Chapter 193: Old Fate (3)

“B-Because it was so good to hear about you! You’re a successful streamer!”

Sang-Hyeon ignored Dong-Su’s excuses and thought to himself,

‘It happened…’

It was bound to happen.

“Hey. Hey, but!”

“?”

“T-This isn’t just my fault! Hyun-Joo knew a long time ago!”

“… What?”

Hyun-Joo knew? That was shocking as well.

“She watched you from the beginning by pure coincidence because she heard of a streamer who only used a bow.”

“From the beginning?”

“Yeah. But as you know, everyone looks a little different on the screen. And it’s been ten years…”

True, it’d been strange for a friend to recognize how he looked after ten years, especially if it had been since high school.

“So she said she posted about you, saying you’re an experienced archer…”

‘She posted about me? No way.’

A certain post brushed past his thoughts. The post went into detail about why he was a good archer. He thought it was strange because the post was quite detailed. To think it was Hyun-Joo…

“But after she saw your interview with Fantasia, that’s when she figured out it was you.”

“… Ah.”

He was easily recognizable in Fantasia’s interview because they filmed him with a 360 degree camera.

“I found out yesterday as well. I showed her your Runesta profile, and she told me she already knew.”

“I see.”

“But I didn’t know you wanted to keep it a secret. It seemed like Hyun-Joo already knew you wanted to keep it a secret.”

“Hyun-Joo knew?”

“Yeah. She said once she found out it was you, she deleted the post. Back then, I didn’t think much of it, but now that I think of it, it’s probably because she knew you didn’t want to be found out.”

“… Hm.”

Hyun-Joo was So-Yeon’s best friend. She probably figured Sang-Hyeon wanted to keep it a secret because of her…

“Anyways, I’m sorry. I was just excited… so I couldn’t help it….”

“That’s alright. Just be careful from now on. You just told our guys from archery, right?”

“Of course! Out of them, it’s all people you’re close with!”

“Alright.”

He was worried because people knew about him, but Sang-Hyeon thought there wasn’t much he could do about it. This was just a sensitive topic for him as an individual. To others, it wasn’t a big deal.

“But you guys seem to still get along pretty well.”

Sang-Hyeon changed the topic.

“Yeah, they come by the cafe often. They’re all doing well. There’s even a medalist…”

“A medalist?” Sang-Hyoen unconsciously got excited and asked him.

“Yeah…

umm…

you don’t know?” Dong-Su looked confused. “Hyun-Joo is an Olympic gold medalist.”

Sang-Hyeon suddenly blanked out.

‘Olympic gold medalist.’

This was the only thing on his mind when he was young.

‘Hyun-Joo is an Olympic gold medalist?’

The girl who always asked him for advice… was a gold medalist. A strange feeling shook Sang-Hyeon’s heart.

“Wow, you really didn’t know?”

“Yeah, I didn’t watch on purpose. I see she continued being an archer… that’s why she was able to assess so well…”

Sang-Hyeon became silent after muttering to himself.

“You don’t watch on purpose…?”

Dong-Su stuttered after hearing that Sang-Hyeon purposely didn’t watch archery anymore.

‘Now that I think about it, he was the best…’

Yu Sang-Hyeon. This name was synonymous with the best in the field of archery. He was an overwhelming force. When he declared he wasn’t into archery anymore and decided to quit, the entire community fell into shock. The guy who was the first to win a medal and be qualified to play…

“

Ah

, that’s a shame. If you continued to play, you probably would have gotten a gold medal as well.”

“

Haha

, do you think gold medals are just given out to everybody?” Sang-Hyeon let out a laugh and shook his hand. “Hyun-Joo was way better than I was.”

He tried to tell himself what wasn’t true and tried to ignore what he was feeling.

***

Dong-Su must’ve caught on because he stopped talking about archery. The last thing he did was invite Sang-Hyeon to his cafe before getting up.

“Hey, it was nice seeing you. Next time, let’s meet at my cafe. Let’s hang out with everyone.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Sang-Hyeon replied while laughing, but it was forced. He replied with affirmation, but he didn’t know if they could hang out again.

