Meant to be
Title: Meant to Be
Author: Jessica, Official Writer
Rating: PG-13 for violence
Fandom: SS501/Kara
Pairing: Park Couple, Jungmin/Gyuri
Word Count: 4,910
Summary: Jungmin wants revenge.
Notes: I honestly don’t know how well this flows, since I didn’t write the entire thing in order. I hope you guys get the gist of it in the end though. ^^; The time flow is so that it starts in the winter, and ends in the fall. Italics are flashbacks.
-
“Kyujong-ah...” he said softly as he stared down at the snow covered grave. It had been almost a week since his best friend had died, had been killed. No, not his best friend - his brother. Stepping forward to place a single, white rose on top of the grave, Jungmin wiped away his tears, promising himself it would be the last time he cried over Kyujong.
“Kyu,” he started in a stronger voice, “I promise to get revenge for your death. I’ll make them pay. I won’t come back until I have. I swear on your grave.”
He turned swiftly and walked down the pathway back to his car and drove off, vowing to keep his promise no matter what. He would not let Kyujong die in vain.
-
“Hey Gyuri!”
She turned around quickly after closing the door to her locker, tucking her dark brown hair behind her ear.
“Yeah?” Jungmin strode up to her and gave her his most stunning smile. He slipped his right hand in the pockets of his dark gray skinny jeans and leant lightly against the locker before hers. Reaching out to straighten his blazer with his left hand, he cocked his head to the side and looked at her, quickly scrutinizing her outfit. White blouse worn over a purple tank top with black jeans and black flats. Hmm, decent.
He flashed another quick smile at her. “I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime.”
A pause. She shifted her bag on her shoulder and smiled.
“Sure.”
-
Jungmin went all out for their date - no, quick hang out - later that evening. They had planned on going out for a quick movie then going back to her house so he could “tutor” her in Japanese - that was their excuse. He dressed up semi formally, as in dark jeans, dress shoes and a white button-down dress shirt. He checked himself out one last time and ran a hand quickly through his hair, messing up his dark red locks.
Glancing up at himself from underneath his bangs, Jungmin smirked and applied some eyeliner to his eyes. He pulled on his favourite black blazer, took a breath, and grinned. He was ready to make her fall in love with him. He just had to make sure that he didn’t fall in love with her.
-
He met her at the theatre and grinned at her choice of a movie - an action packed comedy. Jungmin paid for the tickets, against her complaints, and bought popcorn for them as well. After getting seats near the middle, they settled in for the 2 hour long movie.
Absorbed in the movie, Jungmin didn’t notice when Gyuri rested her head against his shoulder. When he did realize it though, he had to repress an involuntary shiver of hatred. How dare she touch him! He almost shook her off; when he remembered his plan. No, this was a good sign. Jungmin tried to ignore the hatred coursing through his veins, and the disgust he had at the thought of her touching him. He couldn’t focus on the movie anymore after that.
-
When the movie finished, they walked out of the theatre together. Enjoying the crisp air, Jungmin hummed quietly under his breath as Gyuri pointed out the directions to walk to her house as it wasn’t too far from there. He nodded as she talked about how the movie was great, and how she loved the ending. He continued to hum as they approached the front of her house.
Her dad wasn’t home as he was out for work still, thank goodness, but her mother was very nice and welcoming. Jungmin bowed and greeted her warmly as he took off his shoes and handed her his coat. Smiling at how nice she was, he turned back to Gyuri.
She looked at him thoughtfully.
“You have a beautiful voice, you know.” And then she turned abruptly and walked up the stairs. Stunned for a moment, Jungmin contemplated her words, and then smiled as he followed her up the stairs.
-
They actually did study Japanese for a bit, since that was the reason he was there after all. Jungmin found himself actually kind of enjoying himself, besides the fact that it was Gyuri Park that he was spending time with. A month ago, and he wouldn’t have even acknowledged her existence - let alone be tutoring her.
When he was in the middle of teaching her the tenses, she looked up and glanced at the clock. “Jungmin, my dad will be home soon. You should start heading out.”
He nodded. His whole plan would be put to waste if her dad saw him. The name didn’t matter since he had a codename after all, but he really needed to get out of there. Getting up, Jungmin smiled at her and headed down the stairs.
Stopping in front of the stairs, he backpedalled and leaned back so she could see him though her doorway.
“Goodnight!” He called out, and then he ran as silently and quickly as he could out of the house.
-
Jungmin was running like crazy, his feet pounding on the hard gravel road. He could hear the others running behind him, but he couldn’t tell if it was friend or foe. His heart hitching in his throat, he turned to glance behind him and swiftly ran into a wire fence. Clutching his gun in his teeth, he climbed the fence and was over it with a few heartbeats, hurtling towards the ground. He knew Kyujong was in front of him, and he was glad that he was the slower runner. This way, he could protect him.
“Gotcha!”
Jungmin froze once he landed. That voice... was not one from their team. He spun and raced in the direction that he had heard the voice. A scarred man, missing an eye, had a gun pressed to Kyujong’s temple. Kyujong’s eyes, full of tears, met Jungmin’s.
-
“NO!”
Jungmin sat up abruptly in his seat, the textbook he had been dozing on, along with his papers and pens, falling with a clatter to the floor of the silent classroom. He clutched his head, his eyes wide open, reliving the final moments of Kyujong’s life. He could feel the tears streaming down his face, but he didn’t bother wiping them away. Everything had been so vivid. How many times had he seen that exact scene, replayed over and over in his head? It was torture.
“Mr. Park?” Jungmin flinched and looked up at who was calling his name, cowering against his desk.
“Y-yes sir?”
“You should head to the infirmary; I’ll send Hyungjun with your homework after.”
Jungmin nodded, and quickly gathered his books. He walked, albeit a bit shakily, but steadily towards the door. Once he was out of the classroom however, he slid to the ground and cried.
-
After buying his lunch in the cafeteria the next day, his phone buzzed.
