off to the races (7/?)
off to the races (7/?)
~ 5630 w, r, (krystal/kai) l part i./ ii./ iii./ iv./ v./ vi.
She hates him for making a prisoner out of her, but she hates him most because he had known she’d come back for him and he had used it against her.
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Krystal wakes up on a rainy afternoon. Her feet are cold, her fingers are numbed and her throat’s so closed out she couldn’t make a sound. She’s been in the situation before - in this exact room. How long ago that was, she wouldn’t know but last time, there was no big black screen with her heart rate displayed in all its glory.
Unsure if she should cry or scream so she did neither and remains motionless, occasionally trying to wiggle her toes under the stiff wool blanket.
Minutes pass and she can’t shake off the disappointment of still existing.
-
Chanyeol does a good job of being a constant reminder. “It’s been four days.”
“Man,” Baekhyun groans, throwing his fork down, “I know you feel guilty but you’ve got to stop bringing that up every two hours.”
Ignoring him, Chanyeol turns to Suho. “Is this even normal, hyung? Shouldn’t she be at least awake?”
“With the wounds from…that night,” Suho starts cautiously, eyes roaming the room to check if anyone is within the hearing range, “It normally wouldn’t take this long but if we take her previous concussion and fatigue into account, her current state isn’t anything worrying.”
“Right,” Chanyeol nods then goes back to playing with the pile of rice on his plate, “But -“
Jongin’s heavy sigh is loud enough to shut him up. “I thought we’d agree to stop talking about this at school.”
“Yeah, we did,” Baekhyun throws his legs up on the table and continues to be his infuriating self by popping bubblegum in everyone’s face, “Oh my god, let’s totes talk about the newest cute idol group! Super Senior has got like the cutest hair eva!”
The look on Chanyeol’s face is half way between holding in a laugh and holding in a scowl. “It’s Super Junior and they’re not even new.”
“I hope you’re playing along and didn’t just somehow know that,” Suho says in astonishment and gathers his chopsticks before getting up with his half empty plate, “I’m going to the student’s council meeting now. And Baekhyun, try not to get into another detention, I can only do so much to get you out for the sixth
time this week.”
“Wait, seriously?” Chanyeol remarks, swiveling around in his seat to shoot Baekhyun a disbelieved look as soon as Suho leaves the table, “You didn’t even come on Monday and most of Tuesday and today is Friday.”
Sticking his tongue out, Baekhyun says, “I’m, my little evil killer, now you know how the days of the week works.”
“I’m not an evil kill -“
“Keep your fucking voice down,” Jongin hisses harshly, clasping his hand over Chanyeol’s mouth, “All the yelling is going to get us unwanted attention.”
“Baekhyun hyung is louder than Kyungsoo’s hyung singing in the shower and he gets away with it.”
With an egoistic ‘hmp’, Baekhyun crosses his arms over his chest and boasts, “That’s because my voice is so lovely to hear, unlike Kyungsoo with his gargoyle wailing.”
Jongin can barely refrain from rolling his eyes as he mumbles under his breath, “No wonder he’s still a virgin.”
“I can hear you, you dickhead,” Baekhyun raises his voice and kicks his shin under the table.
“Where’s Sehun hyung, by the way?” Chanyeol asks out of the blue, “I know he’s at school, I saw him come out of his last class before lunch.”
“Yeah,” Jongin agrees, looking around the room for any sign of their brooding friend, “I’ve been wondering the same thing too.”
-
“Fuck, fuck, fuck” pours out of Kyungsoo’s mouth as he paces back and forth at a pace that can set the rug on fire.
“Calm down,” Sehun says shortly but firmly enough to get him to stop in his track, “You’re clearly not thinking straight, hyung, you should have called Suho - not me, he would have known wh -“
“I know!” He snaps, eyes bulging out of its sockets, “I would have fucking called him but we’re not fucking talking since - since - ,” He blabbers, his arms flailing around as he tries to come up with the right words, “I don’t fucking know - Chanyeol found his inner calling as psychopath.”
“Hyung,” Sehun brings his attention back, grasping onto one of his leather cladded shoulder and says slowly, “I can’t help you”
He can almost hear the sound of the wheels in Kyungsoo’s head turning, clicking into place as his expression contorts into one even more conflicted than previously.
His mouth falls opens then closed again, then he finally gather his thoughts, “You’re basically her version of a knight in shining armor. Think about it,” Kyungsoo urges, almost pleading, “Who do you think she’ll want to see first when she wakes up? Me? I don’t fucking think so.”
Sehun considers this for a moment and though Kyungsoo’s argument is anything but persuasive, he admits that there is some convincing truth in it. She wouldn’t be frightened, Sehun can’t her as that type of victim, but then again, a near death experience often alters one’s perception of life in general.
“You’ve made your point,” Sehun gives it to him with a surrendering sigh while Kyungsoo lets out one of relieve, “Have you seen her yet?”
“Are you fucking nuts?” Kyungsoo stares at him incredulously, “That goddamn machine that Suho set up to alert us when she moves just started beeping randomly and well, I obviously called you.”
Pressing his lips together into a thin line, Sehun goes from the Kyungsoo’s nail biting ordeal to a bigger one behind that closed door. He doesn’t know what to expect Krystal’s reaction to be once she sees him. If luck’s on their side, she would remember nothing - from the way she was stuffed in the back of the van to the hours of torture in the Choi’s resident. Worst case possible: remembering everything but him rushing down the staircase, almost tripping over his own feet as he rushed to check her slowing pulse. One thing Sehun knows for sure; if Krystal is frightened, she would not show it.
Krystal’s sitting up right with a pillow behind her back, her face turned to the window. “Don’t come any closer!”
“I’m sorry about what happened -“
“Stop, right therer!” She cuts in sharply, “Do you see that piece of paper on the night stand?”
Holding in a sigh of annoyance, Sehun turns his attention to the single yellow post-it stuck to the edge of the table. “Yeah, I see it.”
“Don’t just stand around then!” Krystal says snappishly, her fingers fiddling with the blanket she’s wrapped around herself, “Look at it!”
Careful to not get too close, Sehun reaches for the note and snatches it up. He scans over her scratchy hand writing quickly but has to do it once again, this time much slower and thorough with his reading to be sure of what she’s written down is really there.
“Shit ton of mascara, black eyeliner, two pair of Levis jeans, as many leather jackets you can find, hair conditioner -“
“Are you just going to recite that back to me?” She asks in a clipped tone, “’I know what I’ve written down. I nearly died, not lost my mind.”
Raising a brow, Sehun manages to string his words together. “You don’t have anything else to say to m -“
“Stop” Krystal hushes him with a raised finger, “Just go get those for me ASAP. If you’re going to keep me hostage then at least I want to look hot for it, not walking around like the living dead.”
Sehun blinks. “Okay then.”
-
“We’re doing what?!”
“Shopping,” Sehun repeats in slow exaggeration like he’s talking to some fucking three years old, “Before you ask, I can’t do it, I have things to take care of. Forget Kyungsoo hyung, he’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown.”
