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[A deep, sharp attack from player Gye Taeju! As expected of Wooseong Chemical’s ace, truly world-class. And with that, the match ends in Korea’s victory.]
The camera focused on Taeju, smiling leisurely as he returned to his position.
The epithets attached to Taeju were dazzling. The Eagle on the Court, the Prince of the Court, the Volleyball Emperor, and so on. His visuals surpassed those of any actor, and his skills were world-class as well. However, there was also a saying that while God had given Taeju everything, He had withheld the one thing called personality.
“Gye Taeju, isn’t he really amazing? With that face, all he does is work out. If it were me, I’d be too busy going out with women to focus.”
“Teacher Kim, that’s sexual harassment, you know?”
“Teacher Jang, you always make a fuss over nothing.”
The staff room was ablaze with excitement over the ongoing Olympics.
“Anyway, isn’t this the first time our men’s volleyball team might actually win a medal?”
“Oh right, Teacher Sim. Didn’t you say you’re friends with player Gye Taeju?”
Every eye in the staff room turned to Jaeyeong. This was why she hated when the Olympics came around. No, to be exact, she hated volleyball talk.
From a young age, Taeju had drawn eyes and received attention wherever he went. First, his striking appearance contributed to it, but his indifferent attitude added to it even more. He showed no interest in anything; he displayed curiosity toward nothing.
The one thing such a Taeju had been obsessed with was volleyball. At first, Taeju’s parents thought so, and Jaeyeong thought so too—that Taeju would quickly grow tired of volleyball and quit. At the time, Taeju was taller than his peers but smaller than friends who played sports, and he was extremely skinny, so he would get exhausted and fall out quickly.
But Taeju’s passion for volleyball was extraordinary. Realizing that he was lacking compared to the children who exercised with him, Taeju began drinking milk regularly from then on—milk he had hated so much. He ate a lot, and he exercised until he was exhausted. That was how Taeju gradually changed.
At first, because he was short, he took charge of defense, and as he gradually grew taller, he became an attacker equipped with explosive jumping power and speed. Players with such perfect offense and defense were rare, and everyone went wild, saying a genius had appeared in men’s volleyball. But Jaeyeong, who had watched Taeju grow up close, knew how hard Taeju had worked.
Bruises all over his arms were common, and his feet would bleed, his toenails falling off. Every time that happened, without fail, Taeju would come to Jaeyeong’s house and demand treatment. Even now that he was twenty-eight, it was the same.
As Taeju grew more famous by the day, Jaeyeong tried to avoid standing out in people’s eyes as much as possible. So after passing the teacher certification exam and being assigned to a school, she had been able to attend quietly, but that peace hadn’t lasted even three months. Taeju, returning from his training camp, had come straight to the school. With a bouquet of flowers, at that.
Thanks to that, she had to make considerable efforts to escape the suspicion of being his girlfriend. Even when she said they were friends, people would tease Jaeyeong with things like, “Friends become spouses, you know.”
“Yes, that’s right. Childhood friends.”
By now, saying they were childhood friends was more comfortable for her peace of mind. Among Taeju’s fans, Jaeyeong was now recognized as the only trustworthy female friend. In the beginning, she had even suffered a lot of harassment. When Taeju found out about that, he had been furious in an extremely rough manner.
Taeju was a somewhat arrogant person. He hated when people touched those inside his barricade, and because he was honest and blunt in expressing his emotions, he did not hesitate to curse.
“Your friend must have been upset all this time for not being able to go to the Olympics.”
“Haha, yes.”
Taeju was particularly unlucky with the Olympics. At twenty, he couldn’t participate due to the aftermath of an injury, and at twenty-four, on his way out after buying gifts for Jaeyeong and his mother, he instinctively saved a child who was about to be hit by a motorcycle and couldn’t participate due to a fractured arm.
This was his third participation during his athletic career, and he was finally competing in the Olympics with an intact, injury-free body. As a player who received the highest value in the world, Taeju led all the preliminary matches to victory. Korea, which had lightly defeated their nemesis Japan, seized their Olympic ticket as Asia’s number one and received a favorable group assignment.
