It was like that even when he was young. The coach had gone to the trouble of scouting and bringing the genius, but Jeong Minha joined the soccer club at school. After that, he suddenly said he wanted to try short track too and went to the skating rink. Meanwhile, he only came to the shooting range occasionally to practice.
The coach held back his anger and persuaded Jeong Minha as kindly as possible. You can win a gold medal just by standing still and shooting, so why choose the hard path?
Even when Jeong Minha kept skipping practice and going off on other paths, the coach couldn’t really say much. Even coming back to shoot after several months, he was still first place on the team. The coach was in a position where he had to beg.
Eventually, Jeong Minha, who completely set his course on shooting, worked hard at training after that. Already a genius and even putting in effort, Jeong Minha developed his own formula.
The first shot was always in the 10-point range, and…….
[10.3]
[10.7]
“……!”
Up to three shots to get the aim right.
If the score went up smoothly, the next score was as good as decided.
[10.9]
“?!”
From the fourth shot on, it was always a perfect score.
The murmuring sounds of people in the arena grew louder.
[10.9]
[10.9]
[10.9]
Because someone appearing after several years was leaving a monster-like record of consecutive perfect scores from the first round.
‘How can he be like that?’
For air pistol, even after aiming and firing, you had to maintain your stance briefly for tracking. To shoot one round, you had to keep maintaining one stance for several seconds. Then you had to reload one shot at a time again.
Repeating that process while perfectly recreating the stance from the previous perfect shot—it was only possible with extremely high concentration and stamina.
Jeong Minha even shot faster than average. Only at the beginning when finding the center point did he breathe long to increase accuracy, then after the aim was set, he just shot right away as soon as he was ready. Even though he had to reset his stance each time changing bullets, he continued to record high scores as if his body remembered.
‘So this is why they call him a genius.’
In the end, naturally, Jeong Minha took first place.
Actually, there were times when his score dropped, perhaps losing concentration a bit in the middle, but he was still in first place regardless.
People were amazed and Jeong Minha thought,
‘……I’m screwed?’
If the people who were eliminated heard this, they would have hit him. But Jeong Minha was really serious.
He naturally thought he wouldn’t make a single mistake, but absurd big mistakes kept occurring in the middle. Even this, if someone heard, they would have found it absurd asking how a 9-point score was a big mistake, but it was important to Jeong Minha. Because Jeong Minha’s average was close to a perfect score.
Even during the last Olympics, he shot well the whole time but got anxious because of the coach and made his first mistake hitting the 8-point range. In the end, he missed even the gold medal. He was so shocked that the incident followed him like trauma for a while, making him slightly lose confidence.
However, starting practice again this year, he maintained the 10-point range. He was satisfied with himself too. Right, this is it. But at the actual selection tournament, he made a mistake again hitting the 9-point range. This isn’t right?
But this time, it wasn’t a mistake from getting anxious like back then. Rather…….
―Minha, you’re really so cool….
Jeong Minha had heard too much of Seo Sihan’s praise in real time while training. Perhaps because of that, even just now during the competition, Seo Sihan’s voice suddenly sounded like an auditory hallucination. The moment the gentle voice replayed in his head, his hand flinched minutely.
[9.7]
The flustered Jeong Minha tried hard to erase the thought. But it didn’t work as easily as he wished. Trying to erase it made him remember even more vividly.
―Want to try hitting the mouth?
[9.3]
“Damn it……”
Why do you keep having weird imaginations about hyung, you crazy bastard….. Jeong Minha was angry out of guilt, but to other people, it looked like he was angry because his score dropped. That’s a score to get that angry about? Whether people were curious or not, Jeong Minha waged his own battle alone.
Calm down, calm down. Right. Instead of thinking about what I like, let’s think about what I hate. Things I hate, things I hate…… Ah, that trash coach bastard…….
[10.6]
[10.9]
Jeong Minha, who came back to his senses, was able to safely pass through in first place.
* * *
The national team selection tournament had all concluded. Jeong Minha fought a difficult battle with his own heart through day 5.
‘Still, I might not have been able to do it at all, so I’m fortunate….’
Actually, Jeong Minha wasn’t qualified to participate in this tournament.
A month ago, after renewing his athlete registration again, when reading the national team selection tournament notice.
“……Huh?”
―[202X Olympic National Team Selection Tournament Participation Qualifications [Pistol]: Participants in at least 1 point-awarding competition before the selection tournament opens]
“Points…?”
During the last Olympics, he just went to various competitions as the coach told him to and went to the Olympics, so he didn’t know, but it turned out those were all necessary competitions. And Jeong Minha hadn’t competed in any tournaments over the past few years.
……I, I can’t compete in the Olympics? I’m really good right now though? In shock, Jeong Minha agonized over various things.
First, give up on this Olympics and prepare for the next Olympics.
“But then I’d have to wait 4 more years……”
Even now his conscience was killing him, so he couldn’t ask Seo Sihan to wait just 4 more years. In the end, he chose the next option.
Second, beg.
Jeong Minha called the association out of the blue and politely begged.
By any chance, besides regional competitions, wouldn’t past Olympic records be included as qualifying points? Please, I’m begging you…… I’m really confident I’ll do well…….
With some man suddenly begging, the person who answered the phone sighed and first asked for his name. Who is this?
And the moment they heard the name Jeong Minha, they immediately changed their attitude.
They didn’t answer like that when I called after the Olympics 4 years ago! They wanted to get angry first, but the person in charge held back. After all, at that time, rumors had spread quite a bit that there was some problem between Jeong Minha and the coach. Since a federation-affiliated coach caused trouble and ran away, they were also feeling some remorse and responsibility in their own way.
Having no choice, the person in charge said they would discuss this matter, and a few days later, a new notice was posted.
―[National Team Selection Policy (2nd Revision) Notice: According to board resolution, participation qualification added for athletes with Olympic medal records]
Reading the notice, Jeong Minha cheered. Thank goodness! Thank you! But hyung is also a director, so is this board of directors the same one by any chance? I’m not sure, but hyung must be a really high-up person after all. Jeong Minha fell into thoughts of Seo Sihan again, then came back to his senses and registered to participate.
And so currently, Jeong Minha, who had safely finished the selection tournament in final first place, thought on the train going home.
He thought he was fortunate to get first place, but thinking about it, it wasn’t fortunate. During the 5 rounds, there were always mistakes every day. He became serious again about this. Going on like this, it would definitely end up exactly like 4 years ago.
Since he was now competing individually, there was no longer anyone pressuring him to win a gold medal like his old coach, but he still wanted to win a gold medal.
Before, it was a simple reason. Just because gold was cooler than silver.
But now there was a clear reason.
‘…I want to give hyung a gold medal as a gift.’
Except for the fact that that hyung was the party causing the mistakes, it was a truly romantic goal.
I got motivated to work hard because I wanted to give hyung a gold medal, but what if mistakes also occur because of hyung during the Olympics?
Around the time he was pondering this philosophical problem, the train arrived at its destination. Yawning while gathering his luggage and getting off, Jeong Minha was shocked to see a familiar person standing far away by the stairs.
“……Hyung?!”
It was Friday afternoon at 5 PM. Seo Sihan, who should be at work, found Jeong Minha and smiled brightly.
I thought about hyung all day, so am I finally going crazy and even seeing fantasies? It was an unbelievable scene, so he just blinked his eyes wide.
But the moment the words “I missed you” came out of that fantasy’s mouth, Jeong Minha ultimately couldn’t hold back and ran to Seo Sihan.
