Monday morning saw Junhoe up and ready to make amends with Hanbin. After talking to Yejin about the situation, he was willing to admit that he’d maybe overreacted a bit. He still didn’t like the idea of Hanbin dating Bobby, but whatever. He’d just watch Bobby like a hawk, and if he stepped a single toe out of line, Junhoe would smash his teeth in.

But there had been something weird in the air between them all day, and Junhoe hadn’t know what it was. Hanbin had seemed a little tense, like something was coming that he was dreading, but every time Junhoe had asked him what his problem was, Hanbin had said there was no problem.

The problem presented itself after classes. Hanbin had asked Junhoe to meet him out back, on the bleachers by the soccer field. That in itself wasn’t weird, because they often sat out in the back field after classes, discussing the day’s events.

“So listen, there’s something I need to tell you.” Hanbin had been dreading this conversation all day, especially since Junhoe had apparently made up with him over his disagreement from the weekend (not that Junhoe had actually said it out loud, but Hanbin understood it when Junhoe met him normally in class).

“, finally! I knew something was up.” There was a smug upturn to Junhoe’s lips as he faced Hanbin.

“You know how I have my boxing tournament coming up in two weeks?” Hanbin started out simple, because who knows, maybe some family thing had come up and Junhoe wouldn’t be able to go anymore?

“Of course, you’re still fighting, right?” Hanbin’s boxing tournaments were always marked in Junhoe’s calendar right away so he’d keep his schedule open.

“Yeah, sure,” Hanbin took a deep breath before getting to the bad news, “well, I don’t think I need to tell you that I invited Bobby, right?”

Junhoe frowned but wasn’t surprised. “Yeah, I figured you would.” Whatever, he could deal with hanging out with Bobby for one afternoon. No big deal.

“Okay, well, he’s coming, and he’s bringing Jinhwan.” There. It was out. He’d said it. Now all he had to do was wait for the inevitable meltdown.

“What?” That had not been what Junhoe had expected to hear. “That midget ?” Hanbin couldn’t mean him, could he? Junhoe didn’t know another Jinhwan, and even if he did, there was only one Jinhwan that had anything to do with Bobby.

“Look, I’m sorry, I know the last thing you want to do is see him again--”

“Why the would you invite him?” Junhoe was moving swiftly past surprise and was well on his way to anger now.

“It was an accident!” Hanbin said, pleading to be heard out.

“Accident?! You don’t invite people by accident, Hanbin!”

“It was! I went over to Bobby’s yesterday after your, well, after you left,” Hanbin tried to keep it peaceful, “and I didn’t know, but Jinhwan actually lives with Bobby’s family. So he was there. I told Bobby about the tournament and Jinhwan just asked me if he could come. I said yes before really thinking about it, but it’s not like I could say no, right? He was right there.”

Junhoe’s eyes narrowed in half anger and half disgust. “You absolutely could have said no! You’re dating Bobby, not Jinhwan, you don’t have to worry about being polite to him!”

“Junhoe, come on, can you please think about this from my perspective? Jinhwan is his best friend, I can’t be rude to him!”

“He was rude to me! Me, your best friend! Or did you forget that?” Junhoe couldn’t believe him! Just when he’d forgiven him for falling for Bobby, too!

“Junhoe, seriously, don’t be--”

“Uninvite him.” Junhoe’s tone was brisk, no-nonsense in his demand.

“I can’t uninvite him!” Hanbin replied, wondering if it would even be possible to smooth this out at all.

“You definitely can, and you should! If you don’t uninvite him, maybe I won’t go. Make your pick Hanbin. Jinhwan or me. You can’t have both.”

They were at an impasse—Junhoe staring angrily at Hanbin, and Hanbin wrenched in terrible guilt. It’s not that he wasn’t sympathetic to Junhoe. He understood why he didn’t want to see Jinhwan again, and honestly Hanbin would have much rather taken more time in re-introducing them. But he wasn’t about to rescind an invitation.

“I can’t believe you’re not taking my side!” Junhoe was hurt that Hanbin wasn’t even appearing to contemplate uninviting Jinhwan. It wasn’t fair! He’d had Hanbin first, why should he be the one inconvenienced by this?

“Look, I know that you’re pissed over the way Jinhwan treated you at your fight, I get it. But he’s actually really nice--”

“Oh hell no!” Junhoe hopped up from his spot on the metal bench, grabbing his backpack. “This is bull, Hanbin! I wouldn’t do this to you, why do you keep doing it to me?”

