บททั้งหมดของ KOREAN Firework: บทที่ 21 - บทที่ 30

It was a Saturday afternoon and instead of spending it with Zoya and Danika enjoying their ‘hard-won’ cash, Iris was standing at the main entrance to her school, waiting for one of Orion’s pretentious cars to pick her up. The week had dragged on. After confronting Benjamin on the rooftop, Iris had done her utmost best to avoid the rest of his posse. Evidently, she had failed because here she was shivering at school. If this was any other day, Iris would be complaining about how boring her social life was but it was too cold to do much but curse God. It was punishment, she rationalised, rubbing her arms to try and keep herself warm, for pawning Orion’s gift, for getting away - and rewarded - with vandalising the school, and for all those Sunday’s she said she would go to church only to sleep late into the mornings. There was a slight epiphany that Iris might just be a horrible person. She che

When Iris turned nine, she had the option of having a birthday party or new doll. To no one’s surprise, she picked the doll. She received on the morning of her birthday, tearing the wrapping paper to shreds and breathlessly stared at the doll. It wasn’t just any old doll, it was a Barbie doll with its traditional long blonde hair and big blue eyes. Not only that, but it also had material wings that could be pushed towards ints legs and turn into a tail. It was an expensive present and Iris treated like it was gold. The package was kept in pristine condition, not a single tear to be found, and she always brushed its hair, braided it and pushed the doll back into the box before going to bed. Although she only played with the doll when she was at home, it was never out of her reach and always in her backpack. It was worth more to her than anything she had ever received before. Until Kelsy Nelson came to school w

Orion had, unsurprisingly, found himself unimpressed at Iris Holmes. He had watched as Marcas had dropped her in the ballroom his mother insisted on having built and left her there. He couldn’t help but shake his head at himself as she stared at her surroundings. She was so coltish, he thought, gawking at things the way her friend gawked at him. What was her name? Elizabeth? Mary? He shrugged it off, he really couldn’t care less about her. She was as interesting as a dead fish. When Nanny B had enlightened him of his mother coming back and throwing an extravagant ball to ‘celebrate’ her return to the country, his first thought was to fake his death and move to another continent. His hopes of escape were crushed when Nanny B said that his grandfather would be expecting him to be there, preferably with a ‘respectable’ girl on his arm, of course, to impress his mother. 

Both redheads were in their own worlds as they walked to the ballroom. Between telling Iris where to go, Marcas kept complaining and begging to be let go. A request Iris staunchly ignored. Aside from occasionally turning on Marcas’s commands, Iris was deep in thought. She couldn’t help but think about how Orion talked about his mother as if she was nothing more than an annoying house guest disrupting his home. Iris was close to both her parents; her mother was her confidant and always willing to listen to her complain about simple things like clothes, boys, school, and general opinions; and her father was the one she turned to when she struggled with school work, watched History channel with, and the one who taught her how to physically defend herself. (No matter how much she sucked at throwing a punch.) She couldn’t imagine not having them in her life. Just what was going on in Orion’s home that soured his relationsh

The week followed in a similar distressed fashion. Iris was constantly tense, looking over her shoulders, subconsciously trying to spot Victoria with a camera aiming at her or the R5. Her gaze would flicker all over the cafeteria, lingering on Marcas and Jackson annoying Carmilla as Orion and Benjamin talked, and on Victoria on the other side of the room, giggling with Mellisa Cohen. Iris’s muscles tensed every time Victoria entered the room, her fingers twitched when the brunette walked past her, and her tongue felt heavy with questions every time they made eye contact. When she wasn’t peaking at Victoria, she was gazing at the R5 members, the few times she managed to spot them, eyes hesitating to move from Orion’s distant form. It was exhausting because no matter how determined Iris was to keep her nose out of this, there was still a curious part of her that wanted to interrogate Vicotria and get to the bottom of this.