CS 10

Chapter 10

The Forty-Year-Old Man Hides His Age (2)

Whether you’re forty or sixteen, there’s little difference when it comes to being unable to sleep deeply after changing where you sleep.

“Grrrr— Grrrrrk— Grrrroooonk—”

“……”

My eyes snapped open at the noise, and without hesitation, I got out of bed.

I picked up a bottle of bottled water from the desk and headed toward the window.

Perhaps because morning was approaching, the sunlight that had been hiding beneath the horizon was slowly beginning to reveal itself.

I stared blankly at the sight while gulping down the water, and I became a little more awake.

I picked up the phone that had been charging beside my bed and opened a news site.

Checking the news as soon as I woke up was part of my morning routine.

It was a routine I’d followed since my previous life, so it had been about twenty years by now.

As soon as I opened the news, football-related stories naturally caught my eye, considering I was a football player.

[‘A Historic El Clásico Match’ Barcelona completes an incredible 3–2 comeback victory away against Real Madrid!]

[“0–2 → 2–1 → 2–2 → 3–2.” A dramatic comeback over thirty minutes, led by Barcelona’s 19-year-old rising star.]

[Real Madrid collapses against Barcelona’s rising star, who records 2 goals and 1 assist. Barcelona manager showers him with praise: “You have just witnessed the birth of a new star—”]

Tap—

I touched the top of the phone screen and checked the economic news.

Well, it was called economic news, but it mainly consisted of stories about stocks, cryptocurrency, and real estate.

But who cared?

“Hmm……”

Anyway, the global economy was peaceful today as well.

Electric vehicle stocks fluctuated amid discussions about whether or not humanity would go to Mars, cryptocurrency prices soared to heaven and plunged into hell over some meaningless word, and land prices in Seoul rose again today…

In any case, the economy was still moving exactly as I remembered it.

After confirming that my existence hadn’t had any impact whatsoever on the global economy today, I turned off my phone.

“…Tch.”

The truth was—

Sometimes my own existence frightened me.

It wasn’t that I was about to say that a Dark Dragon was sealed inside my right hand, or that I was actually a child chosen by cyber monsters.

What frightened me was the butterfly effect caused by my regression.

I had gone back twenty-five years, after all.

Already, I was walking a path that was distinctly different from the one I had originally taken in the past.

The thought that my existence could have a major impact on other people—or even the world itself—sent chills down my spine.

Of course, someone could say I was being overly self-conscious.

But if that were the case, there wouldn’t even be such a thing as the butterfly effect.

That’s why I checked the news every morning.

I already knew about the events because I’d experienced them once before, but I checked anyway in case something had changed.

And fortunately, my existence hadn’t had the slightest impact on the world today either.

Relieved by that fact, I leisurely enjoyed the morning scenery outside the window—

“Grrrroooonk……! Cough-cough……! Gk, cough, grrronk……!”

“……”

The sound of my roommate’s snoring filled the entire double-room dormitory.

I briefly pressed my fingers against my forehead.

And a little later—

After taking care of a few things, I collapsed onto the bed and drank some water while looking out the window.

“……”

The dawn was just beginning.

Orange sunlight was filtering through the curtains.

Fresh green grass was revealed under the sunlight.

And finally, there was the sight of my roommate somehow sleeping soundly despite having wadded-up tissues stuffed into his nostrils.

“……”

It was spring.

When a foreign player lives abroad, the most important thing is none other than adaptation.

This was a well-known fact mentioned even in Son Heung-min’s autobiography, and it was something Korean players who had challenged themselves in Europe and failed always emphasized to young prospects.

Language, food, culture, and so on.

If you fail to adapt to a new environment, homesickness develops, which soon leads to a decline in performance.

That’s why adaptation was one of the most important factors when attempting to play overseas.

Especially when the players in question were emotionally sensitive adolescent boys in the middle of puberty.

For that reason, Real Madrid distributed the three Korean prospects among different teams.

Center-back Kim Woo-sung was assigned to Juvenil C.

Midfielder Park Min-hyuk was assigned to Juvenil B.

And I was assigned to Juvenil A.

It was the club’s way of preventing the Korean players from sticking together.

It was also an implicit message that now that we were in Spain, we should communicate in Spanish and integrate ourselves into our respective teams.

Then again, perhaps the reason Kim Woo-sung and Park Min-hyuk were assigned to the same room was because, after all, they were guests from Korea rather than players who had actually signed contracts.

Well, the reason didn’t really matter.

What mattered was that I had been separated from the other Korean players and was now alone in Juvenil A.

And because I was the only Asian person on the team who could speak Spanish, I had received quite a bit of attention over the past three days.

—“Whoa! He’s really Asian! What’s your name?”

—“What country are you from? China? Japan?”

—“Idiot, Nico already told you he’s from Korea.”

—“I’ve watched K-Pop Demon Hunters on Netflix! Oh, and Squid Game too!”

They showed me such intense interest that it was as though they’d discovered a talking monkey.

To be fair, Spain was overflowing with Chinese workers who had come to make money, so it probably wasn’t their first time seeing an Asian person who spoke Spanish.

From my perspective, however, I was quite satisfied that I didn’t have to make the first move when it came to becoming friendly with my teammates.

Whatever the case, these were the young sprouts of Real Madrid.

Quite a few of them would become valuable assets, so there was no harm in getting close to them.

“That’s fucking ridiculous.”

The person I was currently closest to on the team was none other than Nicholas Becker, commonly known as Nico.

Now seventeen years old, he was both the team captain and my roommate, and he seemed determined to look after me as much as possible.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been the one to start talking to me during our warm-up before training.

I was stretching my entire body on the grass when I quietly asked,

“What?”

“I mean the tissue you stuffed into my nostrils this morning. That was you, wasn’t it?”

