“Hey, you said self-defense.”
“……”
“Fuck, if I use a technique like this on cement, won’t my head crack open first?”
“You have to use breakfall techniques.”
“You didn’t even teach me that!”
“I’ll teach you the basics first and show you breakfall techniques later. I’ll hold your head so it doesn’t touch the ground.”
He had no idea what kind of basics involved teaching self-destruct techniques, or whether he should fake a head injury to threaten him. Woojae noticed Gye Sajun watching him quietly and shook the collar he was gripping.
“But is this right? Hey, answer me.”
“This is my first time teaching someone too, so it’s difficult. I’ll demonstrate on you, so watch and learn.”
When the guy stood up abruptly, it struck him anew that the face-to-face distance when they fell was less than 20cm. Whether this was actually self-defense or not, he was a layman, so for now he silently offered his collar to Gye Sajun’s hand.
“Ugh!”
Woojae, who had been thrown over his body by Gye Sajun before he knew it, groaned. The hand that had been gripping the elbow area of his clothing fell to the floor, and the hand that had been gripping the collar instinctively settled on Gye Sajun’s chest to support himself. He hurriedly tried to get up and escape from the guy, but his two legs that firmly bound his waist along with the grabbed collar restrained his movement like shackles.
“You must never let go of the hand grabbing the collar.”
“Thanks for telling me early, you bastard.”
Just as his pride was about to be hurt by the smile that even looked triumphant, Gye Sajun narrowed his brow again. He couldn’t tell what was so displeasing. Woojae gripped Gye Sajun’s collar again.
“What’s next?”
“……Grab my waist with both hands.”
“You said not to let go of the collar.”
“You have to let go here.”
“This is!”
He huffed and puffed, but still held Gye Sajun’s waist with a rather model student-like attitude.
“Keep your hands there and press down with force, and curl your waist like a ball.”
“Like this?”
When he bent his waist as Gye Sajun said, the legs that had been strongly binding Woojae’s waist with their tops of feet overlapped instantly loosened.
“Can you try doing what I did?”
“What’s the big deal, if you can do it, why can’t I?”
Still, having experienced it, he felt like he could understand it roughly by intuition. Woojae jumped up from his spot and stared at the hesitating Gye Sajun. Soon, Gye Sajun, who had turned around and let out a sigh, turned his body properly and took the same position as before. This time, fortunately, it wasn’t difficult. Imitating what Gye Sajun had done, he pulled the collar, kicked his foot back, lay back and wrapped around the guy’s waist, and the position was reversed from before. Gye Sajun didn’t fall over messily like Woojae had, and naturally grabbed Woojae’s waist, but his expression was not good.
“What’s next?”
“Now I’m going to try to escape from you, and you have to subdue me—what do you think would be good?”
“Hmm…… Punch with my fist?”
Woojae submitted an answer based on his usual theory that the best defense is offense. But as if it wasn’t the answer, only worry clouded Gye Sajun’s face.
“……There are no striking movements in jiu-jitsu. Only subduing.”
“You said you’d teach me self-defense, not jiu-jitsu.”
“Do you want to go to prison for hitting someone?”
Definitely not that. If he went to prison, what sin would Nari have committed? Woojae seriously shook his head. The corners of Gye Sajun’s mouth curled up.
“Push here, the inside of my arm, with this foot.”
The forearm of Gye Sajun that touched the sole of his foot was like an iron lump. So this is what it means when natural bone structure and muscle mass are different. Woojae clicked his tongue bitterly at the gap with an alpha that struck him anew.
“Like this?”
“Yeah. This way my hand can’t reach you, right?”
“And then?”
“Grab the sleeve with the other hand and pull it down under here, and take out the leg opposite to the foot pushing my arm, yeah, like that. Like this, you apply the technique like you’re strangling my arm. Then no matter how much difference there is in muscle strength, the opponent will be subdued and won’t be able to move. Even if they’re alphas, kids who don’t exercise are all the same.”
It was truly a timely comment like a back scratcher scratching an itchy spot. Woojae received a peculiar comfort from that nonchalant tone. Instead of answering, when he moved his body as Gye Sajun instructed, it clumsily took on the shape of an armbar. Unlike him with beads of sweat forming, Gye Sajun’s face that looked relaxed was annoying yet not unpleasant to look at. He must definitely have developed something wrong in his head. A health checkup was desperately needed.
“From there, just pull my arm toward your chest. If you make them tap like this, whoever has scored more points, the one who made them tap wins. Of course, that’s in jiu-jitsu.”
