3rd Grade.
3rd Grade.
Now that I was sixteen, my physical growth seemed more or less finished.
And as if in answer to my faith, my chest was getting bigger and bigger!
'Heh heh heh...'
Buoyed by this growth, I was working out even more intensely. Dad shot me a look.
"You're... going kind of overboard, I think."
I clenched my glutes. The springy, plump-looking ass in the mirror was the highlight.
"Ohhh..."
"Kim Si-yoon... I told you to stop doing that."
"Fine, don't get all serious."
I took a quick shower, changed, and headed outside.
I started walking along the Han River with Da-yeon for our morning exercise.
And we ran into Park Ji-hoon, who was also working out along the Han River.
"Huff... huff... Da-yeon, good to see you. Huff... where are you headed?"
Park Ji-hoon, 186 cm.
He used to be a little runt. Now I had to crane my neck way up to look at him, and it was a blow to my pride.
Ji-hoon, huffing and puffing in front of Da-yeon and me, spotted Tae-oh behind us and called out to him.
"Wanna spar? It's been a while."
"I'm working."
"Just come with us~"
Tae-oh glanced at Da-yeon to read the room.
Despite what he'd said, it looked like he actually wanted to test himself against Ji-hoon for the first time in a while.
Partly to watch Ji-hoon and Tae-oh spar, we all headed to Ji-hoon's training facility.
Before going into the gym, we stopped at the convenience store out front.
"Hey, Ji-hoon."
"Yeah?"
"Hold these. You too, Kim Tae-oh."
""......""
I bought a ton of drinks and made the two of them carry them all, then we went upstairs.
The people here... to be exact, they only welcomed Da-yeon and me.
Then they spotted Tae-oh, who hadn't been around in a while, and their eyes lit up.
While Park Ji-hoon and Kim Tae-oh got ready, Da-yeon and I leaned against each other and played a mobile game.
"Ah... I lost again..."
"Si-yoon... you were doing great! Just keep at it!"
"Da-yeon... you... never play this except when you're with me, you know."
"No, I don't! Every day I—"
I pulled up Da-yeon's play log. It said ten hours of playtime. Meanwhile, mine said 250 hours.
""......""
Without a word, I fished a mustache-shaped snack out of the bag beside me. Then the two of them came out, changed into sparring gear.
I whispered into Da-yeon's ear as she gazed at Tae-oh with sparkling eyes.
"You still like Tae-oh?"
Da-yeon's face instantly turned bright red.
"Yeah..."
"Tae-oh's a lucky guy~ having Da-yeon like him. Seems like you like him more than me these days~"
"Huh? Hey, that's absolutely not true."
I looked at Da-yeon as she went dead serious at my words, and I laughed.
"Ahaha"
I placed the snack on top of Da-yeon's fidgeting hand.
"It's a new flavor that just came out. It's good, try it."
Park Ji-hoon and Kim Tae-oh warmed up for a long while, then stepped into the cage.
"Ooh, it's starting~ Go down, Park Ji-hoon~ Get pummeled by Tae-oh~!"
"Yeah~ not gonna happen~"
The match began, and Tae-oh found himself acknowledging Park Ji-hoon all over again.
Just blocking a punch with his forearm had sent Tae-oh's body floating into the air...
Tae-oh was aghast at the power behind the punch, like getting hit by a car, and he abandoned his guard.
Reasoning that a single graze from a punch like that would knock him out cold, Tae-oh dodged everything and looked for counters.
Ji-hoon, who'd apparently been training mainly in boxing lately, instinctively slipped Tae-oh's punches—so fast Tae-oh himself couldn't even perceive them—with smooth, fluid movements.
At first, Ji-hoon dodged while weaving in his guard. Then, as if he'd grown accustomed to Tae-oh's punches, he started evading them lightly. It was a pretty flashy sight.
"Whoa!"
He smoothly evaded Tae-oh's high kick and planted a leg kick on the opposite leg. Tae-oh tumbled, spinning once in midair before sprawling out.
It would've been natural to despair at being so utterly outclassed, but Tae-oh was smiling.
As the round ended and he lay on the ground, Tae-oh spoke.
"Wait one more year."
"And then you'll still never beat me?"
"If that happens... then wait just one more year..."
"Yeah, if I keep waiting, I'll be the one who dies first. Get up if you've rested enough."
Tae-oh, who'd been staring at the ceiling, nodded and got up.
Tae-oh started mixing elbows into his existing striking. The motions had a style I'd watched in Tae-oh for years, dissolved right into them.
Clean and yet spectacular movements.
