Monsters of the Wilds

Author's Notes: Well, here's chapter 6, proving once again that once I get easily distracted. A lot of reviewers had questions about how Jae Gu ended up the way he did, and other stuff like that. Lucky for them, those questions get answered here and now!

This chapter is a whole bunch of backstory, basically.

Tried to keep it interesting, and those familiar with MGQ will probably be interested in yet another element of the fusion's history. For those more familiar with GotW, I pulled a lot from that too: Jae Gu's dad, his natural talent for fighting as remarked on by the girls, his being naturally in good shape as a result of his work, and the fact that if you push him too far he'll snap and come at you with a gas canister or attempt to kill you with a brick.

I guess Alice's naturally aggravating presence just happened to get to him way quicker than normal. Bad Alice! No breaking Jae Gu!

Anyway, mostly a bunch of set up for what comes next, but getting to write Scaredy Cat Alice is always fun, all on itself.

Now, not much need for a bunch of Author's Notes. Just a warning, I recently got promoted at work, which is awesome, but you can expect it to throw my writing schedule off plenty as well, so heads up on that.

Now,

*Story Start*

Chapter Six

"Drink your tea," President Lee said, not unkindly, "before it gets cold."

The older man heard the two children behind him shuffle, an awkward sound, but he remained looking out the window of his office. It was times like this that he truly did think about his students as his own kids. He'd had two actual children himself, though they were both all grown up now and had moved onto have successful careers.

Right now, the way Song Jae Gu and Yoon In Gyi were sitting, guiltily shifting in their respective chairs, the two reminded him of his actual son and daughter after he had broken up a fight and was thinking up a punishment for the two.

Which wasn't too far off, seeing as that was almost exactly what was going on now.

Still, even as President Lee sighed he couldn't help but feel his own hand in the situation. He had given word to have the sparring stopped before things got out of hand, in the end, and then he had allowed the disastrous match between the Goo Ra student and his own Song Jae Gu. In a way, he bore his own guilt over what had occurred afterwards.

Still, despite himself, one of the reasons he was facing away from the two was because he didn't want either of them to see the proud smile that he was having trouble getting rid of.

Wilds above all else prided itself on its fighting prowess. The school's motto was 'Personal Strength is National Strength', after all, and even if it was somewhat unexpected, it still filled him with pride to see that the only male in the school so far also had it in him to exemplify that motto.

In Gyi was feeling a great deal less proud at the moment. In fact, she was feeling remarkably humble, and she wasn't sure how she felt about the unfamiliar feeling.

When had she screwed up so profoundly? How had she ended up in this mess?

Try as she might, and try she did, she found that she had no one to blame but herself. She had been the one to single out Jae Gu for her shoes and stockings, an action which had been meant merely to show her position to the only boy in Wilds in an attempt to warn him off from trying to use her as so many other men had in the past, and in the end she had found that he had irreversibly wormed his way into her thoughts. She had been the one to try and punish him for his peeking, and had ended up learning that taking things too far could have consequences all their own.

Consequences like having made herself a target for what was probably the strongest gang of fighting delinquents in the city. Consequences like having set up a match with their leader on public television of all things!

It wasn't that In Gyi was frightened. Even if she hadn't known Jae Gu personally, she wouldn't have shied away from fighting any of the other girls in his gang.

And wasn't it odd to think of Jae Gu of all people having a gang?

Anyway, back to her original train of thoughts. She wouldn't have shied away from fighting any of them. She was strong, she knew that, and she had the skill and strength to be confident that she could prevail in a match with those girls. In fact, just the thought of Alice's smug snake grin made her clench her hand dangerously around the cup of tea in her hands. If it was Alice, she might just pay for the chance to wipe that smug smile off her face!

Jae Gu's thoughts were similarly complex. On one hand, he had truly hoped to disappear into the background, to have a quiet high school life avoiding the attention of his classmates, doing his schoolwork, spending time with his Alice and the others when he could spare it, and above all else, not getting involved in ridiculous fighting escapades.

Still, when he considered what his friends were like, he knew that that last bit had been a doomed dream, but he could hope, couldn't he?

And now, not only was he neck deep in a situation where fighting seemed to be the only way out, but he was also starting to stand out as a problem student. His scholarship, his chance at graduating and getting a better paying job to support his siblings before they made it to middle school, was in serious jeopardy.

And worst of all, apparently everyone in the school new his stupid nickname!

"Song Jae Gu," President Lee finally felt he had the smile well enough under control that he wouldn't end up giving himself away. "You are a student of Wilds High, are you not?"

"Yes sir," Jae Gu answered obediently, hoping that statement wasn't a preclude to him no longer being as such.

"Queen," Lee continued, "nothing defines you better than being Wild High's 'S'-class, does it not?"

In Gyi refrained from answering, though inside she couldn't argue his point. The very title 'Queen' came about due to her success in the Wilds League, and if you were to mention her name to someone on the street they were more likely to answer with a 'You mean from Wilds?' then 'Oh, the heir of YK?' or any other reference.

"I have a few grievances about the events that happened here today," the President continued, "and I will admit, I have my own culpability in them as well. But the most important thing to remember is that you are both from before as well as from now on members of Wilds High. You both have a duty to obey the schools rules."

In Gyi didn't change her expression, but she couldn't help but feel like a child being lectured at that moment. Jae Gu on the other hand couldn't keep himself from thinking about his ever increasing record of tardiness.

"Song Jae Gu," Lee continued. "I know you are attending due to a scholarship, but most important is that you are the first male student to attend Wilds High. What we need you to focus on is doing your best to adapt to the school, and setting an example for other future male students. If this style of interruption continues, then it will set a terrible precedent for the future."

"I'm sorry, sir," Jae Gu stuttered, grimacing. "My friends were just worried, is all. I'll have a talk with them about not causing scenes like that again…"

"Good lad," the President nodded. He couldn't fault someone for just being concerned for a friend, even if that someone or someones were of a somewhat disreputable nature. He had been young once too, and had had some pretty wild adventures with some rather rough fellows. "See that you do. However, there is another matter that needs addressing as well."

"Sir?" Jae Gu repeated, not sure just what that other matter was. It was sad that he already had a list of things which he could be chewed out for.

"Three cracked teeth, a concussion, severe abdominal bruising," President Lee listed, feeling a touch of amusement over just how thoroughly Jae Gu had beaten his opponent. He shouldn't, he knew, but they had been the ones to come to his school and challenge his students. "The doctors are taking x-rays in order to determine if any ribs have been broken, and Ms. Kim Hye Shin will have to be kept overnight for observation for any potential swelling in the brain."

"Ah," Jae Gu glanced away guiltily. "I might have been a little overzealous," he admitted. Hurriedly he stood, bowing apologetically. "I apologize, sir. I'm just unfamiliar with the rules for proper sparring, and just thought to put forth my best effort. I'll be sure not to spar again…"

"Now, now," Lee cut the boy off, not wanting to give him the wrong idea. "There's no need to go that far," he corrected Jae Gu. "It's just a matter of you receiving some proper instruction in courtesy and sportsmanship, that is all." Honestly, the list wasn't even that unfamiliar when it came to injuries. With students like that excitable Moon Young, Dal Dal, and In Gyi, he had heard the local hospital had started to refer to the list as 'The Wilds Special'. "However, you are not the only one here who behaved inappropriately."

