by the sidelines • haechan

thirty seven

"Chung, seung!" The referee shouted as the two players gave a pat on each other's back, while I groaned in envy.

"She totally trashed her," I muttered, but it was loud enough for my neighbour to hear. "She's a national player for a reason," Haknyeon huffed out while sliding back and forth on the walkway.

It was the last of the Kyorugi matches before lunch happened, and I've already gathered up enough of an appetite for my stomach to grumble. Haknyeon, on the other hand, was too busy to think about food.

"Isn't it too early to warm up?" I asked the person whose match was immediately after the one hour break, but he shook his head quickly. "Of course not, I need to get a head start before fighting him again."

I smiled dryly, quietly acknowledging his reason without further questioning. Losing a match is one thing, but competing against the same opponent you lost to is a coincidental opportunity to redeem yourself, so I get why he's that worked up.

Just as he stopped to take a breath, one of the organisers tapped the microphone lightly before dismissing the participants for our lunch break. I got up to stretch my muscles once again, looking over to my right only to spot a familiar figure talking to someone else. The questions that bothered me before came back instantly as I immediately bolted to him.

"Where are you going?" I heard Haknyeon's voice fade in the background and in a matter of seconds, I was right in front of Coach Lee. I waited impatiently for him to end his initial conversation before taking notice of me. "What is it, Yoojin?"

"Can I ask you something?" I piped up as my curiosity peaked. He looked rather taken aback by my question, gesturing to the person he was conversing with to leave us. "Sure, is there something wrong?"

"How do you know me so well?" I blabbered out, startling him even further. He took a while to process my abrupt question, a little too long that I started to feel like I was being rude and wanted to retreat right away. But then he asked back, "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean," I stopped myself to rethink if I should really pry into it, but nothing was bothering me more than this topic. "I get that you can tell what type of player I am just by looking at me because that's what Coach Yoon did too when I first started Kyorugi. But that's not the point."

I heaved in another breath to continue. "I don't think I've shown enough for you to know what are my strengths and weaknesses, so I don't get how you knew back thrust was one of my best kicks. I don't like to use it because of the probability, so only Coach Yoon knows when it's the best time I should use it. So..."

I paused when I realised Coach Lee vague expression, and I was starting to feel scared for myself. He let out a sigh as he crossed his arms and said, "You sure have the guts to talk about your ex-coach to me."

His words caught me by surprise as I immediately stuttered, "S-sorry, I didn't mean to. It's just that I thought she was the only one who knew my moves since I've been training with her for so long."

"Then you should know that Coach Yoon won't let you into the lion's den by yourself."

"What?" I let out in shock, my voice barely audible amongst the noisy spectator stand, but Coach Lee still managed to catch that as he replied casually, "In fact, I'd be surprised if you didn't bring her up at least once. She worries about you a lot, even up till now when I told her about your match. Much like a mother."

His following words did not enter my brain at all as I was still processing his previous sentence, my mind being more confused than before. "Wait, you know Coach Yoon?" I didn't hesitate to ask. "As in, Yoon Bomi?"