#4

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He hadn’t missed a single day of his daily workout routine since he first started exercising.

Whether it rained or snowed, or even when he was feeling under the weather with a cold or enteritis. Unless a situation occurred where he was physically unable to exercise, such as having broken limbs, he always did it. In fact, he felt anxious if he didn’t work out.

Even if it wasn’t Shin Ho-jae, most athletes lived their lives that way. Since their bodies and muscles were their assets, they oiled and polished them every single day.

Even if he had received a sponsorship offer from some Beta man the day before.

“Whew…”

Ho-jae wiped away his sweat and picked up his phone, which he had placed some distance away. His gaze was serious as he pressed the stop recording button and rewound the footage to review what he had filmed.

Shin Ho-jae was the only one in the Suwon Blue Wolves’ physical training room. It was the off-season, and other players tended to avoid the club’s gym because its quality was slightly subpar.

The only reason Shin Ho-jae, who commuted from his parents’ home rather than living in the dorms, used this distant facility was that it was free. Of course, it wasn’t that he didn’t feel the lack.

The club training facility in Canada had been filled with the latest equipment and state-of-the-art facilities, and physical coaches helped players strengthen their weak points without Ho-jae even having to speak up first.

Thanks to a system that handled everything from his diet to his personal laundry, Shin Ho-jae only had to focus on his condition and skill improvement.

However, after returning to Korea, he had to do everything himself.

There were physical coaches here too. But since only two coaches were responsible for everything from skating, skills, strength, conditioning, and mental care for the forwards, defenders, and goalies*, the quality was naturally bound to drop.

*The term for a goalkeeper in ice hockey.

Players with means hired personal trainers to fill the gaps left by club training and improve their skills, but for Shin Ho-jae, who cherished every penny, that was impossible.

Furthermore, during the previous season, Shin Ho-jae had actually ended up in a position where he was helping the coaches. This was simply because he had returned after experiencing the advanced culture of ice hockey.

While he understood the backward state of domestic affairs compared to the Canadian club’s system, as an individual, Shin Ho-jae found it frustrating.

It was then that a message window popped up over the video he was watching.

Yuk Du-min

Ho-jae Ho-jae~ whatcha doin

Where u at

Did u eat??

