Hitting the Mark

by Aidan Wayne

  “So,” he said, holding out his arms. “I don’t suppose I get a hug, after all this time?”

  Marcus didn’t quite rush forward into them. He had to lean down just a bit and—enveloped Taemin just a little.

  It felt so good to have him in his arms.

  He let go and stepped back. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Have a good night,” Taemin said.

  “Yeah, you too.”

  Chapter Two

  TAEMIN WAS not, in fact, a morning person.

  He was good at getting up early and going about his day, and he did so regularly, but early-morning sparring classes were his father’s legacy. Taemin upheld them because it was only right, and it was ever more important to live up to the Choi name now that he was in charge of the school. His father was, after all, one of the handful of living tenth-degree black belts in the world. The normally posthumous honor had been awarded while he was alive due to his accomplishments and dedication to both the taekwondo community and the world at large. Choi’s might have been Taemin’s birthright, but it was built on Ki-hyuk Choi’s push to better himself, his students, and society.

  Taemin would not change a thing in regards to what Choi’s stood for, but he did have to admit, if given half the chance, he would gladly sleep in past sunrise.

  Granted, growing up he didn’t get that chance a whole lot, what with his parents’ training regimen. Sleeping in past seven was still sleeping in. And his body was in the habit now of waking up early. It didn’t mean he had to like it.

  It was easier, though, with something to look forward to. Seeing Marcus again… seeing what he’d grown up into…. Taemin was so proud of him. Barring how nervous Marcus had seemed last night, he still carried himself with confidence that showed clearly once the man had relaxed a little. And an actor? That was incredible. He’d have to ask Marcus more about it. Maybe get around to actually seeing a movie he was in. That was reason enough to take the time to watch a film. Taemin wasn’t all that great at consuming modern media. He was the first to admit that he was terrible about living in the modern age at all. His students and friends made fun of him about it all the time. He barely was able to run the school’s Facebook page and website—in fact he didn’t; Preeti did that—much less have a Facebook of his own.

  It had actually crossed his mind, over the last few years, to maybe try looking Marcus up, see what he was doing now. But he’d never followed through with it. It felt like crossing a boundary, just showing up out of nowhere to go, “Hey, remember me?” He might have been Marcus’s teacher once, but people grew and changed and moved. For all he’d known, Marcus had had no interest in reconnecting.

  But now here he was. Grown up and obviously happy with himself and what he was doing. Taemin couldn’t wait to talk to him more, hear all about what he’d been up to over the years.

  And it was nice to know, just as he’d thought about Marcus from time to time, wondering how things were going, that Marcus had thought about him too.

  The bell on the door jingled cheerily, and Taemin turned just as he heard Marcus, voice smoother and deeper now, say, “Good morning.”

  “Good morning.” Taemin smiled and took him in as Marcus bowed into the dojang, stepped out of his shoes, and then walked onto the mat. Last night he hadn’t really had the chance to see Marcus. Not like he could now, in full daylight. So he used a moment to take him in.

  He was tall (though that Taemin had certainly noticed yesterday. It was an interesting experience having to look up at him) and broad now, muscular in a way that spoke of hard work and heavy training. He had the same mop of dark, curly hair, the same green eyes. The same smile, though it seemed a little less shy now. He was a handsome man.

  Taemin cleared his throat. “Well, I’m glad to see you came dressed to work.” Marcus was wearing a worn-looking T-shirt and a pair of track pants. Taemin, of course, was in his dobok. He’d brought clothes to change into, for when they went out for breakfast afterward.

  “Of course,” Marcus said. “I’m pretty much resigned to you running me ragged. But I’ll put up a good fight.”

  “You’d better. I want to see all the ways you’ve improved.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  Taemin grinned and went to grab the sparring gear he’d picked out to fit a build larger than his own. He held it out to Marcus, who took it and started to put it on.

  “You don’t want to warm up without it?”

  Marcus shook his head. “Better to get used to it right away, if I’m going to be fighting with it.” He pointed a finger at Taemin. “And who was it that taught me that?”

