up from his bed to search for his phone, until he remembered that it was in his bag, hanging behind the door. He got it out to see Beomgyu's caller ID on the screen.

He pressed the green button and brought the phone to his ear, "Hello?"

"What happened to you?" He heard Beomgyu's voice on the other end then, a shuffling sound.

A heavy accent was heard, which Yeonjun recognized as Taehyun's. "I thought you went to the toilet?"

Shuffling again and Yeonjun was pretty sure that they were passing the phone around. This time he heard someone breathing angrily.

"Beomgyu searched for you in the men's toilet but you weren't in there. We tried calling but you did not answer. Then, we drove around the area for an hour searching for you!"

It was Violet, and her voice got louder and angrier each time she said a word. Yeonjun couldn't believe she's yelling at him when he should be the one doing it since they weren't at the air hockey tables when he got back from The Archangel with Soobin.

"Violet, I—"

"I thought you have been kidnapped!" She cut him off. "Where are you? So I can come and strangle you with my bare hands!"

"I'm at home. Now will you stop yelling?"

"Wait, home? How did you get home?"

Yeonjun rubbed the corners of his eyes and walked towards his bed, falling on it, face first. Then he rolled over and waited a while before he answered, "I got a ride, from Soobin."

"Soobin?" Violet said with a hint of confusion then came the shuffling noise again.

"Stalker Soobin?" Beomgyu questioned.

"He got a ride from that creepy dude?" Yeonjun heard Taehyun's voice from the background.

"Can we talk about this later?" The sleepy blondie asked, pinching the bridge of his nose, his lips forming a pout. "I'm really tired."

"Me too, actually," Beomgyu sighed, "Just so you know, you owe me — I mean us, an explaination."

"Yeah, yeah." And with that, Yeonjun ended the call and placed his phone on his stomach.

After several minutes of tossing and turning in bed, he gave up on trying to go back to sleep. He just couldn't seem to get comfortable.

Suddenly, Yeonjun sat up straight on his bed and looked down at his phone, then pressing the on button and it lit up. The time was just after two in the morning and the battery's fully charged.

Yeonjun's spine tingled omniously as he stared longer at the screen.

His phone was supposed to be dead. So how did Beomgyu's call get through?

Chapter Text

The next day, Taehyun, Beomgyu and Violet wanted Yeonjun to meet up with them at Gloria Jean's Coffees and explain to them what happened yesterday and why he agreed with Soobin to send him home.

Yeonjun told them exactly what happened and what they both did and he told them a couple of times that it was just a harmless night but they did not believe him and wanted to know the dirty bits even though there weren't any.

"Nothing happened, I swear," Yeonjun told them again and played with his cup of coffee infront of him. "My aunt got out when we reached home. I think she heard the motorbike."

"Thank god," Taehyun breathed out.

He was sitting across from Yeonjun with Violet next to him while Beomgyu was next to the blondie. Yeonjun furrowed his eyebrows and wondered what he meant by that. Instead of questioning him, he kept quiet and took a sip of his coffee.

"Obviously," Violet rolled her eyes. "A motorbike is really loud. I still can't believe that nothing happened. I mean, Soobin's ho—"

"He's a stalker." Beomgyu scoffed, cutting her off as he leaned back in his seat.

"As I was saying," She glared at Beomgyu but he didn't react. "He's a hot stalker,"

"Stop," Yeonjun whined. "Can we not talk about him anymore? Please?"

"Whatever it is, he's still creepy." Taehyun rolled his eyes. "He could be like, one of those psychotic killers. Luring attractive young people into his death trap."

"I think it's the way he dresses. All black. Dark, dangerous, mysterious, hard-edged. Sexy." Violet let out a dramatic sigh. She looked up at the ceiling of the café, as if she was imagining about all the stuff she would do to him and after knowing her, Yeonjun didn't want to know what.

"Haven't you been listening to what I'm saying?" Taehyun asked, annoyed at the fact that Violet kept thinking about Soobin in those ways.

"He's not good for you, Violet," Beomgyu said softly and then he nudged Yeonjun's arm. "And you too, Jun. Stay away from him."

Stay away from him. The question was how? In every corner Yeonjun turned, Soobin was always somehow there and not to mention that he always saw him in biology and he was also his partner.

Violet moaned, "Careful, you two. You'll only make me want him more."

"Well, you shouldn't," Yeonjun warned her.

After what had happened at the amusement park yesterday, he didn't think he wanted him anywhere near himself or his friends but that's hard to do, obviously.

"Why? Because you like him?" She raised an eyebrow at the blondie making him shake his head. "Come on, don't tell me you have never fantasized about kissing him?"

Yeonjun stared at her with a look he hoped spoke appalled shock, "Have you?"

Instead of answering Yeonjun, Violet just grinned. She only saw Soobin once at the arcade and she's already fantasizing about these kinds of things with him, but honestly, he was not surprised.

"Okay! Enough about him." Taehyun said, attempting to change the subject. "Anyway, I'm enrolled at your school and I'm starting tomorrow."

"No way," Beomgyu put up a hand to Taehyun and his smile widened as he high fived the brown haired male, "I hope we have classes together."

•

•

School came rolling in the next day and Yeonjun was in PE class with Taehyun. They were both sitting on the bleachers and he kept on asking questions about Violet and the blondie answered them all the while he tied his shoelaces.

Then, the sound of Coach's whistle was heard and Yeonjun pushed himself up from the bleachers and made his way down with Taehyun trailing behind him.

"Where are we going?" He asked.

"The whistle means ten laps around the gym, no cutting corners. If not, he'll give us an extra ten to do." Yeonjun told him and Taehyun groaned, mumbling cursed words under his breath.

They jogged the ten laps together and headed outdoors after, where the air was laced with a ghostly fog and it seemed to clog Yeonjun's lungs, choking him. Then, the sound of thunder was heard and the sky leaked a few raindrops. A storm must be on its way.

"I need two captains for softball," The Coach said. "Come on, look alive. Let's see some hands in the air!"

Everyone on the field were sitting on the ground, exhausted from the run including Yeonjun and Taehyun, who was lying next to him as he gasped for air.

"Hey, we used to play this when we were younger." He panted and raised his hand to volunteer. "This..... this is going to be a piece of cake."

"All right," The coach said to him. "Up here, by the home plate. And how about," He paused and look at the students. "Jamie, as the captain of the red team."

After Taehyun and Jamie had chosen their team players with Yeonjun, as the ravenette's first pick, they started the game with the red team playing infield. Yeonjun wanted to tell him that he hadn't played softball in years but instead, he kept his mouth shut.

Taehyun handed him a bat and pushed a helmet on his head, which stunk like rotten cheese, and Yeonjun admitted, it almost made him want to throw up.

"You're up first, Jun," He told the blondie who was practicing his swinging. "If you're confident enough, do a home run. You used to be a pro at that. But not as pro as me though."

Key word, Taehyun, Yeonjun used to be a pro at home run and the softball game itself. He didn't think he had it in him anymore. Taehyun then directed Yeonjun towards the home plate and he balanced the bat on his shoulder, praying that maybe after the first swing, it would trigger his skills of how to play softball, that had been locked away.

The helmet slipped low on Yeonjun's eyes, and he pushed it up, trying to size up the infield, which was under ghoulish wisps of mist.

Jamie took her place on the pitcher's mound and Yeonjun felt his hands getting sweaty around the bat. She flashed him a toxic smile and without warning, she lobbed the softball at him. In instinct, he swung and got a piece of it, sending it flying into the dirt on the wrong side of the foul line.

"Strike!" The Coach called from his position between first and second bases.

Yeonjun tightened his grip on the bat and breathed out, eyeing Jamie‘s every move that she made and again, the ball left her hand, arching through the dismal sky. He swung and again and of course, a pure miss. Damn, she's good.

"Strike two!" The Coach called out again making step away from the plate.

The blue eyed male took a few more practice swings, telling himself that he could do this, he had done this before. Yeonjun was too lost in his thoughts, that he missed Taehyun coming up behind him. The ravenette reached his arms around him and positioned his hands on the bat, flush with the other's.

"You're not doing it right." Taehyun said in his ear. "Like this. Feel that? Relax. Now pivot your hips. It's all in the hips. Don't you remember?"

"I haven't played softball in years," Yeonjun confessed. "But I think I got it now, thanks."

"Get a room!" He heard Jamie calling out to them and the infield laughed, and the blondie could feel his face heat up.

"Already ahead of ya," Taehyun smirked and Yeonjun gasped, smacking his arm and he quickly apologized, saying that it was just a joke and he needed to chill.

"Come on, losers," Jamie sighed, obviously annoyed that they were stalling the game.

"If you'd throw him a decent pitch," Taehyun called back, "He'd hit the ball."

"My pitch is on," Jennie said with a smug look on her face.

"His swing is on," He challenged then gave Yeonjun an encouraging smile before walking away from him.

A loud thunder was heard and then, something in the parking lot beyond the dugout drew Yeonjun's attention. He thought he heard his name being called.

Yeonjun turned, but even as he did, he knew his name hadn't been said out loud. It had been spoken quietly in his mind and there, he saw him.

He saw Soobin.

He had his hair up in a mess and wore a black leather jacket over his black shirt and black jeans. Head to toe all black, just like what Violet said.

Soobin had his fingers hooked in the chain link fence, leaning against it. His eyes were opaque and inaccessible as he watched the blondie, but Yeonjun suspected there was a lot going on behind them.

Batting lessons, angel? Nice... touch.

Those string of words crept into Yeonjun's mind, just like what had happened the night at the arcade. He drew a steady breath and told himself not to freak out.

"Yeonjun, head in the game!"

Yeonjun blinked, jerking to life just in time to see the ball rolling through the air towards him. He started to swing, when he heard another trickle of words in his mind.

Not... yet...

Even though Yeonjun still wondered how it was possible that he could hear Soobin in his head, he still listened to him and held back, waiting for the ball to come to himself. As it descended, Yeonjun stepped towards the front of the plate then swung with everything he had.

A huge crack sounded and the bat vibrated in his hands. The ball drove at Jennie, who fell flat on her backside. Squeezing between shortstop and second base, the ball bounced in the outfield grass.

"Run!" Yeonjun's team shouted to him from the dug out and he did as he was told.

"Drop the fucking bat, Jun!" He heard Taehyun's voice and he immediately flung it aside.

People on the infield yelled at Yeonjun to stay on first base but he didn't. Hell no. He told himself that he could do this. He could do a home run.

Stepping on a corner of first base, Yeonjun rounded it, sprinting towards the second base. Left field had the ball now, in position to throw him out, making him quicken his pace.

The ball sailed towards the second baseman, spinning white somewhere in Yeonjun's peripheral vision. An excited chanting of the word slide came from the dugout and he couldn't decide what was hitting the dirt first; his shoes or his hands.

The second baseman snagged the ball out of the air. Yeonjun dove headfirst, arms outstretched. The glove came out of nowhere, swooping down on him and it collided with his face, smelling strongly of leather.

His body crumpled on the dirt, leaving him with a mouthful of grit and sand dissolving under his tongue.

"And he's out," The Coach cried.

Yeonjun tumbled sideways, searched himself for any injuries. His thighs burned a strange hit and cold and he knew it, at the back of his head, it was a bad idea to slide, headfirst.

Limping out of the dugout, Yeonjun collapsed on the bench and tucked his knee against his chest, gently brushing the dirt away. From the corner of his eye, he could see Taehyun walking towards him, shaking his head.

"I told you he was bad luck," He said, kneeling infront of the blondie who was surprised that he noticed Soobin.

Taehyun then blew on Yeonjun's knee and larger bits of dirt fell to the ground. "Can you walk?"

Standing, he showed him that even though his leg was a mess of scratches and dirt, he still could manage. Taehyun nodded and Yeonjun glanced at the fence where he'd last seen Soobin but he was no longer there.

Soobin's voice still echoed in Yeonjun's head and his heart pumped faster, but if anything, it ran colder.

Was there some inexplicable link between them that allowed it to happen? Or was Yeonjun straight out losing his mind?

•

•

The school day was almost over, only biology left and after a quick stop by at his locker to exchange books, Yeonjun headed to class and went straight to his seat.

Beomgyu came strolling in and when his eyes met Yeonjun's, his smile grew sider and he waved and rushed to his seat infront of him, then turning around so that he was facing him.

"Guess what?" He sounded all excited, and the blonde haired beauty couldn't help but smile with him.

"What?"

"You're suppose to guess, Yeonjun," Beomgyu rolled his eyes, still smiling.

Yeonjun furrowed his eyebrows as he thought about what that could happen today that made him this excited.

Ever since he knew Beomgyu, everything that he did, even if it's just crossing a street or finding a new book, he'll find it exciting.

Not that Yeonjun was complaining that he was happy and excited and all cheerful. It was obvious to him that he had pushed the thought of that night when someone had branded him, far away and it was good.

When Yeonjun didn't answer, Beomgyu rolled his eyes again, "Taehyun is in my history class!"

Yeonjun's eyes widened at his words. He didn't know Taehyun was the type of person who would do history. He felt like, he's more of a business type of guy.

"Really?" Yeonjun raised an eyebrow and Beomgyu nodded, still smiling. "That's great. He's in my PE class and — oh! I almost made a—"

A cough was heard, interrupting the blondie's sentence and Beomgyu and him looked up to see Soobin pulling out his chair and setting his notebook and pen on his table before he sat down.

"Remember what Taehyun said," Beomgyu reminded Yeonjun, looking at Soobin carefully and back to him, before turning to face the front and started a conversation with his partner.

"What did Taehyun say?" Soobin sounded curious and interested about what Beomgyu was talking about and Yeonjun wondered what he would do if he told him that Taehyun thought of him as a psychotic killer.

"Nothing of your concern," Yeonjun opened his biology textbook.

"Is he your boyfriend?"

Yeonjun coughed, he meant after his relationship with Jungkook, that out of control guy, he didn't think he wanted to be in a relationship and have a boyfriend anytime soon.

"No," He shook his head. "We're just friends. Nothing more, nothing less. Fullstop."

"Mhm," Soobin raised his eyebrows, obvious that he didn't take the other seriously. "It didn't look like it on the field,"

Yeonjun glared at him, "Why do you care?"

The ravenette grinned, flipping open his notebook and started to sketch. "You smell good, by the way."

"It's called shower," The blondie told him. He had a shower after PE this morning in the boys locker room. "Soap. Shampoo. Hot water."

Soobin's grin deepened. "Naked. I know the drill."

Yeonjun opened his mouth to change the subject when he heard the heels of Ms. Murphy coming into the class and when he looked at her, she was not holding her laptop but a stack of papers.

"Biology test," She said licking her finger as she tried to separate the papers. "You have until the bell rings. Do your best and good luck."

After Ms. Murphy had handed the papers to everyone in the classroom, she sat in her seat and looked cautiously around the room, for cheaters, probably.

Yeonjun worked through the first several questions, answering them with a rhythmic outpouring of memorized facts and he was proud of himself that he actually remembered that much.

At the end of class, he handed in his test papers and so did everyone else before leaving. While Beomgyu and him walked down the school hallways, they talked about the test. Yeonjun told him that it was easy for him but for him, it was apparently, not. But he understood why.

