Chapter 4 Did not recognise

Leila POV....

Matt have forgotten me completely. It is so funny that he did not recognize me. I did not have fringes earlier and I was skinny to death. My friends always teased me as a dry fish. That is mean of them for body shaming me but after all, they were my friends. I simply let the case slide.

I have changed from the teenage girl to this woman at thirty now. My body changed and my looks too. People often compliment me as the K-pop girl version and often asked if I ever tried to join the industry. I really want to, but I am not sure if age is something I should be worried about. They usually prefer young females in the beginning of their career. However, I do have plans to audition in the future as I am bored doing a nine-hour shift on weekdays and sleep like a pig on weekends.

I am a super busy person. I have my badminton coaching to go to and that is how my body changed. I had to literally transform my body to get stronger and bulkier with some strong muscles built. Although I am a shorty of about five inches, I could never increase my height. I got this from my father.

My father is short and not even fall in the average category of height for men.

Oh Yeah!

I got this shorty height from him, and my mother has the average height of a woman in the country. Hence, my mother is taller than my father and this is not a prejudice to wonder.

It is fine and this made them equivalent to Tom and Jerry in real life.

It is surprising that Matt could not see me as someone who can be with him for the rest of his life. Once he knows me that I am the teenage weird, tom boy and too innocent girl who was once his girlfriend, he would ghost me again.

I am old enough not to care about it anymore. I am bold and independent. I have become that woman in my life who does not need any validation of any human being and not even a man for support. I am happy the way I am living my life.

I am alone and away from my parents. I take care of them from far but I do not stay with them anymore. They cannot protect me from the family drama and toxicity. Hence, I called it quit and live all my myself. I have maintained my personal life, career and finance all by myself all these years.

I wonder what Matt is up to. He was always into movies and photography. He was a student who never really studied but was always busy flirting with women even when he had me as his girlfriend. He had issues with loyalty and the excuse he gave me was that he is young. He wants to enjoy life before he settles down with me.

What made him think he could continue being disloyal and hurt me all the while until he finally decides to marry me? He did not try to keep me either but by gone are by gone now.

I am a different woman who loves being alone and someone, who does not need a husband but the world championship trophy. I am ambitious and as a woman, I do not wish to follow the protocol of education, marriage, children, and grandmother life. This is a standard protocol that every human being, especially females follow, and my father made sure that I never did.

Even if I marry someday, I will make sure I am continuing my sports career and do not sacrifice it to earn for children or support my man-child husband in the future. I have my life too and sometimes; women are expected to live for others more than they live for themselves. I am not a good woman that is standardized by the society.

I am a devil of my own life and I have a dream which I want to achieve. People can hate me, and I am least bothered to be loved. Nobody is paying my bills except me and before I am judged, people better remember this.

I wish I knew Matt played in the same group I went to. Basically, I was trying to fool around and see how people play badminton casually. I have always been in coaching and my environment is full of professional players. I face tremendous pressure from the trainers for performance. So, I decided to have fun in my own way and decided to join the group.

Although people were welcoming, they were not so technical in terms of the game. Maybe, not everyone is ready to struggle and hustle in coaching mode. Everyone could find a way towards glory, and it is all about regular practice at the end. They will find their way too. I was happy that nobody focused on my so-called techniques and all. It would be mean to speak but nobody seemed to know at the same time.

I am happy not being scolded for the errors I made. The players were funny with a great sense of humor. I think I will join them regularly after my coaching sessions. As for Matt, I can keep it professional. He was forgiven long back and totally understood that he needed to live his life his way.

Considering the excitement of playing without being judged on the technique, I managed to drop a text message requesting her approval to let me join tomorrow for the games. She took my number earlier before we started to play, and she gave hers. She seemed to be quite close to Matt and even called her brother.

Ignoring any thoughts about Matt, although he looked very handsome and cute as a man. He was two years older than me and seeing him after more than a decade, is great because he turned out to be a gentleman over time. I am sure there will be many girls drooling over him and he may be having hundreds of girlfriends already.

Nevertheless, I am happy with the ways the things are turning out to be in life. Although I am financially at a lower point due to several debts, I have been able to manage it well. Although I am constantly on the quest to increase my wealth, it is still a struggle. I really hope to settle down financially with peace in my mind.

If I run into a medical emergency like an injury that I had recently, I could not afford enough sessions for physiotherapy. Hence, I managed self-physiotherapy sessions for myself to control the budget on the same. I am not sure how effective my exercises had been, but I am aware that my post injury recovery will be slightly painful.

I am pushing my sports career and I know my financial struggle is temporary. Things will get better as my salary increases over time. Above all, with continuous practice which is again a struggle at the moment, I will be able to manage my sports career too with the passage of time. Some people will have glory in the sports field early as their parents provide the financial support to them. I can't burden my parents for my dreams.

I may delay success in sports field but I will do it. I am not in a hurry. The other players who are being sponsored by their parents can gain access to success first. I always believed in the saying 'good things come to those who wait'. Someday, Leila will also be the world champion. I will wait for that moment and the whole world too.