Second Half Chapter 6

However, that freedom did not last long. As the bus carrying them arrived at the hotel and came to a stop, the line of reporters’ cars following behind also pulled up in succession. A massive swarm of reporters was already waiting at the hotel as well. As soon as they took their seats one by one on the podium prepared in the lobby, flashes began to explode consecutively.

Unlike at the airport, where there was some distance from the reporters thanks to the bodyguards, the flashes flickered—to exaggerate just a little—right before his eyes. Jerim, who had experienced countless times that blinking the wrong way here would result in being immortalized in the ugliest possible form, kept his eyes wide open.

“By any chance, I didn’t blink just now, did I? Even if you caught it, please delete it. I’m at the age where I should be getting married soon.”

As he grabbed the mic and cracked a joke, laughter erupted from all over.

“Do you perhaps have plans to get married in the near future?”

“The heart is always more than willing.”

A mischievous question popped out from a reporter he was acquainted with. Since this was child’s play compared to the questions he had expected, Jerim brushed it off playfully. The manager and teammates, who heard the translation, also burst into boisterous laughter. Except for one person.

Combined with his naturally decadent face, muscular body, and the tattoos covering one full arm, Aaron’s expressionless face made the area around him look not like a hotel lobby, but a back alley in Harlem. The atmosphere was such that instead of doing an interview here, he looked like he should be hunting down and beating a lackey caught smuggling drugs.

‘What is with him, since a while ago.’

If he was going to transfer early and come to Korea only to make it so obvious he hated being here, what would happen to his own dignity as the captain? Jerim glanced at the side profile that looked even more handsome due to its unnecessarily sharp definition, then quickly fixed his gaze forward upon hearing a question about himself directed at Manager Verdi.

It started with a common question about what he thought of the player Ban Jerim.

“Jeri is a very excellent player. He is also a core player who serves as the foundation of our team. Visiting his hometown together with everyone makes us feel quite emotional.”

Jerim nodded at the textbook answer and added a few silly jokes. The reporters burst into laughter and responded enthusiastically every time Jerim opened his mouth. A few teammates who were particularly close with Jerim even spat out greetings in Korean. Naturally, the reaction in the hall was explosive.

The atmosphere was great from the start of the group interview. Jerim felt relieved inwardly, hoping that at this rate, they might voluntarily refrain from the difficult questions he had worried about. It was because sports reporters often crossed the line with questions to provoke a player and hear a standout response, making him inevitably sensitive during such times.

In particular, Aaron’s transfer was a hot topic worldwide, and he didn’t want to be mentioned alongside him for no reason. Though they were already being talked about.

‘Still, let’s get through the first visit to Korea smoothly, please.’

His heart shrank even more because he knew everyone from his mother, who had a weak heart, to his father and younger siblings would be monitoring the reactions in real-time. Nevertheless, just as several ordinary questions and answers followed and Jerim was slowly relaxing his tension, a sharp-looking reporter raised his hand high and pointed out Aaron.

“Player Reyes, I am reporter Kim Hyung-joo from MBB. May I ask a question?”

A few seconds after the translation was delivered, Aaron nodded. Without hesitation, the reporter threw the difficult question Jerim had been dreading.

“You mentioned there was no particular reason for the sudden transfer. Still, I am curious if, by any chance, your friendship with player Ban Jerim had even a minor influence on the transfer.”

What did it matter if he was related to that guy’s transfer or not? The reporters all seemed to want them to be related; would gold fall from the sky if that were the case? Just as Jerim, who barely managed to maintain his expression, looked toward the reporter, Aaron opened his mouth.

“I don’t quite understand the intent of the question.”

“Ah, so what I mean is…”

“It’s because we haven’t exactly had what you’d call a friendship. The conversation we had at the airport earlier was our first in 10 years. During the last Champions League final… we couldn’t even have a proper conversation. As you know.”

“……”

Tap! Aaron struck his own left hand with his right. At a glance, it looked like he was clapping, but everyone there knew. That was a humorous imitation of the motion Jerim had used to shake off his hand at the final.

