Sadly, I wasn’t able to go to the club the next couple of days; Woosuk and Jonghyo took up all of my time; I taught them some more intermediate moves that they could use in an actual fight, and their stamina had increased a lot already thanks to the, running every day. Woosuk surprised me by not speaking about my situation, but instead seemed to be even more eager to learn from me. I’m sure he had told Jonghyo – the two of them were so close – but if he had, I couldn’t tell. I didn’t think too much on it – it would have just given me a headache – and just focused on teaching them and sparring with them. Monday soon rolled around, and Hyesu came to pick me up as usual. “Hey,” she said as we walked. “Have you heard about what’s going on at school?” I looked at her, confused. “No? What do you mean?” She pursed her lips, thinking. “I heard a lot of kids from our school have been getting into loads of fights in the past couple of days; quite a few have even ended up in the hospital.” “What?” I stopped, staring at her in disbelief. She stopped and looked back at me. “Yeah, you haven’t heard anything about it? It seems like they’re all Himchan’s guys, so I thought you might know.” I shook my head, resuming our walk. “No, I haven’t heard anything about it. Who have they been fighting with?” “I’m not sure; they’ve done a good job of covering it up.” We had arrived at Sora’s house, where she was waiting for us. “Hey, did you-” “Yeah, I did. She doesn’t know either.” “Damn, what the hell? Dae doesn’t even know.” “Yeah, Kris either.” I looked at the two of them. What the hell was going on? When we arrived at school I noticed quite a few guys looking beat up, covered in bandages. I tried to go and talk to them, but as soon as I got close, they shuffled off, leaving me behind. “Okay, now I really want to know what the ’s going on here.” I muttered to myself before going back to Sora and Hyesu, resuming our walk to our classes. We split up and I walked into my class. I instantly noticed Daehyun and Kris at their seats. I walked over to them, and they looked up at me. “Hey, guys, what the hell’s been going on the past couple days? I heard something about our guys getting into fights?” Kris sighed. “We don’t know. Himchan wouldn’t tell us when we asked this morning, and he seems pretty adamant about not letting certain people know what he’s doing.” What the hell is that guy thinking…? The bell suddenly rang, and I went to my seat and class started. It wasn’t until lunch time that I realized Woosuk and Jonghyo weren’t here. Huh, that’s weird… they both looked fine yesterday, and it’s not like I went too hard on them this weekend. I tried to find Himchan during lunch, but he wasn’t in his class, and no one was able to tell me where he was. Annoyed, I made my way back to my class after a fruitless search of the cafeteria, and class soon started again. As soon as class was over I ran to the front gates, waiting to ambush Himchan, but after 10 minutes, Youngjae came out, noticed me, and told me, “He left half an hour early,” before coldly walking past me. I debated going to his house or not, but decided against it; I didn’t think it was so important yet that I needed to burst into his home, guns locked and loaded. I went home, heading up to my room, and had just decided to go to the club to see Gunwoo when my mom knocked on my door. “Doyeon, would you help me run some errands today?” I smiled at her. “Of course.” “Great! We need to go grocery shopping, and we can go look around stores and you can give me some ideas for what you want for your birthday.” Oh, that was right… My birthday was next week. “Yeah, I guess so.” I said simply before looking back at her, smiling. “Let me get changed into something more comfortable, and then we can go, okay?” She nodded, smiling, and left my room. I peeled off my uniform and threw on some clothes before heading towards the door. As I exited my room, something caught my eye. I looked to see the guitar sitting in its stand in the guest room, seeming to stare my down. “Doyeon, are you ready?” I heard my mother call from downstairs. I peeled my eyes away from the instrument and made my way down the stairs. “Yeah,” I said, smiling and linking my arm with hers. “Let’s go, shall we?” My mom meant the world to me; she had always been there for me, and I knew she always would be. Any time I was hurt in a fight, or feeling down, she was always right there next to me, cleaning me up or quietly consoling me. I tried not to look sad in front of her; I knew she wouldn’t mind, but I wanted to be strong for her like she had for me. I didn’t want to cause her any more worry, which is why I always keep my fighting a secret from her, and why I trained so hard to become as good at fighting as I am. I know that if I stopped fighting altogether that it would make everything so much easier, but I honestly enjoyed it too much, so I resorted to becoming the strongest so that I wouldn’t have to worry about something like getting hurt. We walked to the nearest shopping center and started walking around, looking into stores to see what they had for sale. I pointed out a pair of shoes and some shirts, not really looking too enthusiastically, but putting on a show for her when she would ask me if I liked something. Much to my pleasure, she soon decided that that was enough for today, and we headed to the grocery