Chapter 46
Chapter 46
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: Everyday Life
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Everyday life.
***
I returned to Germany and had to dive into a pretty packed schedule.
But more important than anything was spending time with my family.
The day Thomas Tuchel cornered me and dumped a bomb of work on my plate.
I barged straight into Dirk Zingler’s office, the club president, and demanded vacation time directly.
“Is this for real?”
“Yes. If we make it to the 1. Liga, GL will come on board as the main sponsor.”
Zingler checked the results I’d achieved in Korea.
He nodded and handed me three days off.
Thomas Tuchel objected, of course, but the mood at Union Berlin was already on my side.
This was unavoidable, though. What kind of lunatic makes an employee who just got back from a business trip jump right back into work without even a day’s rest?
Anyway, thanks to the support from the staff at Union Berlin, I managed to snag about three days of short rest.
‘I’m free.’
And on the first day of that long-awaited vacation.
Maybe because of all the built-up fatigue, it felt like I slept the whole day away.
“Oppa, time to eat!”
“Uh, yeah?”
When I came to, it was already evening.
“I said come eat.”
“…Who are you?”
“You’re doing that weird thing again. It’s me, Park Jung-ah, your little sister. Hurry up and come eat.”
“I have a little sister… who knew.”
It was that bad—I couldn’t even recognize my own sister.
“Oppa, you got dementia or something?”
I flicked her forehead hard, genuinely worried as she was.
“Ow!”
I could see my sister behind me, clutching her forehead and groaning.
“Don’t fake it.”
“Hey! It really hurts!”
Ignoring my sister’s fake pain, I headed to the living room.
Mom and Dad greeted me there.
It felt like forever since I’d eaten with my parents.
I’d tried my best to make time for dinner together.
But with the season in full swing and all sorts of incidents piling up, work backed up, and I’d basically been half-living at the club house.
“You brought those overseas students from Korea, huh.”
The moment I shoveled a spoonful of rice into my mouth, Mom spoke up.
“Yeah.”
I nodded at her words.
“Invite them over sometime. They must be struggling to adjust in a foreign land—gotta feed them a proper meal at least.”
‘What’s this.’
Why try to torture me?
Did she still hate Korea that much?
“…Mom, do you hate Korea that much?”
“If you don’t wanna eat, don’t.”
My rice bowl vanished.
Anyway, that evening, we spent the time chatting amiably as a family.
“Wow, you actually brought Son Heung-min. Insane.”
My sister, a regressor like me, had a satisfying reaction.
We’d lived through the era of the Great Heung-min back then.
Even celebrities who didn’t care about soccer knew about Great Heung-min, so it was undeniable.
“Honestly, I didn’t get his renewal with Tottenham. If he’d transferred elsewhere, he could’ve grabbed one more trophy, you know?”
Anyway, Park Jung-ah, the self-proclaimed soccer illiterate, tried to slander our Great Heung-min.
“Hey now. Romance.”
I shut it down lightly with facts. Regrettably, the world judges by results.
He lifted the winner’s trophy in the final moments, so it had to be rated as romance, not stubbornness or regret.
“How’s the business going?”
“Yeah, good. But Oppa, show some interest in the family business too.”
“I recommended our family’s messenger app in the club’s PC messenger—doesn’t that count as doing my part?”
“…Fair enough.”
The business my sister and dad were running was growing fast.
Seemed popular, especially with the younger crowd.
Lately, Dad had been studying all sorts of things.
Probably feeling the pressure now that the messenger business with my sister was taking off so quickly.
He’d gotten investment offers and was positively considering them.
Honestly, I didn’t get why he’d take investments.
“We’re not short on cash, so isn’t it better to hold tight to the shares ourselves?”
“As long as it’s not some shady investor, it’s safer to take it.”
According to my sister, the money headed our way could go to competitors instead, so unless the terms were weird, it was better to accept. Plus, as immigrants, our family needed to spread shares among as many as possible to get protection from the German government.
“Oppa, the EU assholes are no different from the Chinese.”
My sister assessed that if our family clutched most of the shares, the EU could slice the company in half on monopoly claims anytime.
I was honestly impressed by this side of her, so different from usual.
‘Weren’t you a celebrity in your past life?’
***
Park Jung-ah.
In her previous life as a top idol, the people she met were mostly from successful circles.
Even the fragmented knowledge she picked up naturally from hanging around them was precious in this era.
That must be what they mean by “position makes the man.”
When the people around you level up, you have no choice but to level up too.
