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jinterlude · 5 years

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Two Faced (Final Chapter)

↳ gif header is made by © @softjeon. Please don’t try and steal it and make it your own.

➵ Pairing(s): Gang!Jungkook x Female!OC & Gang!Mark Lee x Female!OC x Gang!Seokjin

➵ Genre(s): College!AU, Mafia/Gang!AU, Angst, Romance, Friendship, Humor, Love Triangle & Slight-Fluff

➵ Warning(s) + Rating: major character death / violence / guns / attempted sexual violence/assault / blood / gore / swearing | Rated M

➵ Words: 8.9K

➵ Co-writer: @softjeon

➵ Summary: Two girls. Two gangs. One craved absolute control over the city of Seoul. While, the other simply craved sleep and good grades. Now, what do these two ladies have in common? Simple. They have nothing in common—or so they think. Everyone knows the saying, “never judge a book by its cover”, so maybe there is something more to these two than meets the eye…especially when one of them is suddenly thrown into the underground life. Loyalties will be tested. Romance will blossom. Yup. Sounds like an average college day…

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Final Chapter - Only One Shot

Sumin continued to struggle, desperate to fight off the person’s hard grip. She shouted a few profanities, calling the unknown person every name in the book. The others were made up on the spot.

“Wait, it’s me!” She heard the strong bodied figure yell. Though, she didn’t let up. If she did, then she would be taken to Mark, and that’s something she didn't want. She’d rather die than go back to him.

“Princess! It’s okay! It’s me!” shouted the person, releasing the squirming Sumin and unveiling his true self.

His eyes penetrated hers, hoping that she’d recognize him.

Sumin eyed the person strangely, believing that her mind played tricks on her. She had hallucinated before, missing not only Seokjin, but the other members of Bangtan as well. Shit. She’d even missed Jungkook, and he pissed her off to the point of using him as target practice—without his permission.

The person cautiously walked up to Sumin, careful of her body language and ready to protect his body in case she wanted to attack. Step after step, he closed the gap between their bodies until he was able to place a warm hand on her shoulder.

“How’s my princess doing?” He softly asked, smiling warmly at the woman.

Sumin’s eyes widened. Tears pooled in the brim of her eyes as she felt over the moon at the sight of the man she had longed for.

“Seokjin!” She shouted in glee, throwing herself at him. She wrapped her arms around his waist ⎼ practically locking him in place ⎼ as she was afraid that he’d disappear if she did. Seokjin glanced down; the fondest smile appeared on his face. This feeling of love and euphoria entered his body as he finally had the opportunity to hold the woman he had longed for—and worried for.

After what seemed like an eternity, the lovers pulled away, dawning the brightest and warmest smiles on their faces.

“That obsessed asshole didn’t do anything to you, right?” asked Seokjin, glancing over Sumin’s body. He ignored how beautiful she looked wearing that simple yet extravagant black and blue dress. He even tried his hardest to ignore her shoes and how he had grown envious of the ribbons that wrapped around her sinful legs.

“Okay...Seokjin...now’s not the time to be aroused…” He silently chanted as Sumin told him that she was fine. She added that Mark only ever kissed her.

Of course, that triggered Seokjin....

“He fucking kissed you??!!!!”

“Now. Now. You know that I don’t kiss and tell…” taunted a voice that caused Sumin to tense and created pure and utter rage within Seokjin.

Seokjin swiftly turned around, using his own body to shield Sumin.

“Ah...so you’re the infamous leader of NCT.” He clicked his tongue, “Can’t say that I’m impressed.” He announced, tilting his head just a bit.

Mark ignored his snippy remark and glanced behind the elder. His eyebrow perked up just a bit as an evil smirk appeared on his lips.

“Now... “He paused, taking a step towards them, “...why is my precious angel playing hide-and-seek?” He finished with a tone that could easily send shivers down anyone’s spine.

“I’m leaving whether you like it or not.”

“Interesting...well...we shall see about that. Right, my precious angel?”

WARNING! WARNING! INTRUDERS SIGHTED!

The three of them heard.

“Now, no one can get in, and no one can get out.” Both Seokjin and Sumin heard Mark say. “Good luck trying to escape…”

WARNING! WARNING! INTRUDERS SIGHTED!

Sowon snapped her head around when the sudden alarm went off. “Fuck,” She cursed loudly. Listening closely, she tried to hear who the intruders were. Was it Bangtan? Did Sumin fuck up their plan? Did someone else come in? Either way, Sowon started to panic. Her breath quickened as she tried to come up with something, her eyes flickered around the room. But there was nothing. No window. No way to escape.

A scream tore from her as she could hear the locking system lock once more to make sure that no one would get her. She let out a desperate cry of help, as she hammered against the door with her fists, screaming, for anyone, for someone to get her fucking out of there. And then she sunk onto the floor while the energy had been drained from her body.

Every muscle in her body hurt. Every limb felt too heavy. Every bruise and cut burned. She rubbed her hands over her face, causing it to pale more than it already was. A tear fell onto her cheek. There was no fucking light at the end of the tunnel, except for one tiny glimpse of hope.

Sumin.

She could only hope that Sumin was getting out of Marks grip so she could come and get her. Or else she would die here. Alone. Sowon could feel how the lack of nutrients had weakened her body over the past days more and more. She could barely keep herself up. “Sumin, please,” She whispered.

A few levels up, Seokjin had his hands wrapped around his weapon tightly, trying to foresee whatever Mark was planning.

“Good thing you’re beautiful...at least you have something then,” Mark teased the other with an evil smirk. “You think running around like a headless chicken will bring you back to your girl?” Mark took a step closer, making Sumin jerk back immediately. “Come here, princess,” He said in the sweetest tone, reaching out his hand for her to take,

“Do you really think we’re the bad ones in this?” Mark laughed, icy and cold, making a shiver run down Sumin’s spine, “Oh baby girl, you really didn’t do much research on the boys, hm? Do you really know everything there is to know about Sowon? About her past. About who the boys killed.” He added as his grin grew wider.

Seokjin stiffened up, his eyes growing wide as he took a step back, trying to protect Sumin. “Don’t listen to him!” He hissed quietly.

“He wants you to not question anything...you’re always so eager to question everything, why didn’t you with Bangtan?” Mark shook his head as if he was disappointed, “Did you ever ask yourself who shot your dad?” A fake gasp fell from his lips and he pushed his hand over his mouth. His eyes wide, before they had gotten a mischievous glint, “Did you ever wonder about Sowon’s first kill?”

Sumin’s eyes flickered between Seokjin and Mark, questioning everything and anything that had happened. There was no viable way that Sowon could’ve killed her dad. He died when she only four-years-old, which meant No. It’s not possible...right?

She firmly shook her head, refusing to believe that Sowon had anything to do with her father’s murder. Mark, on the other hand, saw her conflicted state as a better opportunity to sink his teeth in. The more conflicted she had become, the higher the chance of her believing every single word that were to come out of his mouth.

“Oh...but it is true, my sweet little angel. It is because of her mother that your father lies dead, practically dust, in his coffin. It because of Bangtan that you grew up fatherless,” He took a step towards Seokjin and Sumin, “All alone. Questioning why every kid in your class, had a dad, but you didn’t?” He inched closer and closer, “Why whenever your mom took you to weddings, you unknowingly eyed the bride with insane jealousy because she got to dance with dear old dad, and you know that it would never happen to you. Never.” He now stood close to Seokjin. Their chests bumped into each other. “And it is all...because...of...Bangtan…” He finished with an evil smirk painted on his lips as he swiftly grabbed Sumin’s wrist before she or Seokjin had the chance to react.

Sumin winced from his harsh grip. She mustered all her strength to pull her wrist out of his firm grasp.

“Let me go!!” She shouted, desperate to break free from him.

Mark’s smirk only grew, secretly loving the pleading tone in her voice. “But I just got you back, my precious angel. There’s no way I’m going to let those fools corrupt you any longer.” He stated, dragging her out of the room. He then glanced over his shoulder, fully aware that Seokjin had his gun aimed at him. “Don’t bother. You shoot me, and she’ll die.” He suddenly revealed his position, “I have us set up in a way that the bullet will pierce us both, causing both of our deaths.” He held Sumin nice and close; his breath practically fanned her cheek, “In short. You lose. Again.” He said softly yet evilly as he guided both himself and his prize possession out of the room and out of sight.

Seokjin growled, slowly lowering his gun fully aware that that bastard was fucking right. If he were to shoot him, Sumin would die as well. If Sumin wound up dead, then Sowon would be utterly destroyed. And that was something that he or any of the other fellas would allow to happen ever again.

He rubbed his hand over his face; a habit he had done out of frustration, while tucking his gun behind his back and inside the waistband of his pants.

Not only was he separated from his members, but he lost his princess as well. Whether it was just physical lost had yet to be determined. He needed something or someone to convince Sumin that what Mark spouted was simply bullshit.

Right now, more than likely, she became confused, questioning if he and the rest of Bangtan were tied to her father’s murder. To be specific, if Sowon had anything to do with it.

Then, that’s when it hit him. He needed Sowon, herself, to convince Sumin that they had nothing to do with her father’s murder. But, would she listen? He prayed to God that she would…

He drew out his gun once more, mentally preparing himself to spill blood. While, he had killed before, his were done faraway. He had an extreme dislike for getting dirty when he didn’t have to.

“Alright...time to go save the leader…”

It was extremely quiet in the headquarters and Seokjin was praying to himself that the rest of his group was out there, surrounding the building and getting in just like they had planned.

He only had to remind himself that it was all part of the plan—only the fucking fool talking shit about Bangtan wasn’t. He would have never gotten in alone if it wasn’t exactly what they had wanted. Mark going crazy and locking everyone in. He just hoped that Bangtan had been fast enough to be locked in as well.

