“Ugh, I couldn’t catch it after all…”
“Let’s just hope for next time.”
The summer assassin disappeared as soon as the lights turned on.
So, after the war with the mosquitoes, we found ourselves in the midst of summer—August.
Day after day, record-breaking heat warnings were issued nationwide.
The blazing sunlight melted not just the road dividers, but people as well.
Amid the sweltering heat warning, the schedule for the regular event, the sports festival, was announced.
Is there even a need to have a sports festival in this weather when kids could suffer from heat exhaustion and heat strokes?
…Fortunately, it seemed I wasn’t the only one thinking that.
With parents expressing their concerned protests and the school’s appropriate flexibility, it was decided that the event would be held in the indoor auditorium.
Differently from the elementary school field day atmosphere, the middle school sports festival would be held by grade.
Anyway, even though we were at school, it was a day without classes.
Before that day arrived, there were various things to decide, leading to a clamorous classroom.
“Who’s good at kicking in our class?”
“Byunghwa!”
“Me?!”
Including the morning assembly time, our homeroom teacher often came to the classroom during breaks to write down names for students participating in individual events.
As for the team events with no choice, participation was inevitable.
That couldn’t be helped, but the ruthless selection of classmates for individual events was based on objective recommendations among students.
As the events and participants began to be selected one after another, the mundane conversation on the eve of the sports festival flowed smoothly.
“The next event is… wrestling. Raise your hand if you think you can wrestle well.”
“Dongha!”
“Haha.”
In response to the teacher’s question, a boy immediately recommended Dongha without a moment’s hesitation.
That recommendation, with not even a 0.1-second consideration, made some students giggle.
Someone likely to do well in wrestling = someone with a higher weight.
The boy simply pushed Dongha into that category with a naive but blunt formula.
In some ways, it wouldn’t be strange if Dongha felt offended.
However, that guy, despite his appearance, enjoys standing out in his own way.
“Yeah, I’m fat.”
“Wow, that’s just like in a comedy show.”
Imitating a comedian from some gag program and patting his belly made the atmosphere cheerful.
Unless someone maliciously recommended him, there was no way any individual event would require him to participate anyway.
Even for the mandatory team events, he could just fake it a bit and meet the participation requirement.
“Guys, let’s at least not be last… got it?”
“Yeah!”
With students being chosen for individual events one by one, the preparations were complete.
Under the homeroom teacher’s plea not to be last, the laid-back responses of my classmates continued after the morning assembly.
And so, the morning of the sports festival day arrived.
Siyun and I were heading to school in casual clothes.
Shouldn’t we be wearing gym clothes for the sports festival?
That’s old-fashioned, I hear.
These days, there’s so much talk about uniforms being a violation of human rights that some places actually allow students to wear regular clothes instead of uniforms.
I even heard that some schools don’t fuss much over hair dyeing, but I guess that doesn’t apply to our school at all.
Anyway, influenced by the trends of the times or whatever, we were heading to school in decent casual clothes.
The school had indeed said that wearing gym clothes was allowed, but…
“Who would actually wear them?”
With casual clothes being permitted, nobody was foolish enough to don gym clothes.
We entered the auditorium filled with people wearing short-sleeved tees and awkwardly gathered with our classmates as we sat together.
After all, it wasn’t a class day, so no one was fiddling with their smartphones.
It was only natural that going home was prohibited, but I felt relieved holding the perfect toy for passing time in my hands.
“Class 3 over here!”
Meanwhile, the proactive class president in casual clothes was enthusiastically waving to gather our classmates.
A clipboard, a sheet of paper, and a pen were entrusted to the class president’s hands.
It seemed like they were even taking attendance on behalf of the teacher, checking each student in Class 3 as they gathered.
“Hahm.”
Looking at the seemingly disadvantageous position of the class president with a pessimistic view, I covered my mouth and yawned, closing it with a short breath afterward.
In my left pocket was a thick wallet, and in my right pocket, my smartphone.
The sports festival would end before lunchtime anyway.
Maybe that’s why I didn’t feel the need to bring out the Gomtaengi.
