First, Become a Soccer Person
Once I got home and changed into my pajamas, I looked up the qualifications needed to become president of the Korea Football Association.
The official requirements themselves were surprisingly simple. No disciplinary record. No criminal history. No grounds for executive disqualification.
I met all of those without breaking a sweat, of course — but there were the conditions that mattered in the real world.
Vast personal wealth and the ability to bring in sponsorships. A rock-solid network inside and outside the soccer world. And lastly, genuine management and administrative skill.
Wealth and sponsorship pull? I was confident enough on those. The power of Hanul Group went that far, at least.
Management and administration I was still building up, true — but honestly, I didn't think the gap between me and the current KFA president was all that wide.
The real problem was that solid network inside and outside the soccer world.
Bluntly put, I had zero connection to soccer as it stood. The closest thing I had was the fact that I was a soccer geek with a corner of my room covered in game-worn player jerseys.
I had no human network whatsoever.
And if I wanted to build one, I ultimately had to become a soccer person myself…
It wasn't as if I could suddenly start playing professionally, and going back to school in a related major wasn't an option either.
I'd already been half-forcibly dumped into Hanul Invest and was on leave from university. Dropping out entirely, transferring into some sports-related department, and trying to break into the soccer world from there? That was far too complicated and difficult a path — and realistically, the one with the lowest odds of ever making me association president.
So what was I supposed to do? How could I climb into the KFA presidency in the easiest, simplest way possible?
"…Club owner. I guess I'll have to try that."
Becoming a club owner would do it. And not just any soccer club — the owner of a pro first-division-level team.
Of course, that alone wouldn't be enough. I'd have to grow that club into something stronger, until everyone knew I was someone who truly cared about soccer, someone who loved the game.
Just like the current association president, Pyo Man-seok.
"Hoooo…"
It was a long road, but at least I had a thread to pull on. First, acquire a team. Then raise it to the upper tier of the first division — or, failing that, produce some visible results.
All right. With that settled, there was only one thing left to do.
I called over Yoo-kyung, who'd been living practically glued to my side.
"Hey, Yoo-kyung unnie."
"Yeah, Do-a?"
She was in pajamas too, ready for a proper night's sleep just like me, and a faint twinge of guilt started to creep in.
"Tomorrow's your day off, right?"
"It is?"
"Then… could you look into which K League clubs are currently available for acquisition?"
"……Right now? Wait — that wasn't a joke?"
The look she gave me said, Are you seriously bothering an office worker on her day off? and it was sharp enough that I half-expected it to burn a hole straight through my shoulder.
"I'm not joking, unnie. Hanul Group doesn't even have a soccer club among its sports teams."
"That's true, but…"
"So could you look into it? As soon as possible. Ah — you can sleep first and do it after you wake up tomorrow. It's your day off, after all."
"As soon as possible… Fine. Got it."
Yoo-kyung nodded, shuffled back into her room with sleepy eyes, and I watched her go before padding into my own room and collapsing into the kind of sleep that only comes after a long day.
Though before that, there was one more critical thing I had to wrestle with. What, you ask?
…Convincing the family, of course.
No matter how many home runs I'd hit with every venture I'd touched — no matter how maxed-out my trust and favorability meters were, to the point where a confession might actually land me a relationship on the spot — acquiring a soccer club was a different beast entirely.
The next morning, for the first time in a while, I sat down to breakfast with Dad and Grandpa.
I watched their faces carefully for a beat, then finally opened my mouth.
"Um… Grandpa, Dad. There's something I'd like to talk to you about."
"Well now, what could our granddaughter possibly have to say to this old man and her father~?"
"Father…"
Dad clutched his head at Grandpa's full-throttle doting-grandfather mode.
"I'd like to acquire a soccer club. Under the name of Hanul Invest."
Dad's face shifted into something like What kind of nonsense is she spouting now?, while Grandpa, by contrast, looked at me with genuine interest.
Two completely different gazes.
And both of them deeply familiar.
They were the looks of men curious about exactly what I intended by saying something like this.
There was no appraisal in them — no weighing me up. These two already knew.
They knew that even after growing Hanul Invest this far, I had no further hunger for a larger equity stake.
