It's so high school at Hanil Foreign Language High School with a new addition in the middle of the semester. Baek Hyun Woo, a Year 3 transfer student in his final year of high school meets Hong Hae-in, a Year 2 student who is the future heiress of Q...
For the past few days, swimming has become Hyun Woo's lifeblood.
It has only been three short weeks since he officially joined the Hanil High swim team and Coach Park, a man known for his no-nonsense approach and booming voice, had already called for an internal competition to select representatives for the upcoming elite high school meet. The pressure was on, and Hyun Woo felt it with every aching muscle. Naturally, Hyun Woo was determined to make the cut.
Training sessions were relentless, and the school pool became his second home. He hasn't attended a single class since the start of the week – a luxury the athletes at Hanil High sometimes enjoyed, a trade-off he grudgingly accepted. For someone who had his sights set on law school, Hyun Woo truly mourned the missed class times. But the bigger ache was the missing lunch dates with Hae-in. The first time training ate into recess, he had sent Dal-po along with a note to Hae-in to explain his absence. He couldn't bear the thought of her thinking he had simply ditched her.
The funny thing was, Dal-po had returned, oddly flustered that day. His cheeks, usually pale as moonlight, were flushed a rosy pink as he handed over Hae-in's reply. The familiar paper, adorned with her elegant handwriting, mirrored the first note he had received after his fainting episode. But Hyun Woo was more curious about Dal-po.
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What on earth had made the ever-composed Dal-po blush like a schoolboy?
"Baek Hyun Woo, break's over!" A teammate's roar shattered his train of thought, yanking him back to the relentless training.
With a soft groan, Hyun Woo stretched his achy muscles and dove back into the water.
He got selected to represent Hanil High that day.
‧₊˚ ⋅ 𓐐𓎩 ‧₊˚ ⋅
10:00 PM.
Finally! Hyun Woo thought with a surge of relief that battled the overwhelming fatigue clinging to him.
A quick shower, a careful shove of his damp swimming trunks into a plastic bag, and he was out the door, everything else tossed in haphazardly. Exhaustion gripped him, a dull ache spreading through muscles he didn't even know existed.
This new training regimen was brutal, and though it pushed him to his limits and made him a better swimmer, his body was screaming in protest. Even the cool night air that greeted him as he exited the gymnasium couldn't fully dispel the heavy weight of his tiredness. His eyelids drooped stubbornly as he pushed the door open, the familiar routine, a distant echo in his mind.
Since 5:00 AM, he had been up and about, his usual schedule of making Hae-in's lunch and dropping it off before she got to school holding firm even amidst the chaos.
But that felt like aeons ago.
Now, he still had a long journey back to Yongdu-ri.
