Jeongguk stopped near the road after walking out of the chaotic building. He looked up and took a deep breath as he closed his eyes to calm himself down.
He just lost his job. Another job.
But, he did not care. He never liked that shitty place full of brainless creatures. Who they think they are!!!
He wanted to throw the mopping towel on their face but controlled himself at that moment. He decided to storm out of there throwing the towel away. Why would he clean their shoes? He was not some servant.
Even when he explained everything to his boss, the man scolded him instead, saying he should have done what they told him to do. He even said, he should have apologised to that girl for his rude behaviour.
Jeongguk scoffed, remembering the words again. He will never say sorry to anyone in that place. They did what he hated the most. In his life, he hated 2 things mostly. Touching the feet of those proud rich people and someone's inappropriate touch.
When his boss shouted 'you're fired', he knew it was those rich kids' doing. So, he changed his waiter's uniform without a word and left the building for good.
They thought, by firing him from the job they will take their revenge and defeat him. But, that's nothing for Jeongguk. Although he lost a job with good payment just now, he did not regret his behaviour earlier.
It's not easy to find another job instantly, but he will manage anyway. He will hunt for a new job tomorrow. But right now, he had the most important job to attend. The arena was calling him, the money was calling him. The shouting of the wild people of 'The Hellhounds' invaded his head. It's almost time.
Jeongguk pulled the phone out of his pocket and saw it's 9 pm right now. His match will start at 10:30. He had enough time to reach the building and rest before the match.
He pocketed his phone again and slowly walked to the nearby bust stoppage. After waiting for a few minutes there, he caught a bus to the area of his boxing club.
*
Jeongguk entered the elevator and pressed the button of the underground floor. Soon he reached it and stepped out of the elevator. Then he entered a narrow corridor which was near the main door to the boxing arena.
Two guards nodded their heads who were standing at the entrance of the corridor. They always guard the entrance so that no audience can enter there. The corridor was for the fighters only. When some fighters arrived during others' match, they had to enter through this corridor so that they don't attract the attention of the audiences.
Jeongguk nodded at them and they scanned his body and bag with some scanning device, then motioned him to go ahead. Jeongguk slowly walked through the narrow corridor which was bright due to some ceiling lights.
Soon, he reached the fighters' resting room. A few fighters looked up at him. Some nodded their heads with a small smirk. Some just ignored. Jeongguk sat down in his usual chair at the corner and put his bag down on the floor.
Today was the day he always felt a little relief. Because, after today, he did not have to come for 2 days. He had matches only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
But the problem was he had two matches on Friday. It's very hard. If you get injured a lot during the first match, you will lose the second one. Along with that you will lose money. And if you're lucky and did not get injured much during the first one, then you will win the second one too. The money will be double. So, he tried hard to win both matches. But, most of the time, it was not possible to win both.
Suddenly, he heard some teasing whistle from the fighters and he looked up. He saw Abby, walked into the room in her fighting attire.
Black leather boots which reached her calf, black leather pants reaching her upper thigh, a black leather crop top with a black strap tightly wrapped around her knuckles to her wrist. Disheveled hair reaching her shoulder and bruised lips. A few other injuries on her arm and neck.
She ignored the whistles of the fighters and slowly walked towards Jeongguk with a small smirk on her lips and a red rose in her hand. She grabbed the rose as if she was carrying a rope. Jeongguk raised his eyebrow when she stopped in front of him.
"You know my match will start in half an hour." He spoke out, indicating her to not disturb him.
"I know. That's why I came." Her smirk turned wider and he furrowed his eyebrows, confused.
"All the best." Suddenly she held the rose up in her hand and he looked blankly at it. Then he looked at her and saw her smiling.
The other fighters whistled loudly in a teasing manner and Jeongguk looked away towards a wall now. Suddenly, he felt something soft running on his left cheek and he knew what it was. He swatted the rose away with his hand and heard a huff.
Then in a blink of an eye, his hand was grabbed and the rose was placed in his hand. He looked up at her, irritated.
