International Connections - Axel Kovačević

CHAPTER 7

After what felt like eternity, which was actually like 3 seconds, I break the silence. "Oh, um sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt or stare, I'm sorry." He stays silent and I approach him a bit. "I'm Y/n by the way, not that you asked I um just thought I would introduce myself since um I've seen you around." Oh my god shut up. I am just yapping away while this man just stands there, shirtless, looking at me. I mentally facepalm.

"Axel."

He actually responded to me, which is the bare minimum in an introduction but I take it for a small sign that he is okay with my presence. He looked away a bit, seeming a bit shy to having a conversation with someone, "um that's some pretty cool kata, what's it called?" He looks at me not knowing what to say, then he quickly looks away again. "I.. I am not supposed to speak with opponent." I look down for a second before looking up at him, "well you're not exactly my opponent, plus were not on the mat so..." There's another moment of us staring at each other. "what are you doing training all the way out here, shouldn't you be celebrating with your team?" He responds, "always time for training." 

This is probably how people view me training when I should be spending my time having fun.

He leans down to grab his shirt, this movement reveal the red marks on his back. "Hey are you okay? Those look like they could hurt. What happened?" He ties to play it off as he put his tank top one, "um, from bo staff competition." I get a little closer, I'm concerned. "But no one has been able to land a point on you yet." He stays silent, not knowing what to respond because he doesn't want to say the truth. I was silent for a second as he put on his jacket before speaking again, "I saw what happened with your sensei." He looks back down, I feel like I made him uncomfortable. "I understand, I get it. I really do." I lift up the left side of my shirt to short the old gash on my torso. "My sensei wasn't easy on me either, not many people become great without some pain along the way." 

I look at him as he looks down at my scar and then back at me. I felt a bit stupid now showing him that, and talking more and more to him like some moron. I put my shirt back down and clear my throat, i never showed anyone that except for Majo. He look at me as he speaks again, "my sensei wants me to be the best, it's because of him I never lose." I look at him kindly, "there's other ways of teaching, my dojo treats me well and so does current my sensei. But I got to admit... your dojo is pretty great." He seems to get more comfortable with me now

"Thank you. Your pretty... your- your dojo is pretty great too."

I felt myself blush a bit from the mix of words, whether it was on accident or not. I smile a bit and look down, "mind if I join?" I look back up at him, "you want to switch dojos? I don't know how that would work-" he stops me from talking by waving his hand in a no gesture. "I mean on your walk, can I join? I was going back to the hotel." I'm taken aback by the offer, this is the best thing that could have happened, so I'm obviously going to take advantage of it. "yeah, of course you can." He smiles and we start to walk together. 

I look down at my feet as I walk. "Why did you leave, um the event?" I look at him and sigh a bit. "Cobra Kai came in and the captain, that Kwon guy, seems to have it out for me. I got into a fight earlier so I just wanted to walk away and protect my peace." He nods, "what fight did you get into?" I sigh again, this time a little hysterically, "um, so this guy tried to pick me up at a bar and he was just really weird from the beginning. He tried grabbing me but I didn't let him get away with it so I fought back and pinned his head down on the table." I kind sounded embarrassed saying hat I did out loud but he just smiled. "I'm sure he deserved it," I chuckled a bit at his response. 

We end up moving off the beach to walk a bit through the city together. When we leave the sandy area I dust off my feet to put on my sandals that I had been carrying the whole time. I was trying to balance on one foot while putting my sandal on but I kept leaning over. My center of gravity was failing me. Axel comes next to me, "here," he holds my arm to keep me up while I put my shoes on. I smile and thank him before we continue on our way. "Who was your sensei that uh did that..?" He pointed at my torso. It seemed like he wanted to ask ever since he saw my scar, I never really talked about my training with my grandfather, but I had this sense of being open with him.