They needed to hurry off the water tower now that the cops were on their way. Tae and Jimin hurriedly went down the ladder and scrambled over the hill to the car. Maddy was a little slower because her side was starting to ache. When she got off the ladder the police were just pulling up to the scene. Their sirens weren't on, but their flashing lights were. "Oh crud!" Maddy called as she saw the swirling red and blue lights painting the hillside.
Jungkook hooked his arm around her back and propelled the two of them up and over the hill to the car, mostly carrying her. They heard the police behind them yelling for them to stop. Maddy started giggling from nervousness.
Jimin already had the car started. Jungkook set Maddy who was now full on laughing, in the car and climbed over her, slamming the door behind him. As soon as they were in Jimin took off. He was hoping the dust was covering their license plates because only moments after they took off the police were getting to the bottom of the hill on the road they were on. "I should have covered the plates." Jimin said. "That was stupid of me."
Maddy's heart was beating a mile a minute, tears were streaming down her face but she was still laughing with hysterics. Maddy looked out the back window and could make out the police being left in the dust, not able to follow because their car was on the access road on the front of the hill, not the one on the back of the hill where Jimin had parked.
The farther they drove the more she calmed down. Her laughing subsided to giggles then finally stopped completely. Jungkook gave her a relieved look that she had calmed down a bit, "If we'd gotten caught by the cops, your laughing would have been really hard to explain."
"Yeah, that was a weird response I didn't even know that I had." She leaned to the front seat now, "It is a good thing you came up on this road, Jimin." Maddy observed.
"Yeah, last time we were up here we were on foot. And the police came up that front road. But we ran down this road and the police got tired of chasing on foot and gave up. So I thought this road would be the safer bet." Maddy's heart kept calming down, the farther they got down the hill. She could feel her stomach throbbing a bit though and she pressed her hand to it.
"Let me see." Jungkook said.
"No, I'm sure it's fine." It was too dark for Jungkook to see anyway so he didn't press it.
"Can we drive somewhere and look if we can see the water tower from the city?" Maddy really wanted to see if her message could be read by people.
Jimin knew just the spot. He pulled into the parking lot of a gas station next to the river. Once they were out of the car Jimin led them out to the back of the gas station and there was the water tower up on the hill. Maddy's message of 'BE KIND' could be read clearly. And from this distance a person could even tell that it was surrounded by hearts. They took some pictures of the four of them with the water tower in the background. Maddy was smiling ear to ear.
"Well, I think she had fun." Jungkook observed pulling her back against his chest, kissing her head.
Maddy nodded, "Everything but getting chased by the police was really fun."
Jimin smirked, "Well, if your laughing was any indication, I think that was the most fun you ever had." Maddy shook her head at his comment.
They got soft serve ice cream at the gas station to eat on the way home. Before they got in the car Jungkook insisted on seeing Maddy's wound under the lights on the side of the gas station.
She leaned back onto the car and held his ice cream while he lifted her sweatshirt and pulled back the gauze. Her head was leaning back on the top of the car so she was just looking at the sky. It was such a beautiful night, she could see some stars twinkling overhead. She felt like she was really living life. Having boys come to her slumber party. Getting her first kiss. Being a bad girl, doing graffiti. Having a best friend. It all seemed too good to be true.
She felt Jungkook gently touch around the area of her incision. Her side did ache but it wasn't sharp pains so she knew the stitches were still intact. Jimin and Tae were curious about her wound too, so they were looking over Jungkook's shoulders. They saw the redness and the row of black stitches but there wasn't any blood. "Well, it doesn't look any worse than it did before, but you are going to have to take it easy tomorrow so that you don't re-injure it." With his brothers peering over his shoulder, Jungkook resisted placing some kisses around her wound and just put her all back together as he warned her.
When she stood up from leaning she said, "I get my stitches out next week. But tomorrow, I really wanted to take you guys somewhere. My part of the bet can't be done until next weekend. But in the meantime I wanted to show you something." She pouted a bit as they climbed into the car.
"Can you take it easy at this place? Maybe you should tell me where it is." Jungkook was worried she would overdo it. She had touched her side a couple times tonight and he was pretty sure it was hurting her.
Maddy smiled and nodded, "Yes! I can take it easy! Can we go?" She knew she couldn't tell him where they were going because he would say 'no' for sure. It was better to ask for forgiveness later.
