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The night is cold, the icy rain only makes it more so as the company spreads out through the area. Tall stacks of shipping containers reach for the inky night sky. There is the low chatter of people moving and talking that gets louder as Taehun and Mangi reach the docks where the ship is being unloaded.
Mangi is off to the group of men who are stacking boxes, and Taehun hangs back, knowing the bigger boy doesn't need help. His body thrums with energy, anticipation and the anger he had been suppressing until now simmering to the surface.
Mangi finishes up and before Taehun can speak up, there is a foot on his face, a powerful kick that makes him stumble. His blood bubbles, all fiery anger and the adrenaline of a good fight. This man looks like he could give him a good challenge. Had it been just a couple months ago and another person, Taehun might have asked them for 500 won. But it is today and this man is someone his father had once beat, and he is trying to get in their company’s way.
The words spat back and forth and the heavy, brutal hits are personal and meant to hurt as much as possible. It makes the bloodthirsty part of him beyond happy as they trade blows, Taehun wants to see just how long this man will last.
“But my real goal is to kill your father” the man says, landing a brutal kick to Taehun’s abdomen that sucks the breath out of him. The rage is building again but Taehun’s heard his father’s exasperated chiding and more recently,Hobin’s rules of fighting to let it take over.
He has enough space between them to try it. Taehun thinks back to the memory of Do-un’s breathtaking 1080 degree kick and leaps into the air. Its almost perfect, if not for the man dodging it. Taehun is shocked for a split second and its all it takes for the other to jump into his own 1080 degree kick. It sends him to the wet floor, stunned and dazed from the impact.
In his mind’s eye he can see Do-un’s kick and the way he had reacted all that time ago. He thinks back to the genius that had never gotten to flourish as the man continues to speak over Taehun’s splayed form.
“As expected of sheltered kids who have never known hunger. How could they understand a real fight to the death?” He sneers and his next words are drowned out by the voice of his dad.
‘So why do you want to become stronger?’ he had asked and at the time taehun had just snarked it off, waving off his words. ‘No matter how talented you are, if you have no reason to win, it is meaningless’
Taehyun rolls his body up, almost in a curled handstand before kicking up and out hard, catching the man’s falling foot with both of his and launching him off him and back several feet.
‘What a load of bullshit’ taehun thinks as he springs to his feet again.
Of course he has a reason to fight. A reason to get stronger, faster, better.
He’s got someone to protect. A certain not-so-scrawny-anymore nerd with steel in his spine, steel that the boy in question only recently seemed to have discovered. Taehun had failed Do-un all those years ago. And failed Hobin a few months ago, when he had let first Seongjun beat them all, almost killing them if not for Hobin begging for their lives. Hobin who had gotten up after every fight with every opponent, even back when he was a scrawny kid with barely any skills and he kept charging at Pakgo. Then when he had fought Taehun and kept getting up, finding a way to beat him even with the clear difference between them. Again and again, Hobin had found a way past it but that night, with the lives of the company. The steel pipe hanging over Taehun’s leg and the blood and glass across the floor, Hobin had begged, bowed down and begged .
I need to protect him. So i wont lose again.
This distance between them from the double kick Taehun had landed is more than enough for a 1080 degree kick. But there is something more than just the boiling anger in his blood now, something else that makes him jump earlier than he should for 1080 degrees. He spins an extra time and 1440 degree kick he lands hits like a truck to the face. The man goes flying, sprawled against the metal barrels and bleeding as he continues his annoying monolouge.
“Shut up after you lose” Taehun snarls, voice both mocking and annoyed as he kicks the man unconscious.
Now to get back to his student