M I S F I T S

iv. foe or ally

Oh, she's an international student. Cool. Tomi forgot that they have students from overseas attending NPS.

"I like to be back extra early, just to get myself adjusted better." She walked into Tomi's room, arms still folded. "I'm Yuqi. Song Yuqi." She emphasized her family name.

Tomi was quite confused as people would normally offer a handshake when they introduce themselves for the first time, but she just went along with it. "I'm Satomi. But my friends call me Tomi."

"Just Satomi?" Yuqi's eyebrow perked up. "What's your family name? Not that I care about what your family does..."

"Oh, my... family is a no one." Tomi chuckled awkwardly. "My mother works in a beauty salon and my dad passed away when I was still a baby."

Yuqi seemed quite taken back by what she'd just said. She stared at her for a while, lost of words. Then she flicked her fingers and breathed in, "aahh, you're the scholarship winner."

Tomi smiled and looked away from her.

"What style do you practice?"

"Sorry?"

"Your fighting style."

Then it made sense to her, "it's quite hard... to explain. My style doesn't particularly belong to anything. Not even a mixed martial arts. Well, I am influenced by a lot of styles—"

"You're a freestyler?" Yuqi raised her eyebrow at Tomi.

"Yes... I am."

"Well, you must be pretty good. They never picked a freestyler to win before. There is not even any in NPS." Yuqi snickered. "Where'd you learn how to fight? Mother?"

"From... videos, books,— street fights—"

"You're a self-taught freestyle street fighter??" Yuqi said it like she'd just heard of that for the very first time. "Interesting."

"Why? Is there something wrong with that?"

Yuqi pressed her lips, "everything." She simply said. "So I assume you don't know about the written and unwritten rules of the school, correct?"

"Why yes—"

"For the written rules," Yuqi walked pass Tomi to the study table and eyed Tomi's luggage. "Well you can read it yourself where it is written." She stretched her lips into a thin line. "For the unwritten rule—" she eyed Tomi. "—you don't want to be clubless here."

"What happens if I'm clubless?"

Yuqi smirked but looked away from Tomi, eyes wandering on the ceiling, like she was trying to explain it as best as she could. "No one is gonna back you up."

"What do you mean?"

"If you don't belong anywhere... people are going to..."

"What? They're gonna beat me up or something?" Tomi tried to help her.

"I wouldn't say it blatantly like that," she let out an awkward chuckle. "But I guess that's how you put it in a way. Think of it like a... group. The bigger your group, the more achievements you have, the more successful you are. If you're just by yourself, no one's going to back you up if something is threatening you, you'll be done for quicker." She shrugged. "That's how it is in the real world too. The strongest, and those who have more numbers, are on top."

"So you're saying if I am not in a club I will get beaten up because no one will back me up?"

Yuqi shrugged. "Yeah," she walked away from the study table to near the door. "Also there are tag battles in our ranked matches, so you will need allies to participate. Usually if you want to team up with students outside your club, you or your club have to have a certain reputation and if not, no one will want to team up with you. And if that happens you can't get promoted to higher ranks. But that is not my job to explain what they are."