Was It a Golden Rope, Bom
It was borderline stalker behavior, but Chae Hojin kept watch over Jin Gyeo-wool out of a conviction that none of his team's players could afford to become the subject of scandal.
She might well become the only female player in the CCK. And if that player turned out to like girls…?
The national uproar would be enormous.
For an entire week after the counseling session, his eyes never left Jin Gyeo-wool. The moment she started anything romantic with Cha Ga-eul or Han Yeo-reum, he intended to shut it down on the spot.
Then came the Monday of the week after the counseling.
Chae Hojin's misunderstanding resolved itself far more anticlimactically than he had expected.
"That was fun today too."
"…We only did recon. What's fun about that?"
"What do you mean? How often do you get to play with a pro gamer?"
"Fair enough. People would pay good money and still not get a game with someone like me."
"…You just got really annoying all of a sudden."
"Ack. Hey! Is that any way to talk to your oppa…!"
Watching the two of them walk out of the PC bang late at night, Chae Hojin let out a sigh of relief.
So that's it. Not Yeo-reum or Ga-eul… Lee Do-jin…
The idea that Jin Gyeo-wool liked Lee Do-jin was still a bombshell in its own right, but after spending days suspecting her sexual orientation was the problem, it somehow felt almost ordinary.
Crouched behind the bushes, Chae Hojin calmly sorted through his thoughts.
Old friends…. Right, there was something about that.
Lee Do-jin and Jin Gyeo-wool had known each other for a long time. It had taken some digging, but a months-old article confirmed that the two of them had mentioned it themselves at a tournament held at Hwasong High School.
And it lined up perfectly with the whole "close if you look at it one way, distant if you look at it another" dynamic. Lee Do-jin was a pro gamer in the middle of the season. He was simply too busy to meet.
Looking back, Chae Hojin had just been reading too much into things. Girls being all over each other like that? Perfectly normal. Between a guy and a girl it would set off alarm bells, sure—but between girls? Come on.
Besides, Cha Ga-eul and Han Yeo-reum had known Jin Gyeo-wool forever. They had even taken on the roles of coach and manager themselves and been helping the team long before Chae Hojin ever joined. Being that comfortable with each other was nothing strange.
Only then did Chae Hojin finally grasp what he needed to do on this team.
"I've got to manage Do-yun carefully so he doesn't get hurt…. And Je-hyeon and Min-jae… maybe just steer them gently?"
Given Jin Gyeo-wool's rather prickly, cold personality, handing this matter over to her would definitely create internal problems. If he told her the truth, she would almost certainly say something like:
Choi Do-yun, I don't like you. Gong Je-hyeon, Yu Min-jae, stop thinking useless thoughts. Focus on the game.
That would be a catastrophe.
"I guess it was a mistake to hope a team with a girl on it would have zero problems…."
And yet—the more he thought about it, the more he realized that Winter Army, now the Seoul Team, was actually remarkably stable.
Chae Hojin carefully recalled something that had happened earlier that year on a CCK-Challengers team.
Hyung. I… I can't take it anymore.
…What are you talking about?
I'm serious. It's too hard. No matter what I do, I don't get any better. And I'm running out of money…. Maybe I should just quit and do warehouse loading instead—
Hey. You'll wreck your wrists! Don't you know a player's wrists are their life?
A player who had always seen his own future as murky. Soft-hearted Chae Hojin hadn't been able to just stand by and watch. A player who would turn twenty by Korean age next year, making a pro career that much harder to chase.
…What is this?
…….
The countless cut scars running along the wrist Chae Hojin had grabbed by chance. Traces of the countless times that player had wrestled with life and death.
In the end, he abandoned the journey to become a LoC pro. The problem wasn't that he simply chose another path—it was that he threw himself off a cliff.
What could anyone have done? There was nothing a mere coach could do. It wasn't even really Chae Hojin's fault.
But because of that painful experience, his heart had lurched when Jin Gyeo-wool brought up "life and death." He had already checked her wrists during a handshake some time ago. It was a habit born from the kid who, not wanting to burden the team, had chosen to leave and flee the world alone.
The situation was complicated, but all he could do was unravel it one thread at a time.
