I pushed myself off the ground and sat on the mats, holding up my body with my arms.
"Cosmo, admit it. You wouldn't have been able to kill me back then, in our first fight. Even if you're stronger—it's not by that much."
He slowly turned to me with effort, wiped the blood off his face with a handkerchief, and, catching his breath, replied:
"What do you want me to say? All I can admit is that I underestimated you. You've survived two fights with me."
He stood up, limped over, and offered me a hand.
"By the way, who was that quiet girl in class with you? Your girlfriend?"
I grabbed his hand and pulled myself up. He pulled out another handkerchief from the pocket of his tracksuit and handed it to me. I pressed it to my nose to stop the bleeding.
"I don't know. I guess so… something like that."
I shoved his shoulder and looked him in the eye, annoyed.
"Seriously, are we even okay? You give off some weird vibe. One minute you're acting friendly, the next you're trying to kill me. Let's clear this up—right here, right now."I got into a fighting stance.
"Hey. Come on, I was just messing with you, Isao. Sorry if you took it too seriously."He waved me off with a gesture, then offered me his hand.
"You've proven you're a decent guy. We're good."
I looked at him suspiciously, then we shook hands.
"Alright."
I hope he's not lying. And if this is just part of his ego game, I swear I'll make sure he regrets it.
I calmed down a bit, cooled off, and Cosmo and I sat down on the bench.
I glanced at the area of the gym where we had fought. There was blood all over the mats—and we hadn't even fought in the ring.
"I don't think your old man's gonna be too happy about this." I gestured to the bloody mats.
"He's gonna find out what we did anyway, but yeah, you're right. We should at least clean up here. I'll take care of the mats, you bring in the rest of the boxes from outside."
Seriously… Even after all that carnage, he still wants me to haul boxes…
I moved closer to him, raised my hand like I was about to hit his shoulder, and stopped just short.
"I'm too lazy to fight you again over those damn boxes, ha!"
he looked at me in a friendly manner
"You're a total freak, Isao," he called after me as I headed outside.
Cosmo did his best to scrub off the fight's traces with chemical cleaner, while I dragged the rest of the gym equipment boxes back inside. Just as I was about to close the main door, I saw a tall, gray-haired, bearded man in the doorway. The coach.
He looked over my bruised face, scratching his beard, and without saying a word, stepped inside. He looked at Cosmo's face as well, and judging by his expression, immediately figured out what had happened.
"One more fight between you two that's not part of training—and both of you are banned from this gym forever. Got it?" he said sternly.
"Yes."
"Yes."
"Coach. I think Isao's ready to go with me to the local competition that's coming in two weeks."
"Interesting. Do you think that because the boy shows discipline and clearly improved his skills… or because your ego can't handle losing a street fight to a stranger and he beat you?"
"Father, I…"
"I don't want to hear it. Unpack all the equipment and set it up in the gym. Then you're free to go!"Coach Namura handed me the keys to the gym and left without another word.
Kojo was clearly upset about our fight. It was the first time I'd seen him like that… disappointed, maybe.
Without that man, I probably never would've beaten Killy—let alone Cosmo. I need to be more grateful to the old man.
Looking at Cosmo, I noticed he was feeling down too.
"Isao. I really am sorry. Sometimes it's hard for me to control my emotions. I was the best around here—best in the district—without any real competition. Then you showed up… and almost knocked me out in our first spar. I couldn't accept that. I acted like a jerk..."
"Forget it. We're both at fault. I kind of started that fight anyway."
"Glad to hear that. Let's just finish setting up these damned machines, yeah?"
My phone rang. Seeing that it was Aya, I stepped outside and answered.
"Hey, Aya."
"How are you?"
"How are you?"We both asked at the same time—and then laughed when we realized.
"I'm alright, Aya. Honestly, we barely talked today. I'd really like to see you."
"I'd like to see you too, Isao."That sweet, soft voice from the phone made my heart skip a beat.
"But I have to help my parents in the kitchen again today. Sorry."
"Don't be. I've got stuff to finish up here at the gym anyway. Might take a while," I said with some frustration.
"Who was that guy who left with you? That Cosmo? He looked kind of scary. Did you get into some new trouble?"
I peeked inside the gym—Cosmo was limping around, unpacking boxes and muttering to himself."No. He's just… got a weird personality. He's my friend. I think."
"If you're not sure if he's your friend or not, just ask him directly! I would if I were you!"Such a sweet and naïve girl. She'd say that… but I'm the one who'd have to fight him, ugh.
"I'm sure you would. You're a ridiculously straightforward girl."
"ARE YOU INSULTING ME AGAIN? I'M NOT RIDICULOUS, GOT IT?!"
"See you, sweetie."
The angry yelling on the other end went totally silent for a few seconds.
"See you, Sw--... Isao." Aya mumbled awkwardly as if forcing the words out. I smirked and ended the call.
It was nice hearing her voice—I won't deny that.
With a satisfied grin, I returned to Cosmo and helped him finish setting up the gym machines. In just over an hour, we were done.
We stepped outside, I locked up the gym and handed Cosmo the keys. Finally, this long but interesting day was coming to an end.
"Hey, Isao. Can I ask you something?"
"Yeah, go for it."
"I got myself into some trouble. At my university.Pretty serious stuff."
"More serious than a gangster sending his men to kill you?"
"Just about the same. Let's meet here tomorrow after school, say around five?"
"Fine. As long as I don't have to move any more boxes."
"You ever get told you're a real funny guy?"He patted me on the shoulder, and we both headed home.