Swipe the Company Card!
The beef house was packed to the rafters.
Nearly half the tables inside had been claimed by men of truly imposing builds. The only women among them were me and Yu-kyung unnie.
The players settled in with the teammates they were closest to, or the ones they roomed with. Feltner scattered his coaching staff among them so no one sat alone.
Sure, language might be a problem—but according to Feltner, “Men can talk just fine once the drinks start flowing.” I understood the sentiment. I just had zero intention of letting them drink. Alcohol at a team dinner in the middle of the season? That was crossing the line.
For the record, Yu-kyung unnie, Do-yun oppa, and I took a table off to the side. We knew better than to crash the players’ hangout. No thanks.
Watching the owner beam the second we walked in put me in a good mood for no real reason. We’re juicing your sales, buddy. You better be grateful.
Once everyone had found a seat, I stood up and made sure they heard me loud and clear.
“Listen up, everyone. I’m laying down exactly one rule for tonight, and I need you all to follow it. Got it?”
Conversation died instantly. Every head turned toward me like my word was law.
Whoever drilled that into them deserves a raise. Good work.
“No alcohol! Absolutely none! You drink water—nothing but water! Other than that, go wild. Order whatever you want! Understood!?”
““Yes, ma’am!!!””
They roared it back without missing a beat. I flagged the owner and ordered meat for every single table.
I couldn’t be bothered to think it through, and I didn’t know each player’s preferences anyway, so I just had the biggest, most expensive mixed platter dropped on every table. I was already certain of one thing.
They would polish off at least five of those platters each. No joke.
But that was fine. We were swiping the company card. If not on a night like this, when would I ever get to use it?
After that the players dove into the meat with noisy, cheerful chatter. Do-yun oppa, Yu-kyung unnie, and I started eating right beside them.
Sizzle—!
Watching the meat cook to perfection, I couldn’t help swallowing hard. Sure, I’d already put away a bunch of chicken while watching the match earlier, so I was sort of full—but beef was still beef.
Do-yun oppa was handling the grill, by the way. We were freeloading; of course the guy was on cooking duty.
“Here, Do-a. Eat up. You too, Yu-kyung.”
“Thanks, oppa~”
“Would it be all right if I took over the grilling…?”
“Nope. I wanna grill some meat too~ I’m actually pretty good at it.”
“That’s not what I— haaah…”
Yu-kyung unnie, who worked as a secretary for one of the group companies, looked ready to crawl under the table. Having someone who technically outranked her boss personally grilling meat for her? Yeah, that meat was going to stick in her throat.
But our Han Do-yun was a cold-blooded psychopath with neither blood nor tears to spare, so he couldn’t have cared less about Yu-kyung unnie’s feelings.
If I’d been the older brother, I’d have handed her the tongs and scissors for her sake.
“Just eat, Yu-kyung unnie.”
“But still…”
“Do-yun oppa said he wants to grill. Leave him alone.”
“Exactly~ Meat grilled by the chairman of Hanul Global doesn’t come around often if you’re not family.”
“Haaaaaah…”
For the record, even when our family ate meat together, Do-yun oppa was always the designated griller. Simply put, he was the best at it out of all the brothers. No deeper reason.
Lately, though, we usually just asked the chefs to handle it, so his grilling opportunities had dried up. Maybe he was jumping on this chance to get back in the saddle.
Do-yun oppa secretly loved grilling meat.
Watching him made me wonder if he should’ve gone into the restaurant business instead. It wasn’t like the Hanul family lacked that kind of venture.
I was chewing on that pointless thought—and the meat—when Do-yun oppa’s voice cut in again.
“Sitting here like this… you can hear the players talking, right?”
“That’s kind of why we sat here.”
I’d chosen this spot precisely so I could catch snatches of conversation between the players and the coaching staff. Moments like these showed you the real atmosphere better than anything.
I popped another piece of the tender, perfectly grilled meat Do-yun oppa had given me into my mouth and casually scanned the room.
Even under the manager’s orders, sitting with coaching staff who’d lived in Germany left a clear communication gap. And yet…
“Coach Braun, try this.”
“(Is he giving this to me…? Am I allowed to eat it?)”
“Ah… eat! Eating! Eating this!”
“Ah, okay, okay. Thank you.”
Someone was offering meat to a coach…
“Uh… hey, No Geon-woo. How do I ask him how I did… in English?”
“Ah. Uh… how about… my play?”
“Ah, aaaah! How about… my play… today?”
“(Kang Si-woo’s play was fantastic! Hard to believe he just debuted with performances like that!)”
“What’s he saying?”
“How should I know? But looking at the way he’s talking, I’m pretty sure he’s saying you crushed it.”
“R-right?”
They were mangling English just to force some kind of conversation with the coaches…
“(Feltner, try this.)”
“(Oh, I know this. Ssam, right? I’ll enjoy it!)”
“Hey, you put garlic in that, didn’t you?”
