Birthday
After the practice match against Seowon High, time slipped by quickly, and before long the weather had warmed enough that lighter clothes were coming out of the closet.
Quite a few things had happened in the meantime.
First, the practice match made the news.
Articles called them the promising talents who would carry Korea’s future, a clash of geniuses, and more of the same.
The pieces Lee Eunho wrote centered on the Baeksan Middle School alumni.
In particular, Seong Yumin and I—who had both scored multiple goals that day—were thrust back into the spotlight.
Being first-years in high school now only seemed to make us feel even more famous than the rest.
Plenty of people already knew our names from the Baeksan Middle days, so once the fire was lit it refused to die out; it just kept burning hotter.
If I typed my name into a search bar online, a fair number of posts would probably pop up.
I did play well, didn’t I?
Still, it was the internet, so not every word was kind. There were people cursing us out for getting praised over a mere practice match.
Not a few—quite a lot.
But every time, Jia noona would spot the hate comments first and come comfort me.
The way it felt when she hugged me and told me I was doing just fine was really…
“…Heh.”
Just thinking about Jia noona pulled a smile onto my face without permission.
Then a voice called from across the table.
“Yujin. You’re not thinking something weird, are you?”
“…Yes? No, I’m not.”
It was Chairman Lee Woojin—my father.
He’s like a ghost whenever anything involves Jia noona…
Even though it was the weekend, the two of us were alone because we needed to talk about advertisements.
Maybe because I’d gotten famous online again, the ad offers that had gone quiet for a while had started rolling back in.
Back in middle school, after a string of clean-sheet tournament wins, a few companies had taken interest and made proposals.
Soccer was what I wanted to do, so I’d turned them all down. Now that I was in high school and the practice match had made the papers, they were coming again.
“Right. So how about finding a professional agent?”
“An agent?”
“Wouldn’t that be more convenient? There’s only so many ad inquiries I can handle myself.”
“Ah…”
The real point seemed to be that last sentence.
I was a minor and an orphan, so anything contract-related had been going through Father in his role as guardian.
“Then I’ll think about it.”
“Alright. I’ll look around as best I can too.”
With this many ad contracts on the table, it wasn’t as if I’d never considered an agent.
I’ll turn them all down for now, though…
Not right now, but later it would help with ad deals or a professional contract.
About five years from now, maybe.
My friends had made their overseas moves around the U-20s, so somewhere near then.
Or maybe they wouldn’t go at all.
“By the way, Yujin.”
“Yes?”
“Is there anything you need for a birthday present?”
“Birthday… Ah.”
Tomorrow was April 22nd.
My birthday.
I completely forgot about that.
I’d been so buried in soccer that it had vanished from my mind.
“There’s nothing I particularly need.”
“Even something small is fine.”
“Hmm…”
I didn’t need any gifts.
I was already living thanks to Father’s help; asking for something on top of that felt shameless.
While I was turning it over, a good idea surfaced.
Something that wouldn’t be a burden—and good for me too.
“Father.”
“Yes. Do you need something?”
“It’s not that I need it…”
I trailed off, a little embarrassed to say it outright, and he urged me on with open curiosity.
“Speak freely.”
“Then… could I spend the whole day with Jia noona?”
“…The whole day?”
“Yes. Starting from dawn today.”
“….”
Even as the words left my mouth my heart was hammering, so I forced myself to sound as confident as possible.
Sensing he might refuse, I pressed on.
“Seongil High has won every practice match lately.”
With the national tournament drawing closer, we’d played several more practice games.
Strangely enough, Seongil High—so lackluster in my previous life—had won every single one of them recently, as if that old slump had never existed.
“Hmm…”
“Then how about leaving it up to Jia noona’s opinion?”
“…I’ll ask Jia.”
“Thank you.”
There was no chance Jia noona would say no, so that was as good as permission.
11:50 p.m.
Ten minutes left until my birthday.
Ding-dong!
“I’ll get it!”
The doorbell rang right on cue. I checked who it was, opened the front door, and found Jia noona standing there.
Night or morning, any hour of the day—our noona was always beautiful.
The paper bag in her hand looked like a birthday present.
“You’re here?”
“Yeah. Yujin.”
“Is that in your hand a present?”
I reached out to take it inside for her, but Jia noona pulled the bag behind her back.
My hand swiped empty air.
“…?”
“Hehe. I’ll give it to you later.”
“Okay. Come on in, then.”
