RCKS 29

Lee Yoonsan’s parents, Lee Gaeun and Lee Jeongwon, were also looking into a vacation home in Jeju after hearing that story, but they were deliberating because the conditions were more ambiguous than they thought. They preferred camping to staying in a vacation home, and as a couple who already owned a camper van, they questioned if there was really a reason to spend money to buy a vacation home in Jeju Island.

Building and owning a vacation home wasn’t a problem, but they would have to hire someone to manage it consistently, and just because they had a vacation home, they would have to go to Jeju Island for most of their vacations. For Lee Jeongwon and Lee Gaeun, who had no ties to Jeju, they wondered if there was really a need to go that far.

“Is Haekyung doing well?”

Then, a topic finally came up that would make Lee Yoonsan’s ears perk up. This was a story that was difficult to hear unless the timing of the call was just right, so Lee Yoonsan started to listen attentively to the call, even missing the fact that the ball he was dribbling in his game’s formation had been stolen.

—He already left two days ago. He said he’s doing well. It seems the athletes’ village is a bit uncomfortable, though.

“Still, thanks to your good friend, I get to see my friend’s son wear the Taegeuk mark.”

—I just hope he comes back safely without getting hurt. Medals and all that.

“Why, it would still be nice if he wins one!”

Hwang Haekyung had already departed two days ago for the Tokyo Olympics, which would start in a few days. That was a fact Lee Yoonsan also knew. Hwang Haekyung had sent him a DM with a photo of himself waiting inside the airport right before boarding the plane. It was a photo showing the inside of the airport along with a black rabbit keychain that fit cutely in the palm of his hand. The black rabbit keychain, which Hwang Haekyung said he bought himself, was at a level where you couldn’t even properly see its eyes and mouth. It was all fluffy with jet-black fur, and the only part of its face that had color was its coral-pink nose.

There were many rabbit-related gifts sent to Hwang Haekyung, but not a single one of them had black fur. Most were rabbits with white or pink fur, and other colors were only light gray or beige at most. It was probably because Hwang Haekyung’s skin was on the fair side.

Perhaps for that reason, Hwang Haekyung only kept the gifted rabbits at home and didn’t carry them around or attach them to anything. Then, the black rabbit keychain that Hwang Haekyung said he had personally searched for and bought online started to adorn one side of Hwang Haekyung’s sports bag from a certain point on. It dangled along with him to whatever competition Hwang Haekyung went to, and in Lee Seokjae’s vlog, a scene where Hwang Haekyung was personally bathing the black rabbit keychain in their accommodation during a competition was captured, becoming a hot topic.

It was understandable, because in the video, Hwang Haekyung wasn’t just scrubbing the rabbit keychain roughly, but was filling the sink with water and gently kneading it as if giving it a massage, like a spa course.

People who saw that video went wild saying it was cute, and Lee Yoonsan had rubbed his blushing face dryly and shaken his head back and forth. He had repeated to himself countless times not to misunderstand. Still, he couldn’t help the slight upturn of his lips.

The mothers’ call ended without much gain. At the same time, Lee Yoonsan, who felt deflated for no reason, also quit the game and went into his room. He sat perched on his bed and scrolled through Hwang Haekyung’s feed over and over on his phone, then scrolled up to look at the DMs he had exchanged with Hwang Haekyung again. He wasn’t sure about the words Hwang Haekyung had sent, but the words he had sent felt childish and cringey even though they were nothing special. And for some reason, he felt a little embarrassed and shy looking at it now. Even though no one was watching.

And so, the summer night passed. During the day, he would bask in the air conditioning, and at night, he would open the windows, leaving only the screens, and turn on the fan. He would watch movies on his laptop while eating watermelon or cantaloupe, and sometimes he would browse through books. He couldn’t study well in his room, so the study room he always went to was so blasted with air conditioning that it was cold. So, Lee Yoonsan would often take the hoodie or windbreaker that Hwang Haekyung had given him to cover himself.

In the meantime, the Olympics began. In the Olympics that started after the middle of July, the profile pictures of several national athletes became a hot topic, and Hwang Haekyung was one of them. And in the ensuing matches, both the men’s and women’s volleyball teams secured victories in the quarterfinals and went on to play in the semifinals. It wasn’t that surprising up to that point, as both the men’s and women’s volleyball teams had advanced to the main tournament after ranking 2nd and 3rd in the preliminary rankings. The fact that the pool of young players on the volleyball teams was good recently had already been proven by domestic and international results.