When President Lee's gaze turned firmly to In Gyi, the impression of being a little kid that had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar only increased in her. It was only her impeccable poker mask which prevented her from squirming.

"Just as Jae Gu has a duty to act as an example for his future male classmates, and to lead the way for forging interaction between them and the established student body, you too have an duty to act as an example of what it means to embody Wilds High's fighting spirit. To let yourself be provoked so easily only sets an example to the rest of the students that using violence is an acceptable answer when it truly isn't!"

In Gyi didn't give a 'yes sir' like Jae Gu did, but she did hunch a bit. President Lee nodded to himself as he took the non-verbal cue as the equivalent.

"We are not a school of ruffians like Hellgondo…" Lee had used the delinquent school as an example so often that he didn't even realize that he had named young Jae Gu's friend's school until he had, and he paused, turning to give the young man an apologetic look. "No offense meant."

"None taken," Jae Gu muttered, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly as he found himself unable to defend his friends' reputation truthfully. Lee cleared his throat, turning back to In Gyi.

"We have a code of sportsmanship, of honorable matches, and courtesy to our opponents to uphold," he continued. "If the other students see you resorting to violence so easily, what kind of example are you setting?"

"…My apologies, President Lee," she finally murmured, and Lee nodded, content to take the soft spoken answer. He had spent many years as an educator, after all, and he was adept enough at reading his students.

"Accepted," he told her, smiling gently to soften his words. He let loose a theatrical sigh, deliberately breaking the mood he had set earlier. "Honestly, with so much going on, I almost feel like I should set forth some kind of punishment. As both of you are participants, maybe I should have your right to choose your opponent in the League revoked and have Song Jae Gu go through the preliminaries to regain the chance!"

He had meant it as a joke, so when Jae Gu hesitantly spoke up, he was honestly surprised. "Um, President… That might be for the best…"

Despite her best effort, In Gyi couldn't stop her sharp intake of breath from being audible.

"What do you mean?" President Lee felt his brow knit as he tried to understand the young man in front of him. "It is an immense privilege to be able to skip the preliminaries, and even more so to challenge the reigning champion directly."

"Um," Jae Gu bit his lip, already knowing that what he was about to say would probably cause the other man to ask uncomfortable questions. "I don't really like to fight, and I'm afraid that the only reason Queen challenged me was due to, er," he tried to find a way to sum up the events that led to this match that wouldn't cause trouble for anyone involved, "well, it was due to a set of embarrassing circumstances," he finally concluded. "I have already spoken to the Queen about canceling the match, and if the school agrees…"

Lee found himself honestly at a loss for words at the confession. Just what possibly could have happened to have a match with the reigning champion end up being set?

Almost as soon as he asked himself the question, he found himself suppressing a round of laughter.

Oh, he had thought this kind of thing only happened in manha, or bad drama! He could almost picture the scene, the nervous young man approaching a beautiful older girl, hoping to ask her out, only for her to misinterpret and think he asked her to have a match! It was so improbable that he dismissed it out of hand. Maybe it had been the other way, the older girl seeking the date, only for the younger man to embarrass her some way?

President Lee even entertained the thought that maybe he had accidently seen her in the shower or something, but that felt even more unlikely than his other imaginary scenarios!

Oh, this was why he so firmly believed that his daughters of the Wilds needed their chance to learn their life lessons about dealing with the other gender now, rather than later. Best to let these kind of lessons be learned in an environment where they can find support and guidance, rather than later when they might not have the aid they need to deal with the fallout!

Still, whatever the situation between these two, it was still a troubling thing that this young man was asking. Wilds prided itself on the League, and by both the standards of the school and even the national fighting community, it was an enviable honor to be able to participate, no matter the circumstances behind the chance.

"Are you certain about what you're asking?" he asked the younger man, trying to judge just how determined Jae Gu was about bowing out of the opportunity. "Participation in the Wilds League is prestigious, but more than just the accolades it is also a school function, and can count as participation in extracurricular activities." He saw the way Jae Gu hesitated at that, and pressed on. "More than that, it has been a way for several students in the past to launch their own professional careers, and the prize itself is not inconsiderable."

President Lee noted the way Jae Gu visibly flinched at the mention of the prize money that winning the league meant. The poor young man looked conflicted, biting his lip as he answered. "That is… that aside, I do have… I mean there are circumstances…"

President Lee finally understood why the boy might want to avoid the chance. He was aware of the situation the young man was in, seeing as it had probably been one of the major contributors to the boy even accepting the scholarship. Lee had been an educator for many years, and he had seen all types of family situations in that time. Truthfully, while Jae Gu's were poor, they were far from the worst he had seen over the years.

"Well," he cut off the boy, allowing him the opportunity to avoid losing face by admitting his home life. Few things were as painful for young men than having to confess that kind of thing, especially in front of a classmate. "I would prefer not to have to cancel the match," he admitted. "But I can hardly force one of my students to fight when they do not want to." Pressing now would only alienate the boy, and he would be conflicted even in the fight. Better to give him the chance to collect his thoughts and make his own decision. "There is one other here whose opinion should also be considered."

Lee turned to the other side of the strange equation he had found himself stumbling into. "Well, In Gyi," he prompted. She had been the one who issued the challenge, after all, and she did have her own stake in the match. "Are you fine with allowing the match to be cancelled?"

In Gyi felt the silent war between the snakes and the butterflies that had set up shop in her stomach so recently begin once more. She saw the way Jae Gu turned to her hopefully, the silent entreaty to let the fight be cancelled obvious. It would be easy to make amends for the earlier confrontation, and just give him what he wanted.

Despite that, she stayed silent.

She didn't want to cancel the match.

Her stomach twisted some more. Despite his desire to avoid fighting, she found that she didn't share his wish. She wanted the chance to have a match with him. It wasn't right of her, she knew that. She was effectively forcing Jae Gu to do it, after all. He had other things to focus on, had asked her to cancel the match so he could do that focusing, and despite all that she…

In fact, now that she knew Jae Gu could fight, she found herself excited over the upcoming fight! It wasn't a desire to beat him, or any urge to humiliate him. Actually, in retrospect, after having seen him fight she felt embarrassed at having made the assumption that she would automatically win, and the speech she had given him about lasting a minute against her being the proudest moment of his life felt a bit foolish, borderline arrogant for that matter.

Her mind was just moving too fast, too many thoughts and conflicting emotions present. She felt as though her head was going to come apart! She didn't even know why she wanted the match to go on, but she couldn't bring herself to cancel it, despite his wishes.

