Ch.8 Underestimated Strength

Note: The wrestling in the Sports comp is Korean Wrestling


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


"So you're going to wrestle, Nayeon?" Jihyo asks the fellow princess.


"Yeah, it's the only sport with no chance of me dying," Nayeon, "I'm okay at wrestling, I guess." 


"Jeong's good at wrestling," Jihyo stated simply as her body guard walked into the room.


"Hm? In high school maybe but I don't know about now..." Jeongyeon says, her voice trailing.


"Why don't you and Nayeon have a practice match," Chaeyoung suggests, "Tzuyu's out practicing with a member of one of the Elite Squads so why don't you guys train too?"


"Wow, OK, Chaeyoung," Nayeon fakes over dramatic offense, "We know we're lazy asses but you don't have to be so pushy..."


"HA! Anyways, maybe only for an hour because isn't the first game in three hours?" Jeongyeon asks.


"Yeah, that's why we woke up at 6AM isn't it?" Nayeon answers, "C'mon, Jeongie, let's get down~"


Jihyo and Chaeyoung immediately whipped their heads in the direction of the two girls on the other side of the room. Jeongyeon was wide-eyed and blushing as Nayeon cackled and stood up.


"C'mon, no time to waste!" Nayeon grabs Jeongyeon' s arm and drags her out as the two younger girls follow.


"When did they get close?" Chaeyoung asks Jihyo and Jihyo shrugs.


"No idea," Jihyo chuckles, "But this seems very interesting, right?"


As the two older women got into proper clothes for wrestling as the two younger ones waited. As they were waiting, they spotted Sana looking really suspicious and walking from one end of the large hall to the other. 


"Sana?" Jihyo called and Sana jumped.


"O-oh! Hi, Jihyo, Chaeng!" Sana said nervously but cheerfully, "What are you two doing there?"


"We're waiting for Nayeon and Jeongyeon," Chaeyoung answers, "Are you are alright Sana, Unnie? You looking for something?"


"Oh, I'm fine and I was looking for the library..." Sana explains sheepishly.


"It's down that hall and take the first two lefts before two giant double doors that should be open by now," Jihyo smiles, "Is this about a certain someone?" 


"I..." Sana starts but sighs and smiles in defeat, "Yeah, the Royal Scholar's student is too cute!"


"The Royal Scholar has a student?" Chaeyoung asks.


"Yeah, it's a girl who's a year older than you," Jihyo scratches her chin, "Dahyun?"


"DAHYUN-UNNIE?" Chaeyoung yells and jumps to her feet.


"Do you know her?" Sana asks, clearly confused.


"Yes! She's my best friend! She never told me she was here!" Chaeyoung shakes her head and runs to Sana, "I'm coming with you...Jihyo-unnie I'll be back!"


The two girls make their way to the library and notice that the doors are indeed open. They enter and see a girl on the second level with her back towards them. Chaeyoung runs up the steps and tackles the girl in a hug.


"BWEAGH-" Dahyun falls on her butt on impact and Chaeyoung giggles.


"Chaeng? What're you doing here?" Dahyun asks, smiling at her, "I thought you were doing that Lady's Way thing."


"Shouldn't have sword off your phone for the summer then," Chaeyoung punched her shoulder, "I came here to escape that. Jihyo convinced my mom to let me come here with her."


"Princess Jihyo, huh?" Dahyun nodded and noticed a girl that she's been seeing around her, "Oh hello again, Miss!"


"Hello," Sana greeted her sweetly and with a very adorable that smiled reminded the younger girl of a cute dog. 


"Dahyun...do you know who she is?" Chaeyoung asks and Dahyun looks at her friend questioningly, "That's Princess Sana of Tempus."


"What! Oh I'm sorry for being so formal with you," Dahyun immediately gets up and bows.


"Aw, Chaeng, why'd you have to tell her..." Sana whines before turning to Dahyun, "Don't worry...I didn't want you to be formal with me."


"Ha, sorry Sana-Unnie," Chaeyoung apologizes, "Take good care of Dahyun! I have to go now!"


