Highlight:
This is also a pre-release story.
The original draft was a little rough when it was first posted. It will be revised later.
*
Before the 2024 Olympics, a plane crash turned You You, a champion-in-the-making, into a wandering ghost.
At twenty-two, You You found the whole situation absurd and baffling:
Why had he transmigrated twelve years into the past after dying?
Why, even as a ghost, was he tethered to one person?
And why did it have to be Song Yuzhuo, his former idol and future freestyle world champion?
Why was Song Yuzhuo, supposedly diligent, hardworking, modest, and introverted since childhood, actually a rebellious, obnoxious, chunibyo teen who didn't even like swimming?
Had You You been blind to make someone like that his idol?
Song Yuzhuo, the sixteen-year-old bottom-ranked swimmer on the team, thought the situation was perfectly clear:
He was being haunted by a ghost.
A ghost who had no respect for personal privacy, had a vicious tongue, and was an absolute nightmare of a person.
...He must have done a lot of evil in his past life to have such bad luck in this one.
The two, who couldn't stand the sight of each other, reached an agreement: they would part ways and never meet again.
But incense at the temple didn't work, and no master's blessing could help. After a long time trying to figure out how to separate, they came up with a plan: start by resolving the ghost's lingering fixation.
"What can't you let go of most?"
"Probably... not becoming world champion."
Song Yuzhuo's vision went dark. Then he gritted his teeth. "Fine! You You, you old ghost, I'll win it for you! I'll give it everything I've got!"
You You sneered. "Don't talk big, Song Doggy Paddle. Try making the provincial team first."
"Get in the pool right now and start training!"
If you asked twenty-three-year-old You You what the most exasperating thing in his life was, it would probably be that the person he'd once crushed was now the one crushing him.
Back then, he'd sat at the edge of the pool and casually assigned the boy a task: "Swim until you're exhausted, then stop. Off you go."
Now the boy, all grown up, sat at the edge of the pool and casually assigned him a task: "Swim until you're exhausted, and don't stop. Off you go."
His teammates looked envious. The former great, now the team's star coach, had personally chosen to train him. You You, this is the kind of luck that falls from the sky.
You You looked numb. Whoever wants this kind of luck can have it.
One impulsive decision back then, and he'd ended up training a sadistic, petty coach like this with his own two hands.
Don't ask. He regretted it.
Only Song Yuzhuo smiled. Regret it?
Too late, Coach You.
You once led me forward. No one knew that your name was engraved in every one of my championships. Now it's my turn to stand behind you and let the whole world witness you stepping onto a podium even higher than the one I reached.
Thank you for coming into my life back then. I'm sorry I forgot your final departure.
But fortunately, time moved forward and turned back, and in the end, we were both still here.
I'm terrible at writing blurbs. Anyway, this is a story about "me coaching my coach" (they're both the top and bottom).
Theme: Never give up; move forward side by side.
