"Dad said to just keep a watch on him and make sure he doesn't get bought by anyone," said Crystal, striding briskly to the stage. She ignored the gazes rushing towards her face and body with well-acquainted indifference. "We'll leave right after this."
"Sure," Gun said impassively. He trailed after her with one hand in his pocket, both sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
If Crystal were to be honest, she was not in the best of moods right now. You could, perhaps, go so far as to call her grumpy. She had been up till late attending her father's meetings with him, and now she had to be awake at a time that was very firmly within her current body's sleeping hours in order to observe a boy who seemed — she glared at the stage — perfectly ordinary in every possible aspect. He had a good-looking face, she supposed, but that only made him even more annoying in her eyes. Guys like him were all more or less the same, anyway.
What made the situation even worse was that Gun, her mandatory chaperone, did not seem to be in the most social of moods either. While he could never be called her preferred company, he was usually not too bad. You wouldn't expect it looking at him, but Gun was actually fairly conversational.
Not today though. It was usually pretty apparent whenever Gun didn't want to be wherever they were, but today it seemed particularly obvious.
Of course, Crystal didn't want to be here either.
That was probably why neither of them traded a single word as they waited for the auction to start in earnest. It was to the point that Crystal could feel the silence starting to press physically on her shoulders, adding to the exhaustion that she was already fending off with great sullenness.
There was the slightest shift of movement next to her. Crystal glanced at Gun to see that he was now surveying the crowd, doing his customary scan of the area to make sure there were no obvious threats to her well-being.
For the last couple of weeks, Gun-oppa had been... something.
It was hard to describe. It was even harder to put a name on. He hadn't been different in any appreciable way, and he hadn't done or said a single thing that was particularly out of the norm. But there was just a sense of something that Crystal, who had to spend a fair bit of time with him, couldn't help noticing.
The first thing had to do with his phone. Gun was professional in his own way, but that didn't mean he didn't look at his phone while on the clock. When he got bored waiting for her, he would often bring it out of his pocket to do whatever a guy like him did to kill time on his phone — she had never bothered to ask, because it was her strict policy to never ask anything regarding either Gun or Goo's personal lives.
Well, she knew what he was doing these days, and she didn't have to ask a thing.
He was texting someone.
Someone who wasn't Goo-oppa or any of his many underlings.
It wasn't that Gun checked his phone more often than before — it was just that once in a while, very rarely, he would smile faintly when he looked at his screen. Not the usual vague expression of deadpan amusement or 'look at this idiot' smirk, but a relaxed quirk of his lips, one corner kicked up higher than the other.
While a very normal expression on anyone else, seeing it on Gun for the first time had given Crystal a bad case of goosebumps. She was aware that both Gun and Goo-oppa sometimes met up with girls, maybe even dated, but she didn't want to see proof of it. Ugh.
At least she didn't have to see Goo like this. She couldn't possibly imagine which poor girl had such bad taste.
The other thing she had had no choice but to notice: recently, Gun had bought a couple of stress balls. And they were... odd. Not only because they remained totally fine no matter how much he squeezed them, but also because of their completely uncharacteristic shape: gelatinous and chubby, with a collection of short and pitiful legs attached along their flat bottoms.
The first time Gun brought one out, Crystal had found herself squinting for several minutes at the nebulous black object rolling around in his palm, and ultimately hadn't been able to stop herself from asking, "Oppa, is that... a jellyfish?"
"Yeah. I got used to the octopus," he had said.
Which. Ok. What the hell did that mean.
Around her, the auction suddenly exploded in noise. Some girl from Chanel Private School had bid $1000 on Daniel Park.
"Going once for $1000!"
Seeing that no one else seemed about to put in another bid, Crystal finally raised her arm.
"2000 dollars," she said calmly, at the same time as she heard a high, sweet voice call, "2000!"
Crystal paused to look towards the speaker.
For whatever reason, so did Gun.
"That's the girl I met at the convenience store the other night," Crystal told him. She peered past the stage at the girl standing on the other side, next to a tall boy with bleached hair that covered half of his face. The girl also seemed to be trying to look for Crystal, going up on her tiptoes to get a better view. "I figured out where I knew her from; she's a popular guest for one of our top streamers."
The other evening, Crystal had made Gun-oppa wait in the car for over a quarter of an hour while she chatted with the girl in the convenience store. He had complained rather a bit, and Crystal also felt a bit bad for making him idle outside without a word of explanation, but it hadn't been for no reason. After all, Crystal certainly wasn't some saint of tutoring who went around helping everyone that struggled with their homework.
