Minjung bolted up from her bed in the middle of the night, breathing heavily as the same nightmare she's been having haunted her. She broke out in cold sweat and took couple of breathes to calm her down.
She then decided to go downstairs, leaving her room to clear her mind. She grabbed a glass cup, filling it with water while she decided to lean against the island table and wander in her thoughts.
Just then, a figure came closer to her, making her scared, placing her hand over her chest. Minjung eventually got a clear view of the person, despite being in the dark.
"What are you doing up in the middle of the night?" Minjung took a gulp of her water.
"Couldn't sleep." Doyoung scratched his head, eyes still half-open. "You?"
"Same." Minjung responded, turning away from him.
"Minjung." Doyoung stepped closer to her.
"Hmm?" Minjung responded, feeling the heat of his body insanely close to her's but not touching.
"Did anything happen between you and Suji earlier today in the kitchen?" Doyoung placed his fingers on Minjung's chin, to turn her face towards him as he tried to read her expression.
Minjung didn't know how to respond. She wanted to be a good friend to Doyoung about getting to know Suji more debating if she was a great person or not. At the same time, she felt that Suji's personality was extremely fishy and possessive.
"We just had a talk, that's all." Minjung leaned into his touches.
"What about?" Doyoung asked again in concern.
"Just the usual greeting until my hot chocolate was spill." Minjung half-lied, half-told-the-truth, not wanting to anger Doyoung at any moment.
"Is your hand okay?" Doyoung grabbed Minjung's hand, as he saw some reddening on it. "You burned yourself, didn't you?"
"Yeah... It was just me being clumsy and foolish." Minjung chuckled, trying to lighten up the mood. "Winwin offered to help ice my hand to reduce the burn. I should be alright by tomorrow. You don't need to worry about me, Doyoung."
"That's good." Doyoung released Minjung's hand as she finished her cup of water. "You should get some sleep."
"You too. Good night." Minjung and Doyoung walked back upstairs together, separating into their different bedrooms.
-
The Stray Kids visitors had came again, meaning Doyoung was going to be with Suji. He didn't mind her honestly, but he knew for the fact that his friendship with Minjung was not the same with Suji.
Doyoung felt something with Minjung that he didn't feel with Suji. At the same time, they were both his friends so he couldn't overthink and misjudge the situation.
"What did you do today Suji?" Doyoung asked the girl while she was playing the guitar, using the lessons from Jaehyun.
"Woke up, fought with Hyunjin because he broke my curling iron, had breakfast and I'm here." Suji flashed a smile. "Just to see you."
Doyoung nodded, appreciating her efforts to talk to him. "How did you fight with him in the first place?"
"Boys being boys." Suji responded back.
Doyoung then switched up the subject, remembering his conversation with Minjung, late in the middle of last night.
"Hey Suji. Did anything happen between you and Minjung?" Doyoung asked with Suji perking up from looking down at the guitar.
Suji contemplated for a second, her mind was bitter about Doyoung mentioning Minjung. "I don't know, she's a girl that is really off. Her personality isn't the nicest and when I tried talking to her, she kind of gave me an attitude. All I wanted to do was be her friend."
That's not what Minjung told me. Was Minjung lying then?
Doyoung didn't respond to Suji's answer as his thoughts flowed into his mind. Suji placed the guitar down on the guitar stand. "I'm going to head to the restroom. I'll be back."
Doyoung gave her an okay signal as he watch her leave, he also noticed that Goeun gave him a look being unreadable. He also realized he hasn't been talking to the girl, worrying about her also.
Doyoung heard a yell from the kitchen, knowing that it was Haechan as he diverted his attention to the maknae of the group.
"Guys! Haneul and I made apple pie!"
-
Minjung was in Taeyong's office room the next day, knowing that the all of the Stray Kids members had paid a visit. Today though, Taeyong decided to set up a meeting with Bang Chan, Minjung, Taeil, and himself in Taeyong's office room.
"Hello Minjung noona. I'm Bang Chan, leader of Stray Kids. I work with NCT to fight rival gangs." Bang Chan introduced himself to Minjung with a handshake. "Taeyong told me all about you."
Minjung shyly bowed as an indication as politeness, sitting on the chair around the table.
"We want to talk about your father. And I'm sorry we're pushing the topic of him, but it's really serious." Taeyong started indicating to Taeil to take notes. Minjung nodded.
"You mentioned that you left him right after adulthood, meaning you were 18 at the time. Your father is not also present in your life, is that correct?" Taeyong asked while Minjung slowly nodded.
"Do you know what your father does?' Taeyong asked Minjung while the girl shook her head left and right, showing that she didn't know.
Taeyong then pulled some files of the crimes that Convict has committed, showing that they're truly a mafia. "Did you know that your father is the leader of our rival gang Convict? He's responsible for many of the NCT and Stray Kids members' loved ones for being killed."
Minjung was astonished with the information, not knowing how to react. Taeyong had evidence, kudos to him for that, but something in her brain simply didn't add up.
"I....I didn't know..." Minjung started to trail into her thoughts.
"It's okay if you don't believe us at the moment. I know it's a shock to hear about it. Your father wouldn't want you to know about it too." Bang Chan added as Minjung tried to keep up with their words.
"I was hoping if it was okay for you to train with us in the training basement to prepare for anything. Our members will help you, we treat you like family." Taeyong reassured Minjung, with the girl looking up trying to put on a smile, actually wanting the idea of training.
"Great!" Taeyong smiled knowing that Minjung was able to train. "We'll get started soon."
Just then Minjung's tears started to fall down, unable to control her thoughts. Taeil was the first one to notice, warning the rest in the room.
"Minjung. Are you okay? Is there something wrong?" Taeil came by Minjung's side, providing her with tissues.
"Something... something's just not adding up..." Minjung stuttered in her words as her tears got louder.
"What's not adding up?" Bang Chan asked, giving her a distance as Taeyong came closer to the girl, giving her a hug.
"Minjung, we love you. You can tell us what's wrong. Is it something on what we just told you?" Taeyong patted her on the back.
"I don't under-understand how my father is the gang leader of Convict..." Minjung cried all of her tears out.
"It's okay, none of us don't understand either." Taeil added.
"It's not ju-just that..." Minjung continued to cry as her speech was slowly becoming slurred.
Taeyong, Taeil, and Bang Chan were all shocked by Minjung's choice of speech, wondering what made her say that.
As Minjung's cries started to slow down, she regained her composure to say what she had to say.
"I don't get why he's the good one in the family when I was the one that killed my mom."
The three had their eyes wide, surprised of what came out of Minjung's mouth. Taeil then heard scuffling at the door, slowly getting angry, knowing it was probably someone in the mansion.
Someone eavesdropped this conversation.
-
Who eavesdropped this time?
It's not the same person from C9