“Junhoe, come on! Just once, that’s all I ask--”

“Have fun with your boyfriend and your new best friend, Hanbin! I’m ing done.” Junhoe couldn’t see anything past the rage he was currently feeling. He didn’t mean to be hurtful to Hanbin, but Jinhwan was an , that much he was certain of! Hanbin didn’t get it, because Hanbin hadn’t been the one facing him. People like Jinhwan were manipulators, they were pros at appealing to a person’s good side to get what they wanted. But Junhoe had seen his true colours, and he wasn’t about to celebrate Jinhwan’s attempt at hacking back into his life.

Hell ing no.

He was already dealing with having to share Hanbin with Bobby. There was absolutely no way he was going to add Jinhwan into the equation. It didn’t even matter that Jinhwan had beaten him (twice). Okay that was a lie. It mattered. A lot.

Over a week had passed and Junhoe couldn’t get over seeing Jinhwan’s stupid little smirk of victory. His arrogance still left a bad taste in Junhoe’s mouth, still made him feel like garbage under Jinhwan’s heel. No way in hell was he going to willingly breathe the same air as that . Not a chance. Not even for Hanbin.

Hanbin sighed as he watched Junhoe storm off in a huff. That had sadly gone exactly as he’d expected. The only problem was that he didn’t think Junhoe would get over this as easily as he’d gotten over Bobby. What was he supposed to do, though? It would be rude to uninvite Jinhwan (just as rude as it would have been to not invite him in the first place) and Hanbin took pride in being an extremely polite person.

He pulled his phone out and began composing a text to Bobby.

‘hes pissed hes not gonna come’ 

Hanbin remained on the bleachers for a bit, feeling morose and sorry for himself. Was it really so much to ask, for Junhoe to get over himself and try one time to be friendly? It’s not like Hanbin wanted him to be Jinhwan’s new best friend or anything. Just co-exist for one peaceful afternoon.

Was he being selfish? Expecting too much?

‘u ok babe?????? :(’ 

Hanbin looked down at his phone, unable to help but smile at Bobby’s response. Cute.

‘im fine, just bummed out’ 

‘want me to kikc his ????’ 

Hanbin couldn’t help but laugh at the offer.

‘hed probably kick your but thanks ♥’ 

‘ill get jinan todo it! wont help thm to b friends but maybe ull feel betetr??’ 

Hanbin laughed again. There was something about Bobby’s typos that made the whole thing even cuter to Hanbin. Before he could reply back, Bobby had sent him a picture. His lips were pursed as though he were trying to kiss the screen, and Hanbin saved it immediately in his own phone.

Junhoe would get over the whole thing eventually. Hanbin was honestly probably doing him a disservice by continually trying to cater to his (stunted) emotional needs. Junhoe needed to grow up a bit, and maybe it was just time to start that process now.

‘thx oppa! ;) made me feel better!’ 

Hanbin grinned as he sent his message back, and he looked around before taking his own picture, a return kiss that he felt a little dorky taking, but he supposed it was only fair. He sent it off and immediately Bobby flooded his phone with heart eyed emojis, and Hanbin laughed. Bobby’s good humour was infectious, and Hanbin was grateful to him for it.

Junhoe couldn’t stop thinking about Jinhwan during his sparring session, the smug look on his face, the arrogance in his expression and his words! He released his sparring partner from the armbar he’d locked on him, failing to notice the look of irritation on his partner’s face as he rubbed feeling back into his shoulder.

“Man, who pissed you off today?”

Junhoe hadn’t even paid attention to the question. “You ready to go again?”

The other fighter put his hands up and backed off. “Nah man, I still need to recover. You had that armbar locked in a little too tight. Maybe cool off a bit before you hurt someone?”

Junhoe heard the censure but disregarded it (his sparring partner was neither older nor of a higher rank, so Junhoe didn’t have to listen to him). “Sorry.” He wasn’t really sorry, but he gave the apology anyway before heading to the bench to grab his bottle of water.

“Koo, any reason why you’re trying to murder everyone tonight?”

Junhoe looked up from where he’d sat on the bench, because this time the question came from someone who was both older and more experienced than he was. Lee Seungri was still a purple belt like Junhoe, but while Junhoe had just recently been promoted, Seungri was currently training to advance up to a brown belt in the coming months. He’d been the one who’d helped Junhoe in his training to get his purple belt, and he’d ground Junhoe’s face into the mat enough times during sparring sessions to earn himself a place of high respect in Junhoe’s mind.