Still crouched on the grass behind the bushes, Chae Hojin began writing down every problem scattered across the team in his notebook, starting from the beginning.
One. Redirect the male players who liked Jin Gyeo-wool so they wouldn't get hurt.
Two. Find out why Jin Gyeo-wool had asked about the afterlife.
Three. Figure out why Yu Min-jae kept getting so impatient.
Looking at what he had written, points two and three seemed somehow connected. Chae Hojin carefully expanded his thinking.
Jin Gyeo-wool was facing death, and that was why Yu Min-jae wanted to grow faster?
Something Yu Min-jae had said flashed through Chae Hojin's mind.
No. There isn't… much time. I know I have to fix the impatience somehow, but…. Haa…. I need to get better than I am now, faster…. I need to be more useful to the team….
But the Jin Gyeo-wool he had watched for a week was extremely healthy. She didn't look like a terminally ill patient who had accepted death, resigned herself, and was forcing a bright face while preparing to say goodbye to everyone around her.
Yu Min-jae had clearly misunderstood something.
"….Wouldn't it be faster to just contact Gyeo-wool's parents about this?"
When the Seoul Team contracts were signed, the players had submitted parental consent forms as well. And those forms listed the parents' contact information.
At last, he would get to show what he was made of as a coach. Chae Hojin clenched his fist, burning with fresh passion.
But just as he was smiling, flushed with exhilaration, a man's voice suddenly came from behind the bushes.
"Excuse me."
"…Uh. Yes?"
Chae Hojin spun around in shock and found himself staring into the sharp gaze of a man who had appeared over the top of the foliage.
"What do you think you're doing? You've been following us this whole time."
A cool, hard tone not unlike Jin Gyeo-wool's. With his eyes narrowed, his already sharp features looked vicious enough to cut.
"Huh? Ah. Ah, that's—"
Thoroughly irritated after being tailed all evening, the man who doted on Jin Gyeo-wool grabbed the collar of the much larger Chae Hojin without hesitation.
"Come with me."
"W-wait—!"
A large man in suspicious sunglasses, trailing them with suspicious movements. Someone who thought he was hiding but whose bulk made him completely obvious. Seoul Team coach Chae Hojin.
Dragged into a café, he explained the situation to Lee Do-jin and groveled thoroughly.
"I'm sorry…. I was just worried about the players on the team…."
"Even so, this isn't okay."
"You're right. I overstepped."
Lee Do-jin, who had been half-convinced he was dealing with a stalker, felt a weight lift off his shoulders.
"So why were you following us?"
"Ah. Well… I'm not sure I should say this. It's Gyeo-wool's personal business…."
"What does that matter? Gyeo-wool is basically my little sister. Just tell me. What's going on?"
"Ah. Right… well."
In truth he thought of her as more than a little sister. As a public figure he simply couldn't say that out loud, so he was dressing it up. But precisely because he thought of her as a little sister—and more—there was nothing about Jin Gyeo-wool he could afford not to know.
"It seemed like Gyeo-wool might like girls. I just wanted to check."
"…There's no way that's true."
"No, well. It was my misunderstanding. I confirmed that for sure today."
From what Lee Do-jin could gather, she simply showed more affection toward Han Yeo-reum and Cha Ga-eul than toward the other players, and that had caused the mix-up.
A smile spread across Lee Do-jin's lips at those words.
I knew it. She still doesn't care about anyone but me.
Looking thoroughly satisfied, Lee Do-jin returned the phone he had confiscated from Chae Hojin.
"If anything happens with Gyeo-wool, contact me right away."
"Uh… not her parents?"
"They're both busy. They don't have much time to look after her. I'm basically her older brother, so you can just tell me."
"But you're busy too, Do-jin…."
Soft-hearted, yet stubborn as a mule. Sensing that, Lee Do-jin took Chae Hojin's phone again and left his own contact information.
"Just do it that way. I'll give you my number too."
"O… ohh."
"And we're the same age, so drop the formal speech. Let's be friends."
To think he would get Lee Do-jin's phone number. He had faced him at tournaments and been crushed before, but this kind of personal exchange was a first for Chae Hojin. Lee Do-jin was one of his few idols—and that same Lee Do-jin was offering friendship.
There was no reason to refuse.
