"What do you mean?"
Kim Kyung-min's gaze never left me. His sharp, snake-like eyes were observing my every glance, action, and even my breathing.
A chillingly calm voice flowed out.
"On Friday, July 7th, at 2:11 PM, Woo Seung-geon, who was in the car with you, was transported to this hospital, Incheon International University, having been declared dead at the scene."
My eyes flew open at his words.
Dead.
Did I really just hear the word dead?
The detective ignored my shock and continued.
"The perpetrator has confessed. He said that a drug supplier hired him to murder Woo Seung-geon, using a drug deal as a pretext. It's an ongoing investigation, so I can't give you details, but this questioning is necessary because you could be exposed to a secondary crime. We ask for your cooperation."
I wasn't shocked by the fact that I could be the target of an additional crime.
Rather, I couldn't breathe at his unbelievable words.
"Dead?"
Kim Kyung-min merely watched my confusion with that same sharp gaze.
My mind was a complete mess.
"I love you, Seong-ha."
What was this?
The image of Woo Seung-geon, who had just been flustering me with his love confession, was still so vivid. Who died?
My lips trembled.
It was a story I couldn't possibly believe.
"Who did you say died?"
Kim Kyung-min did not repeat himself.
I frantically questioned him as he just watched me in silence.
"Where… where is my phone? Please give it to me."
"It's evidence in the investigation. I cannot give it to you."
"I'll try calling him."
"Mr. Shin, please calm down for a moment."
"If I can't use my phone, I'll ask my parents."
"Family visits are also restricted until our investigation is complete."
"I'll!"
I couldn't hold back my boiling emotions and shouted.
"I said I'll check for my—Kuluk, kuluk!"
A terrible pain, incomparable to before, surged from deep inside my chest.
I let out a pained breath, unable to bear the agony, and just clutched my chest.
"Heuu, heuk…."
My heart pounded against my broken ribs.
I trembled, gripping the clothes over my chest. I didn't know if it was from the physical pain or the unbearable shock of the detective's story.
When I closed my eyes, the white airbag exploded.
When I opened them, only the bed curtain stood like a barrier, one I couldn't pull back even if I reached out.
And into this suffocating, white world, a man called a detective had come, stolen my freedom in the name of an investigation he couldn't even tell me about, and then calmly informed me of Woo Seung-geon's death.
White things.
The only white thing for me used to be the rosin bag I held when I stood on the mound.
I only knew the weight of the moment when Seung-geon or I would grip that rosin powder, letting it go as we steeled our resolve for the game.
Why were all these white things outside the stadium making my life so difficult?
"Haah, haak, haak."
I gasped for breath, gripping the blanket with both hands.
Not Kim Kyung-min, but his colleague, flinched, looking flustered.
"Should I call a nurse?"
"Wait."
"But Mr. Shin's breathing…"
"He said he'd be fine once he calmed down. We confirmed that with the doctor before we came in."
"Th-… umm, yes…"
Their words didn't even register.
Under their quiet scrutiny, I just let the tears welling up in my eyes fall.
For a long time, it was hard to breathe, knowing that the last I'd seen of Woo Seung-geon was his still face in the driver's seat.
The tears I had been holding back burst out like a flood.
"Heuu, heuuuu, euk…."
My body ached terribly as I cried.
The pain felt like a punishment, demanding I take responsibility for Woo Seung-geon's death.
My stifled sobs boiled over.
"Heu-euk, euu, eu, ahh…."
In the end, I clutched the blanket and wailed in agony.
Even those cold-hearted police officers said nothing to me in that moment.
I cried for a long time.
There was nothing I could do but wish this was all a joke.
[Sports] 'Super Gun' Pitcher Woo Seung-geon, Passes Away at 31 [Sports] KBB League to Cancel All Games for 3 Days in Memory of Woo Seung-geon [Sports] Guardians Team to Permanently Retire Woo Seung-geon's Number '11' [Society] 'Woo Seung-geon Death' Attacker Tests Positive for Methamphetamine, Murder-for-Hire Investigation Transferred to Prosecution
I learned that the world was in an uproar on my third day in the hospital.
Kim Kyung-min often came to my room to ask me various things.
"Do you know anyone who might hold a grudge against Woo Seung-geon? There was a player released from Frontier two years ago when a bunch of athletes were booked on drug charges. Are you in contact with him? And the cafe where the suspect traded the drugs—you were a regular there, too, Mr. Shin. Why did you go there instead of the franchise cafe inside the stadium? Who are its main customers?"
I answered his endless stream of questions as best I could, but it seemed I didn't have any information that was of much help to the investigation.
After finishing these "interviews," Kim Kyung-min would repeat the same words to me.
"Do not leave this hospital room. Under any circumstances."
Even without him ordering me, I had no way of leaving.
My ribs were fractured, and it was hard to even support my own body.
