[ TRIGGER WARNING : The second scene in this chapter includes blood and violence, please think of yourself first and proceed with caution. ]

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"게다가 우리가 다른 결정을 내렸다면 이것은 우리의 삶이었을 것입니다."

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A U T H O R ' S  P. O. V

"I'm still not used to all this attention." Taehyung muttered lowly as he ducked his head, hiding his face in the hood of his hoodie as much as possible. Chaeyoung and Lalisa were only left to nod in agreement as they continue to maneuver their way towards the bleachers, ignoring all those heavy stares with the best of their ability.

It was another start to another week of the current year. Sure operation; protect thy identity was still successful so far in terms of her and her cousin's true status being hidden from the public, but her plan of keeping a low profile in school had already failed and it was just the beginning of the school year.

She was partly at fault, but certain people really blew it up.

"Damn you, Jeon." Lalisa cursed under her breath as the three of them finally reached their usual spot which was a shaded area at the upper part of the bleachers. As they were placing their bags down in silence, Lalisa's eyes carefully scanned the whole field until her gaze eventually landed on a group of men playing dodgeball as they laughed among themselves. Her eyes specifically narrowed on a certain figure, "You too, Jongin."

"Wanna fight him again, Lis?" Lalisa's eyes snapped to her side in surprise to find Taehyung with a teasing grin, looking at her, "This time we'll back you up properly."

Lalisa scoffed and rolled her eyes playfully, "Then we'll be responsible for your ass again? No thanks, Tae."

Chaeyoung laughed as Taehyung put on an offended expression. "She's right, Taehyung."

"Yah!" Taehyung stood up and propped his arms on his hips as an attempt to look intimidating, but it only probed the two girls to laugh harder. "I can fight too you know! My body was just a little off that day and come on, they literally ganged up on me."

The glare on his face was eventually replaced with a pout by the end of his sentence. He sighed, he really can't get mad at her two female friends as he really had a soft spot for them. Taehyung was automatically and technically their older brother by choice after all. But the male's expression changed once again and shifted to a softer one as he watches the two girls, who had to steady each other as they laughed at him.

"In all seriousness though," Chaeyoung started once their laughter subsided. "We need to get used to this life now I guess."

Upon hearing her bestfriend's words, Lalisa couldn't help but look down, she knew she was the root of all this by getting them involved in her life.

"I'm sorry guys." She muttered.

Taehyung and Chaeyoung looked at each other, flabbergasted, before turning to look at the sighing Lalisa.

"For what?"

Lalisa picked her head up and looked at Chaeyoung, "You wouldn't have to deal with all this if you weren't involved with me."

Hearing Lalisa's answer, Chae and Tae only laughed in complete amusement. Of course they didn't regret being friends with Lalisa. It was fun to have a new addition to their gang and plus, nothing will change as long as they have each other's backs, which in this case they do.

"Cheer up, Lis." Taehyung slung an arm around Lalisa's slumped shoulders, "Sure, we're not used to this now, but I know that we eventually will be."

"Besides, this would've been our life if we made different decisions."

"What was that, Tae?" Lalisa turned to look at Taehyung, who meanwhile sported a clueless look.

"What was what?" He asked.

"The last part, I didn't hear it properly." Lalisa rephrased immediately with knitted brows.

"Oh, i–it was nothing." Taehyung awkwardly coughed as he side eyed Chaeyoung. Wanting to change the topic fast, he blabbered whatever came to his mind first, "Hey, I heard the book that you were reading online updated.

Fortunately, Taehyung's diversion seemed to have worked, because then Lalisa's eyes widened before rummaging for her phone. "Is that true, Chae?"

When she finally found it, she looked expectantly at the latter who had her attention on her phone. "Yeah, I'm actually reading it right now."

"Gosh, why didn't you tell me! Taehyung, please don't annoy me for the time being." Lalisa sent a slight glare at the male beside her before diverting her attention to her phone.