Hey, look over by the windows. (:
He glanced up from his phone and looked towards the big windows of their university. Gyuri sat by an open window, her hair lightly blowing in the slight breeze. He grimaced slightly to himself, and then put on a smile and walked over to her.
“I heard that you missed class yesterday.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you okay?”
“Fine.”
Picking at his food, he glanced at her and smirked a bit to himself as he saw her looking at him. He sighed to himself, and then looked up.
“Gyuri, it was nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
She sighed then and smiled slightly. “I worry about you, you know.”
He shuddered. “There’s no need. I can look after myself.”
Jungmin picked up his tray, and dumped its entire contents into the trash, and swept out of the cafeteria.
-
“Who’s their leader?!” Jungmin demanded.
Hyunjoong turned and stared at the younger man. “What?” he answered slowly, slightly unsure of why the other man was so angry.
“Who’s their leader? The one who killed Kyujong?” His voice was barely over a whisper, the tears in his eyes were clear now, spilling over onto his flushed cheeks. Jungmin furiously swiped them away, and although more came, he didn’t bother wiping them. “THE BASTARD THAT KILLED KYUJONG! WHO IS HE?!”
Hyunjoong sighed and walked over to lay a hand on Jungmin’s shaking shoulder. “Leader, if you can’t tell me... I won’t know what to do.” He turned and pleaded, with his eyes and voice, “Please tell me who he is. Please, I’m begging you.”
Hyunjoong grimaced, before relenting; the younger man’s tearful face would haunt him if he didn’t.
“His name is Jin Young Park. He has a daughter named Gyuri. Don’t be too rash.”
-
Kyujong. This was all for Kyujong. Why were they such idiots to get caught that day anyway? He sighed and rolled over, glancing at the picture of him and Kyujong on his nightstand. His missed him so much it hurt. It felt like a thousand needles were stabbing him in the heart every time he remembered what happened.
“AAAAH!” Kyujong screamed and hid behind Jungmin. They were 8 years old and out trick-or-treating. A fake vampire had just popped out of the coffin near the steps.
“Jungmin! I’m scared.” Kyujong had sounded like he was about to cry and Jungmin’s heart hurt for him.
“Kyujongie!” Jungmin jumped in front of him, blocking the vampire from sight, and hugged Kyujong tight. “I promise I’ll always protect you! No matter what!”
“Okay Jungminnie! You’re the best!” Kyujong had cried out, hugging his best friend back.
Throwing his arm over his face, Jungmin screamed in frustration and misery. The memory still brought tears to his eyes. Why couldn’t he have kept that promise? Why?
-
“Hey Jungmin!” Gyuri came up behind him and grabbed his arm. He smiled when he saw her, and wrapped his arm around her waist without thinking.
“Yeah?”
“Let’s go for some ice cream!” He blinked at her, and racked his brain, trying to figure out which ice cream place was the closest to their school. She caught the look on his face and laughed.
“Silly~ we’re going to someplace really close!” Gyuri laughed, and started pulling him down the hallway... towards the vending machines?
“Vending machine ice cream? Really?” Jungmin’s eyes widened at the thought. She nodded happily, and put in some money for the ice cream.
A few minutes later, they were outside, leaning on the school building as they ate their vending machine ice cream - Gyuri with her strawberry cheesecake cone, and Jungmin with his chocolate dipped vanilla popsicle.
“So, what made you choose vending machine ice cream? There’s an ice cream parlour down the road.” Jungmin turned and looked at her.
Gyuri spun around and stood right in front of him. “Well, I don’t think it matters how expensive the ice cream is. Even if it was the worst ice cream in the world, if you were eating it with people that you love, it would still taste amazing right?”
She paused, licked at the ice cream and looked at Jungmin thoughtfully. “This ice cream is the best in the world.”
-
He decided to stop by Gyuri’s locker since he was going over to her house anyway. He had only been there once before, and that was during his break, so he really had no clue of what to expect.
He knew she was popular, but not that popular. There were a bunch of girls crowded around her locker, and a few guys as well. It wasn’t expected, but Jungmin felt a huge surge of jealously rush through him, when he remembered that she was his.
“Gyuri~!” he called, from down the hallway, hoping that she would hear him, and save him the embarrassment of having to call again.
A bunch of the heads in the hallway tuned to face him, and quickly glance back at Gyuri.
She looked up when one of the girls near her locker pointed him out. Jungmin smiled in response, and watched as Gyuri’s face broke out into a giant smile. She quickly closed her locker and ran towards him, skidding to a stop in front of him.
“Jungmin! I’m so glad you came.” Seeing her happy face beaming at him, he couldn’t help but smile wider. He leaned forward to give her a hug, before grabbing her hand.
“We should get going.” And then he pulled her out of the school.
-
He had become her actual Japanese tutor. It only made sense after all; he was fluent, and she did suck at it. It was also an easy way to get close to her.
And he got paid. It was a win-win situation.
But not that day. Gyuri wasn’t paying attention to anything he said, and in the end she gave up and went on her laptop, ignoring him. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair in frustration. Today was going to be a bad day.
He pulled out his phone and texted Hyungjun for a ride. The tutoring session today was indefinitely over.
10 minutes later he got a text back.
I’m outside. Hurry up. Jungmin got up and walked over to her.
“Gyuri. I’m leaving okay?”
She turned to him and smiled, getting up to walk him out. As he was about to head out of the door, she stopped him.
“Jungmin...” Then she stood on her tip-toes and leaned forward. Jungmin, quickly sensing what was coming, put up his hand to block her lips from touching his own.
“Bye.”
And then he left, slamming the door behind him.
-
He lay on his bed, staring unblinkingly at the ceiling. He needed to get rid of her before he got too used to having her in his life. What was the perfect way to get rid of her, once and for all?
And then it came to him. Something that he bought after Kyujong’s death, just in case Jungmin couldn’t cope with his grief. He never touched it after he purchased it, but it would definitely be the best way to kill someone.
Poison.
It was perfect. If he executed his plan flawlessly, it would never be traced back to him. He sat up and rubbed at his eyes. Jungmin picked up the picture of him and Kyujong and ran his fingers over the glass.
