By Zephyria Lee Yoon-san, who had consistently maintained a height of 173cm from sixteen to seventeen, grew to 175cm at the age of eighteen. Lee Yoon-san, who greeted the summer of eighteen, was a little more mature and had now almost escaped abdominal pain.
He took painkillers less often, and the hormone levels checked periodically at the hospital were also entering a fairly stable orbit. The restored reproductive organs were also settling in nicely. Unless something special happened, he would complete his growth safely.
The stability of the body led to the stability of the mind. In fact, it was natural because hormone fluctuations had subsided. Instead, he found himself getting excited about trivial things more often.
For example, the gold medal photo that Hwang Hae-kyung, who was selected for the 20th Asian Men’s U21 Championship held at the beginning of the year and played in the game, sent him only via DM, or photos of Tehran, where the game was held at the time. In addition, Hwang Hae-kyung would take pictures and send them whenever he saw a black bunny doll on the street, and very rarely, he would send selfies.
Sometimes, he would send pictures of himself wearing a black bunny ear headband on a cushion, hugging it as if he were putting his arm around its shoulder, or pictures that seemed to have been taken by a fellow player during a break. And those photos existed only in the DM window between Lee Yoon-san and Hwang Hae-kyung. Hwang Hae-kyung still hadn’t posted a single picture of himself on his public SNS feed.
Hwang Hae-kyung’s Seyoung High School team lifted the championship trophy every time they went to a domestic game, and Ham Se-jin and Hwang Hae-kyung had already achieved the feat of being selected as Korean national team members for the Tokyo Olympics and the U21 World Men’s Volleyball Championship.
In the case of the Tokyo Olympics, it was originally supposed to be held in 2020, a year earlier, but it was held in 2021, a year later, due to domestic circumstances. Although the schedule was delayed due to variables, additional selections were made for the same reason, and Hwang Hae-kyung and Ham Se-jin joined the men’s and women’s volleyball teams, respectively. The selection was based on the previous year’s game results, including last year.
In the case of Hwang Hae-kyung and Ham Se-jin, they had experience built up by being selected for the prestigious Seyoung High School volleyball team and the Korean national team. In that way, both Hwang Hae-kyung and Ham Se-jin were able to wear the national team mark side by side.
When he heard the news, the Betas around Lee Yoon-san, except for Shin Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-hoo, mentioned Hwang Hae-kyung’s military exemption first. —Of course, the Betas around him were only Lee Yoon-san’s tutor or the families of Shin Soo-hyun or Kim Ji-hoo— Military exemption is allowed for Second gendered beings who win Olympic medals or Asian Games gold medals. Betas can also do alternative service, but it was not unreasonable for them to envy Alphas or Omegas who could be exempted altogether.
However, what they were overlooking was the fact that even now, a conscription system is being implemented only for Alphas and Omegas. Even the recruitment conditions were quite strict. A doctor’s note is required stating that the hormone levels within the past three years from the date of application are stable, and if you are prescribed a strong drug among the drugs you are taking, you are excluded from the conditions. In other words, you will not be accepted into the military if your hormone levels are too low or too high.
So, even if Hwang Hae-kyung doesn’t win a medal at the Olympics, he will already be exempt. Just a while ago, when he overheard his mother and Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother talking on a video call, he heard that Hwang Hae-kyung’s hormone levels had never fallen below the top 3%. That’s why she was worried that he would have to take more expensive and stronger Suppressant.
Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother seemed to desperately want her son’s hormone levels to drop during his growth period. Because she is a Beta, she said that she was scared and worried just by the fact that she would have to take ‘strong drugs’ for the rest of her life. It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand.
Lee Yoon-san’s hormone levels were not low either. It was just that the doctor wasn’t worried because it was a stable and textbook-like level that was neither too high nor too low. However, Lee Yoon-san’s parents did not seem to be worried about the Suppressant that Lee Yoon-san would take for the rest of his life, nor did they seem to have any intention of sending Lee Yoon-san to the military.
This was because both parents had been taking the medicine as Second gendered beings for the rest of their lives and had the perception that they had to take it, and they were especially worried that the military could be dangerous for Omegas.
If Lee Yoon-san were a Beta, he would have been made to faithfully fulfill his duty of national defense, but Lee Yoon-san is an Omega with a ‘Heat cycle’. It was already a story that had decorated the social pages several times that Alphas or Betas abused the Heat cycle of Omegas. Regardless of the punishment and its intensity, their firm position was that prevention was better than aftercare.
