Second Half Chapter 3

Furthermore, that guy is the one who ran off to another league as soon as he became a free agent without giving a single penny in transfer fees to the club that raised him since his youth days, so why is he cursing our innocent team? Did we seduce him to come? Well, of course we did… but is there a team that wouldn’t approach such a big fish when he’s available for free. Sefton simply won the competition.

‘Anyway, it’s a situation where he’s bound to get cursed at.’

From the perspective of a Tabarona fan, Aaron’s transfer was bound to look incredibly offensive. No team fan likes a player who transfers as a free agent—collectively known as a free agent run. It was only natural to be pissed off since he was a product of that team’s youth system and would have recorded an astronomical amount if he had been transferred normally with a fee.

So if you’re going to curse, just curse that bastard Aaron. He really didn’t show enough loyalty to the club that raised him since he was young. Seriously, a guy without any company loyalty causes trouble in every direction. Whew. Jerim, letting out a breath, scrolled down combatively. And then, he immediately clutched the back of his neck as it started to pull stiffly.

<I’m going to Korea! Aaron Reyes joins the Sefton pre-season Korea tour immediately>

“Ugh…”

“What is it, what’s wrong? Are you hurting somewhere?”

Changsik, the agent who was driving instead of Jerim, looked back at the passenger seat in surprise. Jerim cracked his neck and muttered disinterestedly.

“No. I just hate it.”

“Reyes coming? Or the talisman your mother gave you?”

“Both.”

Jerim, puffing out his cheeks to take a deep breath, made a sullen face. He hated both the “Age of Nine” protection talisman his mother had suddenly taken his wallet this morning to sew into the inner fabric, and Aaron’s transfer.

What’s with the Age of Nine and what’s with the talisman. To Jerim, who didn’t believe in any superstitions including jinxes, a talisman was just a waste of money. However, since his mother had dragged her sick body to a powerful shaman to get it herself, he couldn’t push it away.

‘Son, she said you have to be especially careful in the second half of the year. Your fortune says you’ll suffer mentally more than physically. According to the shaman, an ill fate from the past will hold you back. So make sure to carry the talisman with you, okay? Got it?’

…And because he happened to hear talk of an ill fate from the past right as it coincided with Aaron’s transfer, his trust level rose just a tiny bit. Jerim eventually came out carrying the wallet as it was. Changsik, who smacked his lips after seeing Jerim’s expression, tried hard to comfort him.

“Still, the shaman who wrote your talisman is said to be a really capable person. It’s not like you’re losing anything by carrying it.”

“I just hate the fact that there’s such a hideous thing in my wallet. Ah, seriously, what should I do about Mrs. Hwang’s fuss?”

“You stop making a fuss. Stop looking at the articles. What’s the point of keep looking? He’s already coming.”

“It’s because I can’t believe it no matter how much I look.”

“Yeah. You’ll see his face when we get to the airport anyway, then it’ll feel real.”

“Haaaaa…”

Jerim, turning the neck pillow he was wearing to the front, buried his lower face in the round cushion part. Changsik’s pointed remark was painful.

Jerim was currently on his way to Incheon Airport to greet the teammates, manager, and coaching staff who would soon get off the plane. Of course, Aaron Reyes would be included in that list of “teammates getting off the plane.”

I don’t know why he’s so rushed that he transferred without a single noisy rumor or agreement or whatever and is joining from the first tour. Since he played all the way through Euro8) right after last season ended, he might as well have come a bit slower if he was coming.

As if Changsik had the same thought, he brought up a related topic.

“Don’t hate it so much and try to see it as admirable. Even if they were eliminated in the Euro quarterfinals, doesn’t it mean Reyes hasn’t even rested much?”

“……”

“Joining from the first pre-season tour, man. It’s not like he’s proving his loyalty as soon as he transfers.”