“Ch -“
“Chanyeol’s helping out at his mom’s shop,” Sehun interrupts with his mind reader skills, “And we all know
Suho will be at at least one after school meeting.”
“That’s just fucking great,” Jongin grunts, scratching the back of his head and gives an involuntary kick
at his bike, “So you just assume I’ve got nothing better to do on a Friday’s afternoon?”
A static pause then, “Do you?”
Jack ass, Jongin murmurs under his breath then hangs up with a huff. Stuffing his phone into his back pocket, he throws one leg over the bike and inwardly rolls his eyes at the safety bull crap of having to put on a helmet during the day time - cops and their money thirsty fines.
“Yo, Jongin!”
Suppressing a groan, he swivels just about enough to see which idiot it is. “Oh ‘sup, Jonghyun”
“Where ya going?” Jonghyun and his badly styled hair has the habit of putting him into headlock to demonstrate his illusion of masculinity, “The boys and I are gonna head down to the club, you should come.”
“Sounds fun, man,” Jongin feigns a boyish grin, pushing his arm off, “Sucks that I have to go meet Sehun now, we’re going to the basketball match tonight.”
“What?” He says in his best thug voice, “Man, I can’t believe you hang out with that kid. He gives me a bad vibe - never talk or anything.”
“Oh yeah,” Jongin pretends to agree, hurrying to adjust the strap of his helmet because he’s had just about enough of Jonghyun for the day, “He can be a bit cagey but he’s a pretty cool guy once you get to know him. Got to go now, you have fun but hey, don’t forget to treat the ladies well for me.”
“Yeah, don’t you worry!” Jonhyun hi-fives him, making all kind of idiotic noises as he runs back to his group of ass-wipe friends, “I’ll tell ‘em you say ‘hi’”
Even Baekhyun doesn’t know how to make that much of an ass out of himself.
-
No one told him that locating the beauty section of a pharmacy would be this hard. Then again, Jogin didn’t know that this aisle existed in the first place.
Buying clothes for a girl, not just any girl but one that he suspects is very picky with her garments, is admittedly, harder than the pop quiz that was handed out during calculus this morning. Unfortunately for him, the sale assistant was of no help. Everything that the old hag picked out was either too girly or too flashy. If Krystal was anything like the Sooung he knew, she would spit on it and throw them all back in the bag. One would assume that three hours of dodging weird glances in the ‘women’ section would be the worst part of any man’s day but that was until he finds himself standing in front of the ‘female hygiene product’ sign and trying to differentiate between pads and tampons and its different sizes. How is he supposed to know which one to get? What the fuck does ‘heavy flow’ even mean? Pantyliner? What the hell is that?
“You look like you could use some help, young man.”
Awkwardly, Jongin takes a short glance at the old lady. “Um..i - it’s okay.”
She smiles a toothy grin and continues as though he’d spoken. “It’s very sweet that you’re shopping for your girlfriend.”
“I’m no -“ Jongin pauses to think this over for a second before he realized, this could work to his advantage, “Yeah, my girlfriend, she’s very stressed with her - uh - exams right now so she asked me to get some of these things,” He chuckles dryly, motioning at the wide selection of pads and tampons, “Silly girl, she didn’t tell me which of these she needs and well, I wouldn’t know now, would I?”
“Silly indeed,” The grandma gives him a sympathetic look and reaches over to pat him on the back with her wrinkly hands, “But don’t you worry, I’m here to help.”
-
She couldn’t get out of bed. She couldn’t get out of the room. She couldn’t get out of this place.
Krystal’s a prisoner and her role as a patient on ‘bed rest’ is just a cover-up of what’s about to come next. She thinks on her feet, that’s the only way to go in life for someone like her but devising an escape plan for a way out of this castle is an impossible task. The cliché is to climb out the window - never mind how high the second floor is from the landing ground, she’s done worst, but one careful look at the lock and anyone with the littlest of experience can tell that there’s an alarm trigger attached it. Her second option is to sneak out of the room and slip out the door without getting caught because if she is, then she’ll never get to see the light of day again. Luckily for her, that’s not going to happen when the door can only be opened from the outside with a key code. They clearly have a kink for torture and prisoners, why else would they have this room all ready and set up? It has crossed her mind that they’ve created some emergency passage way out of here, that’s always the case when it comes to filthy rich people: they always think of ‘just in case’ as a way to waste even more money. She couldn’t go snooping around now though. They might be watching, Krystal couldn’t tell for sure if the room is bugged but as whatever wise man said on his death bed, better safe than sorry.
The problem is Krystal doesn’t know how a ‘normal’ girl would do in her situation.
Do they cry for their mother? She hasn’t seen hers in years. Do they scream, throw a hissy fit? She doesn’t have the energy or the emotional range of a dramatic. Do they bang on the door and yell ‘help’ over and over? Forget getting to the door when she can barely sit up straight.
A ‘normal’ girl would want to go home but what’s a home to her? No, if she makes it out of here alive it will be because of Yixing; not some great big house with a roof over it. She’s had one of those before and all it ever gave her was an excuse to run away. But Yixing, he would follow her to hell and back and she, in return, would never give him any less.
“I’m coming in”
Krystal purses her lips and gives the door a cursory look, up and down. Jongin? Why would he want to speak to her after his failed attempt to get rid of her, permanently? With Sehun, this morning, that didn’t come as a shock since he made a last minute decision to not leave her there for dead. Hearing a small ‘click’ of the lock, Krystal lies back down and pulls the sheet up to her chin. She decided to settle for just using her ears and not her eyes; he doesn’t need to know that she’s woken up.
“That’s great,” She hears him grumble, the shopping bags rustling when he dumps them on the bed, “Wake up to boss people around then go back to sleep.”
Krystal almost opens her eyes to roll it at him.
“Unbelievable,” There’s a sneer somewhere in there, she thinks, as he sits down on the right side of the mattress, his weigh pulling down the duvet she’s covered herself with. “It’s been less than ten hours and you’re already making me regret my decision.”
Obviously he’s not talking about planning her death, she doubt any of them regretted that. She’s itching to make biting comments but she’s stayed silent for this long. It would be a waste of an effort if she doesn’t stick it through ‘til the end.
“By the way, don’t expect a ‘sorry’ from me,” Jongin says in a bitter whisper, like he hates to hear it coming out of his own mouth, “I’m not taking responsibility for what happened. Go take it up with Kyungsoo and Chanyeol, they’re the ones who wanted you dead.”
What a surprise, turns out he is smarter than she gives him credit for.
“Now you’ve made me feel silly,” Krystal teases, her voice wavering as she sits up and rests her chin on his shoulder, “You knew that I was awake, didn’t you?”
Jongin shrugs her off, replies, “A word of advice: next time you want to convince someone that you’re sleeping, try not to fist the sheets when they’re sitting right next to you.”
“A word of advice: next time you want to apologize to someone, try not be an ass.”
He dismisses her with a lazy yawn. “All the stuff you asked for is in there. Dinner is at half past six, if you want to eat then you’ll have to press that button on the night stand so someone can come and let you out.”
