Irene looked down at her cast. She felt nervous. It had only been a day since she was gone, but she was nervous nonetheless. She was going to face Vasco, Zoe and possibly Yui all over again. She was going to be seeing her other friends too, but this time she would be with a cast and black eye. Having a black eye was now her newest insecurity.
The morning was crisp with all the students turning the corners of their neighborhood's to get in the gates of their lower class high school. Irene kept her eyes down on the pathway in front of her as Daniel walked beside her with a yawn.
She was still trying to process how and who paid for her hospital expenses. It all seemed so surreal. She was bawling her eyes out just yesterday to be told that someone paid for it. Who had that kind of money to pay 21,000 dollars? It was giving millionaire, but Irene didn't know a single millionaire. She never even told anyone the expenses. She didn't have the time to before she was called. She didn't want to reach, but she had an idea on who, who she met just yesterday.
"Irene, stop worrying about it. Just be thankful." Daniel sighed, looking at his sisters eyes spaced out into thought. She didn't stop thinking about it all last night and this morning.
"I cant. Who has that kind of money to spend on other people? I didn't even tell anyone the cost." SHe said and glanced up at her beautiful brother.
"Just be happy it happened and move on. You got lucky and thats it." He said and linked arms with his sister as she looked back down at the ground again. "Mira and Zoe missed you yesterday. They kept asking me every hour how you were doing. Duke and Jiho too."
"Duke and Jiho too?" Irene repeated with the endnote raised a little in surprise.
"Yeah, they seemed pretty worried about you too." Daniel answered and pulled the front glass door open for Irene to walk in. She thanked him and they together walked down the hallways.
Everyone spun around as the whispers flew around like wild fire. They all looked at Irene's black eye as they walked together. Her white, blank cast was visible to everyone with her hand bandaged. She wore thick stockings to hide the bruises and scrapes on her legs.
Irene was nervous to face everyone, although her story was pretty solid.
"Irene! We missed you so much!" Zoe threw her arms around Irene. Irene stumbled back at the force to see Mira standing outside the classroom doors waiting for Irene and Daniel.
"Hi..." Irene smiled and put her uncasted arm around Zoe. Zoe smiled and pulled back to let Mira wrap hr warm arms around Irene. There they stood, shocked to see Irene's under eye bone socket bruised with dark purple and blue in a line curved around her eye.
"Aww. Are you okay?" Mira pouted with her lower lip puffed out like a child as she glanced down at her blank cast.
"Im fine. Sorry, about not telling you guys what happened." Irene smiled and glanced over at Zoe's uncomfortable face. She knew what happened and they both felt bad for lying to Mira. Mira probably wouldn't have lied to them about what happened to her, but since they were both keeping up this fake image they couldn't tell her nor the class. Very few people knew what happened and it would stay that way.
Irene stepped into the class. Everyone whipped around at Daniel's presence and looked over to see Irene and her friends. She had a noticeable black eye with a new white cast. Irene held her head low as the girls walked in together.
After the girls quieted down and went back to their normal routine of Zoe gossiping to Irene and Mira while Irene nodded with Mira. He hated to catch her at such a bad time, but he knew if he used someone like her photo the three guys would definitely be there. Irene wasn't listening much, but she heard Daniel and Zack talking to one of the rich kids in her class.
"So, they stole all of it?" Zack asked with a stern tone. Irene nodded along with Zoe and Mira's laughing before they walked back to their spots together toward the front of the class. She saw Nam-soo had just come up to them looking terrible. His face was discolored and swollen with a giant patch on the other side of his face. She looked similar to him too.
He looked sad and worried after telling Zack everything that happened that Irene missed, but now she wanted to know. He looked worried at what Zack might say or do to him. Unfortunately, before Zack switched from bully to troublemaker, Nam-soo happened to be one of his victims.
"I really should have gone." Zack said, scratching the back of his head, guiltily. "It's my fault. I hope you're not lying to me."
Nam-soo flinched at the normal words.
"Zack, whatcha doing?" Yui came up to Zack and Daniel's chairs. Irene glanced p at the familiar voice. Yui stood there with a smile, not noticing Irene sitting behind her brother since her eyes were completely glued onto Zack. Daniel told her all about Yui's new crush on Zack after last night and she told Daniel to apologize to Irene for her.
"Oh, Yui?" Zack glanced up at the pretty girl standing before him with her hand clutched around her other arms wrist. "Just this and that."
"You said you still have their messenger contact?" Zack asked. The twins were now both invested in what was happening between the two.
"Oh, yeah. Its still there." Namsoo nodded and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He clicked on the messenger app and swiped to the 'girls' profile. "Her."
He flipped his phone around and showed Zack who it was, but Irene and Daniel shifted their curious eyes over to the screen. There was a beautiful girl with died blonde hair showing off 3/4 of her face and doing a cute pose at an angle.
