"Bee, can I talk to you alone for a second?" Jake said getting up from the couch.
"Sure."
We both walked side by side out of the house and stood in front of Nathan's. I tried to sit on the car but keep on slipping so Jake sighed and hoisted me in his arms to make me sit on the bonnet of the car. I was not that much shorter than him but he still seemed strong enough to pick me up just like that.
I stared at his side profile and he turned his head to look at me. He's standing directly in front of me, between my legs which are folded into a criss-cross position. For a moment we just keep staring but he broke the gaze by looking at the sky instead.
"I'm sorry Bee, I should have just stayed away. I should have just thanked you for saving us and let it go after. I'm an asshole, I know."
I know. And yeah, you should've stayed away.
I remained quiet.
"Say something, anything Bee. Hit me, beat the crap out of me, call me names, do anything, just don't give me this silent treatment, I want to make up for all the shit that happened. Let me do it." He says, rubbing his face and ruffling the red hair we got done together.
I want that too, Jake. I want my overprotective friends back. I want the little baby that used to smile with all his eyes and laugh till his neck would sprain, back too. But I can't let you just waltz back into my life because you say so.
"Time. Give me time." I said and caress his hands which were by my sides. He sighed and let me do whatever I want, leaning into me. I released a breath shakily and reached out to run my hands through his hair, it had become a habit, I always did that to Noah and Jack too, Jake liked it too when he came over movie night with Trevor. He relaxed into my touch and sighed in satisfaction.
"I have all the time in the world for you this time." He said and I hummed in approval while setting his hair back to the original middle partition.
"We'll see." I hope you do.
Were you sure this time Park Jake?
"Let's go back in, we've got a lot to work on, hmm?" I said and he simply nodded, walking ahead of me to the house. I trailed behind him, looking at his back. He seemed sure this time but I could be wrong.
"Can I ask you something Jake?" I asked and he turned his head towards me urging me to continue.
"Why would my father need to hire you guys, I mean no offense but I don't think with his position he'd need-"
"Con-men? Why he'd need con-men, you want to ask right?" I looked at him and hesitantly nodded.
I mean if you put it that way.
"Well, Bee, you see, your father and his men were quite known people and they wanted to get into their enemy's safety. Had he sent his own men they would have been recognized and the plan would have backfired so when he found about us, he promised that he'd pay for our living expenses and pay us too, if we did the job good enough and we were running low on cash, so we thought that it was worth a try." He said and by the time he finished, we had reached the door and he patted my back "Bee, we won't do anything wrong, I promise," I nodded and he opened the door.
"Stay here, I'll ask one of them to give you company, we'll look for the files upstairs, you can come if you want to. Nothing to hide now." I saw the gentle smile forming slowly on his pouty lips and hid my own.
"I'll be fine here, I'd prefer anybody but the mint-boy, what's his name again?" He laughed throwing his head back and I thought of a flashback of him in my room when Trevor was tickling me and I had threatened to cut off and sell his balls to the same man who was beating them up.
"The mint-boy's name is Young-Jae, he might seem not so likable but actually he's really nice once you break his shell. And don't worry, I'll be sure not to let him leave the room."
"Good, I don't think he'd like his pretty nose broken and I'm not really interested in breaking his shell." I huffed and folded my arms.
"Woah, no need to get aggressive woman." He said pretending to be scared but, I knew he knew I wouldn't do that to him.
"Go on, relax, I'll somebody kay?" I hummed absentmindedly and moved towards the couch while he ran up the stairs after tripping a little over the chair at the head of the dining table.
Jake and chairs weren't really good friends.
I roamed in circles around the room instead of sitting, humming the tune to 'chandelier' and then twirling a little on my tippy toes, pretending I was Maddie Zeigler. I didn't realize a boy was staring at me the whole time, I was just vibing. He smiled behind my back and I stopped abruptly when I met face to face with him.
"Why'd you stop? I was just about to join your little concert." He said and by his tone, he seemed genuinely sad about it. What was his name again?
"Hi, I'm Bee. I don't know your name but I stopped figuring you'd laugh." I say smiling and extending a hand, He moved forward and instead of shaking my hand, embraced me.
"I heard what happened between you, Jake and Trev. So, I figured you could use a hug." He said, voice coming a little muffled against my skin. I blinked multiple times and then registered what happened. He was so sweet and I wasn't even friends with him yet.
"Okay let's continue the concert, yeah?"
He pulled away and moved towards the TV unit in front of the couch, I watched him do something on his phone and then the song played. It was 'malibu' by Miley, the kinda song to set your soul free. He came back in front of me and starts swaying a little with a music while dramatically vocalizing with the song. I laughed loud at his antics and he smiled back at me.
He had the kind of smile that made you stop worrying for a second, so bright and unrealistically pretty. I myself started loosening up a little and swayed with the music too. It felt nice.
"My name's Hyun. I like dancing and from what I see you like it too." He said cutely bouncing in happiness. Yeah, I loved it. The song shuffled to 'meant to be'. I started bouncing on my feet too. I swayed my hips sideways letting loose, my hair brushing my face every time I threw my head back or moved it sideways.