She glances at the little black button to the right of the lamp. “Oh so that’s what it’s for? I thought it was for self destruction, in case anyone in here goes insane from boredom.”
He chuckles, rising to his feet then swivels around to face her. “You’re not looking too terrorized for someone who had a near death experience.”
“It’s a gift,” Krystal experimentally swings one leg the edge of the bed, holding in her wince when the pain travels up her limb. “When you’re born this pretty, you can never look bad. You wouldn’t understand.”
She waits for him to make some smart ass quip but it never came. Instead he stands glued to the floor with two hands shoved in his trousers, his eyes rooted on her bruised legs.
“Did no one ever tell you that staring is rude -“
“You shouldn’t be doing that,” he says quickly, cutting her off mid-sentence, “Suho said it will be another day more at least until you can start walking around.”
Rolling her eyes, Krystal leans over and snatches up one of the plastic bags Jongin brought with him. “Who is he now? A doctor?”
“He qualifies”
She raises a skeptical brow. “I didn’t know that owning a first aid kit made you a doctor.”
“No, but saving your life up does, don’t you think?” Jongin counters, “His family has been a part of Seoul’s medical board for generations. He knows all there is to know about being a doctor.”
So that explains that little invention of his that he slipped her the other night.
Jongin looks at her expectantly. “You’re not expecting me to say ‘thank you, are you? Almost killing someone then stitching them up is hardly worthy of gratitude. I’d say it makes us even, don’t you think?”
He scoffs, loosening the tie around his unbuttoned collars, “I don’t expect anything from someone like you -“
“Is that a school uniform?” Krystal gasps at the realization, “A big, bad boy like you actually go to school. And a good one too,” She adds with a hint of amusement, her toes pushing off the ground to bring her closer to him, “Do I spot a badge? Hmm…let me guess, if my memory serves correct then the soccer team -“
“You shouldn’t be up on your feet.” He says sternly and turns to make his way to the door.
“And I shouldn’t be alive,” She returns, contempt invading her syllables without her even trying, “And I shouldn’t have ended up here in this fucking mansion and waking up to a half crippled body but guess what, here I am, Jongin, here I am!”
“And whose fault is that?” Jongin snaps, “Try to use that damaged brain of yours. I’m not the one who started this. It was you and your gang of boy toys that decided to take what is not yours in the first place.”
Krystal stares at him, then laughs in exasperation. “God, you really all of that belongs to you, don’t you?”
“Who else ow -“
“It’s your father’s,” she spits, “All of it - every piece of those motors, from the assembling down to the motors, you cheated your father for them.”
“It’s all in the family,” He surmises in that emotionless tone that only infuriates her further.
“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t know that stealing from the family is considered to be alright now.”
Krystal hates to admit it but maybe the wanna-be-doctor really does know his stuff. She’s weak - so weak that she had to hold onto the bed frame to help steady her trembling lower half. The strain in her legs had gone from an itch to wild fire calcifying her bones, it won’t be long now until they fail her. But Krystal doesn’t if she can give him the satisfaction of seeing her give into the growing pain of those bruises and open wounds they’ve left her. She hates him for making a prisoner out of her, but she hates him most because he had known she’d come back for him and he had used it against her.
“Sit down, Krystal,” Jongin sighs instead of answering the question she’d thrown at him, “Standing there, wincing is not going to help you win this argument.”
“I’m not wincing,” she hisses and begrudgingly sat down on the bed.
Krystal could have sworn that she saw an edge of fiery temper within them. He lingers next to the door, his hands curling and uncurling around the material of his pants. It’s too tempting to rile him up when he’s like a statue - an empty surface with an empty core. Krystal could tell that for as long as she’s trapped in this monstrosity of architecture, she would relish in his every retaliation. Jongin regards her with hard, detached eyes before he presses his thumb to the fingerprint scanner to let himself out.
When he leaves, Krystal knows that he’d been stung.
-
“’Sup, bitch, had fun tampon shopping?”
He really should have tried harder to run Baekhyun over with his bike when he was reversing out of the driveway this morning.
“Leave him alone,” Kyungsoo scolds, clearly holding in his laughter, “He had a tough time picking between pads with or without wings.”
“Wait,” Baekhyun pauses and swivels around to shoot Kyungsoo a suspicious look, “How do you even know about this stuff?”
Clearing his throat, Kyungsoo averts his gaze. “I - I’ve dated around.”
“Look!” Baekhyun lays his grubby hands on his shoulders and shake until his head is ready to pop out and roll to the floor, “Now we have two little bitches in the house. Oh wait…actually three because we’ve got that fine piece of ass upstairs. She’s not a bitch though,” He manages to shut up for a second but only to throw in some over-dramatic swooning, “More like an angel sent from heaven to grace our -“
“Go wax your poetry somewhere else”
“Aww,” Baekhyun mocks, deliberately chucking his blazer over his notebook, “Is it that time of the month for you again?”
“Nope, is it yours?” He asks, growing tired of Baekhyun’s tendency to be a dickhead, “You should practice aegyo more ‘cause that’s all you’ve got going on.”
“Are you trying to tell me that I’m cute -“
“Fuck, I think I’m going to be sick,” Kyungsoo does both of them a favor and backhands Baekhyun over the head, “Suho texted, said he probably won’t be able to come tonight and to just go ahead and feed her whatever’s in the fridge.”
“WHATEVER’S IN THE FRIDGE?!” Baekhyun squeaks, getting all up in Kyungsoo’s personal space, “THE PRINCESS CAN’T JUST EAT WHATEVER’S IN THE FRIDGE! SHE’S GOING TO THINK THAT WE’RE ALL UNWORTHY COMMONERS!”
Jongin’s teeth dig into her tongue. He says, “The unworthy commoners don’t care what she thinks of them as long as she’s alive enough for a trade.”
“WHAT?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN TRADE?”
“It means,” Kyungsoo growls, pulling Baekhyun away from him by his shirt collar, “That no one gives a fuck about her pretty face unless she can lead us back to the dollars that she stole.”
Baekhyun pouts. “But can’t we keep her? Please, please, please -“
Paying no attention to the beginning of a daily dumbass tantrum, Kyungsoo turns to him and asks, “Has that crazy bitch had anything to eat since she woke up?”
Jongin answers with the truth despite knowing what that could lead to.
-
To everyone’s surprise, all around A plus student with badges to prove his participations in academic and extracurricular activities, Kim Jun Myeon, decided to grace them with his presence at the Kim’s resident despite the fact that it’s now eleven and way past his curfew.
“Holy shit,” Baekhyun swears, throwing his Playboy magazine to the floor, “What the fuck are you doing here? It’s already past your bed time.”
“Ha ha,” Suho replies dryly and swings his bag over the table, “I stayed behind at school so I can take care of our problem, “He mutters a little distantly, eying the ceiling so they’d all know exactly who he is referring to, “So instead of giving me shit, you should all be thanking me.”
“Before you launch into speeches, maybe you should tell us what you did first.” Kyungsoo smirks, lighting yet another cigarette.
