Rest
(Arsenal 3–3 FC Barcelona)
League matches too, a draw at the Camp Nou, and then a thrashing at home?
Is Alexandro peaking, are the players just that good, or is Barça just that bad?
This wasn’t how it used to be.
Has Barça fallen so far they’re getting hat-tricked by a sixteen-year-old?
And he’s Korean?
Looking for anyone who knows how not to love this.
Our Yujin’s actually gone completely off the rails…
That the G.O.A.T. of football is our hyung.
If our Yujin did that celebration, that says everything.
The kid he met in the first leg had a situation a lot like his own.
So he felt a natural connection, and he did the celebration that kid loved most.
Fan service on another level…
Genuinely so cool.
Looking at his form lately, our Yujin’s actually going to win the Ballon d’Or.
After the Champions League second leg, the international break arrived.
Every Premier League side got a week of rest, and the players called up for national duty headed home.
I stayed in London.
Maybe next time?
I’d been playing well enough lately that a quiet little hope had started to form. Put another way, today was a free day—no obligations at all.
Today I’m just going to hang out with Jia noona and take it easy.
With no training on the schedule, I’d left the whole day completely open. Amusingly enough, that meant finally visiting places I’d never been—Big Ben, the museums.
“Noona. You ready?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
Jia noona had been busy lately too, so unless it was late in the evening we often couldn’t see each other. Days like this, we had to make the most of them.
First we walked the streets, my ridiculously pretty noona at my side. We took a bunch of photos for the memories and talked easily the whole way.
“You’re wearing glasses today?”
“Yeah. Don’t they look better?”
“I never noticed before because you didn’t wear them, but I think they do.”
“Good.”
Remembering how I’d worn glasses in my previous life, I’d started putting them on every day. The way her face lit up when she saw them made me keep wearing them whenever I could.
We ate, enjoyed a quiet little date, and time slipped by faster than either of us expected. Before long we’d walked around Big Ben at night and headed home.
“Time really flies.”
“Right? I didn’t even notice.”
“Me neither.”
I wanted every day to be like this. Then I’d have no regrets left.
“What now?”
“Want to watch some football? There’s a match on.”
“Here?”
“On the computer.”
The place wasn’t huge, but it had everything we needed.
“There’s only one chair.”
There was only one decent chair, true. There was another, but it was uncomfortable.
“Then noona can just sit on my lap.”
“…You sure?”
“Yeah. I am a footballer, you know.”
“Heh. Alright. I won’t refuse.”
I said it without thinking and immediately regretted it.
…She’s going to notice.
If she sat on my legs, there was no way she wouldn’t feel it. Hoping nothing would happen, I wrapped my arms around her from behind.
“One-all.”
A friendly against France that felt strangely familiar. Thirtieth minute of the first half. The game was hanging by a thread.
“Yujin.”
“Yeah?”
“Think they’ll win?”
“Hmm… hard to say.”
Memories from my previous life suddenly rose to the surface.
I think they got completely destroyed…
I could be wrong, but I remembered a four-goal margin.
“It’s a shame, but they’ll probably lose today.”
“That’s too bad.”
As if to prove me right, the match started to unravel in the worst way.
Pierre’s goooal!! Insane speed!! Is this really a player who was still in the U20s just a few months ago!!
Ah, Korea’s defense should have seen the man. Really disappointing.
Pierre, who’d been outstanding in the French league since the U20s, had been called up to the senior side and was racking up attacking contributions.
Ah, a fatal mistake from Seo Inwoo. The ball’s cut out in the back line.
Pierre, he’s running. He’s flying!
A clean burst of pace and a second goal followed.
Pierre’s goooal!! A brace, and that’s the end of the first half!
Three-one already at the break. A heavy atmosphere settled over the Korean side. But it wasn’t over.
Eric! First touch and a long-range shoooot! Goooal!! It bent in perfectly! The keeper had no chance!
One natural strike from distance.
Corner! Eric’s cross!! Center-back Rafael with the header!
Goooal! France put the dagger in and walk away with a 5–1 thrashing!!
A 5–1 demolition in the second half.
Soft, even breathing.
Worn out from playing all day, Jia noona had fallen asleep against my shoulder by the time the match ended. If I picked her up and carried her to bed she’d wake, so I stayed like that for a while and opened a football community site.
Two current EPL players, a Bundesliga guy, a La Liga guy—and this is the performance we get?
Back-passes getting stolen, forced forward balls killing every attack.
This generation’s cooked. Done.
Is it the manager?
I genuinely don’t know anymore;
How are there this many comments.
All Korean?
They lose a match and suddenly everyone’s looking for the rising Yujin lmao;
I’ve known your name since the middle school leagues.
Never cursed you once. Only ever praised you.
Because of you I even started liking Arsenal.
So please just come to the A-matches. Please.
It’s hell here.
“…Haha.”
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go—I simply hadn’t been called—but the reactions were something else. After a single rest period, every curse that had been floating around, from the small ones to the occasional massive ones, had completely vanished.