Chapter 6: Crack Rock
It's been about three days since Jin has shown up to school; no call, no text, nothing. I haven't heard a word from him and now I'm definitely worried. Especially since the last time I saw him he kept getting headaches and dizzy spells. He didn't even look like he's been sleeping well. I found Hwoarang in the hallway putting somethings away in his locker.
"Hey Hwoarang have you heard anything from Jin? You know since he hasn't been here in a couple days."
"Not really, I mean he told me he hasn't been feeling well so I figured he was just sick at home." Hwoarang's tone changed from his usual voice and he started scratching his cheek with his fingers.
"Hwoarang there's something you're not telling me." I stepped over so that I was face to face with him and started tapping my foot. "Hwoarang!"
"Alright geez, you're so pushy. Jin's been gone for a couple days because he's been spending his days out in Shinsaibashi."
"What's he doing there?"
"That's where Jin and I have those late night fights every once in a while. And now he's kind of caught up in a bet-"
"Caught up! Is he okay, he's not hurt is he?"
"Woah wait a minute calm down." Hwoarang placed his hands on my shoulders and shook me a little. "There's nothing wrong it's just that the job is taking longer than what he thought it would."
"Well why didn't he tell me, I've been texting and calling him to see if he's okay…" My heart sank at the thought of Jin purposely ignoring me. He knows I get worried and yet he refuses to tell me anything. The anger welled up inside of me so much that I ended up punching the locker beside Hwoarang leaving a dent in it.
"Calm down Xiaoyu, he didn't want me to tell you because he didn't think the job would take him this long. You shouldn't worry though, Jin can take care of himself I haven't seen him lose a fight yet."
"Why do you guys need to fight anyway?"
"At first we were fighting just for the money but now... Jin's recently become obsessed with fighting. He says he's trying to become stronger and wants to defeat the toughest fighters around. To be honest I'm a little concerned myself."
I stood silent thinking to myself thinking about the current situation, "I need you to take me to Shinsaibashi tonight." I begged grabbing his shirt.
"Uh ah, no way." Hwoarang put up his hands making the X symbol across his chest. "That's no place for someone like you. The people down there are ruthless and will not hesitate to attack you. Besides if I took you, Jin would never forgive me."
"But-"
"No buts." Hwoarang pulled out his phone reading a quick text, "Look I'll text him and tell him to call you alright." Hwoarang gave me a slight smile, "Don't worry I'm sure he'll show up in a day or two." Hwoarang walked off to go catch up to some other guys in the hallway and left me standing beside the dented locker.
I waited all day for a reply from Jin, there was still nothing. On my way home I stopped one more time in front of Jin's house. I stood right in front of his door hoping that this time he would come out yawning in his pajamas like he usually does. I rang the door bell and waited for a moment... still no answer. "That's it I refuse to sit here and wait for him to come around." I called Hwoarang to try and convince him to take me to where Jin is. His phone rang for a moment but went to voice mail. Seems like Hwoarang is of no use to me, but I can't sit around and wait for something to happen either. Fine then I'll just find Jin myself. I waited until my grandpa fell asleep before I started getting ready to go out. I pulled out my grey sweatpants, black sports bra, and yellow jacket to top it off. Not really stealthy but if I have to make some moves I'll be comfortable. I walked out back and softly woke Panda up, "Hey Panda I need your help." She rolled over on her stomach as if she wanted me to rub her stomach. "Come on Panda I'm serious."
After about ten minutes of trying to wake Panda up we were on our way to Shinsaibashi. Once we got off the subway we walked all through downtown Osaka looking for some sort of clue. Although I wasn't sure what kind of clue I should be looking for; Jin could be around here anywhere. Panda and I searched around for about an hour until we became tired. We stopped at a 7/11 for a quick drink. "Yeah I've got 10,000 yen on the guy with the spiky hair he's been on a role for a couple days." I heard a couple guys say while standing in front of the atm.
Panda and I waited outside for the guys to turn up and listened a little longer to their conversation. "It starts in about twenty minutes so we'll have to hurry. I think this is the clue I've been looking for. Panda and I started walking a few paces behind them to try and avoid alerting them of our presence. The guys came to a dark alley way and gave the man guarding the door a password.
"He's probably not gonna let us in without the password. Go around the other side and if he starts to give me any trouble reach around and give him a huge bear hug." Panda nodded yes in understanding and proceeded to her position. I walked up to the guy as he began to cross his large arms over his chest. I swallowed the bulge in my throat, "Umm, I'm here to see the fights."
The man burrowed his eyebrows while looking down at me, "No one gets in here without the password." The man gave me a quick look up and down, "Go home this is no place for a little girl."
"Look can't you just make an exception," I placed my hands on my hips trying to convince this man to let me through. He shook his head no at me and stood his ground firm, time to go to plan B. "Now Panda!" Panda came up from behind and gave the guy a huge bear hug until he passed out. "Good job girl." I helped Panda sit the guy up against the wall and checked around us one more time to make sure no one was falling us before we went through the door. We walked down some stairs until we reached a room full of rowdy people all standing around in a circle.
