Ch.68Ominous Signs

Kim Donghu was naturally good at sports.

You could say he had an innate talent for physical movement.

‘Yes, I knew that.’

And it was something he prided himself on knowing better than anyone else.

It had been 8 years since he first met Kim Donghu at the gym and began teaching him.

Coach Paek Sangha thought it was about time he stopped being surprised by Kim Donghu’s talent.

But.

‘What on earth is happening right now?’

Paek Sangha couldn’t escape his state of shock throughout the entire sparring session with Kim Donghu.

Sports inherently require experience.

No matter how well someone executes movements, ultimately there’s an opponent involved.

When there’s an opponent, variables emerge,

and even if you use difficult techniques well, you might not land them.

This was why Coach Paek Sangha felt Kim Donghu was special,

while simultaneously mentioning that he still had much to improve.

In matches with clear opponents rather than punching bags hanging in the air,

he knew that controlling variables was difficult even for geniuses.

‘Was everything I thought completely wrong?’

Witnessing what was happening before his eyes, Coach Paek Sangha felt his common sense collapsing.

Pabapak!

Fists flying like bees and footwork moving like butterflies.

Movements reminiscent of someone he’d once seen in a video.

Punches that suddenly appeared while casually following fluttering movements.

Precise pinpoint strikes without any misses.

Kwang!

Even though it was clearly pulled back for sparring, the impact traveled through his abdomen to his internal organs.

Huk-huk.

He could feel his breathing becoming rough.

How much time had passed?

He unconsciously checked the clock.

‘Damn.’

He thought he’d endured hellish time, but only 1 minute and 10 seconds had passed.

That meant he had to endure about 2 more minutes before this situation would end.

‘Maybe I shouldn’t have suggested doing this like a real match.’

With belated regret, Coach Paek Sangha tightened his guard.

At the same time, he realized he was already giving it his all.

Tuk-tuk.

Tuk-tuk.

Tuk-tuk.

He felt light jabs tapping his gloves and abdomen.

It was definitely what he had taught him,

but he had never taught him to this savage level of depth.

Glance.

Even in the midst of this, Coach Paek Sangha examined Kim Donghu’s face,

and immediately despaired.

‘Donghu, I’m still the coach here, don’t you think your expression is too relaxed?’

You could at least pretend to catch your breath out of courtesy.

How are you still breathing so leisurely?

Tuk-tuk.

Tuk-tuk, pak.

After throwing light jabs, suddenly at some point he changed direction and tapped his abdomen.

A blatant movement that clearly showed he was deliberately avoiding a liver shot.

No one would believe it,

but Coach Paek Sangha perfectly understood from that movement.

‘Donghu is going easy on me right now.’

Coach Paek Sangha was bewildered by an emotion he’d never felt before in his life.

He thought he’d said goodbye to such moments forever.

Who would have thought the day would come when he’d be handled with kid gloves by a student?

‘Still, Donghu, my soul is as youthful as yours!’

After muttering something rather old-fashioned to himself.

Paek Sangha moved his body fiercely to show the coach’s true ability.

About 1 minute remained.

Just as he resolved to properly demonstrate his mastery during this time.

“Coach! Don’t!”

At Kim Donghu’s urgent cry.

“Huh?”

Paek Sangha hurriedly looked around but it was too late.

Pueok!

Kim Donghu’s fist landed precisely on Coach Paek Sangha’s liver.

It was truly the worst possible coincidence.

Kim Donghu’s fist aiming for the abdomen,

and Coach Paek Sangha’s torso twisting to exert full power met perfectly.

“Ugh…!”

No matter how long you’ve exercised, you can’t train your internal organs.

Coach Paek Sangha immediately fell to his knees.

“Coach, are you okay?!”

Kim Donghu urgently embraced Coach Paek Sangha,

who used all his strength to string together each word.

“Do, Donghu.”

“Yes, yes! Tell me, what do you need! Are you really okay?!”

“When people ask where you learned to fight… you’ll mention my name, right…? You’ll say you learned from me, right…?”

Tuk.

“…”

Kim Donghu let go with a deflated expression.

‘I was worried for nothing.’

At the same time, Kim Donghu reflected on the sparring session.

‘It really felt like I downloaded it.’

Just like suddenly being able to play the piano well without ever having learned it.

Skills emerged that were on a completely different level from his steady exercise routine.

‘It’s an amazing cheat key.’

Feeling anew the greatness of “Sims – Real Life,”

Kim Donghu checked the time and immediately gathered his clothes.

“Coach, I’ll be going now.”

“Hm? Already, ah… today’s the Eclipse broadcast, right?”

“Yes, I need to watch it live.”

“We have a TV here, how about watching with me?”

“I promised to watch with friends today.”

