The brave may stand.
The weak may flee.
Yet your destination lies somewhere between.
Search where "flee" becomes "flea,"
And the old are given new purpose.
"What could that mean?" Shin thought to himself while brushing his teeth.
The boy had woken up at around 7 a.m. and, after fifteen minutes of doom-scrolling on his phone, had begun his morning routine.
After stubbing his toe on the bathroom door, Shin made his way down the narrow steps and into the kitchen. He was eagerly jumping down two steps at a time in an effort to indulge in some chocolate cake he had saved from a few days ago.
Unfortunately, Shin failed to see the foam roller he had carelessly thrown on the stairs after a recent home workout. This oversight resulted in the boy tumbling down the stairs like a buffoon before face-planting onto the floor.
Unluckily, the sheer force of his impact on the ground caused the recently washed clothes dangling on the stair railing to plummet and bury him.
Shin groaned before slowly picking himself up and throwing almost all of the clothes off his head. Sadly, the boy had forgotten to remove the pair of polka-dot boxers that covered his poorly dyed blonde hair.
In front of the main entrance to the house, Shin leaned on his knees, panting heavily as if he had just come out of a ferocious battle.
Moments later, he heard a barrage of knocks on the front door.
"I'm coming!" he shouted.
Opening the door, he was met by Silver, who was wearing a white tank top drenched in sweat.
"It's so hot out here—hurry up and let me in, you blonde monkey," she said while huffing and puffing heavily.
The girl immediately ran for the kitchen sink, where she poured herself a cold glass of water before opening the freezer and pressing a bag of frozen vegetables against her face.
While cooling down, she noticed the opened map Shin had left behind on the countertop.
She also noticed the colourful boxers still on the boy's head, but chose to stay silent.
"What's this?" she asked, reading the riddle the Don had left behind.
"A message from the Don all the way in Aria. I've been racking my brain all night long, but I couldn't figure out what it meant," Shin replied.
"Of course you couldn't—what can you do other than be scary to look at? Please don't look in my general direction. I'd prefer it if you also stayed a solid fifty feet away from me at any given time."
"Very funny," the boy sighed.
"Like you're much of a looker," he murmured under his breath.
"What was that?"
Shin's eyes darted around the house, hoping that she wouldn't press any further.
"Anyways, what do you think of the riddle? Any ideas?" he asked before handing it over to her.
"The brave may stand. The weak may flee. Yet your destination lies somewhere between. Search where 'flee' becomes 'flea,' and the old are given new purpose," Silver read aloud.
Shin then began to tell her about the conclusions he had come to.
"From what I can gather, it's a place where people stand around, with people coming in and out—'fleeing'—frequently. It's also somewhere where old stuff is repaired or fixed. Most importantly, it's a place where 'flee' becomes 'flea'!" Shin said with a grin.
"Most importantly, my ass," Silver interrupted. "All you've done is reread the riddle whilst rubbing your chin like you've cracked the code or something!"
Silver then proceeded to throw the bag of frozen vegetables at his face, which he swiftly dodged.
Unfortunately, the boxers still remained firmly clasped to his scalp.
"Thanks for your input, Captain Obvio—"
"No problem!" Shin interrupted with a gleaming grin.
He was very much aware of what was to come, so, without thinking twice, he darted out of the front door as fast as he could.
Silver gripped the map tightly as a vein began bulging on her forehead before she got up and started chasing after Shin.
The chase continued out of the front lawn and down the sidewalk, with passers-by comparing the scene to something out of a '90s cartoon.
In fact, we at Fraze TV have been able to secure top-secret, special interviews with some of the key eyewitnesses.
First, we have a plump little kid who was walking on the sidewalk opposite them, happily licking two ice lollies alternately.
"Hey, fatty," we ask, pressing the mic against his double chin. "What do you make of that poor boy being chased by that evil, tyrannical woman?"
"Uhhhhh... heh... funny! Girl... pretty!" the boy slowly replied in between licks of his ice lollies.
We proceed to push the biased witness into a nearby bush before making our way to the next onlooker.
"Fraze TV does not support such blatant biases. He must have been paid by the evil witch herself. Fatty."
Our next guest is a teenage girl who was riding her bicycle and delivering newspapers during the escapade.
"Young lady, what is your unbiased opinion on the highly dangerous and out-of-order chase sequence we have just witnessed?"
"Oh my! Fraze TV wants to have a word with a small, lowly everyday civilian like me! I am honoured to have such a presence on your show, Mr Interviewer."
"Oh please, enough with the flattery. You're making this old man blush. I can already tell you're only going to speak the truth."
"Of course! I saw that evil, crazy woman chasing that poor, defenceless boy out of his own home all the way down the street. For all I know, she could still be chasing him—they might have even reached the plaza by this point. But yeah, she was super evil-looking, not to mention super ugly, while that boy was an absolute dreamy hunk of flesh. However, if I'm not mistaken, he was running around with a pair of boxers on his head—polka-dot boxers, if I am to be specific. That did kind of give me the ick."
"And that's enough out of you! Where do you get off running your childish mouth off at that poor boy? He was simply trying to get changed when that monster destroyed the sanctity of his own home by bursting in and threatening him. Team, let's cut that last bit out about the boxers, alright?"
This episode of Fraze TV was sponsored by Shin Kurosawa.
After a few minutes of running, Shin stopped at the entrance to the main plaza.
By the looks of it, the market had only just opened and, after asking a pedestrian what the time was, his hunch was correct.
The plaza usually opened at 7:30 a.m.; right now, the time was 8:00 a.m.
He had never seen the plaza at such a time.
His sightseeing was cut short by Silver, who had finally caught up to him and immediately struck the boy in the genitals with a strong kick.
A quiet whimper surfaced from Shin's mouth as he writhed and rolled around on the floor in agony.
"Maybe don't piss me off and make me run around in this blazing sun, and I won't have to kill your future generations," she said, showing no remorse for the hate crime she had just committed.
Shin stopped his right arm from clutching his family jewels and weakly pointed at the open market in front of the two.
Instantly, Silver had figured out the riddle.
The Don was talking about a flea market, and the reason the two had difficulty solving it was that no one had referred to the plaza as a flea market in years.
"This Don fellow's pretty out of touch, isn't he?" she thought to herself.
Looking down at the corpse that was Shin Kurosawa, she was left bewildered.
"How did he figure it out so effortlessly?" she thought.
"Don't get excited. It was a lucky guess," she told Shin before lifting the boy up.
"I don't believe in luck," he replied faintly.
Silver looked at him for a moment.
The idiot who had just run a mile with polka-dot boxers on his head looked strangely serious.
"Yeah, yeah, Aristotle."