The inline skating club members quickly dispersed the crowd and cleared the tracks.
Both sides agreed to skate five rounds on the running track. Whoever reached the finishing point first would win.
Taehyung changed into the skates and a helmet and positioned himself at the starting line. Skull Head did the same.
90% of the surrounding crowd were either RCU students or teachers trying to blend in with the students. All of them were silently looking at the two people on the track.
The air was laden with tension and the atmosphere momentarily took a solemn turn.
Eunwoo quietly asked Jungkook, "Do you think my boss can defy the odds?"
By asking this, Eunwoo only wanted to hear some casual reassurance. Instead, Jungkook took one look at Taehyung's back view and muttered, "That scoundrel."
Eunwoo: = =
Nayeon was standing on Eunwoo's other side. She soothingly said, "I don't see why not. Anything is possible."
This was the right way to reassure someone. Eunwoo instantly felt that Nayeon was an angel.
The inline skating club president was on the grass with his hand raised.
Inline skating originated from ice skating, but there is a difference in the skates' friction, maneuvering technique, and other factors. As such, it is not possible to do figure skating and artistic roller skating interchangeably. It was because of this that Taehyung said that the club president had made a blunder trying to get help from the school's figure skating team.
However, this was not the case for inline speed skating and ice speed skating. The two sports were so similar that an inline speed skater could practice ice speed skating and vice versa. Practice venues for ice skating were scarce, and Taehyung had substituted ice skating with roller skating for practice in the past.
In other words, if a person could skate fast on ice, they could skate just as equally fast on the ground.
From primary 2 to high school year 1, Taehyung had practiced ice skating for eight years. In the beginning, he only ice-skated for recreation but in the later years, he trained to intend to become a professional sports athlete. It was only that he did not preserve in this endeavor.
Despite so, it was still not a problem for him to now race with an ordinary person.
That was right, an ordinary person. In his eyes, Skull Head was only a recreational skater. After researching on their inline skating club, he discovered that the better ones in the team were all artistic roller skaters. They did not have any members who specialized in inline speed skating.
Therefore, among their entire group, all of them were scrubs in Taehyung's eyes.
After counting down, the club president sharply swung down his arm and blew the whistle. "Ready—— 3, 2, 1——"
The sharp whistle pierced the air and penetrated everyone's ears. The two on the tracks were like two missiles that had received orders to launch. "Swoosh." Both of them took off in a blur.
The odds-defying moment that Eunwoo was hoping for did not appear.
This was because right from the very start, Taehyung was in the lead.
The crowd was hushed.
Previously, the silence rose from pessimism. Now, the silence came from their astonishment.
The strange silence continued for some time until someone finally let out a shout. "Dafaq."
Then, other exclamations from the audience followed. "Dafaq", "awesome", and "go for it" The place was flooded with similar cries of encouragement.
Eunwoo's hands were red from clapping. "Boss, go for it!"
Taehyung bent his waist, his eyes fixed on the track in front of him. He alternated the force exerted by each leg, his body and arms moving in synchronized and controlled swings that maximized his speed and the efficiency of his turns. To minimize the air resistance, he wore a tight-fitting tracksuit. At this moment, his two legs were especially eye-catching. They were long and firm with a healthy and beautiful shape.
He finished one round and as he passed by the crowd, they erupted with screams and cheers. Taehyung was completely unaffected. He methodically continued with a burning gaze.
Jungkook saw his eyes.
It was like an eagle on its first hunt—calm, focused, guileless, and brimming with confidence in his ability.
......
Even though there were five rounds to skate, it was ultimately only a few minutes' works. When Taehyung passed the finishing point, the crowd let out a huge cheer. Exhilarated from his victory, he reduced his speed and U-turned, stretching his hands out to hi-five the crowd. He hi-fived everyone regardless of whether he knew them.
The surrounding crowd was also quite accommodating. All of them stretched their palms out and fought to meet his hi-fives.
Jungkook had to give props to Taehyung for being able to blow this tiny and inconsequential fight into what seemed to be a competition of the Olympics scale.
Taehyung was not done basking in the attention when he suddenly stumbled over someone's feet. Moving on skates was originally something that was not too stable. Taehyung was caught off guard and lost his balance. A fall seemed imminent.
