Chapter 3

Wonyoung was perplexed as she stared across the field at her training partner. She had a great deal of respect for Nako, but she couldn’t see how it would be a fair fight. Although Nako was a highly skilled fighter, there was a huge difference in abilities. Wonyoung had a greater reach, was stronger, was faster, and had a higher qi level. How on earth Sakura and Eunbi could decide this was a good match was beyond her.

Nako could sense hesitation in her opponent, though she could not understand why that would be so. Her feelings on the match were similar to Wonyoung’s in thinking that the taller girl had many more advantages. However, if both Sakura and Eunbi thought Nako had a chance to score a down first, then she believed it must be true.

Wonyoung was not one to overly think things and decided to be the aggressor as she rushed in. As soon as she closed within striking range, she let out a flurry of blows, using her reach advantage to keep Nako at bay. However, she was surprised to find none of her attacks connecting as she seemed to be moving one step slower than the diminutive girl. Nako was moving so fast, it appeared to Wonyoung as if she were seeing double.

Irritation started to well up in Nako as she narrowly avoided each oncoming attack. Wonyoung could go much faster and was holding back a fair portion of her power. Nako felt that she was being looked down upon, which as always, annoyed her greatly. She decided to punish the girl by exploding what little qi she had gained the past few months into one punch.

The double images of Nako started to form back into one as Wonyoung got used to the girl’s speed. She could feel some of her punches and kicks beginning to connect. Strangely, none of these hits were deterring the girl from advancing.

Once Nako formed a plan, she carried it out to fruition no matter the cost. She could feel Wonyoung’s blows landing on her and knew many of them would leave some nasty bruises, but still she pressed on to move in closer to Wonyoung’s body.

Wonyoung started to panic inwardly as each one of her attacks only seemed to make her opponent smile more and more maniacally. And then, all of a sudden, she found herself flying through air as Nako’s fist caught her in the abdomen and a burst of intense qi repelled her backwards.

Nako smiled in triumph. But she could only savor it for a moment as she crumpled over with her back lying on the ground, staring up at the sky. Using all of her internal and physical energy into one burst had literally left her with nothing as she lay spent on the ground breathing heavily. Soon, her field of vision was blocked by Wonyoung’s looming face above her.

“I lost,” Wonyoung said sheepishly as she offered her hand to her roommate.

“Do you know why?” Nako asked, no longer really upset, as she took Wonyoung’s hand. She had to remind herself how young Wonyoung was and that it was her job as the more experienced fighter to guide her.

“I didn’t take the fight seriously enough,” Wonyoung admitted. “Even though, Kkura Unnie and Eunbi Unnie thought I should, I still didn’t. I let them down.”

Seeing Wonyoung’s depressed face made Nako go into full big sister mode as she pulled the taller girl down so that she could hug her. “Saku-chan and Eunbi Unnie are proud of you and you should never think otherwise.”

“What if the teachers were wrong about me? What if I never live up to the potential that they think I have?” Wonyoung asked timidly, voicing concerns that she had not yet ever been able to say to anyone else.

“I think I see why they chose me to be your partner,” Nako said after awhile. She pulled away from Wonyoung and motioned for the two of them sit on the ground so that she could look at the girl at more of an even eye level.

“And why’s that?” Wonyoung was genuinely curious. She doubted that the two women could have predicted the outcome of the fight.

“I think they thought that you needed someone to talk to. After all, I believe I understand a little of what you might be feeling and what you might be going through. Many years ago, when I decided to study martial arts, I entered Saku-chan’s school and was almost immediately labeled as the future ace of the school. Many people in the school were unhappy that someone so unknown was being given the responsibility of carrying the future of the school.”

“How did you deal with it?” Wonyoung asked openly as her sore point had been exposed. It was the true that being ranked first in the exams had put pressure on her to live up to the rank. Pressure that had been mounting as she saw many of her sisters improve at a pace far more rapid than her own.

“Badly,” Nako laughed in a self-deprecating way. “I cried a lot early on. I was given the best teachers and taught the most secret arts, but I was not showing any improvement at all. I felt like I could hear everyone in the school whispering about how I didn’t deserve everything that I was being given. Saku-chan and…”

Wonyoung gave Nako’s hand a quick squeeze of encouragement as the girl suddenly choked on her next word. It was no secret to everyone at the school how much Sakura and Nako valued their old mentor, Sashi. Her passing had affected them both greatly and drove them to Korea.

