Click Football
Crunch.
Charlie, Blue Valley's quarterback, clenched his fist as he watched Jaehyuk's touchdown. The glove on his hand let out a sharp squeak from the friction, and head coach Harrison's expression was no better for having witnessed it.
It's the same feeling as last year...
That man was simply a monster. The Marcus and Jordan he'd faced last year had been tremendous talents in their own right, but there was no comparison to be made here. Where on earth had a guy like that come from?
The defensive players trudged back to the sideline, the scoreboard against them. Harrison shouted at their deflated faces.
"Nobody needs to hang their heads! Remember our game plan and think about the long game!"
Their only path forward was to grind Jaehyuk's stamina down as far as it would go. Mountains still stood in the way even then, but for now, this was the best they could manage. First they had to strip away as many of the enemy's offensive options as possible. Only then did they stand a chance.
And so Blue Valley's offense took the field. Thankfully, Wichita North's defense was unremarkable.
"Nice pass!"
"Come on! Show 'em what you've got!"
Back and forth. And yet Blue Valley's offense kept grinding forward, their fans in the stands sounding as though they'd never been glum at all.
"Let's go! Blue Valley!"
"It's Showtime!"
Advancing, and advancing again. Burning through every down and barely scraping out first downs as they went, Blue Valley clawed its way down the field and finally put points on the board.
"Touchdown!"
"That's it! That's exactly it!"
"Hahaha! We scored a rushing touchdown too!"
Listening to the crowd roar to life, Harrison immediately called his defense over with instructions.
"Don't kill yourselves trying to stop him. Just stay glued to him, relentlessly. Think of it as draining his stamina as much as you can."
"Yes, sir."
"And this time he'll probably mix in a pass. But linebackers—keep targeting Jaehyuk. Even just shadowing him should wear the kid down."
The extra point kick sailed through, and the score stood at 7–7. Sides switched.
We can't stop them from scoring. We just have to cling on as long as possible.
They couldn't let the enemy score in one quick burst. Somehow, they had to drag the clock out, wring every second dry, and wear them down...
"Hut! Hike!"
Whoosh!
Harrison had been lost in thought watching Wichita North's offense begin, and his eyes flew wide open.
A running play AGAIN?!
"Are you kidding me..."
A play nobody saw coming. Skipping the pass entirely—when they had a 5-star quarterback?!
Ziiing—BOOM!!
Redline was off, leaving a literal crimson afterimage in his wake. The defenders hadn't expected another run either, so they were run over helplessly. The one mercy was that the second-level defenders had been ordered to attach themselves to Jaehyuk no matter what.
"Stay on him!!" Harrison bellowed.
But of course. Nothing on this field could stop Kim Jaehyuk.
Tweeeet!!
"TOUCHDOOOOOWN!"
The live chat erupted:
Touchdown after touchdown from Jaehyuk. Watching him score back-to-back as if to say he wouldn't show them the slightest mercy, even the broadcast crew buried their faces in their hands.
"Ahh, ahhh..."
"What we're witnessing is a denial of everything I've understood about football until today. Click football, ladies and gentlemen!"
The words said one thing, but their faces were brimming with pure delight—two broadcasters gazing upon an entirely new civilization.
"I've been watching him since last year, and the more I see, the more nothing comes out of me but admiration!"
"I know we should avoid biased commentary, so please forgive us for being unable to hide our astonishment."
The chaos wasn't confined to the broadcast, of course. The stadium itself was in an even worse state.
"BUWAHAHAHA!!"
"That run was so satisfying to watch!"
"Who even cares about the score anymore? Wichita North's taking the title either way!"
"Forget the game—just chase your personal records, Redline!!"
A nail-biting, high-tension matchup? Sure, that was great. But did that mean people hated a one-sided blowout? Not in the least. If anything, the fans who'd come out for Wichita North and Jaehyuk felt there was no game more entertaining than this.
Caroline, watching those reactions up close, still wore a dazed look as she murmured.
"So the crowd really didn't come here for Mateo after all."
"...I didn't expect it to be quite this extreme, either."
For Ramon too, this was obviously his first time watching the man play in person—and so the shock he took was no different from Caroline's. What startled him just as much was how matter-of-factly everyone around them reacted to Redline's dominance. How often did a player have to pull off performances like that before people talked about them like it was nothing?
And Mateo—the player we actually came to see—hasn't thrown a single pass...
In all the time it took Wichita North to rack up fourteen points, the only thing Mateo had done was hand the ball backward. Not a pass to Jaehyuk, mind you—he had literally just held it out.
Blue Valley's next offensive series followed. There was the same fierce back-and-forth as the first drive; they clearly weren't going to score easily. Then, all of a sudden—
For reasons nobody could fathom, Blue Valley committed a catastrophic blunder.
"Huh?!"
"Oh no, don't tell me..."
A rushing play. A reckless, overcommitted plunge, as if mimicking Jaehyuk himself. Except the man making that plunge was the quarterback. Perhaps too inspired by Jaehyuk's click football, he forced his way into the line—and ran straight into a monster tackle.
CRACK!
A thunderous collision. The ball popped loose at the same instant.
"FAAAUUMBLE!!"
"It's a fumble!"
"Why on earth would he do that?!"
Pandemonium. Blue Valley's sideline and stands alike wore the faces of the doomed.
"The ball! The ball!"
"Wow, Wichita recovers it AGAIN!"
"At this point... isn't it just over?"
Wichita North recovered the fumble. And Charlie, Blue Valley's starting quarterback, lay motionless on the field, unable to get up. Medics soon jogged out, and Charlie was ruled out with injury.
With their starting QB gone, Blue Valley's fighting spirit shattered entirely.
