Sun Upon Dark Clouds

42: Not All Heroes Wear Capes

The coffee shop owner dropped his jaw as he had no idea on what to do—whether he should step in or just watch and use his charms to escape from the trouble that might come. Instead of panicking, the other customers in the coffee shop did not bother moving from their seats as they leaned back relaxingly on their seats while watching what was happening in front of them with a cup of coffee in their hands; some of them were even recording with their phones with amusement in their faces.

After seeing the man slap the woman, Coley did not hesitate to jump over the counter to charge toward the taller man with her fist clenching tightly as she threw it straight toward his jaw, making him fall down the ground. The brunette was surprised that the man fell down easily when he had a big body that she expected him to not lose his balance after just one punch. She then remembered that she was the only child of the leader of one of the strongest gangs in the country, which meant that it was in her blood to be strong and skilled in fighting.

A gasp of surprise left the woman’s lips as she placed her hands over her mouth though her shocked face did not last long as it was replaced with relief. A smirk could be seen on her face as she brought her hands down while staring at her ex-boyfriend who was grunting in pain while holding his face, rolling on the ground in agony like he was hit by Supergirl when it was just the friend of the coffee shop owner, who was just helping him out in the shop, who punched him.

“Y-You b***h,” the man whimpered as he struggled to open his eyes to throw a glare on the brunette who was just standing there with her arms crossed across her chest.

“Ma’am, are you alright?” Coley turned to the woman with black short hair as she asked with concern evident in her tone.

“Yes. Thank you so much,” The woman grinned at her as if she was a superhero for her for punching her crazy ex-boyfriend for her.

The brunette slightly jolted up in shock when the customers, who acted as the audience of the action drama in the coffee shop, applauded for the brunette with wide amused smiles on their faces while some of them were still holding their phones up. Coley flashed a sheepish smile as she briefly bowed to them and turned to the woman who was clapping with a huge grin on her face as well as if she did not just get slapped harshly on the face earlier. It felt as if she just became a celebrity for punching a man.

Everyone uttered boos to the man when he was finally back up to his feet as he hurriedly left the coffee shop while holding his bruised cheek after being intimidated by the look of the brunette. Once he was gone, they applauded for her once again as the woman gave Coley a side hug. The brunette turned to Noah who was clapping along the customers with a grin on his face from the counter as she gave him a look to seek for help. Instead of doing something about the brunette’s sudden fame, the coffee shop owner gave her a thumbs up as he mouthed to her,

“Keep it up! We’ll get more customers now!”

What did I even expect from him? Coley thought as she forced a smile of suffering on her face. She knew that it was going to be a busy day.

***

The raven decided to not visit V Records to buy a new vinyl record as she decided to stroll around the town with hope to find an interesting place to spend her time with. As she walked around the streets, she realized that Peace Town did not look like a small town at all—in fact, it looked like a city because anything that one would look for was in the town except for tall company buildings. Ghrae began to wonder why Peace Town was such an underrated place when it was the best place that she had ever been to in the world. Everything, including the people, was peaceful and chill that it was the perfect town to live an unproblematic life.

Ghrae let out a sigh of relief as she thought about how she did make a right decision in running away from home because otherwise she would not have never known the existence of Peace Town.   Seori’s “Fairy Tale” blasted from her wireless earbuds as she relaxingly took a walk on the streets while roaming her eyes around. Suddenly, a public library with a wide space in front and a white monobloc on the corner caught her eye as she finally picked the place where she would spend the rest of her time in.

The cold air from the air-conditioner welcomed her as Ghrae pushed the wooden door open and stepped inside the building while taking her earbuds off. The white noise of the air-conditioner could only be heard along the soft footsteps on the carpeted floor while everyone sat at their tables with open books right in front of their faces in silence. The silence felt uncomfortable for a second because she literally just been from outside where different kinds of noises were heard. It suddenly felt like Ghrae entered and became a character in the horror film about being unable to make noises otherwise the monsters would come and kill them.

