HACKER

chapter 20

"jaemin, renjun, jeno and hyuck, would you explain to me what happened?", taeyong asked. johnny, mark and ten were also in the room, along with jaehyun. "how did yeonha receive that box full of bloody jewelry?"

"she went to the convenience store to buy ice cream but she came back with a box, saying a guy gave it to her", renjun explained. "i have a feeling we were being watched. i'm not sure how they figured it out"

"i see, can you call chenle in? is he done inspecting the box?", taeyong asked johnny. he nodded and quickly called for chenle's presence. chenle came in with the box and placed it on taeyong's desk. "i found a letter on the bottom of the box"

"well, what did it say?", taeyong asked the younger boy. chenle stood straight and spoke. "it said 'how i miss you wearing these jewelries', that's it"

"chenle, you should explain everything to the four of them. what you found out in busan", taeyong said and chenle nodded. "jaemin, we found out that your father is part of a mafia gang"

"he's what?", jaemin questioned in shock. "how? why? when?"

"apparently, he's been more on child trafficking and he's been doing it for a while", chenle explained. "his gang is also connected with golden child. i'm suspecting that yeonha also knew about the whole mafia thing back then"

"how?", jeno asked.

"she has been hanging out with golden child members ever since last year", chenle revealed. "i was able to get that much information. i've concluded that i think one of the members like her"

"so that's why they're sending threats", haechan said. "but i didn't expect one of them to be some kind of stalker or psycho for yeonha"

"i'm not letting them get near yeonha, over my dead body", jaemin said, with his presence darkening by the second. "i can't let my sister be with someone who has the guts to send her that box"

"jaemin, try to calm down—"

"jeno, how the fuck am i supposed to calm down? tell me!", jaemin lashed out. "after i lost kieun, i thought i lost everything. now that i have yeonha, i'm making sure she isn't gonna get hurt by others"

"i've never been so fond of yeonha, but that jerk better not hurt her", haechan said. "she isn't going anywhere. i'm also making sure of it"

"we're all making sure of it", taeyong said. "that's why i want us to attack them as soon as possible"

"why can't we do it now? they have lesser members than us", jeno questioned. taeyong sighed as he looked at them. "they're extremely good at explosives"

"that's how hansol died. we thought we successfully escaped and hansol was behind us", mark said. "little did we know they had explosives hidden in the ground"

"golden child has been enemies with us ever since we killed one of their members", taeyong explained. "not only did we just lose hansol, we lost kieun because of them"

"that's why i want all of them dead before my eyes", jaemin said with his darkening eyes.

"i don't want them to take the person who made my life better", renjun muttered and quickly left taeyong's office, slamming the door behind him.

✸

it had been a couple of days since that box had been given to me. i didn't go out of my room because i was still shocked and i couldn't process anything properly. i just stayed inside and practiced hacking. i didn't talk to any of the members and jaemin would always check up on me from time to time, assuring me that everything will be okay.

"i'll try to think more positively, it's been days since i last left my room anyways", i said to myself. i couldn't stay there all the time. i had to do something so that nothing bad would happen to me.

i walked out of my room and proceeded to the kitchen which i found empty. there was barely anyone home, i wondered why. i ate brunch since i woke up late, then later on staying in the lounge room to get my mind off things. i ended up walking around the house because i couldn't stop thinking about things.

i ended up at the door of renjun's office. i stared at the keypad and remembered that he had changed the password. i entered the old password, hoping that it would open and it did.

"i thought he changed the password though", i said as i slowly opened the door to see renjun sleeping on his couch that he had in his office. "why did he drink?"

i noticed the soju bottle on his coffee table. i looked at renjun who was sleeping soundly on the couch. i sat on the floor, in front of the couch. i stared at renjun as i got lost in a train of thoughts.

"why does he have to be so difficult to understand", i muttered as i saw him move slightly, but was still sleeping. "i'm not sure whether i like you or not, but you make me happy"

i decided to sit on the couch, since there was a bit of space for me to sit on beside him. i noticed that his hair was poking his eyelids, so i put it back so that it wouldn't poke his eyelids. after a couple of minutes, i heard whimpers from renjun.

"i'm sorry... i didn't care about the two of you", renjun whimpered as his peaceful sleep was disturbed by a nightmare. "i couldn't even do anything"

"i'm a bad son", he lowly whimpered and he sounded like he was about to cry. "i'm sorry"

i was shocked by this side of renjun. i slowly patted his arm to wake him up from the nightmare.

"renjun, wake up", i repeated softly until his eyelids opened and we made eye contact. "you're having a nightmare"

he blinked for a few times as he stared at me.

"can you stay here with me?", he asked. "i couldn't get a wink of sleep the past few days"

"is that why you drank?", i questioned and he nodded. "sure, i'll stay with you"

"can you stay beside me here?", renjun asked and i nodded. he stared at me for a bit and grabbed my arm, pulling me down beside him. he made sure that the two of us could fit on the couch. "by beside me, i meant this"

i was speechless by his actions, not knowing what to say. our faces were inches apart. i noticed that it had been happening a lot recently.

"can i hug you?", he asked in a soft whisper-like voice. i didn't reply and just stared at his sleep eyes. "i'm taking that as a yes"

he pulled me by my waist and buried his head into my neck.

"i'm sorry but i'm really clingy"