#kl.interactions

continued from here.

                         bloodied body and bruised ego .  ian’s head rests against the cold surface of the gym locker .  scent of sweat , blood and piss ( ? ) fills her nose but what was she to expect from a danky underground fighting arena ?  the witch was convinced that her aunt was out to kill her ,  what other reason would the madwoman offer the younger for warm up match? granted  ;   ian didn’t go down without a fight but there she was .  lost the battle but at least her face was still recognizable .

no one was allowed in the lower section of the arena .  only fighters so when she felt a soft hand on her shoulder ,  the witch’s attention was pulled back at the view of a young female beside her .  invasion of privacy and this girl was sure she knew that by the way the enchantress stared at the unknown figure as she began to move about the locker room .   she hadn’t asked for any help but here this woman was .  delicate hands meeting rough ones when the girl came back ;   aid kit on hand and a clean towel as well.  

‘i’ve got you ‘

it’s a hiss that comes from her bruised lips ;  the coldness of the damped towel against her features had ian squirming with discomfort .  she could easily clean the blood off but the other wouldn’t allow it .   instead ,  she had slapped ian’s hands away and continued to wash away the crimson of her own doing .   every wipe  removed the evidence of her fight  —-  aside from the  bruises but ian’s brown gaze falls on the beauty in front of her with curiosity . the girl is focused on every risen , squeeze and wipe that she has to do in order to keep the wounds from being infected .  eyes watch how the white towel is squeezed clean of its tainted essence .  

❛ you know , only fighters are allowed the locker rooms . and you don’t look  like a fighter to me .   ❜   thank you ..

there’s one thing her cousins always insist on about her: that she’s not as much of a rebel as she claims to be. even with her newfound devil-may-care attitude, they keep saying deep down inside she’s not a bad person. inherently, she’s good.

well, she can’t comment on that really, but they repeat those words like broken records. especially her older cousin, hanbin. fucking hanbin and his self-righteous tendencies. hanbin who’s out there being a vigilante, dragging her into this mess.

‘why don’t you visit the fight ring and help me get intel? you can use your powers for good,’ he said, ignoring the fact that leah can’t enter the astral plane without her body being vulnerable.

it’s not the best idea, but she did promise hanbin she was going to get his ‘intel’ (ugh, she hates it when he uses that word. what are they? the special ops?) to get him off her back, so she goes just as she is.

she wants to get in and get out as quickly as possible, but what can you do when you find someone bruised and bleeding? if leah isn’t in the mood, she could easily shrug it off. fortunately, something tugged on leah’s heartstrings and she feels the pull to help the stranger—probably because the girl is close to her oldest cousin, solji’s, age or maybe because leah hates the sight of blood and this girl looks like she might struggle wiping it off herself.

“oh, do i look that weak?” she teases as she takes out some band aid from the first aid kit after she’s finished wiping down the woman.

(this first aid kit could not get anymore disgusting. bloody fingerprints taint the box. its maroon hue contrasting the eggshell white. this is unsanitary.)

“i think i can hold my own in a fight.” she peels the band aid and put it upon the woman’s forehead, brushing aside the hair that had fallen. “you’re welcome,” she says as she packs the equipment and finishes her work.

and they are like a paper boat. set sail by gentle fingers through the storms and one can only predict that in the end they are only to sink. and it all started in a summer, with them exchanging glances. of ryu admiring her from a distance while leah was praying upon the spirit of health — upon him. he was looking at her; they all said and they said that ryu was blushing — the other spirits in the mountain was. a smile started it all too, a mutual smile as she smiled back at him that time. for a moment he believed that fairytales do exist. because how come someone can be so charming with just a smile, and with those gorgeous caramel brown eyes but there was something else that unexplainable spark.

and god it was summer, for goodness’ sake. but her smile was blazingly brighter than the sun itself. she became an intangible concept in his constant life. as another summer came, she looked different than last year. matured but still as beautiful. while ryu stay the same as he was before. and he wondered until when she will visit him in this wood.

there are some sorrows that one can’t rid themselves of. like how their story was meant to be nothing but a mere memory for the both of them. but deep down, ryu cant deny that his heart beats for her, his heart will be waiting for her come back each summer. it’s going to be like that, til her last breath. despite anything, she will always be his favourite fairytale without a happy ending. what a twisted story they’ve become. from how they were supposed to be an odd pair of friend (or perhaps something more as ryu is too hesitant to feel anything. to dumb to realised his own feeling) to maybe it wasn’t meant to be after all. he thinks that even if the universe tries its best to split them apart, he knows that their bond is stronger than that. that they are still be inseparable.

maybe that’s why he is afraid of losing her. maybe that’s why lately he has been craving to touch her, just a simple touch on her skin. to feel how soft and warm her skin is. but it only means that he will become a tiny million cosmic dust.

but he can’t help it now can he?

                                      ( ‘ for now, i’d stay here ’ )

ah right, it’s time to go back home for her. now that his fellow spirits who also attached to her present remind her of what time is it right now, he feels nothing but a tad bit —- lonely. is it selfish of him wanting her to stay just a little bit longer?

“then stay.” he says, almost like a beg but not much of it. “you can stay in my room for the night. it’s not much but i hope it’s enough.”

perhaps it’s the way her parents treated her. everything she does is always examined under such scrutiny that she always feels as though she’s observed underneath a microscope. even the slightest flaw would be discovered by her parents. then they’d pick on it, tell her ways to improve––wait, no, no, that’s too nice––force her to change.

you have to be perfect, leah.

young leah used to wonder whether her imperfection was her fault. the little girl was worried that she can’t live up to her parents expectations. she didn’t want to disappoint them, but over the course of the years, that concern began to diminish. she’s gradually realising that maybe the problem is not her, maybe it’s her parents.