To Jungkook, she looked like a little kid when she got excited about things. "Sure, as long as you can rest there, then we can go." They checked with Jimin and Tae, neither of them were doing anything the next day. They made plans to meet at Maddy's house after lunch.
When they got to Maddy's house, she was happy to see that Jungkook got out with her and that he had left his car in the parking lot of the playground so he could stay. She made little seal claps in front of her chest.
"Okay, let's be quiet as we climb in. It is past midnight." Jungkook warned. They silently climbed the tree and went in the window.
After taking turns in the bathroom, they climbed into bed. Jungkook brought her some of her pain medication and a drink of water. Once she took it he just laid down without touching her and let her get herself comfortable. He was glad she cuddled to his side. He gave a big sigh at having her in his arms. It always felt right.
"I'll pretend you are Minje and cuddle you, like I did to her last night." Maddy teased. She had not cuddled Minje at all, but it was funny to say it.
"Poor Minje was worried about a little kiss, it sounds like she got much more than she bargained for." Jungkook teased back.
"Well, she shouldn't have fought so hard for the bed if she didn't want to get cuddled to death. Poor Dalrae had to sleep on the floor with no one."
"I guess it is good that I didn't try climbing in your window then. With you snuggling Minje, I would have had to snug on Dalrae." Jungkook was rubbing up and down Maddy's back.
Maddy poked him in the ribs, "No snugging on my friends." They both chuckled. "Besides, it might have been hard to explain to them why you were climbing in my window." Maddy had Jungkook's hand now and was tracing his tattoos. "Could you believe Jimin though? I thought after his repeated attempts, he was going to eventually rat us out."
"Aish. Leave it to Jimin to keep us on our toes."
"Kiss good night?" Maddy sweetly asked as she puckered her lips.
Jungkook chuckled, "Not tonight, Sweetness." But he dropped a kiss on her forehead as a consolation prize.
"How do you feel about being kissed in your sleep?" Maddy yawned as she said it. Jungkook thought she sounded serious even though he was pretty sure she was kidding.
"I'm... against it?"
"Good to know. Night Kookie."
She heard him sigh, "Good night Maddy."
---
Maddy thought recovering from surgery might be making her sleep more soundly because she never heard or felt Jungkook leave in the morning. She just woke around 10am and he was gone. She showered, dressed, and ate.
The boys dropped by and picked her up after lunch and she directed Jimin to drive about twenty minutes away to a place called Vertical Earth. Maddy had really wanted to take them to a climbing gym, which was one of her favorite pass times.
"Swimming pool or hot tub?" Tae asked.
Maddy thought for a second, "Pool. One glass of milk every day for the rest of your life or never drink milk again?"
Jungkook answered before Tae got a chance, "Definitely milk everyday! I love milk!"
As they pulled up to the modern looking building, Jungkook raised an eyebrow at her. He looked at the building and saw the name on the side of the tall building. This couldn't be where she was taking them, right? She had said she could relax today. But before he could confront her, she was out the door and across the parking lot and headed in the front door of the building.
Jungkook and his brothers raced to catch up. They walked into the building right after Maddy and saw that this was a rock climbing gym. They were currently standing in a store where there was lots of rock climbing equipment for sale. But they could see that behind the checkout counter there were lots of tall walls with colorful rocks attached, some with ropes hanging down and shorter ones without ropes.
Jungkook was frustrated with Maddy for taking them here when she was recovering from surgery. He put his hands on her upper arms and turned her towards him. "Maddy, what are you thinking? You are supposed to be taking it easy from your surgery. You said you could rest with what we were doing today."
Maddy had known this conversation was coming. "I can! I can relax. I don't have to climb. I just wanted you guys to try it."
Jungkook raised an eyebrow at her. "What is in your backpack?"
Maddy swallowed, "My climbing shoes?"
She braced herself for his reaction but before Jungkook could say anything they all heard someone yell, "Kitten?!"
Maddy's head snapped toward the voice. There was a good looking guy walking out from behind the counter towards them.
"Jackson?!" Maddy called as she took off towards him. She jumped at the last minute and wrapped her arms and legs around him as he caught her and hugged her.
"Well, I'm not loving this." Jungkook said under his breath as they followed Maddy.
Maddy smacked Jackson hard on the arm with her hand several times, "What are you doing here?! You work here? Why didn't you tell me?"
Jackson carried her around to the back of the counter and sat her down next to the cash register. He stayed between her legs with his arms around her. "I just started, this is my first week. You live close? Is this where you moved to?"
