Ri Dong-hyeok's Tears
The national team lineup had just been announced. Users on the Koya Gallery shrugged their shoulders upon seeing Geum Seong-muk's name.
However, the reaction to the overall lineup wasn't great.
Opinions expressing some regret over the depleted lineup due to player defections. Amid that, users spotted one name in the pitching lineup.
Ri Dong-hyeok, known as the son of a high-ranking North Korean official.
Users who saw his name on the national team roster doubted their own eyes.
They knew he was legally a Republic of Korea citizen, but an inexplicable sense of repulsion crept in. An instinctual doubt: 'Is he really on our side?'
Then, the live broadcast switched on.
A press conference was being held, with Ri Dong-hyeok himself as the subject.
Click, click, click...!
Flashes exploded nonstop.
This event had been arranged because Ri Dong-hyeok had expressed his intent to publicly reveal his biological father. Reporters, smelling a scoop, had rushed in and filled the room.
"................"
A brief silence fell, and Ri Dong-hyeok began to speak.
He dropped a bombshell right from the start.
"My biological father is North Korea's leader, Kim Jeong-un."
".............!!?"
"This is insane...!!"
"Scoop! Scoop!"
The press conference turned into chaos in an instant.
Reporters bombarded him with questions.
"Can you take responsibility for that statement...!"
"Why haven't you ever appeared publicly before?!"
"Why are you even in Korea? You could've lived like a king up there!"
Questions poured in simultaneously.
A National Intelligence Service agent stepped in to restrain the reporters, unable to stand it any longer.
"You can ask questions after Ri Dong-hyeok finishes his story. Anyone asking personal questions now will be removed."
"..........."
The press conference finally calmed down.
Ri Dong-hyeok took a deep breath and began his tale.
"I was raised as a tool to make my eldest brother Kim Jeong-hong and second brother Kim Jeong-cheol shine. While they were praised for playing for the Pyongyang Blue Jays, I was told to clean up after them."
"I was forced to live solely for that purpose. While somehow enduring, I realized the truth. Once I became useless as a player supporting them, I'd be purged for the regime's stability."
"So I fled with my mother. Of course, the leader didn't let us poor mother and son go. Sob, my mother was crossing the Tumen River when she was shot by pursuing People's Army soldiers and..."
Recalling that moment, Ri Dong-hyeok choked up, hot tears streaming down his face.
The reporters were speechless at the immense twists of his life.
"I despise the party that crushes the people's dignity and privatizes the nation for one individual."
"Even so, I know the scarlet letter of being the leader's child will loom large for all of you. I felt the same. I didn't choose to be born his son, but that inescapable stigma weighed me down everywhere, anytime. Then one day."
Ri Dong-hyeok paused for breath.
He uttered the name of the teammate who had changed his life the most.
"Geum Seong-muk, now my precious teammate, told me during my wandering days. He said being born isn't a sin."
"I am prouder than anyone to be a citizen of the free democratic Republic of Korea. Please give me the chance to wear the Taegukgi mark and honor the nation. I earnestly beg the people."
Ri Dong-hyeok bowed deeply, tears flowing.
The press conference ended, and this explosive news rocked Korea, sparking immediate reactions.
Public opinion trembled at the mention of North Korea,
but there was also support for Ri Dong-hyeok.
With opinions split down the middle, the president stepped in with his routine statement.
At a time when the president's power was strongest—shortly after inauguration—his backing quickly tilted public opinion toward sympathy.
Even as sympathy gained weight, a solid concrete base of opposition formed: young women.
'Sob, my mother was crossing the Tumen River when pursuing People's Army bullets struck her...'
Ri Dong-hyeok shedding tears while recounting his late mother's story. This scene stirred protective instincts in many women's hearts.
"Oh my."
"Poor thing..."
His story spread through women-heavy communities, and suddenly a post like this appeared.
Young women, finding juicy material to stan Ri Dong-hyeok, bolstered the sympathy side and were absorbed into his fanbase en masse.
If he'd been fat and ugly like his dad, opinion might've stayed negative, but inheriting his troupe-dancer mother's looks saved him.
Opponents were baffled by the shifting tide.
They thought labeling him commie would work, but it didn't. Next, they framed it as 'merit'.
Of course, their logic was swiftly crushed.
While Seong-muk's plagiarized manga line swept Korea, the mood in North Korea was indescribable.
BAM!
"...That bastard Ri Dong-hyeok!! He ended up as a dog for South Korean capitalist scum, eh."
Kim Jeong-un smashed objects in his office.
He wanted to turn Ri Dong-hyeok into Swiss cheese right then, but with this much media exposure, quietly eliminating him was impossible.
Anyone could see it was North Korea's doing. With the scandal out, he had to cut losses and prevent further damage.
His chosen method: cut off the tail.
"Leader comrade, I'm innocent!! I just followed orders...!"
"Sorry, I'll take responsibility for your family."
"L-Leader comrade...!!"
BANG!
The subordinate slumped.
Better a romantic leader who executed a subordinate who misinterpreted orders to kill the concubine than a cold-blooded one who ordered it.
This narrative would flood statements.
South Korea wouldn't buy it, but who cared? Evidence? Victim tears weren't enough—North Korea ignored outside eyes.
"Kwak Jae-hyung, that motherfucker’s the problem…."
The South Korean president always pounced on any pretext against the North.
He constantly shouted 'Expel Pyongyang Blue Jays!'—they couldn't lose that massive revenue.
"Gotta yield some interests to the South for a while…."
Kwak would milk that catchphrase all term.
Executing a subordinate and promising concessions? He'd play defeated this once.
"Fuck your mother...!!"
The humiliation of bowing to the South seeped into Kim Jeong-un's bones.
Grind!
Gnashing his teeth, he vowed.
He wouldn't let Ri Dong-hyeok off easy.
"...If he plays for the South national team, we'll clash there, eh."
He quietly picked up the receiver and called someone.
Soon, his second son, Kim Jeong-cheol, entered the office.
"Kim Jeong-cheol."
"Yes, Father."
Skinny and wiry, with a wildcat face, Kim Jeong-cheol was a supreme contact hitter with lightning legs.
A year older than Ri Dong-hyeok, he barely made the youth national team cutoff.
"Reclaim the escaped Baekdu Bloodline. Got it?"
Kim Jeong-un knew.
Baekdu Bloodline clashes were bloody battles of take and retake.
His second masterpiece after eldest son Kim Jeong-hong could surely make Ri taste bitterness.
Draining power from the reckless tiger would leave him worse than average—world-crushing despair.
Kim Jeong-cheol smirked confidently, boasting loudly.
"...That Ri Dong-hyeok motherfucker won't keep up with my lightning speed."
Planning to steal South Korea's souls with the so-called 'Leader's Shrinking Earth Technique.'
A contact lefty excelling even against underhands, foreshadowing tough brotherly rivalry.
Laughter between father and son echoed through the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun office.
Thus, this national team matchup transcended mere sports. The bloody prelude slowly rose.