Second Half – Chapter 39

Author: nicotine

Look at this. Jerim leaned his upper body diagonally against the wall with his arms crossed. To think he had the nerve to curse him out, calling him a slut just because he had some slippers he didn’t even know were in his house, while he lets his current lover call him by the same pet name his ex-boyfriend gave him? More than that… was that bastard seeing someone?

Recalling that Aaron came from a massive family with no less than six siblings, the thought flashed through his mind that it might be a younger sister or an older sister. But immediately after, he remembered Aaron clearly saying that he wasn’t on good terms with his family and that there was no way he’d use pet names with them.

Aaron whispered softly toward Jerim, who was standing crookedly and staring toward the entrance.

“I’ll gratefully borrow the car. See you later, then.”

He then hurriedly opened the door and replied to the person on the other end of the phone. His voice sounded almost soothing.

“I’m outside right now. I sent a driver instead, did you not meet him?”

The rest of the conversation could not be heard because the front door had closed.

Even after Aaron left, Jerim stood there dazed with his arms crossed for a while. It lasted until he reached the rational conclusion that it was none of his business whether Aaron shared an old pet name with another lover now or not.

However, he couldn’t help the fact that he felt like crap. He shook his hands irritably and muttered under his breath.

“…If I’m a slut, then you’re the water used to wash that slut, you son of a bitch.”

Even after chewing out an insult at an opponent who had already left, strangely, his anger didn’t subside. Only after grandly kicking the sneakers Aaron had left behind and scoring them into the trash can did Jerim leave the entrance. He wouldn’t be able to wear those anymore anyway, so it should be fine to throw them away.

Returning to the vast living room, the desolate sight of the house, which had become quiet in an instant, caught his eye. Jerim quickly turned on the TV and turned up the volume before tidying up the room. The things scattered messily on the floor were mostly traces left behind by Aaron. A cup he’d used to drink coffee, two controllers, sofa cushions that had strayed from their spots.

It seemed he had a conscience, as he appeared to have disposed of the tissues used for the cleanup himself. Despite that, it felt somewhat gross, and even though he had come out after taking a shower, it was still bright outside.

He contemplated going for a walk, but thinking it would be a waste of his shower, he just flopped down. Jerim left the TV on without watching it and stared blankly at his phone. He looked at social media, explored YouTube, and even searched his own name on the internet to read a few articles. Fortunately, perhaps because his recent performance was good, there were no bad articles. Except for the embarrassing titles.

“Who’s the reporter?”

Filled with rage, Jerim didn’t even read the content of the article and scrolled down to the bottom where the reporter’s name and contact information were listed. After burning the three characters of the reporter’s name into his mind, he looked at the comments, which were full of content even more infuriating than the title.

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This is why “hateful affection” is scary. They fight for 10 years and then suddenly get married lol

⤷ If they were going to reconcile this easily, then why on earth 10 years ago? T_T

⤷ What exactly happened back then? I don’t know because I don’t watch the World Cup.

⤷ Ban Jerim took a dump in the match that decided South Korea’s advancement to the Round of 16 lol They only needed a draw to make it, but they lost because of Ban Jerim. But of all people, the opponent was Spain… Aaron intercepted the ball Ban Jerim spilled and scored a goal directly lol. And then the two of them unfollowed each other on SNS.

⤷ Heol.

⤷ Wow, that’s more of a train wreck than I thought?

Who was it that unfollowed first back then?

⤷ Jjeri~

⤷ I didn’t see Jerim hyung that way, but he’s damn petty. Is it like “Why did you take advantage of my mistake?”

⤷ Fuck, if you put it that way, Reyes, who unfollowed back within 1 minute, is also freaking petty. No camaraderie at all.

⤷ What camaraderie? lol. Ban Jerim had already transferred to Newham back then. Besides, camaraderie against an opposing team in a national match? You want to be a traitor?

⤷ Jeri showed camaraderie T_T He even gave the ball to Aaron in the World Cup.

⤷ Is it normal to still be mocked like this for one pass-miss committed 10 years ago? Jerim was high school senior age back then… stop it already.

⤷ Fr, if you told these people to go out and play for the national team in the World Cup when they were seniors in high school, they’d piss themselves. Tsk.

Were they really that close in the past? Enough for rumors of a feud to be fried for 10 years?

⤷ Yeah, yeah, yeah. No one can deny this.. lollol

⤷ Not a lie, they always appeared together in every video and photo. They were always stuck together.

⤷ There’s a documentary Jerim filmed when he was young, watch that haha When asked to name his closest and most relied-upon friend, he picked Aaron without even hesitating.

