CHAPTER 159: WHAT DID I DO?

Lamai looks back at Adam with a complicated gaze. She doesn’t know what to feel as she sees Adam’s charming smile.

She remembers the day Adam walked in, asking her to teach him how to fight, and today she stands before him, feeling jealous of him for being someone she couldn’t be.

It’s not Adam’s fault. If he hadn’t chosen their gym and gone somewhere else, Adam would still be as good as he is because he is made for this sport.

It’s fate that Adam walked into their gym and now her father’s, whose dream is to have a world championship associated with his name, has found what he has been looking for.

Lamai saw her father obsessing over it her whole life, in his late stages of his career, as a coach who retired from his fighting career. Rangsan trained a lot of fighters, some even became the national champion under his guidance, but when it came to the biggest prize of them all, he always fell short.

Lamai saw how every defeat chipped a little out of her father, so she decided to fulfill her father’s wish. She wanted to make him the happiest man alive by bringing the world title home herself. Who better than his own blood?

But as luck would have it, the competition is just too damn tough, and even with a world-class trainer like her father in her corner, who has been training her from a very early age, she is not that special.

There are thousands like her who have the talent and have been training all their lives, just like her.

So, without anything distinctive in her arsenal, Lamai can never become the champion. She might put on some more wins under her name, maybe win a few national championships as well.

But when it comes to the big gold, you need that x-factor that Lamai is lacking, and not only her, only 1 in a thousand or a hundred thousand has that x-factor.

And the man standing before her is one of those people, but Adam just doesn’t have the x-factor; he has x-factor multiplied several times.

’Gods really do play favorites, don’t they?’ Lamai thinks and sighs.

’Well, at least my father’s dream is going to come true,’ Lamai thinks and decides to let go of her jealousy, or at least thinks of it.

"Let’s continue with your grappling training," Lamai says. "Put on your gym clothes and meet me in the ring," She says and walks away.

Adam watches her leave, his eyes falling on her perfect ass as they bounce with her every step. Adam can’t be blamed here. All that working around and being fit has made sure that Lamai’s body looks stunning, especially when she is wearing those compression shorts.

Adam heads to the locker room and changes into his gym clothes quickly before returning to the ring. He sees Lamai already inside the ring, stretching.

Adam gets into the ring and stands before her as she continues with her stretching routine. Lamai looks at Adam and sees him staring.

"What are you looking at?" She asks. "Nothing~ Just admiring the view," Adam says cheekily with a grin.

Lamai gets flustered hearing his flirtatious words.

"Don’t just stand there, start stretching!" She yells instead of acknowledging his compliment.

Adam smiles and joins her in stretching, which then turns into them helping each other stretch.

Lamai, still feeling jealous and flustered by Adam, tries to make him feel some pain by forcing him to stretch beyond his body’s means, only for her to realize that Adam’s quite flexible, far more flexible than she expected.

Like stretching his leg all the way up to his head. She can only imagine how high Adam would be able to kick with such great flexibility.

’He really does have it all, damn it!’ She thinks, getting frustrated again.

After the stretching is done, they both stand up, ready to start today’s training.

"Who’s gonna be my sparring partner today?" Adam asks.

"It’s gonna be me," Lamai says, rolling her shoulders as she looks at Adam.

Adam is surprised.

"Are you sure?" Adam asks.

"Hmm? What’s this? Just because you are a man and you are stronger than me, do you think you are better than me?" Lamai asks, annoyed.

"No, but I do think me being bigger and stronger would lead to you getting injured," Adam says.

Lamai gives a knowing, annoyed glare.

"It’s just mock sparring. I will be instructing you through the whole process. Just do as I say, and it should be fine," Lamai says.

"As you say, coach," Adam says with a smile.

"Okay, let’s engage," Lamai says, and they lock hands.

Since Adam is learning how to be attacked when it comes to grappling, he is taking charge under Lamai’s careful instructions.

As Adam tries to take control of Lamai, Lamai slaps his hands away or grabs his wrists to shift and block the attacks. Adam, of course, is not using any strength behind his grabs, because if he did, Lamai would be on the ground by now.

"Okay, when you see an opening, attack. Lunge forward, make sure you know what you are doing. You need to gain leverage of your opponent’s body parts to gain control: wrists, arms, shoulders, legs, back, head, and neck.

You see an opening, you lunge at it," Lamai instructs.

Following her words, Adam decides to show her what he can do. He doesn’t go for her wrists because they are the easiest to grab, and Lamai won’t have any chance of defending if he gets a hold of her.

So he skillfully gets into a position where he can reach out for her legs and turn her over.

Lamai doesn’t see it coming at all. Before she knows it, Adam leans in, grabs her by her legs, pulls her, twists her, and brings her down on her back and pins her onto the mat by pressing her body with his.

And just like that, he scores a point against her.

Lamai stares at his face, surprised as he has a smug smile written on it. She couldn’t even process how she ended up on her back. It was too fast for her to even defend.

"How?" She couldn’t help but ask.

"What do you think I was doing all this time learning under your father? He has been teaching me a lot of things," Adam says, getting off her.

Lamai stands up and glares at him. ’He is already this good, how can someone even compete?’ she thinks, feeling even more frustrated.

She has worked all her life to be on the level that she is, and it only took someone like Adam a few weeks to make her realize that no matter how talented and hard working she is, there is someone out there who can do way less and get so much more.

How can Lamai not feel jealous and disheartened by this?

Adam notices the bitterness in Lamai’s eyes grow once again.

’I really need to know what’s bothering her so much about me,’ Adam thinks.

"Let’s go again, this time, do as I say," Lamai says, and gets into position, and they engage once again.

Lamai gives him instructions, and Adam does as he is told, moves as she says, grabs as she orders, until Lamai is once again on the ground, back first. This time, of course, on purpose, as it was just a demonstration.

"Okay, good, now do it again while I try my best to defend," Lamai says.

They both get back up and engage again as Lamai tries to defend herself, but before she knows it, Adam gets a hold of her hands. She tries to pull away, and Adam lets her; he doesn’t want to overpower her. He wants to take her down with the skills he has learned.

As soon as Lamai pulls her hand away, she exposes one of her legs, which Adam reaches out for, gets a hold of it, and pulls it forward, throwing her off balance. He then wraps his hand around her waist, turns, and brings her down.

Lamai is pinned to the ground on her back as Adam lies on top of her. He grabs both her wrists and pins them down as well, while his legs form a triangle around hers, rendering them immovable.

Lamai is tied up. She won’t be able to find a way out of this.

Lamai struggles but finds her effort useless.

"Fine, you win, now get up," she says.

But Adam doesn’t listen to her; instead, he brings his face closer to her, his eyes locked onto hers with an intense gaze.

Lamai suddenly finds herself in a situation she has never been in before. She feels her chest tighten while chills run down her spine, and she can even hear her own heartbeat in this moment.

’What’s happening? Why is he so close? Why is he staring at me like that? Why is my heart beating so fast? Why am I feeling so hot?’ Multiple thoughts crash into her head as she thinks over the situation she is in.

She can feel Adam’s breath on her lips, making them quiver. She feels her stomach twist, a sense of excitement that she herself doesn’t recognize.

"What are you doing? Let me go!" She says, frowning.

Adam shakes his head. "No," He declares. Lamai’s eyes contract while her heart starts beating even faster.

"Let go, right now!" she says.

"Not until you tell me, why are you angry at me? What did I do to make you so upset?" Adam asks.

His question catches Lamai by surprise.

"What are you on about?" She tries to deflect, but Adam won’t have it.

He is going to make her say it.