I'll keep this brief. I'm a Male, and currently interning at a company along with a half dozen others.

One of the other interns, also a male and probably my closest SM "rival", is constantly testing my frame. Creating obscure problems for me to deal with and taunting me while watching. I managed to solve one of these "problems" to his surprise, but realized I didnt make full use of the situation. I had a chance to remodel the dynamic that his obstacles are trivial. But instead I kind of downplayed it and equaled the fields saying it was no problem and no big deal.

I am fearful of asserting myself as I'm still new, and for some reason have this fear that something bad will happen to me if I assert my dominance so to speak.

How can I deal with situations like these in the future?

Edit: Spelling