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Maybe it hadn’t been the best idea for Jiung to force himself to box today. He wasn’t in a great mood, but what was boxing for if not a quick stress reliever? So Jiung went to his gym, similar to any other day of the week for the past couple of months. He’s been consistent enough, though not exactly proud of his progress.
It was as if he was stuck, not improving, but not getting any worse. Jiung had tried changing things, figuring out what might be the cog in the system, but it was to no avail. That was frustrating in itself, causing some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. Input Jiung’s annoyance, output sloppy boxing.
His knuckles were slightly red already, not fully healed from any damage that had been sustained throughout the week already. Jiung grabbed some ace bandage and wrapped it around his hands quickly. Once done with that, he tucked the bandage back into his bag and took a quick swig from his water bottle. He then traded out his hoodie for a simple white tank top and black sweatpants before heading out of the gym’s locker room.
Walking past the main area, he walked into the usual room that was off to the side, the room where he met his coach, Keeho. Keeho was sitting idly on his phone when Jiung came in, but noticed his presence and promptly put his phone into his gym shorts pocket. “Hey, Jiung,” he greeted, smiling lightly. Keeho’s wearing his usual tightly fit compression tee, with his baggy grey sweat shorts.
“Hey,” Jiung set down his things by the door.
“I’ll let you choose what you want to do,” Keeho offers, then goes on to lay out the options: “shadowboxing, I could practice with you, whatever,” he shrugs.
Jiung purses his lips, then nods, “Can you wear the boxing mitts for me? I need feedback.”
“Sure,” Keeho nods. He rises up from his seat and wanders off before returning with his hands gloved.
They step into a cleared area off to the side of the other equipment promptly. Keeho got into stance first, raising up both his hands. Jiung staggered his feet, then raised his arms, waiting for further instruction. “Let’s go back to basics,” Keeho says. Jiung nods. “Jab,” Keeho instructs. Jiung quickly responds, hitting the right mitt. “Good,” Keeho says. Jiung doesn’t reply, just waits. “Cross,” Keeho says. Jiung aims for the left mitt, before returning to fighting stance. “Jab, then cross,” Keeho continues. Jiung does as told, time and time again. “Ok,” Keeho begins, lowering the mitts, "When we go one by one, I don’t see any problems, you’re doing just fine. I’m going to start going against you instead of staying still, alright?” Keeho questions.
“Alright,” Jiung confirms. Already feeling some sweat building up, Jiung briefly walks off to grab his sweat rag from inside his bag, wrapping it around his neck after swiftly wiping his forehead dry.
“Ready?” Keeho asks. Jiung nods once again, getting back into his fighting stance alongside Keeho. Keeho starts, shifting closer to Jiung, as Jiung does his best to respond to Keeho’s advances. “Faster,” Keeho states, increasing his own speed, expecting Jiung to keep up. Jiung does his best to do so before Keeho instructs again, “Faster.” Somehow, every time the speed increases, they also become closer. Jiung can’t tell if it’s a fault in his stance or if Keeho’s attempting to make it harder to avoid the mitt by closing the proximity. Either way, Jiung's beginning to not be able to keep up properly. “Follow me when I move,” Keeho says, before moving back, leaving Jiung to chase. Jiung’s hand slips, going past the mitt and somehow landing square on Keeho’s jaw.
Jiung drops his hands quickly, “Oh shit, I’m so sorry,” he rushes. Keeho’s arms fall to his side. He grits his teeth, attempting to soothe his jaw. “I’ve never done that before, I can’t believe it,” Jiung says, mainly to himself rather than Keeho.
Keeho raises up his hands, “Look at the mitts, not at my chest.”
“What?” Jiung mutters.
“Your eyes keep falling down to my chest, that’s why you missed,” Keeho states.
Jiung panics at that, but he tries not to make any obvious expressions. “I wasn’t aware that I was doing that,” Jiung pauses, but still feels the need to reinforce his claim due to Keeho’s unimpressed reaction, “I really wasn’t.”
Keeho takes one mitt off, then the other, setting them down behind himself on a bench nearby. He’s got some fiendish smirk on his face. “Listen, I don’t care if you want to look at my chest, I just also don’t want to get punched in the face again,” he says. Now that he’s aware of it, Jiung catches himself right as he starts to stare again. He forces himself to look away, but by the look on Keeho's face, he hasn't done so fast enough. Keeho snickers under his breath. “You’re not the only person who’s missed a punch, so you can calm down.”
That wasn’t exactly what Jiung was worried about. “I think maybe I should go…” Jiung mumbles awkwardly.
“Jiung, calm down, ok? If I were bothered about your crush on me, I would’ve told you by now,” Keeho shrugs.
“...Crush?” Jiung repeats breathlessly.
Keeho tilts his head, “Yeah, crush. What would you call it?”
“I wasn’t uh… I didn’t uh…” Jiung stops for a moment, considering what to possibly say in this situation.
Keeho laughs again, and Jiung’s at this point so embarrassed he debates whether or not he should make a run for it. Maybe boxing wasn’t for him after all. Or maybe there was some other gym close by that’s waiting for his arrival. “I’ll give you my number, we can go out on a date. No risk of injuries at a cafe, I would hope.” Jiung stares in disbelief as Keeho grabs his own phone from his pocket, then hands it over to Jiung. Jiung shakily takes the phone in his hand, typing his number into Keeho’s phone, then handing it back over. “You can call me whenever,” Keeho informs.
“I’m sorry about the staring thing, I’ll try to stop doing that. Is your jaw ok?” Jiung cringes.
Keeho brushes it off, “It’s cute, don’t worry. My jaw’s a little sore, but it’s not the first time I’ve been punched, I’ll live.” Keeho pauses momentarily, “Oh, did you get the feedback you needed?”
Jiung shakes his head shamefully, “No need to rub it in, I’m already embarrassed.”
“I’ll bring a hoodie or something next time,” Keeho teases. He sits down on the bench nearby, motioning for Jiung to join him, which he does.
Jiung rolls his eyes, “Ok, seriously, drop it…”
“Sorry, sorry, I’ll stop,” Keeho nods, snickering.
“This whole time, I was wondering why I wasn’t making any progress, and it was because of that…” Jiung sighs to himself.
“I don’t think it’s just that,” Keeho shakes his head. “As distracting as my pecks might be, I think you also lack confidence.” Keeho states, then going on to explain further, “You always slightly hesitate before you swing, I can pretty much see that you’re thinking, ‘am I doing this right?’ before you even do anything at all.” Jiung nods. “You’re doing fine, Jiung, so don’t let yourself stop you, yeah?”
“Yeah…” Jiung trails off. The words were oddly comforting to hear, despite the situation that had occurred for them to be said. “Thanks, Keeho,” Jiung says.
“Sure,” Keeho smiles with a nod.