One Who Never Gives Up
Tweeeet!
The second half began.
Jungwoon High, who had been pushed around by Unnam High throughout the first half, launched into an aggressive attack. The Jungwoon players ran with everything they had, proving through action that they had steeled themselves during the break. Oh Jung-hoon in particular looked sharp and focused as he tore across the pitch—Jung Hyuk's scolding had clearly sunk in.
"Push up more! Run all the way!"
"Drop back! Drop back!"
"Pressure coming! Watch it!"
"Stick tighter!"
Jungwoon High communicated constantly as they pressed forward. The players were already gasping, mouths hanging open with exhaustion, yet they kept the attack alive through sheer force of will.
Thump!
Oh Jung-hoon latched onto the long ball Jung Hyuk had threaded forward. The instant he controlled it, three Unnam High players swarmed him—the same defensive tactic that had tormented him all first half.
In that moment, Jung Hyuk's words flashed through Oh Jung-hoon's mind.
In situations like this, don't try anything fancy. Just give the ball away quick and run, right?
Oh Jung-hoon moved fast. He held off the triple press just long enough to lay the ball back to the onrushing Jung Hyuk, then spun and sprinted into space.
Perfect.
Jung Hyuk's eyes lit up as he received the pass. Oh Jung-hoon's movement was excellent. Seeing him understand and execute exactly what Jung Hyuk had told him before the half brought a smile to his face.
When a striker as dangerous as Oh Jung-hoon carved into space, the opposition had no choice but to chase and mark him. That was obvious—you couldn't leave a player who could score at any moment free. Once Oh Jung-hoon dragged one defender away, the pressure on everyone else eased. Jung Hyuk intended to exploit that.
He had no plan to play the ball back into the space Oh Jung-hoon was attacking. Even with his pace and clean first touch, creating a shot from that deep and that close to goal would be nearly impossible. Instead, Jung Hyuk would manufacture the chance himself.
Jung Hyuk drove the ball straight into Unnam High's penalty area. A nearby defender slammed into him with everything short of a foul—smart, physical defending. Unfortunately for him, he had picked the wrong opponent.
Not a chance!
Jung Hyuk used the defender's own force against him. Whoosh! He snapped the ball to his opposite foot and spun. The Unnam High defender was left behind. Another one closed in. This time Jung Hyuk drove through with his body. His physicality had improved lately; he was confident in the duel, and this was inside the box. He knew the defender would hesitate to stick a leg out.
If you do stick a leg out, even better.
As he muscled through, the defender panicked.
"Help me!"
The call came instantly—and so did the tackle. Unnam High's fullback launched into a sliding challenge the moment he heard the shout. It was a desperate, slightly rushed tackle, and that haste cost him. The fullback's challenge never cleanly found the ball.
Jung Hyuk watched the studs flying toward his feet and thought,
That's going to hurt.
A dangerous tackle that could easily cause injury. Dodging would have been the smarter choice. In his previous life, he would have abandoned the ball and gotten out of the way.
But now—
I don't get injured.
With a trait that prevented injury, Jung Hyuk had no intention of avoiding it. If taking the hit created a better chance, he would take it every time.
Thud!
Jung Hyuk clutched his ankle and rolled across the grass. The trait stopped actual injury, but it did nothing for the pain. For a split second the agony was so sharp his vision went white. He grimaced and looked up at the referee.
The referee put the whistle to his lips without hesitation.
Tweeeet!
Penalty kick.
The moment the call was made, Unnam High's players erupted in protest.
"Hey! I clearly went for the ball! Ref, this is a total injustice!"
"Just look the other way once! The kid's diving!"
"I never even touched his foot and he went down! I saw it!"
The referee shook his head. The protests got them nowhere. Instead he produced a yellow card for the fullback and spoke coldly.
"I saw it perfectly. Kim Jin-sol, that tackle was far too dangerous. You came in with your foot raised. That's a foul. And be careful—one more like that and you're off."
