I'm perfection when it comes to first impressions

intro: KANG CHAEWON

DRAFTS STATUS: (6) normal replies (0) replies to open starters (0) closed starters

‷ watch out , kang chaewon has crash-landed into roswell !! she looks twenty-five years old and celebrates her birthday on october 13th. she is from brighton/UK, resides in greystone complex and is currently working as a boxing and tae-kwon-do trainer at the satellite sports complex. one thing you should know about her is she’s the jammer in a local roller derby team and sometimes still participates in boxing matches, and although she never managed to become a professional athlete, she still loves staying active in both sports.‷

olivia smiles, glad to have witnessed something as cool as that, “as you should be” she agrees. she stuffs her hands into her jacket pockets, “boss has got me on the early morning shift. i dunno why, record heads don’t get up till lunchtime” she laughs a little, the shop was always quiet in the mornings. “none taken, i’m definitely not. i’d love to be home with my cat right now” olivia wished she could just be at home snuggling stella, without the stress of work. 

mattie nods, she trusted chae, she’d always wanted to try rollskating so she was glad to have someone by her side who actually knew what they were doing. “thanks! i feel like i’m going to be bambi on ice” she jokes with a laugh, “no! no! they feel fine” but she still tries to move her feet anyway. 

“well, no. i’m what some would call athletically declined.” in both high school and college, knox had never been one to try sports. even when the opportunity presented itself, there was volleyball, basketball, and others. she was never really interested in trying at the time. although, that could’ve been because she was very distracted. “i guess i’m not opposed to trying a few though. as long as you promise to at least get some plants to brighten up your room a bit.”

chiba , as fletcher and them had newly established , was his sidekick , was somebody that he struggled to go through life without . they were both older siblings , both protective to fault and , seemingly , both unlucky in love — the other was considered one of fletcher’s best friends and , although he had heard chaewon’s name in passing , those features hadn’t yet burst into recognition for the older liu . “ i don’t think i could stand up for more than two seconds on skates , so you’re already beating me on that one . i wouldn’t worry . i thought you looked pretty cool and ; i’ll stick to the martial arts , i reckon . “ the query caused his brow to cock . she didn’t look even close to his age , and so the school angle was out of the question — he seemed to remember locking eyes with a woman throwing tae-kwon-do moves in one of the many gyms , admiring their form and judging all ( if any ) missteps , but that wasn’t it , and after a beat he responded ; “ i train there five times a week , but i can’t say you made too much of an impression .. i must’ve seen you around somewhere else . “ 

This was one interesting way to spend her break at work. Definitely a good way to spice up her impromtu morning shift. Exhausted she’d made her way out to her car to down another coffee to survive the double shift when she noticed the roller skater. “Of course it looked cool! You just did a whole acrobatic… thing… on roller skates!” Breanne replied highly impressed. The most she could do was go forward and come to a stop without injury. “You’re out here just defying gravity and that will always be cool." 

            Dylan looked at Chae rather amused with her reaction towards the physical appearance of the waitress. “Okay,” the Welsh spoke through his laugh lightly shaking his head. If one needed to cheer up, Chaewon was the one who should be called, that’s for sure. “Why don’t you go after her, Chae? Go talk to her, maybe she’ll focus on you, and not on me.” For which Dylan would be forever grateful.

x

“Whatever drink you want, I’ll get you - milkshakes included,”  Pandora’s grin widened in victory, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet.  “Yeah, sure!  I’m sure we won’t measure up to her vocals, but I think we could do her some justice!  Did you have a certain song in mind, or just anything as long as Hayley Kiyoko sang it?”

“ no, that was sick, don’t give up !! ” aoife cheered from here she was leaning against the exterior wall of her workplace, enjoying the show. “ it looked impressive to me, though i don’t know anything technical or whatever, so i’m not exactly the best judge of talent. ” she’d seen her fair share of acrobatics from her circus days and memories resurfaced of endless hours sat around a campfire surrounded by gymnasts all practicing their latest tricks and blowing off steam. “ see this ?? ” she rolled up the sleeve of the shirt she wore under her scrubs, revealing a scar on her elbow, “ that was from the acrobats trying to teach me the trapeze. so gracefulness really isn’t my forte. ”

“Any dream with a cute girl in it is a good one,” Lance quickly fired back, grinning.  He shrugged a little, before shaking his head.  “Headin’ back from a long night out.  Crashed at a friends cuz I was too hammered to remember how to get back to my trailer,” he let out a soft chuckle.  “Nah; that’s okay though, I’m sure Strikes or Mick will cook me somethin’ once I get back home, if I complain enough.  You really get up this early all the time?”

“well,” riggs made a faint hum in the back of his throat, his head cocking to the side just a touch. “let’s put it this way - it looked like if i tried it, i’d break my ankle and-or land on my ass, so… take that however you want to.” he didn’t understand a thing about what she’d been doing, but he’d been curious enough to stop and watch, which had to count for something, right? though it wasn’t really unusual for him at all - he liked to pause and enjoy himself whenever he saw something interesting happening, never in much of a rush to go anywhere, because where was the fun in always rushing off to do the next thing? at least, that’s what he thought. “i’m impressed you didn’t fall, which has to count for something.”

olivia had been put on the early shift at work, she’d protested but her manager had insisted that she had to come in. so here she was, on her way into work when she spotted chae skating, of course she stopped to look, liv wasn’t rushing into work. she stands there in silence just in awe of the other, she’d always wished that she could try roller skating but she didn’t think that she’d be good enough. then olivia as caught, she smiles back at the other, “dude, that was VERY COOL! don’t doubt yourself” olivia replies, hoping that would inspire some confidence. 