It was just that the girl's face had been so familiar, even though Crystal hadn't been able to remember her name no matter how she'd racked her brains. Figuring that this must mean that the girl was probably one of the streamers under Paprika TV, and assuming that she couldn't be unpopular if Crystal knew her face that well, Crystal had made the executive decision to save the girl a bit of time. Under-eye circles were not good for business.
As soon as she'd gone home that evening, Crystal had done some searching and figured it out. She did know the convenience store girl. Very much so.
'Riri', which probably wasn't her real name, was the friend of one of Paprika TV's top streamers, Yui Kim. She was also someone Crystal had recently had her eye on recruiting. The streams that Riri featured on always entered within Crystal's list of top earning streams of the day; imagine how much more revenue Riri would be able to bring the platform if she became a regular streamer? As the CEO of Paprika TV, Crystal couldn't let such a golden fish swim away without a word.
Crystal tilted her head back towards the other side of the stage and met the eyes of 'Riri', who had finally spotted her and was staring back with her mouth rounded in a slight "o" of surprise.
Now they were no longer under the unpleasant fluorescence of the convenience store, Crystal studied the other girl: fluffy dark hair, currently tied up in a high, bouncy ponytail. A little face with big sunshine eyes, glossy like well-polished pearls in the daylight. A plush mouth with pink lips. It had been hard to tell while she was sitting, but she was notably shorter than Crystal's current body, perhaps not too much taller than Crystal's original body. The oversized blue zip-up that she wore over her neat school uniform made her seem younger and smaller than she was, especially while standing next to the tall blond.
Was the hoodie the blond boy's? Boyfriend? But if the blond was her boyfriend, why was she bidding on Daniel Park?
"$3500!" 'Riri' shouted.
It didn't matter, Crystal supposed. Streamers could have boyfriends if they hid it well or if they made it part of their concept. And either of the two would be perfectly fine if 'Riri' chose to go such a route: it was obvious that Daniel Park would attract more viewers, but the blond's physical build and visible facial features were also decent enough that the mystery of the rest of his face would add to his draw, rather than detract from it. Of course, it didn't hurt that his hair and clothes all but dripped money.
"I know I said we should go back right after this, but I want to stay for a bit first. I'll try to convince her to sign on with us," Crystal said. Out of the corner of her eye, Crystal saw that Gun was still looking in the direction of the girl, watching as she lifted her face with a cheerful smile at the boy on the stage.
Crystal raised her arm and called, "$7000."
In that moment, she saw 'Riri''s eyes shoot towards them, growing bigger and rounder until she looked almost like a deer standing in front of an oncoming car. With a visible gasp, she grabbed the arm of the blond, who immediately looked down at her in concern.
Was $7000 such an alarming sum for someone who had just been bidding $3500? Puzzled, Crystal watched the girl a moment longer, and realized — she wasn't looking at Crystal anymore.
She was looking at Gun.
Or was she?
'Riri' looked at Crystal, then Gun, then Crystal again, and finally raised her hand in a wave. She began to take a few steps towards them, only to immediately be surrounded by a group of excitedly chattering girls. Soon she was buried by the crowd, too short to be seen among the mass of bodies.
Crystal studied the growing flock, mostly of women, congregating around where she had last seen 'Riri'. Crystal did indeed want to talk to the girl, but she also... really didn't want to get in there. She didn't really like people, and she definitely didn't like people she didn't know approaching within touching distance.
Looking thoughtfully between Gun and the big group, Crystal considered the way Gun generally had the effect of dispersing crowds simply by walking through them.
"What," said Gun, giving her a side-long glance. "I don't hit women."
Crystal tried not to let her disbelief show too obviously.
"I don't hit women who won't hit back," he amended, after a brief second of reflection. "Unless necessary."
'Necessary' was subjective, but Crystal wasn't here to nit-pick. "There's no need to hit anyone." She casually waved a hand at the empty space around Gun, created by the strict 3-foot radius that most people tended to keep from him. Then she looked pointedly at the crowd that 'Riri' had disappeared into. "Alongside that look you use to clear out the men at the gym..."
"These aren't men," Gun replied blandly, apparently understanding exactly what she was talking about.
"So? I don't see why it would be any different."
"If that's what you think."
Hm.
Ok.
Disgusting.
Violently refusing to consider any implication that women did not avoid Gun like the plague as they should, Crystal turned on her heel and began to walk back to the car. She didn't have it in her to wade through the crowd or wait for it to disperse. If she could entrust Gun to recruit 'Riri', she would, but she could think of several ways that interaction could go, and basically none of them went well.
