Dear Sputnik

XXXVI

- TAEHYUN -

Sweat dripped down Taehyun's forehead and down onto the mat below him as he ran his fingers through his wet hair. He had just finished up a sparring session with his coach, Jungkook. It was a Friday evening and Taehyun decided to go at night instead of in the mornings before school like he typically did. Normally, he would hanging out with Beomgyu at around this time, but tonight, he couldn't. Beomgyu was at one of his distant cousin's wedding. Luckily, Jungkook was finishing up with another night session, so he was able to see Taehyun outside of their regular time.

"You did a great job today," Jungkook told him, patting his shoulder before sitting down next to him on the mat.

"Thanks," Taehyun said with a smile, pulling his gloves off, "Thank you again for meeting me on such late notice. I know it's way out from our scheduled time."

"Hey, no worries," Jungkook assured him, "More money in my pocket."

Taehyun nodded and smiled, placing his boxing gloves into his bag and glancing over at Jungkook. He wondered how much he made here doing boxing lessons. Maybe he made a good hourly rate. Taehyun hoped that was the case, he was too good of a trainer not to.

"Hey, JK, actually, uhm, I was wondering something," he said nervously.

Jungkook glanced over at him, peeling his boxing gloves off, asking, "Yeah, Taehyun, what's up?"

"It's about money," Taehyun hesitated, "It's a little tight right now for me. I didn't know if you knew of any places hiring. Or even if there was a spot opened here."

"Shit, Taehyun, I'm sorry," Jungkook murmured, running a hand through his dark hair, "We aren't hiring right now, I know that. I can ask around some places. They have a lot of boxing competitions. For students, though, they offer scholarships. I know sometimes they have cash prizes, but since you're young, they will probably will give you just some type of academic reward."

Taehyun knew it was a long shot, but he was grateful that Jungkook had promised that he would look into it. He had heard about some of the boxing competitions, but never joined one. It would be nice to look into it. He hadn't gotten into a boxing match in over a year.

"No, it's not a problem," Taehyun said, standing up on his aching legs, "Thanks for checking into that for me, though."

"Of course, let me know if there's anything else I can do for you," Jungkook said with a smile.

Taehyun nodded before excusing himself to the locker room. He welcomed the soreness in his legs with open arms; that's how he knew that he had a great session. He made his way over to the bathroom portion and got his stuff organized to take a shower. The water here was a lot warmer than the water he got at his apartment.

After taking a shower, Taehyun got dressed and glanced into the mirror. He admired his appearance in the mirror before attempting to straighten his hair with his fingers. The slam of the locker room door jolted him away from the sink and he glanced over, noticing one of the other trainers coming to use the sink next to him. Taehyun knew that the trainer's name was Mingyu. He was good friends with Jungkook. Mingyu taught a lot of the night sessions, so Taehyun never had a class with him.

They murmured greetings to one another before Taehyun went back to trying to fix his hair. Mingyu stood at the sink next to him and washed his hands before glancing at his own appearance.

"I heard you talking to Jungkook," Mingyu said, breaking the silence between them suddenly.

Taehyun glanced at him, asking uneasily, "What about?"