At that comment, Maddy smacked him on the chest a few times, "Yes! You know that I moved here! I can't believe you didn't tell me you were here! I thought you were going to Kyungpook University!" She punched him a couple times with her fist on his chest as she talked to him.
Jungkook and his brothers were surprised to see her beating on this guy so hard. They thought he must be used to it because he seemed completely unfazed by her hits.
Jackson reached up then and grabbed her wrists and brought them down to her sides but as soon as he let go she was back to smacking on him again. She brought both hands up and slapped both of his cheeks at once a few times, not gently.
He winced as his cheeks were slapped and he said, "I decided against Kyungpook because I got a scholarship here so I'm attending Pusan University." Jackson looked over her shoulder at the brothers. "Are these your new friends, Kitten?" He looked a bit perturbed.
Maddy stopped clobbering on Jackson long enough to turn and introduce them, "Yes! Jungkook, Jimin, and Taehyung are friends from my new school. This is Jackson. He went to my last school. He's the one who taught me to climb."
All the boys did a cursory nod to each other. Tae very kindly said, "Nice to meet you." Jimin seemed uninterested but Jungkook caught Jackson's eye. They both gave each other a hard stare. Jackson could tell right away that Jungkook was going to challenge him over Kitten and he pulled her closer to him as he looked back at Jungkook.
Jungkook was extremely aware that Jackson very comfortably had his hands on the sides of Maddy's thighs. He really wanted to rip her off the counter away from this guy. He remembered being in that same position with her a couple days ago in the pantry. But Jungkook reminded himself that this guy had never kissed her, the only kisses she ever had were from him and Jimin so that made him feel a bit better.
Jackson patted her legs, "What can I get you set up to do today, are you climbing or bouldering?"
"Maddy isn't doing either." Jungkook said as his hands came up to his hips. When Jackson gave Jungkook a surprised look he added, "She had surgery a week ago and is recovering." There was a tone of authority when Jungkook said this that was not lost on Jackson.
Jackson pursed his lips and leveled a gaze at Jungkook, "Yes, I'm fully aware of Kitten's surgery." He was clearly trying to let Jungkook understand how close he was to Maddy. Jungkook would not play this game, even though he could definitely win since he had been with her at the hospital and for days after while she recovered. He let his steady gaze speak for itself. Jackson added, "Kitten and I have been close for years. And you've known her for what... a month?"
Maddy grabbed Jackson's cheeks again, "Be nice, he is my friend." She gave him a slap on a cheek then a pinch on his arm. Jackson sighed as he pulled a Lindt chocolate truffle with a dark blue wrapper out of the drawer in front of the cash register and handed it to Maddy. He was looking at Jungkook the whole time as Maddy squealed in joy and wrapped her arms around Jackson's neck and kissed him on the cheek. Then she unwrapped the candy and popped it into her mouth. Jackson just raised an eyebrow at Jungkook who shook his head. Giving her chocolate was a dirty move and they both knew it.
As Maddy sucked on her chocolate she said, "They are going to do bouldering, can we get them some shoes?" Jackson just nodded.
After the brothers signed their waivers, Jackson's coworkers got the boys some shoes while Maddy sat cross legged on the counter. The shoes were tight fitting, which was apparently required. The brothers had to watch a video about rules of the gym along with safety tips then they were off.
Jackson turned his back to Maddy, "Hop on, Kitten." And she climbed on Jackson's back and he gave her a piggyback ride to the climbing area. Jungkook rolled his eyes at this, he was thoroughly annoyed by Jackson and how close and touchy he was with Maddy. His hands were in fists at his sides as he followed them to the climbing walls.
The brothers had learned that bouldering was where you could climb without a rope. The walls were around three meters high. There were colored rocks that made paths up the wall. You were supposed to climb one color all the way to the top. And there was padding at the bottom in case you fell.
After Jackson put Maddy down near some benches, he was fairly professional as he went over the basics of climbing with the brothers, showing them some hand and foot holds. The brothers tried climbing. Jackson did show off a bit and scrambled to the top doing some fancy moves they hadn't even been taught yet. Then he jumped down to the mat and went to sit by Maddy and let the brothers climb for a while.
"So, you know my rule against having guy friends, Kitten." Jackson raised an eyebrow at her.
"Well your rule can't be that strict, because you are a guy and my friend." She smiled, satisfied with her logic.
