Total above 360 and none below 40 meant success.
“Now brother graduated from high school.”
Lee Hayan was wiping off her tears and smiling. The hard feeling she had all this time disappeared. Every time she was going to school she was sorry for Lee Hyun. She knew how he was earning money. Many times she was almost crying when eating food, earned and cooked by her brother.
She folded the letter and entered the house.
Grandmother’s condition improved, but she hasn’t yet recovered, so she was still in hospital. So Hayan and her brother lived alone.
Hyun was still in the capsule. That was because today she came back earlier than usual.
“Well, I guess i’ll clean up the house.”
Hayan cleanly swept the house, cleaned the dust and washed the dishes.
“The plates from the breakfast are still here. Come to think of it, brother started to go to the dojo and return tired again, like at that time.”
The time when Lee Hyun was preparing for Royal Road!
For almost a year her brother lived like he was possessed. He found and studied all the works on virtual reality and collected as much information on Royal Road as he could. At the same time he trained his body and learned to fight.
24 hours a day was literally not enough for him.
Her brother slept about 3-4 hours a day, yet still found time to prepare meals for the family.
When he first started to go to the dojo she was terribly upset. His hands were covered by blisters and body bruised. He was coming back exhausted and falling asleep right away like he was dead.
Those memories alone were making Lee Hayan depressed.
At such moments Hayan was trying to distract herself with work.
‘Now I’ve got to study.’
To get accepted to ‘Korea’ university.
That was her most important goal right now.
At first she didn’t want to go to that university. After all it was not a matter of studying in the most prestigious university but of getting all the necessary knowledge. At least that was the case for Interior designer, which was her desired profession.
But Lee Hyun wanted her to study in ‘Korea’ university. And for her brother, who sacrificed so much for her, she should at least be able to study hard. Her goal was to get a full 4-year scholarship!
But that wasn’t her only aim. After graduating from school and getting the scholarship, she was planning to start earning money as a private tutor.
***
“Granny, brother’s report card arrived!”
That day Hayan couldn’t hold her joy and ran to the hospital to give grandmother the news.
“Really? So did he pass?”
Grandmother’s face was tired but cheerful.
“Yeah! He did! Look at his grades. Apart from Ethics all the grades are high.”
“That’s fine. What’s important is he’s got a smart head.”
Although some could interpret it as ‘His head is smart, but as a human he is a failure’. But Hyun’s family knew well what he had to go through in last 10 years, so they never doubted his human qualities for a moment.
Grandmother was still looking at his grades.
“He really did it. Before I died…”
“Huh? What’re you talking about, granny? Our happy life has just started.”
Lee Hayan reassuringly took her grandmother’s hand.
***
Every morning Lee Hyun was going to the dojo.
To exercise his body and to learn fencing from Ahn Hyundo were his two main morning activities.
“Come in.”
“Congratulations on passing the exam!”
When Lee Hyun entered the dojo Ahn Hyundo, instructors and almost all the students were waiting for him. They were ready to celebrate Hyun’s graduation from high school.
“So he’s got a high school diploma now, eh?”
“I used to studied hard in high school too, but…”
Ahn Hyundo got surprised by insructors’ envy.
“What’s with you lot? Didn’t you go to high school too?”
“No, we left it early to train with sword more.”