The voices in my right brain
are kinda funny
They tell me "take a deep breath,
it's always sunny"

@jesse - outfit

U-Jin was a very controlled person. He got up at five in the morning every single day, did his daily work outs, went to his classes, finished his individual study, worked out again, ate everything he had to and went to bed at the correct time. His life was regimented to a fault. There were, however, some details that escaped his rigorous and methodical plans. One of them was the fact that he was very much in love with a boy he had met while exiled from his home. A boy, that was enough to have him disinherited. It wouldn't be so terrible if it weren't for the fact that all the duties would go to his little brother. The pressure would kill him. On top of things, Blue was British, had a history of dark arts, and was far more dramatic than his entire clan put together. U-Jin didn't mind the first, had forgiven the second, and quite enjoyed the last. His mother would not see any of it in a positive light. 

The second point that escaped his careful control was... well, his leisure activities. Quidditch was fine, allowed. So was taekwondo. What he had started to do years ago, though? Running away for weeks at a time to drink and fight for money? If the magical society of Korea found out, his family would be dishonoured for generations. He did it anyway, if only to piss his parents off. At first he had thought that it was just his way of getting their attention, of getting them to care even once about what went on with him. To look beyond his public achievements and towards what was going on with him. Of course, he failed. It got him banished to his distant aunt in Britain under the guise of 'character building' and finding out more about the poisonous dark magic and how to prevent the mentality from spreading to Korea. Now he liked to think that he'd always been trying to piss her off. To rebel.

The question was, what did he do after school? At first he'd thought that he could go to Seoul, to university, and to sink into his duties. To let everything be over and done with. Then he had decided to do everything he needed to do, but also take a job in one of the many professional Quidditch teams that had made offers. Something his mother had explicitly forbidden. But now? Now he wanted to stay here. With Blue. His fiancé was only ten at the moment, he wouldn't need to be there to wed her for another seven years. He could study long distance. He could work for his uncle, the Korean delegate, and continue the pretence of him being important for relations since he'd been here so long. And hide his relationship with Blue. He would swear to stop misbehaving. He would. If only she would let him stay.

Going back to Gwangju, to his clan's main seat, his parents' house, required a lot of mental preparation. They made him so angry. Of course he would be lying. He would still be coming to the fighting rings, especially now that Weaver had all of this set up. He had never lied before, least of all in a premeditated way. All of this made him slightly more aggressive than usual. Blue knew what he was going to do. He came to the ring today, to watch the fight. If everything went right, they would be moving in together. Until then, Blue would be staying at his aunt's. Like they did last night, when they got back from school. 

Apparently they were worse actors than he thought-

Anyway. He had been more aggressive than usual while fighting. The other boy had been strong, sure, but couldn't really hold his own much against U-Jin's trained precision. Plus, he had been fighting in rings for over two years already. However, Jesse had held out longer than usual. It was because of that, it seemed, that Weaver had sent him to talk about a spot on his crew. Down in the changing rooms. He left Blue in his own room and after Cyril-ssi gave him the medical clear -who knew Weaver had brothers?- he made his way to where Jesse would be. Some healing salves in hand and two bodyguards behind him. A nuisance, but he didn't question it.

Politely, he knocked.

i don't want to live for nothing

just want to be something
i never knew what it took to win

Nothing on Earth could have prepared Jesse for the day he had experienced. It had been one of the most fly by the seat of his pants kind of days, and somehow that was a good thing. He had missed days like that. The three boring buildings of Pyxis had been his home for the last three months. He hadn't been able to leave, hadn't been able to sneak away, he had been nothing but stuck. Stuck wasn't something Jesse was good at. Needless to say he was a bit surprised when he was informed Friday evening that he would be graduating and moving out over the weekend. It seemed like he was always getting surprised with news like that, he hadn't even know when he was going to be leaving Kolna to go to Pyxis only that it was rumored he would be. And then all of a sudden they were shipped off. Bye, cya later, have fun! He hadn't known what to expect that time, but this time he did. He knew that he would be moving in with Truly and that he would be going back to work. What he didn't know was the crazy day that he was going to have after leaving the three little buildings of Pyxis.

He had, of course, stopped at the Ministry first and foremost. There was a lot of paperwork he needed to do, and he needed to be issued a new wand and an auror to babysit him. Jesse was a bit salty about that. He had never been the sort of person to respect authority, but he had learned a lot. Being a mudblood, he learned quite a bit. He learned that being a human fucking being didn't grant you bodily autonomy. He learned that no matter how hard you tried to stop it someone could do whatever they wanted to you. They could hurt you, scar you, kill you if they liked. They had all learned that. Some, the hard way, others, by example. He had learned the hard way a time or two, and the way he saw it...only a fucking moron would break the rules. They had been given their freedom, in a way, and they had been given wands. What sort of idiot would fuck that up? Him....of course.

It had all started at the Ministry. He had run into Monica, whom of which he had believed that he could possibly hate these days, but he was wrong. He was so pissed at her for abandoning him at Kolna. Never writing. Never visiting. Nothing. Delia had come for fucks sake! Delia, the tiny little thing she was, strode confidently into the complex like she owned the place without even flinching at the damn guards. But Monica never showed. He thought he might hate her for it but when she had approached him at the Ministry he felt like he could cry. He had missed her like hell. She was the closest thing he ever had to a parent and seeing her, after all he had been through, he just wanted to be a kid again and cry to her. The pride in him had stopped it and he made sure that she knew he was still pissed off at her. Jesse could tell she was upset, that she felt bad and that she had missed him too. She kicked into mom-mode almost immediately and asked him where he planned to stay, how he was, the standard fifty questions. Then she had told him there were things at her flat she had gotten for him. Clothes, money, a couple other things. She had been preparing for him to stay with...well, her, he guessed. Something about that had destroyed any sort of anger he was harboring for her. He promised her that he would go right after his mountains of paperwork and retrieve the stuff she had for him.

He had, of course, not gone directly there. There were more important matters at hand. Seeing Truly, for instance. If it were an option he would have went directly to her but the Ministry trip wasn't exactly within his control. He needed to follow the registration rules, and he needed to see Truly. In. That. Order. Because without following registration rules he wouldn't be able to go home. To their home. What a welcoming that had been, too. She had nearly knocked him to the floor when he walked in but she could have easily beaten him with a baseball bat and he'd still have been happy to see her. In fact, he was just happy. For the first time in a long time he felt really happy. He decided to take Truly with him to Monica's, show her around his old stomping grounds in Muggle London. 

