Chapter 5

In a moment of impulse, I kissed the child of my enemy. For several days after, Sophia didn't come home.

Until today, when she called, asking me to bring an important document from the study to her.

Her tone was urgent, telling me to hurry.

Walking through the dark, quiet alley, I wondered if I had taken a wrong turn, or if Sophia had given me the wrong address.

Suddenly, a group of people swarmed into the maze-like alley.

They seemed to be local thugs, each carrying a stick.

I clutched the document, pressing myself against the wall, carefully trying to avoid them, afraid of provoking them.

But they kicked me to the ground anyway.

The document fell from my hands. I crawled on the ground, reaching for it.

Sophia said this document was important, it couldn't be lost.

A sharp pain shot through my hand.

A dirty shoe was mercilessly crushing my right hand. I cried out in pain.

The leader of the thugs laughed, "I heard these hands are quite talented at painting, even won some awards. Wonder if they'll be able to paint anything after today!"

He knew me!

"Who are you? Who sent you?" I demanded.

He lifted his foot, scraping it hard on the ground as if he had stepped in something dirty.

"You messed with Jack. Don't you know what you did?"

Jack? Jack Sullivan?

He looked down at me, tapping my face with his stick: "You've got some nerve, trying to steal Jack's girl."

"Don't you know he's Big Dragon's brother?"

"You made Jack lose face, so we're here to beat your face in!"

I hadn't realized Jack had so many 'little brothers'.

"Go at him, boys! Just don't kill him!"

The sticks rained down on me like hailstones, as if trying to bruise every inch of my skin and break every bone in my body.

In the chaos, I finally managed to grab the scattered document on the ground. I curled up, trying my best to protect it.