novelraw Chapter 222: The Bustling Sports Day (3)
Chapter 222: The Bustling Sports Day (3)
After a brief chat with the fans, we moved to the futsal court.
Park Joowoo made sure to bring the slogan a fan had handed him: ‘Cheonghyeon, the best defense is a >>face<< attack’. It was a brilliant line.
Kang Kiyeon looked around the court and said.
“This place is much smaller than a soccer field.”
“That’s how futsal is. There are only five players per team, and substitutions happen way more often.”
I heard Lee Cheonghyeon was in the starting lineup, but not Choi Jeho. Whether he’d been benched for poor teamwork or was a secret weapon, we’d have to wait and see.
Lee Cheonghyeon, in a dark uniform, spotted us and waved. We waved back enthusiastically. Only Park Joowoo muttered with a shocked expression.
“He’s not wearing gloves… What if he hurts his hands…?”
“It’s common not to wear them in futsal.”
I tried to reassure him, but it didn’t reach Park Joowoo. He seemed worried about the delicate fingers that would one day play the keyboard for Spark band.The match started soon and turned out to be pretty exciting. Although we had to contort ourselves to avoid blocking the view of other idols, Lee Cheonghyeon’s incredible saves made us forget all the discomfort.
In the end, Lee Cheonghyeon’s long limbs, now reaching a solid 180 cm, swatted away every shot from the opposing team.
“Lee Cheonghyeon, fighting!”
“Fighting!”
We could hear the cheers of fans supporting him from the stands above. And whenever Cheonghyeon brushed back his bangs to get a better view of the ball, screams erupted from every direction.
Behold, everyone. This is the power of seeing Lee Cheonghyeon’s face live and in person. I, Kim Iwol, will set myself on fire if I must to deliver this miracle to you through the camera.
Thanks to Lee Cheonghyeon’s performance, our team didn’t concede many goals. However, the problem was that we barely scored any either.
The two teams, finishing the first half 20 minutes at 1:0, went into a break to plan strategy.
If Team D’s match got edited out entirely, would the vicious system still count Lee Cheonghyeon’s participation? Choi Jeho would at least play basketball with me, but Cheonghyeon’s only other option was the billiards, which he had just learned.
Should I secretly upload a video on MeTube titled ‘2X Year Idol Athletics Championships Chuseok Special Team D Cheonghyeon’s Best Saves (feat. Futsal)’? Or should I feign sudden, acute body aches and put Lee Cheonghyeon in as my substitute for basketball?
But that guy needed to protect his knees more than anyone right now. That was why I specifically told him to play defense if he wanted to play futsal.
Should I send Park Joowoo, the god of archery, to hit all tens and send Lee Cheonghyeon in as my basketball substitute?
‘No. Noona told me never to gamble or take out shady loans…’
Using one member as a pawn to burden another… That would destroy both the idol spirit and the sportsmanship spirit. I couldn’t do something so pathetic at my age.
While I was lost in my thoughts, Jeong Seongbin, who had been running back and forth after the ball, fixed his gaze on one spot.
“I think Jeho hyung’s going in!”
“Really?”
As Jeong Seongbin said, Choi Jeho was getting up from the bench. When he unzipped his black jacket, a white uniform appeared underneath. The fan section seemed to notice too—the atmosphere shifted instantly.
Lee Cheonghyeon put his arm around Choi Jeho and said something to him. Choi Jeho simply nodded.
“I hope that hyung doesn’t just bulldoze straight ahead…”
Kang Kiyeon muttered to himself with genuine concern.
“I’m worried about the same thing, but isn’t he the only one we can count on right now?”
“Really?”
“Look at his height. If he can’t score a single goal with that physique, he should be banned from the gym for a week.”
As I said, Choi Jeho was a head taller than the other players. Next to Lee Cheonghyeon, he just looked like a slightly taller older brother, but since there were also high school idols playing, he ended up looking like an uncle who’d cluelessly joined a neighborhood futsal game.
Jeong Seongbin, who had overheard our conversation, asked.
“I heard taller people have a harder time with precise control unless they’re pros. Is that true?”
“Judging by his basketball skills, I don’t think that applies to him. And you guys aren’t bad at sports.”
Back when you were on ISD, you guys won gold in every event you entered. It’s just that you didn’t compete much, spending most of the time holed up in the waiting room, so people accused you of being lazy rookies.
“Anyway, with him on the field, there’s no way we can’t even score one point.”
To cut to the chase, I was right.
As soon as he entered, Choi Jeho slammed two points into the opponent’s goal.
『Team D’s Jeho, his power is extraordinary!』
『We were worried his height might be a disadvantage, but that was unfounded.』
The commentators’ voices echoed through the stadium.
It was true that futsal required more delicate individual skills and less stamina compared to soccer. But that was only true for professional players.
How were amateurs supposed to beat that human dump truck? And he was a high-performance dump truck with insane horsepower.
Unintentionally, Choi Jeho also delivered perfect fan service.
Waving to the fans after every goal was probably intentional fan service, and it was something an idol should do, so that was fine… but…
“Waaah!”
