A soft target

Few kilometres from the school Thandi, Mandy and Cindy were walking home when a red car stopped next to them. Inside it were two young man about 20 years old.

“Good afternoon ladies” they said politely.

“Good afternoon” the girls responded.

“Thandi can we talk to you please” they asked. Thandi was puzzled, she had never seen these people before yet they knew her name.

“Sorry, I don’t know you” she said. Her mother always told her not to talk to strangers.

“You think you are something because of S’bu that you won’t even talk to us. You not even that pretty” they sneered driving away.

Thandi looked at Mandy confused hoping she would know what that was about but her friend was just as confused. They soon forgot about the weird young man and chatted happily on their way home.

The following day more young man came looking for Thandi. Now both Thandi and Mandy became suspicious but could not figure out what all this was about. Every time Thandi turned then down the resorted to insults and S’bu would be mentioned.

When Mandy got home she called her brother and related to him what has been happening to Thandi and wanted to know why he was mentioned every time the young insulted her friend.

S’bu’s heart sank upon hearing what the man were doing. He knew it was about the video of him that was shared beginning of the week. After being quiet for a long time he told his sister that he would take care of it without explaining anything to her. After hanging up Mandy’s call he called JJL’s private investigator and asked him to look at the matter. S’bu was the his father’s heir so JJL employees respected and took instructions from him.

Mandy did not get useful information from his brother but was now certain that it was related to him. She decided to find out on her own and started by checking her brothers social media page. She had not been on social media in a long time. There was a time when she posted everything about herself to gain popularity but since she moved to her current school and met Thandi she had a better perspective on life. She watched the video of his brother confessing his love for Thandi and after that Thandi had been trending for days. Her jaw dropped in disbelief, her friend was not even on social media yet people were going on about her personal details. Mandy decided to go to Thandi’s home. She showed her S’bu’s video.

“Are you dating my brother behind my back” Mandy asked her friend angrily. She had seen the photo of S’bu and Thandi at the river and the two looked intimate.

“It’s not like that Mandy, I promise you. Last year S’bu asked me to be his girlfriend. Initially I turned him down but he persisted. When grandma was diagnosed with cancer and I was terrified for her, myself and my family he showed up at the river in my village. He came to give me more information about breast cancer and I was so grateful I even hugged him. I didn’t know he was taking photos. I was starting to think that he’s not a bad guy but then I heard all the stories of the women he hooked up with and Pretty’s story. After that I told him to stay away from me and that’s the last time I spoke to him. I did not tell you all this before because I was afraid that you’ll be disappointed in me and think I’m only your friend because I wanted your brother.” Thandi explained.

Mandy calmed down, she knew that Thandi did not even know who she was let alone her brothers when they met.

“It turned out you actually liked Gebbie or is he Gebberish?” Mandi said teasing her friend.

Thandi blushed “It’s in the past. Your brother is a smooth talker and can be kind but he’s not for me” she reassured her friend. “I still don’t get why those young man are coming for me” Thandi said worried.

“My guess is they are S’bu’s rivals and now that they know his feelings for you, they are targeting you to get to him. He said he will take care of it, I hope he does” Mandy said.

That evening the JJL PI sent S’bu all the information about the young man that were troubling Thandi. It was very easy for the PI to get the information on them since they were all college and university students with no security detail. He was able to access their social media accounts, private chats and a lot of their personal details.

S’bu scanned through the document until he found the one common thing about all of them. It was a chat group created on the day his video came out. One user had tracked down and invited all of them to this group. This was a group of people who always wanted to get back at him but did not have the means. Now they had numbers on their side, nine to be exact. Some hated him for hooking up with their girlfriends and some hated being compared to him by the women they fancied. Since they could not get to him, Thandi was a soft target. They wanted to hook up with her just like he did to some of their girlfriends and make sure the whole world knew about it. Their was even a five thousand rands reward for the one that will succeed. Their dilemma now was that Thandi refused to even speak to them and were trying to find a way to get to her.

S’bu decided to drive home that evening. He wanted to tell Thandi himself about all of this and about the video. He did not know that she already knew about the video and even more angry with him.

Mandy was walking to the kitchen to have breakfast before going to school when she overheard a conversation between her mom and S’bu. The two were talking about Thandi. Mrs J was not impressed with S’bu exposing Thandi to ‘his world’even after she made it clear to him that he was to stay away from her. S’bu was explaining to his mother that he did indeed stay away from Thandi but he can not deny his feelings for her anymore and promised to take care of everything.

Mandy was puzzled that Mrs J seemed to have known about S’bu’s feelings for Thandi for a while now. If she did know any better she would even believe that S’bu really loved Thandi but she knew her brother too well.