“Don’t forget about your lesson. It starts this Saturday. I’ll show you the way there,” Kyung’s sister told him as she placed the dishes onto the dining table.
 
This is the first thing she decided to say to me when we haven’t met in almost four days? He scratched his head and zoned out for a moment. Lesson? Could it be hagwon*? Can’t be. Kyung’s pretty good in his studies. Is it piano lessons? But he quitted about 2 months ago. Strange, he thought. He rested his cheek on his right palm while waiting for his sister to scoop the rice into his bowl.
 
“What… lesson…?” he asked, completely clueless.
 
“Taekwondo. I signed you up 2 weeks ago. Sorry I was too busy to tell you,” she answered without any sign of remorse. 
 
“TAEKWONDO? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!?” Kyung shrieked and slammed his chopsticks onto the table.
 
She placed her hand onto her forehead, feeling stressed, and let out an exhausting sigh. 
 
“I don’t have the energy to argue with you.”
 
“BUT… NOONA!”
 
“I don’t want the same thing to happen like last year. You know very well what I mean.”
 
“It’s already been about a week since I’ve attended the new school,” he sternly voiced out his thoughts. He pulled up his sleeves to show her his arms and then he patted his face, neck and arms. “Look, I’m fine.”
 
“Fine? Then why did Ms. Park call me yesterday, huh? Telling me someone saw you getting bullied?” she crossed her arms after responding quickly and loudly to prove her point. 
 
Kyung hesitated before he said, “Noona, I can handle this. I don’t need lessons,”
 
“Enough is enough. You are going. Case closed,” she responded with her eyes that became so red then left her half-filled bowl on the table, stormed to her room and slammed the door, leaving him to have dinner alone. 
 
Feeling extremely annoyed, Kyung hung his head back and stared at the ceiling. The fact that it was a Monday was bad enough. Then he had to come home to this. He knew he shouldn’t yell at her but this was ridiculous. Taekwondo… If he had the interest, he probably wouldn’t mind going. If she had discussed with him, he wouldn’t have gotten mad at her. Taekwondo lessons? As if that would help me. The feeling of frustration made him lost his appetite. He decided to just go straight to bed. He let out an annoyed groan when he stood up. He purposely tucked his chair in using extra force so that there was a screeching sound. He, too, slammed the door when he went into his room. No one had dinner that day.
 
 
“Okay go for your break. Be back on time alright,” Ms. Park dismissed them. 
 
Kyung could hear everyone letting out a sigh of relief simultaneously. All of his classmates started creating clusters and then left to go to the cafeteria. Just like every other day for the past week, Na Young, Jaehyo, Ha Yi and Kyung naturally gathered and walked to the cafeteria together.
 
Jaehyo sat beside him, telling him about an A-Pink concert that happened the day before. Kyung couldn’t grasp on what he said since he was talking so quickly with much enthusiasm. What more, he was still bothered by what happened during dinner last night. Kyung simply nodded at whatever he blabbered. Ha Yi and Na Young, as usual, were fangirling. This time it’s Block B. Last week it was Infinite… Jaehyo couldn’t be bothered with them while Kyung, on the other hand, was too bothered by what happened last night. Unconsciously, he let out a sigh which made all three of them look at him. He didn’t even realize they were staring at him until he looked up to take a sip of his drink.
 
“What? Why are you staring at me?” Kyung asked, totally puzzled.
 
“You okay?” Na Young pouted.
 
Kyung gulped and let out another sigh after he rubbed his neck and said, “Does it show?”
 
“Yeah, you’ve been sighing all day!” Ha Yi said as she took the fork away from Kyung’s grip. “And… you’ve been stabbing that piece of carrot since just now. What’re you doing… Making carrot juice?” 
 
“Yah! So all this while, when I was talking about Na Eun, you didn’t pay attention to a single thing I said?!!” Jaehyo slammed his fist on the table. 
 
Kyung gave him a look that says ‘sorry-I-am-too-upset-to-do-so’. 
 
“What’s wrong, Kyung?” Na Young questioned him, with a concerned look.
 
“My noona signed me up for taekwondo classes,” Kyung said with a sigh, again.
 
They stared at him in silence. Either they’re waiting for him to continue what he was saying or they’re confused at the fact that he was upset about that. Probably the latter. 
 
“That… is what you’re upset about?” Jaehyo glared at him.
 
“I’m upset because she didn’t discuss it with me. Besides, I don’t even like taekwondo!”
 
“Why did she sign you up for taekwondo though?” Jaehyo asked, pausing in between his words to swallow his hamburger.
 
After dazing for a moment, Kyung told him he didn’t know why. Deep down, Kyung knew very well why she signed him up for this. He took a deep breath to not remind himself about the incident. 
 
“Taekwondo doesn’t sound that bad! You learn to defend yourself and stuff,” Ha Yi patted Kyung back to make him feel better. “Hey, my mum signed him up for violin classes two years ago. B flat major scale, semiquaver, crotchet… Oh God, those 3 months were terrible.”
 
“What?! You took violin? I did too!” Jaehyo exclaimed. He paused for a moment and said this with full of cheesiness, “I guess it’s fate.” 
 
All of them laughed when he winked at Ha Yi. 
 

____________________ 
hagwon = private institute