Golden Time

“Who the hell are you mister?”

“Just come out. Don’t talk anymore!”

A man held Dongsu’s shoulders with hands as rough as a cauldron lid.

Dongsu was not the type to be easy prey.

He kicked the man right in the chest.

Puk! He was knocked out by Dongsu’s kicking, which was the beginning of the fighting.

Their faces became more and more fierce.

“Well … these days kids don’t know how to respect adults.”

As soon as they said that, they were forcibly dragging Suhyuk and Dongsu out of the car.

Suhyuk and Dongsu tried to hold out, but were outpowered.

“Hey. Let go your hold on me!” shouted Dongsu.

Dragged out the car, Dongsu was tussling with them. That was also true for Suhyuk.

Beaten three times, Suhyuk would punch back only once.

He only aimed at the guy’s jaw, but he kept avoiding hitting him. That made the guy become off guard.

“Hey, little boy, come with us quietly before you get a hard punch.”

The moment he tried to grab Suhyuk’s hair, Suhyuk hit the guy’s jaw with his fist.

Stumbling a bit, the guy put his hands on the wall to regain balance because his brain was shaken. Suhyuk did not miss that chance. He once more punched the guy.

The guy fell down, but stood up and down repeatedly like a drunk man.

Suhyuk quickly turned around.

Dongsu was in a dogfight with the other two men.

The victory of the fight gradually leaned toward Dongsu. He knocked them down soundly.

Still fuming, he spit out some thick blood from his mouth, which got stuck to the ground like phlegm. His mouth was busted. Blood stained and was oozing out from some of his torn face.

“Who the hell are you, bastard?” asked Dongsu, grabbing the guy by the collar.

At that moment, Suhyuk said, “Dongsu, let’s just go!”

Whoever the three men were, both of them would be late for the SAT if they did not hurry up.

However, they could not catch a taxi anywhere.

Did someone report to the police about this fight?

“Son of a bitch!”

Dongsu, who had been grabbing the man by the collar, threw him away and turned back.

“Suhyuk!” shouted Dongsu at him suddenly, glaring in his eyes.

Some guy was hitting him behind with a caber. The caber was seen floating in the air after hitting the crown of his head. A gush of fresh blood was coming out it.

“Son of a bitch!” Dongsu kicked hard on the guy’s chest, and then beat him relentlessly.

“Are you okay?” Dongsu helped Suhyuk out after he beat the guy to a pulp.

Not only blood came from his head, but his whole body was all covered with wounds.

Suhyuk barely uttered, “Let’s go to take the SAT.”

“You must go to the hospital first.”

Suhyuk, who was limping on his leg, stopped and looked at Dongsu with a drowsy look.

“Dongsu, we have to go to take the SAT.”

‘How much time and energy have I spent to prepare for the SAT? Not just myself but Dongsu, too.’

“You weirdo, son of a bitch!”

‘He must be crazy to talk about the test when he’s beaten like that,’ Dongsu thought to himself.

Looking at Suhyuk’s pupils quitely, Dongsu gave a sigh.

“Damn it. Let’s go!”

Both of them soon went out to the street to catch a taxi.

As they were in an out-of-the way place for a taxi, there were few people or cars passing by.

“Damn it…” It was the same situation in the big streets. There were many cars stopped in line, but no taxi was in sight.

Dongsu made a phone call for a taxi, but only heard that the line was busy or a message saying it would take a long time to call one.

“Damn it. It sucks!”

At that moment, one particular person came to his mind like a lightning bolt.

He called without hesitation.

“Hey, Dongsu. How come you called me? Did you arrive well?” It was Kim Hyunwoo’s voice.

“No, not yet, because we had a fight with some crazy guys.”

“What the heck? Fight?”

Dongsu quickly explained what happened.

Kim Hyunwoo, who was holding a game joystick at home, stopped the button.

“Were you hurt a lot?”

“I’m fine, but Suhyuk was hurt a lot.”

“Can you walk?”

“Barely.”

“Then, hurry up. You don’t have any time to call me like this.”

“We can’t catch a taxi…”

Kim moved his hand to the joystick, and said, “I’m busy again. Have a good test!”

Kim hung up the phone lightly.

“Again I’m beaten,” Scratching his head, he turned on the TV.

Reports about the SAT highlighted the TV news hour.

“They must be having a hard time today,” said Kim.

He rose from his seat and stretched himself.

***

Suhyuk and Dongsu noticed a taxi driving fast toward them.

As the light was on, it was obvious that it was an empty taxi.

However, the taxi did not slow down even though they waved their hands.

Eventually Dongsu dashed into the road toward the taxi.

Honk!

The taxi came to a sudden stop with a honking sound big enough to hit his eardrum, and the driver popped his face out the side of the window.

“Are you crazy? You want to die?”