"S-sure! Man. Me, friends with Lee Do-jin…!"
"It's not that big a deal. Anyway, it's a promise, okay?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I'll do that. Ah."
In the middle of excitedly calling him to leave his number, one of the important things Chae Hojin had meant to do earlier suddenly came back to him. He had originally planned to ask Jin Gyeo-wool's parents, but somehow asking Lee Do-jin felt fine too.
"So, about Gyeo-wool. Is she sick anywhere?"
Lee Do-jin let out a short sound at that. There were a few things weighing on his mind, but her body at least was fine.
"There's nothing wrong with her physically. Her mother is obsessive about her daughter's health, so she gets regular checkups."
"I see. Uh… so nothing wrong with her body means…."
"Her heart might have a few issues."
The mention of possible problems with her heart made Chae Hojin flinch in alarm. Having more or less figured out his personality, Lee Do-jin gave a short laugh.
"But you don't need to worry. I'm healing that too."
"…Ah. I see."
"Yeah. She can't function without me."
Right now, for various reasons, Lee Bom's personality seemed mixed in and she looked stable—but there was no guarantee that would last forever. She had never received a definitive diagnosis, but Jin Gyeo-wool clearly suffered from impulse control disorder. When she got bored she would hurl her mouse. Smash her keyboard. When it got worse, she had yanked out a friend's hair and thrown a desk out a window, hadn't she?
If someone enraged Jin Gyeo-wool in the future, she would absolutely wreak havoc on everyone around her. But even that Jin Gyeo-wool always became docile when she was next to Lee Do-jin. That was why he could never distance himself from her. Originally her inhibitors had been Lee Bom and Lee Do-jin—two people. Lee Bom was no longer in this world.
"I'm planning to bring her onto our team somehow and debut her."
"…That serious?"
"Yeah. Her dependency is pretty bad. Her mental game is weak too."
Chae Hojin tilted his head at that. Joining a team wouldn't be hard if her skill was there, but Jin Gyeo-wool didn't particularly seem mentally weak the way Lee Do-jin described.
"That's also why she meets me every week."
"Ahh… I see. You've been meeting every week?"
"Yeah."
But if Lee Do-jin said so, his credibility only went up. And if someone with a schedule that packed still made time to look after Jin Gyeo-wool, there was no reason not to believe him. If the fans found out, they would bury him under tens of thousands of curses for dating instead of practicing—but it could always be spun as an effort to show the world a shining raw gem named Jin Gyeo-wool.
Chae Hojin spoke to Lee Do-jin with a somewhat ambivalent expression.
"Well then. I'll contact you if anything else comes up."
"Yeah. Take good care of Gyeo-wool."
"Well… you're already looking after her, so do I even need to? I'll just look after the other guys."
"Suit yourself. I'm heading out. Good work."
Lee Do-jin's sharply folded eyes softened a little at last.
"Fighting. I hope you win it all."
"Y-yeah! Thanks!"
After seeing Lee Do-jin off, Chae Hojin stood for a long time in the sticky summer night wind. Only then did his dazed mind seem to come back online a little. He slowly organized everything that had just happened.
He had become friends with Korea's LoC superstar. On top of that, that friend and the beautiful girl who might become the only female pro were involved with each other. And if Jin Gyeo-wool debuted, her entry into Hyeonseong Universe was already half-confirmed.
Just how many golden ropes dropped down at once?
It was a streak of luck no ordinary person could even hope for. A chest stuffed full of gold had thudded down right in front of Chae Hojin. And the key that could open that chest sat beside him, sealed inside a clear acrylic box.
The conditions for opening the acrylic box were simple. Win the Presidential Cup. And win the IeSF tournament.
If I manage the kids carefully so they don't get shaken… even if the Korean Cup is a stretch… as long as we at least win IeSF…!
If they succeeded, Jin Gyeo-wool would join Hyeonseong Universe. The players who had been on the same team would land spots on famous teams one after another. And Chae Hojin, the coach who had raised that team, would naturally get the chance to transfer somewhere better himself.
Wasn't that a reward worthy of a truly massive golden chest?
It was the moment the suspicious beautiful girl named Jin Gyeo-wool, from their very first meeting, transformed into a golden dragon clad in dazzling scales.