#6

It was the fifth winter since Shin Ho-jae had started playing in the Canadian league.

As soon as he heard the news, Shin Ho-jae flew back to Korea in haste. At the time, his father was in the intensive care unit with a nasal tube inserted. The moment he saw him, Shin Ho-jae knew he wouldn’t be able to return to Canada.

It was a time when the AHL*, where Ho-jae was playing, was heading toward the end of the season. Since Ho-jae’s team, the Montreal Highlights, was recording an unprecedented number of points, everyone predicted that the team would be promoted to the first division.

*The second-tier North American ice hockey league. The first division is the NHL, and the third is the ECHL.

It meant that in just a few weeks, he could have stood on the NHL stage he had dreamed of.

However, Shin Ho-jae gave it all up and stayed in Korea.

He was terrified that if he stayed on the other side of the planet just to satisfy his own greed, he would end up letting his father pass away in vain. If that happened, Ho-jae felt he could never forgive himself.

Among the active players in the NHL, there were many in their thirties. So, even if it wasn’t now, he would be able to challenge it again at any time. But this was the only time he could stay by his father’s side.

The problem was money.

People might think that being a hockey player in Canada means earning a six-figure salary, but that only applies to NHL players in the first division.

The situation for second-division players like Shin Ho-jae was different. Moreover, considering the high cost of living in Canada, Ho-jae’s weekly wage was only enough to maintain a residence abroad without asking his parents for help.

Having undergone surgery and rehabilitation without proper insurance, Ho-jae’s family finances—which had never been particularly affluent—deteriorated rapidly, eventually reaching a point where they couldn’t pay the hospital bills on time.

His mother, who was wasting away like someone driven into a corner, thought of a way to get a refund for Yeon-jae’s college tuition. At the time, Shin Yeon-jae was a freshman who had been enrolled in the acting department of an arts college for less than two months.

Shin Yeon-jae shut himself in his room and cried for several days, but eventually agreed and even handed over a bankbook where he had saved his New Year’s money for twenty years. He even added a remarkably mature comment, saying that he could go to college later, so they should focus on his father’s treatment.

While Ho-jae felt inwardly proud of his younger brother, his mother, conversely, said she felt a shock as if someone had struck her on the head. She realized that what she was trying to do was mortgage her children’s dreams to hold onto her husband’s life.

His mother wanted to give up on the treatment. She suggested that if his father couldn’t hold on much longer and passed away, they should accept that as well.

Ho-jae and Yeon-jae were deeply hurt by their mother’s cold tone, but her will was firm. As the days passed without any decision being made, it was Coach Park Nam-woong who suddenly appeared and paid the exorbitant hospital bills.

Thanks to that, his father’s condition improved enough for him to be discharged and recuperate at home.

Shin Ho-jae joined the Blue Wolves that summer.

“Shin Ho-jae. Come out here for a second.”

Ho-jae, snapped out of his reverie by Shin Yeon-jae’s voice, looked up. Shin Yeon-jae, standing at the threshold with a very serious face, grabbed Ho-jae’s arm and pulled him into his room.

“I saw it. The article about the Blue Wolves. They’re being disbanded, right?”

As soon as he closed the door, he asked in a whisper.

“Mom doesn’t seem to know yet. You haven’t told her, right?”

Ho-jae simply nodded. Shin Yeon-jae’s face was quickly filled with anxiety and worry.

“What are you going to do? Are you going to move to the Tigers in Gangneung or something? Or are you going back to Canada…?”

Although they used a caregiver during the day, the family took care of their father twenty-four hours a day.

His mother, who had quit her job to run a small convenience store, Yeon-jae, who was attending school, and Ho-jae, who was an active player, took turns staying by his father’s side. It was the family’s firm belief that no matter how good a caregiver was, they were no substitute for family.

If Ho-jae left for the Tigers in Gangneung or went back to Canada, the burden placed on the remaining family members would be substantial.

He wasn’t just talking about the burden of labor. Since his father had become bedridden, the three family members had relied on each other more than ever.

Therefore, if one of them left, the triangle that the family was barely supporting might lose its balance and collapse. Yeon-jae was likely worrying about that subconsciously.

Shin Ho-jae slowly shook his head.

“I’m staying with the Blue Wolves.”

“…Do you have a way?”

Leaving behind Shin Yeon-jae’s bewildered face, Ho-jae walked to his own room.

On the small desk he had used since elementary school, he saw a single, neatly placed rectangular business card. It was the card he had received from Kwon Jung-hyun.

* * *

“For someone who contacted me within a day, your expression is quite poor. You look like someone who was dragged out here against his will.”

Kwon Jung-hyun said, glancing at Shin Ho-jae while flipping through the room service menu.

They were in a room at the MJ Hotel located in Jangchung-dong, Seoul.

It was a magnificent room with a view of the lush green trees of May and the Namsan Seoul Tower through the wide window, but none of that caught Shin Ho-jae’s eye. It was because the king-size bed visible behind the man was particularly bothersome.

