❛ There is nothing good about this place. ❜

Truthfully, Ayane was a bit intimidated by the idea of sparring with Jae.

He seemed to be very confident in what he was doing, and while Ayane could have said the same, she did not want to fight her brother.

It was only supposed to be friendly, of course, but there was a look in Jae's eyes that mimicked Ayane's on every occasion in which she got into a fight.

Competition.

Ayane stretched her arms and legs, not being one to shy away from a challenge. And clearly, Kwon wasn't either.

Silver stood between the two siblings, eager to see how this would go down. Ayane had never felt so manipulated, not even when Ennis forced her to join Cobra Kai or go back to Chicago.

She closed her eyes for a moment, drawing in a breath. Opening her eyes again, Ayane assumed her fighting stance.

Jae did the same, Ayane realizing that it was the exact same as hers. It was almost like she was fighting herself.

"Ready?" Silver spoke, holding a hand between them. "Ais!"

Kwon did not hesitate to strike first, coming forward with a quick kick that Ayane blocked. She barely had time to blink before he kicked again, the girl being put on the defensive side. Ayane ducked under his leg, kicking one out at his shin. But Jae jumped up, avoiding her kick completely. Ayane was taken aback, rolling to her feet.

They were on opposite sides of the mat now, the girl taking offense this time. Ayane ran forward, faking Jae out and landing a strike against his shoulder. He was surprised by this, but not hindered. Jae blocked the rest of her strikes, suddenly bringing his leg up and kicking straight forward. Ayane could not block in time, taking the kick to her abdomen and losing her balance.

She saved it by turning a backflip, narrowing her eyes at her brother. He had nearly the exact same fighting style as herself.

So, Ayane decided to change up her own. She was going to use more Miyagi-Do tactics, see if that would throw Kwon off.

Ayane waited for him to strike, dodging them by leaning to her right and left. Jae knit his brows, slightly frustrated. He turned into a spin and a kick, but Ayane blocked it and stuck her leg out, knocking Jae down. Ayane grappled her legs around his abdomen, striking Jae in the chest.

He looked up at her, defeated.

She climbed to her feet at once, breathing heavily as she offered a hand to her brother. Kwon took it, allowing her to pull him up.

"You got lucky, noona."

Ayane couldn't help but to smile at Jae calling her 'big sister', placing her hands on her hips.

"'Noona' will always be the better fighter," Ayane replied. "I have seniority."

He threw a hand out at her dismissively, Ayane laughing. She seemed to forget for a moment that Silver was still there, finally looking over at him.

"Impressive, on both sides," he spoke, looking between them. "If we had the two of you on one team, it'd be lethal."

Kwon grinned, but Ayane was frowning. Now that she was beginning to think logically again, she realized just how much she had screwed up.

"I'm not coming back to Cobra Kai," she said, looking up at Silver. "There is nothing good about this place."

"What about Kwon here?" Terry quickly replied, not missing a beat. "He's a Cobra Kai student now. His sensei should be joining us shortly, as well."

Ayane's eyes flitted over to Jae, clenching her jaw tightly. Fuck, was all she could repeat in her head.

She finally began to shake her head, backing away. This was not worth pawning her life away all over again, just when she had gotten out.

"Yane?" Kwon called her name, bringing her out of her head. Ayane brought her eyes to him once more, seeing the smile had fallen from his face.

"Why do you not want to be in Cobra Kai?" he questioned.

Ayane took a sharp breath. "This is a bad place, Jae. Bad–"

"How can the dojo that won the All-Valley tournament be bad?" Silver interjected, shooting Ayane a threatening look.

She continued to step backwards toward the exit, leaning down to pick up her shoes off the floor.

"It's not happening," Ayane's voice trembled, trying not to look at Jae. If she did, she would cave.

Silver started to smile, which meant nothing good. "Well, then I guess Kwon here is just gonna have to be put on a plane back to South Korea."

Ayane whipped her head over, eyes wide. "What do you mean?"

Terry knew he had her right where he wanted her. "I only brought Kwon here for you, Ayane. And if you aren't in Cobra Kai, what's the point of him being here?"

Her chest rose and fell heavily, shaking her head as she fought back tears yet again. Ayane could not believe this was happening.

"You're telling me that you're just gonna take him away? You can't do that."

Silver tilted his head, insinuating that he could, in fact, do just that. "A deal's a deal, Ayane. I told you what the stipulations were."

Ayane looked over at Kwon, who seemed to be confused about what was happening. She wanted to scream, to punch Silver repeatedly in the face, anything to get her rage out.

She pulled her lips in, dropping her head. Ayane could not bear seeing Jae's fallen face, finally beginning to understand what was going on.

The girl looked up again, and then walked over to her brother. She hugged him tightly, the tears streaming down her face.

"I love you, Jae," she spoke in Korean, letting him go.

Ayane turned to Silver, sniffling as his smug expression began to fade.

"I'm not coming back to Cobra Kai."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Through a blur of tears, Ayane pulled into Reseda.

She had sobbed the entire way back from Cobra Kai's new location in Encino, almost having to pull off on the side of the road because she could barely see where she was driving.

Ayane sat in the car, trying to gather herself and make it look like she had not been crying. She realized that she was going to have to come clean to Miguel about where she had actually gone.

Before she could get out of the car, there was a knock on the passenger side window. Startled, Ayane looked over and saw Miguel standing there, giving a wave.