When they reached the parking lot, they saw Taehyun leaning against his jeep with his hands tucked in the pocket of his jeans, looking around the parking lot.

His eyes soon found theirs and he pushed himself off the jeep, "First day in this school and I have tons of homework and catching up to do,"

"And you're never gonna do them, are you?" Yeonjun crossed his arms over his chest.

"Because I have a life," He smiled. "So, where you guys heading?"

"Yeonjun has work," Beomgyu pointed his thumb to the blondie and he groaned, at the thought of it. "And I'm probably going to go to the community library to start on my project."

"Work?" Taehyun raised an eyebrow at Yeonjun who nodded. "With Violet?" And again, Yeonjun nodded, since he couldn't be bothered answering. "I'll come with you."

Yeah, Taehyun, so much for having a life.

All of them got into their cars and went their separate ways, that was, Beomgyu of course but Taehyun trailed behind Yeonjun as they drove to the mall.

On the way there, Yeonjun's phone rang and he got his phone out of his pocket and answered it to hear Beomgyu's voice on the other end, saying the other's name, in a panicky tone.

"What's wrong, Gyu?"

"Someone's following me," He whisper yelled and Yeonjun could hear his breathing getting heavier. "I'm trying my best to lose them but—"

The sudden loud sound of crashing was heard and just like that, the line was cut off.

Chapter Text

No matter how many times Yeonjun tried calling Beomgyu back, it ended up getting to his voice mail and the blondie was starting to get worried about him.

Before the line had been cut off, Beomgyu told him that someone was following him but who? Yeonjun couldn't think of anyone that he might have upset because it's Beomgyu we're talking about.

He wasn't the type who would start fights but the kind of guy who put everyone else first before himself. The guy who tried to make everyone happy when they're down even if he had to make stupid, lame jokes.

Then, the realization hit Yeonjun. Could it be those guys that branded him that night? Were they coming back for him?

The thought of them coming back for Beomgyu and branding him again, made Yeonjun sweat and tighten the grip on the steering wheel. He tried calling him again and this time, on the fourth ring, the other finally answered the call and a sigh of relief escaped his lips.

"What happened to you?" Yeonjun asked Beomgyu as he made a turn towards the mall. "Are you still being followed?"

Beomgyu laughed, "Not anymore. It was the cops. They wanted to pull me over for speeding."

"You're kidding!" He yelled. "I thought.... I thought it was—"

"The ones who branded me." Beomgyu finished Yeonjun's sentence. "That's what I thought too,"

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fined." Beomgyu laughed and Yeonjun shook his head at his stupid pun. "I'm fined? Cause I got fined for speeding?"

The blondie rolled his eyes. "It wasn't that funny."

"Yeah, it was. Anyway, I'm already at the library so, I'll talk to you later." He told him and Yeonjun could hear dangling of keys and a car door opening. "And say hi to Violet for me."

"Will do," And with that they hung up and Yeonjun threw his phone on the passenger seat next to him.

He made a turn around the corner and checked the rear view mirror to see if Taehyun was still behind him, and he was, which was good. Yeonjun didn't want him to get lost.

Once they parked their cars in the shopping mall's parking lot, they made their way inside and into Gloria Jean's Coffees to see Violet behind the counter as always.

Yeonjun left Taehyun at the front while he went to the back to get changed into his uniform and get on with making coffees and serving customers for the day.

****************************************************************************

After work, Taehyun wanted to bring Violet out for dinner and she accepted his offer while Yeonjun went straight home.

As soon as he drove away from the mall, a pattering rain flushed out the wispy clouds of fog hovering above the road.

Dividing his attention between the road and the controls on the steering wheel, Yeonjun tried to locate the windshield wipers, and when he did, even at top speed, they couldn't keep up with the hammering rain.

The streetlights overhead flickered and followed by the sound of thunder and Yeonjun fed his car more gas so that he could reach home before the storm hits.

He predicted this when he was in PE that a storm was on its way since it had been dark and gloomy all morning.

The outside lights flickered again.

A cold feeling prickled up the back of Yeonjun's neck and the hair on his arms tingled. His sixth sense graduated to high alert. He asked himself if he thought he was being followed.

There were no headlights in the rear-view mirror. No cars ahead, either. Yeonjun was alone and it wasn't a very comforting thought so he pushed the car to forty five.

Suddenly, his eyes caught with a dark silhouette that just appeared in front of the car.

Yeonjun screamed and stomped on the brakes as hard as he could so that he wouldn't hit the figure but it was too late. The silhouette thumped into the windshield with a splintering crack!

On impulse, Yeonjun jerked the steering wheel to the right and the back of his car fishtailed, sending him spinning. The silhouette then rolled and disappeared over the edge of the hood.

The blonde haired male was holding his breath, squeezing the steering wheel between white knuckled hands and he lifted his feet off the pedals.

The person was wearing a ski mask and crouched a few feet away, watching Yeonjun and he didn't look at all injured even after the other had just hit him with his car.

Yeonjun noticed that the stranger was dressed in all black and blended in with the dark night, and maybe, that's why he couldn't see him on the road.

Slowly, he rose to his feet, closing the distance between them, walking to the side of the then he flattened his palms to the driver's side window.

Their eyes connected through the holes in the mask and Yeonjun was so sure that a lethal smile was formed on the man's face, making his heart rate increase abnormally.

The stranger gave a loud and hard pound on the glass, making Yeonjun jump and the glass vibrated between them. He continued pounding on the glass and the blondie took this as his cue to leave.

Yeonjun stomped on the gas pedal but the car wouldn't move and he began to panic. "Come on, come on," He mumbled to himself as he kept stomping on it.

Another hard pound was heard, followed by an explosion of glass.

Yeonjun felt large rough hands fumble over his shoulders, digging his nails into his skin. He felt the excruciating and burning pain in his skin and he gave out a hoarse cry.

"You're mine, now," The unknown man yelled out in a demonic voice making Yeonjun scared witless.

Stomping on the pedal one last time, the car screeched in motion. The man hung in, gripping Yeonjun's shoulder, running beside the car several feet before dropping away.

Yeonjun sped forward with the force of adrenalin. He checked the rear view mirror to make sure that he wasn't chasing him and saw nothing but blackness.

His honey locks were going crazy, blowing everywhere because of the broken window and speed that he was going in but he did not care. He got his phone out and dialed Beomgyu who answered on the second ring.

"He, it — came out of nowhere.... t-the window, I..." The words tumbled out of Yeonjun's mouth, they did not make sense at all. Tears escaped his eyes, rolling down his cheeks.

"You're breaking up, Jun. What?"

The blondie wiped his nose with the back of his hand and took a deep breath before saying, "He came out of nowhere."

Beomgyu gasped, "Who?"

"He jumped in front of my car!"

"Did you hit a deer?" Beomgyu frantically asked and Yeonjun opened his mouth but the other cut him off. "Oh my god, Jun, is it okay? Are you okay?"

Whatever answer Yeonjun was about to give, faded into the background. His mind was two steps ahead. A deer. Maybe he could pass the whole thing off as hitting a damn deer.

Yeonjun wanted to confide in Beomgyu, but he didn't want to sound insane either. How was he going to explain watching a guy he hit, rise to his feet and begin to break the window.

Then, he remembered that the man gripped on his shoulder after he broke the glass. He stretched his collar down past his shoulder and saw that there weren't any marks of his nails being there but he could've sworn he felt it digging in his skin.

Was Yeonjun actually considering to deny the fact that it had happened? He knew what he saw and it was not his imagination. The broken glass was full proof.

"Hello? Junnie? Are you there? Are you okay? You're starting to make me—"

"Can I sleep at your place tonight?"

All Yeonjun wanted right now was to get off the street, out of the dark and some company which he couldn't have if he was home since his aunt Maria had the night shift at the hospital today.

"Yeah, yeah, of course," He said, "I'll unlock the door. Just let yourself in."

Ten minutes later, Yeonjun parked the car in Beomgyu's driveway and he got out of the car, carefully not touching any of the shattered glass. Then he bolted himself inside and went straight upstairs, to Beomgyu's bedroom to find him in a shirt and sweats, sitting on his bed with his laptop on his lap.

"My car, the window," Yeonjun mumbled, his lips trembling just by talking about it and also because he was freezing cold.

Beomgyu placed his laptop aside and rushed towards him, "What happened?"

The blondie looked down the stairs, "My car."

Beomgyu did not say anything but went downstairs and Yeonjun trailed behind him. When they got outside, he stared at his car for a long moment.

No smashed window.

Yeonjun said, furrowing his eyebrows, "Something's not right," He stepped forward to poke the driver's window.

Solid glass.

Beomgyu walked around the back of the car, completing a full circle before standing next to Yeonjun, with his arms crossed over his chest and stared at the car.

"Maybe you hit something smaller?" He suggested. "It could be a squirrel."

"Maybe."

Five minutes ago, the window was smashed out but looking at the car now, with the window still securely intact, it seemed impossible. No, it seemed crazy. Definitely crazy.

But Yeonjun saw the ski masked guy's fist punch through the glass and he felt his grip on his shoulder and his fingernails digging into his skin, hadn't he?

The harder Yeonjun tried to remember the crash, the more he couldn't. It's as if there were missing information from the memory and the details of the stranger were also fading.

Was the ski masked guy tall? Short? Thin? Bulky? Had the man said anything to him? Yeonjun couldn't remember shit.

And that was the most frightening part.

Chapter Text

The following day in school passed in a daze.

Yeonjun went from class to class waiting for the final bell of the day. As the hours stretched towards the afternoon, it was time for biology, the last period of the day.

He swung by his locker to pick up his biology textbook then headed to class to see Beomgyu already sitting in his seat, talking to his partner.

When the bell rang, Soobin did not appear at all and Yeonjun wondered why. He stared at the door hoping to see him walk in but instead Ms. Murphy came in.

She took their attendance and right after, she started writing on the board and lecturing them on equilibrium that occurs in cells.

Yeonjun pondered Soobin's empty chair. A tiny voice in his head told him that he's not here might be connected to what happened last night and that maybe he could be the guy in the ski mask.

It was a little strange that he was missing on the morning after.

Every other time that Yeonjun was near Soobin, he would imagine him talking to him in his head, or him falling out of a roller coaster then realise that it didn't actually happen.

It must be him, Yeonjun told himself. Soobin must be the guy in the ski mask. But the voice of reason quickly extinguished his involvement.

The ravenette could've gotten a cold, or ran out of gas on the way to school this morning and decided not to come at all. Or maybe, he wanted to hang out with his friends at the Lotus Arcade.

At the end of day, Beomgyu and Yeonjun met Taehyun at the school's parking lot with interesting news. He said, "I looked through that creep's student file."

"What?" Yeonjun gasped, his eyes widening at the thought of him looking through Soobin's file and wondered how he didn't get caught. "How, what, why—"

"Do you want to know what's in it or not? I didn't go through all the trouble for you to say no."

"I don't know, Tae," Beomgyu's voiced trailed as he scratched the back of his neck nervously. "I mean, I know how he is, but looking through his student file? Don't you think it's going too far?"

He shrugged, "I don't give a single damn about him, Beomgyu,"

"What's in it?" Yeonjun's voice was firm.

Yes, he knew that this is a crime but he wanted to know. Soobin was going to be his biology partner till the end of the year, so he had the right to know, right? He was going to stick to that reason.

"There was nothing in it," Taehyun told and the others eyebrows furrowed, "Not even an immunization record. I knew from the moment I saw him that he's a criminal."

"This is getting too far guys." Beomgyu shook his head. "I don't want to get involved in this. I'm going home."

Yeonjun wanted to stop him but with his long strides towards his car, he didn't bother going after him. Beomgyu is not the type of person who would break the rules. He made a mental note to check up on him after.

"Do you want to go get food?" Taehyun asked, "I feel like having Mexican. I saw a restaurant not too far from here."

Yeonjun agreed with his suggestion, since he was getting kinda hungry and they both got into their cars and he followed trailed behind his car as he led the way to the restaurant, his mind still wondering why Soobin's file was empty.

Half an hour later, they both slid into a corner booth at the La Casa Rosa, the mexican restaurant. A ceramic cactus and a stuffed coyote were mounted on the wall above them.

A waiter came to their table in all black uniform and handed them menus.

Yeonjun never really had Mexican before so he waited for Taehyun to order first. He looked through it for a while and then ordered one red burrito and a glass of coke and he ordered the same as him.

"Separate bills?" The waiter asked.

"I'm not paying for him," Yeonjun told the waiter and at the same time Taehyun said that he wouldn't pay for Yeonjun too.

The waiter nodded and wrote their order in a small note pad then collected their menus. As he was about to leave, Taehyun stopped him.

"Do you know where the toilet is?" He asked and the waiter pointed to where it was and just like that Yeonjun was left alone.

While waiting for Taehyun to come back, and also their food, Yeonjun found himself concentrating on the busboy some tables away.

There was something strangely familiar about the way he moved, about the way his black shirt fell over the arch of his well defined back and also the tattoos that covered his arms.

Almost as if the man suspected he was being watched, he straightened and turned, his eyes fixing on the blue ones at the exact moment Yeonjun figured out what was so familiar about this particular busboy.

Soobin.

Yeonjun couldn't believe it. He remembered Soobin telling him that he worked at a Mexican restaurant, La Casa Rosa, but he must have forgotten.

Wiping his hands on his apron, Soobin walked over, apparently enjoying the blondie's discomfort as he looked around for some way to escape, finding he had nowhere to go but deeper in the booth.

"Well, well," Soobin grinned, "Five days a week isn't enough of me. Had to give me an evening too?"

"Why weren't you in school today?" Yeonjun blurted out before he could stop himself.

Now he's going to think that he cared about his whereabouts, which Yeonjun did, only about last night though. Nothing more.

Soobin chuckled at the question and slid into Taehyun's seat. When he laid his tattooed arms down, they were so long that they crossed into Yeonjun's half of the table.

"My friend, Taehyung, got a bad food poisoning and I had to send him to the hospital," Soobin explained, reaching for the other's glass, twirling it in his hands. "You've met him before. He's the blond guy—"

"I know who he is!" Yeonjun cut him off and grabbed his glass from his hands then placed it back to where it originally was. Maybe Soobin wasn't the ski masked guy after all. He relaxed, "Is he okay?"

"He's a tough guy. Food poisoning won't make him start eating healthy,"

"Oh," Yeonjun simply said since he wasn't sure if he was joking or not but he did not want to ask any further. "Shouldn't you be getting back to work?"

"What are you doing tonight?"

"This is like the second time you asked me that question. Are you trying to ask me out?"

"You're getting ahead of yourself, angel." Soobin smirked, tracing his bottom lip with his thumb lightly.

"Whatever," Yeonjun rolled his eyes and flipped his hair. "I'm not going out with you. Not on a date. Not alone."

Yeonjun wanted to kick himself for experiencing a hot thrill upon speculating what a night alone with Soobin might entail. Most likely, he hadn't meant it and was baiting him for reasons known only to him.

