Kitty Gang

7

The air outside felt amazing. It was warm with a cool breeze, and Maria's skirt swished along her thighs as she walked towards the cafe. She had never missed the outside world so much.

Her father had given her permission to leave. Or well, he didn't lock the house up when he left, which meant she was granted the access to go out.

"Hi, Haneul," she beams once reaching the counter. "A strawberry refresher, please."

"'Course," Haneul smiles, nudging her head to the seat by the window. "I'll come see you in a minute."

When the barista does bring her drink, Maria thanks her kindly and sips on it as she stares out the window. She felt so much safer being in the cafe she visits so often.

Suddenly, another girl sits across from her, dressed in tight leather pants and a tank top. A tattoo of a dragon was perched on her shoulder with the tail trailing down her arm, and Maria looked at it in awe.

"Hey," the girl says. "You're Maria, right? I'm Iris."

"How do you kn-"

"Don't worry about it," Iris smiles.

"No," Maria frowns, her fingers curling into her palm. The familiar pain of her fingernails digging into her skin helped her keep her anxiety at bay. "Did my father send you?"

Iris bursts out into laughter, and Maria pouts. This didn't seem very funny to her at all.

"Unless you call Jimin 'Daddy,' then no," Iris says once sobering up from laughing. "Relax. I just wanna talk to you."

"Jimin sent you?" Maria asks, her eyebrows furrowing.

"Mhm," Iris nods. "Well, technically, I wanted to meet you myself. You're a cute one, y'know that?"

Maria blushes, fisting her skirt in her hands. "I don't understand."

"Jimin's best friend is Taehyung. I'm the lover of said best friend," Iris grins, jabbing her thumb at herself.

"Oh," Maria nodded, although she was still a bit confused.

"Do you wanna go shopping or something?" Iris offers, and Maria watches her dragon tattoo as she stretches her arms over her head.

"Sure," she smiles. It would be nice to go out with a friend. Or well, possible friend?

Maria didn't have many friends. It was hard enough trying to find someone normal at the events she went to, but trying to find someone her father would approve of was even harder.

"You keep staring at my tattoo, baby doe," Iris laughs once they enter the mall. Iris thought the name fit her quite well, what with her innocent doe eyes.

"It's pretty," Maria says, looking away shyly.

"You should get one," Iris shrugs, guiding her into the first store.

"Oh, I couldn't," Maria frowns, shaking her head.

"Why not?" Iris laughs.

Maria purses her lips to stay quiet and instead picks up a skirt, and Iris doesn't take much offense to the lack of response. Instad, she stores the behavior in her mind to study it later.

Iris didn't really like anything in the store. Her style was darker than Maria's, but it was nice talking to the smaller one. She really was like a cute, curious kitten.

"Go try stuff on," Iris says, nudging her head towards the fitting rooms. "I'll be here."

Iris looks around at different clothes aimlessly as she's waiting for Maria, and in doing so, she sees two guys walk towards the room Maria was changing in. Squinting her eyes, she drops the shirt in her hands and heads towards them.

"Man, did you see her ass in that skirt? I would do anything to hit that."

"Come on, dude. Don't talk like that."

"What? It's the tru-"

The guy was cut off with Iris's fist colliding with his cheek, and she stands over him, fuming, as he falls down to his knees with a cry.

"What the fuck?" he shouts, holding his jaw.

"Get away from her stall before I do a lot worse, you fucking creep," Iris growls, her hand tightening into a fist again.

"Let's just go, dude," the other guy says nervously, helping his friend off the ground.

"Fuck you," the guy spits before walking away with a nice bruise forming on his face.

Suddenly, the door of Maria's stall flies open and she runs to Iris with wide eyes. "Is everything okay? I heard shouting and, and-"

"Everything's fine," Iris smiles innocently, cupping her hands behind her back. "Did you find anything?"

"Not yet," Maria smiles sheepishly. "I still have more things to try."

"Keep trying stuff on, I'll be right here," Iris says, and this time she meant it. She wouldn't move an inch from the door separating her from Maria.