Chapter 60 4 Years Ago (1)

"You guys went to the same school?" Olivia asked. Lee Seng nodded as the both of them sat on the bleachers. The sounds of fighting echoed throughout the gym. Lee Seng sighed and nodded.

"We went to the same school. I didn't know they were planning to take the exam and try to transfer out to the Academy." Lee Seng answered.

"So is this a good thing or a bad thing then?"

Lee Seng shrugged and let out a sigh. He didn't necessarily think it was good or bad. He felt his chest was going to explode from the unexpected news, but tried not to think much about it. He looked at Olivia, who was waiting for him to answer and turned to look at the fight happening in the middle section.

"Let's just say..." Lee Seng began. His words were dragging as he thought about what he should say, rather reveal. "I don't have a great relationship with them. At one point we were close, but people change and drift apart. We drifted apart and they decided to push me around." Lee Seng shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. Olivia nodded slowly and turned as another horn blared. She glanced at her watch and looked at the time remaining.

15 minutes

"Will you be able to do this?" Olivia asked after a while.

"It isn't a matter of will I be able to, but I have to." Lee Seng answered.

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4 Years Ago

Lee Seng jogged down the city streets with a backpack strapped to his back. He casually looked behind him and saw no one in particular and kept going. The semi-busy Summer city was in full effect. People were all out and about enjoying the nice summer day. Lee Seng wished he could be one of those people. Enjoying the Summer and being happy about it.

Lee Seng eyes started to water and he quickly wiped them away.

'Don't cry.' He thought to himself. 'No more tears.' Lee Seng continued for another thirty minutes before he reached a familiar neighborhood. He had, without thinking much about it, jogged all the way to the old neighborhood where Jason and Jae Kang stayed. He lingered in front of the large concrete slabs that led up to the two-story brick home.

"Fine, whatever." Lee Seng groaned and wiped his face. "I'm here. I might as well ask." Lee Seng began forward and stopped himself. "What if they don't help me? What do I do then?" Lee Seng shook his head and slapped himself in the face a couple of times. He quickly climbed the large slab concrete stairs and made it to the familiar wood stained door. He rang the doorbell. The chime went off and footsteps approached. The door opened and Jason smiled and greeted me.

"Hey, what're you doing here?" Jason asked. He looked around while Lee Seng fiddled with my hands, looking at the ground. Lee Seng could feel Jason's curious eyes on him but he didn't seem to want to ask. He was the one who "didn't ask questions until you were ready to talk" kind of person.

"Oh, I..." Lee Seng trailed off.

'What excuse would I use? I just happened to be jogging in the area hours away from my home?'

Another set of footsteps were walking over.

"Jason, who's at the door?" Jae asked loudly. He popped out of the right room and into the hallway. He noticed Lee Seng and waved happily.

"Hey, Lee, what're you doing here?" Jae asked happily. He looked at his brother and then back at Lee Seng. Jae slowly nodded and pushed past his brother and looked around. "Did you get a cab or something?"

"Oh, uh..." Lee Seng trailed off. "I jogged here."

"Ahh, well come inside." Jae waved. Lee Seng nodded as Jae grabbed him and led him past his brother and into the cool home. The familiar home welcomed Lee Seng as he stepped in. Jason and Jae's parents were well off that they lived a very comfortable life in one of the city's older neighborhoods. The twins didn't speak much about their parents jobs and the amount of money they had. They liked to be themselves and live as true to themselves as possible.

the wood stained floors always caught Lee Seng's attention when he came over. He always expressed to the twins and their mom, Mrs. Kang, how he loved the wood. Mrs. Keng was surprised that Lee Seng knew it was real hardwood floors. It was something Lee Seng learned from his mom. He always seemed to chuckle at that thought every time he came over, but today he simply just walked in and took off his shoes and waited for the twins.

The door closed behind Lee Seng and he felt Jason pushing him over to the living room.

"Come on, go sit. I'll grab you some water and a towel. Your shirt is drenched in sweat, dude." Jason said. Lee Seng nodded and moved down the hall and took a right, past the stairs and into the living room. The living room soaked in a lot of natural sunlight. Lee Seng sat on the gray sofa, staring off into space.

Jae sat next to Lee Seng. He observed his friend staring off to space for awhile. Jason came back and put a glass of cold water up to Lee Seng's face. The ice cold water snapped Lee Seng out his thoughts and he pulled backwards. Jason and Jae chuckled as Lee Seng grabbed the water. He chugged the water and Jason proceeded to fill it with the water pitcher he had in his other hand. Lee Seng nodded in thanks and took another sip.

After satiating himself, he set the cup of water on the coffee table as Jason set the water pitcher down and handed a hand towel at Lee Seng. Lee Seng nodded in thanks again and wiped the sweat off of him.

"So you jogged all the way from your house?" Jae asked. Lee Seng nodded. Jae scooted in his seat and slowly nodded.

"Dude that's like..." Jae stopped and started to count.

"12 miles," Lee Seng lied.

"12 miles! How long did you jog, bro?" Jae asked.

Lee Seng looked at his watch and noticed a couple of hours had passed.

"A couple of hours." Lee Seng lied. He didn't tell them he had come from the lab that was on the opposite side of the city, deep in the forest. It wasn't twelve miles, but twenty or so miles from the city line. He had caught the attention of his older brother and gotten Akio to take him to the city without question.

"Damn, you're too into your jogging. I would quit after five." Jae said. Lee Seng couldn't help but chuckle. Jae was always the one who lightened the mood while Jason was the one who observed. Jae patted Lee Seng's shoulder. "You're a beast like always Always working out even though we aren't even high schoolers, officially. You're either jogging, working out or doing martial arts with your older siblings at your dad's lab. I wish I could just do that."

"I don't JUST do all that." Lee Seng said. "I just handle my time better than most people." Jae nodded and they all laughed. Jason shifted and stood up. He circled around to Lee Seng's left side and sat on a chair diagonally to him.

"You wanna talk about why you're here?" Jason finally asked. Lee Seng shuddered at the question in his head, but let out a staggered sigh instead. "You seem lost in thought when you came over. You didn't even send a message so... I was wondering if something happened."

Lee Seng nodded as his hands found their grips onto the coach edge.

"Mom died." Lee Seng said. He felt his eyes become blurry and his tears started to fall. He started to cry and Jason kept still as Jae patted Lee Seng on the back. "She got sick out of nowhere... And passed away suddenly." The twins didn't move. They both silently waited for Lee Seng to finish. "She's been sick for awhile. You guys know that. She... she's no longer..."

Lee Seng began to sob. Jason moved over to sit with Lee Seng and the two brothers comforted Lee Seng. The house filled with loud sobs. Lee Seng covered his face and felt warm tears falling onto his palms. He didn't want to believe his Mom had gotten sick a couple months before and just suddenly died.

"Dad said she would be fine." Lee Seng sobbed. "Then why did she die? WHY!?!" His sobs turned to screams and he stomped his feet. His mother was everything to him. She was the reason why he kept on pushing forward. Now that she was gone, what would he do against his own father?

"Hey, it's okay. I know, I know." Jae patted. Jason pulled Lee Seng into a hug and sighed. He couldn't understand losing someone very close to him, but he could imagine how much it would hurt.

"Stay here for awhile. It's still Summer." Jason suggested. Lee Seng buried his face into Jason's shoulder and nodded. Jason could hear Lee Seng's thanks and continued to hug him.