This is looooooong overdue! And yet somehow miraculously, despite such slow updates, this story has managed to keep acquiring the occasional subscriber, so thank you occasional subscribers!! \o/ Believe it or not, I'm actually excited to end this story, but we still have a short way to go. So stay tuned!!

Wait a second. Wasn’t Ren a guy? Ren and New Girl couldn’t be the same person. Unless…

“Ren’s a girl?” Maybe you had just assumed Ren was a guy when you’d heard about him. Didn’t everyone else refer to him as a guy though? Maybe you’d heard wrong.

Ren rolled his or her eyes. “I’m not a girl,” he or she said.

That cleared that up. Ren was not New Girl because Ren was not a girl. They had to be different people. They looked so much alike though…

“Do you have a twin sister?”

He rubbed his temples, clearly annoyed by your trivial questions. “No. Are you really this stupid?” he muttered to himself.

“Then who was that girl I ran into that day?” you wondered aloud.

“That was me.” He stared you directly in the eye with his dead glare. Yep, that was definitely the same look she had given you.

Ren was New Girl but Ren was a guy? No. The pieces did not fit. You could not put them together in your head. So you shook it. “That’s impossible,” you argued.

“Oh my god…” He put his face in his hand and rubbed his eyes. “You idiot, I was never a girl. You just assumed I was.”

You tried to process this information.

…

OH! Oh… Oh.

So New Girl wasn’t a girl either. Now it made sense.

You should probably stop thinking of her but really him as New Girl. It was really throwing you off.

“Where did Mary Sue go?” Chanyeol asked, walking up to the four people he just saw her talking to.

Amber regarded him with a hesitant expression. “She”—

“Who cares?!” Key exclaimed, rolling his eyes. “It’s not here, and we’re all better off for it.”

“She went off through the trees over there,” Krystal informed him gently.

Chanyeol nodded a thanks in her direction and started toward the trees, when he felt a pull on his arm. Nichkhun was giving him a sympathetic look.

“Maybe it’s best,” he said gently, “if you just let her cool off for a bit.”

Chanyeol regarded him a bit skeptically. He really just wanted to go talk to her and figure out what’s been going on with her. After all, the last time he left things unsaid between them, she wandered directly into the clutches of an entire clan of vampires. But maybe Nichkhun was right. He didn’t want to be overbearing. After all, it’s not like that kind of thing could happen again, right?

“So you were always a guy,” you clarified.

“Yes.”

You chewed your lip for a moment. “The whole time?”

“God damn it.” Ren stood up in exasperation. “Yes, the whole time!”

“Okay.”

He raised an eyebrow at you silently.

You drew in a cautious breath. “So you were never a girl.”

“Are we going to be stuck on this point forever?” Ren huffed. “Wouldn’t you rather know why you’re here?”

“Oh yeah,” you conceded. “I didn’t think about that.”

About a dozen people raised their eyebrows at you, and you looked around self-consciously.

“What, this happens a lot, okay?”

You watched them exchange looks with each other before turning back to Ren.

“Why am I here?”

He crouched down in front of you again and spoke slowly. “To teach you your place.”

“My place?”

“In the social order.”

You laughed. He clearly didn’t know who you were. “I know you weren’t here during last semester or anything, but I changed the social order when I moved to this school.”

“You did?” asked the guy in the corner, looking bewildered.

Another guy who was lounging lazily on a big leather couch scoffed. “Who ever heard of the New Girl changing the status quo?”

You looked back to Ren, whose mouth was turned up in a very subtle yet very disconcerting smirk. He twirled his knife close to your face and traced the blade along your chin. “We’re not swayed by cliques and popularity contests. In this gang, we run the social order from underground.”

You frowned. “Well I’ve spent a lot of time underground, and”—

“Shut up.”

You obeyed.

“Your place,” he continued, “is beneath me. And to teach you a lesson about respect, ‘New Girl’, you’re going to do as I say.”

“But…why?”

He grinned. “Because now that I have you, I’m going to keep you.” He leaned close to your face and murmured, “As my woman slave.”

“Woman slave?” you repeated, eyes widening. He wanted you to stay and work for him? You didn’t know what to think. Your heart was starting to beat a little faster. You had never felt so… so…

Needed.

You know that feeling where you’re stuck and no matter which way you turn, you feel like there’s no way out? That’s totally how Jonghyun was feeling. Not only did Mary Sue not understand what he’d been trying to tell her for so long, but she was actively contradicting it.

His identical twin sister didn’t realize his feelings—weren’t twins supposed to do that automatically?—giving Jonghyun no hope for his parents accepting him, and on top of it, his sort-of-unofficial-boyfriend-but-also-his-best-friend hated his sister. Both of the people he cared most about couldn’t get along, and both were expecting him to be two opposing people.