She didn’t want to hear that she was just flashy on the outside. She didn’t want to be a pretty doll at parties.
‘Reputation matters when you’re out in the world.’
In that sense, her brother Park Chan-hyuk was a unique case.
‘He acts like a total lunatic, but weirdly, people love him.’
Well, that’s why he accepted her, a regressor.
‘Thanks… really, thank you.’
But her one gripe.
- Asshole: Water.
She still hadn’t escaped being her brother’s water-fetching lackey.
‘…Someday, I’ll make him pay.’
***
My short vacation ended, and I returned to the club.
While I got chewed out by the evil boss Thomas Tuchel, the league marched on quickly.
[The Regionalliga approaches the midpoint. Union Berlin still holds the top spot!]
[Union Berlin’s back-to-back promotion chances?]
Union Berlin was still defending first place in the league.
Chasing hard on our heels was St. Pauli.
‘“Chasing hard” makes me flinch every time.’
I often stopped by where the youth team trained to check if the prospects were developing properly.
First up in the youth setup, Leon was already recognized for his overwhelming talent.
Dirk Zingler, after hearing the report on Leon’s talent, officially declared there’d be no tolerance for any kind of discrimination.
‘The assistant coach discriminating by race would make him the real lunatic.’
Crazy people existed everywhere, so caution was needed.
Didn’t they say when five gather, two are idiots?
“Kids, don’t slack on learning German.”
I also took the chance to meet the overseas students from Korea.
And as a senior in the Elite Youth Overseas Study Program, I didn’t skimp on advice for the Korean students.
I treated them no differently from the existing youth players, but a bit of guidance like this seemed necessary.
“Learning the language is about respecting the culture. If you want respect from others, you have to respect them first.”
I kinda plagiarized a future Son Heung-min quote there, but it’s not important, so moving on.
Son Heung-min’s eyes sparkled as he listened—gave me a tiny prick of conscience.
Next, I met Manuel Schmidt, Union Berlin’s promising goalkeeper prospect.
Truth be told, during the student selection, I’d debated picking goalkeeper prospect Jo Woo-hyun too.
But Union Berlin already had the 5-star keeper prospect Manuel Schmidt.
Even if I brought him, he’d be stuck as second-string at Union Berlin.
If Manuel were as young as Leon, maybe, but he was just a year older than Jo Woo-hyun.
Couldn’t split games half-and-half either.
‘Keepers improve by playing matches.’
It could end up hurting both.
As Union Berlin’s assistant coach, I had to make the choice that benefited the club.
And lately, the keeper coach said Manuel was growing extremely fast.
Telling the keeper coach about Manuel’s standout potential areas must’ve helped a ton.
When I checked his stats with Scouter, Manuel Schmidt had grown enough to threaten the current first-team keeper spot at Union Berlin.
Manuel’s rapid growth boosted my reputation too.
It proved once more to Union Berlin staff that I had an eye for talent.
***
Interest in the Korean students was hotter than expected.
All eyes were on them because Park Chan-hyuk had brought them.
Park Chan-hyuk was the guy hitting home run after home run with Yannick Foight, Manuel Schmidt, Leon Han, and more.
Most Union Berlin staff liked Park Chan-hyuk, but not everyone did.
Among them, the new scout at Union Berlin downright hated him.
‘If it’s Yannick Foight-level talent, even I could’ve spotted it just by looking!’
What festered inside him was jealousy.
It didn’t matter that no one there, not even Thomas Tuchel, had wanted to sign Yannick Foight.
Jealousy had clouded his reason.
His envy and hatred for Park Chan-hyuk extended to the Korean students.
“Tch, probably cherry-picked them as fellow countrymen and hyped them up. This is why Asians don’t cut it.”
He showed outright disdain and discriminatory treatment.
Son Heung-min, who’d been studying German hardest, stiffened.
‘This must be what Chan-hyuk hyung meant about facing discrimination in Germany.’
Staring at the scout who didn’t hesitate with discriminatory remarks, Son Heung-min made a vow.
Someday, he’d prove with skill that he and Park Chan-hyuk were right.
“Hong-min-ah, what’d that guy say? Something about Asians?”
“Chan-hyuk hyung picked us ’cause we’re same ethnicity and said that’s why Asians don’t work.”
“This fucking asshole.”
“Calm down. Chan-hyuk hyung warned us they’d look at us with bias. Let’s prove it on the pitch. Show he wasn’t wrong.”
It was a turning point for the German-bound Korean students.