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CHAPTER THIRTY SIX : "j"

— doah pov.
- 1st person.

my eyes flutter open and my body starts to ache already. i slowly sit up with no recollection of yesterday's events. looking around me, i notice everybody sprawled onto the floor.

the first person i make eye contact with is hanbin, who was the only person awake by the looks of it. "my head is pounding, oh my god. " hanbin complains.

i chuckle dryly. "why the fuck are we all on the floor?"

he sighs and rubs his face with his hands. "all i remember is that i was trying to push jungmin and sunwoo's mum out of the house and then i fell asleep."

i frown. "that is so weird.. i don't remember anything."

hanbin shrugs. "should we wake them up?" he says, making me look at the many sleeping bodies on the floor.

i shake my head, "leave them. we should probably make them some breakfast or whatever people need for a hangover."

hanbin nods and slowly gets up from the floor as i follow his actions. "breakfast for sixteen people." he groans.

i chuckle and quickly stretch as hanbin sets out whatever he's doing. "what are we making them?"

he sighs. "just make anything, honestly. good food can help a bad hangover."

i nod. "okay, i'll make some eggs or something."

hanbin hums and already looks stuck, "fuck sake i don't know what to cook."

i laugh at him. "you really don't know? doesn't your mum own a cafe?"

he sighs. "bold of you to think i was cooking. i served someone cold toast once."

i try keep myself from laughing out loud. "oh my god that's hilarious."

he rolls his eyes and turns around to get oil, "it was horrible. but i really don't know if we can cook for this many people."

i look at him, still trying to stifle a laugh. "are you hungover or something?" i don't even know why i asked, it was clear he was.

"do you guys need help?" we both look up and my brother with a really tired face was in front of us.

"yes please." we say in sync.

he nods and quickly yawns before walking towards us, "i'll cook. my hangover isn't as bad today but hanbin, you look concerning."

hanbin jokingly scoffs, "thanks." he walks to the sofa and lays down where hao was laying. "how come the birthday boy was the only one able to sleep peacefully on a sofa?" he laughs.

"no problem~" he sings in an annoying tone. "and i don't know, privileges i guess."

"hyuck do you remember anything from yesterday?" i ask him.

"i was hammered, so not at all. weren't you the most sober? how don't you remember anything?"

i shrug, watching him take all of the random ingredients out. "i actually only remember everything until when we opened chenle's weird present—" i pause. "oh my god jungmin."

hanbin turns around. "i have no remembrance of what happened besides that."

i sigh, staring at the fork in front of me trying to think. i was literally wide awake and sober the whole time. i can remember jungmin coming but that's it.

"i swear to god something happened. but why can't i remember?" i groan. i look over at the door and walk towards it.

i try to open it but it was locked. "weird. how did they get in?"

hanbin turns to me again. "i left it open on accident." he explains.

"no but it's locked. did any of you lock it?"

both donghyuck and hanbin shake their head. "i don't know." donghyuck sighs.

i frown and look around at the living room— that was connected to the kitchen by a huge arch thing with no door. i forgot how boujee hanbin's house is.

everything looked the same as it was last night. after chenle's present did we just fight and sleep or something?

all of a sudden, i hear a crescendo of sobs from where hanbin was sat. i walk towards him and spot hao crying, "hao?"

he looks up with tears in his eyes. "my party was fucking ruined." he sobs more. "so much."

it lasted another three minutes, his sobs becoming louder as hanbin and i try comfort him the best we can, trying not to wake everyone up.

his loud crying was able to wake everyone up, and everybody except hyuck slowly walked or crawled around where he was sat, asking if he was okay.

"um, what exactly are you crying about hao?" dayeon asks, patting his leg gently.

donghyuck walks towards us slowly and joins in the little huddle around hao. "well first off, does anyone remember anything about last night after jungmin came here?"

