Bam!
Thrown onto the hard brick wall, the young boy who had been lifted up and thrown like a sack of tomatoes groaned in pain as his open wounds bled. He looked like a bloody mess.
His hands had dirt and pieces of tiny stones stuck in the wounds as crimson blood kept flowing out. A steady stream also came from his knees.
The throbbing pain from several places on his body made the boy scared and unable to fight back against the aggression that threatened him.
"What guts you have to bump into me, little kid. And not a word of apology." One of the men spat, his obvious muscles bulged against his shirt.
Another one of them went up to the boy and grabbed him by his hair, forcing his face up, ripping a few strands out carelessly from the force he used.
The boy winced as he felt his scalp tingle from the pain.
"Not bad. Your face sure is a pretty one. We might as well take him back to the boss and sell him for a good amount."
"Yeah, those rich old ladies love a kid with a face like this these days. They don't want the manly ones. Tch!"
"How about it, kid? Want to apologize to me by selling yourself? I'll feel so touched and forgive you right away! Hahaha!"
"Big bro, who in the world cares if he wants to or not. Come on, let's go. We're supposed to meet with the rest of the gang today and we're running late." One of them urged as he looked at the time.
"Alright, alright. Little Ten, Little Seven, grab him and let's go." The one they called big bro waved casually as he turned around to leave.
Little Ten and Little Seven were about to act when suddenly something like a smoke bomb was thrown where the gangsters stood and exploded. Instantly the area was covered in a field of white and coughing could be heard everywhere inside.
"What the ***! Where did this smoke come from?! And is that pepper spray?!"
"Cough! Cough! Big bro, I think there's also a coughing-inducer drug mixed in!"
"Cough! COUGH! Urgh! If I find out who did this, I'll make them pay!"
A furious roar rumbled out from the smoke-filled area, causing the passersby to evacuate and stay away from the dangerous area.
Outside of the men's knowledge, someone had snuck in while they were distracted by the smoke and quietly rescued the young boy who was also indiscriminately hit by the unique effects of the smoke bomb.
"Run!" Someone whisper-shouted in his ear and grabbed him by his arms pulling him into a desperate run.
The young boy listened obediently and followed, not falling behind. At the end, he was the one who pulled his savior to run after the other started slowing down from a lack of stamina.
After concluding that they were far enough away from those gangsters, the boy's savior shouted for them to stop because they seriously could not run anymore. Their legs felt like jelly as they collapsed to the ground, heaving heavily. Their body trembled, not just from the extreme exercise they just did but from the fear and excitement of what she had done.
Yes, she.
It was a young girl who looked to be the boy's age who had bravely stepped in to save him.
"Whew! Are you okay?" The girl asked the boy who appeared unaffected by the long and fast run they had, only the slightly heavier-than-normal breathing showed that he had just ran.
For a moment she doubted if she was the rescuer or him. She seemed pathetic and laughable compared to the boy who made it look like the running had been a breeze.
'He probably could have saved himself back there. Argh, nosy me!' She spurned herself as a blush rose to her cheeks.
"I'm okay. Thank you for saving me, big sister," the boy replied, his clear and clean eyes making him look innocent and younger than his body age. His heterochromia eyes compelled people to unconsciously take a second look.
The girl was taken aback. The boy appeared to be the same age as her, how come he was calling her "big sister"? Was he younger than he looks?
Confused, the girl inquired to clear her doubts, "How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Ian Everett! 9 years old!" The boy shouted as if reporting to his superior.
"9?!" The girl exclaimed, shocked to say the least. Her sparkly pink eyes widened exaggeratedly like it would in a play as her mouth opened big enough to stuff an apple. This expression on her face made her pretty looks look strange.
No matter how she looked at him from top to bottom, bottom to top, the latter did not look like he was 9 at all. If he were to claim that he was 14 years old, she could buy that, but 9?! No way!
Just then, in spite of her shock, she noticed the bleeding wounds on Ian's body.
"Oh, no! Look at you, you're bleeding so badly! Let's go to my house first and treat your wounds. They'll get infected at this rate," the girl said in a hurry and quickly pulled Ian to her house which was just a few minutes away from where they ran to, forgetting about the weirdness of this boy she just met and saved.
This girl, although she looked cute and quiet, was uncharacteristically stubborn. In the first place, the girl did not know why she had saved him. Usually in a situation like that, she would've been the first to run away. She was no hero. She has always been easily scared.
Yet her body moved before her mind could follow and process the situation. She had taken her homemade smoke-cum-pepper-spray bomb and thrown it like there was no tomorrow. By the time she came back to her senses, she had grabbed the boy and they ran.
Ran like their lives depended on it.
Because it did.
The girl was scared out of her wits just thinking back to what she had done. If her mom and dad hears about this, she would never hear the end of it. I mean, no one would want their daughter to intervene in such a dangerous situation! Those men—gangsters, she assumed—even talked about "selling" people! Oh goodness!
She shivered.
