off to the races (13/?)
off to the races (12 pt. 2/?)
~ 8100 w, r, (krystal/kai) l part i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x. xi. xii pt1. xii pt.2
Krystal wants to inform him of the cursed truth - he will never wriggle free from his lineage.
■ fanmix/soundtrack
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Despite her shitty mood combined with her hatred for early (school) mornings, Krystal has become more forgiving with the alarm and less prone to breaking them. She’s learnt a very important lesson that there is not one person that is not annoying in this house, if she doesn’t get her ass out of bed? No worries, someone will drag her by the hair.
She half ass everything in the dressing up routine apart from brushing her teeth (maybe). The tie hangs loosely off her neck, knee socks slightly uneven and blouse probably not buttoned up correctly. What’s the point of looking into the mirror? Krystal asks a rhetoric question that even she rolls her eyes at as she stumbles out the door.
In a hindsight, she should have been more weary, living in a house full of criminals, especially when a very moody (and pouty) one lives right next to her.
Jongin’s coming out of his room too, locking the door behind him and stuffing the key into his pocket. Krystal thinks he can sense her presence but is choosing to ignore her (that’s his favorite game to play since two days ago).
She strolls pass him and down the stairs, shrugging on her blazer to brace herself for the iciness that will prick for the rest of her stay.
-
Jongin skips the first two periods and trades it in for a pack of cigarette.
To put it kindly: he thinks this is all too stupid to comprehend. To put it frankly: he wants to shoot all of them in the face then spit on their corpses. But he can’t, they’re his friends - even if it doesn’t feel that way at this moment.
Jongin’s come to terms with the fact that it may be reckless of her (completely and undoubtedly stupid) to go through with ‘the plan,’ but he’s got no right to be mad at her. It’s her life, if she wants to waste it away (again, kind of) then who is he to stop her?
“Of course she wants to go home. Who the hell wouldn’t?” He mutters to himself, kicking a small rock then lighting another Marlbolo to curb his urge to strangle Sehun then Baekhyun (in that order).
But Sehun, Jongin cannot understand nor justify. What promises has he made and broken to Krystal? And more importantly, who the fuck does he think he is to call all the shots without asking any of them first? Sure, he hasn’t and doesn’t plan on indulging them with the ‘who, what, why, how’ of his past with Krystal a.k.a Soojung (a.k.a whoever that is). But that is a private affair, it doesn’t concern anyone else but them.
How many time is that stupid bitch going to die in his life time anyway?
-
She hates trigonometry, she doesn’t understand it and it gives her a headache - it’s evil, that’s all (you need to know) and all she got from these classes.
So this is what high school is like, the realization slaps Krystal in the face like Tao’s boxer short whenever he tries to fling it into the laundry basket. No fun, no in-jokes - for her at least. Not to be cocky but she had always thought she would be one of the ‘cool kids’, maybe it’s a naïve thought but with her looks, she’s just not destined to be a loner (Taehyun can be considered a friend, kind of?)
“You”
She blinks, wearily glancing around the class room. “M - me?”
“Yeah, you,” the teacher sends a nasty glare her way, “Come up here and solve this equation. This should stop you from day dreaming.”
Holding in a grumble, she edges her chair away with the sole of her goodie good school girl shoes and take slow steps that matches her breathing. First of all, she wasn’t “day dreaming” - she was contemplating the universe and all its answers. Secondly, algebra - really? (“Sorry sir, I skipped most if not all of middle school.”) Thirdly, she’s so screwed - fuck, fuck, fuck -
“Mister Bae”
Catching the whiteboard marker before it falls to the floor, Krystal becomes aware of her trembling hands. She can’t recall the last time she’s been this nervous, or this embarrassed - in fact, she can’t remember ever being humiliated in front of a cohort.
“Yes, Junhee, what can I do for you?”
“I just did some rough work on the numbers,” the girl says with a voice that drips confidence but retain its weakness, “Forgive me if I’m wrong but if the equation is done properly, we should end up with a negative correlation. That’s skipping two chapters ahead from what we are learning now.”
Mister Bae narrows his eyes, swiveling his head over his shoulder to appraise her bitterly. Clearing his throat, he says snappily, “Junhee is quite right. Krystal, you can return to your seat now.”
Hushed whispers erupt amongst the students as Krystal drags her feet back to her desk, her knees weak and legs threatening to fall from under. Try as she might to raise her head up high, she doesn’t have the will to keep up the haughty image (at least for the moment.) At the back of the room, Junhee catches her eyes, on her lips is a small smile (not entirely friendly but there’s no malice there either) that she struggles to mirror.
In the process of pulling herself together, Krystal sits down and almost missed the tapping on her shoulder.
“What a dick”
A girl who can be easily mistaken for a boy mumbles, mocking the teacher’s stern expression with her comical imitation. It’s not much but it’s enough to make Krystal muffle her snort with the back of her hand.
“Does he have nothing better to do but pick on a bunch of high school kids or am I the new favorite?” she questions with a hint of sarcasm.
“Ha! Thanks for replacing me. I was his flavor of the month - or year, before you came along,” the tomboy scoffs, putting a hand out for a high-five which she gladly responds, “Amber, by the way, the only cool one out of these nerds.”
The girl next to her sends a withering glare their way. “Who are you calling a nerd?”
In synch, both of them counters at the same time, “You”
Grinning back at one another, Amber slaps a firm hand onto the ‘nerd’s back and decides, “We’re swapping seats once the bell rings. I’m sitting there from now on.”
-
“She sure is getting along well with people.”
The three of them watches from Sehun’s locker as Jung Krystal laughs, loud and clear from the other end of the hall. The sound of her joy echoes from wall to wall as her new found group of friends entertain her with jokes. One of them must have whispering something rather scandalous because the circle of girls break into a collective gasp.
“It would look kind of weird if she didn’t have any friends at all, aside from, you know,” he tilts his head, motioning at the three of them, “Us”
“If we’re too overprotective, it will just draw more attention to her,” Sehun breaks his silence he has been maintaining for the whole of the discussion, “You don’t want to the students to ask questions.”
Chanyeol nods. “It’s not like she’ll get close to anyone here anyway. She’ll be gone by the next two weeks and people will forget about her soon enough.”
“Aww look at our maknae,” Baekhyun coos, standing on his tip toe to pinch Chanyeol on the cheek patronizingly, “Since when did you get so smart, huh? Hyungs are very proud of you. Yes, we are, oh yes, we are!”
“You’re so annoying,” Chanyeol shakes his head, wincing at the force Sehun puts into slamming his locker’s door shut then turning to him with a scowl, “Hyung, was that really necessary?”
Ignoring him, Sehun aims his question at Baekhyun, “Have you seen Jongin?”
“Are you already missing your boyfriend? It’s only been two hours,” Baekhyun teases, throwing an arm around him, “Okay. Got it, not amused.” He mumbles, scratching his head as he withdraws, “I saw him come into school but he didn’t come to our class this morning so…yeah, that’s that.”
“He’s probably off smoking somewhere,” Chanyeol sniggers, “His attendance rate is in the dumps by now, he might as well not come to school at all.”
“It’s been two days and she hasn’t started her training.” Sehun says, unimpressed, “I’m calling for a meeting tonight.”
“Yeah right, good luck trying to get him to have that conversation,” Baekhyun hums, already chasing skirt of next junior girl that so much as looked his way. “Thinking of it now, Jonginnie is real pissed off at you about Krystal, isn’t he?”
Sehun growls, tearing his eyes away from the repelling sight of Krystal smiling the widest of smiles he’s ever seen on her since their unfortunate meeting.
-
Krystal makes a binding decision for this to be the last time she’ll contact Yixing. She won’t so much as consider dialing his number until she can do what she or rather, they have set out to do.
Sinking down onto her knees, Krystal winces at the coldness of the tiles of the girl’s changing room. She can’t think of a bigger inconvenience but she also can’t think of a better hiding spot for the phone. Living life on the run has its perks - it has made her extra paranoid, which means she is also always one step ahead of everyone else.
“Aha,” she exclaims in a hushed voice, pulling from under the old storage closet the cellphone (Taehyun’s one, more like it) that she carefully wrapped in a handkerchief she pocketed from a random bitch’s swimming gear. Well, at least she robbed a first year bully and not some innocent girl next door.
Hurriedly, Krystal switches the device on and sits down on the bench. She’s got around twenty minutes left until the class is done and twenty-something girls will storm in for a nice, cold shower and touchups. No one would suspect her of being up to anything suspicious anyway - using the phone hardly calls for a detention and after all, she’s the prefect’s cousin.
Staring down at the blinking cursor of the texting box, Krystal feels the words drain from her mind. She recalls faintly that she had constructed a suitable message to leave him (something about staying safe and not worrying). She had not considered even so much as a ‘goodbye’ but this could be it for her, couldn’t it? Jongin’s words haunts her; although he voiced them quite aggressively, she knows them to be true - she might not make it back to Yixing.
Krystal steadies her shaking hands (as much as she could anyway) and attempts to type a coherent sentence.
I don’t think I need to tell you who this is, I know you already know. I wanted to give you a sign that I’m alive, so this it. I can already guess that you are losing sleep, trying to find out where I am and how I am. Don’t come for me. I don’t know how much longer we will be apart but I will find my way back to you, Yixing, I promise.
Love, Soojung.
P.S. This is not a trick - do a spin for me if you’re scared.
With one last look of the message, Krystal makes sure it was sent and delivered before discarding of it from the phone’s record. She doesn’t need a reminder that this may be the last piece of her that he will have to remember her by.
-
“Yo, let’s go get some fried squid, there’s an awesome place five minutes away from here.”
“Yah!” Krystal scolds, elbowing her new friend on her scrawny side, “I already said I have to do.”
“But why?” Amber whines, “Where do you have to be? It’s a school night - wait hold up,” she inspects her closely, getting all up in her face with a prodding look. Amber furrows her brows, rubbing her chin as she frowns and remarks, “Hmm…on second thought, you do look like the clubbing type.”
