Jiu Ji-tae

Jiu Ji-tae is a freshman student at Nam-il High and a member of the school's Fight Classes. He is the protagonist of Fight Class 3.

Appearance
Jiu Ji-tae is of average build and has medium length brown hair, styled in waves across his forehead. Prior to meeting Maria Dacascos, he used to wear glasses, but after having them broken, he replaced them with contact lenses. He has a single distinctive scar on his forehead, usually covered by his hair; he received this scar at the hands of Jiu Dae-Gak.

Background
Seven years prior to the events of the series, Ji-tae and his sister Ji-Hyun were attending their mother's funeral when they were attacked by their father, Jiu Dae-Gak, who overpowered Ji-Tae and kidnapped Ji-Hyun.

Plot
Jiu Ji-Tae's mother, Jiu Jin-Hee died when he was just a child. He and his Ji-hyun attended her funeral when it was attacked by their father, Jiu Dae-Gak. Dae-Gak attempted to abduct Ji-hyun. When Ji-Tae attempted to intervene, Dae-Gak insulted Ji-Tae, claiming he was useless, and struck him scarring him for life before absconding with Ji-hyun.

Years later, Jiu Ji-te was a freshman at Nam-il High, who was close friends with Na Ok-dong and Lee Ji-eun. He got involved in a disagreement with Kim Dong-Won, a sophomore from the Fight Class who believed Ji-Tae was in a romantic relationship with Ji-eun, who Dong-Won was infatuated with. When Ji-Tae was attacked, he managed to avoid Dong-Won's punches until their fight was interrupted by Maria Dacascos. After the fight, Ji-Tae left his friends to put up posters with pictures of Ji-Hyun and Dae-Gak on them in an attempt to try and find Ji-Hyun. However, he was attacked by Maria, who was intrigued by his dodging ability and wished to test it. Ji-Tae was able to evade her kicks and slip out of her submission with his double-jointed flexibility.

Impressed, Maria noticed the details on the poster and correctly identified Ji-Tae as the son of Dae-Gak, Maria asked him to come to the fight classes, offering to turn him into the "strongest jiu-jutiero".

Ji-Tae initially turned Maria down and left after requesting she replace his glasses, broken in the confrontation. The next day, however, she turned up at his classroom with contacts to replace his glasses, telling him that glasses would be impractical if he joined the fight classes. After confronting Maria on the roof, Ji-Tae reiterated his refusal to join the fight classes, but when Maria brought up the possibility that joining the fight classes could help him find his sister, he reluctantly accepted her offer to prepare him for the admission test, a fight against Dong-Won.

After doing some research on Jiu-Jutsu, Ji-tae was impressed with its reputation of a master of it being able to defeat a physically superior opponent. Ok-Dong supported his decision to try and join the fight classes while Ji-Eun was opposed. On the way home from school, he was attacked by a masked assailant who breaks his ankle; after speaking with Maria, she reveals that this eliminates her initial plan, for him to use his dodging skills to force a decision against Dong-Won. On the rooftop of the school, they ran into Dong-Won accompanied by Yang Ki-Hoon, who Ji-Tae identified as the masked assailant because of his eyes and voice. The confrontation ended without violence, but not before Maria warned both Dong-Won and Gi-Hoon and identified Ki-Hoon as a member of Fight Class 3.

After the confrontation on the rooftop, Ok-Dong explained to Ji-Tae about how the fight classes are structured, how the Fight Classes 1 and 2 are a fast-track course into Road FC, and about the rumours that the isolated Fight Class 3, made up of top students from the other two fight classes, is a hidden venue for underground Vale Tudo (anything goes) matches.

Ji-Tae began his gruelling training with Maria, who taught him how to use the crossguard as well as how to check kicks and who bouyed his flagging confidence by reminding him how this is all to help his sister. However, Ok-Dong and Ji-Eun turned up for a visit and mistook a failed takedown attempt from Ji-Tae on Maria as a romantic interaction, initially infuriating Ji-Eun. After learning how to sprawl to prevent takedowns, Ji-Tae and Ji-Eun returned home, where Ji-Eun gave him some painkillers.

The next day, Ji-Tae arrived at the gym early, and with Maria not present begins working on his punches. He ran into Shim Ha-Min, who taught him how to throw a punch properly before leaving. When Maria arrives, she began to instruct Ji-Tae on how to counter Dong-Won's dirty boxing with a flying armbar; unbeknownst to them, Dong-Won was conducting reconnaissance on them and discovered their strategy.

The next day was the day of the admission test. Ok-Dong and Ji-Eun were not permitted to accompany Ji-Tae, who entered with only Maria. His initial confidence is demolished by Dong-Won's bloodthirsty glare and he began panicking. Maria noticed this and took him into a side room to give him a pep talk, affirming that she believed his chances of victory were absolute and again reminding him of his motivation for fighting.

