Three Days, and the Black Line Returns
“Ugh.”
The moment Eunbi set down her school bag, having dragged herself to school, a sigh escaped her before anything else.
Last night.
After school ended, she'd asked her big brother Jaehyuk about whether he was officially joining the football team, but he'd been so preoccupied with something that she never got an answer.
Which meant she'd been sent off to school without managing a single proper conversation with him.
When her brother was in that state, it was best not to touch him unless absolutely necessary.
It's probably training film review, knowing him. He mentioned it before.
But wait—had there even been practice?
Her brother, who always came home late, had gotten back earlier than usual. That meant he'd skipped track training, didn't it?
So... football?
Just as her frustration was building with no answers to any of it, Eunbi got ambushed by her classmates, who were all oddly giddy.
“Eunbi! Eunbi!”
“What's going on?”
The crowd that swarmed her were friends who shared her love of American football.
Then it was obvious, wasn't it.
Football talk, obviously.
“Here, here. Look at this.”
Jessica suddenly thrust her smartphone screen into her face.
On it was a local newspaper article with a short headline printed across the top.
“This is... what?”
Eunbi read it once, then again, then again, staring blankly at the screen.
Barry Sanders.
As a football fan, there was no way she couldn't know that name. Especially Eunbi, who adored running backs in particular.
“No way. That can't be real!”
“I'm telling you, it's true! Barry Sanders is our school football team's new head coach! And you know what's even crazier?”
“There's more?”
No, this alone was hard enough to believe, and there was something else on top of it?
“This.”
This time Patrick handed over his own phone.
What appeared on screen was Lejit, the biggest community site in America.
Football communities thrived in the US too, and among them the NFL sub-Lejit and the CFB (college football) sub-Lejit were the most active of all.
What Patrick was showing her now was the CFB sub-Lejit of the two.
Slightly smaller than the NFL sub-Lejit, but still a community with considerable influence.
And right there, on that board, was Barry Sanders—the very man they'd just been talking about.
“It's a video!”
The post was a video.
It looked like someone filming from the sidelines.
And the background looked oddly familiar.
“That's our school.”
Jessica chimed in from beside her, as if she'd read her mind.
Barry Sanders... on our school's field?
But the real shock came after that.
Standing face to face, as if squaring off in a one-on-one duel, were Barry Sanders and a single student.
The student wore a white uniform with red trim. He wasn't particularly big for a football player, height or build.
Then Eunbi realized.
“Wait... that's my brother?!”
“I thought I was imagining it, but it really is your brother? I saw him two days ago!”
Even amid Jessica's commotion, Eunbi didn't seem to hear a word of it, her eyes locked on the video.
The footage was grainy, but there was no mistaking it—Jaehyuk was facing off against Sanders.
Pah!
An explosive start worthy of a track team ace, staggering acceleration—and Barry Sanders walling him off in a single step.
“......”
“......”
Not a soul watching the video dared to breathe.
Thud!
The two men moved frame by frame, and then finally collided.
Sshiiik—
“Gah!”
“Ooh.”
It looked like he'd been caught, dead to rights, by Sanders.
But the moment Jaehyuk slipped past Sanders with a spin move no one saw coming, the dopamine of everyone watching came erupting out.
Even through the shaky footage, the cheers filling the scene and the raw excitement behind the camera came pouring through.
“......”
Eunbi, too, was left speechless.
Even to his own little sister, Jaehyuk's movement was awe-inspiring.
Honestly speaking.
She'd been happy that Jaehyuk was joining the football team, but she hadn't exactly expected anything of him.
After all, she knew better than anyone that track and football were two entirely different sports.
She'd simply been delighted that her brother was now connected to the sport she loved.
Her love of football.
Nothing more, nothing less.
“Whoa, it's insane even watching it again.”
“A spin move against Barry Sanders! He got the ball stripped, but hey, it happens.”
Her friends were already replaying it for the umpteenth time.
And beneath the video, the comments kept piling up.
**
A new head coach had arrived at Wichita North High School!
And not just anyone—Barry Sanders, proudly enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame!
The news didn't stop at the school gates; it made the local paper and set the whole neighborhood buzzing.
And that wasn't all.
It spread through every football community and website out there, staying a hot topic for days.
So, several days after Sanders took over as head coach of Wichita North.
Even with newly added training coaches, the staff was looking fairly presentable—but Sanders's mood was anything but good.
