CHAPTER 7

The scene was comical. If I were to have been a part of the crowd I would’ve laughed so hard I’d have fallen down for sure. Me, a cute little midget on one side and my opponent, easily six feet, not overly muscular but well-built on the other side.

'Yeah I am probably going to have the same fate as white jersey' I thought.

The match started and my opponent, hmm let’s name him purple jersey, because that’s what he was wearing, suddenly started to lightly jump and make punching actions in the air. It was probably sort of a warm up or something that must’ve been common because the crowd was hyping him up big time but not me.

No, see I was the odd one out, the one who should’ve taken things more seriously.

I laughed.

I literally laughed at him and that was my mistake. I didn’t see the punch to my face coming. It was hard, it was brutal and I’m sure it was going to leave a nasty bruise.

I didn’t like this one bit. No, not the fight, this, the getting punched and falling down, the feeling of everyone’s gaze on me expecting me to be knocked out by this, the feeling of potential defeat.

Getting up I braced myself for another punch maybe or even a kick but purple jersey decided to outdo my thinking and came charging towards me at full speed. I panicked and did the only thing that came to my mind, waited for a breath and then bent down on my knees while simultaneously pushing my hands forward, fists clenched.

Poor little purple jersey.

I’m sure he wasn’t expecting something like this. The guy rammed into me, my fists hitting his stomach and he fell hard hitting his jaw on the ground.

Admittedly I too sustained some injuries, I felt dizzy due to the impact and my knuckles already hurt from the day's previous events but recovering almost immediately I turned around and did the only thing that came to my mind, I jumped on top of him with full force of my weight, digging my elbow and knees into his back.

Damn! I’d just pulled a blue jersey on him.

He didn’t get up. 

There was pin drop silence all around us for a few moments before there was a deafening roar from the crowd. I didn’t know whether the screaming was because they were happy for me or they were angry that I had defeated a guy they were betting on to win and quiet frankly I didn’t care, not one bit.

I was shocked at first which then turned into excitement, happiness, a feeling of euphoria. I had done it, an untrained, middle class girl from a very small town in India had just single handedly outdone and defeated a seasoned street fighter. It was probably just sheer luck or the fact that I was using my brains a bit more since I lacked in the physical strength department but I had done it nonetheless. For the first time ever I was super, super, super proud of myself and I wanted to give myself a pat on the back.

"Yaaassss! I did it!! OH MY GOD" these were the only three words I was able to get out of my mouth at that time.

I was pulled into a bone crushing hug almost immediately by Baek before the same fifties something, bulging stomach man came to us.

I thought he’d probably congratulate me or something but he just extended his hands full of cash towards me.

That was mine. I earned it.

The first happy tears fell from my eyes when I collected my hard earned prize of 50000 Korean Won. It probably wasn’t much, around $41-42 or around 3500 rupees but it was mine and it meant a lot to me.

It was literally earned by spilling my blood, sweat and tears.

I had never experienced the feeling of ecstasy before but maybe this is how it felt like. It wasn’t entirely right or ethical to feel this way, hurting someone for money, putting myself on display in front of those people who got their high by watching others beat each other up but to me it didn’t feel wrong, I didn’t feel bad.

Quiet the contrary. I felt awesome, it was crazy, I was high on my victory, in my own headspace. It felt amazing, I felt amazing, like I was floating and no one could pull me down. I felt so light headed and so light hearted. I felt free.

That feeling was addicting, and that addiction somehow, I didn’t want to give up .

Wrong, but it felt so damn right.