Woah… suddenly Donghae’s interpretations of all those abstract paintings in chapter nine made sense. So this was how Donghae had felt. And to think Jonghyun used to kind of envy him, but now he had a sense of what he’d been going through.

Jonghyun sighed, which didn’t go unnoticed by the others.

“Maybe we should go home soon,” Amber suggested. “It’s getting a little late after all.”

“Mary Sue isn’t back yet though,” said Jonghyun, ignoring the flat “Who cares?” he heard from Key. “We can’t leave without her.”

He noticed Chanyeol’s uneasy expression. “I should go look for her,” he said.

“No!”

Everyone turned to look at Nichkhun.

“I mean… I’ll go with you. It’s getting late, it’d be better if you had my help.”

“Yeah,” Chanyeol responded warily. “Good idea.”

“Okay, I don’t know all of your names.”

“You don’t need to know our names,” Ren quickly snipped.

“Uh, if I’m going to be your ‘woman slave’ or whatever you’re calling it,” you retorted, adopting a sassy authoritative tone, “I’m going to need to know what to call you.”

He raised an eyebrow but didn’t argue any further, so you grinned.

“So how about we go in a circle and introduce ourselves one by one, and say something about yourself, like your favorite ice cream flavor or something?”

You watched as they all exchanged slightly perplexed looks. “Why our favorite ice cream flavor?” the kid in the corner asked.

“So I have something to remember you by,” you answered as if it was obvious. “Here, I’ll go first to get the ball rolling. I’m Mary Sue, and I like strawberry ice cream. Alright next we’ll go with… you.” You nodded your head in the direction of the kid in the corner, since he was to your immediate right and also since you were still tied up so you couldn’t point with your hands.

He looked rather put on the spot and he straightened up, glancing around nervously. “Uh… I’m Zelo… I like… chocolate?”

You nodded and smiled encouragingly. “Very good. Alright, next?” You looked to someone who was leaning against the wall.

“Seyong,” he said with a smirk and an upward nod. “And my favorite flavor is coffee.”

Next was the guy who was lounging on the couch. He took the time to throw his feet onto the floor and sit up for his introduction, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees in a casual hunch. “Name’s Zico.” He spat it like a lyric. “And my taste buds scream for mint chocolate chip,” he said earnestly, speaking with animated hand gestures.

You looked at the next guy, who was sitting on the floor leaning against the couch. “Hey,” he said casually with a slight smile. “I’m Eli, and I’m a vanilla kind of guy.”

“A-yo, the name’s G-Dragon,” said a guy with obviously bleached blond hair, stealing your attention before you could respond. “GD,” he continued, “your G-Spotter, Captain G Sparrow—“

“Shut up,” cried a clearly exasperated Zico as he lobbed a pillow at G-Dragon’s head.

“Let me introduce myself,” G-Dragon snapped back at him.

“You’re not eight people!” You noticed Eli shaking his head and chuckling as Zico twisted his position on the couch so he could yell at his fellow gang member. “You wanna continue? Because next thing I’m throwing is my shoe.”

GD just smirked and held his arms akimbo, pillow dangling from one hand. “Your choice,” he remarked cheekily. “Drop it on me.”

Sensing a rise in temper from Zico, you blurted out loudly, “It’s nice to meet you G-Dragon, what’s your favorite ice cream flavor!” This seemed to have the desired effect, as Zico settled back down into the couch and turned away sulkily.

GD’s gaze turned to you, his smirk still plastered to his face. “Cookie dough,” he remarked as he lazily tossed the pillow back to the couch. Zico grumbled and grabbed it with both hands, jamming it to the back of his head and laying back down on the couch, propping his feet up and crossing his arms.

You smiled and nodded, finally turning to Ren, whose expression seemed far stonier than it was a few minutes ago.

“Well? What about you?”

“I refuse to believe you forgot my name already,” he grit out.

“No no,” you laughed. “What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?”

He just rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t matter.” With that he stalked out of the room, leaving you and the other gang members looking after him and exchanging bewildered and slightly concerned expressions.

“What’s his deal?” Zico muttered aloud. Eli gazed after Ren and shrugged.

“How are we gonna find Mary Sue around here?” Chanyeol asked Nichkhun as he tried to squeeze between two large tree trunks. Somehow, to Chanyeol’s bamboozlement, what he thought was just a little gathering of trees in the park seemed to become a thick crowded forest. And Mary Sue was nowhere to be found.

“She has to be somewhere around here,” Nichkhun reassured, pausing to step over a large root. “Unless of course… she went back already.”

“So, we just missed her?” Chanyeol asked.

“I’m not saying we did for sure, I’m just saying, you know,” he shrugged at Chanyeol. “What if?”

