Chapter 2

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As I sprinted down the lawn, Jungkook ran from my left side and approached me. His longer legs moved him closer, and his right was in front of mine before I could escape his path. My foot got caught under his calf, making me plunge to the ground as the soccer ball kept rolling down the grass. I landed on my hands and knees but then fell on my rear so I could look up at Jungkook.

"Darn, Sujin, didn't you see me coming?" he asked, giving me a hand and pulling me to my feet.

"I saw you alright," I huffed as I rubbed grass off of my palms, "I just felt like it was an awkward position for me to run to the side with the ball, that's all."

"I see," he nodded.

"I thought about kicking the ball to my right but since we don't have any other players, there was no one there to pass it to."

"That's understandable. Next time, try slowing down quickly to get behind me. If you can, you can run away from me before I have time to turn around to go for the ball, alright?"

"Thanks," I mumbled before going back to grab the ball. I positioned the ball under my foot and I was about to start running when the front door opened and Jin poked out.

"I hope your playing made you two hungry, I got a lot of food ready."

Jungkook's eyes went wide and he smiled. "G'bye, Sujin, I'm gonna get some dinner! You go practice by yourself."

"Easy," I shrugged, "sometimes I need what only you can provide, and that is your absence," I shot back before laughing at my own insult.

"I would agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong," he shot back before turning to head inside.

"H-hey! I'm coming too Jin!" I shouted, abandoning the ball to run inside.

As we settled around the dinner table, Jungkook asked, "Doesn't your friend, Suho, like soccer too?"

I nodded, "Yeah, he should play with us sometime."

"That'd be fun."

I sat next to Hoseok who was on my left and Jungkook on my right, but the whole table's attention then went to Namjoon as he sighed heavily before taking a seat.

"Is you alright, Joon?" I asked as Jin brought the food to the table.

"Yeah, you seemed exhausted all day, how was the meeting with Sejin?"

"Oh, that was today," I sighed, remembering.

Namjoon looked down at the table for a second before shaking his head. "Sujin, I'll need to talk to you after we eat."

Butterflies found their way into my stomach. Was there another problem? Had the meeting been concerning me?

"Yeah, okay," I nodded, and the member's faces looked as worried as I was feeling.

"Is everything okay?" Jin asked, taking the last seat.

Namjoon shrugged and then nodded towards the food. "Let's not worry about it now. We should eat."

The boys started getting food on their plates and began eating. Everyone was silent, but it was a comfortable silence. Usually, this silence was filled with each individual's own thoughts, yet tonight, it was different. I could tell everyone was anticipating what Namjoon might say about the meeting and when they'd hear anything else.

We all watched as Namjoon stabbed his bulgogi slices with such force that his fork slid across the plate with a shriek. He only sighed before ripping a piece off with his hands and shoving it into his mouth, furiously chewing as he stared at his plate.

"So," Hoseok began, trying to distract us from Namjoon's disorganized scene, "do any of you have last minute plans for this summer that we should try to do before Sujin and Jungkook go back to school?"

"I'm not 'going back to school', hyung," Jungkook said with a mouthful of rice. "I'm not officially going, at least."

"I know, I know," Hoseok mumbled in surrender, "I was just saying, you're going to get a little more busy balancing those few classes and our work." Jungkook shrugged.

"Actually, manager-nim did suggest we go do something for a new Run BTS episode, and he was hoping Sujin would join," Namjoon said, his eyes lighting up a little.

"Oh?" Jimin asked from across the table.

"Oh," I sighed. Was that all he needed to talk to me about?

"Anything in particular?" Taehyung inquired, looking to his elder.

"Uh, the beach? Or something. Doesn't matter too much, the staff doesn't have many ideas at the moment," Namjoon mumbled.

"The beach sounds fun," I agreed. "But, I don't know how to swim," I admitted. I never properly learned while I was at the orphanage with Aecha. It never really came up.

"Oh, right," Hoseok sighed. "Well any of us can teach you, especially Jungkook since he likes it. What do you think, Jungkook?" Hoseok asked the maknae, but when I looked to my right, I saw his eyes were glossed over and his face was pale.

"I-" he started, nervously glancing around the table. Hoseok's expression turned to a frown as he waited for an answer. "I, I- sorry hyung, excuse me," Jungkook mumbled softly before scooting his chair back, standing, and jogging upstairs. We all watched him, and once he was out of sight, we all faced each other with wonder.

"Uhh," I said, looking to the boys for explanation. "Is he okay?"

Taehyung's eyebrows furrowed. "He probably wants to be alone, for whatever reason. I'll talk to him after I eat."

"But what do you think it was?" I asked.

"I just talked about the swimming," Hoseok shrugged as pink danced across his cheeks.

"Hyung, don't you remember, his friend..." Jimin suggested, glancing at his elder with wide eyes. Hoseok's face fell into a frown.

"Aw man, what did I do?" Hoseok rubbed his forehead thoughtfully. "Aish, I feel bad now..."

"I'm sure he'll be okay," I gulped. I wasn't so sure myself. Before another word was said, my phone that was sitting on the coffee table in the living room behind us went off with a ding twice, saving us from an awkward silence. "I'll get to that later," I mumbled before taking another bite of food and looking down at my plate. The others shrugged the earlier conversation off and returned to their food.

There was only another second of silence before my phone went off a few more times, turning out attention to it.

"I'm sorry, can I go?" I asked, nodding towards the living room before Namjoon shook his head as approval.

"You can be excused for a second." I quickly got up and ran to get my phone to see I had five notifications.

Unknown Number: Hey, Sujin, I think there's something you need to see

Unknown Number: Oh, sorry, I forgot to ask, how are you?