If I had to go to the bathroom, I had to lean on a walker and struggle my way there and back.
Since visits from family, relatives, and friends were all forbidden, I just repeated a cycle of falling asleep from the medication, waking up, and staring blankly.
I didn't even have the desire to step out for a breath of fresh air.
My mind was so blank, I had no sense of how time was passing.
Just take medicine and sleep.
Talk to the doctor on his rounds and sleep.
I spent 20 hours a day sleeping.
It was harder on me if I didn't escape into sleep.
Because every moment I was awake, I thought of Woo Seung-geon, and the pain made it impossible to breathe.
I was closing my eyes as night fell again after another meaningless day.
Click.
I hadn't looked at a clock, so I didn't know the time, but I assumed it was the middle of the night.
It was probably a nurse, coming to change my IV.
If I didn't have the sedatives and sleeping pills, the white airbag would explode in front of my eyes the moment I fell asleep, or the image of Woo Seung-geon, wearing that burst airbag like a shroud, would appear, and I'd wake up screaming.
I knew the nurses pitied me.
I had lost so much of my mental and physical composure that even being pitied made me want to cry, so I kept my eyes closed and pretended to be asleep.
Thud, thud.
The footsteps entering the room were different from the shoe sounds I was used to.
They were much heavier, more blunt.
The footsteps stopped in front of my bed.
Swoosh.
The bed curtain was pulled open.
I kept pretending to be asleep.
The "nurse" confirmed my even breathing and then stood by my bedside.
I sensed them touching the IV bag.
Check the drip rate, check the volume, and leave. That's what I expected, but it was taking longer than usual.
Something was strange, so I opened my eyes.
The presence was not the nurse I had expected.
A man, visible only as a silhouette in the moonlight, was standing there.
His face was invisible, his hat pulled down low.
His size was also impossible to tell because of the hoodie and wide-legged sweatpants he was wearing.
The only thing I could identify was the New York Yankees logo embroidered on his cap.
Before I could even ask the stranger who he was...
Click.
A syringe was plugged into the IV tube.
The plunger was fully depressed, meaning the contents had been completely injected.
"Who…"
Before I could even demand to know what he was doing...
Spin.
My vision blurred and I grew dizzy.
I knew, instinctively.
The substance the man had injected was not normal.
I tried to rip the tube from the back of my hand, but the man, anticipating my move, grabbed both my hands.
Squeeze.
His grip was strong.
Beneath that powerful grasp, I felt an incredibly rough palm.
The hand, covered in calluses and knots, was rougher than any I had ever felt, even among the athletes I knew.
"Ngh…."
Was it the drug?
My body was losing all its strength.
It became hard to breathe.
My heart, which had been pounding inside my fractured ribs, was gradually slowing.
"Haah, haah."
I gasped raggedly, glaring at the man through my hazy vision.
I couldn't tell who he was, his face was covered, but I could understand what was happening.
'The police told me to watch out for a secondary crime, and they're bold enough to come all the way here. Is this the person who ordered Woo Seung-geon's murder? Did he spike my IV to take care of me, too?'
I had no strength in my captured hands, and a chill spread through my body, making me tremble.
It was an intense cold, like standing naked in the middle of winter.
As my heartbeat faded, I felt the blood hardening in my body.
My lungs, not receiving any blood, grew sluggish and stopped listening to me.
It was hard to breathe, and my mind went blank.
In contrast to my dying organs, my muscles and nerves began to convulse violently.
'I have to press the nurse call.'
The man, as if sensing my will to survive, did not release his crushing grip.
He stood as still as a statue, just watching me heave.
I couldn't breathe anymore.
Even when I opened my mouth and gasped for air, my body didn't respond.
As death crept up to me, I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.
Slide.
My eyelids sank.
A question, greater than my will to live, surfaced.
'But why?'
I'd never done anything wrong in my life, so I couldn't be dying because of a grudge.
Then there was only one possibility.
'Because it would be inconvenient for me to be alive after they killed Woo Seung-geon. So they're taking care of me, too.'
But why.
I couldn't solve the endlessly rising question.
When I couldn't sleep without the drugs, I had been tormented by the memory of the accident scene. But in that moment, as I grew cold, the scene that had tortured me for the past few days didn't appear.
Instead, I heard a single phrase, like a long-distance phone call.
"I love you, Seong-ha."
The hand that had been holding me down, slid, and fell away.
The man cleanly removed all traces of his visit and quietly left the room.
A moment later, a nurse came in.
She was startled to see me exposed, the bed curtain pulled back. She came in, looked closer, and then screamed.
"Kyaaak!"
Her horrified shriek rattled my head, but the sound vanished in an instant.
Thud. The last sound I heard, as my fingertips fell over the-side of the bed, was one thing.
"Seong-ha."
It was Woo Seung-geon's voice, tinged with laughter.
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