Chapter 31.2

Chapter 31.2

Jiseul Girl’s High School Gymnasium

The mention of Jiseul Girls’ High School stirred up unexpected memories within Seoryeong’s mind.

With a blank expression, she gazed at the weathered plaque commemorating her alma mater before deciding to wander the familiar halls. The school was deserted, most students having long since departed for the day, making it easy for her to locate the gymnastics room.

Entering, she was greeted by a flood of nostalgia as the scent of the gymnasium assaulted her senses, triggering a rush of memories.

Every piece of equipment seemed frozen in time – the floor, the vault, the uneven bars, the parallel bars, the beam – all of it conjuring up remnants of her past. Dust danced lazily in the sunlight streaming through the windows, adding to the atmosphere of reverie.

The wooden apparatus, the well-used chalk, the faint aroma of tamarind powder – they all whispered of a bygone era, preserving a slice of her life within these walls.

As the lights flickered to life one by one, Seoryeong found herself face to face with a group of young athletes led by a woman with a whistle around her neck.

Their startled gazes met hers, widening in surprise and curiosity at the sight of an unfamiliar figure amidst the emptiness of the gymnasium.

Approaching cautiously, the woman, her expression a mix of disbelief and apprehension, ventured, “Are you… Han Seoryeong?”

“…!”

“Han Seoryeong? The real Han Seoryeong?”

“Yes. But who–”

“Don’t you know me? I was the vice captain of the gymnastics club the year you dropped out of school!”

“Ah…”

Hearing that, the girl’s face gradually became familiar.

“Wow-! Seeing you here again, I thought I was seeing a ghost!”

The woman was overly excited.

“It’s been so many years! To see you again and in the gymnastics department! It’s so sudden, I don’t even know where to begin!”

“….”

“How have you been? By the way, I’m a coach at my alma mater. I often hear about the other kids, but it’s so hard to hear about you.”

Seoryeong was taken aback by the straightforward question, realizing how much her life had changed and wrecked in such a short time. She managed a wry smile in response.

The woman, still enthusiastic, called out to the students, “Hey, guys, come over here! Our senior’s back!” Excited, the students rushed over to greet her.

“How time flies; it was only ten years ago that we wore those clothes.”

The kids were busy warming up after taking off their jerseys, and Seoryeong gave them a blank stare for a moment.

“Kids, do aerobics first, then do the agility drill!” she ordered, even as she chatted with me to see if she was a coach.

Seoryeong chuckled at the memory. Then she heard a series of updates from the gymnastics team that she couldn’t remember again.

It was then that the female coach clapped her hands.

“By the way, have you heard the news about Joo Daeun?”

“….”

Seoryeong took a moment to think about who Joo Daeun was.

“She quit the gymnastics team and went on to major in theater and film. She’s on TV quite often these days. Seems like she’s made quite an image for herself, always talking about her promising gymnastics career as a child whenever she appears on variety shows. They keep requesting footage from our high school, but it’s all lost and gone, disappeared long ago. So we always refuse, but…”

Ah, her…

She remembered a classmate who had fallen off a pole and snapped her leg backward.

Seoryeong smirked at the memory.

“The kid with the broken leg, right?”

“….” The coach blinked, speechless for a moment.

“Do you… remember why she broke her leg?”

She said, touching her bangs a little awkwardly.

The coach has never forgotten that day.

At the time, Jiseul High School was a gymnastics school with a reputation for producing talent in the gymnastics barren of Korea.

And everyone knew Joo Daeun and Han Seoryeong, two freshmen.

Joo Daeun, whose parents were both Olympic medalists, was known as a gymnastics prodigy from a young age, so the gymnastics club revolved around her early on. But it was her classmate Han Seoryeong who broke the tacit hierarchy.