I sighed. Another boring day at school had ended. Another seven hours of lying to my closest friends about how I was such good friends with the new students. It had been almost a week of enduring Rome teaching me, Maru refusing to sing, Chunhei rambling about Kangjun, Siwoo showing his sadistic side more often, and Ray being Ray. I did not even want to think of what I had seen with Kangjun, but of course it had kept on popping up every time I saw him.

I had been told by Aecha that if you had an older brother, there was no possible way that you also had an innocent mind by the time you were thirteen. I had heard many stories of her walking in on her older brother and his girlfriend, but had never truly believed all of what she had told me. I now knew that it was all very possible thanks to Kangjun.

The first time it had happened was the day after we had gone to Grandfather's house. Everyone had been wondering where he was since he had skipped out on lunch four days in a row and hadn't been picking up his phone. This wouldn't have been a big deal if he had just been a normal transfer student, but since we were in the middle of "reviving" my grandfather's arms dealing business, it was a little suspect. 

I had decided to search for him. I had really, really needed a break from the all of the mafia talk. While on the surface it seemed like I was hatching schemes and making business deals to get the business off the ground, I was really plotting out every step I could take to make it seem like I was getting the business off the ground. I wasn't completely insane after all; I never wanted to be an arms dealer. I just wanted to survive. So, while the boys played Monopoly, I played 4D chess.

It ended up taking me almost an hour to find Kangjun. It was the end of the day, I was irritated, and I wanted to go home. It did not improve my mood when I found him.

My initial impression of Kangjun had not been wrong when I thought that he was a player. I received all the confirmation I needed when I was lucky enough to stumble across him in the girls' locker room of all places. Of course, he wasn't alone.

He was with a girl - one that was in my class - and he had his tongue shoved down and his hands a little too close to her . She was into the kiss - if you could even call it that - and gasped for breath when he pulled away to instead kiss and bite the skin on her neck. My mouth dropped open as another girl from the junior class walked in from the adjoining room. She stood behind Kangjun and hugged him, allowing her hands to travel up and down his chest.

My mind was blown. Not only was he a senior making out with a freshman, but he was with two girls at once. I was wondering what I could possibly do to stop it from turning into something M rated when I remembered.

He had to listen to me.

"Kangjun!" I screeched. 

He pulled away from the girls immediately. The junior stumbled back. They both glared at me, but Kangjun pulled back immediately

"Hey, Ema," he greeted me. I gritted my teeth together.

"If you aren't out of here in five seconds, I promise you that I will personally break both your legs!" I threatened. He gulped, knowing that if I didn't do it myself, someone else could torture him - even if I was lying. He scurried past me into the hallway. I spun on my heel to follow him.

That had not been the only encounter of the ual kind either. Around three more similar experiences had occured since then, each with a different girl. 

I wouldn't say that it was best week of my life.

Saturday morningwas slow coming, but it came. I stretched my arms above my head, and I remembered my plans with Chunhei to go shopping in Myeongdong. I had somehow convinced the boys to leave me alone for the day, and I was going to take full advantage of it. I was going to have a normal day with my best friend for once, and I was very excited.

I searched through my closet for an outfit that would be cute enough to wear in a public that was approximately forty-three percent teenage boys (not that I had looked it up). Of course, nothing ever really seemed cute enough, but I finally settled on khaki shorts, a black top, and black running shoes that made me feel like an off-brand Lara Croft, which was further exasperated by the French braid my hair was pulled back into. I double-checked to make sure I had my phone, money, extra make-up, brush, and a mirror in my backpack. I took a step towards my bedroom door to leave but hesitated, glancing back at my desk drawer where I knew the gun from my grandfather was hidden. It wouldn't hurt to bring it with me, right? I didn't think that anyone would come after me, but, then again, people at least thought that I was the leader of a mafia, even if I wasn't. Who knew what Zico had spread around? After a minute of deliberation, I got the weapon out of the drawer and stashed it deep in my bag. I sighed. I would probably be the only one in Myeongdong ready for a fight.

