MINERVA

CHAPTER 7

Kim Ji Eun P.O.V.

And we did look for ice cream. We drove all over town, with Ji Yong behind the wheel and me in charge of the playlist. I had decided to put on a playlist that Tae Joon and Min Joon had made together and contained all of their favourite songs. A lot of those songs just so happened to be songs by Big Bang. We stopped by just about every ice cream place we knew and, of course, none of them were open. At the moment we were stood in front of a small corner shop that was open 24 hours a day. We had given up on ice cream and had decided that ramen would be way better. "Ji Yong, it might be better for me to go into the store alone. I'll get us some ramen and we can eat it on the bench out in front." Ji Yong looked at me like I had grown an extra pair of eyes. "If people recognise it would be pretty hard to explain why you were at a convenience store at 3 A.M. with a girl. I don't really want any rumors of that sort either, it might effect Tae Joon in the long run." Ji Yong nodded. "I'll just go sit on the bench over there. I'll set up for the picnic." He smiled and I walked in to the store.

Ten minutes later we were sitting on a bench under a tree eating steaming hot ramen. Ji Yong was blowing on his ramen waiting for it to cool down and looked up to me all of a sudden. "Can I ask you something?" "Depends on the question." "Tae Joon told me about you running away from home when you were 16. Het said that it had to do with your parents and I guess I was wondering if there was any way I could help?" That surprised me. Most people who got to know about our family situation and us running away tried to dig into our past and figure out who our parents where and why we hated them so much. I was quiet for a while and Ji Yong continued to talk. "It's just that Tae Joon said that you guys take care of your youngest brother and I happened to hear one of their conversations in the hall a while ago. If he needs a place to stay or something I would be more than happy to help." Ji Yong was so different from what rumours said. He was sweet and seemed to be genuinely willing to help us out. "Thank you for your offer. I managed to raise them since I was around eight years old so I think we'll be fine." "You raised them?" "I was raised by a girl from China 'till I was eight years old, my Chinese was far better than my Korean. Then my parents decided that I should be perfectly capable of taking care of my younger siblings and fired her. I took care if them then, Min Joon was not even born then, but I took care of him after he was born, so he's nearly like a son to me. I taught them Chinese to communicate without my parents understanding and I paid for Tae Joon's classes in ballet and music since I was ten years old. So yeah, I guess you could say I raised them." "Is that why Min Joon started talking to you in Chinese?" "What?" "When you had an attack in the elevator. You calmed down when he started talking in Chinese." "It's a safe language to me. It always meant safety when we were young. With those attacks I mostly need someone to tell me I'm safe and we found out it works even better in Chinese. Luckily I rarely need it anymore. There was a time when my entire life solely existed out of attacks and flashbacks, but I don't remember much of that time." "What happened?" "For me not to remember? Anti depressants and other drugs." "No, for you to have these attacks." I stopped talking. I had already told him far more than most people in my life knew. In a way he made me feel safe and at home. But telling him about those months was not something I could do. "You're getting a bit too personal now. I barely even told my brothers about that." Ji Yong looked slightly shocked. "Sorry," he said, "I got way too worked up." For a minute there was an awkward silence. I looked Ji Yong in the eyes. "Now that you've asked a bunch of questions I've also got one for you." Ji Yong looked at me with a questioning look on his face. "You can find most things about me on the internet." I grinned. "After I brought you home that night, when I stole all you cigarettes and threw them away, did you buy new ones?"

Kwon Ji Yong P.O.V.
I felt blood rush to my cheeks when she asked me that. Usually I never really felt ashamed of smoking. I was sorry to my mother and really hoped not to influence my fans, but in Korea smoking was still generally accepted, loads of young people smoked to release stress. However when I had read her letter that morning I had felt incredibly ashamed. "I'm sorry if it seems pushy and I realise that it's none of my business, but I speak from experience when I say that serving is a hell when you smoke. I'm just concerned about your wellbeing, that's all." I smiled at her. "I bought new ones. It has become a habit to always carry a pack with me." I hesitated before continuing and felt Ji Eun disappointed eyes looking at me. "I didn't touch them after that. I just bought them, they're still in the bottom of my bag." Ji Eun reached over and grabbed my bag. She zipped it open and grabbed the packet of cigarettes. Then she threw them in the remains of her ramen. I just watched her do it with a confused mind. "Does my smoking annoy you that much?" She held up her wrist which showed a round burn mark. "I've had people put out cigarettes on my skin, so I've come to hate them." She hid her wrist under her sleeve again. "And now you can forget that you saw that and just stop smoking for your own health. I keep saying things and doing stuff I normally don't so I guess it's time for me to go to bed. I'd appreciate it if you could give me a ride home."

Twenty minutes later I parked my car in the garage of the dorms building. I had decided that sleeping close to work would also be beneficial for me, so we got into the elevator together. We arrived at the floor Ji Eun had to be at and we both left the elevator. "Thank you," I said, "for taking me out for ice cream. Although we'll have to get the ice cream some other time. And thank you for answering my questions, I'm sorry if I was noisy and obnoxious." Ji Eun smiled. "Thank you for taking my mind of things. I enjoyed spending the night with you." Then she promised me to buy me ice cream sometime soon and left for her brother's dorm.

Kim Ji Eun P.O.V.
A week after the ramen incident I was sat in the shotgun seat of Tae Joon's car, screaming lyrics with Min Joon mimicking guitar solos and Tae Joon doing adlibs in weird voice tones. It was a fairly typical car ride for the three of us and we were headed for an area of green just outside of Seoul. Originally we were going to go to Busan, but Min Joon had forgotten that he had home work so we had decided to keep it at going just outside of the city. Tae Joon had to pay attention to the road and turned the music down a bit. "Noona," Min Joon said from the backseat, "Is your injury okay now? I'm so sorry I wasn't around when your incident happened. Maybe either Tae hyung or I should always stay around in case stuff like this happens. We can't go around asking Ji Yong hyung to pick you up again." I turned around in my seat. "Don't worry kiddo," I assured him, "it doesn't happen very often that the entirety of team Crazy and you and your brother are gone, so I think there's no need for you to worry. If it just so happens that everyone is gone once again I'll just join one of you. For now let's go get a parking spot and go hunt for some food because I'm damn hungry and all the food we ate at camp today were potatoes, which I can no longer eat."

The boys ran out of the car when we had parked, having to let out some energy after the long ride. That also resulted in me grabbing most of the stuff from the car and the boys running back to help me. We set up our tent and walked to the entrance of the camping, in search for food.