Excited to bursting, Ari wandered from booth to booth, trying to take a look at all the events that the different departments had set up. Her left hand held a croissant in a sleeve of waxed paper, and her right held a stick of grilled chicken with some sort of honey glaze on it. Both of her wrists were weighed down with bags full of things. Jay followed a few steps behind her with a couple trays of drinks in his hands, which they were going to deliver to their friends who were tied up to their respective booths.
Ari had invited many of her friends and family to come visit her school's festival, but unfortunately, they were all busy working and couldn't come. Her parents were running the shop, of course, and both Hangyul Baek and the good-looking gangster from the library had also replied that they were unfortunately working at that time. Even Eugene-oppa had regretfully told her that he had to manage his own school's festival, which, by chance, was held on the same day as J High's. ("But I will certainly have that fixed by next year," he'd told her, which had made Ari wonder how much power student council presidents were supposed to have in private schools.)
The only person not busy with work was her cousin brother, who nonetheless couldn't come because he was otherwise occupied visiting someone on the other side of the country. Which was all fine, except for what he'd said after that...
"You know, you could try inviting that guy, too. He's a busy kid, but I know he'd make time to go if you called him."
"No! He's not invited! I don't care if he's busy or not!"
"Hey, come on. You know he was only trying to protect you... if you want to blame anyone, you should blame me, not him."
"Whatever, I said no! And don't you dare tell him anything! He's so annoying!"
Ari could feel her cheeks beginning to puff out even at the thought of that guy. Ugh. Hmph. So irritating.
"?" Jay asked, poking her cheek with a finger.
"No, I'm just remembering something annoying that my cousin brought up yesterday." Ari shook the useless thoughts from her head and looked around. "Oh look, it's Zack's booth!"
Ari passed her skewer into the hand holding the croissant and waved vigorously at Mira, whose turn it was to manage their class's booth.
"Mira~!"
"Hi, Ari," Mira smiled back at her, and then at Jay next to her. "Hi Jay. Did you come to watch Zack? Or did you want to give it a try? It's supposed to be $5, but I won't charge if you don't tell."
"Tempting," said Ari, peering over at Zack. He was hard at work weaving and dodging around feet, fists, half-cut pool noodles, and several rubber chickens, which had been Ari's personal contribution to the booth. It had been difficult to avoid explaining why she had them, but at least their loud, obnoxious squawking helped to attract more attention to the booth. "But we're just here to bring you guys some drinks and snacks while you're hard at work! Here, take these."
"Oh, peach iced tea and dough twists! Thanks, guys!"
Ari sent a wave towards Zack, who barely managed to wave back whilst ducking under the assault of several shrieking rubber beaks, before heading over to the Architecture Department's booth.
"Hey, what brings you here?" said Jace, who was handling the actual management of the booth while the other members of Burn Knuckles cheered Vasco on. The cheering seemed to have a lot of enthusiasm and very little effectiveness; Ari tactfully pretended not to notice the solitary tear going down Vasco's cheek.
"Hi Jace! We came to bring drinks and snacks." Under Jace's vigilant eyes, Ari turned towards Jay and plucked out one of the plastic cups from the tray he was holding. "The strawberry milk tea is Vasco's, and this coffee is yours. And we also got all sorts of stuff for everyone to share!" Ari thrust out one of the plastic bags on her arm.
"Oh," Jace said, blinking back at her in surprise. He took the bag gingerly from her. "... Thank you."
Jace probably didn't expect them to remember the existence of the rest of Burn Knuckles, including himself. After all, only Vasco had ever had any significant interactions with their group; even Jace's own interactions with Ari, personally, had been limited to trailing quietly behind them as Vasco's ever-watchful shadow.
But she could hardly only get something for Vasco and pretend everyone else didn't exist. It simply wasn't manners.
Before she left, Ari trotted over to encourage Vasco so he would stop crying. Hopefully this would help him feel better about the line-up of men; he would only end up crying more after they switched to the water balloon throw, anyway. "Come on, Vasco," she said, patting his broad shoulders. "You got this. Show everybody who's boss!"
When Vasco, looking very touched, opened his mouth to thank her, Ari took the chance to plop in the untouched grilled chicken skewer. He bit down instinctively and gave her a solemnly confused face.
"Protein is good for strength," she told him, giving him another firm pat on the back. Plus, it was hard to cry when you were eating something yummy. "Okay, have fun!"
Ari waved goodbye at everyone and left to go see what Zoe was doing. There were four drinks remaining in Jay's tray, and two of them had yet to meet their owners.
