Family News
Clive let out a low, disappointed grunt.
“What do you mean, hmmph?”
Ever since the meeting with Pep Guardiola, Clive had been making his displeasure very obvious. He clearly didn’t like the idea of Ha Sunmoon trying to return to a more traditional Spanish style of play. Sunmoon had gone back to the Espanyol training ground to continue practicing, but Clive’s sulking was impossible to ignore.
“I know. I’ll start by slowly fixing the things I can’t do yet.”
“Yes.”
Sunmoon nodded as if he understood and began practicing long passes again. Of course, in his head he kept replaying Pep Guardiola’s words.
Look around you more often…
Thump!
Creative play…
Thump!
Creative passes…
Thump!!
Got it!
Sunmoon suddenly stopped his training.
“Ah… this isn’t working.”
“My body still can’t support it. I can’t reach that level yet. The most I can do right now is just put in a decent cross.”
After countless long-pass drills, Sunmoon had come to the conclusion that he still wasn’t capable of delivering the kind of long balls that would work at the first-team level.
“I’m lacking power… Maybe I should increase the intensity of my training?”
During their previous meeting, Pep Guardiola had shared an interesting thought.
“Is it better for a footballer to build a lot of muscle, or to have very little?”
He had used Robert Lewandowski—who had just completed a treble—as an example of a player who had developed his muscles beautifully. At the same time, he mentioned Riyad Mahrez, who had played a major role in Leicester City’s fairy-tale title win and later moved to Manchester City, despite having almost no visible muscle.
Clive naturally believed more muscle was better, but Mahrez’s case—that having less muscle actually helped him avoid injuries—had left him conflicted. Injury was such a headache-inducing issue that it was hard to speak about it lightly.
“That’s why football is such a fascinating sport. Sometimes the most muscular athletes shine, but other times it’s the slim players or even the slightly chubby ones who look like they have no muscle at all who perform best. Of course, I personally don’t consider chubby players if speed is the priority. But… eventually you’ll have to make a choice. You decide which path is better for you.”
Feeling Sunmoon’s fierce desire to improve, Clive had no choice but to decide they should slow things down.
“Sunmoon! You’ve got a visitor from Korea.”
“Huh?”
After finishing training and showering, Sunmoon was about to head home when a club staff member delivered the news.
“Someone from the Korea Football Association is coming. What do you want to do?”
“Um… well… I guess I should meet them? They said they wouldn’t call me up so I could focus on the league, but it looks like something came up. I’ll see them.”
“Alright. They said they’ll be here sometime next week. I’ll set up a date.”
“Thank you.”
***
“Hello, I’m Lee Ji-seon from the Korea Football Association.”
“Ah… hello.”
Whoa… She’s really pretty.
Sunmoon was slightly flustered. He hadn’t expected the representative from the Korean FA to be a woman.
“So… what brings you here?”
“Ah! There are several reasons, but first I wanted to let you know that our technical development committee chairman, Mr. Michael Müller, considers you extremely important.”
“I see. And?”
“That’s why, even though you’re still quite young, we plan to call you up for next year’s Tokyo Olympics.”
“The Tokyo Olympics?”
“Yes. We’d like to include you as a U-23 player and have you participate in the Tokyo Olympics with the team. That’s the main message I was asked to deliver.”
Sunmoon was a little surprised to hear he might be called up for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
“I’m still really young. Is that okay?”
“Why would age be a problem? Shouldn’t skill matter more? Chairman Müller barely managed to stop the people who wanted to put you straight into the senior national team. He said it wouldn’t be good to promote you that quickly. It’s better for you to play with players your own age for now. He also mentioned that just adapting to the league must be difficult enough.”
“Hmm! I’ll have to talk about this with my agent.”
“With your agent?”
“Yes. I still don’t know much about these things…”
“Ah! And there’s also something regarding your family?”
At Lee Ji-seon’s words, Sunmoon tensed up.
“My family?”
“Yes. We tried to locate your parents and reach out to them separately, but…”
Gulp.
Anything related to family was a serious matter for Sunmoon. It was also one of the reasons he played football. He began to feel shaken.
