Chapter Twenty Three

The girls had stayed up late the night before deciding on what they wanted to get as their group tattoo. Nik had texted one of her friends to ask where they should get it done since she didn’t know any of the parlors in the area. After they had gotten the number to the artist that was going to do their work so that he could do a workup, they all went to bed.

The next morning, everyone headed back to tournament for Nik to compete. When she saw her judges, the color drained from her face. “Kwanjangnim, I was not aware that you were doing any judging this tournament.”

“It wasn’t the plan originally,” and then he sat down to talk to the other two judges for the ring.

The ring ran smoothly. Nik did her best to not let anyone see her nerves. Kwanjangnim was by far the toughest judge of the three, but just as he had threatened her the previous day, Nik came out with a quadruple crown. Since she had been going up against all State and District champs on Friday, it had been much more difficult that day. She was lucky that there was only one other champ in her ring. Immediately after the ring, Kwanjangnim and one of the men that had been watching her right ushered her away from everyone to talk.

“Where are they going?” Pilkyo asked, watching until they were completely out of sight. “We couldn’t even celebrate or go get her medals.” Everyone shrugged.

“Probably just wanting to talk shop,” Aaron informed everyone. “This may take a while.”

“Want to go exploring?” Dongwan asked Briley, taking her hand before she could answer to go for a walk. “We’ll meet you at the Market when you’re done here.” Briley giggled happily before they headed out the exit.

“Can we go do something?” Aaron asked Sunho and Minwoo. They exchanged a look and then nodded. “Yayy!” Aaron cheered and they headed out as well.

“Text me when everyone is about to leave,” Minwoo told those that were staying. They all agreed and the trio took off.

“If you four want to go off and do couple stuff, too, I’ll stay here and wait,” Pilkyo offered, looked out to where Nik had disappeared.

“No, I’m nosy. I want to know what was so important that she was carted off right after competing,” Lily told him. Hyemi agreed and the men laughed.

They sat and talked amongst themselves for over an hour when Nik finally made her appearance. She walked over to them, being stopped a few times when people wanted to speak to her. She carried herself with with an authority and grace that surprised her friends. When she was almost back, a ring tried to pull her in to help judge, but she smiled and quickly pulled out a sheet of paper from her dobok and was allowed to keep going.

“Y’all ready to eat? Our appointment is in about an hour and a half.”

“That’s all you’re going to say?” Lily asked, quirking her eyebrow up and crossed her arms.

“Food, then info. Can’t talk about it here,” Nik said cheerfully. Everyone groaned but agreed. Pilkyo shot Minwoo and Dongwan a message saying they were on their way to the Market and then they left.

“You really can’t tell us anything?” Hyemi pouted, lacing an arm with the Texan’s. Nik shook her head and bumped their hips together, then reached for Lily so they could all be linked as they left the busy competition room.

They arrived at the Market at about the same time as the trio and they all quickly got their food and found the table Dongwan and Lily had saved for everyone.

“So what could you not tell us back there?” Pilkyo asked, pulling Nik’s chair out for her as she sat down.

A huge grin split Nik’s face. “My paper was accepted completely.”

“For real?” Aaron asked excitedly.

“Your paper?” Lily and Briley asked in unison.

Nik chewed her lip a moment as she considered how to explain. “So, my degree is in education, right? My everything has always been focused on children. Well, I’ve spent a lot of my classroom observations in the special education classrooms.”

“Lily and I knew that. What does that have to do with your work as a TaeKwonDo instructor? Or the paper that was accepted?” Briley interrupted.

Nik was glowing with excitement. Work was one of her favorite topics to talk about. “So I have also been getting some of the students from the classes that I observe in to come and do Taekwondo. I have a special class on Saturdays set aside for this. I will also be teaching the special education PE class once a week at the school I observed at last year. When I move to Korea, I will not be teaching English as we had originally planned. I will be running an orphanage for special needs children, mostly older elementary school and middle school age kids that are unlikely to be adopted. They’ll go to a regular school during the day, but instead of going to a second school in the evening the way most students do, I will be teaching them life skills as well as Taekwondo. The goal is to get them ready to be as self sufficient after they graduate as possible.”

“That’s so cool!” Briley said excitedly.

Lily nodded. “Isn’t that what you were going to try to do after being there for a while?”

“That was Mom’s end game. Teaching English was just going to be a stepping stone to get there.”

“That’s incredible,” Pilkyo smiled. “Do you know how many kids you will have? What hours you will work?”

“About twenty five kids to start out with. Possibly more if my organization sees it working out well. Kwanjangnim has convinced his brothers to put up funding for this so that we don’t have to worry about government funding. Just government scrutiny, they can still shut me down if they deem us unfit.” She then turned her attention to her young British sister. “So, I have an opening if you would like to come with me.”