In the end, Crystal really just wanted to go home and go back to sleep.
"Weren't you going to recruit her?" asked Gun, carelessly taking his usual place behind her.
"I'll do it next time I see her at the convenience store."
"Or leave her your card."
Crystal paused. Now that was a thought.
"Oppa, could you..." she started, but then reconsidered. If someone like Gun randomly went up to her with a business card, wouldn't the girl think he was trying to scam her? Or worse, kidnap her?
Gun lifted a hand over his shoulder in a show of agreement, already beginning to walk away. "Then wait in the car, princess." Crystal hated that stupid nickname. If she could, she would make a public petition to ban them from using it. "I'll be back in a bit."
Crystal watched him disappear into the crowd. Hopefully no one would call the police today.
••••
She supposed neither of them had considered that 'Riri' would find Crystal first. Or Ari, rather, now that they'd properly been introduced. And Crystal definitely hadn't considered that Ari and Gun already knew each other.
Just knew each other? No, it seemed a little bit more than that.
As Ari looked between Crystal and Gun, her huge eyes reflected her emotions with the clarity of a sheet of window glass — Crystal watched the look in her eyes as it shifted from shocked, then lost, and then, ultimately, resigned.
"So you two..."
"I'm her bodyguard."
Crystal had to bite her cheek to stop herself from blurting out an, Oh my god.
No way, it couldn't be what she thought. Was it?
"Oh," said Ari, her face remained blank and dazed. She didn't seem to be convinced.
This was only further proven when she felt Ari letting go of her and beginning to step back for every step Gun took forward, clearly trying to avoid him.
Crystal felt a sort of shocked disbelief wash over her. No way. Gun-oppa and this girl...? No, but was Ari even his type?
Crystal observed Ari again.
It was not that Ari wasn't charming or attractive. She had a less glamorous or orthodox appeal than, for example, Yui Kim, but Ari was the kind of cute that made you want to hide her away, and she had a way with people that could convince anyone to keep spending time with her. Crystal had known from first glance that there was definitely a sizable subset of the population that she would be wildly popular amongst.
She just... didn't know that would include Gun.
Crystal didn't know Gun's type, completely by choice, but she supposed that if she had ever thought about it, it would not be someone like this. Maybe she was mistaken, but 'Riri' seemed more along Goo's style. For Gun, she would have imagined a woman who was visibly mature, or perhaps a well-endowed bombshell, or someone unmistakably athletic in a way that would imply high fighting prowess.
Ari looked too small and harmless and — and young to fit any of those qualifications.
Crystal glanced at Gun and then at Ari.
In fact... just looking at them, she was a bit young for him, wasn't she...
Crystal was so stunned by this series of events that she almost missed the moment that the blond boy grabbed Gun's wrist, suddenly making his presence known in the most unexpected way. A gasp slipped out of her mouth before she could stop it. The blond had been standing behind Ari so quietly and unobtrusively that she had almost forgotten he was there amidst the excitement —ah, no, amidst the shock.
Based on what Ari had said, it didn't seem that Ari and Daniel Park were dating, and seeing that Ari had been so shaken by her misunderstanding about Gun and Crystal's relationship even with the blond right there, Crystal had assumed that the blond wasn't her boyfriend either. So what was this?
Crystal found her mouth dropping open when she saw the blond managing to wrench Gun's hand away from Ari's face. In her peripheral vision, she saw someone else approaching the group, but she couldn't tear her attention away from the confrontation between Gun and the blond for long enough to see who it was.
Who is that? He managed to push Gun aside? He even left a mark on Gun!
"Jay — "
"Hey, kid. You're kind of fun."
Maybe it was too many shocks in a row, because Crystal found her reactions more delayed than they usually would be. It was only when Gun took a fighting stance that she managed to unstick her tongue.
"Just a second! Wait!" Crystal cried, taking a step forward.
It was a moment too late; Gun's leg was already hurtling through the air towards the blond with the speed and propulsive power of a barreling train.
Crystal winced, already anticipating the impact. There was no way she'd ever be recruiting Ari after Gun beat her friend half to death right in front of her.
Or... not?
Crystal stared, stunned silent, at the two figures who'd inserted themselves between Gun and the blond boy. In the moment before Gun's leg smashed into the blond's face, Daniel Park had leapt forward with both hands outstretched to shove Gun's knee slightly off axis, while another man had dived in front of the blond to block the blow with raised arms.
"You punk," said the unknown man. He was frowning heavily, but he didn't collapse or lower his stance. Crystal wondered if his arms were still intact. That kick couldn't have been light, even if Daniel Park had helped lessen its force. "I won't allow you to hit my friends."
