Yuna Cori, the brilliant and beautiful twenty-seven year old librarian at Manha’s local library. Her long silver hair and golden eyes were only the start to why her beauty was raved over. She had an outgoing personality and was extremely charismatic. After having a discussion with her, most people would feel ten times better about themselves. Some people would come to the library on a lunch break every so often just to talk with her. Sometimes this fondness would turn to obsessiveness leading to creeps and stalkers. She didn’t have to worry about that anymore though, she hired a guy to keep those types away. Although, he only worked once a week. This led to her having to kind of “lead on” her stalkers until the next Saturday. Then she would ask them specifically to come to the library to see her. They of course came at her request only to be met by her hired hand. Her sole worker was just a sophomore in high school, but he was very intimidating. She didn’t think he quite knew how intimidating he could be at times but for this purpose it worked quite well.

"I wonder how today is going for Chad?”

On Saturday, Chad had joined the student council at Manha High School due to a little coercion from her. She loved teasing and poking him but she had to be careful not to do it too much. She didn’t want to scare him off, she quite enjoyed him working at the library. It could get quite lonely when the only other coworkers are books on a bookshelf.

“I bet he’s just absolutely enjoying himself right now.”

She giggled at the thought of him in distress.

She had talked to the girl who had persuaded Chad to join the student council (with some help from Yuna of course). The girl, Rose, was quite attractive, but she didn’t seem like the student council president type. She seemed very timid and apprehensive. That probably shouldn’t be the type of person to be the figurehead for the entire student body. Usually people in leadership positions are strong willed and don’t falter at any pressure put onto them. From the brief conversation she had, she felt that Rose was a bit of a pushover.

Yuna leaned further back in her chair.

“Whatever. Either way, it’ll be good for him to interact with some other people. He’s too damn anti-social.”

Letting the thoughts of her subordinate flow by, she opened up another tab on her computer.

The library was extremely quiet in the middle of the day during a work week. There was currently nobody there and Yuna had already finished everything else she needed to do.

To pass the time, she started mindlessly scrolling through different news websites.

“Lost puppy, political conflicts, traffic, sports. What’s even new?”

This scrolling kept going for a while but then it stopped. She leaned forward, almost pressing her face up against the screen.

“Hmmm, click.”

She did in fact say “click” out loud.

There was a story from a local news site about Manha. Something about vandalism and repetitive graffiti.

“I don’t think we have gangs all the way out here.”

Yuna began to read the article, learning about a recent problem the local police were dealing with.

Buildings all throughout Manha were being vandalized by the same group. The way they vandalized each building was slightly different. In one incident a local convenience store’s windows were pelted with eggs. The bakery was covered in toilet paper. Those were the classic ones, but apparently this group had some pretty creative ways of vandalizing, including somehow releasing a bunch of termites into a gas station. Houses were even targeted, but those were less common. The list of targeted buildings were quite long and the police department said these acts of vandalism started just as the school year started. Their main suspects were of course high schoolers.

There was another reason why the police thought all of these were done by the same group. With the wide array of ways this group performed their vandalism, there was one common factor between all of the crime scenes. Somewhere on the building the group would spray paint a small symbol. The website had a picture of it.

It was a two dimensional drawing of a crown tilted at forty five degrees. In the middle of it was a zero or maybe an “O”. There wasn’t really a way to tell which it was.

“What a bunch of hooligans. High schoolers can be so immature.”

She thought back to her high school days.

Due to her attractive looks and charismatic personality, Yuna was very popular back then. She was constantly being asked out by almost every guy at the school. She rejected every single one of them. She didn’t want some guy who was going to be obsessive over her and every guy who asked seemed just like that. Even the girl’s at her high school were constantly asking to hang out with her. Inviting her to sleep overs, party’s and other activities.

She was constantly recruited to different sports teams and her mom even made her join the volleyball team. That didn’t last very long and she quit as soon as her mom left her. The coach still constantly asked her to rejoin insisting that she was great at volleyball even though she wasn’t.

Yuna thought after she got out of high school everyone would “grow up” and stop harassing her, but things didn’t change. Grownups seemed to just be grown up kids.

Maybe that’s why such an outgoing and captivating girl took the lonely job of being a librarian. Sure it could get lonely at times, but it was a great change of pace from her usually hectic life.

“Ha, maybe I’m not all that different from Chad.”

Her coworker was oddly obsessed with keeping his schedule unchanged, and he also found talking to other people bothersome. She didn’t hold these exact feelings.

She enjoyed talking to people like Rebecca, Chad and her family, but there were times where certain people drained the life from her. Whenever she talked with these types of people, she could empathize with him. The library allowed her to mostly escape these people with him scaring off any who break through its barrier of isolation.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Yuna rocked back and forth in her chair. The day was moving along so slowly but that wasn’t a bad thing. She could just sit back and enjoy herself knowing that Chad is most likely not enjoying himself.

“Does that make me a bad person?”

****

“This is kind of a weird place to meet to hang out. Hey doesn’t Chad work there?”

