Rest (2)
After A-yoon messaged me, I changed course—not toward the clubhouse, but to a park near Honam First Gate.
The clubhouse sat out in Wanju, so I could easily have been cutting it close. Fortunately, I'd already been inside Jeonju when her message came through, and I got there in no time.
By then the sky had settled into full dark, and the park had emptied out. There was really only one thing the two of us ever did in a place like that.
"Look at this again. This is the moment Iraq's number six, Ibrahim Shulaka, tries to stick to you, and you attempt a turn to break free. Good call not meeting a hyper-aggressive player head-on. But right after the turn, your stance dipped a little, didn't it? You corrected it immediately, sure—but you got lucky that he went down. If he'd just kept charging in..."
"Mm. Mm... Yeah, yeah."
I nodded along and listened while A-yoon prodded and turned my legs this way and that, explaining as she went.
She'd said she had something she wanted to tell me and asked me to drop by for a bit. I'd wondered what it would be—but apparently the Iraq match, with all its rough physical battles, had left her worried about how I'd looked out there.
Of course she would. When it came to my injuries, A-yoon fretted to a terrifying degree. Behavior like this was only natural for her.
That little collapse after the turn was deliberate—I was trying to trip Ibrahim Shulaka. But for now, I'll keep quiet.
I'd already gone over that clip with the national team coaches during our post-match review... but reviewing it again with A-yoon always felt new somehow.
Knead—knead—
If you think of it as getting a massage while someone talks beside you, there really isn't a better kind of rest.
"I know you want to use that physical ability of yours as a weapon... but please don't push it too far. You know as well as I do that one bad hit could end everything."
"Got it. If it ever feels like too much, I'll dial it back early."
"Yeah? Then we're good."
My answer must have satisfied her. A-yoon smiled, gave a little nod, stopped the massage, and shifted over to sit beside me.
With her head resting on my shoulder, we let the quiet stretch out—until Shin A-yoon's closed mouth finally opened again.
"Hey. There's something I've been wondering. Can I ask?"
"What is it?"
"For the past few days you've suddenly gotten so much nicer. Less anger in the way you talk, too... Did something happen?"
"Less anger?"
The sudden question blanked my mind for a second. From her perspective—with no idea that I'd possessed Baek Yi-an's body—of course it would look like my personality had flipped overnight.
But how was I supposed to explain that?
I was reading a novel, gave the author some sincere advice, and then they stuffed me into the book as a possession, so the Baek Yi-an you knew is gone... Yeah. That would get me called a lunatic on the spot.
Not "you're kinder now"—more like "let's hold hands and walk straight to the psych ward." There was no way I could say it like that.
So what plausible excuse was there in this situation?
While I was still turning it over, A-yoon thankfully kept talking on her own.
"Honestly... that night I asked you to meet for dinner? I came with a big decision made."
"A decision?"
"Yeah. We were both worn out. We never used to be like that, but we were snapping at each other all the time. I kept thinking maybe we were better off not seeing each other—and then I'd think the opposite. So I came to settle it once and for all."
So it hadn't just been about pointing out what I needed to fix. She'd come to decide which direction the two of us were supposed to go.
"Even while I was waiting in the park that day, I was sure you'd only say things that hurt again. I had to really steel myself to show up..."
"And my apology fixed it?"
"...Yeah. It was a reaction I honestly didn't expect. Ah—don't get the wrong idea? It wasn't that I thought your personality was awful. It was just different from the you I remembered. I never imagined that kind of kindness coming out of you."
"So how about now? Still worrying over it?"
"No. I love it. It feels like the old days. Like when we used to stick together and do nothing but laugh."
With that, a smile spread across A-yoon's lips.
...Looks like it worked out, then.
I let out a long breath of relief. Whatever I'd done in those first days after the possession seemed to have blocked off the worst possible future.
In the future I knew, A-yoon and I had a massive fight in this park, cut ties, and swore never to see each other again.
I'd come prepared for it. In that original timeline, Shin A-yoon sat crying on a bench after the worst had already happened—until Yoon Seung-hwan, who'd only come to the park convenience store for a drink, happened to find her and comforted her. That was her arc in the original novel.
All the material she'd prepared for Baek Yi-an went straight to Yoon Seung-hwan instead, his form shot up even higher, and my jealousy exploded. That was supposed to be my fate.
If I hadn't answered her message that day—or if I'd said I couldn't make it—this cursed future might actually have come true. Just thinking about it sent a chill down my spine.
But if A-yoon was saying things like this now, I could finally treat that path as sealed off.
I was still riding that sense of relief when the girl leaning against me spoke up again, as if something had just occurred to her.
"Oh, right. Speaking of which—you've gotten ridiculously famous, Yi-an. Did you know?"
"I have?"
"Yeah. Our school's all girls, so a lot of them don't even care about soccer, and your name still comes up constantly. Never mind YouTube and the communities."
"I had a good run with the national team. It'll fade as soon as the league opens. And if people at your school are talking, it's probably just because of all the programs tied to our club."
As far as I knew, our club partnered with a bunch of schools across the Jeonbuk region. A-yoon's school was one of them, so of course the chatter would show up there.
In my past life, before a season ended, the players used to tour schools in Jeonbuk handing out snacks and the like.
The popularity I had now was obviously just those programs plus the national team run. I shrugged it off—but A-yoon seemed to see it differently.
"No, I'm serious... You're really popular these days. The highest-viewed highlight clips on YouTube are already past a hundred thousand. And Seung-ah's been uploading a ton of Jeonbuk videos, too."
