The King of Fighters Tournament

Pretty Girls team

"You're saying that Hotaru just ditched you?!" A Chinese girl with folded pigtail plaits asked, stuffing her face with Jiaozi.
"I know right!" A blonde girl with her thick hair tied into pigtails at the ends whined. "She says it's because I ditched her on Valentine's Day. Well, it's not my fault my date turned up before her, right?"
"Who is she teaming up with, her boyfriend?" Their Korean friend looked up from her plate of cold soba.
"Nah," Hinako Shijou said, slurping some of her chankonabe. "She's joining with her brother and father."
"Aww!" May Lee Jinju fawned. "That's so cute! They're finally joining together as a family."
"Yugaishafeerai?" Li Xiangfei mumbled, her mouth full.
"Eh?" Her friends chorused together.
She asked them to wait as she furiously chewed on her food. She swallowed her mouthful and took a few sips of strawberry tea before trying again.
"You guys are free, right?" Xiangfei asked again.
"Ooh!" her two friends said in unison, looking at each other, finally realising what she was trying to say.
"Yeah, we are," May said with a chuckle. "Why?"
"Wanna join the tournament together?" Xiangfei asked excitedly. "We can be called... The Dim Sum Girls." She ended it with a dramatic finish.
Her friends looked at each other, confused. Then, they burst into laughter.
"Is there anything you think about besides food?" Hinako asked with a snort. "Seriously, Xiang?"
Xiangfei shrugged sheepishly. "Why not?"
"I think we need a better name," May said, adjusting the red muffler around her neck. "Something... far from food..."
"We need to think of one fast because we need to register," Xiangfei said, adding more jiaozi onto her plate. "Also, Hinako, your private cook rocks!"
The other two sighed and started thinking of a new name. Finally, Hinako got an idea.
"Since there's a Women Fighters team, why not we call ourselves the Girls team?" Hinako said, pouring herself some more tea. "I mean, we are a lot younger than them too."
The other two started thinking.
"How about the Pretty Girls team?" May suggested with a grin.
Xiangfei nodded excitedly, unable to say anything else because of her full mouth.
Hinako smiled and called for her butler to bring her laptop. He left and briskly brought it to her, even serving it on a silver platter with a cloche. Her best friends couldn't help but burst into laughter as Hinako pushed her food aside to use it.
"I have a question," Xiangfei suddenly asked. "How did you even become friends with Hotaru? I mean, it's not a bad thing or anything, but she goes to a completely different school from us. How did you know her?"
Hinako nodded. "She does go to a different school. We met each other in Pao Pao sometimes and found out that we didn't actually live that far apart. And then there's KOF, so that's how we actually became friends."
She opened her laptop and asked for her friends' details. Soon, they were registered to enter the new KOF tournament.
"Yeah!" Xiangfei exclaimed cheerfully. Then she nudged May with a smirk. "That Kim fella won't mind you joining us, right?"
"His sons brainwashed him," May smirked. "So, no problem there."
Hinako suddenly snorted. "I thought the older one always tried to woo you whenever you went to train there or something?"
May grimaced. "I don't like him..."
"As if we do," Xiangfei smirked. "Right, Hinako?"
Hinako nodded with a chuckle. "He's kinda annoying. Hey, remember during Halloween? The guy literally wore a Squid Game soldier costume and carried one of those cheap toy guns that are all over Pioneer Plaza!"
May couldn't stop herself from laughing, even letting out a few snorts. "Yeah! That was really funny. But I liked Jae's costume, though. Hwoarang from Tekken."
Her two friends exchanged knowing looks.
"No wonder she doesn't like the older brother," Xiangfei smirked, nudging Hinako. "She has the hots for the younger one!"
May turned red and almost threw her chopsticks at her. Luckily Hinako managed to stop her.
"Hey stop that!" Hinako chuckled, pulling the chopsticks away from her. "This just makes it clearer that it's true!"
May was about to argue, but her two friends started laughing at her. Hinako even held up a mirror to show how red her face looked.
"You guys are so mean..." May ended up saying, snatching the chopsticks back from Hinako to stuff her face with the rest of the Zaru Soba.

***

"So we're joining as a team?" Dong asked, slamming his invitation down in front of his father. "We all got invites this time, right?"
"Yeah, Dad," Jae joined in. "I got mine too. So why not?"
Kim Kaphwan turned towards the degenerate criminals who were forced to read a book about discipline. They immediately cowered under his gaze. His older son immediately turned his face towards him, beaming.
"Oh come on, Dad," Dong smirked. "Leave them to uncle Jhun. He'll take care of them."
"What?" Jhun Hoon looked at him in surprise, reading a J-Pop idol gossip magazine. "Since when did I get pulled into this?"
The two criminals, Chang Koehan and Choi Bounge, gave him pleading looks. Jhun frowned and nodded understandingly.
"Sure, no problem," Jhun shrugged. "You guys got your invitations, right?"
Chang and Choi nodded, holding up their invitations. "Yes, Master."
"Great, then!" Jhun said, getting up. "Let's go train."
He promptly led them off to the Dojang and the brothers immediately turned back to their father.
"So...?" Dong grinned, expecting a positive reply.
Kim sighed. "Fine... get your laptop. We can register now."
The two brothers grinned and whipped out a laptop, much to Kim's surprise. They immediately bent their heads over the screen and registered to enter the tournament together.

***

Hotaru smirked when she found two more invitations in the postbox, addressed to her father and brother. She grinned and brought it over to them.
"Wanna join?" Hotaru asked, excitedly flourishing the invitations at them. "I got mine too, so we can join together."
Mr. Futaba shrugged, leaning forward in his seat to put his cup of coffee down on the table in front of him. He in return took the grilled cheese sandwich in front of him and took a bite.
"Niisama?" Hotaru turned to her brother next.
Gato Futaba frowned and shook his head. "No thanks... too many weirdos..."
Hotaru smirked. "Yeah. I remember seeing this one weirdo in a changshan, wearing a fedora. All he did was grunt at people with a surly expression."
Mr. Futaba burst into laughter when he realised who she meant. "It was you, wasn't it? Gato?"
Gato sighed. "Fine, it was." He then turned to his father. "I'll join the tournament if you do, Dad."
"Of course I will," Mr. Futaba smirked. "I'd love to. How do we register."
Hotaru ran off and brought her laptop. She frowned, biting her lip slightly. Then she perked up and exclaimed. "Yes!"
"You already registered us in?" Mr. Futaba asked, just as excited.
"So fast?!" Gato exclaimed in shock.
"Yep!" Hotaru grinned, showing them the screen. She named their team The Futabas.
"That's a nice name," Mr. Futaba chuckled. "Alright, when do we start training?"
Gato groaned.