CS 02

Chapter 2.

 Something More Important Than Money (1)

I was a successful soccer player.

I became a professional, made a living playing soccer, became a member of the national team, played in the World Cup and scored goals. And I continued playing soccer even after turning forty.

Although I only played in Saudi Arabia, I had never felt that I was lacking anything. I was criticized for never playing in Europe, but I made far more money than the amount of abuse I received.

An orphan who hadn’t had a single penny to his name had become a soccer player earning enough money to make others envious.

I thought that was enough.

I had nothing more to wish for.

So I decided to retire. I intended to spend the rest of my life enjoying the fortune I had accumulated.

And on the night after my retirement press conference, I lost consciousness while experiencing excruciating pain in my heart.

[You have failed to win the Ballon d’Or!]

[Penalty activated! Regressing to the past!]

I vaguely remember seeing something strange, like a blue hologram, appear before my eyes just before I lost consciousness.

Anyway.

I had a dream.

In the dream, I had returned to the past.

From a forty-year-old soccer player living a glamorous life in Saudi Arabia to a fifteen-year-old orphanage kid with no parents.

It was a ridiculous dream.

But I didn’t wake up.

I think I’m screwed.

Mornings at Haneulsarang Orphanage were always noisy.

That was because, compared to the large number of children, there were overwhelmingly few adults responsible for controlling them.

Of course, considering the nature of the orphanage, which had a very real hierarchy—more precisely, one ruled by the delinquent older boys and girls—the children did maintain a certain level of discipline among themselves.

But that was only to a certain extent.

And so, this morning at Haneulsarang Orphanage was noisy as usual.

After waking up, the children fought over the bathroom, then fought over the small portion of sausage served for breakfast, all while getting ready for school.

Everyone except one.

“Why the hell is that bastard like that first thing in the morning?”

“How would I know? He didn’t even eat breakfast.”

“Did he drink with the older guys yesterday?”

The third-year middle school students at Haneulsarang Orphanage whispered among themselves as they watched their classmate stare blankly at the ceiling.

He was the only kid in the orphanage allowed to participate in an athletic program, thanks to the director’s favoritism because he was good at kicking a ball around.

Normally, they barely even saw his face because he left for school at dawn and returned late at night due to training.

But today, he seemed strangely out of it.

He had suddenly started asking for their names.

Then he asked what year it was.

After checking the date, he started swearing to himself.

And ever since then, he’d been like this.

He simply stared blankly at the ceiling, completely dazed.

“Shouldn’t we call the childcare teacher?”

“Leave him alone. Maybe he had a nice dream.”

“But he still has to go to school. Hold on.”

Eventually, one of the children couldn’t stand watching any longer and stepped forward. He shook the shoulder of the boy who was staring blankly upward.

“Hey, Kang Do-in. Snap out of it and get to school. You have training today too, don’t you? Or are you sick?”

“I don’t know either, fuck.”

“What?”

“Seriously, fuck. I had so much money saved up…”

“……?”

The musty smell of teenage boys, the dark mold growing in the corner of the ceiling, and even the slightly rusted bunk beds.

The familiar scenery of Haneulsarang Orphanage, no different from any other day, stirred up a terrible sense of nostalgia.

The reason I felt nostalgic was because this was the place where I had grown up.

And the reason that nostalgia was terrible was because every bad memory in my life had happened here.

Once I became an adult, I had thought I would never have to see this orphanage again.

But now—

“Ah! Get out of the bathroom already, you crazy bastard!”

“How many minutes are you going to spend in there by yourself? My stomach fucking hurts!”

“The school lunch menu today is go-su-na-jo. Should I just skip lunch?”

“Ah, I don’t want to go to school…”

As the time to leave for school approached, the voices of the elementary school children echoed from the hallway outside the room.

The noisy, chaotic racket reminded me of a marketplace.

I think I’m going to be sick.

I steadied my queasy stomach with deep breaths and tried to get a grip on myself.

Even though I wanted to accept reality somehow, I couldn’t shake the feeling of injustice.

I had spent more than twenty years playing professional soccer.

All the wealth and career I had accumulated over that time—everything had disappeared in an instant the moment I opened my eyes.

How could I not feel wronged?

Why the hell had this happened to me?

“I could really use a cigarette…”

I instinctively searched my pockets, but of course, all I found was dust.

Clicking my tongue, I lay down on the bed. By then, the noise coming from outside the room had disappeared.

Had everyone gone to school?

It had been about an hour since I had tricked the childcare supervisor into letting me skip school by pretending I was sick.

The current situation was bewildering and infuriating, something I couldn’t comprehend.

But at least I had figured out exactly what kind of situation I was in.

I had regressed twenty-five years into the past.

It was an unrealistic situation I had never wished for, but repeatedly dwelling on how unfair it was wouldn’t change anything.

As someone who had lived his entire life as an orphan and experienced the world’s unfairness firsthand, I knew that better than anyone.

What could I do?

Life had never been fair to everyone in the first place.

Since things had turned out this way, it would be more rational to spend my time thinking about my plans for the future instead of whining.

The one fortunate thing amid all this misfortune was that I still retained all the experiences from the forty years I had lived.

“If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve memorized some lottery numbers.”

I couldn’t help sighing at the thought.

Still, I clearly remembered various investment opportunities, such as real estate and stocks.

Once I had even a certain amount of money, this knowledge would make me a huge profit.

The problem was that I didn’t even have that money right now.

A third-year middle school orphan living in an orphanage.

That was my current situation.

It was embarrassing to say it myself, but there wasn’t anyone who fit the saying “a dragon rising from a small stream” better than me.

And now that I had returned to the past, I was still in that stream.

I remembered those snowy winter days during high school.

Back then, I had gone from one construction site to another to earn enough money to pay my soccer club fees.

Cold.

Exhausting.

Miserable.

Fucking awful.

Damn it.

Those were memories I never wanted to recall.

“Ugh…”

Remembering that bleak past, I squeezed my eyes shut while lying on the bed.

If things continued like this, I’d end up going through that past all over again.

Judging by the calendar I had checked earlier, I was currently in my third year of middle school.

It was October, which meant winter was just around the corner.

And according to my memories, the high school I would attend had already been decided at this point.

In other words, if things continued as they had before, I would probably have to experience the three most difficult years of my life all over again.

I couldn’t do that again.

“…All right.”

After organizing my thoughts, I abruptly got out of bed.

My immediate goal was to create an environment where I could focus on soccer.

With the experience and memories I had accumulated over the past forty years, it wasn’t impossible.

This was my second life, obtained after losing all the wealth and career I had built up over the years.

Even if I hadn’t wanted this opportunity, I had no intention of wasting it.

Then it was time to make a concrete plan.

I rummaged through my hazy memories, took out my old cell phone, and started searching.

If my memories weren’t wrong, there had been a project being run by the soccer association around this time…

“…There it is.”

A grin spread across my face when the information appeared on the phone’s screen.

[Recruiting applicants for the Spain Study Abroad Project (2nd Program).]