Descent of the Demon Master

tary school learners.”

“…I wasn't asking because I couldn't tell, Mr.
Gyu-Min.”

Jo Gyu-Min grinned deeply.
“If you lack the foundation, then we'll just have to rebuild it from the ground up.
That means you will start over from the first year of elementary school.”

“…”

“One week to get through a year's worth of curriculum sounds fair, yes? Your new assignment is this—please finish these textbooks in a week.
Next week, we'll start with the second year.”

“Mr.
Gyu-Min, I'm a second year… high school.”

“Yes, I know.
And?” Jo Gyu-Min replied in an unwavering voice.

Kang Jin-Ho squeezed his eyes shut.
Jo Gyu-Min was right; getting the basics right was crucial.
Wasn't that something Kang Jin-Ho had always reminded himself of? One of the most important truths that should never be forgotten while mastering martial arts?

'Right.
The basics are crucial.'

Kang Jin-Ho already knew this, yet…
He couldn't help but become even sadder with every passing second.

***

Park Yu-Min tilted his head.
“Where have you been?”

“To the chief director's office.”

“Again?”

“Yeah…” Kang Jin-Ho replied lifelessly and waited for Park Yu-Min to climb up on the bicycle.
He then began to weakly pedal away.

Park Yu-Min noticed something almost immediately and asked, “Your bag kinda feels heavy today.”

“…Mmhm.”

“What's inside?”

“Don't ask…”

“O-okay.”

Kang Jin-Ho suddenly began pedaling with a lot more zeal.

The current set of pedals had been specially commissioned for his use.
They were the result of Jo Gyu-Min pouring an inordinate amount of money to research and develop unbreakable pedals after Kang Jin-Ho broke so many of them.
The initial dilemma was choosing between 'performance' and 'sturdiness' and in the end, Jo Gyu-Min gave up on the notion of saving weight to go with fully metallic pedals to ensure their toughness.

As a reward for all that hard work, these pedals managed to endure Kang Jin-Ho's physical strength for a long time and were still usable even now.
Which meant Kang Jin-Ho could ride his bicycle around without too many worries these days.

Fwhooooosh!

The bicycle scythed through the air to enter the hill, without slowing down in the slightest.

Park Yu-Min muttered, “You know, I've been getting rides from you for a while now, but even then, this sight never fails to surprise me.”

“Mmhm. By the way…” Kang Jin-Ho glanced at him.

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“Ng?”

“Wouldn't you be able to ride a motorbike?”

“Eh?” Park Yu-Min tilted his head in confusion.

“A bicycle won't do since you need your legs to make it move, but you don't need to worry about that with a motorbike, right?”

“Well, yeah, that's true.
But…”

“Yeah?”

“You want me to ride a motorbike up this hill?!” Park Yu-Min shuddered grandly.
His friend had this evil tendency of obliviously telling others to follow his example.
“I'll die if I lose control on this road, you know!”

“Oh, I see.” Kang Jin-Ho nodded in agreement.
He was confident of never losing control of his bicycle.
In addition, he also knew that even if he did lose control and crashed, he wouldn’t be injured in any way.
But it was a different case for Park Yu-Min.

If the boy slipped while trying to go up this hill on a motorbike, then well…
At best, he would be dusting himself off at the foot of the hill.
It seemed that the decision on getting a motorbike or not should be postponed until the orphanage had been relocated.

Kang Jin-Ho reached the top of the hill and stopped his bicycle in front of the Seongsim Orphanage.

Park Yu-Min climbed down and began thanking him.
“Thanks for everything.”

“Mm? For what?”

“The proxy chief director came to visit us several times.”

“…?”

“He said that he would help us with relocating the orphanage.
Apparently, a new building is being constructed right now.”

“Is that so? That's good to hear.”

“You were behind it, right?”

Kang Jin-Ho shook his head.
“No, it wasn't me.”

Park Yu-Min sighed.
“Fuu… I don't know how I'll ever repay all the things you've done for us.”

“Nonsense.
Don't bother.” Kang Jin-Ho nonchalantly waved it off.

