Okay, so, there is a common courtesy between people who practice the same activity, some unspoken and universally agreed upon code in which any participant with a shred of respect for the activity follows and demands the others will follow as well. Today we have coach Zhen, a despicable man with a rather sad life story, doing everything he can to guide the fighters to his misconduct and keep them there. If it wasn’t enough that Jihyo carried the team for an year already, and also got them qualified in the first round with his high score, the man only saw it was an obligation.

The seniors who Jihyo was forced to step down for got cocky with their score, despite knowing their contribution was minimal. Coach Zhen, the idiot, was loudly and arrogantly praising the older boys and making sure Jihyo was listening. Now, our dear Jigglypuff lovechild could be canonised, but he didn’t have the cold blood to just be offended and pretend nothing is happening, nor would anyone seeing this right now and knowing how the boy respected the sport. So, the plan changed.

Jihyo intended to throw his fight for the interstate, but they were just in the semi-final for the district and they were already that full of themselves. It was enough, Jihyo tried being patient, he tried to help them a little more, but rudeness is something he will never accept, our wrestler made his decision to submit the form, quitting the club the afternoon before the next round. That meant today, it was halfway through training and he had enough, Jihyo just lured his sparring partner into hitting him and did nothing to avoid the blow. With a knee to his gut, Jihyo had the perfect excuse to finish training earlier and he just walked out saying he was going to the nurse’s office over his shoulder but never stopping.

A few blows were normal in a contact sport, the hit wasn’t even close to being enough to actually have Jihyo sent to the nurse, so he just showered and headed to the student office. Normally the students would just hand the form to the teacher responsible for the club, but they could hand it over directly at the student office and speed things up, as most mentors would take a lot of time trying to convince them not to quit, and the secretary would just ask if they were certain and then stamp it when they confirmed. 

“Mr Park, it’s rare to see you around here.” The secretary greeted. “Is there a problem?”

“Mrs Shin, good afternoon.” Jihyo bows to the woman. “Not a problem, per se. I came to quit the greco-roman club. Could I have a form, please?”

“Certainly, may I ask the reason?”

“I’m not aiming for a sports scholarship, it’s not important that I keep good results there.” The boy says, filling the form. “I was planning on quitting before the end of the year anyhow, and the chemistry club will give me a better chance at getting a scholarship anyways.”

“It’s good that you are sure of what you want.” The woman pulls out the stamp, ready to officialise the removal from the team. 

“Here you go, mrs Shin.” The boy hands over the form, getting the stamp immediately. “I should get going, thank you for everything, mrs Shin.”

“Not a problem, dear.” She dismisses, waving the boy goodbye. “If you need anything else, don’t hesitate to come back.”

“I will, mrs. Thank you again.” Jihyo bows one last time and leaves the office.

Mrs Shin was a nice woman, she deeply cared about the students and genuinely tried to help them to the best of her abilities. The good thing is that she will grant your favor if you have a reason strong enough, which Jihyo was counting on, because the reason for quitting he wrote down in the form should only be read by coach Zhen once he decides to investigate why his best fighter isn’t showing up. It’s not that the reason Jihyo gave the woman wasn’t real, it just was a fraction of his motives but she wasn’t into sports, nor did the woman would understand how undignified what the coach was doing is.

Our wrestler feels light, and decides to get some ice cream on the way home. Dahyun would drop whatever he was doing if Jihyo called, but he wanted to be alone at the moment and left the pale boy alone. Jihyo walked slowly, enjoying the late afternoon and his cheap vanilla ice cream, sure, he had a michelin star chef as a mother, but his favorite brand was a cheap one Seungwan got him addicted to when they were kids, simply because it was the only one they could afford with the pocket money they got back then. It tastes more like milk than vanilla, and it was maybe a little too sweet, but it brought back memories of worryless summer afternoons and laughter and happiness with his best friend.

