I spent the rest of my day racking my brain about what to do. Maybe when I left to go back to the States for college, I could convince Mom and Dad to let Byron come with me too. I knew Dad liked his job here in Japan, but I wasn’t sure how much more of this Byron could take.
That’s what I was mulling over later that day when the basketball team came streaming out into the hallway.
But all thoughts of possible alternative futures for Byron disappeared when I saw he once again wasn’t among the ranks of the guys coming out of the locker room.
This time I didn’t bother to ask his teammates any questions. I rushed straight inside the boys’ inner sanctum. And my stomach turned when I rounded the corner to see Jake and his two friends once again surrounding my brother.
But then I stopped and double took.
Because though Jake and his friends were arced around my brother, none of them were looking at him. In fact, the American was visibly trembling.
I followed his gaze and immediately realized why he appeared so terrified.
Victor.
Victor was standing at the other end of the locker row, dressed in a basketball uniform. And he was flanked by Donny and a huge guy I didn’t recognize.
“Which one?” Victor was signing to Byron. “Which one of them hit your sister?”
Oh. My. God.
8
It was Victor. And it wasn't Victor.
I had never seen this version of him before. He was wearing the same basketball uniform as Byron, Jake, and the other two guys. But he looked nothing like them.
Flanked by heavily tattooed men on either side of him, he looked way more dangerous than any of the other boys his age in the locker room. And somehow even more beastly than the first time we met.
“Which one hurt her?” he signed again.
He was talking to Byron, not me. There was a good chance he hadn’t seen me yet. Jake and his friends hadn’t the last time until I made my presence known.
I decided against doing that this time though. I shrank back behind the lockers, too confused to do anything but hide and watch.
“What is he saying?” Tim, the American, asked Jake in English. His voice was shaking with fear. He probably couldn’t have spoken Japanese at that moment if he tried.
Jake threw his friend an irritated look. “I don't know. I don't speak sign language.”
Byron answered Tim’s question in the next moment when he raised his arm to point straight at Yoshi. “Him. Yoshi. He's the one who hit my sister.”
Yoshi paled, then immediately started begging. “Please forgive me! It was an accident! Don't hurt me!”
Victor didn’t answer Yoshi. Didn’t even raise his hands to sign.
Yet, the huge guy I’d never seen before stepped forward like an order had been given.
He looked to be around the same age as Han, who once told me he was twenty-one. But other than age and being of Asian descent, he and Han had nothing in common.
He was huge, with tattoos peeking out from every piece of exposed skin below his neck. Like Donny, he wore a suit with an open-collar shirt. And he was even more muscular than Victor but without any of the sharp beauty that kept Victor from looking too scary.
His face was a few hard slabs of concrete, thrown together without any thought to symmetry. This guy got the “extra terrifying” package when looks were handed out. Maybe he’d even signed up for it. He looked like the kind of guy who would choose the most intimidating option. His eyes were two pieces of coal inside all that concrete, gleaming with violent anticipation.
He was so large. He appeared to close the space between him and Yoshi with just one step.
“So you like punching girls in the face,” he said to Yoshi.
His voice was a shock. He spoke English. And even though he looked like he could easily play the role of Super Scary Chinese Gangster in a Hong Kong movie, he had an American accent—a really tough one without a trace of East Asian intonation.
But Yoshi was probably too busy panicking to notice that detail.
He tried to back up. To run away. But the wall of lockers stood directly behind him. Almost as hard and unforgiving as the mountain in front of him.
“It was accident!” Yoshi cried, opting to explain in his terrible English. “Not try to hit her. Try to hit him. He homo. He look at me like he going kiss me.”
The American Mountain gave Yoshi a skeptical up and down look. “I highly doubt that story is true. You ain’t that hot.”
True that. I would’ve laughed if I wasn’t so busy hanging onto every single word of their conversation.
“Not lying!” Yoshi insisted. “He try with Jake too. Ask Jake! I swear he—”
“OK, Donny, c’mon. This guy’s boring me.”
That was all the warning Yoshi got before the American Mountain slammed him into the lockers.
I knew then that Victor and his associates must have arranged for the coach to stay away. The sound of Yoshi’s body hitting the locker was so loud, it made my ears ring. There was no way he hadn’t heard that.
Donny came over to join the American Mountain. By silent mutual agreement, they each took an arm, holding Yoshi prone against the lockers. Just like Yoshi helped Tim hold my brother there before the winter break.
Victor started walking forward, and Yoshi burst into tears. For a few moments, the only sound in the locker room was of Victor’s steps and Yoshi’s wailing as he begged for mercy in both broken English and Japanese.
I looked to Jake to see if he was going to do anything. But he looked between Victor and Yoshi, his eyes confused and angry.
Victor stopped in front of Yoshi and stood there. Just stood there. Signing nothing.
“Look at him,” the American Mountain instructed Yoshi, his voice violent and low.
Yoshi’s loud sobs quieted, and he did as the American Mountain told him. From my vantage point, Jake’s friend looked like a puppet, powerless to disobey.
