Chapter 24 (2/2)

Seonhan raised the ball high. He laughed mischievously and it was really annoying. Myohan wasn’t tired. The game wasn’t enough to tire him. Moving around in a small square was simple. Still, he needed a breakthrough. Myohan sighed and backed off.

He wondered for a second if he should step on the line and lose the game, but he knew Yuja would murder him for it.

“Catch!”

It was good that Seonhan was speedy but not powerful. As Myohan had no other choice, he crouched in front of the strikers and then jumped up right on time.

“Yes!”

“O Myohan, go!”

The ball landed right into his hands. The boy who was supposed to take it looked at him with wide eyes. As Myohan had been avoiding the ball, he hadn’t thought to try to catch it.

Myohan stood in front of the line with the ball, hearing the loud cheers. He thought it was weird that he was the only one being attacked. As there were no throwing mistakes and now the defender had blocked and gotten the ball, running around wasn’t going to end it. He should have done it much earlier.

“Hey, catch!” Myohan yelled, looking at a boy in the middle. There were a few decent throwers in his class as well, but none of them were good enough to hit Seonhan. He could see Seonhan smiling and getting ready, thinking to do what Myohan had just done.

“Pass!”

Sinsul yelled at the top of his voice. Myohan bent his arm as if he was about to throw high, but then he looked at Seonhan and dropped the arm. And then, he threw it under. It wasn’t hard to throw it in the right direction. It flew in a straight line and hit Seonhan’s thigh.

“Wow, shit.”

Myohan could hear Myo Cheong half-aweing and half-moaning. O Shin covered his mouth to laugh. Seonhan, whose hands were still high in the air to catch the ball, couldn’t understand what had just happened. The ball rolled and stopped at Myohan’s feet.

He wiped off the sweat on his forehead and smiled, feeling quite good.

“We won.”

His classmates came running. It was only a practice match, but they looked like they had just won a cup or something. Well, it had been intense enough for other classes to come and watch.

And then there was that bet about ice cream. Snacks were always more than enough to make high school boys move, they were always hungry. Jagyeom went away, shaking his head and saying Myohan did enjoy attention, and Myohan pushed his classmates away as they tried to cling onto him. If there was one thing he hated more than being tired, it was being hot.

When he made his way out of the crowd, he saw O Shin standing with his hands in his pocket. He looked like a tall model. Myo Cheong and Jino were standing a little far behind him. O Shin said playfully, “You lying cat.”

“No, that was a fair sport technique.”

Yes, he did say that with a straight face. Anyone who heard only that would have thought he had done his best to win. O Shin put Myohan’s sweaty bangs back and glanced back.

Myo Cheong was urging to leave, but Jino wouldn’t move, his twinkling eyes looking at Myohan. He waved a hand to him and said hi, but it only made him run after Myo Cheong.

“But,”

O Shin spoke while Myohan was still looking at Jino’s back. He seemed quite sad, like a horse returning to its stable after a race. O Shin put a hand on Myohan’s shoulder.

“You won’t be able to win a race by fooling others.”

He had won dodgeball, even though it had been only a practice run. O Shin’s black eyes were asking a question. What are you going to do about the relay race?

“I don’t know.”

Myohan pulled his hair back with a smile. Funnily enough, looking at Choi Jino’s back had given him confidence. He walked for some time without talking, but then he laughed out loud to hear O Shin’s next question.

“Do you know why they put blinkers on horses?”

Yes, he was thinking what Myohan was thinking.