He turns and she's there, in Gianvito Rossi boots and a Burberry trench coat. The snow clings to her hair and her eyelashes.
He doesn't say anything, just looks at her, and she smiles in an almost-sad way as she holds up two white cups in paper sleeves.
"Coffee?"
And they go sit at their bench and Nari hands him a paper bag. Inside is his jacket, folded neatly.
He accepts it with a murmured thanks and they sip their drinks in the cold, watching the snow fall.
"Saeron said she talked to you," Nari murmured. "Is that why you texted me?"
He shrugs. They finish their drinks in silence and he stands and looks down at her and she looks up at him inquisitively.
His eyes meet hers and for a second, she thinks she sees Hell in them.
"I heard you wanted to watch me fight."
The room was hot and dirty and crowded, but Jeno walks right in and a hush falls over the crowd.
The people move back and he leads Nari right up to a raised concrete platform with an excellent view of the perfectly circular dirt pit in the center of the rough amphitheater.
Several chairs were grouped on the platform and sitting on one of them was a dark-haired man no older than Jeno himself, thumbing through a thick wad of cash.
He makes the dark-haired man, Renjun, promise to watch her and then he disappears and Nari is left sitting awkwardly in the creaky metal chair as people give her searching, confused, derisive, and lustful looks.
Several men attempted to approach her, but Renjun chased them off with a scathing glare and they never glanced at her again.
And before long, Jeno stepped into the pit to the roars and screams of the crowd.
And for the first time, Nari really truly saw him for the monster he was.
And when it was over and he stood straight, standing over the unconscious body at his feet and he threw back his head to the bright fluorescent lights above and howled with teeth dyed red with blood, Nari turned and fled.
Renjun watched her leave before letting out a heavy sigh and removed five hundred dollars from the wad in his hands.
Later, as Jeno stumbled towards him looking for the girl, he tucked the money into the man's pocket.
"Good job today," he said and nodded towards the door."She left."
Renjun examined Jeno's expression, understanding and alarm crossing his face. "And you knew she would."
He smirked. "See you next week." He clapped Renjun's shoulder and walked out the door and into icy coldness.
Renjun stares after him and shakes his head in sadness before turning back to the next fight.
He finds her, shivering and crying on the bench. She doesn't even let him speak before she spits out, "Why do you do it?"
He doesn't speak and she wipes at her eyes. "Why do you fight? Don't you even know how you look in there, Jeno? God, you were… you were terrifying."
She gulps and sniffles before she looks up at him. "Why do you even do it? It's such a horrible, horrible sport…"
He looks down at her and she looks down, sees his bloody hands but this time she doesn't reach for them, doesn't take them into her soft grasp and bandage them with gentle scolds and worried fusses.
She looks away, closes her eyes. "Why did you take me there?" she eventually whispers.
It was a while before he answers.
"Because you had to know why we can't ever be together."
When she looks up again, he's gone.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
