#16

Du-min, who had devoured the side dishes—which he wouldn’t have given a second glance to back in Korea—as if by magic, glanced sideways while scraping the empty plate with his chopsticks.

“But our owner’s English pronunciation is freaking good. Should I have done phone English instead of Gumon? Ho-jae, Ho-jae, how did you learn English?”

“Well.”

“So annoying….”

“Guys, forget phone English or whatever, look at the color of that meat.”

“Whoa, seriously insane.”

A server was just carrying out trays of pink, raw meat. Yuk Du-min shouted excitedly, claiming the color was on a completely different soul level compared to the barbecue sold near the training center.

The three of them piled the meat onto the grill, which hadn’t even heated up yet, as if they were under a time limit. Then, unable to wait for it to cook, they began a heated debate over whether it was okay to eat the meat while it was still vividly pink.

“Soju?”

It was around the time they were polishing off a bowl of rice without any side dishes that awkward-sounding Korean intervened between the three of them. Looking back, Coach Peter was shaking a green bottle.

It was a Korean liquor they hadn’t dared to order after seeing the price on the menu. Min-chul and Du-min’s eyes immediately lit up. Shin Ho-jae, who never drank during training or the season, declined.

By the time they had emptied two bottles of soju using pork belly and pork jowl as appetizers, Yuk Du-min’s tongue had completely loosened.

“Peterrr. I have serious question for you~”

“Hmm.”

“Did you bite Stanley Cup?”

“What?”

“Yeah. Did you bite it? Bite, bite. Like this.”

Yuk Du-min explained passionately, mimicking the action of biting a silver spoon. Whether it was a problem with the pronunciation, a lack of understanding of the question, or simply because Du-min’s behavior was funny, Peter burst into laughter.

『Haha! Hyu, what is Du-min asking?』

Jung-hyun looked at him and briefly explained the Korean culture of biting gold. Peter replied with a hearty laugh.

『Unfortunately, I didn’t think to bite the Stanley Cup. Let’s definitely do it if we win the Asia League trophy.』

And that message was delivered to the three of them through Jung-hyun’s interpretation.

There was no way the team’s coach wouldn’t want to win, but hearing the words “Let’s win the Asia League trophy” directly in his voice felt different. Du-min and Min-chul seemed to feel the same, as the look in their eyes changed slightly.

It was a new side of Peter, who usually created an uncomfortable atmosphere with his expressionless face. It took less than three minutes for the two of them to practically glue themselves to Peter’s sides, pouring drinks for one another.

“I’m very disappointed. Why did you put a ‘unit-e’ in for me! I’m very strong forward! You must trust me!”

“Haha.”

“Don’t haha! And, what is it again. That. Basic training. We are very very upset. It’s boring!”

『It’s boring, but it’s the most certain training to build stamina. There’s not much more room to improve physique, but stamina can be increased. It’s not that I don’t trust you. I had to identify what my players’ weaknesses were.』

“What? He’s talking too fast, I can’t understand. What did Peter say?”

At Du-min’s question, Ho-jae replied with a short summary.

“He says he’s looking for our weaknesses.”

“Hey Peter. We don’t have weakness.”

『No, Du-min. Your biggest weakness is that you don’t blend in. The players on the team are all scattered. Because everyone only thinks of themselves and tries to play however they find comfortable, the opposing team reads you quickly. There’s no progress that way. I believe our players can perform a wider variety of plays.』

Peter’s speech sped up, perhaps because he was drunk.

“Hehe. I didn’t understand a single word this time either.”

“Whatever, I don’t care. Drink!”

“Right! Peter, I will show you the Korean traditional bomb shot!”

Seeing the table become boisterous, the rookie players cautiously approached with their glasses. It was Park Hyeong-hun and his friends, who were close with Yuk Du-min. Starting with them, other players began to gather around the table one by one.

The reason the players usually found Coach Peter difficult wasn’t just the one-dimensional reason that he was a foreigner with a language barrier.

A natural sense of awe must have arisen from the fact that he was a former NHL player who had lifted the Stanley Cup three times.

That was why it was good to see him mingling with the players now. Everyone used broken English and translators to vent their difficulties to Peter, and Peter tried to give long answers using a translator every time.