••••
Having come back from receiving her obligatory share of doting from Cho-il Ma and the other upperclassmen, Ari was just taking her place next to Jay when she heard Hwan Kim, the baking department upperclassman who was hosting the auction, tell Daniel: "If she wins, you're screwed."
Ari immediately looked at Jay, only to find that he was already staring at her.
"30!"
"50!"
"That is so unnecessary," she told him.
Jay kept staring at her.
"He'll be fine."
"300!"
Jay kept staring at her.
"1000! Nothing higher than $1000?"
"Okay, alright!" Under Jay's satisfied smile, Ari raised her arm and said, "2000!"
At the same time, on the other side of the stage, another voice also called, "2000 dollars."
"Two bidders! There are two bidders for $2000! Which of these two bidders is willing to take it a step further?"
"$2100," Ari said carelessly, craning her head to try to see who her unexpected new rival was.
All the way across the stage, slightly blocked by Daniel's body and the crowd of people, stood a taller girl in an unfamiliar school uniform that was, in Ari's honest opinion, much cuter than theirs. It also all but yelled 'elite private school', or maybe that was because of the girl's naturally elegant bearing.
The girl tilted her head to return her gaze, and Ari felt a small jolt of surprise when she realized that Daniel's newest bidder wasn't just anyone — it was the kind unni from the convenience store.
"$2500," yelled Lala Kim.
On stage, Daniel shifted his weight from side to side, out of anxiety or perhaps disbelief; around her, the audience did the same, bumping and jostling against each other to discuss the most memorable slave auction in the school's history. Amidst the movement, Ari caught a glimpse of some tall, well-built figure standing next to the girl from the convenience store. She couldn't quite see the man's face, but he seemed, for some reason, very familiar.
Without warning, Ari was hit by the powerful feeling that she was forgetting something crucial.
There was a light touch on her arm. Registering Jay's presence, Ari's mouth automatically moved to say, "$3500!"
There was a small intake of air from all around. Daniel turned to give Ari a puppy-dog look that managed to simultaneously express shock and gratitude.
Let's remind him to thank Jay later, she thought, lifting her face to send a friendly smile back at him. Except that Daniel's little movements finally allowed her to see past him, giving her a clear view of the tall man.
"We have $3500! Does anyone have a higher bid than $3500? $3500, going once!"
It was Handsome Library Oppa.
He was already looking at her.
Why was he here...?
The girl from the convenience store raised her arm again. "$7000," she said, in a brisk, confident voice.
Then, all of a sudden, Ari knew.
A beautiful, generous bidder at Daniel's slave auction, accompanied by a very strong bodyguard — it could only be one person.
That was Crystal Choi.
With a shocked gasp, Ari grabbed Jay's arm. Jay also paused, bemused by her reaction, and gave her a worried glance.
That was Crystal Choi. Which meant that the man next to her, the handsome gangster from the library, the cute older boy she had been texting almost daily for the past couple of weeks, was...
"Oh, crap," she hissed to herself. She felt not dissimilar as to if she'd been blind-folded, spun around a dozen times, then smashed in the back of the head with a lead pipe. "There's no damn way."
••••
Eugene-oppa was not going to be very happy.
••••
She had to go check, of course.
Ari was 17 now, so it had been almost two decades since she'd last read the work. What if there was a 0.001% chance that she was wrong and had somehow completely overwritten her own memory with fake information? It could happen, right? Right?
Damn it. Next time she would never again forget to ask someone their name until it was so late that it became too awkward to ask.
Ari hurried over to the parking lot while cursing her short legs the entire time, Jay trailing behind her in concern. By the time she arrived, Daniel was already there standing next to a Maybach, awkwardly trying to thank convenience store unni in the best way he could manage. From her annoyed face, it wasn't going too well.
"Unni!" Ari called, forcibly brightening her face. "I knew it was you!"
Both Daniel and the girl turned to look at her.
Handsome Library Oppa was nowhere to be seen. Was he in the car?
"Ari?" said Daniel, looking surprised. "Do you know each other?"
"Yup!" Ari bounded over. As she reached within arm's reach of the other girl, she belatedly realized that since Gun Park was supposed to be Crystal Choi's bodyguard... if he was really in the car, would he come out to stop Ari from getting close?
But no. Nothing happened, even as Ari trotted right up in front of the girl from the convenience store.
Then if Ari touched her?