The plan was perfect, he just needed to find the perfect time.
-
They went to the park this time, not caring who saw them. Jungmin ran down the hill with his arms spread out wide, his jacket streaming out into the wind behind him, laughing freely. It was the most fun he had had in ages.
Gyuri stood at the top of the hill, one hand covering her mouth as she laughed.
“Jungmal~! Don’t run over the children!”
He stopped as he reached the bottom, turning in surprise. “Jungmal? Gyuri, I’m not a horse!”
She ran down the hill towards him, and he caught her in his arms, spinning out the rush from the run down the hill. When they had come to a stop, he poked her nose with his finger.
“Explain. Please.”
She thought for a moment, before looking up into his eyes. “Well, when you ran down the hill, you seemed so free. Like a hose running in the wind.”
Jungmin thought about it for a second. He guessed he didn’t really mind being a horse. And then he felt like doing something. Anything. The adrenaline still rushing through his veins from his run down the hill had him thinking things.
On impulse, he leaned forward.
Ever so slowly.
And kissed her.
-
As he was heading to school, Jungmin received a phone call from Hyunjoong. “Jungmin, come down to the back alley near 501 Street, bring your gun. Be subtle.”
Running back up the few steps to his apartment, he left his bag and walked swiftly towards the said street. Pretending to be window shopping, he pulled on his mask and turned off the safety on his gun. Strolling down the street with his hand on his pocket, his finger on the trigger of his gun, Jungmin glanced around and caught sight of the tinted car heading down the street. He leaned on the wall, pretending to text, watching the tinted window of the store in front of him, waiting for the people to get out of the car.
“NOW!”
He shoved his phone into his pocket and pulled out his gun. Aiming for the driver of the car, he shot - once, twice. Ducking behind the wall, he felt the presence of someone coming up, so he put the safety back on, shoved it into his jacket pocket and spun out with fists.
There were more than he could take on by himself, but Jungmin knew how to fight outnumbered. He ended up taking out 3 out of the 5, but then they were onto him. He couldn’t let them near his mask. Kicking and struggling, he felt a pain shoot up his right forearm. And suddenly everyone was gone.
“We got them off of you. Are you okay?” Hyunjoong’s worried voice filtered though his pain-filled senses. Jungmin could feel the blood soaking through his sleeve.
“I-I should be fine.”
Hyunjoong took him to the hospital to get stitches, and then told him to rest up for a few days. The school would get suspicious.
-
Ignoring Hyunjoong’s warnings, Jungmin headed off to school the next day, forgetting that he had gym first period. At his locker, he glanced at his schedule and groaned. Gym, first thing in the morning. His life sucked. Glancing around, he tried to sneak up to the roof.
“Mr. Park! I hope you’ll be attending gym class today. It’s basketball day!”
Jungmin groaned inwardly at the sound of his gym teacher’s voice. Basketball would’ve been good any other day.
He turned and smiled a bit. “Of course.”
After playing basketball for an hour and a half, Jungmin’s wound had opened up slightly. The blood trickled down into his hand, and his grimaced. He was too competitive for his own good. Wrapping his forearm in a fresh bandage, he headed off to his next class.
-
Gyuri met him at the door after his last class. “What the hell happened to you?”
Jungmin saw her glance at his arm, and he quickly tugged his sleeve over the bandages. Then he leaned forward and wrapped her in a one-armed hug.
“Nothing happened. I’m fine, don’t worry about it.”
“Jungmin. I know you’re not telling me something!”
He pretended to think about it. “Nope, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Gyuri sighed, but let it go. If he didn’t want to tell her, it wouldn’t do any good to try to force him. It didn’t mean she had to like it though.
She pouted at him, and he laughed a bit before kissing her quickly on the lips. “Being cute won’t do anything~” he teased, before dragging her towards his locker.
-
A series of knocks rang out on his door.
“What the -” Jungmin got off of his bed, tousling his hair with his hand. It was his day off, who would be at his door? Hyungjun knew better than to bother him. He opened the door.
“Hiya!” Gyuri grinned up at him. He smiled a bit by habit. She gestured to the bags of food in her hand, as a request to come in. He sighed, contemplated shutting the door for a bit, before stepping aside to let her in.
“I figured you didn’t eat much, so I brought some rice cake fingers, Korean pancake, cold noodles, chicken, kimchi fried rice, some fruit - ”
“Gyuri. You didn’t have to.”
“But I want to. Like I said, I worry about you. Why do you live alone anyway?” She countered as he began to protest, putting away the food in his refrigerator and putting away the dishes.
“My parents are dead.” He said simply, glaring at her. Gyuri paused for a second as she took in that information, and sighed. She turned to him.
“Let me take care of you then!”
“I don’t need people to take care of me, I’m fine.”
She sighed and turned to him after putting away everything. “Jungmin, I want to take care of you though. I’m your girlfriend, and you live here by yourself.”
He sighed, walked to his room and went to lie down on his bed.
“It’s not like you have anyone else right now.” She saw him glance at the picture on his bedside table. The picture with him and Kyujong.
“Who’s that?”
Jungmin glanced up at the picture and grunted, not answering the question.
“Gyuri, I’m tired.”
“But -”
“No, I’m tired. Please.” He rolled over to face the wall, and didn’t look up even when the front door clicked shut.
-
The next few months went by without anything much happening. Jungmin threw all of his anger into his gang fights and always emerged victorious, with a few cuts and bruises now and then. Gyuri’s eyes would wander over his bandages and bruises, but she never mentioned it.
His relationship with Gyuri kept growing stronger as they got to know each other better. He let her go over to his apartment to study a few times, and he stayed at her house for dinner every once and a while. He even sang a lullaby for her once at her request, over the phone for her to fall asleep.
And little by little, Jungmin found himself falling. Falling, slowly of course, slowly but surely, head over heels in love with her.
-
He came home from a date with Gyuri and found himself humming a random love song he had heard on the radio. He hummed it from the beginning until the first chorus when he realized what he was doing and stopped mid-hum.
