The training room was empty in the early morning, which allowed her to freely vent her excess energy and some secrets that she wanted to say but couldn't.
She practiced her flat shots against the wall, talking to herself as she did so.
"Damn it, why did I have to be in the same group as her?"
"I don't want to lose, but..."
The ball bounced back and landed on the ground.
Kim Nam-ji stopped what he was doing, breathing heavily, his hair disheveled, and sweat slowly trickling down his cheeks.
Rewind the clock to a year ago, when she had just arrived in China and went to watch Yin Jiayi's match. In that open tournament, she suffered a shock defeat to Jiang Yunli.
Kim Nam-ji felt that losing to the world's number one was not shameful at all, but she sat in the dimly lit stadium for a long time after the event ended.
As she gently approached her, she saw the girl raise her hand to wipe the corner of her eye, and the girl was slightly taken aback.
"Are you sad when you lose a game?"
Yin Jiayi smiled.
"I'm a person too, not a god."
The girl walked over and sat down next to her. Yin Jiayi didn't chase her away anymore. She slowly took out a pack of tissues from her pocket and handed it to her.
Yin Jiayi was slightly taken aback. Their eyes met, and the two gazed at each other for a long time in the darkness.
She finally reached out and, little by little, took the tissue.
That was the first time she had seen Yin Jiayi shed tears. The tears of a deity were hot and burning, which made the young girl's heart tremble.
Looking at her trembling eyelashes and slightly shaking shoulders, she couldn't help but place her hand on her back and pat it gently.
Kim Nam-ji thought to himself, "In my heart, you are a god, an invincible god."
It was already late at night when we left the venue that day.
Yin Jiayi escorted her back to her apartment, and the two walked together for a while. In the early hours of the morning, there were drunk couples kissing without a care in the world.
Kim Nam-ji suddenly asked her, "Yin Jiayi, what kind of person do you like?"
They walked on the sidewalk, which was lined with camphor trees. Yin Jiayi looked down at the dappled light and shadow cast on the ground by the streetlights.
"Someone who can... defeat me."
"Like Jiang Yunli?"
Yin Jiayi seemed to find her question a bit boring, but still smiled and gave an ambiguous answer.
I guess so.
***
Sweat dripped onto the floor.
The basket was empty, and badminton shuttlecocks were scattered all over the ground.
She was drenched in sweat and exhausted, so she simply let herself lean back, and the racket rolled to the side.
Kim Nam-ji lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling, as waves of weariness washed over her, engulfing her like a tidal wave.
She murmured to herself, closing her eyes: "Yin Jiayi, if I beat you, would you... like me even a little bit?"
That night, Kim Nam-ji had a dream in which he seemed to be floating in a vast, deep sea, rising and falling with the waves.
Her body grew colder and colder, and her hands and feet became unresponsive. No matter how much she struggled, she drifted further and further away from the shore until she could no longer see the light of day.
The seawater gradually turned blue, then deep, then black, and the last ray of light disappeared. She gave up struggling and was about to close her eyes when a pair of hands firmly lifted her up.
She fell into a familiar and warm embrace.
The person smelled faintly of laundry detergent, clean and refreshing.
Kim Nam-ji was thinking in a daze:
Do you smell things in your dreams?
Then she heard the person she had been longing for whisper affectionately in her ear:
"Win or lose, I will love you."
Kim Nam-ji was overjoyed and was about to get up and grab her.
"Yin Jiayi!"
Then a teammate hit him in the face with a pillow.
"Aaaaaah, I'm dying! I'm even calling out Yin Jiayi's name in my dreams! Just how much do you like her?! Kim Namji, if you don't get up soon, you'll be late for the competition!!!"
Kim Namji jolted awake, completely waking up like a zombie. He sprang from the bed, frantically rummaging for his clothes, quickly washed his face and rinsed his mouth, grabbed his bag and rushed to the competition venue, not even bothering to think about how he got back last night.
"Aaaaaah! Why didn't you call me?!"
The teammates were on the verge of tears.
"I set eight alarms but they didn't wake you up..."
***
"What's going on? Didn't we send someone to call her? Why hasn't she come yet?!"