Taehyung raised his hands, "Will do."

After a few minutes, Taehyung made sure that Lalisa was completely immersed in her phone before discretely scooting closer to where Chaeyoung sat.

"What was that about." Chaeyoung lowly asked as she locked and pocketed her phone.

"I almost slipped up." Taehyung glanced at Lalisa before looking straight ahead.

Chaeyoung's brows furrowed, "About what?"

"About our secret persona on the internet." Taehyung explained.

Chaeyoung's eyes widened. As realization dawned at her, she gave Taehyung a light smack on the head as to not disturb Lalisa, which left the boy to hiss quietly to himself.

"One of these days, you're seriously gonna get us exposed." The girl sighed to herself. What was Taehyung gonna do if she and Lisa were not around?

"Done!"

Lalisa's overly enthusiastic voice sent the both of them jolting in surprise. This action caused Lalisa to look at them in confusion. "Are you guys okay? What are you two talking about?"

Taehyung silently gulped. "Yeah, we're good. I was just telling Chae I'm not gonna be able to meet her like usually this weekend because the new episode of 'Haikyu' is coming out."

Chaeyoung mentally facepalmed, Taehyung was basically implying that they meet during weekends. They do, and that's because they always brainstorm for new content to post on their channel, and if Lalisa is going to ask about it then they're most likely gonna be stuck in a predicament.

The girl wanted to kick Taehyung right then and there but that would be suspicious, so Chaeyoung only hoped that Lalisa wouldn't read into it that much.

"Oh! I watch that too!" Lalisa's eyes widened in recognition and excitement. She was happy to find another person sharing one of her interests, so her focus completely zeroed on that topic much to Chaeyoung's relief.

That doesn't mean she's not going to scold Taehyung later though. They just talked about it and he almost made a mistake again.

Such a clumsy guy. Chaeyoung mentally sighed.

"I just finished binge watching 'Boku No Hero Academia' while waiting for the next season but now you thankfully reminded me of that too because I'm still stuck at episode 21." Lalisa blabbled.

"Oh God Lis, you don't know how nerve-wracking the next episodes are gonna be!" Taehyung returned Lalisa's excitement, completely oblivious of the deadpan look Chaeyoung is shooting him.

"Do you know that Oikawa is going to—"

"Okay, I'm going to stop you right there, Tae." Lalisa shushed him. "I'm desperately trying to avoid spoliers and now you mention one of my favorite characters."

"Right, right sorry." Taehyung smiled sheepishly as he scratched his nape.

As Taehyung and Lalisa continued to talk about anime, Chaeyoung was only left to chuckle quietly and shake her head.

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As Lalisa bid her friends goodbye, she plugged her airpods on both ears as she continued to walk away from the academy quietly, enjoying both the chilly air and her favorite kpop group's hit songs blasting in her ears.

Usually, she'd either have a car or just a bike to use in going home, but today she purposely left them and decided to walk and take the bus instead.

The reason? She's not that sure either, she figured that maybe it was fine to try something new and she did like taking walks in chilly afternoons like this. Actually it wasn't exactly an afternoon as it was nearing nightime and the sun was already setting, but she couldn't care less.

On the way, she stopped by the nearest convenience store and bought an ice cream, as it has been a long time since she bought one.

And by 'a long time' she meant ten months.

Lalisa enjoyed the cold and sweet sensation that stayed in her tongue as she finishes it. Other people may think that it was weird to consume something cold on a cold day, but she guesses that she's not like most people.

After a few minutes though, she couldn't help but feel like something was off, and that definitely did not sit well with her.

As she spots a nearby trash can, she approached it and threw her ice cream's mini container and as she does so, she secretly took account of her surroundings. At first she didn't know what it was but as seconds pass by, she couldn't help but be sure that someone was definitely following her.

Which obviously wasn't a good sign.

She pressed pause on her music before pocketing both her phone and airpods with a calm and serious expression, she knew she can't afford to panic now as it won't do her any good.

