Life as a Crystal Choi [1/2].
There were many things in her life as Crystal Choi that at first were overlooked. Between having two bodies – that had very distinct purposes and all the insanity associated with that – beginning her training to inherit to a large conglomerate company, and the overall absurdity that was living in a webtoon... made it easy to overlook that one point she'd have to interact with characters associated with the CEO. Or rather, people, they were people now – they were people just like her and she had to start thinking of them as such.
Part of her believed that it wouldn't be as hard as she thought – she did have a penchant for thinking of the worst-case scenario and to overthink. After all, she interacted with DG and Gun just fine... didn't she? She tried very hard to convince herself that the people were not exactly as she had seen. Weren't Gun and DG more complex? The others would also have more dimension to themselves. While it wouldn't be easy, she was probably making it out far worse than it would be. Besides, she'd have so much time to prepare herself, right? It wasn't like the webtoon plot was starting now... Years, she had years. It would be fine... She had loads of time to prepare herself.
Instead of those pep talks, where she tried to convince herself that she couldn't have such a pessimistic outlook, Soo Jung perhaps should have been more concerned with the fact that her constant focus on how much time she still had could develop and turn into an avoidance issue. It was almost as if she was trying to delude herself, after all, pushing the issue to the future didn't help. And no matter how much time she had, or didn't, if she didn't think about what she should do... it would catch her unprepared. Hadn't this happened before? Hadn't she at points in time convinced herself that everything would be fine only to have it backfire on her? Usually, when she thought that everything was fine (or would be fine), things escalated to a point where she was on the verge of a mental breakdown.
While she had known that at some point she'd have to interact with the characters people of the webtoon, she wasn't prepared for when it actually happened. Hell, she hadn't expected that some would become part of her life so soon – the so-called geniuses under her father's wing.
The first headache came in the form of a 178 cm tall, blond teenager who wore glasses, brightly colored clothes, always had a shit eating grin and brought chaos with him. Kim Joon Goo was the first real taste at what living in the Lookism universe was really like: violence, strange events and overall defiance of rules and norms. With him she was confronted with the fact that even if she was used to Gun, the Gun she knew and the one that others knew were different – she wasn't used to their Gun. With Goo waltzing into her life, regardless of her wishes, she had been forced to accept it. While she had always known – what she had seen in the webtoon and her experiences with him where undoubtedly different – she could no longer force herself not to acknowledge it. Her friend Gun was the Jong Gun that plenty were afraid of because of how dangerous he was.
It wasn't just because of that that Kim Joon Goo was a headache to her. While it was harsh for her to be reminded that Gun was dangerous like Goo, that terrible things were going on the background that she didn't want to think about... it was even harder to deal with his presence. Not just because it was like he was a reminder of everything she didn't want to think about but because Goo was the personification of chaos. In one day, he'd appear and everything would be laughs and ridiculous stories and in the other, it would be unadulterated violence that would mark her so much that it would make her question if Goo and Gun were human. Because even if they bled and got hurt, they didn't react to pain as anyone else she knew. It was always as if it was a mere inconvenience and not something debilitating.
Kim Joon Goo, to her, was a chaotic event that no matter how hard she tried, she was never prepared to deal with.
"Uh, Miss Choi?"
She raises her eyes from the copping machine in front of her and sees the scared face of one of the receptionists. She immediately sighs, annoyance fluttering in her veins as she imagines what the interruption was about. She had been gone for ten minutes, just ten minutes. What the fuck was their problem? "Yes?"
"Your... bodyguards." Her words are said very unsurely as if she either didn't believe that they could truly be bodyguards or if the notion of those two being bodyguards was ridiculous. She was fidgeting and avoiding to look directly at her face, it just made Soo Jung wonder what the fuck had they done now. She should have learned by now not to leave them alone... But they had promised that they would behave. Liars, both of them. "They're causing a ruckus in your office again... Could you please..." She wrings her hands together, shoulders hunching and firmly looking at the ground. "...make them stop?"
Another sigh leaves her lips. "They didn't destroy anything, right?"
"They didn't leave your office," the woman mumbles timidly. "But they are making a lot of noise... it's scaring everyone."
She completely forsakes what she's doing and walks to the door. She fights the urge to sigh deeply as she considers that once again Goo had derailed her day by merely appearing. "I'll deal with it."
"Thank you so much." The words had so much gratefulness and relief made Soo Jung feel sorry for her and the other workers. Ah, it wasn't just her day that was derailed, was it? By scaring the staff, Goo also derailed their day...
She knew exactly what the others were feeling, even if she had grown a bit desensitized to the violence of those two, it was always frightening seeing them fight. It was something knowing that they were violent beasts and another thing to witness it, and it didn't help that they always seemed inhuman when they fought each other – or together. Breaking furniture and other sturdy objects with their feet and hands as if everything was made of cardboard. It never failed to make her consider just how fragile a human body turned in their hands, because if they could crush sturdy objects easily what hopes could a mere human have against them?
It all started a little after that lunch she had with Yong Ji, Gun and Goo.
Four months ago, Soo Jung had been in her office with Gun during the day – something that was now part of her routine. The day had announced itself to be boring with the news that she was to analyze the current business strategy of Paprika TV and see how could they improve it for more profit. She was also tasked with studying the stars that composed the top earners and see if there was any way to recreate their success and how could they attract similar people to the website to work for them. And for a couple of hours that was exactly what she did. Everything was fine till the receptionist knocked on the door in a frenzy announcing that a strange man was wanted to see Gun. Said man was none other than Goo and he didn't wait for some sort of confirmation on her or Gun's behalf, entering the office and plopping right next to Gun in the sofa before the woman even stopped speaking to Soo Jung.
