‘What do you mean nothing can be done?’ she said, grabbing the doctor’s sleeve tentatively. 
The doctor sighed before placing his hand on top of hers. It was the part he hated the most- crushing people’s hopes by saying a patient’s condition was irreversible. 

He squeezed her cold hands. ‘We did everything we could, but the damage is too severe. He might be able to stand, but he can never return to the track. I am terribly sorry.’ The buzzing in her ears grew louder. 

‘I- I understand. Thank you doctor.’ she said squeezing her hands together, not knowing what to do with them. The doctor patted her shoulder. ‘He’ll need lots of support and patience from friends and loved ones. Knowing Howon.. He won’t take the news well. At all.’ The doctor sighed and left her standing alone in the corridor.

Of course he wouldn’t take it well. How could anybody? The track was Howon’s entire life, what he lived and worked for. His love was such that he had even withdrawn from everyone he knew- friends and family- to be able to focus better as he had told his old friends a cloudy afternoon a couple of years ago. 

Most of them had gotten angry after this, saying that his slowly rising fame and success had started getting to his head; they called him arrogant and cut all ties that connected them to each other. 

Gong Yoojin and Nam Woohyun were the only friends he had left then- the only ones who understood his passion for sports and supported him, not minding his foul behaviour. Till he pushed them both away too, about a year ago.
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‘Yoojin-ah’ Woohyun’s panting voice was heard on the other side of the line. ‘Have you seen the news?’ he asked. 

Yoojin typed away on her laptop trying to finish the work she had to do. ‘No, I was busy why? What happened?’ she said absentmindedly. 

The uncomfortable pause and the memory of the bad dream she had that very night, made her skin crawl.

‘Woohyun-ah’ she said, her heart missing a beat. ‘What happened?’ 

‘… Howon.’ He said. ‘He got into an accident… I heard it’s bad.’ She could only hear Woohyun’s breathing, but soon all sounds were drowned by the pounding of her heart in her ears. In one heartbeat she forgot everything. Her pride and her bitterness towards H