Strategic Mating Partner Chapter 98

Could it be? Am I remembering it wrong? Taehyun, who had lain down on the bed with the intention of peacefully going to sleep, suddenly sat bolt upright again and picked up his phone. He did not know why he suddenly felt the urge to check it so urgently right now, but it just bothered him. He hurriedly opened the messenger app, and a Sejin with a more expressionless face than he had thought greeted him.

‘If only he had turned the corners of his mouth up a bit.’

Feeling a sense of regret, Taehyun covered Sejin’s mouth with his finger, then immediately let out a puffing sound, pshh, and lay down. Let’s just go to sleep for real. He could not understand what kind of unseemly behavior this was.

🤺

The next morning. When Taehyun, who had tossed and turned for a long time due to jet lag, got up from his bed, juseom juseom, the sun was already high in the sky. For a moment, he was startled, thinking he had overslept until the afternoon, and shot up, but thankfully, it was still early morning. It was just that the morning sun was so bright that it looked like midday. When Taehyun went to the bathroom to prepare for training, washed his face, and came out to the living room with a clear mind, it seemed the other athletes were in a similar situation.

“Ugh, I’m so sleepy….”

“I think I just tossed and turned all night. My body is so tired though.”

“That’s because we were just sitting for nearly 10 hours on the way here.”

After waking up their stiff bodies with stretching and bringing out the athletes who had not yet woken up, breakfast was prepared in the restaurant on the first floor.

“Did you take a sleeping pill before bed yesterday?”

“Yes, my mind was wide awake.”

“Only take it until today and then stop. If it becomes a habit, you’ll continue to be tired during the day too.”

“Yes, sir.”

After everyone, in a state as if they each had a screw loose, pecked at, kkaejak kkaejak, and finished the somewhat awkwardly tasting Korean food, training at the local stadium was now waiting. Although there was still some time left before the taekwondo preliminaries, some sports were already in the middle of their preliminaries, so the atmosphere within the athletes’ village could not be called quiet.

‘In just a week or two, this place will be quite bustling with people.’

Even though this was the third time he was experiencing it, seeing athletes from various sports who had flocked from all over the world pass by him made his head turn quickly, like a child out for sightseeing. There were some faces that looked familiar, as if he had seen them somewhere before, but most were new to him.

“Alright, stick together over here, our usage time is short, so don’t get distracted.”

Fortunately, he did not show it much on the outside, so the one who got an earful was not Taehyun, but another junior athlete. Since the official preliminaries had not started yet, they were able to get permission to use the facility without difficulty. The stadium where the taekwondo matches would be held was a convention center, where various exhibitions and other events were held, that had been converted into a stadium. And it was also a place where table tennis and fencing matches were held, in addition to taekwondo.

‘Taekwondo’s schedule will finish earlier this time too.’

Once his matches were all over, he would be able to go watch Sejin’s matches with a carefree heart, regardless of the result. It’s really the end now, with no lingering feelings. If there were more opportunities in the future, he would be torn with thoughts of whether he should do this again, whether it was right to challenge again while hearing that he was repeatedly taking away opportunities from other athletes, so his steps would not be light, but since this was truly the last time, he could only hope that it would feel fresh and new.

He was not worried about Sejin, as he would naturally do well this time too. Even if an unexpected situation occurred and things did not go as he wanted, he was only twenty-two now, so there were more opportunities ahead of him. Just like he himself had been at the last Olympics.

Of course, Sejin, who had already worn the king’s crown, and Taehyun, who was uncrowned in the Olympics, could not be in the same position. But what was important was whether Sejin could accept the result or not. It was not easy to imagine Sejin being unable to accept the result and getting upset.

“The stadium is wider than I thought, isn’t it?”

When Taehyun asked, wondering if the stadium area was indeed a bit wider compared to other taekwondo stadiums he had experienced so far, another official readily answered.

“They said it’s because the spectator seats aren’t all in yet.”

“Ah~.”

