The crowd from the bleachers cheered, screamed and roared for the Avery Athena like the static of television in maximum volume that ripped out the walls. From former underdogs against the far superior and no loss opposing team to one score away from victory.

 

A long, intense and profusely sweaty game in the field is least expected of everyone. It’s the city championships, the first for Athenas to miraculously reach that mile but definitely not for the Marauding Tigers. They always won the championships every year, landslide victory. Avery Athena is never a leading candidate as rival to that team until today.

 

Yoona can feel the pressure that built on throughout the game. Her knees are wobbling, she’s dripping of sticky perspiration, her hair braided and bound in bushy tail is sticking out to different angles and her jersey is something you cannot call white anymore.

 

Her eyes panned from left to right. Yoona is open and Yuri, their midfielder, is angling the ball towards her and their win will depend on her hands (or feet rather). Yuri passed the ball with lobbed kick and Yoona received it. Suddenly, she heard her name coming from different mouths.

 

She sprinted the moment she realized what she’s supposed to do and the Tigers are underway to steal the ball. Their eyes burned and Yoona returned the fire with pleasure. She concentrated strategizing an invisible path that would make way for her to the net.

 

Yoona dribbled the ball with her slick footwork and using every trick up her sleeve as each one and even double team is on defense. Reaching the spot, Yoona twisted upper body to the right, her fist clenched to summon the last ounce of her energy while lifting her leg backwards, kicking the ball that is locked to curve past the goalkeeper.

 

There’s a sharp ache that hit her by the ankle that supported her form. The next second, Yoona is already looking at the cloudy sky that moved in slow motion and everything just went dark.

           

Yoona is half-awaken by a voice that called for a name registering incoherently to her buzzing ears. She heard something like Jung but couldn’t go further than that.

 

She had difficulty peeling her eyes open. Her eyelids are heavy as though it’s glued so she waited. She inhaled a first breath after what felt like long dive into unconsciousness.

   

Yoona might have been out for a few hours, but that didn’t take away her senses completely. She knew she’s admitted in the hospital. The strong scent of antiseptic filling her nose and the soft layers of the foam beneath her body gave that away. Lying on this bed and her body cleansed is a comforting thought.

 

A few questions took the front seat in her mind that woke her up in a sudden. Why can’t she feel her underwear? Is she in her hospital gown? Why is she here in the first place?

 

The game.

 

Yoona bolted up. Everything is colored in white and the fragments are spinning, having a life of its own to disorient her like how 3D shapes confused her. Her head is being drilled through her temples that made her grab the side of the bed and stirred to bend her legs but soon stopped, face grimacing. The single inch movement caused the splitting ache on her foot to come into notice.

 

“You better lie back.” A cold voice suggested. Yoona turned her head towards the woman that stood by her bedside whom she figured is her doctor according to the stethoscope weaved around her neck. She’s a brunette and is cloaked in a bit of an oversized white coat that made the doctor more petite-looking and small. Yoona tried to inquire the doctor’s name through the nameplate usually pinned on the pocket but the crisps of the doctor’s hair are curtained above her chest, obscuring it.

 

Yoona moved to take a sitting position on the edge, taking precaution of the sting in her foot. Damn, that wave of headache is hitting her like a ton of bricks.

 

“Darling, if you don’t wanna lie down, don’t move too much.”

 

The doctor said in a gentler tone this time compared to earlier without making eye contact as she penned on a board. The term of endearment the woman casually dropped to address Yoona made the young girl blush.

 

The eminent exposure to the scorching heat of the sun and their bodies beaten during practice had helped improve Yoona’s threshold to strenuous activities. But that doesn’t mean the sting isn’t less painful and upsetting. Headache and dizziness are the least tolerable pain for Yoona. Her brain turns uncooperative to function well when all it screamed is the pang.

 

“I feel better sitting down.” The words came out groggy and dry. Yoona could use a glass of water then changed her mind quickly, thinking her thirst can wait. The urge to go back to school and learn the end of the game is far more important. “I think I can go now.”

 

“You’re ill.”

 

“I’m not ill. I...”

 

The doctor pressed her lips together. The pen clutched in her hand stopped in motion. Her eyebrow rose, letting Yoona to finish the rest of her sentence until enough moments passed by and Yoona couldn’t do so.

 

Yoona dug her brain for information and there’s none. She’s not someone forgetful. Her brain is just currently foggy.

 

“You don’t even know what happened to you.”

 

Yoona swallowed as she watched the anonymous  doctor her head to the side in scrutiny. Her sight has turned fuzzy so she blinked a few times. “What happened to me then?”

 

“Someone played it too far and rough to kick your aid for balance and even butted your skull. I believe you’re having a severe headache and exhaustion which you’ll be experiencing for a while because of fatigue. The frowning, too, because I’m judging you’re not getting a word I’m saying. The rest of what you feel is wrong with you like your left foot, I’m in the middle of figuring that out. So, to keep it simple for your currently limited cognition, I cannot release you yet and send you home.”

 

She’s right. Yoona is even uncertain whether the doctor spoke some other language because she’s warped in a confused bubble. To her poor understanding, she got injured and it might be a bad one. Her memory somehow did serve a little, remembering the whiplash that washed over her and there were clouds and birds.

 

“Did we win?” Yoona asked, finding it significant amongst all other things.

 

“If I tell you, will you sit still and stop trying to jump off the bed?”

 

Yoona shrugged.

 

“Well,” It’s a sigh that left the doctor’s lips. She hugged her board against her chest and stepped closer to Yoona. This is crossing a personal boundary and Yoona found herself helpless. The young girl’s knee brushed the train of the doctor’s coat.She couldn’t back away, a simple task Yoona is incapable of doing as of the moment. Maintaining eye contact is a brave resolve that there’s no way she’s gonna act like an about to be skinned rabbit with those glaring eyes. “You won and I heard you were responsible for it.”