"Take it." She said with an annoyed expression and then walked away from there.
The fighters again whistled at her. A few of them were checking her back as she walked towards the door.
"F*ck off." She barked at them and left the room.
Jeongguk looked at the rose in his hand and sighed, then threw it to another chair, a little far from him.
Soon, his time arrived and he changed his cloths, changing into the fighter's attire. Black boots, black leather pants and a black tank top with a red howling wolf print. A few fighters were known for their unique fighting style and strategy, and they were known by the names of different animals.
Jeongguk was known as the cunning wolf of 'The Hellhounds'. He got this name after the three months of fighting. His approaching style towards his opponent, his fighting strategy and some unique style caught everyone's attention in only 2 months. They said, he looked like a dangerous wolf inside the arena cage. So, they named him 'wolf'.
After another month, the club handed him some custom made tank top with a red howling wolf print on it.
Jeongguk tightly wrapped the straps around his knuckle and wrist. Then he took a deep breath and walked out of the room. When he stood near the entrance of the arena hall, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"All the best, man." Jeongguk looked to his side at the familiar voice and raised his eyebrows to see Yoongi.
"Yoongi? How come you're here today?" Jeongguk asked, a bit surprised.
"The other in-charge took leave today due to some problem. I had to come." Yoongi sighed and Jeongguk nodded his head, understood.
"Thanks, man." Jeongguk looked at him with a small smile and Yoongi smiled back.
Jeongguk did not know why but he felt relieved after seeing Yoongi. The male's presence motivated him and gave him more courage. The little worry he had in his mind, now disappeared.
Yoongi patted his back as Jeongguk's name was announced on the mic and he stepped inside the arena.
*
Jeongguk finished his matches. Today, surprisingly he won both matches after so many days. He was surprised himself.
Although, they had half an hour break between the two matches, he did not think he would win the second match because he was very tired after the first one and a bit more injured than the other days. But, he tried his best to win. He thought of the bicycle Choon Hee saw and liked the other day when they were walking back from her school. That was a bit costly but the spark in her eyes was engraved into his mind.
The due date of the rent and Choon Hee's school fee were also nearing. On top of that, his mother caught a cold and fever. He had to buy some medicine for her tomorrow. And his gym fee...
So, he got up when the count reached 7. He had to win. With all the energy left, he gave his signature blow to his opponent. Fortunately, his opponent was also very tired. He couldn't get up before the count to 10 because of Jeongguk's famous signature blow.
Jeongguk was taking long and deep breath with closed eyes while sitting in a chair and Yoongi was pouring water on his head from a bottle. Worry was evident in the male's face.
Jeongguk had a split lip, bruised chin and cheek. Blood was coming out of his shoulder and forehead. Yoongi gently wiped the blood from Jeongguk's forehead with some sanitized cotton with his left hand as he was still pouring water little by little on his head. Abby was attending the bruises on his cheek, chin, shoulder and arms.
"Man..." She muttered as she did bandage on his shoulder.
"Grab the bottle. I'll bandage his forehead." Yoongi said and handed the bottle to her, then proceeded to treat his forehead injury.
They had three caretakers for situation like this. But today, one took leave and the other two went to treat other fighters. Yoongi himself sent him away as he knew well that they did not care much. They never handled the fighters gently. Jeongguk was extremely injured today and Yoongi did not want anyone to treat him roughly and cause more pain. Also, he knew these bandage stuff and he had Abby to help him anyway.
"Do you think, we should take him to the hospital?" Abby looked at Yoongi.
"You're r-"
"No." Jeongguk spoke out and Yoongi stopped midway.
"My bones are fine. Just some scratches on my skin. Nothing much." Jeongguk said again and gulped, feeling his throat drying again.
Abby was about to retort but Yoongi shook his head, putting a finger on his lips, indicating her to stay silent. Yoongi knew Jeongguk will became angry if they force him to go to a hospital. When Jeongguk said he was fine, then he was really fine.
