The Birthday Slip That Almost Ended It
Park Gayeong checked the message.
"Hmph. And you still forgot my birthday?"
She typed a curt reply.
Then she set her phone down, scowling.
"This is so annoying."
Park Gayeong was thoroughly pissed at Choi Seungtaek.
"How could he do that? Forget that? Is he actually an idiot?"
She was buried in midterms and the substitute reports that came with them. Even so, she had carved her schedule down to the bone just to make time for a date — and the man who had forgotten that girl's birthday was, at the moment, impossible to forgive.
"Why did I have to go and date such a dense guy."
"What's wrong with you?"
"Ah! I think it just hit me."
Choi Seungtaek's face had gone grave, and Woo Jeong-geun and Lee Gun-taek both turned on him.
"Uh… I think yesterday was my girlfriend's birthday."
"Whoa. You forgot her birthday? Yeah, she'd be hurt. That look on your face makes sense now. This one's not coming undone easy. Even groveling might not cut it."
Lee Gun-taek let out a long, theatrical sigh.
"You know forgetting a birthday is the most hurtful thing you can do, right?"
"You think I don't know that?"
"Ah…"
"Seungtaek."
"Yes, hyung."
"Me, I figure you can forget a wedding anniversary. Honestly, next to a birthday, it's nothing."
"What?"
Woo Jeong-geun's words only shook him further.
"Let's be real. An anniversary can change, right?"
"What?"
"Here we go with the nonsense again."
"No, I'm right. If you and your wife get divorced? Then it doesn't matter even a little!"
That… actually tracks!
Choi Seungtaek's ears practically flapped.
"That's why I always remember birthdays! You know what that means, Seungtaek?"
"What?"
"You're screwed."
I already knew that without you reminding me.
The words sat in his stomach like acid.
"Hold on. Let's hear the rest of it first. So you only just found out about the birthday?"
"It wasn't like she told me it was her birthday, exactly. I found out two weeks ago, when we went to get our fortunes read together."
Woo Jeong-geun and Lee Gun-taek both shook their heads.
"Just break up and focus on baseball. You cannot let something like this get in your head and throw off your game."
"What?"
"Apologize clean. And if she still whines after that, dump her clean. If she can't even understand that much."
"H-hyung. That's a bit…"
Lee Gun-taek's advice was brutally simple. Apologize. If she wouldn't take it, walk.
"Seungtaek. A man can't let himself get jerked around by this stuff. Just remember it once in a while. Then she'll think, oh, he still thinks about me."
"What kind of logic is that?"
"Just make her adjust to your way of doing things. We're in a high-strung profession. If she doesn't like it, send her packing and get another girlfriend. Never do anything that costs you face."
Woo Jeong-geun said it with a sly little grin.
"Hey, Seungtaek. Don't listen to this guy. He's always going on in front of people about being a real man, then behind the scenes it's, hey honey, sleep well?"
"You little— if you put it like that…"
"This hyung shouldn't go around telling people he's from Busan, that he's a man, any of that. Last time, the second he drinks, it's okay, honey! I'm heading home right now. And he talks about face?"
"Ah…"
Lee Gun-taek's exposé shut Woo Jeong-geun's mouth for him.
"C-could you stop teasing me and actually help?"
"Just go, smash your forehead on the floor, get on your knees, and say you're sorry. For a girlfriend, that ought to do it."
Woo Jeong-geun delivered it like it was the easiest thing in the world.
"I… have night training. I can't go today."
"Then at least say something."
"Yeah. You and your girlfriend are both still young — right at the age where this kind of thing really stings. This is genuinely hurtful, so just call her after practice and work it out. That's the fastest way."
"Understood."
Choi Seungtaek looked down at his phone and thought of the worst stretch he and Park Gayeong had ever had.
A failure to talk.
The dating rumor with Magpies cheerleader Lee Naeun — they hadn't gotten on the same page about it, and it had nearly blown up into something unrecoverable. She had misunderstood him, and he had never properly shared what he was actually dealing with.
Right. I can't make the same mistake twice.
He called her on the spot.
"H-hello? Gayeong?"
"I'm busy. Hang up."
Beep… beep… beep……
Choi Seungtaek stared blankly at his phone.
"What? Why'd she hang up so fast?"
"She said she's busy… hang up?"
"Oof… shit."
"Hmm…"
The two married men squinted at him.
"Threat level's running a little high."
"Not red. Call it yellow?"
"Ah… that's bad, right?"
"You think it's good?"
Wh-what do I do?
Choi Seungtaek's eyes started to waver.
"She might actually be busy, though."
"True. Is she busy right now? Do you know her schedule?"
"Uh…"
He wrung his memory for everything he could. Two days ago, on their date, she had clearly said it: I'm busy. I carved out time to come.
"I think she is busy."
"Is she really busy? Or is her heart somewhere else?"
"What?"
He flinched.
"Is your girlfriend pretty? Or not?"
"She's pretty, yeah?"
"You said she's the same age as you? So she's a college student?"
"Yes…"
"You think her classmates and seniors are just going to leave a girl that pretty alone?"
Choi Seungtaek's eyes started shaking in earnest.