"I fucking hate you," he immediately tells the other man, propping his feet on the coffee table in a complete disregard of everyone.
"What the fuck are you doing here?"
Ignoring the animosity between the two teenagers, she turns to the receptionist. The woman looked a bit scared and like she was waiting for guidance – or for the instruction to call the security team to remove Goo from the premises. "You can go. It's fine..." The woman bows deeply and leaves sending an unsure glance towards the two male teenagers.
At first, she hadn't dreamed that it would turn so sour. Sure, they were borderline arguing but no punches had been thrown... They were even drinking and eating snacks. Everything looked fine and even if she was a bit on edge with Goo there, she continued with her work. Stupidly, she thought that everything would be fine. Because what she knew of him wasn't the full picture – a webtoon and reality were two different things – and there had to be more dimension to him, since people weren't merely three personality traits (in his case, violent, sadistic and greedy) there had to be more. There was more dimension to everyone than what could be transmitted, and he hadn't been a focal point so most of his character was a mystery. She tried very hard to convince herself that like with Gun, what she knew of Goo wasn't the complete story and that having him in her office with Gun wouldn't be that bad. It would be okay, even if uncomfortable.
Nothing indicated that they would soon lose their shit and she honestly thought that maybe they just liked arguing, that they didn't fight each other all that much... she merely had the wrong idea of him... of them when they interacted. That it had merely been the setting of the webtoon that showed a more violent feel to those two because they had only been shown as the CEO's enforcers. She was pretty sure that there had been plenty of times they had interacted with each other in the webtoon that didn't end up in a fight... And that, at the very least, in their current setting, one of her father's company buildings, no fights would take place... because it wasn't as if they were taking care of business, right?
In fact, Goo had been cordial. Sure, he was far more annoying that Gun could ever be – she thought that it was the fact that he looked so giddy even when he was spouting complete nonsense that made him worse – but he hadn't offended her in any shape or form. Most of what he tried to do was to provoke Gun by stating that she should ask the CEO to trade bodyguards and that Gun should be the one doing their previous work. She could easily ignore that and focus on her tasks.
She should have known that with them things changed very quickly. She had already noticed it with Gun and maybe with Goo the same applied – it definitely did. Gun was someone that went from one emotion to another very quickly and with little warning. She still struggled to keep up with his mood changes and she had known him for three years. Maybe she was under a false sense of security because of that lunch or maybe she merely liked to deceive herself by thinking that things would turn out better than they usually did.
"Why do I have to be the one collecting everything? You shouldn't get a free pass."
Gun receives the words badly. She couldn't exactly see his face due their positions in the sofa but she saw his shoulders tense and head shoot up. "Shut the fuck up. We spoke about this."
"You shut the fuck up. 300 groups you shitty asshole and all that you say is shut up?! You know how fucking annoying it is?"
"I said shut the fuck up!"
It's the noise of the wooden table colliding and breaking against the wall that snaps her out of her work. She had been keeping an eye on them, glancing at them from time to time just to assure herself that everything was fine. But she barely saw Goo's feet move (or even him getting up) and only saw a wooden blur before hearing the destruction of the table. Hell, she only saw blurs after it. Blurs, grunts of pain, deranged laughs and the sound of flesh being hit.
Her adrenaline skyrockets, fear crushing her heart as the destruction of the office continues as they fight. Gun breaks a chair with a kick, Goo uses one glasses as a weapon and smashes it against Gun's head making blood pour down his face. Not that it deters Gun, he punches the man right in the face and twists Goo's arm till a loud snap is heard. Goo loudly laughs in response to the aggression before using the screen of her computer as a weapon.
The noise of the destruction is soon drowned by the sound of her heartbeat and heavy breathing. With no conscious thought, she falls on the ground, crawling further from them towards the corner of the office, she rests her face on her knees and uses her hands to try to block the sounds. It was like they weren't human, what the fuck was she witnessing and how would she be able to escape this nightmare intact? How the fuck did someone deal with this? How didn't people have mental breakdowns when they saw them fight?
She didn't know what was happening with them or with herself. She felt lightweight, almost as if she was floating when she feels hands on her shoulders. In a panic, she broke out of the grip and threw a punch that was easily caught by Gun. He grasps her hand harshly only letting go of her when she throws him a kick to the face that he dodges. Stupidly it doesn't deter her, in her state of panic and fear, her instincts were in control and apparently, they decided that the course of action was to attack him so she could get away. Between him dodging her hits and trying to grab her, she does manage to get away from her cornered position.
She doesn't know how; he grabs her shoulders after she managed to punch him and rams both of them against the wall. Pressing her against the wall with his body and taking the breath out of her lungs, she sees his wild eyes as his face gets closer to hers. He cradles her faces with his warm bloody hands and presses their foreheads together – his touch burned her. She could feel his blood sticking to her skin. That made her move more urgently, everything in her telling her that she had to get the fuck away from him.
"We're fine, we're fine," he whispers harshly. She could feel his breath on her lips and chin and every instinct in her body told her to get away, that if she didn't get away, she would get severely hurt. But she couldn't move under his bodyweight no matter how much she wiggled and pushed him. It was like trying to move a mountain. "I'm fine Mochi."
"What the fuck was that you bastard?! I had stopped. Why d'ya hit me?"
Goo's voice is drowned by hers and Gun's harsh breathing and the fact he kept speaking, "Everything's fine. Fight's over."
