Chapter 1
Burning Blue
Round kicking the boy in the face we make brief eye contact before I send him crashing into the chain linked fence behind him. His two little followers, as I like to call them, rush to his side worried.
“What are you, some sort of monster!?” One of the followers shouts at me.
“Shut up Jin! That girl’s bad news... Let’s just get out of here!” The taller and obviously much smarter out of the three exclaims before the throwing the arm of the boy I injured not to long ago over his shoulder as they struggle to limp away. Glaring at their retreating figures I can’t help but feel another surge of anger boil within me.
“Who are you calling a monster? You three are as much a monster as Satan is!” I shout. Wiping the blood from my cheek I can’t help but feel nervous. “Crap... I did it again.” I mutter staring at the blood on my hand a little more than annoyed. “Why do I keep on doing this... Dammit!” Hitting myself on the head I hear panting and turn towards the sound. It was the stray dog! I smile at it sadly when I saw how much his tail wagged at the sight of me. "Want to come home with me boy?" I coo. The dog barks before jumping up on me happily, making me fall over laughing.
Slamming the door behind me and my new dog I see my dad staring down at me with his arms crossed in front of his chest disapprovingly. “You didn’t get into another fight did you? And what's that behind you?” He asks. Already use to these kind of talks lying had become easy to me.
“Nope, just fell is all... And this little guy um... He's my new dog.” I reply. He nods stepping down from where he was to get a better look at me and the dog at my feet.
“Well nevermind the dog... You look pretty beat up for having just fallen and there is so much blood on you!” He says not believing in my lie at all.
“Well it was a mother of a fall and when I fell I accidently pulled down some chicks skirt and a guy next to me had this major nosebleed...” I ramble knowing he wasn’t stupid enough to fall for that lie... Nobody was were they?
“LET’S GO AFTER HER! SHOW ME WHERE SHE WENT JISOO!” He yells getting that erted look on his face as he smiled off dreamily in the distance. Looking at what? I’m not sure, but I did know he was probably fantasizing about something rated R again. Suddenly he turns to me with an evil glint in his eyes and pins me in his famous headlock. “YOU MORON!” He shouts, “Just admit it! You got into another fight didn’t you?” Tightening his arms around me I claw at them in an attempt to pry myself free. “Why must you always brawl?”
“Let go off me you old bag!” I yell ticked that I had to go through this for the one hundreth time. He let’s me go, surprisingly enough, and walks silently up to the cross that hung on our church wall.
“Fine, whatever I let you go and I'll let you keep the dog but... Do you want to hear something interesting Jisoo?” He asks in that high and all knowing voice of his. I wave a hand dismissively behind his back kind of glad he let me keep the dog.
“Yeah, yeah... what is it?”
“Your boss just called.” I tense up already knowing what was coming next, “They said they had no use for a worker that never even showed up to work!” I groan practically slumping over.
“Yeah well you see... That whole work thing it’s just not working out for me.” He turns to face me with a frown planted on his face. A frown... That's all I ever seem to make him do.
“Oh grow up will ya? One of these days you're going to have to leave this church and get a job, so as your guardian I’m going to see that you do so!” He says as if he actually thought his lecture had an effect on me. With a prompt ‘hmph!’ I turn away sulking.
“Dad, I’ve finished my packing. All there’s left to do is carry out my things.” I hear the familiar voice of my older brother Eric. Heard of saved by the bell? Well, Eric has just become my bell.
“Well done son.” Our father says beaming brightly at Eric. Standing up I try to sneak off.
“Welcome home Jisoo! Got in another fight I see... And why is there a dog in the church?” Guess I spoke too soon about Eric, I think as I turn around to see him smirking at me.
“Oh can you just shut it!?” I growl. Laughter fills the room from almost nowhere and I see Dongjin and Seungmin picking up the bibles that were left out on the chairs.
“I swear for a couple of siblings you two couldn’t be anymore different!” Dongjin comments. I blush at being compared to my brother. “Your brother is already becoming a freshmen at Night Cross University with a full ride scholarship while your only accomplishment is causing trouble, trouble, and let me think... Oh that’s right trouble!” He continues. I look at my hands resting in my lap thinking just continue, see what’ll happen. “You should really straighten out your life Jisoo!” He adds finally as everyone bursts into laughter. I feel something hot at the back of my eyes. Tears? No, that was anger. Turning to Dongjin glaring I feel the burning at the back of my eyes get hotter and shout.
“I said SHUT IT!” And as soon as the words left my mouth something washed over me and the furnace that was right next to Dongjin burst into blue flames. The laughter stops immediately as everyone get’s a frightened look on their faces, even the dog looked scared less. Dad was the first one to react as I just sat there staring at the furnace dumbfounded.
