“Let me do it.”

Hae Jin whipped his head around, to face the owner of the deep resonant voice. 

Almond-shaped eyes, deep black irises, sharp nose, full lips, strong jaw. 

A fighter’s stance. 

A strong aura.

He could recognize these features even in his sleep. Now he could add on ‘deep masculine voice’ into his list of this man. 

His dream. 

The reason why he put in every ounce of skill and talent to get into Seoul’s best arts college. 

The reason why he left his village hometown to come alone to the big city. 

His dream. 

Won Ryu Hwan, one of the most anticipated martial arts fighters in the championship league, known for his minimal but deadly accurate offensive technique in competitions. 

Won Ryu Hwan, the art college writing department’s pride and joy. The only writing major on a full scholarship who, even as a undergraduate, had already taken the internet by storm because of his beautifully written short pieces. 

His dream. 

Who was Won Ryu Hwan, the man behind his fight and his words? Between his deadly moves and sensitivity as a writer, Hae Jin had hoped to learn from the man in question. But Hae Jin didn’t think he’d be meeting this man so early on in school. For a while, he couldn’t quite think of a more put together response. Drawing in a shaky breath, he moved to address the taller boy.

“Captain Won Ryu Hwan!”

-------

In his years of running the Taekwondo team, everyone addressed him this way. Nothing special, nothing extraordinary, just entirely functional and respectful towards his position. The strangest feeling, however, overtook his being when the new soft-spoken lower classmen greeted him reverently.

He remembered feeling something similar years ago when Hae Rang successfully played and sang with his guitar for the first time in their school field. 

But this time it overpowered his senses... and he felt strangely sad. 

What was this feeling? 

“Ah.” Ryu Hwan mentally berated himself for his less than stellar reply to the brown-haired new student. 

He studied the new student. He had puppy eyes, and a shy demeanor, but Ryu Hwan couldn’t ignore the surprising silent strength that he felt from his posture and eyes. 

“Captain?” 

The new boy repeated again while cocking him head up to face him, breaking Ryu Hwan’s own train of thoughts. 

“Ah... I saw you getting hit. Are you looking for ointment? Come over here, the Taekwondo team has their own personal stash. Sit down, I’ll take a look at your head.” 

“Neh. Thank you Captain.” Replied the new student softly. He hesitantly sat down on the chair that Ryu Hwan drew out and look around stiffly, seemingly unsure of what to do with himself. 

In attempt to lighten up the strange atmosphere, Ryu Hwan gave a small laugh while uncapping the ointment bottle, and said, “You avoided all of them. But you went straight into the line of the plate’s trajectory.”  

The boy, relaxed his tense shoulders and gave a small shrug, “It was the oblivious girl in front or me.” 

Finishing up the last of the ointment application on the new student’s head swelling, Ryu Hwan chuckled, “Well played, martyr.” Turning around almost immediately, the new student looked up and stared at Ryu Hwan in the eye, “Wouldn’t you do the same?”

Ah.

Rendered speechless for the second time in their encounter, Ryu Hwan paused for a while before breathing out, “...yes, I would.” 

Strange, Ryu Hwan thought. It was a simple question, that really only had one answer in his opinion. But why did he feel like he was talking about something bigger than preventing a plate from hitting a girl’s head? 

Before he could even contemplate the utter absurdity of his thoughts running through his mind, the shy boy’s face brightened into a wide smile. Ryu Hwan returned it with a small grin. 

“Captain Ryu Hwan, I’m Lee Hae Jin, the new transfer student this year. I’ve been following all of Captain’s league matches all these years, I really admire you, Captain... Your writing is impeccable. I... I really admire you, Captain!”

Before he could even pre-meditate on his next action, Ryu Hwan extended his right hand and ruffled the younger boy’s brown hair. Countless people have come up to him over the years, saying similar things, and he’d always finished the conversation with a ‘thank you very much’ and a bow. 

How was this any different? 

...

Why was it any different? 

“I’ll be watching you, Hae Jin. See you at practice.” 

Writer's notes: This is a really short one... I dedicate this chapter/scene to Naruchannn, who left the first comment ever on my story! :D Hope you enjoy it. I wanted to add on a couple more scenes to this post, but after some thinking, I felt that it had to end with Ryu Hwan's last sentence, for some reason lolol!

Anyway, I'll be gone for a business trip this weekend, it might be a bit tougher to post up a long one, but I'll do my best!