Caron came to sit by Iris' side with a grin on her face. "You mean he never told you what his mom did when he was in seventh grade?"
Iris shook her head, feeling a bit apprehensive. Was it something serious? Should she have somehow found out about it earlier?
"Caron, stop playing with her and just say it," another of the women said, giving Iris a friendly nod. "It's not as bad as she makes it out to be."
"What? Would you do it then?" Caron instantly retorted. She then turned to Iris and began her tale. "Kyro wasn't a very social youth, so he often ended up doing projects with this other girl who had no friends. They hung out a number of times, and Jessica noticed that."
Suddenly, Iris could guess what happened next. There was no way that Kyro's mother would have just let it be. From what Iris had seen of her, it was beyond her capabilities to leave Kyro's personal life alone.
"She pushed them together, didn't she?"
"If only!" Caron laughed. "She actually organized a party so they could admit their feelings before everyone. The girl was poor, so Jessica feared that her son would be too ashamed to say anything without her intervention. Kyro of course refused anyway, saying he was doing no such thing, and the girl ran away in tears. He was then forced to go after her to apologize, and from then on they became almost inseparable.
"The rest of the school had went on to party like nothing happened, though. Ah, it was such a good day for gossip." Caron smirked at the two women. "I remember us all sitting at one table and dissing Jessica behind her back. Pretty sure I said I'd never do such a mistake to alienate my own son."
The others laughed at that. "You certainly didn't pull punches when kicking him out."
"It was necessary," Caron said a bit defensively, even if the words before had been said in a joking matter. "Anyway, Iris, did something similar happen to you?"
"Close enough," she said with a nervous laugh. "She just put Kyro's whole reputation on the line."
"Woah! She's become even more vicious over the years!"
"I sometimes miss her. We'd have so much more to talk about if she was still living here," another woman said with a sigh. She seemed really disappointed about the fact.
"No worries, Jenny. Now we have Iris to share the latest gossip with us, don't we?" Caron glanced at Iris with a conspiratorial grin. "You wouldn't leave us old women out of the loop, would you?"
Iris chuckled, her lip corners twitching. She didn't even know them yet, so why were they acting like she already belonged to their circle? For god's sake, she was seeing three out of four of them for the first time!
"You're just scaring her away," said the younger woman by Iris' side. "Don't pay attention to them. Nothing ever happens here, so they can't hold back from wanting to learn everything about you."
"What about you?" Iris asked with interest.
The woman smiled at her. "I work as a primary school teacher. That's more excitement than I could ever possibly need."
That made sense, and from then on the conversation changed to how her work had been that week. The old women were more than happy to learn about what the children who they knew by name were up to, and Iris just sat on the side, listening to the humorous tales.
No one drilled her with questions anymore, and she found that she quite liked this group. In time, she even learned their names. There was Caron, the loudest of them all, Melisa, who spoke very little, Jenny, who laughed a lot and had her hair in a white braid, and Bel, short for Belinda.
After ten o'clock, Iris said her goodbyes, thanking everyone for inviting her. The evening had started a bit awkwardly, but she was happy to have gotten out of the house. It had been awhile since she was surrounded by a group of people that included her in their circle.
Somehow, she felt more comfortable among these old women than Kyro's friends. Maybe it was the lack of pressure to impress them, but it was easier to talk to them, say her opinion even when it didn't conform to what everyone else was saying.
Once home, Iris checked on Lucy and fed him his medicine food, then went to cook for Kyro. It was around eleven, so he should be coming back in less than an hour.
While frying the vegetables, she suddenly thought about the meal she'd eaten hours ago. Would Caron accept an apprentice? Iris could really use some assistance in this endeavor.
Once she was done, Kyro returned. He thanked her for the meal and ate in silence. But Iris couldn't resist asking him a few questions.
"Did you like that girl in seventh grade?"
"Hm? You mean Sandy? Where did you hear of her?"
A frown surfaced on Kyro's face, and Iris' heart skipped a beat. No way, was he still bitter about what happened back then?
Iris sat down at the table as well, although she hadn't put any plate for herself. "You missed the dinner at Caron's tonight."
"Those gossipy…" Kyro stopped himself before saying anything more. He shook his head and took another bite of the fried vegetables before speaking up again. "I only saw her as a classmate, but once mom put the idea into Sandy's head that I liked her, she never left me alone. Wherever I went, she'd be there.
"If I told her to leave, saying I have no feelings for her, she'd smile and nod, then lean in to say that I didn't need to hide my feelings anymore, for she already knew." Kyro smiled wryly. "After half a year of that, I told my parents that I want to study in a private school. Somewhere expensive. They thought I wanted a better education, but in truth, I just wanted to get away from Sandy."
After listening to his version of the past events, Iris didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Why was this nothing like what the women had told her? Where was the tragic love story between the rich heir and a destitute girl? How did it transform into a prologue for a horror story?
Noticing her expression, Kyro laughed lightly. "Don't believe all you hear. It always looks better from the outside."
"I see…"
But really, a horror story prologue?