It's been a few days since Jeongguk has come to the Taekwondo club.

Worried, (Y/N) decides to go look for him. 'He's not picking up his phone, so I have no choice but to go to his house. If I wait there, he's bound to come out eventually...' She hears a door open. "Oh?!"

Jeongguk steps out of the house, dressed in his usual hoodie.

"Jeongguk!"

Jeongguk looks surprised, seeing (Y/N) here. "Huh? Manager, how'd you get here-"

"I was worried. You weren't answering calls or replying to messages, so I came to find you."

"Ah...Sorry." Jeongguk looks down in sincere guilt, "I didn't mean to make you worry."

"It's alright, I'm fine now that I've seen you." She looks hesitant for a second, but asks him, "Have you...found your reason?"

A faint smile appears on Jeongguk's face as he shakes his head no.

"Ah, so...I want to help you find that reason..." (Y/N) pulls our her phone and shows Jeongguk a video.

It's a video of Jeongguk and Chisoo's spar from a couple days ago.

"Why are you showing me...?"

"Watch it first." (Y/N) bluntly states.

Jeongguk doesn't look to happy about it, but he watches the video anyway. The video ends.

Jeongguk frowns at the girl in front of him, "Are you trying to rub in that I lost."

"Chisoo told me to record this before you even started."

Jeongguk's eyes slightly widen. "Chisoo did...what? Why?"

"Chisoo knew that you'd lose, no matter how many times you try to fight him." (Y/N) could tell that Jeongguk's upset- but it's what she expected. "I didn't get it at first, but I kept watching this video and it dawned on me. Chisoo's right."

Jeongguk looks at her questioningly.

She sends the video to his phone. "You should look for the answer." She turns away, 'I'll be waiting, Jeongguk.' She reassures herself that Jeongguk will be able to figure things out on his own...and walks away, leaving him to grab his hair in frustration.

*Timeskip*

"If you've figured out your reason, you should tell me- not ask for another sparring round." Chisoo says. "What are you getting at?"

Jeongguk is in front of Chisoo, a serious look on his face. "I'll tell you after our spar. You can accommodate that, right?"

Chisoo looks unsure, but nods his head, "...Alright. Let's start."

The air is tense between the two. All (Y/N) can do is watch, a worried look on her face. 'Jeongguk, what are you thinking?'

Jeongguk's very obvious fighting spirit seems to diminish the longer they spar. As expected, Chisoo isn't an easy opponent.

"Ha...Ha..." Jeongguk is panting hard from the spar.

"What's this? You're not tired already, are you?" Chisoo asks, panting as well.

Jeongguk grins at Chisoo's remark. "Definitely not."

Chisoo looks at him, shocked.

Unlike their last sparring match, when Jeongguk desperately attacked Chisoo...It's clear that Jeongguk is more serious and at ease this time around. When Jeongguk narrowly dodges Chisoo's kick, it's almost like he was lying in wait to counterattack.

(Y/N)'s never seen Chisoo look this nervous before.

"You..." Chisoo starts.

Jeongguk cheekily grins. "Hehe."

"...Okay, let's stop here."

"Hah...It's over!" A sigh of relief escapes (Y/N)'s lips.

"You seem to have figured something out." Chisoo crosses his arms, seeming proud.

"Yeah." Jeongguk replies.

"Alright, tell me now."

"To be honest, I don't know if I have a grand reason for doing Taekwondo." Jeongguk starts.

(Y/N) just stares at him with a sympathetic expression, 'Jeongguk...'

"But...I think I was able to figure out why I lost to you." He continues, "I have to go back to who I was. I have to set aside wanting revenge, my feelings of hate. Someone told me once...That they learned about the basics of Taekwondo by watching me, from how I would carefully protect my space." Jeongguk sneaks a look at (Y/N)'s direction, a smile slowly rises on the corner of his lips. "Anyway, they told me that they became my fan after that." He clenches his hand where his heart was at, feeling its faint beating.

'I said something that cool?' (Y/N) smiles at the thought.

A smile forms on Chisoo's face. He seems to really like Jeongguk's answer. "You can do whatever you want for the upcoming match."

Jeongguk smiles mischievously, "Got it. Thank you!"

'Maybe it's just me, but...Oddly enough, Jeongguk seems different.' (Y/N) just stares at Jeongguk.

"Steel your resolve now." Chisoo orders, "Starting tomorrow, we're training like hell."

Jeongguk nods, "I'm ready."

"You'll need to go harder than ever...If you want to face Cheon Muho."

"...Huh?" Jeongguk pauses in surprise for a moment, but then smiles radiantly. "I'll work hard!"

Chisoo leaves, wiping the sweat off his face with his sleeve to hide his smile.

Jeongguk shuffles over to (Y/N). "Thank you."

(Y/N) chuckles, "What did I do?"

"I was watching the video you sent me, and it inspired me to look up the videos of my old match." He gets lost in thought as he daydreams of something, "Suddenly, I thought of the day I first met you. I thought you were so weird then! Hehe." He chuckles, "Anyway, I thought of what you told me."

The (E/C) eyed girl's heart aches at Jeongguk's unexpected comment. 'Jeongguk is definitely more mature than before.'

"So really, thank you so much." Jeongguk begins to get a little shy.

"Aw, you really don't need to thank me. Tomorrow's training will be harder than ever, so do your best!" (Y/N) shouts out energetically while fist bumping the air.

"Yeah! I will." Jeongguk high fives her with both hands and clasps them together. He pauses for a moment and looks at how their hands have accidentally interlocked.

(Y/N) lets go and wraps her arms around his neck, surprising him. "I'm really proud of you, Jeongguk. I'll be by your side every step of the way."

Jeongguk's face heats up more, but relaxes a bit under her touch and places his palms behind her back. Giving in to the hug, he rests his head on her shoulders and whispers, "Thank you, and I'll be by yours til the end."

.

.

.

After that, the club's days of hellish training started, everyone working really hard and practicing on difficult workouts and training to help them get prepared. And keeping her word, (Y/N) was there watching to make sure that she never left Jeongguk's side.

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