"Leave him be, Chun," San says, reaching a hand out to stop him.
"Ugh, why am I doing this?" he speaks to himself in self-doubt.
"The boss said we need to bring him back" as he gestures towards the door.
Chun lowers the chair in his hands, eyes locked on San.
"Heh… seems you don't quite get it, do you?" He mutters, voice low and bitter.
"That motherfucker right there killed uncle Tan" He points at Matthew's red soaked body on the ground.
Matthew wheezes on the ground, barely conscious.
His eyes flutter open, blurry. He sees San and the two men—arguing.
San's hands flying in the air, frustrated.
Chun looking ready to explode.
But Matthew can't hear anything.
It's all a haze as he continues to wheeze.
A tear rolls down his cheek.
Then slowly but surely, San's voice pierces the numbness.
"I don't have time for this!" San says, storming forward .
Chun then steps in, blocking his path.
"Look I get it, ya angry." San says, head bowed slightly.
"And he definitely doesn't deserve to live" he scorns at Matthew's body.
He then looks up.
"But it's the boss's orders." His eyes lock onto Chun's with a quiet authority.
The other man, shifts nervously—wrapping and unwrapping his fingers.
"If it's the boss's call…. maybe we should just leave it," He mumbles.
"Shut the hell up, Jano!" Chun barks.
"You weak-spined gû." Chun mutters, his fists curling tighter.
Jano, as if crawling back into a shell, he shuts up.
San scoffs
He walks right past Chun.
Chun tightly grabs San's hand, the grip is as hard as a crab's.
San looks at Chun's hand, then looks up at his face.
"Release it now" San's tone grows deeper.
"Hehe" Chun chuckles.
"N-No.. don't" Jano stutters.
"Just because you're a higher rank than me" Chun grits his teeth.
"That doesn't mean that I have to follow your every single order!" He readies his hand into a fist and gets into a stance ready to punch.
Chun yanks San in by the arm and throws the first punch.
With San coming in close and Chun smirking victoriously.
San swiftly dodges the punch, this causes Chun to be shocked at what he just saw.
"Y'know, I'm already pissed off" San says as he looks at Chun like a predator looks it's prey.
"You–" as Chun exclaims.
San's palm shoots up under Chun's chin—sharp and fast, like a cobra's strike.
Chun bites his tongue from the impact.
A spray of blood bursting from his mouth.
All this makes Chun move back a little.
"So I might as well take everything out on you" San says while grabbing Chun's hand that's clenching onto his.
"Chun—" Jano shouts, extending his hand out towards them.
San then digs his fingers deep into Chun's arm.
"AAAARRGGGHH!!" Chun howls as blood flows from his mouth.
His hand let's go of San.
San smiles as he then readies his fist, then planting it directly into Chun's face.
This sets Chun to move further back a bit.
Out of anger, he growls at San.
He launches at San, he then prepares a knee kick at him.
It lands right into San's abdomen.
San coughs, as Chun's knee digs in deeper with him smiling.
Chun then follows up with a direct hit to the head, knocking San down into the ground.
"Heh" Chun smirks, he then puts his foot over San's head.
"Now I can see how Tan was killed by that weak bastard" Chun says as he's teeming with endorphins from victory.
He then lowers his head, putting it directly above San's head down in the ground.
"It's because he was weak—The two of you are weak, he won't even have had much protection if you were there with him" Chun says while laughing mockingly.
"Hey that's too far!" Jano shouts as he walks towards Chun.
"That was a line that you shouldn't have cr—" before Jano could finish his sentence. Chun's hand dashed across his face, knocking him into a wall.
Jano whimpers.
"You keep quiet gû!" Chun barks as blood continues to flow from his mouth.
The blood droplets fall on San's head.
They keep dropping, to the point that they even form a rhythm.
This ticks San, it awakens something in him.
San on the ground, replaying the words that Chun had said.
"It's because he was weak—The two of you are weak, he won't even have had much protection if you were there with him." It echoes.
The whole world around San then seems to be slowly washing out as everything seems to be falling.
It was falling into a hole full of polaroids.
Those Polaroids were memories.
San was reminiscing.
Back to the time where him and Tan were early teenagers.
"Hey you stay away from my brother!" A young gleeful Tan shouts standing against some thugs.
"Well you're brother took out my guys, so it's just simple revenge" one of the thugs react.
"So that's why you guys ganged up on him and beat him to the point that you had to land him in the hospital!" As tears fill up Tan's eyes as he points towards the hospital.
"And he wouldn't have beaten your guys if they didn't do something to him first!" He shouts.
"This will just lead into a cycle of revenge, let's just end this!" as he tightens up and shouts.
"Hmmmm…." the thug puts his hand on his chin, rubbing it as he's thinking.
