Daydream » VKook

9. Master

It had been two days since my last training session. I was happy to lay in bed past 10 AM without the disturbance of my father. He was away to take care of some business for the antique store. There were times that my father was away for days on end, and as a younger kid, I thought he would never come back home. I would get extremely upset and cried to my mother, but she assured me every time that he'd always come home to us.

My stomach was rumbling while the timer hit noon, so I was hungry for food. I made my way to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator to see what was available. My mother tended to make extra food for leftovers in cases like this. I wasn't in the mood for soups or stews, but I saw a container hidden in the back with red sauce in it. I took it out and identified it to be tteokbokki, my favorite snack food. While it wasn't really lunch, I decided to heat it up in the microwave and ate the rest. I nodded and smiled, thinking that nothing could ever replace my love for my mother's special spicy rice cakes.

I looked for a clean cup to get a drink but then noticed a folded card standing up on the kitchen counter with my name on it. I immediately opened the card and read a brief message.

Jungkook, meet me at the training facility at noon. Don't bring anything but your body and mind.

Shit! It was already noon and I wasted five minutes garbling down rice cakes. The message was most likely from my father, who was starting to set me up for failure. Why the hell was I always late for these important things?

Luckily I was already in a T-shirt and gym shorts, so I put on my shoes and sprinted to the training facility. It was located on the outskirts of a suburban neighborhood, making it about seven minutes running on foot to get there. Once I got there, I started to catch my breath and pulled myself together to open the doors to the secret training area. There was a group of seven young kids sitting on the floor while my father was teaching some sort of lesson on a whiteboard. They all turned around when they heard the door open and their beady, hawk-like eyes were staring me down. I felt a little intimidated, but I wouldn't dare show them that.

My eyes transitioned to my father, who looked very displeased at my late arrival. It felt like that first day all over again and I didn't want a repeat of that. I hoped that I wouldn't be subjected to another cruel punishment.

"Jungkook, you're late." My father sternly said.

Yeah, no shit, appa... Why must he state the obvious at me?

"Didn't realize that you came home to leave me a note instead of personally waking me up." I combatted at him with tense words.

"And I didn't realize that a young, 14-year-old boy would still need a wake-up call at this age."

The little kids were snickering after my father's comment. He wanted to make me feel embarrassed and shoot my rebuttals down. I knew I couldn't win this one, so I shook my head and sat down behind the kids. My father stared at me intensely with his round, overbearing eyes as if I was going to say or do something ridiculous.

"You may continue the lesson now." I stared strongly right back at him.

"Alright, let's finish talking about the anatomy of the body." My father went back to the whiteboard. "Kids, what are the parts of the body that are important in Kendo?"

Almost all of the kids raised their hands and I sat there not needing to answer the question. As I looked around, I understood that I was going to train with 7-year olds, who all seemed to be overachievers but very excited to learn Kendo. I wanted to train with a class of older kids, but for some reason, my father put me in with these little kids.

My father chose a small girl in front of the group.

"Yes, seonsaengnmin. They are the forearm, head, throat, and stomach."