Half-Sight

02 | hijacked

a/n 

chapter two! any honest feedback would be much appreciated :)

if you're curious as to what i've been up to and any new changes that are going on in other works (i.e. busan boy), check out the messages on my profile!

sending all my love,

krissy

♙

h i j a c k e d

LIN SHUTS DOWN the moment I crash through the window of my apartment.

Details blur as my body hits the carpeted floor with exhaustion, chest heaving. Barely a moment passes before the contacts burn. Hissing a breath through my teeth, I peel them off and dump them in the charging solution by the mirror.

The world dissolves into darkness. Black silhouettes turn slate-blue from the glow of elevated monorail tracks outside.

In the evening hours, I don't see my apartment as much as I memorize it. The space is a hundred and twenty square feet. My window faces north. Gas stove, water boiler, and fridge all pressed up against the western wall. Bathroom two steps south, holding a toilet with weak plumbing and a shower stall with a loose shower head. My dark mattress and the off-black blanket my mother wove for me. A low table stacked with plastic ramen bowls, broken chopsticks, and empty cans of iced tea.

Nestled against television on the eastern wall is my father's cajon, a little cracked, collecting dust. It's my most expensive possession. There's even a cajon brush on it. I played it once after he died, but the landlady yelled at me to shut it up, so now it's as useless as wall decor.

Crackling stirs the air. Lin's voice is flickering back to life, reinvigorated by the charging solution in my contacts case.

That's the thing about these contacts, too. The charging solution itself runs out of energy and costs two hundred fifty notes. Being a bounty hunter for money keeps me restocking every month. The price is half of what I collect in that time. The other half keeps me alive.

In other words, it's impossible to save and move upward. But with the money from catching Ren...

"Hina." The solution glows cool gray, like moonlight, flaring with the breath of Lin's voice. "Are you alright?"

I stare uselessly at the ceiling from my spot on the floor. "Just fine."

A beat of silence passes. In the past, my father, or otousan, would guide me home from the doctor's office, and at the first turn of the doorknob, the aroma of miso would flow through my nostrils and fill my body with warmth. My mother, my okaasan, would stand at the stove in a plastic apron, chewing her lip eagerly, white rice already steaming hot on the table. The lanterns would be lit. The walls would be warm. Otousan would poke his nose in close for a sniff, and almost instantly okaasan would protest and push his shoulder away, raising a spoon to his lips instead.

The solution flares silver. "Battery will reach full charge in six hours."

"Okay," I answer. "Thanks, Lin."

"Alternatively, if you deactivate my artificial intelligence system, you may reach full charge in three. Deactivate?"

I open my mouth to say yes.

Blue light flickers as a train passes outside. A cold draft of wind blows through the open window. Suddenly, a feeling of coldness flows through me. Through my chest, through my veins, right up to my heart, pressing up against the red wing imprinted in my blood.