The Elephant Between Us || SKZ

chapter eleven

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SET A THIEF TO CATCH A THIEF

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By that moment, Jeongmin could hear his breath and, by its speed, she knew she had screwed up badly. Very badly.

"No... No, you didn't..."

She could no longer hold her tears and, surprisingly, he let go of her.

"You know what? I did! I really did!! WHY THE HELL WOULD I KEEP THAT PIECE OF SH.T IN MY HOUSE?!"

Changbin brought his hands to his head, looking away from her. 

He can't even look at you.

She did it all for her brother and her. She did it so they could eat, smile and sleep, and that was where Jeongmin laid all her attention at that moment. She had done what had to be done.

"Give me the money, then." He said, finally looking at her. "I don't care about the watch, just give me the money you received from it."

She laughed.

"You must be stupid." Jeongmin was desperate, but still great at hiding it. "There's no money. I no longer have that money. I've used it already." She spoke slowly, her palms together in front of her mouth.

By that time, she didn't really know whether or not Changbin was not more nervous than her.

"The watch wasn't yours, was it?" She asked, taking a step toward him. "Otherwise you'd have come after me a long time ago, right?"

"Stop that! I just want my money back, that's it!"

"Yeah, sure." She said with a chuckle, drying her tears with the back of her hands as she went past him to leave the breakroom. "That's not gonna happen."

He grabbed her by the arm before she could open the door.

"You're right, okay? It's not mine, and that's the problem." Changbin said, and she could perfectly see the fear inside his pupils. "It's my boss's."

"You shouldn't have had it around your wrist in the first place, then." 

Jeongmin just left and, surprisingly to her, he didn't stop her that time. In fact, he only left the café a minute later. Silenced. Completely calm, as if nothing had just happened inside those four damn walls. 

"Hello, Miss. It's a slice of strawberry cake, please." She heard someone say, yet her attention was far away from her ears already. Very far away.

The client had to repeat three times for Jeongmin to come back to her senses.

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A day had passed and, by that time, Jeongmin was already pretending like she had nothing to do, like she had nothing to worry about. Just like she didn't owe anything to anyone. 

Fake it until you make it, they say. Well, that was exactly what she was doing, or trying to do.

"How did you and my friend meet, by the way?" Hyunjin asked as he made himself a cup of coffee. 

"Changbin?" Jeongmin asked, scrolling on her phone as she was sitting on the table with her legs crossed.

"Yeah. How did you guys know each other?"

She looked at him, still scrolling.

"He had a cup of tea here the other day." She shrugged. "He was nice, I was nice. It just happened."

"That's weird." He mumbled, sitting on a chair next to her. "Changbin doesn't really like drinking tea."

"Guess there's plenty of things you don't really know about your friend, then. How did you meet?"

"I don't even know." He chuckled, and Jeongmin smiled. "We were very little when we met, and we've been good friends since then. It's the kind of friend you don't see a lot but, when you meet up, it's like no time has passed." 

It was adorable to see him talking so delightfully about a friend, yet Jeongmin felt extremely unpleased with the fact that it had to be about Changbin.

Trillions of guys on the planet, but it had to be Changbin.

"You like him a lot, I see."

Hyunjin nodded, took a sip of his coffee and sighed tiredly.

"I'm glad summer's ending, by the way. I'm already sick of so many tourists walking their dogs."

"And I'm tired of them thinking this is their goddamn playground." She stood up and walked over to her locker. "I can't even hear my thoughts with so much noise."

"Finally someone who agrees with me." Hyunjin laughed and so did Jeongmin. 

They both were glad they had each other. In fact, Jeongmin couldn't even imagine how much harder things could be if she didn't have Hyunjin working beside her every day. He made everything so much lighter.

If only it wasn't for Changbin-

Jeongmin was about to put her phone inside the locker when it suddenly started ringing in the middle of her hand. 

"Who's it?" Hyunjin asked, standing up to put the cup in the sink to wash later.

"My brother."

Hyunjin was pretty far from understanding her quiet reaction. Why wasn't she answering the call? Why was she staring at her phone ringing like that? He couldn't get it. In fact, he started to worry.

"Is everything okay, Jeongmin?" He tapped her shoulder and she suddenly seemed to come back to earth. 

"Jeongin might be all protective, yet he never really calls me..." She gulped, glancing at Hyunjin before answering the call in an utterly impulsive movement. 

She didn't even think about the fact that Hyunjin was right beside her ready to listen to the conversation.

"Jeongin? Why are you calling-?" 

"Jeongmin, you gotta come home. Right now." 

He sounded nervous. Like really, really nervous.

"I am working-"

"They turned our house upside down, Jeongmin."

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