1:00

“Choi Haneul, get back here!”

The teacher’s enraged voice rang out to her, loud and clear. Taking short, quick steps, she used all her strength to scramble up and over the gate, feeling the wind in her hair like this for the first time.

The sky was right there above her and the sun was shining brightly, her body cutting through the wind as she raced down the street with all her might. She breathed in the fresh air and soaked in the sun’s rays, the school getting further and further away from her view. With her arms out and her hands outstretched, Haneul embraced the feeling of freedom.

This was the feeling she had always yearned for.

She ran as far as her two legs would take her, fearing that if she stopped, this freedom would be stripped from her. The freedom that she had been wanting to obtain for so long. It was finally within her grasp.

This freedom was probably what he had been thirsting for all those years.

Feeling a bit angry at herself for suddenly thinking of him, Haneul shook off her thoughts and worries and made it deeper into the busy city.

Haneul had always been seeking some sort of excitement in her life. All she’s known was how to dig her nose into complicated math formulas or sophisticatedly written texts. She’s always wanted to get out of that boring lifestyle and see something more. She knew there was so much more to the world than countless reference books.

She wanted to see the world.

Even if that meant going against her parents, the one who had kept her in a cage her whole life, she was willing to do it.

Despite it being the middle of a school day, the city was still bustling with many people, running here and there with their own businesses to attend to. While amazed at the city life, Haneul wandered around the streets with no clue as to what to do. It was her first time being in the city – not to mention ditching school – so she really had no idea where to go.

After countless hours of exploring the city inside and out, Haneul was positive she’d been down every street in that area. With her legs almost giving out on her, Haneul decided to momentarily rest at a small family restaurant.

The sky’s getting dark… she thought to herself, counting how much money she had on her. Thanks to the money for textbooks that she had yet to buy, Haneul had well over enough for a proper meal.

“What would you like to order?”

Haneul looked up at the waitress and before she could say anything, she was dazzled by the waitress’ beauty. The woman stood tall, her jet black hair hung over her shoulders like fine silk. The uniform she had on did nothing but flatter her perfectly proportioned body.

“Miss, your order?”

“Oh… Right.” Caught in the waitress’ extraordinary beauty, Haneul had forgotten what she had wanted to order. Quickly deciding on anything, the waitress offered her a smile and went off to serve another customer.

After waiting a good ten minutes, Haneul’s food had finally come out. She tried her best to stop from watering as the plate came closer and closer. Suddenly, her vision shifted somewhere else. The plate came crashing to the ground, causing everyone in the restaurant to look over.

“Look what you did,” said a man with his shirt covered in sauces from Haneul’s dinner. “You made my shirt dirty!”

The waitress from before lightly bowed. “I apologize for this accident,” was all she said before proceeding to clean the mess.

Haneul watched as the man squatted down next to the waitress and tilted his head. “How are you going to compensate for my shirt?”

Not looking up from the midst of her cleaning, the waitress replied coolly, “We could provide the money for dry cleaning.”

“Or,” The man smirked and edged in closer, lifting the waitress’ chin with a finger. “You could provide yourself.”

“Get your hand off her!”

The both of them looked up.

“Who’re you, brat?” snarled man as he stood up, facing Haneul.

“Leave, you disgusting ert!” Haneul exclaimed, fuelled not only by her justice for women but also the fact that her dinner – which took a solid ten minutes to prepare – was just intentionally ruined by some lecherous man.

His eye twitched. “What did you say, you brat?” He raised his fist and pulled back his arm, readying for a punch. The whole process took no more than two seconds but as if she knew, Haneul dodged the punch like it was nothing.

“I said leave!”

“You little…” Passing it off as a fluke, the man came in for a kick at the girl to relieve his anger. Haneul saw this too, but she lacked speed, raising her arms in front of her as her only defence. His kick sent her tumbling back, crashing into a chair. Before he could do anything else, the owners had taken action and security soon arrived, taking the man out of the restaurant.

