'He's alright, he just needs to rest. He doesn't have any wounds on his head, and there's no blood. But I do suggest for him to have a scan just to be sure,' Dr. Johan So, the school physician told my coach. I was on the pullout bed, resting with the nurse attending to my needs.
'Ma'am, can I go now?' I asked her. She looked at me, with her eyeglasses perched on top of her nose, checking up on me from head to toe and somehow became the strict mother everyone is afraid of. I just don't know if she was.
'No, Mr. Kim. You have to stay at least for an hour or two. You hit your head on the ground if you must remember,' she said, quite the mother that every teenage kid would like to hate.
I closed my eyes slowly as I felt a blow in my head. It really didn't hurt much but then I know that as a responsible athlete I need to heed to her directions. A few minutes later, someone came inside the room where I was and was talking to the nurse, Ms. Yoon.
'Okay,' she replied, somehow exasperated. 'You can see him, but only for ten minutes.' She then stood up to leave, judging from the screeching sound of the metal stool she had been sitting on. Quite typical of a school clinic.
'Dude,' Bernie's voice came into my senses, and honestly I felt frustrated. I was hoping to hear another voice. A sweeter voice. I opened my eyes slowly and looked at him. He was there, looking at me with his slightly chinky eyes and lopsided grin. His tanned face with a bit of a sideburn looked like that of a playboy, but I do hope that he isn't, especially when he is pursuing someone as tenacious as Mae. I smirked and pointed a finger to my head.
'Was it that bad earlier?' I asked, after we shared a hearty laugh.
'It was really bad,' he replied. 'That guy named Christian Kim almost nailed you to the ground,' he continued.
Wait, his surname is Kim? But then I realized South Korea has five most common surnames, once of which was Kim. We may not be related or anything, especially when we didn't come from the same clan.
'Did we win?' I asked, eager to know the outcome of the game.
'You were actually the hero of the game,' Bernie replied. 'Your throw went in as their goalkeeper also looked at what happened to the two of you.'
I smiled, and even when I wanted to make that guy pay for what happened, it was not the attitude of a sportsman. I thought that he only wanted to win the game likewise, and what happened to me was just a part of the game. It really is. As an athlete, we are open to all sorts of possibilities especially when we are at play.
'Seems to me he's taking it personally, dude,' Bernie continued, which made me come back to my senses.
'Why?' I replied.
'He just walked away when you were on the ground. It seemed to me like he was reprimanded by his coach, but he only smiled. But when Hannah came rushing to your side, his smile faded,' he replied. 'By the way, your girl's outside, with Mae.'
My eyes widened at the mention of her name, and my heart was starting to palpitate. I never had this feeling, even when I asked my former crush from the old school for a date. Unfortunately, she turned me down. But I consider it a blessing, and even my transfer in Seoul City High School is likewise.
'Can she come in?' I asked my friend.
'I'll see what I can do. You know Ms. Yoon,' he replied, as he went out to check if Hannah could come in. A few minutes later, both of them came and Bernie left the two of us alone. He winked at me, before he called out,
'You owe me one.'
I smiled and nodded. Shifting my gaze to Hannah, whose eyes were puffy, I gave her my smile. She sat down and took my hand, gently giving it a squeeze, while hiding it under the duvet.
'Are you okay?' she asked, voice hoarse probably from crying too.
'Don't worry about me, it's part of the game,' I said. The statement is actually a cliche, if I am to think about what Bernie just told me.
'I don't think so,' she replied. 'I know you're badly hurt.'
My smile never left my lips, and I rubbed my thumb gently on her knuckles. I looked at her in the most sincere way I ever could, but I didn't really know if I nailed it.
'I am hurt, but seeing you here right now, I just felt like I am vaccinated. I can actually go and run around the field if you ask me to,' I replied in an attempt to make her smile and see those two crescent eyes of hers that really makes my heart flutter in love.
We both giggled and laughed, until Ms. Yoon came in and looked at us. Seeing the surprised look on both of our faces, she shook her head and left us. Hannah attempted to let go of my hand, but then I held hers in mine. Rather firmly.
*****
'Why did you follow me?' she asked, and I wondered why she knew I was there. But it didn't matter now.
'I'm sorry,' I said. It was the only thing I wanted to tell her, before everything else.
She took a deep breath and looked up to the sky. The sun cast a glow on her that made her look like an apparition before my eyes.
She has always been an apparition. A saving grace. And even when I felt that would be given to me, I wondered.
Will she give me a chance to explain my side?