“I’m sorry, hyung? I didn’t catch that.” That was a lie—he knew exactly what Seungri had said, but he wasn’t quite ready to accept any kind of censure at the moment.

Seungri sat down next to him, arms crossed over his chest. “You’re aggravated tonight, I can see it in the way you’re fighting. You’re not paying attention to your partner, and you nearly hurt Minjae-ah. You know you’re not supposed to fight if you’re not in the right headspace for it.”

Junhoe nodded and bowed his head down, cheeks flushed in shame. He was a ing purple belt, he was supposed to know better! Seungri was right. “I apologize, hyung.”

“Don’t apologize to me, apologize to Minjae. But you can do that later. First I want you to tell me what’s up your .”

Junhoe flushed again at the question. Damn Seungri and his stupid choice of words!! “Nothing, hyung.”

“Oh is that the problem then?” Seungri .

“Hyung!” Junhoe wanted to murder him!

“Calm down, Junhoe-ya, I’m just teasing you! Ever since you got here tonight, you’ve had this look on your face, like you were planning someone’s murder. It’ll probably help you to talk about it.”

Junhoe took a slow and deliberate breath, calming himself down. He knew Seungri was right. He’d come to training directly after talking to Hanbin, and he was still angry about that whole situation. He felt betrayed and let down. Maybe it would be good to get someone else’s take on the whole thing. He was right, after all, so he’d probably feel better if he got validation for his angry feelings.

“Okay, fine, I’ll talk.” He gave Seungri a brief rundown on the situation, starting out with a description of how disrespectful Jinhwan had been to him at the tournament (maybe he’d dressed it up a bit and made Jinhwan sound a bit worse than he’d been, whatever, he was still a jerk) before explaining that his best friend had decided to go and date Jinwhan’s best friend. Seungri listened attentively, his expression remaining neutral through the story. Then Junhoe got to the fresh part, about Hanbin inviting Jinhwan to his boxing tournament.

“I’m not wrong, am I, hyung? Jinhwan’s my enemy, and my best friend decides to invite him out?”

Seungri frowned and shrugged. “You fought him once, Junhoe, you can’t judge a person’s entire personality based on what they’re like on the mat.”

“He was an to me!” Was Seungri serious?!

“Were you an back to him?” Seungri asked, and Junhoe’s face blanked slightly.

“Well, he’s older and he started it! What was I supposed to do, be polite to someone who’s talking right to my face?” Junhoe crossed his arms over his chest and sulkingly leaned back against the wall. He couldn’t believe he was the one being lectured right now!

“That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do. Part of your training is to keep a cool head and not rise to the goading of others around you. Treat others the way you want to be treated, and never lower yourself to their level if they mistreat you.”

Junhoe glared at the floor, not at all a fan of Seungri’s advice. All due respect, it was bull. If someone disrespected him, you could bet your that Junhoe would throw it back in their face.

“It’s a small sport, Junhoe-ya, you’re going to see this guy around again. If you hold onto your anger and embarrassment over him beating you, then you’ll never be able to conquer him the next time you meet him. He’ll face you calmly, while you’ll be b with anger, which will probably lend you to make a mistake. You can’t hold grudges in jiu jitsu, Junhoe. You have to be a bigger person.”

Junhoe was still seething, not ready to accept Seungri’s advice. He wanted to be mad, and he wanted someone to sympathize with him! Why was everyone taking Jinhwan’s side?!

“Junhoe-ya, don’t you trust Hanbin’s ability to judge character?”

Junhoe didn’t answer, he just frowned at the floor again.

“I suppose that might be a dumb question, since he’s friends with you.” Seungri teased, nudging Junhoe with his elbow.

“Not funny, hyung.” Junhoe moped back, feeling sorry for himself.

“You guys have been friends nearly your entire lives. Trust his judgement. Just because you had one bad experience with Jinhwan, doesn’t mean you’re always going to have a bad experience with him. Life’s too short to stay frosty with everyone.”

“I’m not going to be his friend,” Junhoe replied, voice b with aggression.

“No one says you have to be friends with Jinhwan. Just don’t try to be his enemy. The more you react to him, the worse he’ll act with you. Just be curt and polite, don’t rise to any of his jabs. You’ll be fine, it’s only for one afternoon, right?”

Junhoe nodded. “I still don’t think it’s fair! I’ve been there for Hanbin at every tournament he’s competed in! Shouldn’t I come first?”

