You Idiot?
Setting that aside, you don't know how to play badminton, do you?
Anyway, since we've teamed up, checking each other's strengths is essential, right?
In PE class we were just doing basic drills, but that didn't mean we could actually play doubles, so I asked her, whirling a few rackets around and inspecting them closely.
From the side, Si-a who was holding one with me let out a huff and snorted.
"Um. Sorry. I do better than you."
"Yeah. It's your job to use your body."
Of course there are differences between men and women.
Someone whose body is their job and someone who just swats a racket all the time would have totally different senses.
I was much taller than Seo Da-eun, but I could never beat her in a race.
'Still, I'm pretty confident in my badminton skills.'
It was because the older brother who had set me up on a blind date back when I was working at the factory.
Right, Hyeok-jin hyung loved badminton a lot.
Of course, with no free time in my life, I didn't get to play often.
But thanks to Hyeok-jin hyung dragging me to the court from time to time, I understood the feel of it.
Even though my senses were different, I got the gist with my head.
I had played doubles badminton before.
"Okay. Good. Then let's do our best while we're at it. Us."
"Don't grab my ankle."
Han Si-a, who had found a racket she liked, swung it a few times with a smile.
Still, there was a performance score bonus if we won.
It wouldn't be bad to try as hard as possible to win.
That's what I was thinking.
"Whoa... Si-a's team. Tough luck. Why does it have to be with Kim Yun-seong."
"Ji-eun also plays badminton pretty well. I saw her the other day."
The kids were whispering among themselves.
From what I overheard, the guy who had approached Si-a earlier was in our doubles match.
The problem was that he used to be in the badminton club back in middle school.
It had been a while since he quit, but his form and movement weren't average.
...Why him, though.
Plus, since he had just been scolded by Si-a, he wouldn't go easy on us.
Probably trying his absolute best to beat our team.
"Can we win?"
"We'll see. Are you planning to give up before we even know how good the opponent is?"
It was typical of Si-a, who had a strong will to win.
Whether she won or lost, her full effort was what would later shine as her talent as an idol.
I shrugged my shoulders and put some distance between us to get into position.
Following the teacher's whistle, we prepared for the match.
Since there weren't enough courts, a few students were watching from the side.
Among them were Nam Yu-ri and Yoon Tae-jun.
"Si-a! Fighting! Woo-hyun too!"
The voice of an angel encouraged us.
I turned to Nam Yu-ri and greeted her, then the match began.
One of the students judging the match blew the whistle.
I started serving.
'For the first point, I'll do a long serve to keep it simple.'
Since I didn't know the opponent's level yet, I wanted to play standard rather than risk some fancy tricks.
I lobbed the shuttlecock just high enough over the net, and the opponent returned it without any trouble from the other side.
At first there was a light rally, and a strange silence fell over the gymnasium.
Just the sound of squeaking sneakers.
And short breaths and the soft thwack of the shuttlecock hitting the racket.
The girl on the other side, Yoo Ji-eun, didn't seem to play that well.
She could barely manage to clear the coming ball.
And Kim Yun-seong, the guy, didn't show any big techniques, though I guess he was good.
'Hmm. Are they just watching the game so far?'
Seeming to be scouting an opening, he didn't do anything major.
Then suddenly, when Si-a's high clear came, his attitude changed.
'Smash.'
A technique where you jump high from your spot and smash the shuttlecock straight down to the floor.
The most basic and powerful badminton attack, but few people could pull it off properly.
Especially at high school level.
"Standard" basically meant the strongest one.
Maybe because of my usual image, Kim Yun-seong thought I couldn't play badminton as well as Si-a.
He smashed hard toward my side and the shuttlecock came down.
Si-a looked at my side and squinted her eyes.
She must have thought she had made a mistake.
No matter how you looked at it, the speed was too difficult for a beginner to react to.
...If I had overlooked something, unfortunately I wasn't a complete beginner.
I stepped back a little, bent my waist, and did a light under-clear toward Yoo Ji-eun.
"Eh?"
Yoo Ji-eun panicked and jumped to chase the shuttlecock that had barely cleared the net.
But she couldn't swing her racket in time, and the shuttlecock landed with a soft thud.
"1-0!"
The student judging looked surprised and announced our win.
Kim Yun-seong's gaze from far away seemed to say he hadn't expected me to return it.
Si-a also looked at me with wide eyes, startled.
"...What? Seon Woo-hyun. Have you ever played badminton?"
"Eh? No. Just a hobby thing."
"I don't think I could have hit that shot just now either..."
Seeing Si-a muttering that she didn't think she could hit the smash, I said.
"If you get nervous now, what then? You said you'd win."
Like she was paying back what she had said before the match started.
Si-a pouted, then burst out laughing, nodding as if satisfied with my attitude.
