You sat at your usual lunch table with your best friends Ji Eun, Young Jae and Jong Up. You were discussing the party that the popular girls of your school were throwing this Friday.

  “Oh my gosh, we have to go there. It’s going be the party of the year!”  Ji Eun squealed.

  “What’s so great about a party the Devils are throwing?” you asked and bumped fists with Jong Up.  The Devils was your nickname for the popular girl-gang, because that’s what they were. Little devils from hell trapped in perfect, stereotypical teenage girls’ bodies.

  “Come on. I’m sure they’re not that bad once you get to know them”, she continued with a smile.

  You rolled your eyes at her. Ji Eun was always trying to find the best in people. She’d always been sweet like that. That was one the many reasons you loved her.

  “JiJi (it was your nickname for her), yesterday Jessica called a new freshman a stupis , because she bought her a coke instead of a diet coke. I don’t think there’s a deep down to any of them”

  “_____ , we don’t have to like them to go to their party. Ji Eun’s right, it could be a lot of fun”, Young Jae stepped in.

  “That’s true. If we get bored, we can just find some toilet paper and TP the backyard!” Jong Up continued.

  “The TP part does sound fun. But I have a quiz tomorrow and I need to study”

  Ji Eun raised her left eyebrow. “How could possibly have a quiz? School started two weeks ago”

  You shrugged. “Don’t ask me. All I know is that I have to memorize all the names, locations and capitals of every country in Asia by tomorrow and the only one I remember is Korea”.

  You tried to hide it, but the truth was that you didn’t want to do anything tonight. You didn’t want your friends to know that you preferred staying in and reading a good book to partying like there’s no tomorrow. It was just the way you were, but it didn’t mean people had to know about it.

  Jong Up gave you a meaningful look and you looked back at him with an innocent smile. He rolled his eyes, obviously not believing your excuse.

  “Fine, we’ll have fun without you”, Young Jae said and put her arm around Ji Eun. They’d been together ever since the 7th grade and it was rather disgusting to see them fawn over each other in front of you every single day.

  “Get lost, before I throw up!” you said and smirked as the couple made their way across the cafeteria and into the small hallway.

  “I love them, but sometimes I want to kill them”, Jong Up said as soon as they were out of sight.

  “Tell me about it”, you answered and shook your head.

  As you looked around in the cafeteria, you laid your eyes on a tall, dark haired guy, sitting alone at a table. He was wearing a dark hoodie and he kept his head down, avoiding any eye-and physical contact with other people. The guy’s name was Bang Yongguk and he’d been known as the “black sheep” of your town for as long as you remembered.

  You sighed as you turned away from him and met your friend’s eyes again.

  “Sometimes I feel bad kind of bad for the guy. With all the rumors that go around about him and his family, it must be really hard for him get around”, you mumbled, making Jong Up nod slightly.

  “I guess so, but you don’t know him. For all we know, all of those rumors are true. I mean, something must’ve started them in the first place”, he explained in his normal, overprotecting manner.

  “Yeah and that something is called the Devils. They were the first ones to talk smack about him”, you argued. You weren’t usually the one defending strangers, but you’d never seen Bang Yongguk do anything worse than get into two fights during school hours.

  “Whatever you say. I need to get to class, I’ll see you later”, Jong Up said as he got up and patted you on the shoulder before walking off.

  You finished your meal and got up to take away your tray. As you walked across the cafeteria, you glanced one more time at the dark, lonely guy sitting at the corner table.

 

  After school you didn’t want to go straight home, so you decided to head to a small café in your neighborhood. Ji Eun and Yong Jae had headed straight home to get ready for the Devils’ party tonight and Jong Up had finished earlier than you, so you’d ended up going there alone. You didn’t mind; you appreciated getting some alone time every once in a while.

  You ordered the usual and sat down at a free table near the door. As you patted your hand against the table to the rhythm of a catchy song blasting through the speakers of the café, you saw a few familiar faces from your school stand around a table, talking loudly.