Jackson rolled his eyes at her reasoning. "The blond with the permanent smirk looks like trouble. Why do you always have to befriend the riffraff?"
Maddy smiled at Jackson's description of Jimin, "Yeah, I haven't reached the marshmallow center on that one yet."
Jackson raised his eyebrow at Maddy. "Not everyone has a gooey center."
Maddy shook her head, "It is there, I'm sure of it. I just have to keep digging for it."
Jackson took Maddy's cheek in his hand, "You are a baby if you think that, Kitten. You're an absolute infant. You know that right?"
Maddy laughed at this, "Oh, is that why you call me Kitten? You think I'm a baby? You realize that I'm the same age that you were when we met." She gave him a good pinch on his thigh as she said, "You can't be the boss of me forever, Jack."
He barely winced but he still didn't look pleased. "Just make some nice girlfriends and dump these losers. I wish I was still in school with you so I could make sure it happened."
"They are nice boys, Jack! They are even keeping the love confessions at bay." She knew this would make him happy. Jackson had spent the last two years fending off her admirers. Maddy took some bottles of water out of her backpack and put one in each boy's shoe.
His eyebrows rose. "They are?" Maddy nodded. "So they are just friends?" he asked.
Maddy nodded, "Yep." She started putting her climbing shoes on.
"Well, maybe I'll allow it then." Jackson begrudgingly offered.
Maddy rolled her eyes at him and repeatedly punched him in the upper arm with alternating fast jabs. "Like you have a choice."
Jackson saw that she was putting her shoes on. "I thought you weren't allowed to climb today, Kitten."
"Well, I'm not planning on doing much. Besides, HE isn't the boss of me anymore than YOU are." With her shoes on, she stood and walked towards the boys. Jackson shook his head at her sassiness.
She had been watching the brothers climb. Jungkook was just a natural at everything, it seemed. Either that or he had done climbing before. He had some serious upper body strength. But with so much muscle, he was also very heavy which made climbing more tiring for him than the other boys. When she got to him he was out of breath after climbing a few routes to the top. "I put a bottle of water in your shoe." She told him.
He nodded and pulled her in for a hug and held her there. "How are you holding up today?" He looked over Maddy's head to see that Jackson was glaring at him. Jungkook glared back as if to say 'yeah, that's right, I get to touch her too, you punk.'
"I'm good! I'm not hurting at all." When Jungkook pulled away he kissed her on the forehead then noticed her climbing shoes. His eyes flashed to hers with an accusing look. "I'm not really climbing. I just want to show Jimin a heel hook because he has needed that move a couple times."
Jungkook shook his head in annoyance, "Go easy, Maddy." He left her and walked to the bench to get his water.
He sat down next to Jackson as he drank his water and watched as Maddy not only showed Jimin the heel hook but also climbed a bit. "Aish. The most obstinate girl I've ever known." He said under his breath.
This comment made Jackson chuckle. "Tell me about it. Her stubbornness has been a thorn in my side since the day I met her." He shook his head. "And she is SO fuckin' bossy too."
Jungkook's eyes got big and he turned to Jackson, "I know, right?! She is such a little thing but she bosses everyone, like she is the one in charge. And she refuses to be intimidated by anyone."
Jackson laughed, "You have no idea. Last fall, I was failing Physics and she wanted me to study with her because she was passing. I told her that I was too busy to study with her. You know what she did?" Jungkook shook his head. "Kitten went to my fencing coach and explained the situation. And Coach told me either I study with her for an hour every day after school or I'm off the team." Jackson shook his head as he chuckled. "I was so pissed. But then I passed Physics so.... No one at that school messed with me, except her."
Jungkook smiled, "Hell, I barely knew her a couple days and she threw away my vape pen because it wasn't 'good for me.' Ugh, that girl."
Jackson winced, "Oh, shit. Probably just easier to give it up than fight a battle with her. You won't win."
"Exactly." Jungkook smiled watching Maddy with his brothers. "But she is the sweetest girl I've ever known."
Jackson was smiling too, "She is the kindest person in the world, and she is SO damn innocent. I test her every once in a while, to see what she has figured out. On her birthday I asked her if she was legal yet." He chuckled. "She texted something back about drinking age. She has no fuckin' clue."
Jungkook didn't mention that he was lying in bed next to her when that texting exchange happened. "Last week she got into a whole argument with me about the fact that no one would want their ear nibbled because it was gross." Jungkook rolled his eyes.
