Chapter One : Friendship Is A Violent Game.

                 THE ALLEYS OF Gangdong reek of week-old urine and cheap alcohol. Myung Ah-yi tries to subdue the stench with the smoke from her cigarette, the bitter taste sticking to her slowly yellowing teeth and staining her tongue with adulthood.

Beside her, Jang Sun-hee wrinkles her nose, walking close enough to the older girl so that their shoulders brush against each other.

The dull lampposts flicker and fade, hiding the unknown liquids staining the concrete and the flies that buzz around the large bags of trash that litter every corner. Crickets chirp their incessant noisy lullaby as the city sleeps within its crumbling walls.

Ah-yi exhales a small breath off to the side, coating the cramped road with a thin cloud of smoke.

"That's gross. Put it out." Sunny whines in annoyance, glaring at the cigarette jammed between Ah-yi's pointer finger and thumb.

The cat-eyed girl merely taps the singed butt, letting a few stray ashes fall to the floor in a heap of burned-out fumes.

"Ah-yi!" Sunny repeats louder. She grabs her friend's arm, and the cigarette goes tumbling to the floor.

"What the fuck?!" The girl snaps at last, shrugging Sunny's touch from off her body. She stares at her fallen cig with a longing look in her worn eyes.

"Oops." The taller teen says as she peers at the slowly rotting death-stick. A sly smile pulls at the corner of her lips, but she feigns ignorance when Ah-yi fixes her with a shriveling stare.

"Stop grabbing onto me." Ah-yi grumbles when Sunny tries her luck entwining their arms together.

A cold gust of wind blows through the alleyway. Sunny shivers, and against her better judgment ( or lack thereof, she should say ) snuggles closer to Ah-yi's constant warmth. The sun has already set beneath the deteriorating buildings and marred floors, illuminating the city in dim lights and the buzz of Gangdong's nightlife.

That is, Hostel.

"It's freezing out here." Sunny wipes her reddening nose against her cold fingertips. "Where are we headed, anyway?"

Ah-yi lets her heavy exhales form a cloud similar to that of her cigarette smoke. She doesn't bother turning to look at the foolish girl beside her. All Sunny should worry about is keeping her psychotic tendencies in check.

"This is the best place to get picked up by runaway fams." Ah-yi explains with a small sigh. "Most of them take in girls because they can get their way with them."

Sunny's expression goes sour for a moment.

"It's fine. They won't touch us unless they want to lose some fingers." The older teen assures, fidgeting with the switchblade she pickpocketed from an unsuspecting man on their way over here.

"Scumbags." Sunny mutters. "And they call themselves a family?"

The taller girl soon forgets her anger and instead stares wistfully up at the star-dotted sky, the thick plumes of clouds obscuring what could've been a myriad of constellations for her to trace over.

Incandescent bulbs dull the natural glow of the moonlit night, illuminating soft circles outside of the battered alleyways. The further the girls trek into the abyss, the more the light begins to fade. Soon, they are engulfed in almost complete darkness.

Sunny, who is faint at heart when she is not tearing her victims limb from limb, clutches Ah-yi's sturdy arm, allowing the older girl to guide them through the dark.

She's like a cat, Sunny muses with a small smile. Nocturnal.

When the silence engulfs the two teens, and Sunny can no longer bear the itch that claws at her stomach, she pipes in random nothings to keep the lingering suffocation from swallowing her whole.

"Are we there yet?"

Ah-yi wants to pinch the bridge of her nose and snap at the other teen to just shut up, but she holds her tongue, taking a few breathers.

Reminiscing over the ill-fated words of her anger management teacher, Ah-yi counts to ten and evens out her breathing. She thinks of happy things like sharp objects and a steaming pot of ramyeon with the egg in, just the way she likes it.

She replies to Sunny in a simple, effective way. "No."

Ah-yi doesn't add in what she wants to say ( 'So quit your whining before I ditch you to fend for yourself' ), although it does tempt her heavily.

They walk the rest of the way in silence. Soon, the thin winding twists of the alleyways open forth to the small, cramped windows and iron doors of small apartment-like houses.

Ah-yi finds the one she's looking for with ease; A thick gash of white is drawn on the door, courtesy of the foul-smelling paint that begins to peel off. Even through the thick metal, the two girls can smell the stench of alcohol permeating the hall.

Ah-yi knocks thrice. The crickets grow louder in the echoing silence of the night, and Sunny stands awkwardly behind her friend, using her almost as a shield.

A slightly buff man wearing a tank top opens the door. There is a yellowing line around the fraying collar, and he reeks of alcohol.

Truth be told, Ah-yi doesn't remember his name very well. She doesn't even think he ever gave it to her in the first place. When they first met, Ah-yi had been around fourteen. He had been seventeen, and they had met on the busy Gangdong streets, bearing nothing but their names and their dirty old habits.

