S.R Boxing Gym, a modest establishment in the heart of the hustling bustling city and it is as noisy inside as it is outside the gym with all the constant vehicular traffic. The hot sun is easy on no one and Abhimanyu enters the gym with already wet oversized wet sleeveless red t-shirt that would help the Medusa tattoo on his shoulder pop. He smiles and fist bumps familiar guys with their boxing gloves, he then makes his way to near the ring wrapping his crepe bandage around his wrist, and his eyes catch Veena walking in folding her face mask, yawning, observing the place and walking straight towards Ravindra. Abhimanyu couldn't take his eyes of her, he never expected her to look this fit underneath the blanket he saw her, she looked like she hit gym a little too often and he might have underestimated her, you could just tell with that muscled neck with a structed collar-bone, broad shoulders, veiny fists and those well defined calves even from that grey sweatshirt and mint colored yoga pants that she wore. Veena turned around to look at Abhimanyu, their eyes meet and he starts looking at his wrist, wrapping the bandages even faster in embarrassment of checking her out. He told himself that he is kind of grateful for having such a pretty lady take care of him but then he also thought how funny it would look that Abhi, the boxing champ is being protected by a lady with pretty face, that would be a wound to my macho personality in college and outside, I have to get myself out of this situation and then maybe I might ask her for coffee as a truce, so that she doesn't feel bad about losing. A giggle breaks his imagination and it is Veena with his father looking at him and she gestures "one" with her finger and they high five. Veena wraps her wrists in no time and puts those gloves on, punches her fists against each other, hops and stretches her neck and she is ready to go...
Abhi lifts up the rope and makes his way into the ring, he is suggested to wear a mouth guard by the guy who he fist bumped and is acting as a makeshift referee. Abhi refuses after seeing that Veena isn't wearing one so the referee thinks what the heck and climbs on to the ring after Veena. Right then we see Sakshi, a girl in her 20s with a button nose, green highlights styled in a Dutch braid walks in with a duffle bag walk in, she looks at Abhi and raises her right eyebrow with a smug smile, he raises his hand to wave at her and waves back. She walks up to Ravindra and takes his blessing and stands besides him and he briefs her about the situation, they are having a discussion of their own and the referee blows a low whistle bringing the distracted Abhi back to the ring. The referee taps on both their shoulder and checks their gloves after which both Abhi and Veena tap each others fists against each other and take a few steps back, the referee stands in the middle with his hands apart and then he drops his arms down with a loud whistle as an initiation to the fight.
Veena and Abhi hop towards the center with their footwork, Abhi throwing out gentle jabs to check the perimeter and moving in, Veena just tapping back in defense and dodging his advances. Veena maintains a poker face and her eyes periodically switching between Abhi's feet and fists and Abhi starts to act aggressive and throws a hook at her she dodges it and releases a upper cut but only touches his chin and his eyes open up wider and this is a moment of realization how that uppercut could have left him with a concussion had she not pulled her punch, he moves back quickly, Veena with not a change in expression but a small smirk starts making it's way to her lips. He looks at Sakshi for a split second and she has her lips forming "O" and he realized that it was pretty evident to everyone, his father smiling and asks him to be careful. He shuffles his legs and goes in again, Veena now moves close and brushes a jab past his cheek and says "Should've considered wearing the mouthguard". Abhi is drenched in his own sweat, enough to fill up a small bucket if you wring it out. "Come on Veena you got this!" cheers Sakshi, Veena's sweatshirt started to turn dark grey with sweat.
The guys training around start to gather around the ring to see the fight after hearing the cheer, Sakshi starts recording the match on her phone and seeing all this Abhi starts to get more conscious. He starts to get more offensive with his game and wants to end it, the referee checks the stopwatch and it is 2mins37seconds, Abhi rushes in and he is greeted with a strong hook to his left jaw, his inner voice starts to recollect, "neck, my weak point, why do I skip training it but how did it come to this, this featherweight looking woman...", his head and neck rotates rapidly and he could feel the brain whiplash, the sweat sprinkles off his hair like a tree had experienced a strong breeze after the rain stops, he felt the same way how his opponents do that second, somewhat closer to nature. He blacked out with concussion followed by eventual white flashes, he gained back consciousness partially and he could hear the count but his body refuses to get up, his face kept getting warmer by every second. Veena removed the Velcro off her gloves and dropped down on her corner. Abhi still struggling with pain which felt like occasional piercing of needles and then them melting in his eyes and light and this continued and on the count of ten, Veena picked him up and made him sit on her corner and emptied a bottle of water on his head and when he opens his eyes he is levitating, he cannot hear anything, it's as if the people around him are on mute, he cannot understand whether they are saying anything as his vision is too blurred to see their lips move. He realizes that he is being carried by Veena like a firefighter does and is being seated on a chair, the blurriness starts to clear up and he sees Veena asking him how many fingers she is holding while holding her pointer finger, Abhi holds her finger and says one and she turns around with that finger and she grips the five hundred rupee note between her pointer and middle finger and walks away.
"Why is she being paid for almost killing me?" he asks Sakshi who is sitting beside him, he had his head rested on her which he just discovered after coming back to his senses. "It's part of a wager, that she will knock you out before the first round ends". Ravindra brushes his hand on Abhi's head and asks, "Is she good enough for you?" Abhi clears his throat to it and sees Sakshi being passed five hundred rupees note too, "You too?" Abhi cries.
Veena comes back, her face fresh as if she never entered the ring. "Ready to leave whenever you are sir." she said in a reporting tone and stands next to him. Abhi struggles to peer at her with a sprained neck and thinks how quickly she switched characters and he needs to be careful with this woman. She is nothing like the ones he had met before. "I already love her" mocked Sakshi. "I love how quickly you changed your orientation after seeing a woman take me down in the ring" sighed Abhi. He unzips his bag and takes out his phone and sees the notification - "Angelic_princess started following you on Instagram, Facebook, X." Abhi looks at her and screams with all his might,"Nooooo...." Veena looks at him with a side eye and grins...