Climbing Up to You - Minsung

Chapter 16

Jisung couldn't tell if the blue suited him. The GB kit focused more on the red and white aspect of the flag and blue was only ever in the small details. Having a kit that was mainly based on the dark blue of their flag was a weird feeling. The material was nice and soft and the kit in general was very warm. His joggers were warm on the inside and his new hoodie was also just as comfy. But it was weird. Seeing his name on the back of clothing that didn't seem to be where he belonged.

It had been a week and he still wasn't used to being able to walk into the climbing gym and be met with new climbs, new warm-up areas, new projects and different V difficulties. Jisung was pretty certain they had graded climbs all the way up to a V15. He'd climbed V15 problems outside before on actual cliff faces. But he rarely saw them in climbing gyms, too much effort to make them difficult and too much time is needed to create the route in the first place.
Dumping his training bag in the small locker room, Jisung grabbed out his spare shoes,harness, chalk bag and headphones to connect to his phone.He shed off his joggers and hoodie and was left in his new South Korean T-Shirt and some shorts. It was unlikely See-Yung would let him wear his headphones for all of the training but his mind had been racing recently. It wasn't necessarily homesickness that he felt, it was more like team-sickness. He was missing messing around with his teammates who he had been training with for almost five years.
They had thrown him a leaving party and they all seemed so happy for him but it still felt so bittersweet. He felt like he was betraying them.
He's managed to get along with Miihi and Jeongyeon well enough, they included him the best they can in training which had been nice.

As he walked up to the group who were already do stretches, See-yung came down from his office and approached them all.

"Morning everyone. I know some of you would have specific schedules today, but I want us to work on our lead climbs today. Particularly understanding how we can read the beta as we climb. I know you were practising this just last week when Jisung joined. I'm hoping to see some improvements from that week." See-yung explained as the group followed him over to a new route that had been setted just yesterday.

He let the group finish up their warm-ups. Jisung had been quick to put his headphones on and head over to the onboard to warm up his fingers.

- - - - -

"Now, I'll be belaying you and those not climbing must turn around so they don't see the beta." See-young explained as he began to put on his own hardness and encouraged the group to do the same.

Jisung remembered briefly about the training camp and how this seemed to be a similar situation. Hopefully it would go better considering he didn't have Kacper breathing down his neck.

"Minho, I want you to climb first so you can then watch the others climb."
Minho gave a quick nod as he tightened the last of his harshness and grabbed his chalk bag.

"Of course during comps you'd see the route beforehand, but this is to test your ability and skills to read the route as you climb and understand it's not all you see from below. Watch out for a lot of holds that look nice and easy but actually aren't." See-young explained as he motioned for the group to spin around and not watch the climb.

"I hate this kind of training." Miihi slumped down onto the mat as the player with one of the loose cords on her harness.

"I've done something like this before, it's quite fun!" Jisung tried to bring up her mood just slightly.

Miihi glanced towards Jisung.

"We did it at the training camp a few months back. But that route was so much easier than this one I reckon. The one at camp was probably only like a V7. It wouldn't surprise me if See-yung hyung made this climb almost a 10." Changbin shrugged.