He gave Jeongguk some water and the male gulped it down. After a few minutes, Jeongguk opened his eyes and sat up straight, now better than before. Now, he was just feeling pain on the bruised area, nothing else. The water on his head did a magic to him.
"How are you feeling now?" Yoongi asked, concerned.
"I'm ok now. Much better." Jeongguk replied as he moved his fingers through his wet hair.
Suddenly, Jeongguk's eyes landed on the flower bouquet and a paper bag in front of him. The familiar one. But, this time after 2 weeks. Jeongguk looked at Yoongi with a questioning look in his eyes.
"A stuff member handed this to me as you were not in the state of receiving any gift earlier." Yoongi said and handed the flower to Jeongguk.
Jeongguk looked at the familiar bouquet, but this time it's sunflower. Everytime the flowers were different. With his instinct, he looked inside the bouquet and found a familiar white card. He took it out and ran his gaze over the letters.
May your day be bright and beautiful like these sunflowers.
The letters were cursive, bold and printed. But another line below it caught their attention.
-May your injury heal soon. Take care-
It was not bold or printed. It was hand written cursive letters. Looked like the person who wrote it, they wrote after they saw how injured Jeongguk was after the second match.
"I think it's some female fan who is trying to impress you." Abby spoke out while squinting her eyes with a dissatisfied look as she stared at the card.
Jeongguk and Yoongi looked at her with a blank face, looked so done. They ignored her words and looked at the bag now.
"Here." Yoongi handed the bag to Jeongguk and the later looked inside.
He pulled out a box of chocolate where the name 'Godiva' was written on the top.
"OMG..one of the top 10 most expensive chocolates in the world! It's a Belgium brand..." Abby spoke out with surprise in her tone although she was jealous of the unknown fangirl.
Jeongguk raised his eyebrows when he heard her words and stared at the name. He did not know about these kind of things. About the brand names. It was uncomfortable to hold the box in his hands after knowing about it.
Yoongi narrowed his eyes at her, indicating her to keep silence and she averted her eyes away seeing his expression.
Jeongguk then took out a box with a neatly folded shirt inside it, a book wrapped with some paper and two tickets for the Sunday movie. Jeongguk was speechless again.
He always turned speechless whenever the gifts arrived. Everytime it was different. But, chocolate and flowers were common things although the types were different everytime.
It was not a shocking matter that the fighters received some gifts. Every fighter had some fans who sent them gifts. Jeongguk also had some fans sending him gifts. But, this particular fan seemed very rich and had some unique choices of gifts.
"I can't accept these." Jeongguk looked at the bag with an uncomfortable look on his face. Uncomfortable to receive expensive things.
He looked at Yoongi with the same look and received a glare from the male.
"You want to lose your fans and anger the club? You want to lose money?" Yoongi asked while raising his eyebrow.
Jeongguk looked at the bag again and heaved a sigh. Then he thanked them for taking care of his injury and left with Yoongi after changing his cloths.
When he reached home that night, his mother cried seeing bandages all over his body. He hugged her in his arms and reassured her that he was ok, it's just some scratches.
After calming her down, he went to the bedroom and put the box of chocolate near Choon Hee's head as she was sleeping soundly. He tore the wrapped paper away from the book he received and saw it was the latest released children's story of the number one children's author in the world. He decided to read it to Choon Hee from the next day on.
He handed the shirt to his mother, telling her to keep it safe and kept the movie tickets with himself, thinking of taking his niece to a good movie date on Sunday.
---------------------------------------------------------
Gentle breeze shook the leaves of the trees as a few children ran around while playing in the open field at the back of Kim Mansion.
They were the children of a few servants of Kim Mansion who lived in the servants' quarter behind the mansion. The children always left for school through another small gate behind the mansion. There were five children. Two girls and three boys. All were around the age of 5.
As the children played with a ball, one of them kicked the ball a little harder and the ball flew to a little far and landed on the ground, then rolled towards the glasshouse nursery. They all ran towards the ball in excitement but then stopped suddenly when a person walked out of the glasshouse.
