Chapter Text
When I was ten, I listened to my parents fight for the last time. The screaming was so loud I was worried our neighbors would make complaints about it. I then heard a shout and something shattered. I remember cowering under my covers in fear. The shouts were so loud that my eardrums were ringing. I couldn’t even make out what they were saying—and I don’t think they could either—but something told me it wasn’t any good. Then, a door closes. I wanted to go and look at the aftermath, but before I could, my mother walked in. She gave me a small, tearful smile when she saw my head peek over the blanket. My mother walked towards me and hugged me. And from there, I knew that something had happened and, because of it, nothing would ever be the same again.
That day, I lost both my mother and my father, and I didn’t even know it.
Growing up without one of your parents was not the best thing in the world. Hearing whispers from other children with a “proper family” about the weird girl with no father wasn’t a lovely way to go day by day. The pitying looks from all the aunties and other adults in your life were tiring. And as I got older, whispers turned into outright bullying. I wasn’t sure why not having a father figure was such a hoot for other kids. I surely wasn’t hung up about it. However, it eventually reached a point where I had to start defending myself. It started tame, a rough “fuck off” or a deep scowl. Then it got heavier. Getting pushed, kicked, or shoved. I would retaliate, but looking back, I think that just made them even happier.
I wasn’t the only one who was struggling, though. While I was getting bullied at school, my mother was fighting battles of her own. In real time, I watched my mother turn into a shell of a human. She slowly stopped being herself. She would smile less. Eat less. She only went to work and straight home. She never really left the house, and neither did I. We stopped doing things together. Just hanging out, mother and daughter, because we were all each other had. I would sit down next to my mother sometimes just to be near her. I wouldn’t talk because I knew she wouldn’t respond. I won’t ever know exactly what she was going through. But it hurts knowing that I never helped either.
In my 2nd year of high school, I got my first piercing, and when I came home, my mother didn’t even spare me a second glance. She would never know that I got it just for her.
Okay, not really “just for her”. More like, just for her reaction. Just to see her do something, anything. Yell, look in curiosity, shun me. Anything.
I ended up taking the jewelry out, and it eventually closed. And funnily enough, so did my hope of ever seeing who my mom was again.
Sometimes I would hear whispers from elders saying that losing her husband killed my mom inside. And all I could do while walking home was silently agree with them.
I really didn’t know how to feel about it all. Everything changed in the blink of an eye. How was I supposed to react? I wasn’t even given time to.
I left my house at nineteen. Freshly out of high school and with no plan after that. My mother died soon after, so I really couldn’t go anywhere else. The world saw me, a young, impressionable girl, and did what it’s known to do. Be life.
Now, did I mean to get involved with the things that I did? No. Not at all. However, once I did, it was horrifically annoying to get out. Will I get into the details? Nope, I survived; that's all you need to know.
Eventually, I realized the life I was living wasn’t the life I wanted to live. So I did what anyone would have done. I got a job. They were small things at first. Nothing too harsh on me. I worked in restaurants for a while and got a passion for bartending. The calm of making drinks while socializing with patrons was enough to make my days just a touch better. Yeah, sometimes there would be an unruly customer, but that was few and far between.
I decided that working at a restaurant wasn’t the exact scene for me. I wanted something exciting. Something fresh. Nah, I didn’t stop bartending, why would I quit something I liked? I just switched places of business. I got this nice place at a club. And it was going great. Hours are flexible, pay is great, and it’s conveniently near my place. Most of my co-workers are friendly enough. Keyword, most. I quickly found myself catching the attention of this annoying bunch. Work was going as usual, girls and guys alike were drunk out of their minds, and were talking to each other (or me) loudly. I was asked to bring out a bottle of an expensive beer for a promoter to take to his section, and once I did, I was going to return to my job before I heard this ear-splitting voice.
