Before I'm Gone | Stray Kids FF

The Truth

Seungmin POV

"She has a what?!" Hyunjin stood up.

"A boyfriend," Felix repeated. "Hwan."

"Hyung, calm down." Jeongin pulled on Hyunjin's arm and pulled him down to sit with them at the table.

"Why does it matter so much to you?" Woojin said, taking a sip of his iced coffee. "I mean, I get it, we're all surprised, but you... you're raging."

"Sorry," Hyunjin mumbled as he sat down.

"You still didn't answer the question," Woojin said, putting down his cup.

"Yeah, why is that, hyung?" I asked, leaning in.

"No reason." He looked away from us.

"And you, Minho," I pointed out. "have been awfully silent about this whole topic."

"Aren't I always silent?" He retorted.

"Not when it comes to Areum," I said, looking over to Chan.

"Excuse me?" Minho spoke up.

"He's not wrong." Jisung stepped in before Minho could try and kill me for saying that. "You do talk a lot about Areum."

"Aish." He crossed his arms and sat back in his chair.

Chan sighed as he looked at the door. "Would you look at that." We all turned our heads. "Here they come."

~*~

Jeongin POV

My brain hurt. I had just had math class. You know, Mental Abuse To Humans. Yeah, that class. It was finally the end of the day and I was about to go on my walk home. Woojin told me that I had to walk today because he had some kind of meeting with a group of people he was working with for a project of some sort. Just as I was passing through the back of the school, I heard loud shouts. Something told me that I had to check it out. Plus, my curiosity was taking over. My feet led me to the shed at the back of the school. There, I heard the yells of one person and whimpers of two.

"It's not working!" The female voice yelled. "None of my friends are getting them to notice!" She paused. "Neither am I!" Her voice was getting annoyed. "I told you to tell them you had a boyfriend." She calmed down a bit. "And you did." Her voice started to turn into a shout again. "But you didn't do enough!"

"I'm sorry!" A familiar voice rang out. "But I can't force them to notice you and like you!"

"You..." instead of a finished sentence, I heard two screams. My instincts told me to get in there and stop whoever it was from hurting others.

"Hey!" I said, going around the shed. "Stop."

The person turned around slyly to me but stopped with her wicked ways once she saw that it was me. Her eyes widened and she dropped her hand from... from Areum's neck?! I watched as Areum collapsed to the ground, Haneul immediately catching her and easing her to the ground while trying to wake her up. The girl froze as she stared at me, her heart seemed to be racing. Glaring at her, I walked past to Areum. Checking on her before I looked at the girl, I noticed the many bruises all over Areum's face and arms.

"Why would you do this?" I asked. "Is this the person you want Stray Kids to see?"

"No." She scoffed. "But this girl was getting in my way."

"This girl," I crossed my arms. "Is one of our best friends, and part of the team." It felt like I was glaring flames at her. "And you better treat her well."

"Hmph." She turned and walked away. "It's not like you were the one I'm interested in anyway."

"What happened this time?" I turned to Haneul.

"We were just about to walk to the library..." She looked over at Areum. "Then that girl... Duri. She came up to us and said she needed to talk to her. Me knowing it was not safe, said I wanted to tag along, which she said was fine." She sighed. "Then she started going off about how Areum was not doing enough and was... I think you heard, yeah?"

"She was faking?" I was confused.

"She was." Haneul looked at me with kind eyes. "Please, don't tell the others yet though. I know she would not want that, and plus, if they knew, all of you would be in danger."

"Danger?" I shook my head, thinking about how there would be eleven of us against that one girl.

"Yes, there are many of them." Haneul put her hand on my arm. "And next to that, Duri's father is the head of the board."

"O-oh." I nodded. "If they find out... then I guess I'll have to tell them that too."

"Yeah." Haneul looked around. "How are we gonna get her home?"

Ring. Ring.

"One second, someone's calling me." I got my phone out and saw that it was Woojin calling me. I answered and he practically yelled at me because I was not home and he was worried. I told him that I just saw some commotion and got caught up with watching, that I would be coming home soon.

"Older brother?" Haneul questioned.

"You could say that." I looked around. "I think I might have to text one of the guys..."

"Tell me which ones you're going to call." She replied quietly.

"How does Chan, Minho and Changbin sound?" I said, typing away.

"Chan?" She looked away. "Doesn't he live in the opposite direction?"

"Well, you need to get home somehow right?" I shrugged as I continued to text in the midst of standing up.

"Right..." She nodded and looked at Areum.

"Alright, they're on their way." I looked at Haneul. "Thanks."

"Huh? Shouldn't I be saying thanks to you?"

"No." I looked around. "I should thank you." My eyes landed on hers. "She's been acting up. Thank you for being her friend when the boys and I can't be."

"Of course..." She nodded.

"Do you know why she's acting up?" I suddenly asked.

"You have no idea." Was her reply.

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Okay, so I just wanted to post an extra chapter to say thank you for the 700 reads! It really amazes me that I have that many reads!

I would like to ask you guys, what kind of update schedule you would like. I'm thinking of doing 3 chapters a week? What days do you guys want?

Lastly, I want to start something new. In every chapter, I will be giving a shout out to someone who I took note of supporting this book if there is someone that is. So if you vote on multiple chapters, adding the book to a reading list, commenting, etc. Anything that's showing support to me as an author or this book. You could be the lucky one I give a shout out too in a chapter. I just really want to say thanks, so to those I see notably supporting the book, will get that shout out. I will be putting this in a separate chapter at the beginning of the story for more information!

Thank you to straykidsfeverlover for supporting this book! 

See you in the next one!