  “Fair enough. You go and get started. I’ll be right back.”

  Marcus nodded and then started on jumping jacks, while Taemin went to his office and to his computer. From there he opened up the sound file he’d kept at the ready and pressed play.

  “Eye of the Tiger” came blasting out into the dojang, and Marcus whipped around so fast it was impressive.

  “Master Choi!”

  Taemin tried to school his face. “Yes?”

  “I swear, if you really plan to play that for the full hour….”

  Taemin laughed and walked back onto the mat. “No, that was my father’s thing, I promise. I just thought you might like the memory.” His father was very fond of the song and used to play it on repeat during sparring sessions. Many of Taemin’s students had told him that their reaction to hearing the song now was visceral.

  Marcus snorted and dropped into push-ups. His form was perfect. “‘Like the memory.’ Sure. Don’t scare me like that.”

  Taemin did some basic stretches while the music played out. When it was over, the dojang was loud in the new silence. He moved into a middle split stretch, and when he glanced up, it was to find Marcus looking at him in the mirror. “Oh, are you ready?”

  “Uh, yeah. Sparring will do the dynamic stretching for me.”

  “True enough,” Taemin said, getting to his feet.

  SPARRING WITH Taemin again was a little unreal. In part because Marcus could almost keep up. It was work and he was going to be thoroughly exhausted whenever Taemin called time, but even if he was playing defensively, he was still making Taemin block a fair amount, too, instead of him only being able to dodge away.

  “Very nice,” Taemin said in between hits. “Your stamina is excellent.”

  “Thanks,” Marcus said, and he felt gratified that he didn’t sound too out of breath. “I’ve maybe been working on it a little.”

  “I can tell. And your blocks are fantastic. Does this mean I can get fancier?”

  “I mean, hey, if you want. I’m not gonna say no.”

  Taemin immediately grinned at him, then did a jump back spinning hook kick so fast that Marcus hadn’t even gotten his arms up by the time Taemin’s foot tapped him lightly on the head.

  Fuck.

  “Point to you,” Marcus managed. “God you’re fast.”

  “You’re not so bad yourself.”

  Determined to make a good showing, Marcus stepped into Taemin’s next move, caught his arm, and then twisted, going for a takedown. Taemin’s eyes widened before the man had to go with the motion, and for a second, Marcus thought he’d actually pinned his mentor.

  Then Taemin hooked his ankle behind Marcus’s own and pulled, the follow-through motion making Marcus let go and fall forward, which gave Taemin enough time to bounce back to his feet. Marcus stood up a second later, in time to block the kick, but even he could tell it was a leading move.

  “Okay,” he said, tapping out on his chest, “I think you win. You’re just doing a teaching spar with me, at this point.”

  Taemin shook his head. “You’re not giving yourself enough credit. We went on for a long time, and you kept up with me no problem.”

  Well, Marcus thought, glad for his padding—especially his cup, that depends on your definition of what a problem might be. “I don’t know about that,” he ended up saying. “Though I thought I had yo
u with the takedown.”

  “So did I, for a minute there. It was excellent, if unorthodox. It shows you have a lot of grappling experience. More training?”

  Marcus nodded. “The school I train with now, Dragon Martial Arts, does a lot of close-quarter work.”

  “That’s a big leap from taekwondo.”

  “I know. I love both styles, so I do my best to train as much as I can.”

  “It shows,” Taemin said. He clapped Marcus on the shoulder. “You’re excellent. If you’re willing, I’d really like to see you demonstrate some of your takedowns.”

  “What, now?”

  “Sure. You know I’m always up for learning something new. And we’re both already here.”

  “I… yeah.” Marcus kept his breathing steady. He could absolutely handle rolling around on the mat a little. This wasn’t a big deal. “Yeah, sure. Anything in particular you want to see?”

  “Pick a favorite! Surprise me.”

  Marcus turned some moves over in his head. “All right,” he said when he’d settled on one. “Rush me?”

