DASH-Chapter 174

“Well, it happens so quickly anyway. Everyone will notice in just a month.”

When he said that, Jaekyoung couldn’t hide his excitement. His mouth twitched as if he had never been upset or grumpy. Jiheon looked at Jaekyoung whom he loved so much and couldn’t help but smile.

“Jaekyoung-ah.”

Jiheon softly called Jaekyoung’s name.

“I’ve mentioned this before. I’ll move departments after the Olympics.”

Jiheon said soothingly, reaching out to touch Jaekyoung’s hair.

“But since I still work in this industry, it’s gonna be the same even if I move departments. People are bound to say something they don’t actually want as they work, especially because they’re caught in the middle. I feel comfortable thinking that it’s my job to express regrets on behalf of my athlete.”

Suddenly, the smile disappeared from Jaekyoung’s lips. He didn’t look as angry as before, just a little upset and disappointed. Jiheon seemed to understand what he was feeling and stroked the back of his head more affectionately.

“You probably don’t like it because you think I’m gonna suffer the same thing, but no. To me, it’s just a simple incident, and I don’t feel hurt or embarrassed saying such things. And since there are athletes like you who can’t do that or don’t like doing that, there should be people like us who can do that for them. Right?”

Explaining it with himself as an example made Jaekyoung’s expression instantly become uncomfortable. It wasn’t wrong, so he couldn’t argue and just frowned. Looking up close, the curve of the wrinkles between his eyebrows was enormous. Jiheon gently pressed Jaekyoung’s eyebrows with his fingertips.

“As you said, everyone has something they can’t give up. But on the other hand, there are also some things I don’t place much value on. I have pride, and that’s important. But bowing my head and getting scolded on behalf of my athlete doesn’t hurt my pride. If I can protect my athlete and make him receive better treatment by doing so, I’m satisfied with that. Rather, what hurts my pride ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) is that I didn’t do my job properly, and the athlete I was in charge of was not treated properly. Do you understand?”

When Jiheon asked him, Jaekyoung didn’t answer.

“Hurry up and answer me.”

Jiheon deliberately tapped Jaekyoung’s eyebrows with his fingertip.

“......Alright.”

Jaekyoung answered reluctantly. Only then did Jiheon smile and hug him.

“Good. Let’s sleep now.”

Jiheon said, giving Jaekyoung a tight hug, just like Jaekyoung had done earlier. He thought Jaekyoung had finally closed his eyes, but this guy opened them again and spoke up.

“Hyung. But you really must move departments.”

“Got it.”

“If possible, go for a desk job. At least you won’t be beaten up by some thug.”

“Yeah, got it.”

“And if you move to a management team, don’t ever take one with the swordsman, okay?”

“I said, got it! Let’s sleep now.”

With a smile, Jiheon covered him with the blanket up to his neck and patted his back. Only then did Jaekyoung finally, finally, close his eyes and quickly drift off to sleep, as if he had never made such a fuss earlier.

◆◇◆

“It’s literally a comeback.”

Team Leader Lee’s comment made Manager Yoon nod in agreement.

“A talent is still a talent.”

Both couldn’t take their eyes off the doping control booth next to the competition management office. More precisely, they were looking at Han Yuseong, currently being interviewed by a reporter in front of the booth, posing as requested.

In the 1500m freestyle event held yesterday afternoon, Han Yuseong effortlessly came in first place, surpassing the selection time. If he had solely focused on his main event, he could have easily met the qualifying time, but prioritizing training for the 400m individual medley had disrupted his long-distance rhythm. Nevertheless, being the only one among the 1500m swimmers to surpass the selection time, he could head to the Olympics if KSC requested an invitation from FINA.

Of course, Kavva skipped all the details and went straight to attention-grabbing headlines like <Han Yuseong, 1500m Freestyle Star in Brisbane!> and <Han Yuseong, Korean Long-Distance Swimming Hope, Aiming for the Olympics!>. They made it sound like Han Yuseong effortlessly secured his spot in the Olympics. As Jaekyoung had said, it seemed like they worked hard to get these stories out once his Olympic participation was confirmed.

