Chain Of Command Chapter 3

Chain of Command Chapter 3

Though Yeongdeungpo was by no means a great neighbourhood- with its graffitied walls and copious amounts of street violence- Bambi was unable to get used to the crumbling walls and dirty streets that were distinct features of the area surrounding Hyeongshin.

The school itself seemed a little dingy, with shabby furniture and even shabbier students, so unlike Yeo-il’s pristine hallways and spotless floors. She eyed an overflowing trash can at the side of the corridor as she walked through, before turning away and sighing.

Whatever. She wasn’t a judgemental person. (She was).

She was headed to Hyeongshin’s meeting room, the usual meet up spot for when she came to do business with Forrest Lee. Despite the not-so-stellar quality of the school, she was in a good mood, as she always was when she was about to meet up with Forrest Lee, though it was a little dampened by the news she was about to deliver to him. It had something to do with business decreasing, which would’ve been fine if it was Ganghak, or Yoosun, or anybody with a reputation accumulated after a long time.

But for someone who just lost to another school and had their management changed in the short span that they were an executive (a position that they only gained through snitching on their ex leader), it would not have been the best thing to hear.

The boys from Hyeongshin were already losing part of their commissions, who knew what Donald would do if they continued to mess up? She frowned. Donald’s wrath was something she did not want to be on the receiving end of.

By now, she was nearly off the first floor, halfway up the staircase to the second storey where the meeting room was located, right at the end of the hallway. Though it wasn’t her school, she was well acquainted with Hyeongshin’s layout due to the numerous times she’d visited.

Like Yeo-il, there weren’t many students still lingering in the hallways, most having already left the school to go to karaoke or the pool hall, or perhaps even a cram school. (She snorted a little at the thought.) However, whatever little students were left identified her immediately and soon she had a small crowd of students whipping their heads towards her at breakneck speed, giving themselves a millisecond to gawk before directing their gazes to the ground, arms stiff by their sides.

In other parts of Yeongdeungpo, when people realised of her affiliation to the Union, they tended to stare and whisper amongst themselves.

But in Hyeongshin, when the boys saw her, or any other Union member, they all grew very silent and still, parting before her like Moses and the Red Sea. It seemed like Myles Joo had them trained well.

…

Before he left, of course.

She paid no mind to them, walking through the now cleared path (though there weren’t that many people in the way in the first place) and quickening her pace as she approached the meeting room, reaching for the handle.

Hyeongshin High’s meeting room, though smaller than a regular classroom, was spacious, with a long table on one side and two couches on the other. Though, officially, its purpose was to serve as a room where the student council would gather (and that was what it was used for, at least to the knowledge of the teachers) but the students of the school were all well aware of what it really was; the gathering area for the school head and his friends.

And there the school head was, sitting across the room quietly, frowning and presumably deep in thought.

“Hey,” Bambi tossed her bag onto the couch opposite Forrest Lee, making herself comfortable, before she noticed the unusual silence in the room and the absence of two certain someones. “Where’d they go?”

Forrest seemed to immediately know who she was referring to.

Robin Ha and Sam Lee (or better known as Grape) were Forrest’s second and third in command, though they seemed to be in disagreement about who was who. The two of them followed Forrest everywhere, and it felt strange when they were gone. Grape, who earned his nickname from his curly purple hair, was the shorter and more talkative one of the duo, with a cocky personality and an overt eagerness whenever it was time to get into a fight. Robin Ha, though less talkative than his friend, was by no means less sadistic or willing to punch somebody in the face.

“Hey. Robin went for a smoke, and Grape went to look for him.”

Forrest paused a little before he continued, and the look on his face told Bambi he was only expecting the absolute worst.

“So why’d you come down here today?”

She grimaced a little; it was too bad that she was going to have to validate his fears.

“It involves KHG industries.”

“Hyeongshin’s uniform sales have dipped after your loss to Eunjang. It’s not so bad for Yoosun, since Jimmy Bae’s in charge, but you haven’t been school head for long so…”

She studied his face, and when he stayed silent, she continued.

“Anyways, just get your boys to beat a bunch of guys up, or whatever. The method doesn’t really matter, as long as Donald doesn’t lose his commission.” Bambi pursed her lips; she usually never had trouble relaying instructions, but watching Forrest Lee’s cressfallenness made her feel a little guilty. “It’s better for all of us anyways, for sales to be high.”

Her attempt to lighten the tone didn’t seem to work very well, as Forrest continued to stare down at the table in front of him, his eyes never meeting hers. There was a grim yet pensive look on his face, like he was slowly processing the information.

After a moment, he finally responded.

“Yeah, okay.”

Bambi raised an eyebrow.

