City of Secrets | kpop mafia au

Chapter 2

Unlike the rest of Maddie's peers she hadn't found a low wage job to keep her summer time occupied. Alice worked in a small art gallery showcasing local small artists, where some of her own best pieces were displayed. Maddie had instead filled her time with intoxicating substances and illegal activity, spending time with a group of people who had washed their lives just as far down the drain as Maddie. Maddie had spent very little time at home, she avoided returning back to the apartment at all costs, she'd instead spend the summer nights where ever with who ever she could find.

It was an ordinary weekday and Alice had the afternoon off of her job and to Maddie's dismay had insisted on dragging Maddie away from an afternoon of smoking nicotine filled sticks and avoiding the police. Alice had just turned eighteen and as a result, her pockets were now lined with cash from distant unnamed relatives with more money than they could spend. Despite Maddie's poorer life choices something she'd always excelled at was her taste in fashion, from street style to the runway she always knew what to wear. So with newfound money and a desire to get her friend out of the shadows Alice announced that Maddie had to go shopping with her.

The girls walked around aimlessly for a while before deciding to go to their favourite restaurant. They ordered their usual meals, they could recite their shared order off the top of their heads, as it hadn't changed since they were fourteen. Despite the array of delicious food in front of Maddie, she barely picked at her favourite dish, just moving the food around the plate until Alice had finished. They chatted between themselves as always, but there was something off, from the way Alice's eyes darted to Maddie's full plate or shaky hands every now and again to the way neither of them quite knew what to say, they hadn't exactly been spending much time together recently between Alice studying and Maddie doing anything but that, they'd missed each other a lot and neither of them knew what to bring up.

After they'd eaten and split the check for the food only one of them ate they made their way into a department store, not looking for anything in particular. They found their way into a cosmetic section, a small separate stand displaying a new Tom Ford perfume that was probably too expensive to be stocked in a place like this, the shining gold trimming of the packaging caught Maddie's attention and lured her towards it like a magpie. She picked up the sample and sprayed it into the air, letting the small fragrant droplets rain down in her, Alice was busy talking to one of the staff members about some eyeshadow palette, so Maddie made a split decision.

She quickly assessed her surroundings, checking for security cameras in the way a compulsive thief had once taught her on a drug induced night earlier that year. When she was certain that she was not in an obvious position she picked up one of the uniform rectangular boxes and rolled it around in her hand peeling off the security tag with her long nails as she did so. It wouldn't come off immediately sending her heart racing but eventually she felt her nail slide under the stick plastic giving her the leverage she needed to pull it off. She double checked it was off and stuck it onto the side of the stand.

She couldn't help but to smirk to herself as she wondered why they even bothered with the tag in the first place if taking it off was so easy, she looked around again keeping a completely neutral face as she slipped the bottle into her bag behind the cover of the tall racks beside her. Once it was safely inside she played it off like she was checking the contents of her bag before zipping it closed, and waltzing off to go and find Alice.

She wanted the perfume, and she could afford it too, but much like everything else, it was so much better when it felt wrong. There was something about the criminality of it that fuelled Maddie's more illegal tendencies. This was certainly not the most illegal thing she'd ever done, but it still felt so good, the two girls exited the shop together, as they passed the clear security gates Maddie held her breath as the prospect that any second the blaring alarm could go off announcing her crime, causing  adrenaline to pump through her veins making her dizzy with enjoyment. She let out a long breath when nothing happened unfortunately catching Alices attention.