Knowing the company’s track record, Jiheon had expected this kind of media play, so it wasn’t exactly shocking. However, Jiheon couldn’t help but burst into laughter when Han Yuseong said something about the first selection round.

Han Yuseong mentioned that the reason his performance had been particularly sluggish that day was because of the side effects of his anti-pheromone medication.

He’d been taking the medication for a while, but recently developed an allergic reaction. After a month of struggling with poor condition without knowing the cause, he decided to stop taking the medication right after the first selection round. Miraculously, his condition improved. Thanks to this, he chose to compete in the 1500m freestyle for the second selection round. He reached this decision after worrying that no swimmer managed to surpass the selection time in the first round.

He expressed joy for achieving good results and securing an Olympic ticket. He “wrote a lot of novels”, saying that he would be able to take on the 400m individual medley on the last day with a more relaxed mind, and he was looking forward to it.

Of course, the “novel” itself didn’t make much sense. The side effects of anti-pheromone and pheromone suppressant medication were a big deal, and finding the right type and dosage was crucial. Jiheon fully understood that it wasn’t uncommon to develop an allergic reaction overnight, despite being accustomed to the medication regardless of the type.

Nevertheless, the reason Jiheon couldn’t help but laugh as soon as he read the article was that, no matter how he looked at it, Han Yuseong’s explanation seemed like an excuse made up by using Jiheon’s words from the awards ceremony when he had said, “I’m not using a chip because of the side effects.”

It might be an overthinking on Jiheon’s part. Maybe Han Yuseong’s claims were entirely true, and he genuinely suffered from the side effects of anti-pheromone medication. But how likely was that? Jiheon was confident it was less than 1%. After hearing Jiheon’s words at the awards ceremony, Han Yuseong might have thought it was a decent excuse. He might have believed it could have a better impact if he packaged it this way since he happened to be an ambassador for the anti-doping campaign.

Actually, the articles pouring in all day today kept mentioning that Han Yuseong hadn’t found the right anti-pheromone medication for him yet, so he decided to compete without it for now, throwing in stuff like <it was a more meaningful decision because he is an ambassador for an anti-doping campaign>.

“It’s not a medicine he can’t take, and he’s saying he won’t bother taking it if he can’t, but this is a ridiculous way to put it. These people are really writing press releases, huh?”

This content is taken from freёnovelkiss.com.

“The journalists who publish it as it is are more of a problem.”

Team Leader Lee and Manager Yoon criticized Kavva’s delusional science fiction novel every time a new article popped up. During lunch, they clicked their tongues as they watched Han Yuseong being interviewed with the doping booth in the background. But Jiheon didn’t want to do that. He wasn’t exactly in the mood for that.

Jaekyoung had two races today too, the 50m freestyle and 200m individual medley, with both needing preliminaries and finals, so four races in total.

Usually, Jaekyoung was super busy on the days when his races overlapped—he had to submit urine or blood for doping tests, sign documents stating his consent for the aforementioned doping tests, and do a cool-down to get rid of the accumulated lactic acid due to the tension of the competitions—all within a short period of time. And in the meantime, he had to replenish his nutrition with a simple energy bar or shake and prepare for the next race. And this time, while he was all busy, he also had to get a massage with infrared light on his shoulder.

Luckily, the morning preliminaries went well without a hitch. The record was also good. So good that Jiheon felt a bit frustrated.

‘Why is he going all out in the prelims, not the final?’

Since swimmers just needed to be in the top 8 in the preliminaries, many adjusted their speed appropriately to save stamina. Olympic medalists were no exception, especially those who participated in multiple events.

But Jaekyoung wasn’t like that. Jiheon wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not, but from what he saw, Jaekyoung never used that strategy.

Jiheon kept jokingly telling him to take it easy, but he never did. He kept finishing first and setting records like it was just another practice. Even in the preliminaries.

“It begins.”

An announcement marked the start of the 50m freestyle finals, and soon the swimmers entered the arena.

Reporters in the press seats were thrilled and started to snap pictures. Despite Han Yuseong posing in front of the doping booth, most reporters didn’t even pay any attention to him and just proceeded to zoom in as hard as they could to get a shot of Kwon Jaekyoung from a distance.