What was that, out of nowhere?

I turned my head and looked around me.

Nobody here but Pro An Hyeonju.

I heard it distinctly, right in my ear. And however hard I look, there’s nothing.

Surely not a ghost——

“Ah. The good things.”

One memory surfaced all at once.

My grandmother said it plainly.

I’ve tucked a few good things in there.

Being able to see the colour a person carries. That alone is an astonishing ability, and a benefit.

Talking to someone, I get a rough sense of what they’re holding in their head. A supplementary ability for knowing who I’m dealing with.

And there’s another privilege on top of it?

“G— good things?”

A tremor came through the hand I was shaking. Pro An Hyeonju looks badly thrown.

What I said is, to any observer, an excellent setup for a misunderstanding.

Holding a woman’s hand and saying the good things——

“Haha……. It’s so good to be able to shake your hand in person.”

I covered it with an awkward laugh.

—The golf talent. Will you ACQUIRE it? Will you EXPLOIT it?

What exactly is the difference?

They amount to the same thing in terms of getting the talent, and the flavour of them is clearly not the same.

—On ACQUIRE, a good bond with the subject continues. However, the acquisition rate is lower than on EXPLOIT.

And if I exploit?

—A bad bond is created. The higher the acquisition rate, the stronger the bad bond.

Having heard it explained, I understand.

—ACQUIRE? Or EXPLOIT? Five, four, three, two——

“Acquire!”

I shouted it before I’d thought about it.

There’s no need to be on bad terms with a professional this beautiful.

—Acquiring the golf talent.

—Physical attributes apply as a bonus effect.

—Acquisition rate is——

Right. Acquisition rate is what?

—Life level too low. An accurate figure cannot be calculated.

“…….”

Is this a game or something? What is this about levels?

—Merit from the previous life and this life will be deducted.

M— merit?

“…….”

No particular strange reaction shows up immediately.

There was no burst of light, nothing like a science fiction film.

Only——

Snatch.

Pro An Hyeonju startled badly and pulled her hand out of the handshake.

And a coolness came into her eyes.

I appear to have been marked down as a pervert, or a student with something wrong with him——

“Miss. Teach me some golf, please.”

“N— now?”

“Yes!”

Getting out of the immediate crisis comes first. The misunderstanding needs removing.

Holding a woman’s hand and saying acquire——

It isn’t even a line from the third-rate animation I used to watch.

“The midterms are next week. Aren’t you sitting them?”

“Exams are sat on the ability you already have. Hahaha.”

I laughed openly and she stayed expressionless.

Only——

“Have you played golf before?”

“Today’s the first time.”

Back then, for all the way the company people froze me out over it, golf was something I could never get near.

I didn’t have the means to buy a set of clubs secondhand.

Lessons were beyond anything I could presume to think about.

“I’m busy from five. I’ll look at you for a moment.”

“Really? Thank you. Pro An Hyeonju.”

I bowed my head several times over.

A few years from now there will be a queue of people waiting for lessons from her.

An angel of golf with a wing temporarily broken.

“You’ll need clubs?”

“Yes!”

“Go to the office. There are a few sets along one side. Pick whichever one you like and take it.”

“Sorry? Take it?”

A set of clubs is not a small price.

Anything usable costs a considerable sum even secondhand.

And she’s telling me to take one.

“Things your seniors left behind. I kept them because it seemed a waste. If you need one, take it.”

“Ah……”

Gold-spoon seniors, as expected. I’ll put it to good use.

The thanks didn’t come out of me with any real feeling in them. I have the means to buy clubs at that level myself now.

But small expenditure is forbidden when there’s something larger coming.

I went to the office she’d pointed me at.

The office was tidy. A computer, a few necessary fittings.

A four-seat sofa and a water cooler, about that.

“How many sets are there?”

A dozen or so sets, left behind, stacked along one side.

From the bags alone they looked like expensive full sets.

“Money coming out of their ears.”

Shaking my head, I went through them looking for one I liked.

And then a black leather golf bag caught my eye.

The clubs showing above the rim all shone in a pearled silver.

“Taylor? Isn’t this an expensive one?”

I picked the bag up.

“Cheonghwa really is the school. This, for free.”

The luxury of the Cheonghwa environment, which I could never have imagined during my old time here.

Swing.

I shouldered the heavy bag and went back to where she was practising.

“That’s the one?”

“Yes!”

“Good choice. The technology in it is well integrated, so beginners can manage it comfortably.”

“Do professionals use something very different?”

“Once you’re at professional level you have them made to your own build.”

“Ah!”

“Do you want to hit a driver?”

“Am I allowed?”

“Heh. Have the experience first and then we’ll talk.”

She handed me a golf glove with something playful in her face.

The expression of a woman who wants to demonstrate that golf isn’t a forgiving sport.

“Watch the swing.”

Shff.

She took the driver and set her stance. And then.

Whiiish!

A clean swing with a bright sound to it.

The short skirt lifted with the rotation of her body.

Craaack!

Struck true, the ball flew straight out toward the centre.

“Whoa.”

The admiration came out on its own.

They didn’t call her the goddess of golf for nothing.

Even the finish position, held motionless, was perfect.

Golf wear cut exactly to her build, and the movement drawing a precise line through her body.

Clean, and beautiful. Like putting away a cold iced coffee in the heat of summer.

“Did you watch it properly?”

“Perfect. The face and the ability, both top of the field.”

Clap, clap, clap.

Three claps and a thumb up.

Colour comes up softly in her face.

She’s my teacher by title and still in her early twenties, and I have longer out in the world than she does.

A gallery of one, and it will have been a while since she heard a cheer from any gallery at all.

