Melted: One Shots

One: The Helmet Lesson

From chapter eighty-three in Melted: "Best Laid Plans"

Tul continued to be impatient. "Will someone please tell me what is happening? Why is Max unconscious?" He looked angrily around at them all. "Why isn't any one of you taking him to the hospital?"

Wanna walked up to him and asked calmly, "Are you accusing us of not caring about Max?" She was oddly serene considering what was happening.

Her composure seemed to push Tul over the edge. "Then tell me what the hell are you doing?" Tul yelled at her, finally losing his patience.

Afterwards, the giant—his name was Peter, and he worked in the bar downstairs but had been called up to help—told the people in the restaurant that he thought he heard the small woman say something like "You're my boss, but today is Saturday" or something like that, and then he saw her punch the fancy guy right in the face.

Tul went down like he had been hit with a brick. He looked up in shock as Wanna stood above him shaking out her hand.

She said to him quietly, "Don't accuse us of not caring about Max. No one made him cry today but you." Everyone had stopped talking. There was no sound on the street. It was like even the guy on the scooter decided to push it so he wouldn't make any noise.

Wanna turned and got into the back seat of Itty's car. Itty and Chalida looked at each other in shock."

***

Itty and Chalida were shocked by Wanna's punch, and so would all the surviving members of team 2. But none of the people in Wanna's neighborhood would have been surprised, and neither would her parents. It's not as though Wanna was some sort of neighborhood gangster. She was the same person at home as she was at work: introvert, focused, trying to never draw attention to herself. She was lively only with people with whom she felt comfortable. She avoided confrontation like the plague.

However, the people at home and in her neighborhood had known (and loved) Wanna for much longer than the members of team 2. For example, when Wanna got in trouble for the putting poop in that other kid's baked goods, it was exactly the kind of thing they expected of her. She wasn't the kind of person who you saw get in a fight, but they knew that despite her awkwardness around strangers and her retiring nature (or maybe because of them), she had a strong sense of justice and noticed when things were wrong.

Thus, even though she was the last person to put herself forward, she was also known as the girl who rushed to save a toddler who had ran in front of a tuk tuk when a whole bunch of older boys and grown men did nothing. Though she was the kid who like to read more than play with the other kids outside, she was also the kid who always volunteered to help the aunties in the neighborhood or to look after the smaller children. It's why no one was surprised that she went to school to be a teacher despite how shy she was.

She was excellent at math, science, and languages in school, so her teachers had wanted her to teach advanced subjects, but she hadn't liked high school kids when she was in high school, so, to their disappointment, she decided to study to become a kindergarten teacher.

Everyone in the neighborhood looked out for Wanna. They liked her and her parents, who were older than most of the other parents of kids her age. The neighborhood looked out for her more and more as she grew older though because as she did, she got prettier and prettier. She didn't think so, but everyone else noticed, and they collectively worried that some no-good guy would take advantage of her believing that her quietness represented gullibility and pliability.

All the guys from Mike's Motorcycle Taxi Service were considered to be part of this neighborhood group. That is until one day, Wanna rode up on the bike of one of their new hires and as soon as she got off the bike, instead of paying the man, used her helmet to start smashing him with it. All the guys rushed out to pull her off back while she yelled, a tiny ball of fury (she was about 15).

"Don't pretend like it was an accident. Don't pretend like you really needed to grab onto my thighs. I've seen what you do to those other girls. I know why you wait outside the high school. Let me at him," Wanna yelled as she tried to break free from Dusit's grip.

Mike walked over to Minjun, the object of Wanna's fury, who was at this point cowering on the ground.

However, before he could say anything two other motorcycle taxis drove up, and the passengers jumped off running toward them. Both of them were students but with different uniforms than Wanna's.

"Let her go," said the girl who looked younger than Wanna even though she was taller. "She didn't do anything wrong. That guy is terrible."

At the same time she was saying this, the other student, a young man who looked like he was older than both Wanna and the new girl, ran toward the older man on the ground. "Did you touch my sister? Are you the guy? I want to get a good look at your face, so I know who to find with my boys."

Wanna looked at him. He was from the high school and known for fighting. He was a decent student, but he and "his boys" had a reputation for not taking anything from anyone.

Before the man on the ground could say anything, the girl yelled. "Yes, he's the one. He touches the girls on his bike."

The man of the ground looked indignant and jumped up to get into the young student's face, but realizing that the male student was at least 8 centimeters taller, he paused just long enough for Kanda to make an appearance.

Kanda, the real owner of Mike's Motorcycle Taxi Service (and the wife of the original Mike), came out of the shop swinging a heavy-duty torque wrench like she was ready for blood. At 198 centimeters she towered over everyone, and with the look she gave and that wrench in her hand, the silence was immediate.

"What's going on here," she asked. Her voice was velvety but calm, the tone implied that she already knew more than she let on so lying wasn't an option.

No one spoke. Wanna was still glaring at her driver, so Kanda asked her. "Wanna, you care to explain?"

Wanna was about to speak when Minjin interrupted. "I should be able to state my piece. I don't know what she is talking about. Why would I touch her or that girl over there. I have my own woman, whose more of a woman than either. I don't need puny little girls who don't speak," he said nodding over at Wanna, "or" with a look at the other girl "fat girls who can't shut up."

Wanna was about to leap into action with the helmet still in her grip and the other girl looked like she was about to say something when they heard a sound and Minjun was once again on the ground with the torque wrench at his throat.

Kanda stood looking him mildly as if he were a curious specimen. No one had seen her move because they had all turned to look at Wanna and the other girl when Minjun began to speak.

Kanda's voice was still quiet and calm as she said, "You're fired." She kept staring at him, and the wrench never left his throat. "Win get his things out of the locker room. Mike figure out what we owe him and take it out of the cash box."

Minjun was shocked and angrier than before. "What?! You're going to fire me? Because of these wenches?" he then made a choking sound because the wrench Kanda was holding had poked his adam's apple.

"Be lucky that I don't do anything else," as she calmly watched him cough. "Hope that nothing happens to either one of these young women EVER because if anything EVER does, I will assume it's you and ask questions later."

Some days later, Wanna found out that Mike and Kanda had visited her parents to apologize for what happened. She also learned that between the four of them, they agreed that Wanna should learn some self defense because, as Mike said, she wouldn't always have a bike helmet at the ready.

So once a week in the back room at Mike's Motorcycle Taxi, Wanna learned self-defense and had boxing lessons. Everyone at Mike's taxi learned that she had a powerful punch. They would have known, if they had seen her hit Tul, that Wanna was really holding back that day.