“Just one clove.”
“That should be fine.”
“(Urgh…!?)”
Two old-timers who had no idea how terrifying two slices of raw garlic could be to a Westerner were trolling Feltner with a loaded ssam wrap.
What a wholesome bunch, honestly.
Beyond that, the players laughed and chattered among themselves, and conversations like this floated past as well:
“Today felt so damn good.”
“Right? I want the next match to go just like this.”
“Think the owner will treat us again?”
“Don’t push it. She won’t buy us this every time. Maybe after we get promoted.”
“Then let’s work even harder. I wanna come back here.”
“Next time we drink too.”
Let’s do better. Let’s get promoted. Let’s come back here and finally drink.
Yeah. Get promoted and I’ll actually bring you back for drinks. Hell, once we go up I’ll take you somewhere even more expensive. I mean it.
In the middle of all that warmth, one player sat quietly eating meat by himself.
He offered just enough half-hearted agreement to blend in, but the look on his face wasn’t good.
Jo Tae-ung.
The former ace who, alongside Cha Jeong-woo, had once carried Seongjin Maseong FC’s scoring. The guy whose starting spot had been stolen by Kang Si-woo, the poacher freshly recruited from college.
Jo Tae-ung alone ate in silence. It almost looked like quiet defiance of the cheerful mood, or a subtle signal that he felt like an outsider.
In reality, Jo Tae-ung was one of the longer-tenured players on the team—an old-timer by default. He’d never been a true “veteran” in skill or presence, but with so much new blood injected into the roster, he’d somehow ended up in the veteran group by process of elimination.
While he sat there carrying that weight and eating quietly, the players at his table kept glancing over even as they joked around. The truly sad part? There was nothing I could do about it. Absolutely nothing.
If I walked over and said, “Smile, we won—why the long face?” that would just be an abuse of power. Right?
But thankfully—truly, thankfully—I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed.
“Hey hey, Jo Tae-ung.”
“Yes?”
Captain Nam Gi-cheol, who only moments earlier had been introducing Feltner to the horrors of Korean garlic ssam, marched over with vice-captain and goalkeeper Min Jun-seok in tow, ready to take Jo Tae-ung into custody. They looked exactly like slave-catchers hunting a runaway.
“You’re being transferred to our table.”
“Yeah. Let’s go troll Manager Feltner with ssam.”
“No, I’ll just keep eating meat he—”
“Ah-ah, hurry up. Old man, quit hovering around the kids and get over here.”
“Hey, don’t drag me…! And I’m not an old man! I’m still in my twenties!”
“So you’re mocking us for being in our thirties?”
“Unforgivable. You’re coming with us even more now. Hey, kids, clear his plate—eat up~”
““Yes, sir~”
The two of them hauled Jo Tae-ung over to their table and seamlessly sat him down with Feltner so they could all eat together. Naturally they made him feed the manager ssam wraps as well.
Watching Feltner demolish Jo Tae-ung’s wrap with the most enjoyment of anyone, I figured he hadn’t loaded it with garlic. Ironic, really. The one player who had every reason to resent the team and the manager had given him the tastiest wrap of the night.
While I was still mulling that over, Do-yun oppa dropped more meat onto my plate and asked,
“Looks like the players get along pretty well.”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“That number seven of yours. The leadership just dragged him over all friendly and started feeding him meat. That looks pretty close to me.”
“Mmm… maybe? Yeah, I guess it does.”
True enough—Jo Tae-ung had been on decent terms with the toxic elements like Hwang In-bae, but he’d never been at odds with Nam Gi-cheol or Min Jun-seok either.
If I had to pin him down, he was the type who stayed reasonably friendly with everyone while carefully keeping a little distance. That felt like Jo Tae-ung. Watching him banter so freely with the leadership made him look like someone with solid social skills, too.
Which only made the question sharper. Why on earth had Feltner left him out of the starting lineup? Why refuse to use a resource like Jo Tae-ung?
Of course, this was Feltner. He had to have his reasons. I was still turning that over when—
“Owner! If we can’t drink, can we at least have doenjang jjigae?”
One of the players lobbed a boundary-pushing question my way.
“Doenjang jjigae is packed with sodium! Absolutely not! You think I don’t want some too? I’m holding back right here!”
“Sorry, ma’am~”
““Hahahahahahahaha!””
The players burst into loud laughter. From that moment on, it felt like they’d discovered the pure joy of teasing me. Looking back, even the stew question had been asked knowing full well it would get shut down.
Well, we were all roughly the same age—practically peers—so of course they wanted to mess around without walking on eggshells. And I was a woman on top of that.
I almost let a little “kids these days” energy slip out, but I let it go. I’m a generous boss.
Side note: the final bill was genuinely insane. Soccer players really can eat.
On top of that, a few of them asked if they could pack some meat to take home for their families, so I just ordered a few more platters and had them wrapped up.
I could manage that much. Yeah.