I finally left my house at eleven, and it was only a few minutes until Chunhei and her mother pulled up in their car. I konocked on the front window to signal to my parents that I was really leaving before loping down my front lawn to the car. Chunhei greeted me as soon as I stepped into the vehicle.

"Hey, Ema." She smiled. I grinned as well.

"Good morning," Chunhei's mother said from the front seat.

"Good morning," I replied.

"Hey, hey - guess what!" Chunhei whispered excitedly.

"What?" I played along, giggling.

"I convinced my mom to just drop us off so we can walk around alone," she explained. I squealed. It wasn't every day that we were able to go around by ourselves.

"Awesome!"

I glanced out of the window. It took about twenty minutes to reach Myeong-dong from our neighborhood. Finally, Chunhei and I were able to ditch her mother and start down the busy street with the promise to take the correct bus when we were done and to not get lost.

"Hey, I want to go to H&M before we leave, okay?" Chunhei reminded me. I nodded. It was on the other side of the large shopping district. We had a while before we would reach that area.

"Yeah, fine. There's Spicy Color! I want to see what they have!" I replied, pointing to the clothing store. I walked up to the entrance, and my friend followed me.

The store was one of my favorites. It had a mixture of dresses and casual clothes, as well as a men's section that usually had at least a few boys from our school in it. There were not any at that time, however, and I was a little disappointed. I was soon distracted by a green and white striped dress.

"How does this look?" I asked. I held up the dress in front of myself.

"Good," Chunhei answered, "but it's a little light for you. You look better in either just pure white or darker colors." I sighed, but nodded and hung it back up. I cast it one last sad glance as we exited the store.

"I can't believe we didn't find anything in there." I pouted. Chunhei just rolled her eyes. She glanced over to the other side of the street.

"There's Nature Republic!" she exclaimed. Nature Republic didn't sell much that interested me, but they also endorsed JYJ, and had life-sized cut-outs by the front doors. We made our way through the crowd to stand in front of it. I slung my arms around the Jaejoong and Junsu figures.

"Chunhei, have you met my boyfriends? This is my hero, Jaejoong, and Xiah Junsu." I tried to keep a straight face. She giggled.

"You have two?" she questioned, playing along.

"I just couldn't choose, and they never made me. I love both of them equally."

"Have I introduced you to my fiance?"

"I don't believe so."

Chunhei walked over to stand next to the figure of a boy from EXO on the other side of the entrance.

"Ema, this is Kai. Kai, meet my good friend Ema," she introduced us. I bowed.

"A pleasure to meet you." I suddenly gave myself a British accent. Chunhei and I stood there for a few seconds in silence, then burst out into laughter. I noticed a couple of the store's staff laughng at us. I let go of the pictures with a regretful sigh. I wished that they were really my boyfriends, although I wasn't so sure that the actual men would be okay with a dating the same underage girl.

Eventually, around one o'clock, our stomachs began to growl. We looked at each other, silently agreeing on the same thing we always got - chicken on a stick from a lady who parked her food cart a block from where we were on chicken. It wasn't long before we found her. The woman selling the food was nice. She tried to talk to us about small things, like the weather and business and school, but then she mentioned something that I was actually interested in when she handed us our chicken.

"You girls be careful, okay?" she warned us.

"Of what?" Chunhei asked.

"Well," she sighed, "lately there have been rumors that Block B has been active around here. A girl studying at the university went missing a couple of days ago. Don't go off with any strange boys."

At her words, I automatically glanced around for Zico or one of his friends but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"I'm sure we'll be fine. Thank you for the food." Chunhei flashed a quick, forced smile and pulled my arm to get me to move. I reluctantly followed. I had actually wanted to hear more about the girl who had gone missing. My thoughts turned back to Chunhei as she spoke again.

"That's so stupid. It's the middle of the day; why would we have to watch out? It's not like I'm going to do what some creepy-looking guy says if he offers me candy," she groaned.

"Who says he has to look creepy? They could dress perfectly normal or even be that cute blondie standing in front of Starbuck's," I countered, nodding in the direction of a boy in line to our left. She rolled her eyes.

"Please, Ema. That guy is way to cute to be in a gang. I mean, think about it. At our school, who is the one who's most likely in Block B - the pothead or the soccer team captain?"

