Side Story (Part 1)

Thump, thump—Bang—

Seung-jo lightly bounced the ball with his fingertips, his calm gaze fixed on the rim. The tall defenders guarding the paint stood like the walls of a fortress on a battlefield. Taking a deep breath, Seung-jo lowered his stance and began dribbling rapidly.

The defender marking him closely applied pressure, but Seung-jo’s focus remained unshaken. The rhythmic motion of the ball moving from his hand to the floor and back again sent a faint vibration up his arm.

The elastic surface of the basketball hit the floor and rebounded, sticking to Seung-jo’s palm as if glued. At that moment, Seung-jo made his move. Passing the ball between his legs, he quickly outmaneuvered the defender and dashed toward the rim.

As he broke through to the center, two defenders rushed at him simultaneously. Seung-jo swiftly twisted his body. His movements were as smooth as a dance, and the ball moved as if it were part of him. The soles of his basketball shoes screeched against the court.

The sudden change in direction left the pursuing defenders scrambling, their balance lost. Spotting the brief opening, Seung-jo, without a moment’s hesitation, took a shot from beyond the three-point line.

Leaping into the air, Seung-jo gave his wrist a light flick. The ball left his fingertips, spinning rapidly as it traced an arc through the air. A brief silence fell over the court, as if time had stopped. Everyone held their breath, their eyes following the ball’s trajectory.

With a swish, the ball passed cleanly through the hoop, shaking the net. It was a flawless three-point shot. Landing firmly on the floor, Seung-jo kept his eyes on the ball until the very end. The gym, silent as a grave, was filled only with the sound of his labored breathing.

A bead of sweat trickled down his jaw and fell to the floor. The gymnasium’s worn wooden floor, bearing the weight of history, glistened with sweat. The ball rolled across the court, coming to a stop only after traveling some distance. His shadow stretched long across the empty court.

Seung-jo raised his head and looked beyond the large glass windows. The setting sun poured through, bathing the gymnasium in a crimson glow. The long rays of light scattered across the floor, illuminating the dust and tiny particles drifting in the air as if they were dancing.

Wiping his sweat indifferently, Seung-jo walked to where the ball had stopped and picked it up without a word. As if starting over from the beginning, he dribbled from a new angle and assumed his stance. In his mind, an intense game scenario played out once more. It was a scene he had simulated tens of thousands of times.

The silent gymnasium came alive as a stadium in his imagination. His sweat-soaked uniform clung to his chest, and his breath came in ragged gasps, but Seung-jo, immersed in his battle against himself, continued to shoot. His breathing filled the brightly lit gymnasium.

***

“Where’s your mom?”

The night had fallen dark over the schoolyard. Exiting the gymnasium, Seung-jo raised his umbrella at the sound of a girl’s voice near the flower bed. Under the streetlamp, the drizzle fell like silver threads.

The rain, which had been falling for some time, blanketed the schoolyard in a misty stillness. Cutting through the sound of the rain was a clear, lively voice that reached him.

“Did your mom leave? Are you alone? No mom?”

Finally, Seung-jo’s gaze landed on the figure crouched on the damp ground. The fluorescent-striped gym clothes indicated she was from the affiliated middle school located just beyond the fence.

As he drew closer, he noticed a small bundle of fur under the girl’s umbrella. It seemed she had crossed into another school’s grounds to follow a stray kitten.

“I can’t take you in. The house I’m staying at isn’t mine. What should I do? Is there really no one? Were you abandoned?”

The girl, glancing around in hopes of spotting the mother cat, eventually gave up. Sharing her umbrella with the kitten, she began rummaging through her bag. Her sighs, as if she couldn’t find anything useful, escaped beyond the umbrella.

Seung-jo, quickly losing interest, changed direction to avoid the flower bed. He didn’t want to draw attention to himself or have the girl recognize him and make a fuss. Ever since being selected for the U16 team, he had even gained a fan club, which made life off the court exhausting.

“It’s okay. I don’t even know who my mom is.”

Seung-jo froze mid-step, carefully avoiding a puddle.

“She abandoned me as soon as I was born.”

“…”

“But look at me. I grew up just fine. So you’ll be okay too.”

Her voice was bright and cheerful, masking the underlying anxiety and sadness. Seung-jo, now completely still, raised the tip of his umbrella again. His curiosity about her face outweighed his reluctance.

Yet, her face remained hidden. All he could see under the umbrella was her hand playing with the kitten. The stark white of her hand contrasted with the kitten’s gray fur. The kitten suddenly pounced, wrapping its front paws around the girl’s hand.

