ASD 5

“More, more. Junhyeong, stop defending and break through! Maintain your distance. Gijun is reading all your tempos right now! Don’t tuck your head! A short uppercut is coming in, block it!”

The gym director’s urgent voice boomed over the ring.

Gasp, gasp. The body of his opponent, who was breathing like he was about to die, had already half-collapsed. The rash guard clinging to his body was soaked in sweat, constricting his body even more tightly. The raw breaths created by their bodies heated up the ring.

Gijun’s eyes glittered through his headgear. The gradually rising excitement gave his heart a pleasant kick-start. A thrilling sense of vitality spreads heavily from the center to the periphery, from head to toe, in time with his heartbeat. Seeing Gijun genuinely enjoying himself, his opponent’s face contorted with anger.

“Uraagh!”

With a low kiai, his opponent charged. He aggressively initiated an infight, but he must have grown tired, as he was much slower than before.

The exhaustingly solid durability and stamina Gijun displayed probably played a part in crushing his morale. His massive body, which took countless blows without much damage, was leisurely from start to finish, as if daring him to keep pushing.

Gijun, who had been taking a certain number of incoming blows, slowly began to create distance. His tall body moved nimbly. The moment his opponent tried to strike and enter, Gijun lowered his upper body and sharply ducked inside. Agilely wrapping his arms around one of his opponent’s thighs, he pushed forward and broke his balance.

Thump. Junhyeong’s body fell onto the mat. Completely exhausted, he couldn’t think of getting up anymore and tapped out. The director threw a towel toward his students.

“Good work.”

“Wow… f**k… heok… heok….”

Junhyeong was so out of breath he couldn’t even speak properly. While he was spread-eagled and panting, Gijun took off his headgear and picked up his water bottle. Transparent beads of sweat flew from his soaked hair. As he gulped down the sweet, delicious water, his sweat-drenched throat bobbed repeatedly.

“Hey, Junhyeong. You have to go one more round.”

“Heok, I, I almost blacked out, ugh…”

Unable to finish his sentence, Junhyeong writhed in pain. With a nearly lifeless hand, he struggled to take off his headgear and collapsed on the spot again.

“Ah, Director… I can’t do it with that b**t**d anymore….”

“Tsk, look at that stamina, really. You have to endure. Are you going to be ready for the match like this?”

“You know it too, Director. Even if you search the whole country, there’s no monster-like b**t**d like him….”

Junhyeong was someone he had trained with at the same gym for years and sparred with countless times. Their weight and height were similar, but he had never once beaten Gijun whenever they fought.

Gijun grinned and took his hand to pull him up.

“Hyung, are you okay?”

“Get lost, you crazy b**t**d.”

My whole body is like a fucking… rock…. When Junhyeong kicked his ankle like he was whining, Gijun dodged nimbly and grinned again. Finding his smiling face annoying, Junhyeong launched a surprise ground attack, and this time, he let himself fall easily.

Thud. Gijun, who had fallen with a thud, wrapped his arm around Junhyeong’s neck as if he had been waiting for it. The muscles of his firm forearm, which was joyfully choking his opponent, tensed and bulged.

“Keck… kack… tap, taptaptap.”

As soon as Gijun chuckled and loosened the strength in his arm, Junhyeong, who was now thoroughly provoked, charged again. The director, watching his students tumbling and fighting like a pair of grappling lion cubs, back and forth, cracked a smile. It was a full five minutes later that the two sweat-soaked bodies finally separated.

“Hyung, want to go another round?”

“Get lost!”

Junhyeong, who was lying there panting at the end of the long bout of playing around, shuddered. He threw his sweat-soaked towel at Gijun, who was speaking with a slick grin. Gijun, lightly snatching the towel, smiled brightly. Dimples formed deeply on both his cheeks as an innocent smile spread.

When he threw off his sweaty rash guard, his threateningly built upper body was revealed. The muscles, pumped up from the intense workout, writhed ferociously with his movements. On his glistening wrist, a black rosary bracelet rattled.

Gijun opened his sports bag, took out a new t-shirt, and put it on, then pulled a zip-up hoodie over it. After taking off his shorts and changing into training pants, he instantly looked neat and clean, as if he had never been tumbling around on the ring.

“Well then, I’ll be heading out.”

“Oh, oh, it’s already this late. See you tomorrow.”

“Hyung! Get home safe. Another sparring match tomorrow?”

“Seriously, get lost….”

Gijun kept chuckling as he looked at Junhyeong, who was lying down and weakly flipping him the middle finger. His footsteps were light as he slung the bag over his shoulder and left the dojang.

It was about two bus stops to his house. It was past 11, so he hesitated for a moment, but since he was all warmed up, he wanted to do some more cardio and decided to run. Gijun tied his shoelaces tightly and started to run lightly.

March. His body, which had cooled down in the still-chilly night air, began to warm up pleasantly again. The vitality circulating through his whole body was welcome. He breathed out rhythmically and ran at a steady pace. After running along the long, straight main road for a while, he turned next to the convenience store, and a familiar alley appeared.

From here on was a residential area. The kind where, when he told his school friends his address, they would always say something like, “Wow, your family must be rich.” The alley, with its sparsely standing large mansions, was very quiet at this hour.