Jesse never imagined he would be happy to show off the ghettos he grew up in, but he was. Truly had never seen where he came from, she knew about what he dealt with in the summer months when the two were separated at Hogwarts all those years, but she never really knew. He had taken her all over and that had been where the rules began to break. They had run into a few of his old muggle friends, caught up, shot the shit. It was comical to watch Truly's face when Jesse's true cockney came out. Surely it sounded jibberish to her, but she didn't complain. They had told him about an underground fighting ring and about this Korean fighter that was undefeated. They joked, too, about how Jesse could take him. Easy peasy. Like old times. Jesse just laughed it off at first but they urged him to enter the ring. He didn't want to. He wanted to follow the rules but... The money sounded good, and he wasn't currently looking to make any of his own. And he was a skilled fighter, he had been all his life. The prospect sounded appetizing, but he had rules to follow. This was his first fucking day with new rules, he wouldn't break them now. No. Fucking. Way.

At least he hadn't planned on it. But when Truly told him to check it out.... Yes, Truly. The girl who had kept his ass out of trouble since day one, the girl who had just graduated a head girl from Hogwarts, had told him to check it out. In his mind it sounded a lot like a free fucking pass to start breaking rules. His assigned auror might not have thought so, but he sure did. So he agreed. He would go and see what it was about. He would maybe, MAYBE, place a bet or two. Try to make some money. What he wasn't aware that he would do was fight.

Maybe it was something about Truly's presence earlier in the day that had made him keep himself in check, but with her absence as he entered The Bacchae he suddenly became much more susceptible to peer pressure. After the first round of fighters had finished Jesse could feel the itch to jump in. His friends weren't of any help, constantly telling him to sign up. Sign up, sign up, do it, come on! He knew that he would likely lose, but still the urge was there. It had been well over a year since his last fight, but not since his last ass kicking. Death Eaters had made damn sure of that, so had the foreman of the mines. He was rusty and as far as ring fighting came, he was inexperienced. Everything he had learned had been through the streets. He knew that if the ring was a back alley of some shitty tavern he would win hands down, but this? This was a different ball game. 

When he had signed up he saw that he would be matched with the undefeated champion. Fucking great. Jesse decided to do the smart thing, bet against himself in hopes that he could make a quick buck. His idiot friends had bet on his side, but he knew before ever stepping into the ring that he was fucked. That was until he saw the undefeated champ for himself. Fucking U-Jin. Of all the fighters in all the world he was paired with him. The boy he had always found...prissy? The boy was posh, rich, everything handed to him. Something in Jesse switched on, the fighter in him turned on, and he wanted nothing more than to hand him his arse. That hadn't exactly been the case, in fact it was quite opposite. Still, he had fought hard and didn't give up. He had never been one to know when to quit and when the fight finally ended he was surprised to hear his friends cheering for him.

His arse had been kicked, yet they cheered? As he left the ring they battered him with excited shouts proclaiming that he had made it longer than most. One friend even exclaimed that it was longer than anybody, how true it was he didn't know. From there he had headed to the locker rooms to clean himself up and think of a way to explain to Truly how exactly he ended up in the ring in the first place. He heard a knock at the door as he was toweling off a bit of blood from his eyebrow where it had been split by a punch. "Yeah? It's open!" He called out looking at the red soaking the towel. 

U-Jin had been raised in a very particular manner, though it was common to most heir of large clans in South Korea. Well, Korea, since the magical equivalent of the nation had never really acknowledged the separation. The country was led by the ruling council, composed of the head of every clan. Amongst those heads were his father, his maternal grandmother, and his third cousin. Kim, Park, Han. There weren't many clans, but they were each composed of a lot of people. The smallest had several hundred people. U-Jin's had many thousands. They were, technically, all related, albeit distantly. There was the main line, U-Jin's, and then every single branch along the way, marked and kept track of since the clan was founded. That was some two thousand years ago, give or take a couple of centuries. Those were the times of the three kingdoms, before the splitting of the magical societies, when the throne was rotated by each of the pureblood families. Then they divided the land into feudal territories. Those boundaries remain to this day, Gwangju had been the seat of the Kim clan for over a hundred generations. While most of the government was democratic now, and they even had a president that kept the council in check, the clans still held a lot of power over their own territories. They took care of the needs of their clan members, of their squibs, of all muggleborns born with the surname Kim. U-Jin would, in time, be responsible for them all. He would take his father's place in the ruling council. He could not be mediocre, because in his people's customs honour and hard work were the most important traits in any person. They even only kept their line pure because of tradition more than superiority. Yes, while hierarchy was tradition, higher positions meant more responsibility. He, as one of the highest positions in the country, would be charged with everyone's care.

From a young age he had been taught his manners, he had been taught his duty. That was more important than anything. It was more important that his physical and mental health, especially. As a child, he just learned it as fact. As he grew up, it became harder and harder to swallow that truth. It would have been one thing for that to be ultimately true, but for his parents to care anyway. To try to do something to help or show any kind of sympathy. To acknowledge that while it was a duty, it was also a sacrifice. Only they didn't. That made him angry then, it made him angry now. The only thing that kept him from throwing it all away was Yeong-Su-yah. His little brother was soft and kind, he would not take the pressure like U-Jin had. While he was angry, he was still effective. He could handle it, even if he didn't want to. He'd lived his entire life thinking that he did. That he wouldn't change his duty for the world, that it was not an option to give it up and bring shame to his family, even if he could. Then he met Blue. 

Blue had, at first, just been a student in his same house and his captain in the quidditch team. He'd given U-Jin his position as seeker without a second thought, without trying him out. It was quickly made clear that he thought U-Jin attractive. He'd heard that before, on occasion. While his culture itself, traditional and conservative as it was, frowned upon such men, he had never felt that way. He'd seen it happen before, as a secret, and Blue had been attractive. Technically. He'd been denying a lot of things back then, but he'd taken it as a compliment and gone about his day. As soon as Blue got bored of the novelty he would move on, so U-Jin had thought. Only he hadn't, and through the conversations and the dramatic moments, he'd found that there were many things that he would find distasteful in other people which he actually found to be rather charming in Blue. That had been his second clue. U-Jin had always been quick to pick up on such things and that had been no different. The only logical step had been to give in. To the desire, not to the emotion. For someone as -to use Blue's occasional term- prudish as he was -he preferred to say he was reserved and private- he had not really hesitated. Of course, he hadn't managed to curb the feelings that came with it. After a lot of beating around the bush and avoiding deep conversations as per Blue's preferences, they had ended up here. Hoping to move in together. If his talk with his mother went well. Yo-Nari was not known for being an easy person, it was what made her so successful in politics in a country as conservative as theirs.

