Spider-Girl In Your Area (Chaennie: Book 1)

Ch. 3 pt.3

"You've been fighting... You've been fighting?!?" Claire states aloud as she paces back and forth in complete disbelief.

Chaeyoung stood there in silence, with her head down.

After her mother saw the gloves that fell out of her daughters' bag, they both left the bank and rode the bus back in silence until they were back home. Chaeyoung was now being questioned by both her mom and dad in the living room, after Claire had clued him in on what she learned.

"I've seen this logo before." Mason states as he examines the pair of MMA gloves. "It belongs to people who run the Beat-Down; an underground, fight organization where fighters go to earn some quick money while people go and bet on fighters. We've made some arrests down there before." He states before dropping the gloves onto the coffee table and looking at his daughter.

"Chaeyoung" Claire says while stopping her pacing and looking towards her daughter as well. "Please, tell me these are only some sort of souvenir that you found, o-or they're for some sort of self-defense training that you've started doing." She asks with a pleading look. "Please tell me you haven't been fighting."

Chaeyoung continued to stand there with her head down and timidly fiddled with her hands a little in silence.

"Roseanne... please answer us." Mason pleads with his daughter to speak up.

"... I... I've been..." She pauses for a moment before letting out a somber sigh. "I've been fighting." Chaeyoung quietly admits.

Both Mason and Claire lower/ shake their heads in disapproval upon hearing her admit it.

"Do you have any idea how dangerous, and reckless that was?" Claire asks worriedly looking back at her. "You could've gotten hurt; scratch that, more hurt than you already are." She says motioning towards the wound across Chaeyoung's brow. "What made you possibly think that-"

Claire was cut off as Mason placed a hand on her shoulder, letting her know to be calm. She takes a deep, shaky breath and takes a moment to compose herself while he walks over towards Chaeyoung.

"Chaeyoung... What were you thinking?" Mason asks. "I mean... w-what made you want to do this? What made you possibly think that this was a good idea?"

Chaeyoung stops fiddling with her hands and takes a small deep breath.

"I... know dad... about you guys." Chaeyoung says while earning confused looks from her parents. "About your... financial situation... about the bills." She clarifies.

"Oh... y-you know?" Mason asks as he and his wife feel a little uneasy finding out that their daughter knows now.

"H-how long have you...?" Claire trails off.

"A few days now... ever since the fight at school... I came back from the... library... and saw the bills on the table. I might have... also seen an ad for the Beat-Down on the newspaper that showed the prize money." Chaeyoung admits, still leaving out where she really was though.

"Okay... that explains the how part... but still doesn't explain why you thought to go through with this." Mason explains.

"Because... It's my fault." She states. "If it wasn't for me breaking stuff and hurting Kai... maybe you both could've been able to catch up on your payments and all but..." she lets out another somber sigh. "I- I was just trying to help you both by earning some extra money to help with the bills."

"... I get it Sweetheart; I know where you were coming from." Claire says while walking up towards her daughter. "But that still doesn't change the fact that what you did was not only reckless and dangerous, but also wrong."