The person stopped seeing the frozen children. That's when the ball lightly hit the person's shoes. The children gasped out at the contact and the person raised his eyebrow at their reaction.
"Y-young master. S-sorry..." A girl stuttered out and the others also nodded their heads, supporting her.
Taehyung did not say anything and looked at them one by one, causing them to gulp down in slight fear. Then he slowly bent down and picked the ball up and looked at them again. The children widened their eyes a little, now fearing for their one and only football.
Suddenly Taehyung smiled at them, showing his unique boxy smile and then lightly kicked the ball towards them. The children broke out in a bright smile.
That's how they liked their young master. One day when they were playing, they accidentally kicked the ball a bit harder and that landed on their young master's thigh who was walking out of the glasshouse. They were so shocked at the moment that they were about to cry in fear of scolding.
But, surprisingly their young master smiled at them and gently kicked the ball back. That day, he played with them for five minutes and then walked away. Since then, he had been playing with them once in a month. He even brought chocolates, balloons and toys for them sometimes. They really loved him.
But today, they were a bit scared because they did the same mistake which they did one year ago. Plus, their young master had not played with them for a few months. They thought he did not like them anymore.
"What are you waiting for? Pass it to me." Taehyung said with a smile and they started playing.
After playing for a few minutes, Taehyung bid them farewell and walked away from there when a servant came to call him.
*
Taehyung was shocked to hear that his dad came home from his meeting and now wanted to have lunch with the family. It was extremely rare of him having lunch with his family. But, Taehyung was happy.
Today was his day off as he made Namjoon extend the last date of submission of their project. Last night, he and his friends enjoyed a lot. Although, he was angry at first for some minutes, then his friends told him to forget what happened and he tried to forget. They drank, talked, laughed and danced a lot.
He woke up at 11 am in the morning with a hangover. Thankfully, he took some hangover medicine and had breakfast, then went to the glasshouse to walk between the flowers and enjoy the fresh air.
There, he met the children and decided to play with them after months. He liked to play with them sometimes. He saw his childhood in them. When he saw them playing like that, laughing, screaming and running around, it reminded him of his childhood.
Soon, Taehyung reached the dining hall and washed his hands in the basin. Then he waited on the couch and waited for others. It's almost 1 pm. Although, he was not hungry because he had his breakfast at 11:45 am, but his dad wanted to have lunch after so many days, so he decided to eat even if it's just a little bit.
Soon, he heard the clicking sound of heels and he looked up and saw his sister-in-law.
"Hey, Taehyungie dear." She smiled at him and sat down on the other couch.
"Hey. When did you come back?" He smiled at her and asked with a confused look on his face as no one told him about her arrival.
"Oh, yesterday, at noon. I went to your brother's office directly and then went to meet my friends without coming home. When I got back, you were not at home, you went to the club. And you came back after I fell asleep. Today, you woke up late, so we are meeting now." She finished with a smile, fixing her hair a bit.
"Oh, I see." Taehyung chuckled.
That's when Mrs. Kim entered the hall and smiled at them both. Her daughter-in-law stood up and went to hug her.
"Hey sweetie~" Mrs. Kim hugged her lightly as they both exchanged a hug which people do in parties.
"I really missed you, mother. Where have you been since yesterday?" The daughter-in-law smiled sweetly at Mrs. Kim.
"Oh Eunji~..I went to a friend's housewarming party in Busan yesterday and came back at 11 today. And I missed you too, sweetie~" Mrs. Kim smiled at her.
That's when Chang Wook entered the hall and looked at his mother, wife and brother for a second, then proceeded to seat in his chair. His wife was about to say something but stopped when they saw Master Kim entering the hall, followed by his butler.
They also went to sit around the dining table. Eunji sat down beside Chang Wook and looked at him, but he ignored her and looked at Taehyung with a soft smile who smiled back at him. Chang Wook just saw Taehyung earlier from his window and he was happy about that.
"Hello, father. How have you been?" Eunji smiled at Master Kim and he looked at her.