'Is this what it means to be a monster?' she asked herself, recalling Jae Gu's words. As though he could read her mind, she saw the hope fade from his face as he realized that she wasn't going to give in so easily. Instead his expression settled into resignation, but despite that he had small smile on his lips as he shook his head regretfully.

The butterflies once more proved the victors over the snakes in the battle for territory in her digestive track.

"You can have a match, or not," President Lee finally spoke up, turning once more to look out the window. Despite his words, he found himself once more having to suppress a knowing smile. It wouldn't do to let the children see it. That would only make them more defensive.

Ah, the awkwardness of youth: every bit as exasperating to watch as it was nostalgic.

"We will work to find a solution that is satisfactory to both parties," he continued, dismissing the two. "I will work to find something that is acceptable to everyone, so until then have patience with me."

"Yes sir," this time In Gyi spoke up, in unison with Jae Gu.

*Scene Break*

The day seemed to alternate between going too fast, to going far too slow, in Moon Young's opinion. After the tension of the morning, she had trouble calming down, and it was as though her body couldn't decide if the drone of her teachers was relaxing, or frustrating.

Once class was over, she decided that she'd let the vice president of the boxing club take charge for the day. She had something she wanted to do, and she wanted it done as quick as possible.

Still, even as she swung her legs over her bike, eyes open to look for her target, she noticed the Queen leaving, the cool young woman making her way deliberately over to where she knew her limousine would be waiting. For a moment Moon Young hesitated, wondering if she should invite her friend along.

Oh, who was she kidding? Considering where she was going, there was no way Queen wouldn't want to come along.

Pedaling quickly, Moon Young managed to cut In Gyi off, skidding her bike to a stop in front of the other girl. With a playful leer, she put on her best 'old man' voice.

"Hey there, little lady," she grinned thumbing the grill that she had attached to the back of her bike. It mostly was a place for her to strap groceries too when she took her bike shopping, but In Gyi had used it as a seat before. "How's about hitchen a ride with a swell guy like me? Whatcha say? How about it?"

Usually In Gyi would just roll her eyes at the lame joke, but today Moon Young was surprised when she actually scowled. Well, scowled as in her eye twitched momentarily. Why couldn't her friend show that cute side of hers more often, Moon Young lamented to herself.

"Who would want to ride on a thing like that?" In Gyi declared, swerving to step around the boxer. "So immature!"

Moon Young blinked, and had an irreverent moment when she wondered what had twisted the Queen's panties in a bunch, before she brushed past it and pedaled so she could keep pace with the passively aggressive storming that In Gyi was indulging in.

"Well, immature or not," Moon Young continued, acting nonchalant. "I can guarantee you'll want to come along, at least for a bit."

"And why might that be?" In Gyi didn't seem inclined to play along with whatever game her friend was playing.

"Because I'm about to head over to ask Jae Gu what the deal is with him and those delinquent girls," Moon Young instead declared bluntly. It took her a second to hit the brakes as In Gyi froze nearly mid step. "I know I'm curious, that much is for sure. How about you? Well, aintcha?"

In Gyi was quiet for a second, before delicately moving to sit herself on the earlier offered seat. Despite the fact that she didn't say a thing, Moon Young grinned at the unspoken acknowledgement.

'Hook, line, and sinker,' Moon Young thought to herself triumphantly. She'd caught sight of Jae Gu a minute ago, with that annoying pinky trailing behind. Moon Young was confident she could catch up with the two before they got too far away.

"Well then young lady," she resumed her 'old man' voice. "Why don't we have a little fun?"

"Just drive," In Gyi told her curtly, and Moon Young grinned.

She had to give Jae Gu this much: whatever crazy and unbelievable history he might have, he was great for getting to the uptight Queen.

"Now," she continued in a mutter to herself as she once more indulged her habit of thinking out loud. "How to get the kid to talk? Should I try to be subtle maybe? I could play the concerned Sunbae card, I suppose. Soften him up a bit, talk about casual things, than kind of sneak the question in there. But me and subtlety …"

*Scene Brek*

Jae Gu was sort of expecting an interrogation at one point or another. He'd gotten one too, from most of the girls in his class for that matter. There had been a whole flock of circling vultures, er, women, pestering him with questions in break today, but he felt he had handled himself well enough.

Bolting for the nearest faculty toilet, which had been opened to him as the only male while some of the bathrooms were updated to be specific to his gender, every break and then making sure to pretend that he didn't notice the dozen folded pieces of paper that began accumulating on his desk while class was going on.

Jae Gu was a master of dealing with adversity, and as depressing as it was dealing with large numbers of rambunctious curious females was something he was rather familiar with at this point; a side effect of being around large numbers of Hellgondo students in the past, no doubt.

Still, even as he made his way to work, he realized that there were some girls in the school that he was familiar enough with at this point not to have to resort to his usual protocols when dealing with the gender.

The short Dal Dal, for instance, who had steadfastly refused to take a hint as she once more followed him to work.

"Walking with my Jae Gu," Dal Dal was humming cheerfully. "All through the streets! Watching my Jae Gu, as he goes to work! Wondering what he's thinking, wondering what he'll do! Walking with my Jae Gu, all, though, the streets!"

Dal Dal was rather proud of herself at the moment. Here she was, innocently and nonchalantly accompanying the boy. Soon, she would have him lulled into a false sense of security, and then she could casually ask him about that tramp, Alice, er, Alma Elma, er, which one was she supposed to be guarding him from again?

Well, Dal Dal decided, it wasn't like he was sleeping with all of those girls or anything. She could iron out the details later. For now, she just had to keep humming her little tune until his defenses lowered. It shouldn't be long now. The lyrics were genius, and the melody was so soothing. Soon, after he was suitably relaxed, she could begin her subtle…

"Screw subtlety," the voice of her longtime rival caused Dal Dal to arch her back like a cat, and she nearly hissed. Moon Young! What was she doing here? That piggy should just back off while Dal Dal worked her magic!

As though thinking her name was a charm to summon a devil, Dal Dal watched as Moon Young pulled even on her bike, revealing that even Queen had shown up to ruin her Jae Gu time! How was she supposed to wheedle the answers she needed out of him if…

"So," Moon Young continued, dropping her feet to the ground so she could propel herself one step at a time in step with Jae Gu. "What's the deal with you and those five?" It hadn't taken Moon Young long at all to realize that she probably wasn't the most qualified to try and get answers without Jae Gu realizing what she was doing. So, rather than embarrass herself doing things she wasn't used to she decided to just go ahead and ask straight up. "And that whole 'King of Darkness' or whatever thing too."

"You idiot!" Dal Dal hissed, before deciding that since the ice had already be broken, she might as well take the opportunity. "And who was that slut? Using mind games and stuff…"

Dal Dal still hadn't forgotten how easily Alma Elma had managed to trick her, and she would not forgive, nor would she forget!

"And that snake woman," surprisingly, even In Gyi spoke up, softly venting her own curiosity at that wretched woman.

