❦ ɪɴғᴇʀɴᴏ ;; 【ᴀᴛᴇᴇᴢ】

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♪ Who escaped? – Seori

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Sophie's pov:

My heart was beating like crazy as I entered the room with the six other boys, squeezing Yunho's arm at the sight of Mingi. We had locked him in a room with two other males who were keeping a watch on him. They bowed and left as soon as Seonghwa gestured them to leave, closing the door behind us.

"Today is your last day with us so speak. I want to know everything." Seonghwa demanded as he pulled a chair and sat in front of the guy who had shot our boss Hongjoong.

"S-Sorry" was the only thing Mingi kept muttering for a good five minutes. He was not speaking anything else which was angering Yunho even more. "Why did you betray us?" I looked at Yunho who was breathing heavily.

"I had no choice." For the first time since we came, Mingi spoke something other than a sorry. "Be quick, we have to go see Hongjoong hyung." Jongho demanded. I could already see tears welling up in Mingi's eyes and even though I wasn't supposed to feel bad after what he just did, a part of me did feel some pity for him for some reason.

"The Costras...they made me do it. The offer seemed great too so-" "The Costras? You were in contact with them? You worked for them? What offer??" Wooyoung bombarded him with questions as Yeosang tried to calm him down. Everyone looked like they were on the edge, and it was totally understandable.

"T-They have my sister hyung...please help me." Mingi finally broke down and tears started running down his face. I glanced at everyone and all of them had the same expressions on their face – confusion.

"I-Is this.." "You guys don't know her, but you will need to believe me. Hongjoong knows my sister. He will understand my situation so can I please talk to him-" "No." San said sternly. "Tell us EVERYTHING." He continued as he now looked furious.

I heard a deep sigh from Mingi as he held his head low, not making eye contact with any of us for a whole minute.

"The story about my family not being able to raise me so they left me with Yunho's father....it is a false story that was made up by father and only Hongjoong and him knew my real story. We never told anyone, not even mom."

"Are you fucking kidding me right now!?" Yeosang spoke suddenly, totally shocked just like everyone else was.
Mingi had kept his backstory hidden from everyone for so long?

"You should be the last one to react this way Yeosang, we still don't know about you. Just like your past is only known to Seonghwa hyung, Hongjoong hyung knows mine." Mingi stared at Yeosang who immediately fell silent. He made sense and it made me mad how quick and smart he was at responding and silencing the person in front of him.

"No one knew about me but at least I didn't lie-" "Yeosang that's enough! Let him speak now...why did dad lie to me too...what is the real story Mingi?" Yunho looked sad and lost. I frowned as I gently rubbed his arm trying to calm him down.

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>FLASHBACK<

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Mingi's pov:

"So cool! He is just so cool!" I said to myself with totally disbelief and admiration as I saw the biggest criminal knock down my dad, making him pass out right in front of me.
He was the infamous 'Sir Jeong', the boss of one of the most dangerous gangs of Korea who now lived in Chicago and he personally had to visit Korea just to get back the huge amount of money my dad owed him as we were about to run away from them.

"Hey kid. What's your name?" he asked me, and I replied with a loud and clear 'Mingi'. "Okay Mingi, tell your dad that we will be coming back next week to get all of our money with interest so he better arrange it all or I will kill him." He almost ordered and I instantly nodded. My heart throbbed as I saw him leave.

So tall, so good looking, so strong, so much power, so much respect and the most important of all...so much freedom. I wish I had a life like him.

The next day, we were back to our regular routine. The same regular torturous routine. Even though I was just barely ten years old, I was treated like a college going adult. My IQ was naturally higher than the other kids and I had always been smarter than majority of the kids my age, making my life harder than everyone else.

Having fun with friends and playing was a prestige activity for me and my whole day was controlled by my parents and went by on schedule.

School, extra classes, tuition, forced co-curricular activities and even my meal timings, what to eat and how much to eat was scheduled, making me feel suffocated right from the start of the day. Weekends were even busier for me, having to attend more classes or learn business related stuff from dad and the only thing I could watch on TV as an 'entertainment' was news or infotainment channels. I was jealous of my other friends who were free to have fun, hang out and play without going through so much pressure. And as for my sister, she was too young so thankfully, she was living like the kids her age. She was my only family I truly loved. I totally despised my parents and never felt any affection towards them.

That's why the hard punch thrown at my dad yesterday felt so satisfying. As I was busy smiling, replaying yesterday's scene in my head, my teacher suddenly called out my name. The exam results.

I gulped as I handed over my exam paper to my mom, knowing exactly what was coming. She turned over the page and I could see a deep frown appearing on her already frowning face.

"92 out of 100!? In math? After all those tuition fees we paid to get you into the best math classes? Do you really not care about studying anymore??" I closed my eyes immediately as soon I saw the hard slap coming from my mother. I remained on my place, not uttering a single word just rubbing my now swollen red cheek.

"Wait till your dad gets here you ungrateful little-" "What's happening? What is that paper?" Dad immediately snatched the paper from mom's hands, and I closed my eyes again. Another burning slap on other cheek....as expected.

"Do you not understand why we are doing this for you? So that you grow up to be successful, get a good high paying job unlike me and finally our family becomes rich. You already have the brains, so why are you slacking!?" My dad was furious. Me crying never affected them in any way so I just sighed.

"Come here. Soeun, no dinner for this ungrateful brat today and look at this." He literally pushed me into my study chair and pulled out a form from his pocket.

"This is the university you have to get into no matter what. I already met a professor who works there, and he gave me a list of subjects you need to excel in. I'll enroll you in his classes from next week so let's reschedule your timetable now." A tear slipped down my cheek as that was the only thing I could do. My life was a living hell, and I wouldn't even mind if they disowned me and left me on the streets to die. I would be happier instead to finally get some freedom, i desired the most.

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A/N:

Hi guys! I hope everyone is well <3
Not sure if you have read my latest note on my profile yet so just letting everyone know that I finally have completed my story and now I'll be posting one chapter once a week (mostly on weekends)!
I'm so sorry for being so inconsistent this whole time but I kinda finally got my shit together (completed uni, got a job, etc) lol so I'll be focusing fully on wattpad now ~ tysm for staying if you are still here!!

I love you all :)