Snow and Ice || 태국

Like a pervert

Before coming to Yejang-dong City, Taehyung was viewed to hold equal chances of placing first as Jimin and Kun for the 500 meters event. This was due to his excellent results in recent competitions.

However, after learning about Jungkook's condition, Coach Jung no longer placed high hopes in Taehyung. It was enough for her if Taehyung did not give up halfway through the race. Before the competition, she gave Jimin numerous pointers and instructions. However, she only had one sentence for Taehyung. "Relax and don't feel stressed."

In the end, one after another, Jimin and Kun ran into problems. Jimin committed a mistake and fell out of the lane in the quarterfinals. As for Kun, in the semi-finals, while putting his hand down on the ice as he turned the corner, he accidentally caught the Italian skater behind him who was trying to overtake him forcefully. Both contestants were disqualified for committing a foul.

On the contrary, it was Taehyung who— under everyone's sympathetic gazes— slid his way silently into the "A" final.

Coach Jung had the inexplicable feeling that heaven was fooling with her.

However, when the full name list of the finals was released, nearly all of the Korean coaches despaired.

—Out of the four people in the "A" final, three were Chinese.

The general practice of China's sports industry was not good. Often, they would use crooked means and shady tactics that went against sportsmanship to ensure victory. One example was that referees would make biased calls in football matches. Another example was that in badminton matches, they would use the air conditioning to control the wind direction and help their country to score...

In short, slews of underhand and shameless methods were involved.

This sort of malpractice extended to China's ice sports as well. China's speed skating team was strong. However, their ability to carry out dirty tricks was top-notch as well. Their ice blades had impeded numerous athletes. If there were two Chinese athletes in the same competition, one would be responsible for interfering with the other contestants and ensuring that his or her teammate placed first. This was their modus operandi.

Now, Taehyung was going up against three Chinese himself.

The coaches all felt disheartened. How was this still a competition— he should be focused on surviving the race!

Before the competition started, Coach Jung ran through with Taehyung where and how he could be possibly targeted.

Today, Taehyung was quieter than usual. After listening to Coach Jung, he merely nodded and did not even speak.

Coach Jung exhaled a light sigh. "Off you go. Remember, safety comes first."

Taehyung gave another nod.

He went up onto the rink.

He was assigned the first lane as he had the best result in the semi-finals. When the live commentator announced his name, the audience sounded with wild applause.

After all, it was Korea's home ground. The Korean audience made up a large part of the crowd.

Taehyung's face was expressionless as he skated to the starting line. Before getting into the starting position, he suddenly closed his eyes and raised both hands, bringing his palms to his lips.

Most people thought that he was kissing his palms. Only one person knew that that was not the case.

He was kissing the gloves. 

One by one, the athletes' names were announced. Each of them arrived at the starting line.

The atmosphere was tense and almost no one spoke. The huge stadium was silent.