“No, hang on! I'm being serious, you know.”

“Friends don't need to repay anything.
Anyway, I'm going now.” Kang Jin-Ho lightly waved his hand and turned his bicycle around.

Park Yu-Min watched him go down the hill and muttered to himself, “Friends…”

Happiness welled up in him, knowing that he now had a real friend.

***

Kang Jin-Ho reached home, but when he opened the front door…

“I'm telling you, dear! An apartment is for the best!”

“You're only saying that because you've never lived in a house with a beautiful lawn! Do you know how cool and refreshing it is during the summer months and how warm it is during winter?”

Baek Hyeon-Jeong sharply retorted, “But there will be plenty of insects!”

“Yes, plenty of inse…
N-no, wait! There aren't that many insects to worry about.
I assure you.” Kang Yu-Hwan hurriedly corrected himself.

“Dear husband…
Listen well, I can never, ever, live in a place like that.”

“But you will change your mind once we start living in one.”

“In that case, why don't you live in a house with a lawn…
With another woman?! I'm not going!”

“How on earth did you even get to that conclusion?” Kang Yu-Hwan muttered in exasperation.

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Kang Jin-Ho spat out a lengthy groan.
Hwang Jeong-Hu had alluded earlier that people suddenly coming into money would behave strangely.
However, the Kang family seemed to be behaving strangely in a totally different sense from what the old man originally meant.

“I'm home, Mother, Father.”

Baek Hyeon-Jeong hurriedly asked her son, “Jin-Ho! You prefer apartments, don't you?”

Not wanting to lose, Kang Yu-Hwan followed right after her.
“Listen, Jin-Ho.
No matter what, a detached house with a garden is…”

Kang Jin-Ho groaned once again.
“How about we just keep living here?”

“…!”

“Son, that's a bit…”

“I really don't mind where we go so, please…
Please choose, you two.
If you keep arguing like this, we'll never get to move out.”

Baek Hyeon-Jeong sighed and nodded.
“You are right, son…”

Meanwhile, Kang Yu-Hwan cleared his throat, trying to hide his embarrassment.
“Ahem, ahem!”

Kang Jin-Ho faintly chuckled at the sheepish expressions on his parents' faces before he headed to the bathroom.
By the time he finished his business and exited the bathroom, his sister finally arrived back home.

“I'm home~!”

Kang Jin-Ho frowned a little as he stared at Kang Eun-Yeong.
“Aren't you a little too late today?”

“My bad, My training ended later than usual today.”

“Even then.
Next time, tell me if you're going to be late because of training.
I'll go and fetch you.”

Kang Eun-Yeong poked her tongue out.
“No, thank you! I don't want to be cursed to death for ordering a high school senior around.”

Kang Jin-Ho tilted his head.
“Wait, I'm not a senior yet…?”

“You'll soon be one, right? Besides, it'll be a problem if you stopped showing up one day, you know.”

“I'll show up even after becoming a high school senior.”

“Nope.
Mom will kill me if you do.”

Kang Jin-Ho nodded involuntarily, thinking that it was a distinct possibility.

Kang Eun-Yeong stared at her older brother for a second or two before bursting into a peal of laughter.
“Hah. I guess you've finally become more like a normal person.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know.
After the accident, you were like…
dazed and confused for a while, you know what I mean? But you look more normal lately, back to how you were before the accident.
Kinda…”

“Really?” Kang Jin-Ho's expression brightened a little at that unexpected revelation.

She was saying this to him in passing, but her words were very important to him.

“Although you were also kinda cool being a quiet, brooding type, you know? You reverting back to your old self is also a problem, I guess?” Kang Eun-Yeong giggled and muttered that while heading to her room.

Kang Jin-Ho also headed to his room as he mulled over what his sister had said.

'Have I really changed?'

That could be true.
After all, changes like what she had described would be more noticeable to other people.

He lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

“My ordinary life, is it…”

Maybe…
attaining that life wasn't going to be as difficult as he feared.
All he had to do was live each day as it came, like what he had been doing so far.

A smile formed on his lips as he closed his eyes.