HIS PRINCESS | K.TH

Hidden Beast

RIN

"Mom?"

I enter the store, the envelope of money clutched between my fingertips. The bell sounds out a hollow ring as the door swings open and close.

My eyes widen.

"Mom!"

Shoving the envelope deep into the pockets of my jacket, I rush over to the counter. The two men standing over my mother is disgustingly familiar— it's the debtors, that had bothered us for years.

I harshly shove one of them to the side.

"What are you doing here?!"

Mom waves her hands frantically, fear flickering in her eyes as they turn to fix deadly stares at me. "Rin! Rin— quit that. They weren't..."

"We paid everything." I hiss, glaring up at the taller, broader men. "Get out. You have no right to be here."

One of them smirk. It's the one with blonde hair, all messy and grimy from dirt and ash.

"Ah, there's the prissy little girl we've been looking for." He says, elbowing his partner. When he smiles, I can see his teeth— all black from smoking so much.

He leans forward with an amused look.

"Girl, you're right. You two have paid all your debts. We're just here because we're very, very curious on where you suddenly got that massive sum of money."

"Even if you sold everything you owned, you couldn't have made all that money."

I hiss.

"That's none of your fucking business."

He laughs. It's a cold type of laugh, and I tense even further. I could already tell that nothing good was going to come out of this.

I can smell the smoke in his breath.

"Still as prissy as ever, aren't you?"

Mom yells when he slams a fist into one of the racks. Bags of chips and candy spill out on the floor as the entire rack crashes to the floor, with a screeching noise.

"I don't think you understand just how serious we are." The blonde one says, with a smile. "Just tell us where you got it from. It's that easy."

"Okay. Fine."

He gives his partner a satisfied glance when I say that. I wave him closer, pretending that I was going to whisper it into his ear.

I take a second.

"No, bitch."

Then I drive my fist into the side of his head in a fast hook— something that I'd learned from Aeri. I hit his temple, and when he stumbles, I brutally aim a kick where it hurts.

Now the other one.

He lunges for me. And I quickly dart to the side, laughing at him when he plows headfirst into another rack. Mom is yelling— it was all the things she was going to have to clean up later.