A Chairman Who Has No Regrets - Chapter 169



Only Noblemtl

Episode 169 – Leverkusen (4)

Swish.

Cha Geun-beom surrenders his body to the pouring warm water.

The end of the interview with the film crew, who had come from his hometown for the first time in a long while, made him feel irritated like a fishbone stuck in his throat.

“after-”

I shook my head and tried to get out of my thoughts, but I couldn’t help feeling the irritation that was welling up inside me.

After training, he stood in front of the camera, drenched in sweat. This was to take a picture of himself from afar and to be considerate of the Koreans who came to see him.

To be honest, he wanted to meet them more than he wanted to be considerate. The longer he lived in a foreign country, the more the cultural differences became unavoidable, which made him lonely.

“It’s all like that in the end.”

Everyone wants to take advantage of successful players. Any successful person can relate to this. A friend of an adult friend in the family.

Whether they were old friends or relatives, at some point what they wanted from Cha Geun-beom was his fame, power, authority, and money.

It may be natural for a successful person to be swarmed with flies, but the more they do, the more lonely and isolated he becomes.

The people around him, who were not purely human but rather a successful soccer player in Germany, had no nutritional value for him, so there was no way to soothe this indelible loneliness.

Squeak.

Turn off the faucet and wipe away any remaining moisture on your body with a large towel.

Usually, I need about 10 minutes to shower, but today, it felt like it took more than 30 minutes. As proof, when I dry my body with a towel, there is a white residue. I miss Korean bathhouses.

“A glass of banana milk would be perfect.”

He shook off his thoughts by making a noise and put on a shabby training suit and pulled the hood over his head.

I wanted to do some physical training because of my complicated mind, but the home game the day after tomorrow was very important.

Leverkusen, which had finished 11th in the league the previous season, was now in the 8th place in the league, and with the results of the next game, it was within sight of a top 5 finish in the league.

This means that it is a very important match that will determine whether or not we will qualify for the UEFA Cup.

Moreover, if they lost a home game, everyone in Leverkusen could throw beer bottles at them and say it was okay. That’s because they are a town that is serious about soccer. The opponent is also from the neighboring town of Cologne.

Knock knock.

Cha Geun-beom, feeling frustrated, starts running, prepared to be scolded by the director.

How far did you run?

Ting, ting, ting.

I turned my head without realizing it at the familiar sound.

“hmm···”

A boy kicking a ball against a wall and catching it repeatedly.

It was the soccer student I met on the field earlier. Someone other than him had asked me to give him strength, but anyway, that boy.

It was Hong Tae-soo who created the current state of distress.

“Tsk.”

He stared at the boy for a moment, wondering what kind of stimulation his words had on him.

The boy keeps kicking and catching the ball, repeatedly, without paying attention to his surroundings.

“Not bad.”

That doesn’t mean it was good. It was just average trapping and control, neither bad nor good. It was just the level you usually see in kids that age.

As expected, we had an easy time against Leverkusen.

You thought soccer was funny.

Cha Geun-beom felt his thoughts becoming more certain. Soon, Cha Geun-beom turned around sharply as if there was nothing to see and hurried his steps back to his house.

**

Ting, ting, ting.

The guy is still doing that.

It’s funny to see Taesu, who was excited to go sightseeing on the first and second days, but then changed 180 degrees after hearing Cha Geun-beom’s harsh words.

More precisely, it seemed like he had returned to his original Taesu form. It was one of the exclusives I acknowledge.

“Hey, aren’t you going sightseeing?”

In response to my question from behind, Taesu gently traps the flying ball with his foot and places it under his foot.

Oh, the guy seems to be completely used to those cleats now. He was a mess because he couldn’t get used to them.

He certainly seems to have talent.

“I’m going to Leverkusen.”

The guy’s eyes were burning brightly. It seemed like he was poisoned by Cha Geun-beom’s words.

“Would that be easy?”

I strongly agree with what Cha Geun-beom said. On the other hand, I strongly agree with what Tae-soo said. Chasing a dream is not always easy.

“I didn’t want to do it···”

“soccer?”

“Oh, I was trying to make money, but then I got the urge to do it.”

