Strategic Mating Partner Chapter 81

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Regardless of Taehyun’s turmoil, time flowed steadily on. Three days had already passed since the fencing national team, which Sejin belonged to, had started training somewhere in this vast athletes’ village. As expected, Taehyun rarely ran into Sejin. The facility was built spaciously enough to accommodate over a thousand athletes on a site larger than a comprehensive stadium, so they did not even run into each other during meal times. He only had to meet a whole bunch of people he did not particularly want to see.

‘Oh, isn’t that Sung Taehyun? I thought you had died in a ditch somewhere, I hadn’t heard from you in so long.’

What do you mean you hadn’t heard? You definitely saw me win a medal at the last Asian Games. There was no need to listen to words spoken deliberately to pick at his wounds. When Taehyun just laughed it off, haha, and let it slide, another kind of troublesome acquaintance latched onto him from the other side.

‘Taehyun, this is the youngest member of our team, you see? He said he’s a fan of yours.’

‘Hello, sunbae-nim! Could you possibly take a picture with me just once?’

He couldn’t just refuse the request made by the person standing timidly behind his coach, so he would get up in the middle of his meal, stand in front of the camera lens, and strike a pose, and then other athletes would line up and cling to him. There were more than just one or two athletes and staff members, who were not in the media spotlight, wanting to commemorate their meeting with the famous Sung Taehyun, so he had to put a great deal of effort into managing his expression every time he used public facilities like this. If he showed even the slightest hint of discomfort, rumors would spread like wildfire, such as, ‘He seemed like such a nice person on TV, but when I met him in person, he was rude and his attitude was incredibly disrespectful.’

‘This is the last of this too.’

Normally, this kind of fame would not be so unpleasant or burdensome for someone with his personality. But as they say, he who has committed many sins has much to be pricked by, and perhaps because an important competition was ahead, everything felt overwhelming. In the midst of that, if by chance, Sejin’s figure, as small as a pinky nail, came into his field of vision passing through a hallway or an outdoor training ground even from a distance, he would feel a sense of gladness without realizing it. Ah, he’s doing well over there. He would feel a sense of relief without knowing it, and the corners of his lips would form a gentle arc before he was even aware of it.

I’m not going to accept him, so what is this strange reaction? He himself could not understand the psychology behind why he would quickly hide himself if it seemed like Sejin might look in his direction. It was just that while everything was suffocating and weighing down his shoulders, seeing Sejin with his dazed face made him feel like he could breathe. That was why he was simultaneously afraid. Afraid that he might really end up relying on or even becoming obsessed with Sejin.

“……”

A twenty-eight-year-old acting sleazy toward a twenty-two-year-old. Taehyun tried to gauge just how sordid it was on his own and then shook his head, feeling disgusted with himself. Enough. Let’s not think strange thoughts and just focus on training. After a short break, he was about to move to a different location to resume training. Just then, the coach suddenly asked Taehyun a question first.

“That’s right. You know there’s no morning training tomorrow because it’s media day, right? They said to gather at the administrator’s office for a bit after today’s schedule ends. What’s going on?”

At the coach’s question, Taehyun tilted his head in the other direction.

“Pardon?”

As soon as Taehyun gave that stupid, reflexive response, the coach asked again.

“You heard them in the cafeteria the day before yesterday. That there’s a media day tomorrow, so you need to come to the office after training today for a preliminary meeting to prepare.”

Ah? Only then did Taehyun rewind his memory like winding a spring and recall the time he ran into the office staff member in the cafeteria a few days ago. Right, he seemed to have heard that there would be a public event with outside guests soon. He was sure they had told him to stop by briefly on Thursday evening…. Taehyun blankly picked up the phone he had left on the table and checked the date. This is crazy. Today was that very Thursday. Taehyun, who had thought it was at most Tuesday or Wednesday, was terrified by how frighteningly fast time had passed and screamed.

“Today is Thursday!? Why is time going by so fast? I just got goosebumps.”

It was not an exaggeration; he was genuinely scared and jumped in place, and the coach replied with twitching eyebrows.

