"What do you mean?" said Doki

"Well, you see, we were actually friends with Brandon until about 2 months ago. We met him when we were about 12 years old, and we were really good friends with each other" said Il-Ho.

"Well then…what happened?" said Nabi.

"Well, as you know, around 2 and a half months ago, riots started going up about anti-intermarriage. Brandon's father went with the anti-intermarriage" said Sam-Ho

"Yeah, yeah, we know that. I already got THAT message…" said Nabi

"Anyway, growing up with him, we realized that Brandon always wanted to be like his dad. Why? Because he seemed to get everything he wanted" said Yi-Ho. Then Il-Ho continued: "Therefore, he started to work out and became part of the anti-intermarriage group too, but not like his dad was…"

Doki and Nabi looked at them "What do you mean?"

Sam-Ho continued: "Well, as he got stronger, he started beating people up who didn't agree with him. He would bully the people in his class that wouldn't agree with him. And the funny thing was that he would get his way just like his dad. As the worse part was that we…"

Nabi interrupted: "You helped him do it, didn't you?" Doki looked at all three of them very seriously.

They looked at each other and then Il-Ho said "Yes. We did. We more or less did it because we knew that if we went up against him, we would get hurt too. But after a while we realized that it just had to stop. We were about to go tell him that we were out, but then something happened."

Nabi looked up: "What happened?"

Il-Ho looked up: "You did…" Nabi looked astonished "Wha-"

Sam-Ho stopped him: "You see, Il-Ho here had known Doki before, but eventually they broke apart, that is, until you showed up. I had known about the story, but I didn't want to tell him right then. Then you found us, and I decided to tell him."

Nabi looked at Doki with astonishment. Just when he was about to ask her if that were true, she nodded her head "yes" with a sad look on her face.

Il-Ho continued: "We were going to finish you off and then go back to Brandon's group, but then something else happened. Yi-Ho here met Lip Cat."

They both looked at Yi-Ho as he continued: "Yeah. We had already known of the band, but I never loved Lip Cat like I did when I first met her. After that night, I couldn't get her out of my head, so we realized that it was useless to try to continue on with Brandon."

Sam-Ho continued: "A few days later, Il-Ho called us together to show us the ticket to Paradise that he took from Doki's house when she left." We were gonna throw it in the river when you showed up again."

Before they continued, Doki said "So THAT'S where my second ticket went to!"

Il-Ho smirked and continued: "When we realized that we weren't with the anti-intermarriage, we decided to help you get to the airport. A few days later we decided to go and tell Brandon that we were out of his group."

Sam-Ho concluded: "But when we got there to tell him, we learned that the riots were over and the two groups were gone! Not only that, but we learned about his father too."

Nabi interrupted: "Did you ever tell him you help me?"

Yi-Ho said "Yeah, and we almost got killed because of it. We also told him about you and Doki and he threatened us to tell him where you lived. So then w-"

Doki interrupted: "You told him because you didn't want to get hurt…" She had a face with anger and seriousness.

They all sighed and Il-Ho said "Yes. We never intended for him to find you and threaten you as well. In fact, we wanted to keep him away from you. I don't know how he figured out that you were in the store, but mostly. It's still our fault."

Right when they were about to say something else, Nabi said: "It's okay. I forgive you guys."

After a while, Doki said "Yeah…me too…"

The three of them smirked and Sam-Ho said " So anyway, in a nutshell, we're gonna do everything we can to keep Brandon away from you and keep you safe."

They both said "Okay. Thanks"

With that, the second bell rang and all the students sat in their seats. As the teacher walked in, Doki and Nabi smiled at each other, and held hands. Then after a few minutes, the teacher said:

"Welcome to the first day of school!"

To be continued…