“Ah!” she exclaimed, falling backward onto her bottom. Her umbrella tilted back, finally revealing her face. Beneath her round forehead, her delicate features were arranged so neatly that it was no exaggeration to call her pretty.

“You’re really brave, huh? Seems like you don’t even need a mom.”

Her brown eyes, glistening with rainwater, sparkled. She gazed at the kitten, oblivious to her own situation, her expression warm and gentle. She brushed her wet hair back.

“It’s okay. We’ll grow up soon.”

Her scratched hand, reddened by the kitten’s claws, came into view under the streetlamp.

“And then everything will be fine. Right?”

The girl smiled. Droplets of rain clung to her long eyelashes before falling. Despite being soaked and scratched, she seemed inexplicably happy. Her overly optimistic tone and innocent expression reminded Seung-jo of the playful kitten in front of her.

The kitten meowed softly. “It’ll be okay,” the girl repeated, her voice like a lullaby soothing the cold rain-soaked night.

The rain, falling like strands of silver, hit the umbrella, forming small halos of light. The wind swayed the delicate rain, creating intricate patterns as it fell. Droplets danced into puddles, forming sparkling ripples.

The world felt as though it were wrapped in a transparent veil of stillness. Within this quiet, only the little world under the umbrella seemed alive—a young girl and a stray kitten, sheltering together under a flimsy fabric.

The sight seemed like a scene from a world separate from his own, untouchable and radiant. As he watched the bright, warm glow of that little world, Seung-jo finally began to walk away.

It was a quiet, rainy night, just before spring began.

***

“You didn’t see his face? The guy who saved the kitten and even handed you an umbrella? Does that make sense?”

“It was pouring so hard that I didn’t even get a chance to see his face. The cat was shivering, the box I barely managed to grab was all torn up, and I couldn’t even see ahead of me as I ran to the security office.”

Overhearing the voice recounting the tense situation from behind, Seung-jo walked leisurely. Two middle school girls, boldly crossing the high school courtyard during lunchtime in their school uniforms and gym clothes, seemed completely engrossed in their conversation, oblivious to his presence behind them.

“So? You didn’t even see his name tag?”

“No, that senior was wearing gym clothes like me.”

“So you just grabbed the hand of some random guy and ran? And a high school senior at that? What if he had dragged you somewhere strange instead of the security office? You could’ve been in serious trouble.”

“I didn’t grab his hand. My umbrella flipped inside out, and he just helped me. Anyway, he didn’t seem like a bad senior.”

“Bad guys don’t walk around with a sign saying they’re bad. Psychopaths look normal too, you know.”

The girl in the tightly shortened school skirt, her hair curled into tight circles, got all worked up and made quite a fuss. Seung-jo crossed his arms and looked at the back of the girl’s head, which was puffed up so much it resembled a balloon. It wasn’t just her hairstyle that seemed odd—her brain didn’t seem to function normally either.

“It’s not like that. From his perspective, he was just helping someone passing by, so we shouldn’t misunderstand.”

Fortunately, unlike her friend, the girl with the cat seemed to possess some common sense. Shaking her head lightly, her long hair swayed gently over her dark green gym top.

“He was probably in a sports team like me. He must’ve been heading home after practice.”

“That’s exactly why you should’ve been more careful. I heard there are quite a few delinquent seniors in the sports teams here—ones who smoke and pick fights. What if you’d run into someone like that?”

“……No way.”

“No way? Did you already forget? The guy who pulled down your pants and ran away was also a senior in your track team.”

Seung-jo’s brow furrowed slightly. He suddenly remembered the PE teachers lamenting about the troublemakers in the track team this year.

“That senior wasn’t like that. He was way taller. Almost two meters, I think.”

“Two meters? That’s not a person, that’s a monster. If you didn’t see his face, what exactly did you see?”

“I don’t know, he was just really tall. It felt like a wall standing in front of me.”

“Well, in a downpour like that, with him wearing an all-black gym outfit, it must’ve looked that way. Just thinking about it is creepy. What if that senior is a stalker following you after seeing your face?”

Seung-jo stared coldly at the balloon-haired girl, utterly dumbfounded.

“Don’t speak so harshly. Thanks to that senior, both of us were saved. And the cat got a new home too.”

The calm rebuttal from her friend sounded just as clear and pure as it had that night. It wasn’t an illusion caused by the rain. Though he had searched and searched, she had been nowhere to be found, like a mirage. Yet here she was, boldly walking into his world in broad daylight, the same girl who had stopped him in the empty courtyard that night.

A track team member, huh… No wonder her running wasn’t ordinary.