Chapter Text

“Alright, You can take a seat while I prepare your order. I’ll call you when it’s ready”

“Thank you, dear. Happy Valentine's Day!”

“You too”

Beomgyu smiled her million-dollar smile as she waved off one of their regulars in the local coffee shop where she works.

It was a decent job, fit her schedule enough for it to not be overwhelming, had decent pay, and even allowed her to meet new people.

People who were nice enough that working on Valentine’s Day didn’t sound so bad.

Beomgyu is not going to pretend that she doesn’t get her fair share of rude customers or ones who were “way too nice” for all the wrong reasons.

But, she knew how to take care of herself and as soon as people learned who she was and which family she belonged to, they usually laid off.

It’s just that, so far, and even when it’s still early in the afternoon shift, only good people showed up so Beomgyu can at least hope nothing would ruin her day, right?

Wrong.

“Welcome to— No. OVER MY DEAD BODY!”

“That’s an awfully long name”

The man pouted in fake confusion as Beomgyu scowled at him.

“Go away yeonjun”

“Good morning to you too, darling”

Beomgyu pretended to gag, making the other smirk at her antics.

But the more you look at that smirk, the more that little glint in his eyes starts to rub you off the wrong way.

Because he was Choi Yeonjun, the town’s most infamous villain.

He was the kind of man who people refused to say his name out loud and warned their kids not to go near.

The heir of his late -equally villainous- father, who grew up to be what was expected of him, A powerful man, feared by many.

But Beomgyu is not one of those many. In fact, she was one of the collective few who knew yeonjun for who he really was.

A dumbass.

“Leave while I am still being nice”

“What? Can’t a civilian grab an innocent Iced Americano in this town anymore? What have we become-”

“I am not letting you kidnap me again.”

“Why not!"

Yeonjun whined as he threw his entire body on the counter, trying his best puppy eyes on Beomgyu who seemed to be anything but affected by his pleas as she went back and forth to finish her orders.

“Because we already went through this 12 times before”

“No, but listen—”

“12 TIMES!"

Both Beomgyu and Yeonjun glanced around to make sure no one heard the former's accidental outburst.

“We had a deal to do this until it works or at least until she figures it out herself”

The villain whisper-yelled. Well, more like begged because he was still walking up and down the counter after the barista who was trying so hard to ignore him.

“Forget it, Yeonjun. You have to think of another way”

“But it’s Valentine’s Day! It’s perfect”

“Well, the last time I checked, Valentine’s Day is about finding love. Not finding you a new set of balls that are big enough to help you confess your undying love to Soobin.”

Soobin, Beomgyu’s cousin, and the nation’s savior. The one who everyone in town owes her their lives and is ready to throw themselves at her feet at her pick and call.

Including Yeonjun.

That was the reason why Beomgyu agreed to let Yeonjun “kidnap” her ever so often. Each time, Soobin comes to her cousin’s rescue and Yeonjun gets to see the heroine.

Because how else would the town’s villain even get a glance from the heroine?

“I know we are now friends, but I do need to remind you that my villain bloodlines do not appreciate degradation.”

“You’d take it from soobin though”

“It’s our love language!” Yeonjun said with a pout making the other sigh exasperatedly.

"God, you need help” 

For 6 months, this has been their plan and so far, they’ve made zero progress.

Courtesy to Yeonjun who barely makes a move on the heroine, opting to instead exchange glares and homicidal promises at each other every time.

Or more accurately, it’s soobin with the homicidal threats while yeonjun just throws back awful jokes and cheesy pickup lines

And even when Beomgyu’s patience is usually thin, she still caves in whenever she sees the way the villain looks at soobin.

But for the same reason, Beomgyu has to stop him today.

“Listen yeonjun, even if I let you take me today, Soobin won’t show up.”

“Nice try, she would never leave you in danger”

“Well, you never hurt me the past 12 times and she is busy today.”

Beomgyu said, avoiding eye contact with yeonjun

“What plans could she possibly have? It’s Valentine's Day! All that people ever do today is just be sappy and go on dates an- oh”

And then it clicked.

Soobin has a date.

“I’m sorry, yeonjun.”

Beomgyu gives him a sad smile as she slides him his iced americano that she did end up making anyway, knowing how the news would affect him.

Hurt swirled into yeonjun’s eyes for a few moments before it hid behind anger, lighting up with the kind of fire that made you fear what he had in mind even though you had no clue what it might be.

“Oh, so our little savior is finally looking for a prince charming, How heartwarming.” yeonjun said with a voice laced with sarcasm “And does he have a name?”

“Okay, first of all, stop talking like that, you sound like a Disney villain reject,”

“I– HEY”

“and second, forget it. I’m already crossing way too many lines here for you and I’m not gonna help you with whatever you have in mind now.”

“You know I’ll find a way with or without your help.” yeonjun scoffed

“Why would you even do that? You know soobin-unnie’s dates always go downhill on their own so you don’t need to do anything.”

“I can’t hear you~”

Yeonjun singsonged as he walked backward outside of the coffee shop, ignoring gyu’s attempts as he took off with a goal in mind.

He was going to wreak havoc, and no one could even tell when or what would make him stop.

“Well, that’s something you don’t see every day”

Beomgyu turned around at the new sound, panic rising through her body at the thought of this young man being here all along and what he might have heard from his place on the side of the counter.

“Wh-what? Do you mean yeonjun-ssi? He comes by a lot, everyone loves our coffee”

Gyu tried to babble, hoping he might have caught the least amount possible of their conversation.

“No, not his presence specifically, it’s what he said,”

Shit, so he did hear them.

“Who the hell willingly orders that concoction of bitterness? Ugh”

The blonde man visibly shuddered, his attractive face showcasing an unmistakable disgust toward the drink, making Beomgyu giggle.

“Well, he’s the town’s ‘big bad wolf, I guess the choice fits”

Beomgyu shrugged, relaxing the more she looked at the beautiful smile the blonde was wearing.

Maybe he really didn’t hear much after all.

"Hmm, so do all the bad guys who come here have such an awful taste?”

“The majority, yes”

The barista tapped her fingers on top of the cash register, mindlessly mirroring the smirk of the blond as he made his way to stand in front of her.

“So, what does a caramel macchiato tell you about me?”

Beomgyu taped the pen in her hand on her chin cutely as she pretended to think, earning herself a chuckle from the customer.

“A sweet guy, with a hint of cockiness”

Beomgyu answered, feeling her stomach tingle as she watched the guy’s eyebrow crook upwards in amusement.

“Wow, you just saw right through me, amazing”

The blond clapped lightly making the barista laugh as she bowed playfully before picking up a paper cup.

“So, what should I name your order? Or should I just write ‘sweet but cocky guy’ on the cup’?”

“Taehyun, please. but can I ask for something else to be written on the cup?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“Your number.”

Beomgyu snorted invlountry, used to flirty comments here and there but not expecting the direct attempt from this cute one.

The sound of his giggles made her blush even more as she wrote the rest of the order’s details down, avoiding eye contact while secretly putting a small heart next to his name on the cup.

“Okay, I’ll let it slide just this once since I’ve never heard that one before. But this is not how we do things here so, no.”

Taehyun nodded, wishing beomgyu a nice day as he made his way to one of the free tables, his polite acceptance of defeat making him even more attractive in her eyes.

Beomgyu was in trouble.

That guy barely did anything but order coffee, yet she felt dizzy the more they kept looking at each other from across the room, his smile showing sharp teeth, and was that a dimple on one side of his shiny lips?

Big trouble.

♡

“For the love of god, would you pick something already?"

Hueningkai groaned from his place on the bed, focusing more on the small ball he kept throwing at the ceiling than on the girl he was supposed to help.

“I would if you were actually helping me instead of breaking the ceiling!”

Soobin huffed, checking her reflection in the mirror for the nth time

“What difference will the clothes make anyway? He'd still try to take them off you at the end, you might as well go with what you're wearing now- AHH”

Hueningkai shrieked as soobin lunged on him, hitting him with the pillow from the bed, a string of insults running from her mouth as the former begged for mercy

“You are an asshole! Ugh, where is Beomie when I need her"

“Why am I hated for stating facts!!"

Soobin knew her brother was right, and he had evidence to back himself up that consisted of basically every date soobin had ever gone on.

Every time someone asked the heroine out, they had either tried to degrade her, showing her “who's the man", —and in the relay, showing how small their dicks really were, or ended up trying to get in her pants.

And in the end, soobin always went home with the same thought, they never wanted her, they only wanted to be “The Guy who owns the heroine".

It’s sick, and Soobin never knew why no one saw her for who she really was.

She saves people for a living, a true savior, a fairytale came true, someone who should be loved and respected by everyone.

But that was never the case, simply because she was a woman.

No matter how many lives she saves, or deaths she avenges, at the end of the day she’d still hear people say “But she’s a woman”.

As if it's an insult to be born a woman.

Instead of actually paying her back with, at least, respect, she's always been discredited just because of her gender.

Even the heroine gets asked “When are you getting a boyfriend" and is told she “needs to worry about her shots decreasing day by day". It's entirely stupid.

“I asked for your opinion on my clothes, not my non-existent love life”.

Soobin said with a pout, her hopeless romantic heart cracking a little whenever she gets reminded that true love might not exist for her.

She is no fool, she learned to not put high expectations on her little “first dates” but a part of her still held on to hope.

Because she wants to feel worthy of someone putting in the effort to sweep her off her feet.

And today’s one felt promising. If her date asking her out on a dinner date at sunset is anything to go by.

“My opinion is, my noona looks good in everything.” Soobin smiled as she was brought out of her thoughts with Hueningkai rubbing her belly.

“That’s sweetly unhelpful” soobin scoffed as she patted down Hueningkai's bed hair.

“Then wear this” Hueningkai shoved a purple cardigan in Soobin’s face, taking the time of her not seeing to dodge one of his sister's swats at him.

“Only because I am late” Soobin grumbled pettily, kinda annoyed she didn’t think of this cute article of clothing herself in the first place.

“Don’t worry I’ll drive you. And besides, even if you are late, he can wait. And he better keep his act in check or else Beomie noona and I will make him wear a black eye home just like the last one.” Hueningkai called over his shoulder as he went to the kitchen, his words bringing warmth to his nervous sister.

♡

Chaemin was nice, and for once Soobin was having fun.

The man was handsome, held a decent conversation, polite laughs here and there, and his choice of place for the date only added to the charm. 

It had Soobin gasping and giddy when she first saw their private table on the balcony of the restaurant, one that was reserved for them so they could watch the sunset.

He even made the cliché remark “My view is prettier than the sunset”. Which Soobin appreciated even if it was a bit too cringy.

But for some reason, she felt uneasy, like something was definitely wrong.

The heroine tried to ignore the feeling, chalking it to her bad experience trying to come back and bite her, which was hard to do considering the heroine was always taught to never doubt her gut feelings.

Her first bad omen of the night came 30 minutes into their date, when Chaemin started gagging out of nowhere, interrupting their conversation and killing any mood that might have been created as he shyly excused himself to the bathroom.

The heroine didn’t mind, disgusted maybe, but more confused than anything because of the weird reaction. But she still tried to brush it off as she directed her focus onto the now-dark purple sky, waiting for her date’s return.

“Sorry I’m late, sweetheart”

Soobin head turned at the familiar voice, so fast she was seeing doubles.

Because sitting in front of her was no one else but her eternal nemesis.

Choi Yeonjun.

♡

It was colder now than when Beomgyu first walked to her work. The sun was almost entirely gone now, making her pull at her sweater paws absentmindedly as she walked to the bus station.

“And we meet again”

Beomgyu turned around when she heard the familiar voice, not expecting to hear it again so soon.

“Taehyun-ssi! What are you doing here?”

“Being lucky I guess"

Beomgyu scoffed, her skepticism from the younger’s sudden presence mixing with giddiness at the chance to see him again.

“I am serious, I never saw you around here now twice in the same day?”

Beomgyu quirked an eyebrow, the blond's amused look only egging her on.

“I told you, I am lucky! This morning I was dreading the work I had to do in the area only to be rewarded with meeting the most beautiful woman in town. And twice! What are the odds?”

Beomgyu nodded slowly, a small v-shaped smile gracing her lips as she tried to pretend his mannerisms didn't affect her.

“Was your work a success?”

“Yep,” Taehyun said cheerfully, before asking her the same question back 

“Are you done for the day?”

“Yeah, I’m heading back home right now" the barista found herself saying.

"That’s good, hope you have a nice evening Beomgyu-ssi”

Taehyun smiled at the barista, waving at her when she wished him back then he went on his way while she took a moment to gather herself before heading to the station again.

But as she kept walking, she found herself unintentionally following the blond guy, both of them were headed to the same destination it seemed.

“Oh? Are you taking the bus as well?"

Beomgyu was the one to talk first this time, lengthening her steps to walk next to the man instead of behind him.

"Yes, are you?”

Beomgyu nodded, looking forward while playing with the ends of her white pleated skirt.

“Can we walk together then?”

“I guess so,” the barista said quietly.

“Told you I was lucky today”

♡

“What are you doing here?"

Soobin hissed at the villain sitting across from her, finally figuring out why she felt uneasy all this time.

And secretly elated that her gut feeling was right, but that's no one's business but hers.

“Wow, this is really good! Nice choice,” Yeonjun said around a mouthful of food from soobin's plate “Can't say the same about your choice of a date though."