Tae-oh's fists, extending with beautiful efficiency and zero wasted motion, seemed to announce for all to see: here stands a combat prodigy.
If only his opponent weren't Ji-hoon...
As Ji-hoon stepped in to throw a kick, Tae-oh shoved at Ji-hoon's moving thigh with his foot to create distance.
Watching this, the head instructor was aghast at a match between two sixteen-year-olds.
By now, even if Ji-hoon half-assed it, he could chew up and spit out amateur adults with ease.
And then there was Oh Jeong-su, a UMM middleweight.
He'd already climbed to 6th in the middleweight rankings and was building worldwide notoriety as the Korean Zombie.
His sparring partner was always Ji-hoon these days.
According to the head instructor, Ji-hoon beats Oh Jeong-su at a ratio of about 6:4.
In the past, when Oh Jeong-su took down the 4th-ranked fighter, he'd said something at a public event.
—"There's a fifteen-year-old monster in Korea. Hahaha, when that kid grows up, UMM will be welcoming a monster."
UMM fans set online communities ablaze speculating about who that monster was,
but the monster Oh Jeong-su was talking about was Ji-hoon, and since he'd never actually competed in a tournament, nobody else could figure it out.
HSW's own little monster Kim Tae-oh, putting up a fight against Park Ji-hoon—who had become such a monster—was more than enough to make the instructor's jaw drop.
However much he was struggling, Tae-oh was a prospect with unrivaled potential, if you excluded Park Ji-hoon anyway.
Da-yeon and I were watching it all live, munching on snacks.
"Whoa... Tae-oh's gotten crazy strong, huh?"
"Yeah! Tae-oh's so cool~"
"What about Ji-hoon?"
"He's ugly."
'Why did I even ask...'
I was about to apologize to Ji-hoon in my head, but somehow he'd heard us. He shouted.
"Hey! Isn't that a little too direct?!"
He was looking at Da-yeon but still dodging Tae-oh's punches without even looking at them. Tae-oh was thrown off.
Then Ji-hoon looked at Tae-oh and spoke.
"I'll just get stronger the stronger you get. You think you can keep up?"
"Of course..."
"Hahah, I really like you."
"Same here."
Watching them exchange such cringey dialogue felt like it was making my own skin crawl even worse,
but Da-yeon seemed to like that sort of thing. Her eyes were sparkling.
Well... Da-yeon had liked that kind of stuff since she was little.
And I had been the one to tempt Da-yeon with it, hadn't I—that if they became rivals, Kim Tae-oh and Park Ji-hoon would get close.
After Ji-hoon had toyed with him for a good while, he casually popped a jab into a spent Tae-oh. The punch landed on Tae-oh's chin. His legs gave out and he slumped down.
"You really... are strong..."
"Yeah?"
Tae-oh, lying on the floor, looked at the bright ceiling and chuckled.
Seeing that, Ji-hoon placed his fingers against his eyebrows so his palms covered his eyes, gazed at the sky, and laughed boisterously.
"...Are you shooting a movie? Cringe as fuck."
""......""
One line from me, and the whole room went quiet.
I was sprawled out on a chair in the clubroom.
Da-yeon, Ji-hoon, Tae-oh, Min-ji, and Jun-su were all studying in the clubroom.
In stark contrast, I had on sunglasses, a tropical golden-colored drink poured over ice with a straw in it, and I was sipping away.
Savoring the peace and quiet, I indulged in the luxury of leaving the AC blasting on full while keeping the window open.
That was when someone arrived to shatter the silence.
The vice-president.
"President!"
"What."
"There's a meeting for the school trip coming up?"
"Handle it yourself."
"Got it."
She knew perfectly well I'd react this way, yet the vice-president still jumped at any excuse to see my face, if only once more.
She was the brat who'd confessed to me the previous year.
"Ah, right. This year, the 3rd-years are going to Korea."
"Pardon? Why?"
"'Cause I don't wanna deal with packing a passport."
"Ah... okay."
The vice-president noticed Park Ji-hoon and Tae-oh, who'd been studying and were now glaring at her for breaking the silence. She quickly slipped outside.
Once the vice-president was gone, Park Ji-hoon spoke to me.
"What are you doing?"
"Basking in the peace."
"You're acting stuck-up as fuck."
"...?"
I lowered my sunglasses slightly and stared at Park Ji-hoon.
"Sorry."
"If you're bored, don't pick fights with me. Go outside and play ball with Tae-oh or something."
Park Ji-hoon glanced sideways at Kim Tae-oh at my words. Kim Tae-oh, as if unable to resist the temptation, stole a quick look at Da-yeon.