Krystal cocks her head to the side. “I am not going clubbing, Amber.”
“Then why are you in such a rush?” Amber pesters tirelessly, “I know you’re not run home to do homework. As if!”
Smiling, Krystal shakes her head at Amber’s childishness. “How about you,” Krystal puts an emphasis on the last word, jabbing the tomboy on the chest with her forefinger, “Go home and do some homework? Maybe you can go one week without getting handed a detention slip.”
Amber tsked. “Cause our princess here is so efficient at handing in her work.”
“At least I haven’t gotten in trouble yet,” Krystal counters and sticks out her tongue, “I’ll go out with you for food and pay for it if you can go three days without getting yelled at by Mister Bae -“
Then in the midst of her overly confident challenge, Krystal is prompted by the circumstances of her life. What is she doing, making empty promises and future plans with school friends? She’s not even going to be attending here in the next two weeks. How can she let herself be so caught up in her play pretend?
“Serious? You said it,” Amber clasps her hands together, “You better be ready ‘cause I’m going break the bank. I’m gonna eat everything on the menu.”
“A - actually, Amber,” she begins, swallowing thickly, “I -“
“Hey Krys, you all ready to go?”
She tenses at the recognition of his voice. The sound is starting to become foreign to her ears - that’s how long it’s been since he’s utter so much as a word to her and vice versa. Taking a second to compose herself, Krystal swivels around to Jongin, towering over her with his backpack casually thrown over one shoulder and a friendly smile firmly etched into his relaxed expression. It’s this look, the one he is currently sporting right now that girls fawn over and she can see why. He’s truly a wolf is sheep’s clothing.
“Oh hey, Amber,” he greets the other girl, “I didn’t know you and Soojung were friends.”
“Sup,” she nods, giving him a fist bump, “Yeah, we just met today. She’s in my trig class. We bonded on the common ground that we don’t get shit. What’s new?”
“I can already tell you’re a bad influence on her,” Jongin chuckles as both of them continues that she’s standing right over here - hello!, “If she fails the class, I’ll let Suho know who to take it up with.”
“I’d like to see him try,” Amber rolls her eyes and crosses her arms on her chest, “Wait, what the hell?” her friend narrows her eyes at her accusingly, “You’re going somewhere with Jongin and not me?! What is this betrayal?”
“What betrayal?” Jongin cuts in before Krystal can defend herself, reaching over to poke Amber playfully on the shoulder, “Suho and Krys are supposed to go to dinner tonight with their grandparents. That lazy ass had the last period of so he’s gone to mine for FIFA on Xbox. He just sent me a text, telling me to bring Krystal along on my way home.”
Krystal looks up at Jongin in disbelieve - what a good little liar he is. It was all so seamless that she can’t imagine anyone would think twice about whatever bullshit he was feeding them.
“And no offense but I think Krys prefers to hang with an actual human being and not a llama,” Jongin jokes good naturedly, a hint of a boyish grin peaking through his laugh.
“Are you guys close?” She blurts out, because how does he know about Amber’s nickname? Only those who she considers close calls her that; she said so herself.
Amber turns to her with an odd look. “Yeah, I’ve known this guy since middle school.”
“O - oh, really? I didn’t know that.”
Wonderful so everyone in this fucking school are either a) friends with him or b) wants to be friends with him - got it.
“If you’re so desperate to hang with Krys, just walk with her home tomorrow or something,” Jongin suggests flippantly.
Krystal mouth gapes open at the mention of ‘tomorrow’ and ‘walking home’ with Amber. Briefly, she wonders if he hit his head during gym because there is no way, this is happening and he’s allowing it to.
“Oh nice to see Suho’s bodyguard is not as strict as he is,” Amber teases, ignoring Jongin’s look of distaste as she gives her a loose hug and bids her goodbye, “See ya tomorrow! Don’t be late to class! Ha, just joking! We both know that ain’t happening.”
“Did you really mean it?” Krystal jumps him with the question once Amber is out of sight and out of mind, “Can I walk home with Amber tomorrow?”
Jongin stares at her for a moment, his face unreadable. With a heavy sigh, he stuffs his hands in his pockets and beckons her to follow along as they walk through the entrance. “What’s the point of forbidding you? You’re not going to run away anyway. I don’t know why but you haven’t and I know you won’t.”
Feeling impulsive, Krystal seizes his arm to cease his step. “So I can?”
His glacial eyes move down to where her hand grips him and stays for a minute, almost as if he’s pondering how he should be feeling about her touch. Then sharply, he tears himself away from her and says, his tone low but final, “You don’t have much time left. Make it count.”
Never mind what his intentions are for showing her some compassion, she sure as hell isn’t going to question him for it.
-
“Alright,” Kyungsoo clears his throat, casting an anxious glance around the room at the faces of his accomplices, “We’re now commencing the first, and only order the day,” He looks tortured by all the formality but nevertheless, he carries on, “Hacking into DSP’s stocks record.”
What a try hard, Krystal sniggers, look at this jackass trying to be all grandeur.
“If you feel the need to speak or interrupt during the rest of this meeting, then please put your hand up before speaking.”
So like a kindergarten? Isn’t he supposed to be the oldest one in this room? Despite her distaste of partaking in such a childlike rule, Krystal raises her hand anyway.
“Yes, Krystal” the butthead almost snarls but holds it in.
“Okay so no offense to whoever drew that diagram,” Krystal motions at the stick figure drawing they’ve got pinned up on the board behind him, “But is that really necessary? I thought the point of these meetings is supposed to make everything sound cool and professional, not convince me that you’re all idiots and the plan will flop.”
“Hey!” Baekhyun jumps out of his seat, obviously having taken offense, “It took me all day to draw those up.”
“Sorry, hyung,” Chanyeol says sheepishly besides him, “They’re not very impressive looking.”
“What do you mean?! I put my heart and soul into these -“
“Fuck it,” Kyungsoo curses, his raised voice cutting through every other ones in the room, “Fucking fuck Christ. Forget it. Let’s just fucking get rid of them.”
Passive aggressive much, Krystal mutters under his breath as he rips all of Baekhyun’s “masterpiece” from the board, hyperventilating as he rips them to shreds. You can always a tell a meeting is going to proceed swimmingly when the floor is decorated with sprinkles of crayons color-in and traces of poorly written speech bubbles.
Across the table, another hand is raised. She prays to God, it’s a serious comment or this guy is really going to explode.
Curtly, Jongin declares, “Suho hyung isn't here.”
“Of course, he’s not,” Kyungsoo sneers, then, “Doesn’t matter. He’s not going to show up anytime soon. This meeting will go on without him.”
Initially, Krystal was prepared to bitch about every step of the process. After all, she is putting her life in the hands of these baboons - oh god, just the notion itself already makes her nauseous. These people are associated and some of them even call themselves “friends” with Baekhyun - that indication itself should be enough to tell her that there are going to be missed details and poorly thought out damaged control operations speckled throughout this presentation. Then again, they had Sehun, who she suspects singlehandedly thought (and wrote and researched) this whole thing up.
What they proposed is simple (except not really) - enter the DSP building disguised as one of the secretaries (employees entry card has all been taken care of thanks to, you guessed It, Sehun), slips pass the guards unnoticed to the control room (and by that, he meant stick a syringe full of synthetic etorphine into a neck of an unlucky he or she so there won’t be any screaming. Choloroform is not time effective, apparently), deactivate the security system, (to answer her question of: “Do I look like I work at the Genius bar?” A device she can plug into the USB port and magic! Chanyeol - the team’s local computer wizard is in and ready to knock down all firewalls), her friendly computer tech tag team (Chanyeol and Sehun) will take it from there with the hacking work - all she has to do is wait for their work to be done and voila, take back the software and trade it in for her freedom!
All of this sounds like a piece of cake. Well, in a way it kind of is - breaking and entering shouldn’t be a problem and it is her forte; she did do an impressive job with raiding their storage. But the ‘getting out of it’ part is anything but elementary. There is approximately gazillion things that could go wrong in the middle of step: retrieving the software and step: making it out the door without getting caught. Not getting caught is crucial - if she is found out, everything goes to shit. The boys bail, the program destroyed and her, either thrown in jail, tortured to death or bullet to the head.
Once again, she is on her own.
-
Luhan glances back and forth between Tao and Yixing then skeptically, back to the message in question.
“This can’t be Junggie,” Luhan wipes a hand over his friend to muffle his groan, “I mean it sounds like her. I - I can see her texting this to you but why? Why would she not want our help?”
“It’s her,” Yixing pronounces, looking down gravely at his phone just as he had been for the past two hours, “Only her would know about that.”
Flustered, Luhan asks, “About what?”
“Do a spin for me if you’re scared,” Yixing echoes vacantly.
“Do you know what that means?” Tao aims his inquiry at Luhan who only shakes his head ‘no’ in response. Releasing a deep-seated sigh, he says empathetically, “I don’t either. I’m guessing it’s a ‘thing’ those two share with each other.”
Again, Yixing continues to repeat it like a mantra “Do a spin for me if you’re scared.”
“It doesn’t matter, we still don’t have any lead on where she is,” Tao says, sounding as helpless as Luhan looks, “She doesn’t want us to find her. If she did, she wouldn’ use prepaid or keep the phone turned off.”
“Then we leave her?!” Luhan’s eyes widens, looking like a deer caught in the headlight, “We can’t leave, Soojung. Yixing, no matter what she says we’ve got to get her.”
“No,” Tao interjects, “Soojung might be trying to throw us off here. Think about it,” he rises to his feet as he rationalizes the most unlikely of circumstances, “This could be her trying to tell us that they’re going to kill her if they find out we’re coming for her - Yixing, wait, Yixing, where are you going?”
“I need to think,” Yixing replies absently, his nails digging into the peeling wallpaper to steady himself as he staggers out the house and onto the backyard.