.< Since he had finished his morning routine, it was about time for lunch. Normally, he would have just run home to save money and burn calories and eaten something simple. Ji Min-chul Unlike a certain someone who let their guard down just because it's the off-season, Ho Jae-shin probably went to work out, right? Yuk Du-min Shut the f*ck up And I didn't let my guard down, I went hard yesterday so I'm doing intervals today ^^ Ji Min-chul Shut? Button? Winner?? Yuk Du-min I said shut the f*ck up Ah damn, one letter disappeared Ji Min-chul Ah, it was close Yuk Du-min Ho-jae Ho-jae, Ho-jae Ho-jae Lunch at my place? Of course Buy It Ji Min-chul Yup! I'll go Yuk Du-min For us ♡ Ah f*ck, it cut off Ji Min-chul LOL good luck Shin Ho-jae chuckled and left a short reply: 'I'll go.' Since his head would only be cluttered with thoughts of yesterday's events if he stayed alone anyway, this worked out well. "Ho Jae-shin has arrived." "Ho-jae Ho-jae~ you're here~?" As he entered the one-room studio, Min-chul and Du-min greeted Ho-jae warmly. The two were a defender and a forward for the Blue Wolves, respectively, and had been friends for ten years, knowing Ho-jae since elementary school. In front of the desk where the two were sitting side by side, he could see a large monitor, a microphone, and broadcasting lights installed. Shin Ho-jae spoke as he set his bag down next to the bed. "You didn't say you were starting a stream." "Not a live, just recording. If it's usable, I'll edit and use it; if not, I'll just scrap it." "No way. I saw him turn on an extra light because Ho Jae-shin was coming." "Do you guys even know? The life of an influencer where every single move becomes money and views? Do you know that feeling of regret when you eat without the camera on and realize it would have been funny?" "Seriously, you're a monster born of YouTube." "Cheol, you want to shut that mouth and eat for free, or do you want to keep blabbering and split the bill strictly by the books? For your information, you'd only have to pay 85,000 won." "Mmph mmph." "What?" "The sound of Cheol shutting his mouth." "You crazy bastard." Ho-jae sat in the empty seat, habitually tuning out the sound of the two bickering. On the desk, a balanced, protein-centric meal—ranging from vegetable smoothies to beef sashimi, beef steak, and salad—was spread out so lavishly that the table legs seemed ready to break. It was a spread that perfectly suited Shin Ho-jae's taste, as he had a habit of considering the nutrition of every single thing that entered his mouth from his time receiving dietary management in Canada. "But Ho Jae-shin, what did you do yesterday? I told you to contact me after your physical therapy, but you ghosted me." Ji Min-chul asked, picking up some soy-glazed chicken with wooden chopsticks—something that was clearly not meant for Shin Ho-jae's portion. "Yong-su hyung called me, so I went to Seoul for a bit." "Yong-su hyung? Why?" "Seoul? Where?" Ji Min-chul, with his short hair and blunt impression, and Yuk Du-min, who had recently spent five hours bleaching and dyeing his hair light pink to change his image, both widened their eyes and looked at Ho-jae. Unlike Ho-jae, who had moved to Canada at eighteen, the two had graduated from high school in Korea and played in the college league. However, the physical distance had not broken the friendship between the three. It was possible because they were the kind of friends who had shared their worries and secrets without hesitation since they were young. "Cheongdam-dong. The head coach and the chief coach were there too. It seemed like they gathered to entertain someone regarding an acquisition." Shin Ho-jae answered nonchalantly, snapping his wooden chopsticks in half. With a sharp snap, the chopsticks split perfectly. "Acquisition?! With whom?" "Who is it?!" The two raised their voices simultaneously. Naturally, the acquisition of the club was a topic of maximum interest for them as well. "Myeong-jeong Group." Ho-jae replied briefly, taking a handful of salad with light dressing. Athletes, whose bodies were their assets, were very interested in dietary habits and supplements in addition to workout methods, so whenever they were together, they talked about nothing else. Ever since he heard from Yong-su hyung that eating greens before a meal was good for the body, he had been following that practice. He had passed the tip on to Du-min and Min-chul, but those guys pretended to follow it once or twice before going back to their old ways. Even now, Du-min was tearing into the red-seasoned chicken first. "Myeong-jeong? The one that owns Korean Air?" "Daebak. If they acquire our team, can we fly business class when we go on away games?" "And Myeong-jeong is where Ho Jae-shin is from. The ones who gave him personal sponsorship in elementary school." "Ah, that white-haired grandfather?! I remember!" "Please acquire our team, Lord Myeong-jeong." Pushing aside Ji Min-chul, who was jokingly clasping his hands in prayer, Du-min held up his chopsticks with a fairly serious face. "I think there's a possibility." "Why, why? How, how?" "I don't know about Yong-su hyung, but why else would he call our Ho-jae Ho-jae to a place like that?" "Because he's Ho Jae-shin? Because he's the top scorer? Because he's a player who almost went to the NHL?" "The future owner probably said he's a fan of our Ho-jae Ho-jae and wanted to see his face! Otherwise, why would a player go to a place like that? Right or not?" "That sounds plausible." Shin Ho-jae dipped the beef sashimi into sesame oil and put it in his mouth without saying a word. 'Do you want to sleep with me?' It was because Director Kwon Jung-hyun's absurd proposal had come back to mind. Even in front of these two, he was a bit reluctant to bring up that story. Meanwhile, Yuk Du-min and Ji Min-chul each grabbed their phones and began moving their thumbs busily. Unlike them, Shin Ho-jae silently focused on the act of chewing. Just as he finished the few pieces of beef sashimi and picked up the vegetable smoothie, a screen full of photos was suddenly thrust in front of him. "Is it this guy? Kwon Ki-hyuk. Vice President of Korean Air?" A man he had never met was smiling brightly in the photo. The face with dimples below the lips looked a bit like the man he had encountered yesterday, but it wasn't him. Ho-jae shook his head. "His name was Kwon Jung-hyun." "Ah, really? Kwon... Jung-hyun, Myeong-jeong Group. Hmm? No one like that is popping up." As Du-min pouted his thick lips and scratched his head, he heard Ji Min-chul muttering beside him. "Huh...? Then maybe this person is Kwon Jung-hyun...?" The gazes of Yuk Du-min and Shin Ho-jae shifted to the screen of Min-chul's phone. [Exclusive] From verbal abuse and sexual harassment to aviation law violations... Is the hidden heir of Myeong-jeong Group a "Chaebol delinquent"? Under the somewhat aggressive headline, the article detailed allegations regarding the third-generation heir of Myeong-jeong Group, who had never once appeared in public. From rumors that he had forced a subsidiary CEO, who was the age of his father, to kneel in front of employees and poured coffee on his face while hurling verbal abuse, to rumors that he had assaulted a flight attendant on a plane and was arrested by local aviation police but was released with 'no charges' and instead had the flight attendant dismissed. Along with this, there were stories that he habitually committed sexual harassment with members of the secretary's office accompanying him to every business trip destination. It was content that was hard to believe, claiming that Myeong-jeong Group spent hundreds of millions of won in settlement money every year. "I'm telling you, these are the kinds of bastards who power-trip over apartment security guards!" "Seriously, there are too many bastards in this country who have plenty of money but lack any character." As the two said, it was an article that naturally made one frown. Shin Ho-jae sank into deep thought. A name that didn't appear in searches despite being called the heir of Myeong-jeong, the man's words and actions in the smoking room that matched the contents of this article so naturally... It was almost difficult to find a reason why the 'third-generation chaebol' in the article wasn't Kwon Jung-hyun. Min-chul, who had been tapping the screen, spoke again. "They say it's been deleted now, but there's a capture of an appeal letter written by a secretary's office employee." "Look at this." "It says the secretary's office employees this guy messes with are all incredibly handsome Alpha men. There's even a guy who slept with him after receiving a Rolls-Royce?" "......Oh my." After letting out a short exclamation, Du-min's eyes rolled toward the 'incredibly handsome Alpha man' present in this room. 5 - Puck Drop