Jin's POV
I had a terrible feeling growing in the pit of my stomach. As the day progressed, it only got worse. I wanted to stay at home with Mark today, but he was so adamant on making me leave. As soon as I left the house, though, this horrible feeling started growing within me.
I've not been able to concentrate at all, a voice in my head just keeps telling me that something's wrong, like something really bad is gonna happen.
"Hyung, you okay?" Namjoon snapped his fingers in front of my eyes, bringing my attention back into the classroom.
"Huh? Yes, of course." I smiled sweetly at my boyfriend, but he saw right through it.
"No, you're not. Your thinking about something, you didn't even realise that class already ended." Namjoon frowned.
I looked around to see that he was right. Everyone was already gone.
"Jin, whatever it is, you know you can share it with me, right? I don't like it when something is bothering you." Namjoon smooth voice melted my heart, soft dimpled smile beautifully sitting on his flawless face.
I can't tell you Namjoon, because you don't even know the truth about Jackson. I have to hide it from you to protect you.
"Well, I'm worried about Mark. He wasn't feeling well and I think he's having some relationship problems right now," I sighed and started putting my books away.
Namjoon, however, completely froze.
"What sort of problems? Is Jackson hurting him?" Namjoon asked, dread evident in his voice.
"No, why would you think that?" I asked, hoping that he'd tell me about Jackson.
"How can you be so sure? How do you definitely know that Mark is safe!" Namjoon argued.
"How are you so sure that he isn't?" I asked, hoping that he'd tell me this time.
"Because, I- it's just a suggestion. Don't think so deeply of it." Namjoon muttered and I could see the guilt in his eyes.
I sighed and shook my head, he still needed more time to open up to me.
"Come on let's just leave, this room is becoming suffocating." I suggested and he nodded, following me out of the room.
Lunch break had started and we walked to the our usual eating spot in the canteen to see everyone was already waiting for us, except Mark of course.
"Hyung, what took you so long, you have all of our lunches and now we're really hungry." Jungkook complained, bringing a smile to my face.
"Here you go bunny, eat up." I passed everyone their containers as I sat down.
Everyone dug in straightaway.
It made me really happy, watching everyone sit and eat together. It was a lot of effort, waking up early and making lunch for everyone, but it was cost efficient and more nutritional. I always used the best recipes, and it payed off. I liked caring for my friends. Since I was the oldest, I saw myself as their father figure type of thing.
"Hyung I love this, please share your recipe with me." Yoongi spoke.
"Of course, I have it saved on my phone, I'll send it to you." I smiled and watched as Yoongi fed Hoseok a bite. They should start dating already, they're literally like a married couple.
I went back to concentrating on the heavenly food before me. I finished eating soon and realised that Namjoon was just twirling his food with chopsticks, he wasn't eating.
I nudged him gently, causing him to look at me, and motioned towards his food.
"What's wrong? You don't like it?" I whispered.
He smiled and shook his head, taking a huge mouthful. "I love it, its really good." He commented, but his smile wasn't genuine, his sad eyes gave everything away.
I decided not to push it any further right now, I needed to check up on Mark as well.
I pulled out my phone and called his number, but he didn't answer. That's weird, he didn't answer earlier when I called as well. I opened my messages to see if he replied but hadn't.
"Hyung what's up, why are you frowning?" Hoseok asked.
"Hobi, I've not been able to get through to Mark at all." I stressed.
"Hmm, now that you say it, it is a little odd, Mark and Jackson both aren't here today." Yoongi commented mindlessly, but my heart dropped on hearing that.
Where was Jackson, was he with Mark? Possibly not, right? Mark told me he'd break up with him.
"Hobi, he wasn't feeling well in the morning, I'm worried that he's not okay. I'm going to leave school now and go check up on him." I told and Hobi shook his head.
"You can call my mom, she's not busy at this time of the day and she will get there much quicker than you." Hoseok smiled, and I mentally felt proud of his quick thinking.
"You know what, you're an absolute genius." I complimented and dialed her number.
"Eommoni, yoboseyo." I greeted after she answered the phone.
"Hahahaha, do I sound like an eommoni, Seokjin-ah." Hoseok's father responded on the other side.
"Ah, Abeonim, sorry I didn't expect you to answer her phone at this time of the day." I genuinely thought, he would be at his university, teaching Korean literature.
"The lectures today were cancelled, the dean has passed and their choosing a new dean. And its okay, you did call her phone not mine, but she's currently in the bathroom and, as you know, normally I wouldn't answer, but I saw it was your name popping up, so I thought I'd speak to you. The pies you gave Hobi for me last week, they were amazing, continue sending them, please." Hobi's dad loved walnut pies.
"Absolutely, I knew you'd love them. The Kimchi that you sent in return was also delicious."