Once Jihyo did get home, his mother was about to leave for work, she was surprised seeing her son home that early, but hugged him tight and called work to tell them she wasn’t going that day once he said he left the team. Mr Park was travelling to Jeju that week, they had some trouble with their servers there and he went down to solve the problem himself before the company lost all their data. Mrs Park called her husband and told him to be available for a video call at eight, saying that Jihyo had left the wrestling team and the man confirmed he would be waiting without needing further explanation.

“Mom, it’s alright, you don’t have to do all this.”

“Hyo, I’m your mother, what else should I be doing if not supporting my son?” She sighs lightheartedly. “And your father would drop everything too, but we both saw he was just inside that machine thingy and needs a shower before he can talk to you too.”

“Thanks mom.” Jihyo hugs his mother tighter.

“Why don’t you take a bath, relax a little, I’ll make us something nice for dinner and we’ll wait for your father to call as we eat.”

“Okay.” He kisses his mother and heads to his parents’ bathroom, the only one in the house with a bathtub.

Mrs Park smiles softly as she watches her son walk up to relax a little, Jihyo always felt better after a bath, he loved soaking in the water and letting his worries float away. It was his father’s fault really, he first put their son in a tub and told him to imagine his troubles were floating away, then told him to let those worries float down the drain with the water when he was done. It was after the first time Jihyo and Seungwan fought, something about Chaeyoung being bullied and Seungwan not approving of Jihyo beating the bullies into stopping, she also reprimanded Jihyo back then, but the kid just said he’d do it again because nobody is mean to his little brother and walks away.

Mama Park made some traditional dishes, chicken feet (Jihyo’s favorite), bibimbap, kimbap and some army stew, the last one just to get her husband jealous. Mr Son called sometime after she started, asking if everything was fine, she said Jihyo had just left the wrestling team and she needed the evening to talk to her son and make sure he was alright and that the decision wasn’t something he would regret, the man understood, wished them luck and asked to be kept up to date with the happenings, he and his wife saw Jihyo as his own, the same as the Parks saw his kids as theirs.

“Mom?” Jihyo came back wearing his pajamas and looking much better.

“Kitchen.” She answers and waits for him to arrive. “Can you set up the tablet in the tripod? We will wait for your father while we eat, I’m sure you are hungry.”

“Sure mom, where do I set it?”

“On the dinner table, there’s too much food for the counter.” 

“Well, I’m sure ready to eat, no need to keep dieting anyway.”

Both laugh a little, mrs Park worries but manages to not let it show. Jihyo sets everything up, he also connects a microphone and speakers, might as well just go all out, he missed his dad and took every chance he had to talk to his parents like this. Turns out, his mom had maybe exaggerated a little, and papa Park was very bummed out when he first saw the feast his wife and son were having without him, but this was about Jihyo quitting wrestling, something he loved, and the couple making sure their kid was alright.

“I’m going to let this one go just because Hyo quit wrestling.” Is the first thing mr Park says.

“Oh, honey, you can just order something over there.” Mrs Park teases, her voice sickenly sweet.

“Don’t you ‘oh honey’ me! I demand the same treatment once I get back on thursday!”

“I can do friday with a movie night and have Seungwan take Jihyo away.” 

“You two know I’m right here, right?!” The boy decides to intervene.

“Just wait there and look handsome, mommy and daddy are talking.” Mr Park teases. “I’ll take the offer, but you have to throw in going out to dance before the movie and cuddling.”

“Deal, what are you in the mood to dance?” Mrs Park agrees quickly.

“I’m in for some waltzing, it’s been a while since we’ve done that just the two of us.”

“I’ll see where we can go for that, and have everything ready when you get back.”

“Good, now tell us what happened.” The man directs to his son, who was too focused on his chicken feet to mind his parents.”

“Hyo?” Mr Park insists.

“Oh, I’m existing now?” Jihyo jabs playfully. “I thought I was supposed to just be here and look handsome.”

“And you aren’t managing the handsome at all.” Mama Park plays along, but gets serious right after. “Tell us what is this about you quitting your wrestling.”