It wasn’t easy to find Sowon, even though he had studied the plan of the building by heart. But when he did find the locked door, Seokjin quickly tucked his gun away when he felt safe enough to get out a little device that Namjoon had built a long time ago. Only seconds later the door opened, smoke coming from the lock device and Seokjin smiled to himself—that only faded when he saw the leader.

His eyes were wide, his mouth hanging open when he saw Sowon in the corner of the room. Her eyes were closed, knees tucked in as if she was trying to hide. There were bruises all over her body and she awfully looked like she had lost weight...and her usual glow. “Fuck!” He cursed, running over to her and immediately cupping her cheeks, slapping her slightly to get her to wake up. “C’mon, a queen never gives up, now fucking rise and shine, Sowon!” Seokjin murmured angrily. Sowon blinked her eyes open, a faint smile appearing on her lips. “Wow, I thought that if I hallucinated it would be Jungkook not you Jinnie,” She said with a weak chuckle as she felt

herself getting hoisted up by Seokjin. It took her a few blinks and feeling

Seokjin’s heartbeat against her own body to realize that she wasn’t dreaming.

It woke her up in a matter of seconds.

“Where’s Sumin?”

Seokjin’s lips thinned. A short humming sound emitted from them. Shit...how was he supposed to tell his leader that Sumin had gotten taken away…again? How was he supposed to tell Sowon that he had purposely failed Sumin, so that their plan would work?

Easy.

He doesn’t.

Sowon would go ballistic if she were to know that they needed Mark to become paranoid and lock Sumin away with him.

They needed to isolate him, so it would be an easy kill. He just hoped that both Sowon and Sumin would forgive them in the end. With the most believable smile - he could muster - Seokjin told Sowon that Sumin decided to stay with Mark, so that way he could rescue her. He uttered a quick prayer in hopes that Sowon would believe his lie. Unfortunately, Sowon knew better. Out of Bangtan, Seokjin sucked absolute shit at lying.

“...you’re fucking lucky that I am pretty much almost dead or else I would’ve punched you square in the fucking face…” threatened the weak leader. Her eyes icy cold and laced with anger.

Seokjin winced, fully aware that she would actually punch him and perhaps use him as a practice dummy. He held up his hands in surrender, carefully picking his next choice of words in a way that wouldn’t enrage Sowon even more.

“Well, you can always direct your fiery rage at Mark because right now he’s manipulating Sumin into thinking that we are the reason that her dad is dead.” He stated; his face completely serious.

Sowon’s eyes widened, “This better be one of your crappy ass lies…”

Seokjin shook his head, “I wish it was, but it’s not. Mark is using Sumin’s longing for her dad against us and molding it in a way that she doubts everything and anything,” He sighed, taking a moment, “I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Sumin truly believes his bullshit because of what was reported in the fucking news.” Sowon remained silent. She refused to believe that Sumin would even consider taking the side of someone who had this creepy obsession with her over her genuine friends. No. She needed to hear the truth from her. Sowon had to make Sumin believe in her. And not some deranged man.

Anchoring her hand on Seokjin’s bicep, Sowon mustered any remaining ounce of strength she had to stand up. A few painful winces left her lips as she forced herself up. Seokjin supported the leader’s weakening body, making sure she didn’t collapse back down.

“Take me to her. Now.”

Somewhere in the mansion, dead bodies, debris, and broke glass decorated the marble tiled floors. Mark, still in his delusion, protected Sumin from hurting herself. She had a bruise on her wrist now thanks to him, but he personally blamed Seokjin and the rest of Bangtan. It was because of them invading his sanctuary that he had become this way. Crazy. Paranoid. Frightened that they would take her away from him.

Sumin, didn’t feel that way. She called him a fucking psycho and demanded that he’d release her this instant.

Sadly, it didn’t work that way....

“Why are you so bent on trying to convinced me that Sowon is this monster? If anything, it’s you. You’re a monster!”

Mark halted and then forced them to look at one another. His grip tightened around her forearm. His eyes blanked with emotion. Though - on the inside - he was absolutely furious. His precious angel had grown scared of him to the point that she saw him as this evil monster. No. No. No. That needed to die quickly.

“I told you, baby girl that she isn’t the one you thought her to be,” Mark explained further, tightening his grip around her and pushing the gun into Sumin’s side, “Now come on. We’ll get you somewhere safe!”

Mark positioned them in a way that not only would be able to protect her but use her as shield if Bangtan decided to ambush them. But he knew better. They wouldn’t be stupid enough to try and attack him while Sumin was with him. He had won—like always.

The two of them ventured deeper into the mansion. Sumin had never been towards the west wing before as Mark told her that it was unsafe for her to be around the construction. Which, if she thought about now, would make the perfect hideaway spot for them. No one, but NCT, knew about this area. Mark had hoped once the west wing was finished, it would be where he and Sumin could make new memories in their bedroom. Where Sumin could study to her heart’s content without being disturbed by the men. Where Mark would one day turn one of the empty rooms into a nursery for their future child.

He had every single thing planned out to the last detail, but fucking Bangtan ruined everything. And now, he’d be damned if they were to walk away from this scotch free...

Mark continued to tug her along, still pressing the gun to her side, until they reached a door. He released his hold on her arm but still had the gun firmly pressed against her ribcage. He then hovered his free hand over the keypad and entered the password. Of course—it was the digits to her birthday. And Sumin quickly noticed it.

“Okay. Creepy.” She muttered under her breath. Unfortunately, Mark heard her snide comment and swiftly angered him.

Not wanting to verbally lash out on her, he calmly opened the door and pushed her inside. He glanced over his shoulder, checking to make sure that no one followed them, before walking inside himself. Afterwards, he closed the door and alarmed the special security system he had installed for their future bedroom. Now definitely no one could get inside nor get out. They were safe. Alone in each other’s company. The perfect moment created just for them.

“We will be safe here, my sweet little angel.” Mark said softly, tucking away his gun, as he walked up to her.

Sumin glared at her abductor, “How is me being locked in the same fucking room as you safe? You’re psycho!” She exclaimed, letting her emotions best her.

Mark clicked his tongue as he tilted his head slightly. He slowly became fed up with her snappy remarks. Why couldn’t she see that everything he had done was to protect her?

Why couldn’t she understand the love he bore for her?

Why?

Without thinking, he too allowed his anger - his frustrations - control his actions and…

SLAP!

Sumin’s head forcibly moved to the side because of the strong impact against her cheek. In disbelief, she cupped her throbbing cheek, biting her bottom as she refused to shed any tears over this crazed psychopath.

“I’m sorry, little one, but you need to learn that actions have consequences.” He explained sweetly as he placed an index finger underneath her chin, forcing her to look at him.

Sumin breathed heavily. Her fiery gaze penetrated his, hoping that her looks could indeed kill someone. If only she had some kind of sharp object with her...then she’d be free forever.

Wishful thinking. But she had to remember her part in this. She needed to save Sowon—her most cherished friend.

Not wanting to be touched by a second more, she roughly removed herself from his hold. She created space between them; though, it was pointless as he quickly closed it.

“Haven’t you heard of personal space?” She asked. Her tone laced with attitude.

Mark, again, didn’t appreciate her snarky attitude. This wasn’t his precious angel that he had fallen for. His sweet baby girl would never snap back at him. She would stare at him with nothing but love in her eyes as this warm smile appeared on her sweet lips.

The woman in front of him looked at him as if she loathed him. She hated his touch. His words. Everything.

No. No. No. That’s not supposed to happen.

Fucking Sowon. That stupid bitch corrupted her. That’s what he gets for allowing Sumin alone time with the stubborn leader. She molded his angel’s mind into hating him.

That’s it.

This was all Sowon’s fault, and Sumin would soon blame her for what’s about to happen next.

He needed to reprogram her.

Practically reset her mind. He needed her to love him.

And that’s what he’d do…

Suddenly, he grabbed Sumin and forced her to the ground. Sumin - panic settling within her entire body - struggled against his body. She became desperate to free herself from underneath him.

“Get off me!” She pleaded, disgusted

by his hands roaming up and down her body.

Mark shushed her, pressing his lips against her temple.

“I’ll be gentle. I promise. I won’t hurt you.” He whispered sweetly as he bound her wrists together with one hand while the other moved down to his jeans.

Sumin’s breathing became sporadic. Tears pooled at the brim of her eyes. Her heart pounded against her chest. While, she knew of sexual assault and what to do afterwards because of her classes, never once did she prepare herself for it. What made her sick to her stomach was that she was a virgin...and she hoped to give it to the one person she loved with all her heart...Seokjin.

“I’m so sorry, Seokjin…” She thought helplessly, slamming her eyes shut and embracing for what would come next.

“You know...I would greatly appreciate it if you removed your fucking hands away from my sister.” She heard someone say before she felt Mark’s body forcibly removed. “Oh, by the way, you shouldn’t have made your stupid password her birthday. It was painfully obvious.” Then, she heard the sound of someone landing a hit. From how swift the hit was and the fact that the person called her “sister”, she knew it was Jungkook. That annoying little twat that loved to tease her, and she enjoyed every moment of it.

“I got you, Min…” She heard another voice. She slowly pried her eyes open and saw Hoseok shrugging off his jacket and placing it around her shoulders. Without a second thought, she lunged herself at him, hugging him to make sure this wasn’t a dream. Bangtan was here.

But where was Sowon?

She broke the hug and asked about her.

“Right here, sunshine…” Sumin heard that familiar voice.

Sumin’s eyes immediately snapped towards the direction of the voice. Soon, happiness basically beamed from them as Sumin saw that Sowon was safe—for the most part.

The poor girl scrambled up and rushed over to Sowon. Or at least tried to. The second she stood up; the door busted wide open. Then, every single member of NCT came storming in – with guns locked and loaded – as Mark slowly stood up, dusting himself off. The rival gang leader cracked his neck, warming up the stiffened muscles. He then touched his bruised cheek as this smug smirk graced his face.

