01.) PRANKSTERS & FIGHTERS

"SORIN KIM!"

The thunderous voice had all the chattering students in the hallway zip their mouth right up.

Eira turned around to see her homeroom teacher Mr. Williams drenched entirely with some greenish, gooey substance that looked very similar to slime, looking all creepy, disgusting and funny at the same time. No wonder he was so livid.

It seemed that Eira’s homeroom teacher had become a victim- once again-to Sorin Kim's pranks, the notorious prankster of her school.

Mr. Williams made his way towards Sorin who innocently looked at him and with fake politeness asked "Yes sir, you called me? Is there anything you need? Anything I can do for you?"

Silent snickers were heard in the entire hallway as the students tried to suppress their waves of laughter at seeing the condition of the teacher and Sorin’s attitude. Even Eira were trying to hide a smile. She couldn’t help it, her homeroom teacher looked stupidly funny.

"Y-you you..." Mr. Williams fumed, so angry that he wasn't even able to form a coherent sentence.

"Yes Sir?" Sorin says still keeping up the innocent facade even though the mischievous glint in his eyes said something else.

Mr. Williams burst out due to Sorin’s impertinence and shouted "TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE RIGHT NOW" while dragging Sorin with him.

Sorin remained unfazed by what was happening and just merely grinned as he was being dragged away, winking at his friends who were now laughing loudly.

His trips to the principal's office happen on regular basis and Eira couldn’t help but wonder how come he still wasn't kicked out of the school.

"Eira!!" came a cheerful, loud voice as Eira saw Devika skipping towards her. Devika with her father’s stunning features and her mother’s dark skin was no less than stunning. Beautiful almond shaped eyes, full lips and gorgeous, thick black hair tied in ponytail; she was what you would call a natural beauty.

As soon as she came near Eira, she tackled her into a fierce hug that had Eira’s lungs almost collapsing.

"De-Devs let me g-go! I-I can't breathe" Eira muttered in a strangled voice.

"Oops. Sorry" Devika giggles as she releases Eira from her breath-taking hug.

“You really need to learn how control your strength” Eira gasped as she rubbed her shoulder and coughed a bit while grinning.

"Tsk, as if that can hurt you?! Anyways I wanted to ask you if you could come with me somewhere?" Devika asks

"Where do you want to go?" Eira asks still rubbing her shoulders a little.

"Just tell me whether you will come with me or not?" Devika groans in response to not getting an answer.

"But where do you want to go?" Eira stubbornly asks.

Devika muttered expletives and whined out "You don't trust me, babes? Really? How could you do that? I am your best friend! You should always trust your best friend. How could you betray my trust like this? HOW?"

Devika dramatically placed her hands on her chest as she made more exaggerated noises.

Eira used to her overdramatic behaviours just calmly said, laughing a bit while flicking Devika’s forehead,

 "I just asked where you want to go, no need to be so dramatic about that, you idiot! You literally create trouble wherever you go so for my safety it’s better to ask where you want to go? What if you take me to someplace illegal??"

"Please just come with me, I will tell you where okay, and I promise it won’t be anywhere illegal. Promiseee!!!” Devika pouted her eyes widening like a cute puppy.

Eira could resist anything in the world except chocolate chip cookies and Devika's puppy eyes.

And so, sighing she gave in.

"Fine, I will come. But you better have a good reason" she mumbled.

Well as long as it isn’t an illegal place it will be fine Eira thought.

____________________________________________________________________                                             

Ah shit! This is an illegal place came to Eira’s mind.

Eira shouldn't have agreed to come.

Eira was never ever going to listen to Devika again.

Why? the question may arise.

Because right now Eira found herself stuck in the middle of loads of sweaty people all cheering the contestants in the boxing ring.

And why was she there?

Because her dear best friend wanted to spy on her twin brother Aarav Bhatt as to where he vanished frequently after school and so she came with a brilliant idea of following him.

And where did that lead them?

Right in the middle of the place where illegal fights take place.

The underground den.

