Stolen Pain

ACT ONE PART TWO: CHAPTER TWO

A/N: WORDS- 3,157

Haneul's POV

I walk after Ae-Ri and look around the military base. It's nothing special, just a bunch of houses and buildings surrounding us like a prison. I sigh and look back at her, knowing that the life I knew is no longer mine. We walk towards the bunkers in awkward silence. I'm tempted to ask her why she was so disappointed in my father not showing up, so I decided to do it anyway.
"Ma'am? Why were you so disappointed in the fact my father never showed up? It's not like your family." I said aggressively.
Ae-Ri looked at me in surprise, "Oh. I guess it was just because he's your Appa. Why don't you call him that?" Ae-Ri says, and I kinda feel bad now. KINDA.
"He never once acted like he was my Appa so I don't call him that." I responded harshly, not wanting to give her any more information.
"Oh. I'm sorry." Ae-Ri responds with her voice short but hurt. She walks up the pathway to a small house. "Here this is where you'll stay."
I look up at the house, it's made out of bricks, and a brown roof. It's one floor, and relatively small. Probably has two rooms or something around that. I slowly walk up the pathway, looking at the house trying to figure out what the catch is. Why there is a catch, I don't know. I just don't trust the fact I live in a small house instead of a huge room with other people living in the room. I look back at Ae-Ri who nods basically signaling that this is my house. All for me.
I walk into the house and look around the rooms. I was incorrect, there are three rooms. My bedroom, a room to hang out, and a bathroom. I walk around the first room we see which is the hangout room. There is a display case, and storage bins for games and other fun things you could want. The room has white wallpaper and black details. There's couches for you to relax on and sleep.
The house is comfortable and relaxing. The comfort of this house is way better than my family house. I smile and look back at Ae-Ri when she clears her throat. I grumble and look back at her. "What?" I uttered towards Ae-Ri.
"Sit. We need to talk. You can explore when we have time. We're on a tight schedule." Ae-Ri says courtly, sitting down on my couch.
I grumble and sit down across from her and cross my hands across my chest. "What's so important that makes me have a tight schedule Kim."
"We need to talk about military life. So shut up and listen. I am not going over this twice, I expect you to understand this. If you have any questions I will tell you when to ask them. Do not interrupt me." Ae-Ri says, in an authoritative voice.
I nod my head and tense up. She looks over at me and nods her head once she realizes my full attention is on her.
"Good. Now. First things first. The schedule. Mondays to Saturdays, we wake up at six in the morning. Breakfast is six thirty in the morning. Training is seven to eleven thirty. Lunch is at noon on the dot for thirty minutes. You have a rest hour from twelve thirty to one thirty pm. Then training at two pm to six pm. Then dinner is at six thirty pm for thirty minutes. You have free time from seven to eight pm. Lights out is eight pm, and that's time for bed." She says and I frown great it's like a prison.
"For Sunday's we wake up at seven in the morning. Breakfast at seven thirty in the morning. Training is from eight to noon. Then lunch is at twelve thirty to one pm. Your rest time is from one to two pm. Then your training is from three to seven pm. Finally your dinner is at seven thirty to eight pm. Then you have free time from eight to nine pm. Then at nine pm you have lights out and time for bed. Any questions?" Ae-Ri concluded.
I make a mental note of it, making sure I remember everything so I can write everything down. Now that I have thought of it I probably should have of gotten my journal to write in. I look back up at Ae-Ri as she stands up. I groan and stand up too.
"Yes? What now?" I probably should have said that nicer but oh well. "I do have a question for you."
"We're going on a tour of the base for you. What is it?" Ae-Ri asked me.
"Since its twelve thirty one pm and it's Monday will I be required to follow the schedule?" I ask, probably knowing that the answer is going to be a yes.
"Correct. During your free time after dinner we have a meeting with somebody important. I can't tell you who it is until the meeting. I will be there with you throughout the day." Ae-Ri responds in a motherly but also bossy tone.
I nod my head and stand up and follow her. As we walk outside of my new house, we walk around the base. She points at things and tells me everything I need to know. Once we finished the tour, we headed back towards the fighting arena. I walk inside the fighting arean and follow Ae-Ri.
She wraps her hands up using cotton bandages. "Follow me. I do want you to wrap your arms up for the first part. I will be fighting you, but not to the point of damaging or hurting you. That's tomorrow's job. Tomorrow we will start your training with dummies or other people. It is now one fifty four pm, so training starts now. We will be following the schedule as you normally should starting tomorrow." Ae-Ri says and walks into the fighting rink.
"I will be telling you and showing you how to fight using a test dummy. Once again I expect you to pay full attention and do not interrupt me. I will tell you when to ask questions. Are you ready?" Ae-Ri demands again using the same voice she used before.