“Ah, Junhoe, stuff like this happens when you grow up. The people that are important to you find other people who become just as important, and you have to learn to balance your relationships. Hanbin’s relationship with Bobby is new, it’s fresh, and he’s probably going to prioritize it above you for a little while. You just have to accept that.”

“No I don’t,” Junhoe replied, “I wouldn’t do that to him.”

Seungri grinned and put his arm around Junhoe’s shoulder, holding tight when Junhoe tried to squirm away. “You say that now, but that’s because you still prioritize yourself above everyone else. That’ll change when you fall in love.”

Junhoe snorted at the comment. “No it won’t.”

“Ah, you’re probably right! Lord help whoever falls in love with you.” Seungri put him in a loosely held headlock, rapping his knuckles across the top of Junhoe’s head.

“Hyung! Quit it!” Junhoe tried to squirm out again, but Seungri tightened the hold on him.

“Just think about your friendship, Junhoe. Is it really worth being angry at Hanbin over this? He didn’t intentionally set out to upset you. He’s caught in the middle, and you’re being a pretty ty friend by not even thinking about his side of things.”

Junhoe squirmed harder because he really didn’t want to hear this. It wasn’t his fault! Hanbin chose to date Bobby, knowing full well who he was! Junhoe wasn’t about to feel sorry for making him choose a side.

Seungri loosened the hold then, critical eyes on Junhoe as he rubbed his neck and sat back up. “You feeling less angry, at least?”

Junhoe didn’t want to answer the question (because he was less angry) but there wasn’t anywhere for him to escape to. “Yeah, I am. Thanks, hyung.”

“Good. How about we spar for a while then? Even if you get mad again, you’re not going to best me on the mats!” Seungri stood up and extended a hand down to him, and Junhoe took it.

A little more sparring couldn’t hurt.

Jinhwan looked up at the darkening night sky, the deep blue chasing away the last bits of the sun as it dipped in the distance. He was in the backyard of Bobby’s house, sitting with his sister, Seiyeon. They’d just finished dinner with the family, and Jinhwan had asked her if they could talk for a bit. She was in town for a performance the following night, so if they didn’t chat now, they wouldn’t have a chance at all.

She was sitting next to him on a bench, holding one of his hands in between her own. “How is everything? School still going fine?”

“Everything’s really good,” Jinhwan answered, “my last year isn’t killing me yet.”

Seiyeon smiled and leaned against him. “Ah that’s good! We haven’t been able to talk much lately, I’ve been worrying about you.”

“You don’t have to worry about me, noona.”

“Of course I do, Jinan! You’re my baby, I always worry about you.” She pecked him quickly on the cheek and Jinhwan took it without complaint. In truth he didn’t mind. He was very close to his sister, and every time he left home he missed her terribly.

“How about your personal life? Are you dating anyone yet?” She asked, teasingly prying for information.

Jinhwan grinned and shook his head. “No, I’m not interested in dating anyone right now, actually.”

“What? These are prime dating years, Jinan! You’re gorgeous, are you telling me you don’t want to find yourself a cute boy to spend some time with?”

Jinhwan rolled his eyes at her comments. “How come you’re not dating anyone?”

“Oh don’t throw it back at me! I was dating someone, but he wasn’t quite what I thought, so I broke things off. Little too controlling.”

Jinhwan smiled at her comment, happy to hear that his sister was always willing to stick up for herself. “You’re getting old, noona! Pretty soon you might not find a man.” He teased, though of course he didn’t mean it. His sister was a wonderful woman, and while some people rushed to find a match, she was taking her time, and that made him happy.

“Ah, if a man doesn’t want me just because I’m not young, then he’s not worth having!” She replied, threading her fingers with his. “If I get old and I’m still alone, I’ll just come and live with you! So make sure you find yourself an attractive man, so we can both have someone pretty to look at.”

Jinhwan laughed at her request, feeling happy with their conversation. It was nice to talk with her like this, just the two of them. He knew it wasn’t going to last though, because she probably wasn’t going to respond well to the topic he wanted to discuss with her.

“I’ll make sure to get your approval before I ever settle down with someone, okay?”

She smiled back at him and nodded. “Okay! I’ll be a good judge.” They lapsed into a comfortable silence for a moment, content to sit together and watch the stars twinkle into view. There weren’t nearly as many visible in the city as there were on the island, and Jinhwan missed it almost every night.