"How about this?" the thug darkly smiles.
Tan eases up a bit.
"No!" The thug mouths it slowly.
Tan's expression shifts—relief melts into dread.
"And let you guys leave off with being the winners? Nah the world doesn't work that way" the thug chuckles.
"To truly put an end to this" as the thug moves slowly towards Tan with his hand in his pocket on his long coat.
Tan moves back some more as cold sweat rushes down his face.
"Why don't we finish it off, once and for all" as the thug flashes the knife he removes from his pocket.
Tan seeing this, slightly walks back, he shakes in fear.
But he stops walking back, he plants his feet into the ground.
With tears still flowing in his eyes, he then gets into a fighting stance.
"Oh yeah?!" As Tan bends down.
He then shouts a battle cry, as he rushes towards the thug.
The thug seeing this, laughs as he points his finger at Tan running towards him.
The remaining thugs laugh, while the bystanders with the faces of spectators of a game.
Tan lunges at the thug, bit the thug just slightly steps towards the side and sets his leg forward.
Tan trips on the thug's leg.
He falls down right into the mud as it splashes everywhere.
"Awwn, look at this sió hoé hong" as the thug mockingly said so while laughing.
Tan drives his fingers up in the mud, as if he's grabbing it.
"These bastards," he says in his head.
"Hehehe, you thought you can beat me? Thô ke!" The thug laughs as he squats down.
The other thugs laugh at Tan.
Tan laying there, his hands muddy, his body still wiggling.
"Huh?" The thug says in confusion.
Tan grabs the mud as much as his hands could carry.
He then throws it right at the thug's face.
The mud covers the thug's eyes.
"Ahhh Àn-chóaⁿ?!" as he tries to remove the mud of his face.
Tan then lunges at the thug, he pushes him to the ground.
"You'll never hurt my brother!" Tan screamed, fists flying, teeth gritted through tears.
"Never!!"
"Ever!!!"
He continues to maul him.
"H-Hey, Hey!" As another thug is in awe at what he's seeing.
"Hey! Get the kid!!" Another different thug shouts.
The remaining thugs then all rush towards Tan.
Then off in the hospital by the door.
There he is.
A young San on crutches, watching the whole thing.
"Tan!!!" As he rushes out of the doors.
He limps as he runs.
But the thugs close in.
With him reaching a hand towards Tan and the thug.
"Brother!!!" As tears fill his eyes.
The memory then froze right there, in the seconds before everything fell apart.
Everything fades to a bleached white.
San then comes back to reality, still on the ground below Chun.
"D-Don't you ever" as San breakingly says.
He steadily races his head upwards.
"Huh?" Chun looks surprised.
"Talk shit about my brother!!!" As San swiftly grabs Chun's leg on top of his head.
San grabs the chair beside him and slams it into the back of Chun's knee.
Chun staggers, losing his footing—just the opening San needed.
He rises up fast, ignoring the pain and drives a brutal strike into Chun's groin.
Chun, feeling this pain, is too painful to even let out a cry. This causes him to drop to the ground fully, holding his groin.
San then fully stands up.
He chuckles.
He then grabs Chun by the shoulder.
"N-No…" Chun begs.
San leaves him there, just looking at him with full hatred.
He then punches Chun in the face.
With each punch, he gives Chun a little breathing room, not out of pity—but to prevent him from getting used to the pain.
He wanted him to savour it.
"Hey stop it San, that's just enough—all this fighting is enough!!" Jano moves closer to San.
He grabs him by the shoulder.
San then pauses punching Chun, he looks back at Jano.
"The fighting is enough—It hasn't even started yet" San says. He then drives an elbow right at Jano's face.
Jano then falls towards the ground beside Matthew, he's unconscious.
"Now–let's get back to it" San smirks.
He resumes the punches, and with each punch with a force that could rearrange a face, with each punch, Chun bleeds and bleeds like a fountain.
Chun is speechless, and even if wanted to say something, San's punches wouldn't allow him.
"Oh my—" a man startles at the door.
"So this is what you've been doing?" An old man's voice echoes.
San pausing at the second he heard that voice.
San raises his head up.
He's shocked at what he sees.
Chun's expression quickly changing from that of Moxy, to that of fear.
"S-Sir…" San struggles to speak.
"Shit" Chun says, then he pits out his tooth on the ground.
An old man wearing big oversized clothes for his skinny stature, ornamented with rings on his fingers who's walking with two other men—his bodyguards.
"I gave you something to do"
"And this is how you carry it out?!" The old man shouts, slamming his stick on the ground.
The light bulb flickers one last time, before it becomes dim.
It seems everything in the world had come to a complete stand-still.
It became cold.
The sound has gone to hide.
The air becoming thick with an overwhelming presence.
—The end of chapter 5—