Besides RCU students, quite a number of the ice hockey match audience was made up of members of the public. Most of them had officially purchased their tickets from the school at a marked-up price.
Yup, that was right. Impatient to prove that their ice hockey team was fully capable of recovering past losses and raking in profits, the school administration had taken two-thirds of the available seats for sale.
The result was that sales were quite good.
Taehyung originally planned to pretend to watch the match for a few moments before sneaking off. However, ten minutes into the match, he gradually drew his brows together.
Ice hockey was a rather exciting sport. Everyone on the ice was quick as lightning and the competition pace was extremely fast. Precisely because of the speed, it was inevitable that collisions would happen. Therefore, it was the norm for most ice hockey players to be of a bigger build.
RCU's ice hockey team was teasingly called the "male models team" by RCU students. From this, one could imagine how well-built they were. However, when contrasted against Caucasians, they were still slightly not up to par.
Therefore, from the start of the match, RCU was suppressed by the opposite team. The German ice hockey players went on a strong offensive and the puck was contained by them in RCU's defensive zone. Thankfully, RCU's goalkeeper was reliable and fended off the opponents' numerous attacks.
Unfortunately, as the match proceeded, he ultimately missed a puck.
The stadium was filled with unceasing cheers of encouragement. The audience was anxious and no one was willing to see their team losing on their home ground.
Sitting in the corridor, Taehyung could hear the incessant grumbles of a fatty sitting nearby that was filled with rage. "...playing like shit. Just surrender already. You guys are an embarrassment to Korea!"
Taehyung's face was grim.
After he finished grumbling, the fatty got up and headed to the washroom. Taehyung twisted open a bottle of mineral water and emptied its contents on the fatty's seat.
Taehyung was never someone with high moral standing. Carrying out this bad deed, he did not feel a prick of guilt at all.
When the fatty came back, he sat down on the puddle of water and nearly died from anger. He loudly swore in rage.
Everyone ignored him.
Taehyung turned back to the ice rink, and while listening to the fatty's curses, continued watching the match.
The German team had been dominating the match for almost 15 minutes. Taehyung could sense that RCU's morale was low. Even though the difference in physique did affect the match a little, it was not to the extent that it could determine the match's outcome.
Sigh...
The turning point happened in a flash.
Jungkook suddenly intercepted the puck and single-handedly brought it across the line. Guessing his intent, the opposing team quickly sent out players to defend.
However, he was too fast. With swift and nimble movements, he snaked through the rink and successively evaded two people. In a blink of an eye, he was at the other team's goalmouth. He aimed the puck at a gap in the goalkeeper's defense and swung.
Goal!
Taehyung leaped up from the floor.
The crowd lagged for two to three seconds and erupted into enthusiastic cheers. They could not be blamed for reacting too slowly—it was simply that Jungkook was too fast.
"Go! Go! Go!" Taehyung shouted at the top of his voice.
Jungkook seemed to hear his cheers. He suddenly turned and faced Taehyung's direction.
Taehyung touched his nose and surreptitiously sat down.
The match continued.
Jungkook's actions of being the lone hero who stormed the enemy lines and scored a goal were without doubt a much-needed fix for his teammates' low spirits.
The morale of the RCU team was greatly boosted and they no longer played with a subdued attitude for the remainder of the match.
For the rest of the match, Jungkook shone.
He had a physique that did not pale in comparison to the opposite team and also outstanding skating and puck control skills. What made him even more fearsome was the exceptional skill he had at analyzing the match. The possibilities of what could happen in an instant were endless. Knowing how to react at every moment to reap the greatest benefit was also a type of complicated knowledge.
It was not something that could be done without brains...
The audience waved their banners and yelled, "Jungkook! Jungkook! Jungkook!"
Excitement surged in Taehyung and he could not resist shouting his name as well. In any case, there were so many people shouting. He reassured himself that Jungkook could not possibly hear his voice.
There was a price to be paid for being in the limelight—Jungkook was heavily targeted.
However, this was after all a team competition. Even though he had been targeted, his teammates had already been geared into the right mindset.
When the two teams were carefully compared, it could be seen that the RCU team had better teamwork than their opponents.
Both teams had their strengths and the match played out rather evenly. One moment, one team had gained the upper hand with a point and in another, the other team had caught up with the score and was in the lead instead. Taehyung's blood raced from the match and he was rapidly losing his voice from shouting too much.
A match like this was a brilliant display. Even if they lost, people would at most feel pity instead of bitter resentment.
The match ended with Jungkook taking a penalty shot.
Having been viciously targeted by the opposing team, it was time for him to finally gain something in return.
