MWFL 31

Chapter 31

I Had to Be Okay

The man who had handed her a meaningless choice had no intention of backing down. His eyes were firm and resolute.

“Choose.”

Why on earth is he acting like this?

Harin’s bewilderment deepened because she couldn’t understand him at all.

“Fine. I understand, so please let go of my hand.”

Shinwoo lowered his gaze to the hand wrapped around her slender wrist. A moment later, he released her and turned around, starting to walk.

Harin followed behind him without even knowing where they were going. The distance between them quickly widened as the man strode forward with his long legs.

Suddenly, he stopped.

Without turning his body, he looked back at Harin.

Harin quickened her pace, and just as she reached a step behind him, Shinwoo started walking again.

This time, his pace was noticeably slower.

“I told you to go to the hospital.”

His tone sounded as though an unspoken Why didn’t you listen to me? followed his words.

“The hospital?”

The man, now walking shoulder to shoulder with her, stared at Harin with a frown.

“Didn’t Donggu tell you anything?”

“…No.”

“That bastard just lets everything I say go in one ear and out the other.”

Shinwoo muttered irritably and stopped walking.

Knock, knock.

He casually reached out and knocked on a door, then opened it wide.

The room revealed before them was none other than the training room where the players received rehabilitation and treatment.

“Oh. Hello, Mr. Cha.”

The conditioning coach inside greeted him and approached.

“Are you here alone?”

“Yes. During the offseason, we work in shifts. Is there anything I can help you with?”

The coach’s friendly gaze moved toward Harin.

Still having no idea why she’d been brought here, Harin gave him a slight bow.

“Take a look at our chief’s leg. It seems to have been hurting for quite a while, but she hasn’t gone to the hospital.”

The words made the back of Harin’s neck stiffen.

“Ah… yes.”

Hearing the awkwardness in the coach’s voice, Harin hurriedly spoke.

“No, it’s okay.”

“What do you mean, it’s okay? It clearly doesn’t look okay.”

“I just twisted my ankle a little. It’s not serious enough for you to examine it. I’m fine.”

Ignoring Shinwoo’s interruption, she firmly refused.

“Then I’ll at least tape it for you. Come over here.”

The coach erased the awkwardness from his expression and walked toward the treatment table.

I should’ve said something other than that I twisted it.

Regret came too late.

Ha…

Harin let out a silent sigh and looked at Shinwoo.

The moment their eyes met, he abruptly turned his head away and walked toward the coach.

There was no mistaking the silent declaration in his actions:

I have no intention of backing down.

Her feet moved as though she were being dragged along until she finally reached the two men waiting for her.

“Take off your shoes and socks, and put your legs up here.”

At the coach’s gentle instruction, Harin had no choice but to do as she was told.

She removed her shoes and placed both legs on the treatment table.

Meanwhile, Shinwoo pulled over a nearby chair and sat a short distance away from the two of them.

After taking off her socks as well, Harin slowly inhaled.

Then she carefully rolled her pant leg up to just below her knee.

“You’ve had surgery, I see?”

At the coach’s words, Shinwoo, who had been looking elsewhere, quickly turned his gaze toward Harin’s leg.

A surgical scar approximately fifteen centimeters long ran from beneath her ankle bone up toward her calf, clearly visible.

“Yes.”

“That must have been a fairly major surgery. How did you get injured?”

Harin didn’t answer immediately. Her lips parted slightly.

“It doesn’t look like it was that long ago, either.”

The coach murmured as though talking to himself while examining the scar. Soon, he met Harin’s eyes, signaling that he was waiting for an answer.

“I injured my ankle in a car accident.”

Harin had no choice but to answer.

“Did you have ligament surgery?”

I wish you’d stop asking questions.

But the questions continued.

“I had surgery to stabilize the ankle joint.”

“Ah… You must have been seriously injured. So currently, you’re only able to turn your ankle from side to side, correct?”

Instead of answering, Harin nodded.

“Where are you having trouble right now?”

The coach asked as he gently lifted her ankle.

“Nothing in particular is bothering me. I’ve just been walking while tense lately, so it’s been hurting a little.”