Eira was trying not to look at the fighters on the ring and the blood they were shedding but it was practically impossible as she heard the people around her cry

"ARMANDO! ARMANDO!"

And as they shuffled, Eira almost gagged at the stink of the coming out from the burly men and sweaty women that had you huddled up between them; all screaming their lungs out.

Eira and Devika got separated after they followed Devika’s brother to the entrance. When Devika realised where they were, she was angry, confused and wanted to go inside and smack her brother and at the same time pull Eira away from there. She decided she was going to take Eira away from there and grabbed Eira’s arm and was going to go back when they were suddenly pushed and ushered right into the entrance by a big group of guffawing men making them loose hold on each other’s arms.

And here Eira found herself.

Eira wanted to be out of there more than anything but it was proving more difficult than ever as the crowd around you went crazy, cheering for the Armando guy.

Finally, the referee whistled indicating that the match had finished.

And so Eira whose eyes had been firmly cast downwards so as to not look at scene from which painful gasps and grunts were heard, now finally looked up and almost fainted because right there in the ring the loser lay sprawled on the floor with blood gushing out from his head wound.

It brought back memories that Eira wished had been buried deep inside.

Memories that still haunt her dreams.

She wanted to get out of this horrid place. It was all violence and blood. Things which she hated the most.

But that now was proving more impossible than ever as the crowd went wild when the referee announced the winner.

"ARMANDO!" came the screams from the audience louder than ever.

Eira mentally swore that if she ever found this Armando guy, she might just do something nasty to him.

For a second she wondered who he was and so she looked up to find the winner.

And there he was. The referee held his hand up announcing him the winner. She couldn't see his face because his entire face was covered in a black mask except for his lips and dark brown eyes.

His brown eyes.

Dark, bloodthirsty and fierce.

When his eyes met Eira’s she felt chills running down her spine. The look in his eyes was violent way too violent for Eira, yet it enamoured her-a beauty that Eira couldn’t quite grasp- and she couldn’t tear her gaze from his, her throat felt dry and every part of her mind was screaming to look away, yet she couldn’t.

 After what seemed like an eternity but was mere seconds, she finally peeled her eyes away from his.

Eira was a little shaken from this incident but tried to put it in the back of her mind. She right now had to find Devika.

Eira finally got free from the crowd and found herself in a wide tunnel stretching long and wide, it had doors on either of its sides. Most probably rooms for the fighters after they were done fighting.

As Eira went she searched for Devika peeking into every room and trying to find her. Finally, she reached the end of the tunnel when you heard voices coming from the last room.

She hadn't meant to eavesdrop but she saw the board marked on the door with the nameplate as "Armando" and the door was left a bit ajar by mistake, enough for nosey people to peek.

 And that’s what exactly Eira did as curiosity got the best of her and she peeked in.

As she peeked into the room, she saw the fighter who was fighting in the ring talking to someone and that someone was a person you were familiar with.

Maceo Gonzalez.

He was in the same group as Sorin and they were close friends.

She frowned wondering exactly what he was doing here and so now her curiosity increasing she inched a little more towards the door that was left slightly open.

"You won this fight, if you keep on winning, you will find yourself getting closer" he was instructing as he gave the shirtless man/fighter a towel.

Even from behind Eira couldn't help but admire his broad back and muscles.

"Don't worry Mac, I will make sure to win the fights. I am going to get to him, no matter what" Armando said with determination and confidence in his voice.

His voice sounded vaguely familiar to Eira but she couldn’t quite place it.

"Yes, but at least have pity on your opponents and make sure not to beat them into a pulp. You almost killed him today" another voice came from behind them but the owner of the voice was not visible.

Eira strained her neck trying to see who it was in the behind when Armando turned around his face now visible to you.

She gasped loudly.

The face belonged to none other than,

Sorin Kim.

The gasp drew everyone's attention including Sorin and as her eyes locked with his brown ones, millions of curses came to her mind.

Oops

Eira knew she was officially screwed.

And the best thing to do was to run.

And so that's what she did.

Before he could even move one step forward Eira ran away as if her life depended on it.

Devika could get out on her own. Eira ain't sticking around.