“…So you’re saying you’ll beat someone up like this and then go see your friends?”

Instead of answering, Kim Donghu bowed politely and hurried away.

‘Let’s get out of here.’

He knew from experience how annoying Coach Paek Sangha could be at times like this.

+++++

These days, her son’s face had become noticeably brighter.

From daycare to kindergarten to elementary school.

Her son, who lacked social skills, never brought up stories about friends.

She wondered if he was being bullied, but that wasn’t the case either.

According to his homeroom teacher, there was nothing to worry about.

Just.

-Kangsik seems a bit awkward still, but he’ll get better gradually, ma’am.

Just formal words.

No mention of what the current situation was actually like.

Being an outcast didn’t necessarily mean being actively excluded.

If you have no friends around and always go around alone, isn’t that being an outcast?

‘It’s all my fault for not teaching him properly.’

Just when she was blaming herself for his halting speech,

her son’s face brightened considerably after entering middle school.

In the past, he would have just greeted her and sat in front of the computer as soon as he got home,

but at some point.

-M, mom, my, my friends re, really li, like the no, notebook game I, I made.

He proudly smiled and poured out stories about school.

How handsome his friend was, who did what, how much fun they had playing together.

Just hearing her son’s school stories gave her strength she didn’t know she had.

So she asked various questions.

-What’s your friend’s name?

-Donghu, Kim Donghu! And Minhyeok and Yerim.

-Our Kangsik has so many friends?

-He, hehe, to, today we played co, cops and ro, robbers.

-What’s cops and robbers?

-Police and thieves!

To be honest, she had cried silently at night.

It seemed like the first time she’d seen her son’s face sleeping with a smile,

wondering how much he must look forward to going to school to wake up every morning.

Perhaps that’s why?

-M, mom, ca, can my friends co, come over to wa, watch a drama?

When she heard her son’s words.

-Of course, have dinner too, or even stay overnight if you want.

The answer came automatically.

After hearing that it might not work because there was a girl,

she immediately started thinking about what to make for dinner that day.

The friends’ names were still the same.

Kim Donghu, Kim Minhyeok, Shin Yerim.

But among them, Kim Donghu strangely seemed familiar.

‘I feel like I’ve heard that name somewhere.’

Park Oksun, Na Kangsik’s mother, was slow to catch up on news since she was too busy to watch TV.

She kept wondering about this until the day her son’s friends came over.

When Kim Donghu opened the door and entered, she was genuinely surprised for the first time in a long while.

“Hello ma’am, I’m Kim Donghu. Thank you for letting us come over today. Excuse me for intruding.”

It was that Kim Donghu.

The protagonist of the topic “what blessing must a mother have to give birth to such a son” among the neighborhood women,

the “him” in “but he’s still not as handsome as him” even among mothers who thought their sons were the best in the world,

the “that boy” in “his character was so good too, I wish my son was half like that boy.”

“A-are you the Kim Donghu from TV?!”

“Hehe.”

Seeing her son’s proud smile,

she recalled all those moments when her son had talked about Kim Donghu.

-He, he listens to me un, until I fi, finish talking, Donghu does.

-Donghu told me I’m a re, really good person, that I co, could become someone great.

-M, mom, should I try de, developing games? My, my friends really liked the notebook game I made.

And then her memory returns to the beginning.

The first day her always-dejected son came home smiling.

-Mom! This re, really handsome kid na, named Donghu sa, saved me… and… he, he even pu, pushed his desk next to mine during lunch and ate with me?!

The first step when her son’s school life began to be happy.

Without realizing it, she stepped forward.

Holding back tears that were somehow about to pour out,

Park Oksun struggled to say the words she absolutely had to say.

“…Thank you all for being friends with my son.”

Her hand tightly gripping Kim Donghu’s.

Even though it might be burdensome to have a strange woman suddenly grab his hand.

Donghu, Minhyeok, and Yerim answered with bright smiles.

“We’re so happy to be friends with Kangsik too.”

As soon as she heard those words, Park Oksun hurried to the bathroom.

She turned on the water strongly and cried silently.

“…My son must have gotten good friends late because they were meant to be good friends.”

Truly,

Today was truly a happy day.

++++++++

At the end of Episode 3 of <Eclipse>.

MNC Drama Director Park Seoljae pushed up his glasses with an intrigued look.

“Oh, so what percentage was it?”

“…Eclipse! Episode 3 ratings! 24%! It’s showing tremendous growth!”

“I see, understood. Everyone’s worked hard, so let’s have eel for our company dinner. If anyone skips out before the third round, I, Park Seoljae, will never forgive them.”

“Thank you! Thank you!”

Only 3 episodes in and already 24% ratings.

An ominous sign was about to emerge.