That afternoon, Siyeon leads SuA into Self-Defence Studio Three, a vast room with a high ceiling. The floor and walls are padded, allowing for brutal actions without serious injury. If you didn't want the extreme safety, self-defence studio one (For Senior agents only) was apparently 'awesome'.
Already training in the room are two of Siyeon's colleagues, JiU and Gahyeon.
JiU throws a hook punch at Gahyeon as she shoulders her in the gut and wraps her arms around her waist, taking them both to the ground. They look up together once they notice Siyeon and SuA.
"Oh hey!" JiU grins and pushes Gahyeon off herself so that she can stand and walks towards them. "Is this a new assassin?" She offers her hand out to SuA, who takes it.
"My name's Kim SuA."
"SuA, huh? I'm Gahyeon and that's JiU." Gahyeon comes up from behind as Siyeon steps away, walking towards the supply cupboard.
Inside, she takes out a foam baseball bat, considers the knife, but steps back out again without taking it.
She may not like the girl, but attacking her with a foam knife wasn't exactly the best way to start training on a good note.
When she returns to SuA, the other two have gone back to grappling on the floor. SuA watches them, her face paler with worry.
"Scared for our first training session?" Siyeon grins, resting the baseball bat on her shoulder.
"Not at all!" She fires back defensively, her eyes daring her to reply.
"If you say so." She shrugs. "Let me give you the rundown of what we'll be doing here today." Siyeon moves to the centre of the room. "I will be attacking you with this bat. Don't stress, it's made out of foam. And you have to repel me in any way you think works. Understand?"
"Yes."
"Do you have any experience in self-defence?"
"I took some classes in it a few y--"
"Great. So try your best with the three minute round we'll be doing this for. And remember, fight dirty, but no eye-gouging and pelvic hitting. Understand?" She smirks in anticipation and takes the bat in both hands. The girl has practically no experience, so she isn't expecting much.
"Go!" She starts her stopwatch and chucks it to the ground, rushing at SuA.
SuA freezes and her eyes widen as Siyeon takes her legs out from beneath her with the bat and she flops to the floor like a rag-doll.
A smile pulls Siyeon's lips back. Is that it?" She taunts mockingly, hoping to rile SuA up to make her try harder.
The girl gets to her feet and Siyeon swings again with the bat, albeit a little slower. SuA ducks as the bat glances off her head and slams a fist into Siyeon's gut.
"Ooh!" Siyeon beams at her, barely reacting to the strike. "No power and no technique, but good-going. Come on!"
She tries to punch her in the middle again, but Siyeon catches her wrist with the bat to block the strike and hits her in the stomach with her other fist.
SuA yelps and stumbles back. Siyeon advances, dropping the bat.
It is time to see how she did with grappling.
She rugby-tackles SuA to the floor as the air rushes out from her lungs and pins her body to the floor.
"Come on, get up!" She yells as SuA's body bucks under Siyeon's weight. "You're not trying hard enough!"
"Fuck you!" She slaps Siyeon in the face, hard enough for dizziness to weaken her muscles and SuA starts to slip out from underneath with gritted teeth.
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!