“…I don’t know. It’s none of my busine…”

For the record, the pre-season training call-up already started the day before yesterday, but Jerim was scheduled to join the training starting from the day the teammates arrived in Korea. It was a consideration from Manager Verdi, questioning if there was a need to round-trip the same path when everyone was going to gather in England and come to Korea anyway. Instead, he decided to wait at the airport first for fan service and press interviews.

Since this visit to Korea was decided solely because of him, Ban Jerim, the weight on his shoulders was heavy. It was also his first visit to Korea to commemorate wearing the captain’s armband since last season. As if to remind him of that, Changsik gave a warning, emphasizing each syllable.

“You have to do well during this visit to Korea. You know?”

“I know.”

Conversely, Jerim replied with a playfully muffled pronunciation while buried in the pillow. Changsik, holding the steering wheel with his left hand, thumped his chest as if frustrated.

“I mean don’t fight! With Reyes…”

“Am I an elementary schooler? You think I’ll grab him by the collar as soon as I see him at the airport?”

“Looking at the way you’re acting now, it seems like you’re more than capable of that.”

“I won’t. You think I want to get hit with eggs again?”

Jerim chuckled, recalling the sensation of a cold raw egg hitting his face after flying at full speed like a baseball thrown by a Major Leaguer’s best left-handed pitcher. That person who threw the egg back then really should have started social league baseball or something. It was a talent too wasted to let rot.

The person who was the actual recipient of the egg shower at the time was laughing, but Changsik, who had only seen it through a screen, was rather more shocked and trembled his shoulders.

“…Hey, don’t even bring up the ‘E’ in eggs. It makes my skin crawl, seriously.”

No matter the way it was expressed, they were words of worry. Jerim took off the neck pillow, hung it around Changsik’s neck, and kneaded his shoulders.

“It’s a joke, a joke. Even if I really end up rolling around and fighting with him at the airport, would our citizens throw eggs at me? They’d throw them at him.”

“That’s true.”

The young player who had been hit with eggs by his own countrymen for committing a fatal mistake in the World Cup had, ten years later, grown into one of the representative football players of Asia. Now, there was no one who would dare throw an egg at him just for making a mistake. If they did, they’d be taken into custody and their personal information would be leaked immediately.

And in a way, it had been a rehearsal. The eggs that flew back then became another form called “booing” and struck Jerim’s ears in every match. Whenever he played at an opponent’s home, the moment he scored a goal or fell from a foul was the very moment the entire stadium was covered in loud boos. Sometimes, trash would fly from the stands.

This was a hardship all football players experienced. Young players like Lehmann often lost their nerve because of it and failed to show their true skills. However, because Jerim had received the shocking gift of eggs first, he had gained a strong mentality that wouldn’t budge at all the boos he heard while playing in the Premier League.

The problem was that even with that strong mentality, Aaron Reyes’s transfer simply wasn’t easy to accept…

No, seriously, why so suddenly? That crazy guy should have just renewed his contract with Tabarona. How much does he plan to gobble up in weekly wages by coming to our team that he held out stubbornly until the end of his contract period?

Usually, for players who transfer as free agents, high weekly wages are contracted since a massive transfer fee wasn’t spent. And that guy is obviously not a talent who would play for a weekly wage only in the low hundreds of millions. He probably contracted to receive more than me, the current highest earner in the club…

‘Roughly how much do I get again.’

Jerim, who did a rough calculation by adding appearance and win bonuses to his basic weekly wage of 320,000 pounds, began to worry about the club’s financial situation. The money he received alone was enormous, but if Aaron were added to that, he became despondent wondering if even Sefton, no matter how generous a club it was, could handle it.

Leaving Jerim like this, his teammates would often tease him, saying he should definitely buy Sefton and become the owner once he retired. He loved the team that much. And Changsik, who knew that point very well, also stimulated Jerim’s company loyalty. Along with the overflowing sense of responsibility he possessed.

“Anyway, you’re the captain. The World Cup was already over ten years ago. So bury the ill feelings…”

“I was planning to do that even without your reminder.”