rewritten 03/12/2024

THIRD PERSON P.O.V.

"Here you go. Take these. We've been waiting to drink with you two" One of the guys said, handing each of them a shot glass filled with alcohol.

"Drink up."

"Let's cheers."

Renae set her shot glass on the table and pushed it away. She had absolutely no intentions of drinking it.

"Ah...I don't drink..." Daniel said, noticing Renae's abandoned drink. "And neither does Renae."

"That's a lie!"

"Down the hatch!"

Renae shook her head repeatedly. This was something she was not changing her mind about and these guys were idiots if they thought otherwise.

"You guys really won't drink?" Doo asked. "Hehe, you two must be poor drinkers." 

"Yeah..." Daniel said.

Renae just nodded her head, pretending to agree with Doo's statement. After seeing both of their responses, Zack suddenly throwing back shots at an incredible speed.

"Wow. I'm a poor drinker too! This must be destiny~" Zoe giggled, only focusing on Daniel.

"So I said to this f*cker, sh@t f*ck."

"Hehe, holy f*ck."

"This is a mess" Renae thought. "Is this really anyway for high school students to behave? I regret coming here..."

"So Daniel...where do you live?" Doo asked, taking a puff from his cigarette.

"Huh? Oh, I live alone" Daniel answered.

"It's understandable why he doesn't want to tell them the truth. After all, these are the same people that beat up Little Daniel.." Renae thought.

"Dang, for real?"

"Sick!"

"Awesome!"

"What about you, Renae? Where do you live?" Doo asked, turning towards her.

Everyone at the table, excluding Zack who was still downing shots, turned towards her expectantly. Renae glared daggers at the group and they looked away, too frightened by her response to keep questioning. Doo smartly decided to change the subject.

"Daniel! We should chill at your place!" He suggested, turning towards Daniel once again.

"Let's chill there!"

"Sweet!"

"Can we come hang?"

"NO!" Daniel shouted, a look of panic on his face. "See, I live with a friend"

"Friend!"

"Does he go to our school?"

"Oh...he's a dropout" Daniel replied.

Everyone at the table except Renae collectively gasped.

"He works at night and sleeps during the day. If I brought friends home, it might not be good" He continued sheepishly.

"That explains why little Daniel is always working at such late hours..." Renae thought.

Zack started knocking back even more shots, slamming the shot glass on the table each time."Geez! So he has Renae and someone else on his side, huh?" 

"But Danny, your clothes are a bit big...you like to wear oversized clothes?" Zoe asked, grabbing onto Daniel's arm.

"Ah...these are my friends clothes" He answered. "His frame is a bit big so..."

"A gangster!" 

"100% gangster!"

"A chubby night working gangster!"

"Scary guy!"

"A gangster hideout?"

"This guy! Living with a gangster!"

Renae almost wanted to laugh as she observed the terrified expressions of almost everyone sitting at the table.

"If only they knew they were freaking out over a guy that didn't even exist" She thought.

~~~

"Hey kids. Anyone else coming?" A woman (which Renae assumed to be the owner) asked.

"Nope."

"Then just stay quiet, ok? And stay out of trouble too" The owner said, picking up the empty dishes from the table.

"Hehe ok."

The owner lifted her head and her eyes widened with shock. She was completely mesmerized by Daniel's good looks. She put her manicured hand on her face, wondering if this handsome boy was a present from her deceased husband to cure her loneliness. She decided to slide down to the table and sit next to Daniel.

"Hey, kid. Anything else you want to eat?" The owner asked, grabbing onto Daniel's arm.

"No thank you" Daniel answered.

"Pick anything. It's on the house" She insisted.

"Wow! Ma'am, you rock!"

"Danny! Have some of this!" Zoe suddenly shouted, pressing her chest to Daniel's arm.

The older woman glared at Zoe when she saw her trying to steal Daniel's attention.

"Ah my...my hair keeps coming loose" The owner said, lifting up her arms to tighten her hair more. "So hot for September."

"Danny, I'm hot too!" Zoe said.

"I'm hotter!"

"Then I'm..."

"Danny~"

"Is this kid your girlfriend or something? What's your name?"

Renae was getting second hand embarrassment from watching the interaction between the two girls. She wasn't surprised about Zoe because she was always flirting with Daniel but the older woman has to be at least in her forties. Did she not feel any shame about acting this way with a high school student?

Next to Renae, Zack was drinking another shot of alcohol, his face now considerably red.

"With all the shots he's drinking, I wouldn't be surprised if he passes out soon" Renae thought.