“There will probably be about three more rows added to the sides. But it is on the wider side.”

Do that many people come to watch taekwondo matches? Taehyun, who had thought this, soon remembered that this place was not only used as a taekwondo stadium and nodded his head. Unfortunately, taekwondo was not a particularly popular sport within the entire Olympic Games, but both fencing and table tennis had matches that were drawing attention. Had he heard that one of the famous Chinese table tennis players had recently defected and was competing under the US nationality for the first time? His other rival, who was currently considered a strong gold medal contender, was receiving more attention because he had a history of training and competing in doubles with the player who had naturalized as a US citizen before his naturalization. Whether you were a citizen of the same country as those players or simply a foreigner interested in table tennis, it was indeed an interesting match, so he wondered if they had intentionally expanded the stadium for that reason.

‘If there are circumstances like that, the tickets would sell well too.’

Next, Taehyun was utterly bewildered when he heard from the official that the preliminary match he was scheduled to compete in also had a relatively high ticket reservation rate among the preliminary matches.

“Me? Why?”

What? Although he was quite popular in his home country, he was hardly a sports star internationally. In the first place, taekwondo itself, no matter how globalized it had become, was still a sport with an overwhelmingly domestic presence, and in Korea, it had become a representative childcare facility to the point that it would be safe to say that at least one in every other household had experience learning taekwondo for a short while. In such a country, a taekwondo athlete had the potential to become a star, but he had never expected to receive so much attention in an unpopular sport internationally.

“What do you mean, why. A lot of Koreans live here. Since a famous athlete from Korea is coming for the first time in a while, they probably want to see him in person.”

Of course, that was part of the reason, but the truth he learned a short while later was utterly anticlimactic. It was said that private gambling, where you could bet on all sorts of situations, was legal in the US, probably because it was a country where people bet and wager on all sorts of things. The same went for this Olympic Games. A site had been opened where people could bet on various win/loss results and various cases, and among them was a bet on Taehyun. The bet on whether Taehyun would be able to win a medal this time or not was ranked quite high on the list.

‘They really do all sorts of things….’

The ratio of people who bet was almost neck and neck, but the stakes were slightly higher on the side that he would fail. This is kind of annoying. Taehyun quickly tried to create an account and bet on himself winning. But why was the verification process so complicated. He managed to sign up easily enough, but the process of connecting his bank account was so annoyingly complicated that he quickly gave up. Forget it. What’s the point of this. As he was trying not to show his displeasure and looking around the accommodation facilities assigned to the Korean athletes in advance, at that moment.

“……?”

From the direction where Korean athletes from other sports were gathered, a somehow familiar impression passed by.

‘What was that? Was I just imagining it?’

Since he had been all over the place, it was natural that he had more than a few acquaintances, but this was the first time he had such an ominous feeling. They looked like the team competing in the gymnastics event, so he checked their faces one by one, but it seemed there had been a complete generational change there too, as there was no one he knew among the athletes he could see. I feel like I need to go and check to be at ease. It would not be good to leave a lingering uneasy feeling before the start of the preliminaries, so if he saw an acquaintance, it would be good to go and say hello and check. But sadly, there was no one with whom he could display such a friendship. While Taehyun was momentarily distracted by that side, the coach called him.

“What are you doing? Not going to see the room? Everyone else already got their keys and went up.”

“Ah.”

Only then did Tae-hyun realize that his fellow athletes, who had been standing in front of the elevator earlier than him, were looking at him as if asking why he was not coming, and he quickened his pace.

“No, I’m going. I’m sorry.”

As Taehyun quickly joined his colleagues, the elevator soon arrived. Even in the midst of that, he was still bothered, so as he looked towards the sofa where the gymnasts were waiting, another athlete asked nonchalantly.

“Why? Do you know someone over there?”

Taehyun immediately shook his head.

“No, that’s not it, but they just looked somehow familiar.”

And the person who had caused that problematic sense of déjà vu did not show himself again until the door of the elevator Taehyun was in closed and went up.