Chapter 220: May’s Clumsy Confession

The moment the time hit the board, May didn’t wait for feedback, diagnostic breakdowns, or sympathy. She spun on her heel, threw her head down, and made a beeline straight for the locker room doors, her hands balled into tight fists.

I didn’t hesitate. "I’ll be right back," I called out to Tiana and the girls, stepping onto the track to pursue her.

If this kept going—if she let this spiral destroy her mentally on top of the physical frustration—her confidence as a world-class athlete was going to be completely crushed beyond repair. I had to fix this now.

"May! Stop for a second," I called out, my footsteps echoing off the corridor walls as she marched ahead.

She completely ignored me, picking up her pace. "May!"

She reached the locker room door and tried to push through, but I surged forward, stepping in front of her and cutting off her path. She stumbled back a step, backing up until her shoulders hit the tiled wall of the entryway, cornered.

"What was that out there?" I asked, my voice firm but laced with genuine concern. "You were flying, May. And then you just... stopped."

May refused to meet my eyes, her chest heaving as she panted. "It’s—it’s the spikes," she grumbled, her voice strained as she gestured wildly down at her track shoes. "The grip on the sole is completely off! Something isn’t right with the custom balance plates Tiana put in. It threw off my traction at sixty meters."

"May, stop," I said quietly, cutting right through the excuse. "The shoes are fine. We ran three separate traction calibration tests on those exact spikes yesterday, and the data was flawless. You know as well as I do that it wasn’t the shoes."

I stepped closer, lowering my tone. "What is truly the problem?"

That was the breaking point. The iron wall she had been desperately holding up for days finally fractured.

"I DON’T KNOW!" May snapped, her voice suddenly booming off the tiled walls as she yelled right into my face. "I don’t know, okay?! I don’t damn know!"

She shoved at my chest, but the moment her hands made contact, all the fierce aggression drained out of her completely. Her breath hitched into a sharp, shuddering gasp. Her shoulders slouched, her voice suddenly cracking into a tiny, broken whisper.

Glistening tears welled up in her eyes, spilling over her flushed cheeks from pure, unfiltered frustration.

"I don’t know..." she sobbed softly, wiping her face violently with the back of her wrist, looking up at me completely bare and helpless. "My head is just... it’s so full of noise, Ethan..."

I stepped in close, wrapping my arms around her trembling shoulders and pulling her against my chest.

"Hey," I murmured softly, resting my hand against the back of her head as she let out a shaky breath. "Look at me. Talk to me, May. Whatever it is, just lay it out."

May tried to push back for a half-second—her instinct to fight still firing on habit—before she completely surrendered, gripping the front of my shirt so tightly her knuckles turned white.

"It’s you, damn it!" she blurted out, her voice loud, raw, and hopelessly clumsy, vibrating with a messy mix of fiery frustration and deep affection. "It’s all your fault, Ethan! Ever since... ever since you took me on that stupid ride, ever since you looked at me like that and kissed me, my brain is completely fried! I get on those starting blocks and I’m supposed to be thinking about my drive phase, but all I can hear is your voice! All I can see is your face!"

She pressed her forehead hard against my chest, her tears soaking right through my shirt as her words tumbled out in an aggressive, breathless confession.

"I can’t think straight because of you!" she sobbed, her grip tightening even more. "I’ve spent my whole life only caring about running, about being the fastest, about being tough. But now... every time you get close, my heart starts racing faster than it ever does on the track! It scares the absolute hell out of me, Ethan... because I’m completely, totally in love with you, and I don’t know how to handle it!"

She squeezed her eyes shut, her chest heaving as the raw truth finally spilled out into the quiet space between us.

The second those words left her mouth, a sudden wave of sheer panic washed over May’s face. Her eyes went wide, and her cheeks flushed into an intense, fiery crimson. Mortified that she had just screamed out her absolute most vulnerable feelings, she gasped, trying desperately to yank herself out of my grip and sprint away to hide.

"Wait—forget I said that! Let me go!" she squeaked, wriggling frantically.

"I am not letting you run away from this, May," I said firmly, wrapping my arms tighter around her waist to pull her right back against me.

She stopped fighting, her hands resting against my chest, her breath coming in shallow, shuddering hitches as she refused to look me in the eye.

"Look at me, May," I whispered, lifting her chin gently so she had to meet my gaze. "Falling in love isn’t a weakness. It doesn’t make you soft, and it definitely doesn’t make you a worse athlete. It’s not something you have to fight against or feel ashamed of—it can be your greatest strength."

May swallowed hard, her wet eyelashes fluttering as tears still glistened on her cheeks. "Ethan..."

"You don’t have to carry this burden all by yourself anymore," I continued softly, wiping a stray tear off her flushed cheek with my thumb. "You’re not in this alone. I love you, May. Madly. And I’m not going anywhere."

A soft, trembling gasp escaped her lips, her defensive walls completely dissolving into pure relief.

Before she could construct another tough response, I leaned in and pressed my lips firmly against hers.

For a split second, May froze in shock. Then, with a quiet, contented sigh, she let go of all the tension in her body. Her arms wound tightly around my neck, pulling me closer as she kissed me back with all the fierce, pent-up passion and affection she’d been bottling up inside for weeks.

When we finally broke apart, May rested her forehead against mine, her eyes half-lidded, her cheeks glowing pink, and a soft, genuine smile finally gracing her lips.

"So..." she whispered, her voice still a little breathless, "you really mean that?"

"Every word," I smirked gently, kissing the tip of her nose. "Now, what do you say we get back out there and show everyone what you can actually do when your head is clear?"