“Alright, Yoseob, I trust you’ve been keeping to your training,” Master Lee, the Yoon’s personal combat instructor asked as he entered the room where Yoseob was waiting for his lesson.  Master Lee was a 4^th degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and Brazilian Jujitsu, he’d studied martial arts with some of the greatest instructors in the country and he specialized in close combat.

“Yes sir,” Yoseob bowed upon seeing the older man.

“Very good,” he smiled, he may be intimidating to outsiders but he was actually a very kind man.  He sympathized with Yoseob as he was also brought in to the mafia life through small gang violence on his family.  “I’m going to do one-on-one lessons with everyone today and I think we’ll do some sparring later today so even though your lesson finished today, don’t relax too much.”

Yoseob smiled, he genuinely enjoyed these lessons.  Master Lee made him feel like he was important, mostly because of the special attention he got due to his position in the family.  He would often get private lessons when the others wouldn’t since he was the combat specialist.

“Alright, let’s start with some drills then shall we?” Master Lee walked to the side of the room and picked up a large cushion target.  He took a defensive stance, holding the target in front of him, “ok, Yoseob, knock me over.”

Yoseob smiled, taking his stance.  Challenge accepted.

The lesson was going well, Yoseob had received nothing but praise from Master Lee.  His technique was perfect, his reaction times were on point and he was even noticeably stronger since the last time he’d had a lesson.

“You’re doing great, Yoseob.  I have seen a vast improvement in you through these past couple years and I feel privileged to have been able to watch you grow as a fighter,” Master Lee smiled, pride evident on his face, “now you better show these guys later that good things come in small packages.”

“Yes sir,” Yoseob bowed, a smile stretching across his face, “I will, sir,” he didn’t stop smiling even after he exited the practice room.

“You found yourself quite the little fighter, Doojoon,” Master Lee spoke in between Doojoon’s drills.  “He’s really something special that boy.”

Doojoon nodded, doing his best to concentrate on his technique, which was proving really hard.  It was always hard to concentrate when the topic of Yoseob came up.

He had hoped to become closer to the boy he picked up off the streets but it had proved difficult at first.  To start out with, he’d felt this strange obsession to see the boy, to take care of the boy, to just be near the boy and he had to resist the urge because, damn it, he was Yoon Doojoon and he had to take care of this family.  Not go around following a boy who only knew him as a violent mafia boss.   Well, maybe he didn’t think of his as a violent mafia boss, but the mafia destroyed his family, so it ought to have left a bad taste in the boy’s mouth.

He’d taken to just keeping an eye on him from afar.  Sure he’d become good friends with Yoseob, but he was unable to spend as much time with him as the other members of his family.  Junhyung for instance, became very close to Yoseob when he arrived, mostly because the two shared a room and a slightly similar past.  Kikwang also became close to Yoseob because the two were very similar in personality.  Namely, they were little kids at heart.

Doojoon regretted not becoming closer to the boy but he would never regret bringing him into this house.

“Doojoon?” Master Lee called out.  Apparently Doojoon had dazed off and his kicks were becoming erratic and sloppy.  “You mustn’t lose your concentration.  If you do then you will be leaving yourself open to attacks and your vital points will be vulnerable.”

“Yes sir,” Doojoon bowed apologetically, “I don’t know what came over me.  I guess I’m a little distracted these days.”

“It’s alright, I know you’re growing in to a very important person and it’s only understandable that there will be a lot of worries on your mind,” Master Lee patted his student on the back.  Come on; get a little bit of rest before we spar.

“Thank you, Master Lee,” Doojoon bowed once more, exiting the practice room with the thoughts of the little blonde filling his head.

Master Lee just smiled knowingly at Doojoon’s back as he left.

“Are you two ready?” Master Lee asked, looking at the two students he’d called to spar.

Both nodded and took their positions on opposite sides of the sparring mat.  A sparring mat isn’t anything special, it’s just a small mat that is padded.  It mostly just signals where the boundaries are and ensures no one gets too hurt while fighting.