Chaeyoung runs off before Dahyun could even ask a question and when she gets back to the others, she notices Tzuyu is there too. She decides to pull another daring move and tackles Tzuyu in a hug. Tzuyu doesn't flinch or make weird noises but she does smile down at the younger girl, a little flustered but you should hardly tell due to the lighting. 


"I thought you were practicing, Tzu," Chaeyoung says as she presses her ear against her back; she can hear her heartbeat and it was loud, "Your heart's beating fast..."


"Oh! I think that's because I'm healthy..." Tzuyu tries to explain and the others start to laugh; Chaeyoung doesn't really pay attention to anything else except Tzuyu' s heartbeat and breathing. 


"So Sana made her rendezvous with her lover which so happens to be someone you apparently know?" Nayeon asks and Chaeyoung nods.


"They aren't lovers though..." Chaeyoung starts, "...yet."


"Huh? What happened?" Jeongyeon asks and looks to Tzuyu who shrugs.


"Dahyun-Unnie is here and it's obvious Sana-Unnie has taken a liking to her," Chaeyoung says in a matter-of-factly tone. 


"Who's Dahyun?" Tzuyu blinks.


"My best friend," Chaeyoung says fondly, "Though we didn't know we were both going to be here because she, for some reason, decided to not use her phone all summer."


"Anyways, let's go kids," Nayeon waves and they all follow her to the training grounds. 




When the group of five reach the training grounds, Jeongyeon frowns and asks how they're going to wrestle there. Nayeon just gives her a cheeky, bunny smile, takes out her phone and does some button pressing. The center rectangle in the middle of the grounds flips and all of a sudden the ground is a cushioned/padded floor. 


"OK! I will be the referee!" Jihyo announces enthusiastically as Chaeyoung and Tzuyu sit down on a bench. 


They walk to the center and bend down into the proper position, grabbing the straps they need to on their opponent. Jihyo whistles to signal the match start and the two go down. Jeongyeon appears to be surprised by Nayeon's strength but at the same time she kind of expected. For the past few days, whenever she's next to a laughing Nayeon, she gets shoved hard. Nayeon on the other hand expected Jeongyeon to be strong; she had to be if she was going to be her country's Crown Princess' Body Guard. The two pushed back at each other, trying to kick out the other's foot and Nayeon nearly succeeds in knocking Jeongyeon down. 


But...


"Round 1! Jeongyeon!" Jihyo yells as she points out that Jeongyeon pushed her past the boundary circle.


"Damn, you two must be incredibly strong," Chaeyoung notes loudly, "That lasted much longer than most girl's wrestling."


The two older girls shake hands before going back to their hunched over starting position. When Jihyo whistled again, Nayeon used all her strength to push Jeongyeon right off the bat and Jeongyeon nearly fell backward at the sudden force. Instead, she instinctively braced herself with her back leg. Nayeon scowled as she realized she could've hooked her leg around Jeongyeon' at that moment and make her fall.  So instead Nayeon continues to push her harder and harder despite her body wanting to just let her fall and as she gets closer to the edge of the boundary she stops pushing for a moment which Jeongyeon uses to push her back more. Nayeon immediately throws her wait and remaining strength at Jeongyeon while also swinging a leg around Jeongyeon' s which makes the taller girl fall backward. Nayeon lands on top of her and they're both out of breath. As Nayeon gets up she pauses for a moment and looks down at Jeongyeon who looks up at her. There was a long, tense pause before Nayeon cleared her throat, got up and helped Jeongyeon up.


"Ha, look who's whipped now," Tzuyu snickers and Chaeyoung laughs in agreement. 


"Okay guys, we should actually get going now," Jihyo says looking at her phone, "Considering the time it takes to change and everything and have to make public appearances, we should go now."


"Alright, by the way," Chaeyoung says, "Are we meeting with the other Princesses as well?"


"Yup and remember, we're going to be in public so you can't say anything or do anything informal while cameras are on us," Jeongyeon huffs.


"Yes, Mom," Chaeyoung teases and Jeongyeon sticks out her tongue.


"Meet in the Throne Room at 10!" Jihyo claps and they all run off to their designated quarters. 

Comment