Watch Out

Anyone But Him

The next day, the boys decided that they wanted to start telling me about how they became who they were now. I'd asked a few times before, but they never actually answered, which I respected. I understood that it must've been hard for them to be able to tell new people about their past that make them gang members. They told me Jeongin's story first since he's the one I met first.

Chan was the one telling me Jeongin's story. "I think that out of all of us, I.N's story is the saddest. The first time we met I.N, my dad was still the one in charge of the gang. He was no where near as accepting of other people as we were, so when I.N's parents got involved in one of the gang fights, he was not merciful at all. They were both unarmed, and his mom was holding I.N who was crying. He was only three or four at the time. My dad...He killed both of I.N's parents in front of him. He would've let I.N die too, but my mom loved kids and fell in love with I.B the moment she saw him. She liked him more than she liked me, if I'm honest. Anyway, my mom basically raised him and was really protective of him, but my dad..."

Jeongin took over as I finished wrapping his shoulder. "His dad hated me. He only kept me around because of his wife and Channie hyung. When his wife wasn't around, he would force Channie hyung and I to help them commit crimes because we were small and would beat us whenever we messed anything up."

I looked at Jeongin in amazement. "I can't believe you had to go through that. You always seem so happy, so I never would've guessed that you went through so much."

Jeongin just nodded, making me want to hug him even more than I did before. How could anyone hate him?

They took turns telling me the rest of their stories. Felix was relatively new to the gang, having just moved here from Australia a few years ago. Chan had lived in Australia until elementary school when his dad was forced to move here and took over the gang. The rest of them were raised by gang members that had always been here. I felt bad for them. I'd never seen myself as privileged, but compared to them, my life must've been heaven.

I looked at my hands which were folded in my lap. "I kinda feel bad for you all. Both of my parents have pretty good paying jobs, and we're what people would call the perfect family. I never realized how bad other people's family lives were before. I never really got to interact with many people because I had some health problems when I was kid, so I've always been homeschooled."

The boys were all looking at me with surprised expressions when I looked up. After a moment, Minho spoke. "Our little nurse had health problems? What were they?"

I rubbed the back of my neck a little. "I used to be abnormally frail, and no one knew why. Basically, I had to either stay in bed or a wheelchair. Eventually, they found out that I had bone cancer. Luckily, they found out that it was early enough to save me, but it kinda stunted my growth, meaning I'm stuck being this small."

Once again, the boys looked amazed. Finally, Woojin spoke. "So we have a personal nurse that's a cancer survivor. Aren't we lucky?"

I laughed a little, nodding. "And my mom is a surgeon. Sulgi and I actually met in the hospital. She was going to see her dad that was hurt in a work accident and came into my room by mistake. We've been friends ever since."

Woojin brought another question to the conversation. "You mentioned that both of your parents have well paying jobs and that your mom is  a surgeon, but what about you dad?"

I paused for a moment. "Don't freak out or get mad at me, but my dad is the chief of police. I swear that he doesn't know that the people that I've been hanging out with are part of a gang. I would've said something sooner, but I was worried that you'd want nothing to do with the chief's daughter."