Dongsu did not care about the driver’s swearing, and flung the car door open.

“Hey, let me give you double or triple the taxi fare!”

The driver, who distorted his face a little before, began to relax.

“Are you on the way to the SAT? You should not be late. Get in!”

The driver was stunned at Suhyuk getting in.

“What’s wrong with you? Were you hurt?”

Blood stains here and there.

“Oh, because I fell down. I don’t have much time to get to the test place. Hurry up, please.”

“Alright.”

The taxi soon left.

Inside Suhyuk took off his T-shirt, and rinsed his face. He also cleaned the blood on the jumper. A sigh came out of Dongsu’s mouth, who had been watching him all along.

Suhyuk felt some sharp pain on his ankles.

After arriving at the test site, Suhyuk moved without hesitation, ignoring the pain.

Then he heard a woman’s voice coming from the side.

“Student Suhyuk!”

It was Han Jihye, who became a regular reporter now.

Looking Suhyuk’s face squarely, she could not speak.

How can a handsome kid’s face become…

She barely uttered, “What’s wrong with your face? Did you have accident on the way here?”

She gave him some disposable tissues quickly.

Suhyuk made an unnatural smile, saying, “I fell down.”

“Are you okay? How did you fall down? Are you really okay?”

“Does not matter.”

Suhyuk’s gaze moved toward her hands. She was holding a recorder.

Detecting her intention, he made a sorry expression, saying, “I might be late. Talk to you later.”

“Okay, never mind. Just go!” said she.

“I’ll see you later.”

After exchanging greetings with her, Suhyuk turned back, helped by Dongsu. Suhyuk was limping in the distance.

Han, looking at him with a worried look, gathered her hands and shouted,

“You know many people are cheering you, right? Go Lee Suhyuk!”

Her voice created a small smile on his face.

Until then, Suhyuk did not know about it. Someone had been watching him in the distance.

With arms folded, he was standing against the school main gate.

It was Kim Hyunwoo.

“Yes, no matter how hard it is, you have to overcome it by yourself. Like now,” muttered Kim with a light smile.

***

“Huh …”

At the test site Suhyuk found his seat and took a deep breath.

Then he wiped off the nosebleeds and sticky blood coming from his hair with a tissue.

“Are you okay?”

Suhyuk smiled as brightly as he could when the proctor showed an uneasy expression.

“It’s okay.”

Suhyuk’s eyes looked determined.

“If you feel you can’t endure it, please tell me right away.”

“Yeah.”

The proctor went back to his place, and Suhyuk pulled out his ink pen.

His whole body was screaming, and his head was throbbing like he had a migraine.

Suhyuk rolled up his pants and observed around his ankle.

It looked red and bruised. It was bruised due to internal cell hemorrhage.

Even if he did not take any action, it will heal over time.

And the next problem is the head. He felt a pain accompanied by the feeling that a ball bounces on the head. Checking the symptoms,

‘It’s okay, It’s just external damage,’ He said to himself.

But it made him feel more painful.

“You can be disadvantaged by being escorted out when you get caught cheating. Okay, let’s get started,” the proctor said.

Test papers were handed out to the students, and Suhyuk got one.

Drip, drip.

Drops of blood from the head and nose dripped onto his test paper.

‘I have done my best until today for this test. I can’t let this pain stand in the way.’

His eyes began to shine sharply.

………………………………………………

An air of loneliness dominated his study.

Clang, clang.

Pieces of ice in his cup sounded loud and broke the silence.

After drinking a sip of foreign liquor, he said, “Insoo.”

“Yes, Dad”

“Have you ever seen a lion playing with a hyena?”

“No, Never…”

“Okay. The lion is supposed to act like a lion, and hyenas must eat rotten meat like hyenas. If you pay even a little attention to such dirty things, there will come along a dirty disease like this time.”

Insoo solicited help from a private detective agency to cause Suhyuk and Dongsu trouble, and that incident was reported in the press. Although the identity of the person behind it was not revealed, even that mention disappeared from the press quickly because his father took measures in advance.

“I’ll keep it in mind.” Insoo said.

“Now, what are you going to do,” asked his father, taking the cup to his lips.

Insoo replied without any agony, “I want to go abroad to study for a brief period.”

Insoo’s father nodded his head slowly.

“Okay, go and return to being a lion overlooking everything.”

………………………………………………

Time passed by fast enough to make one feel their past events as distant memories.

Nonetheless, it was not such a long time.

Suhyuk looked at the door before his eyes calmly, where he was supposed to have an interview test.

There were really many ups and downs for him to come to this point.

At the end of the day, he managed to achieve his goal, which he was content with.

When he entered the door, those looking into the applicants’ papers gazed their eyes at him.

They were none other than the faculty of Daehan Medical School.

“You are that famous Lee Suhyuk.”