"Isn't this cute?" His mom smiled as she twirled around in an outfit she'd put on, Gyun's dead eyes glanced at her momentarily from his stare at the ground, "yeah perfect" "Really?" Her face brightened at his compliment

His voice was deadpan and his face showed his boredom as he stood in the female section of the clothing store shopping for clothes with his mom, half a dozen bags from multiple stores hanging off his arms. "Yes amazing, now can we go home?"

Her face fell at his obvious disinterest, "Tch! If that's how you're going to be then I'm done shopping, wait for me outside I'll change back into my clothes."

"Ok" As he turned around to walk away his mom added, "We can go to that restaurant we went to last month that you said had good sushi."

The corners of Gyun's mouth turned up ever so slightly as he paused, "Sure that sounds good"

Closing the dressing door behind her Gyun walked out of the door, pushing his earbuds in he moved to the bench outside the store. Plopping himself down, he sighed a breath of relief relishing the time to catch his breath. Setting the bags down next to him, he felt pain shoot throughout his chest again as he leaned forward.

Glancing around the busy mall, he reached inside his jacket pocket pulling out the pill bottle of painkillers. He popped one in his mouth, slid the bottle back into his pocket, took a pair of deep breaths he leaned back.

Resting his head on the back of the bench, he listened to his music as he closed his eyes relaxing. He kept one earbud out to listen to his surroundings, as he sat on the bench as people bustled past him.

The sound of the mall's environment lulled Gyun into a sense of relaxation, it felt almost blissful the soulful music reverberating in his ear. As Gyun sat on the bench listening to the sounds of those who were going about their lives around him.

It was as if time was passing faster, he took deep breaths as he felt his heart beating in his chest, his eyes shot open suddenly as his hand grabbed someone's wrist, who had grabbed one of the bags that sat next to Gyun.

"What are you doing?" His voice was calm, as he stared at the young girl who could not have been older than 16 who was holding onto the handle of one of the bags that Gyun had set down next to him.

"I'm moving the bags so I can sit, so can you let go?" Her voice had a tinge of annoyance, Gyun sat up, wincing as pain shot throughout his chest. Letting go of her hand he moved the bags and set them at his feet.

He pulled his hood lower and moved to the corner of the bench, as the girl sat down. Closing his eyes he tried to relax again but he heard her sliding closer to him. His eyes opened again, he waited a moment as she seemed to hesitate now that he was paying attention.

Sighing he sat up straight, he pulled the hood even lower over his face, waiting sitting with his arms crossed. After a minute his mom came out of the store with an extra bag, standing up to meet her he groaned as he did feeling pain shoot throughout his chest.--------------A pair of large empty platters sat in front of Gyun as he sat back satisfied in his chair, his mom on the other hand had a single smaller platter in front of her that still had a few pieces of sushi in front of her.

Chuckling as she patted her stomach, his mom brushed her black hair that was in her face from her amber eyes. "Still a sushi addict aren't you?"

A small smile cracked across Gyun's face, as he looked away in embarrassment over the railing to the lower floors of the mall.

"Well you've been going to the gym more and more, but you always go alone so you know if you want you can invite one of your friends your membership allows you to take a guest." She smiled but her smile held concern, she'd noticed that he hadn't mentioned having any friends the entire time since he'd left the hospital 8 months ago.

Gyun kept his eyes focused elsewhere attempting to brush off the question, "I have friends but I don't think they're into that."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Well I can go with you, I'm still pretty strong even after all these years, I can probably even squat more than you still." His mom flexed her biceps and to his mom's credit, they were pretty well developed. His mom had been a world-class cyclist and former record holder of the women's tour de France and former gold medalist in the Olympics for women's cycling in her youth before retiring and marrying his father, simply put she was a legend within the female cycling scene, especially in South Korea.