“So are we going to talk about whatever it is you wanted to talk to me about?” Seiyeon asked, and Jinhwan took a deep breath before launching into it.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about my future, and about what I want to do. I know you’re not really the biggest fan of my jiu jitsu, but I’m really passionate about working in the sport as a profession.” Okay, there was the set up.

As expected, Seiyeon was floored by his intro.

“What exactly do you mean, as a profession?”

“I want to go study in the US. There’s a school in California--”

“Oh God, Jinhwan, this is about Eric, isn’t it?” Seiyeon shook her head and Jinhwan could already hear the disappointment in her voice.

“It’s not about Eric! It’s about me--”

“You need to let go of him, Jinan. Stop trying to impress someone who lied to you and used you!”

Jinhwan bristled at her comment, pulling away from her slightly, but still holding her hand. “He didn’t use me or lie to me, noona.”

“Oh, so you knew he was engaged, then, the whole time you were together?” Seiyeon turned to look at him, an accusing look on her face.

“No, that’s not what I meant--”

“He is married Jinhwan. You don’t need to do anything to impress him anymore!”

Jinhwan paused to take a deep breath, wishing she hadn’t jumped on this topic immediately. This honestly had nothing to do with his ex. Nothing. 

“I promise, things between us are just professional. He wasn’t just my ex-boyfriend, okay, he was my trainer too--”

“Which just makes it worse! I can’t believe I never told mom about him. It still makes me angry.”

“Seiyeon, would you please drop it?! This isn’t about me trying to impress him! I promise you, I’m completely over him. I wasn’t really that upset about what happened anyway.”

Seiyeon’s expression turned sympathetic, and Jinhwan felt like screaming.

“Jinan, I understand, really. I think it’s our family curse—you, me and mom. We all fell in love with older men who screwed us over. And you, first love and all, it’s tough, I get it--”

“Noona please, I am not still hung up on him!” He just wanted to get back to the actual topic he wanted to discuss, which had nothing to do with Eric.

“Okay, fine, let’s say you are over him,” Seiyeon replied, “California, though? How are you going to get there? Who’s going to pay for it? You know mom won’t. You need money for a plane ticket, you need money for rent, for food! Where is that going to come from?”

Jinhwan frowned and wondered why he’d even bothered. Of course she was going to fight him on it, he’d known that from the beginning. He was just desperate for someone in his family to support him in this. He’d been hoping she’d have been slightly more open to the discussion.

“I just don’t understand why you can’t be happy with music. You have this perfect path laid out for you, guaranteed success! All you have to do is finish your education and keep practicing. You’re pretty much guaranteed a spot back home when you’re ready. All three of us could play together! I thought you wanted that?”

Jinhwan felt guilty at her comments, especially on the topic of joining Jeju’s symphony orchestra. Both his sister and his mother occupied spots on the roster, and Jinhwan was mostly a guaranteed lock to get started in the brass section when he finished training. His family was close with the conductor, after all.

“I do want that,” he answered, and it wasn’t even a lie, “but it’s just not the only thing I want.”

“Most people don’t get the luxury of turning away from a sure thing, you know,” Seiyeon continued, “most people would kill to find a path to a career doing something theylove, and here you are, snubbing your nose at it in order to chase after something else. What would you even do as a professional fighter anyway? Do you get paid to fight in those competitions?”

Jinhwan was silent until realizing she was asking him honestly. “Right now, no, but the ones I’m in aren’t professional competitions, no one gets paid to be in them.”

“Are you even good enough to win in a professional fight, if you ever had one?”

Jinhwan couldn’t help but feel offended by her question, and that was evident in his tone of voice. “You’d know exactly how good I am if you ever came to watch me fight.”

“Jinan, don’t start this--”

“Don’t start what? Don’t be upset because you never even bother coming? You’ve never watched me, noona, and it honestly hurts. I want you to be proud of me; I’m a really good fighter!” Jinhwan had been itching to say as much for years, now, but he’d always held it back. But he was feeling hurt over her immediate dismissal of his dream, and for a moment he didn’t care about potentially making her feel guilty.

“Jinan, I am proud of you,” she said, “I just don’t like fighting of any kind.”

“But you’ve never even watched a match, you don’t actually know what it’s like.” Jinhwan couldn’t even look her in the eyes, and he sulkingly stared into the corner of the backyard instead.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what else I can say about it. But it still remains that I’m worried about whether or not you can support yourself off of jiu jitsu. What if you don’t win any fights? How would you make money?”

