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The waiting room was crowded with players participating in the tournament and their companions. To one side, there was a small snack bar with a vending machine and a shop selling miscellaneous tennis gear.
[Are you still playing tennis these days?]
Jake asked, as if the thought had suddenly occurred to him.
[Yes, I'm taking group lessons twice a week at Randall's Island.]
[Oh, really? That's good. You said your goal was to make the high school varsity team, right? Just keep at it like you are now; don't stop.]
As Hunter dove seriously into the national-level tournament circuit, his personal coach, Jake, had also become busy. Consequently, he had to stop the extra lessons he used to give Jiyu in the basement court of the Hamilton residence. Still, thanks to learning from a competent coach, Jiyu had been able to build a fairly solid foundation.
Claiming it would be a waste of everything she had learned so far, Ae-jeong had enrolled Jiyu in group classes at the tennis academy Hunter attended twice a week. This was because she had heard somewhere that becoming the captain of the high school varsity team would help in getting into an Ivy League university.
Even if making the varsity team was possible through hard work, the idea of being captain was an unthinkable dream.
It was a position where leadership was just as important as skill. For Jiyu, who found the mere act of standing before people grueling, this was the hardest of all the dreams and hopes Ae-jeong projected onto her to achieve.
Jake turned his attention back to Hunter.
[Hunter, you did your stretching beforehand, right? It's thirty minutes before the match, so let's go warm up.]
Nodding, Hunter tapped the table with his knuckles.
[I'll come back here after the semifinals, so stay here and do your homework.]
Before Jiyu could even respond, he turned abruptly and followed Jake.
[Um... Hunter!]
Just before he left the waiting room, Jiyu impulsively called out to him. She hadn't called out very loudly, yet Hunter managed to hear her and stopped. He turned only his head, staring at her as if wondering what was going on.
'Ah, I should have just stayed quiet.'
Until now, she had simply accepted that Hunter was entering tournaments, but she had never sincerely cheered for him. At times, he was so obnoxious that she actually hoped he would return after a miserable loss.
However, since she had followed him all the way here to serve as his winning Jinx, she felt a sense of obligation to at least do this much. She had gathered her courage, but she was already regretting it.
[What? Do you need something?]
He pressed her in an impatient tone. Perhaps because he had already entered "game mode," his gaze was different from a moment ago.
[It's nothing much. Um, good luck with the semifinals... I mean, win.]
Her voice, which wasn't very loud to begin with, trailed off toward the end. Feeling burdened by his piercing gaze, she looked down. It was a simple word of encouragement, yet she felt as shy as if she were confessing her love.
However, Hunter gave no reaction for a long time. Thinking he might have left without answering, she peeked up slightly.
Hunter, who had been twitching the corner of his mouth while looking at her, quickly averted his eyes. Then, covering his mouth with his fist, he cleared his throat with a "hem."
[Stating the obvious.]
He turned away with a smirk, wearing his characteristic confident and relaxed expression.
Biting his lip and darting his eyes back and forth, Jake, who had been enjoying the scene between the two, waved his hand with a wide grin that showed all his molars.
[See you in a bit, Olivia.]
Jiyu, who had returned to her seat with a bottle of water from the vending machine, stopped in front of the tennis gear shop. A small item hanging on the display behind the glass had caught her eye.
After hesitating for a moment, she opened the door and stepped inside. Picking up a dampener (a button inserted into the racket to reduce vibration) from the display, she chuckled.
'I wonder what Hunter Hamilton would say if I put this on his racket, telling him it's the true lucky charm for the finals? He'd probably snap at me, asking if I think he's an idiot.'
Until last year, Hunter could not contain his rage whenever he lost a match due to low-brow provocations from an opponent or subtle fouls. He frequently committed the atrocity of throwing a fit on the court and brutally snapping his racket in half.
Unable to watch it any longer, Jake had recorded those moments on video and showed them to Hunter.
