everyone around him dies

Part 15

It was funny how someone so disinterested in training their own body could be so interested in watching the athletic feats of others.

Roksu never admitted it of course. He always played it off as though he really didn't care but he always returned to it, one way or another. Cale sometimes wondered if it was the influence of that first time they went to see a dojang together so many years ago. Perhaps the experience had somehow imprinted on Roksu and he couldn't but be drawn towards similar displays of martial arts.

Cale would find him studying nearby sports clubs sometimes when he went to pick him up from school, casually observing the archery club or others with that same strange fascination but not quite the same spark.

That was perhaps why Cale had chosen that gift for Roksu's seventeenth birthday. It wasn't something that Roksu would probably ever ask for and definitely something that he would deny hosting an interest in it. Perhaps Roksu was even telling the truth and sincerely didn't recognize the way his eyes sparkled sometimes when he watched. Roksu could be oblivious like that at times.

Regardless, their finances could certainly afford the unnecessary purchase even if Roksu didn't like it. Roksu and Cale had been saving obsessively ever since Cale started working and while they would never be rich at this rate, they certainly had breathing room now.

While the weight of poverty isn't so easily cast aside just because of above average intelligence or maturity, the much more attainable goal of achieving stability can be clasped with great effort.

Cale liked to think that they'd managed stability. No great wealth and no room for mistakes but they could afford a few small indulgences.

Of course this was partially due to Roksu's strict budgeting and why it was such a big deal to buy a birthday gift to begin with. Roksu had issued a ban on such flagrant spending a few years ago. He reasoned that he, the younger one, was in no great need of gifts, and Cale, the older one, was in his fifties and ought to get used to disappointment by now.

Roksu could have quite a sharp tongue when it had to do with their finances.

Cale took no offense to it. He knew it was because Roksu worried about him working so much. Roksu also knew Cale's personality well enough to know that if Roksu got him a gift that Cale would definitely get a gift for his younger brother as well. Thus he had cooked up the no gifts policy.

Cale was prepared to get an earful for his wasteful purchase but he thought it would be worth it. He actually had managed to get quite the good deal on it through a work connection and beyond that, he wanted to give his silly brother something.

Something that would bring him happiness that he couldn't achieve on his own. A simple enjoyment.

"...tickets to a kumdo competition?" Roksu asked, his face contorted with confusion.

"It's the nationals. Got 'em for cheap at work." Cale explained flippantly.

Roksu raised a confused gaze upwards. "...why?"

Even when they did things aside from work and school, it was normally more volunteer work to help clean up affected neighborhoods or perhaps a trip to the library. It was strange for Cale to suggest they go anywhere but Cale's interest in swords had always seemed utilitarian. He used them as a weapon but aside from that, he had no passion for it.

"It's 'cause you like swords." Cale explained, feeling quite gratified that Roksu's confusion over the matter had curbed his normal frugal objections.

"...since when do I like swords?" Roksu asked, genuinely puzzled as he looked back at the tickets as though they would magically provide an answer for his elder brother's mystifying behavior.