"Er, Alice?" Jae Gu didn't think there could be anyone else needing the tittle of 'snake woman' but stranger things had happened. Despite the fact that he was being bombarded with questions, by women of all things, he didn't feel the same overwhelming tension and desire to run that he had gotten from his actual classmates.

In Moon Young's case, she was already proving to be a dependable Sunbae. She might have been responsible for the whole mess between himself and Queen, but besides that she made the effort to offer her hand to him: offering to help him adjust in the boxing club after the mess with In Gyi started, trying to calm Queen down after she had chosen him for a match because of the whole shower incident, helping to settle things down after he revealed he was in a relationship, even taking offense when Alice was being Alice around him. He didn't know if he could trust her yet, but so far she really did seem like someone who actually cared and was trying.

That meant a lot to Jae Gu. More often than not he had seen more people who had taken sight of his circumstances and chosen to make life harder than he had people who wanted to help.

Dal Dal, well, she might not be as altruistic as Moon Young had shown herself to be, but even if she had her own painfully obvious agenda she still hadn't shown herself to be a bad person. Single minded, immensely stubborn, harder to pry off than a barnacle, but not a bad person. Just someone who was a little too committed to what she chose to commit to.

And as for In Gyi, well…

"You really do remind me of her," Jae Gu muttered softly, and even though Moon Young and Dal Dal didn't seem to understand his words, In Gyi stiffened momentarily. It looked to Jae Gu as though she alone understood his words, and the glare she leveled at him made the one he got for having walked in on her in the shower look tame.

Sadly, in his mind, it only reinforced the connection between the two in his mind.

"I was thirteen," he admitted, "when I met Alice."

"Tsk," Dal Dal muttered to herself, glaring to the side. "A childhood friend too!" Despite the Tae Kwon Doist speaking up, Moon Young and In Gyi seemed to realize just how lucky they were to actually get an answer to their blunt questions.

"We met on my first day in middle school. It was right after my father died and my mother," he trailed off for a moment, but he managed to unclench his fists before anyone seemed to notice, "my mother was already gone," he concluded vaguely. "I didn't like her much at first, but she kinda singled me out. She would always show up though and start talking to me, and I kind of got used to her.

"My school was right near Hellgondo Middle, and she was a student there too at the time," he continued, fixing his eyes to the pavement in front of him. "Back then I didn't know anything about the 'Monster Lord' tournament or any of that. I was trying to pay my rent on time, and learning how to shop for discounts, and what stores were willing to give handouts if you asked for stale products," he shrugged matter-of-factly. "That and trying to find a cheaper apartment, and a babysitter, and…"

He trailed off, sighing as he pushed his bangs back. Only someone who had been there could really understand what it was like to live through something like that. No use talking about it.

"One day, one of the Hellgondo gangs, I don't even remember which one, tried to mug me," he admitted. "I, well, I was really tired, and hungry. The only money I had was what I needed to make sure that I'd have enough money to feed the twins." Jae Gu gave a halfhearted shrug. "I was tired all the time back then. When a couple of girls a few years older than me showed up, and demanded I give them the only thing that I had to get food for my brother and sister… It was like something snapped."

His audience was quiet, but each of them could see it in their head. They could imagine a younger Jae Gu, and it was probably not a coincidence that each of them had painted an adorable image in their head, but they could still imagine him in that situation with that adorable image overlaid by the fighter they had seen in the ring earlier that day.

Two of them found the result slightly disturbing. One of them just thought it made the picture more adorable.

"I was just so angry," Jae Gu's voice was harsh, something sharp and bitter. "Here I was, fighting every day just to survive, and then these PUNKS," he growled the word, "these brats who would just go home and eat three course meals made by their MOTHERS who took care of every chore they had, and then went out to mug someone who really needed the money so they could go out and have SPENDING CHANGE…"

"Oi, oi," Moon Young actually started to get worried as she watched Jae Gu start to uncurl like she had seen him do before unleashing brutality on Hye Shin. She even started to raise a nervous hand to try and calm him down, but it was an unnecessary gesture. Even as she did so, Jae Gu relaxed, his entire body folding back in on itself. He was taking deep breaths and his eyes fluttered closed briefly, but when they opened his voice was again under control, conversational even.

"I guess I sort of snapped," he admitted, sounding sheepish. "There was a fight, and even though I was hungry, even though I was tired, even though they were older than me, and there was more of them than me, that they were more used to fighting than me, well, I won." He rolled his shoulders a bit self-consciously. "I, well, I was even good at it; fighting that is."

"Jae Gu," Dal Dal said softly. She wasn't certain if she was sickened or awed by the story. She wasn't even sure which emotion was attached to which part of the story. Jae Gu managed to give her a small comforting smile, as though she was the one who needed it after having just heard what he had actually lived through.

"Alice had been nearby, and even though she hadn't interfered, she'd seen the whole thing," Jae Gu continued. "Afterwards, she sat me down and told me a couple hard facts. I had managed to win, yeah, but they were part of a gang. They wouldn't take it lying down. Even if the ones I had beaten never told anyone, they would probably come back some day to get revenge. And if they were willing to admit to being beaten, they might get their gang to help out. I might have won, yeah, but it meant that I would have to fight again, some other time, and if I didn't win than, than I would probably get what I had given with interest. She started teaching me how to fight that night."

"At the time," In Gyi spoke up softly, causing Moon Young to yelp and nearly collapse the bike. Queen managed to keep herself seated despite the sudden and nearly disastrous quakes to her chair. "At the time, wasn't she the Monster Lord? Couldn't she have just ordered the gangs to leave you alone?"

No one noticed, but the steel mesh of her seat started to bend slightly as her fingers dug into them.

'That woman,' In Gyi hissed in her mind, a seething anger starting to build in her. 'Why hadn't she helped!'

"If she had, then what?" Jae Gu shrugged. "If she singled me out, than she would have made me an even bigger target. All the gangs or Queens who wanted to get one up on her would have targeted me just to get her. Even if she gave orders, there would be someone who would try to use me against her, and if they wanted to use me they could always go after my siblings…" Jae Gu quickly shook his head. "The best answer was to teach me how to look after myself, and Alice did just that."

"Hmph," Dal Dal muttered, "I would have done a better job!" Despite her words, she decided that she wouldn't mock the current girlfriend once she had managed to win over Jae Gu's heart. Dal Dal supposed that as long as they just kept it at friends, she could let the two hang out sometimes.

Obviously, even if Alice wasn't the destined love that she and Jae Gu shared, she was still worth keeping around for prior contributions.

"After that, it kind of settled into a routine," Jae Gu continued his story. "Gangs were starting to take notice of me, but I was getting better and better at fighting, so I kept winning. I started to get to know the way all the other gangs interacted, you know what I mean?" He shrugged again, trying to find a way to explain that turbulent time. "Back then, Alice didn't really get involved with other gangs. If she tried to order them around, than it would just turn out that someone would screw around just to mess with her. Back then even if the Heavenly Knights were loyal and the Queens would obey, they had all the low level gangers who would just go and do their own thing. It was like nothing would ever end the way things were."

