𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍. the little things

THE HOSPITAL ROOM WAS A CHRYSALIS IN THE WORST OF ways, for here Miguel was melted down to liquid and reformed into a butterfly, conscious and feeling the process at work.

There was a quiet kind of 'cheerful,' the soft kind that came as a quiet river on a sunny day. It was a way of being that allowed others a positive space to open up into, a space that was ready to support their emotions and needs. There was, of course, a time and place for the loud kind of cheerful, yet here in the hospital it can have the effect of closing people down ― after all, it is challenging to express sad feelings to a person who appeared so far removed from those emotions.

"Good morning!" Jieun grinned.

"For some," Miguel mumbled.

Miguel peered from the bed before letting his head fall heavily on the pillow. It was like that for every visitor. All of the others had family and friends, nice food, and flowers. Miguel got disappointment served cold.

Some days Jieun would wander in with some Dutch cookies and a coffee, but Miguel would perceive it as pity and turn the other way. He wanted his girl, Sam, the one he asked for every day. He wanted to go to the dojo, but leaving the hospital wasn't an option.

Miguel got everything he didn't want, nothing he did want, Jieun could see that. Still, every few days she'd bring the butter cookies, and persevere until the boy let her in.

She set the box of cookies down near his bedside and walked to the windows before opening the curtains and letting in sunlight. From that distance several things were clear. First, and foremost, it was obvious Miguel was in serious need of vitamin D. Second, it looked as though the surgery was a success in terms of him waking from the operating table.

"You're so pigheaded." Jieun mumbled. "still nothing in the legs?"

"You think I'd be laying in this bed if I did?" He said, staring at his best friend.

Now Jieun tried to maintain the reassuring tone in her voice. "Right, right, sorry." She said, not really knowing how to continue her dialogue. "You ever read 'Arms and The Man'?" Miguel furrowed his eyebrows, shaking his head. she runs to his side, exaggerating her movements. "After a horrifying sawing accident leaves him armless, the man sets out on a journey of self-discovery, realizing that legs can do everything that arms can!"

She lay next to him and lifted her leg in the air and kicked in a way one would punch, "is this what you do when I'm not around?"

Jieun scoffed, "well, I mean, I got a nap scheduled for later, too."

"It probably means 'arms' as in 'weapons'." He squinted, leaving it to Jieun to change the mood.

She got up and moved to the other side of the room, "oh, shit! Y'know it could be both. Like, the guy has no arms so he's gotta figure out how to hold his weapon with his feet." She posed like she was in a bad cop movie, "like, 'freeze, bitch'!"

A laugh left Miguel, an actual laugh. He felt it bubble out of his stomach, soar through his throat and reverberate in the air, "every time you open your mouth it brings me one step closer to realizing you are actually a dork."

She sat up, throwing the blanket at him. "You just laughed! I just made you laugh!"

His heart pounded with nerves, his skin crawled with dread, it had been a while since he smiled, let alone laugh.

She threw her hands up in the air and crowed, "Woohoo!"

He covered both of his ears instinctively. She climbed out of the bed, tripping over her feet until she runs smack into his torso and wrapped her arms around him. Muffled sound lands somewhere between his pecs before Jieun seemed to remember to unsmush her face. Setting her chin on his sternum, she peers up at me. "I made you laugh, Wheezie."

He tried not to smile but failed, grinning ear to ear as he nodded.

They continued their silly conversations till it ran nighttime.

Jieun woke up with a sharp elbow in her back. Miguel squished her like a sandwich.

Over her shoulder, he was asleep, his mouth opened wide to let a torrential downpour of drool fall onto his hospital gown ― which made her chuckle.

Jieun rolled her head back to the pillow, Miguel shifted, now waking up. "Sleeping well?" Jieun's voice was raspy.

He sucked his lips in and nodded. His eyes were slightly damp. "You?"

She glanced up at the ceiling and nodded. "It's a bit little chilly."

He smiled and nodded. "I knew it would be."

"So humble." She takes two big lungfuls of air, "I'm sorry." She whispers. "I wish I could've got there sooner."

Skin crawling, Jieun could feel the phantom weight of his body in her arms, the day still haunting her. Robby didn't kill him, but in a way, she let him die. She didn't make it to the top of the staircase, and then she helped his attacker by keeping him in hiding. She was, essentially, an accessory to his injury.

