Naturally, Do Wonjin taught himself how to earn love. He achieved excellent grades in school and won awards in various competitions. With his looks that closely resembled his father’s, he was likable, and his sociable personality drew people to him. At home, he gradually reestablished himself as the mature eldest child who didn’t need supervision.
But no matter how hard he tried, there was one thing that remained unchanged: poverty. So he deliberately befriended wealthy children. Just an elementary school third-grader. Some might say what would a ten-year-old know, but Do Wonjin, with his sharp intuition and quick mind, instinctively knew which group he needed to belong to in order to survive.
“Hey, want to try archery with me?”
One day, a friend asked Do Wonjin. He was just an elementary school student whose dream job changed dozens of times a week, and it was the height of Olympic season.
Do Wonjin wasn’t particularly interested but smiled and followed his friend. The archery range was right next to their school. What followed was a common scenario—the coach discovered that Do Wonjin had more talent than his friend and scouted him. With his family’s difficult financial situation, archery was realistically impossible, but too proud to admit the truth in front of his wealthy friend, he just said he’d think about it and left.
Do Wonjin deliberately didn’t mention this at home. He knew his place well enough.
His father who ran away from debt collectors when his younger sibling was 4 years old. His grandmother with dementia. His grandfather who worked construction during the day and drove a taxi at night to feed his grandchildren meat, only to die in a traffic accident. His brother was now 8, and he was 10. No matter how hard his mother worked from dawn till late at night, no matter how much they tightened their belts, the family’s situation didn’t improve—it kept getting worse.
His friend lost interest in archery as the Olympics ended and sought a different path, and Do Wonjin was gradually forgetting about his visit to the archery range.
“Wonjin, let’s meet briefly in the faculty office after school.”
In autumn, when the cicadas that had been so noisy fell silent and dragonflies soared high in the sky, his teacher called Do Wonjin aside after morning assembly.
“Wonjin, have you thought about trying archery?”
Young as he was, he roughly understood what the teacher was saying. It was about how an Olympic gold medalist in archery had started at the archery range next to their elementary school. The country, still caught up in Olympic fever, had passed a support program for budding archers, and the first beneficiary was Do Wonjin, recommended by the coach.
After explaining the extraordinary conditions—that they would spare no support until he reached adulthood if he did well—the teacher asked, “This might be difficult to understand, but what do you think, Wonjin? Do you want to do it?”
“Yes, I want to.”
At his answer, the teacher patted his head and said he’d made a good decision. She added that she would get his parents’ permission, so he shouldn’t worry. Since no one at home would care what he did as long as the money issue was resolved, Do Wonjin just smiled faintly.
At first, he had just gone along with his friend without knowing much, and holding and shooting a bow was an interesting experience, but that was it. However, after talking with the teacher, he wanted to do well if he was going to do it at all. He actually believed he could succeed.
“Good to see you again, Wonjin.”
The coach welcomed Do Wonjin with an untroubled face when they met again. There was no reproach for him having disappeared after saying he’d think about it.
He approached Do Wonjin more like a neighborhood uncle than a coach, with his naturally mischievous and playful personality. Having filled his father’s absence through his grandfather, Do Wonjin sometimes imagined whether this was how a normal father would be, looking at the coach who seemed about his father’s age.
And that was fully reflected in his attitude toward archery. The time he spent immersed in archery gradually increased as he wanted to receive the love he hadn’t gotten from his parents through the coach. With effort added to his talent, by his third year of middle school, his skills had become so superior that he could compete with adults without falling short.
“With your current scores, I think you could enter the national team selection in a couple of years.”
The coach said as they ate soup after training. Their relationship, which began in elementary school, had continued for seven years as he attended the sports middle school where the coach worked.
“You could compete in the Olympics as part of the national team. What do you think? Doesn’t just imagining it make you feel hot inside?”
“I told you to let your soup cool down. Here, have some cold water.”
“I really had a good eye. I discovered a gem like you.”
“Yes. The broth here is delicious.”
Although the broth couldn’t be newly delicious at a place they frequently visited after training, Do Wonjin still wasn’t used to the coach’s embarrassing expressions and responded indirectly. Though he’d become much smoother compared to when he started, the coach stubbornly sent him proud looks and smiled widely at Do Wonjin’s words, showing that age wasn’t just a number.