Without any warning whatsoever, Yeonjun said, "Why are you asking me anyway?"

And as soon as those words left his mouth, he mentally cursed at himself for letting his curiosity get the best of him. Because curiosity always killed the cat.

Up until this moment, Yeonjun had been telling himself he didn't care what Soobin thought of him but right now it was a lie.

Even though it would probably come back to haunt him, he was curious enough about him to go almost anywhere with him.

"I want to get you alone," Soobin said, and just like that Yeonjun's defences went up.

"Look, I don't want to be rude but—"

"Sure you do," He cut him off and the other could take a hint of sarcasm in his tone of voice.

"You started it!" The blondie raised his voice a little and a couple of heads turned their way. "I just... I can't, it's a school night."

"Is that really the reason or because you're scared of being alone with me?"

"Both."

The confession just slipped out and Yeonjun wondered what was wrong with him today, blurting out everything.

"Are you scared of all guys or just me?" Soobin asked and Yeonjun stayed silent. "Well?"

"I'm sorry. What are we talking about?"

"You, angel. Your personal life."

"I think you should get back to work," Yeonjun said, hoping that he would. He didn't want to answer any of his ridiculous questions anymore.

"For what it's worth, I like the idea that there's not a guy in school who matches up to your standards."

Yeonjun scoffed, "I forgot you're the authority on my so called expectations."

"You're not cagey," Soobin tilted his head, studying the other boy in a way that made him feel transparent. "Not shy either. You just need a very good reason to go out of your way to get to know someone."

"I don't want to talk about me anymore."

"You think you've got everyone all figured out, don't you?" He raised an eyebrow.

"No," Yeonjun leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. "For example, I don't know much about you."

"You aren't ready to know me."

There was nothing light about the way Soobin said it and in fact, his expression was razor sharp.

"Your student file was empty." The blondie blurted out, yet again.

Yeonjun's words hung in the air for a moment before Soobin's eyes aligned with his.

He said calmly, "I'm sure that is illegal to look into student files."

Soobin was right, it is illegal but Yeonjun did not do it. Taehyun was the one snooping around his file but he did not want to say that it was him. Only god knows what he'll do to Taehyun if he knew.

"Your file was empty." Yeonjun repeated and examined his nails. "Nothing in it. Blank."

Soobin didn't even look surprised. He eased back in his seat, eyes dark, "And you're telling me this because..."

"Because I want you to know that you haven't fooled everybody. I'm going to find what you're up to and I'm going to expose you."

"Looking forward to it, angel,"

Over the top of Soobin's head, Yeonjun could see Taehyun weaving his way through the tables and he wondered how long they had been talking. Five? Ten minutes?

"Taehyun's coming. You have to go," Yeonjun told Soobin and instead of him actually getting up, he stayed put, eyeing him. "Why are you looking at me like that?" He challenged.

"Because, angel," Soobin tipped his body forward, preparing to stand, "You're nothing like what I expected"

"Neither are you," Yeonjun countered, "You're much more worse."

Chapter Text

When Yeonjun got home, Maria was on the couch watching American Horror Story and he joined her, since it was one of our favourite tv shows.

The blondie sat down next to her and grabbed a handful of popcorn from the bowl that she was holding and popped one in mouth.

"Where were you?" Maria asks, turning her head so that she was facing him.

He chewed, then swallowed. "Had lunch with Taehyun at a Mexican restaurant."

"That's good. I thought you were out with that other guy. The one with the accent."

"You mean, Soobin?" Yeonjun raised an eyebrow at her and she nodded. "Nah. Not in a million years, Maria."

As those words came out of his mouth, Yeonjun felt his eye twitch. Something he did when he lied and he wondered if he was lying right now, about not going out with Soobin.

"You're lying," She smirked. "I caught your eye twitching. Do you like him?"

Yeonjun had no idea how to explain his conflicting feelings for Soobin to his aunt. Not only that, he had no idea how to explain Soobin, fullstop.

"Maria—" Yeonjun started but was cut off when his phone went off. He took it out of his pocket to see Beomgyu calling. "I have to take this."

"Okay," She mumbled and he quickly pushed himself off the couch, then made his way towards the stairs.

"Hello?" Yeonjun said once he answered the call.

"Did you remember what english homework we have?" Beomgyu asked and he could hear a small faint of meows in the background; it must be Dusty, his black and white cat.

"We have to do an essay on how discovery can effect the individual and people around them. It has to be atleast three pages too."

"Okay," He said, and the sound of pages being flipped was heard on the other end. "Thanks, Jun,"

"Hey, Gyu?" Yeonjun stopped him before he could end the call. "You okay? With like what happened—"

"Yeah, I'm good. Don't worry,"

"Right," The blondie let out a breath, "I'll see you in school and good luck with your essay."

"You too,"

And with that they hung up and Yeonjun stuffed it in his pocket then opened the door to his room.

His eyes widened at the sight of it.

The drawers were yanked out, clothes strewn across the floor and the bed was ripped apart. The closet doors were open, hanging askew by their hinges. Books and picture frames littered the floor.

Yeonjun saw a reflection of movement in the window across the room and swung around to see him. The man stood against the wall behind him, in all black and wearing a ski mask.

It's him, Yeonjun told himself. The guy from the accident yesterday.

His brain was in a swirling fog, just beginning to transmit run! to his legs, when he lunged for the window, threw it open and ducked out.

Yeonjun took the stairs down, three at a time while he screamed out his aunt's name as loud as he could. When he reached the bottom stairs, Maria showed up infront of him, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Junnie, why the hell are you screaming your lungs out—"

"My bedroom.... ransacked..... intruder — ski m-masked guy—"

She grabbed his shoulders and shook him, "I don't understand a word you're saying if you keep talking like that! Breathe."

Yeonjun did as he was told and said, "M–My bedroom."

They climbed the stairs together and stood infront of his bedroom door. He held perfectly still, a tingle of fear creeping through him while Maria went inside, looking around.

Yeonjun's bed was made, dresser drawers were shut, picture frames arranged neatly on top. The floors were clean and the window drapes hung in long, smooth panels, one on either side of the closed window.

"What's wrong with your room?" Maria asked, turning around to look at him but he did not answer.

Had Yeonjun imagined the whole thing again? What was wrong with him? Why was his reality convoluted? Why did the truth never match up?

For the sake of his sanity, Yeonjun told himself it wasn't him. It was him. The guy in the ski mask. He was doing all of this and he didn't know how but he was to blame.

Maria walked towards Yeonjun's bed and her hand grabbed something on top of if it — it was a necklace and as she eyed it, a small smile appeared on her face.

"I remember this," She told the blond boy, walking towards him with the necklace in hand.

But the thing was, Yeonjun didn't remember ever putting that on his bed. He kept it in a box along with other stuff that reminded him of his parents under his bed.

"Your dad got you this for your eighth birthday," She said, placing it over Yeonjun's head and the necklace rested on his neck.

The blondie looked down at it to see a print of a hand on it and something about the print was familiar to him but he couldn't quite put a finger on it. But that did not matter to him right now.

Yeonjun stepped in his room but it lacked the familiar touch of comfort and safety. There was an underlying note of violation and menace. Looking to where the window was, he wondered how the man did it.

Five minutes.

The person had five minutes to find a way back inside and put the room in order before they walked up.

"I'll be downstairs if you need anything, yeah?" Maria kissed him on the cheek before walking out, "Goodnight."

Yeonjun sat on his bed and held the necklace in the palm of his hand as he stared out the window.

"I'm losing my mind," He mumbled to himself.

Yeonjun's phone in his pocket rang and he quickly pulled it out. Without checking to see who was calling, he simply answered it and put it up to his ear.

"Jun, wait," He heard Jungkook's voice on the other end. "Before you hang up, just please, listen to what I have to say,"

"You have a minute."

"We need to talk about it, about us, okay? I'm trying my best to change for you, for us—"

"Jungkook," Yeonjun cut him off. "Stop."

"No," He said firmly. "I'm not giving up on us, Jun. Haven't you gotten the memo? I love you and you need to know that whatever happened in the past, it won't happened again. I swear to you."

"I don't know..." Yeonjun trailed off, looking out of his bedroom window and he could see the trees swaying harshly outside from the strong winds. "If you're asking me for forgiveness, you're already forgiven but I won't forget."

"I want us to happen again."

"It's not that easy, Jungkook hyung," Yeonjun raised his voice at him, then sighed, raking his fingers through his hair. "We can't just pick up where we left off."

"Then, we'll start over."

"Fine," He huffed since he was too tired to fight with him. "We'll start over, as friends."

"Friends," Jungkook repeated. "I can do that. Baby steps, for you. Since we're friends now, do you want to hang out with me tomorrow?"

"I thought you said, baby steps?" Yeonjun laughed softly at him. "Plus, I have work tomorrow."

"After work." He said, "I'll meet up with you then and we can hang out, just as friends, of course."

"Okay."

And with that Yeonjun hung up before Jungkook could say anything else to him, then throwing his phone behind him and he could hear it bouncing off the bed, hitting the floor.

Once Yeonjun took the necklace off himself, he grabbed the box from underneath his bed and placed it on his lap.

He took the lid off to find a small piece of note with a handwritten message on it that read : stay away from Soobin.

•

Yeonjun didn't tell anyone about what happened to his room yesterday and the warning note that was left by the ski masked guy.

He came to a conclusion that no one would believe him anyway and say it was all in his head.

At work, Yeonjun told Violet about the call he had with Jungkook and that he was meeting up with him after work. He knew it sounded crazy and as if he wasn't thinking straight but a part of him still had feelings for him and he was not going to deny that.

Yeonjun wanted to see if what Jungkook's been saying to him was true and this was the only way.

"What happened to moving on!" Violet practically screamed at Yeonjun's face.

No matter how many times Yeonjun told her to keep her voice down or keep calm, she did the opposite of what he said. She never listened to him, just like Taehyun. They are so made for each other.

"Shh!" Yeonjun covered her mouth when he noticed a couple of customers in the café turning their heads towards them.

The blond haired boy hoped that none of them thought that they were unprofessional, or even considering on making a complain about their behavior right now to Eric, the manager who will have a fit at them for their actions.

"Don't shush me, Yeonjun," She slapped his hand away. "You're not going anywhere with him. Especially alone. Are you out of your mind?"

"Violet—"

"Don't," She warned and Yeonjun shut his mouth. "I am just looking out for you here. What you saw him do before — it's just the tip of the iceberg,"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Instead of answering his question, Violet shook her head slightly and grabbed the tray with a cup of coffee and a slice of cheesecake before going out and serving it to the customers.

Violet's words kept replaying in Yeonjun's head and he was curious yet terrified as to what she might mean by what he had seen was just the tip of the iceberg.

He sighed and decided get on with work since he was being paid to do so. He grabbed a cloth then started wiping the counter tops and putting back the things to where they are supposed to be.

"If you trust me," Yeonjun heard Violet next to him and he looked up to see her holding the tray close to her chest. "You would listen on how bad this is. I know Jungkook more than you do."

"Well, if you're so afraid of what he might do to me, why don't you come along?"

"As if Jungkook is going to let me," She rolled her eyes. "Tell him you have to cancel because you have homework or got food poisoning or something. I'm begging you not to go with him."

"That's the thing, Violet. I really want to go with him and hang out. I know what he did to me before and I'm trying to let it stay in the past for our relationship to work."

"Relationship? You're planning on getting back together?"

"That's not what I said."

"But that's what you meant."

"I mean, yeah, okay," Yeonjun sighed in defeat and knew that Violet could see right through his lies. "I still love him. And if he's trying his best to change and make us happen again, I don't see why not."

"Fine. Just, please, please, be careful around him, okay? I don't want to see your face all bloody like last time."

Fifteen minutes later, their shift ended and they both made their way out of the café.

They stopped short when they caught sight of Jungkook, leaning against the wall infront of them with a bouquet of roses in hand and Yeonjun could've sworn his heart skipped a beat.

Jungkook made his way towards them, with a smile on his face and Yeonjun looked at Violet to see her clenching her jaws, never leaving her eyes off of him and he wondered what she was thinking.

"What are you doing here?" Violet asked him, acting like she didn't know the reason why.

"Fuck off, Violet. Seriously, I'm trying to be nice here and you're not even helping—"

"If you try anything, Jungkook," She cut him off and pointed a finger right infront of his face. "And I mean, anything, on him, I swear on my life, I will break you,"

They all knew that she couldn't break him, Jungkook's twice the size of her and if anything, he'll be the one that's breaking her.

Jungkook chuckled, "Yeah, good luck with that, Vi."

Violet glared deadly at him for a while before turning her full attention to Yeonjun, "I'll be real close to you, okay?" She whispered and he nodded. "If you think something bad is going to happen, trust your guts and call me. Taehyun and Beomgyu are going to keep a lookout too."

"I don't need bodyguards, Violet."

"Oh, yes, you do," Violet gave Yeonjun quick hug, said her goodbyes to both, Jungkook and him before making her way out of the mall.

As soon as she left, Jungkook handed Yeonjun the bouquet of roses and he accepted them from him.

"What happened to baby steps?" The blondie asked him and he can't stop the grin from forming on his face.

"It is baby steps!" Jungkook defended himself and Yeonjun laughed. "Anyway, let's go to Delphic, yeah?"

***

The two boys played on a couple of rides and games then got corndogs, which Yeonjun would say, was a fun night and right now, Jungkook was playing on one of the game booths and he watched as he tried to throw the hoops around the bottles and he failed at every attempt.

Yeonjun told him they could go and play another game but Jungkook insisted that he wins this one and gets him a big teddy bear as the winning prize.

After a while of playing the game, Jungkook finally won and Yeonjun was surprised that he did because he almost gave up on winning and somehow, on the last try, he actually won the big teddy bear.

Jungkook handed it to Yeonjun with a smirk on his face, "See? Told you I could do it,"

The blondie hugged the bear and rolled his eyes at him before walking away and he caught up to him. Yeonjun checked the time on his phone and saw that it was almost eleven and his aunt was going to flip if she didn't see him home.

"It's almost eleven, and I need to be home. I still have homework to finish," Yeonjun told Jungkook, who did not even disagree with him which was new to him at the moment.

They walked out of the amusement park and got in Jungkook's car and he drove to where Yeonjun's car was, that was parked infront of the mall.

Once the blondie got out of his car, he unlocked his car and stuffed the bear on the passenger seat at the back before slamming the door shut.

Yeonjun heard another door slam shut and he knew that Jungkook had come out of his vehicle.

When Yeonjun turned to look at him, Jungkook grabbed his face in his hands and kissed him on the lips, desperately.

The blondie was still trying to process what he did but eventually gave in, moving their lips in sync, and he knew right then that he missed him.

"Get off him, Jungkook!"

Yeonjun heard Violet yell and he pulled away to see her walking towards them, with Beomgyu and Taehyun following close behind.

"Are you serious right now?" Jungkook groaned and Yeonjun could sense that he was starting to get annoyed and might lose his temper soon.

"I say get off him," Violet repeated herself, much more firmer this time, just to show him that she was not scared.

"Or what?" Jungkook raised an eyebrow at her, then laughed. "You're going to break me? Alright, give me your best shot."