Of course, even with a favorable group assignment, the Korean men’s national team had never once won a medal, and all their opponents were strong. But Korea had just advanced to the semifinals today as the top seed from the preliminaries. Literally, they had gotten closer to an Olympic medal.
[After the break, we will show you an interview with the hero of today’s victory, player Gye Taeju.]
The camera showed Taeju shaking hands and greeting the opposing players. Seeing Taeju’s slightly stiff expression as it soon cut to commercials, Jaeyeong furrowed her brows slightly.
Today, Taeju was definitely not in good condition. Since they were eight—no, exactly since December when they were seven—they had been friends. Having looked at her friend’s face for twenty years, there was no way she couldn’t read his condition.
“Teacher Sim, aren’t you going to watch the Olympics? It’s close by. And you’re off starting tomorrow.”
Jaeyeong had passed the teacher certification exam right upon graduation and was already in her fifth year. Because of that, the backpacking trip through Europe she had planned after university kept getting canceled. And perhaps because she was young, she was the youngest at the school, and therefore she was saddled with almost all the menial tasks. So this vacation too, she ended up being the last one to start her break. Still, she was relieved that she wasn’t the homeroom teacher for the third-year high schoolers.
“I don’t have tickets. Nowhere to stay, either.”
“That’s a shame. It only happens once every four years, and this is player Gye Taeju’s first time competing in the Olympics.”
“He won’t even let his family come, you know. His personality is pretty terrible to begin with. You should see how sensitive he gets during matches.”
Anyway, everyone knew that another nickname for Gye Taeju was Gae Taeju. His skills, visuals, and popularity backed him up, so even that personality seemed charming to his fans.
[Congratulations on today’s victory, player Gye Taeju.]
[Thank you.]
[You have a match against our nemesis Japan in two days. Are you confident?]
[At the very least, we need to crush Japan for our Olympic participation to mean anything, don’t you think?]
Exclamations of “Oh!” were heard here and there at Taeju’s words.
[You really are overflowing with confidence.]
[I expect we’ll win easily if the back row supports us well.]
At Taeju’s words, Jaeyeong squeezed her eyes shut. This was why he was called arrogant and overbearing. Of course, she knew that since he was young, Taeju had played various positions and was skilled in both offense and defense. And that was something even fans and haters acknowledged. Even so, there was no need to criticize the team like that.
Taeju was the one who had said that, yet people’s gazes turned to Jaeyeong. This was exactly why she hadn’t wanted people to know she was friends with Taeju.
[Haha, our players are doing really well, aren’t they? Thank you for the interview today, player Gye Taeju.]
The flustered reporter was quickly wrapping up the interview. Taeju only nodded his head in greeting and immediately disappeared from the camera. This was why it made people nervous when Taeju gave interviews. But it was unthinkable for anyone other than Taeju, the hero of victory, to be interviewed. Fortunately, since she would be off starting tomorrow, she was relieved that she wouldn’t have to gather with everyone to watch volleyball.
“Then I’ll be heading out now.”
“Sure, Teacher Sim. Have a good rest.”
With her head lowered, Jaeyeong quickly hurried out of the staff room. She thought that if it hadn’t been vacation during the Olympics period, she probably would have been sweating bullets all day long. She exited the school building and was walking toward the parking lot when her phone rang.
“Couldn’t you have done the interview with a little more sincerity?”
[Was there someone next to you?]
“I said I was at school.”
[It’s vacation.]
“I’m off starting tomorrow.”
[I sent you a ticket.]
“What?”
[Unfortunately, you won’t be able to watch the semifinals, but it’s a ticket to the finals. You’d better come.]
“Hey, Gye Taeju.”
[If you don’t come, our friendship is over. Over.]
With those words, Taeju hung up. If he were really in front of her, she would have wanted to spike that handsome head.
She looked up at the sky. For some reason, the heavy weather felt like it would soon bring rain. Ever since she was fourteen, Jaeyeong had come to hate rain.
“Teacher Sim Jaeyeong.”
The moment she put her phone into her bag, Jaeyeong turned her body toward the voice coming from behind. Standing there was Gang Ihyeok, the newly appointed chairman, smiling refreshingly.