So he had been angry. He was always angry when he thought of going back. Thinking that she may keep him away from someone he l- liked as much as Blue only made him angrier. At least he hadn't gotten carried away enough to break any bones. That would have been easy, he'd sone it plenty of times without hesitation. Why hadn't he done it now, if he was so angry? He sort of recognised the boy's face. In a way. He didn't like fighting Syn-ssi because she was a friend. This boy- he didn't know. He'd put up a good fight, U-Jin was respectful of people who made efforts. He'd still defeated him, with only some bruises and bleeding knuckles to show for it. He'd gotten hurt worse while playing quidditch, but he tended to be reckless in those games. While fighting, he tuned out everything else and just moved. He was left with emotions and base instincts. Trained as thoroughly as he was, both in official competitions and underground rings, it wasn't a surprise that he won so much. He was physically gifted and he had been granted opportunities not many had. If Jesse had been trained as rigorously as U-Jin for as long as U-Jin, he may have defeated him.

It did not surprise him, therefore, that Weaver had decided to make an offer. It was his business, quite literally, and U-Jin didn't really care. Yet, he had agreed to do the talking. Weaver liked to talk a lot, it was surprising that he hadn't wanted to do it himself. Then again, he had seemed strangely subdued. Somewhat preoccupied. Cyril-ssi had hurried back to his brother's office as soon as he was done, after all, though that may have been for his own safety. The Bacchae was not dirty by any means, the concrete floors and walls were clean and dry even if they were hung with flyers and painted with graffiti. He had the impression that there had been a decision on aesthetics at some point. Even the lights were dim and neon blues and purples. He had been in plenty of these places before, though mostly in Seoul, and he knew that they were chaotic on the surface. Beneath that, everything was very organised. Not that it was safe. It was quite the opposite. Not that it explained why he had bodyguards with him. They just tailed him without explanation. It may be just a service of courtesy, since U-Jin was somewhat tired from the fight and since he hadn't come here to brawl he would be very annoyed if someone tried anything. He couldn't bring himself to care.

Permission to enter came and he slowly opened the door. Dressed in his clean clothes -Blue was still picking his outfits, he actually quite liked that- and without a single bruise, he entered. In one hand he had a pouch with healing salves and in his other was a roll of cash, Jesse's payment of the night. All who entered got a standard payment of a few hundred pounds. Tickets to the fights made more than that, then the winnings from the bar, the winnings from the club, and the house cut of all the bets? Weaver had enough money to make generous payments to all fighters, win or lose.

"Sillyehabnida-" he muttered as he came in, bowing shallowly. That was the standard protocol for entering a room someone else was occupying, someone else's private area, no matter how temporary. U-Jin may drink and fight and play quidditch, but he never lost his manners. Stepping inside, he went to stand before Jesse. He seemed rather hurt, U-Jin was ashamed to admit that he hadn't had enough presence of mind to pay attention to just how much he was hurting the other boy. Just what he explicitly wasn't doing. It didn't matter if he was consciously not breaking bones, punches were still hard and his kicks could leave stomachs churning for days. Luckily, he hadn't given anyone internal bleeding. Yet.

"You fought well." U-Jin didn't sit, he had not been invited to.


Sillyehabnida - Excuse me

I DON'T WANT TO LIVE FOR NOTHING

JUST WANT TO BE SOMETHING

I NEVER KNEW WHAT IT TOOK TO WIN

There were only two certain things in Jesse's life: the pain, and the fight. He had been brought into the world learning those two things first, and it seemed as though he knew nothing more than that every day that followed. His mother, whoever she was, had brought a baby into the world that she had no intentions of caring for. She had left him at the hospital, not even said a word to staff, just left. No excuses. No note. Just the shaking infant in the bedside bassinet. Monica had reasoned that his mother might have been afraid for the child, unsure of how to care for a baby born with addiction. He figured that was her just trying to be nice. It seemed a hell of a lot more likely that the woman left him in search of more drugs and had no intentions of looking back. He was lucky that she hadn't taken him to sell for payment. No, she had left him in that hospital. A baby born addicted to the drugs she just couldn't keep away from. She left him there, not yet  a day old, to detox on his own. To shrivel, shake and cry all alone.

That had been his first experience. The pain of coming of a drug he never knew he had been given, and the fighting spirit to make it through the night. Every day after seemed to follow suit. He had been placed in foster care with high hopes that he would be quickly adopted, but a forever family never came. He was a risky sell. A baby born in such a manner, the not knowing what problems it caused? Tough for most families to get through. He also faced the issues of his race, the mix that it was. Many Caucasian families shied away from him. He didn't fit the card. They wanted white babies or babies dark as night, thank you Brad and Angelina for that. There had been a few black families who had come to see the lad but by then his case file had only grew and it deterred them further. At a certain point he simply gave up hope. He had saw what happened to children of a certain age, somewhere just around seven. They stopped getting new family visits, simply started accepting foster care are 'home'. Everyone wanted babies, and they weren't babies any more.

That wasn't to say older children weren't adopted out, they were! Just not Jesse. His fighting spirit became a list of "symptoms possibly related to Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome". He was a trouble maker, quick to anger, listless, possessive, violent according to his file. The truth of it was that he was simply lacking parenting. That is until he met Monica. She had seen the need for care that he had, and she had helped him. It was no easy task, what with him bouncing from rubbish foster home to rubbish foster home. With his track record he was lucky he could even be placed in foster care at all. The only families brave enough to take him had been the families who saw him, not as a child, but as a paycheck. Families in London's East side. They were slummy, sometimes grubby, all around neglectful places. As a child he would sometimes purposefully try to be taken out of a family's care so that he could be with Monica. He hoped that she would take him home, but she didn't. She always took him to a new slum and left him there.

So he had raised himself, or the streets had raised him. He had gotten into fighting at an early age, the earliest fight he could recall being when he was nine years old. His first real fight, anyhow. It had been against a foster sibling that he was placed with, an older boy who was seemingly more troubled than even Jesse was. They had been arguing over something petty, as children do, and it turned physical. It was the first fight Jesse ever lost, the older boy ended it by hitting Jesse in the head with a two-by-four he had found on the ground. There is still a scar on his lip from where the force of it had split it open, now a laughable memory, at the time had required five stitches.

It was from that first fight that Jesse found his passion for the fight. It was something that he could escape the pain with, and instead focus it on someone else. He never wanted to hurt anyone, really. He just wanted to place his problems elsewhere, so he could stop hurting himself. Fights were the only real place he could find an escape, a true escape. Drinking, smoking, those dulled the senses but fighting.... Fighting heightened them. It let the world and his thoughts go quiet and he could focus on everything. The little twitches that signaled just where the opponent was planning on throwing the next punch, the feeling of blood on his knuckles and the sound of a cracking jaw. They were hyper-realistic moments in time where he was in control. Win or lose, he was in control. There was never a punch he didn't see coming, he simply had to let it happen or stop it. That was the beauty of the fight. That was what had drawn him to it and kept him wanting more.

