Chapter Text
It was 3’am on a Tuesday night – the day rolled over into the night as it always does but here you were laying awake on your mattress and scrolling through your phone as a tiger would circle its enclosure. The rain pitter-pattered outside your window overlooking the rest of the Bar District. You had only been staying in Ijincho for a couple of months and managed to snag the upstairs room above the Survive Bar. Almost like a family favor or “family” favor if you will. The bartender – Boss, owed a lot to you and the circle you used to aid in the shadows of. Much to their chagrin, you always wanted to help out even when matters didn’t concern you and had you dancing the line between aiding criminals and being a concerned bystander. Even in school you were always operating out of your own honor and moral code, regardless, of how many tussles that landed you in. If you tripped into an alley where men were blockading a businessman until he paid a “toll” – you better believe that “toll” would be paid in the spattering of their own sputum on the pavement. Sometimes the falls would quite literally land you in trouble, but hey, what’s a little fall if you break it and break someone else’s bones that needed to be broken in the process? Medicine was one of your areas of interest, but you never had the gumption to stay in school long enough to become a doctor or a nurse. DIY First-aid was your specialty. Online classes for any degree seemed cheaper than going the traditional board-in schooling route if you really had to get higher education. Society changed a lot from one generation to the next and the job market wasn’t anything like it was even in the early 90’s and 00’s so education, while seemingly required still wasn’t a guarantee. Always having a back-up plan and a back-up for the back-up with a few extra back-ups as well though seemed like the best way to try and adapt in a way that living would not be soul-sucking.
Despite your looks, you knew how to handle your own in a fight and if you couldn’t – luckily, you had the fortune of finding people who wouldn’t mind lending a hand or being quick enough on your feet to run or claim surprise victories. Being a latch-key little neighborhood vigilante as ill-advised and ill-suited to any higher-paying standard job worth its salt led you to amazing people and some hilarious stories in the right company. Either you were a magnet for trouble, or you just so happened to be born unlucky enough to always be in the “wrong” place at the “wrong” time. This kind of life wasn’t one you ever regretted as hard as the going got.
You absentmindedly scrolled through your texts
Up-and-down
Up-and-down
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Up-and-down
*press* Your thumb slips
The group text with the two contact bubbles reading JG and ZT opened up. No new messages. Same old texts from last Thursday. Just the three of you sending images of cats you saved off the internet with some real images of them from walks spliced in. You sighed but understood both Zhao and Joon-gi were likely occupied with their own employment to have the time of day to talk to you. They dropped into the bar while you were the only one operating it Saturday night and Zhao had packed a mini-cooler of homecooked dishes – we’re talking eggplant stir-fry, braised pork, beef baozi, and sticky rice dumplings. He knew you enjoyed hot and sour soup back in America when you were growing up so with all willing, he would try really hard to bring some over to you on the downlow. It was a pretty easy soup to make when you had the right ingredients. The way to the heart was through the stomach or so they say. The three of you ate together once all of the closing duties were done and the leftovers you knew you wouldn’t get to during the week were diligently packed into the freezer you had in your own room’s fridge. Boss never really spent much time upstairs and respected your privacy once the area became your quarters. He became a bit of a father figure, but you also knew that if you stuck your nose too far into trouble and happened to lose it – a few key individuals would run the risk of sticking their own necks too far out on your own behalf if they were around.
That old adage about food though must be true though or else he wouldn’t have managed to reach both your heart and Joon-gi’s in the world’s most unexpected romantic trio. The relationship though just felt right – as if that was one piece of the puzzle that linked all three of you together – locking off unsecured edges and tying together floating pieces. You chuckle knowing that having been “official” for a little over a month still had its own upcoming landmines in the form of figuring out how to break the news to Boss in a way that multiple heads would not roll. Not yours but the man known as Joon-gi Han already died once – lord do we be the reason he dies a second time? Dead men walking really shouldn’t be as frequent an occasion to hear about but keeping secrets comes with the territory and at some point, you just accept it and shrug. Questions are a rare commodity and must be used wisely. Your continued survival likely resulted in no small part from the ability to have enough knowledge to know when you could have the privilege of being nosy or if being nosy would land you in boiling hot water.
Zhao was pretty cool too, and he could cook. And he could pull off whatever possessed him to rock basketball knee-shorts and tights. Watching him fight, you think you got the vision though. It was a surprisingly comfy pairing that didn’t restrict your movement but also provided minimal yet important protection and warmth for the leg real-estate that went uncovered. A unique spin on your stereotypical biker-gang goth bad boy if he was forced to breakdance out of gym class and upgraded his wardrobe with flashy patterned shirts to follow him into adulthood. If it was a fashion crime it was just another drop in the bucket-list of whatever charges he’s likely racked up over the years. Honestly, though if push come to shove you could likely argue for bail on technicalities at whatever fashion court must exist. It had been years since you absentmindedly absorbed that one TV show telling people what not to wear. Zhao has color/ patterns/prints/ and texture down so clearly; he’s doing something right? Thoughts of if you actually have any lawyer-ing abilities in you or just the bold self-assured confidence you can always make things work out somehow are a good enough distraction for your mind to wander in. Being a well-rounded paradox of a human being was your specialty and the rules were just suggestions for the smart, the rich, and the fools.