I took her free hand and led her inside.
When she said she was going to wash her hands, I let her go and sat on the sofa with my phone.
Maybe just watch a little.
Just as review mattered for studying, reviewing what you’d done that day mattered for soccer too.
I leaned back against the sofa and pulled up soccer clips on my phone.
From the recent practice matches I’d played all the way to the gods of the game who had defined eras. I rewatched videos I’d already seen and studied ones that still had something to teach me.
“…Ah.”
I must have been watching too long. When I turned my head, a fingertip poked my cheek.
“…Noona?”
“Yeah. Yujin.”
I had no idea when she’d sat down beside me. Jia noona was staring straight at me, gently pressing my cheek over and over with her index finger.
I shook my head side to side and she finally withdrew her hand.
“How long have you been there?”
“Since you started concentrating?”
“So from the beginning. What time is it right now?”
At the question, noona gave me a soft smile and pointed at my phone.
“Want to check?”
“Okay… huh?”
Bzzzt— bzzzt—
My phone was already lighting up with a steady stream of notifications.
Every single one was a birthday message.
Midnight.
While I’d been lost in soccer videos, the clock had rolled over to twelve.
“….”
I stared blankly at the alerts still pouring in. Jia noona held out a box she’d been keeping behind her back.
“Happy birthday, Yujin.”
“…Ah.”
I couldn’t manage a proper answer; my mouth just opened and closed.
…This is strange.
For reasons I couldn’t name, it was simply moving.
An eighteen-year-old noona giving me a present felt like I was receiving some kind of repayment for coming back to the past.
That couldn’t be it, and yet it felt as if noona knew everything about me.
While I sat there unfocused, lips still working soundlessly, she leaned in and whispered right against my ear.
“If you cry, I’m going to tease you for the rest of your life.”
…Emotion canceled.
“I’m not crying. What is it?”
“Want to open it?”
“Yeah.”
“Hehe.”
With Jia noona’s smile and the phone still buzzing behind me, I opened the box.
A simple ribbon came free with one tug, and the lid lifted.
Inside was a pair of shoes.
Sleek, expensive-looking black soccer cleats.
“…Cleats?”
“Yeah. You said they fit perfectly, so I bought them as a present.”
Had I ever said that?
I had.
I dug through my memories as far as they would go and found it—winter of third year in middle school.
After practice, resting for a moment, I’d muttered that the cleats fit just right.
These were the gift of a noona who had remembered that offhand mumble.
“How are they?”
“…They’re perfect. I’ll wear them for the rest of my life. Really.”
“Hehe. You’re welcome.”
Apparently the presents weren’t finished. Jia noona stood up and pointed at the now-empty sofa.
“Lie down on the sofa for me?”
“Huh? Why?”
“I’ll give you a massage. That’s part of the present too.”
“Okay.”
I stretched out face-down on the sofa like it was the most natural thing in the world.
I’m looking forward to this.
In my previous life she’d offered massages often enough that I’d gotten them regularly.
Back then she’d actually gone and learned how. Would it feel the same now?
“Alright, starting.”
“Okay, noona.”
She settled right onto my lower back and began working her hands over every part of me.
Press— press—
While she worked I fired off quick replies to the friends who’d messaged, and my mouth opened on its own.
“That feels amazing…”
“Does it? I watched some YouTube videos just so I could do this for you. I’m glad.”
It didn’t feel any different from my previous life.
If anything, there was even more care in it.
Sensing the moment, I set my phone down and spoke.
“Noona.”
“Yeah?”
“Why do you like me?”
The hands pressing into my body stopped for the briefest instant.
She resumed the massage right away, but the body receiving it had already caught that tiny pause.
Was that too direct?
I’d known the reason she loved me that deeply, yet maybe instead of a jab I’d thrown a straight right.
“Mmm…”
“If it’s too much pressure, you don’t have to tell me.”
I meant it.
I wanted to know, but I had no intention of forcing her to say something she didn’t want to.
“No. It’s your birthday, and it’s not a weird question. I’ll tell you. Do you remember the day we first met?”
“Of course I do.”
I was about six. I’d met Father at the funeral home, and the next day I’d met Jia noona for the first time.
“Yeah. And then you transferred in.”
“Right?”
“The truth is, before you came I was being bullied.”
“…You were?”
“Yeah. Me.”
What followed was something I’d never heard before, and it hit hard.
Jia noona was a golden spoon.
