Tae observed at her peers before her attempt to complete the complex obstacle course. Tae was confident when it came to passed obstacle courses with the crawling sections, but everything seemed like hell for this one. Climbs and swings were never Tae’s forte. Don’t get the wrong idea though, Tae was very athletic and her greatest event was the marathon races and some track events. “But this definitely wasn’t a marathon,” Taeyeon thought. Sooyoung was part of the first group of students to take on the course and she came out with a solid 10 minute time, shortly followed by another athletic girl named Yuri who had a time of 10:20. The others of the same group finished between 12 and 15 minutes.

Taeyeon began to feel more confident about taking the course, “If Sooyoung isn’t that much ahead of everyone, I should be able to surpass her if I put my mind to it. I am a quick learner after all and if that’s the best she’s got should be easy.” she thought, but she sadly was mistaken. The groups that followed Sooyoung’s had top times of 20 minutes, so it was clear to Tae from that point onwards that group one were just the top tier students showing off. Her nerves continued to grow, she felt like she was on the line for a crazy rollercoaster except the destination would not be anywhere near as enjoyable.

Tae’s group finally made it up and she forced her nerves to settle down. Sunny had managed to squeeze her way through the crowd to join the group. “Tae it’s not too late to rethink this. Realistically, there’s just no chance in hell you’ll beat Sooyoung unless a miracle happens.” Sunny warned.

“Don’t worry, I already made up my mind. You don’t deserve to get bullied because of your height and if I don’t take a stand now, who knows how long it’ll be before she starts picking on me too.” Tae responded.

“Do you even have a plan?” But before Taeyeon could respond to her, the coach had already blown the whistle and the race was on!

The first obstacle on the list was simple, just a tire run. Taeyeon ran head first into the obstacle, not even thinking about the crowd around her and let her instincts lead. Each step she took was almost perfect, one tire after the other with no problems. Next up came the rock climbing section and once again Taeyeon was letting her instincts take over, but the next sequence of moves seemed too good to be true. Tae put her hands on two of the rocks wedged into the wall and her entire body to another set of rocks. As if her she had the strength of an ape, the grip of a crab and the precision of a hunting lion, she continued up and up the wall climb in record time.

At this point Taeyeon had completely blocked out the crowd from her mind, not realizing they were all in absolute shock at her performance. Even the other students who were also doing the course had to stop and stare at her skills. “What the hell Taeyeon? How is that even possible?” Sunny wondered. Sunny knew something wasn’t quite right here, but as her friend, she continued to support the astonishing girl.

Once Tae had reached the top of the rock climb, she was met with a long rope swing over a foam pit. She gripped the rope tight, took five steps back and then leaped with all her might. Halfway over the pit, she knew she could make the rest with the momentum she already had, so she leaped off the rope and landed safely on the next platform with a pro commando roll. There were only two obstacles left and she still had a solid four minutes to spare to beat Sooyoung’s time.

The second last obstacle in her way to victory was a very tight balance beam which was also over a foam pit. Tae tried to dash through it to preserve some time for the last obstacle, but her left foot was just a little off to the edge and her speed forced her off. However, just before she lost reach, she grabbed the beam and held on as if it were truly life and death. Again Taeyeon showcased her new found strength to her class and pulled herself back onto the beam with one arm. By now she could feel her body straining from overexerting her muscles and she had no choice but to take a few minutes to catch her breath. She watched the timer tick over 9 minutes, and with one obstacle left things were looking dire for Taeyeon. “I’m not going to give up now.” She stated with certain determination.