Even if something monstrous happened, Siyun had brought her sea serpent.
Due to the limited space of the auditorium, most team events were held in a tournament style.
With a quick pace, about four classes participated in team jumping rope, tug-of-war, and ball-rolling.
And then, there was a new-age team event called the Wind Team, where they flapped a cloth up and down to trap as much air as possible.
As the team events were winding down, it was time to tally the scores.
Currently, Class 3 was tied for 5th place with Class 4.
As the teacher said, we were comfortably lingering in middle to lower ranks while truly maintaining the principle of “as long as we’re not last.”
It wasn’t intentionally done; it’s just how our class performed.
The teacher, smiling brightly for some reason, returned with a large bag full of ice cream.
“Hey, guys, have some ice cream!”
“Wow!”
In fact… the auditorium was more than a little cold thanks to the powerful air conditioning.
Regardless of the temperature, the thought of getting free food captivated my classmates.
Everyone hurriedly reached into the bag, the rustling and cheers echoing as they pulled out long green ice cream bars.
Melon-flavored bar ice cream, 700 won each.
Even if all the students bought one, it amounted to just a little over 20,000 won—not a burdensome price.
After many hands swept through the bag, as the hustle diminished, I quietly reached in and grabbed two, handing one to Siyun.
Siyun’s preference for ice cream is chocolate flavor.
That said, she doesn’t dislike melon flavor.
Indeed, when it comes to ‘Korean ice cream,’ even picky kids from Western countries respond positively, making it a pretty safe choice.
The melon ice cream, popping out of the long plastic bag, seemed to exude a chill, proving it was freshly taken from the freezer.
Instead of abruptly biting into the icy treat, I slid a bit from the end and sucked on it softly.
Once the ice cream melted sufficiently in my mouth, I would finally take a bite.
I crunched it with a satisfying sound, rolling the pleasantly sweet artificial flavor around in my mouth.
After a brief ice cream time passed, the sports festival picked up again.
Having smoothly completed all the team events, it was time for the individual competitions.
Now was the time when I could simply watch, with no need to participate, just fiddling with my smartphone.
“Now, the score for Class 3 is! 28 points!”
The MC for the sports festival shouted into the microphone, working hard to raise the energy.
The first individual event was called soccer darts.
They’d set up a large dartboard that could be inflated…
In other words, the goal was to kick a Velcro soccer ball onto the big dartboard.
So that was why they were looking for someone good at kicking.
The results were far superior to the average scores of other classes, which were in the teens.
Class 3, previously tied for 5th, successfully climbed to 4th place.
The second individual event followed, wrestling.
Aside from the large air mat for the arena, it was simply straightforward wrestling.
I was staring at my smartphone when I heard that it was Class 3’s turn, causing me to raise my head a bit.
Fat kid vs. fat kid.
Students who had nothing but weight behind them were pushed into the arena.
Yet, Dongha, gripping the silk as tightly as he could, looked pretty formidable.
“Shiiiii, start!”
“Ugh!”
With a bizarre shout, the match ended in under 2 seconds as the opponent was thrown to the ground.
That wasn’t simply Dongha using sheer strength in a brute force fashion.
He pulled his opponent towards him while extending his right leg to hook the opponent’s left leg, yanking them while pushing them down with his right shoulder.
In this way, the individual wrestling event was completely dominated by him.
Dongha returned to our spot, licking his tongue.
“I knew you could do it!”
As Dongha grinned while returning, an unusual atmosphere surrounded him, and our classmates cheered loudly.
With Byunghwa and Dongha’s consecutive impressive performances, our class rose to 3rd place in an instant.
As I approached the now victorious Dongha, who was resting proudly after wrestling hard in this chilly auditorium, I noticed him resting with his elbows on his knees, his head lowered.
“What’s up with you?”
I casually threw the question, and he slightly lifted his head and smiled.
Using one hand to make a V sign while showing the back of his hand, he took a breath and replied briefly.
“My dad used to be a wrestler.”
After hearing that, it struck me that his impressive leg hook technique wasn’t just a fluke.
No wonder he received such rigorous early training.
