Strategic Mating Partner Chapter 107

(Photo)

4:19 PM

This time, it seemed to be taken with the practice arena floor as the background; it was a picture of a hand, its wrist beet red, making a finger heart over the green mat. How on earth do you get your wrist to be that red? Taehyun, once again dumbfounded, ended up laughing.

Should I teach him how to take selfies slowly later? But even if I did, it probably would not be of much use since he would have no desperation for it anyway. Well, I am the only one who needs to see him. Even without leaving a picture, Taehyun knew best that Sejin was handsome. After all, it was a face he had been seeing forehead to forehead almost every day recently.

‘I miss him.’

Once he became aware of it, his heart kept getting tickled in a foolish way. He wanted to whip himself, asking ‘is this the time for you to be like this,’ but the burden that had been heavily pressing on Taehyun’s shoulders would disappear from his mind as if it had been washed away whenever he thought of Sejin, so if he thought only about managing his condition, it was actually helpful.

‘Now, before the opening ceremony, is it just the round of 32 and the round of 16 on the same day?’

The matches from the quarterfinals onward were scheduled to be held after the opening ceremony. The quarterfinals would be held on the second day after the opening, and the semifinals (round of 4) and the gold-silver final match were scheduled to be held in one day the next day.

‘It’s really just around the corner now.’

For a moment, he observed it nonchalantly as if it were someone else’s business, and in an instant, the day of the round of 32 and the round of 16 arrived. As the opening ceremony drew near, the athletes’ village was becoming more and more full. Amidst the many new and familiar faces, he found himself unconsciously looking for Sejin whenever he used the common facilities. Just in case he might be able to see him, even if just a strand of his hair brushed past. If by chance he saw the team uniform that the fencing athletes wore, he would feel a sense of gladness for no reason.

“Ready!”

Taehyun, who entered the arena and made eye contact with the opposing athlete with the referee in between, once again composed his mind seriously and took a deep breath. Just as much as the late-blooming romance, this was, of course, something equally important that Taehyun could not give up on.

🤺

“Ugh, I’m tired.”

“You’ve worked hard!”

“Everyone worked hard. Yoonjung, you’ve been through a lot too, don’t think this is the end, and let’s do better next time.”

Right before the opening ceremony. The atmosphere within the taekwondo team was a world of extremes. The results were as expected, but it was inevitable that each person would accept it differently. It was a perfectly natural situation for the athletes who were eliminated in the round of 16 to be unable to shake off the gloomy atmosphere.

“Yes, go on in. I’ll just get some fresh air for a bit before I go in.”

The athletes who had survived until the matches after the opening ceremony knew that no words of comfort would help, so they offered a few words of courtesy and then fell silent. In the end, are there only two athletes who have survived until after the opening ceremony again? Taehyun let out a faint sigh and turned his head. As a member of the country of origin of a relatively unpopular sport, it was inevitable that a contradictory atmosphere would be created.

Around the time taekwondo first became an Olympic sport, most of the medals were taken by athletes of Korean origin or Korean nationality. It would be correct to say that they pretty much swept them all. At that time, there were a lot of opinions mocking that since the only athletes training in this unpopular sport were Koreans, it would soon be kicked out of the Olympics. But once taekwondo professional athletes were produced from all over the world and Korean athletes were no longer able to show overwhelming performances, now they were blabbering about how the pride of the country of origin has collapsed. It was a quite unfair sport where they were criticized for winning many medals and criticized for not winning them.

Still, well… I think it is better to have a situation where athletes from various countries are showing their prominence like this, rather than when it was a league only for Koreans. But for the athletes who had to hear criticism while being lectured about the pride of the country of origin, it was naturally painful. Taehyun had been in the same position until the last Olympics, so it did not feel like someone else’s business.

If I had chosen a different sport instead of taekwondo, would I not have had to feel this contradiction? Just as Taehyun shrugged his shoulders and stepped into the accommodation. The coach, who had been watching Taehyun’s gait carefully, suddenly grabbed him.