At the tap lightly hitting his thigh, Woojae released the strength from his legs. Only then did he realize that the guy’s thick forearm had been between his legs.
“If this happens in real life, think you’re going to break it and put strength into it.”
“You said to only subdue earlier?”
“It’s better than your arm getting broken.”
“Extorting a settlement is better.”
What followed was rapid-fire. Gye Sajun taught Woojae various techniques, and Woojae, who had excellent learning ability, absorbed the techniques like a sponge soaking up water.
It was the first time since he was very young that he’d learned any sport, so Woojae was quite enjoying it. Even Gye Sajun’s rude mouth was somehow very polite today. The only dissatisfying thing was Gye Sajun’s attitude. Whatever was so difficult, the guy kept leaving in the middle, saying he’d go get water or go to the bathroom.
“Ugh!”
“……!”
The problem occurred in the mount position. Woojae had only gotten on top of the guy’s waist as Gye Sajun instructed. But in the process of the guy turning his body—to be precise, to shake Woojae off—he put in too much strength, causing Woojae to fall defenseless onto Gye Sajun’s body.
To be specific, close enough for their ears to touch. Since they’d been making similar contact until just before, Woojae tried to think nothing of it, but Gye Sajun suddenly pushed Woojae away and frowned. Even so, the behavior of openly crumpling his face was absurd. He even covered his nose. Did he smell that much of sweat? Woojae’s face heated up bright red with shame and displeasure.
“Hey, you’re embarrassing me.”
He couldn’t say anything because from Gye Sajun, he couldn’t feel even a speck of an unpleasant smell. He didn’t know if leaving in the middle was to cover up sweat smell, but from the guy, he could only feel a faint body scent. Woojae unnecessarily lifted his own collar and sniffed. Maybe it does smell because of this…… Then Gye Sajun caught his breath and quietly asked.
“Did you use that soap?”
“……Yeah.”
Only then did Gye Sajun’s lower body clearly come into view. He couldn’t help but be astonished at why he was only seeing that now, when it was showing its outline even through the stiff uniform. Woojae had used Minwook’s unknown body wash instead of his own soap today, but for some reason, he felt like he should say that.
He couldn’t explain why, but seeing a guy pitching a tent, his instincts started raising red flags. No matter how much he’d felt strange emotions toward the guy, he’d never wanted a situation like this. When he recalled that trouble had happened because of soap before, Woojae’s face darkened too.
“Fuck, so should I throw away perfectly good soap?”
“Ah……”
“Do you have a soap fetish or what? Hey, if you jerked off with the soap I gave you, you’re dead, seriously.”
Woojae threw out a joke loudly to diffuse the awkward situation. But instead of the rebuttal that should have followed, an eon-like silence descended, so he came to regret the joke he’d thrown out.
“You really…… did it?”
This too was a question he couldn’t hear an answer to.
“Die, you bastard!!”
***
His breath rose up to his chin. From the man’s body that had dug between his legs, a faint sweat smell came along with hot heat. It was a situation that should be unpleasant and a smell that should be disagreeable. The problem was that this situation wasn’t unpleasant at all, and this smell wasn’t disagreeable either.
‘Why on earth?’
His bound arms and legs were firmly restrained as if they wouldn’t come loose no matter how much he struggled. The man’s body was holding his body tightly so he couldn’t budge, but even stronger than that was the power in his two eyes. The meeting gazes were hot and straight like the midsummer sun. Ragged breaths tore through between his lips and scattered disorderly in the air.
Maybe they would touch. That premonition came. And he too, meeting those eyes, had to feel the sensation of his stomach tightening. The heat was excessive, making his head hazy and making him faithful to desire. Just before their lips touched, Woojae had to squeeze his eyes shut and attempt a headbutt.
He didn’t want to leave behind the dishonor of having his first kiss with a pepper bastard because of impulse.
“Ugh……!”
What came at the same time as strongly bumping foreheads was a tremendous shock. At the ringing pain in his head, Woojae had to snap open his closed eyes.
It hurt this much? It hurt as if what he’d bumped into wasn’t a person’s head but a rock. The problem was that what was really in front of his eyes wasn’t Gye Sajun rubbing his forehead from the sudden attack, but a hard, cold wall. At the wallpaper faintly visible in the darkness, his lips opened weakly.
“Fucking hell……”
Woojae closed his eyes again and muttered curses, then banged his head against the wall again. This was all the fault of that crazy ‘friend’ who kept going into heat for him.
