Second Half Chapter 19

“Jeri! Come over here and show your face for a bit.”

Edson, who had meticulously brought a selfie stick and was filming himself, urgently called out to Jerim. Jerim turned his body toward the direction of the voice.

“What is it now.”

“The fans are asking to see you.”

“Did you turn on Instagram Live again?”

“So what, it’s not like it’s banned. Hurry, hurry! Korean chats are popping up.”

“Seriously… Hello.”

After quickly tidying his hair and meticulously checking if everything was fine with his face, Jerim finally stood next to Edson.

As he offered greetings in English and Korean, the chat window—a mix of languages from all over the world—began to scroll up rapidly. Among them, the proportion of Korean was overwhelming. At the accelerated speed of the chat, Edson raised his cheekbones as if pleased.

“Wow, there’s more Korean in the chat than English or Portuguese. As expected of our captain. What is everyone asking?”

“They’re asking if I’ve had dinner. Yes, I’m eating right now. To be honest, the taste is just so-so.”

Jerim replied by picking out only the Korean chats that caught his eye in the moment. Since the chat was being refreshed so quickly, it was impossible to read them all.

“Hotel buffet? Of course I can’t eat that. The manager would kill me. This isn’t alcohol; it’s carbonated water.”

As he tilted the champagne glass he was holding as if making a toast, the chat window was flooded with laughing emojis and wine glass emojis. Seeing the fans’ gestures of toasting together, a sense of satisfaction spread across Jerim’s face as well. However, that heartwarming moment did not last long.

“Aaron! You want to come too? The fans are looking for you, too.”

“Really?”

It was because Edson, who usually loves receiving attention, had called Aaron over for even higher visibility. The way he readily stood up and came over made it seem like he had completely thrown away his act of being shy. Jerim sent a displeased look toward the approaching Aaron before quickly wrapping things up.

“Well then, I’ll be off. Everyone, for this season as well…”

The trailing words, “I ask for your support,” were drowned out by the greeting Aaron blurted out.

“Hi.”

As Aaron stood next to Jerim and waved while murmuring in his characteristic lethargic tone, the chat window literally went wild. Chats in various languages and all sorts of noisy emojis filled the white background until it turned black.

The speed at which the chat moved was so fast that Jerim couldn’t even read a single character properly. In the midst of that, Aaron skillfully picked out and read a chat that was clearly baiting him.

“Did I really fight with Jerim? Hmm.”

“Hey, don’t read chats like that.”

What is with this guy? It’s not like he’s only been a pro for a year or two. It was just as a flustered Jerim was quietly giving a warning.

Aaron wrapped his arm around Jerim’s neck and pulled him toward himself. Even then, Jerim thought he was doing this to show a friendly shoulder-to-shoulder appearance to end the rumors of a feud. If that were the case, Jerim was willing to cooperate as much as needed, just like during the open training, so he stayed still.

The problem came after that.

Mwah. A sound effect that felt nothing but ominous was heard from below his face. Not the forehead, not the cheek, not the chin—but on the neck area close to the ear.

Even as he saw the dark-colored hair, which gave off a pleasant scent, flickering under his chin, Jerim denied reality for a while.

Because, unless this guy is a total fucking crazy lunatic, something like this could not happen. Right now, it wasn’t a situation where adrenaline was surging during a match causing him to lose his reason, nor was it a situation where a mosquito had landed on his neck and had to be crushed to death with lips, and it was certainly not a situation where they were dating like ten years ago!

He couldn’t bear to look at the chat window, so he lowered his gaze. Even those few seconds felt like an eternity. Then, just as his nape was lightly bitten, his gaze crossed with Aaron’s, who had finished his business and lifted his chin. Looking at Jerim, who was trembling with extreme rage, Aaron smiled as if he were dying of amusement.

“Why are you so surprised. We used to do it often in the past.”

If he had calculated even the fact that Jerim wouldn’t be able to openly hit or kill him because the fans were watching, this guy must be a strategist rivaling Zhuge Liang. The Spanish Zhuge Liang looked at the camera and murmured lethargically on behalf of Jerim, who couldn’t bring himself to lift his head.

