Chapter 15: Better

Mistress Teddy grabbed the wrist of my right-handed jab, stepping to the side and back to pull me towards her. She was using my own momentum against me a tactic she had taken great lengths to extol the uses and benefits of, but one none of us had managed to replicate with her amount of fluidity. 

Twisting my wrist so the smaller side faced the weakness of where fingers meet I pulled down. Wrist freed but still moving forward I tucked into a forward roll, springing to a stand. I barely had time to face her before I glimpsed her crescent kick heading straight towards my head. 

Instead of stepping back, I slide forward and towards her right hip using my arms to push her kick in the opposite direction. In a second she had shifted her balance to her right foot flawlessly continuing the spin so her left elbow could whip around to nail me in the ribs. 

A strike that while winding me did no damage because she had insisted I still wear padding to protect my vital organs. Trying to take advantage of her halted momentum I made a strike of my own: a punch aimed at her kidneys. I let loose one of the curses Yoongi had been letting slip as her left arm shot down. 

She parried my blow grabbing my wrist. With the violent elegance I have come to know her movements to contain her left leg swept back hitting my ankle and causing my balance to crumble as I knelt. Her hand simultaneously twisted my wrist into a joint lock. 

"Yield." There was a lazy confidence to her command, one she was right to have because there was nothing I could do. 

"I yield." The pressure on my wrist was relieved as Mistress stepped away from me towards the edge of the mats. I shakily stood the adrenaline from the match fading leaving behind the exhaustion of spending the last couple of hours sparring on top of an extensive workout. 

My water bottle slid into my vision. I nodded a thank you, Mistress returning it before jogging towards her own pile of items. I was more than content to not follow chugging the contents of my water bottle a balanced combination of water and electrolytes that both Mistress Teddy and Seokjin had insisted I be consuming regularly.

From the corner of my vision, I watched her take careful sips of her own water bottle her own gaze fixated on her wristwatch which was replaying our match. Her hand moved clipping certain sections of the fight and speeding through others. 

Swallowing my last mouthful I started making my way towards her so we could review the footage. 

"You did good, stepping in. I know it's hard to ignore the instinct to step away. Taking advantage of the time I needed to adjust to the impact with your ribs was smart, however, if you had instead of returned to the guarding position here" she pointed at the image, "I wouldn't have had the chance to land the strike and in a real event without the padding my blow could have easily handicapped you for the rest of fight." 

Nodding I quickly became absorbed in picking apart our fight, even now surprised when she casually picked out her own failings despite the fact she had done so since our first spar. 

She's a great teacher.

---

"I don't care. Your company agreed to represent my products the way I designed them to be represented with the prices I set." Teddy countered, "If you can't abide by the clauses detailed in our contract I expect to see the severance fee delivered within the hour." Statement finished Teddy hung up. This particular company had been her first choice because of its popularity and supposed "progressiveness" toward men's rights, however, they were proving their selling points obsolete or exageratted.

"Next steps Seokjinn, go," she ordered. 

"Assume they will end cooperation, restart negotiations with the other qualifiers, contact the legal team to handle any hiccups in getting proper compensation or stalling the nullification of the contract, and lastly ban the company from any future cooperations." Seokjin recited 

Letting out a hum of approval Teddy swiveled to face Namjoon, "And why do we do these things?" 

"Murphy's law - if something can go wrong it will. Human greed means if they think they can profit from a certain course of action they are likely to take it." Namjoon contemplated for a second hesitating on the last point. If he was being honest he didn't see the necessity of cutting off all future cooperations. Even if they had questioned or tried to renegotiate after the signing they hadn't directly broken the clauses, it seemed too early. What if they could be useful in the future?

Teddy smiled it wasn't hard to guess what Namjoon was thinking. "It is good to think of the future and its opportunities and it's important to not cut off any root system that may help you grow in the future but..." Teddy let her statement hang.

"If a person or company can not follow through with their promises they can not be relied on. The root system will rot which may even spread to the 'healthier' systems near it." Seokjin finished. Namjoon contemplated the reasoning of his older man before nodding conceding the point. 

This was exactly why Teddy had started these classes with both of them. Seokjin thrived in social situations with an uncanny ability to detect and exploit the psychology of his opponents. On the other hand, Namjoon excelled at the material side of a business planning each step and how to have them interact like a well-oiled machine.

Both were admirable traits, but both were needed to run a successful business. So, she decided to let them build off each other, to learn to trust the other's opinion and see the problems and therefore solutions from different angles. And so far it seemed to be working brilliantly.

They were great students.