The excitement grew even more as the men’s volleyball team, to which Hwang Haekyung belonged, won the semifinal match. It was a reality that just three Olympics ago, the performance of the Korean men’s volleyball team had lagged behind that of the women’s volleyball team.

But starting from the Olympics two games ago, the pool of men’s volleyball players had improved, and they were consistently making it to the Olympic main tournament. Nevertheless, the best Olympic record set by men’s volleyball so far had been the 3rd-4th place match.

But in this Olympics, the men’s volleyball team had widened the score gap and advanced all the way to the finals. The international standard for volleyball prioritizes the number of wins, and the only remaining outcome was whether it would be a gold medal or a silver medal. A first-ever event had occurred in Korean men’s volleyball.

Hwang Haekyung was one of the players at the center of that first-ever event. In this semifinal match, he opened the floodgates for scoring with a service ace, and then, without fail, he did that usual rabbit ear ceremony and received cheers from the players who played with him. The young players, including Hwang Haekyung, had good concentration and stamina, and the veteran players skillfully pressured the opposing team, inducing errors. Their receives wavered in the middle, but they soon collected themselves and brought in the victory by unleashing blocks and spikes.

They won the semifinal match by taking three sets in a row like that, and the subsequent women’s volleyball team’s match also succeeded in securing a win thanks to the good performance of Ham Sejin and the senior players.

Lee Yoonsan sent a DM to Hwang Haekyung congratulating him on winning the semifinal match. And that night, before Lee Yoonsan went to sleep, a call came from Hwang Haekyung. The content was brief. It was a simple greeting, asking if he was sleeping and that he was going to sleep now too. But the words that followed made Lee Yoonsan’s mood soar again.

—If I win this time

“I hope you do. It’s the first gold medal for men’s volleyball, right?”

—I’m going to go do something for you again.

“…”

In that moment, Lee Yoonsan was reminded of Hwang Haekyung from last year. The eighteen-year-old Hwang Haekyung who, after winning the National Sports Festival match, came to see him, only to share a phone call from afar before turning back. Hwang Haekyung, who was my age now, had expressed it as, ‘I wanted to do this much for myself,’ even though he had only done that much before going back. He had said that about looking up at Lee Yoonsan from a distance and sharing just a few trivial words on the phone from that distance. If so, did that mean he would come see me when he returned to Korea this time too? Lee Yoonsan’s heart was beating so fast right now, and blood was rushing to his face to the point that the back of his neck was throbbing.

“…Is there nothing I can do for you? Should I buy you something rabbit-related?”

—You have to wait.

“Huh…?”

—I’ll come see you on my own, so you just stay put.

You don’t have to do anything. When you were a kid, the adults just doted on you on their own even when you weren’t doing anything. Hwang Haekyung whispered such words in a calm tone and then hung up the phone as if embarrassed. Only Lee Yoonsan was left frozen, standing there with a dazed expression. Lee Yoonsan was realizing in real time that his heart could feel overwhelmed if it beat too fast. He felt overwhelmed by himself trying to somehow interpret and expand on the words Hwang Haekyung had said, he was overwhelmed by the words Hwang Haekyung had said themselves, and he was overwhelmed by the heart rate that was pounding to the point of aching and his heated face, reacting to all of it.

It was the unmistakable realization of a first love.

But after that, Hwang Haekyung did not come to see Lee Yoonsan. Both the Republic of Korea’s men’s and women’s volleyball teams succeeded in winning gold medals, and news came that everyone had returned home safely afterward, but that was all. Hwang Haekyung did not come to see Lee Yoonsan after returning to Korea, not a few days later, nor a few months later.

Eventually, even their contact was cut off. It was a sudden and bewildering event. Just like that last summer vacation when Lee Yoonsan was 10 and Hwang Haekyung was 11, all contact with Hwang Haekyung was completely severed.

In the winter of his 18th year, and even after turning 19, Lee Yoonsan never managed to get in touch with Hwang Haekyung again. Since the night of the Tokyo Olympics semifinal match, Lee Yoonsan couldn’t even hear any news about Hwang Haekyung. It was only around the time Lee Yoonsan had just turned 19 that he saw an article that Hwang Haekyung was retiring from his athletic career. The article contained the information that Hwang Haekyung had entered a department at a regular private university completely unrelated to sports.

And so, the boys’ teenage years came to an end.