"Wow! It was a girl?" Zack asked and looked back up at Namsoo. Namsoo nodded, but there was a catch to his words.
"No, i thought it was a girl, but a bunch of guys showed up with her." He said and pointed his finger up with a smile.
"Oh, wow." Yui said beside him after looking at the girls profile too.
"Now, i know the whole story." Zack said with a giant smirk. The aura around him turned scary. Irene and Daniel shifted away from him and his energy.
"That fake phone is worth money. They'll max its use until they're reported." Yui said.
"She's right. They don't last for long at all." Irene said, still sitting behind Daniel and Zack's desks. They both turned to her, surprised to hear her listening in.
"Find the number on the site you found it and im sure you'll be able to go set a meeting up with them." Irene explained. Daniel and Zack glanced at each other before Zack looked back up at Namsoo and nodded to him. Namsoo went straight away to the messenger and found lists of scams all for the same exact item—the shoes.
"Woah! Here it is! So these are all of those punks fake items!" Namsoo exclaimed and scrolled with his phone through the other different expensive items that were way under priced to be true.
"You could use your own number to pretend you're interested in buying something form them, Zack." Irene said and watched his angry face transition into a wide, mischievous, revenge driven grin.
"That way i can meet these rip off con artists in person." He said through his clenched pearly teeth and wide grin.
"Zack, first change your profile picture and text them." Yui instructed. His smile faded a bit as he started to look up good looking pictures of himself.
"I bet if they think theyre talking to a push over like Namsoo they'll come." Yui said, but then glanced over at Irene. "Or a pretty girl to make sure you get them as quick as you can and all of them."
"Oh, i see." Zack nodded and turned arond to Irene. Irene raised her eyebrows and sat straight up with her aching back.
"I would pick Mira, but i dont want those cons to look at her. She's way out of their league." He said, looking Irene straight in the eye. Irene had to admit that pinched a bit at her heart strings.
"Irene's out of their league too." Daniel butt in, not wanting his sister to get looked at too. Irene went through so much with the crazy fan. Plus, she still had her black eye.
But she was the perfect subject.
"Hey, Irene." Zack twisted his back in his chair. Irene lifted her head from her papers of homework Daniel decided to 'accidentally' forget.
"No." Daniel glared at him.
"Come on, dude. She'd be more than willing to do it and all the guys would definitely be there." Zack glared at Daniel.
"I don't mind. I can meet the guys as long as you and Zack are there i doubt they would be able to even talk tome before getting punched." Irene said to her brother. She wanted to help Zack out. She knew what it was like to get your money taken from you. It felt defeating and weakening. She wanted to help Zack in any way she could. She also owed him for keeping quiet about Logan and the whole incident.
She knew he must've figured it out to some degree. You'd have to be an idiot to not understand at this point. Especially with Daniel's big mouth telling everyone.
"Look." Yui snatched Zack's phone out of his hand and bent down and took a picture. The picture was perfectly avoiding her black eye and captured her high nose bridge, plump lips, big doe eyes, flawless jawline and the lighting was so perfect it made a slight glare on her glasses to hide the black eye.
"Look." Yui showed Daniel. Daniel looked at the picture. Even though she was his sister he still had to admit she was gorgeous. She was idol material. The picture almost looked fake due to her being so pretty.
"Use it." Irene said, looking her brother dead in te eye. She knew he was still trying to be considerate about her. He was trying to let everything that happened to her sink in. Irene was terrified to this moment about him. She was so scared she had a nightmare about him as soon as she fell asleep and hasnt been able to fall asleep for the past night.
But she needed to face her fear of camera's now. She was scared, sure, but camera's were a lot to do with society now. Taking pictures and giving the 'aesthetic' meant a lot in the current age group she was born into.
"Fine. Just use a fake name." Daniel sighed and looked at her with a defeated expression. He knew what Irene was doing. She was trying to force herself to overcome such a trauma she would never be able to. She would never escape what happened to her only two nights ago. She was trying to make sure that this was all behind her to take care of others as usual. She was so selfless it was annoying.
He had to give in or she wouldn't be happy. She would only try to prove herself further.
"Bella Kim sounds fake enough, right?" Yui asked. Irene and the others nodded. She knew her brother was breaking her apart on why she was so persistent.
"Okay 'hello. Id like to buy the Jordan uptempo in person.'" Zack read out loud as he typed on his phone. Irene, Namsoo, Yui and Daniel all watched over his shoulder.
Not a moment later did they get a text back.
"Oh! They replied!" Zack raised his voice, excitedly. Irene and the others jumped up, not expecting them to answer so quickly.
Con artist:
Hello~
Wow. Are you using your photo?
"Wow. This guys thirsty." Zack smiled and rolled his eyes at the desperation.
