Chapter Twenty Two

Morning came early, but this time everyone was awake. Aaron and Nik had to be at the tournament bright and early so that Nik could get her judging orders and Aaron could get ready to compete. Everyone clamored out to the tournament, Nik and Aaron in their doboks. Nik would be required to stay and judge nearly the entire day so she didn’t bring a change of clothes, but Aaron would be done by ten so he brought clothes for himself.

It took a while, but Nik managed to convince everyone to go stay with Aaron since she would be in a different ring judging. Briley agreed to record it for her so that she could actually see her son compete for the first time in about a year. She always got dragged into rings to help out, especially the smaller tournaments where they never had enough high ranks to judge.

At exactly eight, the opening ceremony and bow in started. Kwanjangnim gave everyone permission to start, and they were off. Aaron did well, placed first in forms and weapons forms and second in sparring. After he dragged Sunho off to get his medals engraved, he took him to the ring Sahboonim was running and waited for a break before showing off his new medals.

Meanwhile, Dongwan and Briley had found their way into the gear and gift shop. Briley cooed as she picked up one of the stuffed animals. “Look at the turtle, it’s so cute.” She held it out for him to look at it. “It’s so soft.” She nuzzled it.

“Do you want it?” The singer asked, chuckling at her behavior.

“No. It’s just so cute I had to play with it.” She grabbed his hand and dragged him on to look at the other stuff being sold.

“We should get all four of you girls a matching shirt,” Dongwan told her as he carded through some of the racks.

“Chances are, Nik already had most of these. I think she owns more Taekwondo shirts than anything else.”

He hummed in response, still looking through the clothes. When Briley turned back to look at him, he had several shirts in his hand. “They’re from this year’s event, so we can wear them and remember this week.”

“I don't think any of us will ever forget this week,” Briley told him, popping up on her toes and quickly placing a kiss on his cheek.

Dongwan gave her his most loving smile and carried all 11 shirts up to the register, quickly checking with Briley that he got the right size for the women.

When they met back up with everyone else, Nik was standing in her ring judging combat sparring. When Briley crossed her line of sight, Nik stuck her tongue out at her little sister before the next round started and then turned back into the “strict judge” part that she played in the ring.

After the awards for that ring was handed out and photos were taken, Nik was able to take a quick break before the next group was brought to their ring. She went and wrapped her arms around her youngest sister in a back hug and rested her chin on the shorter’s shoulder. “So what did y'all want to do tonight?”

“Swimming!” Aaron said excitedly. “We haven’t been once this entire vacation.” Sunho agreed, followed by Minwoo.

“If we go swimming tonight, can we go bowling tomorrow night? I’ve still never gone.” Lily asked.

“Junghyuk and Hyemi won't be there to go with us,” Nik informed. “They’re getting a night alone in Hot Springs.”

“The same place we went? That was such a beautiful spa.” Lily smiled.

Nik had to stifle her laugh. “I’m sure it was, honey. But no, they are going somewhere a bit more remote.” She winked at Hyemi who blushed.

“You should all still go bowling, and we’ll meet up with everyone Monday before our flights leave.” Hyemi told the rest of the group. Everyone nodded and soon after, Nik’s next ring started up.

Nik went back into instructor mode and went back to work. “She flips it on and off like a switch, doesn’t she?” Sunho mused.

“She’s kind of scary like that.” Aaron was smiling. “Come on, let’s go do something. Do y’all wanna meet Kwanjangnim? Or we could go back to the hotel and work on some music.” He started pulling on Sunho’s arm. While a lot of times he seemed mature, it was times like this that he showed his age.

Sunho scrunched his face. “Why don’t we just sit and relax while others are competing?”

“Because you are leaving in two days and then you will be gone and I’ll only get to see you once a week online.” Aaron pouted.

“Minwoo hyung should come, too, then.”

Minwoo sighed and slung his arm around each of them. “Come on, let’s go. Tell Nik we’ll be back at the hotel when she’s done.” Pilkyo nodded and the three left.