"I'm good. When did you come back?" He asked her with a smile.
"Just yesterday, father." She smiled sweetly at him and he nodded his head.
The butlers filled their plates with food and they started to dig in. Slowly, small conversation started. Mrs. Kim started saying about her friend's son who was very obedient of his parents. She was surprised to see that last night in her friend's housewarming party.
"I'm afraid that my son will not stay obedient to me in near future." Kim Daehyun suddenly spoke out and everyone stopped eating, then looked at him.
Chang Wook looked at his father, thinking what he had done again to receive that reaction and Taehyung looked at his brother, a little worried.
"Why honey? Why do you think that?" Mrs. Kim spoke out in a gentle voice.
"Ask him." Kim Daehyun motioned towards Taehyung while cutting a piece from the chicken on his plate with a small knife.
Everyone at the table were surprised and looked at Taehyung. The said male was surprised himself, thinking hard what he had done. He looked at his father with slightly open mouth and wide eyes. He never wanted to look bad in his father's eyes.
"What..what did I do, dad?" Taehyung asked after a few seconds and his father finally looked up.
"Taehyung...what did I say about playing in the backyard? You forgot all that?" His father asked and Taehyung finally realised.
After a few months of playing with the children, one day Taehyung was called to his father's home-office. His father looked disappointed that day. He warned Taehyung to not go to low, to not play with those poor children. If he wanted to play, then he should go to their private golf lawn, racing stadium or arcade with his friends.
Since then, Taehyung stopped playing with the children in their backyard. He maintained distance. But today, he did not know why he couldn't control himself anymore. He just gave in to his wish and decided to play for 5 minutes. He thought, his father was not at home today, so he wouldn't know about it. But, luck was not on his side.
"I warned you about playing with the children in the backyard. Why are you trying to go so low, my son? Why did not you care about my warning?" Kim Daehyun said with a slightly disappointed tone and Taehyung instantly shook his head with worry in his eyes.
Chang Wook gripped his fork tightly as he clenched his jaw. This! This is how they were ruining his little brother. They tried to do the same with him but thankfully he had his mother's genes in his blood. But, Taehyung's mother was not like his mother. She always set fuel to the fire and supported her husband to discipline Taehyung according to their will.
Chang Wook always hated that. He hated that he still couldn't take his brother out of their claws. He hated that his father was making Taehyung a carbon copy of himself. He hated that Taehyung's mother was supporting their father in that and also teaching her son all negative attitude herself.
He hated that his brother was clueless about all these and trying hard to walk on their father's path and be the best son how their father wanted him to be. He hated that his brother was feeling guilty of doing the right things and showing the right attitude.
"I'm sorry, dad. I'm very sorry. Please, forgive me." Taehyung spoke out with worry, disappointed at himself and Chang Wook closed his eyes. He had enough.
"Don't apologise for doing some innocent act. You looked so happy earlier. I saw that. Children are angels. They are epitome of innocence and happiness." Chang Wook said in a gentle tone, controlling himself.
Taehyung's eyes softened at his words. His heart easily accepted his brother's words.
"Chang Wook!" Kim Daehyun spoke out in a warning tone as he glared at his eldest son.
"Father-" Chang Wook was about to retort back but fortunately, his phone rang. He was lucky.
He took out his phone from his pocket and saw it's the agent of their recent international deal.
"Excuse me, father. It's very urgent. The agent of our recent deal." He looked at his father and stood up from his seat, then walked away from there.
Kim Daehyun couldn't even get angry that his son left their family lunch halfway. Because, it was a billion dollar deal. But, he could correct his youngest son's behaviour.
"Don't listen to your brother. He just doesn't know much about class. Always maintain your standard in the society." Kim Daehyun said with a warning tone as he looked at his youngest son.
"Yes, dad." Taehyung nodded his head, although he wanted to believe what his elder brother told him earlier.
I hope you liked the chapter.☺️
Your wait will be over soon.😉
See you in the next chapter.😁
Stay strong, healthy and happy. Saranghaeyo...💜