I nod my head, "Yes Ma'am. My father taught me some self defense and I do know how to use a gun because I've been hunting before."
"Awesome thanks. I still will go over everything just as a safety measure and familiarize you again with the basics of fighting and for gun safety." Ae-Ri says.
"I will be teaching you hand to hand combat, self defense, pressure points, and then weapon training." Ae-Ri stats and she walks inside the fighting arena
I follow her into the arena, and she hands me the cotton bandages to wrap my hands with. Much to her surprise I could wrap my hands professionally.
"Ready?" She asks me.
I nod my head, bouncing on the heels of my feet and shake my hands and arms to get ready to fight her. I put my hands up, and she starts circling me. I look her up and down, trying to figure out what attack she's going to use now. She attempts to jab me in the jaw, and I counteract it with a punch in her shoulder.
Ae-Ri would punch, I would block. She would punch, she would succeed. I would punch, Ae-Ri would block. I would punch, I would succeed. This is how it went until I decided to spice things up again. She would only jab or just punch me, and I used to do the same. Ae-Ri went to punch me in the face, and I blocked it with a cross.
She stumbled backwards, and I kept the attacks going. I went from the cross, to the lead hook back to the jab.
After fighting for an hour, we decided to take a water break and catch our breath. As we drink our water bottles, we watch other people fight. I never knew fighting was so relaxing and calming. I watch everyone fight, feeling more relaxed.
"Now that we finished hand to hand combat, we mentioned self defense as we were fighting and I demonstrated it. So now we are going to talk about pressure points. They can be a bit hard to understand. Do you know anything about pressure points? I want to get your understanding and how much you know about pressure points." Ae-Ri commented.
I smirk and look over at her. "Pressure points are located anywhere in your body. The most popular pressure points are located in your hands, underarms, elbows, back of your head and neck. They are also located in your back and in your knee. Pressure points normally happen when someone or something abruptly hurts you and causes you pain. It can be caused when your nerve is caused by some pain."
Ae-Ri looked at me shocked, like she believed I wasn't smart and good at fighting even though I proved it to her when we were fighting. "I. That is correct, yes. Pressure points also help strengthen your body. Do you know how to find the pressure points or how to cause someone pain from their pressure points?"
"Yea. Pressure points can be found in the inside of your wrist, palm, and fingers at the base of your hand. A simple pinch or any pain on your pressure points can send an intense sensation through your body." I said nonchalantly.
Ae-Ri nods her head and smiles, "Good job. I'm proud of you. Now we are going to be talking about weapon training. I will be teaching you how to build your own weapon, how to use it and gun safety." She states.
"Weapon safety is extremely important. Make sure you always know that you know where your gun is and that the safety is on. If you absolutely need to use it, turn the safety off. But unless you don't need to use it, keep it on. Be safe and careful. Don't be careless, that's how you can hurt yourself and other people that you don't intend on hurting. Sometimes the only time you feel like you have full control of your own safety is if you have a gun." Ae-Ri lectures.
"This next part is very important. You must remember, do not point a gun at someone unless you are prepared to use it. NEVER assume that you will not be shot at with a gun. ALWAYS assume that you will be shot. You never fully know when you will be shot. Don't ever put your guard down. " She commanded with a cold tone in her voice, which sent shivers down my spine.
Ae-Ri stands up and walks over to the target. She stands tall, her stance squared and she pulls the trigger. A loud bang goes off, I don't flinch. Ae-Ri shots the gun three more times and unloads the gun.
"Now I have an understanding that you know how to shoot a gun since you told me earlier. Come here." Ae-Ri asks/tells me.
I walk over to her, and stand in front of her. She steps back and watches me as I stand tall, my stance is squared and I pull the trigger. The exact same way she did. I shot the target in the face until I had no more bullets anymore. I look over at her smiling.
"Good job. Now let's talk about safety. Tell me all you know please." Ae-Ri asks me.
"You should never use a gun unless you properly know how to use it, and you feel comfortable with it. You should always point the gun in a safe direction, the majority of the time it is up or down. It's so you don't accidentally shoot someone you're not supposed to shoot." I state shrugging.
"Good job. I'm proud. It is now six so let's go get some dinner and we can then meet with the king." Ae-Ri casually says.
I nod my head and she walks out of the training arena. Everyone else was just staring at us in shock. Some frustrated, others jealous, others not really caring towards me. I shrug and continue to walk out of the room, not caring. We wordlessly walk to the cafeteria.