What the heck? What was he doing? Jungmin pressed the back of his hand to his forehead. Was he sick? He thought back to what had happened that day.
Every time Gyuri had touched him, he felt as though his senses had been electrocuted. When she kissed him, it had felt amazing. Different from how it felt before. What was going on? And then it clicked.
The rules he had set up for himself in the beginning, when the game had just started, they had backfired. He was letting his feelings get in the way. If he let himself get too attached... that would not do. Jungmin had let himself fall in love with Gyuri.
He had to do it soon, or he wouldn’t be able to do it at all.
-
He headed to her house, with the pretence that he wanted to show her something really cool.
She opened the door and grinned at him. “Hey! You couldn’t have chosen a better time to come over. My parents are both out.”
Jungmin leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the lips. No better time indeed, he thought grimly. “I’m gonna go get a drink of water first k?”
Gyuri nodded, and headed back into the living room.
He got a glass of water, and took out the vial of poison in his pocket. Mixing the powder into the water, he watched as it dissolved and grew transparent. If he wasn’t watching it disappear, he would’ve thought that there was nothing in it.
Taking the glass into the living room, he proceeded to pretend to take a sip before he offered the glass to her.
Jungmin watched her as she took a sip, and waited as she swallowed the water.
-
The effect was instantaneous. As soon as she swallowed the water, she started choking and she fell to the floor, the glass breaking. Jungmin was beside her in an instant.
“Gyuri! I’m so sorry, oh my god, I didn’t - I don’t, I don’t know. Oh my god.”
She blinked at him, her hand at her throat. He cradled her head on his lap and brushed her hair out of her face. It was time to tell her the whole story.
“Gyuri, your father is a gang leader. His gang opposes the one that I’m in.”
Her eyes widened as she took in this new information, then she coughed weakly. Jungmin knew the poison took about 10 minutes to kill someone, so he rushed forward with the whole story. He needed her to know.
“He killed my best friend, Kyujong. You might’ve heard of him. Honour student, top of our year, withdrew suddenly from school last winter? Yeah.” His eyes filled with tears as he stroked her hair.
“I needed to get revenge for him. That was all that was on my mind when he died. Then I found out you were Jin Young’s daughter and my plan formed. Everything fell into place when I found out that you liked me.”
-
He looked down at her, tears dripping from his eyes, watching the life drain out of her limp body. Clasping her hand within his, he sobbed as her hand came up from her throat to caress his face.
“G-Gyuri. I’m s-so sorry!” She closed her eyes and nodded. He knew that she was forgiving him. Leaning down and kissing her on the lips one last time, Jungmin choked back more sobs.
She coughed feebly, and mouthed the words at him. He could feel his heart clench, and fresh tears emerged from under his eyelids.
“I-I love you too.”
And then her hand went limp in his, and dropped to the ground. She was dead. Gyuri Park was dead. This was what he wanted wasn’t it? After all his hard work and effort, he had succeeded in his revenge. Kyujong’s death had been avenged, but why did he feel so broken?
-
He paced back and forth in front of Kyujong’s grave, before crouching down in front of it and placing a wreath of white roses on top. Jungmin couldn’t help but gaze at the picture of Kyujong on the headstone. He sighed.
“Kyu, I got revenge for your death... so shouldn’t I feel happy? Relieved?” He got up and started pacing again. He couldn’t think straight, his heart hurt so badly.
“I always thought I needed revenge, you were the only person that I had, and he took you away from me. I plotted different ways of getting back, but this was definitely the best. I knew I could do it since you were watching over me from above. And I did. I did it. I killed Gyuri Park, the daughter of the man who took you away from me.
“But I think I loved her. In a different way than I loved you. But it doesn’t even matter anymore. Both of you are dead, in a better place than I am.”
He stopped and stood still, making eye contact with Kyujong in the picture on his headstone.
“Kyu, the next time you see me, I’ll be up there with you.”
-
Hyunjoong glared at the messenger who had just disrupted the meeting.
“Who do you think you are?! Can’t you tell we’re in the middle of an important meeting?” Hyunjoong shouted, and then muttered under his breath. “A meeting that Jungmin shouldn’t be missing.”
The messenger glanced up from his bowed down position as he heard the mutter. “Sir, this letter is from Jaejoong sir. It’s regarding Jungmin.”
At this Hyunjoong paused, and took the letter. The messenger bowed out and left.
Jaejoong? He was their infiltrator in the other gang. He was in the top ranks and knew about almost everything that was happening. Hyunjoong opened the letter and skimmed the first few lines. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. He looked up and glanced around at his colleagues.
“Jungmin ran into the other headquarters during one of their meetings. He announced that him and Gyuri had been dating for the past several months, and that he was in love with her.
“He then looked straight at Jin Young, who had just found out that his daughter was dead, and told her that he was the one who had killed her.
“Jin Young pulled out his gun and shot him on the spot. 10 times.” Hyunjoong looked up with tears in his eyes, not able to say anything for a few moments.
“He’s dead.”
-
He walked through the headstones in the graveyard, looking for a particular name. Glancing around at the trees and the park nearby, Hyunjoong smiled sadly. Jungmin couldn’t have been laid to rest in a more peaceful place than this.
He shook his head, remembering Jungmin’s carefree laugh whenever Hyunjoong said or did something stupid. Sighing, he continued looking at the gravestones, looking for Jungmin’s name.
And then he saw it. Clutching the bouquet of flowers that he bought on impulse just 10 minutes before, he put them on top of the grave and glanced at the graves on either side.
Kyujong Kim. Well that was expected. When Kyujong was still alive, the two men had been practically attached at the hip. You would’ve thought they were brothers, beside the fact that they had different last names and looked nothing alike. He sighed; at least they were together now.
Hyunjoong glanced at the name on the other side of Jungmin’s grave and gasped. There was no way in hell that Jin Young would have allowed that.
Gyuri Park was buried next to Jungmin Park.
Hyunjoong smiled; he guessed that it was meant to be.