The kind of golden spoon who could live her whole life without ever lifting a finger.
That meant envy and jealousy came whether she wanted them or not.
Even now as a high-schooler there was still a little of it; how much worse must it have been when we were little?
It was one or the other.
Either suck up to Jia noona, or shut her out completely.
In her case it had been the latter.
“I was alone and lonely, and then you appeared. You played with me so purely. You didn’t even notice the others were freezing me out.”
“….”
“That was such a comfort. There wasn’t a single kid who just wanted to be my friend for real.”
As a child I hadn’t thought much of anything.
The idea that she was being bullied never even crossed my mind.
Looking back with that pure heart, there was simply a very pretty noona who was with me.
I had a friend, so there was no reason to feel lonely.
“Spending every single day with you, even sleeping under the same roof—it was so much fun. I can’t even tell you how happy I was just because you were there.”
At some point the hands massaging me had gone still. I rolled onto my back so I could look at her face.
“We grew up together and I fell for you, and if you hadn’t told me first that you liked me, we might never have started dating. For me, your feelings always come first.”
Even as a little girl, noona had put me first.
Her expression was one of quiet relief, and beneath it I could feel an enormous depth of emotion.
“Yujin.”
“Yeah.”
“I only want to see you looking happy. You taught me what happiness is. I want you to never be sad—just keep loving soccer the way you do.”
“…Ah.”
With those words I finally understood why, in my previous life, noona’s devotion had always carried a faint shadow of gloom.
Because I wasn’t happy.
I’d lost the dream called soccer and lived hollow days, so the noona who only wanted me to be joyful and content had grown sad too.
“I have a wish.”
The wish ticket.
The one I’d given her before the last practice match.
“…What is it?”
I asked carefully. Jia noona leaned down and rested her head against my chest.
A soft fragrance that always stirred something in me drifted up, along with a pleasant weight.
She smiled shyly.
“Don’t get hurt, and play soccer happily.”
“…That’s it?”
It felt almost too empty for a wish ticket. I blinked and asked again.
“That’s all. Simple, right?”
“…Yeah. It is.”
It really was simple.
Just standing on the field already made me happy. If she wanted me to play happily, that was two birds with one stone.
Jia noona held out her hand in front of my face, pinky and thumb extended.
“Then pinky promise.”
“Promise?”
“Yeah. The one you made with me.”
“I… ah.”
Just as everyone has a cringeworthy childhood memory, I had one too.
The reckless little me who used to shout without thinking.
“Noona! When I grow up, marry me!”
“…Really?”
“Yeah! It has to be you, noona! I like you the most!”
“…Okay.”
“Then pinky promise!”
Words I’d said after looking at a noona who was already so pretty.
Now they were sincere, but back then I’d truly only been looking at her face.
She remembered this too.
I’d said it about a month after we first met.
After hearing her story just now, I could finally understand how much comfort those words must have given her.
“Yeah. It’s a promise.”
I hooked my pinky with hers.
Back then it hadn’t meant much. Now it carried real weight.
“Hehe.”
To Jia noona, the existence called me seemed to be an emotion far larger than I’d ever imagined.
What am I supposed to do with this noona?
She used the wish ticket I’d told her to spend on herself for my sake instead. My feelings always came first. She remembered every tiny detail.
The word “love” wasn’t enough.
No matter how I turned it over, there was only one thing I could do.
“Noona.”
“Yeah?”
“Want to get married on January 15th? About four years from now. It’d make a perfect birthday present.”
What else could I give her except my own happiness?
January 15th—Jia noona’s birthday.
She’d given me the greatest gift of all, the one that untangled every knotted thread inside me. Didn’t I have to give her something in return?
And that gift would be marriage.
There was no better present I could offer Jia noona.
“….”
“….”
She held my gaze for a long moment, realized I was completely serious, and then her face flushed red as she started squishing my cheeks with both hands.
“…You can’t tease noona like that.”
“Haha. You tease me every day. And I’m serious, you know?”
“…We’ll talk about it in the morning.”
“Okay. I love you, noona.”
Pouting, looking a little sulky, she answered in a small voice.
“…Me too.”
“Hm?”
“I love you too.”
A sudden soft kiss on the lips, then Jia noona threw her arms around my neck and clung to me.
She must have been embarrassed; she didn’t want to show her face.
Ah, this is too good.
I slowly stroked her hair and savored every second of the moment.
This birthday, without a doubt, was the best one yet.