She’d been around Forrest long enough to put a name to each of his mannerisms, and the tone of voice he was currently talking with was the one he used when he was down- dejectedness badly disguised as impassiveness.

Usually he was brimming with confidence, making small talk and laughing with her, the large smirk on his face one of someone who knew he had power. But today it was different. She thought back to the events of the last Union assembly, sighing inwardly as she observed his downcast form.

She didn’t have to guess to know why.

“Has Ganghak come over to collect the files yet?” She inquired, neither addressing nor ignoring the elephant in the room, choosing to awkwardly skirt around it instead.

“Robin offered to pass them to Wolf, but I’m not sure if he’s arrived yet. I’ll check later.” Forrest’s grim look seemed to worsen at the thought of Ganghak’s leader.

“Okay.”

To be fair, who could really blame Forrest for being disheartened? Bambi certainly didn’t, but she was never really good at situations like this; she was more used to just saying something snarky and leaving.

She directed her gaze back to Forrest Lee, who was now staring at the wall behind her. His eyes were narrowed, like he was contemplating something, and she sighed again, out loud this time.

“Look, man.”

Forrest finally directed his gaze towards her, seemingly apprehensive about what she was going to say.

“I don’t like this new shift in management either. But if you and Jimmy Bae handled the situation with Eunjang better, this wouldn’t’ve happened. Not to mention what happened with Myles…”

Forrest Lee flinched, and for a split second both of them recalled the events that came before Myles Joo’s excommunication.

Bambi had already been suspicious of Myles after his show of displeasure at being demoted after Jake Ji’s arrival; his obvious anger at Jake and Donald Na, and even his hostility towards her and hesitation to follow orders, which had never been a problem before. She had the observers planted around Yeongdeungpo to report to her if Myles Joo was caught acting out, before Forrest Lee came to her all of a sudden with evidence that Myles was betraying the Union.

She narrowed her eyes.

She was pretty new to the Union too at that point of time, so Forrest’s information had definitely helped her in gaining Donald’s trust. Perhaps it was considered cowardly, or disloyal, to go behind your leader’s back to rat him out, but so what? The Union benefited from disloyalty.

If the boys were just going to sit by as their leader plotted a coup, it could end up leading to the downfall of the Union. And she couldn’t let that happen, could she?

“But I guess I can’t complain, since it was beneficial for me, too.” She finished, and Forrest nodded quietly. He seemed relieved that she hadn’t drawn the topic out any longer. Nobody wanted to think about the punishment that Donald had bestowed upon Myles, and the betrayal that had led to it.

“I’m gonna go now. Don’t forget to make sure the files are handed off to Ganghak. See you.”

“Later.”

She caught a glimpse of his face as the door slammed; his expression had shifted into something steely, like the gears in his head were slowly turning.

The sky outside had turned a dark blue while she was in the meeting room. She made her way down the stairs and out of the school gate. Though the school was empty by now, the streets were busy, cars rushing past her in a stream of colour.

She stood there for a moment, idly watching the traffic before a loud roar came from behind, forcing her to jump to the side as a group of motorbikes sped past her.

(God, she fucking hated motorcycles. Every goddamn Union assembly was full of them, leaking exhaust and polluting the air.)

Bambi glared at the bikers, her eyes catching sight of their red blazers and gray slacks. Could it be? Her eyes narrowed in on the boy at the front of the group, his messy purple hair slowly becoming less visible as he sped away into the distance, turning a bend and disappearing. She grimaced.

Seems like Ganghak did come over to make a pick up after all.

More Posts from Dontkickmyshin and Others

dontkickmyshin

2 years ago

in short, think self diagnosis, after extensive research, is valid.

not everyone have access to medical professionals. not everyone have access to competent quality medical professionals. not everyone can afford. medical trauma & medical neglect exist. misdiagnosis exist. medical racism sexism misogyny. etc.

though. to add some nuance: (i am specifically addressing autism but probably applies to most self diagnosis)

1. sites like tiktok and tumblr provide important lived experience lens that hard to find any other place. often play huge part in journey! but tiktok and tumblr should not be only place you do research for self diagnosis.

further, watching one tiktok or one tumblr post is not enough for self diagnosis. know most people who self diagnose isn’t doing this, but do see some people do this.