Finally snapping out of it, Haneul immediately regretted gaining so much attention as well as unneeded bruises on her body.

“Are you alright?”

Haneul looked up and nodded, accepting the hand offered to her. The waitress from earlier pulled her up and gave Haneul’s clothes a quick dust.

“That was quite brave of you, kid,” the waitress said. “You had no idea who he was, did you?”

“A ert, that’s what he is,” Haneul replied, making a face.

The waitress laughed. “He may be like that but he’s actually the Head of a motorcycle gang.”

Haneul almost choked on her own spit. “E-Excuse me?”

The older woman let out another laugh, giving Haneul a slap on the back. “Relax, he won’t be coming back here anytime soon.” She looked around then turned back to Haneul. “You alone?” Haneul nodded. “Ah, ditching school now are you?”

Haneul shrugged. “I guess.”

The waitress smiled. “My shift’s going to end soon so as thanks for earlier, I’ll treat you to something nice! You got time?”

It wasn’t that bad of an idea so Haneul agreed. She had nothing better to do anyways.

“The name’s Ahreum by the way. I’ll meet you in ten.”

 

---

 

“How is it?”

“This is great,” Haneul cried, her hands shaking from happiness. “I should come here every day.”

“How old are you, Haneul?”

“I’m turning eighteen,” replied Haneul, gulping down a spoonful of ice cream. “What about you? You look about in your twenties.”

Ahreum sighed, spooning some ice cream off the edge of her cup. “Twenty, actually. I wish I’d stop aging already, I really hate it when my skin goes bad.”

Haneul stifled a giggle. “Your face isn’t what you should be worried about! By the time you’re fifty, your will start sagging you know.”

“Please stop,” Ahreum said, shaking her head. “This talk of the future is making me uncomfortable.”

The two continued to exchange a friendly conversation for the next hour or so, from one friend to another despite the fact they had just met, before realising how late it was.

“Shouldn’t you be getting home?” asked Ahreum.

“It’s okay,” Haneul replied. “Cram school ends at eight. I’ll go home then.”

“This area is a dangerous place at night. You shouldn’t be wandering around by yourself.”

“But the city is really beautiful at night, isn’t it?”

Ahreum half-smiled. “It really depends how and where you look.”

“I want to see the world,” Haneul said, finishing off her ice cream. “My parents have kept me from doing that ever since I was young.”

“Oh?” Ahreum arched an eyebrow. “You’re at that stage of teenage rebellion, aren’t you?” A smile suddenly spread on her face. “Do you want to see something interesting then?”

Haneul’s eyes widened as she placed down her spoon. “Interesting?”

“I’ll show you something very interesting.”

 

---

 

“Ahreum… What is this place?”

Haneul stood behind Ahreum and stared at the group of over fifty people gathered in front of her, some holding various types of weapons while others were barehanded. They all wore similar clothes that consist of either white or black clothes – mainly hoodies – and bandanas that were worn, covering half their faces. Even without seeing their face, Haneul could see their ferocious eyes looking at her and watching her every move.

Ahreum turned around and faced her. It took Haneul a while to notice that like the other fifty people, Ahreum also had a bandana tied around her neck, which had sat hidden under her jacket.

“This is a gang, Haneul,” a grin spread on her face. “And today, you’ll be witnessing a fight first hand.”

Before Haneul could say anything, the opposition had arrived. Dressed in a similar attire with slight difference in colours, the opposing gang gathered themselves in front of Ahreum’s gang.

“Ahreum! Get your out here!” yelled one person at the very front. “Let’s settle this once and for all!”

From the declaration, the opposition were riled up with an unbelievably high amount of morale.

Ahreum merely chuckled and waved at the other side’s leader. “We’re coming! Just make sure you guys don’t run off with your tail in between your legs, okay?” she said, blowing a kiss.

Haneul's whole body was shaken up by the exploding sound of cheering from Ahreum’s side. They yelled even louder than the opposition and somehow, that boosted wave of morale coursing through the entire gang gave Haneul goose bumps.