"Get in your car, Yeonjun, and go home," Violet told Yeonjun and he did as he was told.

Yeonjun didn't want to argue with her because, he knew if he did, something bad was going to happen since Jungkook was started to get more angrier by the second.

When Yeonjun opened his car door, Jungkook shut it back close, "I'm not done with you yet, Yeonjun."

The blondie's breathing hitched in his throat when Jungkook called him by his full name. He only did this when he's being serious and it was starting to scare the younger, and with his stare on him, he was more than scared, he was terrified.

"Let him go," Yeonjun heard Beomgyu's voice say but this only made the guy next to him laugh.

"Make me," Jungkook challenged him and Yeonjun hoped that he didn't do anything because he knew that it would end badly and he did not deserve it.

"Jun, come here," Taehyun stretched his hand out for Yeonjun to grab but as he was about to walk away from Jungkook, he pulled him back by his waist making him whimper.

"He's not going anywhere."

"Yes, he is."

Yeonjun heard a voice that he wasn't expecting to hear from behind them and right then Jungkook turned, and he did too.

Soobin standing there, in his all black clothing, his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket and a smile appeared on his face when he laid his eyes on Yeonjun.

There were thousands of questions running through Yeonjun's mind about how Soobin knew that they were here and how did he come at the right time. Had he been following him, or stalking him the whole day?

Yeonjun really did not care right now because somehow, the thought of Soobin here at this very moment, made him feel safer than he was before.

"You," Jungkook said in a low, harsh voice and a shiver ran down Yeonjun's spine. He took off his jacket. "You and me. Right here, right now."

"I'm not doing this with you," Soobin said simply before tilting his head, as if to signal him to go to his friends before anything happens.

"But I am." Jungkook growled, and lunged for Soobin but he was too quick making him fall flat to the ground.

"Go!" Soobin yelled at all of them before before Jungkook could push himself up from the concrete floor.

Yeonjun quickly got in his car and drove off while Violet, Beomgyu and Taehyun ran to where their cars were.

And the last thing Yeonjun saw before he left that place was Jungkook, throwing what looked almost like a knockout punch to Soobin's face, making him fall to the ground.

Chapter Text

Yeonjun and Beomgyu were in biology and the latter was lying face up on a table.

They were running a lab on blood pressure and he was supposed to be resting for five minutes but Beomgyu being the talkative one, he kept asking questions about last night.

"Why didn't you listen to Violet? She was clearly trying to get you out of trouble." Beomgyu said and the other ignored him. "Who do you think won the fight yesterday?" He asked after a moment and Yeonjun was starting to get annoyed with the questions he had thrown at him. "I personally think that it would be Soobin—"

"Shut up, Beomgyu," The blondie snapped, tired of his rambling. "And to answer your question, I think Jungkook won the fight yesterday since I know how strong he is."

Beomgyu's face fell as soon as Yeonjun had finished what he was saying and he, being a good friend as always, knew that he had crossed the line and felt bad for even bringing up this topic in the first place. But, to be honest, Yeonjun really didn't care about what happened yesterday.

"Junnie, I'm sorry,"

The blondie shook his head, "It's okay," And the other nodded, finally shutting up, but he knew it won't be long till he started talking again.

Looking up from Beomgyu, Yeonjun saw Soobin at the front of the class perfectly fine.No bruises, black eye or even a busted lip. And he looked unaffected by the incident that occurred last night.

Normally, Yeonjun would have worked with him since he's his biology partner ever since he came in this class, but Ms Murphy had given them a free day, and by that, it meant that they were free to choose their own partners for the day. So, Yeonjun and Beomgyu sat together while Soobin was with a guy named Sunny.

"I don't get why his face is still perfect from the fight," Beomgyu said, and Yeonjun knew that he had been caught staring at Soobin and he could also feel Ms Murphy's eyes gravitate towards them.

The blondie scribbled a few notes on his lab sheet that she had given to them at the beginning of the lesson and acted as if they were actually doing some work at the back of the class.

1. Subject is calm and relaxed.

2. Subject has refrained from speaking for three and a half minutes.

"I don't know and I don't care," Yeonjun said through gritted teeth, trying his best not to get mad at Beomgyu for what Jungkook had done yesterday. He proved him wrong.

"What's wrong?" He heard Ms Murphy ask when she came to a stop beside him.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Beomgyu chimed in, pointing and a cheeky smile appeared on his face and the other sent him a glare.

"The subject doesn't appear to have a pulse," Yeonjun replied her.

Yeonjun gave Beomgyu's wrist a hard pinch and he winced. Ms Murphy eyed them before probing for Beomgyu's pulse and he made a swooning motion and fanned himself.

She flicked her eyes to Yeonjun's, "Right here, Mr. Choi. Beating loud and strong. Are you sure the subject refrained from activity, including talking, for the full five minutes? This pulse isn't as slow as I would have expected."

"The subject struggled with the no talking step," Beomgyu grinned.

"Right," Ms Murphy nodded. "Mr. Choi!" She called for him and he looked their way and she gestured a hand for him come over to where they were.

"Woah, woah," Beomgyu said. "What are you doing? We'll start over the experiment again. I swear I won't talk."

"You should've thought of that fifteen minutes ago, Mr. Choi," Ms Murphy told him and pulled him up from the table then tucked his notebook under his good arm. "Now move up to the front."

Beomgyu sighed and mouthed a, Sorry!, over his shoulder at Yeonjun as he walked reluctantly to the front of the room with Ms Murphy trailing behind him, with her arms cross over her chest.

A moment later, Soobin took a seat on the table where Beomgyu originally was lying down before. He clasped his hands loosely between his knees and kept a steady gaze on him.

"What?" Yeonjun snapped, feeling unnerved by the weight of his stare.

"You look good. As always."

Yeonjun got the usual Soobin induced flutter in his stomach and like usual, he couldn't figure out whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. He shook his thoughts away and asked, "What happened yesterday?"

"The fight?" Soobin raised an eyebrow. "A couple of people came and broke us apart before anything could happen."

"That's good," Yeonjun sigh in relief.

"What did you do when you got home?" Soobin asked, and when he didn't answer he took the opportunity to say, "Homework was brutal, huh?"

The tone in his voice was obvious that he was making fun of Yeonjun and he hated him for it. "I didn't do homework."

"Who did you do?"

Yeonjun was speechless for a moment and he stood there, his lips parted. "Was that an innuendo?"

Soobin frowned, and shrugged, "Just curious what my competition is."

"Whatever," Yeonjun waved him off and pointed to the table, signalling him to lie down. "If you don't mind, I would like to get back to lab work."

"I can't. I don't have a heart."

Yeonjun told himself he wasn't being literal, or maybe he was. Who knows? It's Choi Soobin we're talking about here. Anything could happen with him around.

Pushing him off the table, Yeonjun laid himself down on it and placed his hands on his stomach. He shut his eyes preferring not to watch Soobin's brown eyes examine him. "Tell me when five minutes are up,"

After a few minutes, Yeonjun opened one eye a slit and he saw Soobin watching him, a smile on his face as always, if not, a grin. "Time's up, angel," He held an upturned wrist out so he could take his pulse.

Soobin took his hand and a jolt of heat shot up Yeonjun's arm and ended with a tight squeeze in his stomach. He nodded, "The subject's pulse increased on contact."

"Don't write that," Yeonjun said, and it was supposed to sound indignant. But if anything, it sounded like he was suppressing a smile.

"Ms. Murphy wants us to be thorough in this blood pressure experiment."

"What do you want?"

Soobin’s honey-brown eyes locked onto his, blue and bright, and Yeonjun could tell that on the inside, he was grinning. "You."

•

•

•

"Is it just me, or do you attract creeps?"

The last bell of the day rang and as usual, Soobin was always the first to leave before anyone else. Yeonjun ignored Beomgyu's question and packed his books in his bag, before swinging it over his shoulder.

They made their way out of the class and Beomgyu continued, "Honestly though. I don't see the difference between Soobin and Jungkook."

"Gyu, please."

"Alright, alright," He put his hands up in surrender and kept his mouth shut. But not long after they reached their cars, he said, "I need to go to the library. You wanna come with?"

Yeonjun unlocked his car and opened the driver's side door, "Sure. But I have errands to run first. I'll meet you there later."

Beomgyu nodded and they both got in their cars and went their separate ways. He had left before the blondie did because he was busy rearranging assignment papers in his car.

But as soon as Yeonjun was done, he pulled out of the parking space when suddenly, a black motorbike stopped in front of him. Yeonjun jammed brake and furrowed his eyes angrily at the person. Didn't they know how to drive?

The rider pulled up the tinted visor of the helmet that he had on and the familiar sight of hazel eyes met his owns.

Soobin.

Only he had those mesmerizing eyes. Yeonjun breathed out, clenching his jaws and his hands around the steering wheel.

Soobin flashed him one of his smirks before riding off, leaving him pissed off. Yeonjun stepped on the gas and drove out of the parking lot and into the streets, trying his best to keep him out of his mind.

Ten minutes passed and Yeonjun side parked his car in between a Chevy truck and a Mercedes Benz. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as he waited for a particular someone to appear out of the house a few cars down when suddenly his phone buzzed in his pocket.

Beomgyu: Can I get a packet of chips and a bottle of coke, please?

Yeonjun: You're not allowed to eat in the library dumbass. Go back to studying.

Beomgyu: I can't concentrate if my stomach keeps rumbling every second :(

Yeonjun: okay, fine, bye.

Beomgyu: Thanks, Jun. You're the best!

Yeonjun tucked his phone in his pocket and continued to do what he was doing before.

A few minutes later, he saw Jungkook walking out of the house in casual clothing. And carrying a black duffel bag in hand that looked way too heavy. When Yeonjun's eyes saw Jungkook's face, he was shocked.

Jungkook had a black eye and a busted lip and Yeonjun presumed that Soobin was the one who did that after the fight yesterday. But he told him that a couple of people came and broke them apart before anything could happen.

Was Soobin lying?

Yeonjun decided to push his thoughts aside and ask the real questions here. Why wasn't Jungkook in his work clothes? He always went to work at this time? Did he get sacked from his job again?

Jungkook started to look around him and Yeonjun quickly slid down his seat to make sure that he could not see him. It's as if he wanted to make sure no one was watching him? Why?

Once Jungkook got in his car, Yeonjun started his engine and followed him, keeping a distance so that he would not be able to recognize his car. Half an hour later, he exited at the pier and steered into a parking lot at the edge of the strip of shops leading out to the ocean.

Where was he going?

Yeonjun drove slower, allowing Jungkook to lock the doors of his car and walk away with the duffel bag. Then, he kept an eye out for a parking space and parked two rows over.

Staying a half block behind Jungkook, Yeonjun watched as he walked up to a woman who had blonde hair and striking green eyes.

They both were talking and their faces showed no emotion at all. It's like they were talking about serious business.

Then, Jungkook handed her the duffel bag. She unzipped it and took a look inside, examining the things inside to check if they had what she needed. She zipped it back up and they started to talk again.

Before she left, she gave Jungkook a quick kiss on the cheek and Yeonjun turned to grimace. Past the plate-glass window of the coffee shop beside him, he saw someone who he was not supposed to see.

He was sitting at a booth inside. He was dressed in dark blue pants and blazer over his white button down shirt. His dark brown hair was longer now and pulled back in a low ponytail and was reading the newspaper.

Yeonjun's father.

He folded the paper and walked towards the back of the shop. Yeonjun ran after him and pushed his way inside but he disappeared in the crowd. The black and white tiled hallway ended with the toilets — women on the left and men on the right. There was no exit, which meant that his dad had to be in the toilets.

"What are you doing?"

Yeonjun heard Taehyun's voice from directly over his shoulder. He whirled around and he could feel his heart rate increasing thinking that it could have been Jungkook behind him, finding out that he had followed him all the way here. "What are you doing here?"

"I asked you first."

Yeonjun's thoughts were too jumbled up to care about what Taehyun was saying to him. "Go inside the men's room and tell me if there's a man in a blue suit in there."

"Are you okay?" Taehyun tapped Yeonjun's forehead. "Are you on drugs? Behavioral disorder? You're acting weird."

"Just do it, Taehyun!" Yeonjun yelled and he sighed, doing what he was told. He gave the door a kick, sending it flying open. Yeonjun heard swinging of stall doors and a moment later, he returned.

Taehyun shook his head, "No one."

"But — I— it can't be — there is no other way out." Yeonjun stuttered. He stepped inside the (empty) ladies room next and nudged each stall open one at a time, his heart up in his throat. All three stalls were empty. Several emotions strung inside him — disappointment and fear at the top of the list.

Yeonjun thought he had seen his dad alive but it had turned out to be a cruel trick of his imagination. He was gone and was never coming back. He needed to accept the fact and not just by locking away memories of his father in a small box under his bed.

Yeonjun crouched down with his back against the wall and felt his whole body shake with tears.

Then he heard the door open and from the corner of his eye, he saw Taehyun standing at the entrance. "I have to say, women's toilet is a lot more cleaner than the men's."

Yeonjun kept his head down and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. He sniffed, "Do you mind?"

"I'm not leaving till you tell me what's wrong, Yeonjun,"

The blondie pushed himself to his feet and splashed cold water to his face. Avoiding Taehyun's reflection in the mirror, he grabbed a paper towel and wiped his face with it. He scrunched the paper towel in his hand and threw it in the trash.

As Yeonjun was heading towards the exit, Taehyun let the door drop closed and leaned his back against it blocking him. He crossed his arms, "What's wrong? Who were you looking for in the men's washroom?"

"I thought I saw my dad," Yeonjun shot back, summoning up all the anger he could mask the stabbing pain inside. Taehyun's body froze and he sighed, "There, I said it. Happy?"

"I'm sorry — for pressuring you like that. I didn't — I really am sorry,"

"It's fine."

"Come on. Let's get out of here. I feel like a creep standing here," Taehyun said and waited for a reaction from him. "That was suppose to make you laugh."

"I'm not in the mood."

"At least I tried right?"

Yeonjun nodded in response, not wanting to look him in the eye. The other then grabbed his arm, surprising him and wrapped it around his torso. Taehyun's arm was wrapped around his neck and a hand on the back of his head. Yeonjun's face was buried in his chest and his cologne filled his nostrils.

"Tae—"

"No, listen. I just want you to know if you need anything, I'm here okay?" Taehyun whispered and Yeonjun kept his mouth shut, tightening his arms around him. "I know I'm a dickhead half of the time but if you need someone to talk to about anything, I'm right here."

"I know."

•

•

•

"I didn't see you in PE today," Taehyun said as they walked through the glass doors of the library and Yeonjun lifted his head to look for the brown haired boy. "Where were you? Did you truant?"

"What? No," Yeonjun shook his head. "I wouldn't do such a thing and you know that."

"I know. But seriously though,"

"I don't like it, so I dropped it."

As they walk further into the library, Yeonjun scanned the room in his tippy toes and saw those bright brown colored hair near the myths and legends section. Weird. Yeonjun thought he would be studying on history.

