171. Reversal (10)

Dawn.

Thirsty, I briefly woke from my sleep.

Holding my half-asleep head, I came to my senses and felt a soft, fleshy mass lying next to me.

…Come to think of it, we fell asleep together after sex.

The stimulating touch was enough to chase away my sleepiness.

Excluding the time with Haeun this morning, I’d already done it three times with her.

Maybe it felt fresh because I hadn’t been with Hinami for a while.

The thought suddenly crossed my mind that if I weren’t wearing underwear, I might have seriously forced myself on her right then and there, making me realize anew just how incredible male libido is.

“Oof, it’s cold….”

Careful not to wake Hinami sleeping soundly beside me, I stealthily grabbed my phone and slipped out from under the covers.

Using my phone’s flashlight, I walked out quietly and quenched my thirst with cold water.

Since I was only wearing underwear, the air conditioning felt quite chilly, making me absentmindedly stroke my forearm.

Might as well check Instagram, which I hadn’t had time to look at all day, and sure enough, various DMs had piled up.

Mostly ads.

A few were stalking DMs asking if I was Seo Haeun’s boyfriend.

And then there were the usual flirtatious messages from strange women since I started using Instagram again.

You could tell just by looking at their heavily edited profile pictures, there was absolutely no need to take these seriously.

The last time I used Instagram to meet women was before I got injured.

Now, it’s just for promoting my gym.

To meet people via DM for casual fun like before, my body wasn’t exactly limitless anymore.

I couldn’t live like I did back then, and just as I’m enjoying things now that I couldn’t back then, I can no longer have the things I enjoyed in the past.

The cheers, despair, and admiration of countless spectators.

All sorts of praise and curses directed at me.

Not for my body or face, but just for my left hand, various people rushed towards me.

The seniors who praised or comforted me after I came down from the mound.

The juniors who occasionally came up from the minor league and looked up to me.

That year, neither long nor short, would never come back.

Just like I couldn’t enjoy this time twice.

…Thinking about where the cause lay was truly unproductive.

Yet, I had repeated unproductive actions countless times,

and as a result, I slept with the woman who fought with me, the one who caused me to be ostracized by the team.

I completely stained the innocent woman with my scent, ultimately ruining her common sense and making her mine.

I even stole the friend of the woman who directly contributed to kicking me out, and made her fall in love with me the same way.

Thanks to that, I skillfully exploited the weaknesses of the enraged woman, using her as I pleased whenever the time was right to exact my revenge.

…So, I had no lingering resentment anymore.

Among the DMs I’d dismissed as ads,

I didn’t feel anything even when I saw things like this.

“.”

This person was my high school coach.

I vaguely saw on the news that he’d joined a pro team as a coach, but honestly, I didn’t even remember him.

I didn’t have any particularly good memories either.

After all, this guy was the one who ground me down, calling me the ace.

Seeing a message from him asking if I might be interested in trying out for a tryout, I couldn’t help but be surprised.

My shoulder became completely fucked up, earning me an exemption from military service, yet someone was looking for me-that surprised me.

…I was surprised at myself for having absolutely no lingering attachment even after seeing this.

No hopeful thoughts like ‘I want to try again’ or ‘Maybe my shoulder has healed’ crossed my mind at all.

Without even feeling the need to do it even if they offered, I just stood blankly in front of the refrigerator.

The me until last year,

and the completely severed me.

“Ha.”

I considered myself quite stubborn and competitive.

That’s why I held onto my regrets even when I had no choice but to retire.

I had them when I approached Haeun and committed all those ugly deeds,

and the same was true when Hinami occasionally asked about my past.

When Seo Jia tried to screw me over, of course, I still had regrets, which is why I played around with her.

…But why, starting recently, did I no longer feel any particular ill will towards Seo Jia?

Thinking about it now, the answer was crystal clear.

It wasn’t that I wanted to protect my current life because I liked Haeun or Hinami.

It was simply because I had changed.

The Kang Joo-hyuk who felt so incredibly wronged and sad about quitting baseball had died.

The woman who turned my past self into that pathetic state simply didn’t evoke any particular thoughts in me anymore.

If it were me last year, no, at least until half a month ago.

I wouldn’t have just thought of Seo Jia as an ‘annoying’ woman.

“.”

That annoying woman didn’t use my Instagram, but sent me a DM via a tweet that no one else could see.

‘I want to go home, so please give me a ride.’

‘As long as you don’t break the ‘promise’, I’ll grant you one thing you desire, so I want to go back.’

I didn’t even want to think about what her objective was, what she intended to give me and what she wanted to receive in return.

Casually skimming through that DM she sent just before I woke up, I walked upstairs without a second thought and flung open the bedroom door.