Because I was a daughter without that kind of ambition, the eyes they turned on me were far gentler than anything they aimed at my older brothers — and laced with fascination.
Well. I'd be fascinated too, if I were them.
As a kid I'd gone all-in on Bitcoin and, without anyone handing me a thing, turned up at twenty with fifty billion won. I'd taken a backwater investment firm they'd tossed me with a "go on, try running it" and ballooned it into something enormous. Every stock, every theme I picked turned out to be the right call.
And now that same kid suddenly wanted to buy a soccer club? I'd want popcorn. Forget popcorn — bring the fries, the cola, the burger, the chicken, the whole damn menu.
"…I want to try becoming the football association president."
"That feels like quite a leap. Can you walk us through it in more detail?"
Grandpa, who loved soccer, was beaming. Dad, curiosity and mild alarm starting to mix on his face, asked for a proper explanation.
Naturally, I obliged. Thoroughly.
The national team's failure at this World Cup. My analysis of why they'd failed. And, somewhere in the middle of all that, the thing I'd realized I wanted to do.
Dad listened, then neatly summarized it for me.
"So what you're saying is: first acquire a club, grow that club to build influence in the soccer world, and then use that influence to run for association president?"
"Yes. Exactly."
"…I'm less shocked than when you showed up with fifty billion. Still — if you're serious, come back properly prepared. The moment you take over and start running a team, Do-a, it won't just be Hanul Invest's name on it. It'll carry the Hanul name."
Even if I wanted to slap only Hanul Invest on the side of the bus, the name in front of it was still Hanul.
I understood well enough that I'd inevitably be representing Hanul as a whole.
And then, looking at Grandpa — who was smiling at me with such warmth — I realized something.
It might sound a little odd to say, but I took after Grandpa more than either of my parents.
Even I could see it objectively: the slightly unhinged choices, the playful streak, even the love of soccer — all of it came from him.
So had a man like that never owned a soccer club? Was there a reason Hanul Group, which already held baseball, basketball, and volleyball teams, had never touched soccer?
"Grandpa."
"Yes, Do-a?"
"…Why don't you have a soccer club?"
At that, Grandpa snickered and gave me an answer that blew past every expectation.
"I quit."
"Pardon…?"
"I got into it because I loved soccer — and then it was nothing but politics, vested interests, administrative paperwork… Why the hell would I keep holding onto that? I cleaned it up nice and neat and went back to being a fan."
He'd owned one and washed his hands of it because it was filthy? That Grandpa?
"Then the other teams…"
"Do you really think I personally manage any of them?"
Ah. No, he didn't.
Only then did I understand. Grandpa had chosen to remain a pure fan, nothing more.
"And now little Do-a wants to flip the very table I walked away from because it was too dirty? Kahahaha! This is even more fun than when I first got a club myself!"
"Father…"
"Son, take a page from your daughter's book. A real businessman lives by whatever pulls him in!"
"I like to think I live by what pulls me in too…"
"You're too much of a model student. You take after your mother far too much."
"I do take after Mother more than you, yes."
Once their little back-and-forth wound down, Grandpa looked at me with shining eyes.
"When your preparations are all finished, be sure to tell us. I'll be looking forward to it with great pleasure."
"Yes…!"
I nodded hard, finished my meal as deliciously as I could manage, and got up from the table — only to find Yoo-kyung waiting for me right outside my door.
"Yoo-kyung unnie, is the thing I asked for yesterday ready?"
"Haaaah… Yeah. Here."
She let out a sigh loud enough that I was clearly meant to hear it, then handed over a thick stack of documents. I took them with a small smile.
"Thanks. Get some real rest today."
"If you bother me any more today, I am genuinely submitting my resignation."
"Really?"
"No. But I might get properly mad."
"Ahem. Yoo-kyung-ssi. Composure, please."
"It's my day off."
Fleeing the look that said she was one second away from giving me a solid knuckle to the skull, I bolted into my room and spread out the list of acquirable clubs she'd prepared first thing upon waking.
It covered both the first and second divisions, and there were actually a few decent teams among them.
Today was a holiday. Starting Monday, I'd get to work.
On the acquisition proposal, that is.