212 – Friendship, Effort, Victory
In the suffocating silence, Sasha moved first.
“Let’s go!”
We rush towards the horsemen of Class 2-A at the arrival of her.
On the other hand, Karen’s horse did not move yet.
‘Did I really give up?’
It was to the point that I thought that momentarily.
There is a gap between Karen’s horse and ours that can never be bridged.
That’s ‘height’. I’m 190cm tall and Sasha is about 170cm tall, so no matter how tall you sit, the total height is at least 3m.
Karen, on the other hand, is only about 150 cm tall, so considering her sitting height, there is at least a two-head difference in height between her and Sasha.
Eventually we reached Class 2-A, and Sasha bent her upper body and stretched out her right arm to grab Karen’s headband, which was in the perfect position.
“Now!”
With Karen’s cry, her entire mount sank.
“What!”
To be precise, it didn’t sink.
‘It was temporarily kneeling.’
Involuntarily, I admired Karen’s wit.
‘It’s definitely an advantage to be tall in a cavalry fight. However, if the other person’s height is much shorter, that could act as a weakness.’
From noble mtl dot com
The tallest horse on Karen’s side is about 250cm.
For Sasha, who is relatively tall, to grab onto Karen’s headband, she naturally has no choice but to lean her upper body forward.
But what if you get shorter there?
Above the center of gravity of a person, an absolute area is created that can no longer bend forward.
As of right now, Sasha wasn’t enough to wrap her legs around my neck, but to the back of her head to her stomach.
In this situation, to take Karen’s headband from her knees, the horse had no choice but to collapse.
‘I can’t believe he devised such an amazing strategy in that short amount of time.’
Karen, scary child!
After a while, Karen shouted from under the bewildered Sasha’s chest.
“We got down on our knees! To gain momentum!”
Getting out of the absolute realm, Karen’s body instantly springs up like a spring.
A panicked Sasha tried to pull her upper body behind her, but it was too late.
Flutter!
“Win!”
The headband was stolen in an instant.
The PE teacher who was watching the situation blows a whistle.
Beep!
“Class 2-B! Group 3 eliminated!”
Waaa!!
The spectator seats heat up at an unexpected change.
Muttered the class president who was watching the whole situation from behind.
“It’s ruined…”
I think so too.
***
Due to the elimination of class 2-B, which was a strong candidate for the championship, and Karen’s struggle, it was class 2-A that won the final championship in the equestrian match.
“Tojo! That was great!”
“As expected, it’s Tojo!”
“You are the hero of our class!”
Seeing Tojo, a typical outsider, always on the outside in class, being supported by his classmates for the first time, made me feel deeply moved.
Sasha, who had been watching the scene with her hand stuck in her gym uniform, approached Karen, who was receiving a sputum from her classmates.
She reached out her right hand to Karen, who had barely stepped on her ground.
“Today is my defeat. Karen.”
So what about Karen? She said with a strange look on her face.
“Sasha, to admit defeat so easily. Has the sun risen in the west today?”
But despite Karen’s cheeky tone, Sasha shook her head with her soft smile.
“Unlike you, I don’t feel ashamed of losing a match. So feel free to be proud of yourself, Karen.”
“…Looks like a strange guy.”
As Karen muttered, she took her outstretched hand and shook it.
The friendship of two girls blooming in the midst of fierce competition.
It’s a scene you would only see in a boy’s manga.
The classmates who watched the whole situation around them congratulate the two and give them a round of applause.
I was standing at a distance and staring at him happily, but when I saw the class president shouting, “Kyaaagh! I won’t be able to get the tournament prize money like this!”, I secretly ran away.
Honestly, losing this match wasn’t my fault.
***
A sports meet that has been running breathlessly since the morning.
In addition to the five major ball games, soccer, basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, and baseball, group jumping rope, equestrian warfare, ball throwing, centipede’s feet, and two-man triangle, all the regular customers of the sports meet were taken over, and only the last game was left. .
‘Run after’
In other words, it is the final event, called the relay race.
A 4:4 match where the fastest person in the grade is selected and the red team and the white team compete.
Ahead of the last game of this athletic meet, everyone seemed quite nervous.
“Kim Yoo-seong, you must win this match.”
