Chapter Two : Antonym Of Tragedy.

                 THE CONTINUUM OF another long string of days spent sitting in an empty box of shielded off concrete, hidden away from all things lively, haunts Jang Sun-hee still to this day.

It is apparent in her nature — That is, the nature of all humans — To want to hold and be held, to share bonds and warmth and to press cold bodies against each other in the hopes that some warmth might provide both with little relief.

Much like that of a rodent, who spends its whole life with its nose to the ground, searching for the equilibrium to a life without conundrum or consequence, Sunny yearns to see what she cannot reach, to have what she cannot touch.

And it is inevitable that she must tear herself apart, dig deep into the inner workings of a brain she cannot comprehend, a brain that malfunctions more often than it does its purpose, and extract from it the bitter remains of her sanity.

Jang Sunny is a monster. She knows it well. In her stomach sits a row of razor-sharp teeth, down her back is the coiled-up scales of a grotesque spine, and on her face is the biggest reminder of all — Precisely nothing. Jang Sunny is a monster capable of ruining everything, yet still she is nothing but an insignificant granule of dirt carried by the shoes of some Gangdong office worker.

( Like the mosquito that bears no consequence but carries with it a grave disruption, Sun-hee too sits between the collision of two evils, awaiting her purgatory with the rest of the sunken-eyed children of this sinful city ).

A worthless, fathomless entity craves a vessel to attach its parasitic fangs to, a body to bleed dry and to store safely, to watch and to admire every smooth and rough imperfection of the human carcass.

Sunny takes to Ah-yi like a parasite. She clings to the older girl's lifeline knowing that it is too fragile to carry the weight of a frayed string, and she pulls it taut in her own selfish desire to know what it means to truly feel a connection to someone.

Ah-yi vocalizes her complaints with the curl of her dark eyebrows, the pursing of her lips, the thick raspy voice and the harsh shoves and crass insults. Still, Sunny does not let go.

( She knows deep within herself, that what she lacks is not a heart nor a mind, but the cognitive capacity to connect herself to either or. Sunny finds herself the monster hiding the grotesquely empty interior she so desperately wants to fill ).

Violence is the spiral to which Sunny falls when she can no longer piece together the small bits and pieces of her perceived identity, when she feels that she is not Jang Sunny, a nineteen-year-old girl living wherever she can find a place to lay her head down, but Sun-hee, the small girl begging to hold her father's calloused hand that he reserved solely for his treasured son.

And so she tears apart what she can find, more often than not a limb of her own, a thin scar of rose-colored blood that trickles until inevitably it pools into a river of coppery liquid at her feet.

Jang Sunny can admit she is a monster. Although sometimes, she sheds that vile skin and forgets what being a monster truly means.
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      SECRECY IS OF the utmost importance when navigating the coils of street life on the early mornings of a Gangdong weekday. The condensed streets cry out for new victims, a new face to slap a mask on and make work until they are sick to their rotten bones.

Ah-yi and Sunny take leisure in their recanvass of the city, trying to commit to memory all that they have forgotten with the pull of time against their minds. The singular uniforms and thick cell walls still linger in their subconscious.

( Ah-yi will be damned if she ever goes back to that hell ).

Wearing clothes that have absorbed the faint smell of soju, the two girls hide behind the pieces of fabric when curious onlookers sneak peeks at their new faces, analyzing their structure as though to disassemble them. Neither Ah-yi nor Sunny are porcelain dolls, but everyone comes with a hefty price.

Sunny, whose tongue cannot hold itself for too long before she has the itch to tear her own jaws open and make way for her mouth to clack together, is the first to pipe up.

"I'm really hungry, Ah-yi." She incessantly tugs on the older girl's sleeve like a child harboring an empty hole in the pit of their stomach, crying to their mother about needing food to fill that breach.

"Join the club." Ah-yi grumbles. Her own stomach growls in betrayal, and she sinks into herself to hide the ferocious noise.

In a city that beckons them into the hearth of evil, Jang Sunny and Myung Ah-yi sit, awaiting like ducks their inevitable demise. Money is the semblance of power, and it is what both teens sorely lack.

However, when push comes to shove, and the lights of Gangdong's nightlife begin to dim into a thin sheen of flourishing pollution and blinking bulbs of hot electricity, is when the true citizens begin to crawl the city streets.

Hostel's children run amok the night, their faces reflecting what is left of their childhood on scarred faces and thin bones. Ah-yi watches the come-and-go of gangly teenagers sniffing like street rats toward any vendor's stall. They have all begun to close, except for a bulky fish cake food truck parked in the middle of the pavement.

"Ah-yi." Sunny tugs on the older girl's arm a little harder, rattling her limbs like a broken clock. It has been hours since they got out of the house, and they haven't eaten a single thing.

"You want fish cakes?" The shorter of the two asks as she stares at the steaming stick a of folded fried deliciousness. Sunny wrinkles her nose and shakes her head.

"I want fried chicken." She insists, her chapped lips pulling in a childish pout.

Ah-yi's lips downturn in a scowl, and she lifts her sleeved hand as if to knock Sunny over the head. Prison has made her too spoiled, and now she thinks she can go and demand of the world anything without paying it back.

