Young Kwon Yunsu, who came back from even the neighborhood playground with injuries hanging all over him, ultimately was never allowed to join a club.
“Don’t bend your ankle when you kick the ball.”
“Okay.”
He hadn’t even done much but was already dripping with sweat. After watching for about 5 minutes, Lee Euishin reconfirmed that Kwon Yunsu’s ball-handling sense was terrible. And the bigger problem was,
“Wait. Kwon Yunsu, stop.”
“Huff, hoo, gasp… Huh?”
“What’s your 50-meter dash time?”
“7 seconds!”
His feet were fast, but,
“What about the shuttle run?”
“I don’t remember that.”
“Do you remember the grade?”
“…Grade 3.”
“What about grip strength?”
“That too…”
The vice president’s words were indeed accurate. Lee Euishin smiled brightly.
“You have weak stamina.”
“……”
The country puppy’s flustered face was getting more and more amusing. And the guy spouted nonsense.
“Hey, I haven’t grown hair yet?!”
“What?”
“Hair down there hasn’t grown yet. I haven’t hit my growth spurt peak yet, you know? I’ll grow 20cm more from here and muscles will just, like this! Like this! They’ll attach, you know? Can’t you tell from watching me eat and exercise? Stamina is just a matter of time!”
“Ah… right.”
While saying that, Lee Euishin looked at Kwon Yunsu’s loose crotch area inside his gym pants.
“What are you looking at? Want me to show you?”
“Never mind. Just play with the ball.”
Kwon Yunsu grumbled and resumed exercising. Of course, as Lee Euishin expected, his stamina ran out before even 30 minutes passed, so they couldn’t even try shooting practice that day.
“I’m hungry…”
Having left food at lunch and only eaten one fish cake, yet jumping around like that, of course he’d be hungry. More than that, Lee Euishin was curious why Kwon Yunsu was following him.
“Why are you following me?”
Whether his neck was stiff, Kwon Yunsu rolled his head around.
“Oh, I’m walking you home. I can go this way to my house too.”
“Go home and ask your mom for food.”
The eyes looking up at the apartment complex lights while pretending not to hear wavered slightly. Of course he hadn’t told anyone about his mom yet. He was afraid it would become real if he said it out loud.
“It’s okay, hyung will walk you home.”
“How do you know where I’m going?”
“You? You’re going to your house, obviously.”
We’re not communicating. Lee Euishin shook his head. He wanted to hurry home and be alone.
“Just follow me to that corner and then go away on your own.”
“If you walk about 30 steps from that corner, there’s a convenience store—want to eat ramen there before you go?”
So that was the real agenda.
“You think eating junk food like that will build your stamina?”
“How can you call something so delicious junk food?”
“Eat a lot by yourself.”
“…Hey, are you playing hard to get?”
A sulky voice. Lee Euishin’s feet, which had been walking forward, stopped dead. When he turned his gaze, the country bumpkin dressed in green gym clothes from top to bottom came newly into view. Even his balls looked small. Lee Euishin bent down toward Kwon Yunsu.
“You, what do you know to say things like that? Are you showing off right now?”
When he whispered at a distance close enough for their noses to touch, Kwon Yunsu made a “hik” sound and pulled back his upper body. Then he screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Fine, I’m the son of a rich man so I go around spilling money everywhere! Happy? I’ll even buy you baby kimchi and strawberry milk, so let’s eat before we go! You’re the first person to refuse when I offer to buy ramen!”
He was completely like a 5-year-old child sprawled out in the middle of a supermarket. Lee Euishin grabbed Kwon Yunsu’s arm and replied in a low voice.
“…Then try treating me once.”
Dragging Kwon Yunsu, who dangled from the end of his arm, toward the corner, Lee Euishin felt an inexplicable sense of crisis. How did his peaceful life of exile become like this?
That day at the convenience store, Kwon Yunsu, who was not the son of a rich man, had to spend two weeks’ worth of allowance.