The face that had been stiff at the start softened considerably.

“Golf is usually defined in five stages. Address, backswing, downswing, impact, finish. Right. Take the driver and set your stance.”

The lesson proper began.

“Feet shoulder width. Hold the club like this. And keep my swing shape in your head. You’re a complete beginner, so watch for hitting the ground behind the ball. Do it wrong and the shock goes into your wrists and your back.”

She corrected my fingers and showed me the grip.

She touched my hands naturally as she did it, and she was kind about it.

By the feel coming off her, it means her character is good.

Past a certain point, no amount of money buys a private lesson from her.

A bucket list for a high school life I could never have imagined. One item on it is being achieved.

“Now swing lightly.”

I swung the driver through the air lightly, as instructed.

Shhhhing!

“Huh?”

There’s no hesitation in it, no resistance at all.

If anything, she let out a startled sound at the cleanness of my swing.

“Is this really…… your first time?”

“Yes.”

“Then why…… is the swing this natural?”

“Do you think I might be some kind of golf prodigy?”

“What? A prodigy? Hohohoho.”

She laughed at the light joke, and it came out ringing.

She carries a teacher’s card and, weighed up, she’s only a few years older.

I have more of the practical experience of living.

I had conversations with women here and there at university and during my working life.

Having lived among people once already is one of the skills I picked up.

Then I set the stance properly.

“Your form is good.”

It really is the first time.

The club sits in my hands with a familiarity that throws even me.

Slide. Tick.

The automatic feeder sets a ball on the tee.

And then.

Whiiish!

Craaack!

“Huh!”

Struck true, the ball flew straight out and kept going.

Clang!

It hit the exact centre of the circle painted high on the netting.

A centre circle An Hyeonju herself struggles to hit more than a few times in a day.

From the ball, the swing and the speed, at least two hundred and eighty metres.

And this is a boy playing golf for the first time?

And the form was perfect.

An Hyeonju replayed the stance of the student who had just swung a driver.

Address through to the position held after the finish. Perfect.

Tall, and lean with it.

A power swing that doesn’t belong on that body.

From the movement of the hips and the rotation of the wrists, he is at least near-professional.

She looked at the student closely a second time.

Ha Tae-ung, second year.

At first she’d thought it was a joke, or that he was a pervert.

Occasionally there are parents, and children of the school’s officers, who use a lesson as an excuse to cross a line.

Sexual harassment is the whole reason she was pushed as far as a school in the first place.

Early last year she was preparing for the LPGA tour.

Her ability and her condition were both fine. She’d lifted trophies at domestic tournaments several times.

A group sponsorship attached itself.

A caddie and the cost of touring aren’t easy for an individual to carry. Win on tour and you pay tax, and then you spend it on practice, and it turns to a deficit quickly.

Without solid backing from home, the LPGA is impossible without advertising and sponsors.

Her face and her ability being what they were, a fairly good sponsor attached.

Sinyang Financial Holdings, a leading financial group, became the main sponsor.

She played rounds with the people who had sponsored her on and off since she was a junior.

It’s one of the business obligations a golfer has to carry.

Had her father’s business not gone under, it was a process she needn’t have gone through at all.

With the family’s situation deteriorating, An Hyeonju had been earning respectably through golf.

The problem started after a meeting with the chairman of Sinyang Financial.

The impression that stamped itself on her was simply a bald man. He was making advances before the round even started.

Through his secretary’s office he made an explicit request that she wear a skirt, and instructed her to attend drinks afterward as well.

She keeps her distance from alcohol and refusing would have been correct, and she accepted because he was the central sponsor.

A round she didn’t want began.

She was placed in the chairman’s team.

He made repeated contact under the pretext of correcting her address.

The round went ahead with everything about it uncomfortable.

And in the end it broke.

At the drinks that evening, the bald man, well into his cups, put an arm around her waist.

He brought his face close to her ear and asked her to sleep with him, almost in a whisper.

Explicit, in a way that suggested habit.

The hotel was booked, he said, and if she did as she was told he would put a billion won in her hand on the spot.

An Hyeonju, humiliated, slapped the chairman where he sat.

She left the people who didn’t know the circumstances behind her, kicked back her chair and walked out.

The sponsorship ended a few days later.

There is scarcely a group or a mid-sized company in this country that doesn’t do business with Sinyang Financial Holdings.

Word about An Hyeonju’s character spread negatively through the industry within days.

In practical terms she had been the head of her household.

With the financial support cut, An Hyeonju held on through private lessons.

But she wore down steadily and her ability stopped moving.

Stress of every kind wrecked her condition, and her placings in domestic tournaments slid.

Fortunately a group chairman’s wife who thought well of her got her settled at Cheonghwa High School.

Cheonghwa, which owns a top-grade practice facility.

She settled there on terms of assisting the students’ golf classes and giving lessons to parents and a few school figures.

And school life turned out to be nothing but tedious.

Even here, on educational ground, men who wanted to express an appetite approached her openly.

And among the students there are ill-made boys who send her looks that aren’t decent.

There is nowhere left to run, so she sets her teeth and holds on.

At the start she’d assumed Ha Tae-ung was the same sort.

Schoolboys who use a lesson as a pretext for contact.

And then——

Craaack!

Ha Tae-ung sent another ball away with the driver. Dead centre of the target again.

“Golf’s easier than I expected.”

Ha Tae-ung holds the driver and talks nonsense at her.

An Hyeonju looked straight at him.

The swing mechanism is already professional.

An Hyeonju bit down on her lip without meaning to.

“Tell me honestly. Who taught you?”

(End of Chapter 20)