“Should we go back?”

“Well, I don’t know, probably.”

“But what if we go back, and she’s not there?” Chanyeol thought worriedly.

“I dunno, what if?” Nichkhun threw back.

“What if she’s lost?”

Nichkhun looked at Chanyeol like he was ridiculous. “Are you serious right now?”

He was answered with a wide-eyed nod.

“I highly doubt she’s lost, this place isn’t that big.” He kept going through the trees.

“What if a branch fell on her head?”

Nichkhun whipped around to stare at the other member of his search party. “What?!”

“And she’s knocked out, and we’re her only hope for survival, and we’re just mere yards away from her, and we go back, and nobody ever finds her, and she’s out here all night, and she freezes to death? WHAT IF THAT?!”

Chanyeol was promptly sedated with a punch to the face. “I dunno,” Nichkhun said to the suddenly limp body lying face down in the snow. “What if?”

“You know, for a gang, you guys aren’t really all that… unified,” you remarked after Ren had left.

“What do you mean?” asked Zelo.

You looked around at the sulking Zico and smirking G-Dragon, at Seyong who had barely done anything but watch from off to the side, and back in the direction Ren had stalked off in. “I’ve only been here for a little while, and I can already see some rifts,” you said. “You all should try to build up your trust a little more.”

“Why should we do that?” Zico demanded sourly.

You scoffed. “If I’m going to be your ‘woman slave,’ I want to make sure that everyone here is getting along. Now untie me.”

A few of them chuckled, but you kept your composure.

“What makes you think we’re just gonna untie you?” Eli remarked with a small grin.

You smiled widely. “Because I trust,” you answered with clear emphasis, “that you will. You see? Life is much more relaxing if you trust each other!”

You waited patiently for a moment before Eli got up and came to untie you.

“What are you doing?” Seyong said with just an ounce of alarm.

“Relax,” Eli said, smirking as the binds fell away. “She’s harmless.”

You smiled gratefully and stood up, shaking the tension out of your arms. “Okay,” you addressed the five gang members before you. “Stand up.”

They all more or less complied, stepping forward a little bit in a rough circle around you.

“You too, Zico,” you added. He was still lying defiantly on the couch with an arm over his eyes.

“in”— He huffed and reluctantly stood up, tossing his legs over and slouching in front of you. “What are you trying to do?”

“We’re going to do trust exercises!” you exclaimed, clasping your hands together.

The four friends waited around the café table with varying degrees of nervousness, except for Key who honestly didn’t give a whether Mary Sue came back or not. “Her absence would make this plotline so much more tolerable,” was his argument, but Amber chided him, saying, “She’s the main character, you know we can’t have a story without her.”

Jonghyun just wanted his sister to come back. He was worried about her.

As if on cue, a familiar figure emerged from the darkness of the surrounding park, and Nichkhun approached them all casually.

“Did you find her?” Jonghyun asked right away. “Where’s Chanyeol?” He glanced toward Baekhyun, who was skating with Sunny and Sungmin, vaguely knowing he’d be worried that his best friend hadn’t come back. But Nichkhun quickly eased those fears.

“We found Mary Sue,” he explained.

“Then where are they?” Amber asked. “Why is it just you here?”

“She was tired,” he continued, “and Chanyeol decided to just take her home.”

“Are you kidding me?” Key interrupted. “He just took her home?” He made a sweeping gesture with his arms. “Just, from the park, without even returning their skates or anything, they just—you know what, never mind, I don’t even care.”

Jonghyun waited for Key to be done before turning back to Nichkhun. “So she’s safe then?”

Nichkhun nodded, and Key snorted and shook his head, muttering something about gullible idiots.

Amber sighed, looking around at her tired friends. “Maybe we should all go home too then.”

“Yes!” Key exclaimed, standing up. “Good idea! Let’s believe the character who clearly has questionable motives and just leave our—no, I don’t care,” he stopped himself, holding up his hands in surrender. “I’m done trying to interfere with the inevitable plotline.”

The others stared at him blankly. “Alright then, so it’s decided,” Amber said.

Krystal beckoned the other three on the ice, and the seven of them made their way out. Jonghyun couldn’t wait to get home where his sister was waiting for him, probably already in her bed.

After demonstrating your unbounded trust for all people by falling backward into the arms of each of the five gang members, you then had them all pair up and do the “Trust Fall” exercise together. They seemed to be doing okay, even with their varying levels of reluctance, until Zico and G-Dragon were paired up.

“Nope.” Zico crossed his arms decisively, effectively closing himself off to the idea of any bodily contact with G-Dragon.

“Oh come on, Zico,” you encouraged. “This is an opportunity to break down the walls between you two, form a working bond and embrace the camaraderie of gang membership together!”