"Unni, I can't believe I'm meeting you here. We must be fated!" She reached out to hook the girl's fingers with her own and swung their hands a little. No one came over to stop her; the car also remained dark and motionless. "Last time I forgot to ask your name, but I'm determined to hear it today. As for me, my name is Ari."
"Oh, hello." The girl smiled back at her, looking like she wasn't quite sure how to react to Ari's enthusiasm. She didn't shake Ari off, though. "I'm Crystal. It's good to see you again; I actually wanted to talk to you again."
Darn. So it really was Crystal Choi. There went that 0.001% hope.
But maybe there was still a 0.0001% hope? After all, Library-oppa wasn't here right now.
"I thought you were specially nice to me, but Crystal-unni is nice to everyone, huh?" Ari gave a tiny dimpled grin to show that she was joking. She reached out with her other hand and patted Daniel on the arm. "Thanks for helping our Daniel out of a bind. Did you also hear what Hwan-sunbae said? Oh, Hwan-sunbae was the auction host, the one who was sold at the highest price last year."
Crystal raised her perfectly-formed brows at Ari. "No, I didn't hear. What did he say?"
Ari pursed her mouth. "He told Daniel to run away if that other unni managed to buy him! Daniel, what did he say exactly?"
"Oh, um..." Daniel listed a few of the things that Hwan Kim had warned him about, ranging from writing endless love letters to strictly critiqued date plans. He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "I've never gone on a date, so I'm not good at that kind of stuff... I guess I'd have been yelled at a lot."
Ari idly patted his arm again and added, "Daniel looks like this, but he's actually the shy type. He's not really good at saying no, either, so Jay was worried that Daniel would be taken advantage of. That's why he wanted to buy him first, but who knew that you were here too? I know how nice you are, so I told Jay, there's no way you'd mistreat Daniel. Actually, he'd be really lucky to spend a day with someone as kind and smart as you!"
Actually, Ari hadn't said this and Jay knew it. But Jay was preoccupied with being flustered over Daniel's sweet grin and "Thanks, Jay!" so who was to know, really? The important part was that Crystal had no clue.
"Hm..." Crystal's expression became a little awkward, her eyes flickering over to the bashful Jay, the brightly smiling Daniel, and then back to Ari's trusting face. "Yes, well... I wasn't really planning on doing anything with him. We just wanted an excuse to donate to charity, anyway."
"Oh, is that so? Unni, you even go out of your way to donate to charity," said Ari, her expression becoming even more admiring. She liked to call this her adoration attack. "But, when you say we..."
As she spoke, Ari heard footsteps approaching from behind, followed by a deep voice that said, "Oi, princess. Why are you out here, instead of waiting in the car?"
Ari turned around. Her eyes widened.
Library-oppa paused for a moment, seeing her face. Slowly, the stern lines of his mouth relaxed into something that was almost a smile.
"So you were here, Ari," he said, taking his hand out of his pocket. The way he spoke, it almost sounded as if he had been looking for her.
"Oppa...?" Ari said, staring at his familiar slicked back hair, dark-framed glasses, and broad shoulders in an iconic yellow pinstripe shirt. "Did you just call Crystal 'princess'?"
Was Ari being delusional for hoping that he'd say he was actually just passing by, and 'princess' referred to someone other than Crystal Choi?
"Ari, you know Gun-oppa?" asked Crystal, looking surprised.
As the oppa from the library took a step closer, Ari took a step back. Opened widely so as not to miss any details, Ari's eyes flicked from Crystal and then back to him, just to make sure she and Crystal were, indeed, talking about the same person.
Crystal's eyes were a beautiful dark brown, as round and bright as coloured glass; it was impossible to mistake the way they slid from Ari to Library-oppa.
It seemed that Ari had indeed maxed out all of her powers of delusion. There was no way to deny it any further: Handsome Library Oppa was definitely Gun Park. Gun Park, who was one of the top powers in Lookism and probably also one of its main antagonists, as far as she'd read. Gun Park, who was within the Top 5 in the list of people that Eugene-oppa had told her to avoid at all costs.
Eugene-oppa had told her that if Gun Park really, truly set his sights on getting rid of someone, he couldn't say for sure that there was any individual in his employ who had the combative power to completely stop Gun. Not that Ari thought that Gun would ever want to kill her, but if he got violent for whatever reason (and he definitely had a lot of reasons), she couldn't be wholly confident that she could keep herself or those around her safe. And any successful attempts to do so would only pique his interest in the most violent way, which also sounded terribly inconvenient now that she knew he was Gun Park.
