Jia and Hainan covered me with a towel. All the members gathered around me while Boong Boong approached me. The cameras started flashing and Boong Boong stuck his microphone near my face.
“Wow, Sian! You won first place! How does it feel?”
“I’m very grateful for the other members of Lovely Girlz for their support. We…”
“You know there’s still Round 2, right?” Boong Boong cut in.
I gave him the look. Was he serious?
“Haha. I’m just kidding, Sian. What were you saying?”
“That’s it. I’m just grateful for my members for being here to support me.”
There, that’s plenty. Boong Boong was right. There was still Round 2. No need to give my victory speech now.
Boong Boong continued.
“But why didn’t you use your arms?” he asked.
As soon as he asked that, everyone turned to look at me. Clearly, they were all curious as well. Though some of the men were taking this time to stare at my chest.
“Oh, my arms suddenly went numb,” I said. Immediately afterwards, I flashed Jessican a big smile and she began to mutter under her breath. Probably cursing me to hell or something.
“Your arms went numb?” Boong Boong repeated.
“It just happened that way,” I said with a big smile.
“Oh, okay. Well, congratulations on coming first in your round. Yoo-young and Ji-hyun will be participating with the second team. Is there anything you’d like to say to them?”
“Good luck, guys! Love you!” I shouted. The other members followed suit. And soon, the second team prepared to start their race.
***
Yoo-young was in Lane 6. Ji-hyun was in Lane 7. God, they looked sexy. None of the male idols could take their eyes off of them. Heck, neither could I.
“Sian, you’re drooling,” Jia said, wiping my mouth for me. I quickly tried to compose myself as the countdown started.
“One! Two!”
Bzzzzz!
The foghorn blasted and all the contests dove into the water. Even then, I still didn’t expect much of a performance from Yoo-young and Ji-hyun. In fact, I really didn’t expect anything at all, but I immediately saw how wrong I was when they both began to take the lead! There was a large gap between them and the other contestants. Soon, they were flipping off the wall and swimming in the other direction. And incredibly fast on top of that! Had they been pro swimmers sometime before?
“Wow. How are they so good?”
“You didn’t know?” Jia replied, giggling at my surprised face.
“Huh? What?”
“They’re both really good at swimming. They’ve been taking lessons since they were young and they both competed as well.”
“Oh!”
So that’s why they were so good. How come they didn’t tell me? I continued to watch them. There was no doubt about it – they would take first and second, but it looked like a close match. I could barely see who was in front of the other. They both ended up finishing at almost the exact same time, but Yoo-young got first by a hair.
Soon, we were doing the 2nd and final round. And as expected, I won the gold. Second was Ji-hyun and 3rd was Yoo-young. With that, we cleaned the field in swimming, but silver and bronze medal didn’t get any prizes. When I asked why not, they told me that’s just how it was.
***
We headed back to the main stadium for the track & field competition. The fans who had been watching on the screen immediately turned to cheer for us when they saw us coming.
“Wow. I’m getting goosebumps.”
The sound was incredible. Off in the distance, I could see the boys carrying out a futsal match. That looked like fun. I wanted to join too, but unfortunately, as a girl, it wasn’t allowed.
For this portion, it wasn’t Boong Boong, but another commentator who spoke into the microphone.
“We will start the women’s track & field portion in thirty minutes. Contestants, please get ready.”
I immediately began stretching. Even though I had just participated in the swimming portion, I wasn’t tired at all. The more I stretched, the more I wanted to keep going. Like…really keep going.
“Sian, aren’t you tired?” Jia asked. I gave her a shrug.
“Not really.”
“You’re really impressive.”
“This is nothing.”
“Of course,” Jia said, taking my arm. My heart began to flutter as I could feel my adrenaline spiking.
“I need to go the bathroom.”
“Should I go with you?”
“No.”
And I went to the bathroom myself. If I had to endure one more second next to Jia, I’d go crazy. I needed to get away from her and collect myself.
And who else would I run into but Jessican?
“Well, hi there, Sir Rank,” I said with a wave. Jessican glared at me.
“What? Is that how you talk to your senior?” she spat out, pushing my shoulder. I felt the numbness settling immediately.
“Ugh, again? I really don’t get what your problem is with me.”
“Are you pretending to be stupid? I’m sure Mr. Lee already told you. He’s going to make sure to do everything to get in your way.”
“Oh, is that what you’re trying to do?”
“I’m going to make sure that you wish you’d never lived.”
“Hmm…I doubt that.”
“What?” Jessican spat out.
“You saw it back at the pool. It’s no use,” I snorted. Jessican flushed, her entire face becoming red. It almost made me concerned. What if her head exploded?”
“I should’ve paralyzed your legs while I was at it. See you on the track field. I’m going to make you crawl.”