"Whoa, what the fuck's wrong with her?"
"Shut the fuck up Goo," Gun hisses without removing his gaze from hers and still holding her firmly and tightly. "You're safe, I promise."
She hears Goo approaching, something that made her panic spike and move more urgently. She had to get away, she really had to get away. She felt cornered and in so much danger. She felt like she was going to die. "Whoa girl. We're good," Goo mumbles. His arms awkwardly slide around her shoulders and Gun's. "It's over now. This how we bond," he states also pressing his head against theirs. She also felt his blood coating the side of her face. She feels Gun shifting, he kicks the other guy's leg and Goo breaks his hold on them, moving away. "What the fuck shithead? I'm tryin' to help. Bossman is going to kill us."
"Shut up then." Gun presses his forehead further against hers making her feel pain at the continuous pressure. Thankfully, Goon doesn't approach them and remains silent and away. "It's over. You're okay and safe."
He repeats himself over and over untill she relaxes under his hands. She actually felt the tension leave his body as she relaxed, his grip becoming gentler and less forceful. Once she was calmer, he guides her to the only remaining chair, arm around her waist and her body safety tugged against him, before sitting her down as she tried to stop trembling.
She gets easily startled by the sound of her door opening and several security guards marching inside the destroyed office. Fuck, where were they when the insanity started? Never mind that, maybe it was for the best they only came now... maybe Goo and Gun could have fought them and everything could have been even worse.
"It's over," Gun states sternly, narrowing his eyes to the men that immediately stop in their tracks and glanced around.
"Everyone out," Goo adds with a friendly tone that honestly frightened everyone but Gun.
She couldn't even imagine what it looked like to someone on the outside. Goo and Gun were bleeding, their expensive clothes completely ruined and she also had blood in her face – and probably clothes – plus, everything, literately everything was destroyed. Not even the walls had survived the violent confrontation and had several dents, some of which were distinctly made with their fists. Hell, the place wasn't recognizable any more. Her once modern and luxurious office now looked like the place where a natural disaster had occurred – in which, clearly, the two teenagers were the epicenter of. Or maybe it looked like a crime scene due to all of the blood. Her once pristine cream-colored walls had blood splatters and cracks, shards were decorating the ground also covered in blood and there was a red handprint on the glass of her window. Some of the furniture was unrecognizable, while the bigger pieces could still be identified (like the couch and desk) there were pieces of darkly colored wood littering the ground that not even she knew what they had previously composed. It was a scene out of a nightmare.
"You're all intruding on a personal moment. If you don't leave, I'll make you leave." She hears Goo's knuckles cracking and could almost picture his sadistic grin breaking her out from her panicked glance around the room.
The men obey and leave, closing the door slowly after bowing deeply at them. "You're a fucking idiot," Gun mutters before turning to her again. He crouches at her feet, his hand squeezing hers comfortingly and his gaze firmly locked in hers. "Feeling better?"
Not trusting her voice, she nods. The adrenaline was subsiding but she could still feel remnants of her fight or flight instincts. She was still feeling very lightheaded and her hands were still shaking badly, but she didn't feel in imminent danger any longer. "Want anything? Tea? Alcohol?" He hears Goo walking to them and her hands automatically clench and her body tenses, the tremors spreading once again. "Aw, don't be like that. I'm not gonna hurt you..." His hands fumble a bit over his body and he loudly curses. "You broke my arm again asshole."
"I should have broken both," Gun immediately shoots back with a snarl. "You're always fucking everything up. Just look at what the fuck happened!"
"Takes two to tango fucker." He seemingly finds what he's looking for – it was his wallet - and soon a small stack 50 000 won bills and his diamond-encrusted watch were handed to her. "Be happy now~ 'cause I don't want bossman to kill me... and your sad face is depressing me~"
Gun harshly rubs his forehead as she accepts what was handed to her with her eyebrows furrowed. Why did he have so much money on him? And why did he think that it would make the situation better? "What the fuck are you doing now fuckhead?"
"Making her happy, obviously," he states easily before sitting down on her partially destroyed desk. "Of all the things that cheer me up, money and nice things are at the top... and the only ones I can gi--"
"You're an idiot!"
"No, you're the idiot... idiot. I'm not seeing you doing anything!"
She easily tunes out their bickering, her gaze firmly on the watch and on the crisp bills as if the objects would offer her any answers about what was going on. What the serious fuck was going on? "Please, I had enough excitement for a day." They were getting close to each other and she didn't want a repetition of their fight. She tries to get up and Gun is immediately at her side, arm hovering in the air in case she stumbled. "Uh, I don't need this Goo." She timidly extends her hand with the items in his direction.
With a grin, that didn't look as frightening as the ones before, he waves her off. "Nah, keep it. I've got more. That's really nothing to me." He limps in the direction of the door before shaking it off and walking normally. "See you in another day. I need to go to a doctor and you're paying the bill."
"Don't return!"
"I will return, don't worry~" He waves exaggeratedly and winks his eye before finally leaving.
With a sigh, she shakes her head. She didn't know what to think regarding what had just happened. Hell, she honestly didn't want to think about it. She wanted it to be a nightmare and not reality. "Let's treat your wounds too. Want to go to a doctor?"
"No. Nothing broken." Gun looks at her for a few seconds in silence. "You're fine though, right?"
"Yeah," She replies giving him a shaky smile. "More worried about you to be honest. You're bleeding."