Nik was going to be stuck in a ring until close to five, so during her next break she told everyone that they should go eat lunch. Most of them argued that she needed to eat as well, but there wasn’t going to be a chance for her to leave. Lily said that she would bring her back some food, but Nik told her that it would be cold before she got a chance to sit and eat. She did ask for them to bring her a couple more bottles of water if they had a chance, though.

Finally, after having judged for just under nine hours, Nik was done for the day. “Y’all ready to head back to the hotel?” She wrapped her arms around Lily in a back hug and  

“Do you want to stop and get something to eat on the way there?” Lily asked. Nik shook her head and the New Yorker frowned. “You didn’t eat breakfast or lunch. You need to eat.”

“This is normal for a tournament day, except I would have done all of this and then still competed. There’s food at the hotel and I need to get out of this dobok.” Someone behind her cleared their throat and Nik spun on her heels. “Kwanjangnim,” she bowed low. “Hello, sir.” She instantly went from being relaxed to attention in the blink of an eye.

Kwanjangnim gave everyone an inviting smile to everyone and bowed slightly to his student. “TK said you did well judging yesterday. Are you getting ready to leave for the day?”

“Yes, sir. I have finished my judging duty for the day. Is there anything else you would like for me to do before I leave?” Nik had to fight the urge to chew her lip nervously. It was not often the head of her organization made a point to find people himself. She kept her eyes trained slightly lower that his and stood at ready.

“Ah, no, you have judged all day without a break. You should rest before competing tomorrow. I just came by to congratulate you on your scores yesterday as well as meet your friends.”

Nik nodded and bowed again out of habit. She then stepped to the side to introduce everyone that was still with her.

“You seem to be missing a few. Where did your son run off to?”

Pilkyo spoke up before Nik could get the words out. “He went back to the hotel with two of our brothers.” He stepped up to stand next to her.

Kwanjangnim examined him with a steely gaze. “My son and nephew have been fans of yours for a while.” Pilkyo bowed and thanked him. Kwanjangnim hummed, gave the singer one more look before turning back to his student. “Is this the reason you have requested the transfer?”

The color in Nik’s face disappeared as she shook her head hard once. “No, sir. This has been the plan for years. We met last week. Does that mean that you have approved it, sir?” She tried not to let any emotion show in her voice. Kwanjangnim nodded and his eyes softened as she thanked him and gave him another low bow.

“They’re not here this year. I will give you the details later. For now, go home. Rest. I expect first in all four events tomorrow. We’ll be watching,” he motioned to his older brothers sitting up at the platform keeping watch over the tournament.

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much,” Nik bowed low again and flushed when Kwanjangnim pulled her into a hug after returning the bow.

As he walked past to head back to the platform, Kwanjangnim stopped and quietly said, “She has an army behind her,” to Pilkyo and made his way slowly back to his brothers.

Nik watched him leave, standing at attention until Kwanjangnim was intercepted by an instructor from another school. She let out a deep breath gave everyone a timid smile. “Come on, let’s go home.”

The trip back to the hotel was full of chatter, but Nik and Pilkyo stayed mostly silent. In the elevator Lily turned to Nik. “Ok since no one else will ask, what was that conversation with Kwanjangnim about?”

The elevator beeped and they landed on their floor. She shrugged. “Has to do with my moving to Korea. A project that I submitted to him. I’ll explain later. Let’s go down to the pool.”

“You haven’t eaten yet,” Pilkyo reminded her. She looked up him and blinked, confused for a minute and then she laughed. “You forgot you hadn’t eaten?” Nik nodded as they all walked into the boys room.

“Well then it’s a good thing we have been teaching Aaron to cook,” Minwoo said, happily accepting the kiss Nik placed on his cheek.

The girls excused themselves to their room so that Nik could change before eating and then headed back over. After the meal was consumed, everyone changed into swimsuits and headed downstairs to the pool.

Lily was wearing the same swimsuit that she wore on hers and Choongjae’s date. Hyemi and Nik’s both wore tankinis and boy shorts, Hyemi’s a royal purple and Nik’s go to olive green. Briley wore a blue and white bikini top with blue board shorts.

