"Consider today a break from training. Once we're done with the match you can return to your room and prepare for my mother's arrival. Starting tomorrow, we'll only have matches after we finish our training sessions. That way you'll actually be motivated to come to our training sessions," Jaehyun told me.
"But that'll be after I'm already worn out from training! That's not fair!"
Jaehyun paused for a moment as if he were debating my words.
"As your trainer, it will be in my best interest to help you improve and that includes showing you where you went wrong and how to counter my moves. I can't do that unless we fight first. This way, I'll be able to see your fighting style and have time to plan a lesson teaching you how to counter my moves."
"How can I trust that you'll actually teach me the most effective way to counter?" I challenged.
"I understand why you'd doubt me but believe me when I say that I know more than just one trick. Teaching you how to counterattacks to one move doesn't guarantee that I'll use it again or that you'll be a good enough student to actually execute them."
Jaehyun ignored the dirty look I gave him.
A knock came from the doorway. I turned to see Taeyong holding a stopwatch.
"Ah. Now that our ref is here, Are you ready to begin?" Jaehyun asked.
I stared him up and down, aware that there was no way I'd be able to take a man of his stature down, at least not today. I had to come up with a strategy.
During one of our first matches, Jeno taught me that the best thing to do when fighting a new opponent is to let them attack first. That way, you can analyze their fighting style and act accordingly.
"You can tell a lot about a man from their first move. Not just whether they're fighting style is more defensive or offensive, but about their inner workings as well. A man who attacks without hesitance is rash and likely uses their appearance of strength as a coverup for their faults. A man who hesitates and overanalyzes his opponent is filled with doubt and anxieties. A man who employs weapons to distance himself from his opponent is the same man who would order his underlings to do his dirty work for him. A man who is able to use his opponent's strength against them is disciplined and goal oriented. This kind of fighter knows how to save his strength for more pressing matters. Attacking first will only inform your opponent of your weaknesses so it is best to let them reveal themself to you first. This will benefit you as you'll learn to gauge your opponent's abilities. Never jump headfirst into a pool you can't see the bottom of. You never know what dangers lurch underneath the surface."
Jeno's words eclipsed my thoughts.
What type of fighter would Jaehyun prove to be? You can learn a lot about a man from his first move, so what if the reverse was true? Would it possible to predict Jaehyun's moves based on what I already knew about him? With what little information I had, Jaehyun didn't seem like the type to act without a plan, but given that he was fighting against someone much less inexperienced, maybe that wouldn't be the case with me.
I looked at Jaehyun. I took notice of his smug features.
I was right. He expects to win quickly and easily and it's likely that will be the case.
This might be our first fight, but it would be stupid of me to take it any less seriously, but what if I could use that to my advantage.
It's our first fight so probably already anticipating what my first action will be. Perhaps he expects me to act rashly. No, that couldn't be the case. Jaehyun knows that Jeno and I have been working together and I know that he's already seen glimpses of my fighting style. He probably knows that I plan to let him strike first.
I continued to stare back at Jaehyun as I went back and forth with myself. His let out a small chuckle that further revealed his confidence in himself.
Go ahead and smile, Jaehyun. That confidence of yours is going to serve as a tool for my victory.
"Yes, I'm ready."
"Good."
Jaehyun shot a glance towards Taeyong who nodded in response.
"To reiterate the rules. Whoever manages to pin the other down for three seconds wins. The pinned person must be laying on their back and both of their shoulders must be touching the mat for the full three seconds. No weapons may be used to attack your opponent and both parties must stay within the confines of the room. There is no time limit. The match ends either with one party successfully pinning the other or with one party tapping out which will result in their opponent's victory. Is everyone aware of what tapping out means?" Taeyong asked.
Both Jaehyun and I nodded.
"Great, now get into position," Taeyong instructed.
I watched Jaehyun as he walked up to a mark that was engraved into the mat with tape. I quickly located a similar mark and approached it.
"You may start when I blow the whistle. Ready? Whistle!"
Taeyong quickly blew the whistle catching me off guard as I thought there would be more warning beforehand. I launched myself at Jaehyun. A spark of surprise crossed his expression as I quickly advanced towards him.
That was my plan, to catch him off guard by acting in juxtaposition with what he expected of me.
Slam!
The air that peacefully occupied my lungs was violently expunged as my back made harsh contact with the floor. The pure shock of the moment was enough to have me fixed to the floor. There was no need for the hands that held me in place except to mock me for my misguided attempts against the man they belonged to.
Whistle!
"Jaehyun is the winner," Taeyong announced, his voice clear and void of any noticeable disappointment or excitement.
The match was over, and I was right where I had started. Actually, I was lower than where I had started, both figuratively and literally. Having no recollection of what had happened, I was still hopelessly ignorant as to the kind of fighter Jaehyun was, now with only had six attempts remaining instead of seven.
As I struggled to regain any pattern of breathing even remotely similar to my normal, Jaehyun simply stared down at me. His body, which showed no intention of withdrawing from mine, began to move closer to my stunned physique. His face hovering only inches away from mine.