2. there are late diagnosed autistic people with higher support needs. there are late diagnosed autistic people who are visibly developmentally disabled but their other I/DD diagnosis covered over their autism. etc.

having said that though. overwhelming majority of autistic who self diagnose who are late diagnosed. have lower support needs, are high masking, less visibly autistic. most of them lived their life in nondisabled neurotypical society, mainstreamed, go to typical school, get job, maybe job after job after job fired quit fired again—often forced to be this way, not given choice. which is all distressing. have grief about not being noticed as autistic earlier.

but. you need to know that there are early diagnosed autistic folks, some of them high support needs and/or nonspeaking minimally speaking, some of them who put in special ed, go to “special” schools, who have high support needs, who can’t or not allowed to live independently, who needs full physical assistance with bADLs, who can’t keep own basic safety, who will never able to hold typical job, etc etc… they are still autistic. just because you have trauma about being late diagnosed late identified doesn’t mean for them early diagnosis is a abuse free blessing.

early diagnosed, visibly developmentally disabled people like these often face the blunt of the violence. they are one of the most marginalized groups in our community.

some late diagnosed autistics hold privilege over some early diagnosed autistics. (note i say some—late diagnosis early diagnosis not monolith experiences.)

3. just because you are, say, autistic, doesn’t mean right this second you should be an autistic advocate, or right this second you’re qualified to. i believe all autistic people have important meaningful thing to say about own experience with autism. but being an advocate involves so much more than that.

being advocate involves constant learning, especially from people more marginalized than you and people not similar to you.

being advocate means constant self reflection, means reflect on own privilege and oppression, means reflect on own internalized ableism internalized racism, etc.

being advocate means learning to decenter self, learning how to hold space for others, learning how to apologize and take accountability.

being advocate means learning how to listen.

being advocate means learning how to take responsibility.

being an advocate means addressing own trauma and not project trauma onto others, especially other more marginalized groups.

being an advocate means acknowledging nuance.

newly realized autistics, newly self diagnosed autistics, newly professionally diagnosed autistics (who didn’t know they autistic before professional diagnosis), they all have important place in autistic community and autistic conversations. but being new to this means you have so much more to learn. and you need to learn how to do more good than harm when share own experience and do own advocacy.

4. there is a world of autism experiences beyond your own. listen to them, too.

with all that said. self diagnosis, after extensive research, is valid.

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dontkickmyshin

1 year ago

been taking those mellodramattic pills today

224 notes View Post

dontkickmyshin

1 year ago

I am apparently working on becoming a local cryptid at the store. Talents include:

Monitoring the changing of the seasons via mozzarella

Predicting the weather by picking up a piece of cheese and mysteriously saying “oh, the storm is gonna be bigger than we thought...” just before thunder

Mind reading, e.g. “Can you help me find a cheese? It’s called, uh... [starts fishing out shopping list]” “Gruyere?” “...yes O_o”

141K notes View Post

dontkickmyshin

1 year ago

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm Hiiiiii Turned A Vaguely Homoerotic Poem I Made About A Mosquito I Didn't Want To Kill

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm hiiiiii turned a vaguely homoerotic poem i made about a mosquito i didn't want to kill into. this. yay 👍

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dontkickmyshin

2 years ago

"But only 2% of the population is intersex. It's not that common. Why should we reframe or perception of gender for intersex people?"

Completely ignoring the fact that empathy exists. You do realize that 2% of the population in the medical field is considered very common, yes?

2% of children and 0.5% of adults have a peanut allergy and that's so common that they have entire rules around in in public spaces.

0.24-1% of the population has Rheumatoid arthritis. That's an eighth to a half of the number of intersex people!

1-2% of people are estimated to have autism, and that's considered a common condition.

0.1%-2.6% of people will get melanoma in their life time, and that's considered common.

1.2% of people have epilepsy and that's considered common.

Completely ignoring statistics like 6% of women have PCOS (which is a condition that can fall under the intersex umbrella). 2% of the population in the medical field is considered a common condition, and ergo by medical terms intersex is in itself common.

I don't think you realize how big 2% is. That's 2 in 100 people. If you walk into 3 fully filled classrooms (when I was in school a full classroom was 40 students). Chances are you just saw 2 intersex kids and didn't even know it.

So yeah. I think intersex is common enough to include in our discussions around gender and how transphobic rules affects intersex people.

-fae

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dontkickmyshin

3 years ago

i could use a little help again.

my last paycheck was embarrassingly small and bills cleaned me out immediately. i drive up to hundreds of miles a week for work and gas is stupid right now, plus i need some help with food and other stuff as well.

paypal venmo cashapp

i’m going to try to delay my car payment, and my next paycheck will actually be good for once, but it’s gonna be another week and a half until i get paid again. i fucking hate having to keep doing this.

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dontkickmyshin

1 year ago

hey! i have breast cancer!

if anyone wants to help me out financially while i go through treatment with unpaid time off 🙈 here's my money apps

paypal: bastardquest

cash app: isterilelaki

please rb and help me out! at the moment im not eligible for disability so i really won't have anything if i'm not working 😔 please and thank you and i LOVE you 💖🙏💖

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dontkickmyshin

1 year ago

Weak Hero thoughts, rants, and spoilers for chapters 263 to current.

