Our own little secret
I wanna be addicted to your prison

-Blood sweat and tears,
Bts

It was an ungodly time when the lunch hours were already over in the university cafeteria and instead they were busy preparing afternoon snacks for the students.

The buzzing sound from the people was not there and the hot summer air had chilled into a cooler tone. I had a huge file open in front of me as I sat in one of the chairs.

And on Lord's name, I so wished I was alone but the two lads, Shownu and Jooheon were sitting right in front of me.

"I appreciate you working hard," Shownu had told me with a smile that made his eyes disappear and when I saw Jooheon sitting by him they almost looked identical with the same eye smiles.

"Thanks," I cleared my throat and turned a page over. It was questionable how these two had found me in such an hour here but I guessed it was the right timing. I had many a question surging through my brain after I had started digging up through the files that smoker boy gave me.

"Can I ask some questions about your... business?" I leaned a bit forward with my voice careful. Jooheon hung onto one of Shownu's bare arms, both of them wearing colorful outfits that were the opposite of what I would see of them at the club.

"Sure," Shownu's toothy grin was starting to bother me now. It almost felt surreal to imagine him being the leader of these- whatever they were, but to me, surely criminals.

"This business of yours," I turned a page of the green file, my eyes outlining the words beer and franchise.

"You are making beers? And you have several outlets of the clan club throughout Korea to promote the new kind of beer you are making?" I looked up from the papers to see him nod curtly and then I looked down again.

"The clan is the name and you have three different flavors of beers, lost, guilty and beautiful," I looked up at them again and Jooheon was grinning widely.

"Yes, the idea came from us all. The beer bottles are different in colors too. With different natural flavors. But we only started the franchise hence many people don't know about it yet."

Upon hearing Jooheon's words I figured why they had sent a free carton of beer samples to my previous working place, they wanted publicity.

I nodded to myself as my fingers ran down the smooth surface of the paper on my hand, outlining the word seven now. They already had seven outlets of the clan club over the country, the biggest was the one from Gaphae. If they wanted to make the beer franchise happen it could be possible, but I had other questions.

"Making beers has been going for about a year now, you only launched it six months ago," I closed off the file and let it rest on the table. "What used to happen before? And still are happening on a surface level?"

Shownu shrugged with his broad shoulders, Jooheon still clinging onto his forearm. "We invest in people and smaller companies too. That was what mainly it was all about before, apart from running the clubs."

"And you lend money to people too?"

"Not like loan sharks but as I've said," Shownu said as if he could read what I was implying here. "We invest."

Nodding, I stayed quiet to myself for a second. After that I looked around to see if anyone was here, and no one was.

"Do you guys deal with drugs too?" I was ready to hear an outburst of laughter coming from them, if not both, at least from Jooheon but they surprisingly were quiet.

"Not Now," Shownu said after a pause, both of them not smiling anymore.

Was I even surprised? Actually I was, I did not expect an honest answer. Even though there was no way to tell if he was being entirely honest.

"How about illegal firearms or ammunition?" I downed my tone even lower.

Truthfully, I did not have a backup to ask these questions, there was a big gap in what the clan club used to deal with before the beer franchising began and it was bugging me. I refused to believe running the clubs and investing were their only business.

Jooheon opened his mouth to say something but Shownu took his arm out of the latter's hold and stood up. "I have to meet up with my professor." His toothy smile was back on his face and when I nodded he left. Jooheon shrugging at me helplessly next and following the older.

Was my hunch indeed true? The silence definitely was a positive answer but I couldn't help but feel like I was missing something here.

Then it slowly dawned on me that they were indeed criminals if it was positive, lending money and threatening people, drugs, even if it was not a done deal anymore according to the bear looking guy, gave me all the reasons to just pack my bags and run away.

"Daisy!"

I snapped back from my plans to escape when I heard a feminine voice. Then I saw Haneul from the English club sit down before me where Shownu had sat before. There were a few bottles of yogurt drinks placed before her and she pushed one of them towards me.

"I saw Shownu and Jooheon leaving just now!" She said excitedly as she fixed her thick glasses. I sighed and took the drink off the table. I was upset and tired. And having some alone time seemed impossible for now.

