Samedi 26 octobre

Samedi 26 octobre is marked by an intimate confession and a late-night return to the ring. At 00:10, Jungkook Jeon arrives at Shelby Anderson Barnum’s university dorm room battered and dejected; by 23:40, he is preparing to fight at Ares Garden under the worried gaze of Namjoon Kim. Between those scenes, a flashback to Jungkook’s childhood reveals the family conflict behind the anger he has tried to contain through boxing.

The date and its two scenes

The date is explicitly recorded as Samedi 26 octobre, with the dormitory scene placed at 00:10. Shelby closes her notebook before a knock at the door reveals Jungkook. She catches him as he falters, helps him to the bed, and assists him with his shoes and leather jacket. His injuries turn her quiet room into a place of care: she fetches a first-aid kit and cleans the cut on his lower lip, the blood from his nose, and the wound over his left eyebrow.

The same date’s later scene is set at Ares Garden at 23:40. Jungkook finishes getting ready beneath Namjoon’s worried gaze and makes his way to the ring. The movement from a private room where Shelby tends his injuries to a public fight where a crowd applauds him gives the date its sharp contrast: care and disclosure in the early hours, then the return of physical risk at night.

A confession rooted in childhood

While Shelby treats his wounds, Jungkook explains that he took up boxing to channel his anger. Namjoon had first signed him up at a gym so he could let off steam, but Jungkook found that insufficient; at Ares Garden, he could both fight and earn money. He identifies his father as the source of his anger, turning the injuries Shelby is treating into more than the aftermath of a bout: they are connected to a longer history he is only beginning to put into words.

The narrative follows this disclosure with an analepsis to a house in Gangnam, Seoul, years earlier. Jungkook is eight, held tightly by his older brother, Ye-jun, who is trying to stop him from entering the kitchen while their parents argue. Jungkook cries with anger and sadness as the shouting grows louder. When Ye-jun’s grip loosens, he breaks free and heads out of the room; his protest that he has had enough of their parents’ fighting makes the family conflict that underlies his present anger concrete. The flashback does not resolve that history; it shows how early Jungkook was caught between wanting to intervene and being too young to control what was happening.

The late-night return to the ring

At 23:40, the applause and cheers greet Jungkook as they usually do. He smiles, acknowledges his opponent, cracks his neck, and claps his hands, ready to fight. But the opponent notices that Jungkook is not himself, a warning sign that Chen Wu and Namjoon have missed. Jungkook opens the fight for the first time, surprising Chen; Chen immediately suspects something is wrong, though the bout’s outcome is not shown in this scene.

Set against the confession at 00:10, the match makes the date’s central tension visible without settling it. Jungkook can name his father as the source of his rage and explain why he chose boxing, yet by late night he is again in the ring, where that anger and the physical danger around it remain active. The two scenes place disclosure and repetition side by side: understanding the origin of the violence does not, on this date, mean that Jungkook has escaped its pull.