The sky is dark but the city around Luna was ablaze with restaurant and retail store signs, the shops beneath them, and from the rooms of local residence above. Students off to buy food or on their way home, obvious light weighted drunks here and there, locals going home after a meal out and slow moving cars avoidant of hitting people filled the narrow oneway street. It was late, close to eleven, but early for young adults, gangsters, and basically anyone up to no good.

Although school finished at ten it had taken Luna a while to get to this part of slums in Seoul. She had changed out of her uniform, into a brown tank top with so many holes that it exposed the sports bra underneath that flattened her already small s, black basketball shorts and very worn combat boots she stole from a charity shop a few years ago. When her mother had found out Luna had stolen them she had scolded her for the stupid act but did not return them. At the time they were a size too big and felt weird on her feet but after a while Luna's feet had grown and worn into the boots.

Luna had abandoned the braid from earlier today, the thick hair now in a tight bun on top of her small head. Loose buns were not her thing. It would often come unbound, besides it equally annoyed her as it was to easily pull out. Loose buns was just an easy target for girls with no fighting experience. However s were guys targets, knowing it is a weak spot on girls.

Luna put the palms of her hands on the top of her head pulling the back, taking her baby hairs with them as she turned into the pristine Chemist.

As she swaggered in the owner spotted her instantly as he always did, his thin, long dreads swept back into a thick pony tail for the day. He made a 'V' with two fingers and aimed it in her direction, a signal. Luna signalled it back. He just simply put a single finger in response and made his way towards a customer waiting at the front counter. The 'V' stands for 'Vaults'. It was the name of the bar below the Chemist where more than drinking was involved. The Vaults was a place where lowlifes went to get drunk on cheap, watered down alcohol while either betting/watching the fights in the pits, or buying an hour from one of the e that usually stood in the alcoves in the walls.

The customer wore the uniform of the school she went too, hair the traditional black of most Koreans but messy like any teenage boy. The student was a head taller than her, of slender build, likely muscular inside the uniform that was too big for him. Despite his height he looked young, probably just started his first year of high school. Hell it was her first year of high school, at least she was not put down a year.

"What's the perscription today Jungkook?" The owner said.

Jungkook? What was he doing here so deep into the slums? He wasn't old enough to fight in the pits and definitely not for , even if he had eight six thousand won on him. But then again the owner wasn't signaling anything about the Vaults to him, so just a local asking for pills.

"Just some more of those sleeping pills Man-Shik." Jungkook replied.

Man-Shik said as he went into the back, "How she doing?" his dread swayed heavily as he turned.

Luna got full view of the kid as she approached before leaning on the end of one of the shelves. Jungkook's hands were in his pockets, thumbs sticking out, slightly slouching. A backpack rested against the counter next to his feet, his shoes as worn as her. The cuffs of his sleeves are rolled up half way up his forearm, revealing only black arm hair.

"Still bed ridden. No idea what's with her, she just doesn't want to do anything." Jungkook answered, rubbing the back of his neck while he looked around the store.

Luna crossed her ankles as he spotted her. His lips tightened as she gave him a sweet smile and a little wave, the brightness in his eyes disappearing. Jungkook took in the clothes she wore, his top lip lifting in disgust.

"You stalking me or something?" She shock her head. He slide his hand back into his pocket, horror in those black eyes of his. "You're not here for the pits are you?"

"Oh she's here for the pits." Man-Shik said returning with a small box, medical nonsense writen on it. "You two know each other?"

"Luna here decided to steal my bread today." Jungkook recounted.

"Let it go, it was just bread." She kept her face blank, "We go to the same school." She said to Man-Shik

Jungkook and Man-Shik exchanged the box of pills for money before Jungkook grabbed his bag, bid his farewell to the dreadlocked man before turning to the open doors. Luna tugged the skin under her left eye down while sticking out her tongue as he passed, eyes on his strong jawline that had fluff growing in patches. A scowl on his face when he caught it. Luna couldn't hide her smile once he left.

"So how's your mum doing? Haven't seen her in a while." He asked as he leaned onto the counter as Luna came up to it.

Luna struggled to keep her face straight as she asked, "Didn't you hear? She was killed in a shooting between two gangs in mid July."

"Oh, I'm so so-"

"Look can you just put my bag in the back while I'm fighting?" She interupted "I can pay you if it's any trouble." She signed through her nose, she did not want his grief.

"Sure." Was the only thing he said as he took the satchel off her while she slide twelve thousand won across the counter.

