aka yunseo & jugeum @ the sandy beach w/ the hurdles
self para cause no one but god needs to witness this
this is nothing but clinical. there is no sort of inspiring rally or commendable perseverance; there is only yunseo, exhausted and incredulous, and jugeum, looking like there’s nothing wrong at all. and to him, there isn’t. he’s just standing there, slightly swaying in the stronger breeze that comes with being next to the water. there’s salt in the air, and the warm glow of the tiki torches actually doesn’t make her feel comforted or relieved. instead, she’s frustrated by the flames that tempt her with freedom and rest. by some miracle she’s made it thus far, though the credit is not solely hers for the claiming. “man, i really hope they make it here--” even better if they’re already across the finish line and just waiting for her to haul her ass on over.
at this point in the race it’s less about how fast she makes it over to the finish line and more about just getting herself there at all.
yunseo counts the hurdles, trying to figure out the best way to get them both across the long line of them. she’s already detached her threads once, which leave two more reattachments should she need them. but it shouldn’t be too hard--just awkward and time consuming
years of practice in maneuvering jugeum through various obstacles really has come in handy. as she raises her wrists, she watches as jugeum’s limbs tense with the slack being taken out of the threads attached to his joints.
left hand, index finger: first knuckle curl, flip of palm towards the sky, and then the release
right hand, both strings on her thumb: movement up, then shift clockwise
right hand, one string on her index finger: complete curl in until the the pad of her finger touches her palm
figuring out the proper movements on the first hurdle is the hardest part. once she’s gotten it down and learned to replicate them over and over again, it’ll be tremendously easier to handle. usually, she’s got more momentum, so all jugeum needs to do is leap, but with the unnatural height and spacing of the hurdles, things are a little more difficult. yunseo manages to get jugeum about five hurdles in before stopping him in the space between lest he get too far ahead.
with yejun carrying one of her two bags already, she’s only got her duffel bag, so yunseo tightens the strap until it’s pressing flush against her skin. she really doesn’t need anything extra hanging off her body and getting caught. vertically challenged was something her younger sister had called her, and that combined with the fact that she’s not the most athletic has yunseo hesitating before her first hurdle. it’s with a resigned sigh that she decides to just take the leap and probably look silly while she’s at it. she’s not one for straying from the path, especially since she still has a nasty (but fading) scar from trying to take a shortcut during an event similar to this one two years ago.
she’s learned.
on the first hurdle, the toe of her foot almost gets caught, but she manages to get her hands on the second one to stabilize herself before she actually hurts herself. up ahead, jugeum stands solitary, only twitching slightly as the threads give a little more slack as she gets closer to where he’s standing. the torches? still flickering, still teasing.
slow and steady, and yunseo gets over the second one better. her form is probably still terrible, and she had to shimmy over the top bit at one point, but no one can say that she didn’t follow the rules of getting over it without knocking it over. it counts--she has to pretend it does (or, nothing’s come flying out at her so yunseo assumes this is at the very least acceptable).
rinse and repeat, yunseo continues to advance over the hurdles, getting close and close to jugeum until she’s finally standing side by side with him. they’ve probably only made it about a quarter of the way through, but the movements are familiar to her by now, so yunseo continues with this method: sending jugeum through a section of the hurdles first, before pausing him and taking her own sweet time to catch up. by the time they get to the halfway point, she’s starting to feel a soreness in her limbs that were only a ghost with the previous obstacles, but are now demanding to be acknowledged with this one. it’s truly a test of endurance and stamina, but most people probably don’t also have to also get another thing over the hurdles along with themselves.
three-fourths of the way through and she makes the executive decision for a break. it feels like they’ve been doing this for the past hour, but in reality it’s only been about fourteen minutes. damn her short-ass-legs, this is why she could never do track in school.
but the end is near, and yunseo starts to feel a surge of energy; it must be pure adrenaline at this point because she’s exhausted, still sleepy, and starting to feel a little queasy (from what’s left of last night still in her body, or just nausea from all the factors of today combined, she’s not sure). by now, the only thing driving her forward is stubborn will and that competitiveness that she had started the race off with.
just a few more--and she’d be done. just a few more and she could lie down and wait for this god-forsaken “vacation” to be over.