Seo Jia, who had changed back into the clothes she wore coming here, was sitting on the bed, waiting quietly for me.

“Um, knocking….”

“Get out. …I’ll give you a ride.”

“…In that outfit?”

“I have clothes in the trunk, so it doesn’t matter.”

She greeted me, her legs trembling nervously, then bit her lip and cautiously walked out, brushing past my side.

Wondering if I might grab her.

Thinking that since I said I’d grant her one wish, she must be planning something sexual.

Her worries, so typical of a girl her age, were plain to see, and I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

…The me until last year got my life messed up over a girl like that, of all things.

It was so absurd that I couldn’t suppress a wry smile.

“..?”

Glaring at me, acting like a lunatic, she followed me down the stairs, a question mark floating above her head.

Thump thump.

Shining my light through the dark pension, I carefully walked out and grabbed only the car keys from the table in front of the sofa before heading straight outside.

Breathing in the chilly, almost cold dawn air, I overtook Seo Jia, who was awkwardly walking towards the car.

I unlocked the car door first, started the engine, and then roughly pulled on the spare clothes from the trunk.

“Get in, don’t just stand out there.”

“…”

After changing into my gym clothes, I put Seo Jia in the passenger seat and took my place in the driver’s seat.

Watching Seo Jia hesitate beside me, afraid of what demands I might make, I stepped on the accelerator without a word.

Startled when the car moved at an unexpected moment, she hastily turned her head towards me and spoke.

“Um. Don’t just stay silent. If you want something, say it….”

“Just put on your seatbelt.”

“…What?”

“I said, put on your seatbelt.”

Seeing the 20-year-old girl frozen stiff at my response, I let out a deep sigh and fastened the seatbelt for her.

Then I buckled my own seatbelt and carefully drove the car onto the road.

Deep in the woods where there was barely any sign of life.

But before long, dazzling lights soon illuminated my view.

Following those lights, I pressed the accelerator and spoke to Seo Jia, who was still blankly frozen.

“…I’m so tired I could die, so don’t blame me if I cause an accident while driving.”

“What…? Ah, wait…!”

“Just kidding. …If I get sleepy, I’ll pull over and sleep. But what were you thinking, asking for a ride at this hour?”

“….”

A clueless face, as if she’d never even considered such a thing.

Well, of course.

It was the same with the stalker manager who had such a deep connection with me, as well as the previous and current managers.

This woman was always the one ‘riding’ along, never the one ‘giving’ a ride.

She might think of herself as an adult with plenty of social experience, but honestly, in my eyes, she just looks like a spoiled brat with rich parents.

Even I, a novice just stepping into society after retiring as an athlete, am more experienced than a newly debuted idol.

If she were a more adept and experienced woman, she wouldn’t have made me like this.

She wouldn’t have been this scared of me,

…and we probably would never have gotten involved for life.

“Anyway, I’m tired as hell, so if you don’t want me to fall asleep, keep me awake by talking nonstop. If I fall asleep, you’ll have to sleep here with me.”

“…O-Okay.”

Glancing at her, nodding with a displeased expression, I pressed the accelerator harder.

On the quiet road where cars and trucks passed sporadically, I slapped my own cheek and peered intently at the navigation.

…Ah, the rest stop is just ahead.

Teasing this little kid a bit longer wouldn’t be bad, but I don’t want to die together with her.

“.”

Fortunately, despite my request to say something, Seo Jia kept her mouth shut, only rolling her eyes diligently, so I guided her into the rest stop.

Only noticing when I slowed down, she was startled and looked intently at me, about to speak.

But I covered Seo Jia’s mouth with one hand, stopped the car, reclined the seat, and lay back.

“I’m sleepy as hell, so I’m going to take a nap. Just like that. If we crash, you’ll be in trouble too, you know.”

“Mmph…, Pfft. …You planned this from the start, didn’t you?”

“I just got sleepy while driving. I just woke up myself, you know?”

“…How will you wake up?”

“I won’t even wake up if you do a striptease outside, so give up and go to sleep. I’ll just sleep for an hour or two and then we’ll leave.”

As I even closed my eyes and answered her dismissively, she criticized me in an anxious tone.

No matter how I thought about it, waking up the driver at this hour was wrong, but Seo Jia was too young to consider such things.

More importantly, I wasn’t exactly stopping the car just to screw her over.

To do unproductive things like revenge, I had become too busy a person.

“…What if I said you could touch my thighs…?”

“…”

No matter what she said.

“You want revenge on me too, right…? That’s why I said if you keep the promise, you can do one thing you want….”

“…Then shut up and sleep.”

“…”

…Just enough to waver for a brief moment.

I wasn’t so consumed by lust that I’d be swayed by a mere twenty-year-old brat.

As she said,

…unless she performed a striptease on the dark highway.