“I will,” Suho says curtly, unzipping his backpack and pulling out various paper documents. “So…did she have dinner yet?”
Kyungsoo nearly sets the carpeting of the living room on the fire by dropping his lighter so Jongin takes it as a cue to be the one to take this one, “Yeah, Baekhyun took up something for her.”
Suho looks between the three of them in bewilderment then settled his gaze on Baekhyun. “Y - you?”
“Uh…yeah, him,” Jongin mumbles under his breath, “I made sure that he spent less than five minute in there, don’t worry.”
“Why didn’t you just do it, man?”
He scratches the back of his neck. “Why me?”
“Because Baekhyun creeps the hell out of anyone that crosses his path and Kyungsoo abducted her in the middle of the night?” Suho surmises with accuracy all the while peeling off his jacket and wool jacket,
“It’s all a bit weird but she seems to like you best out of all of us. You’re the reason why we managed to trick her into walking right into our trap and not to mention that you are the one who came up with the plan.”
“He’s got a point,” Kyungsoo offers Suho all the help in the world and for him, none at all.
With an irritated huff, he brushes off the topic with a new one, “You were saying that took care of our problem?”
“Can’t we just say her fucking name?” Kyungsoo says, hushed, “I didn’t know it was a taboo to say ‘Krystal, Krystal, Krystal’- Jesus”
“I wonder what my name would sound like coming from her mouth…” Baekhyun sighs dreamily, resting his fat face on the surface of the table. Great now he’ll have to wipe that space clean. “Her name even sounds nice coming out of Kyungsoo’s filthy mouth.”
Like every other comment Baekhyun has ever made, it turns Kyungsoo into a ticking time bomb. “You better watch that fucking mouth of yours -“
“Anyways,” Suho narrows his eyes at the two idiots that’s about to get into a pointless fist fight and takes a much needed breath, “This might be a bit…extreme but I’ve given it a lot of thought and it’s the safest and most convenient way for all of us...”
He waits for the next few words to tumble out of Suho’s mouth but the longer Jongin sits there, scribbling down dot points for his history project, the more of a wait it becomes for the both of them.
“Hyung,” Still, Suho doesn’t look any less eager to talk when Jongin looks up at him questioningly. “Are you going to tell me what it is?”
“Right…” Suho shakes his head lightly, “Um…look, you’ll think I’ve gone crazy but I’ve…” He gulps, then hesitantly continues, “I’ve enrolled Krystal at Daemoon.”
“WHAT?!”
Kyungsoo and Baekhyun exchanges a fleeting look of complete shock and together they cry out a ‘yes’ and a ‘no’. One could only assume that which came from which. And him? He could only murmur ‘fuck’ - one, twice, thrice then swallows the rest down disdain.
“What the fuck?” Kyungsoo lunges at Suho, his index finger ready to jam into Suho’s eye. “I rely on you to be the smart in all this and you went and did what?!”
“Uh,” Baekhyun loud voice cuts through Suho’s, “Like the best thing he could have ever done?”
“Uh, like no.” Kyungsoo impersonates Baekhyun’s dimwit attitude before bringing his temper tantrum back to Suho, “Go on. I’m giving you the chance to try and charm yourself out of this one which won’t work by the way.”
Suho puts his hands up defensively. “I’m not alone in this. Sehun also think that it’s for the best -“
“Sehun agreed?”
Jongin can’t help but be doubtful in Sehun’s involvement in all of this. Though it comforts him to know that Sehun gave his stamp of approval to Suho’s crack pot of an idea, he really is the most calculating and far-sighted out of all of them. Sehun’s too cautious to hastily give the green light to what is, essentially a group decision. But it does strike him that Sehun didn’t think a mention would be in order when they’ve lived most of their life sharing nearly all aspects of it.
“Yeah,” Suho nods and lets out a sigh of relieve when Kyungsoo show signs of backing down, “He even
dropped by at the school to make sure that all the details in the legal documents match up.”
Baekhyun doesn’t need any more convincing but Kyungsoo surely does. “Match up to what? You’re basically making her identity up from scratch.”
“Match up to mine.” Suho answers like it’s the simplest thing in the world.
For the first time since this conversation has started, Baekhyun looks deterred, “Say whaaa…?”
“I’ve thought about it and being the school president’s little cousin would probably be make you less shady than being any of your cousins,” Suho explains and pulls out a chair to take a seat across from Jongin, “No one’s even met Baekhyun’s parents because they’re always travelling. It’s suspicious enough that Chanyeol’s accepted into the school with his background so adding a cousin in definitely won’t help. And, Sehun - let’s be honest no matter how reputable your family is, if you’re in that deep in debt then some distant relative popping up at a prestigious high school that she can’t afford would look pretty shit.” He massaged his temple and smile wryly, “Jongin, man, you know you’re out of the question.”
And no one asks why because they don’t need to.
He had no relative; distant or close. It’s been publicized for years that his father, in order to become the great, rich, business man that he is had to emerge from poverty of course, once you’re with money you wouldn’t want to share it with your low-life families so you cut them off like they never existed. Whereas his mother, who made the wise decision of filing a divorce and remarrying, spends all her time doing nothing but drinking and gossiping at social events and makes sure that everyone from her one year old nephew to her best friend’s half dead grandma appears alongside her on at least one tabloid. A cousin and one of the same age too, isn’t going to be convincing to anyone at Daemoon College.
“I’m really glad that you and Sehun thought this through so fucking well,” Kyungsoo barks, “That still doesn’t tell me why you think it’s a great idea to let that crazy bitch out so she can run wild at your little high school.”
“I was getting to that,” Suho replies calmly, shifting his gaze to Baekhyun and back to him again, “I know you’re going to say that the security system is tight and we’ve got nothing to worry about ‘cause there’s no way ‘M’ has figured out where she is, but,” The following seconds of silence says it all; eventually Krystal will find a way to break free. “But it’s not possible that we’re always going to have one of us watching her back here at the mansion. It works right now but we’ve got school, work, part time jobs - whatever, during the day and business ventures at night. We’re not going to have the time to sit around and argue over who babysits at what time.”
“I’m all for it” Baekhyun beams, stretching in his seat.
“So take her along to suffer at school with bunch of douche bag tweens, right, uh huh,” Kyungsoo considers this for a minute, then, “Sounds great and all, but how are you going to make sure that she doesn’t run off between classes? Huh?”
Suho doesn’t even blink at what seems like a big misstep in all this well-laid out plan of his. “We can put a tracker on her if you like but if she misses a class, we’ll be notified right away since we’ve figured out how to hack into the school system and as Sehun pointed out to me; where is she going to hide in that street? In that uniform, one missing report and everyone and their mom’s will know which direction she went.”
Kyungsoo looks floored. “Uh…well…”
Jongin can’t say he’s psyched for Krystal being at school and sitting through classes with him but none of them, not even Kyungsoo could construct anymore arguments to counter Suho’s. That’s yet to happen, ever.
“So,” Suho announces with a triumphant grin, “if you’re all done freaking the fuck out then let’s look through the paper works.”
