My team pushes me practically onto the mat. I'm still having thoughts of whether I should just tap out immediately or not. It would make complete utter sense to, but do I want be berated by my mom?
Then.
.
.
.
Alita walks on the mat.
I literally don't know why I'm doing this, to make my last month of preparation worth it? Should I just let her hit me once and pretend I'm getting knocked out? Then Hyun puts on a speaker my favorite album of all time, Kimyona's first album, Capital Cancer.
He plays my favorite track on there, Ego Funeral. I'm pumped up and ready, the MC is getting the surprisingly large crowd pumped.
"Fight 1, start!" the MC yells.
I stare at Alita again, towering over me. How does a girl like this exist?
She makes the first move, launching a spinning back kick, I duck, then return with a jump kick to her chest.
She goes back a step, it didn't do too much, but it did SOME damage.
She pumsaes, getting ready for some time of strike. I brace myself, I think she's trying to read my moves.
One thing I learned from Dae Zhae Kuaun while watching Hyun, is when in doubt, close the gap. I also looked at some videos earlier.
I run straight up to her, jump, bounce off her chest, and with the downward spring momentum, I appear to jump kick her head on.
.
.
.
I get her in the temple, which I was hoping for.
It dazes her for a second, but Alita then gets me with a quick pumsae slap.
I almost fall, thankfully her arms aren't insanely huge like her legs.
.
.
.
Thankfully she hasn't kicked me yet.
I keep getting hits on her, in the stomach, in the side, in the shoulder, in the face. They all seem to be doing damage, but nothing really significant.
I keep dodging her flurries of palm strikes and kicks. I don't know if I can keep this up for much longer, I've been lazy on the cardio as of recent.
I keep trying to find weak spots to strike her, nothing really is besides the neck, but that's illegal, so that's not happening.
She kicks me, I somehow deflect it at the kneecap by kicking her there instead of crossing kicks and being overwhelmed by her strength.
.
.
.
It did somewhat significant damage, I may have got her in a good spot.
I respond to the opportunity to maybe get her to ring out, since she's at the edge.
I go for a finishing jump kick to the chest.
.
.
.
She blocks it with her palm and kind of throws me back.
She repositions back to near the center, now I'm essentially back to square one.
Alita's dominating presence engulfs the ring once again as she recovers from the knee hit.
Leg kicks are banned standing up, if you are crossing kicks and get hurt, that's legal, in this tournament anyway.
Now that's my only plan.
I have literally no way else to beat this giant woman. I have to offensively block her kick with my own.
I have to dodge a flurry more of palm strikes and kicks because most of these I cannot block without getting injured myself.
She then starts incorporating her right leg into the endless flurry of attacks, then her left hand too, until she gets so complicated, that I have nothing else to concentrate on.
I'm getting backed to the corner. I have no way out.
In the distance I hear the one person that is there to cheer me on,
.
.
.
Hyun.
"Go Jugyeong! You can do it babe, go for a hug!"
That's it, in the Taekwondo rules, I can hug my opponent to give myself a short amount of time.
I go for it, it works.
I'm able to slip out and she's cornered.
She goes for a kick to my stomach and I block with a spinning back kick, making it so that if I land, I don't eat the hit. Our kicks cross.
This hurts that other leg.
I go for a jump kick to the chest.
.
.
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She gets pushed out and I win by ring out.
.
.
.
But not without getting hurt, as I got there, she pumsaed last second and palm struck me hard in the stomach.
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The only one cheering for me comes up to me and congratulates me. He picks me up and makes me ride on his back to the audience stages before the next fight starts.
.
.
.
We don't win the best 3 out of 5, one other fighter on our team won in the fourth fight, but funnily enough, the girl that hated me the most on my team, was the one that lost the 5th game, hahaha.
I know I won only by ring out, but when you're fighting someone twice your size, you're fortunate enough to even do that.
I'm also glad she didn't land a full kick on me, or I would have been a goner within the first 20 milliseconds.
I went to the local hospital to get x-rayed because my stomach hurt, somehow I was fine.
(Hyun's perspective)
I'm proud of Jugyeong, she finally got over that hurdle.
{That was scary.}
(Back to Jugyeong)
I think I wanna quit Taekwondo, it's never been my passion, I just did it to make my mom happy and to have an enforced reason to work out.
I don't think I can become a Taekwondo star, nor do I want to be one, I don't want to be like my mother and see my man only twice a week. I also don't want to break bones, and most of all, I just don't love the sport. I like fighting, but the sport itself, being on a team, going to competitions, it's just not enjoyable for me. The discipline and the fighting style is fun, but having to commit to it and to a team is just not fun for me.
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The next day, my mom comes home from the US again. I decide to pick her up from the airport.
"What a surprise! You're picking me up! What's wrong, what do you need to tell me?" My mom may not always be present, but she knows herself enough to know how I am, since I'm just a much friendlier and less mean version of her (also prettier).
"We lost the tournament, I beat Alita. After that fight, I realized that competitive Taekwondo is just not for me. I love the discipline, just I can't stand going to tournaments and most of all, being on a team."
"I was surprised you lasted this long to be honest. You wanted my approval, I know I was hard on you before about it, but now that you realized that it's not for you, and have learned things beyond fighting from Taekwondo, I'm content."
"That's surprising coming from you."
"When you were younger, I wanted you to be just like me, as you grew up, I realized you were too much like me, just nicer. I wanted to control your life when you were younger, as you got older you didn't, if you wanted to leave last year or the year before, I'd have been slightly disappointed, but relieved. Now I'm just relieved."
"Thank you mom."
"Now when is that boyfriend of yours coming over? I want to see if he's lost weight!"
"He has."
"Is he getting more handsome?"
"Kind of, I really don't care about his size, but he's doing it for his sake, so I'm just supporting him."
"Huh."
"Want to go eat somewhere?"
"Why not? I'm hungry."