Part 18

The Tournament

[The Jangchigi tournament in the novel is pretty similar to the part in the drama. Yongha appropriately stays out of the game, and the norons on the Seojae team target Yoonhee to try and injure her at every chance they can get. And like the drama, there are many watching, including the King. There are three parts to the tournament--soccer, jangchigi, tug-of-war.]

Yoonhee tries her hardest to escape those set out to attack her. Although she was first afraid of joining the game, she slowly starts to adjust, and proves to be pretty agile (at least, much more than Yongha, who, according to the author, only knows how to use what's between his legs than his legs themselves).

The moment Yoonhee starts to ease into the feel of the game, the ball flies past several other players and arrives directly onto her stick. She starts running with the ball, lowering her body. Suddenly she sees someone's stick flying towards her face with incredible speed. But she knows, by the time she's noticed it, it's too late.

Wham!

Her eyes close tightly shut when she hears the noise, bracing herself for the pain. But she doesn't feel it. Nothing has hit her face. Yoonhee carefully opens her eyes. In front of her eyes is someone's shoulder. The person in front of him has his arm extended, holding onto something. His hand, dripping with blood, is holding onto the stick that almost hit her. Onlookers shout in surprise.

"Garang!"

Yoonhee realizes that it's Sunjoon. He doesn't move. Anyone can tell how dangerous the situation could have been. Yoonhee looks at the blood falling from his hand, and says, with her voice trembling, "Ga-Garang Hyungnim....."

Jaeshin runs to the scene from far, swinging his own stick. "You bastards! I'll kill you all!"

He swings his stick in anger, and Yongha shouts from the sidelines, "this is going to become too big a fight. Everyone, grab Gul-oh!"

Several people run to Jaeshin and hold him back, but he rips them off of him. He raises his stick again, but stops.

Before Jaeshin can do anything, Sunjoon has already punched the student who swung the stick and knocked him onto the ground. Everyone is shocked and silent. Nobody expected Sunjoon to do such a thing.

Sunjoon says angrily, "That's enough."

The student Sunjoon has punched touches his face with his hands and yells, "is living at dongjae not enough? How can you punch another noron?!"

"If doing these sort of things is what becomes of this division, I won't tolerate it all the more! Do not test me!"

He turns coldly and starts walking out of the field. The student on the ground, angry, shouts, "Garang, say it once and for all. Are you a noron or not?!"

Sunjoon stops. He makes a fist with his bloodied hand and says quietly, "I am definitely a noron. But in front of you, I shouldn't be anything more than a Sungkyunkwan student."

The referee, not knowing what to do, looks back and forth and says in a tiny voice, "uh...well...here... I think both of you need to step out. I'm sorry to scholar Garang, but you are out as well..."

Jaeshin protests, "Hey, ref! How can you take Garang out?! He was trying to stop anything from happening. Just take the bastard who injured him!"

The referee flinches at Jaeshin's loud voice. Sunjoon smiles at Jaeshin.

"It's true that I used my fist during the game, so I should be taken out. Gul-oh sahyung, please win for us."

"What? You arrogant... Who are you to tell me what to do? I was going to win regardless of whether you asked me or not."

Sunjoon puts his good hand on Yoonhee's shoulder.

"I trust you to take care of the rest."

"Your hand... because of me..."

His lips curl into a smile. It's so beautiful that it chases both her worry and reason away. If Yongha hadn't shouted loudly for Sunjoon, she might have touched them with her own.

The game resumes after Sunjoon has stepped outside the field. The doctor from the medicine room comes running to Sunjoon and looks at his wound. Yongha, worried, pesters the doctor with his questions.

"How is it? Are his bones okay? He dripped so much blood--he'll be okay, right?"

"...Let's take a look at it first..."

The doctor cleans Sunjoon's hurt hand with a wet cloth.

"It should be okay. Thankfully there shouldn't be any problems with your bones."

"Then why is he bleeding so much? Are you sure you're looking at it right?"

"Scholar Yeorim, please! He's bleeding much faster right now because he's been running around so much until now."

The doctor wraps Sunjoon's wound with a white cloth after applying ointment.

"Don't lower your hand until it stops bleeding. And don't put it in water. Even though your bones are okay, your flesh has ripped a little, so you should be careful. I'll take a look at it later again."

"Thank you."

Yongha jumps up and shouts towards Yoonhee, "Hey, Daemul! He said Garang will be okay! It's just ripped a little!"

Yoonhee stops for a moment. Grateful, she bites her lip and starts chasing the ball again.

"Look at him pretending he didn't hear. Look here, Garang. It's a shame your hand became like that, but imagine if it didn't. If that stick hit Daemul... I don't even want to imagine!"

"It wouldn't have been just his face. It would have taken his eye."

                                                           
"What? ...That bastard. How can you be satisfied with one punch?!"

"That's probably why I'm still so frustrated... I should have beat him more."

Yongha notices Sunjoon subconsciously lowering his hand and helps raise it with his own.

"It's good that you're at Dongjae. I even get to hold your hand like this. If you were at Seojae, we probably wouldn't even have spoken!"

"I would have approached you."

"What would a do-gooder like you need from a person like me? Hahaha."

