𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍. that bitch is a weed

"YOU STILL OKAY?" JIEUN LOOKS TO HER SIDE TO TORY, WHO gets very still.

"Yeah," she assured her. She slid into the passenger seat. Her hands felt clammy when she gripped the seat belt, and for an instant, her eyesight swam.

Jieun ran her hands over her hair gently. "Fuck him."

She leaned her forehead against the dashboard. "How could he do that to me?"

"Boys are stupid," Jieun said, her voice edged with dread. "What would you like me to do?"

"Just keep talking to me." She stared at her through her dirty blonde curls that had fallen over her eyes. "I just don't feel good."

"It's okay to let it out," she said.

"Okay." Her strength was leaving her fast. She continued to lean into the passenger seat. The bruise she had received earlier that day from falling off the stool ❨ when having that drinking contest with Sam ❩ sent a sharp pain through her leg and she grimaced.

Jieun touched her forehead gently. "You think what you're going through right now are the end times. But they're not. Trust me. It's like..." Tory smiled at how sweet her friend was, always so caring, as she buckled her in and handed her a bottle of water. She thanked her. Jieun's hands were slightly rough, which had her confused, but very cool on her face and neck. "It's like the sky is blue, right? But when there are clouds, you think it's gray. But really, it's still blue." She got herself situated in the driver's seat, "it hasn't changed, it's just covered with gray clouds passing by. The clouds are your feelings right now. The sky is how it really is. Your clouds will pass by."

"That was a long analogy." Tory took long sips of water and watched the road begin its never-ending crawl beneath the tires of the car. Tank full, the car sped towards an unknown residence. "But thank you, I feel stupid being sad over this when you've been through so much worse."

"This is about you right now, what I've been through doesn't matter." Tory nodded, thankful. Jieun gazed at her solemnly and said, "I'm gonna take you somewhere," Tory heard a catch in her voice. "I don't think I'm allowed to ―"

"― oh wow, that's not sketchy at all."

"― but hopefully he doesn't find out." Jieun knew that the most responsible thing to do was to bring her friend to her house, but call it a hunch, a best friend's intuition, a gut feeling, whatever. She knew what would work for Tory is letting her anger out on something. And better a punching bag than Sam, or Miguel.

To be honest, Jieun didn't know how to feel about Sam.

She was upset with her, and Robby. She hated how Sam assumed the worst when it didn't come her way and she hated how Robby acted like he didn't have a girlfriend like he was innocent while she was made to be the villain in their relationship downfall.

Which didn't even seem to happen as they were closer than ever at Moon's party.

She didn't even want to go to the party in the first place, but Tory and Miguel dragged her, and most of the Cobra Kai students did, to her surprise. They didn't seem all as bad as perceived.

"How's this supposed to make me feel better?" Jieun's voice was soft, a whisper almost.

"Mousie, we just got here."

"And I already wanna leave." She sighed. She jutted her bottom lip out, redirecting the air flow to her long bangs. For that brief moment, her brunette hair fanned upwards before resettling just over her eyes. "Yo, let's dip. No one's gonna notice."

"No! We already said hi to Moon!" Tory laughed, "hey, relax. We're at a party!" She sang, wrapping her arms around Jieun's shoulders.

"Yeah, a party where I could see what's her face." Miguel had never seen Jieun look that way, her eyes had a deadness, a stillness. The girl who laughed often, the one who was everyone's friend had developed an unknown hardness. It was as if Miguel could read everything Jieun had kept hidden in her in one extended glare.

"If she does anything, I'll kick her ass for you," Tory said, Miguel giving a worried glance because he knew, she could. "Now, have a drink, or four." She turned Jieun around and shook her shoulders. "Look. Think of today as a rare chance to hang with all of us at once, all right? 'Cause tonight, I got you." She punched the top of her chest lightly. "I got you."

Then night came, and Jieun was situated by the buffet, organizing the setup, for no other reason other than she was bored. And she saw Robby headed in the opposite direction so she was safe for the time being.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Tory spoke, glancing to her side anxiously.

"Righting a wrong." Jieun didn't glance up, "I mean, I expected better from Bubbles, who uses mismatched plasticware?" She took another look, "oh god, is this a spork?" She threw it away from her. "Useless."

"Great. listen. I was... I was wrong earlier. I should've..." The sound in her voice made Jieun finally look up at her. "I should've listened and respected your feelings. So if you're still feeling uncomfortable here, we should bail." There was an underlying tone in her voice. "Like ― like, now."

"Okay," she responded. "Should we get Miguel or ―"

"― No!" She glanced at Jieun waiting for her approval.

She asked no further questions.

So there they were, in Jieun's training facility.

Tory's breathing was steady, her mind still focused, despite the aching hangover she could feel coming. "So this is what you've been doing all this time?" She shot a glance at Jieun, pressing her lips together and slowly pushing herself further inside.

She could tell Jieun had reclaimed the abandoned building as her own, she could tell she spent a day or two exfoliating the walls, enhancing the beauty of the old place, and marvelled at how it must've grown so much.

The training grounds shivered again, but in a different way, this time there was a small fragment of warmth, a tiny brave smile on the walls. There were days that the old building did shut every door and window, times darkly shrunken from the world, hoping to be invisible. Yet, as Jieun occupied the building, as Earth circled the sun, the doors and windows opened all the more. The pain blew right out of that building a little at a time and the nature that building craved entered a little at a time ― the birdsong, blossom, and sunshine.