He should have known that the want would have surfaced as soon as he had entered the building. He should have known that he wasn't going to be able to resist the urge to climb in the ring, but he told himself he wouldn't. Why he had lied to himself was a mystery. Perhaps he wanted to believe he had outgrown it. Matured a little. Perhaps he had, but the urge was still there. It had been why, even when he saw the only available fighter as the undefeated champion, he still signed his name. It was an urge he couldn't resist, so he didn't. He knew full well he would enter that ring to lose. Yet he had entered anyway. The loss hadn't come as a surprise. The surprise had been how skilled U-Jin really was.

It was almost laughable how incredibly wrong Jesse had pegged the boy. He may have saw him as prissy at one time, but no more. As he cleaned the cut on his brow he sort of laughed as he looked at the blood on the towel. How long had it been since someone had made him bleed? He had almost forgot how much a damn brow could even bleed, luckily his was finally stopping up. It didn't hurt quite yet, just stinging as he pressed the towel against it once again. The adrenaline of the fight was taking care of the pain, for now. He knew from experience that the morning would come like a kick in the crotch and he was going to be one sorry mother fucker. Especially when he went back to work in the mines in the morning. Merlin, why did he have to get in the damn ring?

The other boy entered the room with....some sort of greeting. It didn't sound like a language Jesse knew, but he assumed it had been U-Jin's mother tongue. He watched the boy approach with an unsure gaze giving quick glances to the items in his hands. Neither of them held a wand or a gun which he assumed was a good sign. He had never been to this establishment, and wouldn't it be something to find out the hard way this was a win-or-die kind of place?

"You fought better," Jesse shrugged with a small smile. He wasn't too proud to admit defeat to a better opponent. The smile had pulled at a tear in his lip causing another drop of blood which Jesse patted away with the towel. He hadn't yet seen himself in a mirror but he imagined it was not a pretty picture. The boy still stood before him and he had to stop himself from furrowing his brows in confusion. Merlin forbid he do that and start the bleeding of his brow again. He wasn't sure yet why the boy hadn't sat down. "Please sit down, mate. I feel like you're-" he shot a look to the body guards that had followed U-Jin in, "- I don't know, plotting on me...or something. Have a sit."  

U-Jin knew what other people's struggles were, mostly. Beyond his own parents' emotional neglect, he'd never wanted for anything in his life. His clan was one of the wealthiest in Korea, which was saying a lot. He was regularly given professional racing brooms as birthday gifts and precious stones and metals were normal decorations in his home. There had not been a single hanbok in his life not made out of silk and gold or silver thread. Financially, he had wanted for nothing. While opulence in the face of others' scarcity was frowned upon in his society, his own clan never wanted for anything either. Everyone had food, everyone had clothing, a roof, and enough money to go on at least one holiday a year. Nobody complained of their wealth because they weren't too far behind themselves. They had to keep up appearances. It wasn't until he stepped into the muggle world in Seoul that he saw poverty. Saw need and desperation and hunger. U-Jin had understood his own privilege all that much more, then. He was not judgemental of such things, unlike many of his hierarchical peers. It was easy to judge criminals when there were no criminals born of need in their society. They didn't understand, there was no contact with such things. U-Jin, however, had learned not to judge people's choices. He judged disrespect but not situations. Stealing from someone could be pardoned, given certain circumstances, but stealing from someone elderly or disabled was something else entirely. Circumstances.

When he came into these places, therefore, he never questioned or judged. He did not butt into people's lives or offer advise. That was easy to do at school, when he was responsible for his dongsaeng's progress and growth, but not here. Here, he did not formulate ideas or questions or anything of the sort. They were all doing what they needed to do, for some reason or another. Maybe true financial need, maybe emotional need. He needed this place as well. His manners dictated that he be subtle and polite, that always circled him out among the people in these places. He liked to think that people had just stopped caring, though. Got used to him. Especially since he won so often. It reminded him of the colosseum. Even the name fit. While his western studies weren't all that extensive, he knew this. The Bacchae was a festival for the Roman god Bacchus, it included a sort of frantic, bloody energy known as religious ecstasy. That was for the god of... well, U-Jin considered it to be decadence. Bacchus was another name for the Greek god Dionysus. Funny how things worked out. It wasn't the most self centered thing Weaver had ever done, U-Jin thought.

"I have more training and experience." U-Jin set the things down on the bench and sat when he got permission, but he caught Jesse's look. The guards had followed him in. Ah, that would not do. Rising back to his feet, he offered them a small bow. "I thank you for your services, but they will not be necessary here. I would be grateful if we were awarded some privacy."

The guards, after a few seconds' hesitation, exited the room and U-Jin once more sat down. He offered Jesse another fain bow of his head in apology and then handed the healing salves over with both hands, as was polite. "I do apologise for that, the owner is quite fervent on... business courtesies. Here, I hope these will help the damage." Jesse did not look all that great. A bleeding lip, a bleeding eyebrow. A black eye all bruised. Several bruises on his arms, probably bruised ribs as well. That was unfortunate, but damage was natural in these matters. Perhaps it would have been wiser to send Cyril-ssi to Jesse's aid, he could do more to help and he seemed far more sociable than U-Jin had ever been in his life. However, he would understand if Weaver was being cautious. His -older?- brother was the delicate sorts and while he did not believe Jesse would do anything to hurt him, the instinct to watch out for such people was natural. Even with Blue, he was more protective than he ought to be. Blue was dangerous with a wand, but being half veela made him seem gentle and delicate. It fooled a lot of people, even U-Jin's instincts. 

There was a reason they were both vers- This was not the time for such thoughts. Not at all.

Instead of continuing that, he slowly took out his wand and cast a scourgify on the bloodied towel in Jesse's hand. He had heard that all muggleborns had been given useless wands. They were not allowed to do most magic and they were forced to do slave labour. That was beyond shameful. Having been raised in a society where blood did not matter as much as one's effort in society- where the government took care of all of their people no matter their name, age, place of origin, blood or anything else. To their own standards, of course, but morals can responsibility came first. These actions were horrendous. His country had openly declared that they condemned the actions fully. They had switched the foreign delegate to his uncle, younger brother to the head of the Park clan -coincidentally, his maternal uncle- and tightened their own laws on dark magic. They had already been strict, including but not limited to time in prison, the snapping of one's wand, and the banishment from clan and society in general. No, he abhorred these actions and he would leave and never look back if it weren't for Blue.

