SMALL TOWN LOVE, A CONCEPT which is often seen to be very innocent and sweet. Most the ideal date places in Thistlethorn are Lalisa's, the lake, and the neighborhood park. But mostly, people centered around my sister's diner, primarily because of the couple's menu she had personally fashioned, milkshakes with two straws, and dishes designed to be shared.

In the summer, I had always wanted to try something from that special menu with Doyoung, but of course it wasn't logical. Had my sister ever seen it...boy, it would be over for me. I shouldn't really care what she thinks, but if anyone were to see, my reputation would be ruined. Along with the many other legal consequences to the action.

So today I compensate with a slightly lesser than satisfactory alternative.

"We'll take the couples menu." I tell Lisa, then grab the laminated sheet before she can even add in a word. She looks from me to Yeonjun and Doyeon skeptically.

"Really?"

"Wow. Seulgi would be thrilled once I tell her I ordered something off of the couples menu with the new kid." She nudges Yeonjun gently. "You don't mind, right?"

"No, but I do have a name."

"I think Jim Stark is suiting enough." I comment, taking a seat across from Doyeon. Yeonjun ponders, then sits next to me. When he takes a seat, my mind thinks back to the festival.

"We never got to finish our conversation." I say, shifting in my spot to look at him. "You were talking about the east side?"

"East side?" Doyeon inches closer. "I'm curious. Are there gang bangers crawling the streets?"

He grimaces. "...No. You guys make it sound like it's awful to be there."

"Is it not?"

"No." Yeonjun's smile fades. "It was pretty cool actually. Prepared me a lot for the life here." I'm not sure what he means by that. The life here?

I'm interrupted from asking any other questions when our food arrives, Bambam being the one who serves it. Doyeon and Yeonjun smile at him appreciatively, but I just scowl in response. "You work here now? Did you finally get fired?"

"Mai." Doyeon hisses.

"Very funny." The older boy crosses his arms. "I am just doing your sister a favor. She's quite overwhelmed with customers at the moment."

"How Prince Charming of you." I remark.

"I heard you and Lisa went out the other night." Yeonjun pipes. "How was it?"

"What?"

"You and Lisa. Didn't you go out?" The peculiar expression on Bambam's face makes me suspicious. Why was he so confused? But the look is gone before I can memorize it, he nods quickly and shoves a hand into his pockets.

"Oh yeah. It was quite nice actually. Went to the drive in theater." Right after, he makes an excuse of getting back to Lisa and leaves. I watch his retreat in suspicion, only turning back when Yeonjun speaks up.

"How long have they been together?"

"They aren't together." I mutter. "She's just stringing him along."

"Doesn't seem like that to me." He says, looking at the older pair who seem to be joking about something. My sister laughs loudly, then yells at him to stop being such a distraction.

"Well, you also don't know Lisa." I finalize. "She is not as good as you would think." Yeonjun has struck a nerve, and thankfully he notices, because the kid does not choose to add more. Clearing up awkwardness is Doyeon's speciality, so she brings up something completely off topic.

"Mai, you left so suddenly at the festival. Was everything okay?"

"Actually," I hesitate, thinking back to the day. "no it was kind of weird."

"Yeah, you spaced out while Doyeon was talking about the shoe." Yeonjun shrugs to himself. "Looks like you saw someone die."

I roll my eyes. "I wasn't that scared. Just a little freaked out."

"You're the one who told me not to freak out." Doyeon narrows her eyes, not believing me.

"Fine." After munching down on a fry, I rest my cheek in my hand, hand toying with the menu. "The whole thing with the blood and the shoe reminded me of something really familiar."

"Familiar?"

"I don't know why I'm telling you this...but, it was something I wrote for my year end project."

"Year end?" Doyeon sits back. "Like that project? The big one?"

"Yes, that one." Yeonjun looks confused so I quickly explain how for their year end project they have to come up with a novel ready to be published. Only one will get a contract to be released to the public. He seems faintly familiar with the topic — probably the counselor explained it a while back — so I resume my previous sentence. "It was weird Doyeon. I haven't shown anyone that part of my draft. I had only written it like a week before the festival itself."

"Well, what was the context to the shoe and the blood?" Yeonjun leans back into his wrists. "You said you wrote something very similar to it. What happened?"

My uneasiness sends a wave of discomfort to them, he even stops eating from the plate of fries.

"Someone dies."

🥀

        WHEN WE RETURN BACK TO class, the both Doyeon and I are still pretty disturbed by Mai's comment. Well I think I am more than Doyeon, maybe she's used to this girl saying some completely odd things. But somehow Mai doesn't find it completely weird that someone replicated a murder scene from her mystery book...so maybe it's reassuring? To me, not really.

We enter the classroom together, and I take my seat in the corner closest to the window. The nice thing about being in the back is the minimal amount of effort I have to put towards the class. I don't participate much, I leave work like that to Yuqi who always has her hand raised in the air. But, I somehow have a good grade in the class, despite not paying attention much. Don't ask me how I do it, because I myself do not know the answer.

Class begins without a hitch, while my eyes venture to the appealing view outdoors. Trees and more trees, a blue sky heading into the distance, far away from this place. Maybe when I am old enough I would finally gather the guts to leave this place behind. There were so many things wrong with it anyways, especially on the west side. Maybe people like Mai and Doyeon wouldn't understand, but I did. They thought everything was about Thistlethorn, and everything that went around in this town was all there was. The east side brought much more perspective than that...but what most did not know was that the two sides were more connected. More connected than the IT girls realized.

Are there gang bangers crawling the streets? When she had asked the question, I wanted to laugh. Is that what they seriously thought of the east side? The way Lucas spoke so demeaning of the Gorgons, oh, if he knew what the gang was really about...

I know guys like Lucas. They're usually the ones dying to join the gang in the first place.

In my opinion, the west side seemed to be the real problem to Thistlethorn.

There's a murmur of disruption that ripples around the students in my class when an unexpected visitor enters through the lecture doors. I turn my head, now interested by the turn of events. I don't recognize this woman, but it clearly doesn't seem like she's from anywhere in this school. If I recall right...

And she flashes her badge at Mr. Kim. Yes, she is a cop. I've seen her at the station with Bambam. The two adults talk amongst each other for a short couple seconds, when she turns to the class.

"If Kim Doyeon could follow me out of class, please?" Her eyes focus in on the tall student, and the brunette reluctantly stands. Of course anyone would be hesitant, considering the cops themselves have shown up to the class instead of calling them down to the office. And I know quite well that it is best to steer clear of the badged patrollers. Not doing so could get you in unnecessary trouble.

The lady officer points to the back exit — closest to my seat actually — and then the two leave quietly. Students are still fidgety from the odd exchange but eventually all the heads turn back to Mr. Kim, who is impatiently awaiting our attention once again. My eyes however, are still trained on the tall brunette who shared fries with me in the diner just hours ago.

The conversation is very low, and I can hardly hear it, but it doesn't take much brain power to understand what exactly the woman had told Doyeon. It's pretty obvious, by the way she clamps both hands over her mouth, mostly in shock. The fear is plastered all over her face. And my brief practicing of lip reading from some janky website which probably gave my computer a virus points out one useful thing.

Well two actually.

Kang Seulgi. Dead.