There was quite a commotion on the South Korean team's side; the head coach was restless and kept making phone calls.
The referee went over too.
Yin Jiayi glanced at the clock on the big screen. There were still five minutes left before the competition, and that person still hadn't arrived.
Being late will result in disqualification from the competition.
She bit her lip anxiously.
A teammate leaned closer and said, "Jiayi, you didn't dare to come because you knew the opponent was you, did you?"
Yin Jiayi turned around, her eyes resolute.
"No, she will definitely come."
As soon as she finished speaking, the door to the athletes' tunnel was pushed open with a bang, and Kim Nam-ji rushed in like a gust of wind. When she saw that figure, she wondered if it was just her imagination, but she thought she saw their captain slightly curve the corner of his lips.
The commentators were also in their positions in the studio.
Commentator A: "To be honest, I'm really looking forward to today's match between Yin Jiayi and Kim Namji."
Commentator B chuckled and said, "Why? Is it because they were teammates before? You just love watching this kind of infighting."
Commentator A: "They used to be teammates, now they're opponents. What do you mean by 'fighting each other'? Your words will mislead the audience, even though Kim Nam-ji has many fans in China."
At this moment, comments began to appear on the screen:
"I support the national team signing Kim Nam-ji for a hefty sum."
"If you don't have money, you can crowdfund."
"Crowdfunding 1".
"Crowdfunding 2".
"Crowdfunding 100086".
"To join the national team, you'd have to change your nationality, right?"
...
The commentator was also amused by the resourceful netizens.
"Okay, okay, just kidding. Competitive sports have no borders. I think what everyone really wants to see is a great match."
"Yes, I also commentated on Kim Nam-ji's match against Xie Shi-an during the National Championships. Although she lost, her unpredictable left-handed shot left a deep impression on everyone."
"Three months later, she returns to the South Korean national team and faces her Chinese teammates again at the World Championships. Will Yin Jiayi continue to defend her glory, or will Kim Nam-ji, a rising star, leap over the dragon gate and enter the finals? The competition has officially begun, let's wait and see!"
Kim Nam-ji held the racket in her hand, weighed it in her hand, took a few deep breaths to calm her excited emotions, and walked onto the court.
In contrast, Yin Jiayi was much calmer, at least on the surface.
The two shook hands in front of the net as usual.
Kim Nam-ji smiled and said in a low voice.
"You don't seem nervous at all."
Yin Jiayi remained calm, touched her hand politely, and quickly released it.
"This isn't my first time playing in the World Championships."
Kim Nam-ji nodded and gave a meaningful "Oh".
She wore the brightest smile on her face, but uttered the harshest words to provoke her.
"But this might be the first time you haven't made it to the finals."
Yin Jiayi looked at her with a hint of helplessness in her eyes, and looked at her as if she were looking at a naughty child, not taking her seriously at all.
"Based on the results of our many previous matches, I will win again this time. I will not hold back, so don't cry if you lose."
"You...just you wait!"
Kim Nam-ji was instantly enraged by those words. He snorted coldly, turned around, and walked back to the playing field. He raised his hand and served a powerful ball full of anger, officially starting the match.
After returning to South Korea, she didn't rest for a single day. She worked from dawn till dusk every day, and apart from eating and sleeping, she trained like crazy, focusing on physical fitness, building muscle, and losing fat. Even her coach exclaimed that she seemed like a completely different person after going to China.
Only Kim Nam-ji herself knew that everything she had done was for this day, so that she could stand on the same stage as her and compete on equal footing.
Swing the racket, serve, receive the ball, smash.
The monotonous repetitive movements and the arduous training day after day suddenly found meaning in the back-and-forth of badminton.
"How should I put it, Kim Nam-ji's moves were very Chinese."
"It's not just very Chinese, it's practically a carbon copy of Yin Jiayi! That headbutt just now, if I remember correctly, is one of Yin Jiayi's signature moves."
"You don't understand, do you? This is called 'fighting fire with fire.' This wave of Kim Nam-ji is in the atmosphere."
The white feather landed, rolled, and reached the girl's feet.
"I'm not playing anymore, I always lose when I team up with you."
"The coach said we'll be split into teams for scrimmages, so please don't drag us down, okay?"