HOW YOU LIKE THAT | JENLISA

Chapter 21

Jennie

I woke up in the morning with a jolt and for a second I couldn't remember where I was, until I searched my surroundings and recognised the room. Fragments of yesterday's incident began resurfacing in my mind along and the pain in my leg that felt like someone was stabbing me repeatedly with sharpened knives. The leg was in plaster cast, which was a clear indication that I'd received proper medical attention.

Out of all the people in the family, Bambam was the last one that I had expected to see, in my room. The seventeen-year-old with a serious attitude problem.

He was sitting near my dresser, while playing aggressively on one of those fancy gadgets. When he noticed that I was awake, he spared me a glance before turning his attention back to the game.

"Don't you have school today?" I asked, while sitting up.

"I do, but I don't think that's any of your business. It's Lisa that you should worry about. Not me!" He snapped, while pinning me with a sharp look.

"Have I done something to you, Bam? I don't understand what warrants your rude behaviour towards me, honestly."

"It's Bambam for you, Jennie Kim. And don't mind me; I always wake up on the wrong side of the bed, honestly."

"Are all the Manobans crazy like you and your brother?"

He laughed, "We're not crazy, maybe a little psychotic, and deranged. But definitely not crazy. Not yet..."

"Same thing." I said.

Bambam looked at the closed bedroom door before turning to me, "I've been asked to keep an eye on you, although I don't think you'll be going anywhere with that leg of yours." He lowered his voice down further. "Here's a tip if you want to avoid accidents like these in the future. Stay on Nichkhun's good side, and do what he tells you to."

"Fuck all of you." I said under my breath. "What's his kill count?"

He gave me that slow grin, and he looked so much like Lisa. The two were similar in so many ways; well, if you ignored Bambam's rude behaviour. "That's for me to know and for you to find out."

"So if I stayed on Nichkhun's good side, he'll let me go?"

"I won't lie to you, but you're not going anywhere, and it would be best for you to adjust with this life, Jennie Kim."

I suddenly noticed that my good leg had a round black anklet around it. "What is that?" I couldn't keep the fear out of my voice.

"All of the staff here wear it. It's a tracker."

"How does it come off?" I asked even though chances were that he wouldn't tell me about it.

"It doesn't, that's the point. Unless you die or cut off your own foot." He said, with a deadpan expression.

Then it just hit me.

"Mark? Why was he limping? Was it because..."

"You're smarter than I thought. Mark tried to escape several times too and kept getting tracked down, so he cut off his foot with a hacksaw. Didn't make it too far, and he would have bled to death anyway but Nichkhun saved his life and now he has a fake foot implant or some shit like that."

"That's pretty fucked up. Nichkhun is the one who put him in that situation, and that's not called saving his life. If he was actually saving his life, he would have let Mark go."

"I'm not telling you this to scare you, but I'm hoping that you would think before you plan another escape. If you managed to get the tracker off, Nichkhun will still find you, and bring you back here, and the next time around, it'll be way worse."

"So, I'm not just a caretaker in this house."

Bambam chuckled, "You're a prisoner, Jennie Kim." He planted his foot on the bed in front of me. "Just like me."

He was wearing the anklet tracker too.