“…Sashi,” Nako managed to continue, “never wavered in their belief in my abilities. Eventually, I was able to repay their support and their patience with me by ranking in the annual martial arts tournaments. You should know that you’re not doing this alone too. We all support and believe in you. If you fall, we’ll be there to pick you up. If you fail, we’ll be there to help you try again.”

“Even if I fall and fail a lot?” Wonyoung asked, but this time with a smile.

“As many times as it takes,” Nako firmly answered.

Yuri lost. She couldn’t believe it. She had lost against Hyewon of all people. Yuri was widely considered one of the best in the school while Hyewon, the worst. But she still lost.

“Can you get up?” Hyewon asked gently, offering a hand to the fallen girl.

“Uh, thanks,” Yuri said awkwardly as she took the offered hand. While she considered everyone in the school to be her sister, she had to admit that there were some that she felt closer to than others. Hyewon was one of her sisters that she hadn’t yet gotten to know much about yet.

“How are you feeling? I didn’t hurt you, did I?” Hyewon felt immediately sorry for going all out from the beginning and using her secret martial arts.

Yuri suddenly felt woozy as Hyewon leaned in closer to look at her. What is happening to me, she thought.

Hyewon became even more worried at Yuri’s lack of response. She put her hands on to the other girl’s cheeks so that she could get a better look to see if she had inflicted some permanent damage to the head. Her lips curled at the nasty bruise on top of Yuri’s forehead.

Yuri froze after Hyewon let go of her arms to hold her cheeks. Her arms dangled at her sides awkwardly as she didn’t know what to do with them. She could feel the older girl’s breath on her forehead. “Uh, I’m fine. What are you doing?”

“Hold still,” Hyewon murmured. She moved one hand to the darkening bump and the other hand to cup the girl’s chin. She had spent most of her qi when she had gone into ‘Gear Second’ but she had just enough to heat her hand as she rubbed it against Yuri’s head in a circular motion.

“Ouch,” Yuri winced in pain. Slowly, the pain started to dissipate.

“There all better. Just as cute as before,” Hyewon said, finally letting go for Yuri’s head.

The sudden loss of contact felt somehow wrong to Yuri. She didn’t know what came over her as she suddenly gave Hyewon a hug. “Thanks, Hyung.”

“How are you doing this?” Yena asked as she missed again.

“I’ve seen all your moves,” Chaewon replied sweetly as she dodged Yena’s left jabs. Experience was what gave the Formless style its strength. Chaewon had sparred with Yena hundreds of times since their examinee days and was very familiar with the older girl’s move set. Previously, whenever they fought, Chaewon could think of a dozen counters for every one of Yena’s attacks and react accordingly. Right now, she didn’t even think at as her body ‘picked’ the most optimal move instinctively.

“No, not all of them,” Yena shot back. Fortunately, she’d been helping Hitomi learn the same style that Chaewon was displaying. She knew that its weakness was in dealing with randomness and inefficient attacks and defenses.

Chaewon saw an unexpected opening as Yena lowered her guard. Although she mistrusted it, her body moved forward to attack it anyway. And she was soon sent flying backwards as Yena somehow dodged her attack by a hair and countered with an attack of her own.

“I win,” Yena said smugly with her fists on her hips.

“Yeah, yeah. You’ll only be able to do that once you know,” Chaewon said rolling her eyes as she got back up to her feet.

“Sometimes, once is all you need,” Yena shrugged. “Why are using that style anyway? It doesn’t really suit you.”

“I saw Hitomi, Sakura, and Nako trying so hard, that I just wanted to challenge myself too. Even though, I might never be as good at it as Chaeyeon or Eunbi Unnie, the journey to learn it wasn’t a waste.” Chaewon closed her eyes and exerted her qi power as a demonstration.

“Wow!” Yena exclaimed excitedly as she felt Chaewon’s qi. “You’ve improved so much.”

“I’ve learned that trying new things can sometimes help more than doing the same things over and over,” Chaewon said after releasing her hold on her qi. She had been surprised herself at how much her inner power improved after her training sessions with Minju.

“Maybe, I should teach you some of my moves too? I’ve been teaching Sakura a lot and you saw how much better she’s been doing.”

Yujin held hands with Hitomi as they sat in the shade of a large tree. Yujin smiled at the girl beside her. “I can’t believe how much stronger you’ve gotten over the last few days.”

“Thank you for listening to my request and going all out.” Hitomi wanted to know how much she had improved and Yujin was one of the best all-rounders of the group to test her skills against.

“I wonder what I need to do to get my qi levels to improve.” Yujin had been shocked to see Hitomi’s had nearly doubled since she started training in the Formless style. Usually, one did not improve so much by training in a purely physical style.

