CHAPTER 48

"Hey, who was that you were talking to?"

Emily and one of her fellow waitress friends were stacking chairs and packing up the diner after a long night when her friend asked her this, referring to Miguel of course. She had noticed that Emily had spent the whole time either chatting with him or making eyes at him from across the diner when he wasn't looking, so she was extremely curious. Emily shrugged nonchalantly.

"That's… no one. Just met him today." Emily replied unconvincingly. Her friend raised an eyebrow.

"No one? Because you spent all night talking to him. I figured he was your boyfriend or something."

"He's not my boyfriend." Emily said, struggling to think of what Miguel was to her. "He's my… Miguel."

"Huh?" Her friend asked, confused. Emily sighed.

"Look, I don't know. He seems really nice. Sweet. Interesting. Funny. And lord knows he's attractive."

"But…" Her friend prompted. Emily raised an eyebrow.

"But what?" Emily asked.

"Where's the but?" Her friend prompted. "What you said, him being hot and all those other things… if there was no 'but' then you for sure would've jumped his bones by now."

Emily glared at her friend, rolling her eyes at her friend's crude comments.

"Shut up, you know that's not me." Emily stated. "And yeah Miguel seems great, but like I just met him last night. And he used to be a massive bully. I literally saw him threatening to beat up someone in an Applebees in November. I'm really not in the mood for another toxic relationship. So yeah, I think I'm going to tell him no again."

"Wait… he already asked you out? And you said no?" Her friend asked, surprised. Emily raised an eyebrow.

"Wait, I didn't tell you? Yeah, he was at the restaurant yesterday night like I said. Helped me pack everything up. Then he asked me out. When I said no, he didn't take that and leave. He told me that we were destined to be together. That there are forces, immeasurable forces in the universe that will bring us together at some point, whether it's now, in weeks, months, years. The forces can't be explained, but can't be denied."

"Ooh, a hot nerd! He sounds perfect for you! And you told him no?!" Her friend cried. Emily nodded.

"Like I said, we just met!" She exclaimed.

"Right, so what was he doing here today then if you already rejected him yesterday?"

"Well, when I rejected him, like I said, it was mainly because it was because I knew nothing about him. So he said that he was going to keep coming back here every day and we could get to know each other, until I agree to go on a date with him."

"And he actually came back?" Her friend said, surprised. "Wow, normally when guys say that, it's just a lie to try and trick us into going out with them."

"Yeah, but he came back." Emily said.

"Girl, you gotta date this guy! He sounds so sweet and romantic!" Her friend exclaimed. Emily sighed.

"He does sound sweet now. I'm not about to date a guy I know nothing about." She replied.

"Well you clearly know something about him now given that you spent almost the entire evening chatting with him." Her friend remarked. Emily shrugged.

"I don't know that much about him. Just that he's Ecuadorian and was born there but moved here when he was really young. He, um… he lives with his mom. He goes to West Valley High. He's the All-Valley Karate champion and wants to fight in the UFC when he's older. He was that kid in the papers who was in the coma after that Karate fight in the public school earlier this year, and he was paralysed because of it but learned to walk again. Oh, and he loves Rock music and Spanish music."

As Emily trailed off, her friend's jaw gaped slightly in disbelief.

"You remembered all of that about him? Wow, you must really like this guy." She remarked. Emily, upon realising everything she had said, blushed furiously.

"I, um… I…" Emily stammered, rendered speechless. "Shut up."

Her friend laughed, raising her hands in defeat.

"Hey, look, I know I can't make you do anything. But can I just say one more thing?" She asked.

"Go ahead." Emily nodded.

"You and I have been working together here at this shitty diner for nearly 2 years now, and I'll tell you with 100% certainty that not one day since we started working here have I seen you smile as much as you did tonight talking to him. Think about that…"

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The next morning, Miguel woke up bright and early, not at all tired despite sleeping around 3, as he was too curious about what Mr. Larusso had in store for him today with this early training session. After eating a quick breakfast, Miguel got in his pickup and drove over to a different location that Daniel had sent him and when he arrived, he couldn't help but gasp. He had heard a lot about the Miyagi-Do dojo before, but this dojo was far cooler than he had even imagined. As he walked inside, in the back garden, there were so many ancient japanese boulders with scribe on them. There was a car park filled with so many classic cars. There was even a freaking koi pond! A freaking koi pond!

Moments after Miguel arrived, he saw a very familiar car pull into the driveway. It wasn't Mr. Larusso, it was George. Miguel smiled and went over to greet him, kind of surprised to see his friend there.

"Yo, dude, what's up?" Miguel greeted him.

"Hey, he texted you too?" George asked, and Miguel nodded.

"Yeah, what do you think this is about?" Miguel asked. George shrugged.

"I don't know. He just told me to meet him here." George replied. Miguel nodded.

"Yeah, same." Miguel murmured. "This dojo actually looks sick not gonna lie."

"You've never been here?" George asked, surprised. Miguel shook his head and raised an eyebrow.

"You have?"

George shook his head.

"No, but I figured you had at some point in the year and a half since you started karate."

"Um… dude, I was in Cobra Kai, remember?" Miguel commented, slightly confused. George nodded.

