Youngblood- An A.C.E Fanfic

-Chan, come here to see this.

Chan's friend Jun called across his backyard. They had been next door neighbours ever since Chan had moved from New York 10 years ago. They were inseparable from the moment they met. Even if they had much more friends, the two boys were even closer to each other. Sometimes they were even mistaken to be brothers. The both of them had maken an oath when they were young. That no matter what happened, no matter if they parted ways when they got older, they would remain best friends for all their lives. They now were 16 and couldn't wait for the new school year to start.

-What up?- Chan said as he jumped over Jun's fence and approached him. Once he was close, Jun turned around and turned on the garden hose, drenching Chan-. What was that for?

-Next time, be more careful when you try to take my last slice of leftover pizza.

-Oh, that's it huh. Then you be careful when you try touching my skateboard.

-Chan, come inside, now!- Chan's dad said as he beckoned Chan to hurry. He wasn't ready for the news that his father was preparing to tell him.

Once inside, Chan took off his coat and hung it in one of the dining room's chairs.

-Son, listen to me, I know that you love to sneak out during school term to Donghun's house, but that habit must stop once the new term starts.

-B-b-but Dad.

-Please don't make this more difficult, no more sneaking out or you're grounded for a month.

-Fine, but at least could you tell me why the sudden change of heart?

-It's complicated son, I mean a million things can happen...

-This is Whamesbury, nothing mildly interesting happens here apart from any gossip from school.

-Well Chan...

-Just tell me.

-Did you know Son Seung Hwan?

-Wendy? Yeah of course, she goes to my school.

-Well, she has been missing for over a month, and this morning, they found her body on Silent Rim Woods. She was murdered son.

Chan's face was filled with horror. A murder? In Whamesbury? In this town the biggest crime someone was normally accused of was being drunk on the street. It was just shocking.

-H-h-ho-how? W-wh-who? W-wh-why?- Chan asked bewildered to his dad.

-No one knows. The only thing for sure right now is that there's a murderer loose in these streets. And as long as no one's caught, you must be careful when the sun sets. If you can, walk home with Jun, I don't want you wandering alone.

Chan nodded and went upstairs to his room. "How could this have happened?" he asked himself as he lay down in his bed. Wendy was a student at Whamesbury High, a few years above him. He knew little about her, but he knew well her sister, Kim Dahyun. She was in the same year as he was and they were very good friends. He couldn't imagine how much she was suffering. He lay there, thinking for a long while about how it could've happened when his phone rang. It was Jun.

-Hey there.

-Hey.

-Your dad tell you?

-Yup, why'd you reckon she was...

-Dunno, could've been lots of things, but if you ask me, she was running from home.

-Why would she? She's got everything anyone could ever ask for.

-I heard that her family treated her badly, that she was suffering a lot and that she didn't stand being there.

-Well the Son's weren't the example family, that's no secret, but they never seemed as the mistreating type.

-Well, I guess that at some point, the truth ought to come out.

-Let's hope so. The mood when we get back to school is going to be awful.

The school term started as Chan had predicted. The mood was awful indeed. Everyone walked around the school whispering, speculating about what had happened to Wendy. Others only talked about how scared they were. In particular, Choi San bragged about how he would single-handedly catch the killer. He believed that he was so cool and brave only because he had abs, Chan knew the truth, that San was a coward. Bark rather than bite. Wendy's group of friends was the one hit the hardest. Seulgi, Joy, Irene and Yeri could be seen walking sadly through the school corridors. They all had tear stains on their faces. Everyone looked at them as if they were a crashed car and stopped to look for what was left. To Chan it was sickening to see people behave like that. Jun kept him from yelling at every person that did this. He however, felt no remorse when Chan stepped up to Jeon Won-Woo as he saw him laughing and pointing to the group of girls.

-Hey douche, what's your damn problem- he said as he slapped the cup of coffee Wonwoo was holding.

-And what on Earth do you think you're doing Yu Chan?!

-You know what happened don't you?

-Yeah. So?

-So? They're not your daily dose of douching around. They aren't a car crash that you can stare at to look at what's left. And if I catch you being mean to any of them, don't blame me for how may pieces are left to bury you. Back off.

Chan finished and sat angrily on his chair. He sat through his AP Biology lesson staring through the window as he contemplated the trees outside starting to turn brown as auttumn approached. He wasn't paying much attention to what his teacher was saying. He was very intelligent and didn't need to study much.

Just as he was headed to lunch, someone grabbed him by the arm and dragged him over to a narrow hallway. He was shook at first until he saw who had pulled him out. It was Lee Yubin, but most people at school called her Dami. She was very intimidating. Everyone kept to a safe distance of her and didn't approach her unless it was necessary. She had once been Choi San's girlfriend, but after she found out that she had cheated on him, she beat the living hell out of him. Chan had only spoken to her once; she had been assigned to him as a partner in chemistry class. She had spoken the least possible and never made eye contact.

