Owen

*BRRRPPPP*

The loud whistle blows once more into my ear. I honestly think that my left ear might go deaf first. When I'm in bed with my girlfriend, she'll have to yell at me in my ears for me to hear.

...how romantic.

I shake my head at the thought and get ready for the present rather than worry about the far future. Who knows when my ears will go deaf?

Does it matter? Dirty talking is still dirty talking and if it really requires it, I'll learn sign language with her and she'll talk dirty using her hands.

I wonder how she'll do it with her hands doing...other things, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

*BRRRPPPP*

I straighten my back so that it makes a perfect S shape without any imperfections. Obviously it wasn't exactly like an S, but a slim S.

The girl officials in the referee stations were glued onto my butt and my lower back the entire time. How'd I know? Obviously, I felt the stares on me.

It's like being watched predators or being a hunted animal.

I try ignoring and start thinking about the upcoming 4 laps of this I'm going to do. This race is double the length of the previous one, meaning that I need to adapt fairly quickly.

Some people think that it's as easy as "conserving more energy and releasing it at the end of the race". No, it's not that simple.

If you are too conservative, you'll be too far behind to catch up with your more energy at the end. If you are too strong going into the starting laps, you might fall behind.

You'll need to match the pace of the other competitors and somehow have more energy to burn at the last laps.

It's a tough thing to balance throughout the race.

*BBBBRRRRRRPPPPP*

The final whistle was blown and away we went into the water once more. In this race, there were some of the same people from the previous 100 meter freestyle such as Owen, Seung Jae-ho and I.

There are some other swimmers from the 100 meter, but I don't really remember their names.

Under the water, I do the needed 5 dolphin kicks with my legs tensed up and stressed to the max. I can do this since it's only 5 kicks, so there isn't any problem.

After finishing the obligatory 5 kicks, I surface from the water like a...well, like a dolphin and start pulling and kicking like a madman.

This time, my nerves are much calmer and my brain is clearer than before. In the 100 meter race, I wanted to win as quickly as possible without fuss.

Ironically, with me trying to have no fuss, I created a bigger fuss than if I didn't just push so hard. I wasn't reprimanded, but I'm sure some coaches were given a tearing for letting me do that.

So, with this in mind, I start being a bit more conservative now. I'm at a disadvantage right now since my hip still hurts a bit, but my advantages right now insanely outweigh the disadvantages.

The one big thing is that Beom-sok isn't here. Without him, there isn't the same amount of pressure on me.

Owen and Jae-ho are both good, don't get me wrong. However, they just aren't Beom-sok. Beom-sok is just in a league of his own.

He is the only person I can consider my true rival in this competition. Owen is fast, but his stamina is not good. Jae-ho is the opposite; high stamina but lower speed.

Beom-sok was both. He had amazing stamina and great speed. I was just him, but had longer legs and higher speed. How he trains, I'll never know.

He must be made for swimming.

I quickly end my thought process and reach the end. By now, I'm fairly comfortable in my lead against the second place, Owen and the third place, Jae-ho.

It's like I expected. The rest of the field is mostly fighting for the fourth place.

On the other hand, it was just Jae-ho and Owen fighting for second.

I quickly reach the end of the first lap and start the second lap. My body wasn't screaming at me, but it was slightly aching on my hips.

Again, my long legs were acting up and so was my previous swimming incident. It wasn't bad, but it was getting worse.

The problem with this was mostly Owen. Jae-ho, I paid no mind. He wasn't too competitive and even now, he was a chill guy.

He'd race to his fullest, don't get me wrong, but he won't injure himself to get to where he wants to go. At most, maybe a sore body part.

Owen however, he was a pickle. A real tough cookie that I couldn't break easily, nor could Beom-sok. From our previous sessions together not in the tournament, he regularly beat Beom-sok.

I'm sure it's because Beom-sok wasn't taking it too seriously, but he wasn't slouching. Owen wasn't taking it seriously either. That was the problem.

This just showed that when Owen really wants something, he has the ability and grit to do it.

I don't doubt for a second that if Owen was given the chance to sacrifice 20 orphans to be the fastest swimmer, he'd hesitate for about three seconds to look good and then accept it "reluctantly"...or it seems.

He won't do it probably, but he is determined is what I'm trying to say.

He sees and feels the waves I'm making in the pool as I pushed off and kicked into the distance. He and I are friendly, but he doesn't like me in real life.

He can't get along with a person that beats him regularly.

I don't let it mind me because if you can't even handle that, then why the hell are you in sports?

Splash! Splash!

'Huh...he's going a bit hard'

I can hear the splashes of his feet overexerting. Ahhh, I'm sure I can hear his coach yelling already.

And in fact, I was right. Above the surface and watching us compete was the coaches and amongst them was Owen's coach.

"Oh my God! When the hell did I teach him this! Hey, Seung-ri! Does he think that silver is more valuable han gold or something! What an idiot..."

All of the coaches are watching him with empathetic eyes as he cries into his arm. Some of them are holding back a chuckle, but they do feel bad for him.

They all know him as a stamina-based coach who like training cardio more than strength. Seeing this is basically holding his daughter at gunpoint, peeling his eyes open and forcing him to watch his daughter become some sort Saki-chan.

Thankfully, he isn't me. I'm me, and I'm beating that boy he raised as a swimmer. Too bad.

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(A.N) yo! Another chapter for you beautiful and handsome readers! I hope you enjoyed this one and I hope that you had an amazing day and that tomorrow will be even better!

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