Ddolgaeng-i
A few days later came the round of 16 match against Gyeongha High.
The stands were packed far denser than last time.
Around three hundred, maybe…?
It was a clear difference from the previous crowd that had looked like a hundred or two hundred at most.
As I glanced around with a sense of wonder, Do Woojun approached and slung an arm around my neck.
“Why, find it amazing?”
“A little.”
“Half of them came to see you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. Don’t you check the internet?”
“Not really.”
Unless it was soccer videos, I didn’t go looking for news about myself all that often. So I didn’t know the details of the hate comments, the praise, or the attention the media paid me.
“Then what do you do with your free time? Don’t you even game?”
“I don’t game. Other than that… soccer, soccer, soccer…”
Come to think of it, it felt like there was nothing but soccer in my life.
What do I even do with myself?
My daily routine was just soccer, home, soccer, home, soccer, home, over and over. The only special part was that Jia noona was by my side every single day.
“…I asked for nothing.”
“And I hang out with Jia noona every day.”
“I really asked for nothing.”
Do Woojun, who had been looking at me with pity, suddenly hardened his expression and pulled away.
“I don’t talk to show-offs.”
“…?”
He shook his head and returned to his center-back position.
…Did I do something wrong?
I’d only spoken the truth. He’d asked, so I’d answered, and now I was being treated like a show-off.
“Noona!”
Feeling a bit wronged, I turned my head toward where Jia noona was sitting and called out a greeting. When I waved, she smiled and waved back. Just looking at her was healing.
“Where’s that Ddolgaeng-i going.”
The moment I turned my head, a thick regional dialect suddenly reached my ears.
Ddolgaeng-i?
A dialect I’d heard before. It felt somehow familiar.
“Huh? Who…”
A player in a Gyeongha High uniform came into view. Arms and legs that looked like they stretched a full 185 cm, a tall, lanky build with a sly sort of handsome face.
Ah. So this is the striker.
In my memories he had definitely been a midfielder, but for this match he was said to be playing striker. Seeing him in front of me, it seemed he really would be playing striker today.
“Hong Seoin, by any chance…”
“Oh. You know me?”
“Yes. You’re on the U20 team, right?”
Hong Seoin.
In my previous life, Han Seonwoo had introduced him to me as a guy who was good at soccer and used a lot of dialect. His skills had been as good as Seonwoo said, but for some reason he hadn’t gone to an overseas league and had stayed in Korea instead. I also knew he was close with Do Woojun from the U20s.
Look over there.
“Hey! Ddolgaeng-i! Today I’m gonna break right through you!”
“I’m not getting broken through by a midfielder!”
Hong Seoin called out to Do Woojun, who had been walking away, and the two of them greeted each other by flipping each other off with their middle fingers. They were clearly already close.
“Are you playing striker today? Aren’t you a midfielder?”
“Coach told me to play, so I gotta.”
I figured it meant he was just doing as ordered.
Well, he plays midfielder for the U20s and the national team.
No need to worry about that. Right now I needed to focus on beating Gyeongha High.
“You Baek Yujin, by any chance?”
“Ah, yes. I’m Baek Yujin.”
“That so? Ddolgaeng-i said you were a genius, so I’m lookin’ forward to it.”
Do Woojun must have praised me quite a bit. Hong Seoin held out his hand as if offering a handshake.
“Haha. Let’s have a good match.”
I shook his hand lightly and stepped out of the center circle.
Beep—!
Not long after, the match began.
The match kicked off with Gyeongha High on the attack.
Seongil High came out in a 4-4-2, while Gyeongha High lined up in a 4-2-2-2. In truth it was called a 4-2-2-2, but with Hong Seoin’s outstanding work rate letting him run box to box the whole time, it might as well have been a 4-2-3-1.
Chances should have been coming, yet so far Do Woojun had cut every single one of them out. Right now Jang Hoyeon’s shot had sailed over the bar, leaving Gyeongha High with a goal kick. The keeper passed straight to the defender in front of him and they began a slow build-up.
I was pressing alongside the winger when Hong Seoin received the ball in the middle, and I closed on him at once. I meant to strip it clean, but he used his arms to keep distance and shielded the ball.
He uses his arms well.
Hearing about it had never made much of an impression, but the moment we went one-on-one I understood. On top of that he stretched those long legs to keep the ball just out of reach, then used feints to protect it, so winning it looked hard.
“Ddolgaeng-a. You’re ten years too early to take my ball.”
“Wouldn’t a week be enough?”
In that instant Hong Seoin shoved me off and passed into open space toward a teammate. The passes kept coming without pause. It might have looked like simple ball circulation, but Hong Seoin had dropped all the way to the third line and was controlling the tempo, and Seongil High kept getting dragged along.
Why did he stay in Korea?
