Vending Machine

"Well, then, Jenny." Jaeneung says sarcastically. "Class is about to start, I'll see you in class." Jaeneung stands up and balls up his foil into a ball.

"Wait!" Ha-Eun stands up. "Wait for me! I'll throw your foil for you!" Ha-Eun walks towards Jaeneung, grabbing his foil.

Jaeneung smiles and he opens up the palm of his hands, revealing a massive bruise in the middle of his palm, it's all blue and black. "What's this?" Ha-Eun looks at his hand.

"Oh that?" Jaeneung poked the bruise with his other hand. "It's not a bruise, it's just a bit of paint that I forgot to clean off." He rubs it and the paint smudges.

"You paint?" Ha-Eun grabs the foil of out his hand but she's amazed.

"Well, kind of." Jaeneung seems kind of embarrassed.

Ha-Eun remembered in the classroom, when he fought Connor, he caught the punch with such elegance it reminded her of a brush stroke. "Is that why you were holding a massive canvas to school?"

"How'd you know?" Jaeneung seems pretty freaked out to how much Ha-Eun knew about him. "But yeah, I'm apart of this art club. It's nothing much really." Jaeneung tried downplaying it.

"But you won the 2015 National Arts under 18 competition right?" Ha-Eun looked at Jaeneung. Jaeneung gave a disgusted look back.

"How-." Jaeneung reached into Ha-Eun's hand, pulling out both foils and throwing them into the rubbish.

"Don't ask." Ha-Eun quietened up real quickly after that.

"You're probably thinking how I did it, aren't you?" Jaeneung breaks the silence. He takes a deep sigh and sits down, laying his back on the fence. "I was 12 when it happened.

"Hya!" It was in the middle of a Taekwondo class, everyone was dressed in white doboks. They chanted each time they threw a fist or kick.

Among these students was Jaeneung, aged 12, living in America.

"I was a big kid for my age. I was nearly 165 centimeters tall, I was a giant for my age." Jaeneung narrated over. "I took taekwondo lessons to vent my anger out. Being a big kid was pretty rough, you'd get picked on for that kind of stuff. But I guess you could say I found my calling with Taekwondo."

"You still do Taekwondo?" Ha-Eun asks.

"No, not anymore. My dad was named Dong Neung, he was a pretty reputable banker with unlimited funds at his fingertips. There's one problem, he never cared about me or my mom. I grew up in a household without a father, without someone to guide us. After my mother died he didn't even care, he'd just send a paycheck in the mail."

"I'm sorry." Ha-Eun apologises.

"Don't be, he was a real prick to begin with." Jaeneung laughs. "Well, that's beside the point. When my mother died, I started turning to gangs and fights. By the time I was 11, I'd been arrested for riots and fights. But daddy always bailed me out, always."

Ha-Eun sits next to Jaeneung. "That's when it happened. I foolishly joined this gang without knowing what it truly stood for and I got dragged into fighting a fight that couldn't be worn. The Cross Arrows, a group of 18 year old high school rejects with extra time on their money. They finally found their match in us, so what did they result to?" Jaeneung turns his head to Ha-Eun and points to his soulless eyes.

Ha-Eun looks at Jaeneung mortified.

"Trust me, its was bad. They lured us into a warehouse and beat the living shit out of us, using any underhanded techniques they could. Killing us would've been less painful than what we had to endure." Jaeneung scoffs. "It's funny how the universe punishes those who do bad, but never rewards those who do good." Jaeneung sighed as he stood up. "C'mon, we're gonna be late for class. Enough of grandpa's bed time story."

Ha-Eun just sat there, her heads tucked into her knees. "But you were so young." Ha-Eun's voice broke as she spoke. "You didn't deserve to be treated like that." She cried quietly, trying to hide it from Jaeneung.

Jaeneung squatted down and placed his hand on Ha-Eun's head. "If everything in life was fair, the word fair wouldn't need to exist." He gave her a head pat. "Enough sobbing over someone else's problems, you got a problem with them?"

Ha-Eun lifted her head and smiled. "No." She laughed as she wiped her tears with her hand.

"Hello? Anyone there?" Chloe walks up to the roof, walking in on Jaeneung giving Ha-Eun a headpat. "W-W-W-" She's speechless. "HA-EUN?!" She screams out.

"Oh!" Jaeneung turns around, he was caught offguars by Chloe's presence. "You're that girl from earlier!" Jaeneung recognised her voice. "Take care of Ha-Eun for me, okay?" Jaeneung whispers into Chloe's ear. "She's a bit emotional." He walks past Chloe and walked down the stairs.

Chloe just stood there, completely still. "Hot." She turned to stone.

"You okay Chloe?" Ha-Eun was still laughing as she wiped the tears away from her face, her mascara dripping.

"I was just... checking on you guys..." Chloe was still stunned. "Nevermind."

xxxxx

"B-32." Jay presses enters 'B-32' onto the vending machine. He reached into his pockets and pulled out some loose change, placing them into the coin slot.

The juice box fell from the top of the vending machine into the area below. Jay bent down and reached his hand into the vending machine, taking out his drink.

"Hey, kid." A student kicks Jay from the back, kicking him into the vending machine and causing his hand to get stuck inside the catch area. "Buy me a drink."

"Agh!" Jay cried out in pain as he hit his head against the vending machine.

"Buy me a drink." The student places his leg beside Jay's head.

"I can't see! My eyes!" Jay was too scared to even open his eyes, blood covered them and seeped into his eyeballs. His nosed was completely crushed and his cheeks were bruised.

"I said, get me a drink." The student pressed his face up to Jay's face, the cigarette in his mouth pressing into Jay's chin and burning it.

"Ye-Yes!" Jay tried to take his arm out from the machine but he was stuck, his flesh caught on a sharp piece of metal.

"Forget the drink." The student moves his foot and presses it against Jay's head. "Do you know where Jaeneung is."

"I don- don- don't know him!" Jay cries out in pain as the student crushes his feet deeper into his face, bending the metal on the vending machine.

"Hey!" The student struck Jay across the head with his foot, causing him to hit his head against the vending machine and bend it even more. "Do you know where Jaeneung is!?" He grabbed Jay by his hair.

Jay was completely knocked out cold. "For fucks sake." He shoved his face back into the sand before walking away. The blood from Jay's nose dripped down the side of his face, onto the sand.

"Tch." He took out something from his pocket, a syringe with a green liquid inside of it. He bent down and stabbed Jay's body with it. The green fluid dispersed instantly, his half-working heart pumped the mysterious substance all throughout his body.