"You know, I never hated you, I was just scared that you hated me."
"I could never hate you, I just don't know what to do around you. I guess that, I dunno, I get nervous around you..."
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Renjun Fencing AU coming soon!
Tomorrow is the day of our first fencing match against out neighboring school. That means that today's fencing practice is going to be nothing but intense, intense, intense practice. I'm excited just thinking about our match tomorrow, but also quite terrified. Pfft, I know right, an internationally ranked fencer scared about a school match? Well, how can you blame me? I don't want to let anyone down, especially since I'm the captain. Today I will continue to focus to train with the other girls, but hopefully I can fence some of the guys today as well. Now fencing competitions are going to work in the following way: boys and girls NEVER fence each other. It's just policy, and it's always been that way. Apparently, it's just more professional. Also there are going to be 9 bouts in total, which are broken up into 3 seeds. The most one fencer can fence is 3 bouts, 1 bout per seed. The first team to win 5 bouts wins. This is the same concept for the boys' fencing team as well. Since my afternoon class is a free period, I decide to go to the locker rooms early to get changed so I can do some target practice by myself before everyone else arrives.
Outfit:
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I grab my glove and my foil and make my way to the targets across the gym and start practicing. It's nice that I got here early, this way I can listen to music on my own and push away all other thoughts. The coaches aren't here, and neither are any of my other teammates, giving me free range to practice however I want.
I've been so into practicing against the target that I didn't even notice how quickly time went by. Since I'm listening to music, I also don't see or hear the boys' team enter the gym. I'm about to lunge and hit the target when I feel two arms around my waist. I turn around to see Mark giving me a big hug. I take out my AirPods and greet the boys. "Hey you guys! Sorry I didn't see you earlier," I say.
"No worries, you were working hard, and that's all that matters," Mark says with a smile. I make my way around the group and give each of the other boys a hug. When I approach Renjun and give him a hug, I don't feel him hugging me back. Of course I felt a little hurt, but again, I don't take it personally. After cooling down a bit, everyone else arrives in the gym.
"Alright my little musketeers," Coach Suh starts. "As you know we have our first fencing competition tomorrow, which means intense training today. To make things a bit more interesting, we will be mixing boys and girls together to form two teams of 5. To make things even more interesting, today's team captains are going to be Jeno and Julia." They make their way up to the front and they start picking teams. Jeno won rock-paper-scissors, so he picks first. "Aria," he says, so I make my way up to him. Julia picks Renjun. Jeno picks Mark. Julia picks Minnie. Jeno picks Renee. Julia picks Jaemin. Jeno picks Haechan which means that Aera will go to Julia's team. Today we will each fence 3 people, however it will be at random since we will be drawing names out of a bag. It's my turn to pick three names...Julia, Jaemin, and Renjun. Great, just great, I think to myself. I sit back down and wait for my turn to fence.
It's finally my turn to fence, and my first match is against Jaemin. We hook up to the machines, salute each other and our referee, Irene, and begin the match. The beginning was a bit slow, as we've never fenced each other before. Jaemin decides to initiate the attack, but slowly. He tries to lunge but misses, as I step back. Then it's my turn to start the attack. I start forwards and try to lunge, but Jaemin parries. As he's about to hit, I do a sit counter attack, making it so that only one light appears on the machine. My light. After about another 3 minutes or so, the final results are in. 6-10, Aria. We take off our masks and salute to each other and high five before allowing the next two fencers to fence.
About 2 matches later, it's my turn to fence again, but this time, I'm going up against Julia. Now not going to lie, but Julia can definitely be scary at times. Her strong suit is attacking which means that my defense game needs to go up a notch. However, I can also figure out a way to initiate the attack and force her to go on defense, something that she's not as comfortable with. It's important as a fencer to be comfortable with both offense AND defense. The bout starts and Julia starts the attack. She manages to avoid my blade as she disengages around my blade and hit me square in the chest. I shake off the point that she just made and decide that I will start the attack this time. I can tell that she struggles with defense, which makes it easy for me to score a point on her. Since we've fenced each other before during practice, we know how the other person works. This bout takes a bit longer to finish, but the ending score is 10-8, Aria. We take our masks off, salute, and give each other a hug before handing off the strip to the next fencers.
Renjun fences against Jeno next, and I decide to watch. Julia and I make small talk on the side when no action is happening, but for a majority of the time our eyes are glued to the bout. Jeno is really strong and has a lot of accuracy, but Renjun is smaller and faster than he is. I guess it's easier for Renjun to get into those small target areas. The match continues and I start losing interest when all of a sudden, I see Renjun lunch while flicking Jeno on the back, leaving the match at 10-7 Renjun. I sit there in shock not because Renjun won, but how he won. I've only ever seen one person lunge and flick at the same time, and that was 3 years ago. I'm not sure if it's possible, but there are million thoughts swarming through my head. I wonder...if it could be him....