“Leave my food alone,” the heroine slapped the back of Yeonjun's hands like you would a misbehaving toddler “and what do you even know about my date.”

Yeonjun laughed as he wiped the corners of his lips with the napkin, reaching over for soobin's wine,

making the latter snatch it away before he can, drinking it in one go with a triumphed “ha" at the end, and ignoring the odd-looking smile on his face that looked fond(?)

But it sure wasn’t, right?

“I know a lot, darling. More than you would think ”

“Stop calling me that, and give me back my food!”

Soobin tried to pull her plate back to its original place in front of her, only for the villain to keep it in place by placing a hand on top of hers, the other stretched out towards her with a forkful of food.

“Sure, open wide and say aah~”

“Get lost” soobin swatted at him with her free hand.

“In your eyes? Easy.”

“What is wrong with you today?”

Soobin’s eyes widened, snatching her hand from underneath his, pretending the flip she felt in her stomach was disgust.

But who was she fooling?

“Nothing, just trying new things?”

“On my date?”

“The date you didn’t bother asking about? Come on Soobin, You were more eager for me to give you back your food than your man.”

Soobin was fuming because he was holding a good argument and that wasn’t something she usually enjoys.

“He’s in the bathroom, and I’d like to ask you to leave before he gets back”

“We’ve got time”

Yeonjun smiled, looking at the heroine through his lashes as he kept eating her food and enjoying how worked up she got by the second.

“And what was that even supposed to mean? Why are you even here in the first place? It’s not like this is your usual scene or any-”

And then it clicked, the heroine’s glare hardening on the villain as the latter smiled at her from across the table, chin resting on his fist.

“What did you do to chaemin?”

“Why are you accusing me of hurting Chaenle?”

“His name is chaemin, dumbass.”

“And that was on purpose, dumbass.”

Soobin groaned, holding her head in her hands as she tried to not cause a scene in the middle of the restaurant.

It gave yeonjun the time to take in Soobin’s appearance, always pretty in his eyes but today was different. 

The soft-looking purple cardigan complemented her blonde hair beautifully, slipping off of one shoulder. The sight of her perfect pale skin and collarbones underneath her white lace cami top did not help slow down the rate of his skipping heartbeat in the slightest.

“Just spit it out, Choi” She directed another glare at him as she fixed her clothes, not missing where his eyes were trailing.

Neither did she miss the pout or audible whine he let out at her actions. Like a kid denied his favorite candy.

Guess he never really changed from the whiny annoying kid he was. Soobin thought.

“I’m waiting for you to figure it out, darl-”

“Finish that word and I’ll finish you off, right here, right now.”

“Feisty as always” 

Soobin pretended to gag at that, and then she remembered her date having the same reaction earlier, eyes widening in horror.

“DID YOU- did you poison him??” She went from shriek to a whisper-yell, leaning forward in disbelief.

“What? Of course not, I am a villain, not a vulgar. I won’t just go and poison someone just because he went out on a date with you once!”

“How nice of you-”

“If he asked you to be his girlfriend, maybe I would. But not that early on in a non-existent relationship, pfft”

Realizing his slip when he saw the frown form on the heroine’s face, he went on his rant before she got the chance the retort.

“Your prince charming is perfectly fine, I just gave him a little push”

“Off the balcony”

“With a laxative! Good god”

Yeonjun threw his hands in the air, exasperated at the idiocy of the woman across from him who for some reason, looked like she was still trying to connect some dots.

“A couple of drops in his empty wine glass and plate, some on his utensils, a clean task, really.”

soobin rolled her eyes, an amused laugh escaping her.

“You’re kidding, right?” 

“Why else did you think I was eating your food, ha?” 

Yeonjun quirked a brow as he continued 

“Yes, it’s Valentine, and sharing food is romantic but if I was to do so, I would have given you mine, not eat yours, you know?”

“Ah and here I thought you were just being a pig as usual”

“Remind me again, how do you save people with that small brain of yours?”

“My opponents are not that competent mostly”

The smile got whipped off of Yeonjun’s lips so fast and was instead placed on Soobin’s face, only for the mischievous glint to come back to the former’s eyes seconds later

“You just admitted being stupid”

“No, I called you a half-ass”

“I don’t care, you called yourself stupid”

“I swear to god, Choi”

Soobin was interrupted by her phone ringing, to the man’s luck as she was just about to swing a steak knife at him.

Seeing it was her brother, she wasted no time picking up the call.

“Thank god, Kai. I was just about to call you to come get me”

“Wow, that bad?” Hueningkai whistled.

“No, Chaemin was great until we got interrupted,”

Soobin stressed the name out, feeling feverish with anger as she saw the man in front of her mimic her childishly, threatening him with the knife again.

“I have no idea what that meant, just hang in there, I’ll have to pick up Beomie noona over at Yeonjun’s first then we can all go and get ice cream”

“Yeonjun?” Soobin felt dreed in the bit of her stomach as she heard her brother continue.

“Yep, it’s that time of the month for him I guess, Beomgyu noona’s emergency pager just peeped but don’t worry I’ll be quick—”

“What are you talking about? Yeonjun is the one who interrupted us, Kai. he’s been here for the past 30 minutes at least.”

“What’s wrong?” Yeonjun stood and walked over to Soobin’s side, sensing something off even though he could only hear half of the conversation.

“Where did you take Beomgyu this time?” She yelled at him, holding him by the collar of his button-up as they stood face to face, not caring anymore if people looked, only filled with worry over her cousin.

“What do you mean? I left her at the coffee shop this morning I sw—”

“Shit, noona her location is turned off, This is real.”

Kai said panickily from the other side of the phone, the weight of the situation really downing on all 3 of them.

Beomgyu was missing, but this time, for real.

Chapter Text

The lights were annoying. That was beomgyu's first thought when she opened her eyes.

it took her some blinking for a minute to adjust to the fluorescent lights she was lying directly under.

Then another minute to realize that she was supposed to be on her way home, and not on this —very comfortable— couch

Jolting up and checking her surroundings, she found that she was in some sort of a lounge. the kind you find in an office or a workspace mainly where people rest

and rest did she do.

She removed the soft blanket covering her body and then started checking herself, sighing in relief when she found that the only thing missing was her phone and the scarf she used to tie her hair 

But at least all of her was intact and untouched

Trying to calm down now that her worst fear was crossed off the list, Beomgyu started piecing back her memories

She was on the way to the bus with that hot customer from this morning, Taehyun.

Taehyun, who kidnapped her.

The last thing she remembered was him mentioning something about magic tricks, pulling a rose from behind beomgyu's ear as if it was always there, the latter giving it a sniff

Big Mistake.

Because one minute, the rose sprayed some liquid on her face.

Another and she became dizzy.

And before she knew it, she was carried on a shoulder and hauled into a nearby car.

Simple, way too easy, and way too embarrassing.

All it took was a one-sided-dimpled smile, a plastic sneezing rose, and the blond had an arm full of beomgyu back at his place

Beomgyu was so frustrated to the point of tears, but she decided against it. opting to search her surroundings and save the self-wallow for later.

Walking around the small lounge didn’t reveal much. Just the fact that this place must have cost their owner a lot. If the high-end furnishing and the floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked the city from their location on what seems to be a hill was anything to go by.

But still, she had no clue where her location was so, she decided to investigate more.

Luckily, the door of the lounge was not one to make much sound, which she was surprised to find unlocked in the first place.

She stepped into the dim hallway, trying to make no sound as possible as she walked aimlessly, hoping whatever it led to was not her literal doom.

The first sign of life Beomgyu met was the sound of music, one that sounded an awful lot like “What is love?” by Twice and a weird thumping sound that added to her anxiety.

It took her a few more steps until she reached an open space, the things occupying it made it clear what this place really was.

A Gym. 

Out of all places in the world, she was kidnapped in a fucking Gym.

And the psycho that brought her into this place was aggressively punching holes into one of the sandbags, the punches so loud. as it mixed with the music that was, in fact, “What is love?” by twice.

Weird, everything here was weird it made beomgyu doubt that maybe she fell and hit her head and all of this was the result of a concussion.

Because there is no way in hell her kidnapper(?) was now shaking his hips to the chorus part of the girl group song

But at least he wasn’t looking her way as she hid behind the wall, praying a small thank you that the sandbag was strategically placed in front of a similar floor-to-ceiling window and not where he would be facing the way too many mirrors around.

If it weren’t for the situation she was in, Beomgyu would have thought Taehyun’s little dancy-dance was cute

And if it wasn’t for the little dancy-dance, Beomgyu would have thought Taehyun was extremely hot. In his muscle tee, showing his skin glowing with sweat and his mu—

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD COULD YOU STOP BEING HORNY FOR ONE SECOND? WE ARE KIDNAPPED FOR REAL THIS TIME YOU IDIOT!

Beomgyu snapped out of her thirst daze. Thanking her sole functioning brain cell for still having some wisdom in a situation like this.

Was Taehyun hot? 

Maybe.

Or definitely.

But that doesn’t mean he didn’t just bring Beomgyu here against her well with god knows what in mind.

And maybe he didn’t hurt Beomgyu until now, but that didn’t mean she was safe to stay here any longer.

She needed to leave, now.

With this thought in mind, she sprung into action.

Attempting to make it across the gym floor without taehyun noticing her was too risky.

Especially since she wasn’t sure the direction she would be running into was the exit.

She went into the lounge again, closing the door after her lightly as she went directly towards the first thing she saw as she stood up from that couch.

A beautiful glass vase lying on the coffee table. Perfect for making a really loud sound if it was thrown across the room

Next came the MVP of her plan.

A thin wire she keeps wrapped around her waist and under the waistline of her skirt, one of her old guitar strings, that was too worn out to break the delicate skin of her waist.

But is perfect for making a garotte.

It felt weird to Beomgyu back when her late uncle, soobin’s father, was teaching both girls the basics of self-defense, one of which was how to defend yourself against being strangled.

But instead of finding the defense technique cool like her cousin did, she was fascinated by the garotte itself, using it as her own self-defense ever since. Her a silent but lethal weapon.

As soon as she heard the music outside start dying down, signaling the shift between two songs, she threw the vase across the room and away from her with all her might, causing a perfectly panic-inducing sound

The music was quieter than it would be if many people were at the gym anyways so she was sure he’d hear it. 

But it also confirmed Beomgyu’s suspicion that they were definitely alone here.

Wasting no time as she heard the sound of feet padding in her direction, she hid behind the door that was soon opened in a hurry, almost crushing her to the wall

Beomgyu snuck quietly behind the frantic man, and before he had the chance to put two and two together, she had her wire wrapped around his neck.

Pulling Taehyun's back flush against her chest as the latter's hand flew to his neck, she whispered to his ear

"Hi, honey"

♡

"How is it going hyuka?"

Soobin asked anxiously from the passenger seat, the phone connected to the car speakers as Yeonjun drove them to Beomgyu's last seen location, the coffee shop she works at.

"Still no luck. unlike the past times, her phone is entirely turned off, I can't track it"

"How about tracking down the pager?" Yeonjun asked, tone laced with concern

"How about you just fess up where you hid her this time?" soobin said accusingly

"You still don't believe it's not me, do you?”

"Well, forgive me for being a little skeptical considering that you kidnapped her 12 times before, that and the fact you are evil!"

Soobin scoffed at the hurt expression the villain dared to show

but was put into momentary shock when her eyes fell to his hands and realized how white his knuckles were, gripping the wheel as if it was the cause of all his problems as he mumbled

"There is no way you are that blind"

"Hey-"

"TO ANSWer your question" Kai cut off his sister's outburst "No, pagers are not trackable, part of its entire privacy system is to be one-sided"

"Way to go, gearhead"

soobin slapped yeonjun's arm, glaring at him to talk to her brother with more respect

"However,"

"Should have started with the, however, dummy"

Soobin said annoyed, earning herself an offended ‘hey’ from her brother

"Oh! So when I call him 'gearhead', I get hit. but your 'dummy' gets a pass?" Yeonjun stated incredulously

"He's my brother I get to call him whatever I want, and even if this wasn’t the case, you breathing louder than I expected makes me want to jump you”

“Jump me? well, in that case,”

With the stupidest smile on his face, yeonjun proceeded to pant really loudly as though he just come out of a marathon. laughing like a maniac when soobin aimed for his neck

"WOULD YOU TWO AIRHEADS FOCUS"

At Huening Kai’s outburst, they both stopped their shenanigans and stared at the car speaker, mumbling a small apology as they got pulled back to the reality of the situation they were in.

“Yes, pagers and bell pockets are not trackable but that’s why Beomie noona and I attached an air tag to it”

“woah, that’s genius actually”

Yeonjun stated dumbly, soobin nodding along.

“Why did I not know of that?”

soobin asked, feeling relief at the thought of a way to save her cousin but still a bit confused as she waited for her brother’s answer.

“because I didn’t know either, remember last summer when she lost her favorite pager?”

“Yeah, the one with the ‘We Bare Bears’ design. And you couldn’t bear seeing your beomie noona sad so you flipped earth to find her a replacement”

Soobin told the rest of the tale, tone mocking at the end at her brother’s attachment to their cousin, making him cough in embarrassment.