"I'm fine, minimal damage." Even if he seemed serious and confident about his words, she wasn't that sure that he was really okay. Did he not feel pain? Or it was merely a case of not bothering him? "You've improved... I'm proud of you Mochi. We should spar again. For real this time..." He was smiling, apparently pleased.
"No thank you. Now sit down." She sighs deeply as she glances around.
Gun snorts but does as she asked. "I'll have to revise your training... You can't freeze like that." She ignores his words as she tries to locate her bag. "I'm serious Mochi. You really can't lose your mind like that in the future. Fear can't inhibit you. It should make you fight harder. You should know better by now."
"Have you seen my purse?"
He merely looks at her, unblinking before shaking his head. "This isn't over," he tells her before gesturing to one of the corners of the office. "I tossed it there so it didn't get destroyed."
She couldn't think of what happened or she'd have a breakdown. So, she pretended Gun wouldn't bring this topic to discussion again, just to be able to deal with the rest of her day. "Forget about the HNH Group. Maybe I should invest in a medical degree." He snorts as she grabs her bag and walks back to him.
Goo started appearing more frequently after that – once or twice a week. She didn't understand what had prompted him to do so, but she wasn't the only one bothered by it. Gun wasn't exactly happy with his presence and they did frequently argue about that. The reasons he gave for dropping by were usually ridiculous. From wanting to see if Gun had gotten any uglier in their time apart, to blame it on being bored, liking the view from her office, because the day was hot and the air conditioning in the building was the best or even because she had top quality snacks and he was hungry.
It was always a fifty-fifty chance that a fight could occur. Usually because some ridiculous comment - half the time she didn't even understand why did they both got so pissed off at such stupid things - but, thankfully they never reached the level of the first fight she had witnessed. It wasn't like they didn't look like inhuman beasts anymore... they still did... but the destruction never came close to the first time and they stayed away from her when exchanging blows. They also always stopped when she grew aggravated and nowadays it only took her raising her voice to make them stop.
Her fears also changed along with her getting used to witnessing their fights – both verbal and physical. At first, what troubled her the most was how was she supposed to survive and fearing for her wellbeing but that changed – since she grew somewhat desensitized to their violence knowing that it wouldn't reach her, that they wouldn't try to harm her. They were being paid by her father after all, so they wouldn't hurt his heir and like Gun had told her repeatedly on the days following that first fight, she should trust him. His job was to protect her, he was her bodyguard so she would never come to harm at his hand or anyone else's when he was next to her – he'd never allow anyone to hurt her, regardless of who it was. His words did make her feel extremely safe, perhaps, stupidly so. She didn't know what the future could bring and she wasn't sure if his outlook would ever change... but for now, knowing that Gun would protect her from harm made her feel the safest person in all of South Korea.
Nowadays she was more worried about what it would mean for the future. She didn't know if this was a common occurrence or even if they had previously interacted with Crystal in the same way. Had she altered something again? Or had this always happened? Did Crystal also have to deal with those two fighting whenever they were together? And if so, had she dealt with everything like Soo Jung had? She was so unsure of everything... So unsure if she was acting as she should or if somehow, she was making everything worse... She still hadn't stopped comparing what she did to what Crystal had done, despite knowing it wasn't a smart move. She'd never be Crystal Choi even if she was in what was previously her body... she was someone different and she would never be able to emulate Crystal completely (nor did she want to), so that was already a lost battle.
The sound of her opening her office door makes all of the noise immediately cease. Gun had his foot hovering next to Goo's face and Goo was gripping a bottle next to Gun's head from the opposite side, both had their heads facing the door. When they see her, Goo let's go of the bottle that luckily doesn't break when it hit the ground and Gun lowers his foot with a scowl. Goo smiles as he slides his arm around Gun's shoulders, pulling the other man to a one-armed hug as if he wanted to show her that they were okay. Gun sneers and shoves him away, cleaning his bleeding mouth on his sleeve.
The destruction was minimal. No furniture was broken and the only things that had been destroyed were the glasses and a tray that previously held their drinks. The furniture had been moved around; they had seemingly opened a space to fight and had apparently steered clear of her desk. It seemed that the damages were mostly made to each other – their clothes were in a ridiculous state and so bloody.
It was for the best; she really didn't want to explain to her father (again) that his two pet monsters had lost control in her office and destroyed everything (again). It had been a very uncomfortable ordeal and the way he had looked at Gun and Goo had honestly scared her – those cold calculative eyes - as he told her that those two had a problem controlling themselves at times but that she shouldn't be scared, that she was safe... His men wouldn't dare to harm her. Everything was said as he stared at the pair, Gun with his stoic expression and Goo with a shit-eating grin flanking her sides as she fidgeted in the middle of them waiting to be dismissed of that nightmare of a conversation.
"Ten minutes," she states sternly as she closes the door behind her. "I was gone for ten minutes."
"You were... eh... fast?" Goo comments with a puzzled tone as if he didn't understand the point she was trying to make. He walks to the sofa, plops down and puts his glasses back on his face. "Didn't you have papers?"
"I was interrupted because of you." She narrows her eyes to him before looking at Gun. He was the more reasonable one of the two, or rather, he was the one that wouldn't answer her questions with complete nonsense. "What was it this time?"
"He's an idiot," Gun mutters before smacking Goo's head – the blond automatically glares. "Don't sit down. Fix this mess."
"You fix this mess," Goo counters with clear annoyance.
She groans. Would she ever get used to their bickering? They were worse than whiny children – far worse than anything she had ever needed to deal between Yong Ji and Gun... Ha, and she thought that they were bad... She didn't know anything, clearly. "You'll both fix this mess. Honestly, it's like you're two little demon spawns... Can't leave you alone for a second or shit happens."
