MHJ: Guess who is on time? :D Yeah, that's right, I am! ^_^ Today is the first official day of summer vacation (finally -_-) and I pretty much spent it in front of the computer, typing up more chapters of Always There. As of right now, I finished writing chapter 9, but I'm only releasing one chapter per week. MWAHAHAHAHAHAAH! Now, onto a different note, someone brought up something in a review that I thought I'd address here in case anyone else is confused.
In my mind, Qing is the short and cute one (the one who wore the hat in the park scene). Apparently he's actually supposed to be Zhuang, but I can't fix it now since we're all used to him being Qing. Also, Qing is supposed to be the one who tries to stop Cheng from hurting Dre even more, but I didn't realize that. Since Liang seemed remorseful for what he did in the tournament, I just made him the sympathetic one who would pity Dre. I went back just now and fixed that so Qing was really the one who tried to stop Cheng. Hopefully I cleared up the confusion. If this just made you even more confused, kindly forget everything I just said. :)
Previously...
"Have you forgotten what we learned in kung fu?" Cheng demanded. He'd admired Meiying from afar for years, never gathering enough courage to talk to her without instinctively retreating into his shell and spatting callous remarks. Then Dre comes along and sweeps her off her feet. To add insult to injury, he went and threw foul water all over them, ignoring their warnings, and even injures Jiayi. They were lucky she'd only gotten glass in her arm; the situation could have ended so much worse. "No weakness, no pain, no mercy!"
"Seriously, Cheng, enough is enough!" Qing snapped, grabbing his arm.
"Get out of my way!" Cheng snapped back, twisting his friend's arm just enough to get him to release his arm. Then he shoved him away. Qing looked surprised and slightly hurt at his rough actions, but he backed away. Cheng pushed his rising guilt to the back of his mind, mentally noting to himself to apologize to him later.
Facing Dre again, Cheng danced forward and let out another punch, packed with all his frustrations and anger.
His punch never made it to its intended target. There was a hand—old, judging by the wrinkles—holding onto his wrist.
Slightly intimidated by the fact that someone had caught his punch when it was so fast, so packed full of power, Cheng looked up into the eyes of an old man. He had an aging face and wore a ratty set of blue pants and a matching, equally worn-out jacket. Cheng's eyes widened. It was a maintenance man.
What had this world come to?
Chapter 7: The Maintenance Man II - The Fight
"Go home," the old man—Mr. Han, according to his weathered nametag—said gruffly. All of a sudden, he curled Cheng's wrist inward, causing pain to shoot through his wrist and up his forearm. Cheng yelped in surprise and pain, but just as suddenly as he had twisted Cheng's wrist, Mr. Han grabbed the boy's elbow, folded his arm into his chest, and shoved Cheng back several feet.
Jiayi and Feng reached out to brace Cheng before he tripped over his own feet.
The maintenance man paid no further heed to them as he bent down to check if Dre was alright.
"Who is this guy?" Jiayi whispered, looking unsure for once in her life.
Cheng just stared at the old man incredulously, shaking his wrist out a little.
Sensing Feng and Zhuang step forward furiously, Cheng quickly threw his arms out to stop them from advancing further. He turned his head slightly, giving them a nod and assuring them wordlessly that he could handle it. Exchanging a look, Feng and Zhuang reluctantly stepped back.
"You don't have to do this alone," Jiayi whispered, grabbing Cheng's elbow like a little child as she eyed Mr. Han cautiously.
Cheng pulled his arm away, turning back to Mr. Han. Without answering, he glided forward silently and snapped his foot out, aiming for the side of the maintenance man's temple.
The old man caught the kick in one hand without even looking. For a quick second, Cheng shot his friends a stunned look. Feng, Zhuang, and Liang were staring back, equally speechless, while Qing and Jiayi were exchanging nervous looks.
Mr. Han's grip on Cheng's ankle tightened and suddenly—too suddenly for Cheng to even think of reacting—he stood up, bringing the boy's leg up into a near split. Having yet to achieve his splits yet, pain shot through Cheng's legs, burning as his hamstrings threatened to tear.
The only ones to have gained their splits already, Jiayi and Liang rushed forward to help, but Mr. Han's eyes already showed that he didn't have the heart to do that. Without so much as a grunt, the old man threw Cheng back with Jiayi and Liang barely managing to catch him.
As the oldest, Feng felt protectiveness and responsibility for his friends rush through him. Immediately, he surged forward. The maintenance man blocked his roundhouse kick with ease, ducking under a right hook and planting his hands solidly on Feng's chest, pushing him back several feet.
Seeing their friend shoved away so effortlessly, Jiayi and Liang charged up in mirrored stances; they each grabbed one of Mr. Han's wrists, pulling them down as they sent their free fists towards the old man's face. To everyone's surprise, the well-coordinated move failed.
Mr. Han ducked back, using the Liang and Jiayi's non-punching arms to steady himself as their fists soared over his face harmlessly. What had started as Jiayi and Liang keeping Mr. Han's hands down to prevent him from blocking their attack had turned into Mr. Han holding onto Liang and Jiayi's wrists to prevent them from pulling away. With one powerful jerk, the old man pulled the two together, causing them to collide with their foreheads making a sickening crack.
Everyone winced for them.
Liang and Jiayi were so disoriented from the collision that they nearly collapsed to the ground, but Mr. Han steadied them before suddenly shoving them back. Liang crashed to the ground, a hand pressed to his throbbing forehead while Jiayi stumbled dizzily right into Feng. Feng's physical stature, much larger than Jiayi's, managed to keep the two of them from tipping over.