His chest hurt at the cheeriness, so fake. Though perhaps he only noticed because he knew what she sounded like when she was actually cheery, like after a derby match she won, or after a test that went perfect. The emotion was lacking, and he could guess at why it was. He sometimes wished their mothers would actually annoy the both of them about this situation, he wished they would intervene and just… say all the right things that Chiba didn’t know. He sometimes wished he was still seventeen, and his little sister needed his help, and he didn’t have the vocabulary to explain himself. His mothers, or one of them, would stand in as translator, between two kids so many years apart, bridging the divide between an adolescent and a child. They would always say: ‘your brother means well, he just doesn’t know how to express himself’. And they had always been right. And he had grown to know how to express himself better, he knew the right things to say and when to say them. 

But now he was seventeen again, and not knowing what to say was frustrating, that he kept his mouth shut. 

He hadn’t even seen the bloody nose, but the sight of it filled him with some brotherly notion that he had to get some tissues out. 

He didn’t move. 

He hated how Chae was doing what he couldn’t, that she was offering a way forward, and he just stood gazing at her. He hated that the roles seemed to be reversed, but he had no idea how to turn them back. He was afraid he was going to destroy it if he pretended everything was like it had been. He had wanted a little kid, a girl, a boy, a child regardless of gender. He had wanted to be a parent, raise something that was his. His dream had seemed so easy, so silly almost, and he had been ready for it even before he had set up everything to take care of one. And then the world had spun and he had doubted everything he had ever wanted. His easy goals scattered. “Did you win the match?” He asked, swallowing. He took a deep breath, then held out a bruised knuckle. “Went down with one punch.” He didn’t tell her about the fight club he was a part of with Fletcher, even if he knew she would hold her own easily in there.

What would she have done, were they still little? Their large age difference had always been an ocean between them, but they always managed to bridge it somehow. If she was five and he was fourteen, then she could just start crying, and he’d ask her where it hurt and she could point to her heart. And he would know what it meant, because he always did. If she was twelve and he was twenty one, then she could awkwardly try to voice her childish feelings, and babble away until things were far forgotten and they were laughing about her rapid-fire thoughts. 

If she was sixteen and he was twenty five, then she would have poured her heart out to him, even the ugly thoughts she’d had about blaming his ex-wife and about just wanting things to go back to normal, whatever the cost. She’d tell him about how she stopped drinking because he couldn’t stop it, but how she still sometimes bar-hopped in the hopes of finding him. She’d tell him about the nights she’d spend looking through the hole in her door to make sure he got home safe, because she was scared he wouldn’t someday. About the nights she cried, the ones when she didn’t sleep, the ones when she’d write the digits of his number on her phone and stare at it, finger just above the dial button, until her eyes hurt and she realized she was too much of a coward to face rejection. And she’d tell him because she knew he would know her heart more than she knew it, and that he would help her understand that sometimes you have ugly feelings because they run rampant, and most of all, he wouldn’t judge her. Just forgive her. Maybe they’d even fight about it, but at the end of the day, they would hug and it’d be fine, and she would be so sure of it that she’d find the bravery she needed.

How could she know everything at sixteen, but nothing at twenty five? 

She smiled awkwardly. Her weak attempt at keeping him here had worked, for now. “Ye-yeah!” She tried to sound cheery again, even if she knew he wasn’t buying it. He never would. Try harder. “I don’t lose very often.” An awkward chuckle. Do better. “Y-you taught me well.” You’re the best fighter I’ve very met. You’re strong and brave in ways that I could never be. But I have to. I have to be braver now. “All those years back. I never go down without a fight.” You never go down without a fight, either. You stand up, you fight back, and bring everyone down with you. You’re the one who taught me that. And that’s why I won’t give up. Ever. “See? You never lose either.” Are you not fighting? Is that why you’re going away? Did I fuck up so bad that the friendship we had isn’t worth fighting for anymore? Are we just distant family members now, like the ones I used to tell you I thought were weird when I was ten, before I knew that was rude? “Was-was it a work thing? Or did you find a gym somewhere?” Is this our forever? When I’m thirty five, and you’re forty four, will we only talk at holidays? Will you show up at my wedding and go home early? When you finally achieve whatever you want in life now, and I know you will, because you’re a fighter, will you even tell me? “You should bandage that. Even if it’s small. Hand injuries can get bad very easily. Since we never really rest them.” Just fight for me. Please. If you can’t, then let me fight for both of us. Just let me grab your hand. It’s fine if you can’t be my big brother anymore, just let me be your big sister if I have to. Let me in. Fight. Do something. Please. She opened her bag, quickly picking up the pack of bandages she kept ready and handing it to him, but not brave enough to offer to do it for him. Never brave enough.