“With all the snow we’ve had recently, that probably made it worse. Do you normally use compression bandages or tape?”

“Yes. Only when it hurts.”

The coach nodded emphatically and began taping her ankle.

Harin quietly offered her ankle to him and lowered her gaze.

She could still feel Shinwoo watching her, but she ignored him.

Ever since her surgery, the range of motion in her ankle had been limited, making it impossible for her to walk normally. However, unless someone looked very closely, it was difficult to notice that she limped.

In fact, most of her coworkers, who saw her every day, didn’t even know that she had trouble with her leg.

Then how did you notice?

Even if the entire world found out, I didn’t want you to.

Because it felt as though what you were looking at now wasn’t the scar on my leg, but the wound carved into the surface of my emotions.

That’s why I didn’t want you to see it.

“There’s nothing we can do about the chronic issue itself, so I taped it in a way that won’t put too much strain on the surrounding muscles.”

The coach removed his hands from Harin’s leg and straightened his slightly bent posture.

“This should be enough.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

The coach smiled kindly and pulled his phone from his pocket.

“I need to take a call. Take your time getting ready and then you can go.”

After making eye contact with Harin and Shinwoo in turn, the coach moved toward the back of the training room.

Shinwoo quickly stood and gave the coach a slight bow before turning his full attention to Harin.

Harin avoided his gaze again as she put on her socks.

Just as she lowered both legs from the treatment table to put her shoes back on—

Eeeek.

The unpleasant scraping sound of a chair against the floor grated against her ears.

Shinwoo had dragged the chair directly in front of Harin and dropped into it.

He rested both elbows on his slightly spread thighs and slowly raised his head.

Their gazes met silently in midair—hers flowing downward, his looking up at her.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

He paused.

“No. You wouldn’t have had any reason to tell me when I never asked.”

Shinwoo answered his own question, then slightly furrowed his brow.

“How did you know my leg was bad?”

The man didn’t answer immediately.

He slowly closed his eyes, then opened them again.

“How would I know? I could see it.”

Harin almost wished there had been some specific reason he’d noticed.

Because it was something you could only know if you’d been watching her carefully.

“Did you know you get a faint dimple beside the left corner of your lips when you smile?”

“Whenever you can’t solve a problem, you can’t leave your hair alone.”

Just as he’d done long ago, Shinwoo’s gaze had remained on her for a long time.

Harin wanted to deny it.

She wanted to deny that he had been watching her so closely.

“You’re especially careful and uncomfortable whenever you walk on snow.”

After saying that, Shinwoo took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling noticeably.

Harin clenched her fingertips tightly.

The small gestures he made because of her.

The quiet gaze resting on her.

The breath mingling with the air between them.

All of it faintly conveyed that he was carrying the remnants of emotions different from his usual ones.

The person sitting before her now was unfamiliar to the Harin of today.

But he had once been painfully familiar to the Harin of the past.

She desperately shoved the memories that were trying to force their way through the cracks back inside herself.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

But then you seized those memories and dragged them out anyway.

Whenever you casually tossed out words filled with mischief, the moment you spoke sincerely, your eyes became strangely honest.

You really haven’t changed.

“What are you sorry about? Why would Mr. Cha have anything to apologize to me for?”

She spoke in a dry voice, barely managing to cool the warmth rising in her chest.

“If I’d known from the beginning, I wouldn’t have kicked you out of the car on a day when the snow was coming down like that. That’s why I’m sorry.”

There were certain words she had already decided she could say.

“It’s okay. That’s all in the past.”

A time that could be remembered.

A time that could be given meaning.

But a time they could never return to.

…It had to be okay.

Every moment with you had to be that way.

Because it had already passed.

Harin finally broke the gaze they had held for so long.

Just as she moved to put on her shoes, Shinwoo stood up.

Then he held out his hand toward her.

She knew what he meant.

Take my hand and step down.

“I can get down by myself. I’m fine.”

She was afraid that the moment she took your hand, the heart she’d fought so desperately to hold back would helplessly spill toward you.

So she didn’t want to take it.

No.

She couldn’t.