“Let’s start, guys,” Ahreum sang, as the opposing gang began yelling out battle cries and lunging towards the others.

“Ahreum!” Haneul grabbed onto Ahreum’s arm, with no idea what was happening. “H-How am I –“

“You won’t die,” Ahreum simply replied. “Besides,” the light in her eyes changed as she looked over at the boss of the other gang. “This will be over in a second.” The older woman smiled. “Just hold out until then.”

“But I-I don’t know how to fight!”

“You’ve got good instincts, kid. You’ll be able to survive until the end of this fight.” Seeing the scared look on Haneul’s face, the leader gave her head a quick ruffle. “Relax, it’ll be an interesting experience. Didn’t you say you wanted to see the world?” And just like that, Ahreum took off and threw herself into the sea of enemies.

Yes, Haneul admit, she did say that, but this was definitely not what she meant.

While being amazed at the way Ahreum led the gang, she was also terrified to the bone with absolutely no idea how to hold off until the fight ended.

“That one looks weak, get her!”

Haneul moved to the side as a fist came flying her way. Breaking out of her thoughts, she shifted her attention to the three members of the opposing gang in front of her. ‘’ was the only word that was circulating through her mind as the three of them glared menacingly at her. They came at her without giving her a second to think over her position, attacking relentlessly without mercy.

“What the hell is this ?” muttered one of them. “How can she dodge all our attacks?”

Haneul didn’t even know how she did it but dodging was about the only thing she could’ve done. She had also attempted a punch earlier but all it did was graze her knuckles and make her cry out in pain. Frustrated at missing all their attacks, one of them stopped and signalled for all of them to jump at her at the same time. Taken over by fear, Haneul knew that she definitely couldn't dodge anything this time.

Then, he appeared like lightning.

Unlike the others, the boy didn’t follow the same dress code – the bandana was nowhere to be found – and he didn’t commit to their colour scheme either. With a mere school uniform, he jumped in the midst of the opposing gang members and with swift movements, he beat them all down.

Terrified from her earlier gang up, Haneul felt her legs give out on her and she collapsed to the ground. She watched as the boy picked up a fallen stick next to him and with a single , he threw it straight at her. Haneul dodged it by a hair’s breadth.

Finding her voice again from the sudden attack, she stood straight up. “W-What the hell are you doing?! You could’ve killed m –“

“If you’re so scared, go home,” he said with cold eyes. “People like you don’t belong in these sort of places.”

Haneul gritted her teeth as he began walking off, looking for other opponents.

“Don’t with me…” Picking up the stick he had thrown at her, Haneul launched herself at the boy and attempted a swipe. He immediately dodged and turned around, catching the body of the stick as Haneul swang it at him again.

“What are you trying to pull, ?” he said, glaring at her.

Unable to pull the stick out of his grip, Haneul merely scoffed and gave him a kick to the shin. “Don’t go acting all high and mighty you , we’re the same ing age!”

She let go of the weapon and let out a frustrated sigh, looking around her at the battlefield. It was obvious who came out victorious between the two sides. Ahreum had already finished her fight long ago and was making a chair out of the opposition’s boss. Haneul met her eyes and the older woman smiled, as if she had seen what had happened.

“It’s almost eight, Haneul!” Ahreum called out. “You should get going!”

“Bye!” Haneul replied, giving a quick wave before turning away.

“Haneul!”

She paused and turned around again. “Yeah?”

“How was it?”

Haneul took a while to think. “It was interesting!”

Ahreum smiled. “I’ll see you again.”

“Yeah. See you next time!” Before she took off, Haneul scanned the area for the boy from earlier. She didn’t know what it was but somehow, she was quite drawn to him. She wasn’t sure if it was just his cute face, blonde hair or surprisingly suited tanned skin but she had the feeling there was more than just ice in his eyes.

It looked like they also held sorrow.

Confused at why she’d give an like him so much thought, Haneul quickly shook off the strange boy’s image and made her way home.

Still, she just couldn’t help but wonder if they’ll meet again.