Chapter 30

The day after the Thanksgiving holiday, my father strangely didn't come home.

My family had never been to my hometown on holidays like Thanksgiving or Chinese New Year.

My uncle lives in Seoul, and at least his situation is better than mine, so the whole family used to go to my uncle's house on holidays.

So, of course, I was hoping to go to my uncle's house when my dad came this year, but my dad didn't come.

On Friday, my mom called my dad from a pay phone.

My mom was told that my dad couldn't go because he couldn't get a ticket.

My father's behavior was strange.

But my mom wasn't so sad or angry.

It must be because my mom's love for my dad had cooled down.

Still, my mom smiled at us and was happy.

My siblings and I could sense that Mom was very happy and pleased, so we just hugged each other and laughed.

The person who made my mom happy had turned out to be me instead of my father, so my mom could smile happily without thinking about my father who was nowhere to be found.

After the Thanksgiving feast, my business finally started.

The girls' middle school that Lily went to was about a bus stop away from my house, and the middle school that I went to was about a 20-minute walk away.

Also, right next to the middle school I went to, there was the elementary school Dylan attended, and they were all against one wall.

Through that wall, I had escaped from school in the past.

I wanted to do business in front of the nearby girls' junior high school because it was difficult for my mom to drag a cart, but my mom wanted to do business in front of the school I went to, and she also said that since there were two schools next to each other, there would be more and more people doing business in front of my school.

Our high school and elementary school have school gates that go in the same direction, so when it's dismissal time, the students come out like a horde, and my mom, who was sitting waiting for her sales to sell, was selling her carts.

My mom, who was sitting waiting to sell her food, must have gotten a lot of attention, which led to interest in buying her delicious food.

When I was asked by my younger siblings if I wasn't embarrassed that my mom was selling rice cake satay in front of my school, I replied that it would be nice to be able to eat rice cake stay after school.

The menu was decided to be simple, just rice cake skewers and wheat cake skewers.

The first two or three days of sales weren't too busy.

It was their first time seeing my mom's homemade food, so I had expected something like this to happen for a while.

But even with that, my mom still had enough customers because her rice cake skewers were really good.

But after a week, the situation completely changed.

As the kids got addicted to the mysterious taste of the rice cake skewers, rumors started to spread to nearby high schools.

After two weeks of business, it had become a common sight to queue up in front of my mom's food stall to buy rice cake skewers.

I knew it would be like this, but let's go back a few weeks...

In 1990, the Thanksgiving holiday fell on Tuesday, October 2.

So, the vacation ended on Thursday.

After the vacation, this Friday I didn't want to go to school.

My mom's skewer business will start next week.

After class, Caleb, Brandon, and I were leaving the school gate when someone approached us.

It was a rather familiar face.

Ah! It was the skinny guy the youngest member of the organization who fought in front of the gas station last time.

He walked towards us with a dull face and started talking. 

"Hey, the boss wants to see you."

While Brandon's face brightened, I had to groan and worry.

'Should I go for this or not? I'm worried enough.'

But that thought didn't last long.

It was because the problem was that there was still more than a month before Dominic Park could be arrested.

My mom was going to start a business next week, so I didn't want to cause any trouble.

"All right. Can I go now?"

"Okay, follow me."

I looked at Caleb and told him that I had to go by myself today and told him to go home by himself.

When I came out of the school gate, there was a car parked there.

Dominic was probably the one who sent this car to pick me up.

I got into the car and drove to the entertainment district for about 10 minutes and got off in front of a five-story building.

After being guided by the slender man, I went up to the 5th floor, and there was a glass door.

When I opened the glass door and entered, there were several rooms on the left and right of the hallway, and the doors were wide open.

Passing through the hallway, I peeked out and saw gangsters with bald heads in each room, sitting and watching us as we passed.

Brandon was so scared that he just walked stiffly, and followed hurriedly.

"Boss, I brought Daniel."

He led us to the end of the hallway and knocked and opened the door.

Inside was the president's desk and a large sofa.

Sitting on the sofa was a sturdy, sharp-looking man.

Like the gangsters I knew, he didn't look gangly because he was bulging like a mountain, but his whole body was bulging full of muscles, so the clothes the man was wearing seemed as if they would explode because of those huge muscles.

The moment I saw him, the intimidated feeling I felt was no joke.

I took a deep breath and nodded as I went inside.

"Hello."

Brandon followed me, but could barely say hello while shaking in fear from the atmosphere.

"Oh. Have you arrived Daniel? Come here and sit down. Brandon also comes and sits down..."

"Yes."

When we went to our seats and sat down, the thin man who brought us earlier put a can of soda in front of us and left.

I bowed my head slightly in gratitude, quickly opened the can, and took a sip.

"Daniel. Why haven't you contacted me even after the Thanksgiving feast?"

"Sorry. I've been a bit busy."

I straightened my back and lowered my head.

"Hey, crazy guy. This is the guy I was talking about. What do you think?"

Dominic Park smiled and introduced me to the big man sitting in front of me as if he was proud to have acquired a good thing.

"Is your name Daniel? My name is Kaiden. People call me the brown bear."

A large man sitting in front of me extended his hand to me.

"Hello? My name is Daniel."

I lightly held Kaiden's hand with both hands and said hello.

However, Kaiden suddenly grabbed my hand and began to give him strength.

I endured the pain coming from my hand, reflexively giving strength to my hand as well.

"Hooh?"

As I resisted his grip, Kaiden cried out in surprise and curiosity.

"Brother, look how hard this kid's grip is. Are you sure he's 17 years old?"

