1
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The child had always been a loner.
So had Jiheon. The second-floor swimming pool of the municipal sports center had a fifty-meter pool—there weren’t many of those in the country—and it had eight lanes. Seven of them were always empty. At any other time of day, they would be full, since the pool was usually packed with group lessons and grade-level training, except during individual training hours.
But during Jiheon’s training hours—from four to six every weekday—the pool was completely empty. He was the only person in the huge pool in those two hours. When he was preparing for a competition, his coach used to stay beside him, but as his rehabilitation dragged on and it was decided he would skip the entire season, the coach started showing up less and less.
The other boy had a slightly different situation. Jiheon was nearing the end of his career, while the other boy was just beginning his, and the coach seemed eager to teach him. But that wouldn’t really mean much. The coach had always had a drinking problem, and he often left his students unattended even during training hours, suffering from a hangover. While he slept in the lounge, the boy would do several laps of the fifty-meter pool.
Jiheon often saw him swimming by himself. Some days, his physical therapy ended early, and he would arrive at the pool ahead of schedule. At such times, Jiheon would sit on a bench, waiting for his training to start, and he would notice the boy in the water.
He was a good swimmer—strong form, and even better speed. It was hard to believe he was only in fifth grade. Perhaps that impression came from the fact that he was already over 170 centimeters tall. It wasn’t hard to understand why the swimming center had made such a fuss over the young genius, and why Mr. Lim, the coach, had offered to train him personally.
Even so, Jiheon still felt a chill now and then when he watched the child alone in the swimming pool.
It was more pronounced that day, for no reason he could explain. The pool felt especially big that day, and unusually silent. Jiheon could hear the steady sounds of the boy swimming, but it wasn’t enough to fill the vast space. If anything, the spacious pool only made the sounds echo more emptily.
Jiheon waited for the kid to finish the 400-meter freestyle and then went up to him.
“Aren’t you bored, all by yourself?”
The boy took off his goggles and looked up at Jiheon, who was standing by the poolside. That was the first time Jiheon noticed the boy’s eyes weren’t completely black, but a luminous shade of brown. His first thought wasn’t surprise—it was simply that they were beautiful.
“Why would I be bored? I’m swimming,” said the twelve-year-old boy with a blink, clearly puzzled by the question. His brown eyes looked more translucent in the pool lights, and the beads of water clinging to his long eyelashes gleamed like jewels.
“Are you bored when you swim?” he asked, rubbing his eyes with his fingers. Jiheon took a moment to consider his answer.
“No. I’m not bored, either.” Jiheon said.
The boy looked askance at him as if to say, Then why the question? Jiheon looked up and stared at the center of the pool in silence. It was now afternoon. By then, the sun had shifted enough for light to pour through the few windows. The light seemed to melt across the surface of the water. Watching the quiet rippling of light in the center of the large pool, Jiheon murmured.
“I am sometimes lonely, though.”