Nah.

I was wrong.

I walked into the gym where I do hapkido lessons, and walked straight up to the receptionist, a cute girl named Lisa. She looked up from her computer and her eyes widened.

"Jesus, Nick. What happened to you?"

I put a rueful smile on my face, "It turns out I am not a very good cook."

She raised an eyebrow.

"I twisted the dial a little too far, and well..." I finished lamely, gesturing to myself.

"You're a wreck." She muttered with a roll of her eyes, but there was concern in her voice, "Are you gonna be okay to teach today? You've got two new people, the 8:30's."

I nodded and walked off without any further interaction besides a wink. I knew I was technically late, but whatever. Walking to my personal gym, I saw two people I had never seen before. They were all close to my age, which isn't a problem per se, it's just better to learn martial arts when you're younger. One was a tall, pale red-head. She was cute, her face was decorated with freckles. The other was an African-American boy about my height, he seemed like he'd rather be anywhere but here right now, he was wearing a backwards baseball cap and scrolling through something on his phone while he leaned on the wall.

As I got closer, noticed the guy look up from his phone and then back down at his phone. Probably thinking I was another student. I looked down at my watch, 8:31, ah well, beggars can't be choosers. I put on my best professional look and walked over to both of them. The girl looked at me confused, but smiled anyway, and the guy didn't look up.

"Sorry I'm late. I had some... issues with my stove last night."

"Nah, not a problem bro, we're still waiting on this teacher dude anyways." The guy said.

"Yes, I'm confused as to why Mr. Song is so late..." The girl muttered, then perked up, "Hello Megan! Since we'll be learning together, I figure it's good we should introduce ourselves. I'm Megan Morse, and this is my friend JJ."

I smirked, "I'm Nick Song, nice to meet you."

They both had very different reactions, JJ just scoffed and muttered, "Of course he has his kid here."

Megan's though was more animated.

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry Mr. Song! I was expecting someone a bit older. Not that your age is a problem!" She stopped talking and held her blushing face in her hands, "Now your introduction makes more sense."

JJ just took one look at him, then shrugged, "Whatever, let's just get this over with."

Megan looked affronted at his dismissive demeanor and looked at me apologetically.

I unlocked the door and stepped into the gym, sliding my leather jacket off and hanging it on the coat hanger. I winced as my ribs cried out in objection to the movement. Bruised, no doubt. I was already dressed in my gi pants, my tank top showed off the lean muscle and the still healing burns on my arms and upper chest.

"Yo teach, what'd you do to get all them burns?"

I slid the gi on my torso and tied my belt, "Like I said, I had some issues with my stove. I am not a very good cook. I turned the dial up too high and it spewed flame. Luckily I was able to stop it before it got any worse," I shot him a grin over my shoulder, "I got Wendy's instead."

I sized them up immediately and threw them spare gi's, "Please put those on in the changing rooms, and Megan please tie your hair up."

they both nodded and left the room, returning dressed properly, for the most part. JJ still wore his hat, but I wasn't stressing about that.

"So the thing about hapkido is..."

I then went on a thirty minute spiel about the intent and purpose behind the art, and how to only use it as a last resort. Which is frankly a bit hypocritical of me, but do as I say, not as I do. We spent the rest of the two hour session going over basic form. Surprisingly despite his initial ****, JJ took to the style quicker than Megan did, so the two of us went over some basic grappling.

After their two hour session was over, the two of them were sweating heavily. I was standing above them, with my arms behind my back as the regained the composure they had just lost, and maybe a bit of pride from JJ's end.

"Thank you for coming today, again. I would like to apologize for my tardiness today. I will not make a habit of it, hopefully." I finished with a grin.

Megan giggled slightly and stood up. She went over to her belongings and grabbed her phone, and then walked back over, there was a nervous energy about her.

"Put your number in my phone, so we have a way to communicate without having to call the gym. I'll start a group text between the three of us."

I shrugged, "I don't see the harm in it."

I put my number in her phone.

"I'll text you later," Megan blushed and started comically waving her hands, "only if that's okay with you!?"

I chuckled, "If I was afraid of you texting me Megan, I wouldn't have given you my number."

This interaction was weird. I normally didn't have much luck with women. Not because I was unattractive I was just... average looking. Brown hair, blue eyes, tan skin, average height. Not a lot girls like that in a guy, so it was refreshing sorta. I still don't know how I felt about it.

I bid the two of them goodbye as they left my gym, JJ seemed to have warmed up to the idea of martial arts, at least slightly. Which was admittedly progress from how he came in today.

I spent the rest of the day training other people, mostly children, but I couldn't get Megan Morse out of my head.