My stare was blank but my mind was anything but. There were so many things running through my head; it seems nearly impossible for one’s brain to work in such a way. I kept clenching and unclenching my hands, hoping to grasp even the tiniest of clues as to how I managed to be placed in the position that I’m in. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that someone framed me as a e—and to top it all off, a e that steals from gangs no less! I honestly cannot think of a single person I know that would be involved in gangs, and why they would try to involve me in said gangs. The only people I really talk to—besides my parents—is Que-Min and Meredith, an American transfer student who’s in the same night class that I take. I barely even speak to Meredith half the time. She just asks me how my day is in broken Korean and I reply in the best English possible that my day’s been okay. Even still, I highly doubt that girl would be involved in gangs; she’s too innocent, tall but innocent.

This was seriously starting to make my head hurt.

“Do you have anyone you can call?” Zico asked from across the room. I almost jumped in surprise when he spoke up; I had forgotten that he was there, and where I was. I’m still in his apartment, sitting on his bed twiddling my fingers and working my brain around this whole deal. Zico’s been in the corner of the room doing god knows what, hopefully fixing this whole mess.

I glanced over at him and nodded. “Yeah, I need to call Que-Min.”

“Friend?” No, it’s Mother Saint-ing-Mary.

“Yeah.” I sighed.

And with that he handed me his cell phone, but before actually letting me take it, he pulled it back and gave me a look.

“You can call your friend to let them know that you’re okay,” he began, “but you can’t leave yet. I still have some questions for you.” Oh, for the love of . . . .

I rolled my eyes. “Anything else you might need me to do, your holiness? You know, seeing that you dragged me here to begin with, put me through hell, and still expect me to listen like a good little doggy.”

Zico groaned and tossed the mobile phone on my lap. “I just need to confirm a few things. Or would you rather walk out my door and get shot because of the you didn’t steal?”

My stomach dropped. He had a point; a really, really good point. Damn him and his good points. I looked down at the mobile device laying across on my lap. I couldn’t leave until I sorted everything out with this ego-maniac, find out who framed me and why, then go home and cry to Miss Moron; that is if she’s even home. I still have no idea where that idiot could’ve gone.

I picked up his phone—vaguely noting in the back of my head that it’s the latest iPhone, rich bastard—and quickly dialed Que-Min’s number. The phone rang seven times before going to her voicemail. I cursed and hit the phone off my leg, not caring that the phone wasn’t even mine or about the safety of my leg.

“Don’t break my phone because you’re pissed,” he scolded me, setting himself down on the bed a few feet away from me. I eyed him where he sat, not really wanting him to be near me at all. He got the message and raised a brow, but didn’t move. Cocky son of a—

The phone started ringing. I quickly glanced at the number and saw that it was Que-Min’s, but Zico snatched the phone out of my hands before I could answer it.

“Hey!” I yelled at him, but he just eyed the number on his screen. “It’s my friend so let me answer it.”

He gave me a look. “Tch, you’re really not in a position to be bossy.”

I rolled my eyes again. If I keep this up I’ll have a headache from hell later, but he seriously gets on my nerves. I snatched the mobile out of his hands and quickly answered the call.

“Hello?” I sounded desperate, but I wanted to hear my best friend’s voice. Hearing her speak would help calm me down, hell, anything that sounded familiar would calm me down.

“Hello, _______? Is that you!?” I nearly cried with relief.

“Yeah, yeah, it is,” I laughed. “Where are you? Are you okay? You’re not hurt are you?”

It was her turn to laugh. “Yes, yes, I’m fine. And I’m heading to the apartment, I should be asking you where you are and if you’re okay.”

“I lost you at the club, where the hell did you go?”

“I went to find the bathroom and when I got back you were gone, so what the hell, ________?”

I drew my brows together in frustration. “I’m in a lot of right now—“ I didn’t get to finish my sentence because a blond I know snatched the phone out of my hands again. “What the hell!?”

“Do not tell her anything, nothing at all,” he was glaring at me, but his eyes held an aura of seriousness that I didn’t think he had in him. He had the phone held behind his back and was speaking in whispers; why does he have to be so complicated? He continued in a hushed voice, “And do not mention my name or anything about where you are or what happened tonight. Just let her know you’re okay, and that’s it. Hang up.”

I was going to make a snappy comment about him not telling me what to do, but something in the look he was giving me and the tone of voice he spoke with told me that I should probably listen to him. So I bit my tongue and held my comments back and nodded my head. He gave me one last look before handing the phone back over to me; I could faintly hear Que-Min’s voice in the background, probably worried.

I put the phone back up to my ear.

“—do you mean you’re in some ? _______! What’s going on!? Answer me! Is everything okay?”

And then pulled it away from my ear. God, her voice is so squeaky when she’s worried.

I took a deep breath and glanced and Zico before speaking. I held eye contact with the blond idiot as I put the phone back up to my ear and spoke. “I just got lost is all; nothing too big.”

“Lost?” she didn’t sound convinced. Could you blame her? I wouldn’t believe that lie either.

“Yeah, I went looking for you because you disappeared and wandered around the block a bit too far. I got lost and some guy let me use his mobile phone.”

“Then why did you say you were in some ? You made it seem like you got in trouble or something. You seriously had me freaking out back there.”

I looked away from Zico and shook my head, glancing down at my hand that sat in my lap. “I guess I should’ve worded that a bit better then, right?” I laughed.

Que-Min groaned. “You shouldn’t be making jokes like that, _______! I don’t even know where you are!”

I shrugged even though she couldn’t see me. “You don’t need to worry. Meredith lives around this area so I’ll just go to her place.” That was a fat lie, I didn’t even know where that amazon lived. But Que-Min didn’t know that.