Peter was waiting for some people outside of the local library. They told him they’d hang out with him after school. He asked his best friend, Chad, if he wanted to join, but he expectedly turned down his offer. He took no offense to this, knowing that was just the way he is, but he always felt obligated to ask Chad because he was his best friend.

“Hey, there he is.”

Two high school boys walked up to Peter.

The one on the left was short and stout. His name was John. Peter thought he was on the football team but he must not have been or was currently skipping practice. The guy to the right of him was tall and lanky. He had never met him before. The two of them standing next to each other was a bit comical with their opposite builds.

Peter laughed to himself.

Is this what people see when me and Chad hang out? Of course I don’t think our differences are this drastic.

“What’s so funny?” The skinny one on the right asked.

“I was just thinking of a joke my friend told me earlier.”

He wasn’t about to say he was laughing at them. That was no way to make some new friends.

“Whatever, lets get started,” John took his backpack off, “You ready for the first part of the initiation?”

“Initiation?”

“Yea, you can’t join the group without being initiated.”

Peter was pretty blunt with asking to join their group, but he had never heard of a friend group having an initiation process to join it.

Unique! Sounds fun.

“I’m ready to get initiated into the group. Just tell me what to do!”

Usually when he had tried to join other friend groups there weren’t step by step instructions on joining. Maybe Chad would like to join this friend group. They seem quite organized.

“Ok Peter, take this.”

John tossed a can of black spray paint that Peter caught with one hand.

“Nice catch.” The other boy muttered.

John took out his phone from his pocket, “Ok you see this?”

He flipped his phone screen around.

“You’re going to paint this on the back of the library. Make it about as tall as you.”

The picture John showed was of a crudely painted crown. It was a simple two dimensional drawing of a crown tilted a ways but not quite vertical. There was a zero in the middle for the crown.

“What’s the zero stand for?”

“What?” John flipped his phone back over and looked at it, “That’s an ‘O’ dumbass and it stands for King O. Are you sure you want to join this group?”

“Positive.”

Peter began shaking the spray paint can. A friend group this easy to join was a hard thing to find. Plus the only requirement to join was a structured initiation process so getting Chad to join was a possibility as well.

He turned towards the library.

I can’t let a perfect opportunity like this go to waste. I’ll join this friend group and then get my best friend to join. It’ll be awesome.

He stopped shaking the spray paint.

“Wait, isn’t this like vandalism?”

“Yea,” the skinny guy answered, “But you have to do it to join. No exception.”

Peter wasn’t against breaking rules, but he didn’t want to get arrested or anything. Plus Chad worked here, would this damage their friendship?

Chad said the librarian here keeps the place super clean. It’s just paint, it's not that hard to wash off. After both me and him join this friend group, I’ll apologize.

“Ok, I’m off.”

“Take a photo of it when you’re done and then meet us back here. We’ll go onto phase two of your initiation.”

Sick, step by step process. Chad’s definitely joining.

Peter walked up to the library while John and the skinnier boy stayed where they were. He did his best to quietly walk around to the back, although it seemed like nobody was here.

“Hmm this seems good enough.”

He found a nice flat wall in the back to act as his canvas. He never tried any art before, so he wasn’t sure if he was any good at it. Luckily what he had to paint was pretty simple.

After finishing his work, he stepped back to admire it. John had only asked him to make it as tall as himself, but he overachieved and made it as tall as he could reach. He took out his phone and took a quick picture.

“Easy enough.”

He then began to walk back around the building. He had walked around one side already, so he thought why not walk around the other. It was unexplored and new territory. Why would he go somewhere he already has went when he could find new exciting things just around the corner.

Even though his task was already complete, he continued to shake the can of paint. The clacking noise it made was quite satisfying.

“Oh?”

A large window showed a nice reflection of himself. The sun was at just the right angle so the window acted more as a mirror.

He took some time to admire himself and make sure he still looked well kept. He raised his hand to pat down his hair, but realized he had gotten paint on it.

“Better not get that in my hair.”

“Hey!”

Peter looked away from the window and towards where he had been walking to.

There was a woman standing at the corner of the building with a hand against the wall. Her golden eyes were filled with rage.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing messing with my library?”

Oh shit.

Peter did what he did best, run.

Instead of backtracking around the entire building, he opted to just run around her. She was a bit quicker than he anticipated, but there was a reason why the football team always asked him to join.

The woman lunged forward in an attempt to grab onto him. With an abrupt stop and some nifty footwork, Peter performed a spin move that would make pro athletes jealous. The woman completely missed her target and landed in the grass.

I just shattered that poor librarian’s ankles.

He continued to run but slowed his pace a bit since he wasn’t in any immediate danger.

“Huh, what’s that noise?”

He looked over his shoulder to a silver torpedo that was locked onto him. The woman had somehow recovered and was now on his tail.

“Shit! Run! Crazy librarian incoming!”

He called out to the two guys who were waiting for him. They quickly turned tail and ran. They had quite the head start to Peter, but he still caught up to them. He checked over his shoulder again and it seemed like the woman had stopped her chase, but was now yelling at them.

“You better run you damn runts! Don’t ever come to my library again!”

I am so sorry. Chad’s boss, please forgive me later.