I nodded my head at the class president’s more serious expression than ever.
That’s also true, because the class with the first place in the overall score is given a large amount of prize money at the school level.
Ayase was even more obsessed with the results of the athletic meet, probably because the prestige of our class lives when we receive the most prize money, preferably a red skirt.
In fact, she would have given up entirely if there hadn’t been an opportunity from the beginning, but thanks to our class winning the soccer and volleyball tournaments, the first prize money was right in front of her nose.
“Leave it to me.”
I don’t know anything else, but I had no intention of losing to anyone else in a physical fight.
Because the white team and the red team were decided by lottery, the quality of the last member of the relay itself is not equal.
Everyone said they were good at running, but they seemed quite nervous, probably because they represented each class and grade.
After the final break, everyone goes to the playground.
Since it was the last game of the athletic meet, all grades gathered in the stands to cheer for the students who entered the relay race.
“Kim Yuseong! Cheer up!”
“Show the strength of Class 2-B!”
And the same goes for the students in my class.
Even the kids who usually act like dogs and chickens were cheering me on today with one heart and one mind.
This may be the true power of exercise.
Pair!
Before the running continued in earnest, I slapped myself on the cheek to come to my senses, closed my eyes, and repeated a slow, deep breath.
My heart, which had been pounding with tension, gradually regained stability, and the noise around me soon disappeared.
Recovering my composure, I calmly opened my eyes.
“Okay. Let’s go.”
It’s the last game of the sports festival.
That’s why I don’t give a damn and break the opponent with all my might.
I made that commitment.
***
Bang!
The 400m relay started with dry gunfire.
The first runner of each team starts running on the track energetically, holding a colorful baton.
Waaa!
Spicy heat and shouts filled the large playground.
Just as people who don’t normally like sports become enthusiastic about the Olympics, everyone becomes one at this moment.
“Run!”
“Don’t lose!”
“Cheer up!”
Athletes run with support mixed with their own aspirations on their backs.
In order to contribute to the team’s victory, he runs with all his strength, even when his breath stops and his heart feels like it’s about to explode.
The next runner runs after holding the handed baton, and passes the baton to the next runner again.
So, the weight of the baton was never light.
Because that’s what it means to receive everyone’s expectations.
Wowaaa!
“Last time! One last lap left!”
I hear Yamada’s excited voice as he relays the game with a microphone in his ear.
As the last runner of the white team, standing side by side with runner 4 of the red team on the starting line, I tensed my trapezius muscles at the sound of approaching footsteps.
Soon-
“We have to win!”
Runner number 4 of the red team, who took over the white baton, starts running first.
As the figure from the back slowly began to fade from view, I took over the blue baton from runner 3, who arrived in tears due to a fall in the middle, and I patted him on the shoulder and said,
“Let’s win.”
Immediately after that, I started running with all my might.
***
The official record for my 50m run at school is 5.38.
Considering his muscle mass and weight of close to 100kg, this is also incredibly fast, but in fact, compared to the professional track and field athletes in the cartoon world, it was inferior.
However, this weakness has been overcome for a long time by learning Hayate, the Huma Clan’s single-line assassination skill.
The characteristic of the martial art called Hayate is to imitate the natural phenomenon of ‘Wind’.
Naturally, Hayate’s only foot technique, Oikaze, also had that characteristic.
In other words-
Unlike me before, when I didn’t know anything, now I have surpassed my physical limits and became a body that can run a little faster aerodynamically.
Doo-doo-doo-doo!
A sound like that of a bull running reverberates through the wide field.
Every time I stepped on it, the soil of the playground dug in.
The gap with the opposing team’s runners is gradually narrowing.
With only about 30 meters to go to the finish line, I and the other runners finally stood side by side.
But even that is overtaken in an instant.
“Oohhhhh!!”
From the depths of its lungs, it raises a shout and steps its feet forward.
Soon-
“Won! Kim Yu-seong won this! A dramatic come-from-behind victory with the finish line just around the corner!”
Mazda’s excited voice announcing Team White’s final victory resonated throughout the field.
In the future, students who intuitively witnessed this game would call it-
I heard that Kim Yu-seong chasing runner 4 of the red team was like a terminator chasing John Connor.