He Became The Bad Boy

Become The Clown

"How was I supposed to know it was you?" I scoffed.

"How come I can recognize you but you can't recognize me even after bumping into me twice," he pouted.

I pointed at him accusingly. "You grew into a giant and lost all your baby fat."

He smiled at me, amused at my tone.

"You didn't grow an inch more than the last time I saw you," he teased.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Just because you're as tall as a lighthouse doesn't mean you can look down on the rest of us."

He stared at me intently for a few seconds. I grow uncomfortable at the intensity his eyes seemed to hold.

Then he broke into a grin, two dimples peeking out under a light shadow of stubble.

"I'm just teasing you," he said to me.

"Some things never change," I mumbled.

"I could say the same about you, Hana." He said quietly.

"Hey Lee, we're going out to the field to spark up," one of his friends said. "You still coming?"

"Yeah, in a sec." He replied and turned to me.

"You want to come?" He asked, regarding me with a guarded look.

He was challenging me.

I could guess what they were about to go do. He was asking me to go smoke with them.

I noticed some girls and guys heading away from the group. A girl looked back at Lee and smiled at him. He smiled back.

An uncomfortable feeling spread over me.

The others said goodbye and headed back to the densely packed areas of the square.

I weighed my options.

I could be a good girl and head back to look for Ofi.

Or I could ruin my reputation further by going along with Lee. I knew as sure as the sun would rise in the morning that whatever choice I made would make its way back to Rahima and the rest of the town.

I already knew my answer.

Ruining my own reputation would piss off Rahima more than shaving my hair did. She had started the rumors of me being crazy and having people hate on me in the hopes of lowering my self esteem and making me hate myself for it.

It had almost worked.

If it had worked, she'd planned for me to come crawling back to her, offering to please her and do whatever she wanted so that I could restore my reputation. That would mean being married to Simigo. Who would then beat me regularly and lust after other women after he'd made sure to get me pregnant first. Rahima would have gotten a kick out of being my mother-in-law. She'd boss me around and use me as a personal servant to see to her every need.

Knowing Rahima, she probably would have kept on using me for her own gain and then kicked me to the curb after getting what she wanted.

Whatever that was. Probably something evil.

But Ofi had come and talked some sense into me and opened my eyes on who needed who.

Rahima needed me. In relatively good condition so she'd have something to brag and show off to her friends.

In other words, she needed a submissive, spineless, pretty-faced robot. Something she could parade around to show how well trained it was.

I'd ruined the pretty image when I shaved my hair. But that wasn't bad enough to ruin her plans. Hair grows back.