~ 5630 w, r, (krystal/kai) l part i./ ii./ iii./ iv./ v./ vi.
She hates him for making a prisoner out of her, but she hates him most because he had known she’d come back for him and he had used it against her.
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Krystal wakes up on a rainy afternoon. Her feet are cold, her fingers are numbed and her throat’s so closed out she couldn’t make a sound. She’s been in the situation before - in this exact room. How long ago that was, she wouldn’t know but last time, there was no big black screen with her heart rate displayed in all its glory.
Unsure if she should cry or scream so she did neither and remains motionless, occasionally trying to wiggle her toes under the stiff wool blanket.
Minutes pass and she can’t shake off the disappointment of still existing.
-
Chanyeol does a good job of being a constant reminder. “It’s been four days.”
“Man,” Baekhyun groans, throwing his fork down, “I know you feel guilty but you’ve got to stop bringing that up every two hours.”
Ignoring him, Chanyeol turns to Suho. “Is this even normal, hyung? Shouldn’t she be at least awake?”
“With the wounds from…that night,” Suho starts cautiously, eyes roaming the room to check if anyone is within the hearing range, “It normally wouldn’t take this long but if we take her previous concussion and fatigue into account, her current state isn’t anything worrying.”
“Right,” Chanyeol nods then goes back to playing with the pile of rice on his plate, “But -“
Jongin’s heavy sigh is loud enough to shut him up. “I thought we’d agree to stop talking about this at school.”
“Yeah, we did,” Baekhyun throws his legs up on the table and continues to be his infuriating self by popping bubblegum in everyone’s face, “Oh my god, let’s totes talk about the newest cute idol group! Super Senior has got like the cutest hair eva!”
The look on Chanyeol’s face is half way between holding in a laugh and holding in a scowl. “It’s Super Junior and they’re not even new.”
“I hope you’re playing along and didn’t just somehow know that,” Suho says in astonishment and gathers his chopsticks before getting up with his half empty plate, “I’m going to the student’s council meeting now. And Baekhyun, try not to get into another detention, I can only do so much to get you out for the sixth
time this week.”
“Wait, seriously?” Chanyeol remarks, swiveling around in his seat to shoot Baekhyun a disbelieved look as soon as Suho leaves the table, “You didn’t even come on Monday and most of Tuesday and today is Friday.”
Sticking his tongue out, Baekhyun says, “I’m, my little evil killer, now you know how the days of the week works.”
“I’m not an evil kill -“
“Keep your fucking voice down,” Jongin hisses harshly, clasping his hand over Chanyeol’s mouth, “All the yelling is going to get us unwanted attention.”
“Baekhyun hyung is louder than Kyungsoo’s hyung singing in the shower and he gets away with it.”
With an egoistic ‘hmp’, Baekhyun crosses his arms over his chest and boasts, “That’s because my voice is so lovely to hear, unlike Kyungsoo with his gargoyle wailing.”
Jongin can barely refrain from rolling his eyes as he mumbles under his breath, “No wonder he’s still a virgin.”
“I can hear you, you dickhead,” Baekhyun raises his voice and kicks his shin under the table.
“Where’s Sehun hyung, by the way?” Chanyeol asks out of the blue, “I know he’s at school, I saw him come out of his last class before lunch.”
“Yeah,” Jongin agrees, looking around the room for any sign of their brooding friend, “I’ve been wondering the same thing too.”
-
“Fuck, fuck, fuck” pours out of Kyungsoo’s mouth as he paces back and forth at a pace that can set the rug on fire.
“Calm down,” Sehun says shortly but firmly enough to get him to stop in his track, “You’re clearly not thinking straight, hyung, you should have called Suho - not me, he would have known wh -“
“I know!” He snaps, eyes bulging out of its sockets, “I would have fucking called him but we’re not fucking talking since - since - ,” He blabbers, his arms flailing around as he tries to come up with the right words, “I don’t fucking know - Chanyeol found his inner calling as psychopath.”
“Hyung,” Sehun brings his attention back, grasping onto one of his leather cladded shoulder and says slowly, “I can’t help you”
He can almost hear the sound of the wheels in Kyungsoo’s head turning, clicking into place as his expression contorts into one even more conflicted than previously.
His mouth falls opens then closed again, then he finally gather his thoughts, “You’re basically her version of a knight in shining armor. Think about it,” Kyungsoo urges, almost pleading, “Who do you think she’ll want to see first when she wakes up? Me? I don’t fucking think so.”
Sehun considers this for a moment and though Kyungsoo’s argument is anything but persuasive, he admits that there is some convincing truth in it. She wouldn’t be frightened, Sehun can’t her as that type of victim, but then again, a near death experience often alters one’s perception of life in general.
“You’ve made your point,” Sehun gives it to him with a surrendering sigh while Kyungsoo lets out one of relieve, “Have you seen her yet?”
“Are you fucking nuts?” Kyungsoo stares at him incredulously, “That goddamn machine that Suho set up to alert us when she moves just started beeping randomly and well, I obviously called you.”
Pressing his lips together into a thin line, Sehun goes from the Kyungsoo’s nail biting ordeal to a bigger one behind that closed door. He doesn’t know what to expect Krystal’s reaction to be once she sees him. If luck’s on their side, she would remember nothing - from the way she was stuffed in the back of the van to the hours of torture in the Choi’s resident. Worst case possible: remembering everything but him rushing down the staircase, almost tripping over his own feet as he rushed to check her slowing pulse. One thing Sehun knows for sure; if Krystal is frightened, she would not show it.
Krystal’s sitting up right with a pillow behind her back, her face turned to the window. “Don’t come any closer!”
“I’m sorry about what happened -“
“Stop, right therer!” She cuts in sharply, “Do you see that piece of paper on the night stand?”
Holding in a sigh of annoyance, Sehun turns his attention to the single yellow post-it stuck to the edge of the table. “Yeah, I see it.”
“Don’t just stand around then!” Krystal says snappishly, her fingers fiddling with the blanket she’s wrapped around herself, “Look at it!”
Careful to not get too close, Sehun reaches for the note and snatches it up. He scans over her scratchy hand writing quickly but has to do it once again, this time much slower and thorough with his reading to be sure of what she’s written down is really there.
“Shit ton of mascara, black eyeliner, two pair of Levis jeans, as many leather jackets you can find, hair conditioner -“
“Are you just going to recite that back to me?” She asks in a clipped tone, “’I know what I’ve written down. I nearly died, not lost my mind.”
Raising a brow, Sehun manages to string his words together. “You don’t have anything else to say to m -“
“Stop” Krystal hushes him with a raised finger, “Just go get those for me ASAP. If you’re going to keep me hostage then at least I want to look hot for it, not walking around like the living dead.”
Sehun blinks. “Okay then.”
-
“We’re doing what?!”
“Shopping,” Sehun repeats in slow exaggeration like he’s talking to some fucking three years old, “Before you ask, I can’t do it, I have things to take care of. Forget Kyungsoo hyung, he’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown.”