Author: Jessica, Official Writer
Rating: PG-13 for violence
Fandom: SS501/Kara
Pairing: Park Couple, Jungmin/Gyuri
Word Count: 4,910
Summary: Jungmin wants revenge.
Notes: I honestly don’t know how well this flows, since I didn’t write the entire thing in order. I hope you guys get the gist of it in the end though. ^^; The time flow is so that it starts in the winter, and ends in the fall. Italics are flashbacks.
-
“Kyujong-ah...” he said softly as he stared down at the snow covered grave. It had been almost a week since his best friend had died, had been killed. No, not his best friend - his brother. Stepping forward to place a single, white rose on top of the grave, Jungmin wiped away his tears, promising himself it would be the last time he cried over Kyujong.
“Kyu,” he started in a stronger voice, “I promise to get revenge for your death. I’ll make them pay. I won’t come back until I have. I swear on your grave.”
He turned swiftly and walked down the pathway back to his car and drove off, vowing to keep his promise no matter what. He would not let Kyujong die in vain.
-
“Hey Gyuri!”
She turned around quickly after closing the door to her locker, tucking her dark brown hair behind her ear.
“Yeah?” Jungmin strode up to her and gave her his most stunning smile. He slipped his right hand in the pockets of his dark gray skinny jeans and leant lightly against the locker before hers. Reaching out to straighten his blazer with his left hand, he cocked his head to the side and looked at her, quickly scrutinizing her outfit. White blouse worn over a purple tank top with black jeans and black flats. Hmm, decent.
He flashed another quick smile at her. “I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime.”
A pause. She shifted her bag on her shoulder and smiled.
“Sure.”
-
Jungmin went all out for their date - no, quick hang out - later that evening. They had planned on going out for a quick movie then going back to her house so he could “tutor” her in Japanese - that was their excuse. He dressed up semi formally, as in dark jeans, dress shoes and a white button-down dress shirt. He checked himself out one last time and ran a hand quickly through his hair, messing up his dark red locks.
Glancing up at himself from underneath his bangs, Jungmin smirked and applied some eyeliner to his eyes. He pulled on his favourite black blazer, took a breath, and grinned. He was ready to make her fall in love with him. He just had to make sure that he didn’t fall in love with her.
-
He met her at the theatre and grinned at her choice of a movie - an action packed comedy. Jungmin paid for the tickets, against her complaints, and bought popcorn for them as well. After getting seats near the middle, they settled in for the 2 hour long movie.
Absorbed in the movie, Jungmin didn’t notice when Gyuri rested her head against his shoulder. When he did realize it though, he had to repress an involuntary shiver of hatred. How dare she touch him! He almost shook her off; when he remembered his plan. No, this was a good sign. Jungmin tried to ignore the hatred coursing through his veins, and the disgust he had at the thought of her touching him. He couldn’t focus on the movie anymore after that.
-
When the movie finished, they walked out of the theatre together. Enjoying the crisp air, Jungmin hummed quietly under his breath as Gyuri pointed out the directions to walk to her house as it wasn’t too far from there. He nodded as she talked about how the movie was great, and how she loved the ending. He continued to hum as they approached the front of her house.
Her dad wasn’t home as he was out for work still, thank goodness, but her mother was very nice and welcoming. Jungmin bowed and greeted her warmly as he took off his shoes and handed her his coat. Smiling at how nice she was, he turned back to Gyuri.
She looked at him thoughtfully.
“You have a beautiful voice, you know.” And then she turned abruptly and walked up the stairs. Stunned for a moment, Jungmin contemplated her words, and then smiled as he followed her up the stairs.
-
They actually did study Japanese for a bit, since that was the reason he was there after all. Jungmin found himself actually kind of enjoying himself, besides the fact that it was Gyuri Park that he was spending time with. A month ago, and he wouldn’t have even acknowledged her existence - let alone be tutoring her.
When he was in the middle of teaching her the tenses, she looked up and glanced at the clock. “Jungmin, my dad will be home soon. You should start heading out.”
He nodded. His whole plan would be put to waste if her dad saw him. The name didn’t matter since he had a codename after all, but he really needed to get out of there. Getting up, Jungmin smiled at her and headed down the stairs.
Stopping in front of the stairs, he backpedalled and leaned back so she could see him though her doorway.
“Goodnight!” He called out, and then he ran as silently and quickly as he could out of the house.
-
Jungmin was running like crazy, his feet pounding on the hard gravel road. He could hear the others running behind him, but he couldn’t tell if it was friend or foe. His heart hitching in his throat, he turned to glance behind him and swiftly ran into a wire fence. Clutching his gun in his teeth, he climbed the fence and was over it with a few heartbeats, hurtling towards the ground. He knew Kyujong was in front of him, and he was glad that he was the slower runner. This way, he could protect him.
“Gotcha!”
Jungmin froze once he landed. That voice... was not one from their team. He spun and raced in the direction that he had heard the voice. A scarred man, missing an eye, had a gun pressed to Kyujong’s temple. Kyujong’s eyes, full of tears, met Jungmin’s.
-
“NO!”
Jungmin sat up abruptly in his seat, the textbook he had been dozing on, along with his papers and pens, falling with a clatter to the floor of the silent classroom. He clutched his head, his eyes wide open, reliving the final moments of Kyujong’s life. He could feel the tears streaming down his face, but he didn’t bother wiping them away. Everything had been so vivid. How many times had he seen that exact scene, replayed over and over in his head? It was torture.
“Mr. Park?” Jungmin flinched and looked up at who was calling his name, cowering against his desk.
“Y-yes sir?”
“You should head to the infirmary; I’ll send Hyungjun with your homework after.”
Jungmin nodded, and quickly gathered his books. He walked, albeit a bit shakily, but steadily towards the door. Once he was out of the classroom however, he slid to the ground and cried.
-
After buying his lunch in the cafeteria the next day, his phone buzzed.
