The sudden and direct praise left me flustered. I clenched my hands with the doodles on them for no reason. Seeing me like that, Eorin grinned.
“Junsu-ya, Yeongjin-ah. Let’s do well. You know, right? You two have to run the most.”
“Don’t worry. We gotta show our kids a taste of the finals.”
“Aw, my babies. Hyung will carry you. Trust and follow me.”
At Junsu and Yeongjin’s words, Woojin and I nodded enthusiastically with shining eyes.
We put our hands together, shouted “Fighting!” and took our positions. Soon the whistle blew and the game began.
When I suddenly burst forward, the opposing team looked flustered. It was understandable since I ran off without even paying attention to the ball while kids came rushing at me in a swarm. Standing at my favorite three-point line spot and looking back, the first thing that caught my eye was Woojin standing planted like he was rooted to the ground with his hands stretched overhead. What Eorin said about Woojin being the strongest turned out to be true. Plus with his height, just having his hands stretched out made the kids unable to think about shooting right in front of him, so they passed the ball backward.
“Junsu-ya, cut it!”
“Na Junsu—!”
I heard cheering. Junsu, who had pushed between the opposing team, reached for the ball. The flustered Class 9 kid lobbed the ball high, and it was Yeongjin who intercepted it. Our class kids shrieked while calling out Yeongjin’s name.
Sensing the ball would come, I took position to receive the pass. With bouncing sounds, Eorin ran toward me. While Eorin blocked the Class 9 kid charging at me, Yeongjin passed me the ball.
When I’m extremely focused, there are times when I don’t even blink. This was exactly one of those times. Before the match, Eorin said seizing the initiative was important. So if I got the first chance to shoot, I should show them properly. I rubbed the ball with my palm. Like the smiley face drawn on my palm was kissing the ball.
I adjusted my grip on the ball, bent my knees, jumped up while leaning back slightly, extended my arms, and flicked my wrist. When the ball left my fingertips, I already knew it would go in.
*Swish.* The ball passed through the rim.
With a face asking if this was enough to seize the initiative, I looked back at Eorin. The moment Eorin’s eyes met mine and he grinned, a tremendous cheer erupted. I smiled back at Eorin in return.
I don’t know if my first shot really helped seize the initiative, but we beat Class 9 by a large point margin. When the game-ending whistle blew and the PE teacher gave us the victory sign, the Class 9 kids put their hands on their hips and hung their heads. But there was no time to feel sorry. I nearly got crushed to death by the kids who came rushing at me with cheers.
“You did great! So great! You’re the best! Amazing!”
“How did a kid like you end up in our class? You’re really a treasure, a treasure.”
The kids ruffled my hair while each saying something. The teacher also clapped with a beaming smile. I patted Roh Jinho and Yeon Jaejeong who were hugging me while laughing.
“Thanks for cheering.”
“Thanks for playing basketball! Thanks for being born!”
Yeon Jaejeong shouted. I giggled.
“Did we win the championship or something?”
“Right. It’s still just the first round, you know? This is a piece of cake.”
Junsu and Yeongjin held their noses high. While patting Woojin who was staggering over with his tension released, I made eye contact with Eorin.
Eorin held up the palm where I had drawn for him, waved it around, then gave a thumbs up. At that grinning face, I smiled back and gave a thumbs up too.
Since the game was held during lunch break, we had to return to class and attend afternoon classes without even having time to calm our excitement. But the teachers who sensed the strangely uplifted atmosphere asked at the start of each class if we had won something, and during breaks we’d gather in a crowd, draw lines on the tournament bracket, and make plans assuming various scenarios. Other classes probably weren’t this enthusiastic about the sports festival, but since I liked our class that played with all their might, I silently participated.
“Wait, let me see. So we made it to the basketball semifinals, so that’s 300 points secured for now. And for foot volleyball and soccer we have 200 points secured, but who are we playing tomorrow for foot volleyball?”
“Class 1, they said.”
“Are they good?”
“Nah, they’re just easy prey.”
“Yes, then 300 points~!”
Junsu stretched the 2 in the 200 he had written under foot volleyball to make it a 3 while laughing. The kid who was actually playing foot volleyball didn’t say a word though.
“We have tug-of-war at dinner time later. We’ll win, right?”
“Woojin will win it all for us.”
“Hey, I’m not that strong.”
“Not strong, my ass. You’re talking nonsense. Did you even use any strength during basketball today?”
“When he just stands there and people come crashing into him and fall over on their own, what strength would he have used? Wow, we’re gonna win tug-of-war too~!”
Whether Woojin was sobbing or not, the kids excitedly wrote 200 points under tug-of-war too.
“If we win the soccer preliminaries next Tuesday, it’s the finals. So we go in with at least 400 points. Ah, a bye is fucking great. Where’s Na Junsu? I need to give him a kiss.”
“Yeah, I’m here. Hurry up and do it.”
“You did fucking great, my baby!”
“Ah, are we really gonna win the championship?”
“We have to, you’re stating the obvious. What we’re aiming for isn’t the grade championship but the overall championship.”
The reason we weren’t calculating wins and losses but figuring out points while drawing lines on the tournament bracket was all because of that. We had to have a higher total score than the winning second-year class to win the overall championship.
