monthly day6 * shipweek! book [discontinued]

day 2 * pirates!

sports photography!au

*

sungwoon, my children *cries in uwu*

***

A whiz. A stream of yells. A colliding of bodies and sports equipment. Then a millisecond of stillness.

"And Yoon Dowoon saves it, right on time!!!" rings out across the stadium, the PR's booming timbre raising the crowds to their feet. There's a deafening boom – reds, blacks, navies fill the air – and Park Sungjin's heavily trembling fingers click the shutter one too many times than needed. This game's nothing like what he's ever seen before. It's way too wild for his liking – the steadiness which usually taps his heart while he clicks away at swimming competitions and tennis matches has been replaced by a blood-thirsty viciousness akin to wild boars, dusky tusks and matted fur clashing in a battle of strength and survival. Hockey is a goddamn unforgiving sport, the photographer finds himself thinking, already shoving a new SD card into the slot. Then he's wiping the lens and training in on the center of action, not even daring to change the aperture in fear of missing something important, something infinitesimal which can cost him the front page. "With one minute left on the clock, the Pirates must score to get the lead if they want to ascend to the finals! Will the unexpected slew of saves from the goalkeeper rookie entice them to earn a goal ahead of the Bandits?"

The crowd's chants grow louder and louder still until they become a never-ending loop of fizz in Sungjin's thumping ears. He makes a mental mark to bring earplugs next time and gently bites into his tongue when he momentarily loses sight of the puck. Then it's back in his vision, heading toward the Pirates' goal once again, the spectators going wild and beating on the protective glass in bloodlust. The visitors will go down tonight, they chant. The Pirates' ship will sink along with their crew. They don't stand a chance against the reigning champions: the almighty, unbeatable, overbearing Bandits! But the score says otherwise. 0-0... In favor of neither team, in a way. As the puck soars past the left wing defensive in a desperate flight towards the visiting team's goal, the goalkeeper's glove determinedly plucks it out of the air as if it is a fig swinging on a tree in a light summer breeze. Everything seems still – Sungjin can only hear the sound of his shutter going wild as the goalkeeper drops the black cylinder before his stick, madly surging forward, and, with fourteen seconds left on the board, evades the opposing forwards, then the central players, and – out of nowhere – sends a long shot toward the upper left corner of the enemy's goal, deadly on target and deafeningly legitimate. The Pirates have won. "G-ggggg-GOAL!!!"