Ren is a very talented guy, it’s just his parents are not interested in that. No, they barely notice him. They only had the time to talk when his parents are going to delay his allowance, or when they’re going to decrease it. If it’s about money then it matters.

Ren didn’t understand why he needed to ask his parents’ permission in joining this high jump competition. He is a 17-year-old teenager with an average height, his only difference is his perfectly shaped long legs, and he sure knew what to do with what he’s born with. He’s one of the best students in his school when the subject is Physical Education, specifically Track&Field. He runs way so fast, he’s also first when it comes to long jump, but his specialty’s high jump. He got the highest record among all the junior high school students in their district, so the school asked him to be their representative. Ren said it’s okay, but they gave this form where the parents needed to sign and do this and that and Ren thought he’d needed to ask his bestfriend mom to sign. He was so sure that Mrs. Hwang will agree, she knew Ren’s situation since the first day Minhyun had brought him to his house.

But he’s been tricked by fate or whatever thing that is because his mom decided to “clean” his room and found the form. Now he’s having an eye contact battle with his Mom and he wants to win this. He wants to join the competition. He realized that he found happiness in track&field. He didn’t excel because he simply had long legs, he worked hard for it. He goes home tired and worn out from the intense training in school. He runs 3 kilometers every Sundays to exercise the muscles on his legs. He doesn’t eat unhealthy food, even though his parents couldn’t give him a decent meal. He was left with nothing but cups of ramyeon and canned food. He keeps himself fit, and this is not an easy job. He’s so ready for the competition, and he’ll do everything to get that magical signature of his mother.

“You’d need a lot in this Minki, you’ll surely pay for the training, and then where do I get the money I’m supposed to give to you when you go to the training camp. This is so expensive, will you get a lot of money when you win? And what if you lose, you’ll get what, sympathy? Pathetic looks from your schoolmates? I don’t want this!” his mom yelled after breaking their 30-minute eye contact, or is it an hour?

“Money is the only problem, right, Mom? I, I will, I’m going to work for it, don’t, you don’t need to pay for anything! All you need to do is to check that box beside agree and sign it! That’s it! And, and if I lose, if you want, I won’t go home again, disown me for ruining the family name! Act like you don’t know me, that’s what matters right? Money and your name?” Ren burst. He’d just have enough of it. Everything just won’t fit inside his shell, there’ll be a time that it’ll break and that time, obviously, is at that moment.

“What Ren? You, how, I just don’t want people to laugh at you—“

“You don’t even know that I was bullied because of my feminine face!  People laugh at me because I don’t look like you! I know Mom, I know I was adopted, but I tried to be the best in something, so that you’ll be proud, so that one day you’ll proudly say that Choi Minki IS your son. Give me a chance Mom.” Ren said as tears rolled down his face. “Give me a chance, Mom.”

“I am not kidding you that I don’t have enough money for this, Minki.”

Ren doesn’t know what to do, he showed his Mother his heart and soul but she still worried about money. He stood up and went in front of her mother. Unknowingly, he knelt down in front of her. With tears still escaping from his eyes, he begged, “Please, Mom. I really want to join this competition, I want to prove to you, and to myself too, that I can do this. And if, if I lose, if ever I lose, I’ll make sure that I won’t regret anything. I’ll make sure that I’ll do my best. Mom—“

“You silly child, stand up! And get this paper out of my sight. I’m going to leave later for my job, night-shift. Your father already knows about it. You can live with ramyeon, right? Get up! You need to clean your room! It’s so dirty! Who talks about doing everything when he can’t even take care of his own room?! Irresponsible!” and with that Ren’s mom slowly walked away from him. When Ren was sure that his mom was out of sight, he stood up and was ready to tear the paper into millions of pieces, knowing that his dream was so far from his reach. However, before he could do it, he noticed something.

His mom signed the form.

Ren cried the second time that night, and that time, it’s because of so much happiness. He picked the paper carefully from the desk, like it’s one of those precious crispy brown leaves falling from the trees at the park every autumn. He loves autumn because it’s the season when he feels the calmest. And now, even though summer’s already approaching, it felt like it’s autumn all over again. For the first time in his life, he’s calm inside his own home. When he reached his room, he saw that it is indeed a disaster, like 4 super typhoons just passed by it. He usually hates cleaning but now he feels like he can clean the entire block, no, screw that, his house. Okay that’s better, he feels like he can clean his entire house. Before the feeling gets away he immediately fixes his room up, it’s going to be a long night.

***

Ren doesn’t know when he fell asleep or how the hell did he end up sleeping on the floor but he wakes up feeling numb all over his body while the cold floor freezes every cell comprising him. He’s wrapped like a shawarma, so he concludes that he fell off his bed. Good thing he’s a heavy sleeper. That’s also one of the reasons why he’s always late. Late.

“Freaking ! What time is—damn it!” he screamed, moving like a spinning top inside his room when he saw that it’s already 7am. Thirty minutes before the classes start. He doesn’t stop moving, from stripping his clothes to getting a piece of toasted bread for breakfast, it’s so perfect, he’s kind of trained for these events. He rushes outside the house and into his bike. This is the only thing he always fails to do, his bike has a damn lock, and he always forgets it.

“I’ve already wasted 30 seconds because of this freaking damn lock. Ughh!!!” he screamed in frustration. After he finished unlocking that lock he flew towards the school and barely made it inside. Good thing his best friend, Minhyun, is one of the students closing the gates today.

“You owe me one, Ren!” Minhyun shouts as Ren dashed into the parking lot, of bicycles of course. He locked the bike again and ran towards his classroom. Because he’s a fast runner, he made it to the 3^rd floor in less than a minute or two. He’s panting hard because he had no warm-up, but what is warm-up to a person catching the time.

As he sat down on his seat, his seatmate and friend, Aron, bombarded him with a lot of everything, as always. “Panting again, huh? Fought with your parents again? Wait, skip that. You don’t want to talk about that. Lemme guess, woke up at 6:45 again?”

Ren usually ignores Aron’s bickering because it always happens, every freaking school day, even when they’re just hanging out on weekends. But today is different, Ren’s beyond happy, he sees an entire rainbow with no ends surrounded by butterflies, so he answered Aron. “Na, 7am Aron, beat that.”

“ Ren! Got a girlfriend? Freak you answered holy. And what, 7am, did you brush your teeth, Gods what happened to this man? Oh my!” Aron answered, completely shocked that Ren answered. That’s the first time Ren answered ever since he started ruining the other boy’s life. Of course he’s taken aback. Hard.

“You look funny Aron. What the.” Ren said as he laughed. They continued like that, Ren laughing hard as he look at Aron’s expressions until the teacher arrives.

Break time came and Ren, Aron and Minhyun sat on their spot in the cafeteria. They ate noisily, well, when Minhyun and Aron are around, quiet time will never exist and then there’s Ren himself. Despite his cold façade, he is really a loud, crazy person. Because of that they didn’t even notice their PE coach approaching them until he tapped Ren’s shoulders.

“Choi Minki-sshi, may I talk to you?” the coach said.

“Oh sir, sorry, of course yes. Excuse me guys.”

The two went to the coach’s office and there they talked.

“So, how’s—“

The coach didn’t even finish what he’s about to say because Ren excitedly answered while checking his bag. “Yes Sir! I’m in! They let me participate, here, here’s the form!”

“G-Good! Then, perfect! We’ll go to the training camp next week as planned!”

“Yes Sir! Thank you very much, Sir!”

---

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nowplaying: Peace Love and Ice Cream - Younha