“Well, yesterday I saw she stuck an air tag to it. when I asked, she said since this one meant more to her than the other, she wouldn’t want to lose it”

“Guess we now know who’s beomie’s favorite cousin”

Yeonjun teased lightly as he parked the car in front of the coffee shop, followed by a chuckle at the offended face of the heroine beside him

“Just stop talking too much and look for any clues. I’ll let you know if I got anywhere with the air tag and CCTV”

“Got it, kaidroid, thank you”

Yeonjun said as he parked the car with one hand, the other reaching to block soobin’s fist before it connected with his jaw

“I am only doing this for beomie noona, if it weren’t for her I’d have sent you two to the location of the nearest land mine field. Now, if you can, try not to hate-fuck each other in this car and find. Beomgyu.”

Call disconnected

Yeonjun and soobin remained still for a few seconds, staring at where the youngest’s voice last sounded in shock.

One that was only broken when soobin realized her hand was still in yeonjun’s hold, now resting on his thigh.

Soobin snatched her hand and got out of the car quickly, not waiting for yeonjun but faintly hearing as he called after her.

“Binnie babie, wait”

♡

“Hi Honey”

Beomgyu heard the man gulp, their close proximity as well as the string around his neck making it easier to hear and see the movement

“You are awake”

“What did you intend on bringing a poison flower instead of the one you gave me?”

Beomgyu sneered, pulling at the string in a threatening manner to show her distaste. 

“Listen, let’s just talk this out”

Taehyun struggled to let out, but only because Beomgyu’s force at pulling was strong enough to make him stumble backward into her more.

Other than that, he sounded calm and collected.

“Would have been a nice option if you didn’t drug me first”

Beomgyu kicked him in the calf. The way he was oh so calm about potentially getting choked to death by the brunette irked her more as he tried to keep talking

“But don’t you want to know my reason?”

Taehyun argued in a way that was way too smug for someone with a string close to cutting the flesh of his neck, which earned him another tug from the brunette behind him

“Sure, honey. You have all the time to explain this as you escort me out of here. Now get that ass moving”

Beomgyu shoved him into the hallway, keeping a strong hold on the string as they walked, taehyun complied without a fight.

But before she started doubting why was he so cooperative, taehyun pushed her back into the wall of the hallway using the weight of his own body.

The push, being so hard and so fast, caused Beomgyu’s hold on the string to slip momentarily. 

That gave enough time for Taehyun to wrap his hand around the string, tugging it away from his neck, and turn around to pin Beomgyu’s arms against the wall.

“Let go of me you bastard” beomgyu thrashed against Taehyun’s hold around her wrists as the latter pinned her against the wall

“I will if you promise to hear me out”

Taehyun negotiated, the calmer he looked the more agitated beomgyu was. Especially when she felt her stomach do somersaults at their proximity rather than out of fear.

She shouldn't be feeling like this, nor should she be stealing glances at the man’s arms. But sue her they were in her line of view and they were bulging enough to be distracting.

Forcing her eyes to the man’s face, she immediately regretted it as she glanced at the wide expectant eyes looking directly at her, waiting patiently for her answer.

She felt the grip on her soften just the tiniest bit. Enough to hold her in place but not hurt her.

“Fine” the barista spat out, breathing out of her nose in anger at how the other seemed so amused at her sudden cooperation

“Fine? Okay. I’ll let go now”

Taehyun was skeptical. and he had every right to be because as soon as he loosened the grip around her wrists, he barely blocked her knee from kicking him in the groin.

“Woah watch it, I would like to be a dad someday”

"Yeah as if someone would want to have your kids."

"That's low and so far away from the truth so just shut up and come here." 

Taehyun chuckled as he pushed Beomgyu against the wall again, grabbing a hold of her left fist before it connected with his jaw and using this hold to pull her towards him, carrying her over his shoulder in a somewhat fireman carry. 

“PUT ME DOWN”

Beomgyu squirmed in his hold, making it a difficult task for the man to keep her still on his shoulder and not have both of them fall to the ground as he carried her to god knows where

“Not before having a civil conversation first”

“YOU CALL THIS CIVIL?”

Beomgyu stiffened her entire body, turning into a human log which made the man carrying her chuckle, getting more and more on her nerves

“Just stop moving, we are almost there”

Taehyun said while panting. Pushing beomgyu lightly by her lower back to get her to hang over his shoulder again, the other arm circling the back of the knee to keep her in place

But as soon as she did, Taehyun let out a scream of agony.

Because Beomgyu was biting his ass.

Literally.

Fighting to keep moving while the woman’s teeth were bruising his flesh, and not the attractive way, Taehyun had no other choice but to throw her off his shoulder. Internally glad that they did reach where they wanted them to be anyway.

Glancing around now that the world is upside no more, Beomgyu was shocked to see that the place where her kidnapper wanted them to have a ‘civil conversation’, was a boxing ring.

“What was that for?” Taehyun half whined-half argued, missing how Beomgyu’s eyebrows shot to her hairline as he was checking if his ass was still in place.

“I told you to let me down”

“You also told me you would let me explain!”

“And here is where you plan on doing so?”

Beomgyu spread her hands incredulously as if to show him where they were

"You seemed to have a lot of fight in you so, I thought this would only be fitting"

Taehyun tilted his head smugly, smiling a little as the other scoffed in disbelief.

“I am sorry for acting in such a vulgar way towards my kidnapper”

Taehyun dared to chuckle at Beomgyu’s obvious sarcasm, the latter’s eyes growing wide at the audacity.

“Apology accepted”

“I’ll strangle you”

“Again?”

Taehyun’s eyes glinted with mischief, and it was safe to say that Beomgyu was fuming by now.

“What do you want from me?”

Beomgyu asked for real this time, all the banter in her gone as she waited for an answer.

Because despite her attraction towards the blond, she is a rational woman in the prime of the 21st century, meaning she has trust issues. 

and him drugging and kidnapping her on the first day they met was definitely working in his favor.

Taehyun gets it. if the way he was walking slowly towards Beomgyu like one would approach a baby deer, worried it might run away at any moment.

“I want us to talk. and I promise you that I would not do anything to harm you. I know that so far, I have not given you any reason to trust me but I swear, this is not what it looks like and I absolutely would never intentionally hurt you.”

Beomgyu was rendered speechless, the sincerity in the man’s eyes shutting down some of the questions in her mind.

With one last sigh and the urge to make the blond’s eyes stop looking at her with so much glint and expectations, she nodded.

“Okay, just get it over with”

“What? Have valentine’s plans Beomgyu-ssi?”

“Do you want me to bite off your other buttcheek?”

Taehyun laughed at that, bypassing Beomgyu as he stepped under the ropes and into the ring

“Please, no. let’s just sit down”

Taehyun went to sit, grunting a little when the bruised bite came in contact with the floor

“Yeah, I’ll just stay like this”

Taehyun said as he rolled around on his stomach, looking at Beomgyu expectantly as the latter fought a smile. Feeling a mix of pride from putting up a good fight and endearment at the small whines the man is letting out.

Beomgyu followed him into the ring, resting her back on the ropes as she looked at Taehyun.

“All ears”

♡

"Would you please, just shut up for a bit?"

soobin grunted, squeezing her eyes shut as if she would open them and find the villain magically disappeared into thin air

"What! We've been walking up and down this street for god knows how long now and we found nothing”

“Exactly! Now, unless you are going to confess where you took my cousin, your lips should remain sealed”

The lack of progress on Beomgyu’s whereabouts made an ugly feeling grow more and more in the bit of soobin’s stomach and even though she kept accusing yeonjun of it, deep down she didn’t believe it was him this time

Especially since the villain was actually helping. despite him grating on each and every one of her nerves with his merry mood in such a crisis, he did help her in the search. 

going back and forth between the cafe and the station and asking people if they saw the barista. The twinkle of worry shining in his eyes with every “no” they received was not missed by the heroine.

And hueningkai reached a dead end too, all the CCTVs he hacked showed beomgyu walking alone up until the middle of her route, where two of the CCTVs were broken, and after these two, there was no sight of Beomgyu.

so it was fair to say, she was losing her mind.

To the point where she wished that yeonjun was lying. that all of this was just a sick game and that he had beomgyu hidden somewhere like always.

Because that would at least mean Beomgyu was safe.

“Again, how the hell would I kidnap her when I was with you?”

Soobin startled in her step when yeonjun cut her route, walking backward as he spoke to her.

“I don’t know, maybe one of your little helpers did it”

“You know I like to work solo, I don’t even have helpers”

“Then where the hell did she go!”

Soobin yelled, attracting the eyes of bypassers and startling yeonjun in the process as he tried to placate her gently, his hands finding hers in a gentle caress

“Hey hey, don’t worry we will find her”

“How! She literally just vanished she—”

Soobin was never happier to be interrupted as she registered her phone ringing, and hopefully, it would be hueningkai with better news time

“Please tell me you found her”

“I found the air tag, it shows on the map that it’s in some cabin on the outskirts of the city.”

Soobin sighed in relief, her smile making yeonjun smile along even though he had no clue what hueningkai even shared with the heroine

“But that’s not all”

“What’s wrong?”

“The cabin is registered under Yeonjun’s name”

Soobin yelled a “what”, glancing at the man next to her who had been trying to tiptoe so he could press his ear to the phone and join in on the conversation

He looked so innocent and clueless. His tiny “What did he say? Did he find her?” made soobin almost doubt her own brother for a split second

“I just sent you the address, Please be careful noona”

Yeonjun didn’t see it coming. And even if he did, the punch soobin squared across his jaw was so fast and too strong that he probably wouldn’t have been able to dodge it anyway

"What the hell! What was that for?” 

yeonjun screamed in shock as he tried (keyword: try) to dodge another punch, but soobin didn’t really give him enough time, her second punch busting his bottom lip open from where her ringed fingers made contact with it.

Soobin held Yeonjun by the collar as he blinked the dizziness from the punches away, and when he did he wished he didn’t have to see the disgust in her eyes.

“You bastard I knew you were lying to mess with me”

“What are you even talking about?”

“Oh cut the crap already, Kai just found Beomgyu, she is in your fucking cabin”

“What?”

Soobin was on a tangent, really angry at how the villain still chose to play dumb even though it’s obvious she figured it out. But, If she stopped for only a second, she would have noticed how pale he went at the mention of that cabin

“wait wait what cabin?”

“That cabin in the woods. don’t play dumb now.”

Yeonjun was dizzy again, but this time for a different reason. No one should know about his cabin and more importantly, no one should ever get close to what he keeps safe and hidden in that cabin.

“No no listen I swear to god I didn’t take her this time”

“Yes, of course, she just magically showed up there”

“Would you just listen to me!!”

Soobin finally stopped when Yeonjun screamed at her face, holding both her wrists in his own hands as he tried to get her to focus. And before she started another round of insults at him, he started talking again.

“I know this doesn’t look good for me and that you have every right to not believe but I swear, I did not kidnap beomgyu. Not this time.”

“And I’m supposed to believe you? ”

“Because it was all fake! Every time I kidnapped her, Beomgyu was in on it all. She was helping me she—. We had a deal, I will explain later but we really need to go.”

The fear in soobin’s gut emulsified, she could feel it eating her from the inside. She wanted to believe he was lying, maybe punch him again for all the times he lied to her, every other time he confused her.

But the tears in his eyes seemed real, and she felt the hands engulfing her wrists grow colder with worry.

“That cabin, someone I really care about lives there and no one knows they do. No one even knows that cabin exists so if whoever took Beomgyu managed to actually know about all this, this is really dangerous. And I am going to go there anyway whether you are with me or not.”

Yeonjun let soobin go, striding to his car as fast as he could. He will get to his idiot lover later. when he makes sure that the other people who are important to both of them are not hurt. Not again.

As soon as he put on his seatbelt, the passenger door was pulled open, and in came a very sulky soobin. putting in her own seatbelt and crossing her arms to her chest, her eyes on the road ahead as she spoke to the villain.

“What? You thought you could just do a dramatic exit and then just leave me there?”

Yeonjun scoffed, not even believing his own heart for skipping a beat just because she pouted, let alone in a situation like theirs

“So, you believe me?”

“If you want me to believe you so bad then drive and prove me wrong”

Soobin was still not looking at him, and it reminded him so much of baby soobin. His friend from back when he was a 6-year-old boy, who was so used to lying and stalling to get out of trouble. To the point where people would mistake her for being the villain’s descendant and not him.

If only they knew her only evil deed was stealing the heart of the villain’s son.

“Your wish is my command, princess”

“Say that again and you will get your third punch of the night”

Never in her life did Soobin think that the villain’s squeaky chuckle would be a sound that brings her this much relief. But it did. And it also proved to her that she really didn’t like how worry looked on his features.

They drove in silence for a while, both of them still fearing for the safety of their special someone.

And soobin couldn’t help but wonder, who is yeonjun special someone? They must be very lucky if they were so dear to him to the point of tears.

Not that soobin cared, of course, it was just her anxiety talking.

“I’m sorry”

Yeonjun startled soobin, the sudden apology pulling the heroine out of her thoughts and making her finally look at him for the first time since they started driving, and When she didn’t respond, the man kept talking

“I’m sorry for playing you all this time., for making you worry about your loved ones so much and so many times. and for pulling Beomgyu with me into this mess. She never really agreed with my methods, but I guess she sympathized with my reasons, and It made me happy. That I finally had someone who would not look at me with so much disgust in this town. It made me feel like I had a friend again.”

His last words cut deeply in soobin’s heart. Because she has her brother and her cousin as friends. They were her people to lean on. But she knew that wasn’t the case for yeonjun

Yeonjun only had one friend, his playdate from when he was six, the daughter of his father’s best friend. his Binnie who he always wanted to protect from the monsters in their made-up scenarios but ended up hiding behind when they got in trouble.

and the one who turned her back on him all these years ago.

