The Assassin | Dreamcatcher

Chapter 4

Siyeon grips her neck and left wrist, pinning SuA again as her knees tighten around the girl's petite waist. "Ten seconds left."

SuA attempts to hit her again, but Siyeon digs a fingernail into the pressure point under her ear. She screams into Siyeon's ear as she winces, but keeps her down.

"Three, two, one." Siyeon leans her face in close to SuA, able to feel her heavy breathing. "You're dead."

"You enjoyed that, you sadist." SuA spits and narrows her eyes. "Now let me go."

"I enjoy seeing all of the trainees' abilities grow. Even yours, I suppose." Siyeon falls back on her heels and stands, offering her hand. "That's why I enjoy this, because I know you'll improve soon and then we'll be able to get some really intensive bouts."

With a moment decision, SuA takes her hand to stand up. "Did I slap you too hard?" She finally asks.

"Not at all. Perfect power, just wrong technique." Her hand rubs the pink mark on the side of her face.

"Stop telling me 'wrong technique' and tell me what I can actually do."

"Alright then. Go to slap me again, but slowly and with no power."

SuA swings her hand slowly for Siyeon's face and softly hits her face with a sweaty, plank-straight palm. "Okay?"

"Okay, great. That was the perfect example of rubbish slap. Now, I'll have you feel a proper slap. Don't worry, I won't put all my power in, but I want you to at least experience the feeling."

"You're going to slap me? Hey, hold on--" She starts to shy away, but Siyeon's hand swings for her, contacting with her ear and jaw. "Ouch!" She winces and pushes her hand away. "My ear popped."

"Exactly my intention. It works because my hand is cupped to the shape of your face to maximise the surface area I hit, and hitting the ear is good because it disorientates the opponent by popping their ear. This will also work better if you hit the other person as if you're aiming here so that you put more power in." She puts her hand up next to SuA's other cheek. "You aimed for the cheek when you hit me, so your power ended short."

"Oh, right. That's interesting."

"But of course, slapping is not the first course of action in a fight. It's run, restrain or incapacitate. The same logistics of a slap can be applied to a punch. For the rest of this session, I'll be teaching you how to punch properly.

***

"What's up, girl? You're finally attending classes on time! And you're awake in class too." Yoohyeon bombards her with questions as they head to the lunch hall, the questions leaving her mouth in quick-fire sentences.

Siyeon shakes her head and intertwines her arm with Yoohyeon's. "You know I said that I would be trying harder in school."

"I remember. Just didn't think you would actually stick to it. But darling, hate to break it to you. You're not going to suddenly get brainy if you arrive on time and listen in class."

"What are you suggesting then?" Siyeon eyes the girl, who she knows is ready to put forward a proposal she'll accept.

"We study together."

"We do that anyway."

"Keep telling yourself that." She rolls her eyes. "If you're going to start trying harder in class, then you need to start working harder outside of class." She replies in a matter-of-fact tone. "Are we sitting in our usual spot?"

"Sure." Siyeon walks with her to the corner of the busy room where many students were already sat with their lunch.

They settle with heavy sighs in opposite seats.

Yoohyeon pulls out her doshirak as Siyeon takes out a cuboid foil-wrapped package. She unwraps it to reveal a squashed cucumber sandwich.

"Your lunch." Yoohyeon sighs.

"You know I never have a big appetite." She takes melancholy bite of the soggy bread as her gaze passes around the hall. "I could do with some ham with this."

"That's not what I was sighing at."

Everyone is a familiar face, but one person suddenly catches her eye and the name arrives in her head soon after.

SuA.

"Who're you glaring at?" Yoohyeon turns and scans the hall as Siyeon drops her gaze.

"No one." She laughs weakly. "Well, actually, I was, but..."

"Who?"

"That girl over there. The one with the purple hair. Is she allowed that in school?"

"Oh, that girl? She's new here. Like, since yesterday."

"Really?" Siyeon says innocently. "Know anything about her?"

"Erm, well, I heard she's part of the dance club."

"Isn't she new? The auditions were at the start of the school year."

"I heard that she demanded to be allowed to join and even did a little dance for them. They accepted immediately."

"That's brazen."

"I know, right?" Yoohyeon leans her head into her palm dreamily. "I'd love to be able to dance really well."

"I'd rather be able to sing." Siyeon grins.

"I can imagine it now." Her voice trails away before Siyeon flicks her forehead.

"Eat up, skinny." Siyeon's eyes find SuA's again, who is talking to other girls around her.

SuA seems to sense that someone is watching her and her eyes meet Siyeon's. Without flinching, Siyeon smiles and winks.

"I winked at her! What did I do that for?" Siyeon ducks and looks with panic at Yoohyeon, avoiding SuA's possible response.

"Seems that stupid habit of randomly winking has finally embarrassed you." Yoohyeon laughs at her friend's mortified plight. "Hey, she raised her eyebrow and looks ultra confused."

A/N:
I apologise for such a boring chapter, but it's just to help set the scene (as well as show off my knowledge of self-defence lol).

I promise that the chapters will be more interesting than this one.
I also hope the chapters are of suitable length. This is a reaaaaally long story, so I wasn't sure how many words to put in each chapter.

Hope you all have a nice day!