Jae Gu paused, hand coming up again to push back his bangs. Moon Young could empathize. In a way, it wasn't any different from what she, or what any of the 'S' class fighters had to deal with. There was always someone who wanted to make a name by beating one of the reigning champions.

Heck, even if she was In Gyi's best friend, she still wanted to beat her in the ring.

Moon Young wondered what that said about her, as a person.

"My," Jae Gu trailed off, wondering if it was really alright to admit what he was about to say, before he swallowed and decided to just go out and say it. "My dad used to say, 'A man can't live without a dream.' After he died, it felt like there wasn't any time for dreams. There was just so much I had to do, so much that I kept failing at." Jae Gu looked small at that moment. Moon Young felt that it wasn't right for someone to be that hunched over by the weight of the world. "He was right. I needed something to do, something to reach for," and with the moves of someone well accustomed to it, Jae Gu shrugged once more, and he straightened as though shedding the weight of the world, of the memories that dragged him down. "So I decided to do something to stop the fighting, to do something that would help make the gangs stop running around randomly: I entered the Monster Lord Tournament.

"I didn't want the title, or to take control or anything," he admitted. "The four major gangs at the time were the Dragons, the Slimes, the Foxes, and the Succubae. Their Queens, Granberia, Erubetie, Tamamo, and Alma Elma, didn't really do much to keep them in line. Those four always do what they want to do," Jae Gu smiled as he spoke, as he remembered fondly in retrospect what those times were like. "I just wanted to beat those four, and make them start keeping their subordinates in line. And I did. That was all I wanted to do. But afterwards, Alice stepped up, and even though she was my friend by then, she demanded that we fight to see who was stronger.

"I won."

"Wow," Moon Young finally responded, whistling softly. That wasn't quite the story she was expecting to hear, but now that she heard it she couldn't help but feel that it fit in with what she knew of Jae Gu's character. She could imagine it, having to deal with so much, and seeing others who had so much more than him taking it for granted. From what she had seen he had good instincts for fighting, and if he had been getting instruction from someone strong enough to take out even third year high schoolers since she started middle school, then yeah she could see him getting strong enough to pull off a story like that.

She could even imagine the final fight between him and Alice. The two would probably fight a lot alike, but in the end it would come down to Alice's age and experience in fighting to Jae Gu's own distinct advantage:

He was a man.

It wasn't sexist for her to admit that statistically speaking a man was generally larger and had better muscle mass than a woman. It was just biology, in the end. There were outliers, yeah: women like Granberia who could probably out muscle just about any guy she came across, or guys like the way Jae Gu looked, small and gentle even if he had proven that the look was just camouflage for the fierce fighter he actually was.

In the end though, if you pitted two fighters with similar experience and skill, one of them male and one of them female, far more often than not, the man would have the advantage physically.

Sometimes it was enough to make her jealous, but for the most part Moon Young preferred to just shrug it off and work harder. If she was gonna have a disadvantage because of her gender, she could just make up for it through practice and hard work.

"How brave," Dal Dal was also moved to the story, giving wide eyed adoration as the boy she had fallen for just kept getting better and better in her eyes. A noble crusader, seeking to bring peace to his neighborhood while punishing evil doers! A hero, riding nobly into the sunset on a white horse!

Well, a hero needed a princess, and she was certain she was talented, smart, beautiful, and modest enough to qualify for at least that!

In Gyi was silent. She had so much to think about that she could barely keep it straight in her head at this point. She resolved to spend however long it took tonight in the gym to put her thoughts in order.

Even though the others seemed impressed, Jae Gu just grimaced, and shook his head. "It was stupid," he corrected Dal Dal's assessment. "It was the dumbest thing I ever did, getting involved like that. I must have been insane to even think about it."

"Wait," Moon Young frowned at that. If she had managed to beat all her opponents, and then make it to the top of a tournament to show she was the strongest, she would take a lot more pride in it. "Why would you say something like that?"

The Queen sitting behind her was proof enough. Moon Young trained hard, hoping that this Wilds would be the one where she managed to achieve her dream of doing just that.

"Have you ever been in a street fight?" Jae Gu asked back, before realizing that his audience wouldn't understand with just that. "Not a match, or a spar or anything like that: I mean a genuine street fight. There aren't any rules, or referees. You don't have padding, or out of bounds, or rules against any kind of weapon. It doesn't end in just two or three rounds, or when the referee calls it or anything. A street fight doesn't stop until the winner stops hurting the loser, plain and simple. Even if someone goes down, that just puts them at the mercy of whoever they were fighting. Nothing is there to stop the winner from keeping up the attacks."

Moon Young grimaced, starting to get a picture of the difference between a match and a fight. Some of Granberia's words from earlier came back to her, and the boxer started to understand just what the Queen of Dragons had been talking about.

"You can get ambushed at any time, and by any number of people," Jae Gu continued. "There's nothing to stop someone else from sneaking up behind you and getting a shot at your back. Street fights are dangerous, way more dangerous than a fight in a ring. It doesn't matter how strong you are if you get caught off guard, or if the other side is willing to do anything to win. Anyone can get hurt in a street fight, and if you get hurt then it's likely that you're going to get hurt bad."

Jae Gu shook his head again, grimacing. "And what would happen to Jae Hyung or Jae Som if something like that happened to me? It's not like I have enough money to pay hospital bills, and if I got hurt bad enough that I couldn't work, then how would I have made enough to keep the two fed? What if one of the gangs had tried to hurt them to get to me?"

He shuddered at the thought. Most of the gangs never even found out his real name, seeing as Alice had always called him by his nickname. He supposed he should thank her for that, even if it meant that nearly all of Hellgondo honestly thought his name really was 'Luka', but that meant that the whole school just kept using that nickname, so that lowered his gratitude a lot.

But even though it had never gotten around Hellgondo, Illias had been another story…

He took a deep breath, unclenching his jaw and his fists.

He still didn't regret anything he had done then.

"Or what if the police had caught me in a street fight? What if they tried to send me to some reform school as well? What would have happened to the two then?" He forced himself to move past that thought. "Or even if the police just found out that we don't have any parents and they took them away just to put them in foster homes or something?"

"Alright," Moon Young held up her hand, hoping to calm the young man down. She had caught the way he had clenched his fist earlier, and could tell he was getting himself worked out. "We get it," she told him soothingly. He gave a jerky nod, and Moon Young had no problem believing his earlier statement about being angry enough to start fighting whole gangs by himself.

"So what happened afterwards?" Dal Dal asked curiously. She'd noticed Jae Gu's internal dilemma too, but she remembered how he had calmed himself down so easily after the Queen's challenge and believed he'd be able to do so again. He'd told her himself that he was good at calming himself down, and she had faith in her beloved Jae Gu! "Didn't that fox girl say something about 'leading to a golden age of delinquency' or something?"

Jae Gu scowled briefly. "Illias Preparatory was what happened next." The name sounded familiar to Moon Young, but it meant something a lot more to In Gyi. She remembered when she had been choosing between high schools that there had been one option with that name. She had chosen Wilds because at the time there had been some rumors going on with the preparatory, and because the Wilds League had caught her interest.