“Excuse me, señorita!” Loud words in English are followed by a man sitting down at one of the barstools in a way that would be charming if it were anyone else. And if Se-mi was into such boisterousness, alas, she wasn’t, so she looked at the disturbance up and down before scoffing. If the rude callout to her wasn’t enough to ruin all hypothetical chances that the man had with her, his appearance sure was. He wasn’t ugly by any means, no, it was just the way he carried himself. The whole “macho man” act wasn’t something Se-mi found herself creaming over at any point of the day. He was attractive at first glance. His clothes weren’t much to talk of, but most of the men here didn’t know how to dress anyway. He was wearing baggy pants with a neon yellow and green shirt and ugly ass shoes. There was a silver cross hanging from his chest. ‘Probably just to accessorize, no man of virtue would allow themself to look like that.’ What got her was his bright purple hair and colorful nails. ‘Well, at least nobody will ever lose him in public. He made sure of that, huh?’
Before Se-mi could even attempt to ignore him, the man noticed that she acknowledged him, and that must’ve been enough for the poorly dressed bum. He started talking loudly to her, while Se-mi just stared in confusion and slight shock at the man. Luckily, all her people had been taken care of, but now she was just wondering, who the hell does he belong to? Surely someone as bright as him didn’t come alone. However, Se-mi has been staring for far too long and blinks before questioning.
“Excuse me?” She squints at the man, and he stops talking for once at the sound of her voice.
“Señorita! I couldn’t help but notice you from across the building. Your radiance was blinding.” The man smirks at the expression on Se-mi’s face, most likely mistaking it for being flustered. Se-mi blinks. Once. Twice. She snaps back hopefully to get the man off of her already. “Yeah? You sure it wasn’t the LEDs and laser lights, or am I just that breathtaking?” She deadpans. Looking around, trying to find something to do. Hopefully, the response lacking interest would be enough to deter the annoying man.
Because the world is probably taking entertainment from this, it obviously wasn't. All the purple-haired man did was chuckle before talking again.
“Fiesty, I like that.” The fucker is still smiling. Despite wanting to hit the man, this does sometimes come with the job. The best thing she can do is try to change the subject from her to drinking subtly. “Are you here to hit on me or buy a drink?” Se-mi gives the loud man a blank look, leaning on the counter to look at him. Purple hair—as Se-mi has decided to call him—only chuckles. “Señorita, I want to get to know you. Or rather,” Purple hair pauses before giving her another damn smirk, and a wink. “Your name.”
Yeah, Se-mi has had enough of this guy. He must be drunk; there’s no way he isn’t. She looks around to find the promoter who asked for that bottle to give it to him, so she doesn’t have to talk to Purple hair over here anymore. Thankfully, the dude comes over, unfortunately for Se-mi, it looks like Purple guy knows him if the very loud “NAM-SU MY BOY!” was any indicator. She groans. The promoter–Nam-su, although she could’ve sworn his name was Nam-gyu, but oh well–lightens up when seeing the purple hair guy, and for a second, Se-mi hopes that he’ll take him and leave, but the Purple guy decides to do what he does best, and starts talking a mile a minute. Nam-su (gyu?) only looks at the guy as if he’s used to this and follows along, until Purple guy gets to the part in which he was flirting with Se-mi and looks at her and squints just a little.
Huh…for some reason, my neck feels quite stiff now. Whatever, it’s probably nothing, she fidgets with her lip piercing a bit.
“She’s being awfully selfish! Wont even tell me her lovely name Nam-suuu!” Se-mi hears an obnoxious whine and turns her attention from Nam-whatever the fuck to the purple-haired guy. You know what? She’s getting tired of referring to him as “purple-haired guy.” If he wants a name, he can get one.
“Fine,” Se-mi fully acknowledges the annoying guy. “What’s your name then?” Se-mi goes back to leaning her arm on the counter to look at the purple-haired guy. He blinks before going back to his act. No, seriously, Se-mi watched as something switched in his demeanor in real time.
“I asked you first.” He leans forward.
“I asked you second.” She leans back, narrowing her eyes at him. He squints back. While this is happening, Nam-gyu is watching the exchange with simmering annoyance. He just smirks, though, to give the illusion that he finds this interaction amusing and not incredibly aggravating. He’s aware of how big a flirt Thanos is, but damn it, it never got easier. She doesn’t even look like his type! For a woman, she’s incredibly masculine. Nam-gyu just sneers.