‘I’ve forgotten about them for over ten years.’

The sensation of the past ten years of forgotten memories flowing back to him all at once was exciting but also terrifying at the same time. He felt bittersweet about the whole situation. When he left the cafe, it was already 3 P.M.

“I parked over here. Do you want a ride?” Dong-Su asked as he got into a nice foreign car.

“No, it’s alright. I’ll just go on my own.”

“Sure.”

Sang-Hyeon turned around and walked away. Dong-su started his car and stopped for a moment. His gaze turned to the side mirrors.

‘Does he have regrets?’

The only thing he could see was Sang-Hyeon’s back. It was hard to tell what he was thinking just from seeing his back after ten years. However, Sang-Hyeon’s reaction from earlier bothered him.

‘He cut off archery entirely out of his life? He didn’t even know about the gold medal…’

Nowadays, it was easy to curate news according to one’s preferences, so it wasn’t hard to avoid an unpopular topic. However… thinking about Sang-Hyeon in the past, it was hard to believe his actions.

‘What happened?’

It didn’t seem like he quit archery because he was bored with it. Dong-Su was curious, but he ignored the thought.

‘Let’s just focus on myself.’

Dong-Su wasn’t in a place to worry about others. One of his part-time employees in Namyang had quit, so he had to work in place of him. He made a quick phone call.

“Hey, I’m going right now, so continue as usual.”

Vrooom.

The car released natural exhaust, which was hard to see, and moved forward.

“Alright, the boss himself is headed there.”

***

After Sang-Hyeon came back home, he sat still and blanked out.

‘What’s this feeling…’

It was a feeling difficult to understand. He couldn’t express himself with words. He should’ve felt happy for Hyun-Joo winning the gold medal. A player like that, coming from their academy, was impressive.

However…

“What the? You’re back early.”

Ju-Hyeok came through the veranda after finishing up cleaning the weeds.

“How was the friend?”

‘Friend?’

Sang-Hyeon’s blank mind understood after a slight stutter. Ju-Hyeok was asking about Lee Dong-Su.

“

Ah…

Well…”

“Well, what?”

“Just… he seems the same, and different.”

“Is he going to stay quiet?”

Sang-Hyeon gave a bitter smile and shook his head, “He already told the archery friends.”

Sang-Hyeon also explained that Lee Dong-Su had a lot of friends and continued to stay in contact with them.

“Sigh,”

Ju-Hyeok let out a deep sigh.

“What are you going to do then?”

“But so what if a couple of archery friends know… it doesn’t mean everyone will find out. They’re all fine guys. Apparently, one of them already knew anyways.”

“

Huh?

Really?”

He explained about Hyun-Joo as well. He didn’t know why, but he left out the part where she won a gold medal. Even he didn’t know why he did that.

“Wow… Hyun-Joo is kind, but I wonder if the others will keep their mouths shut?”

Ju-Hyeok called Hyun-Joo kind. That was right. Even when they were in school, Hyun-Joo was compassionate, friendly, and diligent. Even though she was a junior, he had lots to learn from her…

“Hey! Why are you blanking out? How are the others?!”

Ju-Hyeok came up to him and shook him.

“

Ah…

S-Sorry.”

Sang-Hyeon realized that he was still blanking out.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah… they won’t say anything. And it’s not like they get anything from telling others….”

They only knew that Sang-Hyeon used to be an archer, but then he quit. That was all.

‘They don’t know anything about my right arm.’

They didn’t know the most important thing.

‘But one day….’

One day, they’ll find out. There were no secrets in this world, especially in this age.

“It’s not a big deal anyway. It’s not much.”

Even if people found out about his right arm, Sang-Hyeon thought there wasn’t much he could do about it. People who needed to know already knew. The doctor did, so did Manager Oh, so did Ju-Hyeok…

‘It’s not a big deal.’

It was a small, personal matter. The only issue was that he became a bit famous.

[Schedule]

Sang-Hyeon opened the calendar app on his phone and checked the date. There were other schedules throughout the calendar, including practices for the tournament. In the middle of his work schedule, there was one foreign text.

