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# Dad's Soccer — Chapter 1
## Prologue
His daughter was gone.
Of course, losing a child, someone who was practically a part of oneself, would leave anyone devastated. But for Jihoo,
the loss cut even deeper. The grief he carried was far heavier than what most people could imagine.
He had reached forty with no real dream and nothing to hope for. Through all those years, there had been only one reason
for him to keep going: his only daughter, Minji.
He had met the woman who would become his child's mother when he was only eighteen. Minji had been born from a brief
mistake between them.
Jihoo had chosen not to turn his back on her mother and had stayed with her out of love. But she had always been frail,
and after giving birth to their child, she passed away.
After that, Minji was all he had.
He carried guilt toward his wife, who had endured hardship because she had married an orphan like him before eventually
passing away. Yet even greater was the guilt he felt toward his daughter, knowing she would have to grow up without a
mother because her father was incapable of giving her a better life.
That was why Jihoo abandoned soccer, the sport in which he had once been praised as a promising player and even called a
genius. He also gave up school. While others around his age were preparing for the college entrance exam, he threw
himself into earning a living.
From that point on, work became his entire life.
There was no one he could entrust his daughter to, and his own pointless pride made him refuse the helping hands people
extended to him. He took his little girl, who was still so young she had not even been weaned, to daycare and began
working relentlessly. Day or night, he hardly ever stopped.
But the world was not particularly kind to someone who had not even managed to properly graduate high school. There were
few jobs available to him, and even when he found work, the pay was never enough to amount to much.
If he worked hard for a day, he could barely earn enough to survive that day.
Still, he somehow kept raising Minji.
Then the world dealt his daughter another cruel hand.
She had been born with a weak body. She would fall ill at the slightest thing, vomit frequently, and sometimes even lose
consciousness and slip into a coma. Watching her suffer forced Jihoo to drive himself harder than ever.
Eventually, Minji was spending more time in the hospital than she did at daycare or school.
Jihoo could do nothing but leave her there with an aching heart and return to work.
He had no choice. He needed money for her medical expenses. He also needed enough to keep food on the table and maintain
even the smallest rented home.
And now...
"It's really all over."
The words escaped him with a bitter, self-mocking laugh as he lifted the bottle in his hand.
The chilled alcohol burned its way down his throat before spreading warmth through his chest.
At least for a moment, the emptiness inside him seemed a little less hollow.
"Minji..."
His vision was hazy, but he forced his eyes to focus and opened his smartphone, searching for a picture of his daughter.
She looked worn out and pale, yet she was smiling brightly at him. She was a beautiful girl, with the same lovely
dimples her mother had possessed.
"Minji..."
Jihoo had believed he had cried enough during the funeral that there could not possibly be any tears left.
He had been wrong.
Tears gathered in his eyes and began falling once more.
"Dad's sorry... I'm so sorry..."
He was sorry that he had never been able to give her a proper meal.
Sorry that he had never once taken her to an amusement park, something other children got to experience without a second
thought.
Most of all, he was sorry that he had been unable to give her anything she deserved before she had left this world.
He was simply, unbearably sorry.
"If you're born again... please be my daughter again."
Jihoo wiped the tears spilling down his face and spoke softly to the picture.
"Next time... I'll really... I'll become a better person... and I'll make you happy."
He would make sure she could do whatever she wanted.
He would make sure she could have anything she wished for.
With that promise in his heart, Jihoo slowly closed his eyes.
The last thing he saw was the photograph on his phone.
Even in that final moment, Minji was smiling brightly at him.