"Right now, I don't understand a single word you're saying."
"About what?"
"There's no one around me with the same name as you, and why would I have a one-sided love for someone who doesn't even exist?"
…Hmm, this is strange, no matter how I think about it.
"You look like someone I know."
"Who is this person you're confusing me with?"
"Someone I can't have, even if I want to."
He said that himself when we met that day.
"You said it back then. That the person named 'Seong-ha' was someone you couldn't have, even if you wanted to."
"..."
"If you don't remember because you were drunk…"
"What's this, Shin Seong-ha. You remember everything I said."
Woo Seung-geon smiled with a strange expression, looking both pleased and embarrassed.
Would it have been better if I hadn't said I remembered everything? But it was too late for regrets. The conversation had already returned to the night we first slept together.
"That 'Seong-ha' was you."
This time, it was my brow that furrowed. He said something similar in the dream, too.
"Accident? For me, from the start, it was because it was you…!"
Then he really liked me?
"I don't understand a single word you're saying, Senior."
He plopped a piece of fatty tuna belly on my plate and said, "I'm not saying anything difficult."
"It is difficult. We... we met for the first time that day."
"It wasn't the first time, was it? I used to visit my high school sometimes. I'm close with the manager. I saw you a few times back then."
I did remember excitedly running over with my friends when the great senior visited the school. But that was it. We had no personal connection.
"That was years ago… I never imagined you'd remember me from back then."
"I looked you up a lot on my own."
"…Excuse me?"
"I'm not telling you the details. It's embarrassing."
Wait a minute, this isn't something to just brush off like that.
"No, Senior, then... then…" I asked, 'No way.'
"Th-that day, at the hotel, that… you did it because... it was really me?"
At the mention of our first time, he spoke cautiously. "I was reckless that day, not like myself. I actually quit drinking after that."
"..."
"It shouldn't have started like that. But it already happened, so I'll take responsibility. That's why I came to Korea."
"..."
"I don't regret sleeping with you. You shouldn't either."
My face burned. So...
"It's just that it's been a while since I've seen such a pretty face, so I don't want to let you go."
That meant those words were really directed at me.
"Seong-ha."
He wasn't calling someone else with my name; he was calling me.
"Haah, Seong-ha, Seong-ha…"
He knew it was me when we slept together.
I turned my head away, feeling dizzy.
Woo Seung-geon looked at me and chuckled. "Your ears are red."
I covered my ears and face with my hands. My whole body tingled with an unbearable mix of shame and embarrassment. I couldn't even ask what he meant by "watching me since Seomgwang High." My mind, which had been misunderstanding him for over a year, was frantically trying to reassemble this new information.
Woo Seung-geon tried to hammer in the final nail while he had the chance.
"So, no problem with us dating now, right?"
Ah, no, there are many problems… I just twitched, unable to cool my flushing face. I came here to sort out this relationship, but I felt like I'd just gotten tangled up even tighter.
My rational mind screamed that this was wrong, but Woo Seung-geon didn't give me an inch of room to escape.
"You're worried my performance will drop if we date. Hmm, fine. Then I'll win the Golden Glove this season and lead our team to victory in the Korean Series. How about that? Are those conditions good enough to date?"
How could a team win a championship just because one pitcher did well in a team sport like baseball? But I knew how much the Guardians had been sharpening their knives since the last stove league, when they brought him in. If they used him well, a championship wasn't entirely impossible. In fact, with him as their #1 starter, the Guardians' pitching depth was quite thick, and the new foreign players they'd signed were being rated very highly.
It felt like Woo Seung-geon could easily achieve the terms he'd proposed.
'When you think about it, what's a Korean league championship to a man who already won a ring in America?'
I added more conditions, as if joking. "A 1-point ERA and 15+ wins, please."
At first, he looked dumbfounded. Then he laughed, as if he found my conditions amusing.
"Should I add 200 strikeouts, too?"
It was a demand for an undisputed victory.
He could have called me arrogant or absurd, but…
"A 1-point ERA, 15 wins, 200 strikeouts. Fine."
I guess I'd stoked his competitive spirit.
"Don't you dare change your mind at the end of the season. And if you date anyone else in the meantime, it's you die, I die."
At his childish words, I let out a small laugh before I could stop myself. I didn't know how our relationship would turn out, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a sense of relief now that I'd opened up.
"Haha."
Seeing me laugh, Woo Seung-geon smiled, his eyes crinkling. "You're pretty when you laugh."
"Ahaha."
"But you're laughing too hard. What, you think I can't do it?"
He was cute, pouting and grumbling like that. I stopped, catching myself finding him 'cute.'
'Cute?' Since when had I become so soft toward him?
I picked up my chopsticks and focused on the food. Woo Seung-geon watched me eat in silence, looking pleased.
But I didn't know that smiling face would be the last I ever saw.
On his way home after parting with me, Woo Seung-geon died at the scene of a traffic accident.
I heard the news only after I had arrived at my own apartment near the ballpark. The driver of the car, just as in the dream, was in a state of diminished capacity, high on drugs.
"This is Kim Kyung-min from the Incheon Western Police Station, Violent Crimes Unit. The at-fault driver's residence is in my jurisdiction, so I'm coordinating with the Yeongdeungpo Police Station. I would appreciate your cooperation."
Detective Kim Kyung-min.
The man who had visited my hospital room in the dream had now shown up at my apartment.
His sharp, snake-like eyes and his chill—as if he wouldn't bleed a single drop if stabbed—were the same.
He looked at his phone, checking something, and asked, "The victim was in an accident at 2:11 PM, after parting ways with you, and died at the scene. You are aware that you were the last person he was with, correct?"
When I heard the news of his death, the mental shock wasn't as great as it was in the dream. It would be more accurate to say that what was happening felt unreal.
2:11 PM.
The fact that the time of death was the same immediately registered in my brain.
Honestly, at this point, this was not something I could dismiss as mere déjà vu.
"On Friday, July 7th, at 2:11 PM, Woo Seung-geon, who was in the car with you, was transported to this hospital... having been declared dead at the scene."
Only the circumstances before and after his death were different from the dream. The time of death, and the victim, were all identical.
There was no way this could be a dream.
I asked, just in case. "Who was the driver who hit him?"
"A man in his 20s."
"And the vehicle?"
"A Lamborghini."
This time, it was a sports car driver, not a truck driver.
"The victim was in frequent contact with you. And you had lunch together today. You're on different teams, were you close friends?"
The detective's questions didn't even register.
'The dream of him dying was so unsettling that I went all the way to Yeongdeungpo, but the result is the same. This isn't a dream. I've just experienced the same day twice.'
The process is different, but the result is the same.
This isn't a random accident. This is a meticulously planned event.
'It's someone with a grudge against him. They're using drugs to order a murder. Who? Who has a motive to kill him so drastically?'
Playing detective wasn't the important part right now.
'More importantly, how am I able to experience this day twice?'
It was all incomprehensible.
His death.
And the day that had repeated itself.
"Mr. Shin."
I lifted my head at the voice calling me from my thoughts.
The detective's gaze was not that of someone looking at an innocent acquaintance.
Nor was it the cautious look from the dream, worried I might be the second target.
He was looking at me as a possible suspect in a murder-for-hire.
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