Jackson laughed out loud. "Oh my God! She is so cute!" Then he looked at Jungkook more seriously. "So you are keeping all the dumbasses away from her?"
"I'm trying man, there are so many of them. It's like I have to be on guard at all times because they keep coming out of the woodwork." Jungkook shook his head a bit. "My brothers have chased a few away also."
Jackson stuck out his hand, "You're alright man." They shook hands. Then exchanged phone numbers so they could support each other having 'to deal with' Maddy.
Jungkook looked back toward the climbers. He could see that Tae was very tensely standing up on the wall in front of Maddy and she had her hands fully on his butt cheeks. It looked like she was squeezing them. Jungkook jumped up, "Damnit, I can't even leave her for a minute!"
As he walked toward them, Jungkook saw her move one hand to wrap around Tae's hip while she slid her other hand from the inside of his knee up the inside of his thigh as high as she could go. Jungkook practically choked, "Do you know how bad that looks Maddy?! Get your hands off of him! You can't touch him there!"
Maddy looked up and frowned at Jungkook then looked back at her hands. She pulled them away slowly as she said, "I was trying to help him know which muscles to use. He stopped responding so I had to show him with my hands."
Jungkook looked up at Tae's red face as he clung to the wall. "You okay, Hyung?"
Tae replied in a choked manner, "Yeah, just give me a minute here to recover."
Jimin was laughing from further down the wall, "Come show me which muscles to use, Princess. I promise that I'll respond."
Maddy smiled and turned to go to Jimin when Jungkook grabbed her by her shoulders and spun her around. "Go take your shoes off and say good bye to Jackson. You need to rest before school tomorrow." She did as she was told without arguing, much to Jungkook's relief.
She only said, "Bossy much?" as she walked away.
After they all changed shoes, Jackson walked them out. He shook hands again with Jungkook, "Good luck dealing with... that." He motioned towards Maddy. "If anyone understands dude, it's me."
Maddy narrowed her eyes at them, "What exactly is THAT supposed to mean?!" She glanced from one to the other. "Wait, you two are friends now?"
Jackson put his arm around Jungkook's shoulders, "We are good friends now Kitten. We both know the pain of dealing with your crap every day. We're forming a support group."
Maddy's lip came out in a pout. "What a horrible thing to say! You don't need support! You both love me! I'm the best thing that ever happened to either one of you." They all laughed.
Maddy poked Jackson hard in the ribs a couple of times as he begged, "Enough! Kitten! Please! Every time I see you, I'm covered in bruises!"
She stopped but said, "Stop whining, you are such a baby! I'm barely touching you!" They had a big hug while they each gave promises of meeting up again soon.
Maddy hopped in the car with the brothers to head home. "So, Jimin, tell me what you thought of climbing." Maddy wanted to know if she had picked the right activity. Jimin had a climber's body. He was lightweight and extremely flexible but also really strong. She had suspected he would excel at climbing and after watching him, she knew she had been right. He was better than both of his brothers. He had picked it up quickly and learned more complicated moves than either of the others. Tae had done great also, but Jimin was the real star of the day.
Jimin smiled, "I actually really hate to admit it, but I love climbing. I don't know if I could do the really tall wall with the ropes. But I would do what we did today every day if I could."
"Yes!! I knew it." Maddy danced in celebration of her victory in the back seat.
Tae turned to her then, "Why do you beat up your friend Jackson so much?"
"What? No, he was just being whiny. I wasn't that bad, was I?" Maddy looked surprised.
"You beat the crap out of him, Princess," confirmed Jimin.
"Huh, I guess I don't even notice anymore." Maddy smiled as she looked out the car window. "Jackson requires constant reminders that he isn't in charge. He can get really overbearing if I don't keep him in line. When we first met, he wanted me to be all submissive, and just do whatever he said. He was really hung up on me being obedient to him. So I learned that I needed to constantly remind him that he isn't the dominant one in our relationship." The boys were frowning at her choice of wording. "Don't worry, I don't hurt him too badly. Honestly, he is a little sadistic, I think he actually enjoys the pain. He's responded well to physical dominance."
Jimin choked, "Dear God, what are we talking about again?" He glanced at Tae who looked stunned by what Maddy had said. "She has no idea, does she?"
Jungkook rolled his eyes and shook his head, "No, she has no clue."