At this crucial moment, someone held a hand out to stabilize him. The person tightly gripped his hand and pull him back with some force. Taehyung returned his grip and took the chance to readjust his posture and right himself.
Having been sent into a panic, he took a light breath.
He then raised his eyes towards the hand's owner.
His line of sight unexpectedly met a pair of doe-like eyes.
This was the third time...
Taehyung was dumbfounded for a moment before breaking into a grin.
He grinned as well. His light pink lips were opened in a wide and unguarded smile, revealing two tidy rows of gleaming white teeth and deepening the dimple on his left cheek. As he smiled, he gave Taehyung a wink. With his jet-black eyes, his gaze was like the moving dews drops blown across a lotus leaf, bright and lively.
He moved. Taehyung looked down and it was only then that he realized that he was still gripping his hand. Embarrassed, he quickly let go.
He released his hand as well and fished something from his bag.
Then, Taehyung found himself holding a bottle of soy milk.
Taehyung was tickled. He thought that this person was pretty amusing.
He was about to speak with him when the crowd rustled. Waves of continuous cries quickly followed. "STREAK, STREAK, STREAK!..."
Oh, Skull Head was back.
Skull Head was quite unfortunate. Earlier, he had even tripped as he was too anxious. He had finally reached the finishing point while withstanding the mental stress. At the finishing point, not only did no one cheer for his perseverance, but everyone was waiting for him to streak.
It was completely different from how things usually played out in dramas.
Taehyung skated over to Skull Head. He smirked. "Convinced?"
Skull Head's expression was ghastly and he stood there without saying a word.
Grey Hair was still relatively calm and asked Taehyung, "Just who are you?"
"An Autobot."
"......"
Grey Hair was stunned.
"Cut the crap." Taehyung crossed his arms and looked at Skull Head. "Hurry up with streaking, everyone wants to head off for dinner."
His words were immediately accompanied by sounds of agreement.
Paying a losing bet was nothing to be praised. However, if those people were going to leave after losing, they might as well stop calling themselves men. Therefore, Skull Head still ultimately chose to pay the losing bet.
He closed his eyes and took off his clothes layer by layer until he was only left wearing a pair of briefs.
Underneath Skull Head's clothes hid a pair of SpongeBob SquarePants briefs.
Well, who would have thought...
Since he had already started, he might as well go all the way. Wearing his briefs, Skull Head walked a distance on the track and even struck a pose. As his back was facing the crowd, his walking motions affected his butt muscles. The SpongeBob on his butt seemed to be alive, animatedly moving its face and eyes, and making faces at the audience.
That day, the majority of onlookers were somewhat traumatized. All of them felt like they had been teased by a pair of briefs.
After the streak, Grey Hair took the initiative to make peace with the club president. A wise man recognized and adapted to the circumstances. Students tended to be more self-conscious of their image and were easy to coax. It was still possible to play on flattery and resolve this more quickly and peacefully, minimizing the damage to their club image in the process.
Things had finally ended and the crowd gradually dispersed as well.
Taehyung grasped the bottle of soy milk. He scanned the crowd for some time but ultimately did not find him.
"I still don't even know his name," He mumbled to himself.
While he was distracted, Jungkook took the chance to swipe the bottle of soy milk in his hands. By the time Taehyung realized, he had already swiftly twisted the cap off and drank a mouthful.
He did not see himself as an outsider at all.
"Hey!" Taehyung was a little annoyed.
The mouthful of soy milk bulged the sides of Jungkook's cheeks. He lowered his eyes and distinctively swallowed.
Gulp.
There was even a damned sound effect.
Taehyung clenched his teeth. "You——" After saying this one word, he fell silent.
Jungkook's sight landed on his face. He intently met Taehyung's eyes, his gaze clear and searching. Taehyung had never seen him looking so serious before.
Taehyung was originally going to swear. However, he was thrown off by Jungkook's behavior and did not end up doing so. He tightly said, "What?"
"Why did you stop skating?" Jungkook asked.
Taehyung was startled. He immediately turned his face away, his tone frustrated. "What does it got to do with you?"