Emergency Live Broadcast
Within hours of the problem post hitting the internet, club officials were already gathered around the conference table in the Suwon clubhouse.
General Manager Lee Sang-ho, the head of PR, the operations director, and even the media relations officer.
Every face at the table wore a grave expression.
On the screen at the front of the room, page after page of football community websites flashed by in rotation — posts with Kim Hanbin's name in the title alongside the words doping, drugs, and steroids, and beneath them, comment sections churning without pause.
"How far has this controversy spread?"
General Manager Lee Sang-ho asked in a heavy voice. The PR director answered with a stiff face.
"From what we can tell... assume every domestic football community worth mentioning is talking about nothing else. Several sports outlets have already started calling with inquiries."
"Haaah..."
Lee Sang-ho let out a long sigh and rubbed his face dry.
Kim Hanbin was at the very center of the firestorm currently scorching the internet. And it wasn't just any scandal — it was a doping suspicion, one that could prove fatal to a player's career.
"The doping test we ran when he signed... nothing came up, correct?"
The general manager turned to the operations director, half question, half confirmation.
"No, sir. The doping test results under K League regulations. Completely clean."
"Then can't we release that data officially and refute the claims? We need to make it unambiguously clear that our player has done nothing wrong."
The media relations officer spoke firmly. But the PR director's face only grew more troubled.
"Of course, we're prepared to do exactly that. But if you look at the community sentiment right now, the basic test results alone won't be enough. The overwhelming reaction is 'isn't this just the club protecting its own' and 'we don't buy it — post the results of a full panel.' And above all... the fact that the post came from Seoul Citizen's official club account is what's really pouring fuel on the fire."
"And the photo they've attached to the allegations is... well..."
"Hoo..."
General Manager Lee Sang-ho had already seen the photo himself.
Frankly, he could understand, at least in part, why the suspicions had snowballed this far.
Even I find it hard to believe that kind of muscle was built in a mere nine months... ordinary fans raising doubts about it is only natural...
The situation was far more complicated than he had first thought.
Just then, the operations director, who had been listening in silence, could no longer contain himself and raised his voice.
"No, come on — those Seoul bastards! Isn't this going too far?! How can a club, with an official account no less, take a shot at another team's player like this? God, unbelievable!"
The PR director nodded along vigorously.
"And here's the truly shameless part — they posted it anonymously at first, quietly trying to whip up the mob, and now they're claiming they simply forgot to log out. If they had genuine questions about Kim Hanbin, they should have raised the matter formally with the league! What kind of dog-and-pony nonsense is this?!"
After a long silence, General Manager Lee Sang-ho finally spoke.
"For now... the most important thing is protecting Kim Hanbin."
He turned to the PR director and gave his orders.
"PR team — if any official interview requests or contact from media outlets reach Kim Hanbin, instruct him to decline all of them without responding. Personal social media activity should be suspended for the time being as well. There's no need for a single slip of the tongue to fan the flames."
"Understood, sir."
"And have the legal team begin an immediate review of Seoul Citizen's conduct. This clearly constitutes defamation and obstruction of business."
"We'll get started right away."
The general manager took a breath, then spoke with resolve.
"In the meantime, I'll place a call directly to Seoul Citizen's general manager myself. What on earth is the meaning of this... And we will demand an official apology and explanation."
Tension rippled through the conference room once more at his words.
"Then let's wrap up today's meeting here—"
The very moment the general manager rose from his seat to adjourn—
"Um... sir! One moment!"
The operations director cried out in a rush and thrust his phone screen toward the general manager.
"What is it now? What's going on?"
When the general manager asked with a puzzled look, the operations director answered in a trembling voice.
"Uh... right now... Cha Kangmin just... started a YouTube livestream...?"
"I'm sorry, what? Kangmin? Out of nowhere, a livestream—?"
The general manager's brow furrowed.
The operations director pointed at his phone screen with a dazed expression.
"The thing is... the problem is... the stream title is..."
"What's the title?"
"[EMERGENCY LIVE] Ask Suwon's Kim Hanbin Anything! All Rumors Addressed Directly, Right Here! ...Sir... it looks like Kim Hanbin is on the stream with him right now...!!"
"......What?!!"
With afternoon training wrapped up, the players had returned to their lodgings for their individual recovery routines.
Hanbin had finished his shower and was lying on his bed, catching his breath.
Knock knock knock—
A knock sounded at his door.
...Who could that be?
There shouldn't be anyone looking for him. Hanbin got up from the bed with a puzzled look and opened the door.
