I Hit It Softly...
"Hey there, champ. I've got a favor to ask……."
Congratulating me on making the finals, Seo-yeon dragged me off somewhere.
"Bear, forget training and everything else today! Before the finals, we're gonna have a blast!"
The place we arrived at was a big arcade right in the middle of the shopping district.
Ever since becoming human, this was my first time in an arcade.
Colorful lights flashed everywhere, and loud machine noises poured out from every direction.
With a dazed look on my face, I glanced around as I followed Seo-yeon inside.
"Alright, what first? Oh, that one! Let's do that!"
The first thing Seo-yeon pulled me toward was the whack-a-mole.
It was a game where you smash the moles that pop out of the holes with a mallet.
When Seo-yeon dropped in a coin, cheerful music kicked in and moles started poking their heads up all over.
"Bear, you go first! This one's all about reflexes!"
She pressed the mallet into my hand.
……Reflexes? I was confident about those.
A mole popped up. I brought the mallet down on it dead-on.
Crunch!
"……Huh?"
The mole—no, the hole the mole doll had come out of—sank in with a deep dent. The plastic mole head was driven clean inside and couldn't come back up.
"……Bear, take it easy a little."
"……Sorry."
I set the mallet down. My strength must have slipped in again without me noticing. Seo-yeon laughed in disbelief and took the mallet from me.
"You do it like this. Watch."
She tapped the moles lightly, tap-tap. Rhythmic, precise. The score climbed in a flash.
"How about that! That's pro-level hand speed right there!"
Seo-yeon puffed out her chest. She looked oddly proud of herself.
……And I couldn't even take down a single mole properly.
"Bear, next—that one! Let's grab that!"
This time Seo-yeon dashed over to a claw machine.
The glass case was stuffed full of all kinds of plush toys. What caught her eye was a little bear plush sitting in the corner.
"That little bear! Isn't it super cute? It looks just like you, Bear!"
"……I don't look like that."
"Come on, it does! Look at that blank face. That's totally you."
Seo-yeon giggled and fed in a coin.
The claw moved. Carefully she pressed the button and guided it over the bear plush, then dropped it.
……But it just barely missed. The claw only grazed the bear and rose empty.
"Ah, so close! One more!"
She put in another coin. Failed again. And again. Her wallet only got lighter.
"Ugh, why is this claw so weak!"
We played like that for a good while.
"Huh? Bear, look over there!"
Seo-yeon suddenly pointed toward a corner of the arcade.
There sat a punching machine.
You hit the sandbag as hard as you could and it turned the force into a score. Next to it hung a big sign that read Challenge the High Score!
"Bear! That's perfect for you, right?!"
Her eyes sparkled.
"If you hit that, the high score's gonna pop right up, isn't it? Wait—can the machine even handle it? Come on, try it, please? Please?"
She grabbed my arm and hauled me over to the punching machine.
……Honestly, I was a little curious myself. How high a score would I get if I hit it.
I stood in front of the machine. When I put a coin in, it beeped and the sandbag slid smoothly down into place.
……Alright, go easy.
I settled into my stance.
This wasn't a fight, and that was just an arcade machine.
These were the same hands that had shattered Taesan's fists and Seo Min-ho's guard.
I really had to control my strength. Just enough for the high score, nothing more.
Ah, come on, it won't actually break……
……But then I remembered how I'd cratered the whack-a-mole machine in one hit just a minute ago, and somehow I felt uneasy.
I swallowed dryly and slowly raised my fist toward the sandbag.
Seo-yeon watched Bear with her heart pounding.
……He's definitely going to hit the high score. No—high score won't even cover it.
She already had the whole scene painted in her head.
Bear hits the punching machine. An insane number lights up on the board. A flashy New High Score! message sparkles.
People around them go whoa and crowd in. And Seo-yeon stands right next to him, shrugging her shoulders as she says—
—See that? That's the kind of guy my Bear is.
Just thinking about it made her proud already.
Seo-yeon knew better than anyone how strong Bear was.
That fist had sent a hundred people flying like paper, turned a four-million-won sandbag into dust, and dropped the giant called Taesan in a single blow. For a guy like that, one little arcade punching machine was nothing.
High score? Piece of cake.
Swelling with anticipation, Seo-yeon clasped her hands together tightly.
Bear took his stance. He loosely clenched his fist and slowly raised it toward the sandbag.
Yes, yes! Hit it, Bear! Smash that high score!
Her eyes shone bright.
And then Bear's fist shot out toward the sandbag.
Ah, did he go too soft? At that rate the score won't even—
CRAAAAASH—! BOOM!!!
"………………Huh?"
Seo-yeon's thoughts froze solid.
The punching machine was wrecked.
