M I S F I T S

i. a neon beginning

Someone stopped by their table.

"Aren't you supposed to be at your ballet lessons, Tomi?" Yeri asked as she got Leo off the table so he could go to the actual customers.

"Gymnastics." Tomi corrected. "Damn, why is everyone kicking me out everywhere I go?"

"I'm not asking you to leave. I'm actually concerned because you said your lessons start in half an hour. And you said that an hour ago."

"Wait— what—" Tomi then took out her phone. "Oh shit! Here-" She tried to hand the whisk to Yeri.

Yeri cringed and pushed the whisk away. "Nuh, you keep it. I'll get fired if I bring that back to the kitchen."

"Well okay," Tomi said and put the whisk inside her backpack. "Catch ya guys later!" Then dashed out of her workplace.

~

She actually hates gymnastics.

What she does love is fighting.

So after her gymnastics lesson that day, she headed straight to the small underground tournament that Taeil told her about, in Deungchon. It was quite far from where she had her lessons, but she still had time before her curfew. Of course, not forgetting to tell her mother, lying again that she was out with Wooyoung.

Not a complete lie, in fact. Wooyoung was indeed with her. She just didn't tell Kaya specifically where they were going.

"The Unholy Pit," Wooyoung snickered as he read out the name on the business card she gave him. "That's... fucking corny."

"Taeil said they pay good." She said as she kept her eyes out at the road.

The bus suddenly stopped abruptly, almost tossing them out of their seats. Wooyoung extended his hand out to catch Tomi, who just muttered a thank you in return.

"I hate the bus in this area." She mumbled to herself as she fixed her hair.

"Which you're going to take every time if you get into the tournament." Wooyoung pointed out as he caught her mumbling. "Which, by the way, is even further from your place. Which means you'll get home even later. You know we're running out of excuses for your mom." He then bit his lower lip. "I'm pretty sure she hates me even more by now—If that's even possible."

"I need to do this, Wooyoung. The café doesn't pay much. 'Gotta help her pay rent and also the tuition for those... fucking lessons." She then realized the last words came out wrong, but she couldn't care less.

"Hey, hey. Those fucking lessons are one of the reasons you're an amazing fighter." He shuffled  on his seat to face her. "And no, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you're doing this to help your mother."

He was trying to say that she was doing it for herself, because of her passion for martial arts. She never got the chance to actually attend martial arts lessons. Kaya would never allow that, and she had made it clear. She would always say fighting is not lady-like and it's a disgrace. It didn't stop Tomi from liking it though. She watched all movies and docs about martial arts, read comics and books about it, and also watched free lessons and videos online in her spare time. She knows a lot of martial arts styles, so her fighting style is influenced by numerous styles from across the world. Mainly from Japanese and Chinese martial arts. But mostly from gymnastics.

Wooyoung was right, but she would rather spend time on real martial arts lessons. Not gymnastics.

The computer voice on the bus announced the next stop that they were supposed to get off at.