Whatever reason had kept him from an overseas league, his ability made me genuinely curious.
Whether it was a defender’s mistake or not, the ball dropped into empty space instead of heading toward Hong Seoin. I had been watching the whole time, so I sprinted and stretched out my foot—
Whoosh!
“…A Marseille Turn?”
“Told you you can’t take it, Ddolgaeng-a.”
Hong Seoin used those long legs for a clean Marseille Turn, slipped smoothly out of the pressure, and immediately sent a long ball out to the flank. He had deliberately played the pass that way, knowing I would charge in.
“….”
For ten full minutes I hadn’t won the ball once. Aside from the times we recovered it in our own half and built from there, I hadn’t even gotten a touch.
Normally that would be enough to break someone’s spirit, yet somehow a smile tugged at my lips.
This is fun.
Clean passing and orchestration, astonishing ball retention and dribbling. I found myself wanting to do the same things.
While I was thinking that, Gyeongha High arrived at Seongil High’s goalmouth ready to hammer it.
“Told you I was gonna break through, didn’t I?”
“….”
Hong Seoin arrived in front of the penalty box with a crisp pass, and Do Woojun simply flicked his fingers without a word, keeping a measured distance. Hong Seoin moved as if he were about to dribble, then casually rolled it to the right and curled a shot.
It looked set to fly clean, but Do Woojun’s foot got there and deflected it.
Clang!
The ball that had been heading for the top right corner clipped the crossbar with a heartbreaking clang, and the rebound was claimed by the keeper before any attacker could reach it.
“He doesn’t even dribble.”
“I never said I was gonna dribble. More than that, Ddolgaeng-a—you really a genius?”
“What, Yujin?”
“Yeah. Ain’t that a lie?”
“….”
Unfortunately I hadn’t caught the earlier exchange, but now that he had dropped all the way to the third line I could hear every word. He was still smiling even after our eyes met, so he couldn’t have been completely serious.
Provocation, then. He wants me to show him the real thing.
In a match, the moment the attacking side loses the ball their roles reverse—from attack to defense. With the long-range shot just blocked, this was the perfect counterattack window.
I’ll show him.
Until now defenders and the keeper had kept shutting me out. No player can score every time they want to, but right now I wanted a goal.
“Seonwoo!!”
As I burst forward, the keeper’s throw landed right at Han Seonwoo’s feet. Seonwoo didn’t pass immediately; he calmly beat the oncoming players and carried the ball up the pitch.
The flank.
Thump—!
A pinpoint lofted through-ball toward the side. Jang Hoyeon, already in full stride, took one touch near the penalty box. Kang Woon was already making his run into the box, but two defenders were stuck to him. The odds of him even getting a touch were low.
He has no choice but to give it to me.
I was a little farther back, but I was cutting into the completely open half-space on the opposite side.
Thump—!
Just as expected, Jang Hoyeon’s pass arced high toward the spot I was running into. The defender who had been marking Kang Woon noticed and closed on me instead. The distance meant I had to take it on the ground.
The ball dropped onto the grass. I timed the bounce and struck it with the outside of my foot toward the direction opposite the charging defender.
Thud!
“…!”
The defender was caught completely off-balance, and the ball skidded across the turf into open space. The moment another player stretched for it I improvised—right foot first, dragging the ball back toward my body, then a turn off the left foot.
A Marseille Turn.
Whoosh!
“…!”
Thump—!
I used exactly what Hong Seoin had done to me, then finished with a shot. The fluid sequence of individual skill shook the net.
“….”
“….”
Silence settled over the pitch.
“Whoa… you really are a Ddolgaeng-i… copying that?”
I grinned at Hong Seoin, who had dropped all the way back into defense and was staring in admiration.
“I’m the type who has to pay back whatever’s done to me. Haha.”
When I joked, Hong Seoin came over and threw an arm around my shoulders. The difference in build left me completely caught under it.
“Ddolgaeng-a, wanna be friends with me?”
“…What? Friends?”
Out of nowhere?
“Yeah. I like you.”
“…I have a girlfriend.”
“Ha. Actin’ like that between us when you already know. But where is she?”
“Over there.”
I stretched out my arm and pointed to Jia noona sitting near the middle of the stands. Since I was already looking, I smiled and waved, and she—who must have been watching only me—waved right back.
“Whoa… pretty sister-in-law, huh.”
“You can tell from here? And sister-in-law?”
“Yeah. Haven’t you promised to marry her?”
“Uh… it’s kind of ambiguous.”
It had been a half-joking proposal, so whether it really counted was fuzzy. Probably safer to say I hadn’t.
“Then I’ll help you. In exchange, be my friend.”
“….”
The eyes that met mine right then looked so much like a kid who had just found a new toy that I couldn’t bring myself to answer.