Chapter One: Foxey Lady
He couldn't take his eyes off her. He followed her every step, every gesture, and every expression that passed through her face. He noted all the people she exchanged words with, all the people she acknowledged, passed by, and disappeared with. She seemed to do a lot of disappearing.
"This party sucks, man," Hwoarang lit up a cigarette, and smeared his clammy, sweating palms over his jeans. Jin tore his eyes away from the girl (just as she reappeared) and gazed lazily at his friend beside him. Hwoarang took another drag at his cigarette, and then offered it to Jin, who refused.
"You see that girl over there, man?"
Hwoarang looked up. "Where?" he asked, the cancer stick dangling from his mouth. Jin pointed to the dark haired girl, chatting gaily with a blonde haired man. Hwoarang wrinkled up his nose. "Aw, c'mon, man! A flower child? You get involved with her, and you'll be dead from an OD by the end of the week."
Jin chuckled looking over the girl's long blue jeans with the red bandana tied around her knee, her multicolored wide sleeved silk shirt bearing the name Janis Joplin in light green and yellow, and a blue band around her forehead with a Korean Morning Glory on the side. He shrugged. "Maybe. Wanna go talk to her?"
Hwoarang leered at her. "Dunno, man. She seems pretty absorbed in her conversation with that blonde cat over there,"
Jin rolled his eyes and stepped away from the dark corner where he and Hwoarang stood. He had to mingle or something. Forget the fact that everyone was incoherent or drunk; he needed something to do—even at the risk of getting stoned for life. "Tch. Please. A blonde Paul McCartney wannabe. I'm bookin',"
He started off toward the back near the pool where she hung out, lip flapping with the blonde dude. He reached her just as she was pushing a lock of her dark hair back over her shoulder. Something from behind her hair caught the light of the red and orange setting sun, causing a sudden sharp glare in his direction. He figured it to be a necklace or something of the sort.
"Excuse me," he interjected quietly. She snapped her head to him abruptly looking at him as if she'd had too much caffeine. "Hey, I couldn't help but notice from back there that you…like Janis Joplin," he may as well start off with what all them hippies loved: rock'n'roll.
"Oh, yeah, man," she replied, turning away from her previous conversation and looking eagerly at him. Her eyes seemed mildly unfocused... Well, at least she was talking. "Janis, Jimi, Jim…all them guys… real gone cats."
The man beside her chuckled, "Yeah, but don't forget the Beatles," he had a heavy British accent that reminded Jin slightly of Paul McCartney. He straightened his blue jacked and pulled the girl in a loose embrace. "Those guys are real boss. Catch ya, Pix,"
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band! Later, Steve,"
The girl turned back to Jin and folded her hands behind her back, leaning forward slightly giving her the image of a younger girl. "So, having fun, man?"
Jin shrugged; mildly amused at the energy she projected. "Sure. If people interacted more than drank," he looked back at her. Was she drunk?
"Do you got any stuff?" she inquired abruptly.
Jin looked at her awkwardly. Hwoarang was right. Get involved with a flower child, and be dead of an OD by the end of the week. He was about to feint ignorance and ask what in the blazes she was talking about when—
" 'And I saw her standing there'—Hey, Jin, man, my buddy, my cool cat gone wild! Aren't you gonna introduce me to your raven haired friend?"
Jin rolled his eyes at Hwoarang's sudden giddiness. The girl giggled and looked interestedly at Hwoarang. Jin wrapped an arm around Hwoarang's neck and forced him into a headlock.
"This cat here is Hwoarang," Jin began as Hwoarang struggled from his hold. "A total drag and badass. Don't bother with him--"
"Who are you calling a drag, Panty Waist?" Hwoarang snarled, finally breaking free, but stumbling backwards at the same time.
Jin ignored him. "And I'm Jin Kazama. Sorry, I didn't quiet catch what you were saying before."
The girl's eyes suddenly went in and out of focus. She glanced momentarily toward a small group of metal heads then returned her attention to Jin. "The punch's spiked," she mumbled. She glanced down at the cup in her left hand and poured the rest of it into the pool. No one was swimming in it anyway. Not unless they fell in. Or were thrown in. "I asked if you knew where the stuff was."
"N—No. Sorry. We don't know," Jin replied quickly.
The girl smiled sweetly, her brown eyes lighting up. "It's okay. There's no need to keep it all to yourself,"
Jin shook his head. "Naw, sorry. I seriously don't know."
She shrugged and turned back to the metal heads. "Oh, well. I'll catch you old fashioned boys later," she said waving. She began to walk away toward the small group at the other end of the yard, when Hwoarang called back to her.
"You got a name, sugar?"
"Xiaoyu, honey!"
She then ran off across the yard, disappearing into the crowds of people that enveloped her small frame, causing her to disappear. The crowd seemed to grow thicker and the sky darker once she had vanished. The sun had completed its cycle around the earth and left the sky to the envious moon who is already sick and pale with grief.
"Some girl, huh?" Hwoarang asked attempting to stir up conversation. The fireflies were moving in. Yellow and green against the deep blue sky. Jin didn't answer. "Well, she was right about one thing."
"Oh," Jin broke from his trance of staring where Xiaoyu disappeared. "What's that?"
"The punch has been spiked,"
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