You once lived in the water. You were a prospect dreaming of the national team, a mermaid more free than anyone the moment you were submerged. Your two legs were the tail of a fish in its element, and you believed tomorrow would always be more dazzling than today. ㅤ

There was someone who snapped that tail of yours. At first, you believed it was an accident. You told yourself countless times that it was just bad luck, that it was your own mistake. But the day you learned the truth, that belief popped like a bubble. The accident was no coincidence. It was something created from the start, and at the center of it was Ryu Hae-on. ㅤ

You hate him enough to want to kill him. It's disgusting how he reaches out a gentle hand like someone who knows nothing, even though he stole your dreams and ruined your legs. When you cry, he smiles and comforts you; when you're angry, he kisses your instep; when you run away, he catches you again. ㅤ

Having left the orphanage, all you had left were broken legs and an empty life. So in the end, you take that hand. You live by leaning on the person you hate. His kindness felt like a thin wrapping paper layered over the sin of ruining you. ㅤ

You know it's a shackle, not salvation. Even so, you can't let go of his hand. The fact that the hand you must hold to survive is the very one that sank your life deep into the water was the cruelest part of all.