The morning sunlight spilled across the sleepy fishing village, glinting off the waves where Dad's boat bobbed in the distance. The sound of gulls squabbling over scraps drifted in from the pier.
Soon Hae balanced two empty baskets on her hip, her stepmother's voice ringing in her ears:
> "Hurry back from the market! We've got customers waiting!"
The restaurant Haebada Bunsik smelled like sizzling mackerel and fresh seaweed soup. It wasn't glamorous, but it was their livelihood, and every morning Soon Hae ran errands to keep it running.
Her father was already out fishing for the day's catch. Her stepmother, though not unkind, always kept her busy.
As she made her way into the bustling market, Soon Hae's gaze flicked to a poster tacked to a telephone pole. A black-and-gold logo: Iron Tiger Boxing Academy. Below it, glossy photos of five world-famous fighters: Shen Rubai, Wei Sheng, lu han, Guan Zhu Tong, and Li Li Shan each looking impossibly fierce.
Soon Hae slowed down, her heart giving a tiny kick. Her late mother's old gloves still hung in her bedroom, smelling faintly of leather and saltwater. She had been a champion once, before the sea took her.
Shaking herself out of it, Soon Hae darted between stalls, ticking off her list: green onions, sesame oil, dried anchovies
BUMP!
Her basket went flying as she smacked into a tall stranger wearing a boxing fist mask, the padded kind used for training.
"Watch it!" Soon Hae blurted.
The stranger stumbled, elbowing a nearby stand. A small bronze bell the vendor's treasured "o-ring" that signaled customers clattered to the ground with a pathetic ting. The elderly vendor's eyes went wide in slow motion.
"You broke my o-ring! That bell's been in my family for forty years!"
Soon Hae spun on the masked stranger. "Are you serious right now?!"
The stranger lifted their hands. "It wasn't... I didn't..."
"Unbelievable!" she shouted, scooping up the groceries and huffing away before the vendor's glare could burn a hole through her.
She didn't notice that as she stormed past the Iron Tiger Boxing Academy poster the masked stranger stayed behind bowing awkwardly to the old man, then glancing in her direction with a curious frown.
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