The story has come a long way, but anyway, Hwang Hae-kyung will not go to the military even if he doesn’t have a medal. But even so, many people were cheering for Hwang Hae-kyung’s international competitions. Many people were looking forward to it, counting the days until the Olympics, which would be held from the end of July to the beginning of August, and the World Championships, which would be held in September, and the number of Hwang Hae-kyung’s SNS followers was increasing rapidly day by day. Of course, the influence of the vlog channel opened by Lee Seok-jae was also somewhat behind it.
Instead of Hwang Hae-kyung’s feed, which doesn’t post a single picture of himself, Hwang Hae-kyung’s appearance was often seen in Lee Seok-jae’s vlog. The longest scene was when Lee Seok-jae forcibly handed Hwang Hae-kyung tanghulu, and it was quite an unexpected choice that Hwang Hae-kyung, who was constantly annoyed and refused tangerines, cherries, and strawberries, received black sapphire tanghulu.
In the video, Hwang Hae-kyung received the tanghulu with black sapphire grapes strung together, took out two of the long black sapphire grapes, held them in a V shape, and made eye contact with the camera, which made Lee Seok-jae laugh so hard that the camera shook.
And Lee Yoon-san’s face, who was watching the scene as it was in the video, turned red. This was because he was reminded of the ‘Bunny ear ceremony’ that Hwang Hae-kyung was still doing at every game. Moreover, he was reminded of the ‘black bunny ear headband’ that Hwang Hae-kyung had taken from him two years ago.
The video recorded the highest number of views among Lee Seok-jae’s vlog videos, and the section was preserved as the ‘most replayed scene’.
People now seemed to completely misunderstand that Hwang Hae-kyung liked bunnies, and most of the gifts that went to Hwang Hae-kyung seemed to be related to bunnies. This was also a fact confirmed by a screen that passed by in 1 second with the caption ‘Gifts sent to Hwang Hae-kyung by fans’ that briefly appeared in Lee Seok-jae’s vlog video. Next to the bench where Hwang Hae-kyung was sitting, there were bunny dolls and various bunny goods piled up.
Only Lee Yoon-san, who knew the truth, spent his days tossing and turning at night because of Hwang Hae-kyung’s actions. It was certain that Hwang Hae-kyung often used bunny ears as an excuse to treat him like a cute younger brother or tease him, which he didn’t even do when he was young.
He couldn’t dare to think beyond that. Since that night when Hwang Hae-kyung suddenly came to see him at the age of seventeen, the same thing hadn’t happened again. Hwang Hae-kyung still often sent DMs, and the two had less conversation than the length of time they had known each other, and they hardly ever talked on the phone. Hwang Hae-kyung never came to visit like he did last year.
It was too lukewarm to misunderstand that Hwang Hae-kyung had feelings for him, so Lee Yoon-san made it a habit to calm himself down to avoid being hurt by expecting and misunderstanding recklessly.
And on the night Lee Yoon-san watched the tanghulu video, a photo arrived from Hwang Hae-kyung. It was a photo of him holding two black sapphire grapes like a bunny and showing them. Below it was a DM that said ‘Black Bunny Ears’. Hwang Hae-kyung now knows what Lee Yoon-san’s friends call Lee Yoon-san.
Daily life is flowing like that. In his daily life, Lee Yoon-san was now slowly changing his academy classes to tutoring classes to prepare for the college entrance exam, and he became a little more familiar with the rules of volleyball. At least now, he could immediately distinguish between blockouts and touchouts while watching game videos.
While Lee Yoon-san was diligently building up his volleyball knowledge, time passed and he welcomed summer vacation.
Lee Yoon-san was sitting on the living room sofa with the air conditioner blasting, engrossed in playing online soccer games, and Lee Ga-eun, who had taken a long-awaited day off and was resting at home, was sitting at the kitchen table and having a video call with Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother.
They made video calls more often than regular calls. The first reason was that they were afraid of forgetting each other’s faces, and the next reason was that they were too lazy to hold their phones and talk. They usually drank coffee or tea and sat at the table, setting up their phones on a phone stand and talking as if they were really meeting in person, so Lee Yoon-san could often overhear news about Hwang Hae-kyung or his family.
-I was wondering about Jeju Island. I keep looking for places here and there, but there’s no place like Jeju Island.
“Jeju Island is good. But wouldn’t it be difficult to manage if you built a campsite there? You two both work in Seoul.”
-I’m going to go down as soon as Hae-kyung graduates. My husband is thinking of separating the work by hiring more people for finance and operations and going back and forth between Jeju Island and Seoul. Anyway, I was thinking of a training center and campsite site in Jeju Island.
“The company has grown. You’re retiring early~”
-Still, I have to take care of your family and my husband’s family.
“Create a separate small corporation and take care of our work and your work.”
-Okay. Even if I retire, I’m a certified public accountant, so I’ll be sad if I don’t review the books. Your family helped a lot in the early days of the business. Oh, what happened to the villa you were looking for in Jeju Island?
