LOVE:ZERO

Jiyu, who was halfway across the playroom, stopped walking and let out a long sigh. Then, without even looking back, she asked.

“What is it? Tell me quickly, I don’t have time.”

I was satisfied with the fact that my voice sounded quite cold.

The sound of Hunter’s footsteps approaching, pushing his chair away and getting up, was heard. Then he came and stood in front of Jiyu as if blocking the path. She stubbornly turned away from him and lowered her eyes.

“You really don’t know what I’m trying to say?”

Hunter didn’t know how to bend even while making a request. Jiyu didn’t turned her head and sighed as if she was being rewarded.

“If you have nothing to say, I’ll go now. I have to go home and do my homework.”

Jiyu was trying to avoid him, but he immediately stopped in front of her.

“Where are you going? I haven’t finished talking to you yet.”

“….”

“There’s a tournament on Friday. My first L1 tournament.”

Jiyu waited a little longer, but that was the end of the explanation.

The junior tennis tournament was structured in a gradual progression from the lowest level 9 to the highest level 1.

I have heard through my friend that Hunter, who had recently surpassed the UTR 7, had been seeded for the USTA (United States Tennis Association) National Indoor Championships, a level 1 tournament under-14’s. I couldn’t help but hear about it because they kept talking about the Hamilton Family.

When Jiyu remained silent, Hunter added, seeming frustrated.

“This is Level 1. National Tournament. Don’t you know what I’m talking about?”

“No. I understand. So? What does that have to do with me?”

Jiyu knew that she would lose in the end, as always. Since they were young, there had been an invisible hierarchy between them, similar to a master-servant relationship.

But this time, I didn’t bow my head easily. It was a strange resentment that had never been felt before. Maybe it was my raging teenage hormones pushing me to rebel against Hunter instead of my parents.

“Kiss me.”

Hunter reached out his hand towards her.

“No.”

She stubbornly turned her head away.

“Ha… Are you still upset because of what I said? Don’t be childish, Ju Parker. You were definitely the one who started the weird talk back then-”

Jiyu grabbed his fingertips and lifted him up, kissed him halfheartedly, then threw his hand away. Then she opened her eyes fiercely.

“Okay? I’m really going now. If you stop me again, I’m going to scream. Get out of my way, Hunter Hamilton.”

Her knees and her voice trembled at her first attempt at rebellion. Jiyu hugged her notebook and books tightly to her chest like a shield. She left Hunter, who was frozen in shock, behind her and dashed across the living room as if she was going to run.

She opened the elevator door and stepped inside, pressing the lobby button as if Hunter was chasing her. As the elevator began to descend with a beep, she let out a sigh of relief and collapsed against the wall.

This was the first time I had ever been so cruel to Hunter. My body was still trembling. I felt relieved, but also anxious.

What if I can’t afford to do math tutoring? It’ll be too expensive if I do it alone.

Mom loves going to Hunter’s house the most, but what if she can’t go because of me?

Hunter… must hate me even more now.

Jiyu, who felt strangely a little sad, sat on the bench in the courtyard for a while, feeling the cold air before going back home.

It was an early winter night, and the tree house standing alone looked lonely.

ꕥ

Hunter suffered his worst performance ever in his first  L1 tournament since his trip to Chicago., failing to win a single set. His UTR score also dropped.

Unable to overcome her curiosity, Jiyu went to the tournament website to check his match results, and although she knew it wasn’t her fault, she felt a little sorry.

Not only the main match, but also the consolation (replacement match for players who lost the first match) scores were so messed up that it seemed like they had given up on the tournament altogether.

Hunter originally flew higher when he met an opponent who was better and had a higher ranking than him. So even though he didn’t win, you could tell just by looking at the score that he fought with a lot of fighting spirit in terms of the match content.

But this time, he was a little surprised to see that he lost with such a poor score to a player who had a lower UTR than him and whom he had always won easily.

Sunday, back to New York from Chicago.

Hunter called her to the tree house in the middle of the courtyard. Jyu, who had decided not to go out and ignore his text, impulsively changed her mind right before the appointment time.

When I opened the courtyard door and went out, wearing a sweater, the late afternoon yellow sunlight was just hanging on the edge of the garden, and the winter courtyard, where even the sound of the fountain had stopped, was a dreary blue-gray.

A cold wind blew through Jiyu’s sweater. Jiyu walked to the tree house with her arms wrapped around her shoulders.

Thump —

There was a sound of tennis balls hitting the wall. Inside the tree house, there were a few tennis balls that Hunter had left behind, and the kids who came to the playground were playing them.

But it was definitely Hunter throwing the ball inside the tree house right now. You could tell just by the loud sound of the ball hitting the wall that he was determined to break it.

He was anxious and angry.

Jiyu paused, thought for a moment, and then turned around.

‘I came for nothing.’

I didn’t want to deal with the angry Hunter. I took a step back to the house, but the sound of the ball suddenly stopped.

“Ju Parker, stand there.”

It was clearly Hunter’s voice, but I couldn’t tell when it had become so deep and low. Until recently, even if I raised my voice slightly, it would awkwardly split into several parts.

Jiyu didn’t want to turn around. She wanted to open the courtyard door and run away to hide in the house. But her legs were frozen as if they had been filled with wax and she couldn’t move.

As always, Hunter jumped down from the entrance of the slide in one go and approached her with quick, stepping steps, standing in front of her.

He looked down at her, holding a tennis ball in his hand, and Jiyu stood there with her arms wrapped around her body, looking at the floor.

Jiyu tried hard to suppress her voice.

“…Why did you call?”

“I have something to say.”

“What is it?”

She raised her head slightly, but for some reason she didn’t have the courage to look Hunter in the eye. Rationally, she knew that his defeat wasn’t her fault. But a strange sense of guilt that seemed to have contributed to it pulled at her hair.

‘ I should have kissed you properly when you asked me to.’

I never thought a stupid superstition could ruin Hunter’s match like this.

“Ju Parker, you are no longer my winning jinx.”

At those words, Jiyu raised her head and looked up at him. Her bright blue eyes flashed fiercely like welding sparks.

“…Is that why you called me out?”

“Yeah. It was really shitty how you kept asking me for favors whenever we had a match. But I don’t need you anymore, Ju Parker. You’re no longer a championship jinx to me, no more. Nothing.”

Hunter emphasized the last word again, baring his teeth grimly.

Jiyu’s lips trembled. Her limbs tingle as if a rat had come out. The momentary feeling of regret evaporated in an instant, and anger filled its place.

My nose started to feel itchy, and then my eyes started to sting. I felt wronged and sad.

She bit her lower lip so hard that it hurt. Only when the trembling finally stopped did she lower her eyes and take a deep breath.

“ That went well.”

I was glad that the voice sounded calmer than I expected.

Hunter scoffed and asked back, wondering if that wasn’t the reaction he was expecting.

“What?”

“I feel relieved that I don’t have to deal with your ridiculous jinxing anymore.”

Jiyu opened her eyes and glared at him. There was nothing she could do about the tears rolling down from the corners of her eyes. Many things had happened to her since she first met Hunter when she was six, but this was the first time she had shown tears.

“ I found it annoying and disgusting when you did that, Hunter Hamilton.”

Jiyu’s voice was as cold as the winter wind.

She felt a strange sense of satisfaction as shock slowly crept into her eyes, fixed on her face. Tears trickled down her cheeks, pooled on her chin, and fell drop by drop.

Hunter, his face drained of color, opened and closed his mouth as if he wanted to say something. He swallowd hard, and something stuck in his throat began to shake up and down.

There was nothing like that before.

Jiyu stared at his neck for a moment and then turned around coldly.