Ae-jeong, who knew every piece of news regarding the Hamilton family, shared the rumor that he had been so shocked that he skipped tennis practice for three days. Apparently, his pride had taken a severe hit.
Having received an SOS from Lauren, Jake hurried to the Hamilton residence and showed Hunter videos of his favorite player, Roger Federer, during his teens. Roger, too, during his teenage years when hormones were fluctuating, often exploded with anger on the court and broke his rackets.
Just as Roger Federer overcame that to become a great player, the advice that he should channel the energy condensed through the restraint of anger and control of emotion into the game on the court worked effectively on Hunter.
After that, he began voluntarily seeing a renowned sports psychologist once a month. He said he was learning about sportsmanship, manners, and how to maintain a calm mentality even in extreme situations.
Whether it was quite effective or not, it had recently become rare to see him explode instantly like a nuclear bomb. Since he now remained overly indifferent and never seemed flustered, it was almost obnoxious.
Jiyu handed the dampener to the cashier and paid for it. It was an impulse buy, but it didn't matter. If Hunter got angry and said he didn't need it, she could just put it on her own racket.
Returning to the table, she giggled while looking at the dampener. It was a cute and girlish dampener. With a delicate pink background and a red lip print, it looked exactly like the kiss stickers she used to stick on her palms when she was little.
Sliding the dampener inside her copy of an Arthur Miller play, she opened her laptop and immersed herself in her homework.
[Done!]
Having finished her homework with surprising concentration, Jiyu gave a refreshing stretch. Because she was trying to meet the deadline Hunter had set, she had no time to slack off. Looking at the clock, it was almost two, but Hunter had not yet returned.
'Did he win? I hope he won.'
Hunter was the one in the tournament, yet she felt more anxious and nervous. Jinx or not, wanting him to win unconditionally was just... the natural psychology of cheering for someone she knew. That was how she convinced herself.
'I guess it's okay to go take a look?'
Jiyu tidied up the things scattered on the table and packed them into her bag. Come to think of it, she felt hungry. She hadn't even realized that lunchtime had passed while she was doing her homework. The cereal bars she had brought as snacks had been nibbled away, leaving only empty wrappers rolling on the table.
She happened to remember seeing chocolate chip muffins on the display at the snack bar counter. As she slung her bag over her shoulder and stood up, she faintly heard the voices of Hunter and Jake in the hallway.
Jiyu stopped and pricked up her ears. The voices of the two grew closer.
The first thing to round the corner was Hunter's abdominal muscles, fully exposed as he wiped sweat with the hem of his shirt.
[Hiek!]
Having unintentionally witnessed his bare skin, Jiyu was startled and whipped her head in the opposite direction.
Since she had often seen him hanging upside down from monkey bars like a monkey when they were children, she had occasionally seen his stomach when his T-shirt slid down. But back then, it had certainly been flat and smooth, just like her own.
'No wonder. He used to embarrass me by saying I have no muscles. I guess since his body looks like that, he thinks everyone else is the same.'
As soon as Hunter stepped into the waiting room, he saw her standing with her bag and gave a crooked warning.
[Jewel Parker, where are you going? I told you to stay here.]
Irritated by the overbearing tone, as if he were dealing with a possession, Jiyu pouted and grumbled inwardly.
'What, can't I even go buy a muffin at the snack bar?'
She glanced at him from the corner of her eye, first checking if he had pulled his shirt down. Fortunately, his abs were covered, but he was drenched in sweat since he had just finished the match. He had bragged that the semifinals would be against an easy opponent, but it seemed it wasn't as easy as he thought.
Jake, who entered with him, greeted an acquaintance he met in front of the waiting room. Hunter, walking alone to the table, pulled out a chair and flopped down. Stretching his legs straight and lightly loosening his neck muscles, he took a drink from the cooler and downed it in one gulp.
'Did he win or lose?'
Jiyu wanted to ask about the result, but guessing the outcome from Hunter's indifferent expression, she quietly sat back down in her chair. The excitement she had felt after buying the dampener sank low.
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