Chapter 261

Tossing and turning, covered in sweat, Jae Gu cried out in his sleep "...Dal Dal?!"

He shook his head back and forth a few more times, breathing rapidly.

Suddenly Jae Gu bolted upright in bed with a look of panic on his face, his mind still not completely out of his dream state.

"Dal Dal?" he gasped.

Still breathing heavily, Jae Gu's mind started to become more and more awake.

He began to realize that he was having the longest, most terrible nightmare of his entire life.

Even as he came to the realization that all of the terrible things that had happened were just a dream, he still felt a terrible heartbreaking pain inside his chest from the experience.

"Dal Dal..." he said again, with tears in his eyes as the remnants of his dream state faded away.

"What's wrong Jae Gu?" It was Jaesom, sitting up and rubbing her eyes next to Jae Gu. Jaehyeong was stirring next to her, starting to wake up.

Jae Gu immediately hugged his little sister, realizing that she was okay, she was never sick, and she didn't move away with her brother.

Jaehyeong was awake now and Jae Gu pulled him in to hug them both.

"Jae Gu?" he said sleepily. "What's going on?" as Jae Gu squeezed him tightly.

Loosening his hold on them, Jae Gu rubbed Jaehyeong's head reassuringly. "Everything's fine now, I just had a bad dream."

As he recalled parts of it, he repeated in a distant voice, "It was all just a really bad dream..."

The pain in his heart faded but wouldn't go away.

After a few more moments, Jae Gu regained his composure and got up. He then folded up the bed and everyone got dressed and ready for school.

As he was helping his siblings with breakfast, Jae Gu got an email on his phone from Wild's High, it was an announcement.

To all Wild's High students.

In light of an increase in attacks against our students, the administration has made the following revision with regard to the existing ban on fighting outside of recognized sparring areas and tournaments. Students may now use whatever physical force they deem necessary to protect themselves with the following conditions. 1. Students may only respond in self-defense, or in defense of another student or innocent person. 2. Students may only use force until there is no longer a threat to their own or someone else's safety. 3. All students must fill out an incident report with each and every occurrence.

~Wild's High Administration

Things must be getting pretty serious if they made an announcement like this he thought to himself.

After breakfast Jae Gu walked the twins to the bus stop and gave each of them a big hug goodbye.

"Bye big brother!" they said as the bus drove away and he waved after them.

Anxious to get to school and his sunbaes, Jae Gu took off in a run toward Wild's High.

On his way there, he started considering everything that he had been doing wrong all this time. He thought about how he kept pushing people away and never let anyone get close to him.

He was determined to not let the nightmare he had just experienced become a reality.

But apparently today I will be tested Jae Gu thinks to himself as he sees Kim Han Gyul just ahead of him.

"Worker Song!" "…come over here!" Kim Han Gyul yells out to him.

Not interested in any delays, Jae Gu completely ignores Han Gyul and continues on his way.

Seeing that Jae Gu doesn't plan on listening to him, Han Gyul balls up his fists and moves to block Jae Gu's path forward.

As Han Gyul fires a kick at him, Jae Gu leaps into the air and hits him with a running superman punch, instantly knocking him out.

Han Gyul lands on one of his classmates as Jae Gu maintains his stride, not letting this or anything else stop him on his mission.

A minute later into his run and suddenly Kim Yeo Jung is right next to him, matching his stride. "Extra training?" she says.

"Gah!" Jae Gu cries out and stumbles, almost face planting, but regaining his footing at the last moment.

"Where did you come from!?" he asks her, looking around.

"I was on my way to school and saw you running. I figured you were getting some extra training in while on the way to school so I decided to join you." Yeo Jung answers simply.

"Oh, I'm not actually doing this for training. I'm just in a hurry. There's someone, well a few someone's I need to talk to..." Jae Gu said between breaths.

"So you're taking action then. That is good to hear." she tells him.

At this point they had just passed the gates to the Wild's.

"Thanks for the run Jae Gu." Kim Yeo Jung says and breaks off in a different direction.

"No problem. Seeya, Yeo Jung." Strange girl he thinks to himself as he tries to figure out where Dal Dal and his sunbaes would be.

After a moment of deliberation he decides to head over to the boxing club first and runs through the door, breathing heavily.

"Jae Gu, you're here early!" Moon Young said from the corner as she was taping up her hands.

Talking to Moon Young between breaths "Sunbae I'm so glad to see you. Also, have you seen Dal Dal yet?"

Before she could answer, a familiar voice called out from the doorway "Hi Jae Gu!"

A flood of emotions ran through Jae Gu as he spun around to see Dal Dal Choi as she walked through the doorway. She had a big smile on her face, looking like the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

"Were you just asking for me?" she said, bewildered but happy to see him. "I saw you running through the hall but I couldn't catch you!"

Dal Dal let out a surprised "Eep!" as Jae Gu immediately threw his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him.

Dal Dal instinctively put her arms around him and laid her head on his chest, holding him as tightly as he held her, feeling unexpectedly happy to have him finally hold her in his arms.

"Uh, okay..." Lee Moon-Young just sat there with a confused look on her face not understanding what was happening.

"Dal Dal… I'm so sorry." he breathed, tears streaming down his face.

Dal Dal loosened the hold on Jae Gu and looked up at him, seeing the sadness ins his eyes and the tears on his face.

"Jae Gu? oh no, what's wrong?" and put her hands up to hold his face.

"I'm ashamed at how I've been treating everyone, and especially you. It took the worst nightmare for me to realize how wrong I've been."

Moon Young and Dal Dal were both looking at Jae Gu with concern in their eyes.

"In my dream I yelled at you. I told you to go away and never come back. I, I… broke your heart..." Jae Gu continued, sadness in his eyes.

Dal Dal listened patiently as he composed himself and continued his sad story.

"Then you pretended I didn't exist whenever I saw you. And then later you were kidnapped! It was... horrible."

Trying to keep up with everything he was saying Dal Dal scoffed. "Kidnapped?! Pfft, who would possibly be able to kidnap me? Was it an army?" she laughed out loud.

Forcing a laugh he agreed. "You're right of course, you're basically a human weapon..."

"Better yet, who would want to kidnap Tiny over here?!" Moon Young chimed in pointing at Dal Dal.

"Shut it fatty!" Dal Dal scowled at her, raising her fist, but then quickly recomposed herself, her attention on Jae Gu.

"Jae Gu, you should know that you can't get rid of me that easily." Dal Dal told him reassuringly as she winked at him.

Dal Dal put her head back on his chest and said "Jae Gu I am always here for you and I always will be, as long as you want me to be."

Leaning back with a confident smirk she added "Never forget the first thing I ever said to you Song Jae Gu. You're mine."

Blushing, Jae Gu was at a loss for words, all he could do was nod as he thought to himself that is not such a bad thing.

"Hello Song Jae Gu." It was Queen, standing in the doorway with a slightly confused(and also slightly jealous) look on her face.