"So, just like that?" Taehyun asked, his accent shining through heavily. "You don't like the subject and the school allowed you to drop it?"

"Mhm," Yeonjun nodded as they made their way towards Beomgyu. "My grades are at a high standard. See," He nudged his arm. "It pays to work hard."

The other boy rolled his eyes and a smile surfaced on his lips. They sat across from Beomgyu with Taehyun by Yeonjun's side. The blondie placed his bag carefully on the table that stored a packet of chips and a bottle of coke.

"Did you get it?" Beomgyu asked, never leaving his eyes off the book that he was reading and flipped the page.

"Yeah, I got it," Yeonjun took the things out of his bag and sliding it across the table.

"Thanks."

"What do you guys do here anyway?" Taehyun asked, looking around the library and fidgeting in his seat, as if he was uncomfortable that he was even here in the first place. "It's so...."

"Quiet?" Yeonjun finished his sentence.

"Lame. I was going to say lame. And boring. It's lame and boring." He looked down at Yeonjun and stuck out his tongue because he had proven him wrong and the latter playfully punched his arm, making him fake groan.

"Well, you can meet up with Violet?" Beomgyu suggested, "She finishes her lecture in ten minutes."

"Nah," Taehyun shook his head. "Maybe not today. What are you reading?"

Beomgyu turned the book towards them so they could see a picture printed on it.

It was a picture similar to the one Yeonjun remembered on the roller coaster — a picture of an Angel screaming in pain while a horned Devil tore its wings out.

But on this book, it was different.

Instead of a horned Devil tearing the Angel's wings off his back, it was another kind of an Angel, tearing his big black wings out.

Big black wings, like Soobin's drawing, Yeonjun saw in Biology.

"What is this?" The blondie asked, still staring at the printed picture. "This is not what we're learning in school."

"What do you see in this picture?"

"An Angel ripping another Angel's wings," Taehyun was confused as to why they were talking about this topic. "Why? What does this go to do with anything?"

"Not just any Angel," Beomgyu put a finger up and placed the book back on the table.

"It's an Archangel tearing off the wings of another Angel, who is also a rebel. So for his punishment, he gets his wings ripped off and thrown down to earth."

"And?" Yeonjun asked, furrowing his eyebrows at how serious he's taking this.

Beomgyu flipped the page of the book. "There might be Angels on earth. Fallen Angels."

Taehyun got up from his seat, clearly feeling uncomfortable with the topic. "I'm gonna give Violet a call and meet up with her. You guys have fun with your books."

Yeonjun watched him leave the library without another word. He turned to Beomgyu who was still reading and wondered what had gotten him to read about all this? He remembered searching about it before but he did not take it as critically as him.

Archangels? Fallen Angels? Nephilim? Wings? He didn't see the point in knowing all of this irrelevant stuff. But when he thought that way, he still got curious about it.

"Why are you reading about this stuff, Beomgyu?" Yeonjun asked.

And again, Beomgyu turned the book to him, showing a back of an Angel, where the wings had been torn off.

Two thick gashes ran the length of his back. They started near his kidneys and ended at his shoulder blades, widely forming an upside down V.

"That's....." Yeonjun trailed off, staring at the picture in front of him while he raked his brain for the right word. "Horrifying."

"Exactly. I saw them on someone's back and I wanted to search up how they would have gotten them since it's so precise."

"Who?" Yeonjun lowered his voice, almost in a hushed whisper. He could not think of anyone who would have those.

"Soobin."

•

"I swear to god, Jun, that I am not lying to you. He could be a fallen angel."

Beomgyu slammed the book shut and Yeonjun kept shaking his head as he continued his ridiculous theories of him — the guy who apparently stalked him, could talk telepathically into his mind and now, his best friend thought that he was a Fallen Angel.

It was definitely hard for Yeonjun to believe in such things, because he was more into facts and not some paranormal bullshit.

"You don't have the proof," Yeonjun said but as soon as Beomgyu was about to answer him, he beat him to it. "Doesn't mean you saw scars down his back and did some research on it, he's a Fallen Angel. It sounds ridiculous, Beomgyu."

"Believe what you want," He sighed and leaned back in his seat. "There's a reason why there are myths and legends—"

"I don't see your point here," Yeonjun furrowed his eyebrows, because honestly, he didn't know where this conversation was going.

"My point is that you have to think outside of the box. Not everything is scientific and sometimes, you have to accept the fact that some things can't be explained."

"Can we just — I don't know, not talk about him anymore? Seriously." He didn't even want to think outside the box, or inside the box, he didn't even know where the goddamn box was.

"Suit yourself," Beomgyu put up his hands in surrender and got up from his seat, taking the bag of chips in hand and the pepsi. "Mum wants me home before dinner, so yeah. You leaving?"

"I'm staying," The blondie remembered that he had algebra homework to do and since he was here, might as well do it here. "But, tell your mum I said hi, yeah?"

"Alright," Beomgyu nodded then left without saying another word. The other got his stuff out from his bag and began working on it.

An hour passed and Yeonjun finally finished his homework. Now he could have time to himself when he was at home — alone — since Maria had the night shift today, which sucked.

Yeonjun hated staying home alone. He packed his things and got out of the library with his car keys in hand and made his way towards his car. As he closed the space between himself and his car, he had this eerie feeling that someone was watching him. But when he turned around, he saw absolutely no one that could possibly be staring at him. There were a couple of people walking in and out of the library but no one looked suspicious.

Yeonjun told himself that it was probably the conversation he had with Beomgyu about Fallen Angels and the creepy pictures he made him look at. He unlocked his car, got in and put his seatbelt on. When he tried to turn the car on, it wouldn't start.

Yeonjun tried it again and again, but it still wouldn't budge. His eyes caught the sight of the fuel tank and he saw that it was — what? The tank was empty.

Strange.

Yeonjun could've sworn he had half tank when he got here to the library and — wait — that's right, he remembered stalking, he meant, not stalking but, wondering what Jungkook was up to, that's all. He got out of the car and locked it before shoving the keys in his bag.

Yeonjun decided to walk home instead since it wasn't far, remembering the times when he used to walk to the library before he owned a car. The only way home from the library was through a tunnel, where Yeonjun was walking towards to right now.

The tunnel, it was lit with fluorescent lights that flickered pale purple.

It took him a moment to force his feet to walk in there. It's already dark out, there's barely anyone in sight here and the lights are flickering.

And this could mean that it would black out when Yeonjun reached halfway in the tunnel, and he wasn't very fond of the dark.

Come on, Jun. He mentally told himself and took a deep breath. If the lights did blackout, you could make a run for it and you're safe on the other side.

Yeonjun breathed out and headed down the tunnel, his heart beat increasing every second. The sound of his shoes on the concrete was the only thing that could be heard and it made him uneasy, too damn uneasy.

The tunnel ended and thank god, the lights didn't blackout. But what made Yeonjun stopped dead on his tracks was when he saw a dark form, that stood straight ahead.

Soobin.

He was wearing a black t-shirt, revealing his tatted arms, black jeans and black converses. Basically, all black, as usual. His eyes looked like they didn't play by the rules and his smile was a little too cunning for comfort.

"You." Yeonjun's voice echoed. He glanced past him and saw a couple of cars passing by. "What are you doing here?"

Instead of thinking that Soobin was a Fallen Angel like what Beomgyu had told him, he stuck to his own opinion on this one. That he was a normal human being and if rape, murder or any other things that were running through his mind, he had cornered the blondie in the perfect place.

Soobin moved forward and Yeonjun instinctively, backed up. He continued walking and the blond turned around, making a run for it, to where the library was and he could hear the man catching up to him.

Yeonjun reached out of the tunnel, then scrambled around his car, positioning himself opposite of him, with the car between them.

Soobin looked at him over the top of the car and he raised an eyebrow.

"I have questions," Yeonjun said, panting from the mini run he did. "A lot of them."

"And if my answers don't make the cut, you're going to make a run for it?" Soobin gave a nod to the library.

And that was the plan more or less. Soobin wouldn't do anything to him in a library, especially where there were a lot of witnesses. But Yeonjun knew at the back of his head that he was a lot faster than him and he wouldn't even have made it to library, if he made a run for it.

"Well then," Soobin smirked. "Let's hear those questions, shall we?"

"How did you know I was here, at the library, tonight?"

Soobin shrugged, "Seemed like a good guess. You're always doing homework."

He was making fun of Yeonjun, again. He didn't, for a moment believe what he said though. He wouldn't be here if he didn't know Yeonjun was here. This wasn't his type of hangout, he was stalking him, yet again.

There was a side to Soobin that was almost predatory and if armed forces knew about him, they would do anything to recruit him.

While Yeonjun was too lost in his thought, Soobin gracefully lunged to his left. The blond quickly countered his move, scurrying towards the rear of the car. When he came up short, the other did too.

Soobin was at the nose of the car and Yeonjun was at the tail.

"What happened on the Archangel?" Yeonjun asked. "Did you save me?"

"If I saved you, we wouldn't be here having this conversation."

"You mean if you had not saved me, we wouldn't be here. I would be dead."

"That's not what I said, angel," Soobin's voice was low and Yeonjun had no idea what he meant. He was beyond confused.

"Then, why wouldn't we be standing here having this conversation right now?"

"You would still be here. I, on the other hand, probably wouldn't."

Before Yeonjun could figure out what the hell Soobin was talking about, he lunged clockwise. He ran away from him, stopping when he did. While they were at a standstill again, their eyes locked, as if trying to glean Yeonjun's next move from them.

"Isn't this your car?" Soobin furrowed his eyebrows, looking down at it. "Why didn't you just drive home? Why were you walking through that tunnel?"

"I'm suppose to be asking the questions here!" Yeonjun yelled at him. "And my car ran out of gas so—"

Soobin darted for him again as Yeonjun was finishing his sentence, this time attacking from the right. Momentarily confused, he gave up some space between them. And Yeonjun realised that Soobin was asking him questions on purpose, so that he could distract him from what he was planning on doing next.

Instead of stopping this time, Soobin skirted around the car. Yeonjun made a break for it, running towards the library but halfway across the road, he caught hold of his arm and spun him around then backed him against his car again.

"So much for that plan," Soobin chuckled while the other glared at him. There was a lot of panic behind it, behind Yeonjun's glare. Soobin flashed him a grin brimming with dark intent, confirming that he had every reason to sweat freely.

"What's going on?" Yeonjun worked hard to be hostile. "How come I swear I can hear your voice in my head? I want the truth, Soobin. I deserve full disclosure."

"Full disclosure," Soobin repeated. "Does this have anything to do with the promise you made to expose me? What exactly are we talking about here?"

What were they talking about? Yeonjun mentally asked himself. Shit, he couldn't even remember. Soobin's gaze felt so hot on him that he had to break eye contact, looking down at his shoes.

"I have to go." Yeonjun said, thinking of a lie so he would leave him alone. "I have homework to finish up."

"Let me give you a ride," Soobin offered, pointing his thumb next to him and when the other turned, he saw his black motorcycle. How did he miss that when he walked out of the library?

"I'll walk. It's not that far anyway."

"It's kind of late, and dark." Soobin stated the obvious. "Who knows who you might run into while walking home."

"I can take care of myself. I can fight," Yeonjun tipped his chin up in spite of the lie. "In fact, I've had boxing lessons." Yeah, kickboxing, his subconscious reminded him and he hated him so much right now. At the gym, he added.

Soobin scoffed then held out his hand as a target. "Give me a shot, angel. Hard as you can."

"I'm not a fan of senseless violence," Yeonjun simply said. After what Jungkook had done to him before, he didn't think he was a fan of any violence, he despised violence.

"We're all alone down here," Soobin said, word by word, making the hair on the back of Yeonjun's neck stand up, "I could take an advantage of you anytime, so, show me what you got."

"Just send me home," Yeonjun sighed, hoping he would just drop this conversation if he accepted his offer. He really did not want to fight him.

Soobin smiled and turned to walk to his motorbike and the other boy trailed behind him. He got on it then handed him the helmet. Yeonjun put it on, before swinging on the bike, snuggling up close to him — not like he wanted to or anything — the seat wasn't very spacious.

"I'm starting to think the only reason you keep offering me a ride is because you know how much I am not fond of this thing."

"I can think of a couple other reasons," Soobin said before speeding down the highway and down the road to his street.

The ravenette edged his bike up his driveway and the blondie held on to him to keep his balance while he climbed off. He took off the helmet and handed it to him.

"Thanks," Yeonjun said, tucking his honey colored locks behind his ear, he felt nervous, he didn't know why or if it was a good nervous, or a bad nervous, "You know, for the ride home."

The taller man nodded, putting the helmet on his lap and rested his arm on it, "What are you doing tomorrow night?"

Yeonjun stared at him, a moment of pause before he answered, "A date with the usual."

And this appeared to have spark his interest.

Soobin raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean, the usual?"

"Homework."

He smirked, "Cancel."

Yeonjun crossed his arms over his chest. Who was he to tell him what to do? Plus, he wouldn't want to go anywhere with him. He had cornered him in a dark tunnel, well, sort of, and was probably stalking him, again.

"I don't go out with strangers," Yeonjun told him. "Or even creepy stalkers."

"Well, good thing I do. I'll pick you up at five tomorrow, angel."

•

•

•

"First Jungkook and now you're going on a date with Soobin? Have you not learned your lesson yet?" Beomgyu was sitting on Yeonjun's bed, glaring at him while he searched his wardrobe for something to wear tonight.

Yeonjun was barely listening to him because he was too caught up in his thoughts. Should he wear a dress or jeans? Or a tee or a tank top? And he didn't even know why he bothered so much about this.

"Sorry, did you say something?" Yeonjun asked, pulling out a black dress shirt and jeans that he had only worn once to Violet's birthday party last year.

Beomgyu groaned, "I can sense that something bad will happen if you go on a date with him."

"It's not a date," He said as he turned to face him to show him the black button up, "What do you think of this?"

He scanned it, "Too perfect."

"That's what you about the other clothes I showed you before," Yeonjun rolled his eyes. He threw the black dress shirt along with the other pile of clothes that were on the floor. They were the clothes that Beomgyu did not think it was suitable enough to wear tonight with Soobin because he looked irresistible.

If only Violet was here to help, but she's busy with school projects and Yeonjun didn't want to bother her with his boy problems. He knew she would help him and be here in a split second, but he didn't want to cause any trouble for her.

"We've been here for almost and hour and you're not helping!" Yeonjun huffed and sat on the floor, leaning his back against the wardrobe.

"Maybe.... because I don't want to?"

He scowled. "Can you stop being so difficult? For god's sakes. What's the time?"

"Fifteen minutes to five."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Yeonjun exclaimed, pushing himself up from the floor and heoad for the showers as quickly as he could, leaving Beomgyu in his room.

After he was done, he dried his hair and decided on wearing a white button up shirt and black skinny jeans. And for the jacket, he decided to wear a leather one to fit in with what Soobin usually wore.

He took a good look at himself in the mirror and looked pleased with his appearance.

Not bad.

While Yeonjun was combing his hair, he heard the front door opening then shut closed. He turned to look at Beomgyu with eyebrows furrowed and he did the same.

