The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

225 Martial Arts Practice

“Even though I don’t like him, I never hate him. Being with him confuses me, Poppy. It’s because he is the only man who treats me in a way I’ve never had from any man before.” Emma explained.

“So, you think he’s special because he’s the only guy who’s rude to you?” Poppy got the point.

“Ever since I realized there was something wrong with me, I became confused. Either this arises because he is a different man from other men or because I do like him,” Emma mumbled. Then she let out a long sigh. “What do you think, Poppy?”

“Sorry, Emma. But can I find out what you think about what he feels about you? Do you think he feels the same way?” Poppy asked carefully.

Poppy’s question again made Emma pause. “I’m.. not sure. In fact, even though at one point I felt he had feelings for me, he still said that our relationship was just friends for talking,” She explained slowly.

Even Poppy could hear the disappointment in the voice. It seemed like Emma really liked the man she was talking about. It made Poppy’s old wounds open again. Was that the basic rule?

Why was it always like this? Why did the heart always put itself in the wrong hands? Why not choose a cosy and warm place? Why sat on cold, sharp rocks? Did the heart really like to be hurt?

“Emma,” Poppy looked at her with a tightness feeling in her chest. “Know the right place to put your heart into. No. Not only right, but the good one. Loving someone who doesn’t love you back will only break your heart,”

Emma stopped her steps and looked at Poppy with a surprised look. “Poppy..”

.....

The girl with crystal clear eyes nodded. “Make me the only stupid one standing, Emma. It’s enough that I’m the one who is guilty of wasting a heart that sincerely loved me just for a pile of trash. The suffering of regret that I have been hurting the man who should have received my whole heart, will be here until I die. Love is blind. But as a human, you can try to force your senses to work. This kind of pain is no joke, Emma. Even the strongest person might not be able to stand it.”

Poppy’s words left Emma speechless. Poppy’s eyes clearly showed the pain she had been suffering all this time. Even Emma had forgotten how heartbreaking the story of Poppy and Roger was. And the pain and regret had lingered in Poppy’s chest until this moment and as the girl had said.. until she died.

Other people’s life stories may change your way of perspective, but you could still forget them. But it didn’t apply to the ones who felt it themself. Everything would ring in every second of their lives. It would haunt every breath they took.

Although they smiled. And even though from the outside they seemed able to move on with life. But you wouldn’t know the tears that flow out every time they went to sleep.

“I see,” Emma answered slowly.

Poppy sternly smiled. “Looks like first class is about to start. See you at lunchtime.” She said before giving Emma a small wave as she left.

Emma returned the wave with a faint smile. As soon as Poppy had turned her back, Emma’s smile quickly disappeared.

What Poppy said was true. Emma could not throw away the gem that was in front of her eyes. Calvin was a nice man who Emma knew very well. Calvin always treated her well. His personality was also sweet.

As for Levi? Emma didn’t even know what he was doing. He had deliberately distanced himself from her. From the start, a relationship did not exist between them. He wasn’t a nice guy who would treat Emma like a princess. He was an annoying guy who always got Emma into an argument. Although.. every moment that Emma spent with Levi left a mark on her heart.

She had to use her common sense and choose the best. That person should be Calvin Lee who obviously liked her.

***

A large red ribbon crosses in the front of a classic designed building. A pretty girl with a petite body stood behind it. She wore a pink mini dress with cherry blossom details. Her black hair was slightly past her shoulders and was wavy styled at the bottom.

The smile on her cherry-red lips showed how happy she was today. In both hands, she held a large pair of scissors decorated with a ribbons bow. On the count of three, she used the scissors to cut the transverse ribbon.

At the same time, two confetti were blown up from the right and left, showering her with colourful pieces of paper flying slowly.

“Congratulations, Pops!” Kathy exclaimed with the confetti in her hand.

“Congratulations, Poppy!” Emma and Rachel said at the same time.

It was the opening ceremony for Poppy’s ballet training which she named ‘Dream Moves Ballet Studio’.

The opening ceremony was held quite lively. Previously, once the studio renovation was complete, as planned, the four girls worked together to decorate the place.

And what’s even crazier was, that they decided to make the third and fourth floors a special base for the Black Swan. Emma bought some boxing bags, punch mitts, head protectors, body protectors, and Mok Yan Jong. She put all the martial arts equipment on the fourth floor which was a spacious room with the same wooden floor as the room for dance practice.

For the third floor, they made it like an apartment every girl dreamed of. Although the furniture was still few, they knew that the place was their kingdom.

Of course, no one knew about what was on the third and fourth floors, apart from the four girls themselves. Every time someone asked and wanted to go up to the floor where the stairs were fenced, Poppy would forbid them by saying that the two floors were still in mess and needed some repairs.

After the opening party was over, the four girls spent their time relaxing at The Black Swan’s new headquarters.

“Are we going to stay the night?” Emma asked.

“Sure. But there’s still no bed,” Poppy answered.

“No need to bother. We can sleep on the rug.” Kathy replied by opening the laptop that was on her lap. She was sitting on the floor on the fur rug because there was no sofa yet.

“Are you serious?” Poppy asked.

“Don’t you ever do that?” Kathy raised an eyebrow. Poppy shook her head. “Then you can try it today.” The bespectacled girl continued with a slight smile.

“I have no problem sleeping on the rug,” Emma said with an excited face.

“Ah.. I forgot to say this. I brought masks for Poppy and Kathy,” Rachel said as she stood up and walked over to her bag. Then she came back with two leather masks in her hands and gave each to the two girls.

“Dang! We actually got masks?” Kathy’s eyebrows shot up.

Emma and Rachel nodded with smiles on their faces. “All members of the Black Swan must have masks to cover their identities.”

Poppy put on her mask, and then went straight to the mirror. “It covers my whole face,”

“Your whole head,” Emma corrected. “No one should know our identity because what Black’s job is related to dangerous people. If the enemies find out our true identity, then we and those closest to us will be in danger.” She continued.

“Speaking of danger.. Won’t you guys teach us self-defence?” Kathy asked.

“That’s right. Do you want to do it now? Is your work done?” Emma asked.

“I can work on it later. I don’t feel like I can focus on anything like this late at night,” Kathy closed her laptop before getting up and stretching her arms out.

“How about you, Poppy?” Emma turned to Poppy who had just taken off her mask. “If you’re tired after all the party preparations, you can just watch for today,”

Poppy shook her head. “I’m not tired at all. Everything was fun today and I’m excited to train with you girls.” She answered with a big smile.

“Okay!” Emma nodded. “Let’s go up to the fourth floor!”

The fourth floor had a large mirror wall and the four pretty girls were standing in their gym clothes.

“All right! Before starting, I will explain a little about martial arts from my point of view.” Emma said like a coach. “So, just like dance, you need the ability to control your body, balance, and focus when using martial art. You don’t have to be strong to master martial arts. However, once you master the martial art, it means you are strong.”

Rachel smiled as she nodded at Emma’s words. It was a sentence that would ignite a person’s enthusiasm to do what they previously thought was impossible. One needed a process to become strong. And it was never too late to learn something.

“Before we start training, the first thing to do is warm up,” Emma said. Then the four of them did a light warm-up like they wanted to do regular exercise.

After the warm-up, Emma arranged several small hula hoops arranged in a line. “This is a bit of training for the legs muscles. Because we are women, biologically, the stronger part of our body is at the bottom. It was the hips and legs. Therefore, if one day we are forced to fight with an opponent who has a large body, we have to rely on the strength of our legs to fight. That’s because it’s likely that the force of the blow from our hands won’t have much effect on it.”