"What's that?" Dal Dal artlessly asked.

"Illias Preparatory is a prestigious catholic all girl ladder school, located in the same area as Hellgondo," Jae Gu explained for her. "They have a strong religious history, and were longtime enemies with the reform Hellgondo ladder. At the time, the granddaughter of the current director had started some kind of 'anti-delinquent' campaign. She had managed to get a lot of her classmates to join, and they had some plan to reform Hellgondo by force. She even had got some of the teachers to help too."

"Reform by force?" Moon Young repeated, not quite sure how something like that worked. Sure, she had some idea, but it seemed a little extreme.

"Too put them all into the hospital," Jae Gu explained. "Some of the Illias girls were pretty strong too. They managed to ambush Alice first, and even if she got away she was still hurt bad enough that she wasn't able to fight for weeks."

"The snake woman?" In Gyi asked, narrowing her eyes in confusion. She hadn't seen Alice fight yet, but she had seen Jae Gu, and unless the gap between them was larger than she had expected she had thought that the Monster Lord would be stronger than to be put down by a simple ambush.

"Anyone can get hurt in a street fight," Jae Gu repeated grimly. "No matter how tough they are, if there are enough on the other side, if even one or two of them get a lucky shot in, then things can get serious fast."

It had been a sobering experience, back then, realizing that even Alice, who had always seemed so invincible even after he had beaten her in a fight, could get hurt so badly. It was an equally sobering realization that even if he had gotten strong too, he could end up like that too if he wasn't careful.

"With Alice out, Illias started hunting down the other delinquents, and things started to get bad for Hellgondo," Jae Gu continued. "At first I was happy. I thought that with someone else helping I wouldn't have to put up with any more fights. But then I found out what they were doing." Jae Gu scowled. "What was going on was even worse than what the delinquents had been doing! Even when two gangs fight there's usually some restraint on the winner. A sort of unspoken code: you can rough up the loser, but you don't go too far because some day it might be you who are the loser. I guess you can call it professional courtesy or something like that. But the Illias students didn't have that. They'd say something like 'since they're delinquents, it's okay to do whatever we want'. People were starting to get severely hurt, and a few of the girls that they ambushed were in the hospital for months. Some of them almost died."

"I'd heard about stuff like that before," Moon Young muttered. Situations where people who thought they had the moral high ground resorting to unreasonable violence. She was pretty sure that there was some kind of fancy name for it, but she had no idea what that was.

For Jae Gu, just remembering it was enough to make him scowl again. It was the exact same situation that had made him so angry before, even if the victims were reversed. Here again, people who should have everything they wanted, who should be happy with all the freedom they enjoyed, and again they were going out of their way to cause trouble for everyone else!

"Even if I had been fighting them before, I felt responsible for the Hellgondo students," Jae Gu admitted. "I had even won their tournament, so I was sort of an unofficial member of the school, and even if we had been fighting I was sort of friends with some of them as well." It was the weird kind of camaraderie that came from fighting someone, but it was still camaraderie. He had ended on good terms with many of the Queens he had faced off with, especially the Heavenly Knights. "So I started helping the Hellgondo students. If a gang got in trouble and called, I would come give them a hand. The Heavenly Knights started helping me out too, and soon it reached a stalemate between Hellgondo and Illias."

"What happened then?" Dal Dal prompted, staring with wide eyes. The whole story was starting to sound like something she would find on TV in a soap or something!"

"Eventually, someone from Illias found out about my siblings, and they tried to do something stupid," Jae Gu said, his tone grim. "But when they did, they found out that Alice had gotten better and had been keeping an eye on them for me. When I found out about that, well, I kind of snapped again."

Hellgondo students weren't the only ones who had ended up nearly dying by the time he was finished. No one touched his siblings. No one.

"With Alice back, the four Heavenly Knights working together instead of just leading their own gangs, and me pitching in as well, Illias started to lose more and more often. The gangs were all starting to work together, and the granddaughter of the director had to have her fellow students move in bigger and bigger groups in order to be able to keep up with the Hellgondo students. Finally, it got the point where there was one last enormous fight."

"And Hellgondo won?" Moon Young prompted, pursing her lips as she tried to picture the fight as some sort of epic battle to decide the fate of two schools. It was kind of cool, when she let herself think about it.

"Actually, no one won," Jae Gu smiled sheepishly. "The fight was so big that the police were naturally called in to break it up. The Hellgondo students were delinquents, so the moment the cops arrived all of them knew to break and run. The Illias students didn't realize that they had to get away first so they can fight again another day, and most of them were picked up. Then, when the police were trying to get answers about the fight, the Hellgondo students that had been caught new better than to talk too much about being in gangs. A lot of the Illias students weren't as used to dealing with the police, and ended up blabbing about what they had been up to. They even ended up giving up names about other classmates that hadn't been caught!"

Jae Gu couldn't suppress a small smile at the thought. At last, all the students who had been running around impudently doing as they pleased were suddenly forced to face the cold uncaring consequences of their actions. In his eyes, it was even better than just beating them up.

"It nearly became a huge scandal. Parents were involved, and the media started to get word that a distinguished school like Illias Preparatory was actually place for delinquent ruffians, and that the whole school was in one big gang that was stirring up trouble, and that the faculty had actually been supporting and helping the gang. The president had to pull strings and use a lot of connections from keeping the news from spreading, especially when word got out that his own granddaughter wasn't just involved, but had been leading the whole thing." Jae Gu remembered actually being surprised at how quickly everything settled down. "Teachers who were involved were fired, students were pulled and sent to different schools, and even the granddaughter ended up being shipped out in order to keep her from stirring up trouble. In the end, the whole thing just sort of fizzled out."

"Huh," Moon Young grunted at that, scratching her head. "That's kind of anticlimactic." She could understand why it happened, but for a grand story of a war between schools to end in such a mundane way was kind of disappointing.

"Well, that's how it went," Jae Gu offered her a small shrug, not caring if the end of the most dangerous time of his life ended in an unsatisfactory way. Just as long as it ended, that was enough for him. "At that point, most of the Hellgondo gangs had actually started working together. Most old grudges had already been settled. Alice and the Heavenly Knights had been working together so much that they had effectively become their own gang, even if they Knights were still technically leaders of their own ones. I had personally helped out so many of the gangs that just about none of them would target me anymore, and I was able to safely leave the whole thing behind."

Jae Gu was never sure if he regretted that part of his life or not. On one hand, it had put himself in danger, a danger that affected both directly and indirectly the safety of his siblings. There had been so many close calls, so many dangerous situations, and it had made nearly two years of his middle school life seem almost surreal in his memory.

On the other hand, despite the stupidity of it, he didn't know how he would have turned out if it hadn't happened. He had been confused and angry, even if he didn't the admit the latter to himself before the fighting began. He hadn't known what to do with himself, had been drifting in confusion as he tried to make sense of a suddenly strange and hostile world.