  Taemin immediately surged forward, and Marcus stepped out, grabbing Taemin’s arm and pulling him off-balance while he used his foot to sweep his legs. Marcus followed him on the way down, the careful, controlled way he knew to move when he was doing a teaching demonstration, but he kept the strength there so that Taemin couldn’t easily get away.

  It was over in a breadth of a second, Taemin pinned to the mat while Marcus crouched over him, one hand holding his arm in place while the other pressed into the small of his back.

  “So the point is to subdue in this case, not to get away I see,” Taemin said from his position on the floor. “But very controlled too—a good way to deal with someone you don’t want to hurt while having to be on the defensive. A good choice.”

  “Thanks,” Marcus said, feeling off-kilter. “Um.” He shook his head, trying to clear it. Neither of them made to move. “Could you get out of this?” he ended up asking, curious.

  “Not in the position I’m in. I don’t have the leverage. In a real-world situation, my best bet would be to wait until you relaxed the hold to attack me. It’s a pinning move, and it’s a good one, but it’s limited in the fact that you have to physically hold on to the person you’re dealing with.” He tapped out on the mat and Marcus quickly let him go, standing up and holding out a hand.

  Taemin took it and pulled himself to his feet. “So,” he said. “That was a lot of fun.”

  “Yeah.” Marcus grinned. It’d been a blast. “Think you worked up an appetite for breakfast?”

  Taemin laughed. “Let’s get changed and then we can go.” He started to take off his sparring gear and Marcus did the same. Once the gear was put away, Taemin headed to the academy’s storage room/changing area, and Marcus grabbed up the duffel he’d brought and went into the family-style restroom.

  He stripped down and gave himself a cursory wipe with a towel before he applied his deodorant and started to get dressed. He’d head home to shower after breakfast, and he was pretty sure Taemin would do the same. He couldn’t help but smile at the knowledge that Taemin would probably also be taking a nap too. He’d often said, all those years ago, that he wasn’t a big fan of mornings. And with the school open late since that was when classes took place, he usually took some time in the afternoon to catch up on a little sleep, in between errands and eating and doing things for the academy. If things really hadn’t changed all that much, Taemin also spent hours of his time every day volunteering with Kids Kicking Cancer, doing privates with special needs children and adults, and running the midday exercise program he had started with his dad for the local homeschool co-op.

  “It keeps my days full,” he’d said, when Marcus had asked about the fact that Taemin seemed to have no free time. After he’d graduated college, he only seemed to get busier. He’d always made time for Marcus, though.

  Still was, considering today.

  Taemin was already out and dressed by the time Marcus emerged from the bathroom. He was wearing jeans and a fitted T-shirt, a big change from the dobok he’d been in yesterday and minutes ago. The day clothes emphasized the lean lines of him.

  God, Marcus really needed to get a grip.

  “Ready?” he asked as he made his way over to his sneakers and bent to put them on.

  “Yep.” Taemin was already wearing his shoes. “Where are we headed? Should I follow you?”

  “It’s up to you. We could just take my car, if you didn’t mind my having to drive you back.”

  “Works for me. Why run two engines when you only need to run one?”

  They made their way over to Marcus’s long-term rental, Marcus unlocking the door so they both could get in. He had a place in mind and it wasn’t too far away, so it was only about ten minutes later that Marcus pulled up in front of an Original Pancake House.

  Taemin, as Marcus had hoped, smiled. “This certainly brings back memories.”

  “It definitely does for me,” Marcus said as they got out. “We have these in California, but I uh, I don’t get out to it much.” The one he’d gone to as a teenager had a really open layout. Once he’d gotten more popular he had been approached so much he sort of lost his taste for the place. But this one was all good memories.

  “Shame,” Taemin said, shaking his head. “I’m sorry you’ve been missing out.”

  “I know, right? It’s been forever since I’ve had a dutch baby.” Essentially an inverted pancake filled with powdered sugar and lemon juice, the dutch baby had been Marcus’s go-to order at OPH for literal years.