"Hey, why are you guys fighting?" said Daniel, smiling nervously. There was sweat beading on his forehead, and he shook his hands out a little as if they were sore. "Let's not resort to violence. Can't we figure this out with words?"
"That's right, Gun-oppa," cried Crystal. "Cut it out, don't fight! They didn't do anything. There's seriously no need for this!"
"Is this the effect of synergy, like Max and Derrek? Or are you guys individually strong?" Gun mused, ignoring her. He cocked his head at the new addition, who had Irezumi tattoos and coveralls that implied he did work in construction. "Even not at full strength, that should have hurt?"
"Take your glasses off," said the unknown man. "I don't hit people with glasses."
Daniel Park waved his arms, visibly panicked. "Ah, Vasco, don't...!"
"Sure." Gun's smirk grew, clearly enjoying himself. "If that's what you really want."
Crystal felt a sharp frisson of alarm when she saw Gun taking his glasses off, revealing his dark eyes and the scar across his nose bridge. His gaze went from Daniel Park to the man that had been called Vasco, and finally landed on the blond boy at the very back. "This school is pretty fun."
"Don't! Gun-oppa!" she shouted. She looked wildly at Ari, hoping she would also say something, but Ari was sighing into her hands despondently.
Well, shit.
Gun surged forward and seemed to reach for Daniel Park, who was closest. But when Daniel Park dove out of the way with a terrified face and impressively fast reflexes, it became clear that was a feint; in an instant, Gun's other hand grabbed the unprepared 'Vasco' by the belt and then single-handedly threw the man at a now-unbalanced Daniel Park.
They collided with a loud thud of bodies and a shared shout of pain.
In less than a second, before either of them could gather their limbs, Gun was already in front of the blond, who had taken on a defensive stance that reflected some sort of martial training. When Gun drew his fist back, Crystal leapt forward and yelled, "Oppa, stop or — !"
As Gun's fist flew forward with terrible momentum, Crystal saw Ari, who had been standing motionlessly behind the blond, suddenly sweep her leg into the back of the boy's knee whilst forcefully yanking the back of his shirt, making him drop backwards with his mouth opened in shock. As the blond fell out of the path of Gun's hit, Ari leapt over him and dove right at Gun, whose fist shuddered to a stop mid-air. His knuckles froze barely half an inch from the side of her head.
The very next moment, Ari fell bodily into him. She wrapped herself tightly around Gun with the desperation of a drowning man who had discovered driftwood in the midst of the ocean, winding both arms around his waist and burying her face into his chest.
Crystal's mouth closed with a click. The words 'I'll tell dad that you're fighting unnecessarily again,' caught behind her teeth and were swallowed back into her throat.
Oh my god, Crystal thought, feeling her shock reverberating down to the depths of her being.
"Holy shit," she heard Daniel Park hiss to himself. "That scared me half to death..."
Her too.
It was insane to jump in front of Gun's fist, especially if you weren't a honed fighter; even from a distance, Crystal could feel the crushing weight and speed of that punch, let alone from as close as Ari had been. The air pressure alone had pushed Ari's high ponytail askew, causing it to slump down to the base of her head. Crystal couldn't help but imagine what would have happened to Ari if Gun hadn't been able to stop himself in time, and found herself awash in horror. She couldn't tell if this girl was delusional or just had incredible guts.
As Gun's half-stretched fist began to lower, Ari moved a bit too. One arm tightened around Gun's waist with a white-knuckled grip into the back of his shirt and the other hand slipped away to the pocket of her zip-up.
"Oppa, please don't fight my friends," Ari said in a tiny, muffled voice. "I don't want to see my best friend in a hospital bed because he wanted to protect me. Okay?"
What emerged from Ari's pocket was a colourful, round object that she pressed into the hand hanging by Gun's side. When Gun took it without a protest, Ari returned to clutching his waist tightly with both arms. The two were pressed so closely together that one couldn't see a single gap between their bodies.
Crystal looked closely. The thing that Ari put into Gun's left hand seemed to be... a stress ball. It was shaped like an octopus, and had a pathetic cartoon face that seemed completely in line with Ari's general image.
Octopus?
Gun's left hand clenched around it as if by instinct. His face, which had just begun to take on the air of brutality that always washed over him when he got into a fight, softened with bemusement. Gun's other hand, still slightly raised, relaxed and landed on Ari's hair. His palm almost completely encased the back of her head.
"... Alright." His eyes lingered doggedly on the blond boy, but he still said, "I'll stop here."
