Jung Hoseok
Jung Hoseok was an athlete.
Soccer, lacrosse, tennis, basketball, sprints and swimming, he did it all.
He loved exerting his body to the limit and he loves the rush of adrenaline that fueled him throughout.
He might have been popular, he never knew.
He was too busy having fun with his life, being happy.
His father had been the greatest athlete of his time and had won a medal in the Olympics.
Hoseok loved his father, he looked up to him adoringly.
Perhaps that was when the trouble started.
By the time he was fourteen, old enough to make a name for himself in high school due to his accomplishments in sports, his father began to see to much of himself in Hoseok.
As far as he was concerned if Hoseok was really that good at sports, perhaps he would carry on his legacy.
And so Hoseok's life became less if his own and more of his father's.
His father began encouraging him to befriend children who had ties with great athletes, even if they didn't care much for sports.
He found himself signing up for one too many extra curricular activities.
His father urged him to be the best, maybe even forced him.
Suddenly sports became less of a joy and more of a duty. Before it used to be something he could enjoy and revel in.
Now it became a sort of obligation, a skill he had to hone, a class he couldn't afford to fail.
Not with his father urging him on the way he did.
It never occurred to him that perhaps the old man was taking it too far.
It wasn't till his last year in high school that his eyes opened.
A scout had come, and was willing to pick one student to get an offer to train with renown athletes for the Olympics.
A wonderful opportunity Hoseok's father made sure he took.
But Hoseok didn't mind. His best friend Yang was with him.
Unlike Hoseok, Yang was an orphan and he didn't play sports because he felt any obligation, he did it because he liked it.
And that made Hoseok happy. Everyone else he was surrounded with all had expectations or hubris for doing this.
But Yang was just happy to do what he loved.
Hoseok told himself that he had Yang to support him, he could make his father happy.
And even if he failed, maybe Yang would win.
Yang was the only one on the team who could keep up with him anyway.
They trained everyday at Hoseok's house, running laps around the garden and swimming laps in his indoor pool.
Until the day Hoseok made the mistake of asking his father to watch them train.
It never occurred him that his father, trained and experienced could see something that he hadn't all along.
He had never dreamt of the possibility that afterwards, during dinner, his father would tell him that Yang would become greater, would become better than him.
That his father would tell him to stop being friends with Yang, that sabotage would be in order if he didn't want Yang to be chosen at the event.
Hoseok told his father he was crazy.
Maybe if he has come to that realization sooner or would have spared them a lot of grief.
His father pretended to relent, had him bring Yang over to their house, won both their trusts and advise them.
He should have known the minute it happened.
When his father gave both him and Yang bottles of water on the day of the event, his careful eyes watching everything.
He ran and swam and kicked the ball like his life depended on it.
He had never felt so good.
At least, till word came that Yang had fainted in the pool.
He remembered feeling confused, feeling numb with disbelief.
He was disqualified they said.
Hoseok's smile died and didn't come back even when the scout chose him.
It was on Yang hiding his face in shame as he tried to plead his innocence.
It was on his smile, his encouraging words, his almost naive way of viewing the world around them.
He didn't need any prompting.
He got home, calmly packed together a bag and called an aunt to help him cook for his dad.
He knew exactly how much steroids needed to be consumed to send someone into a long term coma.
He didn't have any remorse as he watched his father drop to the floor.
As the ambulance drove away hours later, he thought that that was the end of it.
That he'd live a normal life.
Then the men in black came in.
His father's older brother sat in front of him, smoking a cigar.
?????
I'll pass. What do you want?
???
Well, last night, I got a call from a contact telling me about some evidence that involved your dad and a bribe about the Olympics that would send the both of you to jail for many years.
???
Or just you, considering the current circumstances.
His uncle rolled his eyes and threw the file at him, almost bored.
A very authentic copy of enough evidence to send him to jail.
His uncle's offer was simple.
???
Work for me and all this will disappear from the face of the earth.
?????
What exactly do you mean by that?
???
Only one way to find out.
???
Besides, I'd hate to have to perform an autopsy on your father's dead body.
Hoseok had no reason to object, no expectations left to fulfill.
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