“It was a dream from the beginning, wasn’t it?”

“I thought only rich people had dreams.”

I don’t know what to say to that sudden, hurtful comment. He’s only eighteen. He’s only sixteen.

“Look at the car.”

I am cool, I am touching.

He is a person who does not know how to give such comfort. He has never been comforted by anyone in the world, and he has never comforted anyone.

But there is only one thing I can do.

phut!

“Hey, is this a pass?”

“Isn’t a soccer player supposed to be able to receive any ball well?”

“What kind of nonsense is that?”

“If I can’t even get this, I shouldn’t be a soccer player. I don’t even know the first thing about soccer.”

Whip it more vigorously.

That’s all I knew.

However, whipping must be done with sincerity.

Taesu chuckles and then throws a serious pass.

Pfft!

puck.

“Oh, man. Is that the kind of pass a young soccer player would make?”

“Yeah, it’s a shot.”

“Die!”

Pfft!

“Kekekeke, hey, are you shooting into space?”

Taesu guy laughs a lot.

I raised the corners of my lips and said,

“Yeah, it was physical training.”

“uh?”

“Pick it up and get a new one.”

“This is so bitter···”

Soon, Taesu starts yelling “Wow!” as if he’s getting angry and runs to pick up the ball. It doesn’t matter since there are no cars around.

There are only a few days left until the entrance exam date, so if you give it your all like someone who is truly dreaming, you won’t have any regrets even if you don’t end up joining Leverkusen.

Degururur.

The ball rolls back to me again.

“Gasp, gasp, gasp.”

From afar, Taesu is out of breath.

“Hey! I almost fell into the lake over there!”

“Yeah, I don’t know.”

“no way?”

I nodded, this time in the opposite direction.

Pfft!

“Ahhh- You fucking dog——”

“Run, like a dog. This is called an interval.”

Taesu runs in the opposite direction, screaming and swearing.

Yeah, that’s what it looks like for your age. Don’t be so immature, Taesu, I’ll listen to that.

**

Early in the morning.

Cha Geun-beom, who had suddenly sprung up from his seat like lightning, stretched.

He stood up, turning his shoulders, turning his neck, and doing stretches that he could do while sitting.

Beep beep beep, beep beep beep.

The alarm that was set rings.

“Ugh.”

He turned off the alarm with a slurp, went to the fridge, emptied the green juice in one gulp, then came back to the living room and started stretching on the yoga mat like a machine.

This wasn’t just ordinary stretching, it was professional stretching that maximized muscle flexibility. His expression was extremely boring, but his muscle fibers were stretching well.

About an hour of stretching.

He sat cross-legged on the yoga mat for a moment, sweat dripping down his forehead as he realized how sincere it was.

“Shall we run?”

He thought that it would be good for his condition to do some light stretching, even if it wasn’t physical training, so he nodded and hurriedly got dressed and went outside.

The distance from his house to Leverkusen’s home stadium is about 3km round trip.

As it was a long enough distance to warm up, he set out with the intention of either taking a picture of the stadium or taking a lap around the field.

“Oh- Boom! You’re training even though it’s the day before? I’ll be counting on you tomorrow!”

“I believe in Boom-”

In the early morning, I feel my shoulders getting heavier as I greet people starting their day.

Fortunately, there aren’t many people on the streets because it’s early in the morning. Still, I tighten the elastic band on my hood, not wanting to show myself to people anymore.

Around the time when my breathing was starting to get a little better.

Ting, ting, ting.

Cha Geun-beom’s running steps became heavier as he heard the sound.

“hmm···”

Because the boy from yesterday is kicking the ball in the same spot today. A child who is obsessed with trapping the ball without hitting the wall or dropping it on the instep.

I wonder what time he came out. The child’s short upper hair was already wet.

I was secretly proud of myself for thinking that yesterday’s harsh words might have had a positive effect on the child, but I was also worried.

“It’s better than yesterday.”

Cha Geun-beom resumed his running pace.

As soon as he arrived at the field, the people who take care of the lawn from early in the morning recognized him and waved happily.

Unlike the people outside, they are the ones who don’t say things that would burden him.