He turned his face up to Victor, who was looming over him, sinister as a raven. And soon, another sound joined his pitiful weeping—a quiet, wet hiss.
Both Donny and the American Mountain burst out laughing when a wet stain appeared across the front of Yoshi's basketball shorts, and a stream of piss sluiced down his leg.
However, if Yoshi’s losing control of his bladder amused Victor, there was no outward indication. His face remained a cold blank as he signed something to the petrified boy.
The American Mountain provided the translation. “Not so fun being on this side of an unfair fight, huh?”
“Not my fault!” Yoshi blubbered. “It Jake's idea. Jake! Jake, tell them—”
Yoshi cut off when Victor punched him straight in the face. So hard his head snapped back, creating another loud, ricocheting bang against the lockers.
The guards let Yoshi go at the precise right moment, and Jake’s friend crumpled under the punch, falling to the floor.
“That's for Byron’s sister,” the American Mountain informed Yoshi as he writhed in a puddle of his piss. Then he looked at Jake and Tim. “Victor also owes someone a stomach punch on behalf of his friend Byron. Any volunteers?”
“It wasn't me who hit him!” Tim immediately answered, raising his hands in the air. “I just held him back so he couldn't get away. Jake was the one who punched him.”
“Shut up!” Jake growled at Tim in English between clenched teeth.
Meanwhile, Victor signed something else to Jake.
The American Mountain translated, “It’s easy to see why you value your friendship with these two guys more than you did your relationship with Byron. Why you would lie to them and betray Byron to keep them. Your crew is real loyal.”
The sarcasm in his tone was thick and cruel. But Jake wasn’t nearly as easy to intimidate as his friends.
“You can't hurt me,” Jake said directly to Victor, his voice petulant. “You know who my grandfather is.”
A tense couple of seconds passed.
Then
Victor cranked his head to both sides—before socking Tim in the gut.
Tears sprang into Tim's eyes after Victor punched him. But I wouldn't call the sound that came out of his mouth crying. It was more like several choked gurgles as his lungs tried and failed to fill with air. Then, he, too, keeled over on the floor.
Victor stepped over the fallen boy’s body to sign further to Jake.
The American Mountain once again provided the translation: “Yes, we know who your grandfather is. So this time your friends will take your punishment. But there is no honor in this for you. Your face is broken. In exchange for us not breaking anything else or reporting this matter to your grandfather, you will stay away from Byron and his sister, apologize, and never speak their names again.”
As confident as Jake had sounded the last time he was in a locker room with Byron before winter break, he appeared the very picture of impotence now. He was both smaller and weaker than “the Chinese Boy.” And instead of two men flanking each of his sides, all Jake had was his former friends laid out on the floor.
There came another tense silence.
Then, Jake turned to Byron….and solemnly apologized to him in Japanese with a stiff bow. My mouth fell open as I watched from the shadows of the lockers.
“Yeah, and we’re going to need you to apologize to Dawn too,” the American Mountain informed Jake after he stood up straight from his bow.
Suddenly Victor, who I hadn’t thought had registered my presence, was looking straight at me.
I stood there, frozen in place, unable to do anything but stare back at him.
The four teenage boys in the locker room were all within a couple of years of Victor's age. But he looked so much older.
No, older wasn't the right word.
Powerful.
He looked so much more powerful than any other boy his age could ever be.
And the most powerful boy in the room raised his hand and motioned for me to come forward.
A monster inviting me to stand before him.
No, not inviting. Again, I’d chosen the wrong word.
Commanding.
He was commanding me to come out of the shadows and into his powerful light.
The urge to run traveled up my back like a shiver.
But I didn't.
He beckoned me, and I stepped out of my hiding place, like something enthralled.
9
VICTOR
Victor held himself perfectly still as he watched Jake apologize to Dawn.
The Nakamura boy chose stiff and formal English this time. And perhaps knowing the issue would be forced if he did not show her the utmost respect, he bowed even lower to Dawn than he had her brother.
Victor considered making the two other boys do the same. By the time the shamed Nakamura scion was done, they had struggled back to their feet. But upon further thought, he decided against it.
His blood was merely simmering as opposed to boiling now. And a strange possessiveness took hold of him. He didn’t want these boys to talk to Dawn. He didn’t even want them to look at her.
His eyes swung back to her as they inevitably did whenever they were in the same space.
“Is the apology acceptable to you?” he signed to Dawn.
She nodded slowly, her eyes two saucers inside her creamy brown face. He sensed she was still too shocked to sign or answer him out loud.
But a nod was all Victor needed. Her answer told him that his goal, his only reason for transferring to this school, had been achieved.
Victor nodded to Donny then. And Donny told Jake and his cohort they could go in Japanese.
The three boys wasted no time running away. The one who had peed himself didn’t even change out of his bright yellow basketball clothes. The coach had explained to Victor and all the other new basketball team recruits that it was strictly against Tokyo Progressive’s rules to walk its halls dressed in anything but the school’s uniform. But perhaps some things scared Yoshi more than being caught outside the locker room in his piss-stained shorts.
