Meori Apeuda

Chapter 13

But eventually we had to stop, the others would probably miss us. Smiling at each other we started walking towards the bar again.

"Are you feeling better?" Chan asked, holding my hand in his. I nodded and blushed: "I'm feeling amazing..." His smile made his whole face shine. Then he suddenly stopped and turned to me. "Do you want them to know?" he asked, and I knew he meant the guys. "Do you?" I asked back, watching him think.

"Soon, yes, absolutely. But maybe...not tonight? With Han and Lee Know missing it's...as if a part of my family is missing, you know?" I nodded and a little knot turned up in my stomach, when I imagined Han's reaction. Then another thought occurred.

"Chan? What about your company? I read online that idols aren't allowed to date, to keep the image of being available..." I shrugged, not meeting his gaze. staring at his shoulder instead.

He laid a finger under my chin and gently turned my face to him, kissing my forehead. "Don't worry about it, Darling. Handling that will be my problem, not yours." I stepped back, shaking my head. "No, uh-uh, I don't want to be the reason you may be losing everything you and the guys worked for so hard. I'm not worth that, honestly."

But he just shook his head. He stepped closer again and hugged me. "We'll talk about this ok? I promise. Just...Just let's enjoy tonight ok?" I breathed in his scent and buried my face in his chest, nodding.

Finally we got inside, heading for our room. There were already fewer people inside, so Chan held my hand and led the way. From the bar I suddenly heard rough laughter, my head jerking up. With a past like mine you get fine antennas for possible danger and the four obviously drunk guys sitting there were screaming trouble, all of them eyeing me from top to bottom.

I averted my gaze, trying to stay as close to Chan as I could. He felt me coming closer and looked at me questioningly but I just shook my head and murmured "Keep going, please." Finally we reached our room, hearing laughter and a very shrill version of "Country Roads" from inside. Chan opened the door and I looked back to the bar. A mistake, because all four of them still watched me and were starting to get up.

I felt cold sweat at the back of my neck, my fingers starting to tremble, my breathing hitched. Then we were inside and Chan closed the door. He instantly turned to me and laid his hand to my cheek. "Hey, what's wrong?" I swallowed, trying to suppress my panic, but looked over my shoulder constantly.

"Ah there...there were...four guys at the bar...they were...not feeling right, I can't describe it otherwise. But maybe I'm just crazy, just forget it..." - "If you say they're not right, I believe you, okay? Don't worry." He simply stated, leading me further into the room. Felix looked up and smiled at me, but stopped as soon as he saw my face. "What's wrong?"

Before Chan or I could answer the door banged open and I spun around. The four men from the bar were coming into the room, tumbling and swaying. With a quick, subtle move Chan positioned himself in front of me and only a second later Changbin and Felix flanked him, blocking me completely from the view of the intruders. Hyunjin suddenly stood at my back, rubbing my arms gently as if to comfort me.

Chan said something to them, sounding calm but I felt waves of tension rolling off him, one of his hands balled into a fist. One of the drunk guys answered him, while his buddys roared and giggled. When I leaned a bit to the side to look past Chan's broad shoulders one of them, a bulky guy with a piercing in his eyebrow, spotted me and made kissing noises as if he had found a little kitten and stretched his hand out towards me, acting as if he wanted to lure me to him.

I felt nauseous and I unconsciously clawed my hand in Chan's shirt. He talked again, not sounding like his usual self, he almost growled at them but without shouting or even getting any louder. At this moment I suddenly understood why he was the leader, why the other guys had this deep respect for him even though they were goofing around with him most of the time.