Stopping in front of his house, Gijun quietly opened the door and went inside. As always, the garage was empty.

“……”

He slowly raised his head and looked at the secluded two-story mansion. It was all dark, but his room on the second floor and the kitchen on the first floor were brightly lit.

As soon as he entered the front door, he headed straight for the second floor. He was in a hurry to get to the furball that would be waiting only for him in his room.

“Sunny.”

Meeeow—. The cat, answering with a long cry, jumped down from the cat tower. Watching the cute furball patter over, rub against his feet, and roll around, Gijun smiled deeply.

“Were you a good boy? What did you do for fun today?”

“Meeow—”

“Sorry. You must have been bored all day, right? My workout went a little long.”

After petting the purring gray cat for a long while, he headed to the first-floor kitchen. On the dining table was the kimchi fried rice that the housekeeper had prepared for him. The sight of the fried rice, piled high enough to be about three servings and covered in plastic wrap, made his appetite rage.

After just washing his hands, he immediately sat down at the table. It felt like he had only taken a few spoonfuls, but the plate was empty in no time.

Screech. He pushed his chair back, stood up, and glanced toward the back of the kitchen. The housekeeper, who knew his appetite well—always hearty, but especially active after a workout—had thankfully cut up plenty of fruit for him as well.

Gijun, having devoured all the assorted fruits, finally walked out of the kitchen with a relaxed heart. He left the first-floor lights on and went into the bathroom. Finding the dead-silent stillness of the mansion unpleasant, he turned up the music loudly and showered. The loud rock music was not drowned out by the sound of the water and boomed throughout the bathroom.

After finishing his shower, Gijun walked out n**ed, dried himself off, and sat on the edge of the bed. The cat that had been sitting there slowly approached and meowed—coyly. Gijun stretched out his arm and picked up the fishing rod toy.

“That’s it. That’s it. Faster!”

“Meeowk!”

“Hey punk, you think you can catch it at that speed? Huh? I can see all your tempos right now. More, more, more!”

Sunny went into a frenzy and pounced as Gijun sternly urged him on in the gym director’s tone, shaking the mouse toy wildly. Gijun, who had been lying propped up against the bed and excitedly swinging the mouse toy, finally stopped playing after getting a long scratch on his side.

“You little s**t. Seriously. You always draw blood when you get excited.”

Though his mouth grumbled, the hand that stroked the cat’s face was endlessly gentle. The cat, which had been excitedly running wild until just a moment ago, responded to its owner’s touch with an impertinent kitty-cat punch. Finding even that funny and trivial, Gijun just chuckled.

He shot up and carelessly wiped the bleeding skin with a tissue. He was used to having bruises and contusions from running and tumbling at the dojang anyway. After pulling on underwear and a t-shirt, he flopped onto the bed in his briefs.

“Sun, Sun, Sunny.”

Gijun, stroking the nape of the purring furball, suddenly let out a small laugh.

“You know what? There’s a kid in my class who looks like you.”

“Meeow—.”

“He looks similar, and he acts similar too.”

As he spoke, the kid’s face naturally came to mind. Skin that looked white and soft like flour dough, and almond-shaped, coy eyes. Lips that were red as if something had been dabbed on them.

He was somehow different from the other boys. Gijun, pondering for a moment what it could be, lightly scratched the back of his damp head. It was hard to explain exactly what was different… but anyway, it was like that.

About three days ago, he had been sleeping with his head down during lunch break and woke up to a commotion. Hearing the voice saying something about Sunny, he sat up in a daze, thinking of his cat, but the constant stream of dirty curses got on his nerves.

When he turned to see what was going on, some bear-like, rough, and fierce-looking guy was bullying a kid much smaller than him. The way he was carrying on with a kid who looked like he would fall over if you poked him. The moment Gijun scowled deeply, that small kid threw a punch at the bear-like guy’s face.

Gijun blinked, wondering what he had just seen. The little guy had incredible guts. There was quite a size difference.

However, the punch itself was pathetic. To the point where he doubted if it could even inflict any damage on that big guy. The fiercely raised eyes and the small, heaving chest looked just like Sunny when he raised his claws.

When the bear b**t**d who got hit grabbed the small guy by the collar and smacked him, Gijun started to feel uncomfortable. It was an unpleasant feeling stemming from a strong sense of injustice.

Truthfully, there was no reason for fights between boys in a classroom to be fair. It wasn’t a fight in a ring, so there was no reason to fight in the same weight class either.

And in the first place, how the kids fought was none of his business. Moreover, he was in the position of having transferred schools, almost like being kicked out, after vowing not to get into fights anymore. He knew better than anyone that this kind of meddling would lead to a troublesome situation.

This was especially true when the opponent was the pathetic type who tried to assert himself by picking on a scrawny kid like he was catching a mouse. The guy would likely pick a fight again to restore his pride, which had been ruthlessly trampled in front of the other kids.

And yet.

‘Hey. It’s noisy.’

Looking at that kid, with a pathetically red handprint on his white face, Gijun once again chose to get involved in a troublesome matter. It was a somewhat impulsive action, but he had no regrets.