"Tell them yes." Yui quickly said. Zack typed in 'yes. Lol, is there something wrong? haha.' To try and give off the effect of a bubbly and carefree girl.
Con artist:
No, not at all. You're really pretty.
How about at Gian station? If you come i'll give you a personal discount ;)
"I think he forgot his profile is a girl." Yui mumbled over Daniel's shoulder. The others nodded and kept their eyes on the texts between the two. They all knew he was a guy from the way he kept trying to flirt with her and tell her how pretty she was.
"Good thing we used Irene. She's good." Zack said with a giant smirk at the thought of getting to surprise jump attack this guy.
"They told me Gian was half-way meet up!?" Namsoo yelled, pulling on one of the strings of the lie.
"They must live near Gian station, but they lied. It must be a common trick." Yui said. Irene and Daniel then started to pick up on how much she really knew about all this stuff. Irene knew about phones, but this girl seemed to know all about this kind of scamming thing.
"hey, Yui? How do you know all this stuff?" Daniel asked, looking up at her.
"Oh! My ex was a scammer too, so i saw it a lot." She answered, completely casually and innocently, before turning to Zack with a blush and a smile. She started to fidget with her hands, flusteredly. "Without Zack, he'd still be around."
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Zack mumbled quietly and cocked his head over to Mira. Mira was sitting with her back to them, but Irene knew she was listening. She would usually be talking with Zoe or Lia, but now she was oddly still with a 'blind eye.'
"So, you just watched while your boyfriend did all that?" Daniel asked. Irene, Zack and Namsoo glance dup at her pink cheeked face. Irene however, might've had a good idea why.
"Uh...Its 'cause i was scared of him. He was the cool guy at school and a senior. And he was the only one i had..."
***
The group were all waiting and anticipating until the end of the school day. Irene and Daniel talked, but he was adamant about her not getting to go. She loved her brother because he wanted to protect her and keep her safe, but there was something she needed to prove to him. She needed to prove she was okay.
She really needed him to trust her.
The last bell of the day rung in their class. Zack was so anxious and ready to punch these guys he went to the gym for lunch and practiced on the punching bags. Irene and Daniel were pretty quiet and had their time to forget it in all honesty. Irene was a little saddened that she didnt get to see Vasco or Jace the entire day. She even went to their usual lunch table, but there was no sign of the architecture duo.
Irene finished some of the homework that would usually take everyone days, but took Irene fifteen minutes. She was packing her bag up when she looked up and saw Zack standing up with a wide grin.
"Lets go." Zack ordered and rose out of his chair beside Daniel.
Zacks lackey's joined too and stood up out of their chairs with him. Daniel and Irene were thinking the exact same thing. With those three joining no doubt about it there would be a bigger fight than just Zack.
Zack glanced back at Irene and Daniel. He needed Irene to bait them, but otherwise that was it. Irene packed her bag and slung the strap over her shoulder. She stood up and pushed her chair in. Daniel glanced back at her with a look of 'what the hell are you doing?'
"Good thing we only had Am classes."
"Should we take the metro?" Doo asked the other two lackeys.
"We'd meet them at Gian station at 3."
"That is a rough neighborhood." They all talked amongst each other. Yui came behind Irene and tapped on her black hoodie. Irene twisted around to see her looking down at her feet with a guilty expression. She looked nervous by the shift of her legs.
"Hey, i just wanted to say sorry on my own and give you this for your eye." She said with a quick glance up at Irene. She felt terrible about what she said about her and what her boyfriend did to her. The amount of rumors she started about Irene probably would break down a popular girl, but Irene always came off as the opposite and turned the rumors around.
She held a small tube out to Irene. Irene looked down at the clear bottle with a light skin tone liquid inside.
"Its concealer. Its expensive and has really good coverage. I figured since we have the same skin tone it would help out with your black eye." She mumbled. Irene smiled and looked up at Yui. She seemed genuinely apologetic and Irene believed in change to a certain degree.
"Thank you, Yui." Irene smiled and took the tube in her hand and dipped her head to her/
"Hey, just relax. We can go on our own." Zack said behind Irene. Irene whipped around to see her brother standing along with the other boys. She knew he would come and she wasn't worried about him either for once.
"Haha. Sorry, i was just packing my things up."Daniel said with a small smile. He pushed his chair in and grabbed his bag to follow along with the 5 others.
"Haha. So slow." Doo commented with the others chuckling at Daniel. Irene realized right then and there it looked like the three thought of Daniel as a part of their group. He didn't really seem to get along with Zack, but Zack didn't seem to get along with many people at all.
"Lets go." Zack mumbled and walked with Irene following behind. She waved to Zoe and Mira a small bye and followed Zack tall, lean frame in front of her. She felt a little awkward around him, but it was decent since her brother was beside her. She felt like a bug with the two giants.