The two continue to stare into each other's eyes, mentally willing the other to break first; however, the purple guy must not have been familiar with Se-mi’s game because he broke first.
“Thanos,” the purple man said quickly.
“Se- Huh.”
Se-mi blanks at the man’s strange name; however, she’s sure that isn’t his real name. Unless it is, in that case, his parents must despise him. Thanos just smirks at Se-mi’s shocked expression. She coughs and repeats her name in full this time. ‘The name explains the hair and nails,’ she thinks.
Thanos laughs now that he’s gotten what he wanted out of the cute (and frankly, quite intimidating) girl. He continues to flirt some more despite her apparent disinterest. The obnoxious man talks for so long that even Nam-gyu was starting to lose his mind. Finally, after what felt like hours of the man talking about everything and nothing at all, he gets up to leave, but not without slipping Se-mi a paper with numbers on it (where the hell was he storing that?) After the two leave, the rest of the night goes on as usual. When at home, Se-mi lies down and thinks about what had occurred tonight. It’s not often she gets hit on, and when it does happen, she usually has to turn the guy (or girl) down; they never are her type anyway, and she’s not keen on having her time wasted. So she’s not going to text the dude. Hopefully, she never sees him again.
Again, her luck is abysmal, so you can only guess that isn’t what happened.
—–——————
Park Min-su has always been a timid boy. It’s been a trait that has stuck with him since childhood. He has never been the type to act out, but also wasn’t the type to put himself out there. His mother and father have always tried to coax him into doing things that will help him be more social, such as volunteering for easy jobs and attending unnecessary playdates orchestrated by his mother and her friends when he was a kid. He did everything they asked, but it never led to him making friends; instead, he was often taken advantage of.
Volunteering usually meant that other kids found someone mentally weak enough to take advantage of, and they always assigned their work to him. He wouldn’t fight back on it; he would simply mumble an agreement and get started. At school, it wasn’t any better. Min-su has always had above-average grades. Nothing spectacular in his opinion, but always noticeable. Because of his nature, Min-su has tried multiple times to be as quiet as possible. If someone were to describe Min-su, they’d call him a wallflower. Min-su would likely agree.
Unfortunately for Min-su, this little negative of his followed him into adulthood, much to his chagrin. He was quick to accept tasks even if he had no reason to. He quickly realized that people-pleasing would be the reason for his death.
Min-su never had any friends. Most people didn’t want to be around a boy like him, much less the company his presence brought, which was never much, but it was mostly bad. People didn’t want to be friends with a pushover, and he didn’t blame them. If he were anybody else, he wouldn’t want to be friends with himself either.
He was also
VERY
plain. Not memorable in the slightest.
And all of that is to explain why he is going into education. Teachers would watch as boys picked on Min-su, and every time he complained, he’d be shut down. They reasoned that he wasn’t being harmed. They didn’t want to start unnecessary drama with parents. Min-su should just ignore them.
The number of times a teacher told Min-su to ignore his bullies was depressing.
Min-su’s younger years were terribly bleak because of the bullying. And even now, they haven’t improved much. He doesn’t get bullied anymore—because who bullies people in college—but he still doesn’t have many friends. He was fortunate enough to live in an apartment near the college he attended. It was a nice little thing, nothing too fancy. It was located in a nice area with plenty to do, and there came Min-su’s first problem.
Remember when Min-su said he was plain? He is! Or, at least he thought he was. Once he reached adulthood, he was sure he wasn’t a head turner, looks-wise.
The club promoter who was currently attached to his hip didn’t think so, though.
Min-su was just coming back from the library, walking on the busy street leading up to his home, when he was rudely intercepted by a man in a casual outfit. He has a certain air to him.
At first, Min-su thought he must have been mistaken for someone else (he is very generic-looking) and looked at the loud man. He already feels the familiar, disgusting sensation of nervousness.
Fast forward, and now Min-su has a free spot at a club near his apartment building. Joy.
He tried to get the man off of him, or deny him, but the promoter was very persuasive and, believe it or not, Min-su will NOT turn down free alcohol.
The days leading up to his night out went as usual. He’d wake up, do business as usual, then sleep, and the days would repeat. Min-su guesses that in some way, this little club outing might be good for him. He doesn’t get out a lot due to the lack of friends and crippling anxiety.
