by the sidelines • haechan

twenty eight

"Alright, I know we've just had a friendly match, but there's no time to rest," Coach Lee announced at our next training, "We've been invited to a regional tournament in Seoul next week."

A commotion of responses formed among the students as our coach hushed us immediately. "Because of this, we'll be having extended training sessions, but the time will be given to full contact sparring."

The murmuring turned into loud cheers and for once, I was excited too. It was a chance to improve using actual situations instead of targets, and I'm actually surprised they haven't done this before.

"Like finally," Haknyeon exhaled beside me as I glanced at him briefly.

After that friendly match yesterday, he rushed up to me and apologised profusely, to which I forgave him easily because I didn't want to fuss over such a trivial matter anymore. We've pretty much been okay now, but sometimes there's still an awkward area where we seem to be walking on tiptoes around each other.

"So," our coach demanded, "Put on your guards and let's start the sparring session." The whole class broke into a mixture of grumbles and rebuttals as they fought back at the sudden request, with Coach Lee gazing over us calmly like he knew this was gonna happen.

"Right now?" One of the blue belts complained, "Coach, you should've warned us earlier!"

"Boo Seungkwan, sometimes you need to be suddenly thrown into the ring to see your mistakes, only then you'll improve," Coach Lee directed and that student pouted, before turning back to the class. "Now quit complaining. Lee Soobin, Sung Yoojin, Jeon Hyewon and Kim Yeolri to the mats for the first round."

My body froze at the sound of my name as I whipped my head up. "What?" I questioned loudly.

"You heard me, we'll start in one minute." His hasty tone caused me to sprint to my guards and strap them on quickly, a shadow blocking my light as I looked up.

"I warn you, those three are more dangerous than you think," Donghyuck commented, although I don't know what level of advice that was. Not knowing how to respond, I gave him a quick nod before hurrying onto the mats, where the other three were already waiting in a square-like position.

"It'll work like this," Coach Lee instructed, "Each of you will spar for one minute with the player in front of you, after which you will rotate so that all of you get a chance to experience each other's skills. Understood?"

"Yes!" We all replied in unison, my heart pounding harder against my chest each second. This was definitely new, and the fact that I don't have anything to expect scared me even more.

"Ready? Start!"

I turned to the girl in front of me and shook her hand nervously, her face only registering in me when I took notice of her familiar features. Wait, wasn't that the girl who betted on my match? I didn't even get to ask for her name that-

Whoosh! A leg came swinging towards my body as I blocked it instinctively, the throbbing pain in my forearm snapping me back to the current match. Before I could react, another swing came in from the other side as I blocked it again, and now both my arms were numb. But that wasn't the end of it.

My opponent continued attacking without a break as I repeatedly dodged her kicks, trying hard to find a chance to counter. She was a little shorter but definitely more aggressive and agile than me. One flaw though, her kicks were kind of... aimless.

That was the only thing that kept her from my padding, and I soon found her way to counter her attacks. I remember this technique, I had opponents use it in the first round before all their energy drains off. But in this case, it probably won't happen considering the match only lasts for one minute. So I went with Plan B.