Blood and Roses || Lee Taeyong

Chapter 3 | "i can't wait"

When Chaerin woke up the next morning she went into momentary panic at the unfamiliar surrounding before remembering the events of the prior day. She sighed, stretching her muscles and wincing slightly at the soreness. They had started her training yesterday and it was more than she had expected to say the least.

After taking a quick shower and getting ready for the day, she grabbed her bag and made her way downstairs. After getting lost a few times, she eventually found her way to the kitchen where there were a few members already gathered.

"Morning, Chaerin!" Said a young boy.

"Morning, uh...." she thought hard to try and remember his name as he sat there, smiling at her patiently. "...Reonjeon?"

"Close. Renjun." He corrected with a chuckle.

"Right, my bad." She said with an embarrassed nod, taking the juice he was holding out to her.

"Don't sweat it, Rinnie, you met a lot of people yesterday." She turned to see Jeno walking into the room, flashing her his signature eye smile when he called her by a nickname.

"Excuse me, I am four years older than you. You haven't been gifted nickname privileges yet." She said, threateningly shaking her banana towards him like it was a knife.

"Yes miss Chaerin." He replied with a mocking tone, taking the banana from her hand and eating it.

"What are you guys doing up this early anyway?" She asked, rolling her eyes at the younger boy.

"We have school just like you do." A tall one who she remembered to be called 'Jisung' replied. "We all go to the same high school, just different grades."

"Ah..." she nodded in understanding as she smiles at the three boys in front of her.

"Did we make it? Are we early?"

She turned to see her four friends busting into the kitchen, out of breath with their hair a mess.

"Make it for what?" She questioned, chuckling at their appearance.

"Thank god we did." Kun said, looking around the kitchen with a smile. "Before all the younger ones got ready to go."

"What do you mean, there's younger ones right here." She said, gesturing to Renjun, Jeno, and Jisung.

"I know you just met everyone yesterday, so you probably can't keep track, but there's 9 of them in high school." Ten said to her.

"That many?"

"Yeap, and if we don't get out of this house before all of them are here, then we'll have to drive them to school, which is not a fun time." Doyoung replied, grabbing some food and shoving it into his bag.

"It can't be-"

She cut off as she heard a bunch of footsteps making their way towards the kitchen, loud voices coming their way. She saw her friend's tense up, their eyes widening as they all but sprinted to the door. Yuta quickly grabbed her arm and dragged her with.

"Wait! Can you give us a ride?" She heard Jaemin call out, Yuta and her stopping in their tracks with his hand literally on the door handle.

"Uh...."

"Yuta, let's go!" Kun called from the garage.

"Sorry, Kun's already started the car." The Japanese boy called out to the younger ones, dragging Chaerin out of the house.

"Have a good day at school!" She called right before the door slammed shut.

They hopped in the car and quickly sped away.

"So is that why you guys are always such a mess when you show up to school?" She asked as she helped Yuta fix his hair in the backseat.

"Pretty much." Doyoung replied with a nod, attempting to fix himself in the mirror.

"God you guys can't do anything." She mumbled, turning to help him.

After a drive fixing up the guys' appearances, they had arrived at school. She hopped out of the car, smiling at her handiwork as she surveyed her friends.

"What do you think? School ready?" Ten asked, giving her a dramatic spin.

"Perfect. You can't even tell that the four of you basically ran away from a bunch of high schoolers."

"Oh be quiet, Chae, once you drive with them, you'll see why we do it." Yuta said jokingly, throwing an arm around her shoulders as the five of them made their way into the building.

"So, how was training yesterday?" Kun asked quietly.

"Not too bad. I'm a bit sore but I'll be fine. I think-"

"Chaerin! There you are." She felt herself get yanked away from the boys by her wrist, suddenly seeing Hansol standing in front of her with an annoyed expression. "So, where did you end up going last night?

"Uh I um... I uh" she stuttered out, not wanting to tell him the truth.

"She's staying with us." Yuta answered, stepping closer to Hansol.

"What?" Her boyfriend exclaimed. "You're living with them?"

"Uh yeah. They had a spare room so..."

"Did I say you could live with them?" He asked angrily, not caring that she was basically trembling with nervousness.

"No but-"

"Ah no buts. I didn't give you permission."

"And she doesn't need your permission, Hansol. She's not your dog." Yuta growled lowly, taking a step closer to the tall boy.

"No but she's my girlfriend."

"Who you treat like a dog." Ten mumbled out from behind them.

"What did you just say, shortie?" Hansol exclaimed, pushing past Yuta to stare down at Ten.

"Hansol-"

"Back the fuck off, you ass." Ten snapped, shoving the tall boy backwards.

Hansol stumbled slightly before regaining his footing, anger flaring in his eyes as he approached Ten again. Before he could do anything, Kun, Doyoung, and Yuta all stepped forward, crossing their arms over their chest as the four of them glared at the tall boy. Hansol just let out a frustrated groan.

"We'll discuss this later." He mumbled to Chaerin before turning away.

"I can't wait for the day you two break up." Doyoung spat out with disgust. "That boy has issues."

Chaerin didn't answer, just sighed to herself as she collected her things from her locker snd made her way to class.