Meori Apeuda

Chapter 40

“They’re here…” Han murmured. He had looked out of the window for the last fifteen minutes. 

The rest of us were assembled on the couch, silent, nobody had dared to talk. Chan sat next to me, his hand holding mine, squeezing it from time to time. I felt him shaking slightly and reached over to rub his thigh consolingly with my other hand.

Everyone looked tense and nervous. Hyunjin seemed to be unable to sit still and was pacing through the room. IN’s gaze constantly bounced from one member to the other, while picking at his fingernails and Felix ran his hand through his hair every few minutes. 

Lee Know and Changbin seemed to be the most relaxed ones, but only at first glance. Bin relentlessly cracked his knuckles and Minho’s leg was slightly bouncing constantly. After taking a deep breath and clearing my throat I murmured: “I could still run downstairs and hide in the gym…? You don’t have to tell him anything about me!” 

But Chan just shook his head. Hyunjin looked over,  stopped his pacing, his hands still behind his back and said: “No. What would be the outcome? You’d have to hide all the time, not being able to be with Chan-hyung. And I don’t want to lie with Pak Hyun Ki-nim. He is always good to us. We need his help, so we can protect you.”

The certainty in his voice, the way he was saying it made clear that it was a no-brainer for them to protect me from Brent…They would probably never realise what that meant to me. Tears welled up in my eyes. “I am so sorry guys…” I felt a hand on my back and looked over to Changbin, who sat beside me. “No sorry. No fear.” He smiled and I mirrored his smile as best as I could. Gently he wiped a tear from my cheek.

Outside we heard car doors closing and footsteps coming for the door. Seconds later the door opened and the guys rose from the couch simultaneously. I quickly stood up too, almost hidden behind Chan’s and Changbin’s shoulders. The situation reminded me a little bit of our first evening in the Karaoke bar, when they had placed themselves between me and the intruders.

Only this time the men that entered the room now, weren’t really enemies, were they? One of them was a middle aged man, approximately in his early 40s, wearing dark blue jeans, black, shiny shoes and a long sleeve white dress shirt. Behind him four of the hugest men I had ever met in my life entered, all of them wearing black shirts and jeans. Two of them even had sunglasses on even though they were inside.

The members bowed to their manager and security team, mumbling their greetings. I quickly copied them. When I straightened up again, I saw that Mr. Pak had his arms around Felix and was ruffling his hair lovingly, making the younger one giggle.

Lifting his head he saw Han and stretched one arm out to him, his other still around Felix’ shoulders. “Jisung-ah…” He said, his voice full of warmth and Han skipped over, joining the hug. The manager laughed and lifted his head, looking at the rest of the members. That’s when our eyes met and he froze.

Han and Felix followed his gaze and then looked at each other, their nervousness clearly visible on their faces.

Chan straightened his back and took a small step sideways, bringing his body between me and Mr. Pak, as if he wanted to protect me from the eyes of his boss. The manager focused his attention on the leader and asked him something, his voice calm and businesslike.

Chan bowed again and answered, his hands balled into fists at his side were slightly shaking. It hurt me to see him so nervous and scared. I wanted to support him, but didn’t dare to take his hand. So I just lifted my hand and laid it on his lower back, hoping that my touch would calm him a little bit.

Nobody said anything while the two men were talking. I carefully leaned sideways to see what was going on. The manager had taken his arms off Han and Felix and crossed them in front of his chest, listening to Chan with a light frown.