"There are a lot of things I need to learn."

"Huh? Learn what? Women? What would you need that for?"

Yongha is puzzled. Sunjoon doesn't explain; he just smiles. Yongha reads Sunjoon's face and asks, "is something worrying you lately?"

Sunjoon's eyes follow Yoonhee, who is running around as hard as she can. He smiles sadly.

"I don't know what it is, but if it worries you so much, you can talk to me. You said yourself you would have approached me, right? Don't try to bottle it in."

"It's nothing."

If it was something he could talk about, he would have done so already. If it was about a normal woman, he would have already bothered Yongha to ask how to go about it.

But what could he say? How could he say it?

There's someone my heart beats for. And that person is not a woman; he is a man, just like me. He's the one running as hard as he can over to do his part, and to do even my part in my absense. Kim Yoonshik. The two of us are together day and night. He's with me always, even in my thoughts. I don't like it when he looks at Chosun, I don't like it when Geol-roh sahyung stands close to him, and I don't like it that he is close to Yeorim sahyung. I just want him to be my side, looking only to me, talking only to me, and smiling only to me. You could say that's not really a big deal. You could just say that it's just a little strong, for a friendship between two men.

But why does my heart beat in front of him when it's as still as ice in front of a woman as beautiful as Hyo-eun?

Yes, you could also say that it's not a big deal. But it's not only my heart. When I'm in front of him, my whole body is strange. Every time I hear his breathing as he sleeps next to me, I'm shocked to realize that I feel lust. Some nights it gets so bad I sleep with my back to him. When he's asleep, I want to touch his hand. I want to touch his face. I want to steal his lips with my own. I want to hold the feet in his beoseon in my hand.

How can a man with any reason or morality feel this way, inside Sungkyunkwan, a place of Confucius and Mencius? So I tried to meet Hyo-eun, but it's no use. I thought that if I met a woman, that my feelings would change, but it seems like my feelings have become even more sure. What should I do about these feelings?

...Is this what I should confide in him? Sunjoon can never let it leave his mouth. This is something he does not need to ask Yongha--he knows it is wrong. Sunjoon slowly swallows in all the words he thought and painfully lets out the only thing he can say.

"It's nothing."

Both teams continue with even points. A blue flag is raised to signal that the game will end soon. The ball is with the seojae team. If they win at Jangchigi (Seojae already won the soccer part), the tournament will be Seojae's victory. Jaeshin starts to throw himself towards the Seojae players. After pushing and tussling, he successfully steals the ball. He evades those coming after him, and when he sees the crowd of players coming his way, he twists his body and swings his stick, hitting the ball.

Sunjoon gets up. The ball had flown up high in the air, passing over the heads of several players, and landed right into Yoonhee's stick. Yoonhee, tired, was straying away from the main action, and so in front of her is only one seojae player. At first Yoonhee is taken back, but she starts running. As soon as she starts running, all the players on the field start running towards her from all directions. Surprised and scared, she just hits the ball as hard as she can. Before she can see where it went, she falls with the weight of other students, who jump on top of her.

A great roar overtakes the field in Bicheondang. Yoonhee is not able to make out from which side the cheer is from, buried under the other students. She crawls out from underneath them and raises her head, looking out for the ball. The ball is outside the field, and she can't tell whether it went through between the posts or outside them. She raises herself up and looks around, and finds Dongjae students jumping in happiness.

"I-it went in?! That?"

Yoonhee points at the ball and herself back and forth. Instead of answering, the Dongjae students run to her and start patting her on her shoulder. Her eyes search for Sunjoon. She seems him clapping toward her.

Her legs start running. Her legs take her to Sunjoon and throw her into Sunjoon's arms. Yoonhee hugs him with his arms around his neck.

"Did you see? I made the goal! I did it!"

Sunjoon's good right arm wraps tightly around her waist.

"I saw it. I saw you put it in."

Jaeshin runs to them and lightly hits Yoonhee's head.

"Are you that happy, when you only made it by mistake?"

Jaeshin's voice is full of laughter. Jaeshin taps Sunjoon's hurt raised arm (like a high-five, I think), happy to have won.

Yoonhee unwraps her arm from Sunjoon's neck.

"It's still a goal, even if I made it my mistake. It's all thanks to you, Geol-Roh Sahyung."

"No, you made the goal. Imagine if I had passed the ball to Yeorim."

Even though Yoonhee has already let go of Sunjoon's neck, her body is still stuck to Sunjoon's. His right arm is still around her waist. His left arm is raised, and his right arm firmly holds her to him so that she can't pull away. But she doesn't think about why he is not letting go, because she is busy jumping up and down in joy. Yongha finds them and pulls all three into a hug. Jaeshin pretends to find it annoying but stays still in the embrace. More and more dongjae players surround them, joining in the hug, until all the players become one. In the center is Yoonhee, who is not only overjoyed at their victory, but excited to be held in Sunjoon's arms.

Chosun looks onto the scene with narrow eyes. She tilts her head, puzzled. Even though everyone is hugging one another, something feels different between Sunjoon and Yoonhee. A strange idea tickles down her spine, and she shakes her head to shake it off.