GBH 126

The teachers, not daring to mingle with the energetic students, sat on plastic chairs under the tent to watch. While sending sympathetic thoughts to the PE teacher in charge and waiting for the relay race to start, the 2nd-year grade head who had just received a phone call entered the tent.

“Is there a male student named Song Yi-heon on the field? They said he has short hair and a white face.”

The grade head had just returned to the field after taking an injured student to the hospital for treatment in the morning. He received a call from the school looking for a student but didn’t know who it was, so he asked the other teachers. However, the description provided by the 3rd-year grade head was too broad.

“All the boys have short hair. And they’re all pale from studying indoors.”

“They say his name is Song Yi-heon? There is an unfamiliar face on the field, but I heard he’s called Kim Deuk-pal. They say he’s a transfer student in Class 5.”

“Our class? We don’t have any transfer students!” The Class 5 homeroom teacher, who had been munching on a fruit lunchbox, startled and denied it. 

The Class 5 teacher was aware of the transfer student’s existence. However, since Song Yi-heon had volunteered to participate in any class with an empty spot, the Class 5 teacher assumed he must be from another class.

When Song Yi-heon cheered for Class 5, the teacher thought he was a friend from another class helping out. When the teacher went to check if the students were eating lunch well, they missed seeing Song Yi-heon due to breaking up a fight over sweet and sour pork sauce. By the time Doyoung noticed the homeroom teacher and turned to tell Song Yi-heon to hide, he had already disappeared with his bowl of jajangmyeon.

“I heard Deuk-pal was a transfer student who came to Class 3.”

When the Class 5 teacher shared what they knew, the Class 3 homeroom teacher denied it, “We don’t have any transfer students in our class either!”

“I heard he was a transfer student in Class 2…”

“I heard Class 1…”

An eerie silence fell. It was the moment when the vague belief that “if not me, then you” or “if not our class, then another class” was shattered. Silence descended among the teachers. Not only was it revealed that everyone had been mistaken, but the fact that a perfectly existing student didn’t belong to any class sent chills down their spines, as if they had seen a ghost.

“We don’t have any transfer students in our grade.” The grade head reaffirmed, “Who transfers on the day of a sports festival anyway? They’d come the next day.”

Now that he mentioned it, it made sense. Then who was this transfer student who had been enthusiastically running around the field since the start of the sports festival? And wearing 2nd-year PE uniform pants at that.

“Then who is that…?”

All the teachers under the tent knew the transfer student called “Kim Deuk-pal.” They couldn’t not know him. Short hair and a pale, oval face. Delicate features like a doll, but with a fierce expression as if ready for a competition. Though not large in build, whenever he ran, his white shirt clung to his upper body, revealing a firm chest and a waist tightened by muscles, making him look sleek. The boy had a special quality that made people turn to look even as he passed by.

Among the relay runners sitting in two lines was the transfer student called Kim Deuk-pal. With an unbelievable friendliness for his first day as a transfer student, he blended in with the 2nd-year students. Kim Deuk-pal, playing along with a female student next to him who was nudging him with a drink bottle, wore party sunglasses put on him by the students and an aloha flower necklace around his neck. It was quite a different look from the morning when he wore just a white shirt and PE uniform pants.

His unusually short brown hair was damp with sweat and sticking up in places, with a blue headband representing the blue team crossing the boundary between his hair and forehead. His skin, which didn’t tan easily in the sun, had returned to its original color as the flush faded. His face was more clear than white.

Short hair and a white face. The features that had been dismissed as unremarkable now exuded a weighty presence, like a stone pulled from murky water.

Once a specific person was placed under suspicion, the broad description matched.

The 2nd-year teachers, as if by agreement, focused on Kim Deuk-pal. The boy who was now blowing a party horn with a “poo-” sound.

“Then is he…?”

It was the moment when the identity of the 3rd-year student who had been posing as a 2nd-year student for a day was about to be revealed.

Outside the track, reactions in the cheering section were mixed. The white team, leading from the start, seemed confident of victory and relaxed, mocking the blue team, while the provoked blue team refused to give up and sang cheers loud enough to shake the field, but the gap only widened.

The goddess of luck seemed to be favoring the white team, not the stubbornly persistent blue team.

In the distance, the relay runners from the blue and white teams were running for their lives. As Song Yi-heon’s turn approached and he prepared to go, a girl from the same class stopped him.

“Deuk-pal, you’re coming to the after-party, right?”

“We’ll see.” Song Yi-heon took off the sunglasses with cake candle-shaped tops and the aloha flower necklace, and started to warm up. 

The 2nd-year Class 5 students erupted in thunderous cheers at his appearance.

“Kim Deuk-pal! Kim Deuk-pal!”

With the full support and approval of the 2nd-year Class 5 students, Song Yi-heon was allowed to replace the original runner in the relay race. With the original runner’s concession, he couldn’t lose now.

“Deuk-pal, fighting!”

He lightly waved in response and went to the track, stretching his hand back to receive the baton, ready to run. Though it was his first time in a relay race, he looked quite convincing, perhaps from imitating the preparatory stances of the runners who had started before him.

The white team’s runner arrived first, passing the white baton and starting the next runner, while the blue team’s runner was still coming, face red as if about to burst. Although the white team was far ahead, Song Yi-heon waited calmly.

“Here…!”

The blue team runner stretched out his arm as if about to fall forward, trying to pass the baton even a second faster.

“Good job.” Song Yi-heon briefly encouraged him after receiving the baton, then sprinted off. 

His thin legs stretched out like a herbivore’s, the tightly woven muscles tensing up, leaving no worry about instability. His long legs moved instantaneously, like a water strider jumping on water, extending the opposite leg as soon as one touched the ground.

“Wow!”

A surprised exclamation burst from the cheering students. They knew the transfer student who had shown great skills today was good at sports, but they didn’t expect him to play the role of a hidden card. As signs of a comeback appeared, the cheers ignited like kindling.

“Run-!”

Song Yi-heon increased his running speed. The sound of wind brushing past his ears muffled the cheers, making them sound faint. Now, not far ahead, he could see the back of the white team runner. Perhaps sensing the ominous change in the surrounding cheers, the white team runner realized something was going wrong and looked back.

“Hik…!”

‘We’ve won.’

Song Yi-heon smiled with satisfaction. Looking back meant a break in concentration, and seeing Song Yi-heon catching up like a runaway train with his own eyes meant it was time for composure to crumble.

As expected, the white team runner was shocked and tried to run faster, but his legs had lost their strength. Even forcing his wobbling legs to run, he couldn’t match his previous speed. Instead, he slowed down, treading heavily on the track. Meanwhile, Song Yi-heon was closing the distance with his water strider-like running.

Is this how a rabbit feels when chased by a tiger? The white team runner felt a chill in his heart because of Song Yi-heon fiercely pursuing him. Even though he was running hard, the anxiety of feeling like he was about to be caught made him make the mistake of looking back again.

“Hiek-“

The menacingly pursuing Song Yi-heon looked like a tiger with piercing eyes from a folk painting in an art textbook. The white team runner gritted his teeth and ran, but he was overtaken.

Song Yi-heon passed the white team runner. The white team runner fell further and further behind, disappearing from view. On the curved track, there was no one blocking Song Yi-heon’s path. If he could just make it to the finish line like this, it would be a victory for the blue team. As he made a decisive contribution to the victory, Song Yi-heon felt an overwhelming elation spreading throughout his body, riding on the pounding beats of his heart.