The person who messaged Sang-Hyeon was someone named Lee Dong-Su. He was a friend he made when they were archers. Sang-Hyeon subconsciously went to his Runesta profile.
It was the same face Sang-Hyeon remembered. The only difference was that he was much more chubby. However, Sang-Hyeon wasn’t surprised because of how he looked. It was because of something else.
‘It seems you weren’t good enough either.’
Lee Dong-Su wasn’t an archer anymore too. After the accident, Sang-Hyeon didn’t look twice at the world of archery. Even during the Olympics, not only did he refuse to watch archery, but he avoided sports entirely. He would already know Lee Dong-Su wasn’t an archer if he was still interested in archery.
He thought everyone else would participate in the Olympics, win medals, and play as professionals.
‘What’s this feeling…’
He felt a strange sensation seeing his old friend. He felt like he was walking down memory lane. The past memories were slowly coming back to him. He wasn’t simply reminiscing about the past. He could smell the alley he walked by daily, the texture of his school uniform, and all the other senses brought him back to the past.
“What are you staring at so intently?” Ju-Hyeok asked as he slurped his noodles.
Sang-Hyeon often stared at his cell phone these days, but it was unusual for him to make a face like that.
“… An old friend contacted me.”
“Ah, is that so? I thought…”
Ju-Hyeok mentioned that this was common for Runesta and tried to get back to his meal.
Then he suddenly realized something.
“An old friend… do you mean when you used to be an archer?”
Ju-Hyeok’s eyes widened.
He quickly fixed his glasses and went to look at Sang-Hyeon’s phone.
“What kind of person is he? I thought you didn’t want to be exposed. Did you sync your phone number with this?”
“No, I didn’t do anything like that.”
“Phew, thank goodness. You still have a brain.”
Ju-Hyeok felt relieved for now. If Sang-Hyeon synced his phone number with his account, all of his past connections would be able to trace it back to him, creating a headache.
“Even if I did sync my phone number, it wouldn’t matter too much.”
Sang-Hyeon gave a bitter smile and showed him his contact list. Normally, a person would have over a hundred contacts considering their work and school connections…
‘They’re all from work?’
Sang-Hyeon only had around forty contacts. Out of the forty, nine of them were mutuals with Ju-Hyeok. There were no signs of his past. He had no friends from the past or friends from his high school. It was understandable that he didn’t have much contact left from the office because he was disliked, but why didn’t he have anyone from the past?
‘What happened to him back then?’
He probably cut ties with them since there were no traces of them except for one.
It was So-Yeon’s phone number.
Ju-Hyeok looked away from Sang-Hyeon’s phone and asked again.
“So the person who contacted you… what kind of person is he?”
Ju-Hyeok was asking if he was trustworthy.
“It was ten years ago. I don’t know what kind of person he is now.”
Ju-Hyeok nodded in agreement. Ten years was enough to change anyone, especially since high school. They could be completely different. Nobody would have the same personality and thinking as in high school.
“Do you think you can keep him quiet?”
“If it’s the Dong-Su I know… he didn’t like to blabber his mouth too much. Archery kids were quiet as well….”
“Well then, that’s a relief.”
Sang-Hyeon was about to say the secret wasn’t a big deal… but he stopped himself.
‘But Dong-Su isn’t an archer anymore.’
Archery was a sport that made even bright and cheery individuals quiet and serious. Was Lee Dong-Su always quiet? Or did the archery target hypnotize him into a calmer person?
‘He could be far from quiet now.’
Sang-Hyeon took a look at Lee Dong-Su’s Runesta feed once again. It was full of photos of him looking happy with his significant other, his travels, and delicious food… a typical Runestagram feed.
What caught his eye was the follower count. Even though it was little compared to Sang-Hyeon’s followers, one thousand followers was no small number, especially for an average person. If Sang-Hyeon wasn’t a streamer, he would have maybe fifty followers. Ju-Hyeok, a popular guy, would only have around 450 followers.
‘Seems like he’s not the same Dong-Su from the past.’
If it was the same Lee Dong-Su he knew from the past, he couldn't have this many followers because he didn’t particularly enjoy meeting people.
Who knows? Maybe people became interested in his Runesta page or grew attached to the individual behind the account.
Sang-Hyeon stared intently at the message again.
[I stopped hearing about you after you quit archery. You’re a streamer now? That’s so cool! You’re still really good at shooting.]
“You’re still good at shooting…”
Ju-Hyeok raised his head while eating.
“Nothing. I just said the spicy noodles are good.”
Ju-Hyeok’s face glowed before turning into a serious look as he corrected himself.
“It’s big spicy noodles.”
“The recipe is by big teacher, so it’s called big spicy noodles.”
“If you say something weird, big teacher is going to chop your head off.”
“Big teacher’s alley stores… you haven’t seen it?”
“He throws around store owners who don’t take their jobs seriously. His name fits him. He’s like over two meters tall.”
Big teacher’s alley stores… what a strange program.
Big spicy noodles. Sang-Hyeon made sure to pronounce it properly and got up from his seat.
“I’ll do the dishes tomorrow morning.”
Sang-Hyeon closed the door and lay on his bed. Unlike usual, a lot was on his mind.
‘How should I respond?’
