Bound For Ruin

Chapter 4

I haven't been able to sleep, I couldn't be when crazy thoughts flashed through my mind with each second. I thought it was kind of odd that everyone around me acted so scared whenever I brought up Mia's name so I thought that I could search up her family history so that I could quench my curiosity.

"Okay," I whispered as I took a seat in the large desk chair that my father bought from an auction a few months ago. I turned my head towards the door, hoping that my father wasn't going to have some late night marking or researching to do. It would be hell if my father found me in his office, researching about a family that he clearly stated that I should stay away from.

I turned back towards the large computer when the coast was clear and searched, the Shin family. I bit my lips as I searched through the many links under the search bar for any information about the family and sighed when I found nothing under each one. "I thought that they were known," I whispered as I continued to search for names of each family member and sighed when I was only given Instagram and Facebook accounts of each person instead of information that I clearly needed.

I reclined into my seat, thinking of all the things that was spoken during the confrontation in the bathroom so that I could search on anything which would be of value to me. "What was the name of the gang again?" I whispered as I closed the eyes, trying desperately to remember the name that they may or may not have said. "I don't know," I hunched over the keyboard thinking of something else that I could search for. "How about dangerous gang in Korea with red masks. Maybe that will do the trick."

I celebrated when I saw multiple links as well as the different images of the gang's outfit. I entered the first link, happy that I've made progress with the information that was found. "Tagonan sal- inja, the Born Killers," I read the name that was the first thing that popped onto the screen. "A mafia that has been in power for over a hundred years."

The more I read through the link, the more goosebumps appeared on my arms. They were a brutal mafia that was untouchable, they killed people from the president straight to normal bartenders. My heart raced as I read and seen the different pictures of their victims. They were brutal in their way of killing. My stomach churned at the different images of people being so brutally murdered that there was nothing left of them. Some looked like shriveled mints and other's were missing different parts of their bodies.

At the end of the page, a video of a news report from 1980 showed up and I clicked on it wanting to know what it consisted of. "Today is the day that we finally catch the man behind the famous, Born Killers. Who was found in The Ritz Hotel," I gasped when I saw hundreds of FBI surrounding the hotel and in the midst of it was an old man. He looked to be about 50 with a usual dad body which consisted of the large belly. He wore nothing but a pair of undies so I could see the snake tattoo that surrounded his body and the large name of the mafia plastered straight onto his chest. He was bleeding alot and had heavy chains holding against him. Large FBI men pulled him roughly, carrying him whenever he wanted to fall over.

The camera then focused on the news reporter, a young female who looked to be atleast the age of 25. She had freckles that covered her pale skin and wore a large puffer jacket that almost covered her whole face. "We had a tip off of the mafia Don's place of a stay and we are glad that we have put the man behind the killings and shipments of drugs to jail."

I sighed and sat back onto my chair, wondering how all of this tied to Mia and her family. If it was tied, the reporter would've said their surnames or something but nothing was said. The links that I have checked clearly stated that after this big bust that occurred, the mafia was immediately shut down and the leader died of natural causes a few months later after his arrest. There was no link whatsoever to Mia's family which confused me even more because why would those girls at school lie so badly about a girl that had done nothing to them and why did my father act so horribly when he found out that she had become my friend.

Although I found nothing incriminating, I vowed to never get involved with Mia again because it seems that something is not right with her and I would rather not figure it out on a later note. I slipped out my phone, blocked Mia's number and slipped out of the office, happy that I could finally get my peaceful sleep even though my questions weren't answered.

~~~~~~~~

"No, sorry." I sighed once again when another girl in the class rejected my proposal to swap seats. I plastered a fake smile to the emo girl who sat in the corner of the class, where teachers couldn't see you because of the tall girls who were seated a row infront of them and was the perfect place to take any afternoon naps after a tiring morning. It was the perfect place and she hadn't wanted to give it up so easily.

I painfully sat in my seat and took out my notebooks so that I could take notes about work. I normally hadnt taken notes because I regarded it as a waste of energy since I took in information just by listening to it but I knew that today I needed a reason to be unapproachable.

"Hello, Minnie," I heard the familiar honey voice of Mia call out to me and I internally cringed when her face contorted in a confused manner when I hadn't given her any mind. "Minnie, is there something wrong?" She asked, scooting closer to my seat, creating an ugly screeching sound when the chair slid towards me.

"Nothing's wrong. I just need to do this work," I replied as monotonely as possible which was pretty difficult to do since she came to me with so much enthusiasm. This was exactly what I had feared would come when I ignored her, she would pester me until I opened up on what was bothering me.

"They told you about it,right? The mafia lifestyle that they're so convinced that my family's apart of, right?" She asked, reclining in her seat and her arms were crossed in an angrily manner. "Minnie, these people are liars and I can't believe you believed that crap. Ever since I moved here, I was ridiculed because I was a bit different from the other girls in this school. This rumour started when they heard of one of the children from the mafia had fled to South Africa and when people found out that I was Korean who came from the exact place that these mafia members had lived, they had immediately pointed at my family and believed that it was us this whole time."

My heart pulsed when I heard the loud crack in her tone as she continued with her explanation of how she had gotten into this position and how she's been hurt by the people of this community. "It's not right that everyone thinks I'm such a horrible person when I'm not. I try to be nice and they all just run away from me like I'm a disease," she said as quiet sobs escaped her vigorously.

I reached my hand out and awkwardly rubbed her back so that she could calm down from her hysteria. "I'm so sorry, I hadn't known about this. People are just really mean, Mia."

"Please don't leave me, Minnie." Although I wanted to scream that I wanted to do just that, my tongue got caught as a realised how tough it might have been for her. How difficult it must've been when she continuously heard horrible things about her even though she was innocent and hadn't possessed any character that would involve her in being alone.

"I won't leave you, I promise," I said whilst I was hugging her, hoping that it would be her to calm down her sobs. The hair on the back of my neck tingled as I continued to rub her, and I quickly searched the class, hoping to find the person who's causing this unsettling feeling.

I finally found the culprit and saw it was the group of girls that I saw yesterday in the bathroom. They all had sympathetic as well as disappointed looks on their faces as they watched the display of affection between Mia and I. I finally caught the attention of the leader of the group, Ayanda, I found out during the registration period and saw the little disappointed shake of her head. "You're gonna regret this," she mouthed, then continued to apply her pink lip gloss.