“Ch -“
“Chanyeol’s helping out at his mom’s shop,” Sehun interrupts with his mind reader skills, “And we all know
Suho will be at at least one after school meeting.”
“That’s just fucking great,” Jongin grunts, scratching the back of his head and gives an involuntary kick
at his bike, “So you just assume I’ve got nothing better to do on a Friday’s afternoon?”
A static pause then, “Do you?”
Jack ass, Jongin murmurs under his breath then hangs up with a huff. Stuffing his phone into his back pocket, he throws one leg over the bike and inwardly rolls his eyes at the safety bull crap of having to put on a helmet during the day time - cops and their money thirsty fines.
“Yo, Jongin!”
Suppressing a groan, he swivels just about enough to see which idiot it is. “Oh ‘sup, Jonghyun”
“Where ya going?” Jonghyun and his badly styled hair has the habit of putting him into headlock to demonstrate his illusion of masculinity, “The boys and I are gonna head down to the club, you should come.”
“Sounds fun, man,” Jongin feigns a boyish grin, pushing his arm off, “Sucks that I have to go meet Sehun now, we’re going to the basketball match tonight.”
“What?” He says in his best thug voice, “Man, I can’t believe you hang out with that kid. He gives me a bad vibe - never talk or anything.”
“Oh yeah,” Jongin pretends to agree, hurrying to adjust the strap of his helmet because he’s had just about enough of Jonghyun for the day, “He can be a bit cagey but he’s a pretty cool guy once you get to know him. Got to go now, you have fun but hey, don’t forget to treat the ladies well for me.”
“Yeah, don’t you worry!” Jonhyun hi-fives him, making all kind of idiotic noises as he runs back to his group of ass-wipe friends, “I’ll tell ‘em you say ‘hi’”
Even Baekhyun doesn’t know how to make that much of an ass out of himself.
-
No one told him that locating the beauty section of a pharmacy would be this hard. Then again, Jogin didn’t know that this aisle existed in the first place.
Buying clothes for a girl, not just any girl but one that he suspects is very picky with her garments, is admittedly, harder than the pop quiz that was handed out during calculus this morning. Unfortunately for him, the sale assistant was of no help. Everything that the old hag picked out was either too girly or too flashy. If Krystal was anything like the Sooung he knew, she would spit on it and throw them all back in the bag. One would assume that three hours of dodging weird glances in the ‘women’ section would be the worst part of any man’s day but that was until he finds himself standing in front of the ‘female hygiene product’ sign and trying to differentiate between pads and tampons and its different sizes. How is he supposed to know which one to get? What the fuck does ‘heavy flow’ even mean? Pantyliner? What the hell is that?
“You look like you could use some help, young man.”
Awkwardly, Jongin takes a short glance at the old lady. “Um..i - it’s okay.”
She smiles a toothy grin and continues as though he’d spoken. “It’s very sweet that you’re shopping for your girlfriend.”
“I’m no -“ Jongin pauses to think this over for a second before he realized, this could work to his advantage, “Yeah, my girlfriend, she’s very stressed with her - uh - exams right now so she asked me to get some of these things,” He chuckles dryly, motioning at the wide selection of pads and tampons, “Silly girl, she didn’t tell me which of these she needs and well, I wouldn’t know now, would I?”
“Silly indeed,” The grandma gives him a sympathetic look and reaches over to pat him on the back with her wrinkly hands, “But don’t you worry, I’m here to help.”
-
She couldn’t get out of bed. She couldn’t get out of the room. She couldn’t get out of this place.
Krystal’s a prisoner and her role as a patient on ‘bed rest’ is just a cover-up of what’s about to come next. She thinks on her feet, that’s the only way to go in life for someone like her but devising an escape plan for a way out of this castle is an impossible task. The cliché is to climb out the window - never mind how high the second floor is from the landing ground, she’s done worst, but one careful look at the lock and anyone with the littlest of experience can tell that there’s an alarm trigger attached it. Her second option is to sneak out of the room and slip out the door without getting caught because if she is, then she’ll never get to see the light of day again. Luckily for her, that’s not going to happen when the door can only be opened from the outside with a key code. They clearly have a kink for torture and prisoners, why else would they have this room all ready and set up? It has crossed her mind that they’ve created some emergency passage way out of here, that’s always the case when it comes to filthy rich people: they always think of ‘just in case’ as a way to waste even more money. She couldn’t go snooping around now though. They might be watching, Krystal couldn’t tell for sure if the room is bugged but as whatever wise man said on his death bed, better safe than sorry.
The problem is Krystal doesn’t know how a ‘normal’ girl would do in her situation.
Do they cry for their mother? She hasn’t seen hers in years. Do they scream, throw a hissy fit? She doesn’t have the energy or the emotional range of a dramatic. Do they bang on the door and yell ‘help’ over and over? Forget getting to the door when she can barely sit up straight.
A ‘normal’ girl would want to go home but what’s a home to her? No, if she makes it out of here alive it will be because of Yixing; not some great big house with a roof over it. She’s had one of those before and all it ever gave her was an excuse to run away. But Yixing, he would follow her to hell and back and she, in return, would never give him any less.
“I’m coming in”
Krystal purses her lips and gives the door a cursory look, up and down. Jongin? Why would he want to speak to her after his failed attempt to get rid of her, permanently? With Sehun, this morning, that didn’t come as a shock since he made a last minute decision to not leave her there for dead. Hearing a small ‘click’ of the lock, Krystal lies back down and pulls the sheet up to her chin. She decided to settle for just using her ears and not her eyes; he doesn’t need to know that she’s woken up.
“That’s great,” She hears him grumble, the shopping bags rustling when he dumps them on the bed, “Wake up to boss people around then go back to sleep.”
Krystal almost opens her eyes to roll it at him.
“Unbelievable,” There’s a sneer somewhere in there, she thinks, as he sits down on the right side of the mattress, his weigh pulling down the duvet she’s covered herself with. “It’s been less than ten hours and you’re already making me regret my decision.”
Obviously he’s not talking about planning her death, she doubt any of them regretted that. She’s itching to make biting comments but she’s stayed silent for this long. It would be a waste of an effort if she doesn’t stick it through ‘til the end.
“By the way, don’t expect a ‘sorry’ from me,” Jongin says in a bitter whisper, like he hates to hear it coming out of his own mouth, “I’m not taking responsibility for what happened. Go take it up with Kyungsoo and Chanyeol, they’re the ones who wanted you dead.”
What a surprise, turns out he is smarter than she gives him credit for.
“Now you’ve made me feel silly,” Krystal teases, her voice wavering as she sits up and rests her chin on his shoulder, “You knew that I was awake, didn’t you?”
Jongin shrugs her off, replies, “A word of advice: next time you want to convince someone that you’re sleeping, try not to fist the sheets when they’re sitting right next to you.”
“A word of advice: next time you want to apologize to someone, try not be an ass.”
He dismisses her with a lazy yawn. “All the stuff you asked for is in there. Dinner is at half past six, if you want to eat then you’ll have to press that button on the night stand so someone can come and let you out.”