Zhao and Joon-gi you gathered had been passing ships in the night during certain criminal underground meetings and it wasn’t until they joined Ichiban Kasuga – the hero of Ijincho’s merry crew that they really had the chance or even freedom to speak to one another. Joon-gi usually stood in the corner as a guard for his boss? Sister? Boss-sister? Seonhee. Zhao quipped that was pretty much the truth of the matter, and he was a pretty intimidating looking pit-bull. However, if you really knew pit-bulls that had the chance to be raised right and in a home with enough love and care, they were very devoted and loving beings, so Zhao hit the nail on the head going past the unfortunate misunderstandings the general public had developed about them as a breed over the years. Word on the grapevine the original was more of an arrogant poodle or a Pomeranian. Joon-gi figured that Seonhee liked you more than she liked him – you would at least appreciate his coffee brewing skills and Seonhee didn’t have the same frightening power over you or Saeko. Seonhee wouldn’t come by Survive Bar hardly any since it was difficult to pull herself away from her own duties with Geomijul, however, she did find a strong opponent in darts and a fun person to talk to when she had enough and needed to get out somewhere in the rare instances that she did visit with Joon-gi in tow – often just for you more than what the bar actually offered.
Zhao had retired his main leadership of the Yokohama Liumang by the time you needed a place to stay in Ijincho and consequently got introduced to Ichiban’s crew as a new helper at the Survive Bar. Zhao still kept his ties though and is more like a VP with the Geomijul and Liumang being merged together in a more or less understood unity while also cooking at You Tian off of Ijin Street.
Boss retrofitted a privacy curtain for the bedroom area upstairs so you could just quietly chill in your wrapped off portion of the room if the space was really needed for discussions. The privacy curtain was a bit more protection considering the paper doors of the tatami room weren’t filled in. Generally, the booths in the actual establishment were all that was needed since the bar itself was a bit of a hole-in-the wall and both you and Boss had the ability to close it whenever the other wouldn’t be around. Income wasn’t plentiful but the two of you made do. Boss never spoke much about how his finances worked but you made sure the only thing he needed to worry about with your continued stay was that the bar was a place for you to sleep at. Not many places to camp in Ijincho that were safe.
You didn’t mind sharing and often weren’t upstairs long enough during the daylight hours for there to be much of an issue, at least in the initial ideas, anyways. Being nosy was always fun until it wasn’t – you always lived to tell the tale of the consequences of your actions though. Not to mention, you could always retreat to the rooftop. The signage on the roof for the acrobatically adept and the bold was some form of hand-holding security if you were hopping on the first layer of the outer roof closer to the ground or trying to hop and get your way up top to the roof proper where it was harder for prying eyes to see if you wanted to attempt to stargaze.
You’ve snuck out without letting Boss know you ever left your hideaway with fancy footwork and proper rolling into the dirt lot west of the main entrance. It was still a little bit of a drop but if you were determined you could also take advantage of a little section on the northeast to drop down from. The pipes and railings for everything were extremely well-made and sturdy – it would just look weird if you got caught climbing around during daylight hours or when nightlife was especially bustling. There was never anything he kept you from doing per se but you liked the freedom and it did build adrenaline and suspense, wondering if he would ever catch on. Being like a cat or a ghost, maybe even a bird if you had to pick a third thing to be likened to kept you from being bored and gave you enough practice in not being seen or notable enough for others to drag you into trouble even when actively involving yourself in it. Anyone that knew you and your face was never an enemy – at least not for long if you could help it.
You still chuckle thinking about when introduced formally to Ichiban’s crew – there was a near collective jaw-drop as they assumed you were his biological child. He was an old man but surely, he wasn’t that old? Well really, the dates could line up if you squint and think really hard about it, but your general timeline wouldn’t make sense with what life he lived before. DIY First-aid for old guys was not anything new to you though so being an occasional check-in nurse (fudging some credentials) would have been an acceptable guess. Poor man wasn’t afforded many ways to roll out of the jests with grace but you did your best not to add to much to it. He didn’t necessarily want you hopping right in with the crew – knowing that adding you into Ichiban’s rag-tag bunch was just another way you would wind up brushing with the criminal underworld even if all of the people in his crew seemed to be good at heart. Really the only two he would wholeheartedly approve of and could hope for you befriending was Sae and Eri. Eri wasn’t around often though and when she was – she kept her nose in the computer doing business reports. He wished for your sake at times you would be like that though… but nope it was always adventure ahoy! Full steam ahead!! Sae herself didn’t really have much ties and he just couldn’t see you befriending anyone else (he thought wrong though). You love people and you love hearing their stories. Does not help you rarely had many friends your own age either so there was an ease in worming your way up to becoming acquainted with them all. Boss’s back keeping him from opening the bar some days also worked in your favor just because while glares couldn’t kill (yet) – Zhao trying to joke with you in particular if it seemed like it was getting flirty (you’re painfully dense at times – just like a certain assassin) would be shut-down with a cough and a knowing glare.