“Hmm...”
Sanders let out a low rumble as he watched the team train out on the field. Tyrone, reading his expression carefully, spoke up.
The regular season starts soon.
“......”
The head coach said nothing.
Instead, his gaze was fixed on one corner of the field.
Tap-tap-tap.
A club member, alone and apart from the rest of the team, running hard around a cone with the ball clutched in his arms.
It was Kim Jaehyuk.
Having watched him for a while, Sanders finally opened his mouth.
“Seems I've been swindled.”
“......”
This time it was Tyrone who clamped his mouth shut.
Even with ten mouths, there was nothing to say.
Why would the great Barry Sanders bother becoming a high school football coach?
Wichita North being Sanders's alma mater was part of the reason, sure—but Tyrone knew full well that the biggest reason was that entertaining little brat over there.
No wait—should he say that it had been the reason?
“What the hell is he? It's only been three days, but he's just... ordinary.”
“Th-that's true.”
Somehow, Jaehyuk had shown none of the brilliance he'd displayed in that first practice session or in his one-on-one with Sanders the second day.
His training numbers were just your average high school running back level.
For a former track ace, even simple running fell short of expectations.
Of course, being a total beginner, they'd only let him do individual drills and kept him out of scrimmages and actual games entirely.
But with results like these, playing him in a game was flat-out impossible.
“The league starts in two weeks, doesn't it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“The running back still isn't back?”
“He's got a hairline fracture, so I'd say at least another month of rest. But we do have Liam, so...”
Sanders shook his head firmly.
“It's true I became head coach here because of that strange kid, but that doesn't mean I plan on doing this half-heartedly. My goal is to win this team a league championship.”
“Agreed, sir.”
“Agreed? What exactly do you agree with! Liam is a fullback. You think you can build a running game on a fullback alone? A fullback is a strategic piece—he's nowhere near enough to fill a true running back's role!”
At Sanders's words, Tyrone's face took on a slightly wounded look.
Frankly, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the modern football landscape was shaped mostly by quarterbacks.
True, the run game had been showing faint signs of a revival in the NFL lately, but at the high school level, offenses still leaned heavily on the quarterback's passing game.
If you don't use a running back, fine, whatever...
Not that they could go without one completely.
But what mattered most, in the end, was the quarterback to throw the ball and the receivers to catch it.
“The regular season starts tomorrow, and we don't have a single decent running back...”
“Let's just try to win with what we have.”
“Easy for you to say.”
Why on earth had he decided to become a coach at a time like this? Sanders found himself regretting not waiting until the season was over.
Right—if only that brat hadn't set my heart on fire back then...
“It's a con, I tell you. A con.”
“Ahem...”
And so, sighs kept piling up along the coaching bench.
Meanwhile, Jaehyuk stood with the ball tucked in his arms, tilting his head.
Now what is this?
**
Three days since joining the team.
Everything I'd done so far was basic training.
I wanted to train alongside the other guys, but with zero fundamental knowledge, that was impossible.
So in the end, I'd spent the whole time running around on my own.
Ball control. Ball security.
Direction-change drills, quick-feet work, and so on.
Sanders wouldn't let me put the ball down for so much as a second. Even after club activities officially ended.
Thanks to that, even though it had only been three days, the football already felt far more familiar in my hands than it had at first.
“Guess training alone made me see things. I'm hallucinating.”
And now.
Something strange had started appearing in my vision again.
At first it was the black line—the one I hadn't seen much of lately. Which had made me genuinely glad to see it...
[Scanning for deficient abilities...]
The line had wriggled, and then Korean text had appeared on the ground like this?
Just when I thought the Gift was finally activating during football training, this is what happens?
Normally, a person would freeze solid in shock—but I was already used to situations like this, so I didn't panic.
“Well, this is a first, though.”
Muttering to myself, I kept training.
Whatever this text was, it seemed to carry the black line's effect too—my body felt a faint surge of energy.
[Successfully identified the three lowest-rated abilities]
[Selecting the ability that must be resolved first...]
The black line kept spinning out text.
It was starting to get on my nerves.
What is this, my personal coach? Breaking down my whole body for me?
[Durability stat is most urgent]
[Mission Issued]
⚔ Objective:Enter a scrimmage and WIN
🎁 Reward: Durability increase
💀 On Failure: Durability decrease
A mission? A reward?
What on earth was going on?
