Second Half Chapter 29

I pride myself on having dynamic vision that ranks in the upper tier of the club—excluding Craig, the goalkeeper—yet I failed to capture his hand movement. In the brief moment I sat dazed, something cold brushed against my cheek. Jerim flinched once before identifying the object on his cheek, and shuddered again after realizing what it was.

“Why don’t you cool down that face of yours before you talk?”

Aaron, who had been holding a glass of ice, had brought his freezing hand to my cheek. My cheek, which had turned a flush scarlet from just a single sip of beer, boiled over explosively upon meeting his cold hand. I wished I could believe it was simply the contrast in temperature making it feel hotter, but I couldn’t even tell myself what the truth was anymore.

If it weren’t for that god-awful incident, I would have just thought of it simply and moved on. But since I now had a prior record of my lower half trying to snap to attention in response to Aaron, I could no longer lightly dismiss my physical reactions.

‘Is it… possible to feel physically attracted to someone you fucking loathe?’

For Jerim, who didn’t even have common one-night-stand experience, this was a difficult subject to conclude. He was usually quite lukewarm when it came to sexual matters. That made this experience feel all the more foreign.

I wasn’t even this confused when I first started dating Aaron. Back then, I was able to accept the series of events that shook my life quite easily. My parents’ divorce, moving to Spain, the racism I experienced for the first time in my life, and even the fact that my first-ever lover was a man.

Perhaps it was thanks to being young. It was a time when my thinking was most flexible, and having no experience meant having no fear. The saying “ignorance is bliss” fit perfectly. However, Jerim had long since transformed from that stupid teenage boy into a young man on the verge of his thirties.

Foreign experiences were no longer welcome, and they were hard to accept. Honestly, it was borderline irritating. Since Aaron hadn’t intentionally set out to make me horny, I couldn’t say this was all his fault. Still, Jerim took his frustration out on him anyway.

“Hey, you, go over there. Why are you sitting next to me and scraping at my nerves again…”

“If you two fight anymore, it’s five hundred pounds per person. You know the drill, right? Arguments only last for three minutes.”

But he promptly shut his trap at the threat William flew at them. Five hundred pounds per person if an argument exceeds three minutes. It was a rule established by the teammates because Jerim and Aaron bickered so much.

Clearly, in the beginning, since we had set rules for each other and I had received an order disguised as a request from Manager Verdi to take “special care” of him, I intended to embrace this rude transfer student with a heart as vast as the sea as the captain. But if things went as planned, I would have shaved my head and joined a temple. Whenever I snapped to my senses, things always ended up like this.

At least in official settings like training or matches, Jerim endured a lot and let things slide, but in private settings like this, Jerim unleashed his temper without reservation. Like right now. His teammates, unable to watch any longer, had set such an absurd fine.

Five hundred pounds for flapping my mouth for over three minutes. At first, I thought it was a joke and kept fighting, but after actually being fleeced for the fine, I started watching myself. Even with a body that received a weekly wage of 320,000 pounds, losing money so meaninglessly was a waste.

“Jerim, are you having financial difficulties lately? Every time I see you, the power of five hundred pounds is truly amazing.”

As Jerim transformed into a gentle lamb, Aaron began to fiddle with Jerim’s cheek at will, as if he no longer had any reservations. As always, he didn’t forget to tease with a sly smirk. You get paid a higher weekly wage than me, so that must be pocket change to you—Jerim endured the insult, suppressing the urge to snap back.

Perhaps the scene looked exceptionally cozy, or perhaps something else was at play, but the teammates began to throw out bizarre jokes.

“Oh? Were they fighting? I thought they were being affectionate because they looked so sweet.”

“I’m telling you, the vibe between those two is strange. They fight whenever their eyes meet, but they aren’t actually on bad terms. It’s like…”

“The feeling of a couple in the early part of a teen movie who hasn’t started dating yet.”

“Oh, right. That’s it! The thing where they intentionally pick fights to avoid getting caught that they like each other.”

