𝗦𝗨𝗡 & 𝗠𝗢𝗢𝗡 | ᴬᶰ ˢᵒᵒᴴᵒ 『English Version』

Chapter 21

"You're still as pretty as ever."

Hyeori stared at him, her eyes fixed on his every move. Her heart hammered a little in her chest as she watched him sit down on the gym floor.

"What are you doing here? I thought you'd moved away."

Wooyoung smiled, shrugging with a slight wince. "I did. But I'm of age now, I can make my own decisions," he said. The girl's gaze dropped to his ankle; there was no cast, no bandage, nothing. It was as if it were completely normal. "What are you looking at? Starting to feel guilty now?"

"I still don't get what you're doing here."

The brown-haired young man lightly tapped the floor with his fingers, as if inviting her to sit with him. "I just came to tie up some loose ends, thanks to someone who decided to crush my ankle with a dumbbell a year and a half ago."

Hyeori blinked, her gaze falling to the floor, refusing to sit with him. "And what does that have to do with you sitting here?"

"Not much, really. But I wanted to come and make sure you were okay." As she heard those words, her distrust flared, naturally.

Why the hell would you want to make sure the person who destroyed your career was okay?

"Why on earth would you do that?"

Wooyoung smiled again as he looked at her. A faint flicker of melancholy crossed his eyes, so fleeting she didn't even notice. "You might think I'm an idiot... but I know how to own up to my mistakes, Hyeori," he murmured, just loud enough for her to hear. "I didn't come here to apologize, because I honestly don't think I have anything to apologize for. But I came to tell you that during all this time I was in therapy, I realized the mistakes I made."

"And so what? You figured out how stupid you've been since we first met?"

"Yeah," he said, with a sincerity she'd never heard from him before. "I know I messed up with you. I had a crush on you, and I was just a kid – a pre-teen, then a teenager – trying to win over the girl I liked." His shoulders hitched again as he looked at her, but then his gaze drifted to the gym window as if mulling over his next words.

"One of your friends told me you'd asked for my number. Is that true?" she asked, trying to steer the conversation away from her discomfort. She hadn't expected that old attraction to still be a topic between them.

"I did, yeah," the brown-haired guy admitted. "I was planning to call you to see if you wanted to meet up, but I was just passing by and saw you through the window, so I figured why put it off?"

"You did it because you knew I would've said no."

"Yeah, maybe that crossed my mind..." The young man fiddled with the foam mat on the floor. "I'm not trying to make amends for my mistakes. I just wanted to tell you that I accept I made them... From not accepting that you and him were a couple and trying to butt in, to taking dirty money from that idiot just so I could get a little revenge."

She was speechless; she really hadn't been expecting this conversation, much less to see this guy ever again. "Why are you telling me all this?"

"I went to visit Sooho a few days ago." Hyeori's body tensed. Her eyebrows knitted together slightly, but she said nothing. She just watched him, waiting for him to go on. "I realized I'd never seen Sooho so still, so quiet. And it was like a harsh dose of reality, because I know if I hadn't taken that money, you and that idiot would probably be off in some other city with your kids or whatever by now..."

"I don't want your apologies. They're useless to me now."

"I told you, I'm not here to apologize. I don't believe I have anything to apologize for," he said, his voice firm and confident, his eyes locked on hers. It was like they were caught in a staring contest. Neither wanted to back down; neither would. "Maybe I took that money, maybe I was the one who provoked him into hitting me, maybe I was the one who instigated the fight. But I wasn't the one who hurt him the most."