The cat-eyed girl points off into the far distance, where a small store with a flickering open sign remains brightly lit.

"Go and get it yourself, then. See how well it goes when they realize you're broke." Ah-yi scowls. Sunny shrugs and fixes her gaze on the small shop.

"Okay." She hums, and begins skipping her way towards the store. Ah-yi presses her lips together before she can say anything, and allows the girl to go on her merry way.

It takes a total of four minutes for Sunny to bolt out of the store, red painting the outside of her mouth and staining her teeth. In her arms snugly sits a large box of packaged chicken.

"Run!" She screams to Ah-yi as two burly men wearing aprons chase her out of the store, one brandishing a mop and the other holding a red-stained napkin to his nose.

"You stupid bitch!" Ah-yi yells back as they fall into sidestep, running through the empty streets. "What the hell happened to your face?"

"Don't worry!" Sunny grins in between huffs as she clutches her chicken tighter. The red on her teeth glimmers brightly beneath the street lamps. "It's not my blood!"

( Obviously, that does little to make Ah-yi feel less worried ).

The chase continues until both Ah-yi and Sunny are limp bodies hiding away on some secluded rooftop of a random Gangdong building, catching their breaths amidst cool concrete and starry skies.

Sunny digs in almost immediately, ripping open the box and hungrily attacking the multi-seasoned drumsticks. She slides her tongue against her teeth to get rid of the acrid taste of blood on her tongue, eradicating it with the flavor of fried chicken.

"Disgusting," Ah-yi comments with a roll of her eyes, accepting the drumstick Sunny hands her with sticky fingers.

"It's so good I could die." Sunny sighs as she lays against the cold floor, staring up at the darkening sky.

Ah-yi tentatively bites the chicken, deep in thought.

"It's. . . alright." She hums once the bone is licked completely clean, tossing it back into the torn box.

"The guy at the counter thought I was a pushover, so he told me that he'd give me the meal for free if I slept with him." Sunny recounts once her belly is full and she no longer feels hunger.

"And? What did you say?" Ah-yi asks, even though she already knows the answer.

( At the end of the day, Sunny will always resort to violence in any threatening situation ).

"I bit that fucker's nose off." She turns to stare at Ah-yi with a bright twinkle in her eyes, and her lips curl into a smile.

Ah-yi nods, as though agreeing. "It was deserved."

Sunny hums. "Gangdong is really dangerous, huh Ah-yi?"

The girl purses her lips. If anything, the dangerous one is Sunny.

"Yeah." She says instead. "So be careful, or else it'll fucking kill you, okay?"

"Okay." The taller girl smiles to herself.

They lay in silence, eating fried chicken until they are overtaken by a sudden drowsiness. Ah-yi begins to drift off into sleep before Sunny pipes up once more.

"Ah-yi?" She calls into the darkness, as though making sure there is still another warm body by her side.

The aforementioned girl grumbles and turns to the other side, blinking away the sleep from her eyelids.

"What?" She snaps.

Silence. Sunny clears her throat.

"You have my back, right?" She asks. "You know I have yours, so I wanted to make that clear."

Ah-yi rolls her eyes. "Shut up and let me sleep."

More silence. Ah-yi lets out another loud sigh.

"Yes, Sunny. I have your fucking back. Now shut up and let me sleep."

"Right. Yeah. I was just making sure." Ah-yi can practically hear the smile on her face.

At last, they settle in silence, and Ah-yi closes her eyes, ignoring the discomfort of the cold concrete and the lack of pillows and warmth.

"We're staying out here all night?"

"Sunny, I swear to fucking —" Ah-yi cracks open one eye.

"Sorry, sorry. Goodnight."

"Night." She grumbles sleepily.

The night swallows them up beneath awkwardly shaped stars, and Sunny spends the entire night pointing out self-made shapes and giggling to herself all the while.

Neither of them have any tethers anymore, so they float through the universe, awaiting their inevitable end.

( The life of parasite and host will only end when one or the other is swallowed, or perhaps they are both killed off by the world's cruel hand. Whichever comes first ).

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‎ ‎‎♱ AUTHOR'S NOTE !

updated 2 fics in one day omg who's proud of me ‼️

planned to make this chap around 3k words but i barely hit the 2k mark 😭 but it's been almost a month since i published this book and i need to write more chaps before i forget my own characters so enjoy this short chap !

mostly js more fleshing out dynamics but soon we'll get into the romance part of the fic, which won't take place until gun and goo are introduced obviously !!

slowly unravel in the 'sunny is a psycho' agenda bc i don't want to make her seem like a normal person since she clearly isn't !! im developing the tendencies from the beginning so it doesn't feel like she randomly decided to go crazy, but is betas its clear that there was a breaking point somewhere through her journey as well as (possibly) a healing point !

i love sunny and ah-yi they're my absolute babies and i love how they are so different but still compatible in terms of friendship it's my fav thing to write

next chapter preview !! : i still need to reread hostel arc and all those eps so currently undecided !!! but maybe possibly some very small gun and goo interactions w sunny and ah-yi (don't get ur hopes up tho cuz i have no idea what went on during the beginning of hostel so 😭)

stay tuned for the next chapter, which will come out hopefully some time in october or any time later ! 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!

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─── ANNIE