The score on the board was tied at 5:5. When he was given the penalty shot, the crowd was beyond nervous. Everyone held their breath and there was pin-drop silence in the stadium.
Jungkook drove the puck towards their opponents' goal.
The goalkeeper on the other team was tall and muscular. Despite hunkering down into a defensive position in front of the goal, he held a towering presence. His gaze was sharp and vigilant, his body geared to spring into action at any moment. He was completely fixated on the incoming enemy.
The moment Jungkook rose his hockey stick, the goalkeeper immediately determined which direction he was going to attack from—right!
When Jungkook sharply swung down the hockey stick, the trajectory was indeed towards the goalkeeper's right. The goalkeeper lunged right.
However, just before the hockey stick was about to strike the puck, Jungkook suddenly adjusted his posture. With a beautiful shot, the puck flew across the ice towards the upper left corner of the goalkeeper.
When the goalkeeper realized that he had been tricked, it was already too late. Belly down on the ice, he heard cheers flood the stadium. He felt a wave of pity and gave a heavy thump on the ice.
The final score on the board was 6:5.
From the end of the match to when he exited the stadium, Jungkook kept a poker face. His aloof attitude won the screams of countless girls.
Taehyung thought that Jungkook's skill at being pretentious was just as impressive as his ice hockey skills.
......
This was an extremely satisfying match. After watching it, Taehyung was in a fantastic mood. This was to the extent that when he walked out of the ice stadium and saw Jungkook calling him, for the very first time, he did not feel annoyed.
"Hey, Jungkook, what's up?"
"Just now, while watching the match, did you cheer my name?
"...No."
"I think I heard you."
"Lunatic." Taehyung hurriedly hung up.
Jungkook called back again. "Later, we're having a team dinner. You need to come."
"Why should I?"
"You're my lackey."
"Fine, I'll put up with you for one more day."
Mm, his one-month's notice was nearly over. He was about to regain his freedom.
Jungkook went back to his dorm. Taehyung met him at his dormitory building and the two of them headed to the restaurant together. Jungkook had just showered before rushing over. His hair had yet to fully dry and some strands of damp hair were plastered to his forehead. Against his fair skin, this gave him a somewhat boyish charm.
When he saw Taehyung, he said immediately, "I heard you cheer for me."
Taehyung rolled his eyes. "You must have hallucinated from the competition stress."
Jungkook gave a "heh" and smirked at him.
What a despicable look.
Once again, he had the urge to beat Jungkook up.
When they were outside the restaurant, they met two guys. Both of them were tall and muscular. Taehyung guessed that they were members of the ice hockey team.
Sure enough, when they saw Jungkook, they familiarly called out straight away, "Jungkook-ssi."
Taehyung was still scoffing over the way that they addressed Jungkook when suddenly, they turned towards him and gave a deep bow. "Hello, bro-in-law!"
Taehyung: "........."
Taehyung pointed to himself before pointing to Jungkook. His face was stern as he explained, "We, are not in that kind of relationship."
One of the guys asked, "Then what kind of relationship are you two in?"
Taehyung almost instinctively blurted out "father-son relationship". However, on account of Jungkook's excellent performance earlier, Taehyung decided to give him some face.
With the attitude of a mafia boss, Jungkook remarked, "You two, stop fooling around."
The two guys gave a quick "alright" before entering the restaurant with boisterous laughter.
Taehyung still felt a little uneasy. He said to Jungkook, "You need to explain this clearly so it doesn't ruin my reputation."
Jungkook was a little indignant. "Have you forgotten how you were showing public displays of affection with me in front of Roseanne? Now that there's Yukhei, you're afraid of me ruining your reputation? You have no conscience."
"I don't have one in the first place. My conscience was eaten by you long ago."
Hearing this, Jungkook felt like hitting someone.
......
Taehyung finally understood why the misunderstanding happened. At the dinner gathering, there were a few other girls besides him. However, all of them were the girlfriends of someone on the ice hockey team. Only he had the clean and innocent background of being a lackey. However, this was something undignified and he felt embarrassed to introduce himself as such. Therefore, he only said that he was an old friend of Jungkook from the same hometown.
An "old" friend...
Everyone listening gave him a "don't worry, we get what you mean" look.
Taehyung: = =
He felt that this was impossible to clarify.
Taehyung could only lower his head and attack the food, venting all his frustrations through eating. The ice hockey coach did not come but he sent over a bottle of red wine. The team opened the bottle and Taehyung felt that it tasted quite good. Therefore, he began to eat while drinking the wine.
As he ate and drank, he unknowingly drank a little too much.
