▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
Mari was practically fading in and out of existence, her mind completely flooded with unnecessary thoughts that surfed the waves of her thought process. She simply couldn't think very well at the moment, which was bad. Mari already didn't use her brain as much as those around her but now it was completely shut off. Her body was running on its emergency mode trying to get her through the day without potentially getting herself into any more trouble.
She couldn't help it though preoccupied with what her brain deemed as more important thoughts. Mari was already trying to track her brain around the fact that San was blatantly ignoring her and Wooyoung just had to add to the mix by dumping his feelings right on top of her head at the same time. She wasn't even mentally prepared for it all to happen, hitting her like a speeding eighteen-wheeler truck. And the mere fact that Wooyoung was walking around like there were flowers under his feet? Pretending as if nothing ever happened? She was so close to losing her mind she could feel herself ready to tip over the edge.
How oblivious could she have possibly been to Wooyoung feelings towards her? For nearly her entire life no less? She knew that Wooyoung's skull was like shaking an empty can but Mari's must have been even worse for her to be this ignorant.
She just thought he was being friendly because he's friendly with everyone! Sure sometimes certain things that come out of his mouth are incredibly suggestive, though usually incredibly stupid, but that's just how he acts. Practically been engraved in his personality since birth so you can blame her for not taking the hint.
But then there were also some very obvious suggestions of him being fond of Mari: the jealousy towards Hongjoong, the overprotectiveness, the specific way he treated Mari compared to literally everyone else around him. But they have been friends since childhood! It was normal for friends to be like that with each other... right?
"Mari?" Yeosang's voice rang through her ears, the sound hitting the walls of her head like a pinball machine. The Consigliere's son was standing right outside her room, his head peering through the small crack in the door. The boy's usually ice piercing gaze was shrouded in worry as Mari urged him in, confused by his sudden presence. "You know you should really fire Wooyoung, he may be a very competent soldier on the field but he sucks at guarding. He's literally slouched against the wall sleeping on the job."
Wooyoung was still her "bodyguard" as well thanks to the Kim Faction's scare. She thought the two of them standing and following each other around would be awkward after the school incident, but it seemed like the feeling was one-sided. "I can't really... do that," Mari responded as Yeosang closed the door behind him, giving her a rather skeptical look. "You know... my dad would kinda lose his shit. Not that he hasn't already lost his mind already but you know, he would lose it for even longer. Did that actually make any sense? Now that I say it out loud it doesn't—"
"You're rambling," Yeosang pointed out, taking a seat on her bed to sit near her. That was the second time now, she's been told she's shooting off at the mouth. When did this decide to start happening? She could have sworn this wasn't a normal habit of hers.
Yeosang seemed to pick up on the shift as well, resting his head on his hand as he looked at her with his unblinking stare. He looked too much like a statue for his own good, was he even breathing at this point. "Mari are you... okay? You haven't been yourself lately."
"You can tell?" She fell back into her bed's pillow with a huff, a frustrated pout playing across her lips. "I thought I was doing a rather good job of hiding it."
"You have been fidgeting around Wooyoung for the last two days, haven't spoken to San in a week, earned yourself a rambling habit," Yeosang listed off, counting each flaw in Mari on his fingers. "And you didn't pay attention to a word the Underboss has said when he addressed the entire faction today. I know you know most of the information he had given out but you should have at least pretend to pay attention to him."
Mari narrowed her eyes at the boy, sitting up against her pillows to attempt to match his intense stare. "Why the hell are you so perspective of me?"
"I'm your future Consigliere, I have to pay attention to these things," He reminded her, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. "But seriously, what's going on? Usually, you're in a fiery, hyped up, nearly bouncing off of the walls' mood. I don't like seeing you apprehensive and uneasy, it's scary."
Yeosang sure knew how to push her buttons because he was getting a little too comfortable with her. "I'm a human being, Yeosang. That's normal for me to feel this way sometimes. Unfortunately, I am not a scary and old Greek statue like you are and actually display my feelings by wearing my heart on my sleeve."
"Stop avoiding the question," Yeosang quickly scolded, a hint of annoyance gleaming in his eyes.
Mari huffed once more, crossing her arms like a child ready to throw a tantrum. "Listen Yeosang, I know you're just tryna be helpful and listen to me and everything but..." She began, throwing out whatever excuse she could come up with on the fly. Though his eyes were carving holes straight through her head, his soft smile burning away her will to even continue on with her statement. Curse Kang Yeosang, no one told him to be good at getting the truth out of people. "It's San and Wooyoung."
"I guessed so," He shrugged, but urged her to continue on anyway.
"Things have just been... very weird lately. Specifically with San. Recently he spilled the fact that he knew that the boss was my father involuntarily but I ended up running away from him before we could really get into a conversation about it," Mari confessed, her shoulder slumping at the memory. "I ended up being preoccupied with other things before I could ever even think about confronting him about it all, then when I was ready to talk to him about it all he started... ignoring me."