She glances at the little black button to the right of the lamp. “Oh so that’s what it’s for? I thought it was for self destruction, in case anyone in here goes insane from boredom.”
He chuckles, rising to his feet then swivels around to face her. “You’re not looking too terrorized for someone who had a near death experience.”
“It’s a gift,” Krystal experimentally swings one leg the edge of the bed, holding in her wince when the pain travels up her limb. “When you’re born this pretty, you can never look bad. You wouldn’t understand.”
She waits for him to make some smart ass quip but it never came. Instead he stands glued to the floor with two hands shoved in his trousers, his eyes rooted on her bruised legs.
“Did no one ever tell you that staring is rude -“
“You shouldn’t be doing that,” he says quickly, cutting her off mid-sentence, “Suho said it will be another day more at least until you can start walking around.”
Rolling her eyes, Krystal leans over and snatches up one of the plastic bags Jongin brought with him. “Who is he now? A doctor?”
“He qualifies”
She raises a skeptical brow. “I didn’t know that owning a first aid kit made you a doctor.”
“No, but saving your life up does, don’t you think?” Jongin counters, “His family has been a part of Seoul’s medical board for generations. He knows all there is to know about being a doctor.”
So that explains that little invention of his that he slipped her the other night.
Jongin looks at her expectantly. “You’re not expecting me to say ‘thank you, are you? Almost killing someone then stitching them up is hardly worthy of gratitude. I’d say it makes us even, don’t you think?”
He scoffs, loosening the tie around his unbuttoned collars, “I don’t expect anything from someone like you -“
“Is that a school uniform?” Krystal gasps at the realization, “A big, bad boy like you actually go to school. And a good one too,” She adds with a hint of amusement, her toes pushing off the ground to bring her closer to him, “Do I spot a badge? Hmm…let me guess, if my memory serves correct then the soccer team -“
“You shouldn’t be up on your feet.” He says sternly and turns to make his way to the door.
“And I shouldn’t be alive,” She returns, contempt invading her syllables without her even trying, “And I shouldn’t have ended up here in this fucking mansion and waking up to a half crippled body but guess what, here I am, Jongin, here I am!”
“And whose fault is that?” Jongin snaps, “Try to use that damaged brain of yours. I’m not the one who started this. It was you and your gang of boy toys that decided to take what is not yours in the first place.”
Krystal stares at him, then laughs in exasperation. “God, you really all of that belongs to you, don’t you?”
“Who else ow -“
“It’s your father’s,” she spits, “All of it - every piece of those motors, from the assembling down to the motors, you cheated your father for them.”
“It’s all in the family,” He surmises in that emotionless tone that only infuriates her further.
“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t know that stealing from the family is considered to be alright now.”
Krystal hates to admit it but maybe the wanna-be-doctor really does know his stuff. She’s weak - so weak that she had to hold onto the bed frame to help steady her trembling lower half. The strain in her legs had gone from an itch to wild fire calcifying her bones, it won’t be long now until they fail her. But Krystal doesn’t if she can give him the satisfaction of seeing her give into the growing pain of those bruises and open wounds they’ve left her. She hates him for making a prisoner out of her, but she hates him most because he had known she’d come back for him and he had used it against her.
“Sit down, Krystal,” Jongin sighs instead of answering the question she’d thrown at him, “Standing there, wincing is not going to help you win this argument.”
“I’m not wincing,” she hisses and begrudgingly sat down on the bed.
Krystal could have sworn that she saw an edge of fiery temper within them. He lingers next to the door, his hands curling and uncurling around the material of his pants. It’s too tempting to rile him up when he’s like a statue - an empty surface with an empty core. Krystal could tell that for as long as she’s trapped in this monstrosity of architecture, she would relish in his every retaliation. Jongin regards her with hard, detached eyes before he presses his thumb to the fingerprint scanner to let himself out.
When he leaves, Krystal knows that he’d been stung.
-
“’Sup, bitch, had fun tampon shopping?”
He really should have tried harder to run Baekhyun over with his bike when he was reversing out of the driveway this morning.
“Leave him alone,” Kyungsoo scolds, clearly holding in his laughter, “He had a tough time picking between pads with or without wings.”
“Wait,” Baekhyun pauses and swivels around to shoot Kyungsoo a suspicious look, “How do you even know about this stuff?”
Clearing his throat, Kyungsoo averts his gaze. “I - I’ve dated around.”
“Look!” Baekhyun lays his grubby hands on his shoulders and shake until his head is ready to pop out and roll to the floor, “Now we have two little bitches in the house. Oh wait…actually three because we’ve got that fine piece of ass upstairs. She’s not a bitch though,” He manages to shut up for a second but only to throw in some over-dramatic swooning, “More like an angel sent from heaven to grace our -“
“Go wax your poetry somewhere else”
“Aww,” Baekhyun mocks, deliberately chucking his blazer over his notebook, “Is it that time of the month for you again?”
“Nope, is it yours?” He asks, growing tired of Baekhyun’s tendency to be a dickhead, “You should practice aegyo more ‘cause that’s all you’ve got going on.”
“Are you trying to tell me that I’m cute -“
“Fuck, I think I’m going to be sick,” Kyungsoo does both of them a favor and backhands Baekhyun over the head, “Suho texted, said he probably won’t be able to come tonight and to just go ahead and feed her whatever’s in the fridge.”
“WHATEVER’S IN THE FRIDGE?!” Baekhyun squeaks, getting all up in Kyungsoo’s personal space, “THE PRINCESS CAN’T JUST EAT WHATEVER’S IN THE FRIDGE! SHE’S GOING TO THINK THAT WE’RE ALL UNWORTHY COMMONERS!”
Jongin’s teeth dig into her tongue. He says, “The unworthy commoners don’t care what she thinks of them as long as she’s alive enough for a trade.”
“WHAT?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN TRADE?”
“It means,” Kyungsoo growls, pulling Baekhyun away from him by his shirt collar, “That no one gives a fuck about her pretty face unless she can lead us back to the dollars that she stole.”
Baekhyun pouts. “But can’t we keep her? Please, please, please -“
Paying no attention to the beginning of a daily dumbass tantrum, Kyungsoo turns to him and asks, “Has that crazy bitch had anything to eat since she woke up?”
Jongin answers with the truth despite knowing what that could lead to.
-
To everyone’s surprise, all around A plus student with badges to prove his participations in academic and extracurricular activities, Kim Jun Myeon, decided to grace them with his presence at the Kim’s resident despite the fact that it’s now eleven and way past his curfew.
“Holy shit,” Baekhyun swears, throwing his Playboy magazine to the floor, “What the fuck are you doing here? It’s already past your bed time.”
“Ha ha,” Suho replies dryly and swings his bag over the table, “I stayed behind at school so I can take care of our problem, “He mutters a little distantly, eying the ceiling so they’d all know exactly who he is referring to, “So instead of giving me shit, you should all be thanking me.”
“Before you launch into speeches, maybe you should tell us what you did first.” Kyungsoo smirks, lighting yet another cigarette.
