𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐎𝐍𝐄. the beach

BLOODY HANDS CAN COME FROM A KILLER, MEDIC, VILLAIN, OR rescuer. Jieun looked at her own hands and asked herself from where the blood came. Was she ripping guts out or healing a wound? Did she act from cold indifference or pure love? Can she even comprehend the difference?

When the dawn came she could barely move. Every muscle had seized up. Her body was struggling to recover, to repair the damage. Unable to move with any grace her movements were jerky.

She edged into the light that flowed water-like through the windows and stripped off her topmost layer. On each arm, there were great purple welts that will only deepen over the coming week. Against her ghostly skin, they were grotesque, but she knew she was lucky to not have broken bones.

She looked as beat up as she did in her early days of training, sparring with Ben who was two heads taller and over twice her mass. At least he didn't go for her face ― unlike those gang patsies. She didn't need to be walking about looking like she came off worse in a fight so she guessed she'd be hauled up at her home or Ben's for a while.

Without looking in a mirror she knew her face was as purple as her arms.

When Jieun first came into Ben's view he almost didn't recognize her, she was too far away, and her gait was all wrong. She walked like a scarecrow more than a woman and all lop-sided at that. As he neared his heart fell right through his shoes. Her right eye was swollen, there was no way she could see a thing out of that, and she won't for a while yet. Her face still bore congealed blood and her clothes were an utter mess.

Jieun heard the door swing open more loudly than usual. She didn't turn, didn't acknowledge him. She then turned, knowing already what face she would make. Her eyes got that wide look, and her bottom lip trembled.

Ben could see the conflict already, her wanting to be strong for him and the raw need to weep welled up. "Does it hurt?" He started.

"No." She whispered.

"You never learned how to say that you're in pain." She opened and closed her mouth, making a half-hearted gesture by shrugging her shoulders. "Or you had no one to teach you."

Jieun's voice, less than a whisper, "There was one person... but he died."

Ben took a small step closer, "perhaps, living..." he paused, "is the process of meeting someone like that. Someone you can tell that you're in pain and that things are too hard." He gestured for her to sit while he grabbed a bottle of whiskey and downed it.

"Do you have someone like that?" She asked, feeling the utmost relief when she sat so her legs could rest.

"I did, but he died." He muttered under his breath. She still hadn't looked at him, Ben shuffled, closing the door gently behind him then going to a kneeling position in front of her, where he pulled a gun from his pocket. Every muscle in her body seized up at the sound of the click. And he placed it in her hands.

The cold metal made grayer the skin of her hands as if her blood ran from the gun. She remembered someone saying that the chill was because the weapon took hostage a part of your soul; they said you only got it back if you used the gun for love, protection, and defense. Apparently, it was part of the natural order of things and the gun, something made of the matter of this universe, had to obey it as much as we did.

"This is the gun that killed your dad. The killer dumped it, and we found it."

Jieun gave a small nod, this was the response he was expecting. She didn't know what to do, so much happened in the past few hours, "who was it?"

"This gun is a police issue. Your dad's killer is a cop." Her breath caught. "Find them." Her hands shook as she examined the metal piece, "do as you wish."

On the day Jieun opened her eyes for the first time, her parents were hazy blurs, but she had taken in their aromas, bathed in their soft words, and felt the warm touch of gentle hands. Each time she had cried they came at once and so an idea of safety in her world developed, a foundation on which her future personality would rest.

"Jieun wouldn't hurt a fly." Her father would say.

"She's a sweet girl." Her mother agreed.

"A sweet girl." Jihyun echoed. His words were like they were honey. Like he had never met someone so sweet before.

Jieun could then hear the soft song of the marram grasses, the green lullaby that spoke so well to the soul without even a whispered word. She closed her eyes once more, gripping the gun tightly as she reminisced.