I really had a problem with Chunhei's logic sometimes, especially when it was as ironic as that. I had talked to the school's addicts a few times. They had allowed their brains to rot and weren't the nicest people ever, but they were usually too out of it to actually do anything. And the soccer team captain? That would be Woo Jiho, AKA Zico, who was not only in Block B, but one of its leaders.

"Whatever. Besides, Block B's a mafia, not a gang," I said.

"There's no difference," she argued.

"There is too," I muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"There's the candy store." Chunhei gestured to the doors. I grinned, brushing off our previous conversation, and we walked in. There were so many bright colors on the walls and shelves. Even the workers' uniforms were pink and cutesy. I had applied for a job there a couple weeks earlier. The person that they needed to replace was not leaving until a month later, so I had not heard if I had gotten the job.

I broke my gaze at the front counter and looked around for Chunhei, who had already run off somewhere. She was probably looking at lollipops or chocolate, or, better yet, chocolate lollipops. I was right. I went in her direction. As I got closer, I realized that she was talking to someone. It was a boy that was a little older than us. He had curly brown hair and was wearing all black - a tank top, baggy pants, and tennis shoes. He had a lollipop sticking out of his mouth and a large grin on his face.

"Hey, Chunhei!" I cut in. She glanced at me, but quickly turned back.

"Oh, hey. What's up?" she asked, clearly still focused on the boy in front of her. I looked between the two of them.

"Who's this?" the boy inquired.

"This is-" she began.I cut her off, worried that her flirtations would grow. I wanted to stop her before she reached the level of starting to embarrass herself.

"Ema," I introduced myself, "I'm Ema."

"I'm Taeil," he replied, one corner of his mouth remaining turned up.

"Have I met you somewhere before?" I furrowed my eyebrows. I was sure that I had seen him before, but I couldn't remember where.

"I don't think so. I'm sure I would remember a princess like you." He bowed in a mock-gallant fashion. I rolled my eyes. He and Chunhei would get along just fine, but there was something about him that made me feel uneasy. Chunhei laughed at his comment and flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"Isn't he so sweet?" she gushed.

"Yeah, sweet," I responded sarcastically, "So, Taeil, how old are you?"

"Eighteen."

I looked to Chunhei, who apparently was not surprised.

"Look, you know that she's four-" Chunhei stopped me by clapping her hand over my mouth.

"That I'm fine. Right, Ema?" She jerked her head a little bit, signalling for me to go somewhere else.

"Fine. Got it. I'm gonna go pay for this stuff," I surrendered. Chunhei smiled again and turned back to the flirt. I picked up a couple pieces of chocolate from between them and made my way back to the front to check out. They were both too weird.

"Good afternoon. Will this be all today?" the clerk said.

"Yes," I responded.

"Okay then, that's five dollars," he told me. I handed him the money and grabbed the bag of sweets in return. I spun around to go back to get Chunhei. I really didn't want to stand around all day while she flirted. I went back to the section that they had been in, but there was only a family with two young children. I looked around again.

"Chunhei?" I called. No one answered.

"Chunhei!" I shouted. Still, she did not reply. I sighed and pulled out my phone to call her. It went straight to voicemail. I cursed. That boy - Taeil - was not around anywhere either. I remembered the vendor's words from earlier. My face grew pale. 

I ran out of the store, hoping to see one of the two somewhere among the crowd. To my dismay, there was not a trace of them. I ran farther down the sidewalk, calling her name. I ended up back in front of the chicken stall from before. It was closed. I looked at the face of every passer-by, but none of them resembled Chunhei or Taeil.

I had lost Chunhei.

I groaned. How could I have been so stupid? I should not have trusted that boy. After everything that the woman had said, Chunhei had still gotten herself kidnapped. It was probably very easy to bring her somewhere alone, unnoticed. They most likely had walked out together hand-in-hand.

I suddenly realized where I had seen Taeil before.

Block B.