Again, it was nice.
Hyun pulled me by my hand closer to him, he placed his left hand on my waist gingerly and the other one held my left hand at the level of his shoulders and I put my right one on his shoulder. He started swaying again singing along loudly, I chimed in too. And for the first time in like forever, I let my guard down, I smiled and laughed.
Genuinely, not the fake one I tossed around a bit too much. This was everything that Jack and I used to do. Reminded me of all the things I missed doing with him. It was like looking at the sky through skylights, seeing only the pretty stars, only the delicate pastel hues the sky is glamorized in, the beautiful shades of blue and purple when the sun sets, midnight black when the stars come up and even the shades of grey covering the sky on rainy days. I wanted to keep looking through this skylight.
I couldn't say I was happy because If I thought closely, at the back of my mind there was still a lot of chaos but right now, even if it's for five minutes, I wanted to lose myself completely. I could practically feel the serotonin pulsing through me.
"Hey, Bee, we found something-" Trevor stopped mid-sentence when he saw me laughing and for about a minute he stayed there. A smile tugging at his lips seeing me genuinely enjoying myself. He watched me for some time, turned back around on his heel and left. He didn't want to disturb.
"Hey, wanna see me freestyle?" I immediately nodded vigorously and he left my hands, took out his phone to change the song I supposed. He plays some tune I didn't recognize and started by stretching a little first, soon his stretches turned into little moves and when he started dancing to his fullest I got hooked.
From the little twists of his torso to the way his limbs move like they're boneless, every move of this boy here was addicting, what was he doing as a conman? He could beat every freestyler out there. I was sitting on the couch but I couldn't control the adrenaline rushing through me. I needed to do something so I cheered.
I whistled every time he hit a beat perfectly. It was amazing and I wanted to do it everyday. The satisfaction derived from dancing and watching him dance boosted every sleeping cell of my body, it was better than when I learned to shoot perfectly last month. I never knew dancing along with somebody could be so different from dancing alone. I felt peaceful even if the bass-boosted song was tearing my ear drums, I felt good.
"Oh, wow, I didn't know we were having a dance party today," Nathan said standing at the bottom step of the stairs with the rest of the boys appearing behind him on the stairs slowly, one by one. I looked at Hyun, he shrugged so I shrugged too. The rush I just had was wearing out and I suddenly felt very much aware of how my red black hair were sticking to my neck and my jacket a little damp with sweat so I took it off.
When I looked up again after tossing the jacket on the couch, I locked eyes with Young-Jae. I could see his gaze drop down to my cleavage for a second but he looked back up and gulped. Interesting. I looked away from him and saw Kyle blushing vigorously.
"I'd suggest you wear that jacket back, Bee," Trevor said glaring a little at Young-Jae with squinted accusing eyes. The said boy composed himself quickly and turned away from Trevor to walk towards me. He stood right in front of me and when he looked up at me, he feigned boredom but I could see the tension and conflict in his eyes. He cleared his throat moved his hands towards my sides and shoved me aside almost making me trip.
Oh, he did not.
I heard a muffled snicker and looked at the boys to find Jake snickering with a hand on his mouth. How dare he?!
"Park fucking Jake you better shut up right now so I don't have to punch you till your perfect little face is decorated with purple bruises." He immediately shut up. I turned around waltz towards the white-coloured minion and purposely kicked his leg before walking across him to the other side of the couch.
"Everything aside, tell me, did you guys find anything?" I asked and by then they were all moving towards the couch.
"The file is with Young-Jae," Seok-Min said casually munching on an apple. I internally groaned and moved towards the idiot. He immediately smirked and as soon as I was in his range of touch, placed his arm on the head of the couch so that it was almost touching my shoulders but not quite touching it. Trevor squeezed in next to me and Jake next to him.
"Bee, can you shift a little, it's too crowded."
"Sure." I shifted towards Young-Jae and absolutely did not focus on how good he smelt or how close he was to me.
"Sure she can, right babe? You always have my lap y'know."
"I will chop off your dick if you call me 'babe' one more time," I said holding my hands into fists.
"I'm surprised you haven't grown out fangs, princess," he said, a toothy smirk on his face that I had been trying not to punch keeping in mind that I needed him.
"Do not call me princess!" I screamed, frustration getting the best of me despite my resolute.
"Why, do not like the names I give you, huh angel?", he smirked, irking me on till I was completely on edge with his behavior.
"I am not a princess, princesses get their work done for them. Me? I do my own work and make my own rules."
"Princess." He whispered in my ear, no purred in my ear putting a hand on my right thigh and rubbing it, slowly moving it upwards.
"Princess. Princess. Princess." He says leaning more into me, his breath fanning against my sensitive neck and ear. I released a breath when he gently nibbled onto it and then leaned back into the couch like nothing happened. The boys seemed to be into a conversation while he patted his thigh with the same hand, that was on mine before and tilts his head.
Come, take your seat. He mouthed and I felt myself shudder and melt into putty.
I never knew I could be this submissive.