“You’ve grown up well, kid.”
Then he roughly patted Do Wonjin’s head with his large, pot-lid-like hands, and Do Wonjin grumbled, “Even a dog isn’t disturbed while eating,” but didn’t brush away the hand.
While he could warm up so easily when meeting the coach, his hands and feet would turn cold and his stomach would feel heavy when he went home. Though he visited home for the first time in a month due to continuous training, the gloomy atmosphere remained unchanged.
“You’re home, hyung?”
His brother, two years younger, came out of his room to greet him, but Do Wonjin brushed past him and headed to his own room.
“Mom left money for us to eat something good when you came home.”
“Use it as your pocket money. Don’t worry about me.”
When Do Wonjin started archery with national support and said he was going to find his own path by entering a dormitory, his adoptive mother’s face openly showed relief. When she had no children of her own, she raised him as if he were her own child, but once she held her real child in her arms, she secretly thought that living together and feeding and clothing him was a burden.
Especially as he grew and his appearance became more and more like his father’s, it reminded her of the husband who had ruined her life and run away, making her resent him for no reason more than once. But because her heart was weak, whenever Do Wonjin visited home, she always gave money to her younger son despite their poor circumstances.
“Uh, hyung.”
Do Hojin, his younger brother, caught Do Wonjin as he was about to enter his room.
Though healthy at birth, his brother, who had a weak constitution like his mother, developed more slowly than his peers. Despite having entered middle school, he still looked like an elementary school student with his small frame, and with a face not just pale but nearly white, he awkwardly glanced at Do Wonjin.
“I don’t think I can talk to mom about this.”
“Do Hojin. I get that you have something to say, but I just finished training and I’m tired. Let’s talk next time.”
“Ah, I’m sorry, hyung. You must be really tired.”
His grandmother passed away when Do Wonjin entered middle school. The cause was complications she had suffered from even before her dementia. People said the old woman closed her eyes early because she didn’t want to burden her daughter-in-law, but they spoke out of ignorance. His mother had taken care of her mother-in-law for a full ten years.
It was an insufferable household. When his grandfather was alive, they could somehow manage to smile despite the hardships, but at some point, the house had become suffocatingly oppressive.
Do Wonjin visited home even less after that. He felt more comfortable rolling around alone in the empty dormitory. Once a month became once every two months, and then once every three months. Before he knew it, he had become a high school student.
He knew his brother’s face darkened every time he came home, but he deliberately ignored him, not wanting to listen to the spoiled complaints of someone who monopolized their mother’s love.
And as time passed, just as the coach had said, he made it to the Olympics as part of the national team. Though he thought he had given up on family love long ago, he briefly believed that if he became a national representative and won a gold medal, perhaps laughter would bloom in their cold home.
“Your brother, Hojin, that timid kid, jumped from the school rooftop. Can you believe it? That gentle child. Oh my, what about our Hojin? Hojin, my baby, how much pain you must have felt.”
His life had always repeated the same pattern—rising only to fall hard. Though he had finally grasped the gold medal he had so longed for, the news from home was that his brother had attempted suicide. Though he barely survived, all the bones in his body were crushed, and he fell into a coma.
The happiest time in his life transformed into the most miserable. And the misfortune didn’t stop there. His private life, now with the title of gold medalist attached, was all too easily exposed to the media. His brother’s suicide attempt was broadcast nationwide through the news.
—Do (unnamed), who attempted suicide after enduring group bullying throughout middle school. The school consistently denied knowledge of the school violence that all surrounding students were aware of. Currently, the victim is in a coma at the hospital…
What was merely a news item to others gave Do Wonjin respiratory difficulties every time he saw it. It felt like a flood of blame and criticism for ignoring the signals his brother had been sending for help, as if the whole world was pointing fingers at him.
From then on, Do Wonjin suffered from insomnia. When he fell asleep, his bloodied brother would glare at him from below, and dozens of hands would rush to grasp the gold medal hanging around his neck.
“I don’t think I can do archery anymore, Coach.”
Two years had passed since then. Utterly broken, Do Wonjin finally put down his bow. His brother was still in a coma, and his mother never left his brother’s side. Naturally, with no one earning money, there was no income. Their family barely maintained their livelihood with the pension from Do Wonjin’s gold medal.
“I need to make money.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