Hey, look over by the windows. (:
He glanced up from his phone and looked towards the big windows of their university. Gyuri sat by an open window, her hair lightly blowing in the slight breeze. He grimaced slightly to himself, and then put on a smile and walked over to her.
“I heard that you missed class yesterday.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you okay?”
“Fine.”
Picking at his food, he glanced at her and smirked a bit to himself as he saw her looking at him. He sighed to himself, and then looked up.
“Gyuri, it was nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
She sighed then and smiled slightly. “I worry about you, you know.”
He shuddered. “There’s no need. I can look after myself.”
Jungmin picked up his tray, and dumped its entire contents into the trash, and swept out of the cafeteria.
-
“Who’s their leader?!” Jungmin demanded.
Hyunjoong turned and stared at the younger man. “What?” he answered slowly, slightly unsure of why the other man was so angry.
“Who’s their leader? The one who killed Kyujong?” His voice was barely over a whisper, the tears in his eyes were clear now, spilling over onto his flushed cheeks. Jungmin furiously swiped them away, and although more came, he didn’t bother wiping them. “THE BASTARD THAT KILLED KYUJONG! WHO IS HE?!”
Hyunjoong sighed and walked over to lay a hand on Jungmin’s shaking shoulder. “Leader, if you can’t tell me... I won’t know what to do.” He turned and pleaded, with his eyes and voice, “Please tell me who he is. Please, I’m begging you.”
Hyunjoong grimaced, before relenting; the younger man’s tearful face would haunt him if he didn’t.
“His name is Jin Young Park. He has a daughter named Gyuri. Don’t be too rash.”
-
Kyujong. This was all for Kyujong. Why were they such idiots to get caught that day anyway? He sighed and rolled over, glancing at the picture of him and Kyujong on his nightstand. His missed him so much it hurt. It felt like a thousand needles were stabbing him in the heart every time he remembered what happened.
“AAAAH!” Kyujong screamed and hid behind Jungmin. They were 8 years old and out trick-or-treating. A fake vampire had just popped out of the coffin near the steps.
“Jungmin! I’m scared.” Kyujong had sounded like he was about to cry and Jungmin’s heart hurt for him.
“Kyujongie!” Jungmin jumped in front of him, blocking the vampire from sight, and hugged Kyujong tight. “I promise I’ll always protect you! No matter what!”
“Okay Jungminnie! You’re the best!” Kyujong had cried out, hugging his best friend back.
Throwing his arm over his face, Jungmin screamed in frustration and misery. The memory still brought tears to his eyes. Why couldn’t he have kept that promise? Why?
-
“Hey Jungmin!” Gyuri came up behind him and grabbed his arm. He smiled when he saw her, and wrapped his arm around her waist without thinking.
“Yeah?”
“Let’s go for some ice cream!” He blinked at her, and racked his brain, trying to figure out which ice cream place was the closest to their school. She caught the look on his face and laughed.
“Silly~ we’re going to someplace really close!” Gyuri laughed, and started pulling him down the hallway... towards the vending machines?
“Vending machine ice cream? Really?” Jungmin’s eyes widened at the thought. She nodded happily, and put in some money for the ice cream.
A few minutes later, they were outside, leaning on the school building as they ate their vending machine ice cream - Gyuri with her strawberry cheesecake cone, and Jungmin with his chocolate dipped vanilla popsicle.
“So, what made you choose vending machine ice cream? There’s an ice cream parlour down the road.” Jungmin turned and looked at her.
Gyuri spun around and stood right in front of him. “Well, I don’t think it matters how expensive the ice cream is. Even if it was the worst ice cream in the world, if you were eating it with people that you love, it would still taste amazing right?”
She paused, licked at the ice cream and looked at Jungmin thoughtfully. “This ice cream is the best in the world.”
-
He decided to stop by Gyuri’s locker since he was going over to her house anyway. He had only been there once before, and that was during his break, so he really had no clue of what to expect.
He knew she was popular, but not that popular. There were a bunch of girls crowded around her locker, and a few guys as well. It wasn’t expected, but Jungmin felt a huge surge of jealously rush through him, when he remembered that she was his.
“Gyuri~!” he called, from down the hallway, hoping that she would hear him, and save him the embarrassment of having to call again.
A bunch of the heads in the hallway tuned to face him, and quickly glance back at Gyuri.
She looked up when one of the girls near her locker pointed him out. Jungmin smiled in response, and watched as Gyuri’s face broke out into a giant smile. She quickly closed her locker and ran towards him, skidding to a stop in front of him.
“Jungmin! I’m so glad you came.” Seeing her happy face beaming at him, he couldn’t help but smile wider. He leaned forward to give her a hug, before grabbing her hand.
“We should get going.” And then he pulled her out of the school.
-
He had become her actual Japanese tutor. It only made sense after all; he was fluent, and she did suck at it. It was also an easy way to get close to her.
And he got paid. It was a win-win situation.
But not that day. Gyuri wasn’t paying attention to anything he said, and in the end she gave up and went on her laptop, ignoring him. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair in frustration. Today was going to be a bad day.
He pulled out his phone and texted Hyungjun for a ride. The tutoring session today was indefinitely over.
10 minutes later he got a text back.
I’m outside. Hurry up. Jungmin got up and walked over to her.
“Gyuri. I’m leaving okay?”
She turned to him and smiled, getting up to walk him out. As he was about to head out of the door, she stopped him.
“Jungmin...” Then she stood on her tip-toes and leaned forward. Jungmin, quickly sensing what was coming, put up his hand to block her lips from touching his own.
“Bye.”
And then he left, slamming the door behind him.
-
He lay on his bed, staring unblinkingly at the ceiling. He needed to get rid of her before he got too used to having her in his life. What was the perfect way to get rid of her, once and for all?
And then it came to him. Something that he bought after Kyujong’s death, just in case Jungmin couldn’t cope with his grief. He never touched it after he purchased it, but it would definitely be the best way to kill someone.
Poison.
It was perfect. If he executed his plan flawlessly, it would never be traced back to him. He sat up and rubbed at his eyes. Jungmin picked up the picture of him and Kyujong and ran his fingers over the glass.
