Bodyguard *FANFIC EDITION*

You

The day had gone by in a blink of an eye, and I had slept through both dinner and breakfast. The same knock as every other day landed on my door only much later than usual. It seemed as though they were really checking whether I had signs of life. I groaned, which was usually enough, but a couple of seconds a second knock echoed on my door.

Reluctantly I climbed out of bed, before opening the door to one of the maids. She had a platter in her arms with two plates that were covered. Food. She handed me the platter with a small note she held in her pocket. As soon as she handed everything, she disappeared before I could say thank you.

I opened the note which read "If you miss one more meal, we will supervise all of your meals for the sake of your health." signed "Team.". I chuckled involuntarily as I set the note down and opened the soup, they had sent with some fried rice. The smell was inviting and suddenly my hunger returned.

I ventured out of my room eventually. I had hardly explored the whole of the house, so I made my way around my floor. I knew that Minho's room was a couple of doors down from mine and Jin's was a couple of doors away from Minho's. There were a couple of rooms in-between that had their doors ajar and didn't look to be occupied by anybody. I assumed they were the rooms Jay's team stayed in.

At the end of the hall hung a large painting. It was beautiful from a far, but somewhat terrifying from up close. It was mostly black and white with exceedingly minute details of shiny red paint that resembled blood from up close but was hardly noticeable from afar. I felt mesmerised by it, until I noticed a small flashing red light in the corner. A camera. I turned around, scanning my eyes through every corner in sight and each one had a discreet camera that I had not noticed before.

I still had five more days until I could get a sim card and call my mother to resolve our argument. I wasn't sure that I wanted to. I was still angry. But my anger was only affecting me. There was nothing I could do to change my mother and her ways. If anything, I'm disappointed I didn't see it coming. My mother always lived with her best interest in mind. I was just there. A mistake.

I could hear laughter approaching me and I hoped it was Jin. I needed something or someone to entertain me or give me something to do. I was slowly losing my mind doing nothing. I waited to see who it was, but before they had even turned the corner, I recognised IM's voice. I swiftly jogged towards my ajar door and hid inside. I felt my blood pressure spike and my skin cover in goosebumps.

It wasn't him that I felt allergic to, it was the situation we were both in. Every time I caught a glimpse of him, my mother's words circled inside of my head. I embarrassed myself. He saw what happened between me and my mother and he was the only one that knew that she wasn't all together.

I wasn't embarrassed of her mental illness. I was afraid of his judgement. I was afraid he couldn't understand. There was something inside me that wanted to protect my mother from other people's judgement, even if she couldn't hear it nor understand it. She always thought people were laughing with her, even while they were laughing at her.

Showing IM how fragile my family was and how fragile I was made me feel self-conscious anytime I saw him. Each time I tried to convince myself that I will face it, just say hi and keep walking, but every time I find myself either hiding or hoping the floor would swallow me whole.

I'd spent the following two days avoiding IM as well. I knew that he would be suspicious soon, because I had interacted with everybody else other than him, so I made sure to see him in a setting where my brothers and Jay were also present. We didn't speak and I made no attempts at eye contact and was sure to leave the room as soon as I could, but I hoped that that was enough to convince him that our lack of contact was simply by chance.

"Should we have a movie night?" Jin suggested as I sat in Minho's office, entertaining myself with his laptop that I promised not to break.

I felt my blood pressure spike instantly as my heart raced inside my chest. I was excited. For the first time I would get to spend more than just a half hour with both of my brothers, if Minho agreed.

I could see him shake off the idea, before glancing at my facial expression, which I can only assume was hopeful, because I was. His expression softened and he exhaled a soft breath, before agreeing.

"What should we watch?" I'd already thought of at least ten movies that we could watch. I could feel my heart jumping for joy. The evening I spent with Jin made me feel so much closer to him and I hoped it would do the same for Minho and me.

"Can't we just decide later?" Minho chuckled, looking at me as though I was his annoying child and I instantly felt myself deflating. It was inconvenient for him to finish work early just to watch a movie and I was being so eager. I'd practically guilted him into it, with my hopeful facial expression.

"Sure." Despite no longer feeling the joy in my chest, I smiled and agreed. I was too excited, I needed to calm down and act my age. It was only a movie.

"Why don't you go set everything up and we can hang out and watch something while we wait for Minho to finish work." Jin smiled brightly, encouraging my enthusiasm. We both knew that I felt rejected by Minho and that we weren't bonding the way me, and Jin were. "Go ahead, I'll be right there." He reassured me. I agreed, placing Minho's laptop back on his table, while avoiding eye contact.

I made my way out but made sure to not shut the door behind me, leaving it a tiny bit ajar. I walked a couple of steps, making sure that they assumed I had walked away if they were listening out, before coming back. I leaned against the door frame, trying to listen in to what they were talking about.

"You wanted to bond with her." I heard Jin say. He didn't sound annoyed, more like he was concerned.

"I did." Minho's voice was blunt and firm, like usual. The past tense made my heart sink. He did? But he doesn't anymore? Is that what that meant?

I wasn't sure I wanted to continue listening. What was going to be his response for rejecting me within a week of knowing me. It was a familiar feeling. One I'd felt around my mother before, once she found Joon. My chest felt heavy.

"So, what happened?" Jin enquired and I felt my heart jolt as a hand wrapped around my upper arm.

My heart sank as I turned around to see who had caught me eavesdropping on my brothers. It sunk even deeper as my nervous glance met IM's.