At the response that reignited the fire of the discord rumors, even the translator hesitated in the middle and read the room. The reporter who asked the question also seemed not to have expected such an answer, as he only flickered his lips with a dazed expression. The guy who threw cold water on the surroundings with his amazing tongue-work let out a chuckle by himself. Very meaningfully.

“Since we’ve become teammates again, we’ll have to become close again. Again. Right, Captain?”

While delivering the short answer, Aaron repeated the word for ‘again’ several times, changing the expression in Spanish each time.

Like the guy who used to teach him pronunciation step-by-step once upon a time, he babbled in perfect Spanish throughout, but when pronouncing ‘Captain’, he deliberately drawled the corners of his eyes and pronounced it in English, perfectly grating on Jerim’s nerves.

Jerim grabbed the microphone from Aaron as if snatching it and laughed awkwardly.

“Haha, right! Since we’ve played in different leagues for a long time, we haven’t had many chances to interact! But now it’s time to return to being close brothers-in-arms! I’m truly so happy to see you…”

Since he was trying to gloss it over with words that entirely betrayed his true feelings, there was no way it would go well. In the end, he bit his teeth and let his voice trail off like a sigh at the finish.

Not long after the interview ended, it was in a way expected that articles with titles like <Pale Hands, The Power-Struggle Handshake of Ban Jerim and Reyes>, and <A 10-Year Discord, Will it Continue or End? Red Light for Sefton> began to pop up like mushrooms after rain.

Changsik Hyung:

Are you insane?? Is that guy a nutjob? Argh, crazy. And why did you grip the other guy’s hand so hard? You said you’d handle it well.

As he held his throbbing forehead while looking at the internet articles, messages from Changsik also poured in. For Jerim, it was nothing but unfair. The one who dropped the bomb out of nowhere in the interview was that guy, so why am I getting it too…

However, looking at the photo, he couldn’t be entirely indignant because it was true that he was gripping Aaron’s hand as if crushing tofu. Since Aaron’s skin was slightly dark for a white person—fitting for someone from a sunny Mediterranean village—the way the back of his hand turned pale was even more noticeable.

In contrast, on the back of Jerim’s hand, which was white unlike someone who exercised, only blue veins bulged out. Both of them were gripping each other’s hands like they were wringing out a rag, yet only one side looked like he was in pain. Even this felt unfair, but since he could roughly guess the response he’d get if he explained in detail and whined to Changsik, he gave up.

Sorry…

Instead, he had just sent a sincere reply out of sympathy for the man whose back must be bending right now trying to clean up the articles.

“Jeri! I told you to take your key.”

William tossed a small rectangular envelope. Judging by the irritated tone, it seemed he had been talking to him for a while and Jerim hadn’t heard. Jerim, who caught the envelope flying toward his brow without much trouble, tickled his fluffy beard with the corner of the envelope.

“This brat and his irritation, how cute. But why did you grow your beard out like this? Seriously, a teddy bear…”

“Don’t call me a teddy bear! This kind of fat falls right off once the season starts!”

“When did I say you were fat? You, do you have some weird filter attached to your ears?”

Jerim, who was genuinely bewildered, jumped. He didn’t know why today was so full of nothing but misfortune and unfair events. Was his visit to Korea cursed? He was about to protest that he hadn’t even mentioned the ‘F’ in ‘Fat’, and if it sounded that way, it was because he himself was concerned about having gained weight.

“Captain, I’d like you to make some time after you unpack.”

At the same time as something heavy was placed on his shoulder, a terrifyingly low and languid voice reached him. Jerim swallowed hard after confirming the tattoo on the forearm that wrapped around his shoulder and dangled at his chest. Forcing himself to ignore the sticky voice clinging to his ear, he looked around.

The only person within a distance where the voice could be heard was William. If it was William, he was someone who knew well how uncomfortable he felt around Aaron, and someone he could ask to look after the guy as the vice-captain on behalf of himself as the captain.