stones and ripples (Jon)

[Taeyeon Kai]

It was just one of those days where she needed to take out her frustration.

She was at the dojo, currently beating up a practice dummy since her class was over, and the session hadn’t taken the need off to hit something. She was angry; at herself, at Cole, at life in general. Normally she wasn’t like this; she was usually kind and nice, showing the world a smile, but she wasn’t like that today. Her feet and hands flew at the dummy, faster and faster until the dummy fell over and she was panting, looking at it with fiery eyes.

She heard footsteps and looked up to see her master, an older man with slanted eyes like hers, looking at her with slight disapproval. “What stone has caused these ripples, kohai?” he asked her, using the Japanese word for younger cohort, a title of respect for her as his student. She bent her head and curled her hands into fists.

“Merely an inconvenience, sensei,” she replied, looking at him with calmer eyes. He nodded and turned back to leave while she took a deep breath and started her meditating exercises, hoping to be like the still lake when she was done. She highly doubted that would happen, but she could always hope.

[Jonathan Squire]

Jon walked into the dojo without hesitation, looking around with an appraising eye as he entered. He had heard from other students at the Institute that this was the place to go to learn a little self defense, as well as some self control; and to be honest, Jon needed to learn a bit of both. He could fight well enough, but he knew that street fighting and actual combat were as different as could be. In the former, your goal was to simply get the other guy to say 'uncle', and in the latter you were fighting for your life. Jon was more than happy to forfeit his sense of pride as a good street fighter if he could learn how to better defend himself in an actual combat situation. Besides, learning self control would make it less likely for his power to come into play when he became angry, which was something he desperately needed to learn.

His eyes roamed the dojo, his hand absentmindedly drumming against his side in a steady rhythm. Jon wasn't exactly sure where he was supposed to go from here, as it wasn't like he had signed up for classes. He was just a walk-in, and he wondered if they'd even teach him anything useful. The annoying thought of it costing him money wasn't a fond one either; it'd be tight paying the rent this month without any extra expenses.

Jon watched as an old man who looked to be the master of the dojo turned and left before he could grab his attention. Just his luck. He looked at whom the old man was talking to and he smiled slightly. Well, maybe she could be of assistance to him. Jon made his way over to the young woman who seemed to be lost in her own little world. He lightly placed his hand on her shoulder. "Excuse me Miss, can you help me?" Jon ignored the little twinge of annoyance that rang off in his mind about asking a woman for help. Hooray for male chauvinism in modern times.

[Taeyeon Kai]

She was well into her exercises when she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. Reining in the instinct to flip this opponent to his back, she took a deep breath and turned to face him, eyes open and body straight, right into a pair of green eyes that were piercing in their way of looking at her. His voice had been calm, if a bit polite, and she looked him over for a moment. He seemed of the sort who wanted discipline, and he had come to the right place. Looking back up into those eyes of his, she gave him a polite smile.

“My name is Taeyeon, but you can call me Tae,” she offered first, offering her hand. “The master just left, but I can help you with whatever you need.” As her master’s kohai, she was essentially his right hand person in the dojo, two steps below his black belt. The crispness of her red belt against her white uniform attested to that fact. “Are you looking to join the dojo?” she asked him as she walked back to the office and opened the door, walking in.

She grabbed her towel to wipe her face and some papers for the boy to take home and presented them to him, laying the towel around her shoulders as she looked at him. “What brings you here today…um…” Nice going. “I forgot to ask your name, what is it?” she asked politely, giving him a bright smile in forgiveness.