It spoke volumes of how much he cared for the other that he had forgiven not only the use of dark magic, but Blue having actively been the apprentice of Goyle. A Goyle. Blue had quit, of course. He had hated it from the beginning. U-Jin was surprised at how easy it was to put it behind them, at how easily he just didn't care. Blue regretted it, that was all that mattered. He knew that he would not be nearly as easy on anyone else, had the situations been reversed, but that didn't matter. He was apparently not heterosexual, he drank and smoked and fought in underground rings, he was planning on lying to his parents and had passed his Dark Arts NEWTS -he had calculated and estimated his answers in order to barely pass, there was no honour in passing such a class but there was even less in failing any class at all- what was being hypocritical, when added to that list?

"These are your winnings of the night. All are paid a standard fee for participation. Two hundred and fifty pounds per fight. The owner says he can have it sent to you as galleons, however, if you are willing to wait until tomorrow." He handed over the roll of cash. All in change of tens and twenties, of course. It was easier to hide dirty business like that, apparently. He would not really know, but Weaver had been making profit in these circles for years. He didn't question anything, though he disapproved of most of it. Who was he to judge, though? He didn't. Weaver's actions were up to him and no one else.

I DON'T WANT TO LIVE FOR NOTHING

JUST WANT TO BE SOMETHING
I NEVER KNEW WHAT IT TOOK TO WIN

Nothing ever went to plan in Jesse's life. Not that he had ever really had a plan. Growing up he never imagined himself leaving east London, at least not without a pair of handcuffs around his wrists. He had never been a very good child. Jesse never went to class, he stole and fought and did everything he shouldn't have. It was expected, in a way. Growing up in the ghettos, in the most violent parts of town, he knew nothing but survival and it had caused him to learn to adapt. If he wanted to eat he needed to steal; if he wanted to earn respect he needed to fight for it. Education was the last thing on his mind growing up and he knew that it was a waste of time. The teachers at his primary school never gave two shits about the well being of their students. Just like the foster care families Jesse grew up with, the teachers were there simply for a paycheck. They didn't care if the students learned, what was the point in caring? What was the point in teaching a child basic arithmetic when the likelihood of him surviving past his teen years was so low?

Homicide rates were high where Jesse grew up. Stabbings, shootings, gang violence...It was something he was quite used to. He had seen men stabbed for less than a five pound note and he had seen children his own age shot in drive-by shootings. The only thing he cared about was survival. That is until his Hogwarts letter came. Monica knew that it was his only ticket out of the hell he had grown up in and she had went to great lengths to make sure he knew what an opportunity he had been given. She worked mostly with magical children, such as himself. Children who grew up in foster care who harbored magical abilities or inclinations. She had never experienced a child with such difficulties as Jesse had. His drive to fight, to get into trouble. It had cost him so much, including his chance to ever be taken into foster care with a magical family. He hadn't known that growing up, that he was ruining his own chances, he had only cared about his survival. That was it. Survival and fighting.

It was quite lucky that he had Monica as his case worker, any other may have given up on him long ago, but she never did. She saw something in him that he hadn't even been able to see in himself. When his Hogwarts letter was due to arrive she had taken him to her flat to stay for the very first time in order to keep his magic a secret. They couldn't very well have an owl drop a post at a muggle foster residence, so she made sure that his letter would come discretely to her flat just outside of London. Once it arrived she revealed the entire wizarding world to him, told him of all the things he would experience and the things he would see in this new hidden place. He hadn't believed her at first. Thought her completely daft, really. She urged him to go to the school and to take this as his ticket out. He never imagined that he would have had a way out of the slums. Honestly, he thought he would have lived and died in the streets he was raised. The prospect of this new world was exciting and it meant that he would be able to start again. A fresh start, at least that was what Monica had told him over and over again.

It wasn't until he had walked the cobblestone streets of Diagon Alley for the very first time that he had actually began to believe her. There was a world of magic, an awe inspiring world that he never dreamed possible. But there was something else that inspired awe from him, even at his young age, and that was that she had been right about another thing. That he would, indeed, have a fresh start. It had been strange to walk the streets without fear of being shot, with people smiling politely instead of sneering. He could walk into a shop and the keep wouldn't even give him a second glance where in the muggle world he would be watched with great scrutiny. What was he stealing now? Had he just shoved something into his pocket? There was something other than magic in the air of Diagon Alley, and it had been acceptance. In this world he was simply another student, another child who was attending Hogwarts with all the other students shopping for their supplies. In this world he could be whoever he wanted to be, not who the streets made him become. By the time he made it to Hogwarts he had already decided that this world would be his own one day. This was going to be home.

He had been much more naive then, believing that this world would bring nothing but good things. After his first year he quickly realized that not all that glitters is gold. In the summer months he returned to the muggle world, the shit-hole that it was, and lived as though nine months of his life hadn't been spent in a world of pure wonder. As the years progressed he got used to shifting between the worlds and he began to see that no where was ever going to be perfect. The muggle world had its flaws, as did the wizarding one. There was prejudice and judgement everywhere he went; the only thing that changed was the names he was called. Mudblood, hood-rat, it didn't matter. Where he was didn't matter because in the end everywhere he went he was hated for one reason or the other. He fell back into survival, keeping himself guarded and reverting to his fighting instincts. As good of a student he was, he still got into trouble and fights. There had been times where he had been nervous that he would have been expelled but it seemed like someone was looking out for him, because he never did. It did help, too, to have a prefect as his best friend.

Truly had helped him so much during his schooling, possibly in ways that she hadn't even been aware of or could have even imagined. She had been there for him since day one and she was still there for him now. Jesse couldn't imagine what his life would be like now if he hadn't reconnected with her at Saint Mungo's. It had never been in his plans to be injured or to have her be his healer but damn was he fucking grateful. He figured he would be grateful too when he got home and she could properly fix him up. If she could, that was. He hated to imagine the response he'd get walking in looking as he did right now but it was something she would have to get used to if he was going to continue doing this. That is, if he was crazy enough to get back into the ring as inexperienced as he was. U-Jin had called him on it immediately and he huffed in a laugh, "That obvious, is it?" The boy couldn't possibly have known his level of training but having fought him he could see it. He didn't know as much, wasn't as skilled, but he had held his own. Jesse was a quick study. If he were to keep up with this he might actually be able to become a decent enough ring fighter.

