by the sidelines • haechan

twenty nine

Pak! Luckily, my arm was in the way and I managed to block her kick in time, but now the impact caused a stinging sensation right through my forearm guard. I knew her kicks were strong, but it only came to my realisation when I finally felt it.

As the match progressed, I could feel my stamina catching up to me as I panted through my mouthguard. The match before had miraculously drained a lot of my energy due to the constant pushing, so now I barely have enough breath to dodge her incoming attacks.

But my mind was not ready to give in yet.

Finally, I managed a jumping back thrust as a counter to her turning kick, my foot slidding on the side of her padding and onto her arm as she let out a loud groan. Oh no, that was bad.

I put up a hand indicating an apology, but that seemed to have intensified her aggressiveness even more. With another power swing, she scored another kick to my body, causing me to wince in response. I attempted a check-turning kick, but my dynamic visual acuity seemed to have deteriorated together with my decreasing energy as I missed her, looking more like a lazy feint than a failed attack.

That's it, I needed a break.

When her next kick came in, I threw in a punch on her solar plexus. While she grimaced, I stuck my arms over hers and pressed them down, preventing her from moving as much as possible. Just like the previous match.

While she squirmed, I managed to gasp for enough air to cool myself down, my heart throbbing painfully against my chest. However, my defence couldn't hold out any longer as Youn found another target; my head.

I felt a knock on the back of my headgear as I reached up to block the next one, but that gave her the chance to push me away and score another kick to my body. Dang it, fell right into her trap.

At least, now I had a little more stamina to launch a turning kick to her lower abdomen, before throwing myself at her again, this time not to take a break. With all the energy I had left, I pushed her as far as I can with both fists, hunching forward as I tucked in my knee and snapped it back out, impacting her side with my instep just as the whistle blew.

"Time!"

After exchanging bows, all of us exited the mats, exhausted. Unstrapping my headgear, I was about to head over to the benches when a voice started beside me.

"Sung Yoojin, can you be honest with me?" Youn exhaled, looking over to me calmly. She was a few feet away, but her voice was sharp enough to pierce through the noisy background.

"Oh?" I faced her, startled by her abrupt question. She strolled over until my eyes met hers, her gaze feeling like a bunch of needles pricking me. "Did you try your best?"

"What?" I coughed out, processing her question in my head a thousand times. "Of course."

To my surprise, she scoffed at my response, her smirk hardening into a scowl. I don't know what she was thinking, but her expression sent an eerie feeling crawling up my skin. She stepped closer, causing me to cower a little. "Well, I guess that's what you'd like to believe, but you should at least be honest with yourself."

That ominous feeling turned sour as I narrowed my eyes at her, not understanding a word she said. Or at least, I didn't want to believe it. "What do you mean?" I held back a snarl, trying to sound as composed as possible. Is she trying to diminish my efforts?

"Don't act like you don't know what I'm saying," she suddenly hissed, drawing unwanted attention from nearby passersby. "I could feel your insincerity throughout the whole match, and you still had the audacity to take a break in the middle of it."