𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝑰𝒔 𝑶𝒖𝒓𝒔 ✓

Chapter 19

MAL huffed her breath and headed towards the kitchen to make a snack, taking a slight glance at her brother, who was sitting on the couch and holding the phone in his hand.

"Anything new?"

Her brother looked up from his phone.

"Um..." the boy took a moment to respond, his eyes glancing around the room, "no, I'm just talking to Sam."

The name brought a frown to the girl's face, but she forced herself to smile nonetheless. "How is he doing?"

"I don't know..." his voice trailed off, his eyes fixated on the screen once again. "He's acting weird."

Mal shrugged and eventually sighed, "you know he's not worth your time, right?"

The younger boy shrugged.

"Let's not talk about this? Please?"

She hesitantly nodded and stepped closer to the fridge, opening its door to scan whatever food they had.

"Did you sleep well?" She called out, her voice echoing through the kitchen, a bit muffled to her brother's ears.

"Yeah, I did. How about you?" He replied, his eyes still on the screen.

"I slept good, I guess."

She let out a jar of Nutella, peanut butter, and jam then hurried to the storage room and grabbed a package of toast.

"So what makes you say Sam is acting weird?" She asked, turning around to face the back of his head. She grabbed the sack of bread once again and headed to the kitchen counter, opening the sack to let out a few slices of soft, white toast with brown edges.

"Um... I don't know. He's just being... Cold."

Colder than usual, his sister thought, rolling her eyes.

"Like I asked him if he wanted to FaceTime and he dodged the question," her brother continued after a second of hesitant silence.

"Why would he do that?"

The boy shrugged, "I... I don't know."

Deciding not to push the conversation further, she clicked open the jar of Nutella, and with the help of a nearby butter knife, she spread the smooth, brown texture on the bread.

"Are there any more videos, Rajwan?" She asked after a few minutes, stacking up the toasted sandwiches next to each other.

"What?" His voice came late, as his mind was captured by the phone screen.

"Videos? Hyunjin?"

He took another moment to reply, "um, no, not really."

She sighed in dismay and dropped the conversation completely, knowing that it was useless to talk to her brother at the same time Sam was talking to him. He would just ignore her questions and reply to Sam instead, even if Sam left him on read. All the time.

It was one of the many reasons why she didn't like Sam. Number one, because her brother couldn't see who he truly was. Number two, because he didn't actually care about her brother. Number three, he would make fun of her husband mid-conversation, and her brother would be too shy to defend his own brother-in-law. Number four, he would occasionally make fun of Rajwan's family members, including her, and Rajwan would shrug it off, saying that he didn't mean it.

And she could go on that list for hours.

She finished stuffing the sandwiches and walked towards the living room, handing out one of the plates to her brother.

"Here, eat."

Her brother stared at the plate that was handed out to him, then at his sister, then back at the plate.

And sighed in pure guilt.

"I'm..." he began, avoiding her gaze, "I'm sorry I didn't help you with breakfast."

She sent him a smile, eventually nodding her head dismissively.

At least he still had some sense left in him.

Despite being with Sam for a rather long few months.

"It's okay. You were busy."

He shook his head, "but it shouldn't have—"

"Anyway!" She interrupted. "I was thinking, maybe I should go to the entertainment today. You know, to meet the members and see if they need anything? I kinda miss them."

He bit his lower lip and nodded slowly, his expression taken aback at the way she interrupted him, but ignored it nonetheless.

"Um... Yeah, that's a great idea. I think I'll go do some shopping, what do you think?"

"You don't want to come with me? They're going to love you!"

He hesitantly shook his head, "no, the house needs some groceries. And..." He turned to her, his expression dropping along with his eyes. "I think you could use some time with your friends. Without me."

She sighed sadly and stretched her arms out, engulfing him in a hug.

"It's okay. You probably need some time alone too."

"Away from you?" He lightly giggled to himself. "Never."

The two chuckled at that.

❆

Mal smiled softly to herself as she stopped in front of the practice room. She clutched the phone tighter in her hand and adjusted her long, dark brown hair, then raised her phone to her sight to glance at her reflection.

Good.

She then grabbed the doorknob and pushed, meeting the sight of the practice room, with the same, eight lazy-boy chairs scattered near the walls to leave the center of the room empty.

And that was when she spotted her friends sitting on the floor, huddled closer to glance at the laptop screen in front of them.

"That's crazy..." Jeongin sobbed out.

"Yeah... Who do they think has one million dollars?"

"I don't know, but we need to save him! He's our friend."

The girl coughed to get their attention, causing them to turn their heads at the same time to meet her concerned gaze.

"H-Hey, noona."

"Um," she began, unsure, "hey, guys. What's going on?"

The seven members took turns standing up, facing her, their expressions tearful and hesitant.

"Uh..."

"Tell me!" She exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock.

It took them a few seconds to answer. Changbin took a deep, shaky breath and stared at his best friend with knotted eyebrows.

"There's another video, about Hyunjin."

He grabbed his phone and slowly stepped towards her, holding out the device in his hand with a shaky, almost unnoticeable grip.

"What... W-What kind of video?" She hesitantly asked, her eyes already fixated on the bright screen.

Changbin then pressed the play button.

And the girl opened her mouth in shock.

It was her husband, indeed. However, it looked like a different type of video than the others. Her head spun as her mind continued to try and put the words together.

It was a ransom video.