Climbing Up to You - Minsung

Chapter 9

"No, I'm not doing it." Jisung huffed and crossed his arms as he climbed out of the car making his way up the stairs towards the climbing centre where he usually trained.

"You have no choice, they are staying here for the week before they fly back". Chris rushed up the stairs to catch up with Jisung who was stropping and walking up the stairs in a childish way.

"Look, I get you don't like them, but we have no choice, besides it will be good for the GB team to have some more training with other qualifying athletes, not just you," Chris explained as he scanned his card at the entrance as he waited for Jisung to do the same before heading to his locker to collect his extra equipment.

"So I don't have to train with them, I can just go off on my own" Jisung shrugged as he put away his big bag switching for his climbing bag and grabbed out some chalk and his climbing shoes.

"No, I want you to train with them, it will do you good, also Just think you can get better at your lead climbing like this, your speed has improved and your bouldering is as great as ever. You need to start training for the Olympics Jisung." Chris carried on his explanation as they walked into the climbing gym.

Lee Minho was sat on one of the mats talking to Jeongyeon. Jisung rolled his eyes and started to walk in the opposite direction but Chris was quick to grab his arm and pull him back.

"I know you hate him, but at least attempt to be nice this week."

"I try to, it's him who isn't nice to me, Get your facts right Chris" Jisung sighed as the South Korean coach came forward to greet the pair. As he did, Jisung spotted the other GB climbers talking lightly to some of the other Korean climbers who had also made it through to the Olympics.

"Thank you for allowing us to train here, it will be really great to work with others, I'm sure you can agree Chris."

"Of course, it will be good for Jisung to train with others also training for the Olympics" Chris nodded as Jisung saw him pass over one of the many sheets of paper on his clipboard.

"Ji, Go and start warming up, I'll be over in a minute." Chris nodded over to the corner where Jisung would always start his warm-up.

Jisung shrugged and slowly walked over, clearly not in a great mood after learning about the Korean team.

"Ok, so on the sheet is Jisung's usual weekly training, We usually change things up in the afternoons so he can practise anything more specific. Currently, we are working on his speed still. Mainly to get him used to his newer route." Chris pointed out a small section on the page which showed his last recorded times of speed.

"This looks good, a solid plan, today I was going to run some strengthening drills, which I'm sure Jisung will benefit from, his stamina also needs a bit of work, from watching his World Cup performance his stamina in lead seems to be weaker." See-yung the Korean coach suggested.

"Yup, that's what I was thinking." Chris nodded as he let See-yung make his way over to the Korean team.

– – – - -

"Can't believe Chris let the Korean team train here, I'm pretty sure there's another climbing gym just down the road," Jisung said to his teammate Daniel who was stretching beside him.

"I mean, it's probably convenient for all of us to train with them. It wouldn't surprise me if they have some weird idea about how to train together." Daniel shrugged not really thinking too much about it as he watched Chris go over to the Korean team and introduce himself with a small bow.

"Well I have a moonboard and hang board training session today so I don't want them disrupting my own training plan." Jisung huffed and grabbed his headphones out ready to plug them in so he wouldn't have to worry about hearing anything the Korean coach had to say to his team. Minho and Changbin were chatting away with Chris smiling and joking about something when they suddenly turned in the direction of Jisung.