“Has anyone told you that you hit like a little bitch?” He taunted Jungkook as he nodded towards his members, greeting them. “Now, if you guys can kindly step away from Sumin and no one gets hurt,” He whipped out his gun, pointing directly at that stupid bitch, Sowon, “Correction. Leave and no one dies.” He finished with his index finger pressed lightly on the trigger.

Sowon glared harshly at her rival but soon her expression was replaced with amusement. Just like Mark, a smug smile appeared on her face as she boldly stared her rival down.

“Interesting. I was about to say the same thing.” She commented, directing her focus on to Sumin, “Sunshine, it’s okay. You can come over to us. Seokjin and I will keep you safe.”

“How…? My father is dead because of you and Bangtan. While, I know it is stupid to believe Mark, but somewhere deep down, I feel like he’s telling the truth.” Sumin stared sadly at Sowon, a look of betrayal flashed in her eyes, “I mean it makes sense. From what I could remember, he was always there for me. He’d take me to and from preschool every single day, making sure that I would arrive safely. Then suddenly it stopped. His cause of death makes perfect sense now. He was incredibly healthy, so there was no way he could’ve died from natural causes.” Tears trickled down her cheeks. “You took my dad away from me, and I will never forgive you.” She finished, releasing years of pent up emotions when it came to her father’s death.

Upon hearing her last sentence, Mark smiled in victorious while Seokjin and the rest of Bangtan became worried.

Were they too late…?

Blankets of both silence and uncertainty covered the room. Neither side spoke as it seemed that words were unnecessary. NCT had won. Bangtan had failed. So, what was more left to say?

In Sowon’s mind...there were plenty more to say…

“Sumin, listen to me,” Sowon let go off Seokjin who helped her steady herself and walked up to the frightened girl,

“Please, I will tell you the truth. All of it.”

The silence in the room was almost unbearable, the guns pointing at each other’s rivals while Sowon’s eyes were only on Sumin’s. She kneeled down, putting her gun aside and then she kicked it over to Seokjin, whose eyes grew wide as plates. Was the leader fucking out of her mind? She had not a vest on, nothing but her ripped jeans and a ripped shirt with dirt and blood all over it from the days of torture. Sumin on the other hand was shaking, her eyes flickering around the room as she tried to sort out wrong from right and whose side she should be on. But all she wanted was to curl up and not see or hear anything. Sowon reached out her hands and Sumin took them without thinking, making Mark take a step forward, eyeing the leader warily with his gun pointed at her. Sowon took a sharp breath, seeing the gun and knowing that she would be dead in a matter of seconds, even if Jungkook’s gun was pointed at Mark. It would be over for her, before he could shoot.

But it didn’t matter.

Only Sumin did.

“Sumin, your father had been involved in some deep shit. I’m not going to lie that the original Bangtan had something to do with it. We were paid to kill him by someone anonymous but...and please listen to me, your father was involved with my mother. Not romantically, god please, no. They knew each other. He kept her out of some crazy shit actually. He was a good lawyer. A good man. A good soul, just like you. But we didn’t kill him, my mother didn’t,” Sowon took a deep breath, “It was EXO.”

A gasp fell from everyone’s lips and Mark stiffened up.

“But EXO is…” Sumin looked around, realizing the connections between EXO and NCT.

“Yes, I know. It sounds crazy...but I didn’t kill him. Mark was right when he said that I was incredibly young when I first killed someone,” Sowon shrugged her shoulders as if it was something that every little 5-year old girl would do, “But I never killed your father. Nor did my mother. We found him. That night of his death. I am so sorry Sumin. I always knew about you. Who you were, where you’re from, who you were going to be? But honestly, I never really thought you’d become my friend. Someone I trust. Someone I want to protect. I am so sorry, Sumin. I couldn’t tell you. I just couldn’t.”

A slow and soft sigh escaped her lips as a storm of thoughts brewed within Sumin’s mind. Who told her the truth? Most importantly, why had her father paid the ultimate price for being the greatest parent? It wasn’t fair. All he did was love her and protect her from harm’s way...just like Bangtan…

Slowly closing her eyes, Sumin inhaled and then exhaled slowly. The more she did that, the more the irrational thought exited her mind. The storm slowly cleared up and this ray of light pierced through the thick gray clouds. The light illuminated a path for Sumin’s subconscious to follow and she did. With each step, all the negative thoughts - all the doubts - exited her brain. It was clear as day to her. She knew who she could trust - who she could call a “friend” - in this spacious room with the tension at an all-time high. She knew that when this was all over, she would be home.

Her home with Bangtan…

Without a second thought, Sumin wrapped her arms around Sowon. Mark and the rest of NCT saw a glimpse of victory, but it had soon evaporated as they saw Sumin rest her face against Sowon’s with a content smile resting on innocent girl’s lips.

Sowon was shocked. A huge part of her feared that Sumin’s psyche was too far gone that her words had been pointless and a huge waste of fucking time. But noticing Sumin’s relaxed body language and the smile - the same smile she had painted on her face on the day they had first met - gave Sowon a glimmer of hope. And the hug had sealed that for her.

She had her dearest and closest friend back.

Hugging Sumin close, Sowon held onto her friend tightly. “You can get us out of here. I know you can.” The leader whispered into her ear, “You’re the key in this story. It was never about me or anyone else. It’s you.” Sumin tightened her hold, not really sure what the other woman meant with her words, when a sudden gasp fell from her lips and it felt like Sowon slipped between Sumin’s arms. Something warm spread on her stomach and Sumin wondered what it was; a scream filled the silence followed by gunshots. And suddenly everything went in slow-motion.

Sowon stumbled back a few steps; her hands tightly pressed onto her lower stomach. Her fingers shook, covered in red. Her eyes flickered helplessly around the room. Her breathing grew closer and closer together. Her heart rate increased as the adrenaline surged through her veins in hopes to keep her alive. Sumin screamed. One painful, loud, scream. Her eyes fixated on what Mark held in his hands. A fucking throwing knifes. Not just one, but three. Each settled in between his fingers, and there was a fourth knife, but it was currently impaled in Sowon’s stomach. With an evil smirk on his face, Mark said only one thing, “Oops.”

“Oops…? Just a fucking oops?!” Sumin shouted; fury burned throughout her body. Her shoulders trembled. Her breathing grew sporadic. Her eyes practically became slits as she glared harshly at the man who broke her heart. Not the same way a lover would’ve had done, but in a way that was drastically worse.

He tried to kill the person who Sumin had grown fond of - practically love as a sister - and she would be damned if she allowed NCT to take away a family member. She had lost her father to one of their affiliates, and for the sake of her sanity, she couldn’t lose another.

“That’s all you have to say?” She began, kneeling down and grasping her shaky fingers around a gun that had been kicked towards her thanks to Yoongi. She stared coldly at the weapon as she slowly stood back up; her index finger anchored on the trigger. “You have done nothing but torment me…” She spun around, facing Mark, “You fucking drugged and tried to kidnap me on the night we first fucking met…” She held the gun at him, making sure the nozzle was aimed at a vital spot, “You filled my head with nothing but lies and molded me into this prized jewel of your sick obsession…” She slowly pressed her index finger against the trigger, “And to add insult to injury, you attempted to kill my sister.” Sumin finished, firing round after round. She couldn’t care less if she didn’t hit an instant “kill” spot. Sumin wanted Mark’s blood to drain from his body.

She wanted him dead…

Mark easily dodged each bullet, then pulled out his gun and fired at Sumin. He too couldn’t care less about her. His heart shattered into a million pieces the moment he witnessed his precious angel hug another man.

Sumin was dead to him…

“Boss! What do we do?” The angry leader heard Taeyong ask, firing a few rounds at Jimin and Yoongi, while Johnny provided support and made sure that Namjoon, Jungkook and Seokjin were pinned against the corner wall.

Mark growled; his eyes narrowed onto Sumin, who currently provided cover for Sowon, while Hoseok and Taehyung did everything in their power to slow down their leader’s pending death.

“Kill that fucking bitch.”

“Which one?”

“Both of them.”

Before Taeyong left, Mark grabbed onto his second-in-command and roughly pulled him down.

“But make sure that Sumin’s death is slow and painful. I want to hear her beg for us to put her out of her misery.” He instructed quietly with anger burning in his eyes.

“What about EXO? You know that our original instructions were-”

“I could give two fucks about our original instructions. Just fucking do it!”

Emptying yet another round, Sumin released the clip and loaded up another. Without a moment to lose, she fired bullet after bullet, shooting to kill, as her mind became plagued with one simple thought—protect Sowon.

Her roommate had done so much for her, so it was time to return the favor.

It was her turn to protect the fatally injured leader.

“How much longer Taehyung?!” Sumin shouted, demanding answers as she noticed Namjoon, Jungkook and Seokjin pinned down by Johnny and Haechan while Yoongi and Jimin were fighting against four others. The odds were definitely against them as not only were Bangtan outnumbered but their ammo supply ran low. Jungkook and the rest of the fellas did not expect to be in this shootout for this long. The original plan was to save both Sumin and Sowon, kill a few NCT members, and then book the hell out of there. But no. Mark fucking Lee had to be a sore loser and throw a knife at Sowon’s stomach.

And now it was a battle for life…

Who was allowed to walk out of that mansion alive…?

Taehyung exhausted every single resource he had to slow down Sowon’s pending death. He had Hoseok apply an insane amount of pressure to the wound without moving the knife while he used Sumin’s diamond earrings as a tool to sew his leader’s giant cut shut; though, it was proven difficult since Taehyung would need to take out the knife but doing so would increase the blood loss which would lead to death of Sowon.

It was lose-lose situation, and it fucking sucked.

