No matter how much they wanted to conceal the matter from their so-called 'boss', the boys who had been forcibly put under the hero's thumb knew that the rumors were bound to be exposed to Amos sooner or later.
And they would only be making it harder on themselves if they tried to keep it hidden first. So they decided to just come clean and inform their 'boss' about it. Anyway, it was his problem to deal with, right?
"What the fuck did you just say happened?!"
The boy who had been kicked to the ground clutched at his stomach in pain. "B-Boss, we—"
Amos couldn't help but scream. This was supposed to be his time to strike back! Hadn't he suffered enough blows already? How come just when he was getting ready to make a move, something like this happened again?
He didn't even go to school to prevent exactly this kind of mishap!
He couldn't help but curse at his subordinates in a rage. "Shut the fuck up! You morons! Incompetent fool! What were you doing while allowing such rumors to spread?!"
The boys looked at each other helplessly before one of them finally gathered his courage to speak up. "Boss, we couldn't do anything to stop it, there's even a video!"
Amos was shocked. How is that even possible? Was there really a fake sex tape of him with those two bastards?!
He stormed towards the boy who had spoken before picking him up by his collar. "What video? What are you talking about?! Show me!"
As his friend choked helplessly, another boy came forward to hurriedly hand over his phone. "B-Boss, here it is, you can see for yourself."
Amos let go of the boy carelessly, making him collapse on the ground as he snatched the phone and hit play.
But the more he watched, the more confounded he become.
This wasn't a sex tape at all! How could it cause such a scandal?
What worried him though was the fact that this very video should have been deleted as well, but it was still somehow circulating among the students now.
Does that mean he had been toyed with since the start? Was it always all in the palms of his opponent's hands? Did they treat him like a fool?!
Although he was enraged, the hero didn't allow the rage to cloud his mind too much, and glared at the boy who had first informed him of the rumors. "How the hell does that relate to what you said? How can this video lead to that kind of rumor being spread around? You better give me a damn good reason! I swear if it was some of you scheming this out of grudge for—"
"W-We don't dare, boss!"
"It's not us!"
"The video came out from class B, though we don't know who exactly started it!"
Seeing how vehemently they were denying it, and how the origin of the video didn't seem to be themselves, the hero also calmed down.
These people who could so readily be dragged under his thumb by his father couldn't possibly be capable of getting their hands on this surveillance video, much less have the guts to spread it around.
There was definitely a bigger hand at play!
Amos gritted his teeth. "Tell me exactly what's going on, don't leave anything out."
The boy on the ground didn't dare to actually speak out all the nasty rumors word for word, but even with his 'dampening' of the impact, the hero's face was still dark as a wok by the time he finished reiterating the contents of the rumors.
In the end, Amos couldn't help but kick the downed boy in rage. "Fucking bitch! That fucking bitch! It was definitely her! And you're to blame too! How dare you not refute it and let it spread around unimpeded? If I had been in school, this would never have happened! You deserve death!"
Each word from his mouth was followed by a kick to the boy's stomach, and the rest of them watched while quivering in terror as the boy eventually fainted. One of them finally couldn't help it.
"Y-You, stop it! You're gonna kill him!"
Amos had already intended to stop when he saw that the boy had fainted, but snorted as he gave the boy another kick due to the other's 'provocation'. How dare they question him? "He deserves to die, anyway!"
Unfortunately, Amos had already forgotten the purpose of his father giving him a detailed report on each of his subordinates. Not only did he not realize that the boy who had spoken out and the one he was kicking were brothers, he even failed to realize that another one in his group had lost his brother in a mugging scene that was strikingly similar to what was happening right now.
He didn't realize just how out of control everything was until he felt something hard smash on the back of his head. He turned around in disbelief to point at his subordinate's face as his vision went dark. "Y-You… bas… tard…"
==========
Mr. Black stared at his unconscious son on the hospital bed gloomily as he listened to his secretary recount the events from his 'investigation'.
"The boy who hit my son… you know how to deal with him, right?"
The secretary nodded solemnly.
Of course he was well aware of what happened to those who went against the Black Tiger.
To dare to hit the only son of the boss… that boy should have known the consequences.
The buff man couldn't help but sigh in defeat as his subordinate left. Although Amos was injured, he would only need to be hospitalized for a few days, and the injury wasn't severe enough to cause a threat to his life or even leave any permanent damage.
However, what worried the man the most was how to deal with all those tabloids and news reports that were now brimming with his son's 'shockingly tragic love triangle'.
"To think those two insignificant little rats could end up causing so much trouble… If I had known, I would have killed them myself…"