Da-yeon smiled and nodded.
Tae-oh sprang to his feet and thumped Park Ji-hoon on the arm.
"Let's go!!!"
Tae-oh suddenly got all fired up too, and he dragged Jun-su outside with him.
Ji-hoon and Tae-oh had gotten close at breakneck speed. These days, it kind of felt like Tae-oh's personality had been infected by the Park Ji-hoon virus.
Still, Tae-oh made sure to pull the door firmly shut so it locked behind them as they left.
Only Da-yeon, Min-ji, and I remained in the clubroom.
I quickly got up and handed Da-yeon a handkerchief and a drink.
"You okay?"
"Da-yeon! Are you okay?"
"Yeah, unlike Si-yoon, mine doesn't hurt that bad."
""So jealous~~""
"Oh, come on, what's there to be jealous of..."
"You have no idea. For me, it feels like someone's driving a fist into my lower abdomen..."
Min-ji looked at me, aghast.
"It's that bad?"
"For real...?"
I nodded under both their gazes.
"Yeah... It's not like that normally, just sometimes. That's why my face gets all pale and I end up all hunched over, and then my back hurts, you know... Da-yeon, you want me to turn off the AC?"
"Nope~"
"Tell me if you need the bathroom. Don't go alone."
"Okay. More importantly, how do I solve this problem?"
I looked at the CSAT practice question Da-yeon was stuck on and explained the solving process.
Outside on the field, Kim Tae-oh, Park Ji-hoon, Heo Jun-su were running around... Before we knew it, the soccer club had joined them, and they'd filled out the numbers for a full match.
"Not easy to do that during exam period."
"Right..."
"Si-yoon!"
At the sound of Min-ji's voice, I looked over. She was showing me a math problem.
"How do you solve this?"
I left Da-yeon for the moment and helped Min-ji with her studying.
Before long, the bell rang, and the others came back after finishing their showers.
I looked at Kim Tae-oh and said,
"Is Ji-hoon still a shrimp?"
"HEY!!!"
Kim Tae-oh smirked and shook his head.
"She called it a shrimp, so I thought it was true, but it's absolutely not."
"Oh?"
Park Ji-hoon looked at Kim Tae-oh and spoke.
"Don't."
"It's a compliment."
"Which is why I'm telling you not to compliment me about my stuff."
"...Got it."
To be fair, Ji-hoon's thing, which occasionally got bigger due to physiological phenomena, was not at the shrimp level I remembered.
We parted ways with Min-ji and Jun-su to go to our final homeroom of the day. On the way to our classroom, Da-yeon spoke to me.
"Oh, right. Grandpa says he has a present for you?"
"Me?"
"Yeah. He told us both to come visit him at the headquarters after exams."
"He's been calling for us a lot lately... He's not unwell, is he?"
Da-yeon thought about it for a moment, then nodded.
"Mm... I haven't heard anything like that. I mean, for his age, I don't think there are many people as hale and hearty as Grandpa..."
"Even so, running a corporation that big, he could easily have all kinds of minor stress-related ailments."
"Yeah, that's why he gets a full checkup once a week."
I'd briefly forgotten we were living in the 21st century.
It wasn't easy for a wealthy person to die young in the 21st century.
There was even a saying that doctors would revive you even if you tried to die.
"You're right. He's probably in good health..."
Since exams were coming right up, I quickly repeated problem after problem.
Exams started. By now, everyone seemed so used to the sound of my breathing that they didn't pay me any mind.
A perfect 100-point average.
That was me. I'd achieved the glorious feat of a perfect 100-point average over eight exams, spanning 1st and 2nd year.
I looked for a moment at the grade-wide rankings posted on the board. Da-yeon, having missed just one question, was in 2nd place.
In the old days, Da-yeon would've worn an expression like she was in physical pain if she got even one wrong. But now she just laughed it off.
"Oohhh, Da-yeon~"
"Wahhh!~ I'm 2nd!"
"Heh heh... I still fall short... but even so, you are remarkable..."
"Heh heh heh... I shall surpass you someday, I pledge!"
And Kim Tae-oh was ranked 192nd. Park Ji-hoon was 233rd.
You might think those are awfully low ranks, but at this school, it's actually harder to find a kid who's bad at studying.
Because they've either all got innate intelligence or they've been educated with enormous financial backing.
It was strange enough to be noteworthy to see those two staying up all night to study.
"As expected, I'm the one who's ahead in academics."
"Wait just one more year..."
"If I wait, I might be the one who dies first..."
"This little... saying the exact same thing as me..."