With the referee's final word, the protests died.
"Aish… thought my bone was going to snap."
Jung Hyuk pushed himself up. An unpleasant throb lingered in his ankle, but it wasn't bad enough to stop him from running. Oh Jung-hoon jogged over.
"Hyuk, you okay? Can you take the pen?"
"Of course."
"If you can't, just say so. I'll bury it for you, no problem."
"Stop shaking and talk."
Jung Hyuk smirked. Oh Jung-hoon's hands were trembling with nerves even as he offered to take the kick. It wasn't greed—just genuine worry for his friend.
"When did my hands ever shake?"
Oh Jung-hoon flushed and denied it, but his hands kept trembling. Jung Hyuk looked at him.
"Jung-hoon, I'll put this one away. You start thinking about how you're going to score the next one."
"…Got it."
No more words were needed. Jung Hyuk focused solely on the penalty.
Every player takes a penalty differently. Some just run up and smash it wherever they want. Some refuse to look the keeper in the eye beforehand. Some use a slow approach to steal the keeper's timing. Some use quirky run-ups to rattle the keeper's nerves.
But every player who steps up to a penalty feels the same things: tension and pressure. Plus the weight of expectant stares from their own side and hostile ones from the opposition. A penalty that can decide a match's outcome puts enormous pressure on a player. When the team is already down 3–1, that pressure multiplies.
Hoo.
Jung Hyuk finished his deep breath. Everything was ready. He had chosen the spot and decided exactly how much power to put behind it. He stood face-to-face with the keeper, goal between them, and did not look away from the sharp gaze fixed on him.
You're not saving this.
This was a must-score penalty, and he was certain he would score it.
Jung Hyuk ran at the ball. No hesitation, no slowing. In that moment every other sound vanished. He saw only the ball. He focused only on his own timing, only on the position of the leg he was swinging through.
Finally—
Thwack!
The ball left his foot and rocketed toward the goal.
When Jung Hyuk ran up to take the penalty, his teammates could not watch. They stood with heads bowed, faces tight with anxiety, waiting.
Please…
Hyuk… please put it in.
If he scores it's 3–2. Then we can still catch them. Come on, Hyuk.
Ironically, the man taking the kick looked far calmer than any of them. Jung Hyuk struck the ball with a face completely free of tension—nothing like a player under pressure.
Thwack!
It was a powerful shot, aimed at the top corner. A shot that said, Save it if you can—pure confidence.
When the ball Jung Hyuk had smashed into the corner finally bulged the net, the Jungwoon High players finally lifted their heads. What they saw was Jung Hyuk's back as he sprinted toward the ball inside the goal, scooped it up with a blank expression, and charged back out while roaring at the top of his lungs.
"Everyone get back into position! We're winning this match no matter what!"
The Unnam High players flinched under the force of his presence.
What the hell is wrong with that psycho?
Anyone watching would think he just scored a hat-trick…!
They think they can beat us? What are they going to do if we just sit back and defend from here? Think they can break us down?
Unnam High immediately showed their hostility, but they could not stop the momentum from swinging Jungwoon High's way. Having closed the gap to a single goal with the penalty, Jungwoon High ran tirelessly in search of an equalizer, probing for any crack in Unnam High's defense. Unnam High, however, did not break easily. Instead they launched sharp counterattacks that kept Jungwoon High under constant threat.
Of course, those counters never succeeded.
Thwack!
Because Jung Hyuk was guarding Jungwoon High's back line. He ran like a madman, snuffing out every Unnam High counter. He threw his shoulder in, embraced the physical battles, and somehow always came away with the ball. When necessary he flung his body to cut out progressive passes. The aura he gave off—like Zhang Fei holding the bridge alone—rapidly drained the fight from Unnam High's players.
Still, Jungwoon High could not find a goal. Once every Unnam High player dropped into pure defense, Jungwoon High's attacks ran into a wall.
The ten-back.