"Ouch!" Ian shouted and flinched when the cotton swab poked a little strongly at his wound.
"Oh, sorry!" The girl apologized as she looked apologetically at Ian.
"It's okay." Ian smiled, making the girl feel her heart suddenly beating fast as her face heated up. The smile he directed at her looked so pure and untainted, like nothing dirty in the world could cling to him.
She looked into his eyes, one light purple and one dark purple. The dark purple eye seemed to contain a boundless darkness unknown to the person sitting in front of her, contrasting Ian as if he were not one but two. As if one were split into halves.
Staring deeper into that eye, something shook her to her core. Her face immediately flushed.
She averted her gaze as she concentrated on his wound. 'He looks really good-looking.' She uncontrollably thought. 'And that eye…'
"Big sister, what's your name?"
Still not used to being called "big sister", she flinched and awkwardly smiled. "Aretta Monah. But you can call me Aret, if you want."
"Big sister Aret."
Aretta quickly shook her hands and her head shook side to side along with them. "No no no no! Just Aret. Don't call me big sister." —I don't think I'm older than you.
"Aret?"
"Yes."
"Aret, thank you." Ian smiled sweetly as he thanked her once again for her help and for how caring she had been to a stranger. His parents and big brother had always taught him to not thank others when they do things for him because that'll make them think that he's an easy target and… a weakness. And Ian did not want to drag them down because of him. 'Oops, I forgot.' 9-year-old Ian frowned to himself. 'Next time, definitely next time!'
For some reason, Aretta found herself unable to look at Ian's face whenever the other smiled at her. An emotion she had never felt before overtook her senses, controlling her thoughts and feelings. Everything seemed to turn pink and red in her vision, bubbles popped out of her heart and stars twinkled at her.
Badump. Badump. Badump.
Was she always this way whenever she meets handsome boys?
No, no! Never!
Only him?
…Yes…
What did this mean?
Just as Aretta's brain was about to go into overdrive over this problem, the front door of her house was pushed in and a middle-aged couple entered the house.
"Mom, dad! You're home!" Aretta greeted happily.
"We're home. Darling, what did you do today?" Her mom asked as Aretta walked from the living room to the entrance hall to stand before her parents.
Watching as her parents took off their shoes and walked in, Arette backtracked and said, "Well, I, uh, I did something pretty…exciting today, hehe…"
"Really?" Her mom raised an eyebrow. "So what exactly did you do?"
Aretta's eyes rolled around as she anxiously thought of something to say. She couldn't lie! She would never lie! So she had to find an excuse or distract their attention!
"T-That's right!" Aretta thought of a subject change, one that's sitting right in their living room. "Let me introduce you to someone!"
"Who?! Your boyfriend?!" Her mother immediately asked the second after Aretta's words ended.
"No!" Aretta vehemently denied as the blush that disappeared again rose to her cheeks.
"Hmm." Her mom did not sound convinced. 'Not now, maybe, but definitely in the future. I have a feeling about this.'
"A-Anyways! Come on! Go see him!" Aretta hooked her parents' arms, one in each of her arms, and pulled them towards the living room where Ian sat curiously watching them.
Aretta's blush deepened for some reason.
Her parents seemed surprised to see Ian who stood up to greet them politely. Every point of his appearance and manners matched well with their expectations of what their future son-in-law should be like, Aretta's dad whispered to his wife. He was a quiet one. Aretta's mom was the loud one at home.
"Ahem! Mom, dad, he's Ian. I met him today and brought him home." She said some pretty misleading words without realizing it.
"Ohh~ Brought…him home." The mom teased Aretta who only just realized what she had said and the ambiguous meaning behind it. Just as she was about to deny the accusation again, her mom gave her a thumbs-up. "Nice job, daughter. He's a handsome one."
"Mom!" Aretta screamed, beyond embarrassed.
"Okay, okay. Relax, darling. I'm just teasing you," her mom laughed and tried to calm down her agitated daughter. She has always been fun to tease.
"Humph!" Aretta huffed and then decided to let it go and move on to the important topic. "As I've said, his name is Ian and I helped him get out of a jam but he got injured so I took him here to treat his wounds." She explained concisely without allowing a single ambiguous word to appear.
"Oh. I don't mean to sound rude and unwelcome, because he is welcome, but, it's getting late, shouldn't he go home soon?"
"Oh, right!" Aretta's eyes widened as she just realized how late it's gotten since then when she looked out the window at the darkened sky.
"Ian, do you want to call…Ah!" Aretta didn't get to finish her sentence before she tripped on something and fell forward, and in her haste to stop the fall and stand up, her body uncontrollably started falling backwards.
Just as she braced herself for the impact, someone caught her tightly in their embrace.
And lifted her up in a princess carry.
An outstandingly handsome boy hugged an extraordinarily pretty girl in a princess carry pose in the middle of the living room.
Silence.
"Okay… In all seriousness. Are you sure he's not…"
A suspicious red dyed Aretta's cheeks.
Mom finished, "Your boyfriend?"