Sports Festival, Begin
The heavens granted Hwaryeong High School's Sports Festival their blessing.
Morning broke under a perfectly clear sky.
Yeoncheong arrived at school as she always did, only to find her classroom louder and busier than usual.
"Oh, Yeoncheong! You're here."
Hasol had just wriggled free of her class T-shirt, hair still mussed from the fabric, and waved in greeting. Other classmates were already changing into their class shirts or school track suits.
Yeoncheong slid the door shut behind her and hurried to Hasol's side.
"You've already changed?"
"Yep. You should too. Teacher Jisu said it's fine to just wear the class shirt out."
Yeoncheong grabbed her track pants and class shirt from the locker at the back of the room. The shirt had come as a set with a skirt, but Yeoncheong found track pants far more comfortable.
She slipped the track pants on quickly beneath her skirt, then reached for the buttons of her shirt.
"Hey, um, Hasol?"
"Yeah?"
Hasol was watching her with bright, attentive eyes, the picture of someone wondering if there was a problem.
"Do you... have to watch me do this?"
"Why? Is that not okay?"
During PE, when everyone changed into their gym clothes at once, Yeoncheong had always been the fastest changer in the room. Now, with Hasol staring at her so openly, her hands had gone hesitant.
Watching Yeoncheong fidget, Hasol glanced around and lowered her voice.
"You'd better hurry up. If you keep stalling like that..."
The warning never found its period. Suyeon, just back from the bathroom with a few other girls, locked eyes with Yeoncheong mid-change.
"Hmmm?"
With a hum in her throat, Suyeon came sidling over with a smirk.
"Yeoncheong, whatcha doing?"
"You can see what I'm doing. Go away."
Yeoncheong's voice turned sharp, the class shirt held up as a shield in front of her. But Suyeon paid it no mind and plopped herself down on Hasol's desk.
"Hurry and change. Teacher Jisu will be here any minute."
"She's right. Drag it out and you'll just draw more attention."
Indeed, the number of classmates who had finished changing was steadily growing. Out of options, Yeoncheong turned away and undid her shirt buttons.
"There's not a single boy here. Why do you keep hiding?"
"What's the harm? We look good."
"That much is true."
A conversation with zero intent to be discreet. The girls' giggling chatter drifted naturally into Yeoncheong's ears.
Buttons undone in a flash, Yeoncheong shed her shirt, hung it over her chair, and pulled the class shirt over her head.
Hasol, who had been quietly admiring the whole performance, murmured, "Yeoncheong, you really do wear sports bras a lot."
Yeoncheong finished straightening her outfit and finally turned to face the two of them, a flush creeping up her neck as she stammered an excuse.
"Th-they're comfortable! It's the Sports Festival, after all."
Fortunately, the Sports Festival made for an airtight alibi, and Hasol let the matter drop.
Suyeon, on the other hand, was staring intently at Yeoncheong's chest, her voice tinged with disappointment.
"No matching colors today, huh."
"Shut it."
Suyeon ignored her and carried on chatting with Hasol.
"Hey, Hasol. Did you know?"
"Know what?"
Alarmed, Yeoncheong lunged to cover Suyeon's mouth.
"Don't you dare."
But Suyeon was not the type to be stopped so easily.
"Yeoncheong wore a matching one last time. Same color as her hair and everything."
Suyeon blurted out the color of someone else's underwear as casually as if reporting the weather. Yeoncheong's reaction proved beyond a doubt that it wasn't a lie.
"You... get over here. Get over here right now!"
Suyeon hopped off the desk and bolted, and Yeoncheong vaulted over an empty chair in hot pursuit.
Teacher Jisu, popping in to take attendance, watched the two of them going at it full tilt this early in the morning and let out a wry laugh.
"Girls? Could you save some of that energy for the actual Sports Festival?"
The athletic field.
Perhaps thanks to the dressing-down he'd received at the opening ceremony, the principal's address was remarkably concise this time. After a brisk round of warm-ups, the students filed one by one into the stands assigned to their classes.
