154 The Beast Turns Green (1/2)

In the corner of an empty road, three guys and a young girl was huffing and puffing heavily, some of them already sitting on the ground from the exercise that they had just undergone.

”What's going on, Yeo Ri? Why are you with them?” Hyuk pointedly asked his sister. He glared at the two guys as if they were the criminals instead of him.

Yeo Ri grimaced and looked down. She was too afraid to answer him.

”Hey, don't be so harsh to her. Yeo Ri-ah didn't do anything wrong,” In Guk defended the girl in-between heavy breaths.

”Shut up, I didn't ask you,” Hyuk threw a glare at his classmate. Then, he turned to look at Yeo Ri. ”What did they do to you?”

”I-I—” She stuttered, her head lowered. ”They bought me ice cream, but it dropped...”

”What?”

Thinking about her ice cream again, Yeo Ri's eyes reddened. ”My ice cream... it fell...”

”...Was that... why you cried?” Hyuk said, asking for confirmation with a bizarre look on his face. It couldn't be... because of ice cream? Was Yeo Ri always this childish? Now that he thought about it, the answer was yes. She was only eleven years old, after all. Although she was tall for her age, she was still a kid inside. He had forgotten about this little fact since he was too caught up in his feelings.

Hyuk cleared his throat and scratched his neck awkwardly. It turns out that In Guk and the guy next to him didn't have any part to play in Yeo Ri's crying episode. He had one-sidedly misunderstood the two guys and had actually beaten them up for no reason.

'...Wait.'

Hyuk paused his train of thoughts suspiciously. 'What was Yeo Ri doing with the two of them in the first place?' His eyes swivelled to the two guys briefly.

”Lee Yeo Ri, you better tell me the truth. What were you doing with these b*stards?” He asked with a strict tone. Warning was laced behind his words, insinuating that his anger would spike the moment he notices something was off.

Yeo Ri flinched, then glanced at In Guk worriedly. She wondered if it was alright to tell Hyuk about their deal. Will In Guk take his words back because of this?

In Guk nodded in response. He opened his mouth to reply in her stead: ”I invited her on a date.”