Though he has no idea what he’s actually going to do when he gets there. Clubs are his scene, like, at all. He’s too awkward for such a place. But hey, it’s free alcohol. He doesn’t even know what he’s going to wear, but he digresses.
Just as he’s getting ready for class, he gets a text from Nam-Gyu (Promoter Guy) —he told Min-su to save his number just in case—asking if he’s still going. These guys (promoters like him) have sections in the club, and spots are very fickle things. Min-su shoots off a quick confirmation that he’s going; he kinda doesn’t want to, but he knows it’s time for a change of pace.
Min-su finishes texting Nam-gyu and finally leaves his apartment. It’s not often that he sees his neighbors. Be it that he’s never home, as he leaves the house early, but today he caught a glimpse of someone heading down the stairs. They (from what he could see) had short black hair and were just a little taller than he was. Just as the door was shutting, he caught sight of a long, flowy black skirt. Huh, he’s never seen them on this floor before. Whatever, just Min-su being reminded of his cripplingly horrible social life. God, he needs new friends. Scratch that, he needs friends.
The whole day, Min-su worries about himself. The prospect of actually leaving his house scares him. He’s worried that maybe whatever he’s doing might be the wrong move. He should perhaps text Nam-gyu that he actually isn’t going; it certainly wouldn’t be a significant loss. Just as Min-su reaches for his phone, he pauses. he should still go. Even if he hates the experience for the whole time that he’s there, he should still get out. He might even meet a friend.
Okay, it's decided; Min-su is going, and he will possibly enjoy himself.
—–——————
Se-mi is NOT enjoying herself. Today has been horrible. First, she was called into work today because someone had a last-minute emergency, which sounds like a load of bullshit to her, but she's angry, so everything is, causing her to abandon all plans for tonight.
Then her AC broke down (in what’s supposed to be the hottest damn week of summer)—causing her unit to be hot as hell. And the landlord isn’t answering the damn phone.
So she’s a little irked.
Se-mi’s so mad that she’s taking the stairs down to the ground floor. She doesn’t trust herself to be in an elevator right now; she might hit someone.
As she’s stomping down the stairs, she gets a text from Asshole .
> heard you got called in tdy. Must suck huh? 😭
says the guy who goes around harassing ppl<
what do you want<
>chillll chill
>was js wondering if u could hook me n thanos up tn
hell no<
>wtf why not???
cuz I don’t fucking feel like it namgyu.<
im not getting in trouble 4 u<
>looks like someones on their period 🤣
>wtv enjoy work tdy bitch
kys<
Se-mi closes her phone with a grunt. Texting Nam-gyu always leaves her agitated; and long with her already sour mood, she’s on the verge of being livid. Once Thanos had gotten Se-mi’s number (through what she can only assume were unethical means), Nam-gyu also got it. Her chats with Thanos were heavily one-sided, with Thanos being the only one texting her and her very scarce responses.
Nam-gyu is a little different.
For some reason that Se-mi could not explain, whenever Nam-gyu texted her, she had to respond. The conversations almost always end in a fight, though. Se-mi should block him—and Thanos, for that matter—but knocking Nam-gyu down a couple of pegs is quite fun, so his number will stay in her phone.
However, she does get tired of them asking her to unlock the private rooms for them. She could actually get into real trouble for that. And besides, Nam-gyu should have access, but he was being stupid and lost his privileges like a dumbass.
Something about sexual activities under the influence. Or whatever. And Se-mi is the only other worker in the building who actually tolerates Nam-gyu, allowing him access.
Ugh, she hates this.
>wtv enjoy work tdy bitch
kys<
fucking fine.<
don’t ask again.<
It takes Nam-gyu a while to respond. Probably harassing more people to come to the club. But when he did, it was just with a laughing emoji and a thumbs-up reaction. Fucking asshole.
Se-mi pockets her phone before exiting the apartment building. She walks across town grumbling. She can’t even be at her own home. It’s like a furnace in her apartment and she hates inactivity, so leaving to go do something is her best bet.
Se-mi will have a good day.