"Yeah, I know, genius. I just figured, you know, as part as a Cobra Kai attack or something you'd been here."

Miguel laughed.

"Gee, thanks man! Love the faith you have in me." Miguel remarked sarcastically. But before either boy could say anything else, they saw another car pull up to the dojo and saw Mr. Larusso step out of it and walk towards them. Although they were slightly tense, when he smiled at them and they realised that he meant no harm or confrontation, they relaxed too.

"Ah, guys! You're here already! That's awesome!" Daniel exclaimed as he walked over to them.

"Hey, Mr. Larusso. What's going on?" George asked him immediately.

"Yeah, why did you call us here? And where's everyone else?" Miguel added. Daniel nodded, assuming that they would have questions.

"Oh, no, it's just the two of you this morning." Daniel replied. "And as to why I called you here… look, let's be fully honest here. Yesterday was an absolute shitshow."

George glared fake-scoldingly at Miguel, who noticed and threw his arms in the air indignantly.

"What?! It wasn't my fault!"

George kept looking at Miguel, who eventually sighed in defeat.

"Okay it was mainly my fault! But what did you guys expect? You just blindly ask us to do your chores and expect us to play along and say nothing?!"

Daniel nodded.

"Yeah, that might not have been the best lesson to start with given that, from what I gather, you guys don't fully trust Miyagi-Do yet."

"Gee, what gave you that idea?" George commented sarcastically.

"Yeah, absolutely shocking." Miguel added. "I mean other than the fact that we spent the past year and a half fighting you guys and your former star pupil tried to kill me or whatever."

Daniel nodded.

"Yeah, not a great first impression, huh? Well last night, Johnny and I were talking and we realised that things were never going to work with this dojo team up if Eagle-Fang didn't trust Miyagi-Do and vice versa. So we decided that I would spend the day training just the two of you and Johnny would do the opposite and hopefully by the end of today, tomorrow, the end of the week, however long it takes, both sides have enough trust in each other to work together."

George and Miguel nodded.

"That actually sounds like a great idea. So what are we doing today?" George asked.

"Field trip. Come on, let's go or we're going to be late." Daniel replied simply, before ushering them towards his car. They followed him but as they got into the car, Miguel realised something.

"Wait, Mr. Larusso, you said that Johnny is doing the opposite to us right now? Does that mean he's training some Miyagi-Dos?" Miguel asked. Daniel nodded.

"Yeah, he's training Demetri and Sam." Daniel replied. Miguel and George looked at each other and smirked. Miguel couldn't help but laugh in sympathy of the two Miyagi-Do students because he was sure that whatever Johnny was putting them through, it wasn't going to be pleasant. He knew how much Johnny hated Demetri especially.

"God help them…"

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Daniel drove for about 15 minutes with the boys, taking them through the forest to the large lake that everyone in the Valley knew so well. He parked right by the lake and as they stepped out the car, they saw a wooden boat already tied to the pier waiting for them. Daniel ushered them onto it and together, the three of them rowed out to the middle of the lake, before Daniel put the oars away and sat back. The water was absolutely pristine, the sky without a single cloud, and the sun not bearing down on them too hard given that it was still early January. It was the perfect temperature for a lake day, but they just had no idea what exactly they were supposed to be doing in this "training" Daniel had told them they would be doing.

"Mr. Larusso, what are we doing here?" George asked.

"Fishing." Daniel replied, taking out three rods. Miguel raised an eyebrow as Daniel handed one to each of them.

"Fishing?" Miguel asked, confused. Daniel grinned.

"Yup. The trick to fishing out here is to get the line into the deep water, away from the boat. It's all in the cast." Daniel said, casting his rod perfectly. "You try it. Get your shoulders back, bend your elbows, let it fly."

George then casted the rod really nicely out into the lake. Miguel, however, wasn't nearly as good. He had never really been fishing before so he was utterly clueless, almost throwing the whole rod overboard by mistake his first try.

"Man, this thing is fucking broken, I swear." Miguel grumbled as he tried for a fourth time to get a good cast but failed. Every time it was either too close or too far. George chuckled at his friend's misfortune.

"Ah, yes, it's the rod, isn't it?" George laughed.

"Here, try this, Miguel." Daniel instructed. "Relax. Completely relax every muscle in your body."

Miguel obliged, then nodded.

"Okay, now what?" He grunted.

"Now, do you ever play soccer?" Daniel randomly asked. Miguel furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and nodded.

"Yeah, a lot. Why?" Miguel asked.

"When you've scored goals, have you ever done the Cristiano Ronaldo goal celebration?" He continued.

"Almost exclusively. Again, how is this relevant?" Miguel questioned.

"Okay, good. So what I want you to do is Ronaldo's goal celebration, but what I want you to do is rather than spreading your arms apart, I want you to keep them together as you bring them down."

Miguel did so and to his and George's shock, it actually worked! Miguel actually got a decent cast!

"There you go! Nailed it!" Daniel exclaimed cheerfully.

"Yeah, just in time to check me into a retirement home." George remarked. Miguel flipped him the bird lazily as he sat back, extremely satisfied that he finally managed to do it, 5th time lucky.

"So… now what?" Miguel asked.

"Now we wait. Make yourself comfortable, boys. We could be here a while."