-W-wha-why did you...- Chan had started to say but she pressed one finger to his lips.

-Keep quiet and you get to live another day, understand?

Chan only nodded and she put her finger away. She beckoned him to follow her and they walked down the hallway until they reached a window. She took a hair clip out of her hair and stuck it inside the window's lock. After a while of picking it, the lock clicked and the window opened.

-If we're getting out, we'll need a distraction-she said to herself.

-You could always pull the fire alarm.

-Don't be an idiot, we need something that makes our presence out in the school grounds normal looking.

-That's exactly my point, if we pull it, the school gets evacced, we'll be another pair of students fleeing the building.She thought about it for a short while and then, with no warning, she pulled the fire alarm.

-What in heaven's name are you...- he was starting to say when she pushed him out the window. She crawled out after him and pulled him up from the grass.

-Come on- she said as she pulled him behind a corner and hid him behind the wall.

-Did we just...-he once again started to speak but got cut off by a camera click behind him. He turned around to see Jennie, the meanest girl in school, taking their picture with her phone in one hand and her other hiding her enormous grin.

Dami's expression changed into an enormous rage, and Jennie's grin disappeared; not even her dared mess with Dami. She immediately tuned her phone and showed Dami how she deleted the photo and went running the other way.

-One word about this, and I slit your throat-she said as her ears turned red as a tomato.

-My lips are sealed.

Instead of joining with the other students at the front of the school, the snuck out the back from a broken part of the metal fence that boarded the school. Once out, she led Chan to a small house on the farthest part of the suburbs. She led him to one of the houses and opened the front door. The house looked old and rather decayed. Vines grew on the sides and the steps leading to the porch were broken by the half.

-Why did we just do what we did?

-It's not safe to talk about it at school, so I needed to bring you out.

-So?

-Wendy was killed two weeks before the start of school term, the Son's claimed that she got lost in the woods and died of either starvation, dehydration, or hypothermia. That's not the truth.

-And how would you know?

-Because I snuck into the morgue and saw her body.

-Y-you did what?

-Don't sound so surprised, I knew there was something fishy and I took it upon me to find out the truth. And oh boy what I found. None of the above were the cause of death. She had struggle marks all over her arms and legs. Someone had tried to take her away, but she seemed to have fought back. There was a nasty cut on her ankle. The cause of death was obvious if you stood beside her. Someone had slit her throat in half.

Suddenly, Dami stopped talking, she must've noticed how color had drained from his face and caught a glimpse of the look of utter horror plastered on his face. Even if he seemed to be intimidating and fearsome, Chan was really a very innocent boy.

-Uh, sorry if I scared you or whatever-she said half-heartedly.

-W-wh-why d-di-did y-you- Chan said between gasps, his voice breaking- tell me.

-Well, um, you see...- Dami had started saying when she broke in tears, agonizing.

-My God! Are you okay?- Chan said alarmed, reaching out to hold her, as he saw that her knees were trembling uncontrollably and she was losing balance. She tried to push him away, but her legs gave in and she fell on her knees, sobbing madly. Chan tried to comfort her, but he didn't knew her and so, was hopeless. After about half an hour in which Dami cried out miserably as Chan held her in his arms, desperate to find a way to calm her down. She slowly stopped sobbing and cleaned up her face from the tear stains. Finally, she stood up and pulled down her sweater sleeves.

-Are you better now?- Chan asked in the softest voice he could get out of his sore throat.

-Yep- Dami responded in a voice a little higher than she had meant to.

-What happened? You just randomly started crying.

-I'm sorry it's just that... I'm not a people person I-I-I don't have any friends, the only boyfriend I've ever had only wanted me for sex and when I refused, he cheated on me. I spend my nights alone in my house investigating whatever I can to distract my mind from the fact that I am completely alone and that no one will ever want to be near me. I-I-I-I- she stammered as her lower lip trembled. Just as she was going to try and speak again, Chan stood up and embraced her in a very big hug, holding her tight as she felt weak.

-Hey, it's okay, you don't have to be alone. I'm here OK? I'm not leaving- Chan said, touched by Dami's words. He empathized with her because he as well had once been the friendless kid. But at least he always had Jun to back him up and comfort him when he's feeling bad. He thought that now that he had the chance to help someone that had suffered the same way as he did was the best way to deal with whatever happened with Wendy. He thought that maybe things were going to be better than he had thought.

However, as Chan was walking her home, they only heard the screams coming from the house and the sound of a window breaking followed by running footsteps. A few minutes later, police cars were surrounding the house from which the screams had come from. A while after they arrived, the house was boarded with police bands and someone was coming out carrying a black body bag in a stretcher, and the bag had a body inside. This had happened less than five houses away from Chan's house. He suddenly felt Dami tugging his shirt and beckoning him to lean down so she could whisper something in his ear.

-Meet me here tomorrow. This could be the next lead in discovering what happened to Wendy. Don't be late, 9 o'clock.