Miguel nudged his knee with hers. "Go back to sleep." He then pet her hair until her eyelids get too heavy to stay open. She slept just like a kid, throwing her elbows around and breathing loudly through her mouth.

He dissolved into a puddle of soft laughter and if she were awake, Jieun would be able to see his stomach shaking as he fought a new gale of giggles. Soon his laughter died out at the sight of Jieun shivering. To which he moved the small blanket covering them both closer to her, leaving an open area on his back he'd soon regret for the cold air was hitting him too.

"SAM."

Jieun stared at her, feeling weird. The whole enemy thing was so stupid, it was a pointless road to go down. They had been so close until they weren't.

Maybe it was Jieun's fault, she was the one who didn't contact anyone, was the one who pushed everyone away when she clearly needed it the most. But had it been Sam on her end, Jieun knew she would show up at her house demanding an answer on why she was ignoring her, she would've been there for Sam the way she wasn't for her. She was sure of it.

"Jiji." Jieun's eyes were on her. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail so it didn't get in the way of the Soccer match their physical fitness class had set up. Sam's eyes darkened as they held each other's. "I see you've gotten close to Hawk, I knew it was only a matter of time before you joined Cobra Kai."

Jieun scoffed. "As if. I'm a one-woman dojo."

"Here we go." Eli finished his stretches and wiped his hand on his shorts. "They're doing one of those stare-downs. Quick, get the timer."

A kid yanked out his phone, setting it. After the fight in the school, Sam and Jieun had engaged in a few juvenile showdowns of unblinking stares. The students around them have historically placed bets both on duration and victor.

But this was not one of those times, this was something different. Because Soccer was involved. And Jieun was sure to win by default.

Sam's eyes tightened, a huff of air leaving her, and finally, she blinked. Eli and the cobra crew were cheering.

Minutes passed and Jieun backed Sam into a corner, defender, and striker at the same time, to keep Sam from stealing the ball from her. Somewhat rough and playing like she was just a smaller girl, by not avoiding the full body contact that came so naturally in soccer, Jieun crowded her, holding her back. And Sam fought for every inch she made it forward, having to tap into her short bursts of speed to try and out-trick the girl.

It didn't work. With her on Sam, she only managed to get her feet on the ball about four times during the game, and each time Jieun made her lose it out of bounds or stole it away. It was aggravating to Sam, especially when she ran after her and tried guarding against the mighty mouse.

Playing with someone more promising, faster, and more talented than you are, isn't exactly an ideal situation, but Sam tried and in the end, Jieun won, four to zero, nailing a clean shot right between the goal.

They both might have been more tired than they'd been when they started, but it didn't matter. Jieun was on Sam from the second she got the ball, constantly less than a foot away. Sam was definitely slowing down, and Jieun used it to her advantage.

"Slowing down?" Jieun panted as she tried to fake her out and make a run to the left.

She grunted, raw and rough. "Quit talking and play." Jieun laughed.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a few people sitting along the edge of the small field they were on, watching. But it was right then that Sam snuck her foot onto her path to try and trip her.

"You ass," Jieun hissed, just barely missing her. Sam used her being distracted and pissed, to steal the ball. In the end, Jieun took it back when she summoned the last bit of energy she was willing to spend, and really put in the effort to power toward the goal, scoring.

Jieun threw her hands up in the air and stuck her tongue out at her ex-friend. "I win." Just to rub it in, even more, she added, "again."

Sam wasn't amused. Looking more pissed than before. She lowered her eyes, her chest heaving and her entire body poised to spring and ready to beat the shit out of Jieun as she wanted ever since the school fight.

But before she could, the couch called out Eli's and Sam's other half of her group as they decided on harsh physical contact.

JUVIE WAS NOTHING LIKE ROBBY HAD been expecting. He's seen all the tv shows, there should be creaking metal bunks, a small barred window, and a surly cell-mate who becomes like a brother to her. Worst case scenario, he was slightly expecting a wooden shelf, a dirty blanket, and a bucket.

The lighting was artificial only, Robby wondered how long someone would have to spend in there to forget what a tree looked like or the feeling of the wind on a stormy day. Everything in there was hard and cold.