Dong-Won began the fight with a vicious flurry of punches, which Ji-Tae avoided or guarded against, a low kick, which he checked, and a takedown, which he defended against with a sprawl. This carried him past the first round without a defeat. In the second round, Dong-Won again threw a series of punches and initiated a clinch. Ji-Tae attempted to respond to this with a flying armbar but Dong-Won was prepared for it and pins his foot, following it up with a punch to the head.

The punch knocked Ji-Tae to the floor. Dong-Won tried to follow up with an illegal soccer kick to the head but was interrupted by his coach. Ji-Tae nearly went unconscious from the punch but forced himself back up after a powerful flashback to his sister and continued fighting, managing to land a punch on Dong-Won. However, he was overpowered and knocked to the floor once again. Dong-Won again tried to follow up his success with an illegal strike, this time a stomp to a downed opponent, but Ji-Tae responded with his own illegal move, a heel-hook that seriously damaged Dong-Won's leg and brought him down. As Dong-Won was unable to continue, the match was ruled as a defeat for Ji-Tae by disqualification.

The next day, a despondent Ji-Tae went in search of Maria to try and get some answers about her knowledge of Dae-Gak, but happened upon her torturing Dong-Won in the school gym, extracting a confession that he knew about the flying armbar in advance. Ji-Tae interrupted her assault, and after a heated discussion finally convinced her to spare Dong-Won by threatening to refuse to help her at all if she did not.

After Dong-Won left the gym, Maria revealed to Ji-Tae some details; she also lost her family to Dae-gak, and wishes to take revenge. The only way to even meet him, however, is to join Fight Class 3. Maria also asked Ji-Tae if Dae-Gak is really his father because she wishes to kill Dae-Gak for her revenge. Ji-Tae cannot answer.

Later on, Dong-Won attempted to take responsibility for his cheating so Ji-Tae can join Fight Class 1, but was rebuffed, as Maria had already negotiated for Ji-Tae to join by offering her sponsorship money in exchange. Ji-Tae met with the class president of Fight Class 1, Yeo Eun-Sol, who drilled him through a series of physical tests to establish his aptitude. She also warns him that his association with Maria may make him a target; Maria had defeated the entire class brutally during testing, and as a result, they all either idolise her or resent her, making Ji-Tae who has a close relationship with her a target of both.

After returning to his house and quitting his part-time job working for Ji-Eun's grandfather, since he now had support from the school to train full-time, Ji-Tae ran into Maria, who was waiting at his house. She revealed to him that since her support has been withdrawn, including her accommodation, she would need to live at his house from now on.

Ji-Tae struggled at training on his first day and was picked on by the people who resent Maria mentioned by Eun-Sol. He nearly became the centre of a fight when one asks him if he "did it" with Maria, and Ha-Min nearly intervened in a rage. However, the conflict is averted by Gi Ba-Ram and So-Wol.

Ranking matches are announced for the entire class, and Ji-Tae's opponent in the preliminaries is Kwon Tae-young, a practitioner of Kyokushin full-contact Karate. She and Ba-Ram go to Ji-Tae's desk to talk to him about the upcoming match. Ji-Tae revealed his style is jiu-jitsu, while Tae-Young mentions her weakness - that she is too aggressive.

The match between Ji-Tae and Tae-Young begins with her letting loose with a flurry of blows. Ji-Tae initially dodges them but is forced to eventually outright flee. After riding out the first round by dodging, Ji-Tae manages to surprise Tae-Young by moving forward suddenly but does not exploit this opportunity. He then attempts to throw a punch, but it is ineffective and Tae-Young responds with an uppercut he is barely able to block. Tae-Young appears to slow down after the second round ends, and Ji-Tae attempts to exploit this with a flying armbar, but she blocks it and this only makes her get serious. She unleashes a furious assault that Ji-Tae can barely dodge and knocks him unconscious with a body-shot that cracks his ribs.

Ji-Tae loses his next two rounds because of the damage he took in that fight and is ranked as a D.

Abilities
Ji-Tae begins the series completely devoid of any skill or fighting experience, especially in comparison to members of Nam-il High's fight classes. However, he does have several advantages inherited from Jiu Dae-Gak that he uses to compensate. While he is not as physically fit as the average member of the fight classes, his ability to dodge using his kinetic vision and his double-jointedness that allows him to slip out of submissions are traits that impressed even Maria immediately upon seeing them in action. [1]

Ji-Tae's strongest asset, however, is his "devil's gift", also inherited from Dae-Gak. This is an extremely strong aptitude for picking up new techniques quickly after minimal instruction or even only seeing them performed. Jiu-Tae was able to learn the difficult flying armbar technique after only two days, learn the heel-hook after only seeing an internet video of it being performed, and immediately achieve near-perfect form on a punch after only a basic word of advice from Shim Ha-Min. Later on Ji-Tae was able to perfectly replicate Tae-Young's vertical fist strike to the body. [71]