Chapter 139. Comfort
A rustic wooden bench sat in a corner of the yard.
Euna and I sat side by side on it.
“Mmm… and then?”
“Euna, you had that accident when you were five, right? I was there too, back then.”
“Huh?”
Euna’s eyes widened, as if she hadn’t known at all. Her expression was adorable. Now, when I looked at her, the grotesque scar on one side of her face and her changed eye no longer bothered me.
I was telling Euna about my childhood. It was a story I had kept tightly sealed, fearing it might become a weakness, but now I let it out.
“Mister… *chuckle* I understand. So Oppa also lost his parents in that accident too.”
“Ah…”
“Jinsu’s parents helped me, and somehow I managed to hold the funeral and return to school. Then came the day of a really important game. But for some reason, I ended up just warming the bench that day.”
“Ah… but I don’t know much about baseball…”
“Simply put, it was the day of a game that held the dream I’d nurtured since childhood. Warming the bench meant I couldn’t play in such an important match. All because of that bastard Head Coach.”
The baseball team at my high school was riddled with corruption. I couldn’t bribe the Head Coach and coaching staff with ‘tournament fees,’ and I truly never got to step up to the plate in any game. They spread rumors that I still suffered from injuries and after-effects from the accident. I don’t know if it was just how things were back then, or if the people themselves were the problem. My skills weren’t exceptional enough to overcome such injustice, and from their perspective, I was just an orphan who brought no money.