He wanted to go back to running, but perhaps it was because he had been stimulated by seeing the promising young player who had been kicking the ball hard since morning. Cha Geun-beom took a suitable ball, put on his soccer shoes, and started to run around the field, trapping it.

“Boom! What the hell are you doing!”

How much did they sell out?

Cha Geun-beom stopped in his tracks when he heard a familiar voice while his breathing was ragged and he was drenched in sweat.

“Damn it! The game is tomorrow, what the hell are you doing!”

Cha Geun-beom scratched the back of his head at the coach’s words.

“I didn’t try too hard.”

“No matter how easy the training is, damage accumulates! I have to compete in UEFA, so I have to work hard to manage my physical strength!”

“Let’s stop here.”

“You have to walk home, no matter what! Understood?”

Cha Geun-beom nodded and walked home, looking at the sun that had already reached the middle of the sky, recalling the coach’s words.

I could have washed up at the stadium, but I wanted to soak in the bathtub to relieve some of the fatigue. I made plans to alternate between cold and hot compresses on my way back.

Ting, ting, ting.

Perhaps because the sun was high in the sky, the boy was kicking and catching a ball against the wall in the same spot.

“oh···”

Cha Geun-beom, who had been watching absentmindedly, let out a small exclamation of admiration.

This was because, unlike yesterday, the volley practice of kicking the ball back into the wall after it bounced nonstop seemed a little special now.

“You’re not without talent, are you?”

Cha Geun-beom, who knew that he could reach a similar level through enough practice, didn’t think much of it.

It was probably natural, since he wouldn’t have said he would join Leverkusen without any skills.

The boy’s poor quality clothes were soaked with sweat and clung to him.

“That would be bitter.”

Cha Geun-beom muttered to himself and snickered. There was a time when he himself trained in a running shirt or in his bare body instead of the high-quality sportswear he was wearing now.

When I was young, I didn’t have a ball, so I used to kick the ball with a pig’s urine bucket. As those days of dreams flashed through my mind, Cha Geun-beom’s face deep inside his hood was soaked in memories.

Crunch.

Cha Geun-beom enters the house, fills the bathtub with cold water, and heads to the refrigerator.

Although the ice hadn’t been frozen for long, it could produce a pretty decent cold compress effect when combined with cold water. It was for the same reason that Cha Geun-beom had another small freezer in his house.

As I turned around carrying several buckets of ice, I suddenly noticed a gold wrapper on the table.

“I didn’t even open it.”

Even though I wasn’t trying to be conscious of it.

A gift bag that he didn’t even open because he thought it might be a bribe. The bag, which he had no idea what was inside, overlaps with the boy who was drenched in sweat and kicking his cheek.

thud.

Cha Geun-beom put ice on the table and reached out with his hand.

“and···”

Without realizing it, I unwrapped the bundle and exclaimed in admiration.

Tightly wrapped plastic lunch boxes were filled with portions of kimchi, soybean paste, red pepper paste, and pickled vegetables.

Gulp.

My mouth is watering.

No matter what anyone says, Cha Geun-beom thought that the most difficult thing about living abroad was food.

It was not obvious that there were no Korean restaurants in Germany. There were quite a few second-generation Koreans among the German workers. However, it was not easy to completely recreate the taste of Korea because the ingredients were different.

Crunchy.

Cha Geun-beom, who unconsciously took a piece of radish in his mouth, closed his eyes and exhaled breath.

“Hey-”

It wasn’t that it was delicious because I hadn’t eaten it in a long time, but it was the original taste of kimchi that was amazing. It might have ripened more because it was left out for a day.

More than a billion dollars.

More valuable than jewelry.

“It’s more burdensome···”

Cha Geun-beom recalled the confident face of the student who seemed to be the boy’s friend, who had said that he had received something much more valuable as a bribe, and that it was nothing.

Sigh.

“What about giving me a little leeway?”

I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to give him a little training, as long as it wasn’t to pressure him into joining the team.

The boy’s passion is not small either.

Cha Geun-beom hurriedly put the lunch boxes in the refrigerator, organized them, and went outside.

The young boy from Korea who should be helping with the training will probably still be there.