“Gah! What in gods name was that? I told you we needed a new furnace!” He announces as if trying to clear something up, crouching down he exams the old piece of junk.
“Father Nam, there is someone who needs to see you.” Seungmin says as if he just remembered.
“Okay Seungmin... And you, Dongjin! Stay here and clean up this mess before our service begin.” He demands before walking off with Seungmin to go see one of his clients.
“Yes Father!” Dongjin says before scrambling to pick up the broken pieces of the furnace. I snicker at him glad I didn’t have to listen to the old mans orders like that.
“Oh and don’t think I’ve forgot about you Jisoo... Eric why don’t you patch her up so she looks decent.” Dad says before walking out. I swear I was glaring daggers at the mans back to have not noticed Eric calling for me.
“Hello, you in there? Let’s go!” I nod and let him pull me up.
“There...” Eric says smiling, “All done.” I look down at my hand and see them sloppily covered with band-aids.
“Bro you may be a genius but... You really at these kinds of things.” I say laughing. He cracks a smile before leaning back in his chair.
“So you gonna miss me?” He asks suddenly.
“Why would I miss you? I've got Kuma here to keep me company!” I say gesturing to my dog who lyed asleep in the corner after being fed.
“Well school starts in a week and I’m going to be moving on dorm. I won't be able to help you anymore.” He warns me. “That means you have to stop getting into fights and making Dad worry.” I nod.
“Okay! Okay, I get it! I don’t need another lecture from you too... So I guess that makes this the last time you’ll ever patch me up huh?” I say not noticing the sad feeling growing in the pit of my stomach.
“Yeah, but it’s for my dream...”
“You’ve always tried so hard for that dream of yours and even though you’ve never told me what it was I know you can achieve it.” Why am I being so corny? I swore it wasn’t my time of the month yet... must be the weather... Yeah the weather. Eric stares at me with a shocked face before he gives me a sort of pained smile.
“We can only hope...” He pauses before looking angry all of a sudden, “You need to turn your life around and stop making others worry! Why did you even fight today?” Oh great another lecture, and I knew that he was right too, that’s what makes me feel so small and like a little girl again.
“It was just that I-”
*Flashback*
Walking home I hear a weird sound. “What the hell was that?” I mumble while picking up the pace. In the distance I see three boys around my age shooting at something with their pellet gun. I smirk thinking that whatever they were doing looked pretty fun. As I got closer I saw them shooting at a shaking, defenseless, and definitely scared dog.
“Can’t believe how many of them there are around here! Strays are such a pain in my !” He says before shooting another round at the dog. It yelps causing me to go off.
“HEY! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?” I yell. The three look at me clearly annoyed and the punk with the earrings doesn’t hesitate to turn the gun towards my direction. The dog, taking a hint, darts off and away hopefully to safety. Turning my attention back up to the one with the gun he smirks at me before pulling the trigger. The pellet knicks my cheek making it bleed a little and even though it stung, I could handle it.
“Get out of my face! I’m just teaching these pests a lesson!” He yells back before turning back to where he thought the dog still was. Key word: Thought. He notices it gone and starts to look like he was about to run and go look for it. Growling at his persistence I just couldn’t hold back anymore and so I did the first thing I thought of... Something stupid, and I punched him in the face, right between his eyes.
*End Flashback*
“Well... Maybe this,” He starts before gesturing all around the room, “all of this is a test for you Jisoo.” I stare at him stupidly.
“A test from who? You? Dad?” Eric shakes his head.
“A test from God.” He beams. I can’t help but laugh at his enthusiasm.
“God huh? You sound just like the old bag.” I tell him. “Maybe that’s why he li-”
“Hey! That’s where you went!” Dongjin booms as he walks through the door. “I heard the convenience store down the street was hiring!” I shrug.
“Yeah, so?”
“Well we called and they want you down for an interview!” They did that for me?
“Wahh! Really!?” I ask strangely feeling excited. “But what would I wear? I haven’t worn anything formal since my elementary graduations!” I exclaim.
“No worries!” I hear someone call from behind me. Turning I see Sister Joo the only nun at our church standing there with short a little past the knees black dress. “This is for my nieces upcoming birthday but what will she know if it was worn.” Sister Joo says winking at me. Walking up to her I snatch the dress from her hand quickly embarrassed at even the thought of having to wear it. Holding it to my chest I try to resist the dumb smile that I know is about to spread across my face. Eric chuckles.
“So Jisoo... What’ll you do?”
“Well since you all insist!” I growl before running out of the room excited to try on a dress for the first time in six years.
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