She could see the sand that had the most gentle hue of gold, almost earthen and muted, the humble star of the scene. Her father loved the beach. He loved the driftwood that came upon the buoyant waves as tiny rescue boats. Then there is the seaweed, the flora of the salty waves, as deeply green as any high summer foliage. His favorite though, of everything that was there upon the softly rolling dunes, was the tall, tall grass that whispered so sweetly into the gusting breeze.

The two sat on the beach, her eyes moving from sand to stone, from rock pools to breaking waves. In the gentle Summer sunshine, she felt as if she were swimming in the briny aroma as if the new rays of the day brought a frisson of energy to her fingertips. The gulls brought their high notes to the percussion of pebbles at the shoreline.

The camera she held had a case made from black hammered metal, the lens jutted out on a highly polished brass-looking cylinder, finished at the end with a rim of more black metal. Two dials and a button poked out from the top and it bore her name, her father had marked it with a needle. It had to be almost a hundred years old. ❨ such a dramatic. ❩ It was satisfyingly heavy in the hand and made wonderfully mechanical whirring and clicking noises.

"Why is your hand so banged up?" Jieun moved the camera to his hand, to which he covered the lens, changing the subject.

Kang Jihyun froze for a second before chuckling, "maybe because I get scared too easily."

"Appa." She pointed the camera at his face as he admired the horizon.

"Stop filming." He teased.

"Okay, Dad." He nodded for her to continue, the camera still filming. "If you could turn back time..."

"Turn back time?"

"Yes." She grinned from behind the camera, "if you could go back to when you were seventeen... would you want to go back?"

Jihyun smiled, stared at the camera, then back at his daughter. "No." He paused, "because then, I couldn't be your dad."

Jieun scoffed at her father's corniness. "Whatever." She turned the camera off, and lay on her stomach, giving more interest to her magazine than the horizon.

"Eunie," he started in Korean, Jieun hummed, "should we build a house by the sea and live there?" Jieun said nothing but furrowed her eyebrows, "we could go back to Korea, and live in Jeju."

She grimaced, "no."

"We can build a house on the beach, hand a hammock in the yard, and get a dog too. It sounds great!" He clapped, "let's do that."

She was quiet for a few seconds. "When? When are we going?"

"Soon." He nodded, taking a swig of beer. "I'm almost done with my job." Jieun snickered, he'd talked for a while about how he wanted to retire from fashion but she never took him seriously. "This is nice." He nestled his feet into the sand.

Bringing herself back to reality, she wiped the few tears that managed to let out. "My dad and I promised we'd build a house on a beach and live there." Jieun managed in a feeble whisper, a few more tears tracked down the sides of her cheeks, stinging a few cuts. "We'd hang a hammock out front, fish, and swim every day. Like people with nothing to do." She let out a small smile, "he wanted to live like that."

Neither said anything for quite a long time. "If they hadn't killed him..." she sucked her teeth, "would I have been able to live like that?"

Ben let out an anguished breath. He looked as though he might start to cry, but instead hung his head, turning to a picture not too far from them. "You see that building? In the picture?" She nodded, "five years ago, he saved my life there. Everyone was attacking us, trying to swallow up our organization." He pulled another weapon out, this time, a knife. "I know I said do as you wish, but kill them once you find them."

She shook her head frantically, "trust me. No matter what happens, I will protect you."

ROBBY PURSUED HIS SURROUNDINGS, realizing how strange he must've looked sitting alone in the back room of the Cobra Kai dojo.

Then, banging was heard from the door. He quirked an eyebrow as he looked at the time.

The banging continued, and slowly he trapped the nearest weapon, a candle stick, he gazed around his eerily silent room, at the smattering of spilled coffee grounds from next to the coffee machine that no one but Kreese used, the slowly dripping faucet. No one knew he had been living there except Kreese.

The banging sound radiated through the dojo once more. Robby winced, it was only a matter of time before the owner next door would come running down asking what the hell was going on.

He looked around some more, this time at the faded gym equipment. Who the hell would come at this hour, aggressively banging at the back door of this building?