“Taehyun-ah, just a moment. Sit here for a bit.”

Ouch. Was it that obvious? Taehyun, who had been planning to sneak away to his bedroom like a snake slithering over a wall, sighed inwardly and sat down on the sofa the coach pointed to.

“You don’t have to worry. It’s not like there’s any pain.”

Before Taehyun could quickly make an excuse, the coach suddenly took off Taehyun’s sock and began to massage his ankle bone and the sole of his left foot with a strong hand.

“How can I not worry? It’s been obvious since the round of 16 ended that you’ve been paying attention to your left foot.”

At the coach’s face, contorted with worry, Taehyun quickly explained.

“I was just being careful just in case, it’s not because it hurts. It’s just a little stiff. It really doesn’t hurt, ouch…!”

Just as he was rambling on with a half-true sentence. The moment the coach held his ankle firmly and, whoosh, twisted his foot to the other side, Taehyun, at the throbbing pain, unknowingly let out a loud cry. To be honest, it did not really hurt that much. But when he cried out in surprise at the sudden pain that felt like a muscle was being stabbed, the coach instantly became extremely enraged, like a detective who had caught a petty thief in the act.

“See! It hurts, doesn’t it, why didn’t you say so! You should have said something if there was even the slightest thing wrong!”

“Ugh….”

Taehyun had nothing to say even if he had ten mouths. If he were to make a further excuse, the pain from a moment ago was something Taehyun had also really not expected, and he did not want to worry the people around him over something that was just a little stiff. Besides, there were only two matches left until the medal round. The quarterfinals and the semifinals. After those two matches, at least a silver medal would be secured. Even if he lost in the semifinals, if he did well in the bronze medal match, he could still be in the medal round. So, since it was not a serious injury, he did not want to make a big deal out of it and put everyone in a serious mood. Besides, managing it with a hot pack was something he could do on his own in his room.

“It was really fine earlier. I was just walking a little carefully because I was worried I might make it worse by walking.”

“Let’s tape it up for now, and if your condition is even a little bit bad after the quarterfinals, let’s go to the hospital right away. It’ll probably get better if we go and get a painkiller shot.”

“Yes, but not now. For now, I think just a hot pack will be enough.”

At Taehyun’s strong refusal, the coach also deflated a little and let out a sigh.

“Okay, just stay here for now. I’ll go get the tape and a hot pack. It’ll probably get better if we loosen up the muscles a bit.”

“Yep.”

As Taehyun quietly shut his mouth and accepted the coach’s treatment, peace came to the living room. It was really fine for now. This was such a trivial matter that it did not even count as something to report to Sejin. The only thing that was bothering him was.

‘Was it just my imagination that I felt like I was being induced to keep using my left foot?’

Of course, as Taehyun was attracting attention as the most likely gold medal candidate in this Olympics as well, there were more than one or two athletes who had analyzed him and focused their attacks on him. So, it had been a long time since his weaknesses and strengths had been completely seen through based on the data accumulated so far. However, it was the first time he had met an athlete who gave him the impression that they were inducing him to use his left foot, even giving up their own advantageous attacks, like in this year’s Olympics, so he could not help but be bewildered.

Is it really just my imagination? Or…. Taehyun thought of various possibilities just in case, and then shook his head. Whether or not there was an athlete intentionally trying to induce an injury to his ankle, this was a weakness that he had to overcome anyway.

‘Just hold on a little longer, please.’

Taehyun soon grabbed his ankle, which the coach had secured with tape, and sighed again. Just at the right time, a message arrived from Sejin.

(Photo)

9:43 PM

We won.

9:44 PM

When he immediately clicked on the pop-up notification to see what picture it was, it was a picture taken with his teammates in the background, seemingly about the team competition. Well, he would have won the individual competition as a matter of course. He had said he was not expecting much from the team competition, but it seems he had been preparing hard. The sight of him standing proudly at the very front as the undisputed ace of the national team looked like a rather gallant puppy.