Another issue, perhaps more pertinent for Ari herself: Gun Park had a lot of enemies. A lot of enemies. For such a person, it was best to, firstly, avoid making him mad, and secondly, avoid him full-stop.
There goes my 0.0001%, Ari thought, mournfully. He was so cute, too.
What came out of her mouth, though, was: "So you two..."
With another glance from Gun Park to Crystal Choi, Ari trailed off, too shaken by her revelations about their identities to figure out a polite way to say, 'you guys are going to leave peacefully without beating anyone up, right?'
Gun was quiet for a moment, the weight of his gaze heavy like a brand on her face, and finally broke the awkward silence by saying, "I'm her bodyguard."
"Oh..."
Ari stared blankly at him.
Yes, she knew that he was Crystal's bodyguard. Why suddenly say it now? Was he warning her to get away from Crystal or something?
When Gun moved another step closer, Ari let go of Crystal and took another step backwards. Couldn't he just use his words...
"I'm just here for work," Gun said, more forcefully. He furrowed his brows slightly for emphasis. "Do you believe me?"
Ari paused. Was he asking her to not take it personally no matter what he did here because he was really just trying to do his job? And that he wanted her to understand that he saw his work as being completely separate from any private feelings he may have had?
"Yes, I believe you," Ari said, with a vigorous nod that shook stray strands of hair into her face. She hoped it sufficiently communicated her willingness to follow all of his warnings; obviously, she didn't want to poke an aggressive bear while it was still being calm.
Gun's mild frown gentled a little at that, and he continued to step closer. Ari wanted to move away again, but Jay was right behind her; she could hardly put him in harm's way. She planted herself solidly in place, instead. Anyway, she wasn't touching Crystal anymore, so Gun probably wouldn't give her a warning smack, right?
Gun's hand rose from his side. Ari carefully watched it approach her face, only relaxing when she realized it was moving too calmly for violence.
Just as Gun was about to touch her cheek, ringed fingers swiftly grabbed his wrist in a brutal grip.
Ari's eyes widened — there was a suppressed gasp from Crystal's direction — but Gun didn't even seem to notice, his eyes remaining steadily fixed on Ari. Despite the strong force trying to shove him away, Gun smoothly reached forward as if nothing had happened and used the tips of his calloused fingers to lightly brush the few strands of hair caught on her slightly parted mouth. Only as he continued on to hook her hair behind her ear did his movements finally stop for a moment, a short stutter in which his hand swayed a small distance away from Ari's face.
Suddenly sounding interested, Gun said, "Oh?" His eyes shot up from Ari to finally look straight at Jay, who was standing right behind her.
There was a quiet grunt. Jay, exerting so much strength that Ari could see the ferocious protrusion of veins down the back of his hand and forearm, finally managed to push Gun's hand far enough from her face that she could no longer feel the warmth that radiated from his skin.
Raising his brows, Gun swept his arm in a sharp, efficient motion that flung Jay's hand clean off. Ari could see the harsh imprint of fingers slowly reddening between the gaps of Gun's tattoo, including the distinct outline of several Chrome Hearts rings.
As Gun also glanced at the marks that had been left on his skin, Ari took the chance to try to pull Jay away by his shirtsleeve. "Jay — " she began. Then she bit her lip, just barely stopping herself from saying her next words, which were, Oh my god, stop catching the attention of this battle maniac!
Just then, Gun said, "Hey, kid." He stepped closer again, as if to see how Jay would react. "You're kind of fun."
Jay, either misinterpreting her expression or too bothered by Gun's to care, quickly pulled Ari behind him and raised his jaw challengingly.
His mouth curling with the beginnings of a smirk, Gun shifted his stance. Ari didn't so much as get a chance to blink before a vicious kick exploded towards Jay's face.
Well, thought Ari. Fuck.
___
[ Author's Note ]
ari: SOS what do you do when the hot oppa who's been flirting with u turns out to be the top bad guy? urgently waiting for help online 😔
crystal: (forcefully being fed hot tea) 🫣🫨🫢
gun and ari talking in this chapter is basically alien 1 communicating with alien 2 when both of their translators are faulty but neither know. next chapter is crystal's pov, and it's pretty heheh in its own right.
1) in fact eugene is the principal of his elite private school, which is freaking hilarious, and 2) it's actually ₩5000 (won), which is approx $5 cad or $3.75 usd, and ₩1,000,000, which is $1000 cad, but I figured once the numbers got too big, y'all would have a harder time with mental conversions