Standing in the doorway was Cha Kangmin in his training gear, a box of fried chicken in one hand.
"Hey! Kim Hanbin! Quit moping around in here and come tear into some chicken with me! This is the kind of time you just eat and blow off steam, you punk!"
Cha Kangmin said it with forced cheer, brighter than usual.
But Kim Hanbin only stared back, a question written across his face.
"What do you mean, moping, hyung? What are you talking about? Wait — you just got bored eating chicken alone?"
For a moment, Cha Kangmin was at a loss for words.
"No, you little... your captain, who's basically heaven itself to you, went out of his way to buy chicken and make the royal pilgrimage all the way here because he was worried you'd be down in the dumps, and—!"
A giant question mark practically materialized over Kim Hanbin's face.
"Why would I be down in the dumps? Training wrapped up fine today, and I'm in great shape."
Now it was Cha Kangmin's turn to be thrown off — a question mark blooming on his own face this time.
"Hey... are you serious... do you not go on the internet at all?"
"Nope... I never really have anything to look at, so I don't really bother. Why?"
At Hanbin's answer, Cha Kangmin muttered a quiet aw, dammit under his breath.
"So am I just stirring up trouble for nothing here? No, come on — he's going to find out eventually..."
While Cha Kangmin stood in the doorway grumbling to himself, Hanbin waved him inside.
"Hyung, stop hovering in the doorway and just come in already."
Cha Kangmin stepped into the room and set the chicken box down on the table.
The two began eating in silence. An odd, uncomfortable quiet hung in the air.
Between bites of chicken, Cha Kangmin kept sneaking glances at Kim Hanbin's face.
Finally, seeing him like that, Hanbin spoke first.
"Hyung. Is there something you want to say? You've been acting weird for a while now."
Cha Kangmin hemmed and hawed for a long moment... then finally forced the words out.
"Hey, Hanbin. So... there's... uh... stuff going around on the internet about you. Doping stuff. It's gotten pretty loud."
"I'm sorry — doping? Me?"
Kim Hanbin shot back, utterly dumbfounded. It was the first he'd ever heard of it.
Cha Kangmin began stumbling through an explanation.
"See... there's... a picture of you from last winter going around online... it's one of you with a bunch of little kids... and your body in that picture is so different from your body now that... people are talking. Saying you suddenly got way too fit..."
Kim Hanbin fell into thought for a moment.
Last winter... that would be around when I was working as a coach at the youth football academy, wouldn't it?
"Oh — that must be the photo from when I was coaching part-time at the football academy."
"What? You coached?"
"Yeah, well... it was the lower elementary school class, so mostly I just watched the kids kick the ball around and played with them. It was a hobby-level class. I was juggling it with another part-time job."
"Hm... I see."
Cha Kangmin paused. Then he asked, carefully.
"Hanbin. You... you really... haven't done anything? Doping or steroids or... anything like that?"
Woven into Kangmin's voice, beneath the worry, was the faintest thread of doubt.
Kim Hanbin stared at him for a moment with a look of pure, weary disdain.
"Hyung."
"Y-yeah?"
"I haven't. Actually, what exactly do you take your teammate for, asking me that? Do I look like I'd be that stupid? Football runs doping tests every other match day — you think I wouldn't know that?"
Held under that firm, unimpressed gaze, Cha Kangmin studied Hanbin in silence for a beat.
Then — pfft! — a short snort burst out of him, and he started laughing outright.
"Pfft, hahaha! That's right! Our Hanbin would never! I was worrying over nothing! That's on me! Sorry, Hanbin!"
Cha Kangmin leapt to his feet and bowed his head in apology.
"No, hyung, don't make such a huge production out of it. Get up."
Hanbin laughed awkwardly and pulled him back into his seat.
Cha Kangmin sat back down and picked up another piece of chicken.
"So what are you going to do about this? The club's probably going to put out an official statement and wait for things to quiet down... You should just keep your head down too, right? If you step out there and it blows up any bigger, it's a headache for everyone."
"Hmm..."
Kim Hanbin considered it for a moment.
"What exactly is the reaction online right now? Let me take a look myself."
Hanbin picked up his phone and pulled up the Suwon Blue Sky gallery.
└ Suwon bastards trying to cover the sky with their palms tsk tsk. Kim Hanbin looks like a juicer at a glance
└ Damn it, Seoul bastards — crawl back to your own gallery, why are you coming here to run your mouths
└ Ulsan fan here, god damn it. Did we lose because of that juicer? Shouldn't the league restore our points?
