Chapter Twenty-one: The Power of Mind

                Myung-soo woke up standing beside his sleeping form inside the plain white room where the professor took him to rest. “Tough day huh,” he heard someone say.

                “Ho-won hyung,” Myung-soo said. At that moment, Myung-soo remembered what the general told him.  “Hyung, I think I’ll be engaging a fight that involves life and death.”

                “The moment you decided to save Sung-gyu, you already started the fight,” Ho-won said. “You’ve already gone a long way. You’re strong, and now with those wings? Even stronger. You can finish this.”

---o0o---

                “Myung-soo, son, wake up,” Myung-soo opened up his eyes to find the professor standing beside him, holding a tray of what Myung-soo could classify as good breakfast – hot bowl of rice, egg omelet, spicy beef and seaweed soup. He laid the tray over a table and sat on one of its chairs, while Myung-soo sat on the other. “I thought you might want to eat with someone you can see,” the professor said, “you were talking in your sleep actually.”

                Myung-soo looked at the food in front of him, then to the white walls of the room, to his wings. “What are you thinking about, son?” the professor asked when he noticed how a small smile started forming on Myung-soo’s lips.

                “My wings… I thought they were white, but being here in this room…” Myung-soo said, “I just couldn’t help but notice how grayish they were.”

                “Your wings are beautiful,” the professor assured him, but Myung-soo said, “I’m alright. To tell you the truth professor, I wouldn’t be happy if my wings are as white as ivory, or these walls.”

                “I’m not very much of a saintly person,” Myung-soo said.

                “But you are a nice, young lad,” the professor said. “By the way, were you already able to use those wings of yours?”

                “Not yet, but there’s only one way to find out,” Myung-soo stood up and went to a larger space. He stretched his wings, one after the other, before deciding to give them a flap. He didn’t float or even made it off the ground.

                “Maybe you should flap them faster and continuously,” the professor said. Myung-soo tried doing it, and he was able to lift himself off from the ground.

                “Ah, flapping wings is very tiring,” Myung-soo said as stooped flapping, now only  looking at his wings. “Hey professor, I just thought about this earlier. Do you think it will be funny if angels will just develop the ability of telekinesis to lift themselves instead of having wings?” Myung-soo looked at the professor, and he couldn’t fail but notice how the professor’s mouth hung wide while looking at his feet. Myung-soo followed the professor’s gaze, and he himself ended up disbelieving what he saw.

                “How did you do that?” the professor stood up from his seat and mover closer to see if there were strings attached on Myung-soo, or if he was standing over an invisible block of molecules. He was floating on air.

                “I don’t know sir!” Myung-soo said, “I just thought… That’s it! I thought about it!” Myung-soo looked back on his foot and gradually, the distance decreased until his foot were touching the ground. “This is really cool!” Myung-soo said.

                “So having those wings gave you the an astonishing power of making whatever you’re thinking of possible!” the professor said. “Can you do some other things?” Myung-soo looked at the corner of the wall on the opposite side of the room before slightly ducking. The next second he knew he was at the same corner, his back facing the corner, with his hands and feet holding the wall to keep him from falling. He stayed there for a while before slowly slipping down to the floor. “You also acquired powerful legs,” the professor said, “I know what you’ll need to beat the General.”

                After breakfast, the professor insisted for Myung-soo to wash and even provided him with a black shirt, military pants and boots. He told him that he will be back immediately, and true enough, because when Myung-soo stepped out of the bathroom, he was there, with another uniformed man.

                “My name is Lieutenant Jung Eui-chul,” the uniformed man said, “I’ll be your sparring partner for today.”

                “I’ll be leaving you under his care for today,” the professor said, “I’ll be traveling to the city, do you need anything, son? I’ll be going alone so you don’t have to worry whether the things you want will get inspected.”

                Myung-soo’s face brightened up and said, “Not really! But actually, there is this café that I would like to recommend,” Myung-soo took a piece of paper from the professor’s ledger and wrote something before handing it back. “Make sure you don’t  fail to visit that place!”

                The professor looked at the note and smiled slightly before giving the body a nod. He left afterwards, leaving the two behind. “So,” Myung-soo hadn’t finished talking when a booted foot flew towards his head, which he managed to evade.

                “I never thought you’d be able to avoid that kick,” the lieutenant said while pulling back his leg.

              “I know that stance!” Myung-soo said, “I think that’s the crane stance… I just don’t remember which movie though.” The lieutenant chuckled. “Quit playing around or the general’s next knife will go directly to your head,” the lieutenant said.

                “Who says I’m playing around?” Myung-soo said seriously, which made the lieutenant raise a brow. “I’m trying to remember things, that’s all,” he added.

                “Shut up and show me what you got!” the lieutenant said. That moment Myung-soo moved to a stance, but instead of attacking, he stood and waited for the lieutenant to attack. “Fine, if that’s what you want.” The lieutenant sprang forward  and was about to throw a punch to Myung-soo’s face, but Myung-soo ducked and countered by taking the other’s arm to his shoulder and hauled him over his shoulder to throw him down, but the lieutenant wasn’t an easy opponent. He landed on his foot and rolled above to give Myung-soo a double upward kick which the boy almost caught if he didn’t move his head a few centimeters backward.

                The lieutenant rolled back as Myung-soo bent backward. He slid his left leg to the left side of the other, and when the lieutenant was back to his crouched position, Myung-soo brought his right foot up to the side of his opponent’s face, gaining him his first hit.

                The lieutenant chuckled as soon as he tasted blood. Myung-soo wasn’t able to kick him hard as he was able to back away a little, but not enough as the heel of Myung-soo’s boot managed to cut his lip.

                “I thought you didn’t know anything about fighting,” the lieutenant said. Myung-soo went closer and held out his hand to the lieutenant. “I played several PS games with my friends,” Myung-soo said before helping the lieutenant stand up.

                “Games? You were able to fight just by remembering games?” the lieutenant said, “Interesting.” “Yeah,” Myung-soo said, “and the general thinks so too.” The other looked at him before nodding. “I see you already understood everything,” the lieutenant said.

                “Yes,” Myung-soo muttered. “If I have to fight to get hyung and I out of here, I will.” The lieutenant stood up and tapped his shoulder. “If that’s the case, then you’ll have to move now before it’s too late,” he said, “Good luck, brave soul. You’ll need it.” After that, he turned around and left Myung-soo. What does that mean?

                “Ho-won!” Myung-soo said, but then he remembered something: he sent him to someone else. Now how am I going to know what’s happening to hyung? Myung-soo rushed to the door of his room, only to find not less than five, heavy armed soldiers.

                As he was approaching them, they suddenly moved and pointed their guns at him. “Calm down!” Myung-soo said right away, “Go to the general, tell him that I’m ready to fight him.” Though deep inside, he wasn’t ready. Yet.

                The soldiers took Myung-soo to the room where the previous fight with the general took place. He waited there and tried to focus on breathing, but he couldn’t feel any calmer. He could tell. Something was happening to his hyung at that very moment and the general rushed it to happen now that he already knew about his capabilities. The lieutenant told him, although indirectly, that something might happen if he waited further.

                “Did I make you wait for so long?” Myung-soo heard someone say.

                “General,” Myung-soo shifted to his fighting stance, “I’m ready to fight you now.”

     “Ah, yes… that’s what I heard from Lt. Jung,” the general said, “I hate to disappoint you, but then you see, my new soldier wanted to try his skills on you.” New soldier? Just when Myung-soo was about to ask, a familiar figure revealed himself beside the general. “I hope you wouldn’t mind,” the general said.