In an Instant
Once I realized how deeply Hong Seoin was interested in other people's love lives, I turned down his offer and decided we'd just stick to being like older and younger brothers.
In my past life I'd managed the proposal and the wedding all on my own — and knowing how much Jia noona already liked me, there was no way I couldn't pull it off. Even if she said no, I was confident I could win her over.
Still, the man could talk. My ears didn't get a moment's rest the whole way to the center circle.
"I ain't gonna go easy on you no more."
"You never went easy on me to begin with, did you?"
"Ddolgaeng-i, knowin' too much ain't good for ya. The old sayings ain't wrong, y'know."
"Haha."
We'd only just started talking, but it already felt like we'd gotten close. Maybe it was because I knew he used "Ddolgaeng-i" like a nickname.
Feels familiar.
He gave off the vibe of a neighborhood hyung I'd run into just yesterday. His football skills, though, were nothing like some neighborhood hyung's.
Tweeeet—!
"Get your head on straight."
The moment the match kicked off, Hong Seoin started circulating the ball with rapid passes. No matter how hard we pressed, he used his distinctive arm work and long legs to shield the ball, then redistributed it with near-perfect composure to slip free of the pressure.
When a side winger drove the ball forward and punched through, the defensive line was naturally forced back. As the center-backs dropped to hold the line, a gap inevitably opened between them and the midfield. Hong Seoin signaled and surged into that space.
A cross arced up, aimed precisely at his head.
It's going in.
A midfielder closed in as hard as he could and Do Woojun went up for the challenge, but Hong Seoin's leap was higher than anyone expected.
Thud—!
The header buried itself clean and rattled the net. Hong Seoin jogged over to me with a grin.
"I'll overtake you real soon."
"Then I'll get there before you do."
Strangely, even after conceding, I felt calm.
I don't feel like we're going to lose.
Gyeongha High was playing well enough with Hong Seoin leading the charge, but we still had plenty we hadn't shown. All we needed was to widen the gap, bit by bit.
Tweeeet—!
Kang Un passed back to the keeper and the kickoff began.
Looked fun, that play of his.
Thinking of the way Hong Seoin had been playing, I ran hard across the pitch. In those moments when I dictated the tempo myself and sprayed long balls out toward the flanks, I almost forgot the heat.
The first half drifted past without incident until the thirty-fifth minute. The moment I received the ball, pressure came on, so I used my arms as much as I could to carve out space.
"Ddolgaeng-a, you copyin' me?"
"Who knows."
I was only doing it because it seemed efficient. Timing the moment the press loosened, I played a back pass and then a one-two. Cleanly free of the pressure, I calmly scanned our team's positions, laid the ball off to Han Seonwoo again, and sprinted forward.
I didn't stop. I ran straight for goal.
He's going to play it.
One passing lane was open in front of me. Delivered at the exact right moment, it would beat the offside trap and become a killer ball. It was an extremely hard angle to see — but the reason I was running was that I believed Han Seonwoo could find it.
A genius like him can make that pass.
He'd be looking at the same lane I was. The instant I reached the center-backs, I spun and broke the line.
At that exact moment, the ball left Han Seonwoo's foot. Perfect timing. While everyone else was looking elsewhere — while they all assumed the ball was going wide — it came not to the flank but straight through the middle. A clean pass that skimmed the grass, slipped past the midfielder, past the center-back standing right beside me, and put me clean through one-on-one with the keeper.
"…!"
The keeper's pupils visibly dilated. There was nothing he could do. It wasn't anyone else's fault — Han Seonwoo was simply a genius.
Boom—!
The ball was in the net in an instant.
"Well, damn. We lost."
Just as Hong Seoin said, dressed now in casual clothes, today's match had ended 2–1 in Seongil High's favor. If Do Woojun hadn't defended with almost supernatural focus, things could have gotten a little dangerous. I'd been so exhausted myself that I'd been subbed out midway through the second half.
"Ddolgaeng-a."
By the end of the match, I'd already gotten used to being called that.
"Yeah?"
"You thinkin' about playin' for the U20s?"
"…The U20s? I'm seventeen. I never even made the U17s."
"The U17 coach was a damn lunatic. And if you've got the skill, you skip a grade. That's how it works."
"…"
The U20s. If I could, I wanted to. Like most footballers, I'd always wanted to play a match wearing the Taegeuk mark on my chest.
"If I can, I'd like to."
"Alright. I'll put in a good word."
"But hyung, are you even allowed to ask me that?"
"The coach told me to in the first place."
With so many injuries, they were probably hunting for any promising prospect who looked like he could contribute.
"Hyung, what did you think of Seonwoo?"
"Who's that?"
"Seongil High's number eight."
"Number eight? Ah, yeah. He was decent."
"So even in your eyes he looked good."
From talking with him, I'd figured out that when Hong Seoin said "decent," he meant good. Being from Gyeongsang, he seemed unused to handing out praise.
We talked a little longer, and then it was time to part ways. Hong Seoin attended a school out in the provinces.
"I'm headin' out."
"Yeah. See you next time."