It was hard to grasp, but I understood it intuitively.
This was another function my Gift possessed.
“Hey, Kim Jaehyuk!”
Just then, a voice called from the bench.
It was Tyrone.
He was standing beside Sanders, gesturing for me, so I set the unreadable text aside for now and ran over.
“See that over there?”
Tyrone jerked his chin at me as I approached.
In the middle of the field, a scrimmage was in full swing.
It was a line battle between offense and defense—a so-called scrimmage, a simplified match with no score kept.
More like training the offense and defense as close to game conditions as possible.
“You must've been bored out of your mind training alone, so go run a scrimmage.”
“Sounds good.”
And the Gift had just ordered me to win a scrimmage, of all things.
Besides, my body had been itching for days from doing nothing but drills where the Gift wouldn't even activate.
Crack. Crack.
I cracked my neck and loosened up.
Time to show them what three days of a genius running back's work looks like.
“Don't overdo it. Knowing how things went last time, the ball might not even come to you.”
“Don't worry about it.”
Only Tyrone said anything; Sanders gave no reaction at all.
His view, hidden behind sunglasses, seemed fixed on the middle of the field.
Tap.
The moment I reached the center of the field, the club members who'd been running the scrimmage were waiting for me.
I flashed them a big grin.
“You've all been dying for me to join in, huh? Did you miss me?”
In response, the guys—fellow teammates now—still radiated a murderous aura. The linemen's mood in particular was ugly.
“Ohhh, totally. We've been waiting.”
“Monkey, time to stop blowing bubbles.”
The taunts sent a chill down my spine.
Scared? Not even a little!
Truthfully, I couldn't wait for the moment these punks would be wearing those stunned, bitter expressions.
“Blowing bubbles?”
Still talking, I signaled to Tony, the second-string quarterback I'd gotten to work with once.
This time, the signal was: hand me the ball, quietly.
But the towering Hispanic beanpole, as always, didn't so much as glance my way.
Heh heh. Fine by me.
“You bastards... you got burned like that and you still doubt me?”
**
Hut—hut!
The scrimmage began.
Even before Jaehyuk arrived, they'd already traded about five exchanges.
WHAM!
THUD!
The linemen collided, and the defensive end at the edge of the line came charging in for the tackle.
“Hmph.”
But.
This time would be different.
From the moment Tony Garcia heard that Jaehyuk was joining the scrimmage, he'd made up his mind to give him the ball.
Why?
Simple. He wanted to watch that lucky Asian punk get flattened by the defense.
And as it happened, the defenders felt different about Jaehyuk now, too—he could sense the wariness.
Their will burned fierce: they would absolutely not allow the running back a single breakthrough. Even Ronnie, the starter, couldn't punch through that wall.
Not this time. It won't go your way.
He wanted to teach that arrogant Asian brat what football really was.
The kid had never taken a single tackle yet—that had to be why he found this all so easy.
After getting run over once, who knows, he might go running home to his mommy in tears.
Tony faked a pass, glancing at his receivers, then confirmed Jaehyuk running up beside him.
“......Whew.”
You never knew, though.
Looking at the athletic ability Jaehyuk had shown these past few days, there was no chance of it—but still.
If he really was the type who got stronger in live games, like he claimed...
Pfft.
No way that was happening.
Tony Garcia tossed the ball to Jaehyuk as he took off running.
The defensive ends who'd been charging at him immediately left him behind and chased after Jaehyuk along with the ball.
TADADADAK!!
The defenders came with terrifying momentum.
On top of that, Jaehyuk had hesitated for a beat just to secure the catch.
To anyone watching, he looked like a man about to be flattened by a truck called Defense.
“Huh?”
Then why...
Why was he smiling?
KAAANG—!!
Tony's gaze, tracking the fleeing Jaehyuk, drifted naturally upward.
Why was he looking up, you ask?
Because Jaehyuk was flying through the sky.
“What the hell...”
“A—a hurdle?!”
Staggering jumping power.
Granted, the tackle coming in low meant he didn't have to clear much height—but still, the man had leapt clean over an entire human being.
Jaehyuk sailed over one defender, caught the next one flat-footed in his confusion, brushed him aside, and kept running.
“f**k?”
And so, with a question mark hanging off his curse, Tony stared blankly at Jaehyuk still sprinting all the way to the end zone—even after the whistle had long since signaled that the play was over.