He was the one who she would always feel guilty about, the reason why a part of her always hated her townspeople, the ones she oathed to save after her father’s passing.

“But I promise I will stop. After we find her, I’ll get off both of your backs. I overstayed my welcome here anyway”

Yeonjun was focused on the road as he spoke, but soobin could hear the hurt in his voice.

“I mean, the least you could do was let me in on the game so I could play along”

And suddenly his eyes were not on the road anymore. They were wide with surprise and staring directly at soobin’s playful ones.

“You know how much I hate unfair games, junnie”

Yeonjun almost choked, the old nickname lighting the inside of his chest so warm that he was buzzing.

“It- it wasn’t a game I swear, I had my reasons.”

They were lucky they were now at a red light, or else the way soobin was leaning on the console between them would have caused yeonjun to drive them both into the nearest lamppost

“What reasons?”

Yeonjun gulped, the words burning the tip of his tongue from how much he wanted to say them

“Later, I promise you I’ll tell you everything later. But please don’t make me say it now”

Yeonjun was begging. But was he begging soobin to let it go or himself to hold onto his feelings just a little bit longer, he couldn’t really tell.

And if soobin hadn’t leaned back to her seat again at that moment, he might have spoken everything he held deeply for the heroine directly into her plush lips.

“Fine, let’s make sure we get Beomie back safely so I can choke the bitch myself for fraternizing with the enemy”

Chapter Text

“You have got to be kidding me”

Beomgyu stared incredulously at Taehyun, who had been doing push-ups for the past 10 minutes or so.

They helped him avoid sitting down, and the elephant in the room which was the felony he committed in the form of kidnapping the woman sitting in front of him.

And the more he stalled at the explaining he promised Beomgyu, the nearer Beomgyu was being pushed to her limits.

Which was why she ended up kicking him in his shoulder. hard enough to have him tip off balance and fall on his side

“Was that necessary?” Taehyun side-eyed Beomgyu, The latter on the verge of screaming from his brazenness


“For the millionth time, this past hour alone, You. Are. My. Kidnapper!” Beomgyu said, baffled

“I never said otherwise”

“You never said anything!!”

“I told you, try to guess”

“Is this some kind of joke?”


Beomgyu lunged to attack Taehyun again. the latter pushing her back by the shoulder, hands on the ropes behind her to keep her from escaping as they both sat on their own knees in front of each other

“No, I am just giving you a chance to figure it out yourself”

“why? Is it that fun for you to see me be stupid or something?”

“You are not stupid, you just love to pretend that you are. Which is something I never understood, by the way,”

Beomgyu, the smartie taehyun was talking about, frowned in utter confusion.

And before she even tried to speak, Taehyun went on with a sigh

“Your family is one of the most well-known in town. so, by nature, I’ve heard of you. The alleged ‘damsel in distress’ of the Heroic Chois. The ‘Gullible Gyu’. But surprisingly, all of the tales I’ve heard about you only showed quite the opposite”

“Apparently I am not smart enough. If I was I would have realized sooner that I have a stalker who claims to know me better than myself”

Beomgyu said in a pout. The prospect of her always being looked down on no matter how hard she tried was not news to her but still never failed to make her chest ache. 

The fact that she fell so easily in Taehyun’s trap today was not helping her feel any better in the slightest.

She was not stupid. She just preferred to ignore the things she couldn’t change and to live life for the good in it. 

Was this such a stupid thing to do?

“I never stalked you. I swear today was the first day I’ve ever met you. I always avoided you and your family because, unlike Yeonjun hyung, I’m not an idiot who gets all close and personal with the people who can risk my line of work”

“Hyung?”

Beomgyu couldn’t help but notice the slip-up, finally getting a worthy piece of info out of Taehyun’s rambling.

But what she didn’t expect was for him to smile instead of panic, his finger coming up to flick the tip of Beomgyu’s nose endearingly before he even realized what he was doing.

“See? I knew you were smarter than what you’ve shown”

Being on the other side of Beomgyu's growing smile, Taehyun felt his insides tingle with something warm. He let his hands fall to his sides as he waited for her next move, still inches away from her.

"Didn't you say you were against getting close and personal?"

Beomgyu pushed him by the chest and he let himself fall back to sit on his heels, missing the presence of her hands on his chest that left as soon as it came.

he watched her mimic his position across from him. Then, hey sat back in silence for a second before she spoke again with a sigh, crossing her hands over her chest.

"And here I thought you kidnapped me for my qualities. but alas, it was that dumbass again just like every other time"

"Who said it was hyung?"

"You call him hyung so it only adds up that when I turned him down this morning, the bastard sent you, right?”

“No, I call him hyung just to get on his nerves, We are not that close really.”

“I am- you are really getting on my nerves right now. Are you going to spit it out or not?”

Taehyun put his arms up in surrender, before spreading them wider to point at their surroundings

“Where do you think we are right now Beomgyu-ssi?”

“Up your ass?”

Beomgyu widened her eyes in innocence, accentuating the sarcasm by fisting both her hands under her chin.

“No. that’s not where we are. Bur, we can do that later if that’s what you are into. ”

Beomgyu’s eyes remained wide but, the reasons changed.

Her hands flew to Taehyun’s neck so she can chock him for what felt like the hundredth time today alone. The latter surrendered immediately while trying to stifle a laugh.

“WE ARE- we are in a sports center, I own the place actually.”

“Wow, one more reason to hate gym fiends.”

That was a lie. Maybe Beomgyu did hate working out but she definitely never hated athletes. if the way Beomgyu has been internally swooning over Taehyun’s arms since they met was anything to go by.

But Taehyun didn’t know that, which caused his face to drop. It took him a long blink and a tiny shake of his head to regain his composure before he could keep talking.

“Well, since you are not familiar with the concept, one thing you need to know about gym fiends is that they never shut up. It’s like the deeper they are into gossip the more they work out. They do it to balance the toxic masculinity inside them or some shit”

“Makes sense. I can see the babble in you too. Where are you going with this?”

Taehyun let out a huff of annoyance. He took Beomgyu’s jabs like a champ as he was determined to clean his image in the barista’s eyes.

“Two things. The first, that is how I knew. about you, about what happened between your family and yeonjun’s-”

“Wait, people still have the audacity to bring yeonjun’s family up?”

“I’m so sorry for that, I always made sure to shut them up whenever I caught them”

Beomgyu still looked angry despite nodding her head at him in response. And for that, Taehyun decided to cut to the chase.

“They also talked about your multiple kidnappings, half of the town thinks you and yeonjun have a thing going on”

“That’s disgusting! I’ll never go for that dunce, what the fuck!” Beomgyu gagged

“Yeah, the townspeople are idiots”

Beomgyu didn’t understand the reason behind Taehyun’s sudden goofy smile. Or she had a clue but she decided to ignore it for the sake of what is more important at the moment. Hurrying Taehyun she noticed he was starting to zone out.

“The second?”

“Right! The second thing is, that Yeonjun never talked to anyone. And it does make sense since not everyone here talks nicely about him or his dad but still, even me and the other fellow villains, he pushed us away”

“Did you seriously just say ‘fellow villains’?“

Beomgyu gave him a judgmental look, to which the other just shrugged and let her keep talking

“How does yeonjun being some lone wolf have anything to do with this? What? Did you think if you kidnap me on his stead he’ll make you a friendship bracelet!”

“No, it just didn’t add up to me. And when I saw you two this morning he was literally begging you to talk to him so, I thought maybe the tales were right.”

“Okay you need to stop or I’ll vomit on both of us”

Taehyun chuckled, his mood getting merrier the more she seemed to hate the idea of being with yeonjun.

Beomgyu, on the other hand, was getting a headache from the mess of emotions she was feeling. especially the ones that didn’t seem to oppose a single thing the man in front of her was doing.

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I didn’t even know who you were, I was just waiting in line for my coffee. but, you guys were loud.. and kinda blind too because you both looked right at me and still didn’t see me there. It was ridiculous.”

Beomgyu felt a little offended, more so because he did have a point there.

“You are still not getting anywhere with this. Yes, Yeonjun Oppa and I play hide and seek with noona every few weeks, what’s in it for you?”

“I wanted to help. Did it cross both your minds that the only two outcomes out of this are either soobin might think you two are together-”

“You need to give soobin more credit, she will never connect it like that”

“Or she’ll think he is really evil and is just trying to make you all miserable which will make her hate him more.”

Beomgyu stilled. She knows soobin will never think of yeonjun as evil. Soobin knows yeonjun the most out of their family and her first reaction is to always defend him. Sometimes without even realizing it.

But what Taehyun said made sense. it was possible. And it made Beomgyu’s gut twist to think they’d been walking in the wrong direction all this time.

Did Yeonjun and her put too much faith in what once was a ‘puppy love’?

“Soobin could never hate Yeonjun. Maybe she won’t like him any more than she does with that stupid plan of his. But she is not capable of hate. Especially not Yeonjun”

Beomgyu said slowly, getting more convinced the more she talked

“I really hope so”

“You have no right to hope or meddle! No one asked for your fucking opinion even!”

Taehyun felt smaller under her yell. She was right, to a point, because Taehyun did not come uninvited.

“I am a friend of a friend who asked me to do this”

“What?”

“Someone asked me to take you. But it’s not yeonjun, the plan is to keep you safe and out of sight so that Yeonjun and Soobin would work together to find you”

Silence. And cold. Beomgyu felt cold.

Was it twisted of her to feel hurt?

It was known that she was willing to do anything for the ones she loved. Going as far as letting yeonjun kidnap her multiple times and risking her reputation in this shithole they lived in.

But she didn’t mind because it was for soobin. Her cousin, her best friend, and the person she would die for in a heartbeat.

At least yeonjun had the courtesy to ask for her consent after the first time he kidnapped her. Unhinged but it made her feel happy beyond words. She felt considered and respected.

Something that no one in this city bothered to show her. Because to them, she was “Guillible gyu”, the irrelevant one they could walk all over.

This moment sounded a lot like it.

“I wanna go home”

Taehyun looked confused. Standing up after Beomgyu to try and understand what was wrong. He could vividly see how hurt she looked, eyes red and tearing up, and he was willing to do anything to change that.

“Wait, gyu-”

“You said the plan is to be safe and out of sight, right? Then I’ll hide there, they won’t look.”

Taehyun’s eyes showed he was thinking. Trying to find a way to make Beomgyu stay. Which the latter found useless and confusing because now that she knew his plan, there was no reason for him to keep beomgyu here when she could just hide herself.

“But, you can’t”

“Look, whatever they paid you, I’ll pay more. And I won’t even ask you to drop names or anything, I’ll find the fucker who hired you myself.”

“They didn’t pay me. I wanted this”

“You need to work on your lying. You were doing better this morning, maybe start from there.”

“No seriously, when I told my... friend about what I heard. He asked me to find a way to help them teach yeonjun a lesson and I suggested this plan. I kinda… wanted to get to know you and saw this as an opportunity”

Beomgyu’s mouth opened and closed on nothing, shocked yet flattered? This entire situation was really messing with her head she was feeling drained now.

“This is the most twisted thing I’ve ever heard.”

“It’s not my proudest moment.”

Beomgyu found herself smiling on her own accord as she stared at the top of Taehyun’s head from where he ducked it down, finding the red tips of his ears amusing.

“So, when you asked for my number this morning, that was...?”

“Now that I am proud of”

Taehyun stood straight and proudly. Rocking on his heels and making a disbelieved laugh come out of beomgyu.

“How is that supposed to convince me to stay though? I mean you literally just said you leaped on the chance to kidnap me as an excuse to get to know me. I should be running away right now.”

“But you didn’t run yet.”

“Is that a challenge?”

Beomgyu walked closer to him, the playfulness of the air easing the sour mood she had fallen into earlier.

“I am just saying, you can stay for a little bit more. You can choke me again if you want, you seemed to like that a lot”

Taehyun tried to bargain, but his tone was laced with despair. Something that made Beomgyu’s insides flutter.

She was really wrong for what she was about to do.

“Nah, I am tired”

Beomgyu stepped out of the ring. Taehyun’s heart aching a little when he thought she was really going to leave. Torn between forcing her to stay or letting her go since he already crossed so many lines.

His legs moved on his own after her, only to stop at the edge of the ring when he saw her heading to the beverages fridge nearby and grabbing a bottle of water for herself, downing half of it before she leaned on it as she spoke.

Beomgyu was not running away.

“So what’s the plan?”

Taehyun leaned his elbows on the ropes, a breath he didn’t know he was holding escaped him as he stared at the most beautiful woman he’d seen with the stupidest smile on his face.

“They are now looking for you, we made it a little hard this time around.”

“Oh god, I am gonna die here.”

Taehyun chuckled, the sight of beomgyu hitting her forehead on the fridge as she fake sobbed was way too entertaining for him.

“They’re catching on to the hints well don’t worry. They are already on their way to where your pager is located”

“They are coming here already?”

“No, it’s not here”

“If anything happens to it I will-”

“Don’t worry, I’ve been warned about it.”

Beomgyu didn’t get the chance to ask what that meant. Taehyun’s phone rang, the latter smiling when he read the text that was sent.

“They found it”

♡

Most of the car ride was spent in silence. Aside from that one time Yeonjun frantically checked his phone at a red light. Later soobin found out it was for the “CCTV footage of the cabin”, ones that were obstructed and black, showing nothing.