However, since he had come this far, he couldn’t keep showing his distaste forever. Shin Ho-jae composed his expression and looked at the man.

“Would you like something to drink?”

“No. I’m fine.”

As if he had no intention of drinking anything either, he crisply closed the menu and walked toward the table. He then sat on the dark brown leather sofa in front of Shin Ho-jae and crossed his long legs.

“Have you thought about my proposal?”

“First, I’d like to hear the details about the acquisition of the club.”

Kwon Jung-hyun smiled slightly and spoke.

“A bad rumor has been circulating about the Myeong-jeong Group recently.”

“…A rumor?”

“A malicious article was published. I managed to stop it from becoming a full report, but there’s no way the shareholders would miss such a rumor.”

“…….”

“Thanks to that, the losses were significant.”

Shin Ho-jae calmly looked at the man’s face as he spoke lightly. The ‘malicious article’ he mentioned was undoubtedly the one Shin Ho-jae had seen.

“That’s why the idea of forming a sports team came up.”

“…….”

“When it comes to renewing a corporate image, nothing is as effective as using sports marketing. It’s a traditional method.”

Ho-jae frowned slightly. That meant Myeong-jeong intended to acquire the Blue Wolves out of necessity. If so, was there any reason for him to agree to the man’s proposal?

He opened his mouth to say so, but closed it again at Jung-hyun’s following words.

“Naturally, it takes less effort to acquire a team already on the FA market than to create one from scratch. I don’t know if you’re aware, but there are quite a few sports clubs besides the Blue Wolves looking for an acquiring company.”

“…….”

“To be honest, the old men on the board prefer a basketball team in Busan.”

Shin Ho-jae’s face darkened.

A basketball team would be relatively cheaper to acquire compared to ice hockey. This was because there were fewer players and no need for equipment like protective gear or sticks.

“But I want to acquire the Blue Wolves.”

“…….”

“As I said, I’m personally a fan of player Shin Ho-jae.”

Shin Ho-jae lowered his gaze and tightly clasped his two hands, which had been lightly held.

The claim of being a fan still didn’t sound sincere.

Regardless of this or that, in the end, what he wanted was to sleep with him, wasn’t it? If harassing Alpha secretaries was his taste, then it would probably be a way of humiliating him.

To have to be pinned under that man. Just imagining it made him feel nauseous. Shin Ho-jae spent several seconds composing his expression before finally lifting his eyes.

“…If I refuse the proposal.”

“Then I’d have no reason to specifically choose the Blue Wolves, right?”

It was an expected answer, but hearing it in reality was more devastating. Ho-jae clenched his teeth so hard that his jaw muscles bulged.

“I’d like to say I’ll buy the club generously, but because of the picky gentlemen on the board, I think we’ll start the business temporarily for one year first. I’m thinking of a budget of around 13 billion won.”

13 billion won. Unless it was Myeong-jeong, it would be a difficult amount to put forward so readily in this recession.

It hit home even more because he had witnessed a previous acquisition talk fall through due to budget overruns.

“If the season results are good a year from now, I’m positively considering a formal acquisition. In a sense, it’s a conditional acquisition, but it won’t be a bad deal for the Blue Wolves.”

Ho-jae swallowed quietly to hide his anxious face.

He was right. If left alone, the Blue Wolves would be disbanded in six months anyway. In that case, it was only natural to seize the opportunity, whether it was a conditional acquisition or whatever.

As if he had made up his mind, Shin Ho-jae stood up abruptly from his seat. He gripped the hem of the t-shirt he was wearing and exhaled slowly as if preparing himself mentally. His firm chest rose and fell.

On one hand, he felt relieved that it was something he could handle. Although humiliation and pain would follow, it was something he just had to endure once. Moreover, even if the opponent was a man, he was a civilian with a lower weight class than him. In the worst-case scenario, he could overpower him with force.

Even though he knew he couldn’t just knock the man down and run away since the acquisition of the club was the condition, that fact provided a very small amount of comfort.

Shin Ho-jae immediately stripped off his t-shirt. The black t-shirt fell with a thud to the floor, revealing the bare body that had been hidden beneath the thin fabric.

Shin Ho-jae’s skin was white to the point of being pale. White skin and perfectly sculpted muscles. He looked like a perfect statue carved from pure white marble.

He felt Kwon Jung-hyun’s blatant gaze. The gaze followed obsessively from Ho-jae’s chest and arms to his abs, iliac crest, and the veins bulging on the back of his hands.

He recalled the man’s face when he had been watching his videos at their first meeting. Had he had that look in his eyes then too?

Back then, he had been embarrassed by just a single video, but to think he would end up doing a strip show right in front of the man. One truly never knows how life will turn out.

Even though the indoor air in May couldn’t possibly be cold, light goosebumps rose on Ho-jae’s forearms. It was likely due to the repulsion toward the situation itself.

Nevertheless, relying solely on his resolve, Shin Ho-jae stripped off the pants he was wearing. And it was just as he placed his hand on the waistband of his underwear.

7 – Puck Drop