Because this girl right before me always talked too much.

"Have you ever seen Shownu doing acrobats? He is not a person, he is a god himself." When she sipped vigorously after placing the straw on one of those plastic bottles I could almost see heart-eyes forming under her brows.

"When Jooheon sunbaenim told us about Shownu in class one day I had to look him up and I wish so much I could see him perform in the national competitions. I wish I was not a fresher and was here from before." The way she gushed about him made me remember Shownu was a gymnastic major.

How to tell her he was actually the leader of some criminals?

"Jooheon told you about Shownu?" I questioned and Haneul nodded affirmatively.

"Yes, since he is from my major we have talked sometimes before. He is always praising his friends."

Only now I realized I did not even know Haneul was from the Korean literature department, but the chances were that I had long forgotten.

"What about Minhyuk? He is from your major, isn't he?" I could see her eyes sparkling even though there were thick glasses covering them from me.

"We don't talk much." I fiddled with the straw that I had placed on the small bottle on my hand. "Haneul, why do you talk to me?"

The question wasn't a slip of tongue, I really wondered and I wanted to know. But when I looked at Haneul instead of focusing on the straw I saw her giving me a baffled look.

"I...," She averted her eyes from mine and looked around the table for a bit, as if she was searching for something. "Do I need a reason to? I thought you were a cool person to befriend with."

Her voice trailed off and all of a sudden I felt guilty to have made her uncomfortable.

"It's not that you need a reason. Anyone hardly ever starts a conversation with me." Even though I tried to sound as much reassuring I did not know if it could reach her.

After a silent second she laughed and waved her hand in the air. "You look so confident in yourself, always. As if you don't need anyone. You always look like an independent person. Which I thought was admiring."

I could not say anything in return. This was the first time I was hearing something like this in my life.

"You don't try to fit in. But I think that's different and unique." Nodding to herself she took another sip right from the bottle after taking the straw out. Then she yanked off her glasses and put it on the table. "Plus I really like your ponytail."

My ponytail? I could not remember the last time I let my hair loose or tried a different hairstyle. I always went for the easiest way that needed the least amount of energy.

Again I could not say anything to her. This time not because I was at loss of words but because I realized Haneul had big hazel brown eyes, curled eyelashes, red freckles dotted in her cheeks and a cute button like nose.

I never truly saw those before because when she was wearing the glasses the only thing ever noticeable were them.

"I like your eyes," I told her, and she smiled showing her pink gum and front row of bright teeth.

"Are we flirting with each other now?" She took another vigorous sip not breaking eye contacts with me. "If I had not already fallen for Shownu I might have fallen for you."

There was a strange feeling bubbling inside me. When I felt a tug on the corners of my mouth, I realized,

I was smiling.

"I did not know you had a special place for Shownu," The straw was in my mouth now, and the sweet liquid started to spread inside my mouth. I always hated yogurt drinks.

"Well now you know. I even joined the English club for him." She winked at me. "When I first saw him I knew he was to die for. Literally, I could die riding him. That's my only dream."

The liquid felt like it had gone down the wrong pipe as I felt a storm of cough coming in. Rubbing my chest, trying to suppress it I replayed her words inside my mind again.

"Riding?"

Giving me a wide eyed look she quickly wore her glasses hiding those pretty eyes. "I often say vulgar things without thinking, I am so sorry..."

"It's-" I patted on my chest feeling the yogurt making its way down my nose now. "Okay. Really."

She laughed at me showing those pearly teeth again, for some reason I believed I mirrored the same. Even though I did not have teeth like her. Even though my chest and throat were burning because of the drink.

And I remembered Wonho's words from last night. "Having a hard time trusting people."

I hated the yogurt drink without even tasting it before. Now that I had it, the flavor wasn't so bad.

---
A/n: not proud of this chapter at all. I got Writer's block twice writing this one.

Last chapter I talked about love, rosie being Hyungwon's favourite movie. Did you know it really is?

I loved that movie a lot. Minhyuk's favourite movie is the devil wears prada, and wonho's is shape of water.

Please recommend me your favourite movie too :(