He swallowed his fears, call it adrenaline, and rose from his position.

Candlestick in one hand, he hovered the other on the door handle. Before the banging could start again, he opened the door readying his weapon high in the air at his potential attacker.

"Woah! It's just me!" The voice exclaimed.

The sound pulled Robby from his trance and he looked to meet the presence of the figure. Her hair was in distress all over her face.

"Jiji?" He called out to the girl, who now, had her hands grasping her hair trying to fix it. "What ― "

"You never called." She said quickly, "you know I had to learn from Honey Badger that you were even out? You told me you'd call." She said frantically, looking behind her as if someone was after her.

There were a few minutes of silence now, Robby felt like he was in shackles, the guilt he had felt like a knife in his gut slowly twisting, like a constant hammer on his head. Yet, somehow, that guilt evaporated like water under an early summer sun the second he saw her.

She pushed him aside, taking in her surroundings. She then started cursing profusely and tried to wipe off the blood from her head with the sleeve of her shirt, the running must've opened up her wound.

He turned to look down at the brunette who was suddenly standing next to him. "What the fuck happened to you?"

"Nothing," she said. "Really, it's nothing. I'll worry about it later."

"Infections are no joke." He added quickly.

She froze, and she could feel his stare but kept her own on the mat on the floor. She raised her brows, "and what're your gonna do about it?" She snorted.

"You're hurt," he said and scowled as if it had been such a stupid thing to say. Then he scowled because he scowled, maybe he should've smiled instead. "C'mon," he said calmly. "I have to take a look at it."

She blinked. "I'm okay." She repeated, and this time it wasn't as polite.

Robby kept his eyes on her forehead, and there was a surprisingly stubborn look in them.

Dread curled down his back and settled like a brick in his gut. He reined himself to an abrupt halt and scanned the area around him, straining to pick up any sound or movement as he poked his head out. Kreese had warned him to not leave the room in case someone walked by and called the cops because someone 'broke in.'

The only light outside was from the car headlights that passed by or the street lights, and a small chorus of birds hummed nearby. Nothing seemed amiss.

He didn't want to risk it.

Unfortunately, he cared too much for the girl to back out.

Another icy chill of foreboding shivered through his body. His lips twisted. He turned to look at Jieun, giving her a nod before racing to the entrance of the dojo and to a cabinet underneath the front desk where they kept the first aid.

Jieun bit the inside of her cheek, poking her head out and seeing Robby's hand motion gesturing her to follow. Just his hand, as he was behind the desk crouching, still in fear of someone spotting him.

Jieun released a breath of air. She looked around once again, she didn't really need to run. The cold ac breeze played with her hair, and she impatiently pushed back several strands. She inhaled a calming breath. Slowly detaching herself from the back doors and moved at a normal pace towards the front.

Robby scratched the top of his head as she crouched beside him. "Yeah, I guess I was a little dramatic." Almost giddy with relief, Robby smothered a chuckle and chose to ignore Jieun's smirk. He jumped up from his position and dragged her toward the bathrooms.

"Sit."

She sighed and her gaze traveled upward to where Robby stood. "I told you, Swayze, I'm okay."

"Sit." He repeated. "Before you bleed out."

With that, she sat down, suddenly feeling like laughing and wondering what the hell he was going to do next.

The gorgeous girl sat in front of Robby with a rather deep cut in her brow and a look in her eyes that could only be described as humor.

"Are you laughing at me?" He asked and started wiping the blood off her face.

"Just a little," she assured him. She stared at the enormous red box that was placed on the table next to her, thinking that she'd never seen such a gigantic collection of medical supplies outside a hospital before. "Jesus, you guys get hurt that much?" She whispered and wondered what kind of person John Kreese was that he could afford or needed a box of that size.

The boy in front of her shook a little, and she looked up at him.

"Are you laughing at me?" She asked, stupidly.

"Yep," he said and grinned down at her. "Do you want me to clean you up?" He asked.