“Ah, somehow… I’m so at ease since there’s no worry about basketball.”
“Why no worry?”
“Why? Because you’re here.”
Meanwhile, I had a mountain of worries. During the actual match, maybe it was adrenaline, but I even shamelessly looked at Eorin like “Did I do well?” and stuff like that. But looking at the tournament bracket while drawing lines, worries suddenly came flooding in. Fortunately it’s a bye so we go straight to the semifinals, but then only good players will remain. Can I do it?
“Don’t trust me too much…”
“Chiwon-ah, don’t you want to dye your hair? Red.”
“Hey, what is Chiwon, Kang Baekho? Chiwon is Jeong Daeman.”
The conversation went in a weird direction. After discussing for a while, the kids seemed to reach a consensus on Jeong Daeman and even gave me the nickname ‘Man of Flames.’ I asked with a bewildered feeling.
“Who’s Jeong Daeman?”
“…Don’t tell me…”
“You don’t know? The Man of Flames, Jeong Daeman…?”
The most shocked face belonged to Roh Jinho. And the next day, Roh Jinho lent me the complete set of ‘Slam Dunk.’
In the second round of foot volleyball, we suffered a crushing defeat to Class 1 who we said was nothing. After losing once, the kids with poison in their eyes ran around desperately, and except for foot volleyball, we made it to the finals for everything else. Our homeroom teacher, who said on the first day of school that even if we couldn’t study, we’d be kids who’d die trying to win first place at the sports festival, clicked his tongue watching us make those words come true.
And on the day of the sports festival, the kids giggled while putting on the class shirts delivered to the classroom. The only one not laughing was me. Because the class shirts were kindergarten uniforms.
When told we could print whatever phrase we wanted, the kids unanimously insisted on ‘Sunsu Kindergarten.’ As expected, I was the only one who opposed, so the class shirts proceeded as planned. The bright yellow class shirts that arrived had ‘Sunsu Kindergarten’ written in black letters on the back along with names, so my class shirt read ‘Sunsu Kindergarten Kindergarten.’ The kids laughed gleefully at me making a tearful face.
There was one other kid besides me who made a tearful face when the class shirts actually arrived, and that was Eorin. Someone had changed it so Eorin’s class shirt said ‘Sunsu Kindergarten Child.’ Eorin made an aggrieved expression saying he definitely wrote Kim Eorin, but it couldn’t be undone on the day of the sports festival. Since Eorin was the one who had voted in favor with a beaming smile when the idea to do kindergarten uniforms came up, I found him a bit annoying so instead of comforting him, I giggled.
When we went out to the field wearing our class shirts, kids wearing ridiculous outfits of various colors were chattering away excitedly. Police uniforms right next to prisoner uniforms, and next to those, hospital gowns and Saemaul Movement uniforms. It was total chaos but our class was the funniest. Woojin brought laughter with every step he took. We lined up to listen to the chairman’s words of instruction, and after the PE teacher’s plea to absolutely not do anything dangerous, the sports festival began.
The first game was the foot volleyball finals so we had nothing to do. But Eorin had to warm up for the obstacle race which was right after. It was funny just seeing sturdy kids in fluttering yellow kindergarten uniforms going “heave-ho.” Eorin was the last runner who had to jump over the vaulting horse.
“Eorin-ah, do well.”
“Chiwon-ah.”
“Yeah?”
“Do this for me.”
Eorin, who had been rummaging in his pocket, handed me a pen and spread his palm as I approached to cheer him on. Understanding instantly what “this” meant, I grinned and drew a smiley face on his palm and wrote “Fighting.”
“Done?”
“No. Put him in a kindergarten uniform.”
At the random request, I had opened my mouth but realized from Eorin’s expression that he was joking. So I immediately picked up the pen and really did dress him nicely in a kindergarten uniform.
“Done?”
“Yeah.”
“What, is it a lucky charm? Draw one for me too.”
When the kids going to the race gathered around, this time Eorin uncapped the pen. Eorin’s smiley faces had an excellent effect.
“Ah, foot volleyball ended.”
“Who won?”
“Class 1.”
Junsu came over with the paper with the tournament bracket, drew lines, calculated points, and racked his brain. Looking at his expression, it seemed we were still in the safe zone.
“Except for Class 1’s foot volleyball win, they haven’t won anything. It’s fine. We can win.”
“They’re calling the obstacle race players. Kids, fighting! Come back after winning everything!”
An announcement came and the kids went down to the field. Before going, Eorin squeezed my hand tightly. Thinking he might be nervous unlike himself, I grabbed Eorin’s hand with both hands and shook it.
“Do well and come back.”
“Yeah.”
Again, that calm face. Only then did I realize that Eorin’s expression becomes blank when he’s nervous.
The obstacle race was second place. He was in fifth place because he got caught while coming out of the net in the middle, but at the end Eorin caught up to three people. Our class cheered practically demolishing the stands.
The soccer game that was next went to a tie and penalty kicks, but we lost by one point. At this point, the smiles disappeared from the kids’ faces. But during lunch break, when Woojin defeated all the other classes in the arm wrestling match held as a special event and walked back majestically, the anxiety completely vanished.