Unknown Number: Anyways, there's something important I want to talk to you about

Unknown Number: I mean, you might know about it, but just to make sure...

Unknown Number: Can I call you?

I furrowed my brow as I looked through the notifications. I wasn't sure who was texting me, as I hadn't saved their number yet, but whoever it was seemed to have something important to say.

I opened the conversation and started with the most important of the questions that were simmering in my brain.

I'm sorry, who is this?

Tiny dots on the screen showed the other person was typing. Quickly, a message appeared.

Unknown Number: It's Suho, don't you know how to trace numbers?

I sighed, realizing it was someone I trusted.

Uh, no, I don't. Am I supposed to?

Unknown Number: I mean, no, not really, but it's useful. I should give you a lesson on hacking some day.

Haha, you are a wonder, Suho. I smiled at his silliness. Hey, so is the thing quick? I'm eating with the boys rn.

Unknown Number: Uhh, not really. Why don't you go eat and I'll talk to you about it, okay?

Mkie. brb.

I saved his contact and then shut off my phone before heading back to the table. The member's curious glances followed me as I sat.

"It was Suho," I said, and some of the boy's faces continued to be confused. "Some of you met him at orientation, some haven't. He's just a boy who's going to my school, has a few classes, and- Oh! He saved my life."

"Saved your life?" Hoseok asked.

"You know, his brother kinda helped me escape Seunghee and all," I explained.

"Oh," Hoseok said, slapping his hand on the table. "Right."

"He's nice and all, but-" I started.

"He's kinda... creepy," Yoongi mumbled. "He talked about getting in fights, and whatever got him and his brother into Seunghee's party and the hospital at the same time as you, well, eh. And, he seems to be a 'know-it-all'," he ranted.

"Well, he's nice, and certainly interesting," I defended.

"Oooh, Sujinie," Taehyung cooed. "Do you know what this is?" he smiled, glancing around the table.

I frowned at him. "Excuse me?"

"Do you think, possibly, that my dongsaeng has a.. a crush?" he suggested, and he burst into laughter with the other boys as my cheeks colored.

"N-No!" I screamed. "No I do not, I just like him-" I stopped myself, realizing my mistake.

"Ooh!" Taehyung chanted.

"He's nice! I meant to say he's nice!" I shouted once again before sticking my lower lip out in a pout. "Oppa, stop teasing me!"

Jimin grinned, "Oh, Sujinie-Sujin." He shook his head. "You need to stay away from boys."

"I know- I- I am!" I sighed and went back to my food.

I didn't like him, I was mostly sure of that. He was too.. Too... standoffish? I couldn't think of the right word, which worried me even more. I didn't like him, did I? I didn't know him all that well either.

"He's a good friend," I mumbled before stuffing food into my mouth. "Don't think otherwise. If I end up liking him, I'll tell you."

"Oh, fine, Sujin. But one day you gotta tell us about your crushes," Jimin said.

"Oh, I will. I know I'll regret it if I don't," I rolled my eyes before taking another bite of food.

"You betcha'," Jin smirked. We were in a happier tone of quiet as we finished our meal. I had almost forgotten about the urgency in Namjoon's voice and mention of something to talk about by the time I finished, so when he eyed me as Jin started clearing the table, my heart sank.

I silently followed him to his room where he had a few production materials scattered around, as well as a few of his 'toys' and figurines displayed on a large shelf.

"You can take a seat there," Namjoon said, motioning to a wheeled chair near his desk. He brought up a stool and sat on it before opening his computer.

"So, I don't know if you guessed, but this is a somewhat serious thing, yet that's not really how I want to say it." He looked down for a second, thinking. "Listen, kid, I really don't want to scare you, or worry you, or burden you, or anything like that.. But... there's something you need to see, only because you need to be aware of the issue, and like the last big 'event', you know the article?"

I nodded, "Yep, but there were lessons learned there." I sighed.

"Right, right, but this is just, again, something that I'd rather have told you myself, and not have it come as a shock. Plus, I get the feeling you'd be disappointed if you found out we hadn't told you."

"Great!" I smiled sarcastically. "Go right ahead! What's the scandal this time?" I wasn't even surprised that this had come up again.

Namjoon gave me a sad smile before logging onto his Twitter. He scrolled down to a post of a picture Jimin had taken of us all hanging out at a park this summer. It was the first Tweet any of the members had posted that had me in it. I saw that is had countless likes and retweets. At first, I wondered why Namjoon had been so concerned about it. It was popular, so wouldn't that mean people liked it? I was left wondering until Namjoon gave me one last glance, took in a breath, and then clicked on the comment section.

"Just, read these, I guess." He let out his breath and watched me as my eyes read over the text. There was a line of Tweets at the top, the most liked and retweeted replies.

She's just an attention hog, it wouldn't be bad if a fan attacked her.

I agree! We should stage something!

It's like they want us to know where she is, it'd make getting rid of her easier.

I read over it a second time before trying to take in the words.

"Namjoon, what are they suggesting?" I asked, marveling at the amount of attention those tweets had gotten.

"Ah," he sighed. "Well, they're not particularly happy with the new... 'arrangement'."

"Yeah, I understand that," I said, "but I always knew people weren't happy with me joining you guys. What's new?"

"Well, they're taking their ideas to the extreme, I guess."

"Yeah?" I asked, not seeing the whole picture clearly yet.

"Hey, I don't really want to do this, and I'm only going to show you one, but maybe this will explain it better," he said before scrolling down a little. I anticipated what I would find. What kind of comment would be worse that I'd seen before?

Namjoon stopped scrolling, and I started reading down a line of replies.

I want to kill her, anyone else who wants to help, tell me. I'm making a chat so we can plan it, message me for the link. We'll take the next available tour destination for the boys. Security won't save her this time.

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