[Han So-Yeon’s birthday]

It was tomorrow. The timing was impeccable. Thinking about her birthday took him back in time to ten years ago. Han So-Yeon, Lee Dong-Su, Cha Hyun-Joo, Oh Jong-Hyeon… his head filled with old names. He could smell their classroom. He didn’t feel like streamer Almond. He felt like Yu Sang-Hyeon in grade 11, homeroom 12.

When the semester started, he would glance out the window and see So-Yeon’s beautiful reflection in the sunlight.

Bling!

“Ah!”

The noisy notification snapped him back to reality.

[Takoyaki: Hey~ Almond. I heard you hit Gold?]

It was Takyaki. He was contacting him ahead of time for today’s practice match.

[Ah, yes. I got promoted yesterday.]

[Takoyaki: Wow… you played all those solo queue games after the scrims? That’s incredible. And all as Ran as well?]

[Yeah, because playing as Ran using one hand is easier.]

[Takoyaki: Ah, I see. You’re still good at Raina, right? Haha. You can’t pull her out and suddenly suck at using her.]

[Yep.]

[Takoyaki: Anyway. Today’s practice is at the same time as always, 6 P.M.!]

[Yep.]

Sang-Hyeon’s practice match today was against a team called Charging Deer. Just like their team's name, the champions they picked were all champions that charged head-on. Because of their team composition, Sang-Hyeon’s team lost a round with him playing as Ran.

‘So Ran isn’t good against charge teams…’

After Sang-Hyeon learned this, he picked the Frost Archer - Leon in his third match. Leon was a perfect counter to charge comps because all he had to do was freeze and keep them in place. The enemy spent more time frozen than charging forward.

— Are they in the ice age? Why are they just frozen the whole time, LOL

— Look at the way they fall, haha

— Damn, he’s good with Leon too?!

— All they do is charge forward, LOL

— They need to learn how to move first, haha

Since all the enemies did was charge forward, it was easy for their team to adapt to the simple patterns. They were rendered useless by Leon’s freezing ultimate. The match ended uneventfully. The enemy team lost badly, but it wasn’t for nothing. They found out that even Almond’s Ran was weak against a full-charge team.

Almond’s team figured out how to utilize the frost archer a little better. Almond felt like his champion mechanics slightly improved. The two teams were able to gain what they wanted from the match.

“Good job everyone.”

“They’re doing another power rank tomorrow. I think we’re going to go up again!”

“Yeah, seems that way. It’s working out well for us. It was fun~.”

“Thank you~.”

After they gave each other feedback until 9 P.M., Sang-Hyeon started playing solo queue on his own again. He was exhausted from using two hands to play Leon earlier, but he could push through since it was only one round. He consecutively picked Ran and went on a winning streak. He was now Gold III.

“That’s enough for today.”

Even though it wasn’t a short stream today, his viewers retaliated with disappointment. After turning the stream off, Sang-Hyeon washed up and went to bed. In his dream, he and Hyun-Joo were both gold medalists. Men’s gold medal and women’s gold medal. They said the same thing in their interview.

‘So-Yeon will be happy.’

While sleeping, a single tear rolled down Sang-Hyeon’s eyes.

***

As soon as Sang-Hyeon woke up the next day, he brushed his teeth like always, washed up, and exercised. However, there was one more thing added to his routine.

Chuck.

He put on his suit. He took his dress shoes and walked out the front door.

Clack.

The sound of the dress shoes hitting the hard pavement was loud. It felt like he was going back to the office. He looked back at the window. His grandma would often watch him go to work.

‘Grandma.’

He looked up at the starless morning sky.

‘Grandma, you know So-Yeon too, right?’

His grandma liked So-Yeon quite a lot. Any adult would love her personality. Beautiful looks, kind personality, too polite…. She was just like a class president. Was she one? He couldn’t quite remember. He called a taxi as he finished descending the stairs. A warm, robotic voice came out from the empty seat in front of him.

“Where shall we go?”

Today, he was going to Han So-Yeon.