courage dear heart | Yuki Ishikawa

77

Rina entered the room with her head bowed, unable to meet my eyes.

"You..." My heart raced, and the machine next to me that monitored my vitals began to beep faster, keeping pace with my accelerating pulse. "Why?"

She fell to her knees, bowing deeply until her forehead touched the ground. "Forgive me, Kim Nabi... I didn't mean for this to happen. It wasn't my intention," she said, her voice trembling.

My father turned sharply toward her, his voice booming with fury. "What do you mean you didn't mean for this to happen?" He pointed at me. "Look at what you've done to my daughter. Have the decency to face what you've caused!"

"Dad..." I looked at him, trying to calm him down. I felt the anger rising inside me too, boiling beneath the surface, but I needed to hear what she had to say before I let it all out.

Rina remained on the floor, still.

"Look at me," I demanded.

Slowly, she stood up, her face full of fear, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Why? Was this because of Yuki?" I asked, the question sounding so ridiculous in my own ears that I almost laughed bitterly at the absurdity of it.

She shook her head quickly. "N-no... no, it wasn't..." Her gaze fell on my bandaged body, her voice trembling as she spoke. Then she lowered her eyes again.

"I-I just wanted to make the competition harder for you... I-I didn't think it would end up like this," she stammered.

"Why?! What did I ever do to you?" I screamed, my voice cracking under the weight of my uncontrollable rage.

"N-nothing... I don't know," she stuttered, trembling before me.

I clenched my fists, frustration boiling over. I wanted to stand up, to scream, to break something—anything to release this overwhelming storm of anger and helplessness. But I was stuck here, lying in this bed, unable to move, the weight of my injuries trapping me. I could feel my pulse pounding in my ears, my vision blurring with the heat of emotion surging through me.

All of this—because of a petty grudge, a ridiculous whim? I couldn't believe it. It wasn't fair that I was the one who had to suffer like this, to be the one lying broken in this bed while she stood there, free.

"You don't know? You just wanted to make it harder for me? And you thought this—" I motioned as best I could to my broken body, bandaged and casted—"was the way to do that?"

Rina flinched again, fresh tears spilling from her eyes as she shook her head frantically. "I never meant for it to go this far, I swear! I-I thought it would just throw you off your game, make it harder for you to win... but I didn't... I didn't know it would lead to this."

I stared at her, feeling both disbelief and fury wash over me.

How could someone be so careless? So reckless with someone else's life?

My voice cracked as I let the words spill out. "Do you understand what you've done to me? What you've done to my family? I could've died because of you!"

My father, still standing near, stepped forward again, anger etched deeply in his face. But I shook my head, signaling him to hold back. I wanted to face her myself. I needed to.

"Rina," I said, my voice cold and low now. "Do you have any idea what this means for me? For my career? My future?"

She sobbed, covering her face with her hands, her entire body shaking. "I'm so sorry... I-I didn't know. I didn't mean for it to happen this way. Please, forgive me... please."