"Out of the blue?" Yeosang quickly asked before Mari could change the subject again
"Completely out of the blue! The last time he had ignored me was when I was trying to prove Jongho's innocence. This time I don't even know what I did, and I can't even ask him because every time we make eye contact he starts making a mad dash for any exit in sight!" Mari complained, on the genuine very often throwing a temper tantrum. The whole situation with San was just so stupid in all actuality. If she just didn't avoid him for so long, if she didn't drop everything in that one moment and ran away, this wouldn't have been happening.
But if she didn't end up leaving, Mingi probably would have never caught Mari in time before Hongjoong's father showed up. Who knows what type of chaos would ensue when the sick son and the bastard father were alone and forced to interact with each other?
"I'm this close," Mari spoke, softly pulling on her hair at the thought. "I'm this close to just buying handcuffs so that the next time I see San I can just lock him onto me so he can't run away. I just want this whole situation to be over with so I can go back to having a somewhat normal life again."
Yeosang's face twisted in slight disapproval of her suggestion but chose not to address the statement. "Well, have you perhaps thought that San himself isn't ready to have that conversation? I mean, you being related to the boss was kept as a secret for how long? Several years, right? And anyone who had witnessed any sort of familial bond between the two of you was either killed or forced to keep their mouth zipped close so that they wouldn't be killed."
"But he was the one," She argued, "who brought it up in the first place!"
"Did he willingly bring it up or was it just something that was said in the heat of the moment?" Yeosang questioned, quickly debunking Mari's argument. The girl opened her mouth to try and say anything to bring the conversation back into her favor but there was nothing she could. "We're human, Mari. Just like you said. We don't always make conscious decisions for ourselves, you don't always make conscious decisions for yourself. And from the look of your reaction, this was one of those times."
San didn't look like he wanted to throw out all the information he knew. In fact, it looked like he was going to try and keep a secret for as long as he could, leaving Mari and Wooyoung in a sense of false security. She just made him frustrated, constantly brushing off his urge to be there for her as a friend no more how many times he had iterated its importance to her. "Ah fuck."
"Looks like someone is being rather selfish and neglectful of their friends," Yeosang nagged, a knowing smirk growing on his face as Mari frowned at him.
"I'm not being selfish! I'm just... kinda ignorant," She corrected him, her frown getting bigger the more she thought about it. "But that still doesn't give him the excuse to run away from me the way he is! I can acknowledge the fact that I was thinking of myself only, but San is in the wrong too!"
"Oh, absolutely," Yeosang agreed, "What San is doing is the pettiest thing I've ever seen a person do. It's childish, to say the least, and he's in the wrong for what he's doing too. But giving you the satisfaction of having someone agree that what he's doing is wrong first would have completely overshadowed the fact that you're also being rather inconsiderate of his feelings as well. We're teenagers still, you both are obviously gonna screw up sometimes. However, you have a habit of self gratitude."
"Can you stop reading into me so damn hard?" Mari complained, glaring sharply at the pleasantly pleased boy. "You're here for moral support and advice only."
Yeosang smiled at her, unbothered by her attempts to shove him off of her bed. "I could but... it's a lot more fun to talk to you this way. You can't even lie to me, I know all your telltale signs. You're practically helpless trying to hide anything from me."
"Is this why Jongho was so afraid of you when he had first arrived at the faction?" She asked him, tilting her head at the thought. Mari could remember it like it was yesterday, Jongho deathly frightened by the mere sound of Yeosang's voice. Yeosang was rather soft spoken as well in order to make up for his harsh honesty, so it was odd, to say the least. "What did you even do to him? Read into him so hard that you made him cry?"
The Consigliere's son went quiet for a moment, reminiscing on past events in order to give her an accurate answer. "Well, while I am not as skilled with weaponry as Wooyoung or San or even you for that matter, I can hold my own with a pistol in hand very well. Not skipping lessons in self defense does help make me look like a more threat to others outside of my personal circle."
"You? Held a gun?" Mari gasped, taken aback by this sudden bomb of information. "God I thought the Consigliere had made you this pure little virgin boy who has never gotten his hands dirty. What other little sins have you committed?"
"Be careful with your words before you end up in a ditch on the side of the road." Yeosang threatened his eyebrow twitching in annoyance. "Now let's steer back on topic here, shall we? We've dealt with your problem with San but I'm honestly more interested in what happened with Wooyoung."
Mari knew that punching a statue would probably fracture her hand, but Yeosang's face looked like the perfect punching bag at the moment. She can't even lie to the boy, he just told her she had no possible way to do that! "God, you really are the devil."
