As Klaus Park walked down the stairs from the second to the second floor of his house, he heard low buzzing and narration sounds. The TV in the living room was on.

It was already late, and only one person could be watching: his father.

Klaus hesitated to go down the last step of the old wooden staircase.

His relationship with Michael Park has not been that for some long time, at least since Klaus gave up being a professional player days after the accident with Rhyzer. In fact, these days, the two hardly see each other, much less speak to each other.

Usually, when Klaus Park leaves for work, Michael leaves home even earlier to open the fish warehouse where he is the manager at the port. When Klaus comes home from work, his father is asleep to wake up early the next day. The relationship between the two became even more distant because of such different routines.

However, it was already Saturday, which meant that Michael Park would not be working the next day, after all, the fish warehouse is not typically open on Sundays. So, Michael used his little time on Saturday nights to watch a basketball game.

Klaus looked at the brightness of the television that bordered the end of the staircase and thought:

‘I’m an adult now, I don’t have to be afraid of his questions anymore. I’ll just go in the kitchen and go back to my room…’

So, Klaus finished going down the stairs and turned on the light in the small entrance hall of the house, where there was only a small closet to put shoes, cold clothes, and umbrellas.

Just then, a thick voice reverberated coming from the parallel room.

“Honey, is that you? Didn’t you say you were going to sleep?” Michael Park asked with a smile and turned his back to look at the back of the armchair he was sitting in.

Instead of his beautiful black-haired, oriental wife, Michael saw Klaus, who was no longer the small boy he used to be. In fact, he was so tall that he almost had to stoop to get through the door.

Klaus wished to move on to the room next to the living room, the kitchen, but since the house was small, he needed to go through the living room for that.

“Ah. It’s you…” said Michael, slightly surprised to see Klaus after more than a week.

,m “Yes, it’s me.” Klaus retorted.

Michael Park is a Caucasian man with somewhat long strands of hair and a large forehead from his baldness. His eyes are dark and piercing, while his thin beard surrounds his small moth. Klaus has the only things similar to him are his height, broad back, and defined chin.

After Michael was silent for a second, Klaus started walking towards his goal. He just wanted to avoid talking to his father. However, Michael did not have the same intention.

“How’s work at that coffee shop? What’s the name again?”

Klaus stopped halfway to the kitchen and did not look back to answer him.

“Talk about my job at Starducks? I left there a few months ago. Now, I’m working in the office of a small insurance company downtown.”

Of course, Michael knew this, as he always asked Chun Park about Klaus; however, Michael’s pride was too great to reveal this to his son.𝞸𝐕𝐋xt.𝗰𝒪𝔪

“And this new job is cool?” Michael continued to stare at the television.

Klaus gritted his teeth, and although Michael’s question seemed harmless, the young man knew the intentions of such questions. The truth was that Michael wished he knew whether Klaus would soon resign from that job as well or not.

“It’s kind of cool…”

“Got it, that’s great… Come on and spend some time with your old man.” Michael pointed to the armchair next to him with a bottle of beer in his right hand.

With his eyes pursed, Klaus closed his eyes, rolled his eyes for a second, but accepted his father’s request because he wasn’t sure how to refuse. So, he sat down in the armchair to his father’s right.

“Who’s playing?” Klaus inquired for the subject focus was not his personal life.

“Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics. The Boston Celtics’ season is looking good, but the Warriors are definitely the favorites for this game.”

“Aren’t the Knicks playing?”

“Ah, this Warriors game is not live, my son. I’m only watching because a colleague said the game was good. I’m only watching this game because the Knicks played yesterday and lost 110-98 to the Nets. I definitely don’t want to watch the Knicks today. Anyway, will you have a beer?” Michael picked up a bottle on the table and held it to Klaus.

Klaus didn’t even think and took the beer, opening the metal cap easily.

The two watched the basketball game for almost five minutes in silence until Michael broke this serenity.

“Ard told me that you borrowed that weird video game from him.”

Klaus’ calm expression went away at that moment. “So, he told you…”

“Yeah.. So you played an online game after so many years, Klaus?”

“N… Actually, yes. I thought I’d play a little to pass the time. Ard hardly ever uses it, and I thought it would be bad if it got too dusty being put away.”

Michael took a sip of his beer and slammed the empty bottle on the next table. “And how did you… feel after all these years? Didn’t you feel… guilty for dropping a good career as a professional player with those things?”

Before answering his father, Klaus closed his eyes and took a deep breath to answer him truthfully. Despite everything, he didn’t want to argue at night.

“You know, Dad, I didn’t feel the guilt or the sadness that I felt every time I played any game after Rhyzer’s accident… It would be hard to explain to you in better words, but the games these days differ from what they used to be, maybe that’s exactly why I enjoyed this new one, a little.” Klaus said.

“Got it… That’s good, I guess…”

Klaus looked to his left and noticed that Michael’s eyes were almost closing as if he was fighting not to sleep.

A few seconds of silence later, Michael finally fell asleep, but first, he uttered in a low, sleepy voice:

“You are much more… stronger than… me, Klaus…”

Klaus’ eyes widened in astonishment, and his pupils trembled. Then he smiled, grabbed a blanket from the closet in the foyer, covered his father, and went into the kitchen.

Deep down inside, Klaus was relieved that he could handle his father better than he had expected.

The next day, the first thing Klaus did after breakfast was to go to his room and log into Rise Online again, this time to learn to forge with Therkara Ironstone.

…

Edited by: DrHitsuji

If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa treon.com/NandoFalske

More character images in:

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