Live Stream
Winning both the Golden Ball and the Golden Boot had, I figured, put me at the absolute peak of popularity.
Called up to the U20s at just sixteen, I'd proven myself in the friendlies, then scored at least once every match from the group stage on. We'd won the Round of 16, crushed Japan in the quarterfinals, beaten the host United States on American soil, and taken the final in a dramatic penalty shootout. Playing in every single game, I'd made my name known around the world.
One look at the internet was enough to feel it.
See? I barely opened the internet and my name was plastered everywhere. Some of it was overblown, sure — but I'd never been this popular.
Do well.
So those people would keep liking me.
And the popularity wasn't just with fans. Clubs were interested, too.
I tapped the file without much thought — and an absolute wall of text filled the screen.
"…This is all of them?"
Even a rough count put it at more than ten. There were big clubs everyone knew, and a few that were a clear step below the rest.
…Huh? Real's in here?
Real Madrid. The club they called royalty — a giant whose past glory still stood against anyone. A club that had never signed a Korean player. And they had made me an offer.
That's… pretty tempting.
A first. An absolute first. Even with my mind more or less made up, a proposal like that was enough to shake anyone.
…Talk it over, then decide.
I decided I'd go back to Korea, sit down with Shin Hawon, and think it through properly. For now, I switched off my phone.
Time to head out.
Today was the day before we flew home, and the schedule was empty. Pure free time. I could treat it like a vacation day and enjoy myself, then leave tomorrow.
Which was why I was currently wandering downtown looking for a gift for Jia noona. I already knew exactly what I was buying, so my steps were quick.
"Yujin? Is that Yujin?"
"Yujin? The soccer player?"
"Really? Where?!"
"…"
Someone recognized me along the way.
…What? I'm wearing glasses.
Unlike my past life, my eyesight hadn't gone bad, so these were zero-prescription frames — but didn't glasses change your whole look? Even I thought I looked a lot softer. How were they still picking me out?
They hadn't spoken to me directly, so I kept walking. Then someone shouted behind me.
"There's nobody there!"
"I definitely saw him! The only cute-looking Asian guy is Yujin!"
"Okay, fair."
"…"
Thankfully, the Americans didn't seem to hate me. I'd once heard about a Korean player who scored against Italy in a World Cup and got run out of the Italian league for it, so I'd been a little braced for the worst.
When people did come up, I greeted them kindly, signed the occasional autograph, took a few photos — and eventually arrived at a jewelry shop tucked into a rather shabby corner of town.
Been a while.
I stepped inside, carrying the old memory of coming here for a proposal. My feet found their way on their own and stopped in front of one particular ring.
Found it. Still here.
A simple silver band. No fancy lettering, nothing expensive — but it held deep meaning for me. In my past life, it hadn't been something Jia noona bought for me. It was the first ring I had ever bought for her.
"Is there something I can help you with?"
A clerk approached. I pointed at the silver ring and answered in English.
"I'll take this one, please."
The ring cost about two hundred thousand won. Prize money and allowance covered it easily.
Why did I wait so long to buy something like this last time?
In my past life, I'd only picked it up by chance on our first overseas trip together — just the two of us in America.
This life is different.
I was going to make her as happy as I possibly could. Just knowing I'd bought this ring would probably make Jia noona over the moon.
Ring purchased, I went back to the hotel and flopped face-down on the bed.
"…Now what?"
The day's errands were done, and there was nothing left to do. All I'd planned was the ring and a few small souvenirs, so the rest of the afternoon stretched empty. Everyone else was out having fun or resting, which left me alone. Korea was in the middle of the night, so Jia noona would be asleep. What was I supposed to do by myself?
A live stream? Maybe I should try that.
I was bored enough to take Seong Yumin up on the SNS live-stream feature he'd recommended two days ago. He said people poured in because it ran on social media. Sounded interesting enough.
I opened SNS for the first time in a while and found a mountain of notifications waiting. I read through a handful of kind comments about me, checked a few other things —
"What? I'm already at a million?"
Followers: 1M. The number didn't quite feel real.
Once I'd gone through everything, I tapped a single button.
@Baek_Eugene has started a live stream.
While Yujin was away in America for the U20 World Cup, my daily life hadn't changed much. Study, think about Yujin, study, think about Yujin. Midterms for me, training and jet lag for him — we couldn't talk as often as we wanted, but we messaged whenever we could.
He said he's coming back tomorrow, right?
It had already been more than a month since I'd seen his face in person. I was lonely, and I missed him constantly, but we were both under pressure, so I held it in as best I could. Just one more night to get through. I wanted to see him, congratulate him on the win, and fall asleep under the same roof.
With that thought, I put my late-night studying aside, lay down on the bed, and closed my eyes.
Just one day.
I was about to drift off when —
@Baek_Eugene has started a live stream.
A live stream had suddenly started on Yujin's SNS.
"…?"
Curious, I tapped in. The camera showed the ceiling of the luxurious hotel room I'd seen a few times on video calls, with soft music playing underneath.
The people pouring in looked just as confused as I felt. The viewer count kept climbing and had already hit fifty thousand — and it wasn't slowing down. For the middle of the Korean night, that was staggering. Even counting foreigners, it was a lot.
Did he turn this on and just… leave?
The fire was roaring, and Yujin himself was nowhere. Did he not realize?
About a minute later the camera jerked, got propped somewhere, and finally showed his face. Sky-blue shirt, glasses on.
Glasses? Has his eyesight gotten worse?
The glasses surprised me, but as always he looked so cute — and so handsome. Something about him made me want to tease him a little. The only shame was that I couldn't see him like this in person.
He scratched his head and smiled, and without even meaning to, he was charming everyone watching.
…This isn't the kind of "I miss you" I was going for.
Still, seeing his face was nice. When Yujin was happy, it showed all over him.
He was chatting along calmly when his eyes suddenly locked on the screen and went wide.
…I'm getting jealous.
I was fine with Yujin being popular. I was not fine with him being popular with girls. Every time I checked the profiles behind those looks-compliment comments, they were all women, and it never sat well.
He caught every little question and answered them all kindly.
He filtered what he should and shouldn't say and answered everything carefully. Whether it was a natural gift or not, even with that many viewers he didn't flinch once — he made watching him feel completely comfortable.
At the "what can't he do" question, exactly one thing came to mind.
"…English."
Thinking about Yujin's English made me snort. It wasn't that he was bad. He just gave the most absurd answers whenever I tried to teach him, which only made him cuter.
And then —
Yujin read a foreign viewer's comment and answered.
— in near-perfect English.
"…Huh?"
I was stunned. That was not the English level I knew. I figured he'd just memorized answers to expected questions — and that theory lasted less than a minute.
He answered in English again.
…I knew something felt off.
The answers he'd given me while I was "teaching" him had been way too ridiculous. He was already good — he'd been messing with me on purpose.
I'd been watching the whole time, and in a fit of pique I dropped a comment of my own. Nearly two hundred thousand people were watching — odds were he'd never even see it.
Oddly enough, after I posted, he went silent for about ten seconds. His eyes flickered. The corner of his mouth twitched. He had definitely seen my comment.
About ten minutes after that, Yujin's first live stream ended.
How am I going to tease him?
In the dark room, I quietly planned how I'd mess with him once he got back to Korea — and fell asleep.