“She’s losing too much blood, and at the rate its leaving her body, I can’t come up with a solution that would prolong her life enough for us to get back to base where I have the necessary tools to save her.” Taehyung confessed, angry at himself for not being able to help his leader.

Sumin’s jaw clenched, “And I can’t let her die!” She grabbed Hoseok’s knife from its holster and threw it at Jungwoo, killing him in the process, “So, you better try again. I’m going to help Yoongi and Jimin and then send them your way. They are our best shooters and can easily provide better support for you…!” She stated; her eyes drifted towards Sowon as this desperation settled inside her heart. She slowly ran out of options, and that was a depressing thought with her brain filled with knowledge that put some of her professors to shame.

And yet...

Her intellect failed her right now...

Slowly closing and reopening her eyes, Sumin gathered her thoughts and calmed herself. Like her mother always told her,

“If you believe that you exhausted all of your options, collect your thoughts, and then try again. If you think that there is nothing left to say or do, think again, Sumin. Number one rule of being a damn good lawyer like your mom.”

And she was right…

Just as Sumin turned to leave to help Yoongi and Jimin, she felt something grab her wrist.

“S-Sunshine…”

“Don’t Sowon. You need to strength to keep fighting. You hear me? You keep fucking fighting or so help me God, I will bring you back alive and then kill you myself. Got it?”

“C-cute… but no Sumin…” Sowon wrapped her bloody fingers around the knife handle, alerting Sumin, Taehyung, and Hoseok. She tightened her grip, “I-is it sad that I miss how q-quiet you were…?” She gently pulled out the knife, ignoring the throbbing pain and tightening sensation she experienced in her heart. “H-here…” She whispered, handing Sumin the bloodied knife, as a faint smile slowly appeared on her pale face. “Go kill that son of a bitch…” She added, dropping her arm.

Sumin choked back her tears as she swallowed roughly.

“Taehyung. Hoseok. Protect our leader. Do whatever it takes to keep her alive long enough to get the fuck out of here”

The two boys nodded firmly, already aware of what she was about to do. Part of them wanted to suggest that one of them should help her. But they knew that this was something she had to do by herself.

Sprinting away from the trio, Sumin dodged every bullet or at least tried to. As she zoomed towards Yoongi and Jimin, Doyoung and Haechan entered her line of sight as a few bullets grazed her arms and legs. A few winces escaped her lips, but she couldn’t afford to fall.

She had to keep going.

Sumin grabbed Haechan’s arm, applying enough pressure to gain brief control of him. She then turned around, aimed his gun at Doyoung, and fired a few shots, killing NCT’s resident Brainiac before slitting Haechan’s throat. Watching their bodies drop to the floor satisfied Sumin’s thirst for revenge, but it was short lived as Taeil came charging at her with guns blazing.

“Aw? Did I kill your best friend?” She taunted before diving for Haechan’s discarded gun and firing at Taeil, killing yet another member. If she was seconds late, then she would be lying in a pool of blood instead.

“Thank you, Yoongi…” muttered Sumin, staring at Taeil’s cold, lifeless body.

“You’re welcome, Minnie.” She heard someone say. Without a second thought, she aimed her gun at the intruder and had her knife ready but soon relaxed as she saw a familiar face—an ally.

“And to think...I thought only Jungkook calls me that…” Sumin playfully scoffed, displaying a grin, as she eyed Yoongi and Jimin with an amused gleam.

Jimin shrugged, “Well, it rubbed off on us since he called you that enough.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Now enough with the chit-chat. We need to get the fuck out of here.” Yoongi chimed in; agitation etched on his face.

Sumin gave Yoongi a look, “Not until I kill Mark.”

“And how, may I ask, are you going to do that?”

“That’s for me to know, and you two to see once I do it.”

“That makes little to no fucking sense, Minnie.”

“Just trust me. Now, go over to Taehyung and Hoseok and protect Sowon.”

Yoongi and Jimin cocked their brow up, staring at the formerly innocent lady. They observed her appearance and noted the fresh blood stains on her dress and tiny droplets that trickled down her arms and legs. There were a few bruises, and her hair was a disheveled mess, but other than that, she was okay.

Scratch that. She was furious.

Revenge blinded her and clouded her sense of morality.

She had become an official member of Bangtan.

She became their sister-in-arms.

So - naturally - they listened to her.

“Alright. Just be careful. We already have a pissed off Jungkook. We don’t need a pissed off Seokjin on top of that.”

Yoongi said, cocking back his gun and taking mental note of how many rounds he had left. Jimin mimicked his actions.

Sumin, at first, looked confused by Yoongi’s statement but soon waved it off as she didn’t have time to question why Seokjin being furious would make the situation worse.

With one final “good luck” uttered to one another, Sumin resumed her task. She needed to find a way to sneak up on Mark and slit his throat.

Question was how...

How could she gain the upper hand on the one person that always seemed to have eyes on the back of his head.

Then, it hit her.

“Let’s finish this…” She nodded with this fire of determination burning throughout her body.

Gripping the handle of the knife with one hand, the determined yet secretly nervous girl uttered a quick prayer before diving back into the battle. Without a slight sense in hesitation, Sumin fired round after round, shooting to kill, as she made her way closer to goal—Mark Lee. Her eyes homed in on his back, and how it didn’t appear that he would turn around anytime soon.

Perfect.

She needed to continue the momentum and close the gap between their bodies. Funny. Throughout her time in captivity, she wanted nothing but space between them yet now, she needed to be close as possible to the man. The cruel, vile, evil man. Mark needed to be wiped away from existence. Someone like him shouldn’t be allowed to roam this Earth.

He needed to be stopped.

“Just a little bit more…” Sumin whispered, stepping lightly around the fallen debris and broken glass. She ignored the fatigued that slowly washed over her body. She ignored the pounding of her heartbeat as negative thoughts began to plague her mind. She couldn’t afford to give in to such thoughts. There was no room for the idea of failure or any errors.

This execution had to be flawless…

With each last step, Sumin slowly raised her hand, making sure that she didn’t cast a shadow in doing so. She took extra care in ensuring that no light reflected off the bloodied blade of the knife; though, the metal was coated too much that it shouldn’t be a problem, but Sumin didn’t want to chance it.

As she neared Mark’s body - ready to grab the NCT leader with her other hand after tossing away gun moments earlier - she heard,

“Aw my precious angel, you have to do better than that.”

Sumin’s body froze as she saw him slowly turn around, revealing a triumphant smirk and evil gleam in his eyes. The color drained from her body. Her breathing grew sporadic.

“How the fuck did you know I was behind you?”

“You know…” Mark clicked his tongue as he cocked his head to the side, “If you wanted to sneak up on a man,” He roughly grabbed her arm, giving it a little squeeze, “You really shouldn’t wear a scent that he has grown accustomed to.” He said; his voice sent shivers down her spine. He then twisted her arm back, causing the poor girl to scream in pain as she felt the knife forcibly drop from her hand. He roughly turned her around - her back pressed against his chest - as he maintained his iron grip on his arm. He lowered his head; his hot breath fanned the crevice of her neck.

“Just kill me, Mark. I’d rather be dead than go back to you.” Sumin said in nothing but pure rage.

“Aw, but baby girl. Where would the fun be in that?” Mark released his hold on her, “No, my sweet angel. You have betrayed me, broke my heart into a million pieces, and for that, you need to be punished.” He said with an expression so dark that Sumin’s eyes widened. Her fingers trembled. She felt that she could no longer breath. She could only imagine what this cruel leader would do, but even then, her imagination wouldn’t do them justice.

Mark stepped closer to her as Sumin took a step back.

“When I get done with you, you’ll be begging for me to end your life. No one betrays NCT. NO ONE!”

“And no one should ever put their hands on a woman, especially someone who is precious to me.” The duo heard. Mark growled, swiftly turning around to face the intruder while Sumin felt a wave of relief wash over her.

“You…! This is all your fault. If you kept your hands off on what’s mine, then your leader wouldn’t be lying on the cold hard ground, fighting for her life. Which, by the way, I’m surprised that stubborn bitch is still alive.”

The person shrugged, “Well, you did say so yourself. Sowon is quite stubborn, so she doesn’t die so easily.”

Mark scoffed, “You’re right. Maybe I should help her out then.” He said with a malicious smirk as he aimed his gun in between the gap of Yoongi and Jimin. He pressed his index finger on the trigger and just as it neared the end, Mark felt his arm jerked back; he struggled to remove himself from the tight hold that Sumin had on him as she positioned her hands on his bicep and wrist.

“Seokjin, now!”

And just like that, Seokjin landed a hard punch on Mark’s chin, staggering the enemy enough for Sumin to wrap her other hand around his neck. She managed to put him in a sleeper hold, tightening her grip, as she forced Mark to his knees.

“Y-you think you’ve guys w-won?” Mark choked out, smirking.

“Oh, we did.” The trio heard Jungkook say as he walked up with Namjoon by his side. The two men cocked their gun back and while their faces remained blank, their eyes told a different story.

They were furious…

They thirsted for revenge…

And they were ready…

“You see, Mark. All of your men are dead. Your Chinese fraction isn’t coming to rescue your asses. The teens that you recruited are sitting in a jail cell, waiting for the news on their pending death penalty. And you, my friend, are finished.” Jungkook stated, pressing the cold nozzle on Mark’s forehead.

“So what? While I might be dead, so will be your leader. Right now, she has lost so much blood that you won’t be able to save her. Not even the best doctor in the world will be able to rescue her, so you see… I fucking wo-” But before he could finish that sentence, everyone heard a snap.

Jungkook’s eyes trailed up and saw Sumin forcibly breaking his neck; thus, ending his life.

“Damn, Minnie…”

“That fucker had it coming…” Sumin stated before rushing back to a dying Sowon. The sole reason why Sumin had enough courage to even do that. Immediately, Jungkook, Namjoon, and Seokjin followed suit. The fellas had almost forgotten that their leader - Jungkook’s wife - had been in a tough battle with death.