"Sun-hee told me that Eun-hee will be coming back soon. I was so happy to hear it. When she is back, the first dinner will be at our place." I smiled, thinking about their friendship with my mother.
"Yes, I can't believe it myself, she's made such a speedy recovery. Thank you for going over to see her so frequently, I am very grateful." I was very grateful indeed, they often visited my mother, and although she didn't say it, I knew how much it meant to her and how much it contributed to her recovery.
"Aigoo, look at my Seokjinnie being all formal. Did you forget about how you used to beg me for cookies as a child. Stop with all these formalities or I might have to pull you ear." Oh my God, I'll never hear the end of this. Apparently, I was always a cookie lover and Hobi's dad always had a stash ready. So one day when he genuinely ran out, 5 year old me had brought the knife from my kitchen toys playset, and threatened to cut his fingers off one by one.
"Of course, I haven't forgotten, because you never let me forget." I cringed, but soon smiled when I heard his hearty laugh on the other side.
"Also, you rarely come over these days. It's been a while since we had breakfast together as a family. Don't make yourself too busy, family time is important too you know. Yoongi comes over more often than you, I'm a little disappointed." I was so caught up with everything, first my break up and then this whole Jackson situation alongside Taehyung's behavior at school, I barely had time to breathe.
"Sorry for that, I just have a lot of things going on this month. Next month, I'm a lot less busy. We'll see each other more often, I promise." Just let me deal with Jackson, then I'll be a lot less busy trying to keep Namjoon busy all the times so he doesn't try to go back home and give Jackson any means to approach him.
"Hey, you know you can speak to me or Sun-hee about anything. You're no different to our Hobi. Hey, why did Jimin Taehyung and Jungkook not come for their Korean literature session yesterday?" I shot them a sharp glare, Hobi's dad tutors them for free and the least they can do is attend on time.
"I am so, so sorry, I always make sure they attend, but yesterday I got really caught up between everything. Mark wasn't feeling well." They quivered in fear because I kept my intense, very nonfriendly gaze on them as I excused our behaviour. I felt bad lying to Hobi's dad, they missed yesterday's session because of the argument Taehyung and I had about his attitude in school. I had stormed off in anger, and in my anger I had forgotten that it was Thursday, and they had tutoring on Thursday.
"That poor boy, always overworking himself. Is he better now?" Hobi's dad asked.
"Yes, well no, you see that's actually what I called about. He's at my home but he's not answering his phone. I'm worried that he might not be okay. I was going to ask eommoni to go over and check since she has the spare key and will be able to get there much faster than me, if it's not a bother of course." I asked.
"What are you talking about, Seokjin. We'll be on our way immediately. I'll call you when we get there okay, so in about 5 minutes." He said and I could hear him shuffling and getting up.
"Thank you so much." He really was helping me big time here.
"You don't need to thank me, son, and you know it. Yeobo, put your coat on we need to leave now. Bye Seokjin-ah." He hung up before I could say bye, clearly rushed due to concern.
"Right, thankfully that's done, hehehe, not at least some one can check up on Mark hyung." Jimin laughed, way too enthusiastically, Jungkook and Taeyhung joining in shortly.
I cringed at their attempt at changing the subject.
"That was smooth as sandpaper, kids, if anything, you've reminded hyung about it." Yoongi laughed at their feeble attempt, causing them to stop laughing and look down the floor.
"Jimin, Taehyung, Jungkook, look at me," I started, "you're going to go to Abeonim's house today with an apology gift of a reasonable price, bought from your own money. Jungkook is not allowed to chip in any way, though."
Jungkook opened his mouth to protest but quickly shut it when my gaze shifted on him entirely. Namjoon would just give him his card and he would end up buying. My brothers won't learn a lesson like that.
"Yes hyung, we understand, we're sorry." Jimin said as he lowered his head again looking at the floor again, Taehyung and Jungkook following suit.
"Hyung leave it, there's no need for it. You know my dad doesn't mind." Hobi told.
"Yes Hobi, I know of his unconditional kindness, but my brothers need to learn not to take it for granted. Abeonim was probably waiting on them, whilst these guys were having a party. It's him so he won't turn them down when they go begging him for help before the midterms, trying desperately not to fail, but people they meet later in life won't do that. They need to learn to treasure and keep someone's kindness. If they were goin to skip, they should have at least let him know." I answered.
I know Hobi's dad is tutoring them for free, but if you think about it, he's actually almost paying to tutor them. He spends 3 hours with them every Thursday, and he could get paid a decent amount for three students who paid like the rest of the people he tutors, but he chose not to do that and doesn't accept any money from me.