“Well, remember how I said coach Zhen signed me up for a category below my own, and that he wasn’t being very professional?”

“We remember, but you said you wanted to try anyway, and that you would quit when you felt like you couldn’t keep going.” Mr Park’s voice was light, but his family knew this was him trying not to burden his son even more.

“Well, today some of the seniors were being jerks about our results, and talking like they were the ones that got us through the first round, but without my scores the team wouldn’t have qualified at all.” Jihyo explains, his frustration evident. “And when coach Zhen arrived, he started agreeing with them and practically said I didn’t do more than my obligation. I mean, I know I’m supposed to be a team player despite the matches being individual, but denying everything I did and how everyone knows they wouldn’t have qualified without me scoring like I did just irked me the wrong way.”

Jihyo rants, and his parents let him, they knew the love the boy had for the sport, and how his coach had been pushing him aside with no regards to his hard work and his ranking in the sport. Sure, Jihyo was very clear when he said he wasn’t interested in a sports scholarship, he planned to double-major and if he was required to keep playing he wouldn’t be able to keep his grades from plummeting, but he still loved greco-roman. The boy continued his rant, and they knew he would speak until he had told them the full story.

“So, tomorrow was supposed to be the beginning of the second round of preliminaries, and today I just had it, it was just a lot of jerkery going around, and I wasn’t about to just stay there and let them diminish the rest of the team like that, so I faked an injury, well, I wasn’t really hurt to begin with. But I made Junmyeon knee me in the stomach and just excused myself, then I showered and went directly to the student office. Mrs Shin asked me why I wanted to quit, and I told her that I didn’t want a sport scholarship, and that I was going to quit before the year ended anyway.

She just accepted it and approved my form, but that’s not what I wrote down, I couldn’t just let it slide like that, so I wrote the real reason I quit. That coach Zhen had been pushing for the seniors to have some sort of advantage that was not earned, and that he signed me up for a category that was below mine knowing how hard it would be for me to drop the weight and being completely conscious that he needed my scores if he wanted to qualify. And it was like I was nothing but a stepping stone for them to get something that nobody else was aware of.”

Jihyo finished, panting a little for having ranted so passionately, mr Park was looking solem and didn’t really say anything, his wife, however, got up from her seat and hugged their son tightly, it was a matter of time until the boy started crying and they knew it was better to just let him get everything out of his chest than bottle it up, his therapist also talked to them and said they should allow him to get his emotions out, instead of questioning him while he was speaking up. Jihyo had some problems with repressing himself when he was interrupted in whatever he wanted to communicate, not that his parents were ever anything short of understanding and supportive, but it was the boy’s nature to consider whatever he had to say unimportant if he was interrupted.

“You want to say anything else, son?” Mr Park asks, he felt a little lacking for not being with his family right then, but neither could have predicted what happened.

“I think I said everything, dad. Thanks.” Jihyo sobs, still not falling apart.

“You want to talk more or do something else?” Mrs Park asks, never releasing her hold.

“I think I want to finish dinner. Can we talk about something else?”

“Sure can.” Papa Park perks up. “How about we talk you finally growing that beard?”

“I think that’s not a bad plan. We still don’t even know what color it is!”

“Mom, what are the chances my bear will be anything but black?”

“You never know. Mine is a mix of light brown and blonde.”

“Is that why you dye it every time you let it grow?” Jihyo was honestly curious at that.

“It looks ridiculous, and we don’t talk about my natural beard in this family.”

“We do now.” Jihyo begs with the power of puppy dog eyes.

“No, we never talk about my beard in this family.” Mr Park is unrelenting in the matter.

They just laugh and keep talking about nothing, by the end of dinner, Jihyo was already feeling much better, his father promised they would go out and do whatever he wanted to do as a family, it didn’t matter it would be a thursday, mama Park already declared she would communicate the school of his absence on that day. That day Jihyo slept much lighter than he had since he found out he was being pushed around by coach Zhen’s whims.