Me, The Cheerleading Captain, Refusing To Be The Football Captain’s Mate Chapter 08

Me, The Cheerleading Captain, Refusing To Be The Football Captain’s Mate Chapter 08

At the final game of the season, our team won.

Early the next morning, I started packing and preparing to leave for graduate school overseas.

While I was clearing out my desk, I found an old photo of Ronan and me. He was still wearing that jersey, his arm draped over my shoulder. We were both smiling as if we had already planned out our entire lives.

I stared at the photo for a while.

Then I smiled.

The old ache in my chest that used to rise whenever I saw his face was gone.

Caelan, who had been leaning silently against the doorframe, suddenly spoke. “Do you still miss him?”

My fingers tightened around the photo.

“What?”

“He’s begging you to come back now,” Caelan said in a low voice. “So are you going to forgive him? Stay for him? Throw away all your plans for him again?”

I frowned. “Caelan—”

“What does he have that I don’t?” he cut me off, his voice turning sharper. “Is he better-looking than me? When has he ever treated you better than I have? Is he smarter than me? Does he understand you

better than I do?”

I froze.

The more he said, the more wrong it sounded.

“Caelan,” I said slowly, “why are you angry?”

He stopped.

A few minutes later, we were sitting in his car. Without warning, he pulled over to the side of the road. The engine hummed softly between us. He turned toward me, and his gaze was deeper than I had ever seen it.

“Willa,” he said, each word soft and serious, “don’t go back to him.”

My breath caught.

“I came back because I wanted to take you overseas with me,” he said. “But after all these years, I’m still afraid you won’t see the person right in front of you.”

I could not move.

Then he looked straight at me and said, “I’ve fallen in love with you. So for the rest of your life, could you at least consider choosing me?”

In that second, the whole world went quiet.

My thoughts scattered completely.

Caelan was my best friend’s brother.

He was the boy who had always stood beside me.

And now he was asking me to look at him in a different way.

As for what happened after that, well, there was nothing especially dramatic about it. I went overseas for graduate school, tried different jobs, and eventually decided to become a Director of Team Operations.

At first, the owner did not trust me. The coaches questioned me. They dismissed me as just a former cheer captain.

Then I used one trade to bring in a player who truly fit the team’s system.

Later, when a star player and the coach clashed and the media waited for the team to implode, I closed the conference-room door, calmly negotiated terms, and got both sides back onto the field.

By the end of the season, everyone admitted I had been the key to turning the team around.

To be honest, the pressure was enormous, but I never once thought about giving up.

Four years later, I met Ronan and Rafe again.

Rafe came over and shook my hand.

“Willa, you’ve truly come into your own. You’re brighter than any athlete I ever coached.”

I smiled and said, “And you’re still the greatest coach this university has ever had.”

Ronan stood behind Rafe in a suit. He kept looking at me as if he wanted to say something but did not know how.

“Willa.” Ronan gave me a stiff smile. “Are you doing well?”

“Pretty well.”

He still seemed to want to say something.

Just then, the conference-room door opened, and a man came in holding a pair of twins.

He quickly walked to my side.

“Willa, they woke up and started crying when they couldn’t see you. I had no choice but to bring them to you first.”

I gave an apologetic smile to the people who had come over to speak with me, then took one of the children.

The child reached for me happily the moment she saw me.

Ronan trembled all over. “You… you’ve had a mating ceremony?”

The other child was still crying, and I could not help feeling anxious. “Yes.”

Ronan clenched his fists. “Then who is their father, Willa? You used to say you would hold a mating ceremony with me.”

After four years, was Ronan seriously still losing his mind over this?

I quickly swept my gaze across the conference hall, but I did not see the person I was looking for. I picked up the other child too and started walking out.

At the same time, I instructed the assistant beside me, “Text me when the seminar is about to start. I’m going upstairs to get them settled and asleep.”

Just then, Caelan finally rushed in.

He hurried to my side, a bead of sweat still on his temple, and took both children from my arms.

“I’m sorry, Willa. I’m so sorry. They were both asleep, so I only stepped next door for a quick meeting.”

When the people nearby saw Caelan, they gathered around again.

“Oh, Caelan. Are these yours and Willa’s children? They’re adorable.”

“I was at Caelan and Willa’s mating ceremony, but I had no idea they already had a little princess and a little prince.”

I was surrounded by people too. Through a gap in the crowd, my gaze met Ronan’s.

This time, he flinched, and a bitter smile tugged at his mouth.

Then he quietly turned and left.

After that, I never saw him again.

I heard his pro career suffered setback after setback, and in the end, like countless other players, he quietly retired from the game.

Everyone’s life is like that. We love, we hate, and then we go our own way.

The road ahead was long and bright. Nothing behind me was worth

turning back for.