Season 4: Chapter 17. Ace in the Hole (2)
There was a saying that two heads were better than one. Unfortunately, that wasn’t always the case. Anyone who had ever played doubles in sports knew. Sometimes, being alone was actually better. Almond understood this very well.
‘Yeah, we used to fight all the time.’
Back when he lived in the athlete village, the ones who fought the most weren’t the 11-player soccer teams or the one-on-one taekwondo fighters. It was the doubles racket sport players. Within that category, the ones who fought the most were the badminton players.
"Ugh! Sang-Cheol! Just switch sports with Sang-Hyeon already!"
"W-What!? That wasn’t my fault!"
"You’re out of position again!"
Doubles required splitting the same court while catching high-speed shots fired from the opposite end. The problem was rarely that the opponents were too strong. It was that partners had to know, sometimes just from the sound of the other’s breath, who was supposed to hit it and who wasn’t. That was the true barrier to entry in doubles sports.
‘Gotta prepare myself.’
Almond reminded himself of that and resolved himself. Getting in sync with another athlete was tough enough. The wall he now faced was practically a mountain.
‘My partner is Bubblegum.’
Even someone as battle-hardened as Almond couldn’t help but feel nervous.
Gulp.