Beomgyu got up from the bed and gestured a hand to come to him, and Yeonjun did as he was told.

They knew that they had an uninvited guest in the house and the thought of it being the ski masked guy made Yeonjun's heart race. Beomgyu slowly walked towards the bedroom door and Yeonjun trailed behind him.

Before they even made it out, they saw Taehyun making a turn and walking in, with a glass of orange juice in hand.

Yeonjun and Beomgyu both screamed their lungs out and when they did, Taehyun screamed too, dropping the glass. It landed on the floor and it broke, spilling the orange juice all over the floor.

"Taehyun!" Yeonjun yelled at him. "Don't you know how to knock?"

"The front door wasn't locked." He said, putting his hands up. "It's not my fault that I could just wander around your house."

"That's no reason to—"

Beomgyu nudged Yeonjun and he stopped to look at him. He showed him his phone screen and the time clearly showed it was 5:05. Soobin should be here soon.

Yeonjun looked at Taehyun and pointed to the ground where there were broken glass and orange juice. "You better clean this up, Tae."

Yeonjun walked back in his room to grab his bag, he heard his phone ding! meaning that a text message had come through. He searched for his phone and saw that it was text message from Soobin.

Soobin : won't be able to make it to our date tonight, angel. I promise I'll make it up to you.

Yeonjun sat on his bed and stared at the text message again before lying down. Was he playing him again? He bet he was.

Ever since day one, Soobin thought he could play him like that.

Yeonjun : you don't have to apologize, i thought it was a joke anyway. it's not like i got ready or anything

"Who is it?" Beomgyu took a seat on the bed as well. "Maria?"

Yeonjun shook his head, placing his phone on his bedside table, "It's Soobin. He says he coudn't make it to our date tonight."

"So it is a date," He raised an eyebrow and the orhee smacked his arm before burying his face in his pillow.

Soobin's playing him. He was definitely playing Yeonjun, and for a moment he thought that maybe they could have been good together, if he pushed away the thoughts of him being this creepy stalker or even a Fallen Angel.

"Date?" Yeonjun heard Taehyun say. "With Soobin? What the fuck, Jun? Are you crazy? Going on a date with that guy?"

"Well, I'm not anymore," Yeonjun's voice was muffled. "So shut up, and start cleaning the mess you made."

•

•

•

Beomgyu and Taehyun left right after they had cleaned up the broken glass and spilled orange juice. It was around eight, and Yeonjun was on the living room couch, flipping through the TV channels as he stuffed popcorn in his mouth that he had just made. There wasn't anything to eat at home for dinner and he only found this, microwaveable popcorn, so, why not? Plus, he was hungry as fuck.

Yeonjun's phone started to ring and he took it out from his pocket, "Hey," He said with mouth still full of popcorn.

"Hey, baby," His aunt's voice was heard on the other line. "I'm on my way back and I got you stir fry from the chinese restaurant that we went to."

"Thank god! And I thought all I was having for dinner was popcorn. There's literally nothing at home."

"Right. Remind me to do grocery shopping this weekend. Anyway, I'll be home in like an hour or so. There's like traffic here and-"

The doorbell rang and Yeonjun jumped, pulling the phone away from his ear, looking at the front door, wondering who the hell would be ringing the bell at this hour. It rang again and goosebumps began to form on his skin. He slowly got up from the couch and made his way towards the door. Before looking in the peephole, Yeonjun took a deep breath and what he saw outside, did not just shock him but got him questioning also.

Yeonjun opened the front door, "What are you doing here?"

Soobin grinned, "I said I'll make it up to you, and I'm not the type of person who breaks a promise."

"I thought-" Yeonjun was cut off when his phone started ringing in his hand and he realized that he had left Maria hanging. Crap. He put up a finger, as if to say to him to give him a moment, before answering the call.

"Hello? Jun? What happened?" Maria's voice was panicky and he knew that she was worried. "Are you okay?"

"Maria, I'm fine," Yeonjun took a quick glance at Soobin who was looking at him with a smile still on his face. "I'll see you at home, yeah? Drive safely." And with that, he hung up.

Yeonjun shoved his phone in the pocket of his pajama shorts and crossed his arms over his chest, looking at Soobin who was standing outside his door, wearing all black. His shirt hung low on his chest, showing off his tatted chest that almost looked like wings. When he realized that he had been staring, he looked down and — wait — he's carrying something.

"What's in that plastic bag?" Yeonjun asked, pointing at it.

"One way to find out," Soobin said, "Are you going to invite me in or what?"

Yeonjun blinked. Invite him in? Invite him in his house? With no one else home? Was it a good idea? Who knows what he'll do to him.

Soobin sniffed, "Have you been eating popcorn for dinner?"

"No, I mean, yes, but—"

And suddenly, Soobin was inside his house. Yeonjun took three steps back and he nudged the door close with his foot.

"I got stuff to make tacos," He told him and strode past, deeper into the house. "Do you like tacos?"

"W-What?" The blond stared at him and wondered what the hell was he doing in his house? Oh my god.

"T-A-C-O-S," Soobin spelled it out as if he did not know how to. "Tacos, angel. Do you like tacos?"

When Yeonjun said nothing, he made his way towards the kitchen and the other followed him. He watched as Soobin placed the plastic bag on the counter taking out a jar of salsa, packet of cheese, and some vegetables, leaving a couple of things still in the bag.

Then Soobin dug the through the drawers and found a knife — shit — Yeonjun started to panic at the image of him holding a knife, an actual one and not some plastic shit.

"Where's the chopping board?" Soobin asked and Yeonjun stood there, dumbfounded. Still trying to process the fact that he was in his house, armed with a knife with no one else home.

Once Soobin found the chopping board, he began cutting a tomato. Halfway through cutting them, he stopped, placing the knife down, and Yeonjun wondered why on earth did he do that?

Soobin opened the drawers again and took out another knife, that was bigger and had a sharper blade. He held it up, examining it. The blade gleamed in the light, making Yeonjun's stomach clench.

"Put the knife down," Yeonjun instructed, and he tried as hard to make his voice firm and authoritative but he failed.

Soobin looked from Yeonjun to the knife and back again. After a minute, he laid it down in-front of him, next to the smaller knife that he was holding onto before, and he calmed down, a little. "I'm not going to hurt you, angel."

"That's," Yeonjun gulped audibly, "Reassuring,"

"Well, if you don't mind," Soobin said, picking up the smaller knife and started cutting again. "I would like to have dinner. Could you set the table?"

•

After dinner, Soobin carried their plates to the sink and Yeonjun followed him like a lost puppy in his own house. The dinner was great and the tacos that he made were delicious, but never in a million years would he ever admit that to him.

"I'll wash, you dry, yeah?" Soobin said, hunting through the drawers at the side of the sink and found a dish towel, throwing it playfully at Yeonjun. The ravenette leaned lazily against the sink. His hair perfectly messed up and a smile tugged at his mouth. Somehow, the blondie had the sudden urge to kiss him.

Like Yeonjun just wanted to kiss Soobin. Right now.

"Stop staring."

"I'm not!" Yeonjun defensively said and he could feel his cheeks heat up, so he had to look away and he heard Soobin laugh.

It didn't take long to finish the dishes and when they had, they found themselves cramped in the space near the sink. Soobin moved to take the dish towel from him and their bodies touched.

Neither of the two boys moved, holding to the fragile link that welded them together. And Yeonjun, being Yeonjun, stepped back first, breaking the link.

"Scared?" Soobin murmured.

"No."

"You're a terrible liar, angel. I can see right through you."

Yeonjun's pulse edged up a degree and he hoped that Soobin didn't notice it, he meant if he could. "I'm not scared of you."

"Mhm."

"Maybe it's just that I'm scared of—" Yeonjun stopped himself before he could continue, admitting to Soobin that everything about him frightened him. "I'm scared of..."

"Liking me?"

Yeonjun was relieved that he didn't have to finish his own sentence that he automatically said, "Yes!" And he realized that it was too late to take back what he had confessed. "I mean, no! Definitely no. That's not what I was trying to say."

Soobin chuckled, "Right."

"The truth is, a part if me is definitely not comfortable around you."

"But?"

"But at the same time, I feel this scary attraction to you," And when the words left Yeonjun's mouth, Soobin grinned. "You're way too cocky."

Yeonjun used his hand to push him back a step but Soobin caught hold of his hand against his chest, pulling him closer until he was directly in-front of him.

Suddenly, Soobin lifted him on to the counter making his face level with his owns. He fixed Yeonjun his with a dark, inviting smile and that's when the blondie realized this moment had been dancing around the edge of his fantasies.

Yeonjun scooted to the edge of the counter, his legs dangling one on either side of Soobin. Something inside him was telling him to stop! but he swept that voice to the far back of his mind.

Soobin spread his hands on the counter, just outside Yeonjun's hips. Tilting his head to one side, he moved closer and the other could smell his cologne, mixed with cigarettes, and somehow, it overwhelmed him.

Yeonjun inhaled a sharp breath and no, this wasn't right. Not this, not with him, not with Soobin. Because he was frightening, in a good way, yes, but also in a bad way. A very bad way.

"You should go," Yeonjun breathed. "You should definitely go."

"Go here?" Soobin mumbled, his mouth latching on Yeonjun's shoulder, lips brushing ever so softly. "Or here?" And they slowly moved up his neck, making him shiver.

“Or maybe here,” Soobin murmured, voice low, as he ghosted a kiss just beneath Yeonjun’s ear, and he made a noise in the back of his throat, something halfway between a gasp and a plea.

Yeonjun’s brain scrambled to hold on to anything rational. You can’t. He’s not safe. You know better. But then Soobin’s hands, still braced on the counter, inched just a little closer, like they were slowly framing him in, and his lips were roaming north, up over his jaw, gently sucking at his skin, and — ring!

His phone rang and he fumbled it out of his pocket, "Hello?"

"Jun," It was his aunt. "I'm stopping to get some gas. I will be home five minutes tops. Sorry for the long wait, honeybun."

"Uh—" Yeonjun placed the phone on his chest and looked at Soobin. "You need to leave. Like, right now."

"Sweet night, tonight, angel," Soobin said, before slowly making his way out of the kitchen, leaving him on the counter, flustered.

A moment later, he heard the front door close behind Soobin, and a fiery blush crept up his neck like it was chasing his breath.

Too close, Yeonjun thought, heart pounding. Really dangerous distance. The words echoed in his head, half a joke, half a warning. You so bad, I gotta move back. Like saying it could undo the way Soobin’s presence still lingered in the room — warm, electric, a little too much.

He let out a shaky breath, trying to cool himself down. But the truth was, he never really knew how to stay unaffected around him. And every time Soobin got close, something slipped — logic, pride, whatever thin thread of control he was holding onto.

But there’s nothing wrong with fire. Not until you forget how close you’re standing. And by the time you feel the heat, it’s usually too late.

Chapter Text

Yeonjun made his way to where his car was parked after locking up the cafe and while he was searching for his keys in his bag, he noticed something from the corner of his eye. He turned his head to see what it was and found a piece of folded paper tucked in between the window wipers of his car. The blondie scanned the place around himself to see if there was anyone here with him but saw nothing. He was alone.

Slowly, Yeonjun walked up to his car and took the folded paper in his hand and unfolded it to see a bunch of scribbled words on it. The more he read it, the more he recognised the familiar handwriting, making his heart squeeze. It read:

Yeonjun,

I am terribly sorry for all the wrong things I have done to you and those around you. I just wanted to say sorry before I officially leave out of your life and out of this town for good. I think it's the best for me, for you and for everyone. But the purpose of this letter is just to say that I am glad to have met you. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me but I was probably not the best for you. I don't want you to bother looking for me because I don't want you too. I want you to be happy and find someone who will treat you better than I ever did. You deserve it. I wish you all the best. Guess this is a goodbye?

Love, Jungkook.

A tear fell out of Yeonjun's eye and landed on the paper, smudging his name. Then, he heard footsteps running close to him and he looked up to see Violet slowing down. She had a paper in her hands and he assumed that it was from him too.

"He's gone," Yeonjun said, his voice cracking. "Jungkook is really gone."

Violet nodded, biting her bottom lip as tears started rolling down her cheeks. She slowly walked up to him and they wrapped their arms around each other; remembering all the memories they had with him. And even though Jungkook had issues controlling his anger, they were still childhood friends and Yeonjun would never forget that.

•
•
•

"Tae.." Yeonjun's voice trailed, looking out the window of his jeep and seeing familiar graffiti stained walls. "What are we doing here?"

"And how did you even find this place?" Violet, who was sitting next to him added.

Beomgyu and Yeonjun were sitting at the back and they both looked at each other with worried faces, but he could tell that Beomgyu was much more afraid than anyone else in the car. Yeonjun took his hand in his and intertwined them to reassure him that it was going to be okay.

Taehyun pulled up into an empty parking lot and turned off the engine before looking back at Yeonjun. "The Lotus Arcade. I know that both of you are upset about Jungkook leaving so I thought we could hang out somewhere to get your mind off him for a bit."

"And out of all places, you chose here because?" Violet asked him but instead of answering, he got out of the car and slammed the door shut. She sighed and looked back at Yeonjun, "How romantic."

"I don't like it here," Beomgyu mumbled, his eyes looking out the window. "My sister warned me not to go to this kind of place."

"Listen, how about this," Violet said. "We can go check out the place for a bit and if you still feel uncomfortable, we'll leave. Okay?"

After a moment of silence, Beomgyu sighed and nodded. All three of them then got out of the car and cautiously looked around for anything suspicious or even possible danger. It was just like the first time Yeonjun went here to look for Soobin when he wanted to do their biology project. This place would forever give him the shivers. Beomgyu was still holding onto Yeonjun's hand and Violet held onto Taehyun's arm as they walked in to the counter to pay for their entrance fee.

When they got there, someone different was standing there from the last time Yeonjun came here. The cashier laid her eyes on all for of them, back and forth they went and Yeonjun wondered what she was thinking. She trained her watchful stare on Yeonjun and he thought she had noticed that he couldn't stop staring at the neon-pink tattoos covering every available inch of skin on her arms.

"What's up?" Taehyun said, putting three twenty bills on the counter but she did not care about that. She had her eyes glued on the blondie.

"You looking at something?" She raised an eyebrow.

"i like your tat—" Yeonjun began but she rolled her eyes, taking the money and giving them their entry tickets before walking away.

"I don't think she likes me," He whispered when they were a safe distance away.

"No one likes you, Jun," Violet joked and Taehyun laughed at that.

"Lotus doesn't like anybody," Beomgyu spoke up as they make a turn around the corner to where the pool tables were and the memory of Soobin here came flashing back in Yeonjun's mind.

"Wait," Yeonjun looked at Beomgyu, "Lotus? That's her name? That's Lotus of The Lotus Arcade?"

"That's lady Lotus, daughter of madame Lotus who originally owns this place but she died a few years ago."

"What? How?"

"The usual. Bar brawl," Beomgyu answered and Yeonjun felt an overwhelming desire to run back to the jeep and peel out of the lot. "They are a pretty hardcore family."

"How do you know this stuff?" Taehyun's eyebrows were furrowed.

