𝖊𝖖𝖚𝖎𝖑𝖎𝖇𝖗𝖎𝖚𝖒, cobra kai.

chapter three - CATCHING UP.

☽

OPHELIA WALKED IN, seeing an old, short man talking to Johnny, who had a defensive and stone-cold expression on his face. She knew that she should step out of the conversation; it was none of her business. So, she headed further into the apartment by herself in search of the bathroom.

She stayed there for less than five minutes, until there was a sharp knock on the bathroom door. Then, she opened it to face an exhausted-looking Johnny Lawrence.

"Who was that?" she asked. Judging by the way that Johnny's fists were tightly clenched by his sides, the old man wasn't a good one.

"My stepdad, Sid. He cut me out of his life with a stupid check," Johnny scoffed, his blue eyes now ice cold with deceit. "He's the one who bailed me out."

Ophelia's brows raised with shock as she stepped out of the bathroom. "Wow, that's kind of brutal. How much did he give ya?" she asked, a pang of empathy arriving inside of her chest as she walked to Johnny's fridge, the man following closely behind her, shrugging.

"I dunno, I didn't bother to look at it before I ripped it up."

The woman gave Johnny a disappointed frown before eyeing the piece of paper that was ripped in half in his small trash bin. That must be the check.

"Johnny, you could do whatever you want with that money, and you're just gonna throw it away?" Ophelia tsked out, scanning his freezer racks (which were almost completely empty, mind you) until she came upon a pack of frozen peas.

"Like what?" Johnny challenged, his wrinkly eyes narrowing at the woman as she wrapped the pack of peas in a few pieces of paper towels.

Now, Ophelia was full-on facing him, her frown becoming more prominent as she spoke to him. "What happened to Cobra Kai, Johnny?" she asked, her voice now soft as she kind of already knew it would be a sensitive topic.

It was 100% confirmed when Johnny's eyes suddenly became solemn before they averted themselves from her eyes. He walked out of the kitchen (if you could call it that), and sat down on the couch with his head in his hands. And this time, Ophelia didn't think he was gripping his head mostly because of the headache.

After wrapping up the peas in some paper towels, Ophelia walked over and sat next to Johnny on the couch, handing him the pack of peas. "Here, hold this to your head for about an hour. I'll get you some water and Ibuprofen." Johnny only nodded at her words, snatching the frozen peas from her grasp before clutching them to the side of his right temple, where a large bruise was.

He silently watched her get up from the couch, before she started searching the cabinets high and low for a glass for the water. When she finally found some, she looked in the fridge for a water filter or at least a jug of water. Nothing was found. So, she sighed heavily and walked over to the faucet, running some cold water into the glass.

She then walked the glass of water over to Johnny, handing it to him. He immediately began chugging the water down, as if he had been backpacking in the Sahara Desert for weeks without a drop of water. After he was done, he set down the glass and finally looked up at Ophelia's apologetic face.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't find any pain meds." She explained.

Johnny forced a smile. "It's okay," he said, waving it off.

There was thick silence that ensued between the two as Ophelia sat back down on the couch, but this time a little further away from him – she knew she had brought up some unwanted memories or feelings at the thought of Johnny's past at Cobra Kai. She knew that Kreese guy was bad news.

"Look, Johnny. I'm sorry for mentioning karate—" she began, but was cut off by Johnny's abrupt, gruff voice.

"I quit Cobra Kai after your old boyfriend, Daniel LaRusso, beat me with that illegal kick." It sounded as if Johnny was forcing the words out, and as if he would rather set himself on fire than say the words he was saying after all of these years of trying to forget it.

Ophelia completely got why he was acting this way; she had spent 25 fucking years trying to forget everything in her past with Daniel. But it was those sleepless nights that got her; it was those sleepless nights that had her lying awake in her bed, staring at the ceiling in the pitch back dark as she would wonder, 'What if?' about everything. About meeting Daniel in the first place. About helping him with training. About leaving Okinawa. About their last kiss. . .

Ophelia cleared her throat, visibly uncomfortable at the mention of Daniel, which intrigued Johnny when he noticed it. He wondered what had happened between the two. I mean, the woman literally kicked Johnny's ass just to protect the dark-haired Jersey boy from getting his ass kicked.

"I'm sorry to hear that," she frowned, "I knew how much karate meant to you." She really did; she remembered how he used to gush to her about how he wanted to be a Sensei when he grew up and how determined he was to be one.

Here's a background of Ophelia and Johnny's relationship I forgot to give you; the two of them were best friends in Middle School. In fact, they were inseparable. That was, until Johnny admitted that he had feelings for her, and asked her out. And when Ophelia rejected him and started to distance himself from him, Johnny was hurt after he asked her out another few times, but to no avail, which is why he tried his best to distract himself from Ophelia with Ali Mills, the girl he convinced himself who was the girl of his dreams, not Ophelia.

After Middle School, Johnny and Ophelia never talked again. Ali and Ophelia, however, became friends for a minute, before Ali and Johnny got drunk together one night, started making out, and Johnny said Ophelia's name instead of Ali's when he got too carried away. After the incident, Ali completely ditched Johnny and Ophelia, and the rest was history. Ophelia never knew why Johnny and Ali broke up, nor did she ever know why Ali completely ditched her. Confusion clouded her brain, and then soon enough, the confusion became anger.

Johnny shrugged, nodding carefully as he watched the distant look momentarily cloud Ophelia's eyes. "I'm fine. I'm doing well for myself nowadays without Cobra Kai," he stated.

Ophelia knew it was a lie, judging by the look in Johnny's eyes, but she stayed silent, before reaching over to the TV remote, grabbing it and turning on the TV.

Ophelia looked at Johnny, who was still looking at her, a ghost of a smile on his face.

"You know, Ophee. . ." Johnny looked at her with a soft smile,  "it's really good to see you."

The woman smiled at him warmly, "it's good to see you too, Johnny."

"You got anywhere to stay?" he asked, knowing she would probably have left already if she did have a place to stay; but she stayed.

Ophelia nodded slowly. "Yeah, I do. Why?" she was curious on why he was asking her this.

"Would you, um. . ." Johnny cleared his throat before continuing, "would you maybe want to stay in my guest room for a few days? You know, to make sure I recover alright?" but his smile just showed her that he wanted her around.

Ophelia's smile was gentle as she laughed lightly. "Yeah, sure Johnny. I'll stay and make sure you recover alright. But first, I have to take a shower, is that okay?"

Johnny rolled his eyes jokingly as he clutched the frozen pack of peas to his head tighter. "Of course it's okay. Towels are under the bathroom sink. The bathroom faucet takes a while for it to get warm, but it gets there eventually."

Ophelia's smile turned into a grin as she stood up from the couch, heading for the bathroom. "Thanks, Johnny," she mumbled out.

"No, thank you for helping me not get my ass kicked even more last night. It's really amazing to see you, Ophelia." Johnny couldn't believe those cheesy, sentimental words that came out of his mouth. They seemed foriegn to him, but it felt natural saying them to her, especially when those words got her to grin even more.

"No problem, Johnny," she grinned. "Now, let me know if you decide to go out."

Johnny saluted her, as if he were in the army. "Yes, ma'am!"

Ophelia let out one last giggle before disappearing into the bathroom to take a much desired and needed shower.