“I don’t care what kind of beautiful bromance you’re expecting to come of this stupid ‘Trust Fall,’ but I’m not interested,” he insisted.

GD just folded his arms and leaned back with a smirk. “Why so serious?” he asked.

You could see the vein popping in Zico’s neck, and the other members who were there had stopped their trust falling to watch the argument.

“RRRRRAUGH—“

“Okay,” you said once you were all sitting down again, Zico and GD at a safe distance further than arms’ length so Zico couldn’t strangle him again. “Clearly there are some unsettled issues between you two.”

Zico scoffed and GD smirked.

You cleared your throat. “So… Maybe we should just talk about them? Try to clear the air a bit?”

“What is this, couple’s therapy?”

“Yes,” you answered sternly. “We’re going to sit here until you two talk out your feelings.”

Zico fisted his hands in his hair in frustration and fell back on the couch.

“Erm,” Seyong spoke up with a hint of an amused grin tugging at his lips. “Why don’t we just let ‘em punch out their feelings?”

“Yes!” Zico stood up eagerly. “This I can get behind. Unf!”

G-Dragon stood too, grinning wolfishly. “Get back,” he threatened.

“Nah man, I’mma come forth,” Zico retorted, taking a challenging step toward his adversary. “How do you want it?”

GD leaned forward and narrowed his eyes, their faces close together, and said softly, “You and me, hardcore.” He quirked an eyebrow and tilted his head cockily. “Till you say no more.”

Zico threw the first punch.

“Okay,” you said once everyone was sitting down again—breathing heavily and covered in bruises and scrapes, and GD’s lip was bleeding like a rare steak, but sitting nonetheless. “Do you feel better now that you’ve fought out some pent up aggression?”

The two in question just glared at each other from across the seating area.

“Alright, um,” you clasped your hands together, thinking hard. “What if we all just go around in a circle”—

“ that circle nonsense!” Zico exclaimed bitterly.

You hardened your jaw, offended. “The circle isn’t the problem here, Zico. It’s only trying to help bring unity—“

“Unity?” He raised his eyebrows incredulously. “How can there be unity in this goddamn community, when Captain G-String ticks me off at every opportunity!”

“Mad rhyming skills aside,” you began, ready to scold him about his refusal to cooperate.

“Hold up,” G-Dragon interrupted you, lifting his index finger at Zico. “Na na na na na.”

You could feel the tension rise to a boil as the former stood to tower over the latter. “I’m the G,” GD corrected, temper flaring, “to the D. Gold ‘n’ Diamonds, boy!”

“Alright, motherer, I can’t take this anymore!” Zico rose to eye level with GD. “You want more of me? Huh?”

“You and me, hardcore,” GD said again, leaning in to whisper, “Let’s do it some more.”

You couldn’t even tell who hit first that time.

“Hey,” came a hazy whisper. “Chanyeeool…” it cooed. He felt a light slapping on his cheeks and his eyes gradually opened. Everything was dark and blurry, until it finally sharpened into Nichkhun’s face hovering over his. “Are you alright buddy?” he asked.

Chanyeol sat up, with a little help from Nichkhun. He rubbed his aching head. “What happened?”

“A branch fell on your head,” was the answer.

“Huh?”

“I know it seems unlikely, but yeah. Look,” he pointed to a broken branch that was next to where Chanyeol’s head was.

Wow, looks like a branch actually did fall on Chanyeol’s head. Huh. What were the odds of that happening? Chanyeol might have tried to answer that question if the idea of math wasn’t a painful one right now.

“Where’s Mary Sue?” he asked, looking around. “Did you find her?”

“Yeah,” Nichkhun nodded reassuringly. “Yeah, she was just here in fact. You just missed her.”

“I did?”

“She said she was tired though, so she left to go home with the others.”

“She did?” That didn’t sound right to Chanyeol. “Wasn’t she worried about me?”

“Well, maybe a little bit,” Nichkhun responded, making a face that said it was highly unlikely that she cared at all. “Don’t worry, I told her I’d make sure you were safe.”

That didn’t console him at all though. Was Mary Sue mad at him? Did she really not care? What if she didn’t love him anymore?! Chanyeol’s life was completely over!

“Come on buddy, let’s get you home,” the other said, giving Chanyeol’s cheek a friendly pat that sent a sharp jolt of pain through his face.

“Ow,” he muttered, holding his hand up to the sore spot. “Why does my face hurt?”

“Oh, uh, that was…” Nichkhun snapped, looking for the answer. “Mary Sue!”

“Mary Sue?”

“Yeah, she tripped over your face as she was leaving,” he said nonchalantly.

Chanyeol suddenly felt so ignored, and uncared for, and low, and hurt, and so… so many emotions that he could only express in one monosyllabic utterance.

“What?!”