There was something disturbing about the concrete box he was in. It had been engineered with absolute precision. The corners were sharp and straight, the window a perfect square with evenly spaced bars. Someone designed this, they sat in a clean office under the glow of the natural sunrays and used their God-given talents to create something so soulless as to constitute additional punishment.

Each new minute feels like an hour. He didn't know if solitary was worse or sharing the room space with a couple of strangers. He guessed they'd get to know each other real fast though, for better or worse, like some damn shotgun wedding.

There were many figures crowded into the ungenerously sized room. It's narrow and long. There is no way everyone here can sleep at the same time or even sit for long unless they are so sick that they cannot. Even then they are likely to be stepped on. No one looked his way, he was just another breathing corpse.

He turned, eyes rolling over the concrete walls, and the reality of being caged began to sink in. He wrapped his arms around his thick dark grey sweater and sat on his bed. A male voice spoke up. "You have a visitor." Robby turned to see eyeballs pressed in a narrow way.

He stayed sat, arms crossed tighter. He'd already been stood up by his own father and Jieun had yet to visit him, granted it's only been a few days and she was probably occupied with school, Robby understood.

That's when the door swung open and the owner of the reedy voice stepped in. "Get up or I'll do it for you." Robby wanted to laugh it off but knew the man was deadly serious.

A few moments later he moved out of the way to let Robby into the visitation room. He sat.

"In some countries, they are sadder when adults die than when children die. And in others, they are sadder when children die." The man said. "Which do you think our country is?"

"What do you mean?"

"When kids die, you lose hope." He responded. "When adults die, you lose their wisdom. Hope and wisdom." Robby looked down at the scattered papers that sat on the table. Finally, he looked up and fixed on the man with a stare. "Which do we value more?"

Robby didn't feel the need to comment, he figured 'hope' was a kind of intelligent bravery, the will to seek what is good, to keep walking for the chance of better things to come. Wisdom can be handed from one generation to another, but so can hate and intolerance. If people were wise they would learn to distinguish the positive from the negative and discard the latter. That way they can multiply what is wise and let go of the dark places evil would lead them.

But with how Ben Sparrow was wording his sentences, that didn't mean he wanted to die.

How morbid, Robby thought.

"Why're you here?" He called, a weird lightness spreading through his chest. Ben sighed, looking distraught. Robby peeked around him. "Does it have to do with my trial?"

He stayed silent for a moment, "I see something in you." Ben called out, crossing his arms and leaning against his chair. "Something I saw in someone else, once upon a time."

"What does that mean?" He looked at the man.

"It means you have a place to stay when you get out if you want it." Ben lowered his gaze, "take my deal." And with that, he left.

Without a second thought, Robby was immediately escorted back to his room.

Then, a boy threw himself toward him, attempting to strike him. Debris kicked all around them as they threw punches toward each other, and Robby scrambled for something to hold on to.

"What the hell, man?!" Robby ducked down and covered his head as the boy went for another hit.

In one fluid motion, the boy raised his hands, gripping Robby's sweater as he pinned him against the wall. the heavy beating of Robby's heart ringing in his ears.

"Stay away from him, alright?" Robby looked around the semi-dark interior, the fluorescent light dimming for some reason. "He can't be trusted."

Robby's eyes were wide and hot, the boy's punches still stinging as he had never seen someone use so little force yet pack so much weight to it, no one but Jieun. The move was familiar, he remembered Jieun using the same technique, hard to replicate.

With no response from Robby, the boy let him go. They stood there in silence for a moment.

Neither of them moved, and neither of them say anything for the longest time.

The boy moved next to Robby with a wadded handkerchief in his hands, the cloth freshly cleaned. "If I didn't know any better," He said to him, "I'd say you're dumber than you look."

Robby turned to look over his shoulder, finally taking a good look at the boy. "Who can't be trusted?"

"Ben Sparrow." He sneered. "Don't fucking trust Ben Sparrow."

𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄

woohoo an update who else cheered c:

!! MAJOR ACTOR CHANGE BTW !!

the boy was originally gonna be leo howard, but i wanted this fic to correspond to my tanner fic (which I'll be publishing very soon, need to fix a few things) so i quickly changed it to someone who i think fits the role better anyways,

SONG KANG as 𝐘𝐔𝐉𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐈

much love,