Morning of May 15th—seven days remain until the martial arts retest.
Chirp, chirp, chirp.
A flock of birds circled above the street, sometimes perching on the power lines, sometimes soaring into the sky.
Beep, beep, beep.
Occasional car horns sounded as pedestrians hurried along the street. The fiery red sun gradually rose in the east, as if it were any ordinary morning.
Downstairs at the entrance to their apartment building.
William Han and Andrew Han stepped out of the building together.
“It just so happens I’ll be passing by your school today, so I’ll drop you off,” William Han stretched his arms in the sunlight, sighing emotionally. “Son, you’re the morning sun—young, full of hope.”
Andrew Han swung his arms twice and grinned, “Dad, that’s a bit of a stretch.”
William Han shook his head. “That’s not important. What matters is, I believe you’ll get into a top university. Keep working hard, but don’t overdo it—don’t wear yourself out.”
“Don’t worry.”
Andrew Han replied softly, facing the morning sunlight.
...
May 15th, at noon.
The sun blazed overhead, temperatures soared, and it felt as if the heat of summer had suddenly swept across the land. The air was thick with waves of heat.
In fact, it was just an unusual spike in temperature.
Coincidentally—
Andrew Han, who usually attended school as normal, was now, like the abnormal weather, not at school. Instead, he stood quietly beside an unknown warehouse in a remote suburb of Riverdale.
He waited in silence.
One hour... two hours... three hours passed. Finally, in the afternoon, a black Audi Q5 drove up to the warehouse and stopped at the dilapidated front entrance.