Grand Slam Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Chapter 6: 1991 A Late Night #4

TL: emptycube / ED: Isalee

 

He had been on his way to school.

He was about the same age as he was now.

Although he couldn’t remember her face clearly, he was on his way to a stationery store with his cla.s.smate with lollipops in their mouths to buy supplies. It was at this intersection.

That girl was there then too.

The traffic lights turned green and the two children crossed the street with their hands up in the air as they were taught to. The girl looked at Young Suk and his cla.s.smate as she tried to suppress her laughter. She was so cute that Young Suk and his cla.s.smate glanced at her while they shyly twisted their bodies.

Just as the group of children was crossing the street, a van rushed towards them out of nowhere. Facing the van that was rus.h.i.+ng towards them at full-speed from afar, Young Suk, even as a child, reacted with a mechanical and superhuman speed as he hugged his cla.s.smate and threw their bodies back. His calmness and genius were shown in a dangerous situation like this.

However, the misfortune began when the girl walking in front of him caught his eye.

 

-It’s dangerous!

 

He didn’t have time to consider if he should save her and if it was possible or not to save her.

Young Suk instantly got up and threw his body towards her. Even as he leaped towards her, he calculated that, although he would be hit, there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t allow himself to not save someone when he was capable of doing so. This way of thinking was embedded on an instinctive level. He was like this since he was young.

 

However, his calculations were off.

It was because the driver hurriedly turned the wheel and pressed the brakes.

 

Krriiiiiiieeek- Bang!!

 

Instead, the girl was. .h.i.t head-on and he also was. .h.i.t by the back of the vehicle. Even as he rolled, Young Suk gazed at the girl.

Unbelievably, the girl flew up in the air like a fairy. Then she smacked against the traffic lights, emitting an ominous sound, before falling head-first towards the ground.

 

Thud.

 

When a person’s body fell onto the ground, it resulted in a horrible sound.

The girl’s neck was broken. Should he say it was white or yellow, no, it was brown. Her brain matter and blood mixed together and formed a strange puddle. Young Suk saw this terrifying scene while lying down before feeling an excruciating pain from his legs and fainting. He felt like he would die from this heart-stopping horror.

Then, when he woke up, he didn’t remember anything.

 

 

‘Yeah, that happened. In the end, that girl died and I became handicapped.’

 

Young Suk finally understood the ident.i.ty of this ominous feeling.

It was a tragic accident that couldn’t be erased from his life.

It was because he was faced with the terrifying turning point which resulted in him living his entire life as a handicapped.

 

Although it felt very long, the playback of his memory only took one to two seconds.

The traffic lights turned green and the girl was hurriedly crossing the street. Even in the eyes of an adult, she looked very cute and bright.

 

‘For such a young, weak girl…’

 

His heart was torn.

A car rushed towards her out of nowhere.

It was the same as in the past.

 

“f.u.c.k!!!”

 

Even when faced with this horrible memory, a memory that went beyond the realms of trauma and had resulted in short-term memory loss, Young Suk rushed forwar

d.

If an accident occurred again, if he had to live a life plagued with this gloominess again, if, this time, he lost his life rather than his legs…

Young Suk was human. Faced with such thoughts, he wanted to stop. However, he didn’t hesitate. Even though he was terrified and distressed, he also possessed an unyielding spirit and stubbornness that he would be able to overcome this and that it would be different this time. He was born this way.

 

His legs worked properly.

His legs, which he didn’t dare think of running and felt discomfort from just walking, moved so quickly it was strange. The normally enc.u.mbering process disappeared. He even doubted whether they were his real legs. Had he ever run this fast in his whole life? His body felt like it was floating; it was a strange sensation. He literally felt like a feather.

 

Crossing the street, his speed made him feel as though the girl had suddenly come up to him. Rather than him actually running, it felt like the s.p.a.ce in front of him was being pulled towards him. He was as fast as a ghost, G.o.d-speed{1}.