"I told you before I don't need it."

"Who knows what... is in the air?" He whispered and went back to wiping blood off her brow. "I've seen what happens to people who get infections. It's gross." He added as he leaned forward to inspect the cut. "Are you gonna tell me what happened?"

"Doesn't matter now." She whispered.

Suddenly Robby felt hands on his buckle loops, pulling him closer. He looked into Jieun's eyes for the first time in a while and immediately got lost in the brown eyes that were the warmth of an everlasting hearth as if they were the wood that could burn with golden flame yet be forever perfectly entire.

He heard a small snort of laughter but couldn't bring himself to look away from her.

"What are you doing?" Shit, he thought. He sounded breathy and silly and not at all like the 'brave' karate kid he showed himself to be.

"You'll see me better like this." She murmured.

Right.

That made him feel like an idiot because of course, that's all. She moved her legs to the side to pull him closer, and instead of leaning forward, he'd have a good angle to get the wound taken care of this way.

"Okay," he said and reached for the bottle of antiseptic.

She didn't even wince as he cleaned up the wound and poked the edges.

"I'm sorry I didn't call you."

"I know."

"That's it?"

"Yup."

"You'll need stitches."

"No."

Robby stopped looking at the wound and down into her eyes. "You'll need stitches," he repeated.

She opened her mouth, presumably to protest again but he began again before she could speak. "Either you get a scar as wide as the Grand Canyon, or... You." He tilted his head for emphasis. "Get." He moved his head to the other side. "Stitches."

The room was completely silent as she glared at him, and then she suddenly grinned.

"Okay."

"Okay," he said and started backing away.

"Guess I'll have to leave then."

"Wait, I never ―"

"Yes, you did." She gave him a shit-eating grin. "You said I have to get stitches."

"I could... Stitch you up?" He replied, in a questioning tone. "I've seen enough movies I think."

"You think that qualifies you?"

"I ―"

"Okay." She smiles at him again, showing off her sweet dimple that made his heart feel as if she held him captive. "Either you stitch me up, movie style, or Grand Canyon it is."

Jieun liked playing with him. She could've easily told him there was a medic on deck always at Ben's home and she'd really worry about it later, but she'd be lying if the look on his face, the care he gave her didn't give her butterflies in her chest. How warm he made her feel.

Robby couldn't believe what he was hearing. What if he ruined her beautiful face? Out of ridiculous stubbornness?

"Just do the stitches, Hobbit," she said calmly. "If you don't, since you don't want me to leave, I'll just tape it up myself."

Robby's head whipped around, and Jieun watched in silence as he started pulling out what he needed.

Seven mediocre stitches later, Robby was seriously questioning his career choices. It wasn't the best but the wound was neatly held together with a line of tiny stitches. She would get a scar, but it would only make her look more badass. If possible.

"There," he said with a nod. She got up and went behind the sink of the bathroom, which was just right next to them. Robby's throat immediately dried up, so the snap in his voice was ruined by a slight hoarseness when he instructed her, "wait, you're not supposed to get it..."

She raised her head again after splashing several handfuls of water on it to clean away the rest of the blood.

"Wet," he finished lamely.

She grinned and caught the towel Robby threw at her, and he got sidetracked when she dabbed the wound carelessly. He swallowed the crude protest which was on the tip of his tongue. "Well, this has been an unexpected visit." He trailed off.

"I'm not just here to see you." She reminded herself.

"Oh." He muttered. "Well, it's just me here, so,"

"I need to ask you something," she started, voice deep and alluring. He nodded, gesturing her to continue. "You think it's too late to join Cobra Kai?"

𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄

slightly longer ch bc i wanted to put in a cute robby scene

yayyy jiji is joing cobra kai after i said i didnt want her to

but i think u guys can guess what's she's doing there hehehhehe

also i forgot like halfway through that she had a swollen eye so lets pretend its not as bad as i described it LMFAOO

much love,