She huffed. “I figured you would’ve headed to the apartment instead of wander around. And you call me an idiot.”

My eye twitched. “Seriously? You shouldn’t have left without telling me in the first place, you moron!”

Zico made a noise and motioned for me to hurry it up. I nodded my head as I listened to my idiot of a friend yell at me on the other line.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah whatever,” I said. “Listen, Minnie,” I used her old nickname to get her attention. “I need to go, I’ll see you soon, and if not then I’ll call you from Meredith’s house. Okay?” She made a noise but agreed. We then said our good-bye’s and closed the lines. I looked at Zico and handed him his mobile.

“Why couldn’t I tell her where I was or what’s been going on?” I questioned him. “She’s my friend and has a right to know.”

He sighed. “Because it’s never really a brilliant idea to tell people about things like this, unless they’re involved or if you want to bring more into their lives. Getting people involved with gangs when they’re originally not tends to ruin people’s lives. So in the end, it doesn’t matter if they deserve to know or not.”

I shuffled my feet. “Oh.” That makes me feel better about this. Not. “So, do you have any ideas about how this whole thing started?”

Zico shook his head and flipped his phone around in his hand. “Not a clue. Someone must have it out for you,” he looked at me. “Who have you pissed off recently?”

I scrunched my nose up. I had one person on mind and if that lady was responsible for this I would personally murder her. “There’s this one girl, the bartender in that club—“

“Lily.” Zico interrupted me with a name.

I pushed my annoyance down and shook my head. “She wasn’t foreign, she was Korean as far as I could tell.”

He chuckled at my apparently not-so-oblivious obliviousness. “Lily isn’t her real name, it’s just the name she goes by, idiot.”

I bristled at that comment. Smug bastard. “How the hell was I supposed to know that?”

“And I highly doubt she would put a hit out on you like that,” he continued, ignoring me the entire way. “Unless you seriously pissed her off, which would take a lot. She’s a rather easy-going kind of girl.” Then he added as an afterthought, “What did you do anyway?”

I huffed. “I didn’t do anything. She was insulting my friend and I set her straight.”

This time Zico laughed out loud like he was mocking me, which he was. I crossed my arms and mustered up the best annoyed glare I could give him. I was seriously done with his bull. He calmed down a bit and looked at me with mirth in his brown eyes. “You really are an idiot, aren’t you?”

My arms dropped and so did my look. I didn’t even say a word as I stood up and headed straight for the front door. I should be able to remember where it is. Though in my defense, I was running for my life—or what I thought I was doing—when I last saw the gateway to my freedom. But I guess it doesn’t matter seeing as how Zico decided to grab my arm and question where I was going. Couldn’t he just let me go? I mean, this clingly-ness is getting annoying.

I whipped my head around and glared at him, tugging my arm free. “Where do you think? I’m leaving.”

He gave me a look and opened his mouth, apparently about to say something, but I cut him off.

“I don’t give a crap about gangs or whatever’s out there!” I stomped my foot like a child, but no s were given while doing so. “I just want to go home and forget this night ever happened. I don’t care about finding out who lied on me; I don’t care about you or this stupid gang ; I just want to leave this place and snuggle up with my favorite blanket in my favorite pajamas, call my mom, and pretend that everything that happened tonight didn’t happen! It’s not my fault that you can’t keep your gang in line and figure out who told who what and Sally, Sam, Sam, Sally!” Okay, I was just speaking jibberish there, but again, no s were given. Zico had a dark look in his eyes, but I was just so fed up with this that I didn’t even care. “So, let me go.” I hissed that last part out through my teeth to make a point, but apparently the blond bimbo didn’t like it too well. Or maybe my point was too sharp. Whatever.

His glare he gave me slowly turned into a smirk, standing up to his full height, making me feel just a tad intimidated. Jesus ing hell, he was tall. How tall was he, you ask? Tall enough to make me want to pee my pants. How could I not notice his height earlier?

Zico leaned in to me, nearly inches from my face still wearing that ing smirk. I quickly pulled my head back a bit, ready to bite his face off about being in my own face, but his face spoke first.

“–then just ing leave.” 

He didn’t say anything else, just walked pasted me and I heard a door unlock. I turned to follow him, my mouth slightly agape. Didn’t he just tell me I couldn’t leave? I mean, I’m happy that he’s telling me to scram, but his change of attitude really perplexed me. I glanced up at him and his face set me off even more. His eyes were so dull and stony, and his expression was completely blank. What was up with him? Did what I say upset him? I was just speaking the truth. And hell! What I just told him doesn’t even compare to all the stuff he’s put me through this past hour! Sheesh. Moody- gangster.

I kept a wary eye on him as I approached the door; he just looked at me and motioned for me to keep moving. I stepped out of his apartment and glanced around my surroundings. The place was pretty vacant, except for the few cars here and there, and the other rows of apartments as well. I couldn’t get a good look at the street sign, so I had no idea where I was. If I knew where the club was I could easily find my way home. I turned around to ask Zico if he could give me directions back to the club, but the look he gave me really, really put me even more off. He was smiling!

He tilted his head to the side and it creeped me out. I was about to say something, but he cut me off.

“Have fun, baby girl.” And with that he closed his door in my face. Have fun? Baby girl? I fumed. Who the hell did he think he was? Calling me stupid pet names and telling me stupid things like that?

Seriously, I can’t ing stand this idiot.

If he was talking about the other gangsters, I highly doubt they’ll be of any trouble to me. I’m mean, I’m me; I’m boring. There’s nothing special about me; I’m not famous or rich or anything like that, so what would gangsters want with me? It was probably a chance thing that what happened tonight just . . . happened. You know? So it’s probably best for me to just go home and forget everything.

Which is what I’ll do if I can ever find my way home.