I kept my eyes closed as tightly as I could to find some sort of grounding as I recovered from the impact. I only opened my eyes after hearing a soft chuckle.
Cute, Jaehyun thought to himself.
I stared back at him shocked by how close he was. I instinctively tried to pull away from him but there was nowhere to go. I was already pressed against the mat. With nowhere to go and nowhere else to look, my eyes met his.
I prepared myself for the humiliation that would come with looking at whatever amused look might be staring back. After hearing his laughter, I was sure that he was going to tease me, and I was going to chew him out for it. Yet when my eyes met his, the expression that stared back at me wasn't the self-satisfied grin I had become so familiar with.
This look was I hadn't seen before, at least not from Jaehyun. It wasn't the cocky look he often adorned while teasing me nor was it the coldhearted disposition I had been intimidated by time and time again. His rose gold bangs felt past his eyes in a vain attempt to hide them, but the intensity they held was desperate to be noticed. That intensity seemed to be the only thing desperate about them. Despite having just finished a fight, as brief as it might have been, Jaehyun looked more sedate than one would expect. His calm and collected state did little to ease your quickening heart as a glimmer of playfulness seemed to linger across his features. This mischievousness garnering especially in his upturned lips which I momentarily glimpsed at in a foolish attempt to alleviate the frenzy of nervousness I felt from holding his gaze.
Jaehyun noticed my wandering eyes, completely aware of where they had drifted off to.
My eyes returned to his only to see that they were looking lower than they had before.
I didn't have time to question where he was looking before he began to lessen the space between us, his lips slowly enclosing on mine. Unable to do much else, I closed my eyes and turned my head to the side frantically trying to escape his advances which only drew closer and closer until...
"If that's all you needed me for, then I'll be off."
My already tense body jolted slightly at the unexpected voice and my eyes opened just enough to see that Jaehyun's face had retreated from mine.
"Ah. Yes. Very well." Jaehyun coughed, making sure not to stutter as he dismissed his second in command.
As soon as Taeyong left the room, Jaehyun rolled off of me and stood up.
I quickly followed, but not before mouthing a silent thank you to Taeyong. Despite him having already left, I felt the need to express my gratitude, even if my thanks only fell upon deaf ears.
"Well, we both should be heading back. My mother will arrive soon, and you need to be ready to greet her. I'll send Haechan over to fill you in on your backstory," Jaehyun advised as his eyes hovered on everything in the room except me.
"I'm confident that you won't purposely cause any trouble, that is if you don't want to forfeit any of your six remaining chances."
"I won't."
Jaehyun finally turned towards me surprised by my sudden willingness to obey.
"I'll stay true to my end of the deal as long as you stay true to yours, including what you said about teaching me how to counter your attacks," I promised.
Jaehyun nodded before making his exit from the training room.
<><><><><>
"Thank God he didn't leave me with anymore bruises," I sighed.
"Damn. That's crazy."
"I'm amazed he didn't tell any of you about the deal he offered me."
"He wouldn't bother telling us about a bet he had no chance of losing, even if the stakes were this high."
"Wow, thanks, Donghy- fuck, Haechan."
"Don't worry about it. It'll take some time to get used to. I keep forgetting that I don't have to censor myself around you anymore."
"Yeah right, like you ever censored yourself around me."
"I meant with hiding the fact that I'm a gangster, you idiot," Haechan scolded, hitting me on the side of the arm.
"Ouch!" I howled exaggerating the pain before Haechan playfully tackled me, the both of us erupted into the bed in a fit of giggles as we fell on the bed.
"Come on, you need to get ready and I need to catch you up on your cover story. Mrs. Lee isn't the type to be easily fooled," Haechan explained.
Before I had returned, Haechan had already laid out a set of clothes for me to wear. I had just gotten out of the shower and put on a towel before deciding to catch up my old friend on what had occurred at my latest training session. I had wanted to catch him up on everything that had occurred since he and I talked that fateful night, but there never seemed to be enough time and I was sure that he already knew the basics.
"I know this isn't your usual style, but you'll like it I promise."
"Haechan... It's frilly."
"No, it's not, it's... okay yeah it's frilly, but this will leave a good impression on Mrs. Lee so just think of it as one of your burlesque costumes or somethings.
"You want me to pretend that wearing this dress to impress a woman whose son I'm being forced to marry is anything like wearing a costume for burlesque?"
"Yes... and sure it is. Think of it like this. You wear burlesque costumes to seduce your audience. Well, isn't making a good impression on someone a bit like seducing them?"
I paused weighing over his words.
"I hate how much that makes sense in a twisted way."
An accomplished smile took over Haechan's face.
"Now, hurry up and put it on."
Over the past years of Haechan and my friendship, we had become thicker than thieves. We both felt comfortable changing in front of each other, especially since Haechan had as much interest in women as I had in gauging my eyes out with a rusty spoon.
"How do I look?" I asked.
