The man before him let out another, “Okay, okay, I’m sorry!” Then, apparently satisfied, Ilinca held him in the same position and marched him over to security, leaving Victor staring rather obviously at the whole situation, realizing his heart was pounding all of the sudden. He certainly wasn’t used to things like that happening. Ever. What lingered in his mind was her smile. Like she was proud… she wasn’t shaking or straining or… anything like that, it seemed. In fact, her strength seemed to come from nowhere but he knew that wasn’t really possible, she had to have some sort of technique up her sleeve, something like that… right?
When she came back to the bar, he kept staring at her rather openly until she asked if they should drink to that. Damn it, he was making a fool of himself, acting like he’d just seen a ghost. He nodded, “Yeah. Definitely…” A smile overtook him and he just gasped, “Wow! That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen, I mean I’ve seen a lot of tae kwon do and stuff back in Korea. I even tried to learn it a bit when I was a kid but I was never great at anything physical. Was that…” he didn’t want to sound stupid. “Krav Maga? Or ju-jitsu or something? It’s just… he was so big and you’re so… small.” He shook his head and let out another astonished breath as he set to making her another shot like the one before it.
It sucked… having someone react like that to him, misgender him, objectify him…he wondered if she just dealt with it better because of her job but it always shook him up when that happened. And just like that, the asshole wouldn’t be coming back. For once, good triumphed, it was stilled amazed him how everything played out. When he tried to balance his feelings of adrenaline the situation caused in him and his astonishment at Ilinca’s heroics, he finally started feeling the alcohol a little.
"Is that something you could... teach someone?" No, bad idea, he decided. Victor wasn't the sort of guy that could just yank people's arms behind their backs or force them to apologize for bad behavior. He liked taking a softer approach, blending in, focusing on regaining his calm and safety rather than perpetuating any further trouble for the sake of his own honor... though he wished he had friends to protect like that.
Act normal, he chided himself as his head spun ever so slightly. He put the shot down before Ilinca and just tried to smile, took a deep breath.
He held his drink up and called out, “건배!”, waiting for her to toast with him over the absence of that stupid ape of a man.