Joon-gi was very reserved so he really would not interact with anyone unless spoken to first or if the conversation was interesting to him. He came into the bar early one day when the Boss couldn’t make it and you were cleaning the piano. You were caught in the middle of a beginner’s attempt at Chopsticks goofing off not having much actual experience. You could read music but never played the piano to have learned what notes the keys were at the time. He told you it sounded pretty, and you told him he must have terrible hearing. A smart move though as you rarely heard him speak so he must be regarded as a strong listener. He grinned lightly amused and said it might be to something like that effect. It broke the ice though and made you seem more approachable to him. There wasn’t anything important left to clean so you pestered him into trying to play since he claimed he had to take a couple of lessons growing up (half-truth). The two of you managed to make a few hours fly by idly conversing until everyone else could actually make their way over. You didn’t seem fixated on his handsome looks but did have interest in his silver hair just from being curious about the actual amount of effort it took to maintain and the actual products he used so he lowered his guard a bit more having been used to just making conversations the times he would moonlight as a host at Stardust (keeping that to himself – of course – he tries not to speak about his past often). The only people that knew his actual birthname in Ichiban’s crew was Ichiban himself and Zhao. You wouldn’t be told later until after your romantic triad formed.
The crew didn’t always hang out fully together every day, but it seemed important enough that everyone got together at least once or twice a week to figure out certain plans and training just because while life wasn’t as high stakes when Ichiban and the gang were fighting against the former governor of Tokyo, Ryo Aoki. Bleach Japan dissipated and there was a certain kind of criminal corruption leaking out from its corpse. Terrible organization that really harmed those that couldn’t fend for themselves under the guise of “moral good.” Against that fact, sometimes it would just be one or two people looking for a drink or a place to unwind, sometimes actual customers but not often. Some days you and Boss would be joking with Ichiban, Nanba, and Adachi. Other times you would be pouring drinks for everyone and chatting with whomever came in alone. Early on while getting yourself familiar with Ijincho and tending the bar alone, it came up in conversation that you believed you knew your way around a fight and could handle an occasional run-in with thugs that just wanted easy pocket-change. You and Ichiban were more similar than not which made you an easy addition to the crew even if Boss sighed a bit but let you be on your way since they still could pose for decent enough friends and let you learn the lay of the land while also keeping you from getting into too much trouble alone. Wandering from one place to the next and really only settling down as your interest allowed or whatever else kept you tied to one spot was your usual modus operandi. If there was something interesting going on, then you would find yourself staying in the same city or returning to old haunts.
Inviting people upstairs just to chat when the bar was actually busy wasn’t second-guessed in the small space allowed. There was a hallway upstairs with a door you could lock from the entry-side that led to the roof and to a small bathroom and laundry unit luckily enough. The bathroom had a sink, a large shower, and a small walled-off toilet room essentially. Not a lot of space for extras so you never had the space to build up lot of clutter. If it wasn’t something needed it would usually be packed away – ever the master of living in bags and organizing your clothes by laundry bagging. The bathroom would be an interesting employees-only bathroom if there was more than just you and the Boss. It made life easier though, having all the amenities just in case or if there was some sort of emergency where someone really needed to clean up.
The Boss would have let you stay at his actual residence but the space above the Bar was enough for you and you didn’t want to intrude anymore upon his generosity. So long as you had your needs covered, internet and the knowledge you could keep your phone and a laptop safe then what more was needed? Cooking was fine downstairs when there was not any business, and you could keep a compact microwave upstairs for use as needed – letting the top of it be a place to sit things on like it was a super low table. Unconventional living spaces and spending most of your time cozy on the floor was 100% fine. You could even stick a dartboard on the wall near your room’s entry door and just keep it locked to prevent anyone who would forget to knock from being hit in the face or worse! What else could you ask for?
In the interest of security, there was a few hidden cameras installed that let you see when people approached the employee entrance on the side of the building and get a decent glance at the front end. The footage was viewable from your smartphone only as Boss relied on you and if you ever moved, he could get you to change things over (free live-in tech support! Great add on to the tenant resume).