In the end, his father had been right: a man really couldn't live without a dream. If he hadn't had that distant goal to make the heavenly Knights bring their subordinates in line, and then of making Illias Preparatory stop their crusade, he probably would have just kept drifting however the world pushed him even to this day.

"So that's how it went," Moon Young was surprised by how cliché the situation really was, though she almost felt like laughing now that the mystery surrounding her underclassman had been cleared up. Really, getting involved in a bad crowd, getting up to some shady things, only to retire afterwards to look after a couple of kids? It was such a typical story of a reformed delinquent moving on in life! And it was even funnier because Jae Gu had done the whole thing even before he made it to High School!

"So cool! Jae Gu, you're so brave!" Dal Dal gushed, holding herself as she tried to hold back some girlish wiggling. Brave enough to face the world, strong enough to stop his enemies, noble enough to help his friends, kind enough to stop his adventures to look after his siblings: a strong man with a dark past! All the story lacked was romance, and that was where she came in!

Well, where she would come in shortly. Jae Gu still had to come to realize that his current girlfriend wasn't the love of his life like she was. Or that other man stealer, Alma Elma. Alice might get to stay as a friend, but that one had to go.

"The nerve of that slut," she muttered, glowering darkly to the side as her thoughts wandered to the way that girl had tried to play head games with her.

"Alma Elma?" Jae Gu wasn't quite what Dal Dal was talking about, but considering her choice of words he thought he could make a good guess. "What did she do?"

He could also guess, but maybe someday he'd be wrong with that guess.

"She acted like she was hitting on the pinky earlier to mess with her," Moon Young supplied, snorting in amusement and only too happy to embarrass her rival. "Heck, I guess the whole 'flasher' thing she had going for her makes sense, with your story and all. If street fights are really as dangerous as you're building them up to be, than maybe showing a little skin to get an edge might be worth it."

"Er," Jae Gu began, looking to the side briefly. "Um, about that." He gave Dal Dal a brief sideways look. "She probably wasn't hitting on you just to mess with you."

"Eh?" Dal Dal blinked, not quite sure what he was getting at, but feeling a little chill go down her spine for some reason. "Then why would she do something so ridiculous!"

"That is…" Jae Gu trailed off, flushing slightly as he scratched his cheek. "Well, she is the leader of a gang called the 'Succubae'…" he offered slowly, hoping his Sunbae would get the hint. Normally, he wouldn't go out of his way to interfere with Alma Elma's fun, but Dal Dal-Sunbae was starting to be something like a friend, so he felt it fair to give her fair warning.

"What does…" Moon Young began, scratching her own head for a moment, before her eyes widened and the bike she was still on wobbled dangerously. In Gyi nearly fell, but managed to keep herself seated. The Queen gave a silent glare at the boxer, but it faded out quickly as she returned to her thoughts. "You mean?" Moon Young asked him, not sure if she was appalled at the implications, or if she should find it hilarious.

"Uh, yeah," Jae Gu was glad someone had the ability to pick up a hint.

"What are you two talking about?" Dal Dal once more proved that she wasn't counted in that particular group of people. She was starting to get angry with the two for talking over her head, both figuratively and literally. Jae Gu sighed, and decided to follow Moon Young's lead and screw subtlety.

"Alma Elma is bisexual," he told Dal Dal straight up.

"And what does that have to do with anythi… oh." Dal Dal started her sentence frustrated and ended it with an 'eep'. "But… does that mean…"

"Yes," Jae Gu nodded solemnly at his Sunbae. Again, he didn't feel that he really had to ask for any clarification about what Dal Dal was trying to say. Since it dealt with Alma, pretty much conclusion to the sentence would probably be right.

"But…" Dal Dal suddenly felt very dizzy. Another girl… and she was… on her… "But I don't like girls!"

She had half shouted that last sentence, hoping that Jae Gu wouldn't get the wrong idea about her. Even if another girl was attracted to her, she didn't want him thinking even for a second that there was anyone but him who she had eyes on.

When Jae Gu stopped for the first time that conversation, and turned to look at her, she felt the flicker of hope that her impassioned words had reached the object of her affection. When he put his hand gently on her shoulder, she had wild visions of him being so moved as to share a kiss with her.

Then he spoke.

"That's what her last five girlfriends said," he told her gravely. This time Dal Dal got the implication of his words much quicker.

"Ah…" she looked around for help, only to find that In Gyi had been ignoring the conversation completely in order to focus on her thoughts, and that Moon Young was trying to smother a fit of laughter with her hands with about as much success as Tamamo had had earlier.

'Maybe Mom will know what to do?' she thought to herself hopefully.

*Scene Break*

It was later that night when Jae Gu made it home, this time at a more familiar hour. His Sunbae had left him after they had walked him to work, each of them looking like they had things to think about, which didn't surprise him.

Sometimes he had trouble swallowing some of the things he had done in the past. There should be a limit to what a person has to endure in life, after all.

Despite his inner musing, he wasn't quite sure what to expect when he made it home. After Alice and the Knights' dramatic challenge, he figured that at least one of them would be waiting for him, maybe all of them.

However, when he looked around the dark room carefully, leaving the lights off to avoid disturbing the twins, the one thing he wasn't expecting to find was the great big lump beneath the blanket sitting next to where his siblings were innocently sleeping.

It wasn't until he shut the door behind him, and he saw the lump jerk at the sound and heard a soft high pitched gasp, that he realized the lump was actually his girlfriend hiding under a blanket and jumping at every small sound.

"Did the twins make you watch scary movies again, Alice?" he asked softly, not getting closer until he was sure his girlfriend had recognized him.

You did not disturb Alice when she was like this, not without suffering dire consequences.

"It's alright," he continued soothingly, still not moving. "There's no such thing as ghosts…"

"Of course there isn't," he made out the soft response. "Ghosts. So unscientific. How unreasonable. The delusions of gullible fools with too much time on their hands." At the end of the sentence, he could make out the way the edge of the blanket was lifted slowly to reveal Alice's face. Even in the dark, he could make out her baleful glare as her eyes darted around to ascertain that yes, the one speaking really was her boyfriend and not some kind of vengeful spirit. "And zombies. Honestly. How foolish. What a ridiculous concept. Zombies."

"That's right," Jae Gu knew from experience that it was now safe to move. Once she could see the source, creaking floorboards no longer had the risk of setting her off. "They don't really exist, so there's no reason to be scared…"

"Scared?" she demanded, voice rising, before she paused, taking a glance at the still sleeping twins. Once she confirmed that they would remain that way, she resumed at a more reasonable tone for the hour. "Me scared? Of imaginary things? Impossible! The only thing I fear is hunger!"

"Of course," Jae Gu made his way to the fridge, and was unsurprised when once again he found a full shopping bag in there. "Why don't I make you something to eat?"

"Hmph," Alice grunted, still under her blanket. "Something spicy," she demanded petulantly.

