The Crown | myg

twenty-eight

I quickly untie the back of my apron and pull my phone out of my pocket and begin to call the repairman I called earlier. As fast as I can, I begin to run to the back of the bakery to find Chanyeol.

"Chan, we need to close, you need to come with me," I say as the man on the other line picks up the phone and greets me. "Hi, yes, I had an appointment for an air conditioning repair that I need to cancel. Something came up with my family and I need to attend to it immediately... thank you for understanding."

"What happened?" Chanyeol asks as he washes the cookie dough off of his hands and begins to wipe the water away with a handcloth. "Why are you in such a rush?"

"Chanyeol, please," I pant as I begin to gather all of my things and shut off all of the appliances to close the shop as fast as I can. "You need to come with me, it's for your safety."

"Not until you explain what the fuck is going on," he crosses his arms and leans his body against the sink.

"Would you pull your fucking god complex out of your ass and just listen to me?" I yell as I stop to look at him. The expression on my face is nothing but sarcastic and it takes a few moments of awkward staring for him to realize that I'm being completely serious.

"Fine," he says in a low voice as he takes his apron off and hangs it on the hook beside the door to the kitchen. "I don't have a god complex."

"Just wait here while I lock the front door," I hold my hand up to signal for him to stay where he's standing. "Don't go anywhere without me."

I run to the front of the store and lock the door as fast as I can before closing the blinds and turning off the open sign and running back to the room to find Chanyeol sitting on the floor with a box of cookies in his hand.

"I figured if it's a safety situation I should bring cookies with me," he says as he calmly puts one into his mouth. "Comfort food."

"That's perfectly valid," I say as I grab a second box, something he's gonna need once he figures out what's going on. I plan to tell him everything about me, everything he doesn't know, all in due time. "Come on, we need to hurry."

We both run out the back door and to my car, this is a time that I'm super happy that the back door to my shop locks automatically once it closes. It's saved us a few minutes and now we can get to the HQ as fast as we can, sooner than we need to.

"I need you to blindfold yourself," I say as I pull a bandana out of the center console of my car. "You can't know where we're going."

"At this point, I'm not even gonna ask questions," he says as he gladly takes the bandana out of my hand and ties it around his head so it's covering his eyes. Though we're driving through a forest on the outside of town and we'll be in a building in that same forest, I can't have him knowing where the headquarters is located. It's safer if he doesn't know where it is.

The sun is setting now, the roads becoming dark and barely noticeable, especially with the dense forest surrounding us, blocking out any light that could possibly get in. I turn to my right to look for the sign for the headquarters but all I can pay attention to is Chanyeol shovelling cookies into his mouth, the bandana still placed over his eyes respectfully.

I let out a soft laugh. "You seem to be really calm now."

"I figured I'm not being kidnapped, at least I hope you wouldn't kidnap me," he says as he closes the box in his hands. "You said it's for my safety that I come with you, so I assume you're taking me somewhere I can't see because not being able to see where it is the safest option."

As usual, he's absolutely right. If he can't see the place we're at, he could never give up our location if someone was to kidnap him and interrogate him about the mob his best friend is involved with. A mob he has no idea about, a life I live that he probably hasn't ever thought I would be a part of.

I will do anything in my power to protect Chanyeol from the things he doesn't know about, do anything to keep him oblivious to the dangers of the world, the people that lurk in the shadows, around every corner. I would die to make sure he's safe, and if it comes down to me dying in his arms, at least I know that with the people I got involved with at such a young age, the lifestyle I've been living, Chanyeol would be kept safe as long as the rest of them are alive.