└ Gangwon fan here, restore ours too damn it. We drew a game we should've won 3 points from because of the juicer, dropped to 1 point, and it's pissing me off
└ Damn it, this is the Suwon gallery. Other teams' bastards, get out~!!!
└ ???: From this moment, this is the Manchester United gallery
└ Now even these bastards are here, god damn it
└ Seoul folks abandoned their home ground like it was nothing, looks like they abandoned their gallery too yep;
└ This is the most entertaining place on the internet right now, where are you going, for real lol
└ What is the Suwon front office doing? Signing a juicer like that without a single check tsk tsk
└ └ The way I see it, they knew and signed him anyway yep. Suwon's in the relegation zone, they had to grab onto something
└ Still nothing from the Suwon front office? lol Sigh, they're probably racking their brains trying to squeeze out excuses lol
└ Other teams' bastards rushing to bury him the second a once-in-a-generation rookie shows up in Suwon — it's genuinely disgusting
The Suwon Blue Sky gallery was a war zone.
Between the usual Suwon users defending their ground, fans from rival K League clubs swarming in to attack, and everyone else who'd wandered in just to watch the world burn, posts were flooding in at a staggering rate.
"Wow..."
As he kept scrolling, one heavily upvoted comment caught Hanbin's eye.
Cha Kangmin scowled when he heard it.
"Hey, why are you reading that kind of toxic garbage? Don't let it get to you."
But Kim Hanbin saw things differently.
"Hm... Hyung. That person isn't entirely wrong."
Hanbin began typing something rapidly on his phone.
And then he composed a brand-new post and uploaded it to the Blue Sky gallery.
Sore about it? Come in and ask me to my face. Yep. Damn it.
The moment Hanbin's post went up, dozens of comments came pouring in almost instantly.
└ ???? Is this actually Kim Hanbin???
└ Hell yes, that's our gallery king for you lmaooo so damn refreshing lol
└ SuwonRealMan earning that name, whoa
└ We always believed in you, Gallery Lord. Great Gallery Lord Kim Hanbin
└ He's going live?? lolol no way I'm missing this lolol
└ The Blue Sky gallery is about to explode today lmaooo
└ Dopamine festival, let's go~
└ Don't know what's going on but any K League fan finding this situation hilarious, downvote— I mean upvote, yep lol
Kim Hanbin skimmed the comment section once, then turned to Cha Kangmin.
"Hyung. Lend me your YouTube account."
"Huh? Out of nowhere? Why mine?"
Cha Kangmin asked with a puzzled look.
"You said this is the hottest topic on the internet right now, didn't you? If you go live now and clarify everything yourself, your channel's subscriber count should shoot right up, shouldn't it?"
At Hanbin's suggestion, Cha Kangmin mulled it over briefly, then nodded.
"Alright! Honestly, what those Seoul bastards pulled was pissing me off like crazy anyway — I figure we're entitled to answer back in kind!"
Cha Kangmin pulled out his own phone and opened YouTube.
He hit the start-stream button and typed in the title.
[EMERGENCY LIVE] Ask Suwon's Kim Hanbin Anything!
All Rumors Addressed Directly, Right Here!
Ding—!
The instant Cha Kangmin's YouTube livestream went live, the viewer count began climbing at an alarming rate.
Within seconds of the stream-start notification going out, hundreds of people had piled into the stream.
"Wow... bait really does work. Three hundred already."
Cha Kangmin clicked his tongue in amazement.
When Kangmin streamed his usual rambling solo shows, a hundred-odd viewers was the absolute ceiling — and now that number had been blown past in less than a minute of airtime.
Chats were scrolling up the bottom of the screen in real time.
user_2211: ? Is this real? An actual Kim Hanbin livestream?
soccerfan99: Whoa, insane lolol is this seriously a clarification stream?
blueboy_88: Damn, for real, that's a true Suwon Real Man move lol. Charging straight at it head-on — gotta respect the audacity
mysterylamp: So did Kim Hanbin juice or not? TELL US ALREADY hyung, no time
kyfan_01: Would a juicer be insane enough to start his own damn stream? Idiot? lol
While Cha Kangmin was reading through the incoming chats, Kim Hanbin asked, perfectly composed.
"Hyung, how many people are watching right now?"
"Huh? Uh... looks like around five hundred at the moment?"
"Hmm... fewer than I expected. Then let's wait until more people gather before we start talking."
"Huh? What did you say?"
Cha Kangmin asked back, baffled.
Kim Hanbin said it like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Explaining everything twice is a hassle. Might as well finish the chicken while we wait."
"...Right."