"I'm not that bad." Goo mockingly pouts receiving a smack from Gun, who had his eyes narrowed. "Stop that."
"Didn't you annoy me enough? I'm working!"
Goo scoffs. "Working? I'm the one working your asshole. You just follow her around and get paid for it! You call that work?!" He was getting intense again. His hands were clenching the air and his expression was terrifying. "That sounds like a Friday night to me! Working my ass!"
They had stopped arranging the furniture and it seemed like another fight was going to break. She pinches the bridge of her nose. Why did she have to deal with these assholes? "Enough! No more fights. Fix the mess you made, both of you, no complaints. I can't work like this!"
Goo salutes her with a grin and Gun rolls his eyes but focuses on the furniture. As they tidy up the room, she walks to her purse. Having them getting hurt had become such a commonplace that she had started to carry additional items in her first aid kit. Things like instant cold compresses and butterfly stitches were now always with her in case they ever lost control again. Not that she had ever needed to use any of those things so far, it didn't seem like they registered pain like a normal person and it also seemed like they recovered very quickly. Really, calling them monsters wasn't that far off from the truth, there was truly something inhuman in both of them... that made them seem like they were above human standards, even in comparison to what she remembered of the webtoon.
Holding the first aid kit on her hand, she gestures to the sofa. "Time to play nurse with us?"
Gun shoves Goo away as soon as he finishes speaking. "Leave him bleeding. We're fine," he mutters to her as Goo whines about how unfair it was. She ignores their banter and stops in front of Gun pulling him to the sofa. "I'm fine," he insists dismissively.
"You have blood on your face," she deadpans. "At least let me clean it."
"Ignore him Soo Jungie. Treat me instead," Goo interjects cheerfully peering at Gun's face over her shoulder. "He's a masochist so pain always makes him happy... creepy bastard," he mutters under his breath. "He's really screwed up... You shouldn't waste your time on him. Treat me~"
Gun narrows his eyes. He does try to reach the other man –to shove him away or to hit him, she didn't know – but given that to do so he'd have to push her away and that Goo wasn't that close, he's unable to do so. "Don't provoke Gun." Even if he was still bleeding it didn't seem like the cut was outside his face. He probably bit down the skin inside of his mouth. As she cleans Gun's face with an antiseptic wipe – the dark-haired teenager looking utterly bored - Goo rests his head on her shoulder getting automatically shoved away by Gun. She narrows her eyes, stopping what she was doing to pinch Goo's nose. "Stop acting like a hyperactive demon!"
"Why are you so mean," he whines having his hands wildly in the air. Seeing that he wouldn't attempt to remove her hands from him she sighs and smacks his forehead lightly which made Gun snicker. Goo pouts exaggeratedly again, right hand across his chest and slumped shoulders. "It's unfair that you favor him so much. He's so much worse!"
"It's completely normal," Gun states with a grin. "I'm way better than you."
"You wish! You're a shittier version of myself."
"Please be quiet for a bit." Giving them both pointed looks and ignoring Goo's theatrics – he pantomimed closing his mouth with a key that he threw over his shoulder – she turns her attention back to Gun. "We'll have to stop for clothes," she points out calmly as she grabs another antiseptic wipe and resumes cleaning his face. "We have that meeting later."
"I don't know," Goo muses out loud, sitting next to Gun. "Maybe it will be more effective if they see blood. Shows that you're not kidding."
Gun rolls his eyes. "Not that kind of meeting idiot."
"Right. I forgot. Her life is boring," Goo mumbles as he leans back, hands behind his head, looking at the ceiling. He was wrong, after all, how could someone's life be boring when said person had to deal with them both? If anything, in her eyes, her life had too much excitement.
"Why do you even have so much blood on your face," she pounders with her eyebrows furrowed. Goo didn't have so much blood on his face, it was mostly on his clothes so why was Gun so... bloody? It wasn't like he had any cuts either.
"It's not all mine," Gun states calmly with a roll of his eyes.
At the same time, Goo replies as well, "He headbutted me."
They glare at each other before it escalated again, she tugs Gun's chin, breaking their heated exchange of looks as his gaze focus on her. "You're worse than little children."
Goo gets up, making both Gun and Soo Jung look at him due to the sudden movement – she had thought that he was going to try to fight again. "What? I'm hungry." He grabs his phone and smiles at them. "What do you guys want? I'm thinking fried chicken."
"Hum, sure."
"Beer?"
"Yeah, soda for her."
"Okay. I found this great place; you're going to love it."
Gun squints his eyes looking suspicious. "If this is like that time you--"
"Not my fault!" Goo interrupts, transferring his attention from his phone to Gun. "How was I supposed to predict they changed cooks? It used to have the best bulgogi."
"So you said and it was shit."
"It wasn't that bad you dramatic asshole! You acted like I fed you shit!"
"Wouldn't be surprised if it was actual shit."
She didn't know how to feel at their relaxed (by their standards) banter about food. It was like they hadn't fought, probably due some stupid reason again, and were (semi) normal people. If their clothes weren't in a disarray and there wasn't blood on their clothes and faces, no one would be able to say that not even five minutes ago they were at each other's throats – or that she had to stop them from bickering to a point that they'd come to blows again. Like it had all been a figment of her imagination. How was someone supposed to deal with this? And, honestly, what was wrong with these two?
Gun nudges her, eyebrows furrowed as his gaze jumped around her face. "What's up with you?"
