Love for Love's Sake - Chapter 64
Chapter 64
I had noticed that during the competition, Cha Yeowoon and Cheon Sangwon were subtly close. Maybe that was why the other track and field members didn’t seem to bother Cha Yeowoon anymore.
After Cheon Sangwon heard my request, he bent his knees and flopped down. As he swept his hair back, dyed strands of hair protruded between his tightly clenched fingers.
“This is so annoying…I wish I had been born as Cha Yeowoon.”
Cheon Sangwon sighed dramatically and picked up his phone again. After a few minutes, he unexpectedly handed the phone to me.
On social media, under posts tagged with phrases like ‘Autumn Track and Field,’ ‘New Record,’ there was a tag forwarded to Cha Yeowoon’s username that read, ‘Cha Yeowoon, congratulations on the new record.’
There was also a photo of Cha Yeowoon, captured from the side as he stood at the competition venue with visible sweat, which appeared to be deliberately chosen for its aesthetic.
“That’s enough.”
Cheon Sangwon hurriedly put away his phone. It was obvious that he was very embarrassed.
“Thanks.”
Cheon Sangwon had said he would never help Cha Yeowoon because he didn’t like him. But perhaps it had been on his mind this entire time.
“Haa, I really have to like girls next time.”
“Meet a good girlfriend. I’m serious.”
“Seriously, next time I should like someone who never says things like that.”
[ Entering Love Supremacy Zone. ]
Seeing the familiar alarm, my back straightened.
“Yeowoon is here. Thanks, Sangwon.”
“The Association Officials also came and made a fuss. It’ll be a while before he comes back…”
Cheon Sangwon stopped talking. Cha Yeowoon could be seen walking through the entrance.
“Hi, Yeowoon.”
Cha Yeowoon, who found me as soon as he came, also stopped in surprise. Then, he quickly adjusted his gaze and smiled.
It was the same smile as when he had reached the finish line and found me. He had kept his promise.
“I have something to give you.”
This time, I struck first before Cha Yeowoon could speak.
* * *
It was almost midnight outside.
Cha Yeowoon and I came to the park we had visited on the first day, finding a place with well-installed streetlights.
Although it was a deserted park with no sign of anyone else, it didn’t feel empty. The rustling wind, bugs near the lights, and the stars in the sky each contributed to their own atmosphere. The night felt alive.
We sat side by side on a bench. As he fidgeted with the hand I had held on the way here, he turned his upper body toward me.
“What did you want to give me?”
“Oh, this.”
I opened a bag and took out the things I had brought. There were quite a few, so the weight was substantial.
“I was planning to wait until the last day to give them to you, but I decided to give them to you now.”
As I was watching the competition, I realized that I couldn’t wait. Lifting the bundle of straps all at once, round metal objects shook as it left the bag.
“Medals…”
Cha Yeowoon recited absentmindedly when he saw what I had taken out.
“Are these my medals?”
At the ensuing question, I nodded.
These were the medals Cha Yeowoon had won in the past.
I thought they must have been exchanged for money nearby, so I searched everywhere around his home where it could have been sold or left as collateral for money.
“…You bought them back?”
“They were left as collateral so I came to collect them.”
“How much did they cost?”
“Do we really have to break the mood and talk about money at a moment like this?”
The money I had saved wouldn’t have existed if not for Cha Yeowoon. Furthermore, it was collateral from a pawnshop, so rather than the cost, explaining and repurchasing was more challenging.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the pawnshop owner had a very bad impression of Cha Yeowoon’s father. Having lost contact with him, they canceled the collateral interest and sold it to me.
Cha Yeowoon’s eyes, which had been alternating between me and the medals in a daze, became distorted.
“I told senior to spend the money on yourself. Something like this for me… ”
“Don’t say you don’t need it.”
“…”
“They’re the records you achieved through hard work.”
These medals were proof of Cha Yeowoon’s efforts. Records he had achieved since middle school. They were simply priceless.
Among the six or so medals, I held a gold medal separately.
“Was this when you broke the record?”
“…It was when I entered high school and participated in the national competition for the first time. Spring track and field.”
“And you broke it again this time, right?”
Cha Yeowoon’s record was fast then, but it was even faster now.
There were tough times, but he had done it again. I hoped that he would remember these medals when he looked at them.
Even once I was no longer by his side, the medals would remain.
“Congratulations, Yeowoon.”
As I whispered and hung the medals around Cha Yeowoon’s neck, he lowered his head deeply.
“…”
Cha Yeowoon remained silent for a long time in that state.
The light from the lamp drew a pattern along his hair on the back of his head. The moist sweat on his exposed neck fragmented the light into small pieces.
Just when I was about to touch his shoulder and ask if he was okay, an alarm appeared.
[ Calculating Cha Yeowoon’s favorabilty. ]
[ Favorability: 65 ]
While I was swept away by the sudden deepened affection, Cha Yeowoon was staring at me.
“Senior is strange.”
Was that all he could say after keeping silent for a while? Although I wanted to joke, for some reason my mouth wouldn’t move.
“You gave me something I never thought about or wished for. But everything you give me…”
Cha Yeowoon took a deep breath.
“Senior shine too much, like someone from another world.”
Someone from another world…Cha Yeowoon raised his hand to my cheek. Unlike before, his attitude seemed calm, but when his fingertips touched my cheek, they involuntarily trembled. His fingers were so hot I thought my skin would burn.
“I like senior. I’ve come to like the things senior like.”
Cha Yeowoon’s confident tone collapsed into a shortness of breath. Like someone who had run a 200m sprint at full speed, his words spilled out. The speed increased and the rhythm became tangled.