  You didn’t understand why they didn’t just sit down to have a conversation with whoever was sitting at the table. You reached over the crowd to see who that person was and once you saw that familiar dark hoodie, you realized the situation: the guys were harassing him.

  “Hey, I heard your dad got drunk last night at ta local bar and got into a fight. I guess violence runs in the family”, you heard a guy from your class, Jon Kyul, said and smirked, making the crow chuckle loudly. Yongguk stayed quiet, but looked up at the speaker and clenched his fists together.

  “What’s wrong, Bang Yongguk? Can’t handle the truth?” Jon Kyul continued, his smirk only growing wider.

  “I advise you to keep your mouth shut, unless you want to suffer the consequences”, Yongguk said with a low voice, never breaking eye contact.

  “Oh, the beast talks!” Jon Kyul said sarcastically, making another blast of laughter occur.

  You could tolerate gossip; it was just a natural part of high school, but harassing someone in their free time? For you, that was crossing a line. You didn’t care if the rumors were true, you still couldn’t just sit there and let those jerks bully someone.

  You got up hesitantly and started slowly walking towards the crowd of guys. Once you were at the table, the speaker spotted you.

  “Hey, ____”, Jon Kyul said and you could see the smirk widening even more, if that was possible. “Did you come here to enjoy the show?”

  “I wouldn’t exactly call you ganging up on someone who hasn’t done anything to you a ‘show’”, you said coldly and crossed your arms over your chest.

  “Oh, come on. You’ve heard the talk about this guy; you know everything that he’s done. Maybe not to us, but to others. We’re simply here to remind him never to turn on us unless he wants to get seriously injured”

  “What’s the point of that? Just to show that you have the upper hand? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so pathetic”

  Jon Kyul scoffed at your remark and turned his full attention from Yongguk to you. “Is that so? Would you like to take his place, then? I have lots to say about your family as well: especially your brother”

  The mentioning of your brother made you frown and bite your teeth together. Your brother had been in the same gang that Yongguk was rumored to be in currently. He’d disappeared a few years back, assumingly killed or kidnapped by another criminal organization. After two years of searching, your family had finally given up. You hadn’t talked to or about him since, because your mom had refused to let anyone bring it up again. Yet it seemed like many people still remembered what went around back then.

  “Don’t try to turn this around on me, Jon Kyul. You’re the one who’s low enough to gang up on someone”, you said, quickly letting his small remark slide.

  “Careful, ____. You don’t want to be associated with someone like him. People might think you work for the same gang”, Jon Kyul stated calmly, tiling his head.

  “Shut up!” Bang Yongguk’s scream echoed through the café, making other costumers turn their attention to the group of teenagers.

  Yongguk slowly got up from his seat. “I can take that kind of talk; I’m used to it, but you do not disrespect a lady like that”, he said as he walked up to Jon Kyul, flames of rage burning behind his eyes

  “Take your crappy attitude and your pathetic little squad and get out”, he ordered, staring into Jon Kyul’s eyes with rage. He clenched his fists together aggressively, obviously ready to make him leave if necessary.

  The action must’ve had the wanted effect, because the next sentence that came out of Jon Kyul’s mouth was: “You better watch your back, Bang Yongguk”. After saying that, Kyul and his buddies left the café, leaving you alone with Yongguk.

  You turned around to face him and – to your relief – you noticed that Kyul’s absence had made him calm down a bit.

  “Um, thanks for sticking up for me”, you said, unsure what you should say in this situation to a complete stranger.

  “Don’t thank me. It’s pretty obvious that you could’ve handled that guy on your own; you didn’t need my help. Just like I didn’t need yours”, he said emotionlessly and walked past you out of the café, leaving everyone to stare at you and whisper -  God knows what -  about the incident.

  “Would you like to take pictures? They’ll last longer”, you asked the crowd before you grabbed your coffee from your table and stormed out of the café. You weren’t about to deal with looks and questions from people, who had nothing better to do with their lives.