store. God, I swear, when this woman steps foot into a supermarket, it’s damn near impossible to get her out of it. We spent a good 3 hours in the place – we weren’t buying much – because she likes to roam every aisle, and look at every product to see if it’s something she wants. I didn’t complain once, but I can definitely admit that it was pretty agonizing. It was late by the time we left, and I helped her carry the bags home; I carried most of the weight, leaving her with just one light bag. She smiled and thanked me when we got home as I helped put everything away, and then she set about making dinner. I sat at the counter in the kitchen, just watching her as she worked. It made me feel happy, looking at her enjoying herself like she did when she cooked. She was always happiest when she was making something that the people she loved could enjoy. A memory flashed in my mind – the back of a man, his arms wrapped around my mom’s waist as she cooked; the two of them rocking back-and-forth, humming happily – and then it was gone as quickly as it had come, and I stood up, suddenly needing air. I went out front, into the cool night air, and started walking. I went across the street where there was a very small park; I hadn’t been to it yet, but had noticed it before in passing. I noticed a swing set and went over to it, sitting down on it. I started gently swing back-and-forth as I stared up into the sky, looking at the stars. Luckily I lived in an area where there wasn’t a big city, so I could see the stars shining brightly. I let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding. “My birthday, huh.” I muttered to myself. I shook the thoughts from my mind and took a deep breath, blowing it out before picking up the pace on my swinging. I swung my legs as hard as I could, putting my entire body into it, trying to go as high as the swing would let me. The wind blew in my face, making me laugh with glee as I reached the highest point that the swing would allow me to go. I kept up the pace for a while, until my mother suddenly came out of the front door, looking for me. She spotted me and called out, “Doyeon! Dinner’s ready!” “Okay!” I called back, and she went back inside. I swung back-and-forth a few more times before catapulting myself off, flying through the air, and landing cleanly on the ground. I took a deep breath of the cool air, letting a smile make its way onto my face, before turning and walking back to my house, leaving all of my worries back on the swing. I sat with my mom, enjoying the dinner she had made, and chatting with her about my friends and school; I left out all of the gritty details. Once we were finished, I gave her a hug, surprising her, and a kiss on the cheek. “I love you, you know that, right?” I asked, and she smiled gently at me. “Of course I do. I love you too.” She gave me a kiss on my cheek, and I smiled and went up to my room, casting a glance into the guest room before closing my door and going to bed. The next day I noticed even more guys were beat up at school, and still all of them avoided me like the plague when I tried to go ask them what was up. I noticed Woosuk and Jonghyo were still absent when class started, but about halfway through first period they showed up, interrupting the teacher. They kept their eyes to the ground as the teacher scolded them, but they were obviously not listening, and neither was I. The only thing that I was focused on was their faces. I stared at the cuts and bruises all over their faces, and the bandages they had on. They didn’t look at me once as they walked to their desks once the teacher was done scolding them, and I knew something was wrong – they usually greet me every day. As soon as lunch started I walked over to them. They were quiet and kept their heads down, not looking me in the eye. I looked them up-and-down, now noticing bruises and cuts on their knuckles. “Who the did this to you?” I asked, feeling a sudden surge of protectiveness for these boys. Jonghyo glanced at Woosuk, but they kept quiet. “I said,” I growled, planting my hands on their desk and putting my face right in front of theirs. “Who. The. . Did. This. To. You.” Woosuk sighed, still not looking me in the eyes. “We can’t tell you; Himchan gave us strict orders not to tell you anything.” “Oh, did he now?” I growled, seething with fury. “You have two options right now: you can either tell me what’s going on and have the possibility of Himchan finding out, but I will protect you from anything he throws at you, or you can not tell me, and I kick your asses until you can’t even move. Your choice.” They glanced at each other, fear written in their eyes, and then finally looked up at me. “Himchan’s declared war against another school…” Woosuk said quietly, afraid of the wrong person hearing. “What school?” I asked. “And why does he not want me to know about it so badly if I’m his bodyguard?” They glanced at each other again. “He told us it’d be a conflict of interest if you knew about it.” “What the hell does that mean?” I asked, bewildered. “He said you knew someone from the school, and that you would try to stop us, but that the guys from the school had pushed us too far this time, and we had no choice but to retaliate.” “Woosuk. What school are you fighting?” I asked, already dreading the answer. “Bullet High.” I froze, staring at Woosuk. Rasa’s school.