“Do a spin for me if you’re scared.”
“We can still go back, Soo. We haven’t come so far that you can’t change your mind.”
Her eyes gleam mean but she is vulnerable as ever. The ferry rocks in tune with the temperamental wind - back and forth, left and right, droplets of water hitting her porcelain cheeks. Bent over the railing, she has to crane her neck around to meet his probing gaze like this.
“No,” she refuses, shaking her head before turning back to the sea, “No, I haven’t changed my mind and no, I will not go back.”
He takes a small step forward and drapes the blanket around her quivering shoulders, careful not to get lay as much as a distant touch on them. “You look scared.”
“I am,” she confesses rather confidently for a cowardly admission, “Aren’t you?”
He smiles, small and sorrowful. One of them has got to be unafraid; that’s the least he can do after everything she’s done for him.
“No, I’m happy.”
She’s stares at him quizzically. Then she reads him like the tea leaves she drinks up and spits out, “Because there are only two of us left,” she concludes, looking at him with the curve of her lips stretching into a never loveliness.
She reaches out to him, her nimble fingers twining around his brittle ones. It’s not supposed to be a perfect fit but it feels that way to him.
“I’m right behind you,” he vows as they enter the tunnel and the darkness seeps through the crack of her unbearable lightness, “Do a spin for me, if you’re scared. I’m always going to right there when you stop.”
She’s still spinning. She’s still fighting.
-
Jongin doesn’t want to call them liars, he knows that’s like the pot calling the kettle back - he is not any better but he sure can’t be any worse. Although he does find it to be rather pathetic that they’re not only lying to her but also, to themselves.
Sehun is probably the most diabolical anyone will ever have the displeasure of meeting but years of practice must have made him shameless. Giving Krystal false hope is the obvious thing to do when sending someone to their grave, giving false hope to the rest of them is a hidden agenda - for his own gain. Even if by some miracle Krystal escapes unscathed with the software stuck between the waistband of her leather pants, there is no guarantee that DSP won’t go after her and everyone she ever knew. And if she is smart as he thinks of her to be, she’d rat them out before they can slice her throat open.
“You don’t look convinced.”
Speaking of the devil, Jongin casts a side-long glance in his friend’s way. “I didn’t know you need my approval to go through with the plan.”
Sehun smirks. “I’m starting to think you’re scared that she won’t make it out.”
He’s silent for a moment, flipping to the next page of his Geology book and diverts his attention to the question ten of the assigned work.
“I know you know something about her that we all don’t,” Although the statement itself is not meant to be accusatory, it sounds that way to him, “Any chance of sharing?”
“I know she’s a great kisser, if that’s what you want to know,” Jongin says condescendingly, a lazy, indulgent smile spreading across his features.
Sehun sniggers, rising from the arm chair across from his own. “That’s too bad. Guess you’ll just have to savor that memory, doesn’t it?” He mocks, boredom so evident in his speech that it makes Jongin recoils.
Sehun’s an expert at reading people, so Jongin doesn’t need to ask Sehun to leave him alone for what’s left of the evening - he knows where the door is, he can show himself out.
-
Krystal stretches out on the couch, her fingers drumming against her stomach as she hums along to the Powerpuff girl’s theme song. Chen loves this show; he almost laughs it off when she points that out but she knows his favorite is Blossom. He’s so predictable, she scoffs at how simple-minded he can be. She misses him though; lazing around at the crack of dawn, stuffing themselves full of sugary cornflakes and switching between cartoon network and comedy central.
She hears the front door click shut and some shuffling of heavy shoes then second later, softer footsteps.
“So the doctor finally made it,” Krystal intended to be playful but she’s too worn out by all the information Kyungsoo thrown her way to lighten her tone, “How many patients did you cure today?”
“How did you know it was me?” Suho asks, astounded as he stops short at the rounded corner of the rug.
“The slippers,” she replies flippantly, “You’re the only one in this house who wears ‘em.”
He’s silenced by her detective work, allowing for a long moment to pass - enough for Amoeba boys to finally turns up in this snooze fest of an episode (thank god for that!). “Are you watching cartoon? At twelve in the morning?”
“Uh you mean one of the best shows ever made?”
Suho cocks his head, confused.
“You’ve never watched ‘Powerpuff Girls’?” She makes the effort to swivel her head round enough to reprove him with an incredulous snort, “Alright, you can thank me later for introducing you the one of the few joys in life. Get over here.”
Briefly, Suho hesitates but complies anyway, setting his bag down besides the leg of the coffee table as he sits down on the other end of the sofa.
“Right,” Krystal leans forward, pointing at the screen with the remote, “So the one in red is Blossom, the one in blue with the blonde pig tails is Bubbles and my favorite, the green one with the mean face, that’s Buttercup.”
Suho adjusts his glasses, nodding along with her thorough explanation of the intricate relationships between each character. God, he is such a charity case.
“Oh and the evil monkey with ugly hat is Mojo Jojo - he’s the bad guy.”
-
“Oh, no, no, no, no,” Krystal backs away from the endless flight of stairs, terrified at what they’re about to make her do, “I’ll do anything - boxing, cycling, swimming, jump around on trampoline but running? That’s one thing I don’t do.”
Baekhyun is half way through the warm up with his lunges. This kid has got to have an infinite source energy installed within him somewhere; it’s half past five in the morning and he’s this energetic.
“You’re running,” Kyungsoo says, too patient for it to be normal for his usual grumpy grandpa self, “Five up and five down.”
“You haven’t even fed me breakfast yet!” Krystal whines, counting the number of steps in horror - there were more than fifty at least, she’s going to drop dead before they can even start on the rest of the training, “Can’t we do everything else you said in last night’s meeting?” She tries, tugging on the arm of his hoodie, “You said I have to what was it…right,” clicking her fingers, a metaphorical light bulb turns on in her head, “Rock climbing! I can do that, let’s go do that right now so I can I don’t know…climb up the walls and away from danger on the day!”
Mercilessly, Kyungsoo turns her loose and starts the clock. “Seven up, seven down”
“But you said -“
“NOW!”
If she needs to throw up (and trust her, she will need to after three up), she’ll make sure it’s on those new Nikes Air he bought last week.
-
Sehun’s on his way out the door when they’re barging through it.
“Ah...that was refreshing. Don’t you think so too, Krys?”
No reply - only more heaving on her part.
“We should do this more often,” Baekhyun continues on, too absorbed in his own little bubble to take notice of the exhausted state of the girl wobbling next to him. Then glancing over his shoulder to make sure a third figure isn’t within ear shot, he leans down and whispers, “Just the two of us next time. Kyungsoo hyung is really bossy, isn’t he?”
“I can still hear, you fucking idiot!” Kyungsoo roars from the doorstep.
“Oh shit,” Baekhyun curses, smiling sheepishly as he pats Krystal’s shoulder a little too roughly, “Gotta run now, whoops.”
Krystal didn’t need to provide a coherent reply or grunt. Sehun thinks it’s clear to all but Baekhyun that she couldn’t care less if she tried to. He stares down at her slumped posture, her face covered in a sheen of sweat and her a few stray hair matted to her forehead. She lifts her chin defiantly, almost as if she was challenging him to insult her so she could get it over and done with and punch him in the face. She is rather pretty, isn’t she? With her almond shape eyes, subtle cheekbones, rosebud lips and pointy nose - they were all distinctive features of a true born and bred heiress. ‘
“Sorry, Jonginnie!” Baekhyun hollers loud enough to momentarily distract them for their mutual dislike, “It’s that time of the month for Kyungsoo hyung - you know how it is!”
Krystal’s so discreet with her sneak a peek at Jongin that he nearly missed it. Except he caught it - the way the corner of her eyes follow the sound of Baekhyun’s banshee screaming and landed on the other boy trudging down the stairs, recovering from the almost getting the wind knocked out of him.
“Food,” Krystal rasps, hands clutching her knees, “Where’s the food?”
Smugly, Sehun informs her, “No food. I’m afraid you’ll have to make breakfast yourself.”
“What?!” she half screeches but fades away in a coughing fit, “If - If I - oh god - If I do that, I’m going to be late to school!”
He shrugs, already swerving pass her. “Looks like you better hurry up then.”
-
Three days in and Sehun’s formulated training strategy kicks her ass so hard that she can barely walk from class to class. It’s coming to a point where Chanyeol has to count her sit ups for her and if she ran any faster on the treadmill, she would be defying the speed of light. Oh and beauty sleep? Forget that, she’s been getting less than five and it’s beginning to show - her enlarging pores being one of the many indicators.
“You really should have taken a day off school,” Suho whispers in between the routinely prefect greetings to passing students, “You’re not getting nearly enough rest.”
“You think I don’t know that,” she snaps in irritation, struggling to keep her voice down, “You should be telling D.O Stalin, not me - the victim of dictatorship!”
“Morning, Suho sunbaenim! Morning, Krystal!”
Together with a model student smile and grace, “Good morning! Have a nice day!”
“Jesus, don’t you get sick of this shit?” She mutters under her breath once the boy from her form class turns into a class room, “If I have to do this one more time, my lips will crack and bleed a river of pretentious piss.”
Massaging his temple, Suho tells her, “You’ve got really and I mean, really colorful language for someone who missed out on majority of high school.” With a tired sigh, he zips open his bag and pulls out what looks a lot like a lunch box. “Look, start taking care of yourself, it’s not good to stuff yourself full with all that junk you kids do during your breaks. If you keep it up with the harsh training and don’t’ start eating properly soon, it’s going to get much worse than this - I mean it.”
“Wow,” Krystal gapes at the content inside the box, too floored to remember what witty remark she had in stored for him, “I might be impressed,” she swallows as her eyes glaze over the steak, the pasta and that smell! “Oh my god, there’s chicken feet in here! This is why this dongsaeng tell people you’re the best cousin ever. Oppa, you really outdid yourself this time.”