Kaiden let go of my hand and burst out laughing.

The laughter was so loud that the entire room echoed.

"I already told you. He's a real man... How do you think he'll fit in with our Luna?"

"Eh? Brother. Have you thought that far ahead? I like him."

The two adults seemed to be in a good mood, laughing and chatting amongst themselves.

Kaiden then shook hands with Brandon and made a full statement.

Brandon's eyes looked at Kaiden and didn't know what to do with his eyes sparkling with admiration.

"Daniel, I don't know if you know or not, but Kaiden here is quite a famous person. I'd like to make your acquaintance."

"Yes."

I greeted and looked at Kaiden once more.

There was one memory that suddenly popped into my mind.

'Come to think of it, this man's face is quite familiar… Wait, could this man be that Kaiden?'

As a founding member of Road Fighting Championship, Korea's first mixed martial arts champion, and who became the first K-1 champion in 1993, he was a living witness to Korean mixed martial arts by establishing mixed martial arts gyms and training many skilled fighters.

He is so famous that even I, who is not into mixed martial arts, recognize his name.

However, he is now in his mid-twenties and serves as the deputy head of the Dominic Faction.

If the future went as before, he would probably go to prison for some time and become a professional fighter and martial artist after washing his hands clean.

"Daniel, what kind of training have you been doing? You have good strength, and looking at your body, you seem to have done quite a lot of training."

"Nothing special. I run for about an hour while spreading the newspaper in the morning, and in the evening I do basic physical fitness exercises like push-ups."

"Huh? How is that possible? There's no way your body could be what it is today if your training was like that."

Kaiden looked at my body as if trying to see every nook and cranny.

"Would you like to work out with me? There's a gym down there that I visit, and if you come, I'll give you some tips..."

Having prepared myself beforehand to hear a voice asking me to join an organization, today I instead heard a voice telling me to exercise, what a strange turn of events.

My stamina had increased to a strange level, but I thought that it was regrettable that I was only doing physical exercises every day.

"I wish I could learn to exercise, but my family's financial situation doesn't allow me to go to the gym. Thank you for your words."

"Don't worry about money. I'll take care of everything..."

Kaiden burst out laughing as if he was pleased with my attitude.

"Daniel, if you want to work out, I can prepare it for you."

Dominic Park also smiled and said that he would prepare money for me.

"Ah! Hmm..."

"Daniel, if an adult says something, just do it. So come to the gym next week."

"Then I understand. Let's do that. Thank you."

Thinking that I could exercise, I readily agreed without a second thought.

"Brother, if you raise this person well, he will become a great person. Look at the ambitious gaze this kid has."

"Of course, I know that Daniel is also good at studying. He's number one in his entire school."

"Really? That's great. But brother, what about Luna?"

"Shhh! That's still a secret."

For some reason, I felt as if there was something hidden in their conversation that I didn't know about.

Still, it was nice to think that I could exercise for free.

"Brother, to celebrate this, shouldn't we have a drink?"

"You bastard. These people are students, what kind of alcohol are you going to give them? So no alcohol this time, and also, Daniel, Brandon, welcome to our family."

"Is that so? By the way, it's good to have you in the family, Daniel. Let's get along well in the future."

Kaiden, who was laughing loudly, patted my shoulder and spoke to me kindly.

It seemed that everyone accepted my joining the organization as a fait accompli.

After that, we followed Dominic Park out and greeted each other from the next room.

"Hey, are you the one who destroyed Ekei and the other kids?"

Ah, so that slender man's name must be Ekei.

When I entered the room, someone who looked like a middle boss reached out to me and smiled, and spoke to me.

I just shook hands and smiled softly.

I didn't intend to join the organization, but when I greeted people and they treated me kindly, I felt comfortable thinking that this was also a fairly comfortable place to live for some people.

After staying here longer, I felt like joining the organization.

So I said goodbye to Dominic and Kaiden and forcefully stopped them from giving me a ride home, and headed out.

I was currently walking home with Brandon, but this guy wouldn't stop talking.

"Wow! Daniel, I think my heart stopped beating before."

"Why?"

"Big Brother Kaiden, he's a great person. He's a legend among us. His stories are countless. He never lost a fight. I met a legend I'd only heard of before. On top of that, I also shook hands and had a friendly talk with him. Wow! It feels like a dream."

"Big Brother Kaiden? Hey, since when did you see him as your Big Brother?

"Of course, I have to call him Big Brother Kaiden. Big Brother Kaiden is no joke. Daniel, you're lucky to be invited to exercise by him, ah... I want to come too."

"Then come to the gym too."

"I want to do that too. But I can't tell my sister that I want to go to the gym. You know that."

"Oh yeah, I suddenly remembered that my sister said that she missed you a lot and told me to take you home together because she hadn't seen you for a long time."

"I still feel embarrassed when I hear you say that. Are you really okay with me hooking up with your sister?

"Of course, I'm fine if my sister is happy. And also you will introduce your younger sister to me, right?"

Hearing this man's shameless words, I suddenly thought how does this bastard know that I have a younger sister?  

"This bastard hasn't been hit in a long time, how dare you have dirty thoughts for my little sister. If you're tired of living, just tell me, I'll end your life."

Surprisingly, when he asked me to introduce my little sister to him, my expression hardened even though I knew it was a joke.

Was I being too hypocritical? I can relate to my friend's sister, but my friend can't meet relate to my younger sister...

While I was thinking that, Brandon took the opportunity and ran away from me.

Seeing that, I immediately chased after him and hit him until this bastard no longer thought about my cute and lovely little sister.