“Seriously?” Briley asked excitedly. Nik nodded a confirmation and Briley looked from Nik to Dongwan and then back to Nik. “What would I be doing? I don’t have a degree nor have I ever done any sort of martial art.”

Nik shrugged. “I have some ideas. We can discuss this all later. I don’t need your decision for another six months or so. Us ladies have somewhere to be before Junghyuk sweeps Hyemi away for a romantic getaway so we need to get going.”

They all finished eating quickly and then the girls dropped the men and Aaron off at the hotel before heading to the tattoo parlor Nik’s friend had told them about. Junghyuk had a car delivered to the hotel and was going to grab his and Hyemi’s bags and drive out to check into the spa that they were staying the night at.

At the tattoo parlor, the artist was opening up shop early to make sure everyone got theirs done before it was too late in the evening. “Is this anyone’s first tattoo?” he asked. Everyone but Nik nodded. He laughed and then took them back to the computer where he had worked up a few versions of the design they had sent him the night before. They were all getting it on their left shoulder blade and it would be about four centimeters in diameter.

“How bad is this going to hurt?” Briley asked.

“Good news, sweetheart, you’re going first so you will find out quickly,” Nik smirked.

“Why me?” she whined.

“Because you are the most likely to back out after we start,” Lily explained.

Briley grumbled but agreed that was most likely going to be the case. The girls all went to change into spaghetti straps and then Briley was instructed to sit at the chair. Nik and Lily promptly took their youngest sister’s hands while Hyemi sat in Nik’s lap and Briley’s hair as the artist started up his tattoo gun.

For all of her nerves, Briley took it like a champ. She didn’t cry, and she only needed a few breaks. Next up was Hyemi, and Briley took Hyemi’s seat on Nik’s lap. Next up was Lily, and then Nik.

Nik was leaning against the chair with her eyes closed and the artist was working on her. “I can see how you called this an addiction,” Lily told her. Nik hummed and the other two agreed. “I’m so happy that my first tattoo is here with the three of you. The past two weeks has been the best experience of my life.”

“Agreed,” Briley said. “I wish this weekend would never end. I’m not ready to go back home, yet.”

“Come with me next year, then.” Nik said to her. “I’m not playing. Lily, you too. I actually have some ideas that we would need your expertise in and I already have the ok to hire both of y’all.”

“So next year all three of you could be living in Korea?” Hyemi asked. “Then we could all hang out. Weekly girls’ night instead of yearly.”

Lily let out a sigh. “Secret?” Everyone confirmed that they would keep her secret. “Choongjae asked me if I would consider moving to Korea.” Her three companions cheered.

“That settles it! You’re coming with me!” Nik said happily as the artist wiped off the remaining blood that had pooled up.

“If you go, I will,” Briley told her cheekily.

Lily let out an exaggerated sigh. “How soon do you need to know for sure?”

“By December. I have to start looking at resumes in December and hiring in January.”

“Then I’ll let you know in December, and not a day sooner.” She was smirking up at her oldest sister.

Nik made a face at her but simply kissed her on the forehead. She asked the tattoo artist if he could take a photo of all four of their tattoos together. Once taken, they all posted their new tattoo on their SNS.

Junghyuk showed up right as they were getting ready to pay. “Let me see,” he said, hugging Hyemi close and pulling at her t-shirt she had put on over her spaghetti strap.

She swatted him away and the girls all laughed. “Yah, get off! I love you but we still have to pay.”

Not letting her go, Junghyuk pulled out his wallet and handed the man his card. “For all of them.” The other girls made to protest, but he quickly silenced them. They all thanked him and he nodded then started pulling at his wife’s shirt again. “Come on, I want to see it.”

“I sent you the photo,” Hyemi grumbled.

“Save it for the bedroom, you two,” “Get a room,” Lily and Nik laughed out at the same time.

“Did you send photos to your boyfriends?” Junghyuk asked, twisting Hyemi and him around so he held her in a back hug.

All three girls blushed furiously. “I do not have a boyfriend,” Nik attempted to glare up at him. “But we did send them to the guys back at the hotel.”

“You don’t have a boyfriend, huh? Maybe you should talk to Pilkyo about that. He seems to think otherwise.” Nik stuck her tongue up at the rapper. “Uh huh, that’s what I thought.” He laughed when he heard her grumble something like ‘I don’t recall him asking me to be his girlfriend.’

“So I guess we will see you in the morning before we head to the airport?” Hyemi pouted. All the girls wrapped themselves together in a group hug and didn’t release for several minutes. Everyone said good night to each other then went in their separate directions. Just before the doors were closed, they heard Junghyuk yell ‘I lost the game,” and Hyemi groan loudly.

“I’m not ready for this weekend to end,” Briley said again once they were on headed back to their hotel. The other two nodded sadly in agreement.