Cha Kangmin was briefly at a loss for words — then he snorted, chuckled, and nodded.
And so the two of them propped the chicken box up beside the camera frame and dug in.
confused_01: ?? What is this? Weren't you supposed to be clarifying things?
trollmaster: Are these bastards messing with us right now? lolol
foodie_king: And meanwhile they're demolishing that chicken like it's delicious as hell lolol what brand is that?
angryfan: Damn it, they say it's a clarification stream and they're filming a damn mukbang lol
skeptical_guy: So this was all just bait too? lolol
The chicken mukbang carried on for a good long while, and before anyone noticed, the viewer count had blown well past two thousand.
Kim Hanbin set down the picked-clean bones and looked at the screen.
"Hmm... over two thousand now, huh? Shall we get to it, then?"
Hanbin straightened his posture and looked directly into the camera.
"I imagine there are a lot of things you're all curious about right now, but the big one is obvious, isn't it? Whether I juiced... or I didn't. That's what this is about, right?"
The chat flooded with messages — "yep," "juicer bastard, explain yourself," "so did you or didn't you," "spit it out already damn it" — burying the screen in a wall of text.
Kim Hanbin read through the flood of chats for a moment, then spoke in a firm, level voice.
"To give you the conclusion first: I have never, not once, used any banned substance. No doping, no steroids, nothing of the kind. I've never had an injection in my life, and the only medicine I've ever taken is cold medicine. I don't even take supplements. The end."
For a heartbeat, the chat fell completely still at Hanbin's short, blunt clarification.
Then the floodgates burst — question marks and furious complaints came pouring through all at once.
user_4512: ??
what_the: THAT'S IT??
ragequit99: Are you kidding me? You think I sat here for 30 minutes watching you two stuff your faces with chicken just to hear ONE sentence, you bastard?
realist_talk: Yeah, that's what every criminal says — "I never did it, never" lolol
prove_it: Show us PROOF you damn fool, everyone SAYS they didn't do it
Reading the chats as they rolled in, Kim Hanbin answered with total calm.
"Hmm... proof, is it. Then what would it take for you to believe me? Should I call a doctor directly and ask? Like, what kind of test would I need to do, that sort of thing?"
At Hanbin's words, Cha Kangmin cut in from the side.
"Hey, do you even know a doctor?"
"Yes, there's one I've gotten to know recently."
"Really? What kind — a general practitioner? Or sports medicine?"
"Hmm... I'm not sure about the specialty, exactly. We only met recently..."
At Hanbin's vague answer, the chat stirred all over again.
doctor_doubt: lolol he's going to call a doctor? Must be some neighborhood clinic director lolol
trust_issues: It's just some GP or the team doctor anyway, isn't it? credibility... shaky
logicbomb: And what exactly is this doctor supposed to prove, and how? lolol
listen_up: └ He's asking the doctor HOW to prove it, you idiots, the "method," pay attention
pedigree_check: For real, a doping test has to come from a reputable facility — nobody accepts a neighborhood clinic yep
"Fine then. Let's call the doctor right now and ask what it would take for a completely airtight clarification."
Hanbin switched the phone to speaker mode so the stream would pick up the call clearly.
Riiing riiing— riiing riiing—
As the dial tone rang through the room, Cha Kangmin asked cautiously.
"Hey, Hanbin. Where exactly did you meet this doctor, anyway? Is it the GP you used to visit around the neighborhood?"
Kim Hanbin answered, unbothered.
"Oh, no. Not a neighborhood clinic director. He... came by our clubhouse once. That's when I greeted him."
"The clubhouse? Why would a doctor come to the clubhouse? Ah... our team physician?"
"No, not him. The hospital director of Taeseong General Hospital."
"......What?!"
At Kim Hanbin's answer, Cha Kangmin's eyes went wide.
The director of Taeseong General Hospital? The head of Korea's top hospital? That titan of a man — at four in the afternoon, one of the busiest hours of his day — was answering a phone call over... this?
"Hey! Hey, you lunatic! Are you out of your mind?! Calling a man like that right now, what are you planning to—!"
Cha Kangmin lunged in a panic, reaching to snatch the phone out of Hanbin's hand—
"—Hello?"
A dignified, deep male voice came through the receiver.
The call had connected. Cha Kangmin froze mid-reach, hand still outstretched.
Kim Hanbin glanced once at the stunned Cha Kangmin, then spoke toward the speakerphone.
"Ah, Director Lee Donggyu! Good afternoon to you, sir! This is Kim Hanbin of Suwon Blue Sky. I apologize for taking up your time when you're so busy."