"Woah," Daniel Park whispered, immediately becoming quiet when Gun's eyes shot to him instead.
Woah, indeed. It was incredible to see Gun agreeing to stop this easily, even though his reluctance was clear for anyone to see. Ari still might be insane, but she at least wasn't delusional.
Ari's face emerged at last from its hiding place in Gun's shirt. There were no tears, but her mouth was pushed out plumply as if she were unconvinced. She perched her chin on his chest and peered up through thick lashes. "Really?"
"Don't worry," said Gun, gazing down at her. His hand slid down her hair, briefly encircled her nape, and then came to rest lightly between her shoulder blades. "I keep my word."
This was, as far as Crystal knew, true.
Then Gun's dark eyes slid over to 'Vasco', to Daniel, and landed solidly back on the blond — Jay, did she call him? In a voice heavy with insinuation, he told Ari, "You have some good friends, huh?"
"Mm!" Ari replied. She shifted her body back a little and smiled up at him with her eyes curved. A dimple peeked out on one of her cheeks. She didn't seem to understand Gun's implied meaning at all. "My friends are pretty good, right?"
Normally, Crystal would disdain a girl who naively thought that throwing herself into an embrace in the middle of a fight could stop it, as if real life operated on the same sort of nonsense as a romance drama. But throwing oneself purposefully in the way of a punch from Gun, whose absolute destructive force could be seen even before his fist hit, took the kind of balls that many full grown men would never have in their lives.
And for it to work...
"I'm sorry, Crystal." Ari pulled back from Gun to turn towards her. Gun let her go easily, his hands returning to his pockets. "Oppa is your bodyguard, right? I didn't mean to distract him from work, even though you must be busy."
"It's not your fault," said Crystal, immediately marshalling her expression into something more neutral. After all, how could Ari have known that Gun was a fight-loving maniac? "I was the one who asked him to find you anyway."
And, since it was awkward to start a recruitment pitch after all of... everything, Crystal simply took out her business card and extended it to Ari. "Here, this is my number. You can add me with this."
"Oh!" Ari left Gun and happily pattered over to receive the card. "Thank you! I should have asked you last time, I really regretted not doing it..."
••••
Later, after Ari had waved the both of them goodbye and returned to the festival with her friends, after Crystal and Gun had gotten into the car and started to drive off, Crystal decided to break one of her cardinal rules.
"So," Crystal began, very carefully. Being nosy about Gun and Goo's personal lives went against possibly everything she believed in, but the curiosity had built up in her stomach like a shaken bottle of soda, and it just wasn't humanly possible for her to hold it in any longer. "Is Ari actually your girlfriend?"
"No."
What. So Ari wasn't his girlfriend. Then what was all that about?
"Then... a lover? A relative?" Those would be extremely odd family dynamics, Crystal thought.
Gun glanced at her through the rearview mirror. "She's just a friend."
Just a friend. Just a friend?
Crystal had thought she didn't even have it in her to be surprised anymore. This was clearly not the case.
First: The idea that Gun Park had friends... female friends. Not even a female gangster or something of that sort, but such a lively, normal girl.
Second: Who didn't know that "we're just friends" definitely meant they were not just friends? No one looked at their friends like that. The only reason there could be for being 'just friends' in this situation would be if they were still getting to know each other, or if one party wasn't as interested as the other.
Or both.
Now back in the safety of her room, Crystal sat up in her original body and recalled the way Gun had allowed Ari to grab him even in the middle of a fight. With the sudden feeling of epiphany, she thought, He's definitely chasing her.
Immediately, she went to wash her eyes of all the shocks of the day. She supposed she wished Gun luck, if only because it meant she'd stop having to hear 'princess' from him.
No, wait. Did Ari even know what a maniac Gun could be? Was he deceiving a girl who didn't know anything into thinking he was normal?
Crystal stared at her wet face in the mirror, scowling at the unwelcome questions now intruding into her head.
Damn it. She would have been much better off not seeing anything at all.
___
[ Author's Note ]
Crystal: (immediately writes 100,000 words of cute schoolgirl x crazy gangster romantic drama in her head)
Crystal: (accidentally forgets she and Ari are the same age) (accidentally forgets that Gun is only 2 years older than them)
everyone who knows goo well is going to think about him a lot because i love him and i miss him!!!
the first version of this chapter had gun being a little more clingy, but my bun agreed with me that it was ooc and too fast, so i subdued it by like 50 times and accidentally made crystal funnier LOL. this chapter is 2x longer than usual~ it's probably going to be the last of my more frequent updates because i've lost some of my steam after this...