Soobin could see how worried he was and felt it rolling off of him in waves. It made her feel bad for him. Even if she didn’t know who was on the other side of yeonjun’s strong feelings, she knew more than anyone how the worry over a loved one could eat you alive.

The thought of saying something to comfort him crossed her mind, but she felt it would be awkward and a bit pretentious since she had no clue about the situation or if it would “be okay” as she would say.

And she was never good at comforting yeonjun. She failed at it before and still regrets it.

So she remained silent, hoping that the sentiment would reach Yeonjun’s heart through telepathy or something.

It was thanks to their town being small that reaching the outskirts of it only took 12 minutes in the rush hour.

Both of them getting ready to step out of the car as soon as Yeonjun parked it, but the latter suddenly stopped Soobin from opening the door.

“You can wait here”

“And why would I?”

“Soobin, It’s almost dark outside, and I doubt you know your way around the woods like I do or what might be happening at the cabin right now. I’ll be fast I promise.”

The addressee quirked her eyebrow, seeing the chivalrous attempt but feeling ridiculed by it. Did the idiot seriously forget she was the one who saved everyone’s asses in this town?

“In case you forgot, I am used to handling whatever threat that might be out there all by myself just fine. Dark or not. The number of times I kicked your own ass count alone as proof. so, unless you have a strong case as to why I have to sit back here, you are wasting both your time and mine.”

Click.

The car lock was shut.

Yeonjun stealthily climbed outside his window before it automatically shut with the lock. leaving soobin behind in the locked car to take out her rage by knocking murderously on the shut window that separated her from the villain.

“Don’t miss me too much, honey.”

With a wink, a failed two-eyed one at that, he turned around. and on his way inside the wood he went.

He hated to leave soobin behind. and he has to admit, he really didn’t see a point in doing what he did. 

He knows soobin is more capable than half of their town’s gallant men. If all the stories he heard about her heroic acts in town during the years he was away were anything to go by. She might even be a better fit than him to go and investigate this.

But he found himself doing it anyway. Maybe it was the old-fashioned man inside him that wanted to protect her foolishly. or perhaps it was his stupid heart who went against better judgment out of fear of losing her for a second time.

Lost in thought, he didn’t notice the rustle of the trees beside him. nor did he notice someone jumping him from the side and forcing him to the ground, rolling him on his back, and pinning him down.

He was about to strike back, maybe break the nose of his attacker first with a punch as a good start to the fight. 

But when he looked up, all he saw was blonde hair, a gorgeous face, and a dimpled smile that owned his heart.

“Know the area well, ha?”

Yeonjun was in awe. If this same situation was with anyone else, his attacker would have been under him by now. Maybe even with a bloody nose, grunting in pain with the many more bruises and injuries yeonjun would paint them with.

But right here and now, under the soft pinkish-orange hues of the blue hour, soobin was everything he ever hoped for.

He felt starstruck as she looked down at him. a silly grin on her face as she basked in her small victory, making her glow so beautifully.

And he was willing to make an eternal fool out of himself if it meant he would see her with this spark in her eyes more often.

“Cat got your tongue?”

Her grin turned into a playful smirk. And even though that smirk did something to yeonjun’s insides, there was something else that he longed to see.

“No, just admiring the view”

The smirk went, and in came a smile. one that made her dimples grow deeper by the second as if they were endless. The smile he was looking for and was oh so in love with.

And Yeonjun was thankful for the sass in soobin because if she hadn’t been rolling her eyes at him, he was sure she would have seen the amount of silly love in his own eyes for her and his shit-eating grin.

“Old schooled”

“But you like it” 

Soobin couldn’t deny that one. A small voice in her brain reminded her they heard a similar compliment from her date that same day. But for some odd reason, it felt so different coming from yeonjun.

Even when the idiot has been wiggling his eyebrows at her for a few seconds now.

“Well if you tuned down the theatrics just a tiny bit, You’d have realized you left the keys inside the car, dumbass”

Yeonjun grunted from the keys being slapped on his chest. The sting is a reality check to his stupidity.

Yeonjun loved seeing the triumph on her face but he couldn't not put a fight. they both enjoyed it more that way. 

so, with ease, he flipped them over. 

Their new position pulled Yeonjun’s heartstrings. With soobin’s hair fanning around her face, the green of the grass complimenting her blond hair beautifully, and her purple cardigan that only added to her glow as she looked up at him with wide eyes from shock

He needed to say something, fast. Because God knows if he didn’t find a way to occupy his mouth, even if it was with gibberish, he would be locking his lips to Soobin’s pouty ones right now.

“Why do you think I did not do this on purpose? Maybe I wanted you to follow me. Maybe it was my plan all along to get you out here with me”

Yeonjun smirked, pushing soobin’s hair out of her face for good measure but retreating his hands slowly when he saw a small flash of worry cross her pretty eyes. That soon changed to challenge as she narrowed her eyes at him.

“Aw, you thought you could have your way with me just because we are alone? How silly of you”

Soobin slapped his cheek playfully, which for some reason, distracted yeonjun more than it should.

Weird, but she used it to her advantage to push yeonjun off of her. The man not putting up much of a fight with soobin to not scare her for real.

“You are lucky I am a gentleman, you know.” he stared at her as she dusted her clothes and fluffed the grass out of her hair

A useless part of his brain wished he could do it for her instead.

“And you are lucky I am still keeping you alive. Now, where is that cabin of yours?”

Yeonjun did not respond, instead, he stood up, took his sweet time dusting himself as well, and then ushered with a finger for soobin to follow him

The heroine had to stop herself from tripping him because of how annoying he was.

But she also couldn’t help but take in his attire, since he was literally strutting in front of her, the satin cream-colored button-down was complimenting his figure so well, accenting his small waist. Also, the fact that almost half of those said buttons were left open as if useless made soobin’s brain stutter. Trying too hard to not process his prominent collarbones or his chest.

At this moment, Soobin felt no better than a man.

She skipped a few steps so they’d be walking side by side—the idea of following him around like a lost puppy messing with her ego.

Yes, it was her ego. Definitely wasn’t the fact that she wanted to walk with him or something.

Yeonjun smiled at that, which soobin ignored while looking around at the very interesting tree branches.

Her surroundings were really interesting, after all. It had been a while since she came to this side of their town and she had almost forgotten how beautiful the woods were.

They used to come here a lot as kids with their parents back when they were kids, and before everything happened.

Maybe that’s why she stopped coming here.

“Why would the kidnapper take Beomgyu to your cabin?”

Soobin broke the silence, trying to make small talk as well as prod at the villain for answers.

“Honestly? I hope she is not there”

Yeonjun said with a sigh, confusing Soobin enough to halt her movements.

“You don’t want us to find her?”

Yeonjun stopped as well, looking at the unkempt grass underneath their feet.

“Of course not, It’s just that… I usually made sure no one really knew about this cabin. So, if whoever took her knows about it despite my efforts, it means they are really dangerous or I wasn’t as careful as I believed. That I was stupider than I thought.”

Soobin saw the worry flash in yeonjun’s eyes again. and even when she still suspects him of her cousin’s disappearance, part of her felt bad for him.

“Well, you are stupid, Yeonjun.”

“Hey!”

Soobin giggled at the obvious offense on the man’s face, her heart feeling lighter when she saw him biting his lips to not smile along with her.

It was their own love language, to poke and prod each other to show care and affection.

“You take that back”

“Why would I?”

Soobin grinned, maintaining eye contact with the villain as he moved closer to her.

“If we hadn’t already wasted too much time, I’d have made you regret this.”

“Oh yeah, blame it on the timing, really convincing”

Soobin pulled at the collar of his shirt in a taunting manner. She felt giddy as she watched him slowly getting closer and closer to finally snapping.

And right when Yeonjun was about to lunge at her, her phone made a sound. 

“Have you found anything yet?”

Hyuka’s voice rang through soobin’s head as if she could hear him, making her internally flinch as she realized how much time she really wasted poking fun at yeonjun.

Soobin: We haven’t reached the cabin yet

Hyuka: What took you so long??

Soobin was about to retort when she noticed yeonjun moving, already a few feet ahead of her, as he took her distraction as a chance to get to the cabin and hopefully lose her on the way.

With a fast “I’ll tell you later” to her brother, she bolted after the villain, the latter also accelerating in his run until it turned to both of them chasing each other to the wooden cabin, yeonjun running inside and shutting the door before she could get in.

“OPEN UP YOU ASSHAT”

Soobin tried to no avail, the sound of yeonjun’s giggle from inside only aggravating her more

It was mostly dark now, the only light around came from the cabin she was denied access to

She banged on the door with all her might, imagining the wooden door to be the man’s handsome face, until she heard another sound inside

Woof

“Woof?”

The sound of barking and shushing made her halt, trying to guess what on earth was happening in this cabin. 

She didn’t get to do so for long as she found the door opening, yeonjun stepped out only to close it behind him right away before she could even peek.

“She is not inside, let’s take a look around,”

Yeonjun said in a hurry, trying to move past soobin but the latter pushed him by the chest back into the door, blocking his escape.

“Where the fuck do you think you are going?”

“To look for Beomgyu! She is not here, she must be close by”

Soobin took a deep breath, trying to calm her growing headache by closing her eyes for a second before she spoke again.

“Open the door”

“Why? Do you not trust me?”

Yeonjun was stalling, his excessive blinking and cheesy smile had always been a giveaway to him lying or avoiding something.

Despite his social title as one of the “bad guys”, he always counted on his natural charm and cuteness to confuse people, mostly soobin.

And he was doing just that right now, fiddling with the edge of her purple cardigan as he looked through his lashes at soobin, the latter dismissing the shivers she felt from his hand brushing near her stomach

Then she got an idea.

“Do you want us to go inside for a while?”

It was like a switch was flipped and suddenly soobin was leaning up against him, his hand that was between them was now trapped between their bodies. Her hand rested lightly on his biceps while she waited for him to get out of his shock.

And yeonjun was a weak, weak man.

“Plea- NO. I mean, no. why would we?”

Soobin was looking at yeonjun with half-lidded eyes. the latter tried to avoid looking at her eyes for too long else he would get burnt from the fire in them.

“I don’t know… You mentioned wanting me alone for some reason”

Yeonjun’s mouth kept opening and closing as if his entire being was glitching. it gave soobin such a hard time not to laugh.

“I- I mean, yeah, I did say that but- soobin, what are you doing?”

Soobin broke into giggles, each of them making yeonjun’s heart skip a few beats as her dimples grew and her eyes shone, looking at him.

He missed being on the receiving end of the heroine’s kind gaze.

“What do you think I am doing?”

Yeonjun felt a soft pressure on his hip, a gasp leaving his mouth when his lagging brain finally registered that it was soobin’s hand, the one that wasn’t on his arm.

Soobin started to lean in even closer. The smile on her face and the way she was looking at his lips made yeonjun’s heart beat so hard out of his chest that it felt like his heart was trying to pull him towards her and make them close the distance already.

Suddenly, yeonjun lost his balance as he felt the door supporting his back open, and he was pushed into the cabin.

As he stared at the floor he was now sprawled on and soobin’s legs walking beside him into the cabin, he realized what just happened.

Soobin used his moment of daze to sneak behind him and open the door, forcing them both inside. Just like she wanted all along.

Yeonjun didn’t know what to feel. He should feel fooled, angry even. But he found himself chuckling with a light heart. 

Soobin really knew how to get people right where she wanted them to be. And that was hot.

Soobin took a look around. The cabin’s interior was warm and cozy, with homey minimalistic furniture, and a surprisingly tidy and unsuspicious vibe.

“Why were you hell-bent on me not coming here?”

Soobin turned to look at yeonjun only to see him shoo someone behind her. At the same time, she felt a weight press to her lower back.

“Woof!”

Soobin looked back, her eyes widening when they fell on the cutest dog ever. One whose paws were resting on her back as it stood on its hind legs, head tilted confusedly at the “new human”.

As soon as she turned around and squatted to its height, the dog wasted no time sniffing her and licking her cheek when she started cooing at it.

“Hi there!”

Yeonjun came to their side, the dog’s attention shifting from soobin to him as soon as he came, sniffing him as if checking he was all right.

“Behave Brownie”

Yeonjun said warmly, sitting on the ground with them and scratching behind Brownie’s ears and back, his eyes avoiding soobin for some reason.

“His name is Brownie? That’s so adorable! Such an adorable name for an adorable babie”

Yeonjun let out a breathy laugh when Soobin started to coo, petting the cute dog in yeonjun’s arms, their knees bumping as they sat across from each other.

Brownie was busking in their pets, going back and forth between their hands before letting out an exasperated huff and lying down, tired already from moving back and forth between them, making them both chuckle endearingly.

“I didn’t know you had a dog!”

The words were directed at Yeonjun now, the villain still not looking soobin in the eye as he focused on his pet friend, combing through his fur gently.

“Yeah well, now you met him”

Yeonjun said with a smile, looking lovingly at the dog before a worried look painted his features as he spoke again.

“Can we keep this between us though?”

“What’s wrong with having a dog, yeonjun?”

Yeonjun gave a small shake of his head, looking down again as he spoke, his lips forming into a pout absentmindedly.

“Nothing- nothing is wrong with having a dog it’s just-” he sighed, collecting his thoughts for a second “I just don’t trust anyone in this town to know anything about me, especially if it involves Brownie.”

Soobin could see yeonjun was shaken up so, naturally, she tried to joke it off.

“What? You are worried they will think you are training him to take over the town.”

