CHAPTER 6

What was I thinking when I said yes? what the hell was going on in my mind?

Nothing.

That’s it actually I wasn’t thinking, it was spur of the moment, a sudden adventurous craving and maybe a little bit of shock because of what had just happened.

I was most certainly not thinking because well, who just randomly agrees to go to a potential street fight with no training and with a stranger they just met that day?

No one in their right mind that's for sure.

Sitting in the backseat of that cab with Baek, going towards the outskirts of Seoul I had let my mind wander aimlessly.

Why was I even doing this? Why was I sitting there going to an unknown place with a complete stranger? Did I really hate my life that much? Was I so desperate for a change? So desperate for a chance to be free and take decisions that I was possibly taking the wrong ones?

Yes, maybe it was true after all.

I had been in a cage and now that I was free I wanted to be reckless. For once I wasn’t thinking about right and wrong, about the consequences of my actions and decisions.

The only reasoning I had was that no matter what happened to me that day it was going to happen because I allowed it to, I made the choices and I made the decisions for myself not having to think about what my family would say or what the society might assume.

If this was freedom I don’t think I would be able to let go of it at the end of my trip.

My thoughts were interrupted when Baek spoke, “Hey don’t worry, I’ll be with you all time, if you want to only watch you only watch, have some fun yeah, no pressure.”

My Baek, always so polite, so understanding. Even when we were strangers he somehow understood me and figured that I just needed to blow off some steam. Although, maybe a different way of blowing it off would’ve been better but this is all Baek knew, the streets, the fights, the underground arena.

Neither of us knew what we were getting into by allowing me to fight that evening but I wouldn’t change it even if I was ever given a chance to.

We reached an area towards the end of Seoul near Incheon. The place where the cab dropped us off surprisingly did not look like a murder spot or the set of a horror movie, it looked like a simple neighborhood with buildings all around that maybe had three or four floors at the most, some of them looked occupied even, while the rest looked abandoned.

There weren’t many people around just a few mostly having a smoke.

As we walked in a bit further into the neighborhood I could hear a crowd, see lights and two minutes later I could see people too!

Oh and there were some women present as well. I was so thankful to god that my stupid ass decision hadn’t brought me to an unknown place to be robbed or raped.

Now I could finally see it, a fairly large crowd gathered in a circle around two tall men who I assumed were the contenders. It was loud alright, really loud now. I could see some people cheering, bets being exchanged and then I stopped seeing everything else except for the two men because the fight had begun.

It was short.

That’s how I’m going to describe that fight.

Fighter number one, wearing a white jersey was picked up and then roughly thrown on the ground by fighter number two in the blue jersey after which blue jersey proceeded to kick and finally jump on top of white jersey affectively knocking him out. After that he was declared the winner and White jersey was out like a light.

Yeah I wouldn’t want to cross blue jersey ever. Period.

I was so engrossed in the fight that I hadn't realized that Baek wasn’t beside me, he was a few feet away speaking to an older man who was maybe in his fifties with a few gray hair and a very visible stomach.

Apparently he was setting up a fight for me. When he came and told me about it, that’s the time reality finally set in.

"You still want to do this? I can take your place if you not sure. No worries!" He said.

'Holy hell this is actually happening!!!' I thought.

I didn't know what would be the result. I could be the next blue jersey or maybe I’d end up just like white jersey, out cold on the ground beaten to a pulp. But it was happening with my consent and strangely enough I wasn't scared.

Nervous? Yes.

Exited? Yes.

Crazy? No doubt’s about it.

"Let's do this!" I said before I could change my mind and chicken out and I walked ahead.