The plan was perfect, he just needed to find the perfect time.
-
They went to the park this time, not caring who saw them. Jungmin ran down the hill with his arms spread out wide, his jacket streaming out into the wind behind him, laughing freely. It was the most fun he had had in ages.
Gyuri stood at the top of the hill, one hand covering her mouth as she laughed.
“Jungmal~! Don’t run over the children!”
He stopped as he reached the bottom, turning in surprise. “Jungmal? Gyuri, I’m not a horse!”
She ran down the hill towards him, and he caught her in his arms, spinning out the rush from the run down the hill. When they had come to a stop, he poked her nose with his finger.
“Explain. Please.”
She thought for a moment, before looking up into his eyes. “Well, when you ran down the hill, you seemed so free. Like a hose running in the wind.”
Jungmin thought about it for a second. He guessed he didn’t really mind being a horse. And then he felt like doing something. Anything. The adrenaline still rushing through his veins from his run down the hill had him thinking things.
On impulse, he leaned forward.
Ever so slowly.
And kissed her.
-
As he was heading to school, Jungmin received a phone call from Hyunjoong. “Jungmin, come down to the back alley near 501 Street, bring your gun. Be subtle.”
Running back up the few steps to his apartment, he left his bag and walked swiftly towards the said street. Pretending to be window shopping, he pulled on his mask and turned off the safety on his gun. Strolling down the street with his hand on his pocket, his finger on the trigger of his gun, Jungmin glanced around and caught sight of the tinted car heading down the street. He leaned on the wall, pretending to text, watching the tinted window of the store in front of him, waiting for the people to get out of the car.
“NOW!”
He shoved his phone into his pocket and pulled out his gun. Aiming for the driver of the car, he shot - once, twice. Ducking behind the wall, he felt the presence of someone coming up, so he put the safety back on, shoved it into his jacket pocket and spun out with fists.
There were more than he could take on by himself, but Jungmin knew how to fight outnumbered. He ended up taking out 3 out of the 5, but then they were onto him. He couldn’t let them near his mask. Kicking and struggling, he felt a pain shoot up his right forearm. And suddenly everyone was gone.
“We got them off of you. Are you okay?” Hyunjoong’s worried voice filtered though his pain-filled senses. Jungmin could feel the blood soaking through his sleeve.
“I-I should be fine.”
Hyunjoong took him to the hospital to get stitches, and then told him to rest up for a few days. The school would get suspicious.
-
Ignoring Hyunjoong’s warnings, Jungmin headed off to school the next day, forgetting that he had gym first period. At his locker, he glanced at his schedule and groaned. Gym, first thing in the morning. His life sucked. Glancing around, he tried to sneak up to the roof.
“Mr. Park! I hope you’ll be attending gym class today. It’s basketball day!”
Jungmin groaned inwardly at the sound of his gym teacher’s voice. Basketball would’ve been good any other day.
He turned and smiled a bit. “Of course.”
After playing basketball for an hour and a half, Jungmin’s wound had opened up slightly. The blood trickled down into his hand, and his grimaced. He was too competitive for his own good. Wrapping his forearm in a fresh bandage, he headed off to his next class.
-
Gyuri met him at the door after his last class. “What the hell happened to you?”
Jungmin saw her glance at his arm, and he quickly tugged his sleeve over the bandages. Then he leaned forward and wrapped her in a one-armed hug.
“Nothing happened. I’m fine, don’t worry about it.”
“Jungmin. I know you’re not telling me something!”
He pretended to think about it. “Nope, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Gyuri sighed, but let it go. If he didn’t want to tell her, it wouldn’t do any good to try to force him. It didn’t mean she had to like it though.
She pouted at him, and he laughed a bit before kissing her quickly on the lips. “Being cute won’t do anything~” he teased, before dragging her towards his locker.
-
A series of knocks rang out on his door.
“What the -” Jungmin got off of his bed, tousling his hair with his hand. It was his day off, who would be at his door? Hyungjun knew better than to bother him. He opened the door.
“Hiya!” Gyuri grinned up at him. He smiled a bit by habit. She gestured to the bags of food in her hand, as a request to come in. He sighed, contemplated shutting the door for a bit, before stepping aside to let her in.
“I figured you didn’t eat much, so I brought some rice cake fingers, Korean pancake, cold noodles, chicken, kimchi fried rice, some fruit - ”
“Gyuri. You didn’t have to.”
“But I want to. Like I said, I worry about you. Why do you live alone anyway?” She countered as he began to protest, putting away the food in his refrigerator and putting away the dishes.
“My parents are dead.” He said simply, glaring at her. Gyuri paused for a second as she took in that information, and sighed. She turned to him.
“Let me take care of you then!”
“I don’t need people to take care of me, I’m fine.”
She sighed and turned to him after putting away everything. “Jungmin, I want to take care of you though. I’m your girlfriend, and you live here by yourself.”
He sighed, walked to his room and went to lie down on his bed.
“It’s not like you have anyone else right now.” She saw him glance at the picture on his bedside table. The picture with him and Kyujong.
“Who’s that?”
Jungmin glanced up at the picture and grunted, not answering the question.
“Gyuri, I’m tired.”
“But -”
“No, I’m tired. Please.” He rolled over to face the wall, and didn’t look up even when the front door clicked shut.
-
The next few months went by without anything much happening. Jungmin threw all of his anger into his gang fights and always emerged victorious, with a few cuts and bruises now and then. Gyuri’s eyes would wander over his bandages and bruises, but she never mentioned it.
His relationship with Gyuri kept growing stronger as they got to know each other better. He let her go over to his apartment to study a few times, and he stayed at her house for dinner every once and a while. He even sang a lullaby for her once at her request, over the phone for her to fall asleep.
And little by little, Jungmin found himself falling. Falling, slowly of course, slowly but surely, head over heels in love with her.
-
He came home from a date with Gyuri and found himself humming a random love song he had heard on the radio. He hummed it from the beginning until the first chorus when he realized what he was doing and stopped mid-hum.
