DASH-Chapter 183

"How’s your shoulder?"

At the mention of his shoulder, Jaekyoung’s eyebrows twitched with a noticeably different kind of tension than before. It hurt. Of course it did—Jiheon had already figured as much earlier when Jaekyoung grabbed Kim Giseok and Han Yuseong by the collar with his right hand.

Thinking about how Jaekyoung hadn’t even taken a painkiller just in case those bastards tried to pull something made Jiheon’s rage bubble up all over again. As he slipped on his jacket, he suddenly seemed to remember something and turned to Kim Giseok.

"Oh, right—speaking of the Federation. You do know the Vice President’s currently on trial, right?"

At the mention of the Vice President, Kim Giseok visibly flinched. His pupils dilated so noticeably it was clear even from where they stood. Jiheon slid his arm into the sleeve of his jacket and smiled.

"Apparently he forgot his own position and hit me, and now he’s about to get a harsher sentence for retaliatory assault. He was grinning while throwing punches, but once he found out he might get prison time, he’s been begging me to meet with him. I’ve been ignoring him so far because it’s a pain, but I’m starting to think I might as well go. Feels like I could get some really interesting stories out of him now."

Kim Giseok looked like he wanted to say something, but quickly shut his mouth again. Well, what was he going to say in a situation like this? Anything he said now would only make it worse. If you couldn’t win, better to just stay silent.

Go ahead and squirm all you want, bastard.

Jiheon adjusted his collar and turned around. Then, to Director Han, who’d been watching him with a visibly anxious expression the whole time, he said,

"Alright, we’ll be heading out now."

"Ah, right. Thanks for everything."

Go on, get out of here quick—Director Han pointed toward the entrance.

"Yes. I’ll be in touch again soon."

Jiheon gave a slight bow and started walking toward the booth’s entrance with Jaekyoung. The reporters who’d been packed like sardines parted left and right to make way for them.

"Thank you for your hard work."

Jiheon didn’t forget to greet the press. The reporters looked like they had a million questions burning holes in their mouths, but not one of them dared speak up. Jaekyoung, walking beside him, noticed it too and asked,

"How come the reporters aren’t swarming us? I thought for sure they’d grab us and go nuts."

"The doping control booth is a restricted area for media."

In a restricted zone, the baseline assumption was off-the-record. If you saw or heard something there, it was as good as unseen and unheard. Jaekyoung gave him a baffled look.

"So this won’t even get reported?"

"Not right away. But once we file an official complaint and release a statement, the embargo gets lifted. Then the press will move."

"And how long’s that gonna take?"

"At least a month, if we want to prep everything properly."

Jaekyoung frowned like that was insane.

"And what if Kim Giseok and Kavva try more of their bullshit before then?"

"They won’t be able to. And Kavva already looks like they’re cutting ties with those two."

Though there was still the possibility that the KSC might pressure Spoin to downplay the incident. Given how much money they got from Kavva every year under the guise of development funding, the KSC always sided with Kavva whenever a dispute came up. This time too, they were likely to say let’s not blow this out of proportion, promising disciplinary action if Jiheon just kept it quiet. They’d probably also start hinting to reporters to take it easy on the coverage. Which meant the best course was to act fast before anyone could interfere...

"I’m not waiting that long."

Jaekyoung suddenly cut in, then turned and strode off.

"Hey, where are you going?"

Startled, Jiheon hurried after him—only to find Jaekyoung already standing at the operations office, talking to the deputy director.

"Kwon Jaekyoung, why haven’t you gone to the hospital yet?"

The deputy looked surprised. Jaekyoung feigned ignorance as he answered,

"Hyung said if I was okay, I should stop by the press conference for a bit."

Just like that, he threw Jiheon under the bus.

"Oh, great, great—just a quick appearance! Won’t take long."

The deputy, who’d been sulking nonstop over Jaekyoung’s absence, practically beamed and pulled him into the room.

You reckless bulldozer of a human being...

Jiheon darted around to the back entrance of the ops office. Peeking over the heads of reporters, he spotted Jaekyoung already seated among the athletes. Normally, he would’ve taken the center seat without question, but this time, having joined last-minute, he was stuck at the far edge. Right beside him sat Haejeong and Junhwan.

"Shall we begin?"

The host addressed the reporters. The press conference had been delayed because everyone had been busy watching the chaos unfold in the neighboring room.

"Alright, then—who would like to go first—"

Before the host could even finish, Jaekyoung raised his hand.

"Excuse me. I need to head to the hospital right after this. Would it be alright if I answered questions first?"

"Of course. Let’s begin with Kwon Jaekyoung, then."

The host gestured toward the reporters. But before anyone could ask, Jaekyoung grabbed the mic and started speaking.