Then came the broadcasts calling the first competitors of the day — kickball, dodgeball, basketball.
"Let's go check the brackets."
Yeoncheong let her friends drag her over to the front of the podium. There, side by side, hung the day's schedule and the tournament brackets. The brackets, settled through preliminary rounds, drew eager attention from every grade without discrimination.
Yeoncheong and her friends waited for the crowd to thin a little before taking their time studying them.
Nayun went straight for the basketball bracket first.
"Those giant freaks... Looks like we won't meet them until the finals, at least."
"Which class was it with the volleyball girls again?"
Hearing Nayun's answer, Suyeon traced the dodgeball bracket with her finger, searching — and promptly started groaning.
"Ugh... Dodgeball puts us against them from round one? Hasol, what do we do."
"...I guess we just try our hardest."
Hasol couldn't quite bring herself to promise a win.
Having checked the three-legged race and relay schedules off to the side, Yeoncheong turned to Seoha, who was silently staring at the brackets.
"Seoha, how does kickball look? Is the bracket okay?"
"Hmm... seems fine. We'll just have to do our best."
Suyeon wrapped her arms around the smiling Seoha from behind.
"You've got nothing to worry about, Seoha. I scouted the other classes' games, and ours is the best by far."
Peeking out from behind Seoha, Suyeon directed her words at Yeoncheong.
"It's you and Nayun who need to step up. Basketball's already counted as a win in the score projections, you know? You two aren't allowed to lose."
"Hey, Baek Suyeon. Why are your expectations for us so sky-high?"
Fortunately, this time Nayun was right there to push back with her. Glancing over the schedule beside Yeoncheong, Nayun kept going.
"Speaking of which, can you two even win your first match?"
"W-we'll just... give it our best shot."
Suyeon declared it with her chest puffed out, but her eyes slid away evasively.
Inevitably, every class has an event where the exercise-averse students end up clustered together. For the second-years — Yeoncheong's class included — it was dodgeball and the group jump rope.
Yeoncheong escaped the pressure by trading looks between the bracket and the schedule.
"Our class's first event is... kickball. Guess we can just relax in the stands."
Declaring her business here concluded, Suyeon herded Yeoncheong and the others along as she headed back.
Suyeon's scouting report had been accurate.
At kickball, Yeoncheong's class looked to have no rivals. More precisely, it was Yeoncheong's class with Seoha on it that had no rivals.
Every time Seoha's foot met the rolling ball, a sharp crack rang out and the ball sailed toward the fence they'd improvised from gym mats.
It was a class they hadn't faced in the preliminaries.
The first time, the opponents chalked it up to luck. The second, they couldn't believe it. By the third, it was too late to regret — and by the time they finally adjusted, the game had already slipped through their fingers.
Just as they were congratulating Seoha and the others on a flawless victory, Hasol brushed the dust off her pants and rose from her seat.
"We've seen the kickball win. Suyeon, time to head to the gymnasium."
The dodgeball match was scheduled right after kickball. Suyeon, who had lingered to the very end under the pretext of cheering, stretched and stood up too.
"Yeoncheong, you're coming to cheer us on, right?"
Without waiting for an answer, Suyeon hauled Yeoncheong to her feet.
"Then why... why even ask?"
"It's called courtesy?"
Once Yeoncheong was up, Nayun rose as well, saying she wanted to watch the basketball games while she was at it.
"Seoha, you rest up, and come cheer us on if you have time."
Seoha nodded, saying she'd be right over.
"Yeesh..."
Watching the dodgeball from the gymnasium's second floor, Yeoncheong eventually had to look away. Even Nayun, who'd been flicking her gaze back and forth between the basketball and dodgeball courts, had at some point fixed her eyes solely on the third-years' basketball game.
Seoha climbed the stairs, spotted Yeoncheong, and came over.
"There you are. I almost went to the other side."
"Oh, hey, Seoha."
Seoha claimed the empty seat to Yeoncheong's left and looked down at the court below.
Dodgeball needed no scoreboard. All you had to do was count the players still standing inside.
