The Art Of Sword

Grace: Huh? Did I hear you right? You want to dance!

Sunz answer “Yeah!” Which makes Grace’s facial expression even more confusing.

In response to her expression, Sunz said “What!”,“You thought that I brought us here to skate like all the other lovey-dovey couples.”

Grace crosses her arm: Ain that the point of an ice skating ring! What other intention do you have that I need to worry about!?

Sunz: You know, I kinda like our relationship dynamic! We both don’t know what we are doing and keep second-guessing the other person's actions.

Grace: You want to have a practice match before the real fight, don’t ya!

Sunz: You guess it! So may I have the privilege to dance with you?

Right after Sunz finishes his sentence, Grace swiftly grabs his hand and pulls him close to her.

Then she said: My previous opponent was such a joke. So I hope that you can do a better job.

Sunz’s body starts to heat up due to how little space between him and Grace is.

Grace: My my! Your body is rapidly heating up! I wonder, am I the cause?

Sunz tried his best to separate his hand from Grace’s hand but to no avail. Then she feels that Sunz is putting all of his strength in one hand.

Which leads to him lowering his guard on the other hand. Taking that chance she successfully restrained both of his arms.

Grace: Trying to escape, not a chance! Now lets me take care of that heat for you. Don’t want your suit to be drenched in sweat.

Sunz then feels that his body temperature starts to slowly cool down. Standing that close to Grace, Sunz slowly accepts the situation he is in.

Sunz regained his composure, letting his body temperature return to a neutral state. But for some reason, his body is now even colder than before.

When he looked up at Grace. He saw her blank eyes staring at their hand, not moving at all. It was like she was frozen in time.

Grace is panicking in her mind (How long had we been holding hands? Were there many people staring at us? Why can’t I hear or see anything? PLEASE RETURN TO YOUR SENSE, MYSELF!)

Then she feels a shift in her body and a feeling that she is not holding on to anything anymore. That is when she returns to reality, seeing that she and Sunz are laying on the ice floor.

Grace is confused about the accident that just happened. Sunz uses that moment to get up and grabs Grace’s hand getting her off the cold floor.

Sunz: Are you ok? You just blank off for a moment there.

Grace: I’m fine, just a bit messed up in the head. Did anything bad happen?

Sunz: No one got hurt, except you did make my body feel like it was frozen in ice.

Grace “Sorry about that! Maybe I just lost control of my ability.” And her hand feels a bit different. When she looks at it, this time it is Sunz holding her hand and not her holding his.

“When did I release your hands?” she asked.

Sunz “When you were spacing out, I pull both of us to the ground to get your attention. After that our hands disconnect, I then stand up first and pull you up from the floor.”

There is a moment of silence between them then…

“Let me release your hand! You must feel uncomfortable.” Sunz said. After that sentence, he felt a strong grip restraining his hand from opening and heard a whisper.

“You thought that I’ll let you release me. Your grip isn’t even that strong!” Grace leans forward and whispers in his ear.

Sunz then push her back to her position and said “Then can you relax your grip a bit? It’s hurting my hand.”

Grace obliges to release Sunz’s hand a bit so it can stretch. Then she asks “Sooo… how is this Dance gonna work? Do you have somewhat of an idea how to make it feel like the real fight?”

Sunz: The key point to this Dance is you. You will be the one that takes the initiative and I have to try my best to follow.

Grace: Can you explain a bit more about this? I know that I’m your next opponent so that makes me the key point. But everything is still somewhat fuzzy to me.

Sunz: Our best stats in common is speed. But yours is a tier higher than mine. So in our next match, my fighting style will be stationary. I’ll do my best to respond to all of your moves and turn the table with a counterattack.

Grace: Hmm! Now that I know your plan. What will you do if I copy your fighting style?

Sunz: That is impossible! You’re at your scariest when on offense. Even though I’ve only seen you battle once but that was enough to let me know where I stand on the ranking.

Grace: Ok ok! Stop talking and brace yourself!

Grace releases her and Sunz’s hands from each other and starts ice skating around him. Slowly but surely her speed starts to build up and at the right moment, she grabs both of Sunz’s hands.

Sunz tried to restrain but his strength was not enough. Which leads him to be dragged away by Grace. Luckily that he was paying attention to her movement or else he would have fallen to the floor after being grabbed by her.

Sunz is now being dragged away on the ice field by Grace while trying to counter her strength with his but to no avail. While doing that they did catch some attention from other couples. Some think they look cute while others think that they look like a mother dragging her kid out of the toy store effortlessly.

Grace keeps dragging Sunz behind her while also turning her back to look at him and tease him at the same time.

Grace: I’ve never thought that you would be this weak. Maybe I don’t even need to use my weapon to win…

Sunz: Don’t get too arrogant! We’re both not at our peak performance so anything can happen.

Grace: But I have to compliment you on being able to hold on this long.

Sunz: I appreciate that but don’t you think you should pay attention to your surrounding?

Grace: Don’t worry, I’m an expert! Now where were we? That's right, still waiting for that counterattack that you mention before.

While Grace was teasing Sunz and not paying attention to her surrounding, she did not see the other couple approaching their path, and the same go for the other couple not seeing Grace about to crash into them.

Sunz: Lucky for you! You are getting what you wanted!

Grace: What???

Sunz stops resisting Grace’s pull and uses that strength to boost himself closer to her. So close that their body was touching each other. Which then startles Grace and releases most of her strength on Sunz’s hands.

Sunz see that as an opportunity, and decided to slide both his arm behind Grace’s back and grab her shoulder.

She was shocked to see that Sunz is touching her shoulder and when she tried to scream at him. She was forced to stop because Sunz ask her “Please don’t move!”

After saying that Sunz shift both of their position so instead of Grace being the leader. It’s Sunz's turn to control their path.

After switching places Grace sees the other couple crossing their path at the same time. It was in a nick of time, Sunz successfully dodge the other couple and put them in a safe spot on the field.

Immediately after that he release Grace from his arms, takes a step back, and said “I’m sorry for touching you without consent! That was the only solution I can come up with to dodge the accident.”

After hearing what Sunz said Grace did not give him a response. She walks out of the ice skating place, returns the ice skate, and starts walking away. Sunz swiftly follows her to make sure that she is ok.

While walking Sunz see that Grace isn’t responding to anything at all, not even to the people around her. Sunz then gets as close to her as he is allowed to and does his best to guide her back to the hotel without bumping into any trouble.

Back at the hotel, Sunz sees that Sogae is working at the counter. Immediately rushes to her (while keeping an eye on Grace) and asks if she can come with him for a few minutes.

Sogae agrees (She isn’t that busy at the moment.) and both of them follow Grace back to her room. After returning to her room Grace headed straight to the shower.

Sunz asks Sogae to do him a favor “Can you prepare clothes for her to change in after the shower and please keep an eye on her.”

Sogae just smile and nod to his question. Sunz sighs in relief “Thank you, I’ll return shortly!” and rushed out of the room to go back to his room.

After Sunz leaves.

Sogae said to Grace in the shower “ I’m going to prepare for you some fresh clothes so just take your time in there.”

No response was heard but she can hear that Grace is doing ok.

Sogae was humming while looking through Grace’s closet and just thought (Young couple is funny!)

3 minutes later Sogae is done getting new clothes for Grace to change in. She then heard a knock from outside and it was Sunz.

Sunz was just done changing his clothes and head down straight away. He also wears his black windbreaker and brings the katana alongside him.

Sogae didn’t question him at all. She just said “I’ll leave the rest to you then” gives him a pat on the back and leave the room.

Sunz goes to one of the corners sits down and thinks to himself

( This gonna be a long night )