“Yujin, you don’t have the handicap that me, Saku-chan, and Nako-chan have. You can always learn and study qi arts the normal way. I was surprised how effective the training was though. I thought my internal qi was far too damaged to see any big improvements when I challenged the new style. But I guess it really is true that the greater the challenge the greater the reward.”

“I guess I could learn the regular way.” Yujin made a face. The Japanese qi arts were a little boring for her. Meditation played a large part in it and she preferred the more active approach through physical exertion. She looked over at the Japanese girl feeling happy that the two of them seemed to have gotten even closer since their examinee days. “You know, I was a little sad that we didn’t hang out as much after our first team up in the exams.”

“I’m sorry for that. I kind of felt ashamed of myself back then for enjoying myself so much when many of my friends and family had just died. I felt an odd sense of relief when I joined another team other than with you, Yena-unnie, or Wonyoung. Probably because I thought I had to mourn still.”

“I’m so sorry,” Yujin could only say, feeling sad for making Hitomi relive those bad memories again.

Hitomi felt guilty as she looked at Yujin’s sad expression. “That’s not the only reason I think I stopped hanging out with you guys. Another reason was that I often thought of myself as the third wheel and it was an incredibly lonely experience. Wonyoung and you always seemed to be off in your own world. Yena had been spending a lot of time with Yuri. There didn’t seem to be any room for me.”

“That’s not true at all!” Yujin said emphatically. “We didn’t mean to make you feel lonely. We loved your company and we still do.”

“That’s good to hear. Chaewon Unnie helped me realize that I was being a little silly and that I should treasure every moment I have with all of us together. I felt like a background character back then, but she made me feel like I was as important as everyone in the school.”

“Unnie, now I feel like the third wheel,” Yujin teased.

“Ah, don’t you feel that way anyway when Minju is talking about Saku-chan or Chaeyeon Unnie?” Hitomi blushed and countered with her own teasing.

“Ouch,” Yujin winced. Hitomi always seemed to know her weak points. “Hey, no fair! We’re talking about you.”

“Sorry, but jealous Yujin is cute and I like seeing that side of you.”

“How do you think they’re doing?”

Sakura rolled her eyes as this was literally the tenth time that Eunbi asked that question. “They’re fine. This isn’t the first time they’ve sparred against each other.”

“Yeah, but usually they’re just practicing. We told them to treat it more seriously this time.” Eunbi was in full mom mode as she fretted over her lovely children.

“I think Chaeyeon won’t go all out against Minju. Wonyoung won’t use her full strength as well. Nako will, but even if she used her full strength, Wonyoung is strong enough to handle it. Yena and Chaewon are pretty responsible as much as they play around. Yujin and Hitomi are both responsible too. Hyewon and Yuri… well not much to do about that. We just need to trust in Hyewon”

Sakura’s ‘feeling’ about people and situations always amazed Eunbi at how accurate they turned out to be. “How do you think ours will go? Every time we are about to start you call time and say you need to do more stretching.”

“Ah, sorry,” Sakura said as she tried to mentally prepare herself. She walked over to Eunbi and once again tried to look at the woman. The woman in question, as always, stared unflinchingly back as if straight into her soul. Her eyes were like little black holes as they seemed to pull at Sakura. “Wait! Time! Time!” Sakura flinched as usual turning her head away.

“Again?” Eunbi asked exasperated. In truth, she found it very cute and couldn’t really understand why the other woman was having such a hard time. She loved looking at Sakura’s expressive face go from calm to panic. Am I that scary to fight against?

“I just need a moment,” Sakura said trying to calm her beating heart. It was true that when she looked at people, she often got some sort of ‘feeling’ about them. Her mentor back in Japan had once tried to get her to explore this ability as it could be a divine skill. However, she felt it that it was more trouble than it was worth as it was now.

“Maybe we can do this another time?” Eunbi said, although she was feeling disappointed. She had relished this chance to spend time with the only other mature woman of the group.

“I can do it,” Sakura replied, trying to shut off the ‘feeling’ she was getting from the other woman, however, intensely smoldering it was. Some of the others in the group gave a similar feeling, but definitely not as extreme or as ‘adult’ as Eunbi did.

Eunbi smiled as Sakura finally seemed to be ready. She watched as woman’s face go from one of calm to one of panic again, but this time Sakura managed to hold her ground. “Finally. Now let’s get started. I’ve been wanting to do it with you for a long time.”

Author’s note:

I felt attacked by the last Iz*One Chu season 2 episode and some of the pairings in this chapter were the result of it.

Let me know what you thought!