Sang-Hyeon initially felt happy when Dong-Su contacted him. Was it because the age they spent their time together was special? Sang-Hyeon kept playing around with the screen and the message.
‘It was eventually going to happen…’
Sang-Hyeon was more than emotionally ready. He participated in tournaments, appeared on TV programs, and showed himself using a bow multiple times. The Lazy Soldier ad also premiered all over the country through Treevy’s channel. People were bound to find out that he was a professional archer. Instead, Sang-Hyeon felt like it happened later than he thought.
‘Ju-Hyeok said it’ll be good once people found out.’
His manager Ju-Hyeok, who was only interested in money, told him that if he revealed his past, it would do him good. Even Sang-Hyeon could predict that.
The narrative was about an ex-professional archer with a sad story of finding his new path as a streamer. This narrative would sell well on any news network. He could even see the inevitable comments that would follow.
Sang-Hyeon let out a deep breath. Why couldn’t he openly reveal it… That was probably what everyone was thinking. No one would understand him even if he said the reason was strictly personal.
He looked up into empty space and muttered to himself, “You should stop showing up now.”
He could see long black hair brushing past his sight. Her firm eyes whenever she focused on the target. A young Sang-Hyeon could be seen in the reflection of her eyes.
He opened his mouth and said the same thing he always did, “I’m quitting because it’s not fun anymore.”
It was a lie he often said when he was young. His coach begged him to keep his injury a secret because it wouldn’t benefit his teammates. They would become discouraged in front of the bow.
The coach rewarded him greatly for lying until the end. He helped him get into Ahsung. He had nothing against the coach because Sang-Hyeon also wanted to lie about the situation. Even though his coach asked him to hide the fact, he could tell her the truth.
So-Yeon grabbed him and asked again, “You’re really going to quit? You’re really quitting this because it’s not fun anymore? Who are you trying to fool? Tell me the truth!”
Back then, she knew Sang-Hyeon better than anyone else. Therefore, she knew there was no way he would just quit out of nowhere for no reason. However, even until the very end, Sang-Hyeon continued to lie to her.
He couldn’t bring himself to tell the person who always revered him and saw him as the best that he couldn’t be that person anymore. He made a dumb choice when he was young, thinking it would’ve been better for him to disappear and be remembered as the best. He thought he could tell her one day… and didn’t think much of it.
The time that passed didn’t come back, and the price was heavier than he imagined.
Sang-Hyeon thought deeply for a moment and moved his fingers.
[Hey Dong-Su, it’s been a while. When are you free? Wanna meet up?]
He decided to treat the memories the same way he did in the past.
“Wow, Yu Sang-Hyeon!”
Even in a busy cafe full of businessmen, he could clearly recognize his old friend's face.
“Wow! It’s so good to see you!”
Lee Dong-Su greeted him with a plump body that shook.
“Hey, you’re really famous. Is it okay for you to come out to places ?”
“Ah… I’m not that famous. Businessmen don’t really know who I am.”
Despite saying that, Sang-Hyeon put on his hat again. He only took it off for Dong-Su to find him.
“Hey, you’re still good-looking. I’m jealous.”
“You look a little different.”
“Ah, yeah. I got a lot fatter. I should’ve stuck with archery.”
“Well… it’s not like I was good at it like you were. I just liked it because it made me active.”
“But it’s not like I’m doing something completely unrelated.”
“Yeah, I run an archery cafe. It’s actually pretty popular.”
Sang-Hyeon was surprised because he couldn’t find a trace of that anywhere on Dong-Su’s Runesta page.
“I see. I didn’t know even when I saw your Runesta page.”
“Ah, that’s because it’s my personal account. My business profile is this.”
Namyang, Yang-Pyung, Gangreung… he had multiple locations around the country. The cafe was mostly set up in the outer skirts of the city.
“What do you think? It’s not a bad place to shoot, right?” Lee Dong-Su giggled as he showed the target to Sang-Hyeon.
“Yeah, it’s not bad.”
“There’s old-style archery as well for the older people.”
He recalled having a rain check with the director. This was the usual case with busy individuals.
“Yeah, take a look here. Yang-Pyung has it.”
“Capsule gaming has gotten good, but on the other side, there’s been an increase of people being interested in offline activities.”
“Ah, of course. There’s always going to be a limit for virtual reality in the end.”
“Yeah. If you take a shot or two in nature, your head feels refreshed.”
Dong-Su always liked nature, and it was still the same. He got better at talking because of his business, but overall, he hadn’t changed very much.
They connected well because they shared a lot of the same past.
“Ahahaha. The coach was mean back then, honestly.”
It had also been a while since Sang-Hyeon had a good time . Being able to talk about his archery days in the past with a fellow archer was precious to him. As the conversation ended, Sang-Hyeon confessed that he kept his history of archery a secret.
“Ah… You’re keeping it a secret?”
Dong-Su blinked with a shocked look. He looked around when he was confused just like when he was in high school. It was the same face when he was caught skipping.
“R-Really? H-How should I say this…”
“You can probably tell from the archery cafe… but I still keep in touch with the old guys.”
Sang-Hyeon could tell what was coming next.
“The junior archers come by often as well… Jong-Hyun brings them, and so does Hyun-Joo….”
Lee Dong-Su bowed down, asking for forgiveness.
“I’m… sorry! I told them!”