"You don't want fried chicken? You're not dieting... are you?" Goo looked dismayed. "You don't need a diet. Trust me you look really good Soo Jungie." Gun glares at the blond male making him scoff. "What? She does. I know you are dead inside but I'm not... and trust me... she looks so good that my mouth waters sometimes."
She rolls her eyes and sighs exasperatedly. "That's really disgusting Goo." The blond pouts again and Gun snorts. "And I'm fine with fried chicken..."
Almost like he was sulking seconds ago, Goo grins excitedly. "Now you're talking."
"I honestly can't keep up with you both," she shares as she begins collecting the bloody wipes to dispose of them.
A wide grin appears on Goo's face as he stares at her. "You'll get used to it in no time. You'll see..."
"I really don't want to," she points out. Getting used to them acting in that manner meant having them both around her at the same time so much that this became a commonplace. If that happened, she was sure that she'd lose her mind first.
"See, no one likes you," Gun smugly says, grinning approvingly at her. "It's not just me."
"Yah! Not fair. We're basically the same!"
"You wish pissing boy."
They were not that similar, sure, they were both monsters fighting and they did seem to get some pleasure out of fighting and annoying people. They also went from one emotion to the opposite very quickly, it was hard to keep up with their mood... but their differences were more predominant than those similarities. Gun was calmer, sometimes stoic and much more serious than the blond. Goo in one word was chaos. He always appeared to be happy, always smiling or grinning even when he was being violent. She couldn't still decide what was scarier with him, when he was sadistically smiling or when he seemed to be genuinely pissed off. Goo also seemed to have fewer things holding him back than Gun. She knew that there were certain lines that Gun didn't cross – very few but they were existent – while with Goo she always had the distinct impression that there were no rules. Knowing him personally hadn't changed that. If anything, it had only further reinforced that notion.
Even with all of the fights and arguments, it was clear that they were friends. Or at the very least, there was a strong kinship between them. It was natural, she guessed. They had not only worked together for a while but their experiences must have been very similar. They were her father pet monsters after all and sharing similar experiences with people usually--
"Yah! Soo Jungie. Come back!" Goo breaks her from her musings. He had his eyebrows furrowed and so did Gun. When he sees he had her attention he smiles. "It's my turn to be nursed back to health~"
Gun scoffs as he grabs her first-aid kit and throws it to him. Goo grabs it before it hit him in the face scowling. "Threat yourself bastard." He turns to her and glares. "Don't you dare encourage him to be an even bigger pain in my ass."
"Not fair! She helped you--"
"Shut up, you're annoying. I'm kicking you out after lunch. You should be working and not harassing me."
"You bastard! That's not fair at all!"
"That's rich coming from you. Fairness?! What a fucking joke."
"Your face is the only joke here asshole."
"I'll break all of your bones again."
"Take off your glasses. This time I'll really gouge out your eyes."
There they go again... She shakes her head, giving them a pointed look that they don't see because they were too busy glaring at each other as they bickered. As long as they didn't fight or got too rowdy, she wouldn't intervene. It was a waste of energy and she had work to do. With a sigh, she walks back to her desk decided to call the secretary to bring her the papers she had been copying. She clearly couldn't leave them alone if she wanted peace...
Kim Joon Goo wasn't really the only other prodigy she had to interact with and eventually grow used to.
Kouji wasn't a headache in the same sense that Goo was. In fact, unlike the blond, she hadn't even had to deal with him all that much since their interactions always revolved around her work for the CEO. And it wasn't like he started to appear suddenly in her life – she was grateful for that, having Goo as a disturbance to her normal days was already more than she could deal with. However, Kouji was so observant that whenever she interacted with him, she feared that he would end up reading her like an open book. It was his sharp mind that she feared and the fact that he was insanely good at hacking and navigating the digital world. She thought that he could easily unravel her secrets if he ever put his mind into it. She still wondered how had the original Crystal been able to hide her secret from these highly intelligent individuals with such poor planning. It mostly looked like dumb luck... Something that, clearly, Soo Jung lacked.
At one point she noticed that the number of papers and information she received regarding the Paprika TV steadily increased. It wasn't limited to profits and profiles from the people that worked there (both in the internal structure and as broadcasters) but also, company policies and even reported attempts at breaking their system to get money – meaning, hackers.
She definitely should have seen it coming. However, between trying to do her job – that half the time she had to guess what it was supposed to be – and dealing with Goo's surprise visits, Kouji wasn't exactly someone that was at the front of her mind. At first, she stupidly didn't realize what was even happening. Gun passes along the message that they had to visit someone before the day's end regarding the latest cyberattack and instead of thinking that it probably meant that she would meet Kouji, she focused on the fact that her father had called Gun and not her. Just how ridiculous it was that he didn't even bother to call her to tell her that her schedule would suffer an alteration?
Granted, she finds the whole thing shady. Gun was driving to residential area and not an office. As the numbers of apartments grow in the scenery so does the feelings of confusion and anxiety. The only thing that stops her from demanding answers was the fact that it seemed to be a nice neighborhood and that she did feel safe with Gun. She trusted that he wouldn't expose her to the criminal activities the CEO was involved with. Plus, she knew he was merely doing what her father had instructed. It wasn't like she (or he for that matter) could change any of this.
After parking the car seemingly carelessly, Gun guides her to an elevator and then to an apartment on the last floor. Unsettled, Soo Jung sees him pushing the door that was apparently open and confidently going inside and instructing her to close the door behind herself. A few steps behind Soo Jung follows him, taking in the luxurious but severely messy apartment. Almost every surface was filled with cables, consoles and other technological devices – with a cursory glance she saw seven printers and at least ten laptops, all seemed to be very expensive. The ground was also littered with things that she does her best to not step on as she followed Gun further inside.