Krystal can tell he’s biting in a smile, so she bumps him lightly on the shoulder and says a sincere ‘thank you’ before rushing off to the only class she’s acing, English.
-
“Man, you’ve ditched at least half of the practice in the last month,” Taemin complains, or nag, or both.
It’s not like he doesn’t want to. Hell, he’d rather be doing anything else other than what he currently spends his days doing - tip toeing around Sehun, worrying about if there’s blood to scrub off the floorboard whenever he walks into his own goddamn house, having to hear Krystal moaning and mewing about the vigorous activities they’re making her do - Krystal in general, is driving him to his wit’s end.
“I don’t mean to,” Jongin says gently, dropping down onto his usual seat as Taemin does the same beside him, “It’s been busy lately.”
“That’s what I’ve been telling the rest of the team,” Taemin grumbles. With a frown to match his indignation, he edges over the desk and quietly, “Dude, you’re going to have to do better than that if you want people to let it go the next time.”
“I’ll come to the next meet-up, alright?”
Taemin presses his lips together, his expression intermingles skepticism and concern. “Alright, but you better not be just saying that.”
Jongin’s about to reassure Taemin that he’s not going to flake on him again when a boisterous duo, prances into the class room with their arms linked and shoulders rubbing. The two girls are engaged in some sort of humorous conspiracy, their hands covering their mouth as they tell each other secrets that make them burst into a fit of giggly mess. Unlike Chanyeol, who remains puzzled by the sudden boost of Krystal’s popularity, Jongin knows exactly how she went from getting an unenthusiastic reception from the female cohort to being the number one most in demand for any group chat. Amber, that’s how. Bitches just adore Amber - the skirt-hating, snapback wearing, rules breaking tomboy has a knack for bringing people together. There is not one person in this school who doesn’t know who she is on personal basis and not one person who does not want to run with her crew. And Amber likes Krystal - ‘like’ being an understatement, they’ve become inseparable.
He’d been too busy narrating the shitstorm she’s caused in his life to take notice of Taemin, beckoning that very same girl to come over.
Jongin had prayed that Taemin’s calling of her name would have been swallowed up by the buzzing atmosphere of the classroom - he clearly didn’t pray hard enough because instantaneously, Krystal swivels around. Her chocolate curls falling perfectly around her face as she returns Taemin’s grin.
He doesn’t know who she wants to choke more, his best friend or the girl that’s now coming towards them. The closer she gets, the more things Jongin discovers to be angry at her about her - it angers him that she can make a fucking school uniform look like the latest trend, it angers him how Taemin looks at her like she’s the saving grace of Christ and he is most definitely angry that she kicked ass for him but refuses to use it as a bargaining tool.
“Hey there,” Krystal beams (never at him, only at the boy next to him), coming to stand still in front of them, “It’s been a while since I last saw you.”
Jongin sees Taemin wipes his palm against his thigh and bouncing his knees - those are tell-all signs that he may look calm and collected on the surface but he can only imagine how many flips his stomach is doing.
“Do you want to sit?” Taemin asks, unprompted, “You can have my seat if you want.”
“Nah, that’s fine,” Krystal turns his offer down so politely that it makes him cringe internally, “I don’t think anyone will care if I sit down here anyway,” and with that, she hops onto the desktop behind her and continues, “So what did you have this morning? We got given a “surprise” English quiz, but it was really easy. I reckon I might have even gotten a full score.”
Jongin openly sneers. Not that it makes a difference - Taemin’s too enraptured by her being perched on top of a desk and Krystal’s too busy telling him about the prosaic details of her day so far.
“Calculus two,” Taemin answers in one hurried breath he’s been holding in.
If Krystal was mildly interest in this conversation before, it’s now fully piqued. Her eyes sparkles with newly found admiration as she leans in until her face is close enough to Taemin that it triggers something very violent within Jongin.
But then the corner of her lips turn into a wide grin that is something else entirely. Jongin won’t deny that this kind of vision can stop any man in their tracks and he would brush it off as another one of the illusion she conjures, but it’s not the same. Jongin thinks he might be seeing double; there once was a girl who looked at him with that kind of enchantment.
“You’re like a Wonderboy,” Krystal concludes, rubbing her chin curiously.
“Wonderboy?” Taemin echoes, not fully understanding the meaning of the nickname she’s assigned for him.
She nods in clarification. “You’re good looking, you’re nice, you can dance well and you’re doing an advance subject so you must be really smart,” there’s a short pause that leaves enough time for Taemin to turn into the shade of a bad sunburn and Krystal, to break into a spontaneous chuckle then, “What can’t you do?”
Taemin is too flattered to put together a humble reply. So when Kim Ji Won shouts at her to “help her with this essay,” it saves Taemin from making a fool out of himself with his tongue tied condition and Jongin, from a trip down memory lane.
-
She doesn’t expect to see him until the last period of the day, it’s now only the fourth one. Then again, lately she doesn’t expect a lot of the things that have taken place in the last few weeks of her life.
Jongin’s standing behind the bike shed, smoking and watching the cars drive by on the other side of the school gate. She doubts this is his free period, but she doesn’t doubt that he’s cutting classes. Krystal resolves to keeping her head down and trudging pass because isn’t it enough to have to share living space with his team of wannabe criminals? Apparently not, she thinks grimly as her steps slowly without her permission.
He catches onto her approaching presence before she can change her mind. The distance between them is enough for her to make a run for it and if only he would look away, then she may have leave him be.
Curtly and voided of any emotion, Jongin nods at her as a gesture of simple acknowledgement. There is none of that anger or hostility that he had unleased upon her the other night. Krystal takes it as a sign and stops next to him, leaning against the wall of the shed for some false security (and confidence, she really needs that around him.)
“Sehun’s looking for you,” she says shortly.
“Is that why you came looking?”
Krystal shifts uncomfortably in her stiff laced up shoes. “No. I was on my way to the bathroom.”
He glances at her for a brief second then turning back to the dreary view of the now empty road. “Where’s your pass?”
Great, she didn’t think that one through. Krystal narrow her eyes, trying to bullshit her way through this but to no avail, she can’t think of any compelling excuse to get her out of this one.
“I don’t feel like cultural studies today either,” Jongin says after a long pause, he offers, “Cigarette?”
Krystal blinks, nodding dumbly as he hands one to her. She tries not to look too much into his gesture, licking her lips and placing the tip between them. Jongin flickers the light open, putting a hand over the flame while she leans closer to meet him half way. It’s been weeks since her last one that the feeling of nicotine filling her lungs and coursing through her vein almost overwhelms her. She didn’t know how badly she needed one until now.
“Thanks,” she mumbles quietly.
Krystal can’t decide if it’s the soothing effect of the smoke he’s given her or her growing naivety in his company but standing here with him, alone and isolated, she no longer feels alarmed. Somewhere along the way, she decided that it wouldn’t be him that kills her - she wouldn’t put it pass anyone else in that house, but not him. He’s not capable, even if he thinks he might be.
“What’s your plan if you get out?”
His sudden question startles her but she isn’t going to let her shock show. “Go home, I guess,” she shrugs, taking another drag and exhales, “What else is there to do?”
Jongin scoffs. “You call that a home?”
“’That’,” she points out, glaring at him, “is a place you’ve never visited or even seen, as a matter of fact. So you can’t really judge now, can you? Besides,” she says defensively, wrapping a protective arm around her torso, “There’s somebody waiting for me -“
“That’s if you succeed.”
“Oh, I will,” Krystal asserts without missing beat, lifting her gaze to meet his pensive one, “You have no idea what I’m capable of doing to protect the people I love. I don’t care who I have to kill to get the software and when I do,” she continues evenly, making sure he is looking her dead in the eyes for what she’s about to say next, “My debt to you will be waived. Fair and square, K and M, we’re even now.”
He appraises her for a moment, then drops his barely lit cigarette to the ground and stamping it out with the heel of his polished shoe. “How many years have you been living on the run?”
“I never had to run until you and your friends came along,” Krystal counters bitterly.
“I mean running from your family,” Jongin affirms, “The last time I heard, your grandfather is still looking for you.”
“Don’t bring up my past, Jongin,” she warns, seething, “You can talk about whatever the hell you want but this is out of line.”
After a tense silence that only results in her taking more puffs and him clenching his jaw, finally Jongin mutters, “As you wish.”
Sighing, Krystal peers up at the cloudy sky and tells him, “What about you? Are you going to live like this for the rest of your life?”
Jongin knows exactly what she’s referring to and it’s not his style to play dumb either. “Until I reach the breakeven point, yes.”
“Breakeven point?” She echoes, straightening.
“I don’t want to follow in the footsteps of my old man,” he says honestly - it’s barely anything but she knows this confession is already more than he would have ever given her a week ago, “It’s going to take a lot of cash to afford giving up my position as his sole successor.”
“Then what?” Krystal asks, feigning great disinterest when it’s the other way around, “Make an obscene amount of money and buy yourself a new identity?”
Jongin’s gaze snaps to hers in such an abrupt manner that she forgets to breathe. When they were younger, Soojung was lacking in experience, frail and weak - she’s none of those things anymore. So what’s her excuse for wavering this time?
“Is that what you did, get yourself another identity so that you can never be found?” Jongin retorts, though there is no malice in his voice, there is no kindness their neither, “I don’t need a new identity,” he surmises, “I just have to make sure I’m prepared to fight my family until they relent and when they do, I’ll be free to live my life however I want to.”
Krystal wants to inform him of the cursed truth - he will never wriggle free from his lineage; it’s going to follow him for the rest of his years until he surrenders to the system the riches had spent generations crafting to perfection. It’s a trap, you see. All the luxury and sport cars and parties and champagnes, it’s to lure you in to a life long package deal of corruption. He’s a politician’s son, through and through.
Although she ought to she doesn’t think, she just acts. “Do you think this we’ll meet again after all this is over?”
Jongin peers at her over his shoulder, his mouth pressing into a line from his effort to muster a smile. “I’d rather we never meet again after this, Soojung.”
