2. Accretion Disk - Lee Hyunseo

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As Leeseo’s breath tightened like a drawn bow, so did the cheers of the crowd around the stadium warp and blur to a stop. When she opened her eyes, all that was in front of her was the finish line and the gap to get there. Bounding forward, she pushed through the molasses in the air as her lungs coated itself in the same viscosity with each torturous breath she took.

One hundred meters. Easy enough.

“Swift and simple. Finish in a snap,” she always told herself. But it was over the moment Leeseo pushed off her hind foot a millisecond too late. The man with engines in his calves had already revved up prior to the gunshot and was now three paces ahead of her. All that filled her vision now was muffler smoke and a hulking torso obscuring her view of the podium.

If she could only just push harder, reach further, run faster.

But it was too late. When she reached the finish line and finally dropped her power, she tripped on her foot and smacked her chin against the smoothened dirt.

“And the winner is the Drift King, Moon Jihu! Congratulations!”

Spitting out dust and track dirt, Leeseo couldn’t even get a moment to wallow on her knees. The reporters came her way in an instant eager to bombard her with questions, so she straightened her singlet out and tried to look presentable with an awkward smile.

“Leeseo, Leeseo! You did amazing back there! This is the ninth consecutive time that you’ve placed on the podium—that’s every race since your debut. How does it feel being second again?”

Terrible. Degrading. Worthless.

“It’s … an honor to be able to compete against all my tenured sunbaes here at the Super League. It’s always been my dream to race alongside them. I’ve wished for something like this ever since I was competing in the Regular League. I couldn’t have asked for more.”

“I see, and do you think you’ll sustain enough momentum to qualify for the Grand Two-K later this year?”

Out of the corner of her eyes, Leeseo spotted Jihu posing with all of his medals this season, adding another one to his collection. “Yeah … yeah, I think I’ll make it. Just need more … practice.”

Snap.

As soon as kid on the park bench broke his energy bar in half, Leeseo froze everything in time.

Shedding her windbreaker whose decent now slowed to a stop, she crouched down into her starting position, knuckles digging into the soil, and then burst into a tight sprint. She circled the playground three times, the center pond five times, and looped around the perimeter of the park three more times before crumpling onto the ground in front of the same kid from earlier.

Gasping for air, Leeseo checked the biowatch on her wrist. 24.

“Ssibal … I can’t keep practicing at top speed like this,” she cursed under her breath. Beside her, the crumbs from the energy bar were hovering in the air. “And still … he’s faster than me. Why? What am I doing wrong?”

As she stood up, she slipped on some leaves and lost control of her powers, and when she came stumbling forward, so did time return to normal as well.

A loud booming sound trailed her path.

“U-Unnie! You look—.”

Leeseo zipped to him, seated on his right, and pressed a finger to his lips. “It’s rude to talk to a lady about that. You want a girlfriend when you grow up, don’t you?”

Before he could even reply, her afterimage was immediately replaced by the wrapper of his already eaten energy bar.

“Four … three … two … one … bang!”

Two hundred meters. Longer, but manageable.

Leeseo bursted through the initial traffic and left most of the weaker competition behind. Just like she practiced: forefoot up, stepping over the knee, striking beneath the center of her mass, repeat. Soon, it was just her, Jihu, and a woman with blades across her arms that made her look like a human roller-skate. Leeseo almost chuckled at the thought, but when she got overtaken by her even while using her powers, Leeseo's heart sank.

“How did she—”

Grunting, Leeseo bit her lip and forced herself forwards. Her knees pumped against the thick atmosphere that her powers created as she moved through slowed time, urging her body to cooperate with her for once.

But it was too late. By the time she had gained enough momentum, both Jihu and the girl had already reached the finish line.

Giving up her control, she skidded to a stop, leaving a faint scorch mark across the ground. She quickly put out the fire by her heels before the reporters could come, but when she stood back up again, they were flocking towards this new girl instead of her.

“Lee Dara, Lee Dara! How was your first time landing on the podium? Could you let us in on what helped you exceed your past performances?”

Dara chuckled and gripped her waist proudly. “It’s not just about mastering your powers here in the Super League. It’s about proving how much you want this.”

Kicking the ground, Leeseo blinked and disappeared, leaving her bronze medal spinning at the foot of the podium.

Crack.

When the muscular man cracked open his energy drink, Leeseo hit the speed button repeatedly on her hypertread and bursted. No stretches, no warm-ups, no excuses. Just a sprint.

She couldn’t accept anything less than her best. Not when the Grand Two-K was just around the corner.

“Faster … faster … faster …!”

When her form wobbled and her lungs could barely keep up the gas exchange, she hit the emergency stop button and draped her arms over the railings, clinging to them until the heated belt finally stopped.

Panting, dripping in sweat that evaporated in an instant, she hoisted herself up and glanced at the timer. Three minutes forty-five on three-hundred kilometers-per-hour.

“What …? But I could easily do twenty minutes of this last month? Why—?”

She checked her biowatch. 29.

Leeseo punched the monitor, which whirred back a beep. She punched it again and again and again, squatting down into a shrill shriek as the adrenaline pounded through her veins and into her head. The gym fell silent as they watched her crash out from her meltdown.

Hiding her face, she fell onto her bottom and clenched her forehead. “I’m … running out of time. And I haven’t … even won a single race.”

As if to mock her, the TV in front of her machine featured the moment of glory Jihun achieved after winning this weekend’s thousand-meter race. Leeseo wanted to jam rust and oil into the mufflers of his stupid engines, but what good would that do her?

Even if all her greatest opponents retired, she would just be the fastest runner of her generation—it wouldn’t change the fact that she still wasn’t faster than them.

And the thought clawed at her heart.

Spitting on the gym floor, before the saliva could kiss the ground, every television at the gym blacked out from a sudden crack in their screens, followed shortly by the shattering of the glass doors at the entrance.

“Three … two … one … bang!”

Human error. Leeseo started before the gunshot. She chalked it up to surpassing the speed of sound. But sound wasn’t what she wanted to exceed today.