“Yoseob. Junhyung. I know you two have sparred a lot over the years, but I really want to see something new.  Think of your strength and your enemy’s weaknesses as you are fighting.  Don’t just practice the movements, the movements won’t do you any good in the real world.  It’s innovation and adaptation that will put you ahead of the people trying to kill you.  Now this is a real fight, so I want you to use your weapons and your tools because almost no one will fight with just their fists.  Do be careful.”

The two boys bowed, once to Master Lee and once to each other.  This was the most serious practice they had ever had.  They hadn’t been allowed to use their weapons on each other before.  Of course, all of Yoseob’s knives were blunt to keep injuries to a minimum and Junhyung’s bombs were altered to be less violent but it was still quite dangerous.

“Ready?” Master Lee called out, raising one hand in the air, “Fight!” He yelled, throwing his hand toward the ground to take down the invisible barrier keeping the two opponents from each other.

As most of their battles go, Yoseob was the type of fighter to react to his opponent.  He used his brains more than anything and as personalities went, Junhyung was as impatient as ever.  Always the first to attack and the last to back down.

“Yaaaahhhhh!” Junhyung charged at Yoseob, pulling three small poppers from his belt and throwing them at the ground between the two, creating a smoke shield that took out almost all visibility. 

Had he been against anyone else in the house, except maybe Doojoon, the simple smoke screen would be enough to disorient his opponent and allow him a quick, decisive finishing blow.

This, however, wasn’t anyone else in the house.  It was Yoseob and the place where Yoseob was supposed to be, the place that Junhyung had pounced at, was empty.  As expected.

From where he was squatted, Junhyung threw his right leg out, in a sweeping kick, to trip the boy he knew was right behind him.

Well, he was right behind him, Yoseob’s ninja-like reflexes proved to be too good, once again and he easily jumped over the obstacle and backwards, removing visibility as he entered Junhyung’s fading smoke screen.

The battle went on, neither quite able to get the upperhand while neither would give in to the other’s tricks.  Both were tiring but neither would give up.  Both had something to prove.  Not to anyone in particular, but to themselves.  Yoseob needed to remain at the top while Junhyung wanted to prove that his bombs were viable, not that anyone questioned either of them in the first place.  It was just their competitive sides coming out.

It seemed that the two were at a stalemate when Junhyung threw a bomb that Yoseob managed to dodge, burning the ground that the blonde’s feet were previously occupying.

The two stared each other down, they were at a loss.  Neither knew the other’s weakness but they weren’t giving up so easily.  Junhyung pulled out another bomb, this wasn’t one of his little popper bombs, it was one of his stronger bombs and Yoseob knew this, but Junhyung made no move to throw is just yet.  And Yoseob made no move to dodge either.  They just sat there, waiting for the other to make a mistake.

What they didn’t expect, though, was for the ‘mistake’ to be a distraction.  And they really didn’t except the distraction to come in the form of their leader and their doctor entering the room, Doojoon with his arm around Hyungseung and the two laughing away, not yet noticing the battle that was going on.

The distraction was enough to cause both fighters' chests to swell and completely forget about what was going on.  Even Master Lee had let his guard drop slightly to sneak a peek at the two who had just arrived.

It was only a few seconds when Doojoon and Hyunseung looked up and noticed what was going on.  Immediately embarrassed, the two bowed apologetically.

Doojoon looked up at the two friends who were midfight, barely 5 feet from each other, but frozen?  It was then that he noticed something drop from Junhyung’s hand and roll across the floor and his eyes widened.

“YOSEOB!” “JUNHYUNG!”

AN: Sooo, there's probably errors, I didn't go through and spell check yet or anything because I really wanted to post this for the beautiful and ever talented fairybubbly.  I know many of you were waiting patiently so I hope I didn't disappoint!

As always, comments are <3