"Seung-ah? Where did that come from?"
"Huh? You didn't know? She's been doing live commentary for Jeonbuk lately. She used to only stream Phoenix, but something messy happened in the middle of that, and somehow she ended up covering Jeonbuk too. She says her viewers have gone up even more because of it."
What kind of incident would suddenly have her calling Jeonbuk games...
All I knew about was the whole boyfriend clarification thing. Was that related?
Whatever. Maybe she just found someone she likes at Jeonbuk.
I decided not to dig any deeper. I had no business poking around Seung-ah's love life, and if it worked out for everyone involved, that was enough.
When the conversation lulled, the scenery around us filtered back into focus.
The clock had been pointing at ten when we arrived at the park. Now it read 11:40.
Late enough that the breeze had gone past cool and started to turn cold. Time to head back.
"It's late. Let's go. Your place is on the way to mine anyway—I'll walk you."
"Yeah. Let's go."
I stood first, took A-yoon's hand and pulled her up, and we left the park behind.
Most of the men the public likes to call great managers are the ones who've lifted trophies in major European competitions—or at least claimed the Big Ears once.
My own idea of a good manager was a little different.
Career résumé and tactics that fit the current meta mattered a great deal, of course. But the part I watched most carefully was player management—more specifically, how they filled the holes that sudden injuries and absences punched into the roster.
Most managers keep replacements lined up in advance. Still, when a core piece goes down, it stings every single time.
If the position was stacked with options, fine. But when a sudden hole opened in a spot built on limited resources, the situation got ugly fast—ugly enough that even a player watching from the side would start thinking, What now?
That was exactly the landscape waiting for me when I came back from national team duty.
"So how many weeks is he out for?"
"From what the team doctor said, three to five. Honestly, we're lucky. Thigh injury, and it stopped at that."
Seung-yong hyung—who played the same defensive midfield role as me—was hurt. And right now, the only people at Jeonbuk who could actually handle his main job as a holding midfielder were me and Kang Sang-yong, who was still sidelined by suspension. That made the loss sting even worse.
"How'd he even get hurt? Training?"
"Yeah. While you were away with the national team he pushed the sessions too hard trying to get his form up, and it backfired. Worse—Andres's injury from the Gwangju match is more serious than we thought. Things are about to get rough. What the hell are we supposed to do?"
Seung-yong hyung, a defensive midfielder, and Andres, an attacking midfielder—both down. Seung-yong was more of a rotation piece than a true core, but that didn't make it something you could just laugh off.
If the backup holding midfielder was out, then until Kang Sang-yong came back, Chun-jae hyung and I would have to cover the position ourselves.
And Andres's injury stacking on top of that was the real problem.
The manager will probably push Chun-jae back up into attacking midfield. Slotting in someone new this early could wreck the good atmosphere he spent the start of the season building.
So who was I supposed to partner with, then?
No matter how I turned it over, I couldn't see our manager doing something insane like parking me alone as a single pivot...
"Worried about who you'll line up with? It'll probably be Kang Sang-yong. The club's internal ban ended ages ago, and he's been joining training for a while now."
"Kang Sang-yong?"
Back already, the second his suspension ended—after getting caught at a club following that thrashing in the first leg of the AFC Champions League round of sixteen against Suwon Osung?
Given our manager's temper, I'd expected him to refuse to use any player who locked horns with him, ban or no ban. But with the squad looking like this, it seemed he'd had no choice.
"It's going to be rough, so be careful."
"Because of fitness? I can manage that myself. I'll stay careful and keep myself healthy until hyung is back."
"That's not what I mean. Watch out for your seniors, idiot."
"Seniors?"
What was he talking about all of a sudden?
I hesitated at Seung-yong hyung's words. He let out a long sigh, checked our surroundings, and lowered his voice.
"Sang-yong getting his ban lifted isn't the only return this time. Yong-ho—the original starter in Seung-yun's spot—is coming back too. You know what his temper's like, right?"
"Han Yong-ho... senior?"
"Yeah. He hurt his back last season and came back while you were with the national team. You know how Yong-ho is. He hates rookies who get loud on the field. I already warned the twins, but you two need to be careful with the celebrations and the mocking in front of the other team. With his personality, he will call you out for being disrespectful even if it's the other side getting roasted."
That was the short version of what Seung-yong hyung was saying. And I already knew that much, more or less.
Han Yong-ho. He showed up a lot in the early-to-mid stretch of the original novel, back when Yoon Seung-hwan was still at Jeonbuk.
Transferred from Jeju to Jeonbuk at thirty-one, and even at an age when most players hit the aging curve, he kept performing at a high enough level that Jeonbuk fans had something to lean on through the dark years. Before Yoon Seung-hwan, he was the pillar.
Unfortunately, in the story he clashed constantly with the aggressive, headstrong Yoon Seung-hwan, so readers never warmed to him. Still, he never deliberately tried to injure anyone the way Baek Yi-an had—mostly just fought for dominance—and he still acted like a proper senior, so he never got fully hated either.
So Han Yong-ho is already back at the clubhouse from injury, and he's preparing a return match for the next game alongside Kang Sang-yong, whose ban is over?
One of them was already on edge from losing a power struggle with the manager. And now Han Yong-ho would be out for the Daegu away match in a few days.
Seung-yong hyung was clearly tipping me off early so I wouldn't act the way I usually did and catch an earful.
Of course...
Once they actually play with me, won't they just tell me to do whatever I want? The national team seniors were already chasing me for my number the second the Iraq match ended. These seniors won't be any different.
I didn't particularly care.