Sorry if this gets lengthy, but I got some feelings to express.

So, I gave myself a few days to process my thoughts and emotions on the conclusion of Weak Hero. To try and make sense of the direction the author decided to take his story on. And honestly, I'm still left feeling let down and disappointed.

In my opinion, one of the greatest slights an author can do to their fanbase and to their work, especially if it's a lengthy story, is to end the story abruptly. To me that is the equivalent to a slap in the face. A big slap to all the fans who have invested their time, energy, and possibly even money to the story the author has been creating. Years of tuning in and refreshing pages, only for the ending to feel so damn rushed.

I was really holding out for a small sliver of hope, I wanted to "trust the process." Maybe there would be an introduction to an amazing plot twist, or a great revelation to understand and explain why the storyline turned into what it did. But at this point, with only the epilogue left, none of that is gonna probably happen, and I'm left wondering why?

I've even wondered if the kdrama had any influence on how Weak Hero ended. Would it have been different if the kdrama never existed? Did Seopass just get tired of his story and the characters, maybe he wanted to move on to something else already? Cuz any which way that I try to look at it, I just can't comprehend why he chose that ending. Especially for Donald. One of the most charismatic characters in the series. The final boss, who possessed both brains and unmatched brute strength. A master strategist who managed to unite a whole district. A literal unbeatable character.... who he gets done in by a wayward truck!?! Right after the biggest fight in the series!?! Like, are you for fucking real? That's how his demise happens?!!?

I'm not even a Donald fan! He was never my fave (that honor always went to Jimmy ❤️), but even I expected more for him. Donald didn't even go down swinging, kicking, barely hanging on by the skin of his teeth. His death happening in the same way he lived his life, like some sort of poetic justice. No. We got none of that. Instead, we get a self defeated Donald, who was reaching out to the universe for someone to stop him, and who purposefully? didn't avoid the truck???

I'm sorry but no, DONALD DESERVED BETTER!!! HE, AS A CHARACTER, DESERVED BETTER!!!!

AND THEN, we get thrown some pity crumbs at the end with Stephen. Which to me was just another rushed ending. We get some half assed reunion. No backstory on what Stephen had to go through. No idea what his thoughts were while recovering from his near fatal drop. Did he ever think of Gray? Did he ever try looking for him?

Was I the only one that expected more from Stephen and Gray's reunion??? I can't be the only one completely disappointed, or am I?

I am however grateful we got to see Stephen again, I really am, and that we got a conclusion for him. Since it didn't happen with some of the other plotlines.

For instance, what happened to the Mapo guys, and Changhui saying they were going to wait for an opportunity to strike back? Am I the only one that remembers this?

Weak Hero Thoughts, Rants, And Spoilers For Chapters 263 To Current.

And where the capital F was Wolf's backstory? He's a fan favorites and we get nothing? No idea on why he's a such a psycho or the reasoning behind his 3 second rule? Or even why he has it out for Grape so much?

And let's not forget about this guy! He never even got a name!

There's more, but I'm not gonna go into all of that right now since I don't want to just trash this series. I fell in love with it for a reason, and now I want to talk about the parts that I enjoyed, and that made me remember why I loved this series so much in the first place.

Like...

The fact that Jimmy wanted Donald's recognition. Even after talking crap about him every chance he got~ lol. He still valued him as a capable leader and cared about how Donald perceived him.

And how Jimmy's signature wrist swish was influenced by Donald!!! I would have never in a million years thought that Donald was the reason and inspiration for it.

And I absolutely loved how Jimmy and Wolf were bickering at the end. It completely reminded me of siblings arguing with each other at any and every opportunity! I know there's gotta be some underlying respect and friendship for each other there, waaay deep inside, somewhere in a dark crevice of their little crazy hearts. 😆

And cuz I want to gloat too, I'm gonna add Jimmy whooping Gerard's butt. Take that shuttle patch!

I was also pretty surprised by how distraught Phillip became after Donald's death. Especially considering that the last time Phillip had any real interaction with him, Donald pretty much blew him off. Phillip not being important enough for even a backwards glance. For Phillip to still remember what it was like standing next to someone like Donald, and to have all those emotions come out of him just broke my heart.

And I am not about to forget my lovely Colton! Our very first villain. Pervy villain at that! And how much growth he's had, even as a secondary character. I went from feeling disgusted at him to wanting to give him all the hugs and support in the world.

I love you Colton you big doof! 🫶