"Im scared." Daniel quietly muttered into Irene's ear. Irene cracked a small smile and glanced up at him.
"You're such a baby." She smiled.
"No, im not!" He whisper yelled at her and shoved her in the arm, making her stumble away toward Doo and his lackeys. Even though they apologized and promised to never touch her she didn't trust them still.
Zack was quiet as he led the others down the stairs. He felt slightly left out with Doo and his friends talking among each other and the siblings talking among each other. He was pissed. He felt guilty for Namsoo getting beaten up and using Irene's picture right after she came back with a broken arm.
The mildly cold air slammed into the others as soon as they walked out the front doors. Irene tensed up and linked arms with her brother even though her legs were starting to grow goosebumps. They walked out through the gates to the tall neighborhood buildings surrounding the school. The streets were littered with other students smoking and heading home early.
"Youre a baby." Daniel muttered with his sister looking down at her phone and checking her messages.
"Quiet, hag." She quietly insulted with only Zack hearing the to mutter insults to each other the entire time they were walking around. He never really listened to the two fighting each other so much, but it was amusing.
"When will you stop going through menopause?" Daniel asked as he walked.
"Shut up." She sighed and looked up to see the two last people she excepted. Jace and Vasco were watering a patch of grass and bushes shaded by some tree's. Irene cocked her head to the side in confusion. Vasco caught eyes with Irene and the group. A bright smile stretched across his face at the twins and Zack.
"Irene! Daniel! Where you headed to?" He asked, brightly. He hasn't seen Irene since she kissed him on the cheek before hopping in the ambulance and leaving. His mood was dunked a little by her black eye.
"Huh? Vasco?" Daniel questioned. Irene unlinked from her brother and walked ahead to Vasco and Jace with a smile. She was happy to see some of her closer friends. She still felt so indebted to Vasco for that night. He physically helped her, but Vasco's words that night really struck her.
The whole reason she was going was because she wanted to overcome her newly gained fear.
"Whatre you guys doing?" She asked and looked down at the watering pails in her hands. Jace gave her a look from behind Vasco. She couldn't quite make out what it meant, but she quickly understood.
"We planted seeds!" He smiled so brightly Irene had to smile back.
"What kind?" She asked and looked down at the moist dirt to the side.
"Fruits. I bought them 'cause they are tasty. We can share them at the end of their harvest." He said, blushing down at the excited girl too, but her demeanor changed quickly. She looked up at Jace and quickly realized why he was looking the ay he was.
"Euntae, what kind of fruits?" She asked.
"Durian. They call it the king of fruits." Vasco smiled happily and obliviously. Irene tucked her lips in a tight line and smiled. Tropical fruits could not be grown in Korea. Everyone knew that.
"Oh, thats alright, Euntae. Durians are good." She smiled. She didn't want him to get upset with himself if they never grew.
"What fruits do you like?" He asked with a sweet smile and watched her stand straight up with her neck cocked back to be able to look Vasco in the eyes.
"I like strawberries." She smiled and turned back around to the group looking at each other.
"Where are you guys headed?" Vasco asked his question from before again. Daniel explained the whole story about the shoes to the scam to Namsoo getting beaten up to them using Irene as a catfish to lure them in.
"Was that kid badly hurt?" Vasco asked, seriously.
"Yeah. It's sad..."Daniel nodded with his voice trailing off.
"Bastards. Lets go together." Vasco demanded and turned his eyebrows downward. Irene smiled at him. His morals really did make him attractive in her eyes. They just had to mention bullying and there Vasco was to help the weaker out.
"What?! Vasco, then you should go with our guys." Jace quickly said, admiring Vasco's ability to jump into a dangerous situation so blindly.
"No. just relax and plant the seeds. I'll be back soon. Be nice to each other while im gone." Vasco said sternly to Jace and stepped beside Irene. Irene was envious of his height and build.
Zack was quiet. Vasco was infamously strong, Daniel was a mix of fast and strong and he was a fast guy. With this group including Irene it was a power house in itself.
"Hey. You guys stay here too. I'll go with Daniel and Irene." Zack said to the guys behind him. Irene glanced at their smirking faces. They probably didn't want to go since they had no reason.
"Yeah, okay." Doo shrugged.
"Lets go grab a bite."
"Sure. I mean, theres no reason for us to go."
"No! Shouldn't we all go?" Daniel jumped, trying to convince the others to come along. Irene smiled at him. He really wanted the back up when he took someone like Zack down.
"With too many people it will be tricky." Zack said flatly.
"Huh?!" Daniel's voice peaked at that.
Irene and jace looked up at the three. They were all impeccable fighters. They were all strong, fit, tall fighters that no body would have to worry about. They could probably take down a whole mob with their kind of teamwork.
Now that Irene was looking up at them. They all truly seemed like they could be the big three in an iconic story.