Gold | Park Sunghoon

11

Injuries

Sunghoon removed his gloves as soon as he stepped off the ice. Almost immediately, he settled on a bench and started to remove his ice skates carefully as well. For the athlete, training had just ended; and he was more than happy to leave the rink—not because he didn't want to be there. The boy wanted dinner, and he was excited to see his friends after a long training.

He was excited to be able to finally rest and have fun.

As he removed his left ice skate, he felt an uncomfortable sensation in his ankle. It wasn't painful, it was just a dull feeling that bothered him. "What's wrong, Sunghoon?" His coach asked as she sat down beside him. She noticed him clutching and rolling his ankle in different directions. "Does it hurt?"

"No, just uncomfortable," he replied quickly as he tried to feel his ankle. His coach's hands replaced his and started to feel the parts he had just touched; pain nor swelling evident. "Did it feel weird after you landed wrong on your triple axel?" She asked him, letting go of his foot softly. The boy shook his head and slipped his foot into more comfortable shoes. He didn't feel anything the whole four hours of training, so he was a little concerned as to where he could have possibly gotten it from.

He watched his coach's face contort in confusion. "Well..." she seemed to have been deep in thought before continuing. "Although I'm sure it's not serious, I suggest you go to the physical therapist to have to have it checked before the competition next month. We don't want it to get worse," she added. 

It was currently December, which meant Sunghoon had an upcoming competition in January. The competition was important to him as it usually determined if he was going to compete internationally. He knew that he had no other choice but to have his ankle checked, but he grimaced at the thought of having to visit the sports clinic and see the physical therapist. The older woman was nice to him, but she wasn't the reason why he despised going.

Being in the center of all the training facilities, the sports clinic was always crowded. It was big, sure, but it was very noisy. Sunghoon, being the kind of person who disliked hearing too much noise, always avoided going there. The last time he went there was because of a slight mishap with his back; he had to push through the group of girls crowding by the door, and all the seats and beds were taken because even the people who weren't fully injured just wanted to stay there.

After that, he swore to never go again unless absolutely necessary.

Sunghoon bid his coach goodbye and fixed his things. He thought about it for a bit: if he went now, he could get his ankle checked quickly and avoid the crowd since he was sure that he had been dismissed slightly earlier than all the other athletes. It was a two-minute walk away from him, so he picked up his pace and brisk walked.

When he got in the sports clinic, he was surprised by the unusual absence of noise and people. Barely anyone was there; except for the the physical therapist and another athlete who seemed to be groaning in pain as she laid prone—facing down—on the bed. He looked inside the clinic and headed back out to double check the name of the place ("Just to make sure," he mumbled to himself) before fully heading back into the bed area to call the older woman's attention.