Distracting thoughts cleared away as his instincts took over.

Surprised by his hurried steps, the girl turned around and looked at Young Suk.

Young Suk saw her eyes widen very clearly and slowly.

The speed at which the truck was approaching also felt slow. At most, it felt like the speed of a bicycle.

Everything slowed besides Young Suk’s legs, which moved quickly. There was a disparity.

 

Young Suk embraced the girl.

Even though the girl clearly looked heavier than him, he didn’t feel any strain.

…The problem was that the girl was taller than him.

While it would have been normal if he was taken aback, he put more strength into his arms, which were holding the girl, and kicked off the ground forcefully.

The running speed transferred to his jump as his body floated, or rather, flew through the air.

Vroooom!

 

Safely crossing the street and rolling on the ground, Young Suk saw the license plate of the speeding truck. He saw it clearly as if the license plate was ingrained in his eyes. Although he didn’t notice it himself, his eyes looked as though they were burning.

 

 

A treacherous incident had occurred in broad daylight.

The adults in the surroundings gathered with widened eyes.

Young Suk looked at the girl in his embrace. It seemed she was shocked as her body was stiff and her face was pale. She seemed to be so shocked that she forgot to breathe as there were no signs of her breathing. She didn’t even blink and just trembled.

 

He was happy.

The girl who had died, and his legs which had become paralyzed.

Everything was fine. He overcame it.

An enthralling joy ran down his spine and throughout his body.

Young Suk tightly hugged the girl and patted her back.

 

“It’s okay. It’s okay.”

 

The girl’s body became warm.

Then she began to wail.

Even though the muscles in his legs felt stiff and painful, Young Suk paid them no heed.

He had won.

He had beaten his past.

 

 

“Young Suk!!!”

 

Accompanied by loud bangs, his parents opened the hospital room door and rushed in.

Even though it was still a cool spring, their blouse and s.h.i.+rt were wet. They must have ran as fast as they could.

Young Suk smiled as though telling them to calm down. Then he glanced around at his surroundings.

It was a two-person room.

In the bed beside his, the girl looked frightened as she saw Young Suk’s parents. After finally calming down, his parents came up to him and patted his entire body.

 

“Are you okay? Are you?”

 

Young Suk hugged his parents as he said,

 

“I’m fine. I’m not hurt at all.”

 

Young Ae entered the hospital room afterwards and said a few things.

 

“The witnesses contacted the hospital and we brought them here on an ambulance. Fortunately, the children aren’t hurt. I checked them carefully so don’t worry. Still, we admitted them into the hospital in case they were in shock.”

“Thank you, Young Ae…”

“Thanks… We keep troubling you.”

 

His parents kept thanking her.

Young Ae gave a friendly smile as she told Young Suk to rest and before leaving.

The girl had fallen asleep during this time.

 

“Haa, your mom’s mentality is melting these days. Just what is going on?”

 

Looking at his parents sitting on the chairs and letting out sighs of relief, Young Suk opened his mouth.

 

“I told you before. In the future, I became handicapped…”

“Yeah.”

 

As his eyes turned cold, Young Suk said,

 

“I remember now. Why I became handicapped.”

 

Young Suk told his parents of the strange sense of déjà vu he had felt and the events he had experienced.

He told them that he hadn’t been able to save the girl, but was able to this time, that his legs were fine, and he remembered the license plate of the vehicle.

 

“I’ll catch him.”

 

These words conveyed Yi Hyun Wu’s determination.

 

“I’ll definitely catch him. I’ll catch him and make him rot in jail for the rest of his life.”

 

While saying such aggressive words that didn’t suit her, Han Min Ji’s voice sounded frosty.

 

{1} The author used the ‘s.h.i.+n (G.o.d)’ Hanja for ‘s.h.i.+n-sok (Quickness)’, so it has been translated as ‘G.o.d-speed’.