Even as he moved to fulfill his girlfriend's wish, Jae Gu found himself smiling. It was scenes like these that he didn't think anyone but him had ever seen, or would ever see for that matter.

He wondered what the delinquent underbelly of the city would ever say if they knew just how easily their Monster Lord was spooked by scary movies? For such a strong fighter, no matter how fearless she was in the face of upcoming fights or violence on the street, put her in the dark and turn on a horror movie and she turned into such a scaredy cat.

Still, he hummed softly as he worked as quietly as he could, finding that Alice had already prepared for her request by supplying the ingredients for a hot meal. He was preparing to remove add the ingredients to the skillet when his elbow bumped into something. With the ease of long practice he looked to confirm that yes, his girlfriend had finally abandoned her hiding place under the sheets, and was now standing close enough that he would have to be careful not to run into her while cooking.

"You're the one whose standing too close to me, got it?" she told him flatly, already knowing what he was opening his mouth to say. She always tried to stay as close to him as possible after she had gotten spooked. Her eyes flicked around the room, watching the dark corners carefully, as though checking to make sure nothing was sneaking up on her from them. "Honestly, you should back up and give me room. Are you really that sad, that you can't stand to be further away from me? How shameless. Pathetic."

"Of course, Alice," he reassured her, and her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she searched his face for any sign of condescension at her still being uneasy. She didn't find any, Jae Gu was sure of that since he had worked hard on never displaying how adorable he found her when she got like this. She probably still suspected though, and he had to endure the rest of the preparation with her periodically elbowing his hands while he was trying to mix or add ingredients, causing him to spill them periodically.

"So clumsy," she would mutter after each fumble. "How embarrassing! Always dropping things…"

With a good natured, albeit carefully concealed smile, he let his girlfriend distract herself from whatever horror movie the twins had forced her to endure. He didn't mind her closeness at all, truthfully.

It wasn't until he had finished the quick meal, and had made a plate for himself and her to eat outside in the warming spring air, that she had finally settled down enough to do anything else but pick on him as a distraction.

"Luka," Alice finally began, putting down a plate that had only minutes ago been heaped high with their midnight meal. "We need to talk."

"Talk?" Jae Gu repeated, somewhat alarmed by her chosen words. He had heard that it never did a guy good to hear their girlfriends use that word. A glance to the side revealed that Alice looked unusually somber, even for her. Nervously, he prompted her to continue. "What about?"

"The fight," Alice answered, and Jae Gu sighed in relief.

"There's nothing to worry about," he told her, taking another bite of his own dinner. "I already talked to the Sunbae, and the Director of the school is considering revoking the match. I should be able to get out of it soon."

Jae Gu expected Alice to nod, or maybe tease him a bit about being cowardly. However, he was surprised when her expression didn't change.

"I think you should do it," she told him, before stealing a bite of food off his plate. He scowled, both at the theft and at the words.

"Alice," he began slowly, hunching up to guard his food from his ravenous girlfriend. "We've been over this before: I just can't go around getting involved in shady business, not when…"

"This is different," Alice cut him off, speaking gently for her anyway. "This isn't like the Monster Lord tournament, or like Illias. Luka, this is a legal tournament, one that will be regulated and with safety measures in place. It is unlikely that anything will happen to you that will keep you from looking after your siblings."

"I thought you looked down on those kind of fights?" Jae Gu reminded her, though he was surprised at what she was telling him. "And besides," he added. "Just like before, you don't really need me. You already said that you and the Knights were going to join. Isn't that enough?"

"This isn't about destroying the upstart Queen," Alice told him, blinking slowly as she did so. She paused for a moment before correcting herself. "Not just about destroying a Queen," she amended. "This is about you, Luka, and what you need." She inclined her head slightly back to the room. "About what you can do for them, too."

"Alice," Jae Gu began, a hint of warning in his voice. She was his girlfriend, but if she was trying to manipulate him using those two, even that fact won't keep him from reminding her that those two were off limits.

"So fierce," she smiled her usual smile at him at his response, looking pleased. "But no, it's not what you think."

"Then what is it?" he prompted her, relaxing slightly. He was even getting a bit curious now. It wasn't like her to push him when he was trying to avoid trouble. This morning, when she had basically begged him, by Alice standards anyway, to have a match was pretty unusual. She knew just how serious he was about trying to avoid fighting these days.

"You are strong, Luka," she told him evenly. "You didn't win our last fight by a fluke. Even if it could have gone either way, that just means you are at least as strong as me." She said it without a trace of either modesty about her own power or shame at her loss. It had been a close fight, after all, and he had almost lost several times before he finally managed to come out on top. "And there is nothing wrong with you using that strength."

"In a tournament?" Jae Gu cocked his head to the side, and Alice nodded again, before snatching another piece of his dinner. With a scowl, he started shoveling it into his mouth as fast as he could to keep her from taking any more.

"Why not?" Alice answered him, chewing the piece she had taken while watching him eat. "You have the strength, the experience, and the talent. Even if it's regulated, you should still have the skill level to win against most any opponent in a match like this. And if you win, there are rewards: the prize money, yes, but other things too. Fame and notoriety could get you far. Just look at this current Queen of the Wilds. Her victory has made her famous worldwide, with interviews, and challenges, even offers of endorsements."

"Endorsements?" Jae Gu repeated, surprised. He hadn't realized just how big the Wilds' League was, apparently. "But Alice, you're talking about doing something like this like it was a job or something…"

"That's right," she nodded. "After all, there are professionals for these kinds of things. Why not make use of the things you already have?"

"Professional?" Jae Gu muttered around a full mouth, and despite his hesitancy to get involved in this kind of stuff again, he found himself wondering to himself…

What if she was right?

He disliked fighting, but not because of any hatred for the act itself. He tried to avoid it whenever he could because he was worried about what it might mean for his family if he got hurt.

But if by fighting he could help Jae Hyung and Jae Som…

He shook his head to clear it, but despite himself the thought lingered. It was something he could at least think about, he supposed.

Still, he couldn't stop a small amused smile.

"That's another way you two are alike," he muttered mostly to himself. "Both of you just won't let me stop fighting."

"Both of you?" Alice repeated, one eyebrow raising as she gave a flat look at her boyfriend. Jae Gu shrugged, answering without really thinking about it.

"The Queen, In Gyi-Sunbae," he remarked offhand. "She reminds me of you, actually."

Any other boyfriend in the world would have never dreamed of saying something like that to their girlfriend. They would know that comparing their girlfriend to another girl was the fast way to not have that girlfriend anymore. Any other girlfriend in the world would have probably done just that.

That wasn't the case for the two though. Jae Gu and Alice's relation was in no way what anyone else in the world would call normal.

"Oh?" Alice, narrowed her eyes, pursing her lips briefly at the comparison. "Interesting."

There was no anger in her tone, no jealousy, not even any suspicion. She said the word as though she really did find the idea intriguing.

Afterwards, before the two went to sleep, she made sure that it was her name he gasped desperately into the night air, but that was also the norm for the two of them.