"My sister, Moa," Beomgyu shrugged. "She likes hanging around these kinds of places. Not me though."

"Are we safe?" Violet questioned.

"I don't know. maybe," He simply answered but then his eyes caught sight of something and he let go of Yeonjun's hand to go to it.

They watched as Beomgyu went to the rack of pool sticks mounted on the wall. He looked back at them and gestured a hand to come over. They went to where he was and stood next to him.

"Choose a cue," Beomgyu motioned a hand to the rack infront of them.

Everyone was busy choosing a cue but from the corner of his eye, Yeonjun saw a vending machine and he decided to go there instead. He slotted in some coins and got four cans of coke for all of them.

Yeonjun turned around to go back to the group but he saw a tall person standing in front of him, a smirk was formed on his lips, "Not following me are you, angel?"

Yeonjun scoffed at that, "You wish."

"Hurry up with the drinks, Choi!"

They both turned their heads to where the voice was from, and saw Taehyung, Soobin's friend that Yeonjun met the last time he was here. He was a couple of pool tables away from them.

"Give me a minute, hyung. I'm in the middle of something here," Soobin said, and Taehyung's eyes caught sight of the blondie and a big smile appeared on his face.

"Princess Junnie," He said and made his way over. "Surprised to see you back here again."

"Again?" Yeonjun heard Beomgyu's voice and they all turned to see Violet, Taehyun and Beomgyu with cues in their hands. "You've been here before, Jun?"

"I — uh — it's a long story," Yeonjun mumbled, handing them each a can of coke and they took it from him with a face that said he needed to explain himself later on.

"You guys are here to play pool?" Taehyung asked them and they nodded. "You guys should join us then. come on, I'll show you to our pool table."

Before Yeonjun could protest and say that they were fine on their own, Taehyung led the way and they all followed him. He sighed and decided to do so as well but someone gently pulled the hood of his jacket, holding him back.

"Come with me, angel," Soobin took Yeonjun's hand in his, making his cheeks blush furiously. The ravenette led the blondie the opposite way, past the crowd and into a quieter, more secluded area. "I want to show you something."

•
•
•

Soobin pulled Yeonjun into a private lounge room where there were pretty girls wearing revealing clothing and they were everywhere in the room, lingering around men in suits. They didn't take notice of their presence but Yeonjun noticed some girls eyeing Soobin with grins on their faces but he just walked past them.

He lead him to where there was a huge canvas on the wall at the end of the room. It was covered in spray paint and it looked just like the graffiti on the walls outside but this time, they're on a canvas and much more artistic and appealing to the eyes. The two boys stood in front of the artwork and Yeonjun traced the outlines of the images with his fingers.

Then, Soobin asked, "What do you think?"

"It's amazing," Yeonjun said truthfully. "Is this what you wanted to show me?" He looked at Soobin who nodded shifting the canvas a little so it was straight. "Did you make this?

Yeonjun saw a smile tugging on Soobin's lips and waited for him to answer but he kept quiet. He was about to ask him again but Soobin walked away and Yeonjun followed him, leaving the lounge room and back to where the pool tables were. The ravenette chose the table farthest from the stairs and also farthest from the blondie's friends and stood in front of the cue racks and scanned for the one that he wanted.

Once he picked one, he turned to Yeonjun and said, "Go on. The cue ain't gonna choose for itself, you know."

"I've never played pool before," Yeonjun confessed and Soobin's smile grew wider. "And you didn't answer my question."

"Choose a cue first, then, I'll answer your question."

"Fine," Yeonjun did as he was told and lifted one down and carried it to the pool table.

Soobin trailed behind him and stood on the opposite of the table, wiping a hand to erase a smile. "What?"

"You can't hit a home run in pool."

Yeonjun nodded at that. "No home runs. Got it."

Soobin's smile stretched and he shook his head, "You're holding your cue like a bat, angel."

Yeonjun looked down at his hands. The other was right. He was holding it like a bat. "But it feels comfortable this way."

Soobin placed his cue down and moved behind Yeonjun, placing his hands on his hips and positioned him infront of the table. He then slid his tatted arms around him and took hold of the pool stick.

"Like this," Soobin said, repositioning Yeonjun's right hand up a several inches. "And... this," He went on, taking the blondie's left hand and forming a circle with his thumb and index finger.

Then Soobin planted Yeonjun's left hand on the pool table, like a tripod. He pushed the tip of the pool stick through the circle and over the knuckle of his middle finger. "Bend at the waist."

Yeonjun leaned into the pool table, with Soobin's breath warming up his neck. He pulled back on the pool stick and it glided through the circle.

"Which ball do you want to hit?" Soobin asked, referring to the triangle of balls arranged at the far end of the table. "The red one in front is a good choice."

"Purple's my favourite colour."

"Purple it is," Soobin drew the stick back and forth through the circle, aiming at the cue ball, practicing the other's stroke.

Yeonjun squinted at the cue ball, then at the triangle of balls farther down the table and said, "You're a tiny bit off."

"How much do you want to bet?"

"Five dollars."

Yeonjun felt him shake his head, "Your jacket."

The blondie furrowed his eyebrows, "You want my jacket?"

"I want it off. And to answer your other question, yes I did make that artwork."

Yeonjun's barm jerked forward and the pool stick shot through his fingers, ramming the cue ball. In turn, the cue ball shot forward, impacted with the solid purple and shattered the triangle, balls ricocheting in all directions.

"Okay," Yeonjun said, taking off his jacket. "Maybe I am a little bit impressed."

Soobin examined Yeonjun's black and dark blue scarf. His eyes seemed darker in the dimly lighted room, and were as black as a midnight ocean, his expression contemplative. "Nice," He said, before moving around the table, scrutinizing the layout of balls.

"Five dollars says you can't sink the red striped one," Yeonjun challenged him, selecting it purposely as it was shielded from the white cue ball by a mass of colourful balls.

"I don't want your money, angel," Soobin said and their eyes locked making his internal temperature rise another degree.

"What do you want then?"

Soobin took his own pool stick and lowered it to the table, took one practice stroke and drilled the cue ball. The momentum of the cue ball transferred to the solid green, then to the eight ball and punched the striped red into a pocket.

Yeonjun let out a nervous laugh and tried to cover it up by cracking his knuckles. "Alright, maybe I'm more than a little impressed."

Soobin was still bent over the table and he look up at him and the look warmed the other's skin. "We never agreed on the bet."

The pool stick felt a little slick in Yeonjun's hands and he discreetly wiped a hand on his thigh. As if he wasn't already sweating enough, Soobin smirked, "You owe me. Someday, I will come to collect."

Yeonjun laughed, but it wasn't quite on pitch, "Yeah, you keep dreaming."

Footsteps barrelled down the stairs across the room. A familiar tall blond guy appeared at the bottom. Seokjin was his name. Yeonjun met him with Taehyung the other night.

Seokjin looked at Soobin first, then shifted his gaze to Yeonjun. A slow grin appeared on his face and he said to Soobin with a heavy accent, "You didn't tell me he was here."

"I didn't tell him that you were here either," Soobin returned, his mouth at the relaxed stage just before a grin.

"Am I interrupting something here?" Seokjin asked, dividing an inquiring look between Yeonjun and Soobin.

"No," Yeonjun answered him and at the same Soobin said, "Yes."

Suddenly, Seokjin lunged playfully at Soobin and the two dropped to the floor, rolling and throwing punches. There was the sound of husky laughter, fists laying into flesh and fabric tearing and Soobin's bare back came into view.

Yeonjun's heart stopped.

Two thick gashes ran the length of it — starting near his kidneys and ending at his shoulder blades, widening to form an upside down V. The gashes were so extreme, Yeonjun almost gasped in horror.

It was like the picture that Beomgyu showed him back in the library. The one where an Archangel was tearing off the wings of another Angel, who was a rebel. It was his punishment. The Angel gets his wings ripped off and thrown down to earth.

Could it be possible that whatever that Beomgyu said about Soobin could be true? No matter how hard Yeonjun tried to come to a conclusion, he still did not believe something ridiculous as he was more of a logical person.

"Aye, get off me!" Seokjin bellowed, disrupting Yeonjun's thoughts.

Soobin swung off him and as he got to his feet, his torn shirt fluttered open. He took it off and tossed it into the trash can in the corner and said to Seokjin, "Give me your shirt."

Seokjin directed a wink at Yeonjun, "What do you think, Yeonjun? Should we give him a shirt?"

Soobin made a playful lunge forward and Seokjin‘s hands flew up to his shoulders. "Easy now," He said, backing up. He peeled off the large red sweatshirt he was wearing and tossed it to the ravenette reavealing a white fitted T-shirt underneath. Yeonjun watched as Soobin rolled the sweatshirt down over and hard enough to put a flutter in his stomach.

"Alright, I'll leave you two," Seokjin said, walking away. "Taehyung-ah!" He called out, turning his head left and right. "Where the bloody hell are ya?"

"Over here," Yeonjun heard Taehyung yelling back at Seokjin and he saw him running over to where his friends were at the pool table.

Yeonjun turned back to Soobin who was fixing his hair then he closed the space between them and held out a hand to him.

Soobin tipped his head at the stairs and said, "Let's get out of here."

"Where are we going?" Yeonjun felt his stomach tumbling to his knees.

"You'll see."

The blondie took quick look back at his friends who were laughing and having fun playing pool with Seokjin and Taehyung, and thought that maybe going with Soobin wouldn't be such a bad idea. After all, the point of this was to forget Jungkook.

A smile formed on Yeonjun's lips as he accepted the hand Soobin offered him, "As long as we're not doing anything bad."

•
•
•

"Where's your bike?" Yeonjun asked Soobin when he led him out of The Lotus Arcade, towards a black range rover that looked rather expensive and shiny new. The ravenette unlocked the car and opened the driver's side door while he stood in front of the car in awe.

"It's at the workshop." Soobin answered with a shrug. "I wanted a new and cooler engine."

"Right," Yeonjun slowly made his way to the passenger side door. They both got in the car and the smell of leather lingered around the air. "Is this brand new?"

"Apparently, it's six months old. I won it a couple nights ago off a game of pool."

"Someone bet their car?"

"The guy wasn't too happy about it." Soobin said, igniting the engine before pulling out of the parking space. "So I'm trying to stay clear of dark alleys for a while."

Not long after, it started to rain hard outside and the dark from the night settled down around them. Then, Soobin slowed down when they reached a street lighted up with food shops. He parked the car in front of the Subway shop and pulled on the hand brakes.

"We left the arcade to get sandwiches?"

"What did you think we left for?" He raised an eyebrow as he looked down at the blondie with a cheeky grin plastered on his face.

Yeonjun could feel the heat on his cheeks rise. "No, no — I didn't mean — not like that—"

"I know, angel. I'm just playing with you." Soobin's lips curved in a smirk.

Yeonjun rolled his eyes at him and take a look outside the window where it's still raining heavily and the trees were swaying side to side as if they were going to snap at any moment.

He asked, "Um, can we get takeout?"

"Sure," Soobin opened the driver's side door and looked back at him over his shoulders. "Any request?"

"A turkey sandwich, please. But no pickles."

Yeonjun could tell he had earned one of Soobin's smiles that never quite made it to the surface. He seemed to earn a lot of those. This time, the blondie couldn't figure out what he had said.

"I'll see what I can do." He said before sliding out.

Soobin left the keys in the ignition and the heater pumping. For the first couple of minutes, Yeonjun replayed their evening so far in his mind. When he showed him the artwork he made and how to play pool. He was not as bad as he thought he would be.

Then, it dawned on Yeonjun that he was alone in Soobin's car. His private space.

If Yeonjun were Soobin and wanted to hide something highly secretive, he wouldn't hide it in his room, or his school locker, or even a bag pack which he did not carry but if he did, it could be confiscated or searched without warning.

Yeonjun would hide it in his shiny black range rover with the sophisticated alarm system. He unbuckled his seatbelt and rummaged through the stack of textbooks near his feet, feeling a mysterious smile creep to his mouth at the thought of uncovering one of Soobin's secrets.

Yeonjun wasn't expecting to find anything in particular — he would have settled for the combination to Soobin's locker or his notebook that had all his sketches that he never wanted anyone to see. Toeing around old school assignments cluttering the floor mats, Yeonjun found pennies, an AC/DC tee that smelt just like him and a receipt from a convenient store.

Nothing especially surprising or revealing.

Yeonjun popped open the glove compartment and sifted through the operating manual and other official documents. There was a gleam of chrome and his fingertips brushed metal. He pulled out a steel flashlight and turned it on, but nothing happened.

Yeonjun turned the flashlight over and unscrewed the bottom, thinking the flashlight felt a little light and sure enough, there were no batteries. He wondered why Soobin kept a nonworking flashlight stored in his glove compartment. It was the last thought he had before his eyes zoomed in on the rusty liquid that had dried at one end of the flashlight.

Blood.

The thought of Soobin murdering someone with this flashlight as a weapon made Yeonjun's heart beat out of his chest

Soobin had a frightening past and many, many secrets. If brutal and senseless violence was one of them, Yeonjun wasn't safe riding around alone with him.

A flashlight of distant lightning brightened the horizon and the blondie saw him exiting the restaurant.

The raven haired male jogged across the parking lot holding a plastic bag in one hand and bottles of coke in the other. He went around to the driver's side and ducked inside the car.

"One turkey sandwich without pickles," Soobin placed the bag on his lap and ran his fingers through his wet dark hair. "And something to wash it down with."

"Did you kill someone?" Yeonjun asked quietly, his eyes still glued to the flashlight in his hand.

"What?" His voice full of confusion.

The blondie looked up at the ravenette and noticed he was staring at his hands.

"You went through my things?" Soobin said and didn't sound annoyed but he didn't sound pleased, either.

"I—"

"And accuse me of killing someone?" He gave a curt laugh, minus the humor. He placed the bottles on the other's lap before reaching behind his seat, dragging out a large gun.

In instinct, Yeonjun reacted to reach for the door handle to run out and get as far away from him but the doors suddenly locked on its own. He turned to Soobin, about to scream as loud as he could but he leaned over and sealed his mouth with his hands.

"Paintball gun," Soobin said. His tone had chilled. Yeonjun divided looks between the gun and him, feeling the fear running through his body. "I played paintball earlier this week with Seokjin and Taehyung."

Yeonjun shoved Soobin's hand away and showed him the stain on the flashlight, "Then, explain the blood on this."

"It's not blood," He said calmly. "It's paint. We were playing capture the flag. I should take you sometime."

Yeonjun's eyes shifted to the flashlight in his hands. It had been used as the flag. But somehow, a part of him still didn't believe Soobin. Yeonjun turned the car ceiling lights to prove him wrong but instead, he was proven wrong.

There was a splash of green and blue and a bit of orange on the flashlight. A mix of relief, idiocy and guilt at accusing Soobin swam through Yeonjun.

"Right," He said lamely. "I'm sorry," But it seemed a little too late for apologies.

Soobin stared straight ahead through the windshield. His breathing deep and Yeonjun wondered if he was using the silence to let go of a little steam.He had just accused him of murder, after all. He felt terrible about it but his mind was too rattled to come up with the right apology.