"Haaah."
Harrison truly understood it this time. That some players rendered tactics meaningless. No matter how much you analyzed from the sideline, no matter what schemes you drew up, everything collapsed before a single overwhelming player.
The game rolled into the second half, and Wichita North did what they'd done all regular season—they sent in their second-stringers.
"Ha! Hahaha!"
At that sight, Harrison finally broke and just started laughing like a man unhinged. Substitutes, in a playoff SEMIFINAL, against Blue Valley—a storied powerhouse with a reputation to match!
And yet the outcome didn't change one bit.
Final score: 43–10. A crushing Wichita North victory.
The moment they punched their ticket to the State Championship.
After the game, I got up from the bench and walked toward the opposing team. The post-game greetings, same as always.
With this, our team extended the unbeaten streak that had carried over from last year.
Twenty-three wins, zero losses.
A team that had gone 1-and-9 just two years ago had since reeled off twenty-three straight victories—a new record. At least within the state of Kansas, I figured we could call ourselves absolutely dominant.
"Good work out there," I said, shaking hands with Blue Valley's players. Then I approached the man who looked like their head coach and gave a small bow.
"A good game. Thank you."
"Kim Jaehyuk."
"Yes?"
He called my name with a strangely confused look in his eyes, then fell silent. Did he have something to say?
"You are, quite simply, remarkable."
"Thank you for the compliment."
"I'm sure you've heard plenty of it by now, but this isn't just empty talk. You're special."
"I'm aware."
Why was he laboring to tell me something so obvious? When I nodded along, Blue Valley's coach let out an awkward chuckle.
"Right. Well, ah—it was an honor to meet you. Last year and this year both."
"It was fun for me too."
It occurred to me, belatedly, that this was my last season of high school ball. It hadn't really sunk in until I was looking at the man in front of me.
"I'll be watching your games at the college level too. Do us proud out there."
"Yep."
With one last handshake, we parted ways. After trading a brief word with each of the remaining players, I made my way back to the sideline, where Sanders spoke up.
"Kid."
"Yes, sir."
"I hate to ask this, but—still no citizenship?"
"Citizenship? Where's this coming from all of a sudden?"
Did you need it for college admissions? I didn't think so. I tilted my head, and Sanders jerked his chin toward something behind me. I turned to find a group of strangers standing there.
"Who are they?"
"People from USA Football."
"Oh! THOSE guys."
Coach Jason had mentioned them a while back, I think. Their faces had already slipped my mind.
"What do they want with me?"
"They originally came to scout Mateo, but after watching this game it sounds like they're interested in you too. Go have a talk with them."
"Hmm. The national team, right? Do I actually have to do that?"
"Honestly? It doesn't mean much for a football career. But it does carry a certain prestige. And you'd only be playing during the offseason anyway."
I gave a noncommittal nod and walked over to the national-team people.
"You were looking for me?"
"Ah! Jaehyuk! What a game! Whew, what a performance—truly something else!"
The moment I approached, the man launched into an excited spiel. The woman beside him had her eyes shining to the point of strain.
"My name is Ramon, and this is Caroline."
"Nice to meet you, Jaehyuk!"
I gave them a casual nod of acknowledgment and listened to what they had to say.
"The truth is, we were deeply moved by what we just witnessed. We're certified national-federation staff with the authority to select national team players, and we would like to select you, Jaehyuk, for the U-19 youth national team."
"Of course! Nothing is mandatory—you're free to decline. But we sincerely hope you'll consider it favorably! Please! We beg you!"
Being looked upon fondly was always nice. But surely these people knew I didn't have citizenship?
"I'm not a U.S. citizen."
"That's exactly why we looked into it! And as it turns out, this year marks exactly five years since your permanent residency was issued!"
Wow. They really did their homework.
When I nodded, Ramon pressed on.
"Which means you now meet every requirement to be issued citizenship. Pass the interview cleanly, and your citizenship can be granted."
"Hold on a second."
These people. Why were they so certain I'd naturally want American citizenship?
Obtaining U.S. citizenship meant automatically forfeiting my Korean one. Not that I was some die-hard patriot myself. But the sheer presumption of it rubbed me the wrong way.
"Let's say I do get selected for the national team. Would I start right away?"
"Oh, ah—that would be difficult. There are procedures to follow, you see."
So I couldn't even play right away? My interest was drifting further and further away.
"And there's a selection process you'd need to go through as well. First we'd run a camp with the other prospects we've picked, measure combine results and various physical metrics, and then—"
"I'm sorry to cut you off mid-sentence, but if I can't play right away, I'm not interested."
"Oh... ah..."
Ramon and Caroline stood there dumbfounded. Apparently they'd assumed I'd just accept. But as I'd heard yesterday, if you stacked it against the professional stage, a football national team simply wasn't a big stage. If anything, it was smaller than the high school circuit—a place you played for the honor alone.
"I'm not going somewhere I can't play, on something I didn't even ask for."
"W-well, um, we..."
Ramon was flustered. Caroline's expression was quite a spectacle in its own right.
"Try sweet-talking Mateo first. Now, if you'll excuse me."
"W-wait, just a moment! I—I'll contact the selection committee right away!"
"Contact me later, separately."
With that, I turned back toward my teammates.
The national team? It looked impressive enough, sure—but unlike other sports, it carried no real cachet. Football was, quite literally, a sport whose popularity exploded only within the United States. Which was exactly why I wanted to be number one on this land called America. I had no interest in duking it out on smaller stages with weaker competition.
One win left.
The State Championship title. And after that, the college ranks.
A stage even bigger than the MLB or the NBA was looming just ahead.