Since the place was quiet anyway, the raven decided to not use her earbuds anymore as she enjoyed the silence that was enveloping the place while she walked toward the aisles. Different kinds of books were displayed in the shelves: educational books, poetry books, children’s books, novels, and more. Obviously, the raven skipped the shelves where the educational books were as she headed straight to the shelf where the novels were. Classic books such as “Pride and Prejudice”, “Frankenstein”, “Great Expectations”, and much more, were displayed in the shelves; Ghrae had read almost all of them that it only felt like looking through her own bookshelf in her bedroom.

While Ghrae was grazing her finger through the smooth texture of the books in the shelf as she slowly walked across the aisle, she suddenly heard a muffled scream that made her furrow her eyebrows as she stopped on her tracks. Looking around, the people seemed to not hear the sounds since they were far away from where the sound came from and they were too engrossed in the books that they were reading. The raven thought that someone could be having s*x while muffling their moans but the muffled sounds did not sound like pleasure, but calls for help. The raven decided to slowly walked toward the direction where she could hear the muffled screams in careful steps as to not make them know that someone knew about them.

Ghrae slowly took the book from the shelf at the exact direction where she could hear the muffled screams as she secretly peeked through the hole. Her eyebrows furrowed as she saw a woman with long black hair and bangs being pinned on the wall while a man with big veiny arms was tightly covering her mouth. Seeing the tears trickling down the woman’s cheeks with her black eyes seeking for help, the raven decided to approach them as she swiftly went to the end of the shelf and went after them. Seeing the raven-haired woman approaching them, the woman’s eyes lit up with hope while she screamed louder even though they were just being muffled.

“Shut the f**k up,” the man hissed while his other hand reached for his belt.

“What do you think are you doing?” Ghrae calmly asked, making the man turn his neck around to look at her in shock.

His shocked face did not last long as a perverted smirk stretched on his face while the man let go of the woman who immediately sucked in some air. The man faced the raven as she saw his belt already unbuckled, which made her feel a bit of anger inside her. Ghrae was glad that she found them before he could even do something malicious. She looked around as she realized that the spot where he was planning to r**e her was the blind spot in the library, which was why no one knew about what was happening.

“Nice. You could join us in a threesome,” the man spoke disgustingly as he let out a light chuckle and took slow steps toward the raven.

Seeing how the man had a big body, Ghrae knew for certain that she would not be able to beat him using some basic martial arts moves especially since she was not a professional martial artist. She had to think of a way to get rid of the man and stop him from doing something malicious before he could get a hold of her. An idea popped up her head as she cleared her throat, which made the man smirk even wider as he thought that she was preparing to actually join them.

“SOMEONE HELP! WE’RE BEING HARASSED! SOMEONE HELP US!”

The man and the woman with bangs widened their eyes in shock when the raven suddenly screamed in a high pitch as loud as she could, cutting the silence in the room as everyone got their eyes off from their books and turned to the direction where they heard her scream. Immediately, a bunch of men ran to the spot where they were as the man dropped his jaw in panic while he took a step back in attempt to escape. Seeing that the woman pinned on the wall had her hair messy and her blouse crumpled, the men instantly understood the situation as they glared at the man and immediately charged toward him.

The raven calmly took a step aside for them to continue kicking the man on the floor as she turned to meet eyes with the woman who cracked a smile toward her as she ran toward the raven to give her a tight hug. A small smile appeared on Ghrae’s face as she lightly rubbed and patted the woman’s back who started to sob softly while burying her face on her shoulder.

“T-Thank you so much! I-I don’t know how I could ever repay you,” The woman sobbed uncontrollably as her hug on the raven tightened as if she did not want to let go ever again because of fear.

“You don’t have to repay me. I just did what I had to do because no girl deserves to experience that kind of situation,” Ghrae softly said as she let the woman lean on her even though her shirt was already wet from the stranger’s tears.

Because of what the raven said, the black-haired woman let out a louder sob as she tightened her hug on her. There was nothing Ghrae could do but pat her back and let her hug her as long as she needed until she would calm down.

Fortunately, everyone in the library was kind as they had already called the police over for them to take the perverted man. The raven gently pulled the stranger to the side without separating from each other as she watched the police aggressively pull the man, who looked completely helpless with his face full of bruises, out of the library.