Lalisa discreetly looked around and muttered a silent curse when she noticed the lack of people around.

Was she really that immersed into her ice cream earlier? To not notice immediately?

At first, she took slow steps but when she felt the presence inching closer towards her, the faster her steps became. As she continued to walk, she made sure to send an SOS signal to her emergency contacts on her phone by putting her right hand in her pocket.

At this point, she knew whoever was following her, wasn't backing down because until now it still hasn't left her alone.

She wasn't that familiar with this area so she knew running and finding help would be pointless if she didn't know where to go, but if she continues this, whoever was following her could find out where she lived.

Lost in her thoughts, Lalisa didn't notice another figure emerging from one of the alleyways.

She abruptly stopped, all colors draining from her face as dread overtook her body knowing well she was surrounded.

Was walking alone a bad idea after all? No, she shouldn't be thinking about that right now. Lalisa just hopes that either Bambam or Jieun will be able to locate her as soon as possible.

Now that she had the time to stop and really take notice of her situation, she noticed that her assumptions were wrong. At first she thought that there were only two of them, but the sound of other multiple footsteps said otherwise.

Great, she was outnumbered. She trusted her fighting skills, she really did and even considered using them at first, but this was a different story now. She's not stupid enough to engage in a seven to one battle. It doesn't help that she's tired from all the walking too.

Lalisa closed her eyes and heaved a deep breath, "What do you want?"

The girl grimaced when one of them chuckled.

"They're already shameless enough to crowd an innocent civilian and one of them had the audacity to laugh," Lalisa muttered out loudly. "His laugh isn't even pleasing to hear."

"What was that?" One of the masked men– the one who Lalisa blatantly insulted– fumed.

Lalisa sighed and propped her arms on her hips, before clicking her tongue. "This guy must be related to Jongin, seriously what's with deaf assholes these days? They clearly heard what I said, why bother asking."

"Yah!" The same man belowed in rage, causing Lalisa to look at him.

The man scoffed as he got to take a good look at her face, "You're honestly pretty, but it's a shame that we were sent here to teach you a lesson."

Lalisa's brows furrowed at that.

Teach me a lesson?

The girl wasn't given the chance to think it through though, as one of them suddenly and unhesitatingly charged at her.

Lalisa to say at the least, was able to deflect his first attack effortlessly. This action only caused him irritation, and that made him attack again and again. Unfortunately for him though, Lalisa was able to dodge all of them with ease. When the girl grew bored, she finally did a sidestep, grabbed his currently outstretched arm and twirled it around his back, causing him to yelp in pain.

Still without letting him go, Lalisa turned to scan his comrades, who all sported a look of surprise, clearly they didn't expect her to be good at this.

Seeing one of their men captive in Lalisa's arms, two more stepped up, causing Lalisa to let go and push the first one who attacked her. Fortunately the others were there to catch him when he stumbled out of the girl's grasp.

Soon, the three frustrated men who stepped up started to charge at the girl one by one, but at the end their efforts were still futile as Lalisa was able to dodge and return their attacks easily.

Lalisa eyed the three men groaning on the ground, at the same time heaving a deep breath and wiping a lone sweat trickling down her temple.

She mentally graded their skills as average compared to hers, not that she was bragging, it was just the mere truth. Now she wondered if the others were the same too, but she knew it wouldn't matter because if these average fighters worked together and combined their strength, she will definitely be in danger as it was too unrealistic for her to beat them all, especially in her tired state.

This wasn't good, she was starting to get nervous now.

"That's it, all this time we were just holding back because you're a girl, but now we clearly don't have a reason to not go all out on you." The same one who Lalisa insilted earlier, interjected in an obviously irritated voice.

Holding back?

Lalisa scoffed.

The girl's expression changed though, when all seven of them started to slowly inch closer to her and attack simultaneously. Lalisa tried her best to fight. She used all the energy left in her body to deflect and attack back, but with all of them working together, she was obviously at a disadvantage.