"Yes, I’m honored to be selected for the men’s medley team for the Brisbane Olympics. I’m happy and grateful. It’s not the eight events I aimed for, but I’m satisfied with qualifying for seven. As for the 200m butterfly withdrawal yesterday—that was due to a shoulder injury, as many of you probably guessed. It’s not too serious, but I’ll be focusing on treatment for now, so I won’t be joining the training camp at Jincheon next week. And yes, I’m also happy about breaking the unofficial world record in the 200m freestyle on Wednesday. Whether it gets recognized officially or not doesn’t matter much to me anymore. I’m just focused on doing better at the Olympics."

Jaekyoung kept rattling off answers as if he already knew every question they’d ask. It was the kind of thing you were never supposed to do at a press conference, but this time, no one said a word.

For one, the guy looked like hell—Jiheon hadn’t even noticed earlier, but under the lights, sweat was beading on Jaekyoung’s forehead. And on top of that, everyone knew what had just gone down next door. It was clear he was only here, despite his condition, because he had something to say about it. Some reporters even whispered, I’ve never seen Kwon Jaekyoung talk this much before. Is this his version of snapping?

"I’m not too upset about placing second in the 100m freestyle. Sure, it would’ve been nice to get a better time, but what’s done is done. I’m satisfied with qualifying. In sports, there’s no seniority, no age, no hierarchy. The athlete who performs best gets the best result. So when people write trash articles about ‘falling to a junior,’ or how a senior’s dignity has been shattered—honestly, the person who wrote that can’t be a real journalist. Which is probably why they’re not here today."

He widened his eyes dramatically at the press, then adjusted his tone.

"Lee Taejeong is a hardworking athlete. He did great in that race. I’m looking forward to racing him again at the Olympics."

Right as he finished, someone blurted out from the press seats:

"Lee Taejeong??" frёewebnoѵēl.com

"Don’t you mean Lee Haejeong?"

A bespectacled reporter cut in sharply.

"You know he’s hardworking, but you don’t even know his name?"

His smirk said Gotcha, like this was the same guy who wrote that “falling to a junior” piece.

"Oh, that’s his nickname."

Junhwan grinned and pointed at Haejeong beside him.

"Yeah, it’s a special nickname he gave me," Haejeong said, blushing.

"Ah... a nickname..."

So they’re close... The reporter pushed up his glasses and mumbled, lowering his head.

Jaekyoung didn’t seem to care about the jab at all—more like he didn’t have the energy to care. The pain in his shoulder was clearly taking a toll. He wiped the sweat off his brow with the hand holding the mic, then gripped it again and said,

"Lastly, I want to address the incident at the doping booth earlier."

The press immediately snapped to attention. Even those who’d been lounging with arms crossed grabbed their cameras and recorders. Once he saw he had their full focus, Jaekyoung began speaking again—without pause.

"Han Yuseong, a long-distance freestyle swimmer, claimed a pheromone reaction was the reason for his poor performance in the 400m individual medley today. He tried to pin the blame on us. Specifically, he said that Deputy Jeong Jiheon, who works with me, deliberately released pheromones to sabotage him. But after confirming that he’s pregnant—meaning he can’t emit pheromones—they suddenly started spewing nonsense about it being a misunderstanding, a mistake, or some other complete bullsh—uh, I mean, absurd excuse. And that pissed me off even more."

It was clear his pain was muddling his filter—his words were slipping into raw, uncut territory.

"Anyway, the point is—he’s pregnant. Thinking about the psychological stress this could’ve caused him makes my blood boil. Am I crazy enough to forgive that? Hell no. I’m going to... take strong action. As someone about to become a father, I believe you can’t let shit like this slide. You’ve got to make the right °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° decisions—for your kid. That’s what being a parent means."

...Jaekyoung, barely conscious from the pain, kept forgetting what he was supposed to say and just circled back to the fact that he was going to be a dad. Again. And again.

"And..."

Jaekyoung faltered, then shut his eyes. Finally, as if he couldn’t go on, he said,

"I’m sorry. I’d like to say more, but it feels like my shoulder’s about to fall off. I’ll stop here and head out."

He moved to hand the mic to Junhwan, then paused as if remembering something.

"Oh—right. Since the doping booth is a restricted zone, nothing seen or heard in there can be published. But this is a public press conference. So the stuff I just said is fair game for reporting, yeah?"

His blatant question made several reporters laugh. Seeing some of them nod, Jaekyoung finally passed the mic to Junhwan. As he rose from his seat, staggering slightly, a reporter called out:

"Kwon Jaekyoung, one last question!"

Jaekyoung turned, ready to shoot a death glare full of rage, annoyance, and pain all in one.

"Would you prefer a daughter or a son?"

Everyone burst into surprised laughter at the random question. Even Jaekyoung looked incredulous—but then, despite himself, the corners of his lips began to twitch upward. And finally, unable to suppress the grin spreading across his face, he covered his mouth with his hand and said:

"Either one’s fine. I’ll be happy no matter what."