“I am.”
“Doesn’t look like it.”
“You keep checking everyone else.”
Jake froze.
The spectators seemed to stop breathing.
Emma had not raised her voice.
That made the observation worse.
Jake’s eyes hardened.
“You worried about what they think?”
“No.”
“Then why mention them?”
Emma gave him the same calm look.
“Because you are.”
A soldier near the benches lowered his eyes.
Another shifted his feet.
Jake’s mouth tightened.
Briggs finally spoke.
“Continue.”
Jake stared at him.
For half a second, Emma expected an argument.
Instead, Jake nodded.
“Yes, Sergeant First Class.”
The whistle sounded again.
This time Jake came forward faster.
Emma retreated two steps.
He pressed.
She turned.
He followed.
A glove brushed her shoulder.
Jake immediately smiled.
“There.”
Emma reset.
“You touched me.”
“Exactly.”
“You sound surprised.”
His smile vanished.
He advanced again.
Emma gave him more ground.
The soldiers shifted around the boundary as the pair moved across the mat.
Jake’s confidence appeared to return.
He touched her shoulder again.
Then he nearly trapped her near the painted edge.
“Running out of space,” he said.
Emma looked down briefly.
Jake followed her gaze.
His left foot had crossed farther than he realized.
His weight was forward again.
Emma moved.
She did not strike hard.
She redirected his reaching arm and stepped outside his balance.
Jake stumbled half a step.
Nothing more.
He recovered immediately.
But everyone saw it.
A sharp breath passed through the gym.
Jake turned.
His face had become red around the cheeks.
Emma remained several feet away.
She had not celebrated.
She had not smiled.
That somehow magnified the moment.
Jake looked toward Briggs.
The senior instructor’s expression stayed neutral.
“You saw that?”
Briggs nodded.
“I did.”
Jake waited.
No further comment came.
Emma watched his frustration deepen.
She was beginning to understand why Briggs’s silence mattered.
Jake seemed to want intervention.
He wanted the senior instructor to explain away the mistake.
Briggs refused to rescue him.
Jake looked back at Emma.
“Again.”
Emma lifted her hands.
He moved forward.
This time, his footwork changed.
His left heel remained lower.
Emma noticed.
“So you listened.”
Jake frowned.
“To what?”
“My comment.”
“I corrected nothing.”
Emma glanced toward his feet.
Jake followed the glance.
The denial became unnecessary.
Daniels looked away quickly.
Jake saw him.
For once, he did not correct him.
That surprised Emma.
Perhaps Jake had finally become too occupied with the person in front of him.
Or perhaps something deeper had started bothering him.
He could no longer treat her as entertainment.
Jake tested distance with his lead hand.
Emma gave him nothing.
He circled.
She matched him.
He changed direction.
She moved smoothly with him.
The gym became less like an audience and more like a classroom.
The soldiers were no longer waiting for humiliation.
They were studying.
Emma could feel that shift without looking.
Jake could feel it too.
He spoke quietly.
“How much training have you had?”
Emma’s expression did not change.
“Enough to know your heel was lifting.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It is the answer you needed.”
Jake inhaled through his nose.
“You think you’re clever.”
“No.”
Emma adjusted her stance.
“I think you made assumptions.”
He stepped closer.
“You walked in looking ordinary.”
“I walked in wearing the required uniform.”
“You know what I mean.”
Emma did.
That did not mean she had to help him say it.
Jake had built his judgment from appearance, assignment, and expectation.
Now those assumptions were becoming liabilities.
He raised his gloves.
Emma saw something new in his posture.
Caution.
It was small, but undeniable.
He was no longer trying to create a spectacle.
He was trying to solve her.
Briggs saw it too.
His hand rested loosely around the whistle.
“Thirty seconds,” he said.
Jake nodded.
Emma did not react.
The final seconds began.
Jake feinted high.
Emma remained still.
He moved low.
She shifted.