(or is she just shifting the blame? after all, that’s a human thing to do, like how adam blames eve for forcing him to eat the forbidden fruit.)

how did she come this revelation?

first, she knows her cousins have the same worries too. it’s as if the adults of this family is cursed with this insatiable need to be perfect.

second, because he came along.

it’s a cheesy story, really. a summer love. she likes the way he looks at her, because when she was crying alone (she had tattered the blouse and the skirt her parents got her when she was tousling with her younger cousin), instead of laughing at her, he looked at her as if she wasn’t this monster. with mud blemishing her skin, he didn’t look at her with this disgusted look in his face. his gaze was soft, inviting, like the warmth of a hot chocolate and hearth in the middle of a snowstorm. there was something about him that leah couldn’t get enough of. they would sit together and talk and she would feel elevated. he knew just what to say to her, and words would come so naturally as they spoke, even if both of them stumbled over their words. with him, she laughs more than she does in a year.

she knew it was bad when she’s gradually missing him the more time she spent apart from him. and she knew she was in trouble because one day, when she had enough courage to look at his eyes for once as she had found his gaze too blinding at times, she saw the same lonely soul as hers. maybe the universe had put them together to complete each other.

no, don’t fall, leah.

tonight has been the worst night of her life. during dinner, her parents had nonchalantly mentioned that after graduating, the 18-year-old leah would go on to law school. it’s fleeting comment, but when it comes to decisions, one related to her future, leah has to put her foot down. leah snapped, saying that she never agreed to it. her parents then said, as if nothing was wrong, “oh, we assumed that was your plan.”

that was never her plan. leah wants to go art school and draw. she wants to write and illustrate her own comics. she’s told her parents about this! but it seems that, like every other comments she’s made, they’re nothing more than meaningless words. a childish dream, a temporary obsession. they’re not. it’s been a dream of hers ever since her older cousin brought her to a comic book store and she got herself a copy of a spider-man comic.

despite all the complaints and warnings, leah storms out and runs to the only person she knows she can trust... and sure enough, he’s the only one who thinks that having dreams isn’t such a sin.

she doesn’t want to go back.

while leah once considered picking up skateboarding, the idea was quickly shut down by her (ahem, controlling) parents. thus, she had to settle with watching her younger cousin scrape his knees as he fell from his skateboard countless times. the 8-year-old leah wanted to experience that too, but alas, even until now, leah has never had one scrape on her knee.

always the impeccably untarnished little girl, huh?

speaking of which, that reckless cousin of hers is graduating from university in a couple of days. like leah, he was been sent to seoul to study. unlike leah, he’s now somewhat of a pro-skateboarder. that would make for a great story, a skateboarding future lawyer. it has a nice ring to it.

leah likes this cousin. he’s a good dude, so she wants to do something nice for him. she’s not going to get him a silly bouquet of flowers, no––she’s going to be special and considerate by giving him a new skateboard. that stingy little brat said he should save up and he keeps using that ugly and rundown skateboard he has since his high school days.

before she enters the shop, she walks with confidence. however, once she opens the door, she quickly becomes a shrinking flower. this is a foreign world for her, she doesn’t understand which skateboard to get. surely she can’t just get one that she thinks looks cool. it’s the same as getting a shitty laptop just because you like the colour!

living away from her parents gives leah a newfound bravery. if she behaves this way in front of them, they would reprimand her, tell her to apologise for talking back at the person, but leah doesn’t like being docile like that. sure, you can contain her flame, but putting it out?

impossible.

people deserves to hear the truth no matter how awful it is. and if the person is being rude then the person ought to know that they’re being insufferable. like this person who just bumped into leah. he’s much taller than her and the force of the collision sent her stumbling slightly. she takes out her earbuds, gearing herself for a speech about the importance of being aware of your surroundings.

she woke up late this morning. her daily astral plane travels took up more time than it should last night. it’s her fault. she should’ve known how much energy astral projecting takes up, but she kept pushing herself just because she wanted to bother this couple who couldn’t keep their hands to themselves.

as a result, she didn’t have enough time to make her properly presentable for school.

it’s not that she often puts on make-up or dress up––no, she hates all that. it’s just that she doesn’t even have the time to brush her hair! now, it’s sticking out from all sides, making her look like she’s freshly out of bed. thankfully, she manages to throw on a bucket hat one of her friends had left behind in her house. only problem is that the bucket hat is way too large for her head,

initially, she thought the idea was genius. people would be too lazy to go out in this heat, so having this kind of service would give the coffee shop a competitive edge.

leah’s only beginning to hate the idea when she was given the ‘honour’ to deliver the drinks just this morning. this means she is the one who has to go out in this heat and she’d rather stay in the air conditioning shop. what makes her more qualified for the job? she’s not the best cyclist in the coffee shop––so why her?

it’s early in the morning, but her hands are already tainted with different colours, prominently orange and blue––but that’s okay, because in front of her is a chalkboard adorned with her masterpiece.

she sits cross legged on the floor (if her parents saw her this way, they will surely scold her) with a small proud smirk on her face. the fruit of her labour, only possible with the sacrifice made by the chalks (now no more than tiny little stubs, she doubts anyone can use it anymore, she should throw it out after this).

she’s worked on the piece for about an hour, she deserves to gawk at it a little bit more, right?

“not too much is it?” she asks as she feels the presence of another person through the way the sunlight gets blocked. she nods her head to the direction of the board. ‘today’s special’ it says, complete with cute chibi renditions of zootopia characters along the margins of the menu. “i can do more, but then people won’t be able to see what we’re actually serving.”

she stands up, although not as gracefully as she had hoped. she trips on her own feet and stumbles a bit from the immense vertigo, a result of suddenly standing up after a long period of sitting down.