Chapter 07.
“If you’re looking for training partners, you should go find your own team members. They looked like they still had plenty of energy left to hit punching bags.”
The dismissal was clear.
Instead of looking toward the exit, however, Haesung took a slow step closer toward Yuju. As the distance closed, his presence weighed heavily toward her side.
“I heard the Team 3 leader rolls on the floor herself. They say your skills are easily on par with the field agents.”
Yuju’s hands stopped on the punching bag.
It was impossible to tell whether it was a compliment or a provocation. No, knowing the words coming out of that man’s mouth, it was likely both.
Yuju slowly turned around to face Haesung.
“Are you serious about this?” “Yes.” “Krav Maga. With you.” “Yes.” “With me?” “Yes.”
Yuju was too dumbfounded to speak.
“……Says who?”
Yuju snapped, her brows furrowed deeply. But the response that came back was far outside her expected range.
“Probably the director?” “……Pardon?”
“To improve actual joint cooperation capabilities between team leaders, we are to conduct collaborative training. That was the branch chief’s direct order. You should’ve received it after yesterday’s meeting.”
Haesung shrugged nonchalantly. The title of the unread notice email she’d skimmed yesterday flashed through Yuju’s mind.
It definitely had been something like ‘[Must Read] Team Leader Job Competency…’ or the like.
That was what this was?
Yuju’s eyes rippled wildly. She felt like she’d been trapped in a trap with no way out.
She immediately reached out a hand toward the phone resting on the bench. Then, Haesung’s low voice whipped down across the back of her hand.
“Even if you contact him right now, the answer will be the same.” “……What do you mean?” “He told me that unless you receive direct instruction from me, the training won’t be recognized. It’s a special decree from the director.”
For a split second, Yuju’s hand froze rigidly in mid-air.
If Ihyeon had planned this deliberately, calling him would obviously yield nothing more than a dry “So what?”
Yuju slowly turned back to look at Haesung. Haesung stood there with his arms uncrossed, looking as though he were already fully prepared. As if he’d been waiting for this, knowing it would turn out this way from the very start.
That man was thoroughly enjoying this situation. Without a doubt.
He was so infuriating that a hot wave surged up inside herābad enough to make her want to drive a fist straight into those handsome lips.
“Ready?”
Haesung took a step forward. Instead of dodging, Yuju pulled her uniform cords tight until they felt like they’d snap.
Fine, let’s play your game then.
Instead of answering, Yuju stepped up onto the mat. Haesung followed right behind her.
Standing face-to-face, the difference in physique stood out all over again.
Leaving aside the height difference of a full palm’s length, even the breadth of the shoulders blocking her view right now was in a different league. Is this what a herbivore feels like standing before a predator? The visual pressure alone was enough to make her breath catch.
The starker the innate limitations, the more fiercely her stubborn pride reared its head. Glaring intently at Haesung’s leisurely eyes, Yuju clenched her fists tight.
Wrapping sports tape roughly around her knuckles, Yuju added:
“You know what? There’s no such thing as manners in Krav Maga. Whether you gouge out eyes or kick the groin, the only goal is to stay alive. So don’t blame me if you end up neutered from this training.”
Though her words were menacing, Haesung instead curved the corners of his mouth as if he found it amusing.
It was as if he were asking, ‘You’re going to teach me Krav Maga right now?’
“Come at me.”
Without even putting up a guard, Haesung stood with his hands shoved in his pockets in a relaxed posture.
Yuju gritted her teeth. Inwardly, she had already grabbed Haesung’s collar and thrown him to the floor tens of thousands of times, but reality was cold.
The innate physical gap and overwhelming presence.
As Yuju hesitated, unable to find an opening to attack before that wall, a laugh slipped past his lips, unable to be held back.
“As you well know, Krav Maga isn’t a sport; it’s the real deal. You do it to avoid dying.”
Haesung stepped closer. As the visual pressure made Yuju flinch and try to step back, he drove the point home in a low voice.
“Then why do you keep trying to control the distance and keep me at arm’s length? When it’s a world where I have to kill my opponent to stay alive.” “Who’s keeping you at arm’s length!”
Spurred by a sudden flash of anger, Yuju closed the distance first.
Her footworkāimbued seamlessly with five years of trainingāfeinted a strike to the groin before immediately targeting his chin with an elbow. It was a clean attack with no excess motion.
Yet it didn’t reach.
No, Haesung wasn’t there anymore.
“……!”
She couldn’t even gauge when he had moved. The fraction of a second her flustered hands cut through empty air, Haesung’s hand snatched her wrist.
She was certain she’d been watching him, but before she knew it, her arm was twisted up behind her back.
“Ha……”
From behind, Haesung’s arm firmly wrapped around Yuju’s shoulder. The movement, more precise and airtight than any textbook, left no visible angle to slip away.
But the real problem lay elsewhere. His ribcage was pressed flush against her back without a single gap. The vibration transmitted with every breath he took felt scalding hot.
I have to get out of here.
Yuju gritted her teeth. She mentally replayed the escape maneuvers she’d drilled into her body for five years.
Lower her center of gravity, strike his solar plexus with an elbow, hook his ankle and bring him down.
Yet her body refused to move as she wished.
Haesung pulled Yuju’s waist deeper into an embrace. It was a movement verifying his restraint. At that moment, a low, dry voice brushed against her ear.
“Can you escape this?”
The distance was close enough to feel his breath.
Yuju collected her wits and drew in a breath. Taking advantage of the split-second opening to destabilize his center, she whipped her left elbow toward Haesung’s flank.
Swish, the sound of air splitting echoed.
Haesung sidestepped lightly. It missed again.
This time, however, was different. With strong force, he spun Yuju around.
Her vision flipped in an instant as they stood face-to-face. Her wrist remained trapped inside Haesung’s hand.
Haesung’s dark eyes persistently scanned Yuju’s face. The gaze was so scorching she couldn’t stand it.
In the end, Yuju hurriedly averted her gaze. Her heart was pounding so hard she was terrified Haesung would hear the pulse in her locked wrist.
“Do you see me as a man right now?”
Haesung studied Yuju’s averted face carefully, asking as if to confirm it.
“Because I hate you, that’s why!” “I suppose people must stop breathing entirely in front of someone they hate. Your face looks like it’s about to burst.”
Haesung’s low laughter tickled her ear. Yuju bit her lip, struggling to calm her pounding heart.
Haesung lowered his upper body slightly further. It was a distance where his shadow completely enveloped Yuju, leaving no room to run.
“So, how are you going to escape?”
His low whisper tickled her reddened earlobe.
Yuju’s eyes trembled minutely. The Krav Maga techniques she’d spent five years learning had long since been wiped completely blank from her mind. Instead, an entirely different kind of impulse governed her thoughts.
Still, Chae Yuju was an agent. If a orthodox approach didn’t work, she had to win even if it meant resorting to trickery.
Slowly raising her gaze, which she’d been desperately avoiding, she stared straight at Haesung.
Surprise flickered in Haesung’s eyes as if he hadn’t expected it. Without dodging his burning gaze, Yuju panted through her quickened breath and parted her lips.
“……Then, how about we live together?” “……What?”
Haesung’s flawless pacing shattered in a single stroke. Just as the grip on Yuju’s wrist loosened, she didn’t miss the opening; instead, she hooked her arms around Haesung’s neck and wore a strange smile.
“Instead of escaping, how about we live together?”