"Hmm… you've got to watch those floppy ears of yours."
Woo Jeong-geun said it with that same sly grin.
"What?"
"I can tell you really like your girlfriend, but don't get shaken. You didn't just fall for an easy line, did you?"
"Ah!"
"Yeah. Looks like it."
Lee Gun-taek put in a word of his own.
"Seungtaek. So what should you do?"
"I don't really know."
"Then just wait until evening and contact her."
"Wait? You said talking it out was the important part."
"It is — but she said she's busy. She might actually be busy. And you've got a schedule too, and you've still got to train."
"Yes…"
Choi Seungtaek nodded at Lee Gun-taek's words.
"What you need to prepare now is how to apologize, and how to explain yourself."
"How to apologize, and how to explain?"
The phrasing left him puzzled.
"Okay. There's one weird thing."
"A weird thing?"
"Yeah. I looked at your KakaoTalk earlier, and something that should be there isn't."
"Something that should be there isn't?"
"That's right."
Lee Gun-taek said it with total confidence.
"You and your girlfriend are the same kind of kids. When you're busy, you don't look after each other."
"We don't look after each other? But she came to see me…"
"That's not what I mean. Why isn't there anything in the May 5th and May 6th chats about you getting beaten up? If she's your girlfriend, shouldn't she be asking if you're okay?"
"Ah!"
"Right. There wasn't anything like that."
Choi Seungtaek's face went stunned.
"You ever heard the phrase crying first wins?"
"Crying first wins? I know it. Whoever cries first takes the win, right?"
"That's the one."
"Ah… you're saying my girlfriend's going to do that?"
"No. You're going to do it."
"Hehehehe."
I'm supposed to use crying first wins?
Lee Gun-taek's advice caught him a little off guard.
"Yeah, you idiot. Your girlfriend doesn't even know your situation right now, does she? That's a problem too. The news showed you getting the shit beaten out of you."
"Ah…"
Choi Seungtaek recalled the footage. There had been the clip of him landing a clean slap, sure — but one of the highlights was him surrounded and getting pummeled. It had looked so miserable that his own suspension had been heavy, and the Gangnam Parrots players had eaten a pile of discipline of their own.
"Plus you got suspended, didn't you?"
"Yes…"
"Tell her you've been having a hard time because of that."
"It wasn't that hard, though…"
"You little—! The team's in a tough spot and you're saying it's not hard? This kid's already checked out."
"Ah! That's not what I meant."
"Forget it."
"I feel a little weird about it. It feels like lying, and I don't like that."
"Lying? You're mentioning things that actually happened. You're just a little dense, that's all. This is the kind of thing the people around you should be asking if you're okay about. Why do you think we're worried about you, huh? This isn't some ordinary thing."
"Ah…"
"And dating is like this. You've got to use your head a little. You're hurt because you're dense. Helping her get a little sharper is part of it too. You're both hurt, so you hold onto each other. You know!"
"Yes…"
Choi Seungtaek nodded.
"Alright. Try practicing once."
"Practice?"
He ran through the scenario the way they'd laid it out.
"Uh… hmm… not good."
"That looks like shit. What, you acting like a robot?"
Choi Seungtaek's performance was a disaster. Lee Gun-taek and Woo Jeong-geun failed him on the spot.
"When do you feel the worst? When you get that slightly pitiful, sorry-for-yourself feeling — when is that? You've got to put that into it."
"Uh…"
He thought about when he felt the most exhausted, the most miserable.
"A-after finishing blocking drills."
"Hehehehe."
"Ah. Yeah, that's pretty rough. Okay. Then contact her when you're worn out after training and work it out. That should do it. What did we say you have to do?"
"Call her, sincerely apologize for not celebrating her birthday, and explain why I couldn't."
"Right. Aigoo, look at the time. We're heading out too. Do well."
Lee Gun-taek and Woo Jeong-geun left for training, and Choi Seungtaek went with them.
Through the morning and into the afternoon, he said nothing to anyone, working through pitch blocking drills in a solitary grind. When every last session was over and the game had started, he called Park Gayeong.
Hours of punishment rose up in him all at once.
"H-hello?"
"Yeah."
Her voice came through the phone. He remembered, then, that because of the bench-clearing brawl suspension the game had already begun — and he was still in the indoor training facility.
"Ga-Gayeong. Are you still busy?"
Park Gayeong heard it: the catch in his voice, like he was about to cry.
"No, I've got time now. Why? What's with your voice all of a sudden?"
And the guilt of not celebrating her birthday rose up with it.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
The seniors' scolding flashed through him — the part where they'd told him he might as well just break up.
"I'm so sorry I couldn't properly celebrate your birthday."
"That's all?"
"It's late, but happy birthday."
"Would it have killed you to say it a little earlier? Was one phone call that hard?"
Her voice had softened. Not clipped one-word answers anymore — it was back to the grumbling tone she used when she was only a little sulky, the way she used to sound. That was a good change.
Th-this is the moment.
"I'm sorry. I actually got hurt pretty bad, and I was in pain. I didn't even have a chance to contact you properly. I'm really sorry."
"What?"
On the other end of the line, Park Gayeong's voice sounded startled.