“Look. She’s shy. Coach Koby please go ahead with your training. I’ll teach Leila myself.”
Coach Koby blinked and suddenly was enlightened. “Lexi, is Arthur the man you want to fight again?”
“Ah? No, it’s not him.” Leila shook her head. Then she realized something wrong and nodded immediately. “Coach Koby, could you teach me yourself please?”
“I’ll ask Arthur to teach you. He’s good at counter-force. If you want to fight against a man, you should learn from him. As long as you could win against him, you can surely defeat an ordinary man.” Coach Koby left with a smile.
“Ah-- How could this happen?” Leila was speechless.
“Lexi, what now? Don’t you want to be my student?” Arthur crossed his arms on his chest. Rubbing his chin, he walked over, “Or are you afraid that you will have physical contact with me? Don’t worry. We’re lovers. We would have the physical contact sooner or later. It’s just a warm-up. Let’s get familiar with each other in this way.”
Indeed, it was unavoidable to have physical contact when practicing taekwondo. If she agreed, it would mean that she had to touch Arthur’s body shortly. The key point was that this man looked extremely evil but charming, which made her lack security. She always afraid that he would take advantage of her.
“I’m not your girlfriend!” Leila said to Arthur seriously. “I don’t want you to teach me.”
“Why not?”
“I just don’t like it.”
“You do have a strong personality. But I insist on teaching you! I like the challenging work,” Arthur said with a smile, “And it has something to do with changing another person’s personality, which is my favorite. In other words, if you don’t want to be my student today, I’ll throw you to the floor.”
“You--”
“Me?” Arthur looked solemn. Instantly, his tone because extremely strict. “No, you must get into character now. Or I’ll kick you away!”
“You! You!” Leila was so speechless. She looked into his eyes with stubbornness, only to find that he looked the same as if he didn’t accept to be rejected. She glared at him for a few more seconds, and then she nodded. “Okay. I’ll learn from you!”
“Good! That’s my good girl.” Arthur’s tone became softened again. “Come on. Our first lesson was about the basic knowledge and the training requirements of taekwondo. The most important was the courtesy and etiquette of taekwondo. Also, there are some simple warm-up exercises. Usually, we don’t encourage the practicer to stretch the ligaments forcibly. It needs to be done step by step. Do you know the slogan of taekwondo yet?”
Leila nodded. “Yes. Coach Koby told us yesterday.”
“Then, please repeat it. Let me see if you are so dumb that you’ve forgotten about it after a night.”
Leila frowned. She could only say, “Etiquette and shame, patience and self-denial, and unyielding.”
“Ehn!” Arthur nodded, becoming quite serious. “Next, let’s review the standing posture, sitting posture, and the ways of putting on the taekwondo jacket, tie it, and binding the belt.”
“Can’t you tell me something practical?” Leila asked. “I just want to learn how to kick someone.”
“Your ligaments haven’t been stretched. I can’t teach you that yet!”
“My ligaments work very well.” She used to dance, and her ligaments were quite fLeilable. She could still do the splits now. Her muscles were a little bit stiffened since she hadn’t worked out for a long time.
“Are you or am I the teacher?”
Leila didn’t have the guts to retort again.
As the result, in the next one hour, Arthur didn’t have any physical contact with Leila. After teaching the courtesy and etiquette, he taught the rules and regulations for practicing taekwondo. Then he asked her to stretch the ligaments for twenty minutes. She also hopped up and down for around a quarter. Finally, he checked the time on the watch. “Time’s up. Let’s dismiss.”
“Is that all?” Leila asked in shock, sweating all over her body.
“Let’s go on tomorrow.”
“That’s too simple!” Leila muttered, “Can you do it or not?”
“It’s a disdainful way if you ask a man can he do it. You need to try me so you’ll know if I can or not.”
“You--” Leila was speechless. Helplessly, she stood up to change her clothes. If she continued staying here, she would go nuts.
After changing her dress and arriving downstairs, Leila found that Arthur standing at the door. She planned to leave directly without talking to him. However, Arthur didn’t plan to let her go obviously. “Let’s go for a drink, shall we?”
“I can’t drink.”
“You can drink juice,” said Arthur.
“No, thanks. I still have classes tomorrow. See you, Mr. Lane.”
She didn’t know many men, and Theodore was one of them, who had become her thesis tutor. Arthur was another one, who had become her taekwondo teacher. What a fate!
Leila thought to herself with self-mockery.
“You still owe me a jacket. How could you be so arrogant to ignore me? Anyway, I helped you last time, didn’t I?”
Leila was helpless. She could only get in Arthur’s car because there were so many people gazing at them behind her back. She couldn’t continue staying there and becoming the target of other women. Arthur was absolutely the apple of the eye for so many women.
She turned to look at him up and down. Then she asked, “Are you truly the vice president of your company?”
Upon hearing that, Arthur immediately became unhappy. “Why? Don’t I look like such a person?”
“You look so childish!” Leila curled her lips. “I’ve told you I don’t want to go, but you make an excuse that I owe you the jacket. Didn’t you tell me that you don’t want it? Aren’t you too immature in this way?”
“You like mature men, do you?” Arthur raised his eyebrows.
“What does it have to do with the kind of men I like?” Leila was speechless. However, she couldn’t help wondering what kind of man Mr. White was -- was he a mature man?
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The readers' comments on the novel: A Moment in Destiny
the writing is quite childish, but maybe it's just the translations...