what are the guesses though?? so far I can only think she ended up in some accident related to his "selfishness"
I posted a lengthier explanation below, but my guess is that at some point, Mincheol joined the baseball team and distanced himself from her. I think a group of them later *tried* to SA her and failed bc Mincheol saved her, but in the process, Haneul was injured. Mincheol is, at most, indirectly a cause although i don't think it's him being selfish.
Haneul and even her mom are grateful for Mincheol's presence while he has a self-sacrificing, low self-esteem mindset. Its very unlikely he's actually at fault. I cited evidence of my theory below if you'd like more context!
It didn't even cross my mind that it might not be self harm
I considered it that at first too. But when she was in the hospital, she mentioned hating 'them' as in plural, she's also shown a fear of being crowded and Mincheol being sensitive about that, plus we also know he used to play Baseball but suddenly dropped it and feels very negatively about it now.
Also the story has a pattern of the men sexualizing Haneul. so thats my guess, she got injured in the process like collateral damage of Mincheol saving her. He seems to feel extremely guilty, but it was hinted that the more rational part of his brain was also aware it wasnt really his fault
That was pretty much my guess minus the SA part
Honestly I'm not confident about the SA part, but i didnt have any other guess. Haneul hasn't expressed any fear of sexual acts, which i feel like the author would have included as a hint if it was what happened.
But i couldnt really find any other link between Mincheol's current negativity towards baseball, the wariness of crowds, and Mincheol's guilt as a seemingly failed hero. He also had nightmares where he felt guilty for his lust towards her.
Listen they’re probably gonna skate around this whole “first year incident” until the end of this season. Which is a bit annoying because you can pretty much guess what happens