The boy — Or man, Ah-yi should clarify — Grins broadly, exposing a set of slightly crooked teeth.

"Ah-yi!" He cheers, drunkenly leaning against the door. Ah-yi has never minded his drinking habits.

At least he never laid a finger on her, drunk or not.

Relief settles in the teen's stomach. She had been afraid that the man had found a new home in the time that she had been gone, but he remains settled into the same place.

"Dad." She nods her head in acknowledgment. It is an unspoken rule, although many choose to share it, that the providers of the house are called Dads, and nothing else.

Dad hiccups slightly, swaying as he struggles to stay upright. He focuses his bleary eyes on Sunny, who watches him with pursed lips.

"Did you bring a friend?" He slurs.

Ah-yi glances back at Sunny. "Yeah. We both got released at the same time."

"How was juvie?" Dad asks as he makes way for the two to pass through the door. "Come inside, before any of the other fams see you."

"It was fine." The older of the two girls huffs. She takes her time looking around her old safe house. Everything is virtually the same.

Empty soju bottles litter the wooden coffee table near the singular couch, which carries eons of old memories — Ah-yi's continuous battle with her math homework, the unremovable stains of throw-up or grease from late nights spent sharing stories and a box of cheap jjajangmyeon.

She kicks a crumbled plastic bag to the side as she walks through the tiny living room. There seems to be barely enough room for the three of them.

Ah-yi cannot believe she and four others had once shared this dingy little house.

"Where's everyone else?" She asks as Dad settles into a small chair by the table, gathering himself a final bottle to nurse as he stares off into the distance through bloodshot eyes.

"Gone." He shrugs. "Either they found better fams, or they went back home. None of us are in touch."

Ah-yi purses her lips. All her old memories seem to feel lesser as she realizes that there is no one left but the man before her to share them with.

( She feels sorry for a moment. Where are those who once dressed her wounds now? Did they find happiness, or did they die on these very streets trying to achieve something that is beyond them? )

Dad doesn't talk about the old days after he takes another swig of his bottle. Instead, he launches into a long, detailed explanation of how the upper bosses of Hostel have begun to demand more from runaway fams, and how he has already started searching for a new family willing to accept him without having to sell his body.

"Being a runaway teenage girl is easy." He slurs, the beginnings of tears dampening his eyes. Ah-hi wants to knock some sense into his empty head. "You can join whatever fam you want, as long as you bring in money."

"Yeah, only after being completely used for said dirty money. Grow a pair, jeez." Ah-yi wrinkles her nose.

"This place reeks." Sunny mutters from Ah-yi's side. It is the first thing she's said since walking into the house.

"Don't like? Don't stay." She snaps in annoyance. The taller frowns and seals her lips.

"I can let you guys stay until I find a new fam to take me in." Dad pauses. "Unless you guys can make me money? C'mon, Ah-yi, you were damn good at it."

"Fuck no." The short-haired girl sneers. "If I get caught, they're sending me to prison, not juvie. I'm staying under the radar for the next few months."

Ah-yi reminisces about her days as a pickpocket, stealing from unsuspecting passersby and even other runaway fams. Dad had never made her do anything crazy like the other fams, who forced their girls to sell their bodies for easy cash, so she had stayed and made good money for them in exchange.

"Did you take anger management classes during juvie?" Dad asks suddenly, his attention diverted to Ah-yi.

She crinkles her brows and stares at him through narrowed eyes. "Yeah, I did. Why?"

"Could've fooled me." He says, closing his eyes and letting a hearty laugh slip past his lips. Soon, he begins to snore, and Ah-yi knows that the alcohol has finally taken its toll on the man.

"How is he twenty-one, still caught up in this runaway shit..." Ah-yi grumbles as she wipes the lip of the leftover soju bottle and downs the rest. The alcohol sears her throat.

She had forgotten the taste of the forbidden after her straight-laced life in the detention center.

"This is seriously where you lived?" Sunny asks as she frowns at the sight of the man passed out against the kitchen table.

"Beggars can't be choosers." Ah-yi shrugs.

( Sunny sighs. She feels out of place in a home that is not hers, with a girl who she thinks of as family ).

"Take the couch." The older teen motions to the old furniture. "I'll keep watch for any collectors."

Collectors are a big part of the chain of runaway fams that encompass the entire city. They collect the revenue for Hostel, allowing the network of runaway children to thrive beneath the shadows of Gangdong's grandeur from the puppet strings of an unknown leader that only ones close to the top have the privilege of meeting.

"Okay." Sunny agrees meekly. She has no trouble settling into the stained couch. Never in her life has she known the commodity of a bed, nor the soft caress of a pillow.

Jang Sunny is forged from cardboard cutouts and newspaper silhouettes, settled in a mound between thick alley walls and the large gait of a man who never wished to be called Father by the likes of her.

