Chapter 17

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You had calmed yourself down after screaming at the top of your lungs for a good minute. Now, you felt a little more relaxed, but still a little distressed, so you decided to go through your things.

You stopped at the plane ticket given to you last night. Unbelievable, you thought. As you held the ticket in your hands, you noticed the uneven surface at the back. You flipped it over, only to find a small, folded piece of paper taped to the back.

How did I not notice this yesterday?

Carefully removing the tape, you unfolded the paper. Once you opened it, you found a little note written, dedicated to you.

You read it thoroughly and as you did, you realized it was from Seonghwa. You soon got to the end of the note, but after reading, your view on Seonghwa had changed.

He talked about your past, specifically 11 years ago. He rambled on about how he still remembers you even after such a long time, and how he still remembers you and Chris convincing him to buy you the bars of chocolate.

This man, that's why his face was so familiar to you. Chris' uncle was the man who had saved you both from potentially being stranded in the middle of nowhere as your parents had been killed in a car accident.

You never thought you'd actually see him again. To you, he was just a kind, warm-hearted convenience store worker who took you and Chris home after such tragedy. You never even heard from him after that day, but all of a sudden, you meet him as a rich and successful businessman once you turned 18, and you didn't even know it was him.

You smiled at the thought of finally meeting him again. You were happy that he became successful in his business. You wanted to give him a call to say thank you for what he's done to you before.

You'll just have to ask Chris, then.

As you pondered about random things, your phone's ringtone broke the silence of your room. You checked to see what it was, and it was a message from Seungmin, saying he got you the porridge and they were near the penthouse already.

You replied with a quick 'thanks' before dismissing the widget, only to see another text on your screen from an hour ago.

weewoojung -.-
ur grandmother's in the hospital

As your mind processed the text, your calmness quickly turned into panic. This was the one thing you were afraid of, and even worse, you were not there when it happened.

You acted quickly, booking a plane ticket back to Korea that was set for today with the remains of the money you had. Luckily, you had more than enough (since you had brought some money from Korea and exchanged its worth for American dollars) and were able to book one, but the plane left in four hours. You wasted no time and started to pack only necessary things like your phone, wallet, some money, and house keys in your tiny bag.

You slid on a random pair of shoes, and headed out the door, only to find that the elevator wasn't working. You had no time to sulk over the broken elevator, so you ran to the emergency exit and used the stairs to get down.

You rushed your steps, not thinking of the safety precautions you were once taught in school as your grandmother was more important to you than your own safety.

You were already halfway down when, suddenly, your stomach started to hurt again, but now, you also had a terrible headache. You stopped momentarily to hold your stomach and rub your temples, but continued to run down as you were determined to catch you flight.

Not long after, you saw your eight best friends coming up, and they seemed to have heard your heavy footsteps.

They asked you why you were out of bed, but you didn't have time to answer as you started to get weaker.

Like earlier, you took a quick break, holding onto the rough railing as you crumpled to the ground. It was horrible timing. You cursed your pepper allergy for causing you so much pain and stress today, and it was only getting worse.

You felt your body slowly starting to give up on you. Your had to force yourself to stand up and keep your eyes open as your vision started to fade. Slowly, you treaded down the steps weakly until all you saw was black. Your body was now completely unconscious, falling down.

Fortunately, your eight best friends were already near when your body had knocked out, catching you in their arms before you could hit your head on the cement or injure yourself.

The boys were more than confused, and they didn't know what to do except help you get on your feet. Thanks to Minho and Changbin who held you by the arms and waist, you were standing upright, but, sadly, still asleep.

Wondering why you were such in a rush, Chris unlocked your phone, only to see the ticket you had booked and the message from Jungwoo.

Now, understanding why you were rushing to leave, he quickly booked two more tickets while the rest tried to help you in any way.

"Okay, I need you all to listen to me, okay?" Chris says to the seven boys, taking the gravity of the situation seriously.

"Minju's grandmother is in the hospital, that's why she left the penthouse," he starts, leaving all the boys to gasp in shock and worry.

"She already booked a ticket back to Korea, but since she's clearly not in the state to go, Hyunjin, Jeongin, and I will go for her," he continues as the boys look to the aforementioned two.

"For now, I need you all to excuse us for about three days and tell the manager that Minju is not feeling well," Chris commands them.

"The flight leaves in 4 hours, so bring her back up to the penthouse while we'll get going."

Everyone was definitely bewildered as everything was happening so quickly. Chris really only made a plan right on the spot, so anything could go wrong. But they followed his orders as they all knew how much this meant to you.

After bidding the three a safe trip and goodbye, Jisung and Changbin went down to look for the manager and inform him on what misfortunes had happened. The remaining three boys helped each other bring your torpid figure up. As Minho had carried you on his back, Seungmin and Felix made sure he wouldn't drop you by walking behind him.

Occasionally, they would take turns to carry you as one can't possibly carry the weight of someone up countless flights of stairs himself.


honestly, once the storm passes
it's all pretty much fluff
but, again, i chose to split this in half as it would be too long for our own well-beings
and my attention span could never hold for that long.

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