“More like kidnap him like they did with the one I had before.”

Silence fell upon the room. Soobin was shocked, to say the least with the new information she had just been told.

She remembers Yeonjun's first dog. He had a cute golden retriever, similar to Brownie, back when they were 11.

“Debbie- she didn’t fall sick?”

As soon as she mentioned the name, she saw Yeonjun features pinch a litte, the memories resurfacing so fast from the deepest parts of his brain.

“No, she was perfectly healthy all the way. Until the townspeople took her away from me by force on one of our walks.”

Soobin didn’t know what to say, she recalled how Yeonjun loved taking Debbie on walks on his own when they were young.

Even when his wanders around the town have always brought him hate, he never cared. 

But, soobin never thought it went past some side eyes or even a comment here and there from some of the aggressive people in town.

“They gave her away to a shelter out of town and refused to give us any details about how to get her back, and since my dad was out on a business trip, I was helpless”

There were tears in Yeonjun's eyes. The memories of so many years come back because their wound is still there.

He closed his eyes to not let the tears fall, but soon he felt arms circle around his neck. 

When he opened his eyes, he found soobin engulfing him in a warm hug, brownie between them, rubbing his face to yeonjun’s tummy as if trying to comfort him as well.

He was hesitant at first, not knowing if he should hug back or if it would make her push him away and leave.

But as if his arms had a mind of their own, or more so, a heart that told them what to do, he found himself circling her waist, both of them melting into the hug.

“I swear to god some people here don’t even deserve to breathe”

Being in her arms and breathing her comforting scent made the sadness slowly melt away. He wished the moment would not end.

And It might be twisted, but the anger in Soobin's words and eyes made Yeonjun feel so much better. He felt warm knowing she was on his side.

“Yeah, I agree” Yeonjun chuckled, his breath tickling soobin a little but she didn’t pull away, instead she started patting his shoulder gently, mumbling a small “I’m sorry I wasn’t there”.

“Your dad, he tried to help. but, everyone kept denying they knew anything so we couldn’t find her."

“I’m glad he was by your side.”

Soobin smiled, and without even looking at her, yeonjun knew how she felt.

Longing.

He felt the same.

He rubbed her back lightly but she flinched, and before he got to apologize or break the hug she beat him to it while not letting him leave.

“I am sorry, it’s brownie”

“What?”

“Your dog is licking my neck”

“Lucky bastard”

Soobin slapped him on the back, making him grunt a bit before they both fell into a fit of giggles, still in each other’s arms with the dog between them.

With a last squeeze, yeonjun let go of soobin, a silly smile on both of their faces as they both locked eyes.

They got lost in each other’s eyes, the calmness surrounding them with only the sound of trees rustling adding to their daze.

“Why did we fall apart?”

Yeonjun couldn’t even recognize his own voice saying these words. They were a mere whisper. One that soobin would have missed if they weren’t sitting so close.

And soobin wished she could pretend she didn’t hear it but, she knew deep down it was about time they addressed this. It’s been too many years too late anyway.

So with a deep breath and a heavy heart, she started talking.

“After my dad had passed, everything changed. It was like life was not satisfied with only taking him away from me that soon, no. I was also forced to open my eyes to how the people in this town really were”

She wasn’t looking at him, opting to play with brownie’s fur instead. Yeonjun did the same. surprised she was finally opening up to him, so much that he was worried anything he'd do or say might make her cower again.

“Everyone suddenly started talking about the next hero. Not even taking time to pretend to mourn or grieve. And they all expected it to be hueningie”

“What? He was only 13 at the time!"

Yeonjun said in shock, closing his mouth shut when he noticed Soobin's eyes glossed over.

“Well, who else would it be other than the late hero’s only son? Who cares that he was just a kid? No, he should fill in his father’s duties and follow in his footsteps. He should protect them, it’s his destiny. Even if he dies in the process.”

Soobin looked at the ceiling to prevent the tears from falling, a scoff leaving her as she continued to quote what she heard so many years ago.

“And besides, he was the only option. At least ,he is not like his sister. The villain’s son whorish playtoy. They should marry her off quickly before she ruins her father's name”

Yeonjun felt his blood boil. They were 15 when soobin cut him off. 

At first, he thought she needed space to grieve. but, after a while, she slowly started to change.

She became more hostile towards him, pushing him away when he tried to reach out to her. Exiling him just like everyone else did.

He hated her for leaving him, for making his worst nightmare come to life and become even worse.

His childhood best friend, the one he confided in the most, became just like everyone else. A monster with a righteous front.

Not even a year later, back when they thought it couldn’t get any worse, the townspeople decided to ‘take matters into their own hands now there is no hero to defend them’.

In the dead of one night, they sat fire to Yeonjun's home with all his family inside.

Yeonjun’s father managed to save him and his mother. but, he couldn’t make it out in time.

It was horrible, cruel, and heartbreaking. but not to the townspeople, who were gloating about how they 'eliminated the threat'. proudly showcasing the blood on their hands as if it were a medal of honor.

Not long after, Yeonjun’s mother took him away and fled. feeling unsafe for herself or her son.

“After what happened to you.. and how I couldn’t stop it or save you, or even be there for you, I felt disgusted. I decided to put an end to everything.”

He could see her gaze harden, her grudge mixing with regret as she bared her feelings for the first time.

Yeonjun’s father and Soobin’s father were both childhood neighbors and best friends. 

Two polar opposites. Yeonjun’s father, who preferred the unconventional ways in life and to not go by the rules, and soobin’s father. a soft-spoken one who was used to bending himself backward just to appease people.

They cared for each other and protected one another, more than anyone else could ever have. And regardless of whatever the people said or thought, they remained friends throughout their entire lives.

Long enough to attend each other’s weddings and be part of each other’s families. Teaching their kids that nothing was ever fully wrong or right and that what matters most is the heart inside. 

Watching them as they grew closer from when they were playdates up until they had to leave them behind, too young to be on their own.

Yeonjun left and soobin took over the town, putting every single bastard in their place and staking her claim as the only deserving hero in the ruins of a town they were born into. She gave away her life to save her brother’s youth and restore order

“I don’t blame you, soobin”

Soobin shook her head, a soft smile playing her lips while still avoiding his gaze

“You should. I do so all the time. Maybe if I had stepped up faster then they wouldn’t have dared to do what they did.”

Yeonjun shook his head in protest. His hand intertwined with hers as he spoke

"Don’t take this the wrong way but, I doubt anything we would have done back then would have changed a thing”

Soobin looked up at Yeonjun in shock, her heart aching at his sad smile.

“They had already made up their mind and heart. My family never really hurt them and you were nothing less than a mirror to your father’s pure heart. They were just spewing excuses to feed their rotten souls. It was over even before it started. And it was never our fault.”

A sob escaped soobin's lips before she even realized she was crying. Yeonjun's hands caressed her cheek gently to soothe her and wipe her tears away even though his own eyes with glistening with tears of his own.

"You know, I was so happy when I heard you left. I was willing to get used to not seeing you again if it meant you were safe and free from here. But as soon as I saw you, I couldn’t pretend anymore. I selfishly wished you won't leave ever again. But, I didn’t know what to say or do”

They were both sobbing by now. The anguish that was held inside them for too long broke like a dam. And it meant even more to them that it was in the comfort of each other’s presence.

It made them feel that maybe after all this pain and suffering they managed to save something. That something was whatever feelings they had for each other ever since they were too young to know how the world they were living in really was.

Yeonjun pulled soobin into his arms again, the latter hiding her face in his neck as they both rocked side to side. Taking a moment to calm down before yeonjun spoke again.

“I missed you”

“I missed you too. Sorry it took me this long to admit it”

“It’s okay”

A beat of comfortable silence. Then Yeonjun had to speak.

“But you know, anything would have been better than you acting like you hated my gut. You are lucky I could see right through it”

Soobin let out a whine, making yeonjun let out a breathy laugh as she broke the hug. Not managing to go far with the way Yeonjun's hand was holding hers.

“I had no other choice! I had to convince everyone else that I got you covered so they won’t try and hurt you”

Yeonjun's jaw dropped in awe. In all the scenarios that ever came across his mind, he never thought of this one.

He thought she hated him. That she changed, or maybe she was ashamed of him. Maybe he changed and became hateworthy in her eyes. Or maybe this was someone else and the soobin he knew was still out there somewhere or that.

But he never thought that Soobin, his binne, was willing to look bad in yeonjun's eyes just to keep him safe.

And oh, was he willing to turn this world upside down just for a smile from her.

“It was killing me, you know. Having to see the look of hurt on your face every time I turned you down when all I wanted to do was apologize to you for everything.”

Soobin kept fidgeting with his hands. And if she noticed yeonjun leaning in closer to her face, she pretended to be otherwise.

“Well, since we are alone now, And we can easily keep this safe between us, I can think of a few ways you can make it up to me”

Soobin rolled her eyes at how embarrassing he was. Her smile mirrored his as he pulled her closer by the hand, leaning in closer and closer their lips were almost brushing.

A sound outside the cabin pulled them out of their little bubble. When they looked at the door that they forgot to close, they managed to catch the silhouette of a hooded man running away in the dark. Probably from where he was spying on them.

Without having to think twice, they both jumped into action. Brownie followed them like the good little protector he is as they chased down their stalker through the woods.

Even with the both of them hot on his tail, the man moved stealthily and with great speed. And the now pitch black thick trees did not help them much as he disappeared in an overcrowded part of the wood

“Who was that?”

Soobin said, huffing and buffing while yeonjun beside her did the same.

“No clue, he wore a mask”

“Do you know where this road leads to?"

Yeonjun shook his head in a no.

“You said you knew the area well!”

“I do! this part is a dead end, you can’t even walk in it properly”

Brownie’s barking broke their quarrel, only to see him clutching a piece of fabric in his mouth with something inside it, which seemingly fell from their stalker while they were chasing him.

Directing their phone flashlights at it as yeonjun took it from Brownie's mouth to inspect it closely, soobin felt her heart in her throat at the familiar sight. 

"Yeonjun, this is beomgyu's scarf"

At that, Yeonjun started to untie the scarf frantically, praying to god whatever was inside this scarf wouldn't scar them for life.

When the knot came undone, they found two objects, Beomgyu's pager and a laminated card. 

Soobin took the pager in her hand. even when it was clear it belonged to her cousin, part of her hoped this wasn't really beomgyu's out of fear of what her cousin's fate might be.

Soobin’s train of thought halted by something even more confusing. Yeonjun was laughing hysterically beside her, it almost looked as if he was going mad.

She let out a string of "What? What is this? What's on the card?" but yeonjun responded with a quiet mumble, mainly to himself.

"That son of a bitch"

"What?"

"I know where Beomgyu is. I'll explain on the way there"

In Yeonjun's hands was a gym card. his own King Kang's gym membership card.

Chapter Text

As they waited for Yeonjun and Soobin to follow their trail, Beomgyu and Taehyun found their situation a bit awkward. 

But, surprisingly, it was not because of how they met. It was because of how both wanted to say or do something, anything but felt too shy to advance. Leading to fidgeting fingers and staring at the floor and ceiling while stealing side glances at each other.

It made Taehyun realize that this wasn’t the best course of action to take. 

Should he apologize to her? Would that be a mood kill? Would dismissing it and acting normal make him seem like a psycho? 

He swears he isn’t! It’s just that, when it comes to making friends, he is a tad out of practice.

He is excellent at making allies, and such a smooth talker, his hookups never felt bad even when they only had one night with him.

But it’s usually just work or blowing off steam. His few genuine friends know him for who he is and are used to how straightforward he tends to be. And he grew comfortable with that. So much so that Taehyun almost forgot how overwhelming it is to bare your real self for the first time in front of someone you wish to keep. 

He is confident in himself, his looks, and his craft. Even his secret identity, he is proud of it. 

But his confidence is quiet. Shows itself in squared shoulders and sure stares. In non-negotiable commands and a genius brain for tactics.

Beomgyu, on the other hand, was similar in all the opposite ways.

She was loud. The air around her charged with her energy and kissing everyone’s wounded souls better just by smiling and being herself. Her playful yet kind and gold-hearted self.

She didn’t need to command. Taehyun would offer Beomgyu the world if she just as much showed interest in owning it.

And Beomgyu is beautiful. So beautiful. It makes Taehyun reconsider his standards and everything he knows. 

Maybe today was the first day they officially met. But Beomgyu had everyone’s heart in this town. Good or Evil, they all had a soft spot for her. 

And just like he had told Beomgyu, Gym people LOVED to talk. So it was normal for her name to come up too many times.

So, imagine Taehyun’s horror when he once gave in to the gossip only to learn the ugly truth about “The Town’s Fairy”. 

“She sounds like she deserves the kindness. I am glad she is receiving it back.”

“Who? Beomgyu-ssi? No, no one is allowed to tell her that.”

Sonmin, a frequent in the gym and an almost-friend of Taehyun said. Explaining more when he saw the confusion on Taehyun’s face

“We can’t let her ego grow, you know? Having such power over people ought to change you for the worse.” 

Taehyun was fuming. Blood boiling for a girl he has never met. 

They weren’t worried for her sake. They were just worried she would stop going out of her way for them once she learned her worth. That they’d lose their own power over her. 

Power does change people for the worse. And their town was the ugliest of them all.

It made Taehyun curious and annoyed. He wanted to meet Beomgyu. To see for himself what it was all about. Part of him didn’t buy the idea of this town birthing someone with her so-called kindness and beauty. 

