M I S F I T S

ix. road not taken

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"Eyes meet in that short instant.
The moment all the senses stop."

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Tomi wanted to rest more than anything at that moment, but her mind was too distracted by something else.

By the person who was helping Juyeon with the club, the guy who won the scholarship with her. Lee Taeyong, who she knew before as No. 1.

The two of them got paired up together and had been practicing and sparring for an hour, but they hadn't exchanged a word yet to each other, or anyone. Not even eye contact. The tiredness she was feeling after going through 2 ranked matches consecutively was overshadowed by the awkward feeling Taeyong was giving her.

Juyeon ended the lessons and they were done with school for the day. The other two students who joined the new Lee Style club were first years, Mira and Hyunshik. Both of them excused themselves immediately and so did Lee Taeyong. Leaving Tomi alone with Juyeon in the dojang.

"You should go and rest," Juyeon said once everyone exited. "I'll clean up around here myself." He gave her a quick smile, as usual, before proceeding to push some training dummies back to the corner.

Tomi ignored his advice and began to help him get the equipment with both of her hands back to where it belonged. She didn't want to leave Juyeon to clean up by himself, wasn't Taeyong supposed to be helping him with the club? She thought.

"You don't have to—"

Juyeon stopped in his tracks as he sensed that Tomi was not paying attention to what he was saying, not even sure if she'd heard it because of the distance. He walked to where she was going and stopped her by grabbing her shoulder gently.

Tomi looked over her shoulder, "hmm?" she widened her eyes as a reflex. "What?"

Juyeon noticed the wounds and bruises on both her fists, then took away the small boxes in her grips before putting them aside himself.

"Go, I can clean up here myself." Juyeon repeated himself.

"That's okay. If I help you it'll be faster." She said without even looking at him and walked to get more equipment.

Juyeon just watched her as she made her way to the middle of the dojang, and sighed. Her face looked so worn out, not to mention the bruises all over her, it was certainly enough to make anyone worried.

"Tomi," he called out as she was picking more small boxes from the ground like she was in a hurry. "Satomi,"

Tomi stopped at the mention of her full name. The tone that he was using was similar to when Kaya—her mother— and Wooyoung when they were about to scold her. Something she didn't expect to hear in NPS, but then realized how much she missed them.