KICK IT!

Episode 3 "Falling Behind"

     NeoZone Dojo was quiet. Taeyong's morning class had left and only a few members had arrived for practice. The leader was slightly on edge. Although competition season wouldn't be here for a few more months, he felt as if it was coming way to quickly.
     Taeyong was competitive, winning this years national competition was his only goal. But his teammates didn't seem to care as much as he did, and this worried him.

    Instead of stressing them about the importance of the nationals, he decided to just push them a little harder at practice. The last thing he wants is a room full of irritated highschool and college students that knew mixed martial arts.

     "Mark, you need to practice your balance more before trying that move." Taeyong said lightly. It came off a bit more rude than he implied but he didn't need Mark hurting himself.

    The younger just simply looked back at him and nodded before looking down at the floor and doing some basic moves again.

    "Yah, Taeyong," Taeil called the leader over towards him, "don't you think Mark has been kinda off lately? He seems a little... distracted?"

    Taeyong took a glance at the younger. He seemed fine. Although he didn't bow and apologize after Taeyong corrected him like usual. "He's seems fine. Maybe a bit tired," He started, " Let's see that new move you've been working on, huh?"

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     A while later and the whole team had arrived and been practicing for a good hour or two. They were all pretty tired out.

    "Great work today," The leader took to the front of the practice mat, "how about we end off with a few rounds?" All the members seemed to get a bit of their energy back, ready to show off and take down their opponents. Taeyong tried to match the ones with equal skill sets together to make it more fair.

    "I want to see Johnny and Yuta first."

    The two smirked at each other and got ready while the others cleared the mat. Johnny was the strongest of the members, he tends to overpower most of the people he goes up against. Yuta on the other hand, while strong, his fighting style is very calculated and well thought out. He is good at guessing what the opponents next move is.

   As Taeyong thought, they were a good match, Johnny winning in the end. Next up he chose Doyoung and Jungwoo to go head to head. Doyoung was a very precise about his fighting, using very sharp and quick movements while Jungwoo was a bit more gentle and graceful. Their styles didn't clash as much so it was really more about power in this one. Surprisingly Jungwoo one this one after Doyoung accidentally sneezed and the younger took it to his advantage.

     Sicheng and Jaehyun were next. Jaehyun has the upper hand when it comes to strength but Sicheng knows a lot more moves and can use them well. Taeyong always loved watching the Chinese boy fight, it was very rhythmic, he always looked like he was performing some kind of dance. Sicheng ended up winning this round. Mark and Taeil were left.

     It started off pretty nice, Taeil doing what he usually did and staying back to try and let Mark ware himself out. Mark had been practicing a lot harder the last few days and had improved a lot. He used to be very sloppy with his moves, and while he still somewhat is, he's gotten a bit better. Taeyong noticed that he seemed to go back to being sloppy today, and it became very apparent when he went down quickly after Taeil was able to unbalance the younger.

     "Mark, that was a careless mistake. That's one of the first moves we learn to avoid." Taeyong corrected sternly, regretting it immediately when he saw tears form in Mark's eyes. The others stood wide eyed as Mark started to sob, Johnny suggesting they all go to the locker room and get cleaned up.

    The leader kneeled down in front of Mark not knowing what to do. The younger balled his fist and hit his head in frustration, Taeyong quickly taking Marks hands in his own to stop him from hurting himself. "Mark, come with me to my office okay?" Taeyong was bad and being sympathetic and didn't quite know how to start questioning the younger.

    "Do you need a second or are you ready to talk?"

    Mark wiped his tears with his sleeve and sniffled. "Sorry, I'm acting like a child." Taeyong was quick to respond, "No you're not. It's okay to cry." The leader felt a little awkward but the younger nodded and stopped crying so he felt as if he was doing something right. Mark sniffled again before speaking.

    "I just feel like I'm not good enough hyung. I practice and practice but I always mess up, and I just feel like I'm... like I'm a burden, like I'm holding the team back. And then I make a fool of myself out there by messing up the most simple move of all simple moves." The boy gets choked up and starts to cry again.

    Taeyong hands him a box of tissues as he responds. "Listen to me. You didn't make a fool of yourself. The other members could tell you haven't been yourself lately and I was too caught up worrying about competitions to notice..." He trailed off a bit, his ears burning red with embarrassment as he admitted to his faults. "Also you are not holding us back okay? You are a very important part of the team, just because you might take a little longer to get a hold on things doesn't make you lesser than the rest of us. I just want to make sure you know that you're not a burden and I would be perfectly fine with helping you practice more. I mean if you'd like to..."

    "You'd really help me hyung? You don't have to work harder I'm the one that has to." Mark tried to deny Taeyong's help, "I don't want to have to make you look after me and crap."

    "I'm your leader, I'm supposed to look after you." Taeyong cringed from how cheesy he was and tried to lighten the mood. "Sorry for acting like your mom, but like I was saying," he laughed a bit, "I wouldn't mind helping you practice Mark."

    The younger smiled a bit and cleaned his eyes and nose with a tissue. Mark thanked him and brought Taeyong into a hug, to which Taeyong started to reject but decided to just let the younger have his moment.

They left Taeyong's office to see that most of the members had left except for a few that stayed behind to talk for a bit. Johnny waited on his phone to walk with Mark towards their houses, smiling when he saw the younger walking towards him. "Yo my mom bought those totinos party pizzas, you wanna stay over?"

"Sure." They both left, Mark waving at Taeyong before he left.

Sicheng and Jaehyun were still there, Jaehyun saying he was basking in the air conditioning before walking outside in the hot weather. Sicheng just got distracted by his phone.

The leader let them leave and started to lock up. He smiled a bit as he thought about the conversation he had with Mark. Although he felt bad for not listening to the members for the past few days when they said the younger seemed off, he was glad the younger trusted Taeyong enough to tell him how he felt.

He walked out the door and locked it, feeling better than usual as he walked home.

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     Taeyong tries his hardest to come off as tough but we all know he's a big softy :)

    Hope you liked this episode of KICK IT! Feel free to tell me how you feel about it in the comments :)))