"That's right. We have to win."
The match had barely started.
Tak. Squeak. Swoosh. Thwack.
Different from the other teams where people were chatting and cheering, our space was completely silent.
Players and spectators alike.
The only sounds echoing were those of the match itself.
Somehow it showed how focused everyone was.
"Game point!"
By now the PE teacher who had been patrolling had come over and sent the student to judge while taking the whistle himself.
...Even though you were abandoning class like this. Can you really do that, teacher?
The gazes watching our match were a bit stressful, though I found it interesting that the teacher was so entertained.
Most other matches ended quickly because of huge skill gaps, but our team had been closely trading points until the last one.
'Kim Yun-seong, huh. He really wasn't playing around.'
He had said he had been in the badminton club for three years.
After that first careless mistake he gave me, the feeling changed.
His eyes became serious, he communicated with the girl on his team about strategy, and kept adjusting his plans.
Even if his stamina ran out, he covered most of the court with sharp stabs and powerful attacks, constantly getting points.
'Thankfully the people I was playing against back then were from the badminton club.'
Hyeok-jin hyung and I had played mostly against adults.
Even amateurs, the gap between adults and high school students was huge.
And since the club name meant they competed in tournaments and won several times.
Compared to them, Kim Yun-seong didn't seem that scary.
Still, you couldn't be careless because the body I had right now was still that of a high school student whose growth hadn't finished.
'This body has no sense. Only memory.'
This guy who didn't exercise at all had almost no sense.
Even if my head could read the opponent's attack, the body of Seon Woo-hyun, who had only run for a few days, didn't follow my commands.
If it weren't for my big height and long limbs, I probably couldn't have returned it that far either.
14-14.
Since it was a high school match, one set decided the winner.
So this game point would decide the match.
...Why am I shaking like this over nothing?
Just a match in PE class between high school kids.
Sweat poured down my body from nerves.
It wasn't just me. Si-a's face was tense, and Kim Yun-seong and Yoo Ji-eun on the other side were too.
The match started with Si-a's serve.
A light long serve, then a few exchanges.
"Hup."
Since you couldn't give the opponent an easy shot, I gave it all I had and hit a high clear.
Because Kim Yun-seong was so good at smashes, giving him an ambiguous shot would lead to an immediate point loss.
But regardless of my effort, Si-a looked physically drained.
"Hut. Ugh."
She immediately returned the short incoming ball with an under-clear, then floated it into an awkward spot.
Yoo Ji-eun, after a few exchanges, realized it was better to send it back to the guy and naturally passed it behind.
Kim Yun-seong naturally picked up the position and jumped lightly, smashing it.
The shuttlecock came down strongly enough to pierce the net.
It shot straight through between me and Si-a, and thinking she had to make up for her mistake, she backpedaled fast and jumped.
"Ugh."
She tripped on her own foot and fell backward.
Clearly bad form.
If she fell wrong, she could hit her head or twist her leg.
Even so, the shuttlecock fell fast between us.
0.1 seconds?
Instantly a storm of emotions crossed my mind.
Return the ball or grab Si-a?
Putting the ball in at game point would mean giving up the game.
Si-a probably didn't want me to give up.
But.
"Game set. Blue team wins!"
I grabbed my badminton racket and caught the back of the girl who was about to fall.
Naturally my hands were one, so Kim Yun-seong's smash landed straight on the floor.
The game point was given to the opponent.
Whether I wanted to or not, I held up the unbalanced Si-a's body.
And then I asked softly.
"Are you okay?"
Si-a was silent for a moment, then said in a voice with a faint hint of anger.
"...Why did you do that?"
"What?"
"Why did you catch me. I should have just let myself fall and hit the ball."
As if she didn't understand.
Why had I given up the match so easily.
Her eyes, mixed with grievance and faint resentment, looked at me.
And in one corner of her face was apology.
Of course.
She couldn't be that shameless.
She had given me a smash opportunity because of her own mistake, and because she didn't trust me and tried to receive too hard, she had ended up falling and losing the point.
I knew.
I knew that Si-a was a woman with an incredible will to win.
But.
'She's still just a high school kid. A complete baby.'
The only thought that came to me as I looked at her was that.
Even now, I was still thinking of this world as a novel.
Maybe in reality an 18-year-old was supposed to be like this.
When I saw her face upset from losing the match.
Si-a just looked like a child who couldn't bear the frustration.
Hey.
I, annoyed by her, smacked her on the head with my hand.
Si-a screamed and said to me.
"Kyaa! Why did you hit me! I was already upset about losing!"
"Idiot. Is it more important to win or lose right now?"
"Then what else is important?"
What else was important?
Did I have to say it with my own mouth?
"It's more important that you don't get hurt. Don't you know? You're an idiot, Si-a!"
At my words, Si-a's eyes widened.