Another part wanted to believe, to hang on to the tales told about her. And maybe, one day, meet her personally and tattle to her about how powerful she really is and how this town never deserved kindness.

But he didn’t go out of his way to look for her. Committing to his public image of being “Cold King Kang”. The charming gym owner who kept to himself. 

And King Kang didn’t believe in fate, but he didn’t believe in coincidences either. So when his world collided with Beomgyu’s, he decided to test how far could this go.

So far, this collision was one of the best things to happen in his life. Or so he thought, as he watched Beomgyu go around the machines with curious eyes and somehow managed to not use a single one of them correctly whenever she tried. 

“You know, I can show you around and give you a run down on all machines if you are curious,” 

The corners of Taehyun’s lips were pulled into a smile as he saw Beomgyu get startled by his voice. It was as if she forgot he was even there. Too busy intensely staring at one of the machines as if she were waiting for it to talk and explain how it works.

Beomgyu cleared her throat, going to sit on one of the benches as she contemplated her next words.

“Umm, no I know how these work of course! They are so easy haha”

Taehyun’s eyebrows shot up at that, but he didn’t comment. Sensing the barista had something yet to say.

“I wanted to ask you something else though.”

“Anything you want,” Taehyun sat on the seat of the machine facing Beomgyu, a genuine smile on his face as he waited for her question.

“You mentioned wanting your business to stay away from Soobin. Why?” 

Beomgyu waited patiently as she saw Taehyun open his mouth and close it on nothing. Once, then twice. His loss of words and blinking owlish eyes intrigued her.

“That is a very good question actually,”

“I know. Why else would I ask it if it wasn’t?” Beomgyu quirked her eyebrow. Part of her is happy with how her questions seemed to be hitting a nerve in him. The other part soaking in worry at what the answer might be.

“Well, the gym is frequented by a lot of the villains and jocks in town so I thought, the more out of your way I am, the better it would be, you know?”

Taehyun's eyes avoided Beomgyu as he answered. Scratching under his neck in what seems to be nervousness. This encouraged Beomgyu to push forward more

“And that’s the public-friendly answer. The truth?”

“I have a gang”

Beomgyu was flabbergasted. Eyes wide, no words in an opening and closing mouth.

“Like a very close-knit group of friends or..?”

Taehyun shook his head no. Still not looking at Beomgyu.

“Have you heard of 2K?”

Beomgyu thought her eyes widened to their limit. But after Taehyun’s question, it turns out there was still more room for shock in them.

“2K? As in Secret Gang 2K? The one that has been irking soobin for 2 years with their violent acts, 2K?”

Taehyun nodded slowly as he stared at Beomgyu’s eyes now. His gaze kept her in place as well as the weight of the news. 

2K. A number and a mere letter that surfaced out of nowhere 2 years ago in town as a sign of pride, right next to broken stores, vandalized houses, and on the clothes of some townspeople who were beaten to a pulp in the dead of night.

But that wasn’t the best part. The best part was what always came after. None of the victims of these acts ever thought of reporting them to authorities. Always denying Soobin’s help when she offered and denying her any information about the culprits. 

Bizzare in every way you look at it.

The most she was able to get out of some was the 2K logo left behind, which Soobin, as well as everyone else, thought it meant “2 Kill”, and that they were masked.

But right now, in King Kang’s Gym, Beomgyu felt the need to hit Soobin on the head for not figuring it out early on.

“You run this shit?”

Two small nods. 

“Wow, you really are something Kang Taehyun,”

Beomgyu said, pressing the heels of her palms to her eyes as she felt a headache starting to form with everything she recalled about the said gang and everything she had seen and learned today.

“I don’t think I should take that as a compliment.”

Beomgyu looked incredulously at Taehyun. Who, unlike the status she had just learned about him, looked sheepish at her gaze.

“Oh no please do. The thought of you beating the living lights out of random people for funsies makes me want to make out with you so bad right now.”

Taehyun hung his head low. Beomgyu’s monotone and cold gaze were enough signs for him to take a step back if he wanted to fix this. If it can be fixed.

“They are not random people.”

“Sorry, I forgot you have outstanding stalking skills. Of course, you pick them out nice-”

“No.”

Taehyun’s tone was firm. And as Beomgyu looked straight into his strong eyes. She found herself waiting for him to defend himself. A small voice inside her head praying that he held a strong case.

But he kept looking back at her without saying any other words. He looks sure of himself yet reluctant to talk.

“Just no?” Beomgyu poked at him

“No, there is more. It’s just- most of it is not my stories to tell”

“A thug with boundaries? How cute.”

Beomgyu was toeing a dangerous line. But she was fed up. She wanted everything to be over even if it meant putting her safety at risk.

“I am not a thug. And I never liked violence”

Taehyun argued weakly. His eyes shone in a way that Beomgyu didn’t understand.

“I know I am not making much sense. And everything I said and done today gives you no reason to hear me out, let alone trust me. But…”

“But?”

Beomgyu said weakly. Giving Taehyun one last chance to clear his name, hoping he would take it.

“I want to tell you. I really want you to know everything. But I can only give you half the truth at best. So I understand if you don’t want any of it to begin with”

“What difference would it make?”

Beomgyu thought out loud, her eyes going back and forth between Taehyun and her surroundings in a calculating way.

“Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. I am not really sure.”

Taehyun stood up. Beomgyu getting ready to hit him on the head with the barbell weight she’d hid under the bench. Until she saw what he was handing her.

Her phone.

“There is no need for me to hold onto this anymore. And the place was never locked by the way. You are free to leave whenever you want.”

Beomgyu’s brain was working overdrive. Trying to find ‘the catch’ in what he was proposing

“You are not worried I would tell on you? Or were you not going to let me get out of here alive anyway?”

“I would never do that. Not to anyone. Never to you”

Taehyun took a deep breath. The more Beomgyu listened to him the more at ease he felt.

“Like I said. I only care if you know the truth. I don’t care what you do with it. So think of this as a sign of good faith. But please, give me a chance.”

Beomgyu stayed skeptical until she got an idea.

“Okay, I’ll hear you out,”

“Thank you”

“If you let me tie you up.”

Taehyun’s eyebrows shot up in amazement, a snarky comment on the tip of his tongue that he decided to leave for the future.

After-he-tells-Beomgyu-the-truth-and-she-believes-him-enough-to-stick-around kind of future.

“Whatever makes you feel at ease.” 

And just like that, Taehyun found both his arms and legs tied with the battle ropes used in the gym. He was the one who pointed out to Beomgyu where to find them. He sat waiting patiently as she checked the exits only to find them unlocked just like Taehyun promised they were.

“Alright, you have 3 minutes to explain everything before I bash your head in,”

Beomgyu raised a bright pink, 2kg dumbbell that managed to somehow look intimidating with her gaze.

Taehyun took a deep breath and then started his story

“2K is a secret from most of the town but we are actually pretty accessible to the people who need us the most. We don’t go around beating people haphazardly, all our targets have their reasons”

“I didn’t ask for an ad, Taehyun.”

Beomgyu sighed exasperatedly.

“Alright then, do you know Cho Dae-hee?”

Beomgyu recognized the name. He was one of the very first victims of 2K. Everyone was surprised with how such a well-known, successful, businessman refused to report after being beaten and left barely breathing. The old man got out with two broken feet and a few missing teeth. And of course, his office vandalized with the 2K logo written on the walls.

But what people didn’t know, is that Beomgyu was happy that the disgusting old man got his karma.

“I shouldn’t be telling you this but he assaulted someone who was working for him and threatened them to not speak or else he would ruin their reputation and future,” 

Beomgyu felt her body run cold. She knew that the old man was a scumbag from the multiple times he made a pass on her whenever he came to the cafe she worked at or even as much so met her in the streets of their small town. But she could never imagine he would be this rotten. Not when everyone in town respected him for his work and charity work.

“His victim was related to someone in the self-defense classes I teach. They told me the story when I caught them having a total meltdown in the lockers. They felt guilty for not protecting their relative. Especially when the fucker tried to assault his relative again. They only escaped because someone walked in on them. Not even batting an eye to what was happening and acting as if everything was normal and consensual."

Beomgyu felt bile rise in her throat. A part of her wished she was the one to bash that bastard's head in with the dumbbell she was holding at that moment.

"They asked for my help and I couldn't not agree. I wanted to do it. I wanted to help them teach that bastard a lesson.”

“You could have turned him in,” Beomgyu said. her voice void of emotion.

“We had no proof. And even if we did, we knew the authorities would never touch him. And before you say it, we thought of Soobin but we also thought of the many times the townspeople hid evidence from her and stopped her from helping those who deserve it.”

Beomgyu wanted to argue. But how could she when she was first line witnessing everything that happened to Yeonjun and his family in this god-forsaken town and how they never managed to help them? She was also first in line as she saw the light in her cousin’s eyes dim day by day whenever they prevented her from helping those in need and then blaming her for it.

“So, we took matters into our own hands. I gathered some of my closest friends who also know how to fight. And even when I never told them who we were doing this for, none of them hesitated to help.” 

Taehyun waited for Beomgyu to say anything. But she didn’t. She just waited for him to lay it all out. 

“The 2K part wasn’t intentional. We only planned for this to be a one-time thing. Just to scare him enough to never go near them or anyone else again. We only wrote it to scare him more so he won’t speak. We didn’t even agree on it beforehand” 

“Ever since then, it became our thing. More people came in touch with us to avenge them. Assaulters, Power driven people. Bullies. Abusers. Any and every form of bad deed. We always investigated first before jumping in, but we knew no one would take our side since we chose violence. So we kept our identities and our clients' information secret and moved accordingly. Only known to the people who needed it. But still, no one knew our real names or faces. Well, except you now.”

Silence. Taehyun kept going. 

“I am sorry if the path I chose is too violent for you, but I don’t regret it. And I will never stop until I am stopped.”

Taehyun’s eyes were locked into Beomgyu’s, a whirlwind of emotions visible in them.

Shock, fear, anger, and others he couldn’t decipher. 

But what he didn’t know is, they weren’t for him.

“So, all of them deserved it?”

“Everyone. I promise we never hurt an innocent.” 

Beomgyu nodded slowly. Moving to get up from her place. 

Taehyun prepared himself for the worst. For her to leave and never come back. For him to realize he put all his friends in danger. Even for her to hit him with the dumbbell still in her hand.

“Do you have an opening for new members?”

But he never prepared himself for this.

It took Taehyun almost a minute to break out of his stupor. Beomgyu’s light laugh and her finger under his chin that closed his gaping mouth was what did it for him. 

“Wait, what?”

“I believe you, Taehyun. I need to see evidence first but I do believe you. For now.”

“I- Thank you! I promise I’ll show you what I can without revealing the clients' information” 

“Okay” 

Beomgyu and Taehyun found themselves smiling at each other. Their eye contact caused fire to dance on their skin but for some reason, they couldn’t look away. 

“I am serious about wanting to be in, though," Beomgyu found herself blurting. Not sure when she even made up her mind about a decision as rash as this. She blamed it on Taehyun’s big goofy smile.

“The honor is all ours," he said.

"But we better not tell your gangsters that I had you tied up on the first meeting. I wouldn’t want your image to be tainted” 

That was a low blow, Beomgyu was aware. But she’s been through a lot tonight and she is nothing if not petty. Especially for revenge. This meant that Taehyun’s dramatic deep breath before speaking -in hopes of holding on to his wits- really elated her.

“If I must remind you, I let you tie me up willingly,"

"Exactly. Not good on your resume, perfect on mine"

She could tell his ego was getting bruised and she knew she shouldn’t poke blindly like that but she needed to make sure how far she could push Taehyun before he acted out. If he acts out. 

He only let out a scoff, running his tongue across his lips before speaking again, full of confidence.

“Do you think if I was this easy to take on, you and Soobin would have been chasing air for the past 2 years?”

Beomgyu grinned, taking the insult to her and her cousin’s effort of catching him with open arms.

“Okay, fair. But you’ve got to give it to me though, I do put up a good fight!”

Taehyun chuckled while nodding, recalling the events that had taken place ever since he met Beomgyu.

“True! But we need to train you more still. You can’t count on having everyone as whipped for you as I am”

As soon as he finished the sentence, his face scrunched up in regret. He kept his eyes shut as if he didn’t see Beomgyu’s reaction, he could pretend as if this slip never happened.

It was Beomgyu’s giggle that forced him to open his eyes,

“We could arrange that. We can also use the time to work on your slip-ups”

Taehyun looked at Beomgyu incredulously, a smile plastered on his face as he brought his supposedly tied hands in front of him, rubbing at his wrists from the rope burns while Beomgyu’s face fell at the sight of his now-free hands.

“We’ll need to work on your knots too. They are not bad but could use an upgrade,”

“How long have you been free?”

“A while.” 

Beomgyu sat down huffing, a pout on her face from realizing she didn’t have the upper hand all along like she thought she did. To which, Taehyun reassured her that his ankles were still tied and that she did well with this one.

“Why did you even untie it?” Beomgyu gritted her teeth. Throwing her fists in the air threateningly

“Force of habit, sorry,” Taehyun smiled sheepishly before he let out another offer “How about we start your first lesson with me like this?”

“What do you mean?”

Beomgyu tilted her head to the side. Something that Taehyun fought to not coo at. 