"jungmin was here?" yunjin asks in shock.

i sigh, "most of you were probably too drunk to remember."

hao shakes his head. "no, i remember everything. like everything." he cries.

everyone looks up at him with wide eyes. "tell us, please." chaehyun pleads.

he choked on a sob, "i— i don't even—" he looked so perturbed and scared. he began to shake.

i look at him with sympathy and sigh. "take your time, hao."

everyone begins to look at each other, all of us asking each other if anyone remembers anything. but to our fun, no one did.

but one thing i did notice was taerae wasn't here. "has anyone seen taerae?" i ask, making everyone looking around and shaking their heads.

"well... let me explain.." hao whispers, making our attention turn back to him. hanbin rubs hao's back, trying to make him calm down a bit more and when he finally does, he takes a deep breath. "okay, so..." his voice shakes.

but his phone chimes. someone called 'j' had texted him. but he chose to ignore it.

—

— jungmin pov.

sunwoo
@k1msunw00

are you okay

no i'm not fucking okay
this is all your fault

what how is it MY fault?

you're the one who told everyone
about the bruise, you can't do that

that wasn't my intention to tell
everyone that

i know it wasn't but i still hate how
you said something you weren't
supposed to say

sunwoo your mum fucking threatened
me wtf can i do?? she lied to us

i know she did but it still hurts
the whole house was chaos

it was worse after you fucking left
your mum was shouting at everyone
and she basically drugged them

what

she put them to sleep

what the fuck
how did she get access to that

i don't know but she did it and told
me to leave straight after, everyone
was fast asleep too

when was this?

1am, it only lasts like six hours
according to her

oh my days you have got to be
kidding me

they're probably awake by now

how are you sure everyone was
asleep?

i'm not sure if everyone was asleep

so you just left them all like that

what was i supposed to fucking do?

i don't know but could you not
think ???????

if i was still there i'd probably be
accused of drugging them

i'm still shocked that happened

well i didn't play any part in it, all
we were supposed to do was to say
some random shit and leave

instead you told everyone doah
got a bruise then my mother came
and hit me around the head and like
drugged everyone

well you didn't fucking say anything
in the first place, you were stalling

because you weren't even
supposed to say that

what the fuck was i supposed to say?
that's what i got told to do

i got told to tell doah her dad
threatened his parents

well we clearly didn't get told the same thing

this is all just my mum's game
isn't it?

surprised you had the brains to find
out weeks later

i don't understand

i fucking told you sunwoo
it's nothing about you and doah
or me and taerae anymore

it's about getting back at
taerae and doah's parents..

yes for fucks sake
i don't even like taerae anymore

you don't?

no i don't
fuck this bullshit
fuck you and your fucking mum

jungmin what the hell
why am i involved with her

if my parents find out i'm involved
with your mum's plans i won't even
be able to get into university or a job

then why were you in it in the
first place?

i got threatened you fucking asshole
and i got bribed with money

what

obviously i still don't like doah and i liked
taerae but i'd do anything to get what i
actually wanted

so you were acting?

only when i was working with your mum.

i'm surprised... what about the...

all the donghyuck drugging and all that bs
was my idea. all i wanted was taerae back

wow you're going far..

you don't even like doah. your mum just
used us to get her to doah and taerae

why is this all my mums fault?

acting like you don't have a mum
who just traumatised university kids
for life because of drama

okay i'm sorry that my mum was
like that to you

i don't want your apology
i want hers. my head hurts so much
these days i just want my money and
i can get into university again

i don't even know what to say..
you've changed

yeah and so have you, ever thought
about what doah thinks of you? taerae
too... i wouldn't want to be you right now

i...

yeah exactly
rethink everything and stop believing
everything your mum tells you to.