In any case, after that day, Kwon Yunsu stopped obsessing over soccer practice. Meaning he let go of his obsession with group practice and instead started obsessing over Lee Euishin’s coaching.
The training Lee Euishin assigned was stuff anyone could find with just one simple search on the internet, and monitoring the movements wasn’t work that required great discernment either. For posture correction, you’d get useful advice from any random guy crazy about soccer.
But one-on-one practice required time. Moreover, one-on-one practice in a situation where one person wouldn’t even participate in the soccer tournament and didn’t even like soccer—that could only be possible with the dedication and sacrifice of that one person as a prerequisite. Time. Dedication. Sacrifice! Of one person!!!
‘Why does it have to be me?!’
Kwon Yunsu, who couldn’t possibly be unaware of Lee Euishin’s fury, now started doing something really cute. He started offering tribute to Lee Euishin in the form of the crowning jewel of the precious school lunch.
“Please partake, master. This body is fine going hungry.”
“Why am I your master? Get lost.”
With trembling hands, Kwon Yunsu presented a mini hot dog neatly drizzled with ketchup, his cheeks sunken. Whether it was because of the recent physical exhaustion or because he couldn’t eat ramen, which was spiritual nourishment, the already thin guy had become like a sheet of paper. Even Lee Euishin, who had been accepting Kwon Yunsu’s tributes out of stubbornness for the past few days, couldn’t bring himself to do so today. He felt like a daylight robber taking money with snot on it from an elementary schooler. Lee Euishin snatched the hot dog from Kwon Yunsu’s hand and counterattacked.
“Ah.”
“Ah.”
Kwon Yunsu had never once in his life refused food.
“Don’t make me feel weird and just eat a lot yourself.”
“You’re the one who refused.”
“Yeah.”
“But I offered.”
“Eat.”
“You’re not just going to leave without accepting my tribute, are you?”
“As if you’d let me go gracefully?!”
Despite being the one who embarrassed him enough to make the playground shake whenever he picked up his bag. Lee Euishin irritably threw the hot dog onto Kwon Yunsu’s tray. Of course the kid would be in that state when they serve this kind of childish snack as a school meal.
“When you’re sick of looking at me and want to leave, I won’t let you go even if I die… Thank you, teacher.”
It was so natural that no one noticed the verse had changed. Tick. Leech. Country bumpkin. Stalker. Kwon Yunsu ate the hot dog with rice stuck to it with a grateful face.
“You eat so well, but why has your face become so poor lately?”
Muttering as if it was strange, Baek Seunghyun touched Kwon Yunsu here and there. …Touched. Kim Wonwoo had been called away for broadcasting club work so there was a bit more room today, but even so, they were sitting crammed together with three trays on one desk. Since the guy was big and had long arms, he casually reached out to touch Kwon Yunsu’s head, kneaded his nape and shoulders, and poked his sides, so from across the table it almost looked like he was being held.
“Ticklish.”
Kwon Yunsu only said that but showed no sign of pushing him away, focusing only on eating.
“Isn’t it because you’re exercising too much?”
“It’s not that…”
“Not that?”
“Dinner’s been a bit poor, lately.”
Saying that, Kwon Yunsu scraped up every bit of the bean sprout salad and pollack soup. Lee Euishin, who had put down his spoon a while ago and was resting his chin in his hand, opened his mouth thinking ‘no way.’
“That cup ramen isn’t your dinner, is it?”
Kwon Yunsu nodded seriously.
“That’s right, you took away two weeks’ worth of my food. Yesterday I counted out every last 10-won coin to buy one Juicy Cool and the lady looked at me pitifully. Class President, don’t forget what you did.”
He was like this every time he opened his mouth, so nothing could be trusted. Lee Euishin picked up his tray and stood up.
“You said you wanted to buy it for me. When did you say I was playing hard to get?”