Reeking of stale beer and unwashed bodies just as Luna remembered; worse from the inside. She'd been in the Vaults before with her Mum, an agreement with Man-Shik to look after her while she went to work seducing the lowlifes and career criminals that packed the place for the first time. She wasn't allowed in, being too young at the time; her only access was peering in. But she was sixteen now.

Bawdy singing was all around her, no cheers nor moans because the first fight of the night was about to start. Male bodies bumped into her as she decended to the pits edge, no railing in sight. If anyone fell into it they were fair game so everyone stood back a couple of steps. Man-Shik was in front of her, dreads now down covering half of his tattooed back. He was a co-owner of the Vaults and usually set up the fights in the pits.

He stopped at the edge and gazed at the girl already in. She was taller than her and probably a few years older. Luna stopped beside him and spreaded her arms and legs.

"Okay the rules are no weapons," he explained over the sound of the crowd, patting her down searching for concealed weapons. "No blows to the face, I don't need parents asking around, why you're all bruised and bloody. Keep it to places that can't be seen." Fair enough. "Last of all no killing, I will declare when the fights over. I am not having a child's death on my hands either. Got it?" Luna nodded, eyes on the girl already down there. The fights between the adults (twenty one and older) can be fights to the death but that only happens with the best of the best. "Good."

Luna dropped into the pits.

Shoving open the heavy apartment door, Luna stumbling inside. She was back in her uniform, switching in the bathroom at the loby bathrooms.

Her face was already bruising, the first girl she fought had thought it would be fun to ignore the rules, a small cut on her chubby cheek from the ring she worn. Even though she won the fight, the girl got in a few good hits before going down. One including a nice hook into her the right side of her rib cage. She was lucky it was not broken, nonetheless it would bruise badly.

As she limped into the longue room the kitchen lights snapped on, just a few metres to the right, revealing her "Dad" in sweat pants and a t-shirt. He stormed towards her, brows and arms crossed.

"Where in the hell have you been?" Quiet but stern to not wake up Dahyun, her half sister. Luna didn't answer. "What happened to your arm?" He asked, taking in her battered body.

Luna had fought in three fights. The last one ended in blood shed as the nineteen year old had a hidden knife in her boot. When she had charged her, Luna dodged enough to not have it slice but she stupidly had her arm up as if it were a shield. Thanks to Man-Shik, he patched her up with his store supplies, free of charge. The bandage was bloodied.

"Never mind, I don't care. Next time you want to be reckless think about how it will appear on my end, you !" Luna kept her temper on a tight leash. "What are your teachers going to think when they see those bruises on your leg and face, huh? I don't even want to begin thinking of where else you've got bruises."

Before the last girl had gotten out her knife she had slamped her muscular leg into Luna's thick thigh, close to cracking it. It already left a line bruise, similar to the shape of a foot.

"I'll wear tights." Was all she said.

"Like hell that'll happen! We've still got summer weather and you'll just end up taking them off." Her Dad began pacing, his big hands on his hips. "What in the hell did that mother of yours think when raising you?! ing street rat." The insult a mutter.

"And why was that?!" She began yelling, unable to leash her temper anymore. "Your family tried to bully her into abortion and adoption! She lost job after job because of being a single mother. You too much of a prick to help raise me! YOU DIDN'T EVEN SUPPORT US! HER LAST OPTION WAS PROSTITION!"

He had no right, absolutely no right, to judge her and her mother for what they had to do to survive the year they became homeless. Luna didn't even know why she even bothered to give the ignorant man an explaination, it was none of his business.

"What's going on?" A little voice came from the doorway of the third door out of the four that lined the back wall of the apartment.

Duhyun rubbed her dark eyes, yawning like a feline. The eight year olds' skin was pale like hers but her hair black, like her mum and dad, a fringe covering her eyebrows that Luna knew were straight. The onesie she wore designed as a black cat which Luna drew her in about five times switching between anime, chibi, disney and realistic. Duhyun could easily be a cat girl just without the ualisation that comes with them.

"Sorry Duhyun, we didn't mean to wake you. I'll be in there in a second, okay?" Duhyun just nodded, too tired and young to question anything. "Go to bed Luna, you've got school in about six hours. You cannot be late." She turned to the first door on the back wall before he said, "You're grounded, I want you come here straight after school. No where else!"

She kept her face neutral as Luna went to her room, too tired to argue any further. When she collapsed into bed she fell asleep before she could take off her shoes.