—

— zhanghao pov.

flashback —> party

i watched as jungmin lifts doah's dress and a bruise was seen on her waist. doah cries and the girls all push jungmin to the ground, shouting at her.

hanbin ends up screaming at her too, telling her to get out multiple times. but she just looked cocky and unfazed.

i was surprised from the amount of things going on, doah was crying her eyes out on the floor with donghyuck trying to comfort her.

and all of the girls were drunk—shouting at sunwoo at the door. who only looked as if he's seen a ghost. staring at nothing.

it was even worse that almost everyone was drunk and i was only slowly sobering up now. i catch a glimpse of sunwoo's face behind the door before he falls to the ground.

i frown and a woman walks in. i recognise her as sunwoo's biological mother and she smirks. "happy birthday~" she starts to sing, her heels clicking on the floor.

"get the fuck out!" hanbin shouts.

i stand in shock, watching as everybody besides me walks up to her in anger, screaming. leaving jungmin behind.

i make eye contact with jungmin on the floor, and her expression changes into a sad smile. she mouths i'm sorry before standing up and following to where sunwoo's mum was.

i watch sunwoo get up and run away, possibly in fear. and i also watch another figure follow outside too, but i couldn't recognise who it was.

i almost cry. so much was happening and we could get noise complaints. but out of nowhere i see sunwoo's mum take a cloth out and shove it in everyone's faces.

i watch in bewilderment and look at everyone's bodies drop slowly to the ground. i begin to shake faster as a cackle becomes louder.

that's when i hear the most shocking thing i've ever heard anyone say, but i couldn't think about it i was too focused on how sunwoo's mum was too busy looking at doah on the floor and laughing. it gave me shivers.

i feel like i'm dreaming. i'm just stood up a few meters away from her and she doesn't notice me, but to my fear, she looks this way. but was slowly stopped as i notice jungmin walking towards me rapidly.

"pretend you're asleep." she whisper-shouts. pushing me to the ground. i follow suit and i was fake sleeping on the ground.

"jungmin, come. sunwoo's so useless." his mum shouts from the other side of the room.

"one second. i'm almost done with this one." she shouts. my eyes were still open, trying to figure out what was going on.

sunwoo's mum smiles and walks away and jungmin turns back to me. "okay, look. i'm really sorry for this and i didn't plan this at all. but i want to apologise for tonight and every other day i've somewhat ruined your days, i don't want to be forgiven but just understand i'm doing this for a good reason."

i look up at her, confused. "what do you mean?"

"half of the things i did were on purpose besides this. i didn't know she would drug everyone but just take care of doah for me," she looks behind her. "taerae ran out earlier and i don't know why. i won't go after him, and you shouldn't either."

all of her words took me a long time to process and i couldn't tell if it was because she was talking in korean too quickly or i'm actually confused.

"here's my number. save me as 'j' and i'll tell you more soon. i'll explain everything. oh and, don't hate sunwoo either. his mum is purposefully manipulating him." she says quickly before giving me a piece of paper and standing up.

"go to sleep, hao. you can tell them everything in the morning, they will be asleep for 5-7 hours." she sighs, quickly running out and shutting the door.

i look at my friends all sprawled on the floor and i get up quietly. hanbin was home alone today and i was scared. the least i could do right now was lock the door properly.

i tip toe past everyone on the floor. i would put them all in a comfy place, but i'm too exhausted; i sleep on the sofa, hoping tomorrow i would feel better.

i quickly copy jungmin's number into my phone and save her as 'j' before i try and fall asleep on the sofa. i sigh and put my phone down. it was 1:12am. i have to sleep.

but i will forget what i heard sunwoo's mum
say when they all fell to the ground. and i couldn't tell any body either. i just couldn't.

"this is what they get, jungmin. this is what
doah's dad gets for drugging me twenty years ago. i will never forget that. if doah won't date my son then i might aswell ruin her like her dad did to me."

♫ ❤︎

sorry um. i binge read two mystery/thriller books in two days so now i'm all angst and want to write angst.

but it's still relevant to the plot anyway so don't kill me or doxx me plspslspslspls