There was a bit of relief when U-Jin called off the guards. In Kolna guards were never a good thing to have close by, in fact they were quite the opposite. He didn't know if he would ever be able to see a guard again and not feel a pit in his stomach, but he was happy to know that these men weren't going to harm him. At least not right now. Jesse watched them as they exited the room, the door coming to a close behind them. He could have breathed a sigh of relief but there was still the matter of U-Jin. The boy was polite enough, which Jesse hadn't really expected. He never spoke to him in school and this hadn't exactly been how he imagined his demeanor being. U-Jin offered an apology for the business courtesies of the owner and Jesse nodded in acceptance. "S'alright," he said brushing it off. U-Jin offered him a handful of salves and he took them from him sort of squinting in skepticism.

It made sense, he supposed, to offer such things to the fighters who came to The Bacchae. One would want to keep them healthy and happy in order to keep them returning. Returning fighters meant more fights, which meant more money. "More business courtesies?" Jesse joked offering a smile of gratitude before dumping the salves into his lap and looking through them. "These will definitely help-" he said as he began opening one that seemed promising for his cuts. "Thank you, or the owner, or whoever." He chuckled softly applying some of the salve to his brow. Merlin how he hoped that Truly could fix this up. If his assigned Auror would drop by in the morning he would be most definitely screwed.

The boy had drawn his wand which, if not for his stupid pride, would have easily made him jump. Usually the sight of a wand in the hand of another meant instant pain but that hadn't been the case. Instead the boy had cast a cleansing charm on his bloodied towel and it spoke volumes of his character. The wad of cash he handed over spoke volumes of the owners. Jesse had known that money would likely be involved but he had assumed it was only so if he had won the match. He was still being paid as a loser? His eyes widened in surprise as he accepted the roll totaling two-hundred and fifty pounds.

"I'll take it as is, " he said taking the roll of cash. He smirked at the idea of handing Truly a wad of cash like that. It had been a concern of his, making money. He was an old-school kind of guy and living on her dime was not an option. This would do for now. "You keep saying 'the owner', who is it? Does this person have a name? Or am I to just accept this ominous shadowy figure as is?" It was somewhat clear that U-Jin worked for whoever this owner was, doing the bidding for them. If he was to keep fighting here he would likely want to know this person, but with cash like this? He might accept the unknown just to keep the money coming in.

U-Jin had done many things he was not proud of, but compared to many other people, his sins were not particularly severe. Where some stole or fought or harmed people, U-Jin had barely done any of those things. He only ever fought in rings, he was not one for brawling. He had never stolen anything in his life and if he had ever harmed anyone it was in self defence. No, those were not his sins. What he did wrong was not something that most people would consider to be so. Nobody would think that he was wrong in having a heart, in wanting things for his own. His family considered it selfish, and to a point, he agreed with them. They had raised him to want nothing for himself, to do his duty, to study what he must, to marry who he was pointed to. To be content with obligations and expectations. He'd tried really hard to be, he had, but in the end his parents' search for perfection had broken him. Not fully, he was functional and he was quite sure that he would excel in his duties should he wish to do them. They had broken his desire to comply. It had been in abundance when he was a child, but now he would like nothing better than to be at liberty to abandon his clan and his family and everything that came with it. Yes, he had a responsibility, yes, people depended on him, but they had his father and his younger brother and he was sure that with time things would work out.

Before, this rebellion had shown itself in what landed him here in the first place. He had at first wandered aimlessly for hours and days in the summer, staying away from his family. Then he had made muggle friends. Then he'd started drinking and smoking, outside of school only. Then came the fighting rings. The dozens, hundreds of arguments with his parents. That was what he'd been aiming for, for them to notice, but they didn't care that he was going off the tracks. Not for the right reasons. They didn't care that it was bad for him, what worried them was what it would do to their public image if he was discovered by their magical peers. They didn't care for him so he kept going no matter how much they complained and tried to stop him. He kept going until eventually he was sent away, as a punishment. It was the tattoo that did it. He doesn't remember getting it, but one day he woke up and his side hurt and he had it there. Still, he hid it, until someone at school spotted it and informed their parents, who informed his parents. Traitors. Tattoos were seen as the signs of criminals in his culture, but he was not one. That was obvious. The next day they had him shipped off to London, to his aunt, and starting Hogwarts. The rest... well, the first day at school, he met Blue. Nothing else mattered.

"Somewhat. I have fought many with little experience, though lately I only get more well known opponents. I had never heard your name before. I suppose they consider sending new people my way to be good for ratings." He shrugs lightly. While he only bothers with fighting and taking his money, he knows that there's a whole business behind the rings. He had never bothered asking Weaver about it, but after several years of dealing with similar people, he'd think to know a thing or two about how everything functions. Not that he would be fighting all that often from now on. Weaver would probably have him as a main show, for once a week at most. If Jesse agreed, he'd have about three fights a week in order to build a reputation for himself. Well, being sponsored by Weaver, or whatever people called this contract, did go a long way with a lot of the underground folk in London. Not just common folk, he wasn't all that close to just people. He was close to criminals.

"Yes. These were given to me to bring to you, I already received my own. Part of having a specific work contract with the owner means he provides a healer's attention after every fight. A fully licensed one. " Or so Cyril-ssi said. He believed the older boy, he'd definitely had the skill and knowledge for it. It was good, because U-Jin had never been great at healing spells and there were only so many times he could go to the hospital before people started to ask if he was having trouble at home. "I shall inform him of your gratitude. It does not come from the goodness of his heart, please do not misunderstand. It is all just good business."

Would he call Weaver a friend? Yes, perhaps. They had a good working relationship, they had been at school together, they had played Quidditch together. He was one of the few that could see through the other boy's loud bullshit. While it did annoy him sometimes, he thought that his dry nature often made Weaver own up to the stupidity of what he was spouting and actually talk in earnest. He was an intelligent person, U-Jin knew that well, he just had many issues when dealing with other people. U-Jin would understand that, which did not mean that he would put up with his craziness forever. Weaver knew that and acted accordingly.  

"I believe you already met, or so he told me. He doesn't much deal with these sort of business arrangements, he doesn't exactly bother. The manager doesn't either, they preferred to leave it to me." He nods lightly and looks the boy's face over for any level of reaction, good or bad. Jesse seemed like a good person, but at the same time, U-Jin was a loyal person and having Weaver as a friend was a very beneficial thing. "His name is Dion Weaver. I think he said you met outside Kolna."

I DON'T WANT TO LIVE FOR NOTHING

JUST WANT TO BE SOMETHING

I NEVER KNEW WHAT IT TOOK TO WIN

The three months that Jesse had been enrolled at Pyxis had given him a lot of time to think about the things he wanted. He had tried to keep his thoughts on things that were tangible, things he could readily obtain or possibly could in the near future. Being able to practice magic again was not on that list. He had a wand now, yes, but what was the use of it? Most times he couldn't even conjure simple things and at best he could clean with it. Big fucking whoop. And the Ministry was worried about them fiddling with them, making them more powerful. Ha! Jesse doubted that it was even a possibility. The wand he had been given was shoddy at best and looked as though it was crafted by a nine year old during arts and fucking crafts. It was bent and notched and hardly functioning at all. It most certainly made him miss his old wand. He had gotten the likeness of it tattooed on his forearm but he knew that he would never forget how it looked, how it felt in his hand. Merlin, how he missed it. As much as he missed it, though, he knew it would never come back. Well, maybe not never but...not any time soon.