“We can’t find anything suitable. I’m a little worried about leaving Yoon-san here alone.”
The conversation that continued like a complaint was also heard little by little in Lee Yoon-san’s ears. It was a topic that his mother often talked about with Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother recently, so he knew what the situation was.
Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother, Ahn Sun-mi, originally said that her hometown was Jeju. So, she always had a desire to return to Jeju to live, and it seemed that she was preparing to gradually turn that future into reality. The security company run by Hwang Hae-kyung’s father had now become a fairly large company and had reached the level where it needed training facilities for its employees.
Therefore, it seemed that they were planning to build a training center affiliated with the company in Jeju, buy a large site, and operate a campsite. They seemed to have even made a plan to create a place where company employees could go and enjoy their vacations or use it, and to open it to the public for a fee on a regular basis. And with that, Ahn Sun-mi also made a plan to live back and forth between Jeju and Seoul.
Lee Yoon-san’s parents, Lee Ga-eun and Lee Jung-won, were also looking for a villa in Jeju after hearing the story, but they were worried because the conditions were more ambiguous than they thought. They preferred camping to staying in a villa, and the couple, who already owned a camper van, wondered if there was any reason to spend money to buy a villa in Jeju Island.
Building and owning a villa was not a problem, but they would have to hire someone to manage it steadily, and they would have to go to Jeju Island for most of their vacations just because they had a villa, but Lee Jung-won and Lee Ga-eun, who had no ties to Jeju, wondered if there was any need to do that.
“How is Hae-kyung doing?”
Then finally, a topic came up that would make Lee Yoon-san’s ears perk up. This topic was difficult to hear unless he timed the call well, so Lee Yoon-san missed the fact that the ball he was turning in the game was taken away and began to listen to the call.
-He already left two days ago. He’s doing well. I guess the athlete’s village is a little uncomfortable.
“I’m glad I have a good friend, so I get to see my friend’s son wear the Taegeuk mark, thanks to you.”
-I just hope he doesn’t get hurt and comes back safely. Medals and everything.
“Why, it would be nice if he won one!”
Hwang Hae-kyung had already left two days ago for the Tokyo Olympics, which would begin in a few days. Lee Yoon-san also knew that. Right before boarding the plane, Hwang Hae-kyung sent him a picture of himself waiting inside the airport via DM. It was a picture of the inside of the airport with a cute black bunny keyring on the palm of his hand. The black bunny keyring that Hwang Hae-kyung bought himself was at a level where the eyes and mouth were not properly visible. The whole thing was covered in fluffy black fur, and the only part of the face that had color was the coral-colored nose.
There were many bunny-related gifts that came to Hwang Hae-kyung, but there was not a single one with black fur. Most of them were white or pink fur, and the other colors were light gray or beige. It seemed that Hwang Hae-kyung’s skin was fair.
So, Hwang Hae-kyung only kept the bunnies he received as gifts at home, and didn’t carry them around or hang them. Then, the black bunny keyring that Hwang Hae-kyung bought online at some point decorated one side of Hwang Hae-kyung’s sports bag. It dangled along with Hwang Hae-kyung no matter what competition he went to, and in Lee Seok-jae’s vlog video, a scene of Hwang Hae-kyung bathing the black bunny keyring himself in the accommodation during the competition became a hot topic.
That’s because Hwang Hae-kyung in the video wasn’t just washing the bunny keyring roughly, but he was receiving water in the sink and massaging it as if it were a spa course.
People who saw the video went crazy saying it was cute, and Lee Yoon-san washed his face dry with a reddened face and shook his head. He repeated the words ‘don’t misunderstand’ countless times in his mind. But he couldn’t help but raise the corners of his lips slightly.
The mothers’ call ended without any harvest. At the same time, Lee Yoon-san, who was feeling drained for no reason, quit the game and went into his room. He sat on the bed and scanned Hwang Hae-kyung’s feed over and over again, and then raised the DMs he had exchanged with Hwang Hae-kyung and looked at them again. He didn’t know what Hwang Hae-kyung had said, but the words he had sent felt childish and ticklish even though they weren’t anything special. And for some reason, he felt a little embarrassed and shy about himself looking at it now. Even though no one was watching.
That’s how the summer night passed. During the day, he basked in the air conditioning, and at night, he opened the windows except for the mosquito net and turned on the fan. He ate watermelon or Korean melon while watching movies on his laptop, and he also flipped through books. He couldn’t study well in his room, and the reading room he always went to was so cold because of the air conditioning. So, Lee Yoon-san often took the hoodie or windbreaker that Hwang Hae-kyung had given him and covered himself with it.