~ 8100 w, r, (krystal/kai) l part i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x. xi. xii pt1. xii pt.2
Krystal wants to inform him of the cursed truth - he will never wriggle free from his lineage.
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Despite her shitty mood combined with her hatred for early (school) mornings, Krystal has become more forgiving with the alarm and less prone to breaking them. She’s learnt a very important lesson that there is not one person that is not annoying in this house, if she doesn’t get her ass out of bed? No worries, someone will drag her by the hair.
She half ass everything in the dressing up routine apart from brushing her teeth (maybe). The tie hangs loosely off her neck, knee socks slightly uneven and blouse probably not buttoned up correctly. What’s the point of looking into the mirror? Krystal asks a rhetoric question that even she rolls her eyes at as she stumbles out the door.
In a hindsight, she should have been more weary, living in a house full of criminals, especially when a very moody (and pouty) one lives right next to her.
Jongin’s coming out of his room too, locking the door behind him and stuffing the key into his pocket. Krystal thinks he can sense her presence but is choosing to ignore her (that’s his favorite game to play since two days ago).
She strolls pass him and down the stairs, shrugging on her blazer to brace herself for the iciness that will prick for the rest of her stay.
-
Jongin skips the first two periods and trades it in for a pack of cigarette.
To put it kindly: he thinks this is all too stupid to comprehend. To put it frankly: he wants to shoot all of them in the face then spit on their corpses. But he can’t, they’re his friends - even if it doesn’t feel that way at this moment.
Jongin’s come to terms with the fact that it may be reckless of her (completely and undoubtedly stupid) to go through with ‘the plan,’ but he’s got no right to be mad at her. It’s her life, if she wants to waste it away (again, kind of) then who is he to stop her?
“Of course she wants to go home. Who the hell wouldn’t?” He mutters to himself, kicking a small rock then lighting another Marlbolo to curb his urge to strangle Sehun then Baekhyun (in that order).
But Sehun, Jongin cannot understand nor justify. What promises has he made and broken to Krystal? And more importantly, who the fuck does he think he is to call all the shots without asking any of them first? Sure, he hasn’t and doesn’t plan on indulging them with the ‘who, what, why, how’ of his past with Krystal a.k.a Soojung (a.k.a whoever that is). But that is a private affair, it doesn’t concern anyone else but them.
How many time is that stupid bitch going to die in his life time anyway?
-
She hates trigonometry, she doesn’t understand it and it gives her a headache - it’s evil, that’s all (you need to know) and all she got from these classes.
So this is what high school is like, the realization slaps Krystal in the face like Tao’s boxer short whenever he tries to fling it into the laundry basket. No fun, no in-jokes - for her at least. Not to be cocky but she had always thought she would be one of the ‘cool kids’, maybe it’s a naïve thought but with her looks, she’s just not destined to be a loner (Taehyun can be considered a friend, kind of?)
“You”
She blinks, wearily glancing around the class room. “M - me?”
“Yeah, you,” the teacher sends a nasty glare her way, “Come up here and solve this equation. This should stop you from day dreaming.”
Holding in a grumble, she edges her chair away with the sole of her goodie good school girl shoes and take slow steps that matches her breathing. First of all, she wasn’t “day dreaming” - she was contemplating the universe and all its answers. Secondly, algebra - really? (“Sorry sir, I skipped most if not all of middle school.”) Thirdly, she’s so screwed - fuck, fuck, fuck -
“Mister Bae”
Catching the whiteboard marker before it falls to the floor, Krystal becomes aware of her trembling hands. She can’t recall the last time she’s been this nervous, or this embarrassed - in fact, she can’t remember ever being humiliated in front of a cohort.
“Yes, Junhee, what can I do for you?”
“I just did some rough work on the numbers,” the girl says with a voice that drips confidence but retain its weakness, “Forgive me if I’m wrong but if the equation is done properly, we should end up with a negative correlation. That’s skipping two chapters ahead from what we are learning now.”
Mister Bae narrows his eyes, swiveling his head over his shoulder to appraise her bitterly. Clearing his throat, he says snappily, “Junhee is quite right. Krystal, you can return to your seat now.”
Hushed whispers erupt amongst the students as Krystal drags her feet back to her desk, her knees weak and legs threatening to fall from under. Try as she might to raise her head up high, she doesn’t have the will to keep up the haughty image (at least for the moment.) At the back of the room, Junhee catches her eyes, on her lips is a small smile (not entirely friendly but there’s no malice there either) that she struggles to mirror.
In the process of pulling herself together, Krystal sits down and almost missed the tapping on her shoulder.
“What a dick”
A girl who can be easily mistaken for a boy mumbles, mocking the teacher’s stern expression with her comical imitation. It’s not much but it’s enough to make Krystal muffle her snort with the back of her hand.
“Does he have nothing better to do but pick on a bunch of high school kids or am I the new favorite?” she questions with a hint of sarcasm.
“Ha! Thanks for replacing me. I was his flavor of the month - or year, before you came along,” the tomboy scoffs, putting a hand out for a high-five which she gladly responds, “Amber, by the way, the only cool one out of these nerds.”
The girl next to her sends a withering glare their way. “Who are you calling a nerd?”
In synch, both of them counters at the same time, “You”
Grinning back at one another, Amber slaps a firm hand onto the ‘nerd’s back and decides, “We’re swapping seats once the bell rings. I’m sitting there from now on.”
-
“She sure is getting along well with people.”
The three of them watches from Sehun’s locker as Jung Krystal laughs, loud and clear from the other end of the hall. The sound of her joy echoes from wall to wall as her new found group of friends entertain her with jokes. One of them must have whispering something rather scandalous because the circle of girls break into a collective gasp.
“It would look kind of weird if she didn’t have any friends at all, aside from, you know,” he tilts his head, motioning at the three of them, “Us”
“If we’re too overprotective, it will just draw more attention to her,” Sehun breaks his silence he has been maintaining for the whole of the discussion, “You don’t want to the students to ask questions.”
Chanyeol nods. “It’s not like she’ll get close to anyone here anyway. She’ll be gone by the next two weeks and people will forget about her soon enough.”
“Aww look at our maknae,” Baekhyun coos, standing on his tip toe to pinch Chanyeol on the cheek patronizingly, “Since when did you get so smart, huh? Hyungs are very proud of you. Yes, we are, oh yes, we are!”
“You’re so annoying,” Chanyeol shakes his head, wincing at the force Sehun puts into slamming his locker’s door shut then turning to him with a scowl, “Hyung, was that really necessary?”
Ignoring him, Sehun aims his question at Baekhyun, “Have you seen Jongin?”
“Are you already missing your boyfriend? It’s only been two hours,” Baekhyun teases, throwing an arm around him, “Okay. Got it, not amused.” He mumbles, scratching his head as he withdraws, “I saw him come into school but he didn’t come to our class this morning so…yeah, that’s that.”
“He’s probably off smoking somewhere,” Chanyeol sniggers, “His attendance rate is in the dumps by now, he might as well not come to school at all.”
“It’s been two days and she hasn’t started her training.” Sehun says, unimpressed, “I’m calling for a meeting tonight.”
“Yeah right, good luck trying to get him to have that conversation,” Baekhyun hums, already chasing skirt of next junior girl that so much as looked his way. “Thinking of it now, Jonginnie is real pissed off at you about Krystal, isn’t he?”
Sehun growls, tearing his eyes away from the repelling sight of Krystal smiling the widest of smiles he’s ever seen on her since their unfortunate meeting.
-
Krystal makes a binding decision for this to be the last time she’ll contact Yixing. She won’t so much as consider dialing his number until she can do what she or rather, they have set out to do.
Sinking down onto her knees, Krystal winces at the coldness of the tiles of the girl’s changing room. She can’t think of a bigger inconvenience but she also can’t think of a better hiding spot for the phone. Living life on the run has its perks - it has made her extra paranoid, which means she is also always one step ahead of everyone else.
“Aha,” she exclaims in a hushed voice, pulling from under the old storage closet the cellphone (Taehyun’s one, more like it) that she carefully wrapped in a handkerchief she pocketed from a random bitch’s swimming gear. Well, at least she robbed a first year bully and not some innocent girl next door.
Hurriedly, Krystal switches the device on and sits down on the bench. She’s got around twenty minutes left until the class is done and twenty-something girls will storm in for a nice, cold shower and touchups. No one would suspect her of being up to anything suspicious anyway - using the phone hardly calls for a detention and after all, she’s the prefect’s cousin.
Staring down at the blinking cursor of the texting box, Krystal feels the words drain from her mind. She recalls faintly that she had constructed a suitable message to leave him (something about staying safe and not worrying). She had not considered even so much as a ‘goodbye’ but this could be it for her, couldn’t it? Jongin’s words haunts her; although he voiced them quite aggressively, she knows them to be true - she might not make it back to Yixing.
Krystal steadies her shaking hands (as much as she could anyway) and attempts to type a coherent sentence.
I don’t think I need to tell you who this is, I know you already know. I wanted to give you a sign that I’m alive, so this it. I can already guess that you are losing sleep, trying to find out where I am and how I am. Don’t come for me. I don’t know how much longer we will be apart but I will find my way back to you, Yixing, I promise.
Love, Soojung.
P.S. This is not a trick - do a spin for me if you’re scared.
With one last look of the message, Krystal makes sure it was sent and delivered before discarding of it from the phone’s record. She doesn’t need a reminder that this may be the last piece of her that he will have to remember her by.
-
“Yo, let’s go get some fried squid, there’s an awesome place five minutes away from here.”
“Yah!” Krystal scolds, elbowing her new friend on her scrawny side, “I already said I have to do.”
“But why?” Amber whines, “Where do you have to be? It’s a school night - wait hold up,” she inspects her closely, getting all up in her face with a prodding look. Amber furrows her brows, rubbing her chin as she frowns and remarks, “Hmm…on second thought, you do look like the clubbing type.”