"You're early," a masculine voice greets them.
The only light in the room came from several monitors that were in the center of the room. The set up was rather strange, in all honesty. The person, rather, the male teenager by the voice, was sitting in the middle of five tables that were surrounding him with his back turned to them. Every single one of those tables had screens and keyboards – the two that were directly in front of him had three while the others had only one per table. The computer towers were bigger than any that she had ever seen (their fans also made a lot of noise) – honestly, she felt like she had suddenly entered a rather high-tech office and not a someone's home. Where the fuck was she?
"I'm not. It's six-thirty on the dot," Gun counters with annoyance. "You better have everything ready. I have other things to do."
The guy waves one of his hands dismissively in the air without turning to them and violently typing with the other. "Don't nag me. I'm finishing as we speak."
Now that her eyes had adjusted to the darkness inside, she could see he had purple colored hair and it's then that it hits her, they had come to Kouji – making her slightly freeze on her spot. She didn't know what was the appropriated response to all of this... should she remain silent? Interact with him? Why was she even here in the first place? What was the CEO plotting now?
"Who's she?" Gun rubs his forehead looking down. How did he even know she was inside? Or that she was a female for that matter? He hadn't turned to them not even once. Did he have cameras? "Another gangster?"
Gun loudly scoffs, crossing his arms over his chest. "How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not a gangster."
"You like the word mobster better? Crook? Mafioso?"
"Enough brat. She's Choi Soo Jung," he mutters glancing at her and gesturing for her to get closer to him. "The CEO's daughter and heir. The brat's Kouji... he's the IT guy. Brilliant but a pain in the ass."
"Hello," she greets unsurely.
Gun's words make him stop what he's doing and turn to them. She sees him tilting his head and squinting his eyes as he looked at her. He stares at her with a piercing gaze for a couple of seconds nibbling his thumb – Gun sighing tiredly at her side as they observed Kouji's antics – looking thoughtful before grinning. While the smile on his face could be classified as innocently happy the look on his eyes was too sharp for it to be believable. He jolts up and pushes one of the tables away creating an exit and approaches her and Gun. He stops uncomfortably close to her. He was shorter than both of them, barely reaching Gun's shoulders, but his eyes were so piercing that she honestly felt very vulnerable... it made him look not only bigger but strangely dangerous as well. It made her feel like he somehow could read her mind...
"U-wa! You're so pretty noona* what are you doing with this guy?" He glances at Gun before looking at her again, leaning even closer with the wide smile and sharp eyes.
Gun pushes him away by the head, opening her personal space a bit more. She felt like she could finally breathe. "Don't start."
Kouji sneers before, supposedly, sadly pouting. He brings his hands to the chest and begins to tremble and turns his gaze downwards. If it weren't for the coldness in his eyes – and him sneering at first – he would have looked like the poster picture of a sad boy. "See how mean he is to me noona?" As he finishes speaking, he glances up before looking down again. Did he think she was believing this nonsense? He was clearly trying to trick her... for whatever reason. It was very insincere. Plus, she had overheard their conversation.
"Enough with that shit. She's not idiotic enough to fall for it," Gun snaps. "Get to work, you won't be getting money out of her."
This time the boy isn't able to control his annoyed expression and grimaces, looking at Gun with irritation shining in his eyes. "You're always ruining everything. I won't help you next time--"
"You will," Gun interrupts with a sharp and cold tone of voice. His stance widens making him look even more intimidating. "Don't forget who do we work for," he mutters menacingly.
He tsks, crossing his arms over his chest and looking defiantly to Gun. "You're lucky that the boss tells me to obey you."
"And you're lucky he doesn't let me break your fingers," he counters.
Her eyes widen at the sudden threat. She was ready to intervene when Kouji grins maliciously. "Do that and I'll send footage of you to the po--"
Gun's hand shots towards Kouji at an impressive speed and he covers his mouth, startling her and the boy. "You cocky brat. You have to learn when to close your damn mouth or you'll outlive your usefulness."
Soo Jung reaches for Gun's hand and pulls him back. "Enough," she mumbles when he doesn't immediately remove his hand away from Kouji. "Neither should be threatening the other," she adds sternly. Gun scoffs and removes his hand. He crosses his arms over his chest and turns his face away in obvious annoyance.
Kouji narrows his eyes before looking at her with another fake smile and big eyes. "Thank you so much noona! Isn't he the worst? So rude and mean... Always threatening me..."
"You should stop too," she tells him rubbing her head tiredly. Clearly no one under the CEO's wing was capable of interacting normally with other people. Nor were they normal people... Was is a requirement or did they end up like this as a result of being brought up by him? "I'm not that big of an idiot. And I heard the exchange... I'd have to be brain dead to think you're an innocent kid."
Gun snorts when a genuine pout appears on Kouji's lips. "Ah, no matter. Acting like this usually gets annoying pretty quick..." With his eyes slightly squinted, glancing up and down her body a couple before walking back to the chair that he immediately swirled towards the computer he was using. "Now I get the last favor you asked me," he declares as he starts to furiously type – the speed in which he did, whatever he was doing, was very impressive. "I tried to look her up but found nothing. Makes more sense than anything I came up with."
She glances at Gun and furrows her eyebrows. He ignores the look she was sending him and his lips press tightly together. "You're being a bigger pain than Goo. It's pissing me off."