⤷ ⤷ Right, right. So Yeobin got sulky after seeing that lollollol

⤷ If you look at the interview Aaron did during his first 1st-team call-up(1), he was totally excited saying he was happy to be called up together with Jerim, but ha.. T_T

⤷ No, they were that close but fell out like that because of the World Cup? Wow;;; lol

Sefton winning the league and the CL is confirmed, right?

⤷ We don’t know yet. They haven’t even played ten league games lol The CL group stage hasn’t even started.

⤷ It’s always like this, getting ahead of themselves and then failing.

⤷ Coldly speaking, the chemistry between Ban Jerim and Aaron isn’t perfect yet haha The defensive line is shaky, and the midfield is just so-so except for Ban Jerim…? They rely only on Aaron, so both wings can’t even score properly. Maybe the league, but winning the CL might be a bit of a stretch?

⤷ Are the people in the comments above just for decoration? lol. It’s obvious he wrote that just to mock them.

⤷ Yeah, Sefton is going for the Treble. Your Lona is stuck in the group stage~~ hahahaha

⤷ Why are you grabbing Tabarona’s hair all of a sudden;;;; Anyway, typical shit-Sefton level.

⤷ Even Jerim and Aaron reconciled, so Sefton and Tabarona should reconcile too.

⤷ Honestly, the probability of being a Malden fan is higher than Tabarona lol. Anyway, let’s fight in real life.

It would be hilarious if Aaron makes Sefton the CL runner-up this time and then runs away on a free transfer to try again.

⤷ If he just comes to our team on a free transfer, I’ll take all the other guys’ weekly wages and give them to Aaron. Fr, fr.

⤷ This time come to Malden. Malden FC is waiting for you.

⤷ If he does a double free transfer run from Sefton to Malden, Aaron will be murdered lol

⤷ We were runners-up even without Aaron, so what? Malden, are you crying after being eliminated in the quarterfinals??

⤷ We don’t ask for much. Just give us Lehmann.

⤷ This is not a place to make wishes.

⤷ lollol To be serious, the contract period is 3 years + alpha, so he can’t do a free transfer run for at least 3 years.

⤷ It’s better not to have an unloyal guy like that. For a guy who’s supposed to be a homegrown youth… tsk.

Someone like Aaron can afford to be unloyal, fuck. In reality, guys who have neither skill nor loyalty are everywhere~

⤷ lollol That’s right.

⤷ Ah, what’s this, is this about our team? lol.

⤷ If he’s a weekly wage thief, isn’t it better if he leaves even on a free transfer? haha Please leave, please!

⤷ I definitely want to sell him and get a transfer fee hahahaha At least give some money to the team as much as the weekly wages you’ve sucked out before you leave, you thieves.

But they haven’t followed each other yet for people to say they’ve reunited. Is it a show window?

⤷ They’re only a couple when they’re playing the match~ The real lover has to be posted on SNS~

⤷ Don’t they both have no lovers??

⤷ It seems like Jerim definitely broke up with the model he was dating before, but I don’t know about Aaron.

⤷ Aaron probably doesn’t have one either? In the first place, unlike how he looks, he has veeeery few scandals. Does he date quietly?

It’s really surprising that Aaron’s relationships with women are clean… It’s amazing that he hasn’t married at that age and hasn’t revealed any WAGs.

⤷ Wasn’t Aaron constantly breaking up and getting back together with Delgado? From what I know, it was like that.

⤷ To call it breaking up and getting back together, the timing is too… haha.. Rumors of them breaking up or getting back together always break only when Delgado or Aaron have other controversies.

⤷ ⤷ Right, so there are loads of people suspecting if it’s a business relationship.

⤷ In the Spanish tabloids I saw, there were rumors that Aaron was impotent…

⤷ Eh? Can an impotent person be a soccer player??

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“…Eh.”

Impotent, my foot. A hollow sound came from Jerim’s mouth, having just seen him functioning perfectly fine. The shock given by the term ‘Aaron’s impotence rumor’ was significant, so the anger he felt from the previous comments melted away like snow.

Just what on earth happened during the past 10 years when he intentionally avoided news of Aaron for rumors of impotence to even surface? Jerim could no longer suppress the curiosity that suddenly rushed in. It was a hypothesis more interesting and shocking than the theory of Aaron being a cross-dresser.

He was also a very tiny bit curious if the person on the phone earlier was really his lover as he suspected…

Combining the fact that he used a pet name and his uncharacteristically submissive tone, the probability of it being a lover was 90%, but still. Would a guy who clearly had a lover engage in such promiscuous behavior with the team captain? Well, since he was a guy with a history of cheating, that could also be the case.

‘Wow, freaking pathetic.’