It was a simple baby blue dress with a conservative cut to it. The neck allowed for only my clavicle to be exposed. The puffy tulle sleeves extended over the entirety of my arms, yet the see-through material didn't leave anything from the eye. The bottom of the dress resembled an a-line skirt stopping right above my knees. The shoes Haechan picked out were simple white strappy sandals with subtle daisy decals where the buckles were. Although it wasn't exactly an outfit, I'd ever choose for myself, even I had to admit that I looked like the perfect daughter-in-law.
Haechan gave the outfit a once over before speaking.
"Like you're in desperate need of a hairbrush."
"I know I don't say this often, but I love how hesitant you are to say anything that might be considered unkind," I joked sarcastically.
Haechan rolled his eyes before motioning for me to sit in vanity chair.
Once I was settled, Haechan began to brush my hair.
"It'll be better if we keep as close to the truth as possible. If I'm being honest, I think that you and Mrs. Lee will get along almost perfectly something I don't necessarily think is a good thing."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, when I think about it, you and Mrs. Lee have a lot of similarities, which is a good thing because that means that she'll like you, but on the other hand, if she likes you too much, it'll be harder for you to hide things from her."
"Ah," I responded.
I wanted to asked what similarities I could possibly have with a former mob wife but couldn't as Haechan quickly began discussing the details of my backstory.
"So, you have two stories you have to commit to memory. The first one being the story we present to the public, aka the story that claims that you were working with NCT to take down Lucas. We haven't worked out all the details yet as we need to come up with a reason for keeping Lucas' death a secret, so you won't have to worry about that for a while. Since Mrs. Lee is still a prominent figure with close ties to NCT and its leader, she knows that Lucas' death was not NCT's doing. Basically, the only thing that we are going to keep from her is how you and Jaehyun met along with your career as a dancer. Mothers aren't exactly the types to squeal with joy at the thought of their sons marrying a stripper," He teased, causing me to roll my eyes.
Haechan pulled the hair out of my face and began braiding it.
"You're a barista at John and J's, a small shop in Itaewon. Jaehyun happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to try the place out. He noticed a man at the counter was blatantly harassing you, so he decided to step in. After the man finally left, you thanked Jaehyun and that's when he noticed your necklace. He asked where you got it and you told him it was a family heirloom. Aware that this was not the case, Jaehyun started going to the coffee shop every day, making pleasant conversation in order to earn your trust. One day as you were closing, that man from before showed up and made another scene. Seeing that you were visibly spooked from the encounter, Jaehyun offered to walk you home. You accepted. Once you were at the door to your building, Jaehyun brought up Lucas. At first you were terrified that he was a member of Wayv, but he quickly eased your worries and told him about that night. After hearing your story, Jaehyun offered you protection from Wayv along with financial rewards in exchange for your cooperation. You two began dating shortly after and when Jaehyun suggested that you two get married for the sake of NCT's image, you were extremely hesitant. Once it became clear to you that the council wanted to force Jaehyun into an arranged marriage, you agreed out of fear of losing him to someone else."
I stared at Haechan's reflection, mouth agape.
"What?" Haechan sighed, already aware of how ridiculous it all was.
"Really? I thought you said the closer we stuck to the truth, the better, not that we were gonna write a cheesy romance novel. I mean, seriously! What was that? After freaking out and locking me up, you want me to Momma-Mob-Boss that her son not only did her son reacted calmly to seeing the necklace, but that he fucking came to my rescue? Who wrote this? Dong- ah, Haechan, please tell me you weren't the one who came up with this BS," I scoffed.
Haechan let out a sigh.
"It doesn't matter who wrote it, it's the most believable story we have that presents this marriage as something you would willingly agree to. We even had to fudge the timeline a bit, making it so that you and him met at the coffee shop a month ago instead of just a few days ago."
"Yeah like a month would really make much of a difference. Sure, this man almost beat me to death, but that's not the reason I'm so hesitant to marry him. I'm only concerned with us having only met a few days ago. Oh wait," I spat.
"Well then, what are you gonna do?"
I huffed before turning in my chair to face him.
"What do you mean?" I demanded.
"What are you gonna do? Are you gonna tell her the truth and lose your opportunity to get out of here? And after that, what then? Are you gonna keep rebelling and pushing back against Jaehyun until he has to chain you up? Are you going to make your life a living hell all for the sake of your pride? You're right. This is bullshit, but it's the bullshit that's gonna get you through the next week. And if you don't win against Jaehyun, then get ready for even more bullshit, because that's what you can expect to deal with if you want things to get better. Stop mourning your old life! Just accept that your problems aren't gonna go away just because you fight against them!"
My body had tensed up as Haechan seemed to lose his cool for a second. I didn't know what to say but I felt like I had to say something. As soon as I opened my mouth to respond, a knock fell on the door.
"Guys, Mrs. Lee's car just arrived at the gates. We have around 5 minutes before she'll arrive at the door," The voice called out.
It was Taeyong.
"Shit," Haechan cussed as he looked at me in the mirror. He quickly tucked a few loose strands behind my ears before motioning for me to get up.
"We didn't have much time to prepare. Are you confident that you can remember everything? Actually, it doesn't matter. Just try and don't say anything stupid."
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