“I will,” Suho says curtly, unzipping his backpack and pulling out various paper documents. “So…did she have dinner yet?”
Kyungsoo nearly sets the carpeting of the living room on the fire by dropping his lighter so Jongin takes it as a cue to be the one to take this one, “Yeah, Baekhyun took up something for her.”
Suho looks between the three of them in bewilderment then settled his gaze on Baekhyun. “Y - you?”
“Uh…yeah, him,” Jongin mumbles under his breath, “I made sure that he spent less than five minute in there, don’t worry.”
“Why didn’t you just do it, man?”
He scratches the back of his neck. “Why me?”
“Because Baekhyun creeps the hell out of anyone that crosses his path and Kyungsoo abducted her in the middle of the night?” Suho surmises with accuracy all the while peeling off his jacket and wool jacket,
“It’s all a bit weird but she seems to like you best out of all of us. You’re the reason why we managed to trick her into walking right into our trap and not to mention that you are the one who came up with the plan.”
“He’s got a point,” Kyungsoo offers Suho all the help in the world and for him, none at all.
With an irritated huff, he brushes off the topic with a new one, “You were saying that took care of our problem?”
“Can’t we just say her fucking name?” Kyungsoo says, hushed, “I didn’t know it was a taboo to say ‘Krystal, Krystal, Krystal’- Jesus”
“I wonder what my name would sound like coming from her mouth…” Baekhyun sighs dreamily, resting his fat face on the surface of the table. Great now he’ll have to wipe that space clean. “Her name even sounds nice coming out of Kyungsoo’s filthy mouth.”
Like every other comment Baekhyun has ever made, it turns Kyungsoo into a ticking time bomb. “You better watch that fucking mouth of yours -“
“Anyways,” Suho narrows his eyes at the two idiots that’s about to get into a pointless fist fight and takes a much needed breath, “This might be a bit…extreme but I’ve given it a lot of thought and it’s the safest and most convenient way for all of us...”
He waits for the next few words to tumble out of Suho’s mouth but the longer Jongin sits there, scribbling down dot points for his history project, the more of a wait it becomes for the both of them.
“Hyung,” Still, Suho doesn’t look any less eager to talk when Jongin looks up at him questioningly. “Are you going to tell me what it is?”
“Right…” Suho shakes his head lightly, “Um…look, you’ll think I’ve gone crazy but I’ve…” He gulps, then hesitantly continues, “I’ve enrolled Krystal at Daemoon.”
“WHAT?!”
Kyungsoo and Baekhyun exchanges a fleeting look of complete shock and together they cry out a ‘yes’ and a ‘no’. One could only assume that which came from which. And him? He could only murmur ‘fuck’ - one, twice, thrice then swallows the rest down disdain.
“What the fuck?” Kyungsoo lunges at Suho, his index finger ready to jam into Suho’s eye. “I rely on you to be the smart in all this and you went and did what?!”
“Uh,” Baekhyun loud voice cuts through Suho’s, “Like the best thing he could have ever done?”
“Uh, like no.” Kyungsoo impersonates Baekhyun’s dimwit attitude before bringing his temper tantrum back to Suho, “Go on. I’m giving you the chance to try and charm yourself out of this one which won’t work by the way.”
Suho puts his hands up defensively. “I’m not alone in this. Sehun also think that it’s for the best -“
“Sehun agreed?”
Jongin can’t help but be doubtful in Sehun’s involvement in all of this. Though it comforts him to know that Sehun gave his stamp of approval to Suho’s crack pot of an idea, he really is the most calculating and far-sighted out of all of them. Sehun’s too cautious to hastily give the green light to what is, essentially a group decision. But it does strike him that Sehun didn’t think a mention would be in order when they’ve lived most of their life sharing nearly all aspects of it.
“Yeah,” Suho nods and lets out a sigh of relieve when Kyungsoo show signs of backing down, “He even
dropped by at the school to make sure that all the details in the legal documents match up.”
Baekhyun doesn’t need any more convincing but Kyungsoo surely does. “Match up to what? You’re basically making her identity up from scratch.”
“Match up to mine.” Suho answers like it’s the simplest thing in the world.
For the first time since this conversation has started, Baekhyun looks deterred, “Say whaaa…?”
“I’ve thought about it and being the school president’s little cousin would probably be make you less shady than being any of your cousins,” Suho explains and pulls out a chair to take a seat across from Jongin, “No one’s even met Baekhyun’s parents because they’re always travelling. It’s suspicious enough that Chanyeol’s accepted into the school with his background so adding a cousin in definitely won’t help. And, Sehun - let’s be honest no matter how reputable your family is, if you’re in that deep in debt then some distant relative popping up at a prestigious high school that she can’t afford would look pretty shit.” He massaged his temple and smile wryly, “Jongin, man, you know you’re out of the question.”
And no one asks why because they don’t need to.
He had no relative; distant or close. It’s been publicized for years that his father, in order to become the great, rich, business man that he is had to emerge from poverty of course, once you’re with money you wouldn’t want to share it with your low-life families so you cut them off like they never existed. Whereas his mother, who made the wise decision of filing a divorce and remarrying, spends all her time doing nothing but drinking and gossiping at social events and makes sure that everyone from her one year old nephew to her best friend’s half dead grandma appears alongside her on at least one tabloid. A cousin and one of the same age too, isn’t going to be convincing to anyone at Daemoon College.
“I’m really glad that you and Sehun thought this through so fucking well,” Kyungsoo barks, “That still doesn’t tell me why you think it’s a great idea to let that crazy bitch out so she can run wild at your little high school.”
“I was getting to that,” Suho replies calmly, shifting his gaze to Baekhyun and back to him again, “I know you’re going to say that the security system is tight and we’ve got nothing to worry about ‘cause there’s no way ‘M’ has figured out where she is, but,” The following seconds of silence says it all; eventually Krystal will find a way to break free. “But it’s not possible that we’re always going to have one of us watching her back here at the mansion. It works right now but we’ve got school, work, part time jobs - whatever, during the day and business ventures at night. We’re not going to have the time to sit around and argue over who babysits at what time.”
“I’m all for it” Baekhyun beams, stretching in his seat.
“So take her along to suffer at school with bunch of douche bag tweens, right, uh huh,” Kyungsoo considers this for a minute, then, “Sounds great and all, but how are you going to make sure that she doesn’t run off between classes? Huh?”
Suho doesn’t even blink at what seems like a big misstep in all this well-laid out plan of his. “We can put a tracker on her if you like but if she misses a class, we’ll be notified right away since we’ve figured out how to hack into the school system and as Sehun pointed out to me; where is she going to hide in that street? In that uniform, one missing report and everyone and their mom’s will know which direction she went.”
Kyungsoo looks floored. “Uh…well…”
Jongin can’t say he’s psyched for Krystal being at school and sitting through classes with him but none of them, not even Kyungsoo could construct anymore arguments to counter Suho’s. That’s yet to happen, ever.
“So,” Suho announces with a triumphant grin, “if you’re all done freaking the fuck out then let’s look through the paper works.”