 

Yoona wanted to smile ear to ear, but her body is telling that she’s too weak to express her joy.

Doing her end of the deal, she sat behavely.

 

“If the headache is killing you, lie down.”

 

Yoona listened. It is killing her but not to the point that she should lie down again. She decided to count numbers backwards for it helped Yoona calm down. Although, it took a while, she realized that the doctor could be lying to her.

 

“I’m going to ask you some questions and I need you to answer them. Also, do tell me whatever pain you’re feeling.”

         

From a distance, Sunny watched her friend with amusement as she mingled with the first man who had grown the balls to attempt winning Jessica’s heart the very instant her divorce news spread like wildfire in the walls and hallways of Angel Grove Hospital.

 

Jessica Jung is almost single and that’s fairly enough reason to push anyone to their unshaken desires to ask her out for a drink, wedging a luxurious dinner to fit Jessica’s hectic life and schedules and possibly, living the rest of their lives waking up to gorge the sight of Jessica’s beautiful face every morning.

 

The man is oozed with charisma in his prim and smart attire of light blue sleeves tucked into his dark trousers matched with a black tie. Sunny had the need to acknowledge the manners he have observed in front of Jessica, an uncommon quality for the species of men that are populated with testosterone driven whims.

 

It couldn’t get anymore better that this man is one of the Angel Grovel’s board members of the Department of Psychiatry and a few more of his outstanding feats are seen on display in his clinic. He’s what this decade called a complete package and Sunny could just smile at that. Given the credentials, those alone wouldn’t cut out for Jessica.

 

Both their chairs are pushed back, standing up in unison. The man announced his goodbye to return to his duties and Jessica nodded, picking up the leftovers of her tray for Sunny to prey on.

 

“Jaehyun is all geared up to woo you already.” Sunny grabbed her spoon, lunging over the table and began shoveling Jessica’s pudding.

 

“He should know by now that he’s wooing the wrong person.” Jessica leaned an elbow on the table.

 

“Why waste time talking to him? Are you exploring your sadist side?”

 

“We’re colleagues. I had to be nice.”

 

The phone in Jessica’s coat pocket beeped. She slid her thumb across the screen and her eyes flickered to read the text.

 

“What is it?” Sunny asked.

 

“A kid fainted. Still not waking up.”

 

She set down her phone on the table, prolonging her down time. Another common case in her shift that she didn’t need to panic about.

 

“Shouldn’t you be there now?”

 

“Taeyeon is on it, but she’s leaving soon. My secretary just informed me that I take over afterwards. They’re aware of how I work. I want everything set and ready.” She took her milk box and sipped from the straw, drinking to its last content.

 

“What did you talk about?”

 

It made Jessica roll her eyes that Sunny had no constraints to revert to the topic again. She has her way of finding interest to subjects ranging between embarrassing, tragic and horrible

 

“Jaehyun’s a typical curious neighbor who wanted to know why it happened. He couldn’t picture a scene of someone daring to break off a relationship with me.”

 

“Smooth. Did you tell him why?”

 

“Failure to bond, falling out, irreconcilable differences….”

 

Jessica’s volume sunk, doused by Sunny’s tittering laughter that ensued before Jessica could conclude the listed grounds (lies) of her marriage dissolution.

 

“I’m impressed with your sense of humor.” Jessica let her sarcasm go loose this time.

 

“Because it’s hilarious and stupid. You basically married your childhood friend and now he’s like a nobody to you, wiping out the decades of friendship in trade with awkwardness.”

 

“You’re actually having fun deconstructing my godforsaken life, don’t you?”

 

“If you’re on surgery all day, you’ll take every source of entertainment available to you and yield it just to get rid of the depressing burden of slicing a body open. And this,” Sunny waved a hand over that pertained to Jessica’s godforsaken life, as quoted by the woman herself. “is not fun, by the way. It’s making me anxious. How are the three of us gonna meet up now, huh? Enzo’s planning a small party. Does that mean I’m gonna buffer and be pressed between you two?” Sunny fed herself with the pudding until she’s scooped up everything to . She relieved her stress with loud and unabashed chewing.

 

“Hey, your assumptions are getting way out of hand. Things aren’t gonna change much. Just our status. There’s nothing else wiped out. Enzo and I are still best of friends and we’ve been better just that.”

 

Jessica spat as matter-of-fact. Sunny’s shoulders dipped and she slowed her chew. She couldn’t agree less of what Jessica stated. They are better off as friends. Their marriage had turned them into robots disguising as a boring couple. The run of Jessica and Enzo’s union is what pivoted them to be perched on the edge of a cliff.

 

“It’s not gonna be awkward.” Jessica asserted. “We never fought. We never shouted or tore our lungs apart to destroy one another. It’s just weird that for five years, we thought we were in love and later on, we’d be showing to a divorce counsel every week, pretending that something is wrong when we’re well aware that there isn’t, other than the fact that we don’t want each other romantically.”

 

It’s laughable, Jessica realized. The five-year working progress is actually a predicament in the making and they never saw it coming. It unfolded so gradually and deliberately that it took draggy dinners, monotone conversations and emotionless and dissatisfying for them to get enlightened.

 

“We’re unhappy because of our situation that we voluntarily and idiotically let ourselves get tied in and we mutually decided to end the charade.”

 

Life could be strange for people who just wanted something normal or sought to do something normal because they thought it’s what’s right. There’s a so-called generic path for perpetual happiness, rules and standards that everyone should follow if they wanted to achieve such.

But to Jessica’s experience of walking the traditional route, she still ended screwing up everything she thought she wanted and she thought was right.

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