"So that means something truly did happen between the two of you again?" Yeosang eyes lit up like the stars, hungry for as much information as he could physically stomach. He liked being in Mari's business a lot more than she had realized beforehand, or maybe this was apart of his personality that she had just unlocked? Either way, she didn't like how nosy he was. "You know, the two of you are always in a fight or some reason. Is that a thing that friends do all the time? Just fight each other for no apparent reason?"
"It wasn't a fight," She clarified, flicking his forehead in retaliation. "Nothing really... nothing really happened, nothing interesting for you to know at least. I promise. Either way that's none of your business anyways."
"It is my business because I'm your—"
"—Future Consigliere, yes, Yeosang, I know." She interrupted, rolling her eyes at his persistence. "However you are incredibly nosy for no reason. I don't have to tell you everything just because you're going to be my right hand man one day. My own father keeps secrets from not just me but his Consigliere and Underboss as well. I am not obligated to spill every deep dark secret I have."
He shrugged, a slight pout donning his lips at her sudden refusal. "That's fine, I guess. You can keep your secrets," Yeosang commented, sliding off of her bed like a sulking child and walking towards the door. "I'll just go ask Wooyoung instead. He's more willing to tell me about things than you are anyways. He can't keep his mouth shut, you know how much a loudmouth he is."
"Kang Yeosang!" Mari screamed at the boy as he broke out into a full sprint, rushing towards the door to get fo Wooyoung first. He was right outside it wouldn't take long for him to ask the question once he was in sight. The girl scrambled off of her bed to try and grab a hold of his shirt collar, harshly pulling him back as he held the doorknob in his grasp. There was a playful smile on his face, a burst of light laughter willingly escaping his mouth for the first time since Mari could remember.
Actually, had Mari ever heard Yeosang laugh before? Like a genuine sound of enjoyment coming from straight from his stomach and not strained from his throat? If she had, it definitely didn't sound like this.
"What's gotten into you?" She questioned him, narrowing her eyes at the boy. He certainly looked like the normal Kang Yeosang: the natural stone cold eyes, the compass tattoo on his neck, the birthmark next to his eye, his overall demeanor. Mari had just never quite seen the Consigliere's son act... childish. "Are you sure you're actually Yeosang? You've got to be some sort of spy doppelgänger... maybe even a clone? Yeosang would never act like this."
The smile on his face twitched as he swatted Mari's hand off of him, glaring at her for such a statement. There he was, the normal Kang Yeosang. Seeing him all gleeful and childish was a scary scene... maybe she and Wooyoung were rubbing off on him a little too much. "I can have fun when I want, you know? I'm not a machine."
Mari was about to retaliate to his statement by doing her usual spill about him being a statue when there was a soft but hurried knocking on her door. It was such a small noise that the girl didn't even notice it at first before it became aggressively louder and hastier the longer she didn't answer. Wasn't Wooyoung supposed to be guarding the door to her room? She knew when Yeosang had come in he was slouched against the wall sleeping but surely he should be awake now.
"I'm telling you," Yeosang spoke. "The least you can do is strip him of his guard position and send him to do work like the rest of the faction." Mari ignored him, taking a few long strides towards her door and opening it up just slightly to see who was on the other side. Whoever it was, at least they were considerate enough to knock first instead of barging straight inside in these trying times.
Recognition donned her face as Mari opened the door a little wider. Yeosang peered from behind Mari to get a better look at who was at the doorway as she spoke, "San?"
Once again, the boy seemed like he was in a rush. San looked like he had run halfway across the manor to get to her room, probably lost on where exactly he was supposed to go since he couldn't really ask anyone for directions. "Mari," He spoke, taking a deep breath before he said any more. "We need to talk."
Mari turned towards Yeosang, exchanging conflicted expressions with the Consigliere's son. This was what she had been asking for right? A moment to finally explain herself and the petty little lie she had let the boy live? And he was asking for her to talk to him, which meant he was ready to have that conversation. "You're... okay with talking about it now? I know we kept avoiding each other for the most part but I'm not gonna force you to stomach all—"
"No," He immediately interrupted, glancing side to side to see if anyone was watching him. Wooyoung seemed to be awaking upon hearing San voice, stretching his arms out to relieve himself of the strain on his muscles and giving San a groggy and confused look. How long had that boy been sleeping for actually? "That's not the kind of talk I meant. We need to talk about it at some point, yeah, but that's not as important right now."
"Is there something wrong, San?" Yeosang inquired, joining Mari at the doorway. He took one long and hard look at San, trying to silently read him like an open book in order to get ahead on the conversation. But after a few moments, he simply gave him a puzzled look and continued," Did something happen, why did you run all the way here?" Yeosang seemed just as lost as Mari was.
He urged them inside of Mari's room, even grabbing Wooyoung by the arm and closing the door behind him. The boy weakly protested, not quite understanding the urgency but neither did they. "It's about Jaerin," San told them, glancing back at the door due to pure paranoia. "There's something... not quite adding up about her anymore, I've felt this way ever since I saw her for the first time. And now I think I know why."