They were all jumping around screaming and cheering on the fight in the room. I pushed my way through the front of the crowd to see what was going on. Jin was in the middle fighting. He was wearing a yellow and black leather jacket, with red and black leather pants, with black biker boots. Jin was an amazing fighter; his strikes were precise and deadly. He took his opponents out quickly and they always left the area with terrible bruises. Jin left the ring and disappeared in to the crowd. I tried to get to the other side but I ended up bumping into several people who didn't like that. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Sorry I was just trying to find someone. So if you'll excuse me." I tried to brush past them but one man grabbed me by the arm and threw me into the ring. He threw me so hard I fell and rolled on the ground. "Ouch you jerks, I'm going to kill you guys." I stood up and took my fighting stance. One guy charged at me, I used my windmill like attack to push him back. He lost his balance and fell backwards hitting the floor. I fought off several other guys until I was out of breath. They just kept coming at me and I couldn't hold them off by myself. I heard some screams behind me and the crowd cleared a path. Panda was growling and throwing strikes at anyone in her way.
"You're so stubborn,"Hwoarang called running out in front of me. Lili was with him and they both covered me trying to prevent anyone from getting to close.
"What are you guys doing here?" I asked relieved to see their appearance.
"I had a feeling you'd go out on your own so, we came just in case you needed our help."
A couple guys with steel pipes charged at them but they were easily taken out.
"Go find Jin, we can handle things here," Lili said glancing over her shoulder reassuring me. "Take Panda and go."
Panda helped me up and took me out of the building, we charged out of the alley until we felt it was safe for us to stop. We stopped in front of a parking garage, "Looks -like we're- safe for now." I said in between puffs of air. I'll have to be sure to properly thank Lili and Hwoarang for coming to save me. From across the parking garage I saw Jin again, he was in the standing around the Shinsaibashi plaza leaning against the bridge rail. He was with a couple other guys that were congratulating him. As soon as I saw him anger formed inside of me, I was nearly ambushed by a bunch of meatheads and he was just standing around hanging out with his friends. Before I could even realize it I started walking, the guys around me began to fan out as I made my way through their circle and smacked Jin across his face.
"Where the hell have you been? No call, no text, what the fuck have you been doing!?"
All the guys took a step back as I yelled at Jin, "Woah Jin, is this your girlfriend?"
Jin held his cheek for before answering, "No… Xiaoyu what the hell are you doing here, how'd you even find me?"
"I came out looking for you, since you didn't want to answer your phone."
Jin gave me annoyed look but I wasn't about to back down from his glare. He let out a deep frustrated breath, grabbed my wrist and forced me to walk away from the crowd with him. He dragged me by my wrist for a minute until I was able to pull my wrist away from his grasp. He stopped walking, turned to face me and then crossed his arms over his chest. "What are you doing here?"
"I told you I came looking for you. I was worried since you've been ignoring me for three days."
"And I bet Hwoarang told you where I was, he has such a big mouth. Come on I'm taking you home."
"Not unless you come with me."
"You're so stubborn why can't you just listen to me?"
"Because I'm worried about you. The last time I saw you, you nearly passed out in the middle of school."
"I told you I'm fine I was just a little tired…"
"I can tell when you're lying you know-" he stuck his hands in his pockets anytime he lied or became embarrassed.
"Xiaoyu I told you there's nothing- ah." Jin started holding his head in pain while staggering away from me.
"Jin, Jin! What's wrong?" I asked gripping his shoulder "Get away from me!" a voice shouted at me. I came from Jin except- it didn't sound anything like him, it sounded demonic. "Stop, don't look at me!" the voice continued. There was dark energy surrounding him while his skin was changing colors.
"Jin look at me!" I stepped in front of him and grabbed his hands to get him to show me his face. Jin struggled against me while trying to step away from my hold. I stepped closer and closer with every step back Jin took until Jin lost his footing and fell backwards. He instinctively pulled me down with him and we both ended up sliding down the ravine.
"Ow," I mumbled trying to lift myself up. I saw that Jin had positioned us so that I landed on top of him. I looked up to see Jin's eyes closed and started panicking, "Jin, Jin wake up!" I lightly smacked his face until his hands came up and gripped my wrists. "Enough already I'm fine," Jin groaned moving me off of him.
He sat up rubbing the back of his head, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah…Jin… what's going on with you?"
"It's nothing-"
"Why are you still lying to me like I'm some fool? You can't tell me after what I saw there's nothing wrong!" Tears started to fall down my face as my frustration started to over flow within me. "I'm so worried about you and you won't tell me anything I can't-"
Jin pulled me into his chest, "I don't know why your tears have me so weak… if I promise to come to school tomorrow will you please stop crying?"
I pealed myself away from his chest and wiped my remaining tears on the sleeve of my jacket and nodded my head in confirmation. "Sorry I just don't wanna see you disappear."
Jin stood up and held out his hand to help me up to him. He grasped both my hands pulling me close enough to where he could rest his forehead against mine, "I'm not going anywhere, so don't worry anymore." We stood touching foreheads, our breaths began to sync together and for a moment I felt like there wasn't a wall between us anymore. "Come on." Jin helped me up out of the ravine. He held my hand as he walked me back out to the main road and hailed a taxi.
"Here you and Panda get in, I already paid so you won't have to worry about the cost." Panda slipped into the car first. As I sat down I held on to Jin's hand trying to hold on to my last moments with him, "I promise I'll come to school tomorrow, so don't worry." His hand gently slipped out of mine as he closed the taxi door. From the window I could watch his back as he walked in the opposite direction then my heart sank again.