POISONED YOUTH: TWISTED

CHAPTER 16

"Where were you?"

Those were the first words Yeoreum heard the moment she stepped into the apartment.

Yoonoh raised a brow as his eyes followed her across the room. She looked completely lost in her own world, dragging her feet toward her bedroom with an expressionless face.

He watched her disappear behind the door. The moment it closed, his brows furrowed.

He shrugged, figuring she had probably just had a bad day at school.

"Or is it already past seven?" he murmured, glancing toward her bedroom again.

Something about her expression bothered him.

Yoonoh pulled out his phone and dialed a familiar number.

"Hello?"

"Good evening, Yeji. I just wanted to ask if Yeoreum had a bad day at school. She looks... weird."

"She did. She's been blabbering nonstop about Chanwoo and her soul—oh, right! Did she tell you that her soulmate came to pick her up? Damn, he looks hot."

Yoonoh froze. "Wait, wait, wait. Come again? Her soulmate?"

"Oh, yeah. His name is Lee Donghyuck, right? Yeah, she said it."

"Fucking hell."

"Yo, dude, what's with the cussing?"

"Sorry. Thanks, Yeji."

"Oh. Okay, yeah."

The call ended.

Yoonoh immediately cursed under his breath again.

His fingers moved quickly across his phone as he called the next number, already preparing himself to curse the hell out of the boy on the other end.

"Fuck, answer, you shi—"

"Hyung."

"What did you do to Yeoreum?"

"Nothing?"

"Then why does she look so... blank?"

"Oh, that."

There was a brief pause.

"I introduced her to the gang."

Yoonoh's eyes widened. "You did what now?!"

Blocked from the shouting and cursing outside was Yeoreum, sprawled across her bed with her legs hanging over the edge.

The lights were off. The only thing illuminating the dim room was the soft glow of the little stars scattered across her ceiling.

Her mind kept returning to Dream's house. Everything about that place felt too heavy for her to process.

The mansion.

The seven boys.

The way they acted around each other.

The way Haechan casually admitted that they were a gang.

She should have realized it sooner.

They had fought Jin's men.