diet of lies

Chapter 13~ P'il Chae

      THE LAST GUY IS INTRODUCED AS, 'The Mighty Bok Choy'. The name makes him sound like a cereal brand. The 'mighty' man is tanned and has no tattoos, unlike the other guys. Bok kind of resembles a root beer soda bottle, because his head is super tiny compared to the rest of him and his wide shoulders.

     The ref calls us in and yells to start fighting. Off the bat, Bok seems easy to handle, but he proves me wrong the moment he hooks his brawny arms lock around my neck. My neck seriously can not catch a break tonight, can it?

I'm gasping for air as he pulls tighter. This time, I'm fortunately able to maneuver my leg behind his own and kick him off balance. Bad thing is, he took me down with him. Bok's strengthening his choke-hold while we're sprawling on the floor. I'm expelling all my power to wrench out of his biceps and boot his crotch before leaping up.
Bok stands up, still covering his genitals. He reaches and slugs my temple insanely hard. My body folds with the force. I crash into a barrier on the other side of the fighting area. Still slumped on it, he winds his gloved hand back and does what Kun couldn't-- He sends a punch dead-center to my face.
A sore moan glides off the roof of my mouth. My eyes water. I use the back of my glove to swipe a patch of fresh blood dribbling out my nostrils. My throat stings and when I cough to ease it, fair amounts of blood come up with some mucus.
    "GET THAT SON OF A BITCH!" Jang roars.
Yes, sir.

I rise and pound his jaw. Bok takes my arm, holds it out from my body, and twists backward. My entire appendage is dipping past my shoulder blade. I have to drop on my knees when I hear something inside me crack.
"FUCK!" I gnarl.
Bok lets go and raise his fists to the crowd. A melody of boo's surface. Then he sees me moving again and sprints at me and latches onto my chest, basically bulldozing me across the ring.
I level myself in an widened stance to try and break him but it doesn't pan out. He picks up my leg, compresses it to his torso, and drops me onto the cement.

    "WOAH!" A guy freaks behind me. He ends up knocking into a guy, causing him to spill his beer. "MY BEER!" The man screeches.

I jerk to encase his head between my thighs and strangle him. He holds my legs tightly, struggling to free himself.  I twist so I close his airway and when he starts to gag I hop off and stomp on his chest. He wheezes and flops onto his elbows. The aggressive root beer bottle is trying to get up, but I'm concentrating on the pain pricking my shoulder like acupuncture. It's spreading through my shoulder, upwards and washes up my neck and into the nerves of my face, then pivots down into my stomach. The tenderness is unbearable.

   My body's ready to call it quits until I hear Jang's words from earlier. '....they've got loads of cash on you... you cannot lose these fights...' I seize my pulsing shoulder. Jang's yelling something from behind Bok. My ears are ringing too badly to hear a single word. He tries charades and copies, to his best ability from behind the barriers, a running kick. My eyes widen with realization. If I find a way to tweak it and make it stronger. It could work.

  I rapidly scan the ring. I lock onto the one cement barrier that screens the referee and announcer.
Perfect. I face Bok fearlessly and pull out my mouthguard
    "What are you smiling at?" He grunts.
"Say goodbye," I sing. I run past Bok and towards the barrier. I capture a lot of speed and rocket off the sturdy-ness of its material. I extend my leg, pushing my toes out to plow into his head. The magnitude of my hit projects him over a barrier and into a group of bystanders. Bok's skull actually bounces off the ground grimly when he lands.

I lose control after I hit him, and slam violently onto the warehouse floor and fuck up the skin on my back. My head doesn't connect with the floor but I have a headache from the impact. My body's trembling unmanageably. I feel likes my eyes did a 360 in their sockets. I shift my tongue but it's too swollen. The muscles of my cheeks are raw and more blood sloshes around in the pockets.
  
The same medic darts into the ring with a stretcher board. I stay limp as he puts me on the board. I can just barely glimpse Jang's face as he's running to the foot of the stretcher to help hold me up.

        I'm being examined, this time in the locker room. I can't help but notice how much worse my knuckles are. They're completely purple and bleeding. One medic explained to me that I've sprained the bone in my right pointer finger and that my shoulder, as I suspected, was broken. He addresses the injuries with whatever crap he has on the scene. He did a good job patching me up. I can't adjust my finger the slightest inch. He even offered me a sling for my arm, but I declined because I didn't want to draw attention to myself on my way back into town.

Soon a different guy came up to me with a butterfly and adhered to my split lip.
  "What time is it?" I groan holding the same pea bag to my face.
"Its uh- 11:47 pm." He says checking his watch.
   "WHAT!" I spring up too quickly and make myself nauseous.
I throw my bag out of the locker and toss on my hoodie from before and a pair of joggers. A guy hands me my gloves and I cram them inside the bag.
   "I need to go."
Jang steadily retrieves a rubber-banded, bundle of cash out his pocket. I smile seeing the heap. I open out my hand for him to deal with the thick wad of money into the center.
   "33,000,000 won" He states while tipping the last couple of bills into my palm.
"Great fight." He perks. I don't comment. I stuff my payment inside my pocket and strap on my bag.

***

I hold my gut for fear it might drop out of me. I limp to the back door of the warehouse and head to the nearest bus stop.
I creep on the bench uncomfortably. I roll my head back in pain.
  "I'm skipping school on Monday." I laugh to myself.