Zhuang and Qing exchanged a glance, both looking rather nervous as they circled Mr. Han. Qing appeared too stunned to actually do anything yet so Zhuang took the initiative and threw out a high kick, which Mr. Han dodged; setting his jaw in determination, Zhuang then sent out a backhand, which was blocked effortlessly. Then, instead of pushing Zhuang away like he had with everyone else, Mr. Han brought the boy into a lock, tightening his hold on the boy's wrist while pushing his face away so that he couldn't move.
At that point, Qing snapped out of his nervous stupor; he sprang forward with two kicks—the first was dodged neatly while the second unintentionally hit Zhuang when Mr. Han used the boy as a human shield. Clutching his stomach, Zhuang staggered away, gasping for air, while Qing went in for a couple more punches. The maintenance man didn't bother blocking or dodging; he grabbed Qing's wrists and whirled them around so that Feng, running forward, accidentally kicked Qing in the chest.
Immediately afterwards, Mr. Han turned and flipped Qing over his back and into a dustbin, which toppled over with Qing still in it. Everyone flinched again.
Ignoring the throbbing pain in his leg, Cheng scrambled up and charged at Mr. Han, trying another kick, but it was easily blocked. Liang, shaking his head to clear his dizzy vision, ran forward to help, but Mr. Han just grabbed him and swerved around to send him flying into Cheng, sending them both crashing to the ground gracelessly.
From the other side, Feng surged forward again, aiming a high kick at Mr. Han's head, but the old man merely sidestepped and grabbed his ankle, using it to tug the boy forward to body-slam him to the ground.
Meanwhile, Qing finally crawled out of the dustbin, looking up and making eye contact with Jiayi, who had finally shaken the dizziness out of her vision; they nodded at each other and charged at Mr. Han with Qing's attack hiding Jiayi's follow-up one. The plan backfired.
As if he had eyes in the back of his head, Mr. Han turned just in time to catch Qing's punch; without giving Jiayi the opportunity to carry out her follow-up attack, Mr. Han tightened his grip on Qing's fist while grabbing the front of the boy's pants to swing him around in a circle. Cheng jumped back, narrowly dodging Qing's swinging legs, but neither Feng nor Jiayi were as lucky.
Feng was stuck in his shoulder, falling backwards onto a chain between two posts. His momentum continued, pulling the two posts over as he fell. Jiayi, much shorter than Feng, suffered a worse hit. One of Qing's feet caught her full in the face. She staggered back, holding a hand to the side of her face, into a pile of old pipe pieces.
As soon as Mr. Han put him down, Qing swung his free fist again. Mr. Han dodged easily so that Qing's fist went all the way to wrap around his own small body, then—as if they were dancing—the old man spun Qing out so that his free hand flew out and slapped Jiayi—who had scrambled back over to try to help—across the face on the same cheek he'd kicked. She yelped, staggering uncontrollably back to the pipes.
Then Mr. Han twisted Qing's hands together, his other hand lifted and ready to punch, but hesitation lingered in his aged eyes. After all, Qing was the smallest and the most innocent-looking out of their entire group, looking more like a junior high student rather than a high school student. Used to being punished in kung fu, Qing screwed his eyes tightly shut, prepared for the blow that never came. Mr. Han proved to be too compassionate and soft to actually make the blow on such a childlike boy. Instead, he let Zhuang to it for him, easily redirecting Zhuang's punch to Qing's eye.
Zhuang quickly stepped back, pulling Qing away as well, as Jiayi, Liang, and Feng jumped leapt upon the maintenance man, hurling any attack they could get in. Straight-faced and silent, Mr. Han deflected each attack with simple yet efficient blows, knocking them back a step with each block. Finally, as Feng went in with both his arms aimed for the sides of Mr. Han's head, the maintenance man grabbed onto the sleeves of Feng's uniform jacket, jerking them far past Feng's hands.
Liang raced forward, throwing a kick—dodged—then a punch. The maintenance man reacted quickly, wrapping one of Feng's sleeves around Liang's wrist then around Feng's neck, tying the two boys together. As he did so, Jiayi rushed in to help with a downwards chop; when that was dodged, she threw her leg up in a high arc. Like what he had done with Liang, Mr. Han merely wrapped Feng's other sleeve around Jiayi's small ankle.
Slowly, Mr. Han moved backwards, forcing Feng and Liang to follow while Jiayi hopped unsteadily on one foot; suddenly, Cheng tried another charge. Like a puppeteer, Mr. Han simply tugged sharply on the sleeves, sending Jiayi's foot out to kick Cheng in the gut, throwing him back down on the cement.
Qing and Zhuang just stood at either side of Mr. Han, fists up uncertainly as they looked nervously at the tangled mess that consisted of Jiayi, Liang, and Feng, knowing that if they tried attacking, they'd just end up hitting one of their friends again.
At that moment, Jiayi remembered that she was still in her school uniform. Blushing crimson to the roots of her hair, she let out a high pitched squeak and grabbed her cobalt blue school skirt, awkwardly trying to hold it down between her bare legs since she'd foolishly sent out a high kick for Mr. Han to trap in Feng's jacket.
It took a moment for everyone—all boys—to realize what she was doing, but when they did, her friends immediately redirected their gazes, faces blazing in embarrassment for their friend. Evidently more of a gentleman than a perverted old geezer, Mr. Han immediately released the three, shoving the tangled trio back where they landed with another painful thud.
Face still slightly red, Qing stepped forward to try to defend his friends, but stopped when Mr. Han looked at him.
"Go home," the maintenance man repeated, a little more forcefully than the last. Then he turned, scooped up Dre, and hobbled away.
MHJ: Expect the next chapter in about a week! :) Please review and let me know what you think! Also, the offer from the last chapter still stands: if you have any particular scenes or ideas that you really want to see in this story, leave me a review! If I can, I'll try to incorporate your idea in! :)