Krystal cocks her head to the side. “I am not going clubbing, Amber.”
“Then why are you in such a rush?” Amber pesters tirelessly, “I know you’re not run home to do homework. As if!”
Smiling, Krystal shakes her head at Amber’s childishness. “How about you,” Krystal puts an emphasis on the last word, jabbing the tomboy on the chest with her forefinger, “Go home and do some homework? Maybe you can go one week without getting handed a detention slip.”
Amber tsked. “Cause our princess here is so efficient at handing in her work.”
“At least I haven’t gotten in trouble yet,” Krystal counters and sticks out her tongue, “I’ll go out with you for food and pay for it if you can go three days without getting yelled at by Mister Bae -“
Then in the midst of her overly confident challenge, Krystal is prompted by the circumstances of her life. What is she doing, making empty promises and future plans with school friends? She’s not even going to be attending here in the next two weeks. How can she let herself be so caught up in her play pretend?
“Serious? You said it,” Amber clasps her hands together, “You better be ready ‘cause I’m going break the bank. I’m gonna eat everything on the menu.”
“A - actually, Amber,” she begins, swallowing thickly, “I -“
“Hey Krys, you all ready to go?”
She tenses at the recognition of his voice. The sound is starting to become foreign to her ears - that’s how long it’s been since he’s utter so much as a word to her and vice versa. Taking a second to compose herself, Krystal swivels around to Jongin, towering over her with his backpack casually thrown over one shoulder and a friendly smile firmly etched into his relaxed expression. It’s this look, the one he is currently sporting right now that girls fawn over and she can see why. He’s truly a wolf is sheep’s clothing.
“Oh hey, Amber,” he greets the other girl, “I didn’t know you and Soojung were friends.”
“Sup,” she nods, giving him a fist bump, “Yeah, we just met today. She’s in my trig class. We bonded on the common ground that we don’t get shit. What’s new?”
“I can already tell you’re a bad influence on her,” Jongin chuckles as both of them continues that she’s standing right over here - hello!, “If she fails the class, I’ll let Suho know who to take it up with.”
“I’d like to see him try,” Amber rolls her eyes and crosses her arms on her chest, “Wait, what the hell?” her friend narrows her eyes at her accusingly, “You’re going somewhere with Jongin and not me?! What is this betrayal?”
“What betrayal?” Jongin cuts in before Krystal can defend herself, reaching over to poke Amber playfully on the shoulder, “Suho and Krys are supposed to go to dinner tonight with their grandparents. That lazy ass had the last period of so he’s gone to mine for FIFA on Xbox. He just sent me a text, telling me to bring Krystal along on my way home.”
Krystal looks up at Jongin in disbelieve - what a good little liar he is. It was all so seamless that she can’t imagine anyone would think twice about whatever bullshit he was feeding them.
“And no offense but I think Krys prefers to hang with an actual human being and not a llama,” Jongin jokes good naturedly, a hint of a boyish grin peaking through his laugh.
“Are you guys close?” She blurts out, because how does he know about Amber’s nickname? Only those who she considers close calls her that; she said so herself.
Amber turns to her with an odd look. “Yeah, I’ve known this guy since middle school.”
“O - oh, really? I didn’t know that.”
Wonderful so everyone in this fucking school are either a) friends with him or b) wants to be friends with him - got it.
“If you’re so desperate to hang with Krys, just walk with her home tomorrow or something,” Jongin suggests flippantly.
Krystal mouth gapes open at the mention of ‘tomorrow’ and ‘walking home’ with Amber. Briefly, she wonders if he hit his head during gym because there is no way, this is happening and he’s allowing it to.
“Oh nice to see Suho’s bodyguard is not as strict as he is,” Amber teases, ignoring Jongin’s look of distaste as she gives her a loose hug and bids her goodbye, “See ya tomorrow! Don’t be late to class! Ha, just joking! We both know that ain’t happening.”
“Did you really mean it?” Krystal jumps him with the question once Amber is out of sight and out of mind, “Can I walk home with Amber tomorrow?”
Jongin stares at her for a moment, his face unreadable. With a heavy sigh, he stuffs his hands in his pockets and beckons her to follow along as they walk through the entrance. “What’s the point of forbidding you? You’re not going to run away anyway. I don’t know why but you haven’t and I know you won’t.”
Feeling impulsive, Krystal seizes his arm to cease his step. “So I can?”
His glacial eyes move down to where her hand grips him and stays for a minute, almost as if he’s pondering how he should be feeling about her touch. Then sharply, he tears himself away from her and says, his tone low but final, “You don’t have much time left. Make it count.”
Never mind what his intentions are for showing her some compassion, she sure as hell isn’t going to question him for it.
-
“Alright,” Kyungsoo clears his throat, casting an anxious glance around the room at the faces of his accomplices, “We’re now commencing the first, and only order the day,” He looks tortured by all the formality but nevertheless, he carries on, “Hacking into DSP’s stocks record.”
What a try hard, Krystal sniggers, look at this jackass trying to be all grandeur.
“If you feel the need to speak or interrupt during the rest of this meeting, then please put your hand up before speaking.”
So like a kindergarten? Isn’t he supposed to be the oldest one in this room? Despite her distaste of partaking in such a childlike rule, Krystal raises her hand anyway.
“Yes, Krystal” the butthead almost snarls but holds it in.
“Okay so no offense to whoever drew that diagram,” Krystal motions at the stick figure drawing they’ve got pinned up on the board behind him, “But is that really necessary? I thought the point of these meetings is supposed to make everything sound cool and professional, not convince me that you’re all idiots and the plan will flop.”
“Hey!” Baekhyun jumps out of his seat, obviously having taken offense, “It took me all day to draw those up.”
“Sorry, hyung,” Chanyeol says sheepishly besides him, “They’re not very impressive looking.”
“What do you mean?! I put my heart and soul into these -“
“Fuck it,” Kyungsoo curses, his raised voice cutting through every other ones in the room, “Fucking fuck Christ. Forget it. Let’s just fucking get rid of them.”
Passive aggressive much, Krystal mutters under his breath as he rips all of Baekhyun’s “masterpiece” from the board, hyperventilating as he rips them to shreds. You can always a tell a meeting is going to proceed swimmingly when the floor is decorated with sprinkles of crayons color-in and traces of poorly written speech bubbles.
Across the table, another hand is raised. She prays to God, it’s a serious comment or this guy is really going to explode.
Curtly, Jongin declares, “Suho hyung isn't here.”
“Of course, he’s not,” Kyungsoo sneers, then, “Doesn’t matter. He’s not going to show up anytime soon. This meeting will go on without him.”
Initially, Krystal was prepared to bitch about every step of the process. After all, she is putting her life in the hands of these baboons - oh god, just the notion itself already makes her nauseous. These people are associated and some of them even call themselves “friends” with Baekhyun - that indication itself should be enough to tell her that there are going to be missed details and poorly thought out damaged control operations speckled throughout this presentation. Then again, they had Sehun, who she suspects singlehandedly thought (and wrote and researched) this whole thing up.
What they proposed is simple (except not really) - enter the DSP building disguised as one of the secretaries (employees entry card has all been taken care of thanks to, you guessed It, Sehun), slips pass the guards unnoticed to the control room (and by that, he meant stick a syringe full of synthetic etorphine into a neck of an unlucky he or she so there won’t be any screaming. Choloroform is not time effective, apparently), deactivate the security system, (to answer her question of: “Do I look like I work at the Genius bar?” A device she can plug into the USB port and magic! Chanyeol - the team’s local computer wizard is in and ready to knock down all firewalls), her friendly computer tech tag team (Chanyeol and Sehun) will take it from there with the hacking work - all she has to do is wait for their work to be done and voila, take back the software and trade it in for her freedom!
All of this sounds like a piece of cake. Well, in a way it kind of is - breaking and entering shouldn’t be a problem and it is her forte; she did do an impressive job with raiding their storage. But the ‘getting out of it’ part is anything but elementary. There is approximately gazillion things that could go wrong in the middle of step: retrieving the software and step: making it out the door without getting caught. Not getting caught is crucial - if she is found out, everything goes to shit. The boys bail, the program destroyed and her, either thrown in jail, tortured to death or bullet to the head.
Once again, she is on her own.
-
Luhan glances back and forth between Tao and Yixing then skeptically, back to the message in question.
“This can’t be Junggie,” Luhan wipes a hand over his friend to muffle his groan, “I mean it sounds like her. I - I can see her texting this to you but why? Why would she not want our help?”
“It’s her,” Yixing pronounces, looking down gravely at his phone just as he had been for the past two hours, “Only her would know about that.”
Flustered, Luhan asks, “About what?”
“Do a spin for me if you’re scared,” Yixing echoes vacantly.
“Do you know what that means?” Tao aims his inquiry at Luhan who only shakes his head ‘no’ in response. Releasing a deep-seated sigh, he says empathetically, “I don’t either. I’m guessing it’s a ‘thing’ those two share with each other.”
Again, Yixing continues to repeat it like a mantra “Do a spin for me if you’re scared.”
“It doesn’t matter, we still don’t have any lead on where she is,” Tao says, sounding as helpless as Luhan looks, “She doesn’t want us to find her. If she did, she wouldn’ use prepaid or keep the phone turned off.”
“Then we leave her?!” Luhan’s eyes widens, looking like a deer caught in the headlight, “We can’t leave, Soojung. Yixing, no matter what she says we’ve got to get her.”
“No,” Tao interjects, “Soojung might be trying to throw us off here. Think about it,” he rises to his feet as he rationalizes the most unlikely of circumstances, “This could be her trying to tell us that they’re going to kill her if they find out we’re coming for her - Yixing, wait, Yixing, where are you going?”
“I need to think,” Yixing replies absently, his nails digging into the peeling wallpaper to steady himself as he staggers out the house and onto the backyard.
“Do a spin for me if you’re scared.”