Jinhwan felt like ignoring the question in favour of sulking some more, barely able to carry on the conversation because he was feeling too sorry for himself. “I actually really want to be a trainer, I enjoy teaching the kids we get in, I’m good at it.”

“Can you really make money off of that? Enough to provide for yourself?” Seiyeon asked, and Jinhwan wasn’t sure if she was asking honestly, or sarcastically.

“After a while, yes. It wouldn’t be as lucrative as the music, but I don’t care about money, I want to do what makes me happy.”

Seiyeon shook her head again, sighing in frustration. “It’s so easy to say that you don’t care about money. We grew up with money, Jinhwan, you don’t know what it’s like to struggle. You’ve always had a good home, the best of everything.”

Jinhwan bit the inside of his cheek to keep from speaking up. He knew it wouldn’t be easy, he wasn’t stupid!

“Look, you know I love you, honestly Jinhwan you’re the most important person in my life,” Seiyeon turned to face him, her fingers gripping his hand tighter, “but you’re really not being realistic about this. I guess I can’t blame you, mom totally spoiled you.”

“She did not!” Jinhwan couldn’t contain the outburst. He wasn’t some spoiled brat who was used to getting everything he wanted! He’d worked hard for everything he’d accomplished so far.

“She did! I never got to flit between Jeju and Seoul just because I felt like it. I stayed home, even when I was offered positions here! I’m not bitter about it, I understand that she didn’t make as much at the time as she does now. She couldn’t afford to send me off to live with someone in Seoul every year the way she does with you.”

“What does it cost her to let me live with Bobby’s family, other than a plane ticket?” Jinhwan was confused by her statement. She was making it sound like their mom was paying some ridiculous tuition fee to a private school or something!

Seiyeon shot him a look of slight disappointment. “This is exactly what I mean, Jinan! Do you think she sends you to Bobby’s family for free? She doesn’t! She pays them to look after you, to make sure you can still have all the things you’re used to at home. They don’t have the money to provide for you out of their own pocket. But you don’t even realize that!”

Jinhwan felt like a stupid little kid at her comment. Was she speaking the truth? He hadn’t really ever thought about how much money he would have been costing Bobby’s family anyway, even if his mom wasn’t giving them money for him. He’d never thought twice about grocery shopping with Bobby’s mom and always picking out the most expensive brands of food. He’d just expected them to be able to afford everything, and of course Bobby’s mom never would have told him no. He was a guest (practically family at this point, but still a guest).

Seiyeon dropped his hand and instead pulled on his arm, pulling him closer. “I don’t mean to make you feel bad, Jinan, but you’ve led a very privileged life. You’re not used to thinking about things like that. So it just worries me, that you have this plan, but you don’t know what it really entails. I don’t want you to have this rude awakening that you’re not prepared for everything.”

Jinhwan looped his arms around Seiyeon’s back and buried his face into her shoulder, feeling miserable. All he’d wanted from this conversation was a little support, and instead he was coming away from it feeling like an immature kid who didn’t know anything.

“I’m sorry if this harsh, Jinan, but I’m your sister and it’s my responsibility to criticize you when you’re doing something stupid. Maybe it would be a better idea to focus on your music for now. Maybe when you start making your own money, you can think about going off to California to chase your other dreams then.”

Jinhwan didn’t respond to that comment. It hurt too much to think about it, to admit that he wasn’t preparing himself properly for what it really meant to move away. It’s not that he didn’t want to continue with his music. He still had a dream of performing in an orchestra, he wanted to be on stage performing beautiful music.

He just wanted to do it while holding a black belt in jiu jitsu. He wanted to open his own school one day, he wanted a place to display trophies and he wanted a captive audience to share his experiences with, the same way he’d been captivated when he’d started training. Was it really that selfish to ask for both lives?

“Listen, let me know when your next tournament is. If I don’t have a performance that weekend, I’ll fly up and watch you fight.”

Jinhwan sat up in surprise at her offer, blinking back the tears in his eyes. Was he really so desperate for family support that the mere offer of attention had him near tears?

“Will you really?”

Seiyeon smiled and nodded, blinking back her own tears. “I promise. I’m sorry I haven’t supported you in something you love. We’re all just so focused on the music, it’s easy to forget that someone can love two things equally. I might not like your fighting, but I can’t stop you from loving it. So I promise I’ll try and understand it, okay?”

Jinhwan nodded and hugged her again, a little overwhelmed by her words. That was all he wanted. Just the offer, the attempt. He didn’t need her screaming support and waving a banner. He just wanted her to care, wanted her to be proud.