With that, Jessican left, this time, bumping into my other shoulder. And that shoulder became numb too, but with my powers, I was able to release them in no time.
“She’s so pretty. Why does her personality have to suck?”
She really is quite strange. Anyways, I headed for the bathroom and on the way, I met more of the Ladies’ Generation members. They were Jungyoon and Mina, and they would be running track along with Jessican. Jungyoon was the group’s leader and main vocalist. She was also the oldest member. She had taken first place in the track competition last year. Mina was the sub-vocalist. She had taken second. Jessican had taken third, which meant that Ladies Generation had taken home the medals for track & field…but not this year.
“Hello,” I said.
They looked at me.
“Hey, you’re Sian, right?” Jungyoon said with a big smile. How could two members of the same group be so different.
“Yes, I am.”
“It’s nice to meet you. I saw you swim. You’re really good.”
“Thanks. I just got lucky,” I said modestly. Jungyoon shook her head.
“No, you’re really good. Jessican was the winner last year and you beat her by a landslide. I was shocked.”
“Right.”
“But why didn’t you use your arms? Did they really go numb? Why?” Jungyoon said.
That told me these two had no idea about Jessican’s powers. So, the ones with powers keep it to themselves, huh? Still, they hadn’t caused any real harm yet.
“I’m not really sure. It just happened.”
“I see. Maybe you were really nervous. Did you go to the hospital?” Jungyoon said, sounding worried. But was she? Or was this just an act? Her face looked pretty sincere. I’ll have to ask Jinwoo to help me act like that.
“It’s fine now. I’ll see you at the track field,” I said with another wave. They waved back and headed off. Well, they were about to, when suddenly, Jungyoon turned around to look at me again.
“Hey Sian, don’t let your guard down. I’m really good at track. I was a track & field athlete up until high school.”
“Oh, I see,” I said with a nod. Then, Mina spoke up.
“Me too. We’re both really good, so we won’t blame you if you decide to give in right now.”
Then with big smiles, they both turned around and headed off for the track field.
As soon as they were gone, I remembered why I was here in the first place. I entered the bathroom and did my business, though it was harder this time around.
***
“Track contestants, please come forward,” the commentator said. All the contestants gathered around. There were thirty of us in total. So they divided us into six teams of five. The first and second from each team would then compete in the semifinals. Those contestants will be divided into two groups of six, and the top three from each team would then compete in the final. So, the final round would have six contestants.
“You guys ready?” I said to the members who were competing with me. In total, there were five members who were running, Me, Jia, Yoo-jin, Jumi, and Rhinzi. They were all nervous, but since I was running as well, I knew it was in the bag. For this match, the prizes were meal vouchers at a famous restaurant. One for each member of the winning group.
“Hey, Yoo-jin.”
“Yeah?” Yoo-jin said.
“You didn’t bind your chest.”
“Right,” Yoo-jin said, silently asking why she should bother.
“Aren’t you afraid of them…bouncing?” I asked.
I know Yoo-jin said she didn’t care about that, but I saw it was my job to worry. If they bounce too much…well, it’s embarrassing. Just look at the men over there. They were already leering at us with lewd expressions.
“It’s fine. They won’t bounce.”
“Alright. Your choice.”
Then I looked over at Jia. Her legs were so slender. I was worried they’d snap while she was running.
“Can you really run, Jia?”
“Of course!” Jia said firmly. Well hat just worried me more. Still, it’s not like her legs would actually break. So, I turned my attention to Jumi and Rhinzi for their pep talk.
Soon, all the contestants gathered around once more to get their team assignments.
I was on Team 1. Jia was Team 2. Jumi got Team 3, Rhinzi got Team 4, and finally Yoo-jin was Team 5. Somehow, we all ended up in different groups. There were three members from Ladies’ Generation who were running. Jessican was on Team 3. Jungyoon was Team 4. And finally, Mina was Team 6. The other contestants were soon assigned to their groups as well.
“We will now start with Team 1. Contestants, please stand in your lanes,” the commentator instructor.
We all took our assigned lanes. I was Lane 3. Looking around, all the contestants looked so skinny. Was it normal for girl group members to look this weak? Just then, the girl next to me spoke up.
“Hi, Sian.”
“Oh, hello,” I said, giving her a slight bow. I didn’t recognize her, though. Was she a rookie, too?
“I’m Hyunjoo Kim, from the rookie girl group Gerbera. I’m a huge fan.”
“Oh, haha. Thank you so much,” I said with another bow. Gerbera. I’ve never heard of them before. As for Hyunjoo, she was incredibly beautiful, especially her eyes. They were quite large and attractive.
“Good luck, Sian.”
“Thanks, right back at ya!”
Hyunjoo Kim. Something told me I’d be seeing a lot more of her in the future.