Instead of answering, I merely smacked my lips and continued stretching.

That was my way of saying yes.

Yeah.

Why bother denying it?

I couldn’t deny that my response had been rather extreme.

But I also couldn’t deny that the intensity of his snoring had been anything but mild.

This was exactly why I hated sharing a room with someone.

Still, I couldn’t deny my own wrongdoing either, so I decided to subtly change the subject.

In other words, I intended to point out the chaotic atmosphere among the players who had been chatting instead of actually stretching.

“By the way, everyone seems pretty distracted today. Is something going on?”

“Changing the subject, huh… Didn’t you watch it yesterday?”

“Watch what?”

“El Clásico. It was absolute chaos yesterday.”

His words reminded me of the news I’d seen that morning.

“They lost after blowing a 2–0 lead?”

“Yeah. At the Santiago Bernabéu, too. I heard the home fans went crazy after the match.”

“It’s not strange. They lost a match they had practically already won.”

“Exactly. That’s probably why those guys are talking like that too. Everyone here joined because they love Real Madrid.”

“You don’t seem bothered, though.”

“Me?”

As part of his stretching, he rubbed his calf and chuckled.

There seemed to be a hint of mockery in his laugh.

“Of course not. I wasn’t the one playing, so why should I be disappointed? The first-team players lost, not me.”

“……”

“In the end, I’ve got too little time to worry about my own life as it is. We’ve got a match in three days. Who has time to worry about someone else?”

I didn’t like his snoring, but I did like the fact that his values were similar to mine.

And his final statement as well.

I casually asked,

“We have a match in three days?”

“Ah, you just joined, so you don’t know yet. We normally play league matches every weekend. Our opponent this time is Real Valladolid.”

“I wonder if I’ll get to play.”

“Who knows? The coach will decide after seeing how you perform in training.”

Hmm.

I see.

“Doni, you must be confident.”

“Huh? About what?”

“What do you think? You’ve been wearing that annoying smile for a while now.”

Apparently, my expression had given me away.

I awkwardly touched my face and brought the conversation to an end.

Well.

I was confident.

“Joel looks to be in good condition today.”

“He’s missed so many chances over the last three matches. He probably really wants to make up for it.”

“Javi’s form has improved a lot too.”

“He wasn’t a bad player to begin with. He just slowed down for a while because of his ankle injury. Still, his movement looks a little sluggish, so I’m worried.”

Ismael, the manager of Real Madrid’s Juvenil A team, was standing outside the field and discussing two forwards with his assistant coach.

Ismael’s primary responsibility, as the man entrusted with the important task of developing the future of Real Madrid, was managing the youth players.

If a player was capable of competing at the senior level, he reported it to the club so the player could move up immediately.

For players who still needed development, he provided training methods suited to their needs.

The players’ development was just as important as the team’s results.

In that regard, his job was fundamentally different from that of first-team managers, who would risk everything for a single point in the standings.

Of course, as long as they wore the name Real Madrid, the youth teams also had an obligation to remain among the best.

That was why Ismael was carefully considering the squad for the weekend match, which had yet to be finalized, while watching the 8-vs-8 mini-game.

Ismael let out a deep sigh.

“Whether it’s Javi or Joel, it bothers me that both of them have something that makes me uneasy…”

The Real Madrid Juvenil A team managed by Ismael used a 4-2-3-1 formation.

The attacking midfielder position belonged to Nicholas, who was currently regarded as the team’s top prospect.

Of course, the goalkeeper and defenders had their positions settled, as did the midfield and wide attacking positions.

That left only one position.

The center-forward position.

The reason the striker position remained undecided was because the form of both players competing for the starting spot had completely fallen apart.

One was suffering from poor form.

The other was injured.

And there wasn’t a suitable alternative either.

As a manager, Ismael couldn’t help but have a headache over the situation.

“Coach, what about Doni instead?”

“Doni?”

At the assistant coach’s suggestion, Ismael’s gaze shifted toward Kang Do-in, who was playing in the mini-game on the field.

“He only joined the dormitory the day before yesterday. Wouldn’t it be a little much to put him straight into a match?”

“Even so, what he’s shown during training has been the best among everyone on the team. You were very impressed with his video when you watched it last winter too, weren’t you?”

“Hmm.”

Unable to refute that fact at all, Ismael carefully watched Kang Do-in.

The Korean boy, who hadn’t even been with the team for a week, looked quite different from the footage Ismael had received from the team’s football director.

“He seems to have grown quite a bit since I saw the video last winter.”

“He really has. According to Antonio from the scouting team, he was 168 centimeters when he first saw him, but when they measured him during the medical examination right before the contract, he was 176. Apparently, he’s still growing.”

“At that height, there shouldn’t be a problem putting him in the center, but…”

Still, putting a player who had only been training with the team for three days straight into a match was a little—

That was what Ismael was about to say when—

“Stop Doni!”

“Everyone’s getting beaten! Damn it!”

Kang Do-in received the ball from a slightly lower position.

Using a body feint, he slipped past the player pressing him, then pushed the ball between the legs of the next player who came rushing in.

The player coming from behind tried to restrain him with his hands, preventing himself from pressing recklessly.

Then, when a tackle came flying in from the front, Kang Do-in lifted the ball slightly and avoided it as though he had anticipated it long ago.

After dribbling past every defender in his way, only the goalkeeper remained.

The goalkeeper rushed forward to narrow the shooting angle.

But the goalkeeper’s intention became meaningless.

Kang Do-in gently curled the ball with his right foot, and the shot passed straight between the goalkeeper’s legs before rippling the back of the net.

The entire sequence flowed smoothly in less than thirty seconds.

Naturally, Ismael’s eyes narrowed strangely.

Hmm.

“…Should I put him on the squad list, at least?”