"text" is speaking.

'text' is thinking.

-- indicates a skip in time.

--

"Rock! Take out the goddamned trash!"

Rock groaned, quite unwilling to drag himself out of bed now that he'd been bitched at. He was a romantic guy; so, despite the fact that his girlfriend had always been more in-love with his adoptive father than him, he had moved out of the apartment he'd shared with Terry for most of his life, and into one in the center of Second Southtown with Jennie Behrn.

Usually, she was called B. Jenet.

Even more frequently by Rock's friends, she was called Bitch Jenet.

Of course, he was careful never to let her hear that, because he was not going to have his girlfriend stabbing one of his best friends with one of those purple stilettos.

Life didn't seem so romantic, the more he thought about it.

--

After he'd taken out the trash, Jennie had sent him out for errands while she did whatever she did when he wasn't home. She probably harrassed Mary and Terry or something, but he would never know. He never bothered to ask. It didn't seem important, and he had never questioned her faithfulness.

'Maybe', he thought, 'questions aren't such a bad thing.'

He shook his head as he pulled his jacket on one arm at a time. It was a beautiful autumn day in Second Southtown, but it was only about 40 degrees Farenheit.

'Jen would never cheat on me. I'm just being stupid...' he reminded himself.

He stuffed his hands into his pockets, his eyes wandering as his feet carried him down the sidewalk. He could see a basketball court across the street, and his fingers flexed, itching to dribble a ball and practice some three point shots. He watched the kids playing, unaware of where he was walking.

Everyone knows that as soon as your not paying attention, you bump into something. Or, in Rock's case, someone.

"Oh, sorry..." he looked over, crimson eyes wide for a moment.

The young woman smiled at him, and she couldn't have been much older than himself, he mused. She had black hair, with one silver streak in the bangs, and dark grey eyes. 'Just like the Don... well, not the eyes so much, but the hair, definetly,' he thought.

"It's no problem..." she said kindly, and let him walk past her, continuing on his way.

Not a minute had passed before she was walking beside him.

"What a sec!" She looked up into his face. She looked Asian... probably a tourist waiting for the KOF season. "I know you!"

"Uh... probably..." he replied, a bit confused by her enthusiasm. He had been shown on a few posters billing the tournament, and he never did too badly, but he wasn't a major star. Not like Kusanagi or Yagami or Terry were.

"No! I'm serious!" she insisted, and suddenly, her cheeks pinked. "Ah... I'm not trying to bug you or anything, but you're Master Terry's son, right?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah..." it wasn't uncommon for people to refer to him that way; Terry was the only father he knew.

She smiled. "I'm Chae Lim... I think we fought each other in the 2005 and 2006 tournaments..." Like the blond, she had stuffed her hands into her pockets as she walked.

"Chae Lim...?" The name sounded caguely familiar. He probably had fought her, but even so... he wasn't good with names after only one match.

"It's alright if you don't remember," she assured him. He liked her patience with his leaky memory. It was refreshing, unlike his girlfriend, who yelled about everything little thing he forgot. "I'm Master Kim's student... one of them, anyway."

"Oh!" Now he remembered. She was the third of Kim's students he had encountered; the first two being Kim's sons during the Maximum Mayhem tournament. Apparently, Kim had 6 or 7 students in total who competed regularly in fighting tournaments, and none of them were to be taken lightly. "It's nice to see you again... sorry I, uh... forgot... I'm not too good with names..." he apologized, one hand leaving his pocket to rub at the back of his neck.

She shook her head, blowing the silvery strands out of her eyes. "Like I said, it's okay. Rock Howard, right?" she guessed.

So maybe she wasn't too good with names, either.

--

They had talked. Nothing too deep, just light chit-chat as they walked down the street. 'How's life?' and 'Been in any tournaments recently?', with a bit of 'Oh, how's Jae Hoon and Dong Hwan? There's another girl in your pack, right?'. That one had made her laugh, and she had told him all about May Lee.

