"Hit again, hit better, Hwan, better!"
"I'm so tired, can we rest? I've been hitting the punching bag nonstop for two hours."
Sang smiles.
"You have to keep going, otherwise you'll stay weak. You don't want that, do you? You have to protect the ones you love."
The moments of him being bullied flash before Hwan's eyes, and with the anger those memories bring, he continues his training with harder punches. The calendar pages fell one by one; days passed, and Hwan's life began to change. Now, his entire day was spent on boxing, running, and gym workouts. Days chased weeks, and weeks chased months. It was September, and the new school term was about to start.
Su Jin's beauty captivated everyone at school; all the boys were buzzing around her. At this time, the bully who used to torment Hwan, Tae-Hyun, was one of them. A naive boy who was trying to talk to Su Jin approached her.
"Hi, do you like playing Minecraft?"
All the boys around him laughed.
"Go drink your milk, you loser, get out of here!"
They said, and started beating the boy on the ground. Su Jin shouted,
"Tae-Hyun, stop it! He's innocent, he's crying, stop it!"
"No, babe, he's my toy. I'm going to crush his head."
Then, he kisses Su Jin on the lips. The boy on the ground, covered in blood, begs them to stop beating him. Tae-Hyun gets involved and picks up a metal stick.
"Step aside and let me crush this bug."
He says, and just as he's about to hit the boy with the metal stick, a hand so powerful grabs the stick that it breaks in two. Tae-Hyun is stunned. At that moment, a hand grabs Tae-Hyun's head and starts dragging it on the school's asphalt. Although Tae-Hyun's men try to attack, this silhouette moves fast and quickly punches the men with right and left hook combinations. One of them attacks the silhouette with a chain. The silhouette grabs the chain, spins 360 degrees, tears his arm off with the chain, and hits his head against the metal bars. Then, he returns to Tae-Hyun.
Tae-Hyun: "Who are you?"
"YOUR DEATH, YOU DESPICABLE DOG."
He starts hitting Tae-Hyun repeatedly, each blow harder than the last. He lifts the lying Tae-Hyun, rubs his head hard on the asphalt, and crushes his face with his boots. Then, he lifts his bloody face with his hand and headbutts him. Tae-Hyun was close to death.
At that moment, the silhouette goes to the innocent boy lying on the ground.
"Are you okay, champ?"
"I... I'm... I'm fine."
The silhouette smiles and holds out his hand.
"Come on, I'll take you to the hospital. Wait for me at the exit."
The boy runs away. The silhouette turns back to Tae-Hyun, who is lying in a pool of blood. He starts crushing his head with his boots.
"P-please forgive me, I'll be your slave, please let me go, I won't do it again."
The silhouette smiles.
"Admit that you're a dog and bark in front of the whole school."
Tae-Hyun barks and is humiliated. The silhouette knocks Tae-Hyun out with a solid punch and throws him aside. Then, as he turns to leave, Su Jin grabs the silhouette's hand.
"Who are you?"
The silhouette smiles again.
"Someone you know, Su Jin."
He says, and quickly walks away. Su Jin shouts from a distance,
"At least leave a clue!"
The silhouette calls back,
"Check your pocket, little lady."
He says and leaves with the innocent boy waiting at the door. Su Jin checks her pocket and is shocked. A line was written on a note:
"Is it forbidden for me to love you, or is it a curse?"
Su Jin is shocked and remembers seeing this note before, but she can't remember from whom.
Meanwhile, at the boxing gym, Hwan was continuing his boxing training. He had become strong now. He was winning the mini-tournaments held at the gym, and the day had come for him to fight Sang in the final match.
"Look at our little one, he's grown and become strong."
Dong-Hae agrees and looks in astonishment at a muscular, burly, handsome man walking towards the ring with completely black, wavy and slightly messy but noble-looking hair, long bangs sometimes reaching his eyes, and veiny, large arms.
"I-Is that Hwan?"
"Yes, he worked hard while you were in America. Day and night for months, he didn't give up."
Hwan smiles.
"Hello, sir."
"Why is your hand bloody, Hwan?"
"I guess from working out too much."
While Dong-Hae was looking at Hwan in admiration and astonishment, Sang intervened.
"All right, I'll be your final test, Hwan. Let's begin."
The boxing match begins, and the entire gym starts watching. Sang starts throwing right punches. Hwan quickly dodges the moves and throws a punch at Sang with incredible force. Sang instantly flies back several meters and is thrown to the corner of the ring. The days when Hwan was bullied and he rescued him flash before Dong-Hae's eyes, and he gets emotional.
Hwan continues to hit repeatedly. Sang starts to struggle and attacks with all his might. After a long struggle of right and left punches, Hwan smiles.
"May I hit you, big brother?"
Sang smiles.
"What do you mean? Weren't you hitting me already? Go on, hit me then."
And in an instant, Sang takes a punch so hard that he doesn't realize what happened. He flies out of the ring and towards the outside of the gym and immediately faints.
Hwan shouts,
"Big brother! Big brother! I'm sorry, I hit you too hard!"
As the entire gym rushes to Sang's side, Dong-Hae watched the scene in shock