She wiped her eyes furiously, trying to make it not obvious as Miguel opened the door and hopped in the car.

"Hey– what's wrong?" he immediately asked, noting the redness of her face.

Miguel leaned toward her as Ayane looked away from him, bursting into tears once more. He did not hesitate to scoot toward her, putting his arms around Ayane.

"Ayane, hey. What's wrong?" he asked quietly, stroking her hair as Ayane put her face into his chest. She felt absolutely awful for everything.

Miguel continued to hold her in silence as she tried to get her sobs to calm down, breathing in and out slowly.

He ran his fingers through her hair, finally pulling away to look at her. Ayane could hardly meet his eyes, wiping her eyes with her hand.

"I-I fucked up, Mig."

Miguel frowned, giving a slight shake of his head. "What– what'd you do?"

She looked away, beating her fist against the steering wheel. "I lied to you, to begin with. I went to Cobra Kai."

The boy looked at her, realization dawning on him.

"I went to go see my brother, a-and... he was there. I got to see him again."

She paused, pained with seeing Jae's broken face all over again.

"Silver told me that the only way Jae stayed was if I came back to Cobra Kai. And I... I refused. I left. I-I left Jae," her voice broke, chin trembling.

Miguel was not angry with her. He could not say he blamed her in the slightest. He had lied to everyone to go to Mexico to see his father.

"Ayane..."

"I'm sorry I lied to you, Miguel. I'm so sorry," she sounded as if she were about to start crying again, Miguel pulling her into another hug.

"Ayane, it's okay. You're okay. Look at me," he pulled back, wiping the tears from her face with a small smile.

"I'm not mad at you. I get it. Trust me, I get it."

She managed to crack a small smile, looking into his eyes. "And for what it's worth," he continued, "I think you made the right decision. I know you haven't gotten to see your brother in fourteen years, but you have to put yourself first. You can only handle so much, despite what you think."

Ayane chewed her inner lip, pinching the bridge of her nose with a small nod.

"Yeah, you're right. I just... I screwed up. I fell for Silver's trap and he used it against me just like he wanted to. I-I feel so stupid."

"You're not stupid, Ayane. You just have a heart. Silver doesn't. He used that against you."

She nodded, pulling at her cuticles. "I never should've gone in the first place. But I just– I wanted to see him, you know?"

Ayane raised her shoulders, laughing dismally. She felt like an idiot.

Miguel reached out, cupping her chin. "Hey. For all you know, you can still see him again someday. You know where is now, right?"

She nodded once more.

"See? You may just have to wait a little longer. Until the karate war is over."

"It feels like that'll never happen," she muttered, rubbing her eyes.

Miguel sadly felt the same way. He was going to bring up to Ayane how he and Robby had gotten into it after she left the waterpark earlier, before he noticed her in distress.

"Yeah, I was gonna tell you that me and Robby almost kinda fought earlier. After you left," Miguel spoke with hesitation.

Ayane raised her eyebrows, tilting her head. "Really? That's not at all shocking. What was it about this time?"

Miguel sighed, glancing away. "I don't know. He says he's not with Cobra Kai anymore but when the fight broke out he was on their side–"

"Wait a second, a fight broke out? Are you kidding me?" Ayane rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

"Yeah... honestly, if you were still there, you might have been able to prevent it. It seems like you're the voice of reason now."

She was taken by surprise at that, chewing her lip. "I don't know how that happened. Anyway, what else happened with you and Robby?"

Miguel rubbed his arm. "I was kinda pissed about the fact that Sensei brought him to Mexico. I think I was just, I don't know, jealous? But anyway, Robby said that he didn't come to Mexico for me. He came for you. And that only pissed me off more, so."

Ayane furrowed her brows, wondering why Robby had said that. Sure, they were close friends, but it still seemed a bit... off.

"I know this is hard for you to hear, Mig, but Robby is Johnny's son. They're trying to repair their relationship, and you may have to give them a little bit of room to do so. I know how much Johnny means to you, but he means a lot to Robby, too."

Miguel's expression almost became annoyed for a second, but he realized that Ayane was right. He was just having a hard time accepting that.

"Do you– do you think Robby likes you?" Miguel then asked, taking Ayane by surprise.

"What?" she laughed, thinking he was joking until she saw that he wasn't. "I– no, honey, I don't think that Robby's into me. Last I checked, he was still in love with Sam. But Sam's with Tory, I think, so. That's a whole big mess."

Miguel tried to play it off like it was no big deal, but hearing Robby say he had come to Mexico only for Ayane sparked his jealousness.

"Yeah, you're right. I guess I can just get a little possessive sometimes. I still don't like Vincent, by the way."

"Really? I couldn't tell," Ayane sarcastically replied, Miguel laughing her off.

She reached over for his hand, interlacing their fingers with their elbows resting on the console.

"Thank you for being so understanding."

Miguel smiled softly. "Thank you. I can always count on you to keep me in check."

He leaned in to kiss her, Ayane returning his kiss. Miguel pulled away, pinching her cheek lightly.

"Anyway, wanna go watch a movie?"

Notes.
a very short lived ayane and kwon interaction, but there are reasons behind what i do...

i lowkey screwed up a couple chapters back and forgot that kreese is in jail at the beginning of season 5, so i had to go fix that lolz

anyway.. when kwon was fighting in the show it was like literally how i imagine the way ayane fights, so i was hyped to write their sparring scene

what do y'all think robby's deal is? think he might be beginning to have some feels for ayane?? 👀