The alphabet, A to L

The Warehouse

There are moments that not everyone should see in your life; and there are moments that you hope no-one sees from your life. That's the way it is to Khanh. 

Khanh's life has two sides. The one with Lee and her Mentor and friends during the day, and the one with herself in the night. She has no choice but to like the one during the day more than at night. Night has always been something she was afraid of. 

You can't fight the night, it comes after the day, and shows what kind of person you are. Khanh can't say she's proud of it, but something inside her grins and shows it's hideous teeth. It says she could be even more respected if she'd just commit. 

When Khanh gets to the warehouse in the middle of the night, the ugly thing rears its head and howls in delight. She's standing in front of an underground fighting ring, and she's no newcomer.

Khanh shivers as the wind blows in from the open windows. She's never really liked the place, it always smells like smoke, iron, dirty money. Things that never sit well with her. 

"Well if it isn't our lady lightning fists! I haven't seen you since what, yesterday?" 

A group of men and women laugh at the joke as they sit on the chairs and couches next to Khanh's area. She's wearing boxers and a sports bra, but she doesn't feel exposed in front of these people. She just sits. Khanh never talks in places like the warehouse. Words are dangerous and if they're coming from her, they'll be life threatening. The group around her fills in the silence she brings with their own clamor. The women giggle and make girlish squeals as the men's hands move too lose to places that Khanh really doesn't want to be thinking about. The man who spoke up is a regular face Khanh sees. His name is Kang Ryu. He's on the newspapers and on the tv when she watches. She knows he's a government official, she knows he could end her life by a sentence. He's the owner of the warehouse; and, her boss. 

"Say Girlie, come with me after this fight and have a drink,"

Khanh looks up at the voice, an old geezer who has a perverted gaze. He licks his lips. Khanh clenches her fists. She hates that this is whole thing is something she can't undo. Khanh hates that this is the only place she feels some sort of relation to her family. Her body tenses when the man sits next to her and she can feel his body fold against hers. Her insides flip and her mind starts screaming bloody murder when his hands trail down her back. 

He's new to the warehouse, which means she can't lay a single blow on a single one of his gray hairs. At least, that is until Ryu, who's sitting right across from her, gives the smallest hint of a nod. 

It feels almost euphoric for her when her first makes contact with the old man's chin, followed by the sickening sound of cracking. 

"Enough of that Louis, I can't let my best fighter be manhandled. At least not by you." 

Kang Ryu stands in front of Khanh. Her brown eyes are darkened. She can see them in the reflection of the gold that Louis is wearing. The aren't her eyes, and they're the only things that show people who she is.

And that terrifies her. 

The warehouse, during the scuffle, didn't differ from their business of being illegal. In a place like this, fighting is regular.  Khanh likes that at least. The fact that when she lets her anger go, she doesn't get judged, doesn't get looked at weird. 

Ryu stands in front of her again. His eyes are covered by sunglasses, and Khanh thinks its probably some kind of disguise thing he does. She doesn't know what he's looking at, but she just stands in front of him. Louis's blood is still on the couch, yet none of it is on her hands.