And just as the four reached Sowon, they failed to notice the solemn expressions painting the other four fellas of Bangtan’s face.

Sadly, it didn’t take a genius to know that someone had died…

Sumin dropped to her knees first; tears spilled out her eyes as they streamed down her rosy cheeks.

“N-no. No. NO!” She screamed followed by Jungkook’s anguish shout. He too dropped to his knees, clutching his wife’s body. His heart shattered into a thousand pieces. He felt a part of his soul left him the more he held Sowon’s body nice and close. He refused to believe that this was the end for them. Their story - while yes had more tragic moments than happy - deserved to have a fairy tale ending. They deserved to experience an endless amount of happiness and love.

But...it wasn’t their story to write…

It was someone else’s task...

“Sowon! Sowon! Please come back! Sowon!”

Six Months Later…

“I don’t know how Sowon did this…” Sumin muttered, holding up two different files containing intel on a potential threat.

“Well, she didn’t do it alone, princess. She had help, you know.” Seokjin chuckled deeply as he walked inside the office that belonged to Bangtan’s former leader. The corners of his lips curved upward even more as he practically beamed the moment, he laid his eyes upon Sumin. Sure, her hair had been put up in a messy bun. She looked like she hadn’t slept in weeks. Oh, he couldn’t forget how easily his woman became irritated whenever she got locked out of Sowon’s computer. One would think that she would write down the login credentials after the first locked out, but nope. Like Sowon, Sumin was stubborn. The former innocent ray of sunshine might even be much worse than the former leader.

Scratching the back of his neck, Seokjin walked behind Sumin; his palms anchored on the wooden desk. His head rested near hers to the point that their cheeks touched. He could feel the warmth from her. Something that he would never take for granted.

“When are you going to write down the login credentials, so that this doesn’t happen again? Huh, princess?”

“And when are you going to stop talking about me as if I died, huh, tiny dick Jin?” The couple heard a familiar voice say.

Sumin’s head perked up; her eyes lit up, while Seokjin glared at the person.

“Sowon’s right, you know. You do talk as if she had died.”

“Well, if you want to get technical, she did die for a second, but then you had to be sweet and loving princess that I know you are and give her your blood for the transfusion. Why didn’t you tell me that your blood was O negative?”

“Eh. Never came up, but I did tell the doctors to do whatever it takes to bring Sowon back alive. So...”

Sowon laughed, “Yeah but now I’m benched because of a certain husband of mine just couldn’t keep his hands off me. Now, I’m four months pregnant. This shit sucks!” She whined, leaning against the door-frame.

“It’s not my fault that you’re so irresistible.” chimed another voice, joining in the conversation.

Sowon rolled her eyes and smacked Jungkook on the chest.

“Yeah but now I’m stuck in our room with little to no activities. I’m going bat shit crazy in there!” She complained so more; her voice raised an octave.

Jungkook ignored her whines as he told her that both her life and the life of their unborn child are his utmost priority.

Sowon made a face as she mumbled, “I guess you’re right…”, and placed her hands on her semi-round tummy.

In response, Jungkook grinned brightly. It was quite rare for his wife to surrender whenever they argued. Usually, it was him doing the surrendering. He then wrapped a loving arm around his wife’s shoulders while Sumin stood up from the desk. The replacement leader walked up to her dearest friend with a soft smile painting her lips.

And just as the young girl closed the gap between their bodies, Taehyung entered the office with a quizzical expression.

“This came for you Minnie.” He announced, holding out a package with no return address.

Both Seokjin and Sowon raised a brow as they both glimpsed at the brown paper wrapped package.

Something about that did not sit well with them…

“Well, what is it?” questioned Jungkook; his body tensed yet his mind went on high alert. He was ready to protect his wife and unborn child.

Sumin took the package from Taehyung and shook it, earning a few head shakes and disgruntled mumbles from Seokjin and the others.

The more she shook it, the more she grew confused. Her brows knitted together as she tore the packaging and opened the box. She titled the box and out came a ring box and a letter.

“What does the note say?” Seokjin asked, walking up behind her and peering over her shoulder.

“I honestly don’t know…” replied Sumin as she opened the envelope, tucking the ring box against her ribcage. She pulled out the letter and scanned its contents.

A faint gasp escaped her lips as her eyes grew wide. The color practically drained from her face as the hand - that held the letter - went limp before she came to her senses and swiftly opened the ring box.

“Princess?”

“Sowon?”

“This is my mother’s engagement ring and my father’s wedding ring.”

Everyone in the room became confused.

“Meaning?” asked Sowon, though, deep down she knew the answer.

“They’re coming.”

“Who is?”

“EXO…”

The letter slipped from her fingers and slowly fluttered down to the floor. Once it landed, it revealed what was written, leaving everyone, especially Seokjin, speechless and alarmed.

“Your father should’ve listened to me when he had the chance, my prized jewel. Now, I have to take matters into my own hands since I made the foolish mistake of sending a boy to do a man’s job. Why do you have to be so charming, huh, Sumin? Because of that, not only did EXO lose a formidable ally, but now Bangtan will perish as well. And trust me, when I say this, little one. I always get what I want…

Yours,

P.C.Y

P.S: thank you for taking care of Mark by the way. It saves me one less body to dirty my hands with.”

A/N: And there you have it folks! Finally! After what seemed like forever, here is the conclusion Two Faced! Sorry that it took so long! I just felt the burn out form writing too much KPOP, so I switched my focus to writing fanfiction for “The Umbrella Academy” (good show by the way) and once I got the burn out from writing too much TV Show fanfiction, I came back to this story! I hope you guys like the final chapter, I ended up finishing it up myself since Jey had lost interest for it and didn’t know what was happening (which was understandable), and I’m proud of myself for making it reach to almost 9K words. Go me!

In other news, there will be a short sequel planned (at most 5 chapters but we’ll see) and it should be released sometime in the Fall! I will start the planning stages sometime over the weekend or next week. I know I want to get the story planning stage done before I work on one of my network’s summer project! So prepare yourself for that story once it’s released!

Again thank you so much for waiting patiently! Jey & I can’t thank you enough for giving this cross over story a chance! :)

Don’t forget to leave a comment/like/reblog/and an ask in mine or Jey’s inbox! We love hearing your thoughts!

- Kim

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lunaredits · 1 year

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a good girl's guide to murder headers

• like/reblog if you save.

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a-reads · 11 months

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My babies 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹

#taylor swift #folklore #swifties #red taylor’s version #quotes #lorde #books #a good girls guide to murder #as good as dead #agggtm #pipravi headers #pipravi #pip fitz amobi #pip and ravi #ravi singh #ravi

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maddiesflame · 2 years

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lauren de graaf x pipravi layouts

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christinky · 6 years

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Help | Part 4

Pairing: Dad!Tony x Stark!Reader x Peter

Warnings: Slight bullying, mention of loss, struggle near the end.

Summary: You are Tony Starks daughter and Peter is one of your good friends. You don’t like to be helped until one day, when you aren’t able to refuse it. Even Tony might need to ask for it, a lot of it, to help save you.

A/N: This is where it really gets good. I loved writing this chapter, I hope you guys enjoy. I’m super pumped to get the next couple out, I love the idea I have on how this all plays out. Please let me know what you think, leave comments, reblog please, if you want to be on the tag list let me know :)

Catching your breath, you try to focus on something that is not the handsome boy right in front of you. “I’m kinda hungry, wanna eat?”

You immediately start heading to the side of the pool, you glance at Jackie and roll your eyes. She smiles back at you and sends a little wave, she was very proud of herself. Grabbing the side of the pool you pull yourself up. You were soaked, hair pressed against your neck and back, you think you look like a mess and as bonus you are extremely flustered. You bite your lower lip to hide a smile, not letting it show that your stomach was going crazy with butterflies.

Everyone starts making their way over to the food. Walking over to the towel rack to dry off first Peter follows you. You grab a towel and wrap it around you so you can try to get warm, bringing your hair around to one side and giving it a little twist to stay in place. You look up to Peter, he has the towel pressed against his face to dry off, his clothes are dripping. He takes his hands away from his face, looking right at you. A little laugh escapes from both of you. “Thanks a lot” You look away, feeling you start to blush.

“Anytime (Y/N), I mean I know how you hate to lose” He started getting flustered. “I, um, I should go inside. Mr. Stark wanted to go over new tech and things.” He starts to back away and go inside. The realization of what just happened starts to take over him.

“Hey Peter, leaving already?” This time it was Alyssa’s voice calling out to him. She takes a couple steps closer to you guys, away from the rest of the team.

Peter nods “Um, Yeah. I should really get back to work.”

Alyssa pouts her lower lip in disappointment. You know she won’t let it go this easy. “Will you be at the game tomorrow? You should come. It’ll be fun, you can see Stark here in action too.” She looks over to you, smiles then focuses back on Peter with a smile across her face in amusement of what she is doing.

He stood silent for a moment as he looks between the two of you. His eyes were wide and his mouth hung open trying to figure out what to say. “Yeah, ah sure. I mean if you want me to” He focuses back onto you to make sure you are okay with it.

You are frozen trying to find a way not to seem to eager for him to come. “Of course, I know my dad and Pepper will be there too.”

“Okay, cool. Cool” Peter starts to relax his shoulders. He looks behind him inside the house. “I should really be going though. Bye” Waving to everyone then to you specifically, a smile appears on his face as he runs inside. You think about how lucky he is that there are spare clothes here for him just in case for the whole spiderman thing.

Making your way over to the rest of the team to eat, everyone is staring at you. All ready to start pressing you for details and getting you to admit that you like him. Taking a deep breath in anticipation you dread what is about to come.

