"Mom?"

I enter the store, the envelope of money clutched between my fingertips. The bell sounds out a hollow ring as the door swings open and close.

My eyes widen.

"Mom!"

Shoving the envelope deep into the pockets of my jacket, I rush over to the counter. The two men standing over my mother is disgustingly familiar— it's the debtors, that had bothered us for years.

I harshly shove one of them to the side.

"What are you doing here?!"

Mom waves her hands frantically, fear flickering in her eyes as they turn to fix deadly stares at me. "Rin! Rin— quit that. They weren't..."

"We paid everything." I hiss, glaring up at the taller, broader men. "Get out. You have no right to be here."

One of them smirk. It's the one with blonde hair, all messy and grimy from dirt and ash.

"Ah, there's the prissy little girl we've been looking for." He says, elbowing his partner. When he smiles, I can see his teeth— all black from smoking so much.

He leans forward with an amused look.

"Girl, you're right. You two have paid all your debts. We're just here because we're very, very curious on where you suddenly got that massive sum of money."

"Even if you sold everything you owned, you couldn't have made all that money."

I hiss.

"That's none of your fucking business."

He laughs. It's a cold type of laugh, and I tense even further. I could already tell that nothing good was going to come out of this.

I can smell the smoke in his breath.

"Still as prissy as ever, aren't you?"

Mom screams when he slams a fist into one of the racks. Bags of chips and candy spill out on the floor as the entire rack crashes to the floor, with a screeching noise.

"I don't think you understand just how serious we are." The blonde one says, with a smile. "Just tell us where you got it from. It's that easy."

"Okay. Fine."

He gives his partner a satisfied glance when I say that. I wave him closer, pretending that I was going to whisper it into his ear.

I take a second.

"No, bitch."

Then I drive my fist into the side of his head in a fast hook— something that I'd learned from Aeri. I hit his temple, and when he stumbles, I brutally aim a kick where it hurts.

Now the other one.

He lunges for me. And I quickly dart to the side, laughing at him when he plows headfirst into another rack. Mom is yelling— it was all the things she was going to have to clean up later.

The other guy is slowly getting up too, cursing at me.

I had to get them both out of here. The inside of the small store is already a mess, and Mom was in here. I had no idea what these assholes might do to her.

So I make my best teasing face, sticking out my tongue and rolling my eyes upwards.

"Come catch me, losers."

I run out of the store. For a second I consider leading them to Aeri, but I think again and take a turn down the opposite street.

She was probably drunk and high about now.

And I was pretty confident I could outrun their slow asses, anyways.

Yup.

It's easy to put distance between us. As I run further, sometimes I slow down and get them even more angry so they just continue chasing after me like the dimwits they are.

"Stupid idiots!" I yell as I turn, running backwards. "Can't you run faster than that? Even my dead grandma can probably run circles around yo—"

My back slams into someone.

And the smile instantly dissipates off of my face as thick hands clamp around my shoulders. I look up into a face full of tattoos.

Another one.

How...?

"Got you, little weasel." He smirks, and I wince as his fingers press harshly into bone. "They're going to be very angry when they catch you."

Oh shit.

But struggling is useless. My heart starts racing faster when I see the two idiots around the corner, faces flushed and eyes wild with fury. If they caught me, I was actually done.

I bite down hard on the man's wrist.

He makes a surprised sound. For a second he lets me go— a second. He recovers faster than I think he will.

"You bitch."

He whips a heavy hand across my face. And I see stars as I stumble backwards, before losing my balance and falling on my bottom. I taste the metallic tinge of blood on my tongue.

Ow.

I hear the other two have caught up. Their footsteps echo right behind me.

I'm done for, aren't I?

And I brace for whatever that's coming when all of a sudden I hear them shout in alarm. My vision's in spots and I'm still trying to see straight when I realize they're fighting.

Fighting...who?

Then I hear the sound of bone snapping. It makes me flinch, curl tighter into myself. There's screaming that comes next— a low, choked sound of pure pain.

I still can't see. It feels like my brain has been knocked out of place from that hit, and I struggle to not just collapse flat out on the dirty concrete.

All these sounds around me.

What the hell is happening?

All I know is that I'm gonna be next. That's gonna be me next, getting my neck broken like a chicken.

I curl tighter, shivering.

Then suddenly, it's quiet. The screaming has stopped— everything else has gone silent.

Except for the sound of footsteps, coming towards me. It gets louder. Closer.

I brace for death.

But instead, I feel a soft touch against my shoulder. My eyes widen at the sound of a worried voice.

"Miss Rin."

My head snaps up. And my eyes struggle to focus on that guy— that guy from the restaurant. Jungkook or something like that.

"You're bleeding." He says tensely as he presses his sleeve to the underside of my nose. Then he tilts my head forward, like I'm some child.

"Did you get hit?"

A furious blush is slowly climbing up my neck. If I wasn't feeling so damn dizzy, I would've shoved him away and stuck a punch up his jaw just for treating me this way.

But the only thing I can do right now is snap.

"Obviously. It hurts like shit."

He's so gentle. And I hate it— it makes me want to throw up somewhere. Preferably on his shirt.

"Lean on me." He says. "Can you walk, Miss Rin?"

"Of course I can."

...not. It feels like the ground is spinning.

"No, you can't." He whispers. And I feel my body lurch as he lifts me off of the asphalt. My nose is still bleeding— I'm getting blood everywhere on his shirt.

"You'll need to see a healer." I hear him say, faintly. "How did you end up this way, with three men on your tail? This could've been dangerous for you."

I scrunch my eyes close. His questions were making me even dizzier.

"Shut...up."

At least he seems to understand.

"I'm sorry," He murmurs quietly. Then he falls completely silent, and the only thing I feel is the slight rocking of my body as he carries me away.

I catch a small glimpse of the scene back there.

The men are all motionless on the ground, body twisted in unnatural angles and blood spattering the ground underneath them.

So he's a fighter.

A really, really good fighter.

I glance up at his face. He doesn't even look affected in the slightest, from the things he had done back there.

He's done this a lot, hadn't he?