  You lived pretty nearby, so you decided to walk home. It was only a few blocks away, anyway. You plugged in your headphones and listened to a playlist you made a few weeks back, filled with your favorite songs. You sighed and tried to concentrate on walking, instead of thinking about what had just happened. Yet you couldn’t help your mind from wandering back to that moment.

  Deep in your thoughts, you hadn’t realized that you’d passed your house and arrived at a local park near the town center. You looked around you, trying to figure out which way ked back to your neighborhood, but every road seemed to lead to the same direction. It had already gotten dark and you really didn’t like being out at night, alone.

  You took out your phone and checked if you had any signal. Luckily, you had three bars and that was enough to make a quick phone call to your older sister. You dialed her number and waited for her to pick up.

  “_____-ah! Where are you? Mom and I have been worried sick!” her angel-like, high-pitched voice said on the other end of the line.

  “Jo Lin, calm down. I’m fine, I just went out for a cup of coffee and-“

  “Yeah, I heard about that”, Jo Lin interrupted you. “My friend told me she saw you fraternizing with Bang Yongguk. Have you completely lost your mind?”

  “I wasn’t fraternizing, I was just defending him. These guys were harassing him and-“

  “And it’s not your problem!” Jo Lin interrupted her yet again. “Our family doesn’t need any more bad publicity. Not after, you know”, she continued, referring to their brother.

  “Alright, alright. I won’t talk to him again”, you said, trying to calm your sister down.

  “Good. Now, why’d you call me? Did you daydream and walk past the house again?”

  You bit your lip, embarrassed. “Maybe”, you admitted.

  You heard Jo Lin grunt loudly on the phone. “Fine, where are you? I’m coming to get you”, she asked.

  “I’m at the park. Don’t be too long, it’s really dark”

  “Yeah, yeah”, Jo Ling said frustrated and hung up the phone.

  You put your phone back into your pocket and looked around yourself nervously. You hoped that you wouldn’t see many people; the park wasn’t usually crowded after dark, anyway. The only people who spend time there after dark were druggies and criminals. No reason to worry.

  Ten minutes went past, then twenty. You were getting more and more anxious and were just about to call you sister, when you heard a loud thud. Well, it wasn’t a thud. It was more like a bang.

  You turned to the source of the sound and saw two men in the distance. One of them was on the ground, screaming of pain and one of them was standing in front of him with some kind of metallic object in his hand. It looked familiar, almost like - a gun.

  The man with the gun quickly hid his weapon and ran off into the darkness, leaving the other man lying on the ground, still dwelling in pain.

  You were scared: you didn’t want to believe what you’d just witnessed. You still couldn’t let that man die because of your fear. You jumped up and ran over to him, making sure no one was around him or following you.

  The young man was lying on the grass, his shirt covered in blood and his face sweaty and teary. He was still howling from the pain and it was obvious that he was surprised to see you.

  “Oh my God. Are you- Where you shot?” you asked, knowing what a ridiculous question it was after that gunshot you’d heard. The man nodded quickly.

  You kneeled down next to him. “Try to hang in there. I’ll call for help”, you said unsurely. Who should you call in this situation? The police? The emergency center? You parents?

  You were just about to dial a number, when you felt someone grab your arm and pull you up. You turned to look at the person, your face laced with fear. Once you saw who it was, an odd wave on relief flew through you.

  “You really can’t keep your nose out of other people business, can you?” Yongguk asked as grabbed your wrist and started pulling you away. “Come on, we have to go”

  “Wait, what? What about him? What’s going on?” you asked and pointed at the dying man.

  “He’s a lost cause. You can’t help him, no one can. Now unless you wanna end up like him, I suggest you follow me”, he answered and pulled you behind him into the night.

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Heyy! So, the first chapetr is FINALLY here! I'm so sorry it took so long, I totally spaced. Sawrry~ ^.^ Anyway, I hope you guy enjoyed this chapter and I'd really love it if you shared your opinions in the comments. Don't worry, there's plenty of more to come:  I've already written most of chapter 2! I'll probably update this later on this week, but until then, bye! ~ El

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