~~~

Zack threw back one final shot before slamming his face on the table.

"Hey, slow down!" Doo shouted. "Why's this d**che slamming them back today?"

"F*ck, he's out."

"Hey, Daniel Park" Zack mutters, his face still planted on the table.

He shot up suddenly, frightening Daniel and slightly startling Renae.

"You're really handsome. I'm jealous" Zack slurred, resting his face in the palm of his hand.

Zack turned his attention away from Daniel and started leaning towards Renae.

"You're really pretty too Renae." Zack giggled. "You know, you look a lot like a girl I used to know in kindergarten. We were good pals before she moved away!"

He then leans in even closer and tries to kiss Renae but she quickly shoves him away from her. Everyone at the table stayed silent, too afraid to laugh or giggle. Meanwhile, Daniel couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit upset. 

Being pushed away by Renae did not discourage Zack. Instead, he decided to turn his attention towards Daniel again.

"Let's be friends, Daniel!" Zack said, leaning over the table.

Renae felt slightly bad for Daniel but was glad that Zack was no longer paying attention to her. "He said I looked like a girl he knew in kindergarten. I don't really remember any of my childhood except for a few memories so it's entirely possible we did know each other.."

"Let's hug out, ok?" Zack said.

Unlike Renae, Daniel was not able to avoid Zack and ended up getting kissed on the cheek.

Whilst everyone had stayed silent when that had happened because they were too frightened, they didn't stay silent this time and started talking amongst themselves. Probably because none of them had been beat up by Daniel.

"Here we go again."

"He gets troublesome when he's drunk."

"Oh god."

"Daniel" Zack said, getting up on wobbly legs and stumbling as he sat next to him. "You know Mira's mine, right?"

Zoe tried her best to hold in her laughter as she poured some alcohol into an empty cup for Daniel. 

"Danny...have a drink...you must be tired" Zoe said, handing the drink to Daniel.

"Eh? Thanks" Daniel said, reaching out his arm to take the cup.

He took a huge sip from the cup while everyone waited in anticipation to see what his reaction would be. Renae was bit confused on why but then she saw the expression on Zoe's face. "Did she put alcohol in the cup when he wasn't looking?"

"It's booze!" Daniel thought.

Daniel spit out the drink, spraying it all over the people sitting in front of him. Mostly everyone thought it was hilarious and started laughing at him. Luckily, the majority of the drink ended up on everyone else and only a few drops had landed on Renae's face.

While everyone was laughing at Daniel's misfortune, Renae let out an annoyed sigh and wiped the side of her face with her sleeve.

"Hey, that wasn't nice" Zack scolded.

"Hahaha."

"Go to sleep!"

"Lol, shut up!"

"Ah f*ck" An unfamiliar voice called out. "Just keep it the fuck down."

Most of the group turned around to see who was talking to them and saw a table near them containing three adults. The guy who spoke out was wearing fake gold chains and he rolled his eyes before speaking.

"Kids these days have no goddamn manners" Gold chains said.

"We should teach them a lesson, hehe-"

"They'll hear you" A skinny women grinned.

"Who cares?" Gold chains scoffed. "I mean, what are they gonna do?"

"Those guys are frightening!" Daniel thought. "Are they talking loudly on purpose? Maybe we should keep it down..."

Daniel glanced at the rest of the group to see what their reactions were.

Renae had let out a sigh, resting her chin on the palm of her hand. She didn't really care for what the people at the other table were saying. If they started becoming a problem, she would just beat them up. 

"You know girls with ugly faces walk around with their boobs out?" The skinny women laughed, looking specifically in Zoe's direction. "They think they are voluptuous"

Renae glanced over at Zoe and saw that she was growling and holding a cracked shot glass in her hand. 

"I would be reacting the same way if that was being said about me"

~~~