Chapter 47 (1/2)

Chapter 47

Translated by: ShawnSuh

Edited by: SootyOwl

As soon as his torso moved forward, the footsteps followed . From the scenery to the various sounds, everything was a step behind him . Sung Pil was the only exception . He was running right beside him, and Juho smiled . 'So, you're not going down easy, huh?'

He started to run out of breath . Still, he felt much better than he had before . The building was near, and the door became visible, so the two thought simultaneously, 'Whoever pa.s.ses through that door is the winner . ' Although his legs were tired from running uphill, Juho pushed on . Sung Pil did the same .

”Here I come!” Sung Pil shouted .

They were getting close to the door, and Juho added with a smile, ”I can't let that happen!”

Then, he took his final step .

With his hand on his side, he bent forward . It was harmful to sprint immediately after a meal, but he chuckled as he caught his breath, ”Haha . ”

”Agh! No!”

'Victory . '

Sung Pil groaned in defeat . He too was gasping for breath . Running up a hill was twice as hard as on a flat surface . On top of that, they had covered quite a distance . 'Still…'

”Twenty nine total . Fifteen wins, fourteen losses . ”

Juho felt great . They occasionally raced each other, and the results so far had been fourteen to fourteen out of twenty-eight . It didn't feel bad at all to be adding another victory to the record .

”I could've caught up!”

”That's a shame . ”

Sung Pil clenched his fist at Juho's calm att.i.tude . The other contestants stared at the two as they walked into the building . The tension in the air had been alleviated by their race .

Paying no attention to the people looking at him, Juho looked around . The lecture hall was on the first floor . That's where he was going to be writing . He left Sung Pil writhing in defeat and asked a college student who was working as a guide for information, ”We're not late, are we?”

”Ah, no . There's still plenty of time . ”

After checking the time, Juho told Sung Pil, ”Take all the time you want . There's plenty of time . ”

”There's always a next time,” Sung Pil said as he sprung up and brushed down his sides with his hands . It really wasn't a good idea to sprint right after a meal .

While drawing people's attention, they walked confidently into the lecture hall .

”There are so many desks here,” Sung Pil said the first impression he got from the hall, and like he had said, there was a large number of desks . The hall was full of them, each capable of seating at least four .

There were empty seats here and there . As Juho found a seat in the backmost desk, Sung Pil sat himself in the row ahead . He was visible whenever Juho turned his head diagonally to the right . There was a large screen in the front of the hall, and 'The Youth Literary Essay Contest' was written in large letters . Underneath it, was the time for the beginning and the end of the contest . Two hours . It was plenty .

”I wonder what the topic is going to be . ”

'They're not going to make us play word chain all of a sudden like Mr . Moon, are they? You, sir, tell me the first word that comes to your mind . Whoever that would be, would panic . ' As Juho occupied himself with random thoughts, somebody walked up to the podium . He introduced himself as a professor of creative literature and explained the schedule of the contest . Then, he talked about the following school orientation and lecture that would be given by an author who had also been invited to be one of the judges of the contest .

At that moment, a sound came from behind everyone, and he walked in bent over at the waist . He was late, but the professor didn't try to punish the contestant . For the most part, they seemed to be gracious toward people who were slightly late . It wasn't such a strict contest after all .

”I will now present to you the topic of today's contest . ”

The moment everyone had been waiting for . The topic marked the beginning of the contest . The entire lecture hall stood still . There was an odd tension in the air .

The professor took out a small piece of paper and then added, ”Winter, beach, and days . Please choose one . You may begin . ”

As soon as he finished, the three words popped up on the screen: winter, beach, and days . Some kids started writing as soon as they received their papers whereas others took more time to think . None of the words Juho had guessed in the subway were there . 'I guess that's obvious,' he thought .

”Hm…”

'What to pick?' The only two that his mind was attracted to were days and beach . 'Days . Time coexists with s.p.a.ce . Days spent in a certain place . ' He thought about the conversation he'd had with Sung Pil on the Subway ride to the campus, 'Subway, convenient store . I'm more drawn to beach . I've written about a subway before . ”

He thought about the beach, 'The weather at the beach tends to be unpredictable . Waves break . It's sunny for a moment, and then the rain starts to pour down the moment after . It's a cloudy sky . After a peaceful time, a storm is bound to follow . '

As he put down the paper on the the desk, he closed his eyes and imagined the storm .

'The girl who lived at the beach knew all about the storm that followed at the end of peace . The sky changed . Clouds changed their shapes . The air and the temperature felt different . Everything changed from how they had been when things were peaceful . The wind carried plenty of dust . The dust piled up in people's hearts, breeding anxiety and impatience . ' Juho picked up his pen .

”Ah . ”

His arm brushed up against another person . The student who sat next to him looked at his arm, but soon turned his eyes back to his own paper . 'I forgot that I was sharing the desk with three other people,' he thought as he lowered his eyes . The pens and pieces of paper were enough to fill the desk . His eyes followed down the desk . 'Paper, pencil, hand, paper, pencil, hand, c.o.c.k-doodle . ' A rooster crowed in his head . 'Is this what it's like to live as a chicken in a farm?' It almost felt like he was stuck in a word factory .

'This is frustrating . ' He put down his pen and looked around the hall . There were many hands busy, writing . The professor had been long gone, but a few of the administrators were standing around . He looked diagonally from him, and with a serious face, Sung Pil was steadily filling out his paper . His thick eyebrows were slightly furrowed, a sign of concentration . He was doing well, but he too was about to brush up against the person sitting next to him .

There wasn't a lot of s.p.a.ce, and Juho felt constrained . In the end, he stood up from his seat . 'I need some fresh air . ' He randomly chose one of the people standing and asked for permission to step out . In a friendly manner, the person showed him the way to the restroom .

”Sigh . ”

Juho went the opposite direction from the restroom and pushed open the door made of gla.s.s . The outside air rushed in, but it didn't feel all that refres.h.i.+ng . He breathed slowly while leaning against the door . A building was blocking his sight, so he moved his eyes up to the sky . For some reason, the sky felt lower than usual .

”What if I can't write anything?”

It was suffocating to even think about going back into the lecture hall . 'A storm . ' He imagined a gust of wind sweeping across the hall . 'It'd make things a bit more refres.h.i.+ng,' he thought .