“Jeho!”
Every time sweat dripped down his face, he’d pull up his shirt to wipe it, exposing his abs to everyone.
Every time the lighting hit the shadowed lines of his tanned, muscular torso beneath that white uniform, screams rained down from above.
Since it wasn’t intentional, Choi Jeho’s abs were sometimes facing the fans, and sometimes facing away. Thanks to this, Sparklers and our group got to see both his abs and back muscles.
You inconsiderate guy. I wasn’t curious about your muscles or anything. But since the fans are happy, I’ll let it slide.
Thanks to Choi Jeho’s continued fiery performance, Team D successfully advanced to the finals.
What a relief. Spark had secured the right to the camera spotlight.
* * *
While we were watching the other teams compete, Choi Jeho and Lee Cheonghyeon returned after showering and getting styled. Perhaps because they’d just exercised and freshened up, they all looked radiant.
I hadn’t known this before, but apparently until just recently, the shower facilities had been off-limits. They said it was to prevent issues like unauthorized visitors and such, but still—there’d been a lot of complaints that making sweaty players sit around for nearly ten hours was just too harsh.
If the policy hadn’t changed, we wouldn’t even have been allowed into the fan section after the basketball match.
“Hyung, I’ve been curious about this…”
“What?”
“What happened to the back of your hand?”
Lee Cheonghyeon asked, looking at the back of my hand. The pink lipsticks that Sparklers had meticulously applied were boasting their excellent pigmentation.
“The fans put it on. I was getting lipstick recommendations. Could you see it from the court?”
“Yeah. At first I thought a cat or something had scratched you.”
“If the scratches were that bad, wouldn’t it have to be a tiger, not a cat?”
Kang Kiyeon chimed in with a scary comment, even though my archery skills weren’t good enough to hunt a tiger yet.
“I did some market research to become an idol who can survive close-up fancams. This color would suit you… I think it was called ‘Cool & Shower Ash Deep Pink 032.’”
“Hyung…”
Lee Cheonghyeon looked shocked.
What? Are you laughing at my efforts to compensate for my lack of natural perfect features with modern aesthetics?
“Since when did you get so interested in self-styling? Am I now threatened for the visual position? Am I going from Cute Pretty Visual to Cute Pretty Jewelry?”
“Huh?”
“They say it’s not good for a group to have two aloof types, so why are you aiming for a two-member cool beauty unit? This Cheonghyeon is feeling so betrayed right now that his eyelashes are about to fall out.”
“Is that how it usually works?”
Lee Cheonghyeon didn’t respond to my words. Instead, he just kept stroking his face with a forlorn expression.
“At this rate, I’ll lose my title of ‘850,000 won per square centimeter face’.”
His eyes were vacant. I didn’t understand why he was acting like this after playing futsal so well.
“Why are you worried about that? No matter what anyone says, you’re our group’s officially recognized 950,000 won per square centimeter face.”
“Has the price of gold gone up?”
“It’s gone up a lot.”
At my words, Lee Cheonghyeon’s eyes regained their light. Then he quickly ran up to the fan section.
“Sparklers! Mirror! Does anyone have a mirror?!”
“I do!”
At Lee Cheonghyeon’s urgent call, a fan hurriedly took out a hand mirror and lent it to him. It was a yellow mirror, heavily decorated with ribbons, beads, and charms.
These days, that kind of… kitsch? It seemed to be trending. I’d seen it a lot while monitoring Sparklers’ vlogs.
Anyway, Lee Cheonghyeon, having successfully obtained a mirror, stared intently at his reflection. He looked at his left side, then his right side, alternately. He stretched out his arm to see from a distance and then brought the mirror right up close to observe himself.
After all this fuss, Lee Cheonghyeon let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness. It’s still pure gold.”
Of course. Why do you think I nag you guys to put on face masks every night?
“Thank you. I used the mirror really well! I’d like to sign it for you, but the mirror… there’s no space in it!”
Lee Cheonghyeon flipped the mirror over and was taken aback by the ornate decorations. The fan bestowed a great favor upon him.
“You don’t have to give it back. Keep it!”
“Really?”
“Of course. Our Cheonghyeon’s face is precious.”
Lee Cheonghyeon covered his mouth, seemingly deeply touched.
He returned, carefully holding the princess mirror. He didn’t forget to repeatedly bow and thank the fan.
After his long expedition, he once again meticulously checked his appearance, diligently working to preserve his 24K visuals.
This was something I only found out after the ‘ISD’ was over, but that day Spark caused quite a stir on social media as ‘Pretty boys huddled around a princess mirror’. A very big stir.
* * *
“Hyung, they said we have to go prepare for the second round of archery.”
“Yeah?”
Following Jeong Seongbin’s guidance, we returned to where we had our first archery match. A few teams were already gathered there.
According to the bracket I’d checked beforehand, our opponent this time was…
『The rising stars, Spark and Berion, are facing off!』
『Both groups are rookies who debuted this year. It will be a showdown between peers.』
…It was Berion, whom we hadn’t seen since the Idol Dynasty Chronicle.