She curls into a ball at the disappearance of her friend, and whispers to herself that she will be okay.

In the corner of the room, Ah-yi's so-called dad snores away. He glints in Sunny's eyes like a dormant beast, meant for her to exterminate. She holds her body closer to herself and resists tearing him apart. Ah-yi will be sad if he dies, she reasons with herself.

( Her stomach rumbles. Now Sunny is hungry and annoyed. She hates that she is the only one without anything to return to ).
‎

‎

‎

‎

‎

‎ ‎

‎

‎

           WHEN SUNNY COMES to, Ah-yi and the man are sitting by the table, talking in low voices. She doesn't care enough to stretch from her ligaments the curiosity she once held, and instead settles back against the couch like a sunbathing cat awaiting the morning sun.

She stares at the blank ceiling with keen disinterest, tracing her eyes across the bumpy patterns of thick paste holding the foundations together.

The scent of breakfast does not greet the stale air surrounding the booze-hazy walls of the safe house. Instead, only the buzz of short conversation bleeding through the short attention span of the girl's mind keeps the room a steady blank in her vision.

Sunny turns back to face the old and worn couch, ignoring the dig of her limbs against her ribs. She curls deeper into herself, pushing her fingers into white-knuckled fists.

Eventually, the whispered conversation ends, and Sunny pokes her head over the couch to peer at her friend.

"Rise and shine, Hagrid." Ah-yi snickers as her eyes take across the den of tangled hair starched to Sunny's scalp.

She combs her fingers through the knots in her hair, trying to tame the mass of static strands to their regular volume with a pout.

"No breakfast?" Sunny scratches the base of her neck, smoothing her irritated skin.

"No breakfast money." Dad pipes in with a small shake of his head. Sunny turns to stare at him. She had forgotten he was still sitting there.

"But I'm hungry." The youngest protests, her stomach growling in agreement. She fixes her eyes on her friend.

Ah-yi purses her lips. She knows that if it ever comes down to it, Sunny would eat anything. The bloody piece of cartilage dissolving in her stomach acid is more than enough proof of that.

"You're such a whiny baby." Ah-yi snarls, but her fingers are already curling against her discarded jacket. "If you want food, you're gonna have to work for it."

"Make sure you guys get back soon." Dad sighs, groaning as he presses a hand to his throbbing temple. "I have a meeting with the new fam in a few hours."

Sunny ignores his obvious discomfort, already dressed and ready to go. She had slept in last night's clothes, having nothing else to change into.

Her stomach rumbles once more.

"I'm craving fried chicken." She smiles as she follows Ah-yi outside the house.

Like a sloth, her fingers curl tightly around the older's arm, nails digging through the leather jacket and clinging onto flesh. Ah-yi doesn't say anything.

( Better to let Sunny get her way than to incur another one of her tantrums ).

"You're such a bitch." Ah-yi sighs exasperatedly, her tone full of annoyance. Sunny grins.

"You're a bigger bitch."

Ah-yi shrugs her tight grip off. Sunny slips her fingers right back on.

It is only push-and-pull with those two girls, but at the end of the day, they are nothing more than incomplete and jagged halves trying to fit together amongst the ruins of a broken society.

‎

‎
‎ ‎

‎

‎

‎

‎

‎

‎

‎ ‎‎♱ AUTHOR'S NOTE !

my favorite psycho/anger issues duo is finally in the making !! didn't do their characters justice in this chap but trust in the future they will be more well rounded i promise !!

short 3k word first chap smt light before i forget and never end up uploading for this fic

just to preface this here in case it wasn't already obvious : sunny is NOT supposed to be a 'good' character 😭 i can pass ah-yi off as misunderstood and whatnot but sunny is genuinely not okay in the head and some of her actions are unjustifiable and that's the pointtttt !! love my girls as characters but ofc they're gonna be morally grey bc this is lookism and hostel arc so double homicide ...

slowly building up their friendship before introducing the actual lookism characters bc i want u guys to have a decent understanding of how their dynamics might plan out in the future

next chapter preview !! : ah-yi and sunny try to steal fried chicken and spend the day revisiting the city and trying to acclimate after being in prison for so long (mostly sunny since she was incarcerated 4 years ago)!! friendly interactions for the most part and maybe a smidge of angst/real life stuff bc it's still hostel and hostel sucks

stay tuned for the next chapter, which will come out hopefully some time in september ! not promising anything tho bc of school taking up most of my day

Q&A FORUM HERE !! drop any questions regarding the fic or just the characters in general here and i will respond to all of them in detail every 5 chapters to keep it interesting and to remember my characters and the plot

other than that pls lmk if there are any mistakes in the spelling or anything so i can fix it !

also don't b afraid to vote or comment, i will probably (very likely) reply!!!! and if you don't understand something, plsplspls lmk!! i want yall to fully understand what's going on :)

happy reads!

‎

─── ANNIE