I nodded and we walked to the cafeteria. We walked in peace and quiet. It is nice. When we arrived at the cafeteria I opened the door for General Ae-Ri. We headed to the area where we got our food. I grabbed a tray and grabbed the food that looks good and will fill me up after a full day of training. Once we both got our food we headed to the spot where we always sit since yesterday, Sunday. I sat down and started to eat my food. It was a type of Salmon along with egg fried rice. General Ae-Ri got the chicken and egg fried rice. Weirdly enough I thought the food wouldn't taste as good but it does.
Some people sit at our table much to our dismay, but I try to talk to them. If I'm going to be living and staying here for god knows how long I would like to make some friends. I doubt I would though, nobody wants to be friends with me. I don't know if it's because I'm a loser or if it's because my mother left when I was extremely little. I wouldn't blame them. I wouldn't want to be my friend.
I made some small talk with them, and I found out that their names are Bae and Jun. I think they have the potential of being acquaintances with me. As we ate, I asked Jun and Bae about their military life. Jun said he really liked being in the military, he said it gave him a sense of accomplishment and pride. Bae on the other side said he felt relaxed fighting and glad he left his toxic family. I guess he's a lot like me then. They both are, and that's a tad bit scary.
Once Ae-Ri and I finished eating, we put our trays up and walked out of the cafeteria. She looks over at me, sighing. Ae-Ri's face is full of sadness. "Follow me." She says like I'm about to die.
I nod, not even having the guts or mental capacity to say anything to her. We walk out of the cafeteria, heading across the military base. Ae-Ri leads me towards the building where you have all of the important meetings, well any meetings technically. She walks into the building confidently, as if she owns the building.
In fact now that I noticed it, everybody treats her with the highest regards which is weird. It's probably because she is the only female soldier that I have seen ever. I'm most definitely asking her about that. I don't care that it's none of my business. I will find out.
Ae-Ri stops at a door, "Wait here." She abruptly says and stomps into the room. I scoff and stand outside the door leaning on it.
"Appa? It's me. I have Haneul." Ae-Ri says, and I don't know if she realizes I can hear everything clearly through the door. That's concerning.
"Good. How is his father doing? How is Haneul handling everything?" Someone replies back, with full power and responsibility. His voice sounds extremely familiar, I just can't place it.
"His father is still the same as always. He's just as abusive and didn't show up to see his own son off." Ae-Ri says, and I stiffen up. How in the hell did she know he was abusive.
"I still don't understand why your sister didn't take Haneul with her. We all told her to." The mysterious voice responds. I finally realize who it is. It's the king.
"I know Appa. But Haneul is doing well. He is extremely smart when it comes to fighting and everything. You should be proud. Haneul is a lot like you." Ae-Ri says and I clench my jaw.
I probably shouldn't have, but I wasn't thinking. I probably should have been thinking. I barge into the room where Ae-Ri and the King are. I walk straight over towards the King.
"What. The. Fuck." I said, balling up my fists.
"Haneul, I told you to wait outside. Can't you do that one thing?" Ae-Ri says stomping up to me.
"Stand down, Ae-Ri. He very much so has the right to barge in here. He probably heard everything." The king said.
I scoff rolling my eyes, clearly not wanting to use any formalities right now. "No shit. Of course I heard everything. You're my grandfather?" I uttered out.
"I am your Halabeoji. Not your grandfather. Halabeoji." The king stuttered out.
"You weren't there for me when my father was abusing me. You weren't there for me when I was a child. You were nowhere to be seen when I had my birthdays, took my first step, said my first word, my graduations. You never showed up. Your alot like my father, so you get grandfather." I bite back at the King.
"I know and I am sorry Haneul, but-" The King said before I interrupted him.
"You were busy running a country. Yea I know. Can you just tell me why Kim told me to follow her here?" I asked the King.
"I have a special job for you Haneul. Your job is to get close to Prince Ceasar of England and to kill him. His father started the war so his son must die. It makes sense when you have been in war. So don't complain about anything Haneul." The King bit back at me. Jesus we are a lot alike.
"Fine. Whatever. I'll stop this war so everything can go back to how it is. Also if you see my mother. Tell her to go fuck herself." I said, and stormed out of the room.
Thankfully nobody storms after me or follows me. They both stare at me in shock, as I walk straight to my little house. Once I get back to my house, I walk straight to my room and fall straight on my bed. I try not to cry, but I can't help it. The tears start falling.
Why does my aunt have to be Ae-Ri? Why does my grandfather have to be The King? What did I do in my past life to deserve this? Who am I kidding? This is my first life, it's such a wonderful way to start your first lives. Fucking great.
After a couple of hours, I fell asleep. Wondering what my entire life is going to be like now. Was my whole life a lie? I mean it was... I'm extremely glad I'm asleep now, I don't have to worry about anything else till I wake up.