“Unfortunately, there are no records of your father in your family registry.”
“Ah…”
No record of his father meant that Sunmoon’s family register did not list a father.
Clive quickly tried to encourage him before Sunmoon could fall into despair.
Phew… Yeah. I still have other people.
Sunmoon let out a small sigh and raised his head.
“As for your mother…”
“Mom? You managed to contact my mom?”
He had tried not to get emotional, but the word “mom” shook him deeply.
“Yes. We were able to reach your mother, but… she said she wants to keep some distance for personal reasons… Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do in cases like this…”
“Ah…”
Sunmoon lowered his head again.
“Phew… So I don’t have a mother or a father. I’m…”
“Ah… no, that’s not it! Your mother has special circumstances that make it unavoidable.”
“It’s difficult to explain in detail… but we will do everything we can to help you in a way that benefits you, Mr. Ha. And now we should start looking for your father.”
“You’re going to look for my father?”
“Yes! That’s actually one of the main reasons I came—to offer our assistance in locating him.”
“Is that even possible?”
“Yes. These days, we can find someone with just a DNA sample. We’ll need a few strands of your hair and a small cheek swab. We’ll locate him and speak with him on your behalf.”
Sunmoon allowed Lee Ji-seon to collect a few strands of his hair and a cheek cell sample.
“Please trust us and wait. We will definitely find him. We’ll also try to persuade your mother.”
***
On the way home, Sunmoon felt strange.
“No. I’m not okay.”
News about his family—news he had never heard before—had suddenly arrived. Information about his mother. But hearing that there were special circumstances preventing contact left him feeling frustrated and stifled.
“Of course I do…”
“Even so… she still shouldn’t have done that.”
At Sunmoon’s words, Clive felt a heavy weight settle in his chest.
“Waa!! Hada! Ha!”
By now, Sunmoon had become something of a local celebrity in the neighborhood full of Espanyol fans. People often recognized him on the street and called out to him. But right now, he wasn’t in the mood to feel happy about it.
Ha.
The surname “Ha” suddenly came to mind. And then he thought of his mother’s name.
Ha Eun-ju.
Now that he thought about it, it made sense. Since there was no father, he had taken his mother’s surname.
“Sunmoon! Wanna play with us today?”
“Haa!! Nooo thank youuu!”
While Sunmoon was feeling down, he heard a familiar male and female voice and turned his head. It was Annie and Vegas, who had been playing in the neighborhood.
“Instead of always playing at the first-team ground, why don’t you show us what you’ve got here?”
Vegas was playing football with kids his own age while Annie watched from the side.
“Here? Hmm… If I join, it might ruin the balance.”
“Balance? Who cares about that? We’re just playing with kids our age. They’re already happy playing with me from the B-team. If they get to play with a first-team player like you, they’ll be over the moon. You really don’t want to play?”
Vegas’s words made Sunmoon’s ears perk up.
Sunmoon nodded at Clive’s words.
“Alright, let’s play. But I’m really good, okay?”
“Got it~! Hurry up. Perfect! Now the numbers are even.”
And so Sunmoon joined Vegas and the neighborhood kids for a game of street football.
“Vegas, who did you bring?”
“You don’t recognize him?”
“Huh? Isn’t that Ha?”
“Correct! Today’s special guest is Ha! We play together on the B-team, so we know each other pretty well!”
Pretty well… sure.
“Whoa! As expected of Vegas!”
“So how should we split the teams?”
The innocent, cheerful chatter and the sight of the other kids who lived and breathed football reminded Sunmoon of the neighborhood games he used to play back in Brazil. The ball moved even faster than in a rondo, and Sunmoon’s movements shone brightly in the middle of it all.
“Wow! He really is Sunmoon! Look at those feet!”
Sunmoon showed off the fancy footwork he had honed in Brazil.
“Gooooooal!”
After perfectly beating two defenders, Sunmoon passed the ball, and his teammate simply tapped it in.
Ha… This feels good.
On the small neighborhood pitch rather than the grand stadium, Sunmoon was finally able to shake off some of the heaviness that had weighed down his heart.