I had no choice but to say goodbye to Hong Seoin. It was only a gut feeling, but I had the sense we'd meet again before long.
The quarterfinals and semifinals that followed ended more easily than expected. A hat trick in the quarters, another multi-goal performance in the semis — 4–2 and 2–0 respectively. Waiting around to watch Seowon High's semifinal, I felt a faint emptiness.
…That was easier than I thought.
I'd expected getting this far to be pretty hard, but there still hadn't been a real crisis. The only true hurdle had been that first practice match.
If it were Lee Juwon over there warming up — terminal-stage chuunibyou and all — he'd probably say something like this:
"Yujin."
"Ahh, it's so boring I want to di—"
Wait.
Who just called me…
I turned my head and found Lee Eunho staring at me with slightly startled eyes. A week since we'd last seen each other, and that look was a bit much.
"Yujin, the heat must've scrambled your brains. Did you catch it from Juwon?"
"…It's not like that."
"I understand, I really do."
"…I said it's not."
Lee Eunho chuckled and sat down beside me.
"Who do you think wins today's match?"
"Seowon High, don't you think?"
Objectively speaking, Seowon High was considerably stronger. Whether all of them would go on to overseas leagues was anyone's guess, but they already had three players of that caliber.
"I think so too. Oh, Yujin — are you close with Seoin?"
"Hong Seoin hyung? How do you even know him, ajusshi?"
"It'd be weirder not to. He's on the U20s, and people call him Korea's Zidane."
"…Zidane?"
"Yeah. Doesn't he look similar?"
Now that he mentioned it, Hong Seoin's play style did resemble that of the French football legend. The way he used his long arms and legs, the beautiful, clean play — even their heights were the same, as far as I knew.
"Now that you say it, he does."
"Anyway, if you're close, find out why he isn't going overseas."
"Got it."
Hong Seoin already seemed set on staying in Korea. I'd been curious myself, so there was nothing to lose.
Tweeeet—!
As the match kicked off, Lee Eunho spoke up in a tone as casual as if he were suggesting coffee.
"Yujin, you thinking about the U20s?"
The content, however, was anything but casual.
"…The U20s? Seoin hyung said the same thing."
"The U20s have a lot of injuries right now, and the risk of re-injury is high, so they're in a rush. If they can't find enough players, they might have to go with maybe fifteen."
"…"
Hearing it out loud instead of through the news made the situation feel genuinely precarious.
"What does the coach say?"
"The U20 coach?"
"Yes."
"He asked me to set up a meeting with Baek Yujin. He's probably looking for you right now."
"…Really? There isn't anyone better than me?"
Even if I were the coach, I wouldn't put a seventeen-year-old high school freshman on the U20s. No matter how good he was, you wouldn't trust him that easily.
Though maybe it's different if he's already seen me play…
I found myself a little curious about what kind of person the U20 coach was.
"There isn't."
"…That's blunt."
"Because it's true. Well, it won't be a big loss for you either."
What Lee Eunho said next, summarized, went like this: prove yourself in the friendly match after the national tournament final, prove yourself again at the U20 finals, then head to an overseas league. Naturally, that would also raise the odds of being called up for the 2038 World Cup national team. At my age, talent would be valued highly. And since everything was the coach's fault for failing to manage his players, as long as I didn't completely flop in the friendly, I wouldn't catch any heat.
"You want me to do it, ajusshi?"
Still, I had to be careful. This was a poisoned chalice. Even assuming I got called up, there would barely be time to build chemistry — and then I'd be walking into a U20 World Cup? Success would be the harder outcome. A mediocre showing could actively hurt me. For me, playing well would just mean breaking even.
"I do. With your skill, going overseas is better than staying in Korea right now. The U20s are the stepping stone."
"Haha. Is that so."
"When you and your friends head overseas, I'll help you out properly."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
I was laughing awkwardly through the conversation when the stadium suddenly went quiet. I turned my head for a moment and saw Seong Yumin sprinting toward the center — he'd scored.
"CRAAAACK———!!!"
"…"
Yeah. He'd scored, all right.
"…Can't he fix that? I don't get why he wastes a face like that."
"Who knows. Maybe it'll get fixed once he goes overseas."
In reality, after he went to Barcelona, the word he shouted had changed to Vamos.
"Oh, ajusshi. About that friendly match. If I'm doing it, how about bringing those guys along too?"
"Yumin, Minjun, Juwon? And Seonwoo as well?"
"Yes. Wouldn't that be better?"
We needed at least this much to show our full ability — no matter who the opponent was. Lee Eunho would already know how well the five of us clicked together.
"Put another way, this is an opportunity for them too. I was going to ask them after this match. You ask Seonwoo for me."
I'd been half going with the flow, but I hadn't expected it to actually work out.
"Mm. Alright. Still, let me talk it over first and think about it."
"Sure. Do that."
While we talked, the semifinal we'd been watching ended with Seong Yumin scoring one more and another striker adding another, locking in Seowon High as our final opponent. The final was the final — but somehow, what came after it felt like it would be even more fun.