"Is it still the first game?"
"No, we already lost the first set. This is the second."
Dodgeball ran best-of-three, with teams switching sides between sets.
"Already?"
Things were moving far faster than expected — and the reason was unfolding right before their eyes.
Just as Seoha's kicks produced that resounding crack, whenever a girl from the opposing volleyball club threw the ball, it came down with a bang and knocked Yeoncheong's classmates clean out of the game.
They were shrieking and somehow dodging now, but during the first set, every throw had sent two or three of them out at a time.
And a team that only dodges never gets its turn to attack.
In the blink of an eye, Suyeon was the last one standing, gritting it out — but the situation was grim. The opponents passed the ball around, patiently hunting for an opening, and little by little they began to read her movements.
"Kyaa!"
Finally, Suyeon — who had danced and darted to the very last — went down with a scream. It was a complete shutout for the other team.
Exchanging bows with the winners, Yeoncheong's classmates trudged out of the gymnasium on leaden feet. Yeoncheong hurried out with Seoha at her side.
She'd walked right past Nayun, then doubled back.
"Nayun, let's go."
"Already?"
Nayun, who had glanced back at the court several times, followed at a reluctant pace.
By the time she'd collected Nayun too, the girls finished with dodgeball were already up in the stands.
Calling her friends' names, Yeoncheong approached, and the two turned around. Suyeon and Hasol spoke to her and Nayun at once.
"Girls, you have to win. Crush those giant freaks."
"Exactly. Losing is not an option. You absolutely must win."
The eyes of Hasol and Suyeon burned with a enmity much like Nayun's own. Far from calming them down, Nayun nodded in vigorous agreement — that was exactly right.
The last morning event for Yeoncheong's class — second-year, Class 1 — was basketball. Hasol and Suyeon burned off the bitterness of their dodgeball defeat with thunderous cheering.
The student running the scoreboard signaled to the referee. The referee nodded, blew the whistle, and declared the game over.
"Wooooah!"
Yeoncheong and Nayun stood at center court and exchanged handshakes with the opposing players. The cheers rising from behind them felt especially loud.
Nayun, a basketball club member, and Yeoncheong, who had stunned everyone with her play throughout the preliminaries, kept the momentum rolling.
Notably, both of them were ball-handlers who could dribble. The combination play unfolding between the two of them was the kind you knew was coming and still couldn't stop. All that practice they'd squeezed in had paid off.
Their teammates, for their part, focused on keeping the flow smooth, fitting in without a single rough edge.
Ordinarily they'd have given up the court, but it was already lunchtime — no more morning games.
Yeoncheong leaned back against the gymnasium wall and caught her breath. Nayun flashed her a grin.
"Panting already? How are you going to run the semifinals this afternoon?"
"Obviously I can. You're the one who should run harder. You were holding back on purpose, weren't you?"
When Yeoncheong shot her a glare, Nayun just shrugged.
"You noticed? You were running so hard, I figured I'd conserve a little stamina."
As if something had just occurred to her, Nayun spoke up again.
"By the way, why do you keep throwing that hopeless shot of yours? You've been chucking it since the prelims."
"Who knows? What if the day comes when I need to make that shot?"
"If that's the plan, you weren't even close..."
"Ah — it's that I can't put my full strength into the run-up yet. That's all."
When the two of them showed no sign of leaving the gymnasium, the friends who'd been watching from above came down to fetch them personally. Suyeon, flush with energy to spare after jogging all the way over, demanded,
"Why aren't you two out yet? Let's go eat."
"One minute. Just one minute of rest."
Suyeon counted to sixty, skipping numbers at will, and stuck out her hand.
"Okay, up. Let's go."
"Agh... at least count properly..."
Yeoncheong grabbed her outstretched hand. Suyeon pulled — and Yeoncheong didn't budge an inch.
"Here, I'll help too."
As if she'd been waiting for exactly this, Seoha snatched up Yeoncheong's other hand.
With a ready — one, two, three! — Yeoncheong was hoisted into the air.