𝔹𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕐𝕠𝕦//_[𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧]

40: ꜱᴄʜᴇᴍɪɴɢ

Please vote and comment. We're approaching the end of this fanfic in possibly the next few chapters. 

~One Month Later~

After Jermaine was made aware of Althea and Chan's relationship, he strictly prohibited any of Stray Kids from sleeping in her room. All the mattresses were moved to the living room. Though that didn't stop the pair from sneaking their moments. Whether it be out of Jermaine's sightline or at Lorraine's place. Bang Chan of course was nervous whenever he was in Jermaine's home but fully affectionate once Althea visited Lorraine's. 

Jermaine actually went through with telling the police about his alleged 'kidnapping'. Due to the several inspections of his clothes, which still hadn't been washed to sell his story of being taken by drug dealers, the police were prone to believe him and let him off the hook. Althea wonders how many times her father played off the police because that surely didn't seem like a first time occurrence. 

In other news, Jermaine still didn't fully trust Chan so he sent Lucas with Althea whenever she visited Lorraine. Luckily Lucas was pretty chill about them unless it came to kissing. 

After their conversation, the lock that sealed Althea's lips about her abuse was finally released. She was much more liberal about what she experienced once her parents coaxed her to talk and reiterated that they weren't going to judge. It helped whenever Chan was there to encourage her. She even showed off the photos she took in the early days of her abuse. Back then she had more sense to take photos of her bruises. As it got later into the relationship, she was far too conditioned by fear of Leon finding them in her phone and beating her to take any more. But she has plenty of proof from the texts he's sent her. 

Speaking of texts, Althea's officially deleted Leon's number to prevent him from seeing her WhatsApp status. The day she did that, her phone never stopped ringing for hours. She found him annoying. And that made her happy.

If it wouldn't possibly affect Stray Kids in the long run, Hyunjin was all too willing to provide a witness statement of what he saw on the balcony. Instead that would have to be made on behalf of Lorraine since it happened in her apartment. 

On the bright side, they were able to celebrate Felix, Jisung, and Seungmin's birthdays without issues. Camila made several pastries and Althea thinks she's trying to make the boys stay with her cooking since all of them begged for seconds. 

Her father continued to grow angrier with Leon as more stories came to light. Althea knows he's just one story away from running him through with a bullet and she can't blame him. Though she's also aware each one seems to break him just a little more. That all of this was happening under his nose and he couldn't see nor help. 

It's...a lot. But Althea's never felt freer in the last few years of her life. 

Chan had been sent as a helping hand by God. There's no other way to explain him suddenly coming into her life and uprooting everything like this. 

"Jagiya."

Speak of the devil. 

Althea smiles as she turns in Lorraine's chair to face him. Although many things have been changing in the last few months, school was not one of them. She still had to start a new semester online of University classes. She's currently watching a styling tutorial assigned by her professor. 

The other boys are playing games with Lucas in the living room. Though Changbin, Hyunjin, and Felix have taken to her side to watch movies quietly in the background. They look on to their leader with mischievous smirks as he enters. 

"Christopher Bang, to what do we owe the pleasure?" Felix grins. 

"젊음의 사랑~" Changbin sighs wistfully. (Youthful love)