What the heck? What was he doing? Jungmin pressed the back of his hand to his forehead. Was he sick? He thought back to what had happened that day.
Every time Gyuri had touched him, he felt as though his senses had been electrocuted. When she kissed him, it had felt amazing. Different from how it felt before. What was going on? And then it clicked.
The rules he had set up for himself in the beginning, when the game had just started, they had backfired. He was letting his feelings get in the way. If he let himself get too attached... that would not do. Jungmin had let himself fall in love with Gyuri.
He had to do it soon, or he wouldn’t be able to do it at all.
-
He headed to her house, with the pretence that he wanted to show her something really cool.
She opened the door and grinned at him. “Hey! You couldn’t have chosen a better time to come over. My parents are both out.”
Jungmin leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the lips. No better time indeed, he thought grimly. “I’m gonna go get a drink of water first k?”
Gyuri nodded, and headed back into the living room.
He got a glass of water, and took out the vial of poison in his pocket. Mixing the powder into the water, he watched as it dissolved and grew transparent. If he wasn’t watching it disappear, he would’ve thought that there was nothing in it.
Taking the glass into the living room, he proceeded to pretend to take a sip before he offered the glass to her.
Jungmin watched her as she took a sip, and waited as she swallowed the water.
-
The effect was instantaneous. As soon as she swallowed the water, she started choking and she fell to the floor, the glass breaking. Jungmin was beside her in an instant.
“Gyuri! I’m so sorry, oh my god, I didn’t - I don’t, I don’t know. Oh my god.”
She blinked at him, her hand at her throat. He cradled her head on his lap and brushed her hair out of her face. It was time to tell her the whole story.
“Gyuri, your father is a gang leader. His gang opposes the one that I’m in.”
Her eyes widened as she took in this new information, then she coughed weakly. Jungmin knew the poison took about 10 minutes to kill someone, so he rushed forward with the whole story. He needed her to know.
“He killed my best friend, Kyujong. You might’ve heard of him. Honour student, top of our year, withdrew suddenly from school last winter? Yeah.” His eyes filled with tears as he stroked her hair.
“I needed to get revenge for him. That was all that was on my mind when he died. Then I found out you were Jin Young’s daughter and my plan formed. Everything fell into place when I found out that you liked me.”
-
He looked down at her, tears dripping from his eyes, watching the life drain out of her limp body. Clasping her hand within his, he sobbed as her hand came up from her throat to caress his face.
“G-Gyuri. I’m s-so sorry!” She closed her eyes and nodded. He knew that she was forgiving him. Leaning down and kissing her on the lips one last time, Jungmin choked back more sobs.
She coughed feebly, and mouthed the words at him. He could feel his heart clench, and fresh tears emerged from under his eyelids.
“I-I love you too.”
And then her hand went limp in his, and dropped to the ground. She was dead. Gyuri Park was dead. This was what he wanted wasn’t it? After all his hard work and effort, he had succeeded in his revenge. Kyujong’s death had been avenged, but why did he feel so broken?
-
He paced back and forth in front of Kyujong’s grave, before crouching down in front of it and placing a wreath of white roses on top. Jungmin couldn’t help but gaze at the picture of Kyujong on the headstone. He sighed.
“Kyu, I got revenge for your death... so shouldn’t I feel happy? Relieved?” He got up and started pacing again. He couldn’t think straight, his heart hurt so badly.
“I always thought I needed revenge, you were the only person that I had, and he took you away from me. I plotted different ways of getting back, but this was definitely the best. I knew I could do it since you were watching over me from above. And I did. I did it. I killed Gyuri Park, the daughter of the man who took you away from me.
“But I think I loved her. In a different way than I loved you. But it doesn’t even matter anymore. Both of you are dead, in a better place than I am.”
He stopped and stood still, making eye contact with Kyujong in the picture on his headstone.
“Kyu, the next time you see me, I’ll be up there with you.”
-
Hyunjoong glared at the messenger who had just disrupted the meeting.
“Who do you think you are?! Can’t you tell we’re in the middle of an important meeting?” Hyunjoong shouted, and then muttered under his breath. “A meeting that Jungmin shouldn’t be missing.”
The messenger glanced up from his bowed down position as he heard the mutter. “Sir, this letter is from Jaejoong sir. It’s regarding Jungmin.”
At this Hyunjoong paused, and took the letter. The messenger bowed out and left.
Jaejoong? He was their infiltrator in the other gang. He was in the top ranks and knew about almost everything that was happening. Hyunjoong opened the letter and skimmed the first few lines. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. He looked up and glanced around at his colleagues.
“Jungmin ran into the other headquarters during one of their meetings. He announced that him and Gyuri had been dating for the past several months, and that he was in love with her.
“He then looked straight at Jin Young, who had just found out that his daughter was dead, and told her that he was the one who had killed her.
“Jin Young pulled out his gun and shot him on the spot. 10 times.” Hyunjoong looked up with tears in his eyes, not able to say anything for a few moments.
“He’s dead.”
-
He walked through the headstones in the graveyard, looking for a particular name. Glancing around at the trees and the park nearby, Hyunjoong smiled sadly. Jungmin couldn’t have been laid to rest in a more peaceful place than this.
He shook his head, remembering Jungmin’s carefree laugh whenever Hyunjoong said or did something stupid. Sighing, he continued looking at the gravestones, looking for Jungmin’s name.
And then he saw it. Clutching the bouquet of flowers that he bought on impulse just 10 minutes before, he put them on top of the grave and glanced at the graves on either side.
Kyujong Kim. Well that was expected. When Kyujong was still alive, the two men had been practically attached at the hip. You would’ve thought they were brothers, beside the fact that they had different last names and looked nothing alike. He sighed; at least they were together now.
Hyunjoong glanced at the name on the other side of Jungmin’s grave and gasped. There was no way in hell that Jin Young would have allowed that.
Gyuri Park was buried next to Jungmin Park.
Hyunjoong smiled; he guessed that it was meant to be.