Soobin sighed and handed Yeonjun the bag with the sandwiches. "Let's get you home."

•
•
•

They finished their sandwiches on their way to Yeonjun's place. When he pulled up in front of his house, the rain had fully stopped and he was glad that it did. Soobin killed the engine and Yeonjun noticed his mouth held the suggestion of a smile. His lips looked soft and smooth and the blondie was having a hard time looking away. But most of all, Yeonjun was grateful he seemed to have forgiven him.

"We're going to have to work on your pool game, angel."

"Speaking of pool," Yeonjun cleared his throat. "I would like to know when and how you're going to collect on that thing I owe you."

"Not tonight," Soobin said, his eyes watching the other's closely, judging his response.

Yeonjun was caught between an easing of mind and disappointment. But mostly, disappointment. The blondie glanced up and caught his aunt standing in the open doorway. To his horror, she stepped out and walked towards the car. Looking angry was an understatement. She obviously didn't like the first time seeing Yeonjun with Soobin, and now the second? She was going to have a fit.

"Let me do the talking," Yeonjun said, handing his half empty bottle to him. "Don't say a word. I mean it."

Soobin hopped out and came around for Yeonjun's door. Then, they met his aunt halfway up the driveway.

"I didn't know you were going out." She was smiling but not in a relaxed way.

"It was planned last minute," Yeonjun explained.

"What happened to your bike?" His aunt asked Soobin, eyeing the black range rover suspiciously. Yeonjun was about to say something for him but he beat him to it.

"It's at the workshop." Soobin answered.

"Mhm. You must have quite a job to own two vehicles at your age."

"I bus tables at a Mexican restaurant."

"I see...."

While they continued talking, Yeonjun noticed that Soobin was saying as little as possible, keeping himself carefully shadowed in mystery. Yeonjun wondered what Soobin's life was like when he wasn't around him. At the back of his mind, he couldn't stop thinking about his frightening past.

Up until now Yeonjun would fantasize about discovering Soobin's deep, dark secrets because he wanted to prove to himself and to him that he was capable of figuring him out. But now Yeonjun wanted to know Soobin's secrets because they were a part of him. And despite the fact that he routinely denied it, he did feel something for the ravenette. The more time Yeonjun spent with Soobin. The more he knew the feelings weren't going away.

"Gee, Maria," Yeonjun stopped them in between their talking session. "It's getting late—"

"Would you like to come in for some ice cream?" She offered, sounding flustered, caught between doing the polite thing and acting on the impulse to drag Yeonjun inside and bolt the door.

Soobin shook his head, "I've got to get going. Maybe next time. It was nice talking to you Ms. Choi."

"It's Maria Fletcher. I'm Yeonjun's aunt."

"Of course. Goodnight Maria." Soobin nodded at her and turned to Yeonjun. "And you too."

He was about to walk away but the woman stopped him by asking, "What did you and Jun do tonight?"

And this question made Soobin look at Yeonjun, raising his eyebrows ever so lightly.

"We grabbed dinner at Subway," Yeonjun replied for him. "Sandwiches and sodas. Purely harmless night."

The only trouble was, Yeonjun's feelings for Soobin weren't harmless at all.

•
•
•

At the end of Math class, Mr. Turner stopped Yeonjun on his way out the door. Yeonjun turned back and hiked his backpack up his shoulder. He extended a folded piece of paper and he accepted the note.

"Miss Manoban stopped by before class and asked me to give this to you," He said, his attention to the papers on his desk.

"Miss Manoban?" Yeonjun asked, wondering who she was since he didn't have any teachers by that name.

"The new school psychologist."

He unfolded the paper in his hands and read the message that was written neatly inside:

Dear Yeonjun,

I will be taking over Dr. Lee's role as your school psychologist. I noticed you missed your last two appointments with him. Please come right away so we can get acquainted. I have mailed a letter to your aunt to make her aware of the change.

All the best,

Miss Manoban.

"Thanks," Yeonjun told Mr. Turner and he nodded, reminding him to finish the algebra homework that was due tomorrow.

Out in the hall he merged with the flow of the crowd. He passed by his Biology class and saw Soobin and Beomgyu already seated inside. Beomgyu caught sight of Yeonjun and furrowed his eyebrows as he watched him walk past. The latter took his phone out and texted him.

Yeonjun : School psychologist

Beomgyu: I hope it goes well. I'll see you later :)

Yeonjun shoved his phone back in his pocket and steered his way through the halls until he could see the closed door to Dr. Lee's office. But there was a new name plaque on the door. The polished brass gleamed against the drab oak;

Ms. L. Manoban - SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST.

Yeonjun knocked on the door and a moment later it opened from within. Ms. Manoban had flawless pale skin, chocolate brown eyes, a lush mouth and fine, straight dark brown hair that tumbled past her elbows. She was dressed formally in grey pencil skirt and a white blouse that had a loose bow. Her figure was willowy but feminine. She couldn't have been more than seven years older than Yeonjun.

"Choi Yeonjun," She greeted him. "You look just like the picture in your file," Her voice was abrupt but not rude. Businesslike. She stepped back and signalled him to enter the office. "Would you like something to drink, Mr. Choi?"

"What happened to Dr. Lee?"

"He took an early retirement."

Yeonjun scanned the small office. It had changed drastically since he had last been in a few weeks ago. The wall to wall bookshelves were now filled with academic but generic looking hardcovers, all bound in neutral colors with gold lettering. Dr. Lee had used the shelves to display family pictures but there were none of Ms. Manoban's private life.

"Friday was my first day," She explained, seeing Yeonjun's eyes fall on the moving boxes that were laid out on the floor. "I'm still unpacking. Have a seat."

Yeonjun lowered his backpack down his arm and sat on the chair she motioned him to. Nothing in the small room gave him any clues as to her personality. She had a stack of folders on her desk — not neat but not messy either and a white mug. There wasn't a trace of perfume or air freshener and Yeonjun noticed the computer monitor was black. Miss Manoban crouched in front of a file cabinet behind her desk, tugged out a clean manila folder and printed Yeonjun's name on the tab with a black sharpie permanent marker. She placed it on her desk next to his old file that bore a few of Dr. Lee's coffee mug stains.

"I spent the whole weekend going through Dr. Lee's files," She said, smiling. "And just between the two of us, his handwriting gives me a migraine, so I'm copying over all the files. I'm still amazed that he didn't use a computer to type his notes. Who uses longhand in this day and age?"

"He said he was old fashioned."

"I'm not surprised," She settled back in her swivel chair and crossed her legs. "Well, why don't you begin by telling me a little bit about the history of your meetings with him. I could barely decipher his notes. It appeared the two of you were discussing about how you feel about your job."

"Nothing new. Been working there for almost a year now."

"I see. Any friends there?"

"Yeah. Her name's Violet and she is in university. Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting."

"Interesting. What about girlfriend?"

"No."

"And why is that? You're an attractive boy. I imagined there must be some interest from the opposite sex."

"Here's the thing," Yeonjun said as patient and calm as possible. "I'm gay and proud of it. I don't have a boyfriend ’cause I don't need one right now. I really appreciate that you're trying to help me but I had this exact conversation with Dr. Lee when I first got enrolled to this school. We always ended up talking about my parents death, and rehearsing it with you isn't helping. It's like going back in time and reliving it all over again. It was tragic and horrible and I'm still dealing with it everyday but what I really need is to move on."

"It's very helpful to know your point of view, Yeonjun. Which is what I was trying to understand all along. I'll make a note of your feelings in your file. Anything else you want to talk about?"

"Nope."

Miss Manoban leafed through a few more pages of Yeonjun's file. He had no idea what observations Dr. Lee had immortalised there and he didn't want to wait around long enough to find out so, he lifted his backpack off the floor and scooted to the edge of the chair.

"I don't mean to cut things short but I need to be in Biology studying for my year end exams that are coming up," Yeonjun lied and felt his eye twitch.

"Excellent grades," Ms. Manoban said, scanning the page in front of her.

"It says here your Biology partner is Choi Soobin. I hope you've only been interacting with him in class and not off school property. I don't want you two meeting alone."

A chill tiptoed along Yeonjun's skin, "Why do you say that? What's going on?"

"I'm not allowed to discuss it, Mr. Choi. Thanks for your time. I won't keep you any longer. Good day."

•
•
•

After leaving Miss Manoban's office, Yeonjun didn't go to his class. He didn't feel like it. Instead, he waited for Beomgyu by his car and he couldn't help but think about what Miss Manoban said about Soobin.

The only reason Yeonjun could think why she didn't want him alone with him was that he was dangerous. But lately, he'd been acting better than before.

Soon enough, the bell rang and bunch of students came swarming out of the school. Yeonjun scanned for Beomgyu and as soon as he came into sight, he waved at him. He smiled and walks towards his car.

"So.... what happened?"

"Alright, I guess." Yeonjun shrugged and search for his car keys in his bag. "I miss Dr. Lee though"

"New school psychologist?" Beomgyu asked and he nodded in response. "How'd it go with Soobin? We all saw you leave with him."

"We got Subway." The blondie shrugged. "Hey, do you remember when you were telling about the scars on his back?"

"Yeah. Why?" Beomgyu questioned. "Wait. You saw him naked? Where did it happen? In his house? In your bedroom?"

"I did not see him naked! I told you we got Subway and he sent me home. It saw it on accident."

"Still don't believe me?" Beomgyu arched a brow.

"It's absurd, yeah," Yeonjun spoke, "I'm going to take a wild guess and say.... gang fight? Prison scars? Skid marks on a hit and run?"

"If you keep denying the truth, it won't get you anywhere. But if you really think that, I won't try and change your mind." He sighed.

Yeonjun thought back to what he had said and unfortunately, all the excuses felt like lies. Like the truth was staring him in the face but he wasn't brave enough to look back at it.

"Earth to Jun." Beomgyu snapped his fingers snapping Yeonjun out of his thoughts. "How did you see the scars though?"

"He got in a playful fight with Seokjin and his shirt ripped. That's it."

Then, Yeonjun felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He fished for his phone to see a text message from Violet saying — sale. mall. now. — and he replied her saying — be there soon.

"It was Violet. There's a sale at the mall. You wanna come with?"

"No thanks. Homework to do and studying to catch up on. You two have fun."

at the mall. You wanna come with?"

"No thanks. Homework to do and studying to catch up on. You two have fun."

•
•
•

"What are you doing?" Yeonjun asked, his attention drawn to Violet.

They had been walking around the mall, shopping for clothes and now they were in Victoria's secret. Yeonjun was by the perfume section when he caught her red handed.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Violet said in a soft voice. "I'm peeling the clearance price stickers off these clearance bras and sticking them on the not on sale bras. That way, I can get sexy bras at trashy bra prices."

"I don't think you'll get away with that," Yeonjun said suppressing a smile. "The cashier will scan the bar codes when you check out."

"Bar codes? They don't scan bar codes."

"They do. I swear. Cross my heart," He lied, thinking that it was better than watching her get hauled off to jail.

"Fine," She mumbled, fixing the rather heavy looking shopping bags that she held on both arms before walking away.

Violet and Yeonjun continued to look around the shop when he noticed something on the other side of the plate glass window. A hooded figure stepped back under a shadowing awning across the street.

Ski masked guy.

It's been awhile since Yeonjun had seen him.

Freshly unsettled, he stood frozen for a whole minute before pulling himself together and went to look for Violet.

"Time to go," He told her.

She was flipping through a rack of nightgowns and ignoring what Yeonjun said, "Wow. Look at this. Flannel pajamas and they're fifty percent off."

"Violet," Yeonjun whispered frantically, "I think I'm being followed."

Her head jerked up, "Stalker Soobin?"

"What? No. Look across the street."

Violet did as she was told, squinting her eyes. "I don't see anyone, Jun."

The blondie looked outside and neither did he anymore. A car had driven past, interrupting his line of vision when Violet asked. "Are you okay? You're scaring me."

"I think they went inside the shop."

"How do you know they're following you?"

"A bad feeling."

Yeonjun didn't want tell her about how he hit the ski masked guy and watched him rise from the ground as if nothing had happened. And the night that he ransacked his bedroom but it was cleaned after Maria had checked on it. How could he tell her all that without sounding crazy?

Yeonjun played with his fingers nervously, "He followed me one day after school."

"Are you serious? Why are just telling me now? Who is it?"

"I don't know," Yeonjun said and that scared him more than anything.

"Is it a male?"

"Male," He nodded, remembering his demonic voice that night.

"Why do you think he's following you?"

"I don't know. To scare me."

"Why would he want to scare you?" Violet wanted to know and again, Yeonjun did not know so he kept quiet, never leaving his eyes away from glass window. "We need a diversion."

"How?"

"Leave it to me," She said, placing he shopping bags on the ground, leaning it against his legs. "Take off your jacket."

"Are you crazy?" Yeonjun stared at her. "No. We know nothing about this person. I'm not letting you go out there dressed like me. What if they're armed?"

"You know, sometimes your imagination really scares the hell out of me."

Yeonjun had to admit, the idea that they were armed and out to kill was a little far fetched. But with all the creepy things that happened to him before, he didn't blame himself for feeling on edge and assuming the worst.

"I'll go out first," Violet said, putting on his jacket. Then she grabbed out an umbrella from her handbag. "If he follows me, you follow him. I'll lead him to the parking lot and we'll bookend them and get some answers."

A minute later, Violet left the store wearing Yeonjun's jean jacket. She picked up the red umbrella, holding low on her head. Other than the fact that Violet was a girl, few inches tall and had caramel hair, she passed as Yeonjun.

From where Yeonjun crouched behind the nightgowns, he watched the hooded figure step out of the store across the street and follow after Violet. He crept closer to the window. Though the figure's baggy sweatshirt and jeans were meant to cover up the body shape, the walk was feminine.

Definitely a female.

Violet and the girl turned the corner and disappeared. Yeonjun jogged out the door with a bunch of shopping bags in hand. In front of him, the strip of shops ended at the parking lot. He made his way there. Yeonjun searched for Violet around everywhere but there was no one in sight. He was alone. He continued to walk and when he made a turn, he saw a red umbrella lying on the ground. Violet's umbrella and it was broken.

Yeonjun's heart picked up its pace and he slowly walked further up. Then, he heard a choked sob. He walk to the sound and saw her body laying crumpled on the ground in between two cars.

"Violet!" He dropped to his knees beside her. She was on her side, her legs drawn up to her chest and she groaned.

"What happened? Are you okay? Can you move? I'm going to get help."

"H—handbag," She murmured and moaned and clutched his hand tightly.

Tears burned Yeonjun's eyes as he lowered himself down on her, holding her tightly. He looked around for her handbag and sure enough it was missing. He had a dark feeling stirring inside of him and he was trying his best to keep it at bay. He was certain it was the same person, ski masked guy. He or she was responsible for all of this but he blamed himself for putting Violet in harm's way.

Yeonjun reached for his phone in his pocket and dialled 911. Trying to keep the hysteria out of his voice, he breathed out, "I n–need an ambulance. My friend was attacked and robbed."