"A friend of my dad's been teaching me a few things." She said. Tory had stopped walking, leaning against a metal pole. "I could teach you some."

Tory laughed lightheartedly, "I think it should be the other way around."

"No, no." she spoke, "I've seen how Cobra Kai fights. It's not like this."

Cobra Kai had a fearsome reputation, and Jieun had heard the tales, recounted to the most reverential, their sensei who had once beaten up a group of kids and had knocked out an old sensei of his; about the tough students ❨ which included Tory ❩ who trained there; about injuries; about their victims journeys to the hospital; about the people who thought they could handle themselves but who had quit after one session.

They fought with anger.

Miyagi-do fought for defense.

Jieun's ❨ or more specifically, Scorpion's Eye ❩ was fought with both, except, more manipulative. More controlled, more brutal. It taught mastery over the fear of others.

Jieun adjusted her form, coming at Tory with a flurry of light punches to her head and body. Tory had to go as the defender. Jieun was fast and flexible and since training with Ben, had perfected her roundhouse kick to the head ― though, she didn't use it on Tory.

In a change to her ordinary tactics, Tory's defense attacks changed to aims at Jieun's body, so she countered with a punch to her head, a front hand technique which is thrown while one swivels the body to avoid an attack. She put Jieun on the defense, just as expected.

Tory wasn't managing a single hit on her, and Jieun could see just how much force she was putting behind her kicks, but Jieun saw this as nothing unusual as she was often reminded of Ben's way of being cruel whilst training.

Scorpion's Eye's way of martial arts was to use an attacker's power and strength against them.

The harder Tory attacked Jieun the harder her own blows were smacking against the damp flesh of her forearms.

Jieun would come back with counters, and as it had to, one of her blows finally got through; Tory could feel her largest knuckle sink in between two of her ribs ― the pain seemed to travel along her bones and converge at her sternum.

Tory moved back to a starting position and realized she was in a predicament, mostly of her own making. If she let up in her own attacks, Jieun would sense it and claim a victory, but if she continued to attack with the same intensity ― and she were to hit her again; then she doubted if there was any way that she could remain on her feet, and Jieun's victory would be complete.

Hell, Tory thought, I'm not backing off.

This time, using the painful lesson she just learned, she threw faint punches before launching a kick. Jieun took the bait but was not as committed to a counterattack as she herself had been, therefore when the ball of Tory's foot hit her chest she went over onto her back.

The results may have looked spectacular but in falling backward, Jieun had taken part of the sting out of her front kick.

Whatever Jieun was, she was a fighter and was quickly on her feet to rush at her with a combination of punches that had Tory scrambling backward. She managed to avoid every punch ― except for the last one.

It wasn't as hard as the one to her ribs but the punch that landed just below her collarbone had her own eyes watering.

She was trying as hard as she could but all strength had drained from her and she could feel herself weakening even though Jieun's punches were missing or hitting her arms.

"Thinking of giving up?" Jieun panted, the side of her lips tugging upwards.

Tory grumbled, turning to her. "Again."

At first, Tory had been dismissive when Jieun and her started, would you even call this training? She was supposed to be the tough girl of the group, the one who took part in bare-knuckle fights in order to win, but in truth, she felt liberated learning this style of martial arts.

The concrete floor had become slippery and the vapor on the cold glass condensed and formed little rivulets that ran along the metal frames. The misty windows not only indicated the intensity of their efforts but also shielded them from what was happening in the outside world.

Tory raised an eyebrow, "Holy shit, Tweety, I had no idea you could do that."

Tory had always assumed, since the moment she met Jieun that she was that one young child who used to hide behind their mother, using her as a shield between her and any other student or stranger. And when she had to go to school and leave her mother at the gate, she held back, wanting to talk to the other kids but not knowing what to say or how to say it.

The girl in front of her, right now, was not the young girl she had imagined she'd be.

At least, not anymore.

Peace and quiet met the both of them and all Jieun did in response was laugh, then, she sighed as she stared out the windows, a habit she found herself doing more than usual when she was in the building. She extended her legs on the extra chair in front of her, revealing the scratches, bruises, and imprints on her skin. Her legs were decorated in the colors blue, green, purple, red, and yellow.

"Thank you." She heard a voice speak up next to her.

Jieun narrowed her eyes, "for what, Honey badger?"

"For this," she waved her arms to her surroundings. "How'd you know I needed this?" She smiled brightly, and Jieun took in the look. It transformed her from a gloomy, hot-headed high schooler into a beautiful, vibrant, full-of-life teenage girl.

Jieun gave a shocked look, then shook her head, "it helped me, I thought I'd give it a shot."

They laughed about it, the conversation soon going quiet again. Jieun glanced over at her again, who looked like she could use some sleep, it was the day before the first day of school, after all.

"You hold your head up high, you hear me?" Jieun said, Tory's eyes tightened as she continued. "Because at the end of the day, you are a garden rose," Jieun turned to her with a half smile as she whispered, "and that bitch is a weed." Tory smiled, Jieun grabbed her hand, positioning them for a fist-bump before saying, "I got you."

𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄

smaller ch. but i love tory and jiji so much i needed to write abt their growing friendship !! <3

the school fight is next, i was gonna put it in this chapter but then it would really be like..... 4000 words omg

(trying to stick with a 2000-3000 word limit each ch.)

much love,