“Stark, you are stopper. Nothing should get passed you, if you see an opportunity to go up take it.” Your coach started giving out starting positions. “Sam, you are starting in net. Alyssa and Maria, you are my outside defense. Holland you are sweeper, stay behind Stark you are her back up. Jackie and Sara you are starting strikers. Take your shots. Julia, McClain in the wings. Lauren and Jaz you are my inside mids”

Everyone nods and run to the field to start pregame warm ups. You had the captain armband as usual so you guide warm ups. For the most part everyone has it down pat so it was pretty easy. The forwards are warming up the keeper, midfield and defense are doing long passes and working on movement. The referee blows the whistle, signaling the coin toss. You pass the ball and alert them you are leaving. “Jackie, come join me for the toss.” You call out, waving her to follow you. It is better to have two of you there, just because you can and most teams do anyways.

In the center of the field you meet two players from the other team. “Oh hey look who it is, its little (Y/N) Stark.” One of the other girls crosses her arms and straightens up to try to intimidate you. “Shouldn’t your dad or someone be here to protect the little princess”

You could feel your blood start to boil. “Okay sweetie” You try to belittle her the best you could, you aren’t the best at snarky comebacks, you didn’t get that gene from your dad. “Lets see who needs help after the game, okay?” You raise an eyebrow and press your lips to be intimidating. Finally the referees are joining you.

“Okay girls here we go, home team gets to call it in the air” He gestures to the other girls, then starts the coin toss. Flipping the coin,

“Tails”

The ref catches the coin and flips it onto his hand, “Tails it is! Do you guys want to kick off?” He looks over to her,

“No, we will give it to them first” She smiles at him trying to act like she wasn’t just a bitch to you. “They’ll need it” The bitch looks over to you acting all cocky.

You just grab Jackie and walk back to the team. “Wow, that was bad” Jackie starts to laugh, “You really need to take some notes from your dad. It was embarrassing”.

“I know, I know. Shut up.” You laugh trying to brush it off. Thats when you look over in the stand and see your dad and Pepper waving at you to let you know they were there. Your dad was standing and waving both hands to make sure you saw him. Waving back to let them know you saw them you notice Peter sitting next to him. You blush, he actually came. You never thought he actually would.

“Ohh look who it is” Lauren comes running up to you, making a face as she moves her eyebrows. She is really excited for you, knowing that something must be between you guys to get him to come to the game.

“Oh my god shut up” you turn away, brushing it off focusing on the game. You couldn’t help but let out a little smile and you bite your lip.

Everyone gets into formation as the ref blows his whistle to start the game. Sara scored a goal ten minutes in giving you guys the lead. The game is going good, your defense is keeping them in front and away from the goal. The ball is at the other net, their keeper is doing a goal kick. You are on the top of the center circle, the way she is standing and her positioning makes it obvious she is going to send it up rather than a simple pass. Her foot collides with the ball sending it towards your new friend a few feet away from you. Running over, the ball is clearly going over her head, not even a header is possible for her. You position yourself where the ball will come down. Jumping up , you cock your head back and bring it forward to hit the ball mid air. It hits your hairline and its sent over to a midfielder. Before you hit the ground you feel something smash against you, sending you flying to the side. You hit the ground hard, landing on your arm and sliding a foot or two. It hurt, your arm burned from the grass and there was a pain in your side from the impact. The wind was knocked out of you. Rolling on your stomach to lift yourself up easier you see your dad in the stands.

He is standing up with an angry but concerned look on his face. Poor Pepper looks terrified, her face looks like she just witnessed a murder. Next to them Peter has a worried expression on his face, looking like he wants to run on the field to make sure you weren’t hurt. Suddenly there is a hand on your back, its Maria trying to help you up and make sure you are okay. “I’m fine” and in typical (Y/N) fashion you ignore the hand that is reached out for support and get up yourself. You give your dad a look and nod your head so he knows you are okay. He likes to overreact anytime you are possibly hurt, he sits back in his seat relieved. Your breathing was still heavy as you try to regain control.

“Not as strong as you think you are huh?” it was that girl. Of course she would be the one to play dirty and make contact when the ball isn’t in your possession. You just shoot her a dirty look, not having it with the game she is playing. “Maybe thats why the rest of the Avengers left. They didn’t want to be associated with you weaklings” She then gestures to your dad in the stands and backs away.

Your blood is boiling, you could feel the anger build up inside you. You are not about to let this bitch get away with this shit. It’s your free kick, she got a yellow card for her dirty play. You grab the other defenders “Lets so what we did in practice that one day”

They give you a concerned look, “Are you sure? We only did it once and it could have been a fluke” Holland spoke up shyly.

“Yeah, I wanna try it” You start backing away towards the ball. Alyssa joins you, once the ref gave the signal you pass it to her a few feet away from you, it draws in one of their players, sending another towards the net. Alyssa passes it back to you and you take off down the field. Another player starts coming towards you to stop your momentum, you keep running but leave the ball for Maria who is right behind you. Everyone was in shock at how well this is working so far. Maria starts off to the center of the field and once someone is on her she passes it back outside to Jaz. You make your way to the net, getting ready for what should come next. Jaz brings her leg back and sends an air ball towards the corner of the net. Right where you are waiting, you only have one defender on you. Giving a little push you get in front of her, you jump up and lean your head to the side once the ball is in range you head it right into the net.

Everyone is running to you cheering. “I told you it would work!” You scream at the other defenders.

“Thats my girl!” You can hear your dad screaming as he jumps up in the stands. He always gets so excited when you score a goal, being a defender it doesn’t happen much, he is always excited for you though. Pepper is clapping and cheering along with him. Peter is smiling, he notices you looking over and gives a thumbs up.

As your running back to your side, you see the bitch. “Oh I’m sorry what was that?” you tilt your head and give a big smile knowing how pissed she is right now. Her face is red with anger, you focus back on your team and laugh.

There are only 10 minutes left in the game and the score is three to zero, and that girl on the other team is mad. Her team gives her the ball, she doesn’t waste anytime as she tries to get down to your net. She is running hard, you are faster than her so you get a few steps in front of her. Your feet leave the ground and you turn your body to land in front of her, making full contact with the ball, none on her, the ball stops at your feet and she goes flying over you. Her face slams against the ground and she slides. You quickly get up and get control of the ball, passing it up the field and away from your net. Turning around you see her start to get up, blood is dripping off of her face. It was just a bloody nose. You keep your laughs in. Karma is a bitch. Her eyes are glued to you in rage, luckily for her the ball is out our bounds. She starts making her way over to you, she looks like she is about to punch you. You stand confidently, she has nothing on you, it was a clean and legal slide tackle. If she would make a move you could easily use what Natasha taught you and kick her ass.

The ref steps in and sends her off the field because of the blood. Can’t play soccer while bleeding. Deciding to keep it classy you smile and give her a wave as she walks away.

Winning 3-0 is pretty good for your first game of the season. It feels even better knowing you put that bitch in her place.”Hey Stark” Jackie grabs your shoulder, “Wanna go to Jimmy’s Diner? We are all going to go eat and hangout”

“Yeah, let me just tell my dad”

“Don’t forget to say hi to lover boy” She laughs as you walk towards the stands. Jackie always thinks she is so funny. You raise an eyebrow and pinch your lips to the side looking back at her.

“Hey, great game sweet heart! What was that girls problem?” Your dad gives you a high five.

“She was just rude, I don’t know what her deal was.” You decide not to tell him about the comments she made, it would just hurt his feelings thinking that he was the reason she acted that way towards you.

“Well I’m glad you showed her who’s boss” His eyes were so big with joy that you took care of her yourself. He knows you are strong, he loves seeing you stand up for yourself and not take shit from anyone. You give him a big hug.

“Good game (Y/N). You, uh, you did real good” Peter finally speaks up. He is almost hiding behind your dad, clearly a little embarrassed about coming and giving the impression that there is something between you guys.

“Thanks Parker, glad you came.” You also tried not to reveal to much, not sure exactly what is with the two of you. Nothing has been said or anything, but something is there. You can feel it.

“Hey, everyone is going to Jimmy’s for dinner. Its okay if I go right?” You bat your eyes and smile up at your dad.

“Yeah alright.” He caves and rolls his eyes knowing you have him wrapped around his finger. “But I want you home by 10. Got it?” He tried acting serious, like he wasn’t under your control.

“Aww thanks dad! I love you!” You jump up to give him another hug. You can feel him exhale as he rolls his eyes. He pats your back as you let go from the hug.

“I love you too” Your dad smiles as he starts to walk towards the parking lot. “10 o’clock or I send a search party after you”

Peter and him continue walking, however Pepper hangs behind with you.”So, Peter...” Looking at you, raising an eyebrow. You know what is coming, she obviously knows something is up. Your eyes grow wide as you hold your breath in anticipation. “You like him don’t you” She smiles to make you feel more comfortable.

“umm... I mean... I don’t know. Maybe” you stumble on your words, trying to come up with something to say. You didn’t know what to say, you were lost at the moment.

Pepper’s face now reads ‘Really?’ knowing that you actually like him, she can read you like a book. Finally she speaks, “Well he likes you.” That grabs your attention, staring at her to focus in on what she is saying. “I saw him with you yesterday, and for him to come to your game today. It’s pretty clear.”

You are in awe at what she is saying. Could he actually like you? Maybe it wasn’t all in your head. “Are you sure? I mean maybe he is just being a good friend.”

“I don’t think so sweetie.” She sits on the bleacher, “I see the way he looks at you, and no guy would do the stuff he does to just be friends. You like him to, I can tell.”

You try to hide your face from her. “Pshhh, I mean he is pretty sweet.” You blush “I do kinda like him I guess. Its just... You know. He is Peter Parker, he works for dad. Plus we both know dad would NEVER let me data anyways”

Pepper laughs, “Don’t you worry about your dad, he wants you to be happy. Plus I can talk some sense into him if needed. Who cares about who he is though, so he works for your dad. That shouldn’t hold you back from being happy.” Pepper pulls you into a hug.