“We can still go back, Soo. We haven’t come so far that you can’t change your mind.”
Her eyes gleam mean but she is vulnerable as ever. The ferry rocks in tune with the temperamental wind - back and forth, left and right, droplets of water hitting her porcelain cheeks. Bent over the railing, she has to crane her neck around to meet his probing gaze like this.
“No,” she refuses, shaking her head before turning back to the sea, “No, I haven’t changed my mind and no, I will not go back.”
He takes a small step forward and drapes the blanket around her quivering shoulders, careful not to get lay as much as a distant touch on them. “You look scared.”
“I am,” she confesses rather confidently for a cowardly admission, “Aren’t you?”
He smiles, small and sorrowful. One of them has got to be unafraid; that’s the least he can do after everything she’s done for him.
“No, I’m happy.”
She’s stares at him quizzically. Then she reads him like the tea leaves she drinks up and spits out, “Because there are only two of us left,” she concludes, looking at him with the curve of her lips stretching into a never loveliness.
She reaches out to him, her nimble fingers twining around his brittle ones. It’s not supposed to be a perfect fit but it feels that way to him.
“I’m right behind you,” he vows as they enter the tunnel and the darkness seeps through the crack of her unbearable lightness, “Do a spin for me, if you’re scared. I’m always going to right there when you stop.”
She’s still spinning. She’s still fighting.
-
Jongin doesn’t want to call them liars, he knows that’s like the pot calling the kettle back - he is not any better but he sure can’t be any worse. Although he does find it to be rather pathetic that they’re not only lying to her but also, to themselves.
Sehun is probably the most diabolical anyone will ever have the displeasure of meeting but years of practice must have made him shameless. Giving Krystal false hope is the obvious thing to do when sending someone to their grave, giving false hope to the rest of them is a hidden agenda - for his own gain. Even if by some miracle Krystal escapes unscathed with the software stuck between the waistband of her leather pants, there is no guarantee that DSP won’t go after her and everyone she ever knew. And if she is smart as he thinks of her to be, she’d rat them out before they can slice her throat open.
“You don’t look convinced.”
Speaking of the devil, Jongin casts a side-long glance in his friend’s way. “I didn’t know you need my approval to go through with the plan.”
Sehun smirks. “I’m starting to think you’re scared that she won’t make it out.”
He’s silent for a moment, flipping to the next page of his Geology book and diverts his attention to the question ten of the assigned work.
“I know you know something about her that we all don’t,” Although the statement itself is not meant to be accusatory, it sounds that way to him, “Any chance of sharing?”
“I know she’s a great kisser, if that’s what you want to know,” Jongin says condescendingly, a lazy, indulgent smile spreading across his features.
Sehun sniggers, rising from the arm chair across from his own. “That’s too bad. Guess you’ll just have to savor that memory, doesn’t it?” He mocks, boredom so evident in his speech that it makes Jongin recoils.
Sehun’s an expert at reading people, so Jongin doesn’t need to ask Sehun to leave him alone for what’s left of the evening - he knows where the door is, he can show himself out.
-
Krystal stretches out on the couch, her fingers drumming against her stomach as she hums along to the Powerpuff girl’s theme song. Chen loves this show; he almost laughs it off when she points that out but she knows his favorite is Blossom. He’s so predictable, she scoffs at how simple-minded he can be. She misses him though; lazing around at the crack of dawn, stuffing themselves full of sugary cornflakes and switching between cartoon network and comedy central.
She hears the front door click shut and some shuffling of heavy shoes then second later, softer footsteps.
“So the doctor finally made it,” Krystal intended to be playful but she’s too worn out by all the information Kyungsoo thrown her way to lighten her tone, “How many patients did you cure today?”
“How did you know it was me?” Suho asks, astounded as he stops short at the rounded corner of the rug.
“The slippers,” she replies flippantly, “You’re the only one in this house who wears ‘em.”
He’s silenced by her detective work, allowing for a long moment to pass - enough for Amoeba boys to finally turns up in this snooze fest of an episode (thank god for that!). “Are you watching cartoon? At twelve in the morning?”
“Uh you mean one of the best shows ever made?”
Suho cocks his head, confused.
“You’ve never watched ‘Powerpuff Girls’?” She makes the effort to swivel her head round enough to reprove him with an incredulous snort, “Alright, you can thank me later for introducing you the one of the few joys in life. Get over here.”
Briefly, Suho hesitates but complies anyway, setting his bag down besides the leg of the coffee table as he sits down on the other end of the sofa.
“Right,” Krystal leans forward, pointing at the screen with the remote, “So the one in red is Blossom, the one in blue with the blonde pig tails is Bubbles and my favorite, the green one with the mean face, that’s Buttercup.”
Suho adjusts his glasses, nodding along with her thorough explanation of the intricate relationships between each character. God, he is such a charity case.
“Oh and the evil monkey with ugly hat is Mojo Jojo - he’s the bad guy.”
-
“Oh, no, no, no, no,” Krystal backs away from the endless flight of stairs, terrified at what they’re about to make her do, “I’ll do anything - boxing, cycling, swimming, jump around on trampoline but running? That’s one thing I don’t do.”
Baekhyun is half way through the warm up with his lunges. This kid has got to have an infinite source energy installed within him somewhere; it’s half past five in the morning and he’s this energetic.
“You’re running,” Kyungsoo says, too patient for it to be normal for his usual grumpy grandpa self, “Five up and five down.”
“You haven’t even fed me breakfast yet!” Krystal whines, counting the number of steps in horror - there were more than fifty at least, she’s going to drop dead before they can even start on the rest of the training, “Can’t we do everything else you said in last night’s meeting?” She tries, tugging on the arm of his hoodie, “You said I have to what was it…right,” clicking her fingers, a metaphorical light bulb turns on in her head, “Rock climbing! I can do that, let’s go do that right now so I can I don’t know…climb up the walls and away from danger on the day!”
Mercilessly, Kyungsoo turns her loose and starts the clock. “Seven up, seven down”
“But you said -“
“NOW!”
If she needs to throw up (and trust her, she will need to after three up), she’ll make sure it’s on those new Nikes Air he bought last week.
-
Sehun’s on his way out the door when they’re barging through it.
“Ah...that was refreshing. Don’t you think so too, Krys?”
No reply - only more heaving on her part.
“We should do this more often,” Baekhyun continues on, too absorbed in his own little bubble to take notice of the exhausted state of the girl wobbling next to him. Then glancing over his shoulder to make sure a third figure isn’t within ear shot, he leans down and whispers, “Just the two of us next time. Kyungsoo hyung is really bossy, isn’t he?”
“I can still hear, you fucking idiot!” Kyungsoo roars from the doorstep.
“Oh shit,” Baekhyun curses, smiling sheepishly as he pats Krystal’s shoulder a little too roughly, “Gotta run now, whoops.”
Krystal didn’t need to provide a coherent reply or grunt. Sehun thinks it’s clear to all but Baekhyun that she couldn’t care less if she tried to. He stares down at her slumped posture, her face covered in a sheen of sweat and her a few stray hair matted to her forehead. She lifts her chin defiantly, almost as if she was challenging him to insult her so she could get it over and done with and punch him in the face. She is rather pretty, isn’t she? With her almond shape eyes, subtle cheekbones, rosebud lips and pointy nose - they were all distinctive features of a true born and bred heiress. ‘
“Sorry, Jonginnie!” Baekhyun hollers loud enough to momentarily distract them for their mutual dislike, “It’s that time of the month for Kyungsoo hyung - you know how it is!”
Krystal’s so discreet with her sneak a peek at Jongin that he nearly missed it. Except he caught it - the way the corner of her eyes follow the sound of Baekhyun’s banshee screaming and landed on the other boy trudging down the stairs, recovering from the almost getting the wind knocked out of him.
“Food,” Krystal rasps, hands clutching her knees, “Where’s the food?”
Smugly, Sehun informs her, “No food. I’m afraid you’ll have to make breakfast yourself.”
“What?!” she half screeches but fades away in a coughing fit, “If - If I - oh god - If I do that, I’m going to be late to school!”
He shrugs, already swerving pass her. “Looks like you better hurry up then.”
-
Three days in and Sehun’s formulated training strategy kicks her ass so hard that she can barely walk from class to class. It’s coming to a point where Chanyeol has to count her sit ups for her and if she ran any faster on the treadmill, she would be defying the speed of light. Oh and beauty sleep? Forget that, she’s been getting less than five and it’s beginning to show - her enlarging pores being one of the many indicators.
“You really should have taken a day off school,” Suho whispers in between the routinely prefect greetings to passing students, “You’re not getting nearly enough rest.”
“You think I don’t know that,” she snaps in irritation, struggling to keep her voice down, “You should be telling D.O Stalin, not me - the victim of dictatorship!”
“Morning, Suho sunbaenim! Morning, Krystal!”
Together with a model student smile and grace, “Good morning! Have a nice day!”
“Jesus, don’t you get sick of this shit?” She mutters under her breath once the boy from her form class turns into a class room, “If I have to do this one more time, my lips will crack and bleed a river of pretentious piss.”
Massaging his temple, Suho tells her, “You’ve got really and I mean, really colorful language for someone who missed out on majority of high school.” With a tired sigh, he zips open his bag and pulls out what looks a lot like a lunch box. “Look, start taking care of yourself, it’s not good to stuff yourself full with all that junk you kids do during your breaks. If you keep it up with the harsh training and don’t’ start eating properly soon, it’s going to get much worse than this - I mean it.”
“Wow,” Krystal gapes at the content inside the box, too floored to remember what witty remark she had in stored for him, “I might be impressed,” she swallows as her eyes glaze over the steak, the pasta and that smell! “Oh my god, there’s chicken feet in here! This is why this dongsaeng tell people you’re the best cousin ever. Oppa, you really outdid yourself this time.”
Krystal can tell he’s biting in a smile, so she bumps him lightly on the shoulder and says a sincere ‘thank you’ before rushing off to the only class she’s acing, English.