“One moment you’re making a fuss about how you’re going to spend two whole weeks here. And now you think time is going too fast?”

Tsk, tsk, he clicked his tongue and then called for the training to resume.

“If you’re going to talk nonsense, let’s hurry up and focus. Everyone gather again!”

At the coach’s shout, the athletes who were scattered throughout the training ground began to gather in their places one by one. Taehyun also could not keep staring blankly at his phone, so he immediately put down what he was holding and rejoined the training. No, holy crap, wait a minute. The fact that so much time had passed already meant that that much time had flowed since his last encounter with Sejin. Then isn’t it about time for his pheromones to start rising again? As soon as training ended, he rushed to the bathroom and pricked his fingertip, and just as he thought, the level had risen to a borderline critical point.

[24]

At this level, he could probably last through today and tomorrow morning. He would have to do it tomorrow evening. Aah, Taehyun tore at his hair in agonized self-loathing. Damn it. It meant he would have to properly face him again anyway. Not only that, but he had to do that sort of thing while avoiding the eyes of others. Isn’t this guy crazy? Die, Sung Taehyun, really, get a bowl of water and stick your face in it and die. Taehyun silently cursed himself as he left the bathroom. Today’s ordeal did not end there.

“Alright, alright, thank you all for gathering here today for this difficult occasion~. It’s a great honor to be with such esteemed individuals.”

“……”

Waiting for Taehyun in the office, which he visited at the scheduled time, were the head administrator who had vented all his anger on Taehyun a few days ago, the working-level staff assisting him, and other athletes whose faces he already knew. What was media day? It was a time to loudly boast and announce to the world, We are preparing this diligently.

They held a press meeting to not only unveil the uniforms that would be the face of the athletes in this competition but also to put the representative athletes at the forefront to show off their strategies and preparation process. It was called a press meeting, but it was really a place where the athletes were put forward as human shields to take the barrage of public interest in their stead. In other words, among the athletes participating in this Olympics, those considered medal prospects would, for the most part, be dragged in front of the interview seats to face a barrage of questions from reporters.

And among that representative group of athletes, there was, of course, a face that Taehyun did not particularly want to encounter.

“……”

With a glance, Taehyun spotted Sejin standing on the opposite side from him and quickly averted his gaze.

“You’ve all been notified about what kind of event is happening tomorrow. The national broadcast station wants to shoot some footage for a mini-documentary that will air as a short Olympic special. So, after the press meeting and the group photo shoot, I was thinking we could have a short session to introduce our facilities.”

The athletes probably had their own anticipated questions for the press meeting and would be preparing accordingly, so they wondered why they were being called for something else. At the prelude that was clearly going to be troublesome, all the athletes’ expressions were not good. One of the male athletes, who seemed to have the shortest temper, shot his hand up and asked abruptly without even seeking permission.

“So you’re saying we all have to stay after the meeting for additional filming?”

At the insolent attitude that clearly showed no intention of cooperating, a flash of annoyance appeared on Chiuk’s face before vanishing. It was Taehyun and the other athletes who were warily observing the tense atmosphere.

“Hmm…. Well, it would be nice if everyone could cooperate….”

“I’m sorry, but it’s already a waste of time not being able to proceed with our original training schedule because of the event all morning, and I think doing that on top of it is going a bit too far. In any case, isn’t the important thing that we train properly, not showing a plausible image to the outside world?”

There was no one who would disagree with that sulky reply, but one could not say the timing was particularly good. Of course, it was appreciated that he had spoken for everyone’s true feelings, even if that was not his intention, but in the instantly chilled atmosphere, Chiuk’s expression instantly turned domineering.

“Well, what athlete Hong Junhyung says has a point, but since the citizens who support us are curious, there are also parts where we must cooperate.”

“I think the press meeting will be sufficient for their curiosity, and I don’t think it’s right for the afternoon training to be affected just to film some nice-looking footage to show to the public.”

The athlete who had started raising objections did not know when to stop. What are we going to do about this atmosphere? The dozen or so athletes who had been gathered, only from events with strong medal prospects, did not know what to do in the frigidly cold atmosphere. At that moment, someone stepped in like a relief pitcher.