Magic wasn't something he could have right now, no matter how much he wanted it back, but there were other things he had wanted too. First and foremost he had wanted to be with Truly. Thank his lucky stars he had been able to sneak away to see her the week of Easter break or he would have lost his chance, having been shipped away to Pyxis so very shortly after. He knew he wanted her back from the moment that he had laid eyes on her at Saint Mungo's months ago. Honestly, he didn't think he had ever stopped. Once registration hit Hogwarts they had split by his choice. Knowing her she would have fought for him, worried over him, he didn't want that. He wanted her to be at peace even when he wasn't. At the time he hadn't known what hell was coming to him but he had known what the death eaters had faced in the past. He had figured if it was anything like that he didn't want her to know. So they had split, broken up, and he had been shipped away. But now he was back and so was she and so were 'they'. With this returned 'they' came the invitation for him to move in with her. Once word had gotten out about the Minister's plan to let the muggleborns loose from Kolna she had been the first to offer and he happily accepted.

The second thing he had wanted was to go back to work. The idea of returning back to the mines wasn't exactly reassuring but he was happy enough to get out of that damn school. The only issue was the fact that the mines, though hard work in and of itself, didn't pay worth a damn. Actually, it didn't pay at all. Jesse had stewed on possible ideas on ways to make some money. He had thought about becoming a plug again; he had done it nearly every summer since he was thirteen and it was something he was used to. It was familiar. The thought of having law enforcement over his shoulder on both sides was...not good. He knew that running drugs was risky and that if his auror found out that it would cause major problems. It would cause even bigger problems if the police found out and locked his dumb ass away. He couldn't really see Truly being down for that idea either. 

Still, was this idea any fucking better? Jesse licked away another drop of blood that had formed on his lip and wanted to just shake his head at his damn self. This wasn't better, not by a long shot, but it wasn't worse either. The likelihood of him dying in the streets over a gram of whatever was more likely than him dying in the ring, this much was true. Then again, if he kept fighting guys like U-Jin maybe the odds were about the same. "Do most people fight as well as you or are you just the exception?" Jesse smirked looking down at the salves in his lap. "Nice to know I'm not the only rookie in the ring I guess." He didn't know much about ratings or gambling but surely there could be money made on a promising underdog. He at least was going to make some money on himself for loosing, if that counted for anything. Not even including the wad he had just been handed. Ass kicking or not it was good to be paid.

U-Jin spoke of a provided healer and Jesse felt himself perk up a little bit. He knew that Truly was in training, she had been an intern for two years, but a fully licensed healer would be something useful. He didn't really understand the scope of magical practice but surely a doctor was better than a resident, right? Even if it wasn't, it would be nice to save Truly the trouble of dealing with his battered ass. "Right, right--" he nodded, "Got to keep the doors open and the fighters coming back. I've got to say though that having a healer is an ace perk. Wish he'd have sent one along with you. Sample the goods," he joked while having a look at his arms. There were bruises, though mostly camouflaged by his many tattoos. He hoped that in the case of a late night auror visit that might save his ass, especially since there was one that looked almost as if it were a perfect impression of U-Jin's fist. Hell, it was clear enough it could have been a tattoo itself. Damn.

Jesse was starting to realize how shitty waking up in the morning was truly going to be as he started really noting just how many injuries he had. He was lucky to not be feeling them now but it was a temporary sort of luck. He was still quite riled from the fight and the adrenaline was still flooding in. Things felt good, great even. He had been paid, he had been offered to be paid more often, he had received salves and what not. Things were going pretty good. As good as they could be, really. Until he heard that fucking name. His shoulders dropped as U-Jin spoke it and he let out a sort of exasperated huff. "Fucking Dion Weaver owns this place?" Fuck. He should have known it would be some shit like that. He didn't know Dion well, hardly at all as a person, but he knew of him. Everyone fucking did in some way or another. Maybe they didn't know it was him, but they knew what he could do. He had his hands in everything it seemed, including in Jesse's nerves. Their little encounter at Kolna hadn't exactly left a good taste in his mouth, but still... Was he willing to give up this opportunity over a little encounter? No, not a fucking chance. Jesse let out an annoyed sigh rolling his eyes around with the thoughts in his head. No, definitely not giving up the chance. "I'm assuming he wants to meet with me to discuss business?" The ways he can fucking blackmail me into oblivion, he thought but did not say. 