In the meantime, the Olympics opened. In the Olympics, which began after mid-July, the profile pictures of some national team players became a hot topic, and Hwang Hae-kyung was one of them. And in the following game, both the men’s and women’s volleyball teams won in the quarterfinals and advanced to the semifinals. It was not so surprising because both the men’s and women’s volleyball teams recorded 2nd and 3rd place in the preliminary round and advanced to the finals. It had already been proven by domestic and international results that the pool of young players on the volleyball team was good recently.
The heat was further heightened when the men’s volleyball team, to which Hwang Hae-kyung belonged, won the semifinals. The reality was that until just three Olympics ago, the performance of the Korean men’s volleyball team was inferior to that of the women’s volleyball team.
However, since the Olympics two times ago, the pool of men’s volleyball players has improved, and they have been consistently participating in the Olympic finals. Nevertheless, the best Olympic record set by men’s volleyball so far was the 3rd and 4th place game.
But in this Olympics, the men’s volleyball team widened the score gap and advanced to the finals. The international standard for volleyball is win priority, and now the only remaining result was whether it would be a gold medal or a silver medal. The first incident in Korean men’s volleyball had occurred.
Hwang Hae-kyung was one of the players at the center of that first incident. He started the scoring with a service ace in this semifinal, and without fail, he did the Bunny ear ceremony, and was cheered by the players who played the game with him. The young players, including Hwang Hae-kyung, had good concentration and stamina, and the experienced players skillfully pressured the opposing team and induced errors. The receive was shaken in the middle, but they quickly regained their composure and brought the victory by hitting blocks and spikes.
In that way, they won the semifinals by taking three set scores in a row, and the women’s volleyball team’s game also succeeded in taking the victory thanks to the good performance of Ham Se-jin and the senior players.
Lee Yoon-san sent Hwang Hae-kyung a congratulatory DM for winning the semi-finals. And that night, before Lee Yoon-san fell asleep, he received a call from Hwang Hae-kyung. The content was concise. A question of whether he was asleep and a simple greeting that he was about to sleep too. However, the words that followed made Lee Yoon-san’s mood soar again.
-If I win this time
“That would be great. Your first gold medal, right, in men’s volleyball.”
-You’re going to come do something for me again.
“……”
In that instant, Lee Yoon-san was reminded of Hwang Hae-kyung from last year. Hwang Hae-kyung, who had won the National Sports Festival game and came to see him, only to talk on the phone from afar and turn away, the eighteen-year-old Hwang Hae-kyung. Hwang Hae-kyung, who was his current age, had only done that much and left, yet he had expressed, ‘I wanted to do this much for you.’ He had said that after looking up at Lee Yoon-san from afar, and only having a few trivial conversations from that distance. So, would he come to see him again when he returned to Korea? Lee Yoon-san’s heart was beating so fast, and blood was rushing to his face, making the back of his head feel dizzy.
“…Isn’t there anything I can do for you? Should I buy you a bunny?”
-You have to wait.
“Huh…?”
-I’ll look and see when I get there, so just stay put.
You don’t have to do anything. When you were little, the adults just thought you were cute without you doing anything. Hwang Hae-kyung whispered those words in a calm tone and then hung up, seemingly embarrassed. Only Lee Yoon-san was left standing there with a blank face, frozen. Lee Yoon-san was realizing in real-time that his heart could be too much to handle if it beat too fast. He was overwhelmed by himself, trying to interpret and exaggerate Hwang Hae-kyung’s words, and he was overwhelmed by the words themselves, and he was overwhelmed by the racing heartbeat and flushed face that reacted to all of it.
It was an unmistakable realization of first love.
But after that, Hwang Hae-kyung did not come to see Lee Yoon-san. The Korean men’s and women’s volleyball teams both succeeded in winning gold medals, and after that, news came that everyone had returned home safely, but that was all. Hwang Hae-kyung did not come to see Lee Yoon-san after returning home, not in the days that followed, nor in the months that followed.
Eventually, even contact was cut off. It was a sudden and bewildering event. Just like during that last summer vacation when Lee Yoon-san was 10 and Hwang Hae-kyung was 11, all contact with Hwang Hae-kyung was cut off.
Even in the winter of 18, and even when he turned 19, Lee Yoon-san did not reconnect with Hwang Hae-kyung. After the night of the Tokyo Olympics semi-final, Lee Yoon-san could not even hear news of Hwang Hae-kyung. He only saw an article around the time Lee Yoon-san turned 19 that Hwang Hae-kyung was retiring from his career as an athlete. The article contained information that Hwang Hae-kyung had entered a department at a regular private university that was completely unrelated to sports.
Thus, the boys’ teens came to an end.