But she still cycled as a hobby and while he was still comatose in the hospital, a few years ago she had competed in a few competitions and placed well despite being in her late 40's. It was no exaggeration to say that Gyun and his sibling were blessed with genetics, his father and mother met in the Olympics where his dad competed in Men's Judo and earned a bronze medal for his efforts. Simply put from a young age all 3 of the Sung siblings had gifted athleticism and talent for sports. Before traveling into Murim Gyun was a world champion in Kudo for his age group and an on-the-rise Judo prospect. His brother Daegun was a soccer prodigy who'd played for the junior national team, his sister before going to college had a successful career in track and field.

Smirking Gyun bit back his laughter, "I have no interest in destroying my 47-year-old mom's PRs" Though she was still in impressive shape since she cycled nearly every day for an hour, he was confident in terms of strength that he could beat out anyone in the world his size and weight, having a personal record of the big three (bench, squat and deadlift combined weight) of 500 kilograms despite weighing 80 kilograms and standing at 175 centimeters. -Cycling would be a different story I might have to actually die to beat her, even if mom is no longer in her prime she could beat out any local cyclist any day of the week, and match up against national-level cyclists and not fall behind.-

"Wow confident aren't you? How about cycling?" Her smile was still there but there was a mischievous glint behind her expression, it seemed she didn't like the comment on her age.

-shit-

"I don-"

"There's a bike shop on the first floor, they have a bike simulator if you think you can beat me, and the loser has to clean the whole house for the month"

Though she said it like she was giving him an option, her expression said otherwise, sighing as he stood up "Sure why not"------------An hour later,

Falling off the bike and collapsing on the ground, Gyun collapsed to the ground struggling to breathe, his shirt thoroughly soaked with sweat. He'd tossed the jacket off him pretty soon after starting, though he didn't think his mom would take it easy on him. He didn't think she would show him so little mercy, it felt like he was being chased by a wild animal.

His mom was also breathing hard as he sat sweating on her bike, but she didn't look nearly as tired as him. "Let's check the scores"

The bike's back wheel was attached to a mechanism that could increase or decrease resistance and measure distance, and speed. Which was displayed on a display in front of the bike. Gyun stood up, his legs shaking from exertion and exhaustion but it was somewhat hidden from his pants, wiping the sweat from his eyes and checking his score, ****Distance: 10 Miles, Time: 29:54, Average Speed: 20.02 Miles Per Hour****

His mom leaned over after looking at her own score panting as she wiped her face with a small white towel. She smiled when she saw the results panting as she talked, "Ha still beat you, 29:57...ha, I got 29:47"

Gyun was busy downing water from a plastic water bottle the owner of the bike store had given him. Nearly choking on his water "*Cough*Cough* What?!"

His mom raised her arms triumphantly, as she moved around the bikes to the small table while Gyun ran past her to check the scores chuckling to herself "Your mom still has it, that's ten whole seconds, that's the equivalent of getting beat by a figurative mile in the big leagues".

Grabbing one of the water bottles on the table she gulped it down quickly, as she looked at Gyun who was freaking out over losing.

-To think that he was able to score so well that he could step onto a race any day for his age group and not fall behind or look out of place despite being in a coma less than a year ago. And making a time like that with zero training or experience with such bad form is insane.-Gyun turned away from the display, and he walked away from the room throwing on his jacket as he grabbed the bags for the store, while still wheezing for air and clutching his chest as did.

His mom realized how much of an insane athlete her son was maybe it was because it had been 5 years since she had seen him last be able to even walk, but she didn't remember her son being so strong and fast. She had noticed that halfway through he started clutching his chest and was probably having some chest pain, she assumed it was because of heartburn from eating sushi just prior yet he pushed through his exhaustion and almost managed to beat her out. She only managed to get ahead in the last mile after Gyun burned out and was barely able to keep pedaling.

But it was neither jealousy nor envy that she felt, it was nothing but pride in her heart that her son had nearly surpassed her who had put her entire early life into cycling on his first attempt at racing on a bike with raw athletic prowess.

She could feel in her heart that Gyun would be something special no matter what he applied himself to, -He would have made you proud Yujun, who knows...in 10 years no... in just a few years he'll surpass us I can see it, he's got your mentality.-