@jesse

Outfit

I take my pills and I'm happy all the time

    Perfection was not something U-Jin had to strive for in his family, perfection was the standard and he had to strive for even more than that. It sounded ridiculous, considering how he lived his life now and where he was, but that was how he'd been raised. He was expected to learn to read and write and have a neat and legible handwriting by the time he was four, he was expected to speak Japanese and Mandarin and English by the time he started Mahoutokoro. His etiquette had to be excellent, he ought to know his manners and all the formalities and the names and faces of every important person in his country. Even the formal events to which normal people didn't bring children, he was expected to attend, and he could not be rowdy or rude or impatient or loud like a child normally would be. Everyone always complimented his parents on how absolutely well behaved their son was for a six year old, U-Jin hadn't realised that it was not normal to expect such things for him until he met muggles. Even in Mahoutokoro, everyone was like him. They maybe didn't reach the same level of skill that he did, but he had been a trained monkey from much younger. His parents could afford about five different tutors to teach him different things, it was no surprise. In his classmates' eyes there was nothing strange about him sleeping only five hours a night ever since he was seven, or stressing himself to passing out when exams came, or studying so much he got nosebleeds. Seeing him work so hard was good to them, they supported it, and they followed his example. How was he to know that it was horrible when it was all he knew?
    When he met the muggles, he understood how ridiculous those expectations were. That wasn't to say that they were as lax as these Brits, but they were more easy going. It didn't change anything, though, because U-Jin was still part of the magical world and he still had to fulfil his parents' wishes. All it did was make him even less content before. At that time, he knew he felt bad, felt wrong, and that he needed to escape. After that? It grew worse, because then he knew exactly what was wrong and that he would never escape it. Had it made him angry? He'd never thought about it enough to figure that out, he just needed to leave, so he did. If it made his parents wonder if something was wrong with him, then all the better. Only they didn't, they just demanded that he stop misbehaving and go back to how he usually was. Maybe that was what had fuelled him to enter the ring that first time. The anger, the frustration, the hurt. His opponents never really stood a chance and it was a shameful thing to knowingly fight and cause pain to someone weaker. It wasn't the first shameful thing he had done and it would not be the last. After all, he had been trained to fight competitively since he was twelve, and since he was trained to be perfect... well, this was the result.
    "I am an exception, Jesse-ssi. Not many fight in my style, and even less have had the rigorous training that I have had. Street fighting is common here, that is not what I do." The people who fought here had mostly learned to fight out of necessity, it was instinct instead of training. He could recognise that in Jesse's fighting style. It was natural to him, but in the same way he let himself get carried away and didn't fight strategically. Admittedly, U-Jin hadn't used any strategy today, but usually he did. Jesse could've drawn the fight out at least a bit if he'd been paying more attention. "Quite so. Not all that fight here work for him, though, there's volunteers like you. I work for him, so I get a healer. They were not sent alone now because you're not yet employed. Besides, he watched the fight, he knows enough, or so he said."
    Shrugging, U-Jin leaned back in his seat, back pressing against the wall as he watched Jesse observe himself. He had done worse, on occasion, but he had not exactly gone easy on him. At least it was a ring fight. U-Jin tried to avoid getting into brawls but that wasn't always possible. When there were no rules he never held back and it was never a pretty sight. He had to be really angry to fight anyone outside the ring, he usually tried to be as polite as possible. 
    "Yes, and he's a friend." The warning was clear in his tone, though he was placid enough. Was Weaver a friend? U-Jin supposed so. He didn't have many friends, there were few people he cared to know besides Blue, but Weaver had been useful in the past. There was a working relationship there and he occasionally liked to think that the other man had a soft spot for people who stuck around long enough. U-Jin had stuck around and he knew that counted for something. It might be a one way friendship, but it was something. "He said nothing about that, only that I was to tell you the profit margins and let him know if you were in. That he was going to inform you of your fighting schedule after that. He functions as a sort of... manager, only he profits from you instead of you paying him."
    That was how it worked, right? He thought it was, but he didn't much care either way. Weaver told him when he fought and gave him money, that was all he'd paid attention to before. After all, he didn't need the money and he used the fights to blow off steam, nothing more. Definitely nothing like Jesse's situation.

I'm happy all the time

template by Sammy @ Adox 2.0

I DON'T WANT TO LIVE FOR NOTHING

JUST WANT TO BE SOMETHING
I NEVER KNEW WHAT IT TOOK TO WIN

There was a lot to think about with this new prospect and he hated to be making any spur decisions. After all it had been a spur decision to step into the ring and now he was toweling blood from his face, soooooo. That was how he operated most of the time; Jesse was spontaneous, forever a wild child no matter how old he seemed to get. It got him into trouble a lot but it also brought about many good things. He and Truly for instance, had he not taken the chance he had sixth year things between them would have easily ended then. The fact that they hadn't and that she was in his life now, really in it, was the reason he was feeling uncertain. If it was just him then things would have been easy. Yes, please, give me the job-- take the cash, go about his merry way. Now he was wondering what exactly she would think, what she'd say. He knew that she would probably be supportive of him if he chose to accept the terms Dion was going to lay out but she'd also have points in opposition. Good points, probably. Points like, hey dumb ass, if your auror comes tomorrow and you look like you've been struck by a fucking truck it's going to raise some eyebrows.

The thought of his auror visiting him looking the way he did was a terrifying one. He didn't know with these new rules what would happen if he broke them. Would he be cursed? Obliviated and thrown out into the muggle world? Or would they just fucking kill him? The way he saw it they could do whatever they wanted, he had no say or authority over his life now. If they told him to jump he was to ask how high not 'what happens if I don't' The Ministry wouldn't like it very much if they found out he was working. Out there making his own money. And if that auror did drop by tomorrow to see Jesse covered in bruises and a wad of muggle money on the night stand, what would happen? He didn't know exactly but he also knew that there weren't many other options available. No matter what would need money, and no matter what he'd be breaking the law. Running as a plug, fighting underground, it didn't matter. He was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. At least the fighting gig came with perks; perks like a healer, which would hopefully help keep him from looking like he was getting his ass kicked all the time. Perks like not being easy to spot standing on a corner or walking home from a club run at three am hoping like hell a death eater didn't spot him. This was quieter, it was more discrete, and for fuck's sake he actually liked doing it!

Liked doing it, that was pretty funny considering the current state of his being. Bruised, battered, bleeding-- yet still chipper as ever. It was almost like drinking: all fun and games until the morning comes. Monica would always say that, for such things, you were borrowing fun from the next day to spend it tonight. Jesse felt like that was true, especially on nights like tonight. Tomorrow he would definitely not be feeling as chipper but oh man would he be feeling something. At least it sounded like he wouldn't be feeling the repercussions of an ass kicking that severe for quite some time. "Well, that's comforting--" Jesse joked as he further tossed around the idea of working for Dion. Perhaps he'd find more evenly matched opponents, ones more in tune with his own styles. If he could do that then he was set to at least win more than he lost, or he thought. "No point in wasting healing talents on someone who doesn't work for you, I suppose." Jesse shrugged, trying to imagine what the conversation with Truly would be like if she were here with him. Would she say do it, would she say not to? 

He could tell by U-Jin's tone that he wasn't appreciative of Jesse's distaste of the owner. If the tables had been turned and he was in his shoes Jesse wouldn't have been so kind, something he thought lucky. At least Dion had the mind to send probably the most well mannered fighter in the fucking world to come speak with him. Jesse had a tendency to speak his mind, and not always eloquently. He, luckily, hadn't said anything negative about the boy but damn was it obvious the annoyance he harbored for him. Jesse supposed he could have apologized for being rude, but that wasn't who he was. Instead he stayed silent as U-Jin spoke futher. 

"That easy, huh? Don't even have to meet with" the bastard "him? Everything's through you, right here, right now?" Jesse tapped his foot anxiously wishing like hell he had some sort of fucking telepathy that he could someone mind talk to Truly with. He wanted to say he was in, and if he did he knew she'd understand but... Dammit! "I'm in." He stated with a nod. "I get two-fifty no matter what, right? Win or lose? Everything else is just....what? Cake money?" He wasn't sure if Jin would know what he meant by cake money but he hoped that whatever cut of the profit margins he had been talking about was exactly that. A little incentive bonus of sorts. Perhaps not even little, wouldn't that be nice! Not that Jesse was greedy, he wasn't in the least, but the prospect of having his own money for the first time in nearly a year was an encouraging one.