My Seven Stepbrothers

Chapter nineteen

Before heading to school, we decided to stop by Sunhee's house for fresh clothes and food. The guys went to Sungjae's house because they didn't exactly feel like going to school in Sunhee's clothes.

"The fact that my old clothes fit you guys makes me really sad." Sunhee complained as we headed towards the kitchen.

"We owe it all to a ridiculously strict diet." Ari nodded, grabbing an apple.

"Maybe I should go on it so I'm as skinny as you guys." Sunhee wondered out loud, grabbing a granola bar and tossing it towards me.

"We would not wish that diet upon anybody. Not even people we hate and I have a very long list." Mina grabbed a banana.

"You guys always make your idol life seem terrible but I know you all love it. I see your smiles when you're performing." Sunhee pointed an accusatory finger at us.

"We love performing, yes but we aren't exactly fans of the in-between stuff, like the diets and workouts." I corrected her while throwing away my trash. "We should go before we're late."

Sunhee nodded, grabbing her backpack. "Bye mom!"

"Bye girls! Oh, Jia! Don't forget your backpack!" Mrs. Jeong called after us, coming in from taking the dog out.

I tilted my head. I didn't bring my backpack, I had left it...with my brothers. I had forgotten I had to come up with an excuse. "Uh, I didn't bring my backpack." I politely told her.

She suddenly came towards the door with my backpack in her hand. "Someone came by while you were still in the treehouse and dropped it off. They did ask for you but you weren't here."

My heart sank into my chest. "Do you know who it was?" I asked, keeping my voice steady.

Mrs. Jeong put a finger of concentration on her chin. "I think he said his name was...Jungkook?"

Well there goes any hope of surviving this, I thought as all hope I had vanished. They had come here and seen that I wasn't here. Worse of all, I was supposedly at Sunhee's house but since I was in the treehouse it was clear that I had lied to them. I messed up big time.

I took the backpack from her, forcing on the fakest smile ever and walked out towards the bus stop. "Do you have a plan, Jia?" Sunhee asked after a long silence.

I shook my head, still fearing what was to come at school. How was I going to get out of this when they already knew I wasn't at Sunhee's? Even if they did believe that I was in a treehouse, what about everything else? How much did they know? All these questions started pounding on my head, every nerve inside of me screaming to just run away but I pushed them away. I would just tell them as much as the truth as I could.

We sat on the bus and as we got closer and closer to the school, my heart started beating faster and faster. Sunhee held my hand supportively as we got closer, sensing my anxiety threatening to make a comeback. The bust finally stopped at the school and we slowly exited the bus.

"Do you want us to go with you?" Ari whispered.

As if on cue, my phone rang with a new text.

Jin: Come to the bonus room, now.

"Do they have cameras or something?" Mina looked around the surroundings, searching for how they knew we were here.

"I've learned to stop questioning these things." I muttered, putting my phone away. "Tell the guys I said bye and come up with something cool for my headstone. I don't want 'murdered by brothers' on it."

"We'll have to tell Jihun, he's the one with a funeral planner at the ready." Sunhee lightly smiled, failing however to hide her nervousness.

I gave them all one last reassuring smile before walking away from them. I've only been to the bonus room a few times. They had this whole reserved area in the university that was filled with anything you could wish for to kill time. The first time I went there, I was banned from playing wii after a very violent match with Jungkook that resulted in a broken tv and table. Jungkook's doing, by the way, I don't get that worked up over games. I stood outside the door for a few minutes, getting my anxiety under control. I was not going to have another attack, I refused to. I slowly knocked on the door which was quickly opened to reveal Jin with an emotionless face.