It didn’t take long for Nik and Aaron to drag the other 3 women into the pool. Nik lifted and threw Briley and Hyemi in while Aaron picked Lily up and jumped in holding her. Soon after, everyone was in the water splashing and swimming around.

Nik and Aaron challenged Minwoo and Sunho to a chicken fight, which ended up turning into everyone pairing up and going to war. After the chaos, the women sat in the hot tub while the guys continued acting like their insane selves, competing and creating a bit of chaos.

Lily reached out and started tracing the exposed skin that was marked on Nik’s back. “You haven’t shown us all of the work you’ve had done.”

“Hm? Oh, yeah I finally got this one finished.” She leaned forward so that Lily could pull the back of her swimsuit up in the back. She felt Lily trace over the nine point star on her back. It stretched from shoulder blade to shoulder blade, about ten centimeters in diameter. Around it, written in Korean, were the nine black belt tenets.

“That looks amazing,” Hyemi said, following Lily’s example and tracing over the star as well.

“That’s not your only one, though, right?” Briley asked. Nik leaned into Lily’s lap away from Hyemi and lifted the side of her swim top up enough to reveal an orange heart with stitches that spelled out ‘family’. “Is that the one you and your cousins went to get together?”

“Yeah, we all have it in different locations and and different colors. All of us girls got it, it was an all day affair since all eight of us older cousins were getting it from the same artist.” The girls all traced it as she told her story of spending twelve hours in a tattoo parlor.

“While that one is really cool, I was actually talking about the other tattoo. You know,” Briley pointed to Nik’s swim shorts.

Nik started laughing. “Oh, my cesarean scar tattoo.” Nik blushed and turned around to face the girls and away from the guys still splashing and completely oblivious to the conversation going on in the hot tub. She slowly lowered her swim shorts down low enough to expose the tattoo. It was a line of music, nine measures waving up and down across the scar.

“What’s going on over there?” Minwoo shouted from the pool suddenly and Nik sunk straight down into the water, red more from her embarrassment than from the hot tub.

“Nik was showing us her tattoos, turn away so we can look at it,” Hyemi told them.

“I can show y’all back in the room,” Nik said meekly.

“Why can’t we see?” Minwoo countered.

“Because this one is in a private place,” Briley laughed.

“What?” Pilkyo couldn’t help but ask.

“It’s over my cesarean scar,” Nik sighed. Her entire face and neck were completely red now. “Now if y’all men would kindly look away,” she motioned that they all turn around. She refused to make Pilkyo’s eye before turning around and waiting until the men started making noise again and lowered her shorts once again just low enough to show the music across the scar.

Hyemi started reading over the music and hummed the melody to herself. “I know this song.” Nik exchanged a look with Lily and Briley. “Wait, is this one of their songs?” She ran her eyes across the music once more. “Is that...Once In A Lifetime? The chorus?”

Nik nodded. “I couldn’t think of a better song,” she shrugged. Nik adjusted her swimsuit and covered herself back up properly.

“That’s really cool,” Hyemi said.

“It turned out well. She wouldn’t take a photo and send it to us so this is the first time we’re seeing it, too,” Lily said. Briley nodded.

The girls sat and talked for a while longer before deciding to jump into the pool and started playing with the guys again.

“Hey, I was thinking,” Hyemi said as everyone was drying off to head back to their rooms. Everyone turned to look at her. “How many tattoos do you have right now?”

“Four.”

“Would you want to go get a fifth? All of us girls, we should go get a tattoo before we leave.”

“YES!” the other three women cheered excitedly.
 

“You want a tattoo?” Junghyuk asked his wife.

“It would be fun, and a good lasting memory of this amazing vacation. Do you not want me to get one?” she asked, pouting slightly.

“I have no problem with it. Just surprised.” He bent over to place a kiss on her forehead.

They then all headed up to the room, the girls talking excitedly and trying to come up with an idea for their couple tattoo.