A tactic where every player focuses solely on defending to protect a lead. Even the strikers refused to cross the halfway line. Unnam High curled up like a turtle and kept repelling Jungwoon High's attacks.
Time flew by. Naturally, anxiety began to take root in the Jungwoon High players' hearts.
Then it happened. Oh Jung-hoon, growing desperate, rose for a second ball and shoved his opponent hard in the process—pure competitive fire.
Tweet!
Foul given. And that was when the real problem started.
"Aaaagh! My arm! I think my arm's broken!"
Even though the contact had been nowhere near enough to cause injury, Unnam High's Kim Nam-jin clutched his arm and rolled on the ground, face twisted in exaggerated agony.
The referee approached him.
"Get up, get checked, and come back on."
"Aaaagh! I can't get up!"
"It wasn't that hard a collision. Still, go see the medical staff just in case. Stop the time-wasting. And if it's your arm, why can't you stand? Get up already!"
"I can't get up!"
"…"
The referee silently looked toward the Unnam High bench. Only then did the Unnam High coach move.
"Medical staff, please! Look at Nam-jin—he's clearly in bad shape! Nam-jin! Stay down. Don't get up on your own—let them help you off!"
The Unnam High coach, grinning from ear to ear, signaled a substitution to the referee. Instantly the Jungwoon High players' faces hardened.
"This is insane! They're wasting time right in front of us!"
"What the hell are they doing? Think this is Middle Eastern football or something?"
"Ha! Playing dirty as hell. Aish! That's just not right!"
"Look at their coach. He's smiling. If his player was actually hurt he wouldn't be grinning like that!"
"Shit, they're doing bed soccer out in the open!"
The Jungwoon High coach, face flushed, protested as well.
"Let's play fair! Come on! This isn't right! Are you teaching kids dirty tricks already? Ref! Keep the game moving! They're blatantly killing time!"
Unnam High's bed soccer successfully burned the clock. Five minutes remained. Even with stoppage time, they would struggle to get more than ten minutes total. Time kept racing past. Unnam High still defended only, and Jungwoon High still could not break them down. Exhaustion and desperation had robbed Jungwoon High's attacks of their edge.
"Four minutes of stoppage!"
Stoppage time was announced. In four minutes Unnam High's victory would be sealed. In that moment a word the Jungwoon High players had not wanted to think about began to surface in their minds.
Defeat.
When that despairing word finally filled their heads, their concentration shattered. The physical limits they had been holding off through sheer willpower crashed down all at once.
I'm so tired… I feel like I'm going to throw up…
I can't do this anymore… they're just too strong…
Getting this far was already good enough, right? Yeah… let's just be satisfied here.
Making the final is already a huge achievement…
Even though stoppage time remained, the strength had drained from Jungwoon High's movements. Jung Hyuk looked at his teammates.
They're half-dead.
He felt the difficulty himself. They were already behind on the scoreboard, and now time was almost gone. Meanwhile Unnam High, fully committed to defense, were growing more confident by the second. With that kind of momentum they might even try a sudden counter.
At this rate, defeat was the most likely outcome.
…You lose sometimes in football. That's just how it is.
Even if they lost here, it would not be a disaster. He had shown enough of his ability; the European scouts would have taken note.
But—
I can't lose like this.
Jung Hyuk had zero intention of accepting defeat. This was a matter of pride. He had set his sights on the championship and told his teammates he would deliver it.
We win. No matter what.
Naturally, the word "surrender" did not exist in Jung Hyuk's mind. It was not part of his plan. He intended to fight until the final whistle for the win. Of course he knew the odds were slim. He knew it would be nearly impossible alone.
"Oh…!"
Then it happened. Jung Hyuk's eyes widened. A deep smile spread across his lips.
"Finally."
Hoo.
Jung Hyuk let out a breath of pure relief. The message he had been waiting for all second half had just appeared before his eyes.
Ding!
Activation conditions for the trait One Who Never Gives Up have been met.
The effects of One Who Never Gives Up are now active.