Not just wrecked. The sandbag had been torn clean off and sent flying somewhere. The scoreboard hit 999, crackled, and belched white smoke. The whole machine body had been blasted backward and slammed into the wall with a heavy thud. What had once been a punching machine was now nothing but a heap of scrap metal.
The arcade went dead silent, like someone had dumped cold water over everyone.
Bee-beep.
Somewhere, the broken machine let out one last pathetic electronic whimper.
"………………."
Seo-yeon stood frozen with her mouth hanging open.
All those beautiful pictures she had painted in her head just a second ago—the high-score update, the crowd rushing over, herself looking smug—were gone without a trace. In their place sat only one thoroughly destroyed machine.
……Huh? Huhhh? This…… isn't right?
Her mind went completely blank.
It was supposed to stop at the high score. Fancy numbers, sparkling text. Just that far. So why was the machine in pieces?!
Slowly, Bear turned his head. Their eyes met.
Written all over his face was the look of ……ah, I messed up again.
Even the guy who did it looked flustered. That massive frame of his had gone awkwardly stiff.
"……Ah."
Bear muttered something under his breath.
Seo-yeon stared blankly at him for a second—then her brain finally rebooted.
"B-Bear, youuuu!!"
She clapped both hands over her face.
"I told you to go easy?! Why did you break it?! No—how do you even break something like this?!"
"……I did hit it soft."
"That was soft?! The machine got slammed into the wall!!"
In the meantime, the murmuring around them grew louder and louder.
"Did you see that just now? That guy one-shot the machine……."
"It's completely totaled. Is that even possible for a person?"
"Holy crap, what kind of power is that……."
"Wait, is that guy…… Han Daewong? The fighter who's been blowing up lately."
People started gathering one by one. They looked back and forth between the wrecked machine and Bear, each tossing out a comment. A few already had their phones out.
……Oh no. This turned into a full-on spectacle!
Seo-yeon's head swam.
Sure, she had wanted to show Bear off. But not like this. Hitting the high score and looking cool about it was one thing—turning the entire arcade into an audience by demolishing the machine was something else entirely!
Face bright red, Seo-yeon grabbed Bear's arm.
"B-Bear! Let's just run for now! Hurry!"
"……What about paying for it?"
"Ah, right. Paying for it……."
Spotting the arcade owner frantically running over from the far side, Seo-yeon's face crumpled into a near-tears expression.
Their arcade outing, once so full of hope, was somehow heading in a completely different direction than expected.
He had been running the arcade for a good thirty years by now.
In all that time, owner Kim had seen every kind of customer imaginable.
And that punching machine in particular had been the favorite challenge of every guy who thought he had some power.
Ssireum wrestlers, boxing kids, construction-site laborers—all of them had hammered it with everything they had, trying to set the high score. But the machine never so much as flinched.
It had been built tough enough to take any ordinary impact, after all.
So Kim never once imagined it could actually break.
But then—
CRAAAAASH—! BOOM!!!
"……!!"
Dozing behind the counter, Kim shot upright at the noise.
Over there, the punching machine lay utterly destroyed.
The sandbag had been ripped away and sent flying; the body had been driven into the wall. His reliable cash cow of thirty years had become scrap metal in an instant.
"What the hell……! Who did this!!"
Face flushed red, Kim sprinted toward the wrecked machine. He was just about to open his mouth and give the culprit a real piece of his mind.
But the moment he saw the face of the man standing in front of the machine, Kim shut his mouth.
"……Huh?"
It looked familiar. Very familiar—he had been seeing that face a lot lately.
These days, watching combat sports broadcasts was Kim's biggest hobby.
He hadn't missed a single match of that tournament heading toward the UFC. And right at the center of all the buzz was one monstrous rookie.
A man who put every opponent to sleep in a single hit.
Just the other day, sitting on his couch with a beer, Kim had watched with his own two eyes as that guy traded one punch with a giant of a fighter and sent him flying.
And that fighter was standing right in front of him now.
"Y-you…… by any chance. Are you the fighter Han Daewong?"
"……Yes. I'm sorry. I'll pay for the machine."
The man awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
"……Whew."
Kim completely forgot he had even been angry.
Now it made sense. Why a machine that had lasted thirty years had gone down in one shot.
With a fist like that monster's, it was only natural. Honestly, getting off this lightly was lucky.
"I've run this arcade for thirty years, you know. And you're the first person—the very first—to ever break this machine."
Kim shook his head with an expression that was half awe, half shock. Even the cost of the wrecked machine suddenly felt secondary.
"Hey there, champ. I've got a favor to ask……."
Kim quietly pulled out his phone.
"Would you mind taking a photo with me? My grandson's a huge fan of yours."