You love these talks with her. It’s nice having a girl to talk to who actually knows what they are talking about rather than another teenager. “Thanks mom.”

Realizing what you just said you freeze. You are in horror, you always viewed Pepper as a mother figure but never said anything about it not knowing how she feels. A feeling of guilt also took over, your mother died when you were a baby. You don’t remember her at all and you always feel the guilt of not remembering her or replacing her. Your stomach was in knots. “Pepper I am so sorry!” You held back tears, pulling away from the hug. Looking up you see she is crying. You turn away, rest your face on your palms in embarrassment.

“No, no. Oh honey” She moves closer to you, making you look at her again, “I’m so glad you see me that way, I see you as a daughter. Thats actually something your dad and I wanted to talk to you about.” You look her back in the eyes, letting out a few tears as well. You give her a confused look, wanting to hear more. “Well, with the wedding and all. Since we already have that type of relationship, we were hoping you would want me to officially adopt you.” She gives you a slight smile anticipating your response.

Your eyes light up, a cheerful expression comes over you. “Really? Of course! I would love it.” Pepper hugs you again in joy. Even though you are so happy to officially have her as a mom, you think of your real mom. Thinking if she would be happy, you don’t really know anything about her. She wasn’t with your dad at all, it was just a fling. He wasn’t even with her the short few month you were with her, he found out about you once she died and someone came forward saying he was the father. You imagine she would be okay with you being happy, Pepper was great. She tried hard with you without letting you walk all over her. Always being there when you needed her.

“I’m so happy to hear you say that (Y/N).” Pepper tightens the hug before letting you go. The two of you laugh looking at each other, both in tears and emotional. You wipe away your tears. Pepper looks so happy, almost happier than you’ve ever seen her before. In this moment you’ve never felt so loved. Someone wanted you, they chose you. She wants to be your mom. “You better get going if you want to make it to dinner on time. I cant wait to tell your dad, I hope he isn’t mad I asked you without him. I’m sure he will get over it though.”

The two of you stand up, “I’m sure he will be fine. Thank you Pepper” the excitement starts to consume you. Giving you a nod and a smile she starts to walk away. “Pepper!” You call out to her before she gets too far. You run up to her and hug her tight one more time. “I love you”

“I love you too (Y/N)” she wraps her arms around you and kisses your forehead.

Dinner was fun, you had your usual order. At 9:30 you decide to head home. Jimmy’s Diner is out in the suburbs, and you live in New York so it is a good distance away. It was your usual spot to go after games with the team and you are the only one who lives that far really anyways. As you leave you debate on how to get home. Your blasters are in your backpack because you can’t wear them during games, you aren’t in the mood to dig them out though. You decide to walk to clear your head since it is quiet out here and you’ll take a bus or call happy when you get closer to the city.

The long walk was nice, the cool breeze felt good blowing through your hair. It was relaxing, there aren’t people out walking at his time so its nice and peaceful. You start to let your mind wander. The thought of Peter jumped into your head. Thinking about what if he really does like you, what does it mean? You start imagining different scenarios, how this could all play out. Images of him taking you to homecoming, his arms wrapped around you holing you close as you sit on the couch and watch movies, and they two of you being happy together.

Then your mind goes to Pepper, she is actually going to be your mom. She is already basically your mom but now its official. There is going to be actual papers saying that she is yours.

Something suddenly covers your mouth. You were so focused on your daydreams you lost focus on your surroundings. Someone is holding a cloth to your mouth and nose. You hold your breath all you could, knowing something is on it. Your arms and legs start going crazy trying to get away. The strong arms around your stomach aren’t budging. You hit him though, right in the nose, you can see blood on your hands. Luckily it isn’t yours. There were a couple of them, you don’t know how many, focusing on trying to get loose. Your lungs are starting to hurt, you know you can’t hold your breath any longer. You stop fighting, and reach into your hoodie pocket. Grabbing your keys, you find the keychain your dad got you. You’ve never used it before but now you had no choice. You flip the clasp on it and press the button. Thats the last thing you remember.

Taglist: @m4shtyx @spiderlingsweb @mackvanstan

#peter parker #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker x reader #Dad!Tony #dad!tony fanfiction #tony stark x reader #tony stark #iron man #spiderman #marvel fanfiction #tom holland #tom holland x reader

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indochine-moto · 7 years

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Heading to Battambang

When we were in Banteay Chmar I asked the Frenchman called Paul what he thought of Battambang. He told us that he quite liked it and that we should check it out. We decided it was a good idea for a few reasons. First, Battambang is only about 130 KM from Banteay Chmar, and we were in the mood for a short travel day after all the miles we had been putting on. We also didn’t sleep incredibly well in the stilt house the night before, mostly because of the storms and mosquito itches. We headed out on the muddied road with Battambang in our sights.

The roads were wet, and in the places where the roads were dirt they were downright muddy. My trousers were covered with mud from the moment we left Banteay Chmar. Shalma was saved from most of it because her foot pegs are up higher than mine, and she is somewhat shielded by my body. Also, I was digging in my heel and turning by giving throttle to the rear wheel in the soft mud. However, as shortly after we began our ride, we saw the weather clear and the day warm.

As we rode along, my bike started to choke up and cut out a bit whenever I pulled off the throttle. It was stalling, but then it would catch itself and go. It made for a jerky ride, but I didn’t think much of it, just hoped my mechanic could sort it out when we got back to Phnom Penh. I was mostly thinking about how badly I needed a cup of coffee! We decided to pull over about an hour and a half into our ride for coffee and noodles.

NOOOOODLES!!! This was just the way to start the day!

After a delightful noodle soup and my Khmer coffee with sweet condensed milk, we jumped back on the bike, excited to see a new city!

I turned the key, hit the throttle, and it died. I got it started again, but it died the moment I tried to apply throttle. We were in the middle of nowhere, and if I were the worrying type, I would have totally worried. I am not the worrying type, so it was cool. But I kept doing this little dance of getting it to idle, then trying to make it go, only to have the motor die. I finally remedied the issue by revving the piss out of it. I wrung that little xr250’s neck and away we went. It was still choppy, but inertia more or less carried us for the next hour.

We went through some impoverished areas on that road. At one point I was passing what looked like a thirty-year-old Honda Passport scooter, or what was left of it. It was loud, and the wheels had lost their roundness years ago. As I passed him, I saw that his exhaust was nothing more than a meter of common PVC pipe duct taped to the header. It sounded like a cross between an angry sewing machine and an electric didgeridoo (if such a thing in fact exists).

I also got hit in the chest by a giant beetle. I had my jacket a little unzipped in order to cope with the heat and humidity. This thing nailed me in the chest right above the zipper. I thought I had been shot! Okay, I didn’t really think that, but it hurt. I assumed it was deflected by my sternum, but about five minutes later I felt something really creepy squirming and poking into the soft flesh of my side just below my rib cage. Its little bug legs were like needles. I half panicked, pulled over, and frantically unzipped my jacket to set the creature free and put an end to our nonconsensual engagement. I only saw him for a second, but he looked to be the size of a small humming bird, but shaped like a giant black German cockroach with some orange bits and inch-long legs! I was relieved when the ordeal was over.

We carried onto Battambang and checked into a hotel called Seng Huot that was recommended by Paul. The hotel is absolutely top notch, and a very nice room with air conditioning and cable television goes for $15 a night. It is a beautiful and modern place. After we checked in, Shalma and I decided to walk around. We headed into the central market and enjoyed more delicious noodles. this time they were the home-made egg noodles that I greatly prefer over rice noodles.

We decided to take a little walk just to see our temporaneighborhood. Battambang is like a Phnom Penh-lite. It is a similar place in many ways, but just a little bit smaller and slightly less touristy. Everywhere one looks, there are fine examples of French colonial architecture. The French built broad avenues with wide swaths of bricked pavement, making Battambang a far easier place to walk around. It is nice, if not a little sleepy. As far as I could see, by Cambodian standards there wasn’t much that was exceptional about it.

Sampeou Mountain, the Khmer Rouge, Temples, Monkeys, and Bats

There are some sights to see just out of town, namely a 1000 meter tall mountain called Sampeu Mountain with caves and a temple complex up top. At about 3:30 we headed over to the mountain which is about 20 KM out of town. Below is a picture of the mountain. If you look really close, you can see there is a pagoda up top.

It is easy to miss the road that takes you up to the top of the temple complex if you are going under your own steam like we were. The easiest thing to do is to just hire a tuk tuk. It is not, however, the most fun thing to do. We got a little lost in the backroads that twisted up and down along the back of the mountain. At one point we turned a corner and saw a couple of little girls who without us asking realized the white folks are lost, pointed and said, “That way.” I guess it wasn’t the first time Westerners were lost back there.

We figured out where the entrance was, and there were quite a few Westerners around. There was a guy asking if he could be our tour guide around the area, and I agreed for the sum of three dollars. He had a little scooter, and Shalma and I agreed to follow him on my motorbike. We bought our tickets, then went flying up these narrow twisting concrete roads. They were steep, and it was like a narrow racetrack twisting straight up into the sky. The views of the lush, green-clad mountain and the land below were breathtaking!

Our guide took us to a small temple. He told us that it was a prison during the Khmer Rouge era. Then he said to follow him, and we shambled after him along a narrow footpath. We passed some Buddhist monks and some statues depicting what appears to be Buddhist hell. We then came to a hole with a steep metal staircase. We ascended into the darkness and saw a man in humble rags on the floor in front of a reclining golden Buddha. And just beyond the man was a case full of human skulls. We were in the killing cave of the Khmer Rouge.

