Chapter 18.1 Roped In

Past

Nina's Pov

I was in art class, painting a portrait based on the examples that were given to us.I chose a piece entitled The Betrayal Of. It was a piece made to show different changes of being betrayed through pets. A weird concept, I know. It showed how animals through natural processes, ended up betraying each other in order to get food, habitats, or simply get the mate they choose.

"Animals by nature are instinctual, they do certain things in order to achieve their goal-" A psst ruined my concentration, I looked over my shoulder towards the open door and saw Hina?

I only ever knew her from the dance team meeting, but never really made an effort to talk as she wasn't exactly my type of friend. She always had that fake smile that I never knew what to do with. She motioned me to come over, I whipped my head around thinking that she could possibly be talking to others behind me, then pointed to myself.

"Me?" I whispered. She just nodded. I hesitated before walking over as I was already half way done with my painting.

"Do you need something from me?" I asked her while tilting my head slightly.

"I actually had a proposal for you-." She smirked slightly.

"So?" Her smirk ran dry as she just glared at me and slightly pulled me out of the room.

"Hey let go of me!" I said as she continued to drag me away into an empty hallway

"Let go," I shook her off and proceeded to cross my arms. "What do you even need from me? I don't even know you."

"Let's just say I'm your-" she paused and continued to smirk along with a glint twitch of crazy in her eyes "worst nightmare."

"Excuse me?"

"Help me and I'll help you out,"

"I don't need your help, and seeing that look, I wouldn't want too either," I turned around and began walking back until her horrid voice stopped me in my tracks.

"Do you want to keep living in this town? Or do you want to be driven out again?" My throat felt dry as my stomach churned.

"What are you talking about?" I turned and saw her looking as smug as ever.

"I know you Nina Jung, or should I say Maeleen Kwon, daughter of Kim Seohyun, and Kwon Yunbin, the most famous illegal hustlers in all of Busan," crossing her arms and showing the pride she had.

"I. Don't. Know. What your-" I grit my teeth and forced a cold look on her.

"Stopping playing, we all know just how desperate your family is. They move from city to city to try and convince the elderly to give up their retirement money and sign it over to them. Your family's sick, you know that?" She mumbled as she showed her power through her demeanor, yet she held a splinch of guilt, that washed away as soon as she looked at my eyes.

"Fine." Feeling stupid, I couldn't do anything, another event would ruin my family even more, and could probably get me literally killed. So with a heavy sigh I did what I did.

"Perfect meet me at the boiler room right after this last class," walking away with a satisfied smile she left.

I stayed leaning against the lockers trying to catch my breath, that seemingly was lost as I tried to process her words, her demeanor, something so evil about her that made her so powerful.

As soon as the class ended I began trembling as I made my way to the boiler room,

'In theory I really didn't need to do this, I'm leaving anyways,' I stopped outside and waited and began thinking harder.

'But if I don't I'm screwed for the next couple of weeks,' shaking my head angrily I just walked in without further thought.

Walking up I heard voices, murmuring, and walking up, I saw someone I never would've imagined.

Huang Renjun.

"Renjun? What are you doing here?" I asked him quietly as Hina just stared at us in amusement.

"He's a part of my little plan. What's better than having two cash-cows." She giggled, and not in the cute way.

"What do you even want from us?" I exclaimed.

"I want you both to splatter these papers on locker 318, add some spray paint drawings, and that's it. Simple isn't it?" She smirked as she picked on her nails.

I looked at Renjun and we both just chuckled and turned back to her, "You wanted us to do this to some random person?" Renjun asked annoyed

"Oh, dear Renjunnie," she walked over quietly while reaching out to pat Renjuns face and chuckling around like some clown.

"It's not just a random person. You know her all too well, I believe." She smirked and proceeded to push the papers in front of us.

"What-" I began but was quickly shut down.

"You want us to trash Nikki?! And our other friends?!" He exclaimed loudly.

"Nikki!? Out of everyone?" I asked her back accusingly.

"You helped her get her spot back on the dance team when she left, for crying out loud," Renjun angrily ran his hands through his hair and began pacing.

"I thought she was your friend?" I asked, as my throat dried out in the process.

"She was my friend. Then she left. And I noticed just how much, she held me back. She was nothing more than competition, and trash that needed to be taken out," Her face stone cold, holding no remorse, no guilt, just satisfaction, while leaning over the table with her hands laid out.

"Why couldn't you get Koeun to help you out?" Renjun suggested.

"Because she's clumsy," she just shrugged, not really giving away a true answer.

"No. I refuse to do this to her." Renjun said.

"Me too."

"Well then I guess you've chosen your faith," she sighed and pulled out her phone, "I guess I'll just have to accidentally send these pictures to the school website, and get you guys outcasted,"

"We only have a couple weeks left, I doubt that they'll care!" Renjun shouted angrily.

"Your right. They might not care. But wouldn't your precious dad drop dead at the fact that his handsome, perfect, strong, little boy is in fact in a relationship with another man," she cackled loudly as if it was the most hilarious thing that she's ever heard.

"You're a bitch." He mumbled, while looking away, fists clenched, and looking like steam was blowing out of his ears and nose.

"I still refuse. I'm leaving anyways, it doesn't matter what happens after." I mumbled.

"Your ever so right, my dear criminal," She then pulled out yet another picture that held details of my parents, "but you can never escape the fact that I have these evidences, and your parents will be killed on the spot if they ever try to run away. Lucky for me that your stupid parents picked my parents' shop, huh?" She smirked and cackled once again, veining our expressions before.

"You won't get away from this with a clean sweep, you know?" Renjun asked sarcastically,

"Whatever. All I need is the trophy and I'll delete everything. But if I don't, you all go down with me. Especially you Kwon," she smirked and pushed the huge stacks of papers towards us,

Papers plastered with rumors that we weren't even sure were true. An intricate poster with big, red letters saying,

'Too bad she cheated, and used him for money!'

Underneath a picture splattered was Donghyuck and Nikki kissing, along with pictures of Nikki's face plastered on a naked woman's body.

Other posters held quotes such as, "Jeno has a crush on an unknown male!"

"Chenle and Jisung seem to be more than friends, ew"

"Mark scholarship was revoked cause he wasn't good enough to play!!! Hehehe."

"Lee Donghyuck is a cry baby!!!!"

"Jaemin has pink underwear!"

"Are any of these true?" I quietly asked.

"All of them are," he sighed and ran his hands through his hair in more annoyance.

"How'd she get all of this information?" I asked as I shuffled through the rest of the pictures.

"She overheard us one day, she bugged my backpack," He questioned himself.

"What? How could she possibly?" I asked.

"She's friendly. Friendly enough that she can make you think that she's okay enough for you to trust leaving your stuff with her," he mumbled.

"I guess so," I shuffled more, before speaking again, "How long has she had you do this?" I asked

"A while. She never said any details just spoke about needing a "favor" eventually," he sighed and began stacking the papers up again.

His phone beeped causing him to look up quickly at me and then back at the phone.

"Tomorrow 7:30 am right before the students come into the building we have to be here. If we're late she said, and-I-quote, 'we'll be dead meat'," he shrugged and left the room leaving the key in my hands before carefully shutting the door.

I leaned against one of the pillars and let out an exasperated sigh. Feeling stupid, angry, sad, confused, useless.

'Is there really nothing I can do to get out of this?'