"Yeah, yeah. I understood the first time. 'M not an idiot..." She, on the other hand, didn't really understand what was going on. Sure, it was obvious that they were discussing something – Kouji apparently had done something for Gun and she had somehow been brought up - but she didn't get what it was all about... was it only them hiding the shady dealing from her or was something else involved? "What are you doing with her anyway?"
Gun glances at her before sighing tiredly. "I'm her bodyguard."
The chair swirls again, this time making him face them before Kouji bursts into laughter. "Cosplaying as a bodyguard? Ah, does the boss hate her? Can't imagine what pain it's to be saddled with you... Nightmare of epic proportions."
"Do your fucking job. You're wasting our time!"
He shakes his head as a few chuckles escape his lips. "I'm finished." With a gleam in his eyes, he turns his attention to her. "I tightened the security and sent instructions to the IT teams. They were exploiting a subroutine in the program and got the authentication--" As if he noticed she wasn't understanding anything he was telling her; he sighs taping his bottom lip with his finger lightly. "Ah, noona doesn't understand a thing... Well, it's not everyone can be as smart as me. Everyone is always stupid by comparison... The only surprise is that I got surprised by the lower intellect. Hmph, what a pain..."
Done with his antics, Soo Jung sighs. She had never given much thought to how interacting with Kouji would be, but it was worse than she had ever considered. He had such an abrasive personality. "You know," she says softly making him slightly lean towards her with squinted eyes. "I don't know if that's all arrogance or if you genuinely lack survival instincts. Either way, you should stop calling people stupid before you end up offending someone and get punched in the face as a result."
He looks at her with amusement. At least some of the sharpness had disappeared from his eyes, even if she still felt unsettled with the look he was giving her. "Ah, don't be mean noona. I already have to deal with that guy next to you... Don't need someone else to tell me those things."
"Can we finish this?" Gun interjects with a harsh tone. "I got things to do and if I'm late because of you I will crush your scrawny--"
Kouji rolls his eyes, not taking the threat seriously. "Yeah, yeah. Papers are in the living room." Gun immediately walks away presumably to get said papers. "Ask him for my number but only for important things. You better not spam me with stupid things! And you owe me like... two new games because you were mean to me."
She shakes her head lightly. Ah, would she never again interact with normal people? Was she doomed to have these weird interactions with people? "If you can arbitrarily decide that I owe you something, I can do the same. You owe me two games for insinuating that I'm stupid. We're even."
She sees him mouthing the word arbitrarily before looking at her curiously. "Woah, you're definitely not as dumb as you look like. Make it three games because I feel deceived and noonas are supposed to be nice and not deceive their juniors."
She was opening her mouth to tell him what she thought of this nonsense when Gun returns with a stack of papers on his left hand. "We're done here." Without looking at Kouji he nudges her forward.
"Not saying goodbye? That four games now! If you keep this up, I won't have to buy a game ever again."
Gun snorts, sparing her a look for hastening his step. "If he wasn't as good as he is, I would have snapped his neck by now. Sometimes I think he's more annoying than Goo."
She doesn't know how serious his words are – she thinks that this is a joke but with Gun, she is never too sure. Not wanting to dwell on it, she glances at him. "He's a kid. Kids are annoying..."
Gun shakes his head. "You'll understand eventually. That brat is no normal kid, he's smart enough to know when to shut up." When they are back in the elevator, stopping right in front of her without giving her a chance to properly positioning herself, Gun leans to her completely startling her. With his lips next to her ear, Gun whispers, "Be very careful with him." Then, he presses the button to the garage and moves away as if nothing had happened, leaving Soo Jung confused and nervous at the ominous warning.
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A.N.: *Noona is a Korean honorific used by males to address a female friend or a female sibling who's older than them.
This chapter ended up having a mind of its own. At first, I was simply planing to have Goo appear, annoy Gun and the MC and write something else... and then that happened, and we ended up not only having a chapter with Goo but Kouji as well. Still, I'm not too sure if I'm completely happy with it. Feel free to share your thoughts and tell me what were your favourite and less favourite parts.
While with Goo my approach was to show how much of a pain he could be when he was annoyed - because, I can't seem him not wanting to have some sort of revenge over Gun for being saddled with all of the work - but how he'd react if he thought that he got himself in problems with the CEO. Thus him ending up offering Soo Jung money and his watch in a slight panic, thinking that the CEO - her father - is going to kill him because he traumatized his daughter. What did you guys think? Is he out of character or do you see him doing the same? My favourite part of that whole mess with Goo is probably him and Gun bickering.
Regarding Kouji, I admit to a certain degree of struggle. The first struggle was to determine how is his relationship with Gun, given that we do know he's cocky and lacks a filter - it made me think that they probably bickered a bit, and that even if Gun was perfectly able to harm him, he wouldn't be outright intimidated and would threaten him back. After all, with his skills, he isn't defenceless and would probably be able to cause a lot of problems - like leaking information, not erasing footage, etc. - thus all of those passive-aggressive interactions. I also figured that it was plausible that he'd try, initially at least, to manipulate the MC into feeling sorry for him and giving him the stuff to make him feel better. Once he saw that it wouldn't work, he gave up 'showed' his true colors. How do you feel about his characterization? Is he too out of character? Did you enjoy his portrayal?
As always, thanks to everyone that commented and read. It's always so nice and helpful to read your guys thoughts :) I hope that everyone is safe and well!
P.S.: Sorry for the rant, like I said... I'm still not too sure about the chapter. Don't get me wrong, I do like the end result, but am a bit worried if I made anyone act out of character.