Bones of Khmer Rouge murder victims

The man on the floor had a tray in his hands for donations. He was a small, sad, and pitiful figure. I approached him and put some money in his tray. As I was about to walk away, he called to me and reached out toward me. I offered him my wrist and he tied a red string around my wrist. He gave me a blessing in Khmer for happiness, health, family, and good fortune. I felt unworthy of his blessings. I have everything in comparison to so many people in this country. My disappointments are of the most luxurious variety.

The old man had a story. He came from a small village below the mountain. He had lived and worked as a cook. When the Khmer Rouge came, they conscripted him to feed their troops. He gave life to the men who took lives from others. If he had not done so, he would have surely been killed. He is a penitent man, trying to improve his karma. He stays in this dark cave day after day, looking after the bones, cleaning, and acting as caretaker in order to pay his debt to the universe in this life so that he will be have some absolution in the next. Below are captioned pictures of the cave.

This is the view looking up from the bottom of the cave

This is the hole where the Khmer Rouge threw people after whacking them on the head with a blunt object. They would often be alive but parish upon impact with the bottom of the cave.

We left the cave. Frankly, I have had more than my fill of genocide. Our guide walked with us back to our respective motorbikes, and we got on and headed up another twisty and even steeper road. I had thought I was already at the top! Nope, I sure wasn’t! At the real top, there is a magnificent temple complex and a bunch of wild monkeys.

The monkeys are hilarious, cute, and kind of mean to one another. Once in a while, a big one comes along and just kind of bullies all the others. In the pictures above, you can see that some of the monkeys are sitting on ledges. The drop on the other side is tens of meters. Once in a while, one monkey might randomly attack another monkey and push him or her off the cliff. It is pretty alarming until you figure out the little creatures immediately save their own lives by grabbing a tree branch on the way down. In two of the pictures, you can see a very tall tower. The drop from there is 100 meters plus the height of the tower. The monkeys are undeterred and seem to really like climbing the tower into the sky.

After our time with the monkeys at the temple, we headed back down the mountain. There was another cave to see: the bat cave. Down on the ground level, there are many little venders and chairs set out. The busy time for the venders is sunset. The tourists are all there to see bats come flying out of a cave. Shalma and I were a little bit early, but we settled down and bought a couple Cambodia beers. They were refreshing.

Across the road, up on a cliff, about fifty meters up a ladder there is a buddha head. Since the bats weren’t coming out yet, I decided to climb up and see it. Shalma didn’t want to come with me, because that metal ladder was extremely sketchy, and there was a little bit of free climbing to be done to get to the Buddha head. In Cambodia, you can totally die doing normal tourist stuff.

The view from the buddha head

Another view from the Buddha head

I climbed down from the Buddha head and sat back down with Shalma. We watched other people struggle to get down the ladder, and I was reminded how agile I am for a guy who broke seven vertebrae less than two years ago, leaving me in the hospital for two weeks and in bed for more than three months. And then, we waited for the bats to fly out of their cave.

It seemed to take a long time. People were saying that they should start coming out as the sun goes down around 5:30 PM. As it turns out, we started seeing the earliest buzzing of bats closer to 6:30. It is like they send a scout out to make sure it’s okay out there. “You wanna go out there, Bob?” “Nah, it’s your tur,n Larry! You always try to sucker me into it.” So Larry goes out then comes back for Bob when the coast is clear. Eventually more and more bats start to realize that the sun is no longer looming to scorch them, and an areal smorgasbord is there for the picking.

As the bats began to eject themselves from the cave en masse, I pulled out my trusty camera to take pictures of them. And I failed. I totally failed. They were either blurry, or you just couldn’t see the bats. I really wanted to get a shot of them coming out of the cave, but I had no clue what I was doing and couldn’t pick up the contrast between the bats and the shadow of their cave. Below is the best shot I got and a little video footage that Shalma took on her iPhone.

A gaggle of bats

And that is about as good as it gets right there, folks. I assure you, it was really neat!

Back to the City of Battambang: How I Was Almost Killed By a Shih Tzu!

We headed back to the hotel and got thoroughly doused with rain for twenty kilometers. As you can see in the pictures above that were taken just before we left, the rain can come fast and with little warning. Fortunately, by the time we got back to the hotel the rain had mostly subsided.

Shalma and I decided to get some dinner at the night market that opens along the river promenade after dark. We both had more spicy dishes with noodles. We both eat spicy food, but these dishes were intense. It was the kind of food that truly makes you feel alive inside. After dinner, Shalma and I decided to part company for a while; she went back to our room, and I took a little walk.

The streets of Battambang are relatively desolate at night for a bigger city. I had one guy on a motorbike come up to me and offer me a ride and ask me if I wanted drugs, which made me weirdly uncomfortable. I said no, and he persisted. I had to be very insistent. I started to realize that maybe I shouldn’t be out there walking alone. I mean, that is a really weird thing for me to think because in my life I have walked through many darkened streets across many lands. Little did I know what was in store for me….

I walked along a lonely street just on the other side of the market from our hotel when I heard a dog barking. It was coming straight at me, and it meant business. It was angry, vicious, and it looked like this:

Stock photo pilfered from the internet. I would give photo credit, but this has been used a gazillion times by various sites. Just know that it is frightening and mean!

I couldn’t kick it because it was little and cute, and that would be unfair. My only choice was to run away in fear. It chased me until the end of the building it guarded. It was a guard shih tzu. I told Shalma about it when I got back to the hotel. I don’t think she totally believed me, but I was planning to show her the next night.

The Next Day We Ate Bugs

The next day was pretty uneventful. We mostly utilized it as a day of rest. We spent some time walking around and eating at different restaurants. We found a pretty good breakfast place, but that was kind of it. At one point, when we were at the market, we saw a woman with a little stand. She had a wok on the coals, and I wanted to see what she had cooking. Shalma and I walked over to her and took a look. She had some different types of locusts, crickets, a big beetle (was it the kind that hit me in the chest? We may never know) and some larvae, which I believe would have grown up to be palm weevils had their lives not been cut short.

I am not sure what I was planning. I don’t think I was going to buy a bag of bugs or anything. Before I could even think, the woman began handing us insects. They were spicy and had lime on them. The flavor was neither exceptional nor terrible. I wasn’t that into the texture, and I don’t like cricket legs stuck in my teeth. The one thing that I really was’t into was the worm. It was just so soft and squishy. I am glad we tried them but they weren’t for me. She offered both me and Shalma a large beetle. I wasn’t feeling it and had to decline. Shalma ate it without hesitation. Bully for her!

Then we took a long walk along the river. Shalma wasn’t hungry, still full on beetles, I guess. I had a sandwich made of paté and pig snout. It was delicious. We decided to go back to the hotel and make it an early night. Our plan was to ride to Pailin the next day, a city that is still 70% Khmer Rouge and largely administered by the last holdouts of the regime. First, I had something to show Shalma.

We walked over by the market, and I told her that I wanted her to see the attack shih tzu. She didn’t want to, but I insisted. We walked by the building but kept our distance. No shih tzu. We began crossing the street, and we heard a ferocious bark. I turned to Shalma and said, “I would know that bark anywhere!” Sure enough, the shih tzu was in the same spot where it had been the night before, and it was running some poor bugger off once again. I had heard that they were once guard dogs in China, but I never really believed it. I believe it now!

Leaving to Pailin

We decided to leave to Pailin the next day. It takes two to three hours to get to Pailin from Battambang by motorbike, so we thought we could leave around 9 AM and still get there before or by noon. We checked out of the hotel and attached our luggage to my rusty Honda xr250. I hadn’t ridden it for more than 24 hours, so I turned the key, pulled the choke, and started the engine. The problem was that it kept dying. I totally failed to launch. The minute I gave it any gas, the thing completely stalled out. Needless to say, I wasn’t very excited to have this happen in an unfamiliar city.

I pushed the bike down the street for about a kilometer with Shalma following. I found a scooter shop. It was the first place I came across, and I hadn’t seen anyone working on bigger bikes in the town, so it was my best hope for the moment. I figured the guys would at least know where to direct me if they couldn’t help.

Nobody at the shop spoke a lick of English, but I showed them the problem, and they were happy to help. The technician checked my fuel filter, changed the spark plug, and took a sort of general look around. The whole time I could see that he wasn’t comfortable with working on my bike, and I was waiting for him to pick up his phone and call someone for help. For about a half hour I thought, any minute now this guy is going to pull out his phone. Eventually that is exactly what happened.

The technician charged me a dollar for taking a look and changing the plug, then he told me that he was going to push me elsewhere. The technician’s co-worker loaded Shalma up on the back of his scooter. Then I got on my bike, and the technician got on his scooter. He grabbed onto the luggage rack of my bike, opened the throttle on his scooter, and began pushing me up the road in heavy Battambang traffic. He pushed me for probably three or four kilometers until we arrived at an outdoor tent-shop that had a tricked out xr250 on a stand. I felt like I was in good hands.

The guy at the second shop was a true professional. You could see him leaving no stone unturned in diagnosing the problem. He made sure everything was clean and worked, checking the spark, timing, etc. He cleaned out the carbs a bit and got the bike running good as new. He then charged me five dollars and sent me on my way after about 45 minuted of work. This guy could totally have his own shop in any developed country and make good dough. I gave him some extra dollars in appreciation, and we got on the road to Pailin.

Pailin is an isolated little place on the Thai border. When you read about the trials in Cambodia that are just now winding up, Pailin is the place where they caught all the war criminals. As mentioned above, it still boasts a population that is 70% former Khmer Rouge with Khmer Rouge administration of the local governance. I will post the whole story of Pailin next week with loads of pictures!

Battambang, and Baby Monkeys Heading to Battambang When we were in Banteay Chmar I asked the Frenchman called Paul what he thought of Battambang.

#Bats #Battambang #Cambodia #dirt bike #Khmer Rouge #Monkeys #Motorcycles #Southeast Asia #Travel

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