  As Taemin knew, if he remembered. They hadn’t gone out to eat all that often, what with their respective schedules of Marcus being in school and Taemin essentially living at the academy in between college classes, but some summer mornings, after sparing, Taemin had taken Marcus to the Original Pancake House as a treat. Maybe it was dumb of Marcus to keep reminiscing, but at least it didn’t seem as though Taemin minded.

  The wait wasn’t too bad, since they hadn’t arrived at a peak time. Soon enough they were being shown to a booth, sliding in across from each other. They both asked for water, Marcus ordering a coffee as well, and then took a minute to peruse the menu.

  Well, Taemin did. Marcus, after all, already knew what he wanted. In more ways than one.

  Which was a thought he didn’t need to have in a semicrowded restaurant across from the man who had literally been his first crush. A lot of time had passed. They were both older and had changed and grown. Marcus was definitely a different person than he was at fifteen. While he couldn’t imagine Taemin at thirty-six was all that different from Taemin at twenty-five, it was possible. And either way, that wasn’t the point. He was here now to show a mentor and friend how much he’d accomplished—in part thanks to said friendship. To catch up with Taemin, hopefully make him proud (Marcus was able to admit that), and anything else, well….

  He was probably being stupid. For all he knew, Taemin was currently in some sort of relationship. Happily married. Would never be interested in Marcus regardless. Their relationship in the past had been mentor-mentee and, of course, completely platonic—even if fifteen-year-old Marcus certainly hadn’t wanted it to be.

  He was being stupid.

  Knowing that didn’t change anything.

  AFTER A lot of dithering, Taemin ended up ordering the dutch baby treat—a version of the dutch baby that replaced the powdered sugar and lemon with strawberries and bananas. Once their waitress had left their table, he gave Marcus a rueful smile. “Sorry about taking forever to order.”

  Marcus chuckled. “You say that as if I’m not used to it from you.”

  “Hey! It’s been a decade. For all you know, I’m lightning-fast at ordering food now.”

  Marcus raised an eyebrow. “Except for right now?”

  Taemin laughed. “Except for always. Never mind. So! This movie. What’s it about?”

  “It’s a sci-fi dystopian thing. The general gist of it i
s that I’m a space-rat, surviving in a beaten-up ship by scrounging around. And I pull this kid out of a trash heap basically. She doesn’t remember who she is at first. And I’m sort of this hardened guy, but she’s just a kid, you know? I feel sorry for her and kinda take her under my wing a little.”

  “I’m sure you make a very good space mentor.” Taemin grinned. “Then what?”

  Marcus drummed his fingers on the table. “Uh, let’s see… okay, so we’re out one day, stopping off on this planet to pick up some supplies, and her picture’s on a wanted poster. And like, she’s nine. I’m thinking, what the hell? Turns out she’s the daughter of some resistance leaders. She’d been kidnapped to get leverage over her parents, but she’d managed to escape, which is when I found her.”

  “Okay, okay. And then?”

  “We end up meeting up with her brother, who’s been looking for her on the down-low. That’s the romantic side-plot, by the way.” Said casually, it took Taemin a moment to register what Marcus had really just told him, and by then Marcus was continuing, “And the three of us sort of continue on this adventure to basically overthrow the government. It’s a bit open-ended, which means there’s room for a sequel if things take off. And, you know, it’s gritty, but also in a campy way? Like I don’t think we’ll be taking ourselves too seriously while we film it. I think it’ll be fun. And I’ve worked with Roger before.”

  “Roger?”

  “He’ll be playing the brother. He’s had a couple smaller roles on a few things I’ve worked on. This’ll be his first big big-screen thing. I’m pretty excited for him. Anita, his girlfriend, about died when he told her. She’s already made me promise to make sure we have a good blooper reel.”

  “Wow,” Taemin said after what he hoped wasn’t too long a moment. “That sounds like it’ll be a fun project. And um… I hope this is okay to say, but I’m….” He shifted in his seat. How was he supposed to say how much a male movie star having a male love interest meant to him? With Marcus being one half of that duo, was it better or worse to say something? “I’m just as bad at media as I was ten years ago.”