-
“Man, you’ve ditched at least half of the practice in the last month,” Taemin complains, or nag, or both.
It’s not like he doesn’t want to. Hell, he’d rather be doing anything else other than what he currently spends his days doing - tip toeing around Sehun, worrying about if there’s blood to scrub off the floorboard whenever he walks into his own goddamn house, having to hear Krystal moaning and mewing about the vigorous activities they’re making her do - Krystal in general, is driving him to his wit’s end.
“I don’t mean to,” Jongin says gently, dropping down onto his usual seat as Taemin does the same beside him, “It’s been busy lately.”
“That’s what I’ve been telling the rest of the team,” Taemin grumbles. With a frown to match his indignation, he edges over the desk and quietly, “Dude, you’re going to have to do better than that if you want people to let it go the next time.”
“I’ll come to the next meet-up, alright?”
Taemin presses his lips together, his expression intermingles skepticism and concern. “Alright, but you better not be just saying that.”
Jongin’s about to reassure Taemin that he’s not going to flake on him again when a boisterous duo, prances into the class room with their arms linked and shoulders rubbing. The two girls are engaged in some sort of humorous conspiracy, their hands covering their mouth as they tell each other secrets that make them burst into a fit of giggly mess. Unlike Chanyeol, who remains puzzled by the sudden boost of Krystal’s popularity, Jongin knows exactly how she went from getting an unenthusiastic reception from the female cohort to being the number one most in demand for any group chat. Amber, that’s how. Bitches just adore Amber - the skirt-hating, snapback wearing, rules breaking tomboy has a knack for bringing people together. There is not one person in this school who doesn’t know who she is on personal basis and not one person who does not want to run with her crew. And Amber likes Krystal - ‘like’ being an understatement, they’ve become inseparable.
He’d been too busy narrating the shitstorm she’s caused in his life to take notice of Taemin, beckoning that very same girl to come over.
Jongin had prayed that Taemin’s calling of her name would have been swallowed up by the buzzing atmosphere of the classroom - he clearly didn’t pray hard enough because instantaneously, Krystal swivels around. Her chocolate curls falling perfectly around her face as she returns Taemin’s grin.
He doesn’t know who she wants to choke more, his best friend or the girl that’s now coming towards them. The closer she gets, the more things Jongin discovers to be angry at her about her - it angers him that she can make a fucking school uniform look like the latest trend, it angers him how Taemin looks at her like she’s the saving grace of Christ and he is most definitely angry that she kicked ass for him but refuses to use it as a bargaining tool.
“Hey there,” Krystal beams (never at him, only at the boy next to him), coming to stand still in front of them, “It’s been a while since I last saw you.”
Jongin sees Taemin wipes his palm against his thigh and bouncing his knees - those are tell-all signs that he may look calm and collected on the surface but he can only imagine how many flips his stomach is doing.
“Do you want to sit?” Taemin asks, unprompted, “You can have my seat if you want.”
“Nah, that’s fine,” Krystal turns his offer down so politely that it makes him cringe internally, “I don’t think anyone will care if I sit down here anyway,” and with that, she hops onto the desktop behind her and continues, “So what did you have this morning? We got given a “surprise” English quiz, but it was really easy. I reckon I might have even gotten a full score.”
Jongin openly sneers. Not that it makes a difference - Taemin’s too enraptured by her being perched on top of a desk and Krystal’s too busy telling him about the prosaic details of her day so far.
“Calculus two,” Taemin answers in one hurried breath he’s been holding in.
If Krystal was mildly interest in this conversation before, it’s now fully piqued. Her eyes sparkles with newly found admiration as she leans in until her face is close enough to Taemin that it triggers something very violent within Jongin.
But then the corner of her lips turn into a wide grin that is something else entirely. Jongin won’t deny that this kind of vision can stop any man in their tracks and he would brush it off as another one of the illusion she conjures, but it’s not the same. Jongin thinks he might be seeing double; there once was a girl who looked at him with that kind of enchantment.
“You’re like a Wonderboy,” Krystal concludes, rubbing her chin curiously.
“Wonderboy?” Taemin echoes, not fully understanding the meaning of the nickname she’s assigned for him.
She nods in clarification. “You’re good looking, you’re nice, you can dance well and you’re doing an advance subject so you must be really smart,” there’s a short pause that leaves enough time for Taemin to turn into the shade of a bad sunburn and Krystal, to break into a spontaneous chuckle then, “What can’t you do?”
Taemin is too flattered to put together a humble reply. So when Kim Ji Won shouts at her to “help her with this essay,” it saves Taemin from making a fool out of himself with his tongue tied condition and Jongin, from a trip down memory lane.
-
She doesn’t expect to see him until the last period of the day, it’s now only the fourth one. Then again, lately she doesn’t expect a lot of the things that have taken place in the last few weeks of her life.
Jongin’s standing behind the bike shed, smoking and watching the cars drive by on the other side of the school gate. She doubts this is his free period, but she doesn’t doubt that he’s cutting classes. Krystal resolves to keeping her head down and trudging pass because isn’t it enough to have to share living space with his team of wannabe criminals? Apparently not, she thinks grimly as her steps slowly without her permission.
He catches onto her approaching presence before she can change her mind. The distance between them is enough for her to make a run for it and if only he would look away, then she may have leave him be.
Curtly and voided of any emotion, Jongin nods at her as a gesture of simple acknowledgement. There is none of that anger or hostility that he had unleased upon her the other night. Krystal takes it as a sign and stops next to him, leaning against the wall of the shed for some false security (and confidence, she really needs that around him.)
“Sehun’s looking for you,” she says shortly.
“Is that why you came looking?”
Krystal shifts uncomfortably in her stiff laced up shoes. “No. I was on my way to the bathroom.”
He glances at her for a brief second then turning back to the dreary view of the now empty road. “Where’s your pass?”
Great, she didn’t think that one through. Krystal narrow her eyes, trying to bullshit her way through this but to no avail, she can’t think of any compelling excuse to get her out of this one.
“I don’t feel like cultural studies today either,” Jongin says after a long pause, he offers, “Cigarette?”
Krystal blinks, nodding dumbly as he hands one to her. She tries not to look too much into his gesture, licking her lips and placing the tip between them. Jongin flickers the light open, putting a hand over the flame while she leans closer to meet him half way. It’s been weeks since her last one that the feeling of nicotine filling her lungs and coursing through her vein almost overwhelms her. She didn’t know how badly she needed one until now.
“Thanks,” she mumbles quietly.
Krystal can’t decide if it’s the soothing effect of the smoke he’s given her or her growing naivety in his company but standing here with him, alone and isolated, she no longer feels alarmed. Somewhere along the way, she decided that it wouldn’t be him that kills her - she wouldn’t put it pass anyone else in that house, but not him. He’s not capable, even if he thinks he might be.
“What’s your plan if you get out?”
His sudden question startles her but she isn’t going to let her shock show. “Go home, I guess,” she shrugs, taking another drag and exhales, “What else is there to do?”
Jongin scoffs. “You call that a home?”
“’That’,” she points out, glaring at him, “is a place you’ve never visited or even seen, as a matter of fact. So you can’t really judge now, can you? Besides,” she says defensively, wrapping a protective arm around her torso, “There’s somebody waiting for me -“
“That’s if you succeed.”
“Oh, I will,” Krystal asserts without missing beat, lifting her gaze to meet his pensive one, “You have no idea what I’m capable of doing to protect the people I love. I don’t care who I have to kill to get the software and when I do,” she continues evenly, making sure he is looking her dead in the eyes for what she’s about to say next, “My debt to you will be waived. Fair and square, K and M, we’re even now.”
He appraises her for a moment, then drops his barely lit cigarette to the ground and stamping it out with the heel of his polished shoe. “How many years have you been living on the run?”
“I never had to run until you and your friends came along,” Krystal counters bitterly.
“I mean running from your family,” Jongin affirms, “The last time I heard, your grandfather is still looking for you.”
“Don’t bring up my past, Jongin,” she warns, seething, “You can talk about whatever the hell you want but this is out of line.”
After a tense silence that only results in her taking more puffs and him clenching his jaw, finally Jongin mutters, “As you wish.”
Sighing, Krystal peers up at the cloudy sky and tells him, “What about you? Are you going to live like this for the rest of your life?”
Jongin knows exactly what she’s referring to and it’s not his style to play dumb either. “Until I reach the breakeven point, yes.”
“Breakeven point?” She echoes, straightening.
“I don’t want to follow in the footsteps of my old man,” he says honestly - it’s barely anything but she knows this confession is already more than he would have ever given her a week ago, “It’s going to take a lot of cash to afford giving up my position as his sole successor.”
“Then what?” Krystal asks, feigning great disinterest when it’s the other way around, “Make an obscene amount of money and buy yourself a new identity?”
Jongin’s gaze snaps to hers in such an abrupt manner that she forgets to breathe. When they were younger, Soojung was lacking in experience, frail and weak - she’s none of those things anymore. So what’s her excuse for wavering this time?
“Is that what you did, get yourself another identity so that you can never be found?” Jongin retorts, though there is no malice in his voice, there is no kindness their neither, “I don’t need a new identity,” he surmises, “I just have to make sure I’m prepared to fight my family until they relent and when they do, I’ll be free to live my life however I want to.”
Krystal wants to inform him of the cursed truth - he will never wriggle free from his lineage; it’s going to follow him for the rest of his years until he surrenders to the system the riches had spent generations crafting to perfection. It’s a trap, you see. All the luxury and sport cars and parties and champagnes, it’s to lure you in to a life long package deal of corruption. He’s a politician’s son, through and through.
Although she ought to she doesn’t think, she just acts. “Do you think this we’ll meet again after all this is over?”
Jongin peers at her over his shoulder, his mouth pressing into a line from his effort to muster a smile. “I’d rather we never meet again after this, Soojung.”