“As you can see, we have a very close relationship.”

The state of the chat window after that was obvious without even looking. Because Edson, who was holding the phone, had already started bursting into laughter.

Jerim racked his brain more fiercely than he did during the last Champions League final—when he had been agonizing over the positions of his teammates, how to break through the defensive line built by the opposing team, where the ball would roll, the routes for passes, and whether to shoot directly or pass—all while searching for a chance to turn the tables.

First of all, was this something that would blow up into a huge deal? He could say for certain that it wasn’t. Skinship among players is very common and free, so fans weren’t usually in an atmosphere to suspect someone of being gay just because men kissed or patted each other’s butts.

Though biting in addition to a kiss… might be a bit of a problem. But from the camera angle, they shouldn’t be able to tell that he bit. Unless someone with X-ray vision was watching the broadcast… and it wasn’t like a tooth mark was left on his neck.

Still, just in case, Jerim touched the bitten area, and only after confirming he didn’t feel any rough texture did he lift his neck stiffly.

‘Don’t panic. If I panic, things will go according to this guy’s plan.’

People would only suspect if they were openly deep-kissing on the lips, and even then, if it happened after lifting a trophy like the Big Ear, it would be seen as whatever. It meant that even if the label of “the guy who deep-kissed his teammate” followed him for the rest of his life, no one would seriously suspect anything.

That’s how much the adrenaline surging right after a match or a trophy ceremony could drive a person crazy.

‘Everyone does it… so I will too.’

Even that timid Lehmann would often roar and run to give Jerim a tight hug on days he scored a goal after receiving Jerim’s assist. It went without saying for other teammates he had worked with for longer. Since Jerim also felt that a teammate who finished his pass and scored looked so precious, he would often rub their heads vigorously and pat their cheeks and butts.

The problem was that right now was not in the middle of a match or an awards ceremony.

If it were something that happened during a match, it would be skinship at a level that wouldn’t even make the news, but it was a problem because it happened during a live broadcast where there was no reason for adrenaline to surge. Even if a “gay rumor” wouldn’t start over this, the problem he currently faced was that it was enough to get him teased with questions like, “Was it a dating rumor, not a feud rumor?” in the future.

Of course, if he were actually asked such a question, Jerim would handle it slickly without any hesitation, saying something like, “Well. Isn’t it just as hot either way?” But it was just uncomfortable to have a ticklish word like “romance” inserted between him and Aaron. Since, based on the past, it would be a statement of fact…

“I’m going crazy. Is he actually insane?”

“Aaron, thanks! Thanks to you, my followers are shooting up!”

“Jeri, you should do something crazy too. Ah, my stomach hurts from laughing too much.”

The surroundings had turned into a sea of laughter before he knew it. While feeling a sense of betrayal toward his colleagues who were doubling over in laughter instead of comforting the captain who had suffered a sudden disaster, a flash of insight struck Jerim’s mind.

Something crazy.

Yes, from old times, they say a crazy person’s only medicine is a beating. But since he couldn’t openly hit him, shouldn’t he just pay him back with something equally crazy? Conveniently, a pretty good method came to mind.

As soon as he thought of the method, Jerim put it into action. He knew better than anyone that in a situation where every second counts, a moment’s hesitation—like wondering whether to do it or not—could ruin everything. Agonize, but decide quickly. That was the way Jerim had survived in the Premier League until this day.

He firmly grabbed Aaron’s cheeks, pulled them down, and made a “mwah” sound while pressing his cheek against Aaron’s. And before Aaron could react, he did the same to the other cheek.

“I heard in Spain, you do it twice like this. Why are you acting so… messy by doing it to only one cheek.”

“…”

“I learned the Spanish way of greeting from this guy a long time ago. It’s a greeting, a greeting.”

He forced a laugh while patting the cheeks of the stony-faced Aaron. It was the same for both of them that they couldn’t bring themselves to laugh, but he had to laugh here no matter what. Only then would it be dismissed as a common bisous, and any ticklish talk about romance would be silenced.