As Lalisa was able to push one of them out of her way, she didn't notice the other one sneaking at her from behind. Lalisa turned around just in time for the man to land another hard jab across her face, causing her to stumble back due to the pain and fatigue.

Out of focus, another one grabbed this chance to land another hit, but this time on her stomach. Lalisa groaned as she felt the air being knocked out of her lungs.

With the girl bruised and bleeding, two of them grabbed her arms and held her captive.

Kneeling down and breathless, Lalisa winced when she finally felt the pain of the cuts and attacks afflicted to her spreading throughout her body when the adrenaline died down. They all had their own wounds, but it was obvious that Lalisa suffered the most.

One of the masked men motioned for them to move to the alleyway where they would be more hidden. When they finally reached the secluded place, the one wearing the white shirt kneeled to reach Lalisa's eye level and smirked at her from under the mask.

"Not so tough now, huh?" He taunts. "It's a shame that your pretty face is damaged now."

With her body sore and bruised all over, Lalisa only retorted to giving him a nasty glare, she used the chance to do so as she felt herself losing consciousness. It was really clear that the fight took a huge toll on her.

She wanted to wipe the blood trickling down her lips and temple but her hands were bound, and that made her nauseous.

"The boss says that next time, you should know better and not cross boundaries." He gave Lalisa a glare with the same intensity. "Weak peasants shouldn't fight back with people who are obviously more powerful than them."

"You must take after your boss then," Lalisa still managed to chuckle weakly to mock him, she forced herself to even if just breathing brings a painful sensation to her chest now, but she chose to ignore it because that sentence made her sick, far more worse than what her bruises made her feel, "We breath the same air, therefore we're all equal, a person with such an ideology must be one of those rich assholes who think they rule the world just because they have more money than others."

"Why you—"

"Having power doesn't give you the right to trample on others, that just makes you filthier compared to those people who live on the streets." Lalisa cut him off with anger in her voice, she couldn't help but answer back because it only reminds her of all the things those same rich assholes did to her family.

"You really had the guts to talk back, huh?" The man yelled before sending a sharp slap on her cheek.

Lalisa winced at the stinging sensation, but she still diverted her now glassy eyes to glare back at the man in front of her. "And people who obey those assholes, are just as worse."

The man scoffed and raised his right arm, ready to throw another punch.

Lalisa clenched her eyes shut and braced herself for the impact but unexpectedly, it never came.

She slowly opened her tired eyelids only to see the man who was about to punch her on the ground, wincing in pain. Lalisa raised her head to see who intervened, only to find the back of a man wearing a leather jacket.

"Who the fuck are you?! This is none of your business!" One of the masked men yelled at her 'savior'.

"She's my girlfriend, you motherfucker. Of course it's my business."

Lalisa's eyes widened when the man in the leather jacket said that, she didn't know who he was but she was thankful that he came because if he didn't, who knows what could have happened to her.

Soon enough, due to the pain and fatigue, Lalisa could only hear the rest of them get beat up before running away as her savior continued to take each of them on. With the pain Lalisa gave them earlier before getting ganged up on, it was easy to finish them off.

Lalisa laid on the cold pavement as the last one of them fled the scene. She felt herself herself drifting to unconsciousness but before she did, she vaguely remembered a pair of strong but gentle tattooed hands holding her close.

She was thankful, that before she passed out, the warmth and comfort this man radiated dominated all the pain she felt.

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"Besides, this would've been our life if we made different decisions."

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I know I suck at this I'm sorry :')

And this was long overdue I know, so here I gave you this 'longer than usual' chapter lol. I just hope I didn't disappoint you guys again.

Unedited so excuse the errors if there's any.

But anyways advanced merry christmas guys! and a happy new year too! I wish you all happiness and good health for the remaining quarter of this year and in 2021 <3 That's all and see you on the next update!

Luv y'all

Author-nim outtt