Chapter 6 – Somebody to rely on
"I won," I said happily and Unni smiled at me. "It seems like I can never beat you in this game," she said and both of us laughed. Suddenly, the doorbell rang and I don't know why, but I had a bad feeling about it. Unni stroked my hair and went to the door, opened it and once again this scary boy was standing in front of us.
He looked just like the drunken people on the street, just more aggressive and more out of control. In a blink of an eye, he pushed my Unni at the wall and I could hear her cry out of pain. "You are drunk, go home" she whispered but it only concluded to him slapping her. I held my hand in front of my mouth as silent tears strolled down my eyes.
After mom and dad left, Unni was the one who became my only family. After all the pain, we were finally able to smile again. But why, but why did our happiness get interrupted by some outsider?
Suddenly he began dragging her to her room and Unni's eyes widened as she struggled to escape his grip. "Let her go! What are you trying to do?" I screamed as I tried to free Unni. He pushed me away and slammed the door shut.
I tried to open the door, but it was looked. The only thing I could do was hit on the door, scream and hear Unni's cries.
-
Sometimes unexpected things happen in your life. Actually, I had received too many of them, and I was fed up from receiving them, after all, they never resulted in good things, but life thought why it shouldn't send me more of them and Jonghyun gradually entered my life.
Everybody looked Jonghyun surprised, even me after hearing his sudden declaration. "You got it?" he said and looked at the bunch of girls sitting in the corner, probably the main harassers of Daisy. They nodded and Jonghyun smiled while looking at Daisy. "You will tell me if anything happens again, right?" he asked politely and she shyly nodded while trying to hide her light red face.
Wait a second, does she have a crush on him?
Well, they would make a good couple, though. I mean, he is the person who is protecting her, just like in those books and they seem to have a good chemistry.
Later, I went to my perspective class and attended my lessons. In the lunch break, Jonghyun and Daisy were seen together, eating and laughing, while I, on the other hand, was eating far away from them with music plugged on.
"Is our dear Mina lonely today?" Jae Wan asked as he sat across from me. "No, why would I?" I asked confused. "Well, because our ice-queen was slowly melting by Jonghyun, Daisy and me and now, two of them, left. Feels somehow empty" he said and began to eat his food.
"First of all, only I call her Daisy and secondly, this isn't true. I was prepared for everybody leaving me anyway" I said and continued eating too. "Don't sound so dramatic" he said. "But don't worry, I won't leave you" he added and I chuckled.
"Who are you in my life anyway?" I questioned, not expecting an answer. Some seconds later, he replied. "The side character" I looked at him confused and suddenly the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch break. "What do you mean?" I asked him.
"The side character, who always supports the main character," he said. "And the one who falls in love with her eventually, but doesn't get her anyway" he added jokingly. "Stop kidding," I said and gathered my things. "See you later," I said and walked to my class.
After school, when I passed through the school gate, strangely, I was held back by some unknown boy. "Perhaps ... are you Lee Hina?" he asked and I looked at him suspiciously. "How do you know me?" I looked closely at him, he must be some years older than me.
"So you really are her! Jonghyun told me a lot about you. Ah- sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Onew, Jonghyun's childhood friend, nice to meet you" he said and extended his hand to offer a handshake.
Onew? Didn't I hear his name in one of Jonghyun's conversations before? Hesitantly, I took his hand and shook it. "He mentioned me in his conversations before?" I asked curiously. "Yeah, he does that very often," he said and smiled at me.
"Actually, I came to talk to you. Could we sit down in a coffee shop?" he asked and I looked at him confused again. "You really are suspicious of everything, just like he said," Onew said and laughed. "Fine," I said and 5 minutes later, we were sitting on a table of a coffee shop, sipping on our drinks, for which Onew paid for.