The effects of the wine were quite strong. He did not realize this while drinking but when he walked out of the restaurant, he could not walk straight and kept swaying to the side.
Jungkook was walking beside him. Whenever he saw that Taehyung was able to fall, he would helpfully stretch out a hand and yank Taehyung up by his collar.
A half-moon was hanging in the sky. Taehyung sang as he ambled along. "Let's watch the moon rise together~ Hic, let's watch the moon rise together~ Hic..."
He continuously sang the same line, and in an out-of-tune fashion too.
After singing for a while, Taehyung felt pretty good about himself. Hence, he asked, "Jungkook, aren't I good at singing?"
"...Whatever floats your boat." Jungkook could not be bothered to entertain a drunkard's nonsense.
"I plan to join a singing competition."
"Oh."
Taehyung clasped his hands together and voiced what he had imagined in his heart. "During the competition, you'll help me to play the cello while Yukhei would be my background dancer. With us joining forces, winning would be a piece of cake. Once we win the prize money, I'll treat you to bubble gum."
Jungkook suddenly remembered the horror of being consoled by an eraser during winter vacation in primary 2.
He snappishly replied, "You wish."
Right after he said this, the girl nearest to them gave a slight snigger. Her laughter had a hint of ridicule and disdain. Jungkook knew that this laughter was not directed at him. Rather, it was directed at Taehyung's dream of joining a singing competition.
Even though he was ridiculing Taehyung, himself, he felt a little uncomfortable hearing this laughter. He could not explain why—he simply felt irritated at it.
He turned his head and gave the girl a sweeping glance.
Along with his tall stature and illustrious reputation as the Ice God, this gesture made him seem a little intimidating.
The girl shrank back and quietly fled somewhere a good distance away.
Taehyung did not notice their interaction. He sang another two lines before suddenly sighing, "Jungkook, to be honest, you were quite cool on the ice today."
Jungkook was in high spirits and hauled the tottering his upright. "Oh? Pray to tell me cool in what way?"
"I'm speaking the truth. I always thought the club's focus on you was mostly due to your looks. After all, this is a superficial world where looks matter the most. Watching you compete today, I finally understood the club's decision. You're pretty awesome."
Jungkook was about to speak when Taehyung interrupted him. He continued, "I think that the most awesome thing about you is not your skills nor your brains."
"Then what do you think it is?"
"It's courage," Taehyung said. He pointed his finger and emphasized his point. "Courage. It's ice hockey. The confrontations on the field are very daunting. It's easy to get hurt as well. To go up against your opponents, you need to conquer all your fears and cowardice first. All these are instinctive. You need to conquer these instincts before you can become someone courageous, someone with the bravery to rush towards victory. You've done it, and you've done it better than everyone else too. You weren't like this in the past. When we were young, you were so soft. But now, Jeon Jungkook, you've become a courageous person unafraid of any opponents that stand in your way. Your lack of fear in confronting them is what I feel is the most amazing thing about you..."
He continued rambling.
Stirred, Jungkook looked at Taehyung.
No one else had told him these before. In the team and the club, everyone flattered and praised him for being smart, outstanding, and skillful. Even when they were praising his character, they would choose words along the lines of "diligent" and "steadfast".
No one else noticed how hard-won his courage was.
Only he knew the tremendous effort he spent in wrestling himself to become who he was today.
But now, from just watching one match, Taehyung could easily pick out this fact.
Indeed, the one who knows you best would always be your enemy...
After speaking, Taehyung seemed to be a little tired and listlessly hung his head. He walked like this for a while. Out of the blue, he quietly said, "Actually, I envy you."
Jungkook paused for a moment. Looking at how his head drooped, he felt his heart soften unexpectedly. He lifted one hand, placed it on top of Taehyung's head, and gave a gentle rub.
Taehyung's low spirits did not last long. When Jungkook sent him back to his dormitory building, Taehyung was once again happily bumbling about.
"Jungkook." Taehyung raised his head to look at him while giggling.
"Mm?" Jungkook discovered that Taehyung's skin had lightened. Previously, he could not see his expressions clearly at night. Now, with the street light alone, he could discern the two patches of alcohol flush on Taehyung's cheeks.
Taehyung had drunk a little too much and his eyes glistened as if there was water in them. He beamed. "From tomorrow onwards, I'm free! I don't have to wait on you anymore, Ice Dog!"
Jungkook gave an "oh" and bent abruptly, rapidly narrowing the distance between the both of them. Face to face, he scanned Taehyung's eyes intently and suddenly curled his lips.
"Taehyung."
"Mm?"
"Want to shake me off? In your dreams."