Taehyung had only managed to passed Korean literature ever since he started getting help from Hobi's dad and Jimin and Jungkook's results had improved significantly. And on top of that, eommoni and abeonim always fed them lunch and dinner whenever they went over and even sent some in a container for me.
"Don't worry hyung, we'll go to apologise today itself, we were wrong." Taehyung spoke and I nodded.
"Jin, I need to talk to you." The voice came from Namjoon, who had been pretty much silent ever since the mention of Mark. I looked at him and motioned for him to continue.
"Not here, somewhere else, just you and me." I nodded and got up, maybe he was finally going to trust me enough to tell me about the pain he's been through.
I followed him into the hallway where most of the storage rooms were. It was probably the most secluded spot at out school because, years ago, one of the students had been accidentally locked in one of the Janitor's closets right before spring break.
Lets just say, the poor thing did not survive and her spirit is said to haunt the hallway, so most of the times no one comes here at all.
"What did you want to say Namjoon?" I asked him, but he avoided my eyes, hesitating.
I waited for him to speak but he didn't, the silence around us grew heavy and uncomfortable.
"Nothing- I just, I'm sorry I brought you all the way here for nothing, lets just go back so you can enjoy the rest of your lunch break." He tried to scramble but I caught his arm.
"It doesn't seem like nothing Namjoon-ah. You can tell me what it is, I love you and I will continue to love you. Honesty is so important, Namjoon, remember, we promised to tell each other everything, so speak to me, please." I tried to convince him.
"I did something horrible, not one but so many things. You'll be disgusted and leave me if you found out." He started crying, he actually started crying. His body jolted with each hiccup making my heart melt.
"I've forgiven you before Namjoon, I'll forgive you again. Trust me, trust us." I said and cupped his beautiful, tear-streaked face in my hands.
"How can you be so sure that you'll forgive me when you don't even know what I'm going to say?" He questioned.
Because I already do know, silly. I know everything you're going to say, plus things you don't even know about.
Why was he so scared about telling me that he was hurt, abused by Jackson anyways? None of this was his fault. My baby had been suffering for so long.
"Because I love you Namjoon, more than life itself. You're my everything, you are it for me." I promised. He blinked a few times taking deep breaths to calm himself down and then looked at me.
"Okay, I can do this... I think." He whispered and I smiled at him to encourage him further.
"Jin I-"
"Jin hyung!" Jungkook's loud voice cut Namjoon off. I turned to look in his direction to see that everyone was here, looking very confused, whilst Jungkook's face was very worried.
"What is it Jungkook, what happened?" I asked.
"You left your phone in the canteen. Hoseok hyung's mom called and we answered. Hyung, Mark hyung isn't at home." Jungkook told as he handed me my phone.
"What are you talking about? Where could he go? Did he go to the hospital to see Seo-jin?" I asked and Jungkook shook his head vigorously.
"I became worried so I opened snapchat to check the location of his bitmoji. It was Buam-dong, where Jackson lives." Jungkook revealed. The colour drained from my face as I realised what Jungkook had just told me. Why did he go there, I told him to break up with him over text!
"We're going to go and get him." I announced and started walking, Jungkook nodding and following me, but Yoongi stopped us.
"Why are we going to go and get him? He's just gone to his boyfriend's place. Why are you guys making such a big deal out of it?" Yoongi asked, a little annoyed, and Hobi and my brothers nodded.
Of course, they're confused. They don't know anything.
"Look, I don't have time to explain right now, I'll tell you everything later. Right now, its important that we go and get Mark, he could be in danger. If you don't want to come with me, that's okay too, Me and Jungkook will go." I said.
"No hyung, we'll come with you," Hobi said, clearly concerned now.
"Okay then let's go." I was just about to start walking again, but my phone started vibrating in my hand. I looked at it to see a number that I didn't recognise. I answered it to see who it was.
"Is this Mister Kim Seokjin?" The voice said and I nodded only to realise he couldn't see me.
"Yes it is, how may I help?" I asked.
"This is Buam-dong police. Please report to the hospital. Your friend Mark Tuan, aged 18, has been a victim of attempted murder."
Mark, please be okay.
Hello my loves,
I hope you're all doing great, being the amazingly beautiful people that you are.
A new character was unlocked in this chapter, I thought it'd be nice to introduce Hobi's dad so we could have more interactions with his parents in the future, because I remember most of y'all absolutely adored his mother from our very first Sope chapter. How did you guys find the dad?
Also, isn't it funny how Jin thinks he knows everything, but he doesn't, and Namjoon thinks he knows everything too, but he doesn't either.
I'll try and update ASAP, because tbh even I can't wait for Mark to be saved and everyone to find out the WHOLE truth, not just parts of it.
I really hope you like this chapter <3
And like always, please leave a comment! 💜💜💜💜💜💜
Big love,
Your author😘