They had walked right past the grocery store Rock usually went to, but he didn't mind. He was enjoying himself. That didn't happen often, unless he had a basketball or a beer in hand.

"Hey... um..." Chae began awkwardly. "Could I maybe get your number? I don't know many people in Southtown... I could use a friend."

Rock instantly thought of Jennie. 'Why should she care? She's got a whole crew who's entirely male. Chae's nice...' He nodded. 'Besides, can't leave a girl hanging. That's rude...' That thought made him feel better about Jenet's possible reaction. He scrawled down the number for his home phone on her hand, because neither of them had a piece of paper. He laughed at his messy handwriting.

"There," he handed the marker back to her. "Why're you in town anyway, Chae? The KOF isn't for another month..." he asked, looking up at her as she started to climb the steps to her apartment.

She turned and gave him another smile. "Oh... Master Kim asked me to look over the Southtown gym... Dong Hwan's backpacking across Japan, and May Lee and Jae Hoon are helping in Korea... you know how it is."

He nodded, although he had no clue. "Sounds like fun."

She chuckled, but not whole-heartedly. "It's a lot of work... but I like it. See you around, Rock..." she went inside, and he headed back towards the grocery store.

--

"Took you long enough..." She was leaning against the doorway of the bedroom, her arms folded across her chest, and her long blond hair concealing her cleavage from him.

"Ran into an old friend," Rock replied, setting the paper bags on the counter and starting to put away the groceries. As usual, she didn't offer any help.

"Really? Who?" she asked, trying to play it innocent.

'Well... It's not like I didn't expect it... I even tried to talk myself out of it...' Rock thought. He glanced over at her. "Chae Lim."

"Oh... where'd you meet him?" she asked. Her tone wasn't accusatory, but it was close.

"I met her at the KOF a few years ago..." he replied, heading to the fridge to get some orange juice. She followed him, leaning on the door.

He gazed down into her blue eyes. Yeah, she was jealous. "Oh, really? An ex-flame just happened to come sweeping back into town while you were out grocery shopping..." she said, still feigning nonchalance.

"She's not an old flame. I fought her at the 2005 tournament," he replied, growing testy. "Why are you getting on my case about this?" he asked, shutting the door a little harder than he meant to.

"Christ..." she turned and headed back to the bedroom. "I was just curious."

As he tilted his head back and took a swig of his drink, the telephone rang.

A moment later, Jennie called out to the kitchen. "Your old flame's on the line."

--

"Hey... I hate to bother you, Rock..." she began. He could almost see her biting her lip, looking bored and a little homesick and feeling guilty about calling him.

"Nah, it's okay, Chae. What's up?" he asked, leaning back against the counter, near the sink.

"I didn't know you had a girlfriend," she stated a little more confidently.

"Well... I didn't tell you. Why's it matter?" he glanced over to the bedroom. Jenet was lying on the bed, one leg crossed over the other, chewing her gum loudly and deliberately as she pawed through a fashion magazine.

"Oh, well... I probably wouldn't have asked for your number..." she replied.

That took him back. "Why? Because of Jen?" he asked.

"Well, she's your girlfriend and all..."

"We're friends. Friends have each other's numbers." He could feel Jennie glaring at him. "So, you needed something?"

"Just wondering if you wanted to go out for a cup of coffee..." she replied.

"Yeah, sure. When?" he asked.

"Tomorrow, around noon, maybe?" she ventured.

"Sounds good. You caught my day off," he smiled.

"Alright... see ya then. You know where the Pao Pao Cafe is?" she asked.

"Yup. I kind of know the woman that owns it..."

"Same here. Kinda..." she chuckled. He liked the sound. It was a pleasant change from Jennie's yelling.

'She's my girl. Sometimes, I deserve it,' he thought.

"See ya, Chae," he pressed the end button and went into the bedroom to put the phone on the reciever.