Good. He would end up doing much worse than pissing himself if he ever touched Dawn again.
He returned his gaze and his thoughts to Dawn, whose shocked expression still hadn’t given way.
Her reaction told him that he had been correct about her innocence. Her father surely had done much worse things to Nakamura’s enemies than Victor had to those boys. But he had obviously protected his daughter from ever seeing such violence.
Was she pleased about what he’d done for her? Or horrified? Victor couldn’t tell.
Her brother, on the other hand, made his feelings about the comeuppance Victor had delivered quite clear.
“That was so sick, man!” Byron signed and spoke at the same time, just like his sister. “V, I can’t thank you enough.”
Victor had only introduced himself to Dawn’s younger brother for the purpose of his mission. But he liked the two years younger kid just fine. He had a sense of humor similar to his sister, and Victor had silently laughed at a few of his antics as they completed their classroom assignments together.
He was glad Byron approved of his violent tactics. But Dawn still hadn’t said anything.
For the first time, she was staring at him, but not in the way he couldn’t help staring at her. She was staring at him like she had no idea who he was.
She looked…what was that American slang word she had taught him?
Ah, yes, he remembered now. Shook. Dawn had explained that this form of the word was always used in the past tense. Never in the present tense if one wanted to sound on-trend. And it was the perfect description of her expression right then.
She didn’t just look shocked. She looked shook.
“Can I talk to you?” she silently signed after a few very long, tense moments. “Alone?”
A new feeling rattled through Victor. One he recognized as fear.
But only vaguely. After what had happened with Han’s original father, his emotions had made a permanent shift from normal to a cold baseline. One that never spiked with anxiety or fear. For the worse had already happened, why should he be scared of anything else?
Yet, his heart thrummed with that only dimly recalled emotion as he thanked Phantom for his assistance and instructed Donny to escort Byron to the school gates and wait with him there.
Would she rebuke him once the others had left the room? Tell him to leave her alone and never talk to her again. It was only now occurring to him how crazy this might all appear from her point of view. How crazy he might seem….
Another new feeling he couldn’t quite label filled his chest. Remorse? Regret? Whatever it was, it made Victor shift uncomfortably as everyone else cleared out of the locker room.
All too soon, they were gone. Leaving just Dawn and him. Alone for the first time since she told him what happened in this very locker room.
After the door closed behind her brother, Donny, and Phantom, she turned back to face him.
“I can’t believe you did that!” she said with extra emphasis on her signs.
Victor’s stomach curdled, and he found he could no longer hold her gaze. He had given her a glimpse of the monster that lurked beneath his usually cool surface. Just a tiny glimpse, and now she would reject him—
“Thank you.”
The two words brought Victor’s gaze up. And in her eyes, he saw what he hadn’t dared to hope for before. Happiness. Pure delight. Directed straight at him!
“Thank you so much,” she said, taking a step closer to him. “I want to hug you. Is it okay if I hug you?”
Victor stood there. The future dragonhead. So strong. So powerful. He tried to respond. But his hands were frozen. He couldn’t work out how to answer her in CSL or ASL.
However, in the next moment, any answer he would’ve given her was rendered mute. She pitched forward and threw her arms around him, pressing the side of her face into his chest.
And suddenly, that was what they were doing.
Hugging.
This was a first for him. Hugging and open signs of affection were perfectly acceptable in China. Especially among the Red Diamond who considered themselves family. But he’d never been hugged by a woman before.
At least not one he could remember. He faltered for a few panicked moments, unsure what to do with his arms.
But eventually… they found their way around her. He was stiff at first, but he relaxed the longer she stayed in his embrace.
She sighed as he held her. Maybe he was doing this right. He hoped he was doing this right.
He liked the feel of her soft body inside his hard arms. Liked it so much that another strange instinct came over him. He cupped the back of her head and pressed it into his chest. Pulling her in closer and even deeper into his embrace.
As first hugs went, Victor suspected this was a good one.
10
DAWN
There was a rule about changing back into your school uniform before you left the locker room. But if Victor knew about it, he didn't care.
He led me out of the boys’ locker room, and we walked down the hallway together. Side-by-side, but still awkward as hell.
I guessed some things never changed, even if a guy transferred into your school and beat up your brother's bullies because…
Why exactly had he done that? I still wasn’t sure.
I peeped sideways at Victor after we walked out of ToProg’s front doors. I still couldn’t believe he was actually here. At my school. With me. Questions swirled inside my head as we approached the school’s black iron gates.
But I stopped short before I could ask any of them.
Byron wasn’t waiting for me outside the gates. There was only a shiny black Bentley idling at the curb, most likely waiting for one of the Richie Rich kids from some after-school club that still hadn’t let out.
Maybe Byron went home without me? But why would he do that? He had to have as many questions for me as I had for Victor.
Donny chose that moment to climb out of the driver's side of the Bentley. He rushed around the front of it to open the back door. And there was Byron in his bright yellow basketball uniform, already seated inside the car, waving at me like a maniac.
Victor: Her Ruthless Crush Page 7