“We can use the time we have right now to teach you how to re-restrain someone”

“I know how to fight, Taehyun,” Beomgyu said with disinterest. The lessons, to her, were a playful joke. But, in reality, she viewed herself as a well-trained civilian, enough to get her through a day like today. 

“Trust me, my ass cheek is sure of that,” Taehyun said with a laugh, making to get up with his still-restrained ankles “But it won’t hurt to try this out, right?” 

And just like that, Beomgyu found herself swinging at Taehyun. Multiple times to no avail since he dodged every single one of them with trained ease. Even with still tied legs he managed to jump around and keep balance.

With each dodge, Beomgyu felt her anger rising. Her urge to prove her late uncle’s training to her almost makes her too hasty.

“Relax. You are losing focus” Taehyun said as he held Beomgyu’s hand from where she was delivering a punch to his jaw. His tone, surprisingly was not anywhere near condescending. 

Beomgyu used their proximity to sweep his feet from under him, making him fall to the ground on his back and take her down with him by their still joined hand.

They kept going back and forth. Each of them tries to gain the upper hand by pinning the other down to the floor

After a few tries, Beomgyu has risen to victory. Pining both of Taehyun’s hands above his head while she sat on his waist to prevent him from moving, letting out a shy-of-mad cackle as she said “I win”

Taehyun was about to push her off of him, really enjoying their little game. Until he heard a door burst open behind him with the words “Don’t you dare touch her! Oh.”

It was Soobin, who, finally, managed to find where they were.

“Okay, we never did that when I kidnapped her,” came from Yeonjun who saw Beomgyu and Taehyun’s position when he came in running after Soobin.

“I was trying to restrain him!”

“If that's what you are into, I won’t judge.”

Yeonjun said snarkily, before hiding behind Soobin when he saw how Beomgyu had let go of Taehyun and lunged at him in a literal blink. Screaming a string of curses that varied from “ YOU ASSHAT” to “THIS IS WHAT I GAIN FROM HELPING YOU” 

Soobin managed to calm her down. Both cousins hugged it out as soon as Soobin had made sure Beomgyu was fine.

By then, Taehyun had already untied his legs, coming up to them and looking casually at the reunion of the two girls as if nothing had happened.

“Taehyun, isn’t it? I have something for you.” Yeonjun addressed. 

“Yes, Hyung?”

Before Taehyun could even register, he felt a sharp pain in his jaw from Yeonjun’s fist connecting to it. And he was about to deliver another punch if it weren’t for Beomgyu letting go of Soobin right then and there and coming between the two villains.

“The fuck were you thinking, Taehyun? I warned you before they were off-limits!” 

Yeonjun yelled while Beomgyu kept pushing him away from Taehyun. The latter not making any move to fight back nor run away. Simply wiping the blood that spilled out of his gums as he watched Yeonjun’s rage with calm eyes. 

“Seriously, Yeonjun? What did you expect would happen when you ‘kidnapped’ me literally every Thursday!” this came from Beomgyu.

“No one was allowed to touch you! I made it explicitly clear that Soobin, you, and everyone you both care about should remain untouched!” Yeonjun said in distress, everyone watching him and Beomgyu have a scream-off. One that seemed long overdue.

“Well, maybe if you had mastered up enough courage to tell Soobin you like her instead of doing all of this, it would have been easier for you to mark territories”

“You what?” 

This came from Soobin. The latter’s inquiry made Yeonjun shrink on himself and Beomgyu’s eyes widened comically as she stuttered,

“You- he- he didn’t tell you? I thought he did by now. I- Iamsosorry”

Taehyun circled his hands around Beomgyu’s waist and carried her away from the scene. The latter going without a fight looking like a cat in air jail. 

“Care to explain?”

Soobin said, coming closer to Yeonjun until they became only a foot apart. The latter took a great interest in his shoes and did not meet her eyes as he murmured,

“You already know how I feel.”

Soobin chuckled lightly, Yeonjun’s frown reminding her of when they were both each other's silly play dates.

“I know a lot of things about you, Yeonjun. I need you to tell me which one you mean for me to be on track.” 

Soobin played dumb. Greatly enjoyed watching Yeonjun suffer. His inner turmoil showed on his face as he let out a tiny frustrated sigh with frowned brows and closed eyes, before opening them and staring directly into Soobin’s eyes. The certainty in them was something new to her.

“What Beomgyu meant... All this time, all the past kidnappings were arranged. I had asked Beomgyu for the biggest favor in my life. Which is, to let me take her away every once in a while because we both knew you’d always come to her rescue. Which meant that every time I did this, I’d get to see you and talk to you even for just a few minutes.” 

Yeonjun expected shock, rage, or even laughter from soobin at his secret. But what he was met with was a poker face. So he found himself talking again.

“She didn’t want to lie to you at first. But, I had a perfect reasoning that convinced her to keep helping me even if it was against her better judgment.”

“Which is?”

Soobin pushed, something in Yeonjun told him she already knew his answer.

“I am in love with you. And I don’t think I’ve ever lived a day without this feeling for you,” 

Soobin looked shocked to hear this. A crimson blush colored her face as she opened her mouth over a faint “Oh”

“I know it’s unconventional. That we can never be together in a town like this one and that I shouldn’t have put you and Beomgyu and everyone else in this much trouble for the benefit of my own feelings but… I don’t regret it to be honest.” 

Yeonjun kept fiddling with his fingers. Soobin’s hand holding his to stop him and as soon as he looked up, he felt Soobin’s lips crash into his.

Her lips were soft and slightly cold from the weather. But, to Yeonjun, they were perfect. He cursed his imagination for not being anywhere close to how this moment felt as he cupped Soobin’s cheeks and felt her hair tickle his fingertips.

And when he flinched lightly when she bit his bottom lips, he planned on pretending it was from his busted lip and nothing else

“That kinda hurt, you know?”

“Good. You kinda deserve it, you know” 

Soobin mirrored his words, both of them laughing while still being only an inch apart.

“Okay, fair. But I hope you are only hurting me with the biting and not the actual kiss. Because this means too much to me and you are not this cruel” 

Yeonjun said, pushing Soobin’s hair behind her ear as he waited for her answer to ease his heart before his mind.

Soobin studied Yeonjun’s features for a minute, her eyes glowing with something that Yeonjun had missed ever since he came back.

“I don’t care if it’s unconventional. I love you too and I don’t want to lose you again.” 

Soobin whispered. As if it was their little secret to keep in their hearts and in between their arms as they fell into each other’s embrace. The goofiest smiles on both their faces as they saw Beomgyu and Taehyun come out of their hiding place, yelling their congratulations for the new couple. 

“Now, you both need to pay up for the emotional damage I’ve been through for this relationship”

“As well as name your firstborn after her, if you ask me,” 

Beomgyu and Taehyun said respectively, laughing at their own remarks.

“Remind me again, who invited you to this?” asked Yeonjun, taking a threatening step towards Taehyun only to be stopped by a familiar voice saying “I did!”

They all looked at Hueningkai, who was standing by the door, wearing a black hoodie over his head and looking an awful lot like a burglar more than anything.

And also looking like…

“It was you in the cabin!” Yeonjun concluded.

“Yep. Also, I didn’t really appreciate you making a pass at my sister in the middle of the forest when you are both supposed to be on a mission”

Yeonjun and Soobin hung both their heads low. Embarrassed at being caught in their little moment.

“You were getting it on when I was kidnapped??” Beomgyu let out in shock

“I swear we were looking all over the place for you!” 

“Yeah, you just missed the air tag that was on the porch while you were pressing each other to the cabin door, that’s all.” 

Hueningkai mumbled, fueling the fire and enjoying the way Beomgyu opened her mouth widely in shock, feeling betrayed as she aimed for Yeonjun’s neck.

“Wait, why were you there in the first place?” Yeonjun made a fruitless attempt to get out of Beomgyu’s headlock he was now in. 

“Who do you think planned this all out?” Hueningkai was cheeky about his plan, non-the-wiser to how shocked and almost hurt Beomgyu felt at his revelation.

“How could you do this to me, Hyuka? I don’t care if you trust Taehyun or not I was scared shitless! You could have at least told me beforehand!”

“I could say the same thing to you noona. I, too, was worried shitless every time you got ‘kidnapped’ by Yeonjun. I’d have appreciated it if you told me.”

Beomgyu felt small at that. She didn’t want Soobin to know about her deal with Yeonjun but Hueningkai didn’t deserve to get caught in the crossfire. And she knew he was capable of keeping her secret better than anyone. So, she guesses she deserved what happened today.

“Wait, so you told Taehyun to kidnap Beomgyu?”

“Told you I don’t meddle uninvited” 

Said Yeonjun and Taehyun respectively. The latter was snarky with his comment while Yeonjun let out a disbelieving laugh.  “Woah, kaidroid you are no better than I am” 

“Not really. I ran things a little differently from what you used to do.”

“How so?”

“Because, this time, I knew.” 

Yeonjun’s jaw fell to the floor when he heard Soobin say these last few words. The blonde laughed hysterically at his and her cousin’s equally gobsmacked faces. 

“Before you come at me, I didn’t know much. Ning only told me that this was a prank he was pulling on Yeonjun and that Beomie was safe. Other than that, I am as dumb as this airhead here.”

Soobin declared, pointing at Yeonjun near the end.

“I didn’t want to tell you either but if I hadn’t, you two airheads would have wasted the entire day fighting instead of doing what I wanted you to do so, I had no choice”

Kai sighed, everyone’s skin crawling at the realization that the plushie-lover homeboy gamer had turned out to be this much of an evil mastermind.

“How did you and Taehyun cross paths even?” Soobin inquired.

Hueningkai and Taehyun both looked at each other, eyes wide from not thinking ahead on what they said when this obvious question was asked.

“Bussiness” Taehyun said weakly

“What kind of business is that?” Yeonjun pressed.

“Hyuka helped set up the sound system of the gym. I just remembered now that he told me about it” It was Beomgyu who came up with this lie. One that was seemingly convincing enough for Yeonjun and Soobin, who nodded along. 

Both were none-the-wiser to the gazes between the younger three as Beomgyu caught on how really Taehyun and Hueningkai met and what type of work her hacker cousin and her new-friend-secretly-gang-leader might have had together.

“Well, now that you two idiots have finally spat your feelings out, we can all go home now. I can’t believe you two made me do fieldwork,” Hueningkai said grumpily, to which the others laughed lightly.

“Oh, and I better not see any of you try to lay a finger on me ever again or I swear, I’ll take you to hell’s gates myself,” Beomgyu said, her sweet smile contradicting her words. 

“Can’t I pick you up from time to time?” Taehyun whispered lightly to Beomgyu without the other’s noticing.

“Just- not literally please I am getting motion sickness from being picked up too much today” Beomgyu joked, both of them chuckling to themselves.

“If It’s okay with everyone, can I take Soobin out for tonight?” Yeonjun asked, a shy blush on his face as all eyes turned to him and from what his own words entail.

“Hmmm, what do you think, Beomgyu noona?”

“Well, that depends on Soobin herself.”  

Hueningkai and Beomgyu went back and forth, acting as the Soobin’s rightful guardians that they are. 

Everyone looked at Soobin expectantly, waiting for her answer and Yeonjun felt his heart skip a few beats when he noticed a twinkle of mirth in her eyes

“Hmmm, I am not sure! We ran around a lot today and I am a bit exhaust- let’s go”

Soobin ran out of the gym, grabbing Yeonjun by the wrist behind her with the sound of giggles from everyone.

“So” started Beomgyu “now, that they are gone. Mind if you tell me the truth of how you two really met?"

 Huengingkai made an exaggerated gesture of remembering something while saying “Ah! I forgot to tell soobin something” as he ran outside the gym, Beomgyu yelling after him for being a coward. Or in her words, “a ping pong sized balls punk” 

Taehyun stopped her from going after him, laughing at her choice of words and wild personality with her closest people. 

“Listen, as much as I’d enjoy outing him to you. I’d much rather have you grill this out of him.” Taehyun said, the thought of Beomgyu ambushing Hueningkai until he spoke bringing him too much satisfaction.

“Alright fine. But you’d be stupid if you thought I was done with you” Beomgyu stuck her index finger to his face.

“I sure hope not,” Taehyun said cheekily, enjoying the view of Beomgyu fighting a smile.

“O-okay, I’ll leave now,” Beomgyu said, walking backward towards the door. Taehyun gave her a curt nod. 

“Happy Valentine’s Day gyu”

“You too, King Kang” and with that, Beomgyu was out of the door. 

Taehyun stood in the middle of the gym place, smiling to himself as he went over the day’s events. Having a feeling that it’s still far from ending

“I can not believe you let me leave just like that”

aaand he was right!

“Oh? Beomgyu?”

“You let me leave alone in the middle of nowhere? What if something happened to me?” Beomgyu argued with a pout.

“Beomgyu, the indents of your teeth are still on my ass. I pity the fool who would think of harming you” Taehyun said teasingly, getting on Beomgyu’s nerves becoming his new and favorite hobby,

“Still! You didn’t even offer to give me a ride. You know, as a payback for today. It’s not like I can drive back the car that brought me here.” 

“I can drive the car that brought you here,” Taehyun said, as a matter of fact.

“Then lead the way!” 

Taehyun and Beomgyu play fought all the way to the car. None of them felt the pair of eyes watching them.

When he saw the car speed off on the road, Hueningkai stepped out of the shadows with an endeared smile on his face. Happy to see the two people he cares about the most in this worthless town finally living freely and feeling the happiness they deserve. Dysfunctional or not.