"So, I have a favor to ask of you," he said and I waited for him to continue. "So, as you know, Jonghyun is really stubborn," he said and I nodded, completely agreeing with his statement. "I actually don't want him to be living like this. He has everything yet has nothing, he is rich yet he eats instant noodles every day, he looks fine and playful yet he is empty inside" he said and looked at me sadly.
"Look, he has never received the things he should have gotten from his parents. So every time you do something for him, he probably feels really happy. I just want you to keep doing these things for him" he said.
That would explain why he said that he was really happy when I made food for him and why he said that his place felt more like a home when I am there.
Jonghyun is actually really lucky to have friends like him. Everybody needs somebody who they can rely on, and fortunately he has these people in his life.
"You want to see them?" he asked. "See who?" I questioned back. "Jonghyun's childhood friends. There is Taemin, Minho and also Key" he said as he listed me his friends with his fingers. "I know that you are curious about them" he added and I thought. "No thanks. I should stay out of his matters" I answered. "I won't accept a no. You have been dragged into his matters already, so there is no backing off"
15 minutes later, we were standing in front of a huge house. "Why did I get myself dragged by him?" I asked myself and sighed. Onew laughed and patted my head, which shocked me, because, except Unni and Jonghyun, nobody had done that to me. "We are people you can rely on, so you won't regret having met us"
"Let's go!" he said and continued to drag me with him. "Actually, Taemin lives here. Every day we are assembled in his house" he explained. "Why not in the house of the others?" I questioned.
"Well, we all have our reasons. Key and Minho's parents are actually business enemies. If Minho's parents would see Key at their place, we would have to face serious consequences and the same with Key's parents. Jonghyun, on the other hand, doesn't even enter his own home, so that won't work either. I could invite them over at my place, but nobody ever agrees since my house is always too messy. So that leaves us with Taemin's house" he explained and soon we were standing in front of the doorbell.
Onew opened the door with the key and so we entered. "You even have his house keys?" I asked as I opened my shoes. "Sure. We trust each other enough to do so. We all have Taemin's house key" he said and we went up the stairs.
Soon he opened a door and said "Guys, guess who I brought with us" As I entered the room, I saw that it was a hall, full of games like billiard or table tennis. All four of them were playing a console game on the TV, not being interested at all what Onew was saying. "You didn't tell me that Jonghyun would be here too"
As soon as hearing my voice, Jonghyun looked up and stared at me surprised. "Mina?" Right then, everybody looked at me shocked too. "Wait, Hina as the girl from Jonghyun's school?" one of them asked. Onew nodded and the three of them looked at each other mischievously.
"Why does everybody know me?" I asked. "Of course we know you! We are indebted to you for helping our Hyung" the tall one said before adding "So tell me, what do you think about Jonghyun?" Jonghyun slapped him on the back and turned off the game. "Didn't I tell you, she doesn't like me"
"Anyway, I am Minho," he said and I greeted him back. "And I am Key" the other one, who stood next to Minho said. "And that must be Taemin," I said and pointed at the third one. "Correct," he said.
"Since we have an amazing opportunity to meet you, why don't we all do something together?" Key asked and all four of them smiled while Jonghyun just shook his head. "Don't you think that it's too early for me to hang out with you guys? I mean I barely know your name" I stated.
"We don't care about that. Because we heard so much about you, it feels like we know you for ages" Minho said and wrapped his arms around my shoulder. "But I don't know you" I said monotone.
"Don't just wrap your arms around her" Jonghyun said as he removed his arm from my shoulder. "I sometimes wonder why Jonghyun fell for you" Taemin said while sipping from his lemon flavored juice. "Let me correct you. I think that he hasn't fallen for me but thinks that he has-"
I couldn't complete my sentence because Key interrupted me. "Guys, we were talking about a different matter" By now, everybody was sitting on the sofa. "Let's do something together" he added. "Like I said, it's too early for me to do something with you" I said again but it seemed like my statement didn't matter.
"Why don't we go to a trip? An overnight trip"
End of Chapter 6