The moment Marshall shouted while pointing his index finger as if he had found the answer to a problem he’d stayed up nights worrying about, Jerim could no longer hold back. He slammed down his glass of ice water as if he intended to break the table and bellowed. His face was twisted into a full scowl matching his uncomfortable mood.

“You’re all talking absolute bullshit.”

“Jeri, I’m asking a favor, don’t use your face like that. It’s such a waste to see.”

“It’s because you guys are only saying things that make me scowl, right now!”

He yelled out and gulped down the ice water, his throat burning. These guys really think the captain is a joke. But even after seeing the huffing captain, the teammates only burst out laughing. Only Lehmann had a somewhat dark face, watching Jerim’s reaction.

“It seems Aaron agrees, though? Well, is it really that?”

Jesus shook his index and middle fingers of both hands like quotation marks while saying “teen couple.” At that, Aaron, who had just been laughing quietly, shook his head.

“Wrong.”

This bastard, at least he’s decisive about things like this. A word that finally satisfied me came out of that wide-open mouth of his. Jerim, feeling relieved, was just about to hold another mouthful of water.

“Rather than a couple before dating, don’t we seem more like a couple that broke up and reunited?”

Cough.

And at the casual follow-up shock confession, Jerim choked immediately. The cold water went down his windpipe instead of his esophagus and surged back up, making his throat sting. Seeing Jerim coughing frantically, Lehmann asked with concern.

“Jeri, are you okay?”

Since he was in no position to say he wasn’t okay at all because of that fucking ex-boyfriend, he nodded even while coughing like he was about to die. Naturally, it was a gesture that failed to inspire any trust. It was when Lehmann, picking up a tissue, cautiously reached his other arm toward Jerim’s back.

“What are you, a kid? You can’t even drink water on your own?”

Aaron wrapped his arm around Jerim’s entire back and patted him gently. In contrast to his scolding tone, his touch was gentle, and Jerim sat there huffing and coughing while surrendering his back to it. Having choked so badly that tears welled up, he had no room to realize whose hand was patting his back.

“Ah, tissue. Thanks.”

“…”

Aaron took the tissue Lehmann handed over instead and winked. When he personally pressed the tissue into Jerim’s hand, Lehmann’s expression distorted faintly. His arm, which had lost its destination because Aaron had covered Jerim’s back first, hung awkwardly in the air. Lehmann quietly retracted his arm without even responding.

The other teammates, including Jerim, failed to capture that momentary confrontation. Jerim panted while wiping his mouth with the tissue Aaron had given him. From the tip of his nose to his forehead, everything felt numb as if he had struggled through a cramp while swimming.

Having finally regained his senses, he stomped on his fucking ex-boyfriend’s foot with all his might. Thump. At that, Aaron sneakily pulled his foot back and sat with his legs crossed. Even though it was a posture taken because he didn’t want his foot stepped on, the way he sat looked as noble as a crane, which made him even more detestable.

“You son of a bi—”

Woof. The curse he spat out, loaded with all sorts of emotions, was buried under the loud chatter of the other teammates.

“Oh, that makes sense too. Since you two were on the same team back in the day, that analogy fits better.”

“What. Are you admitting you’re a couple?”

“Suspicious, suspicious. Jeri, you becoming suspicious because you suddenly choked made it even more so.”

Jerim did not react. If he showed any more abnormal reactions here, the teammates’ jokes would turn into truth. Instead, he kicked Aaron’s shin with a look that meant you deal with this. Aaron slightly tilted his hit leg in another direction and babbled on nonchalantly again.

“Spain, England, Korea—everyone says we’re a couple. What was it, the Jeron duo?”

It was common for the main striker and the player with a high assist count of each team to be tied together in cringey pairings like “husband and wife” or “couple.” Since he was frequently paired like that with Yeobin on the national team and Lehmann at the club, Jerim replied dismissively.

“It’s nothing special. Before you came, Lehmann and I were also paired up—”

“By that logic, did you transfer from Lehmann to me?”

“…”