“God forbid that I romanticise this…” - [ James Marriott, ‘Romanticise this’ ]

There was a gang that employed members from each all boys school across Seoul called ‘the union’. Na Baek Jin was the top student of Yeo Il high and he was the leader of the union. The only school that wasn’t apart of it yet, was Eunjang. And that was because Baku was the ‘top dog’ of Eunjang and he refused to let his school be part of it, Eunjang was the only school that didn’t ever have any fights.

Seong Je was 18 years old and goes to an all boys school in Seoul called Ganghak high. He ran his school. So he was part of the union. But he wasn’t just another member, he was Baek Jin’s right hand man. Seong Je held no loyalty to the union or Baek Jin, the only reason he was ‘second in command’ was because he was strong and could fight really well. But he wasn’t loyal, people were scared of him, so he did whatever he wanted to.

Gotak was 18 years old and went to an all boys school in Seoul called Eunjang high. Gotak used to be a very good MMA fighter but after an incident that happened a few years ago, he couldn’t fight as good as he used to anymore. Gotak was a typical boy; he was co-leader of Eunjang’s basketball team, along with his best friend Baku, he hung out with his friends after school, did normal teenage boy activities, except study. He was smart, but he wasn’t incredibly smart.

Seong Je and Gotak had a complicated relationship. Around 2 years ago, Gotak had gotten jumped by Na Baek Jin. Baek Jin had taken him back to the union’s warehouse and beat up really badly. Seong Je was kinda made to just watch as Gotak got his face pounded and then Baek Jin decided to leave him with permanent damage by stamping on his knee and broke it. So the boy could never do MMA fighting again since his knee was now too weak.

In front of others, they put up a perfect display of pure, unmistakable hatred for each other. But when they were alone, they hung around all the time, made out, did other stuff together. Gotak should’ve hated Seong Je, but he didn’t. For whatever stupid fucking reason. There was no reason to like him - he was violent, always kicked Gotak’s ass for little to no reason, made fun of him, he was just an overall dick. And Gotak hated that he romanticised this toxic, violent, fucked up version of love. The version where they’d always end up back at each other’s doorstep no matter what happened. The version where fighting actually felt like a form of flirting. The version of love that hurt so good that he couldn’t distinguish the separation between love and hate. Those two words having merged into one conflicting yet familiar feeling.