Only Shin Ho-jae, who wasn’t drinking, stayed slightly apart from them, quietly chewing over what the coach had said.

Blending in.

It was an ideal word, but if it were that easy, they wouldn’t have suffered such a crushing defeat in their first matchup.

Just as Shin Ho-jae still felt a distance from the other players despite playing together for over a year.

“Did you like the business class, Player Shin?”

The one who suddenly spoke to the solitary Shin Ho-jae was Kwon Jung-hyun. Perhaps because he had been in the middle of a conversation with the owner, the players’ gazes shifted toward Ho-jae all at once. Shin Ho-jae, who had been lost in thought, looked at them with a bewildered face.

“I saw an article where Player Shin requested a private jet as something he wanted from the new owner. Even for me, a private jet is a bit difficult, so I thought we should at least provide business class instead.”

Jung-hyun said something Ho-jae had never heard in his life, with a smile on his face. The faces of the players, who had been huddled together wanting to look good to the owner, filled with surprise.

“Whoa. So we got to fly business because of Ho-jae hyung?”

Among them, Park Hyeong-hun responded tactfully. However, Shin Ho-jae’s face was simply blank. An article…? He had absolutely never said such a thing.

“I think you have something wrong, I never said—”

“The Canada training camp was also decided after getting a hint from Player Shin’s words.”

Then, this time, Kwon Jung-hyun cut in as if interrupting Shin Ho-jae. A spark began to appear in the eyes of the players, including Park Hyeong-hun, who usually barely exchanged nods with him.

“It was great that I decided to acquire the club with such momentum, but I need to know something about ice hockey. Pete is just as hectic and busy as I am, so Player Shin was the only person I could ask.”

“…….”

“It was also Player Shin who strongly requested that the gym facilities in the club be replaced with professional ice hockey equipment because they were poor. And I wouldn’t have known that the teacher in the sharpening room, who has worked with the players for a long time, wasn’t a full-time employee if Player Shin hadn’t told me.”

Shin Ho-jae blinked slowly.

Kwon Jung-hyun’s story was greatly exaggerated. First of all, he had never directly requested Jung-hyun to replace the outdated facilities.

He had simply given a few answers when asked how things were, noting that the players didn’t seem to use the club gym much. And the fact that the sharpening room teacher wasn’t a full-time employee was something he had only just found out himself.

It wasn’t easy to understand why Kwon Jung-hyun was telling such lies.

“The sharpening room teacher’s issue was something that kept falling through even under the previous management…. I didn’t know you’d care that much, Ho-jae.”

Choi Yong-su looked at Ho-jae with somewhat touched eyes. The other players didn’t say anything, but their faces showed they were seeing Shin Ho-jae in a new light.

“…….”

When he looked at Kwon Jung-hyun sitting across from him with a bewildered face, the man was simply tilting his glass, pretending not to notice.

…It must be my imagination, right?

The idea that Kwon Jung-hyun lied for his sake. It must be an absurd delusion. This, too, would be part of image making. That was the only thing that made sense.

『Hyu, translate this for me.』

Just then, Coach Peter called Jung-hyun. As he did, he wrapped his arm around Jung-hyun’s shoulder and stroked his forearm. Peter’s hand lingered on Jung-hyun’s forearm for quite a while before dropping away with a loud laugh.

Shin Ho-jae stared intently at the scene. Since Jung-hyun was at the end of the table, it seemed the other players couldn’t see it.

It was strangely sticky to be called a normal friendship. Even using himself as an example, he didn’t engage in that kind of skinship with Du-min or Min-chul.

And then, a fact he had forgotten because it was too obvious came to mind. Just as almost all the players present here had the Alpha trait, Coach Peter was also an Alpha.

“…….”

A look of displeasure slowly rose on Ho-jae’s face.

He was a man who had confidently proposed a sponsorship to him upon their first meeting. He might not be just ‘friends’ with the Alphas around him either.

Ho-jae recalled the explicit and vulgar words he had heard from him, one by one, as if memorizing them.

Just because he seemed to sincerely care for the club didn’t mean his original nature faded.

The sound of a chair scraping harshly against the floor rang out. Shin Ho-jae stood up and headed outside.

Jung-hyun gazed blankly at Shin Ho-jae’s retreating back.

17 – Puck Drop