I silently cursed at myself. If she had been taken by one of Zico's men, there was a chance that I could get her back at some price. I had learned that nothing from Zico was free, but that didn't matter to me; I just needed to get Chunhei free. I had to find out when the next bus to my neighborhood would leave, and then I could go to Zico's house and tell him what had happened. As I made my way, I shot him a text telling him exactly what I thought of him and ordering him not to let anyone lay a finger on Chunhei.

I had just made it to the bus stop when a familiar flash of a grin caught my eye. I looked again. It was the masked boy that had been following us. I hesistantly took a step towards him, unsure of whether I should follow him or wait for the bus. He glanced back and met my gaze evenly. He continued around a corner. My decision was made. I ran after him.

I reached the corner that he had turned around. I couldn't see him for a few seconds, but saw him again at another turn farther ahead. I pushed past the people in my way and followed. He had gone down a side street that was slightly more deserted. We continued like that until I realized what he was doing. He was leading me away from other people - away from witnesses.

It was too late. We were alone at a dead-end road. His back was facing me. I was breathing heavily from all of the running. I reached inside my purse and felt the reassuring and somewhat comforting handle of my gun. I did not pull it out.

"Who are you?" I questioned. He remained silent.

"Answer me!" I yelled.

This time, he turned to face me. I was able to see his features clearly. He was taller than I was, with dark brown hair. I was serious when I said that he was tall. I honestly didn't know that people could grow that much. It made me feel short.

"You know me," he told me. I could tell that he was smirking. He lazily pulled off his mask. I inhaled sharply. He was handsome. I was not even going to try and deny it.

"I... I do?" I asked. I thought that I would have remembered someone that looked him.

"Of course. Everyone knows me," he explained calmly. 

"Sure they do," I sighed, not enjoying his game, "Why are you following me? And what did you do with Chunhei?" 

He raised an eyebrow.

"Who?" he asked.

"Chunhei! The girl you took!" I gritted my teeth together. My fingers moved from my gun to my phone. I hit the first number on speed dial, and hoped that they would pick up.

"I honestly have no clue what you're talking about. The only girl that I'm 'taking' today is you," he laughed lightly. My eyes narrowed.

"Quit playing!" I snapped.

"I'm not," he denied.

"Hello?" I could barely hear Rome's voice from the speaker on my phone.

"Look, everything will be so much simpler if you just stop fighting," the boy sighed.

"No way! You're like a total creep!" I backed up towards the other street.

"Ema? What's going on? Are you okay?" Rome's voice asked frantically through the phone. My hand wrapped around my gun once more.

"Come on, I haven't got all day." The person across from me took a few steps forward. He nodded, looking past me. I turned quickly. There was another man standing there with others behind him. He looked exactly like the first man, but with pinkish hair. I steeled my gaze and pulled out my gun. They chuckled.

"What? Are you going to shoot us?" the first asked from behind me.

"I will! Stay away!" I ordered. The boy just rolled his eyes and gestured for one of his men to come for me. The goon took a step forward. Without even thinking, I aimed and shot his knee. He cried out and fell down.

"Ema?" Rome called again, "Was that a gun?"

"You-" the pink-haired one began. I shot again, but wildly this time. The bullet embedded itself in the wall next to another man. He started to advance, but the pink-haired man held out his arm to stop him. I smirked.

"Wait," he told them.

"Leave me alone, got that?" I started to lower the gun. It was his turn to smirk. I looked at him, confused. Then I remembered the boy with brown hair. I began to turn, but he caught me from behind and a cloth was pressed over my nose and mouth. I tried to scream through it, but when I took a breath in, I became dizzy. I dropped the gun and my hands fell to my sides. My body slumped to the ground.

"Ema? What's going on?" Rome sounded worried. I wanted to tell him where I was.

"She has a phone!" someone snitched.

"Turn it off then!" one of the boys replied.

"Ema? Where are you? Answer m-"

Everything went dark. I felt myself being lifted and nothing else after.

=========================================

I'm not sick anymore thanks to my readers' love :3

I've been wanting to watch Clueless lately since it got added to Netflix, but I can't get past the fact that the love interest is her step-brother. That's too weird for me. Does anyone have any rom-com recommendations for me to watch?

from your evil author,

Juliette