#118

Min-chul stably received the puck that had come over to their side. Min-chul immediately passed the puck to Du-min, and Du-min and Ho-jae began to push forward rapidly, utilizing their speed.

Following closely behind were Na Dae-il and Na Myeong-il, two veteran defenders. Soon, Yuk Du-min and Na Dae-il began a strange psychological war.

Sticks clashed, and their bodies collided with a thud.

“Hey, pretty boy, did you just come from a PST?”

It was Na Dae-il who spoke with a sneer. Yuk Du-min responded indifferently.

“I feel bad for you. My rut ended last week.”

“I never told the ref you were in rut. Wasn’t it a heat? I figured you became an Omega because you got a taste for anal sex.”

A vein popped on Yuk Du-min’s forehead. Ji Min-chul shouted from behind as he approached quickly.

“Yuk Du-min! Don’t engage with him!”

Instead of answering that he knew, Du-min simply swung his stick and sent the puck to Hyeong-hun.

Hyeong-hun tried to attempt a shot like before, but he hesitated as the angle wasn’t right. Na Myeong-il was sticking close behind Hyeong-hun.

Just as Hyeong-hun swung his stick wide to avoid losing the puck, Na Myeong-il suddenly collapsed in front of Hyeong-hun’s stick.

“What the fuck? It didn’t even touch the stick.”

Hyeong-hun frowned with a bewildered expression, but the head referee stopped the game.

Then, the referee made a gesture indicating a double minor penalty. A two-minute minor penalty doubled—meaning a four-minute trip to the penalty box.

Cheers erupted from the Tigers’ stands, and the Blue Wolves players’ expressions hardened. Shin Ho-jae immediately approached the referee and protested quickly in English. The head referee was a Russian foreigner, and only the captain was allowed to challenge the referee’s decision.

『A double minor is too excessive. Na Myeong-il fell without the stick even touching him. It was a simple Hollywood act.』

“He’s right! That bastard hit Seung-yeol hyung’s cheekbone with his elbow earlier! I’m telling you, he’s a habitual offender!”

Hyeong-hun cut in with a wronged look on his face, but the head referee simply shook his head with an expressionless face. It felt like a strangely biased judgment.

『Please reconsider. This is the final game. To end like this so pointlessly…』

When he approached and spoke once more, the referee held up his palm. Ho-jae stopped the words he was about to say more forcefully. It meant that any further protest could lead to an ejection.

Fortunately, after discussing it with the linesman, the head referee lowered Hyeong-hun’s penalty from a double minor to a minor. It seemed the protest wasn’t entirely ineffective, but they were still shorthanded for two minutes.

Hyeong-hun looked like he was about to cry.

“Ho-jae hyung… what do I do? Because of me…”

“Don’t be sorry. We made it this far thanks to the tying goal you scored. You should be proud.”

He said that, but being shorthanded in a sudden-death overtime was a fatally disadvantageous situation.

Perhaps having received a radio message from Peter, the coach was seen coming out and approaching the linesman. It looked like he was about to call a timeout. Shin Ho-jae met his eyes and shook his head.

They had prepared sufficiently for this kind of situation during the last break. The coach likely wanted to use the final timeout to let the players rest even a little, but the players’ muscles would already feel as heavy as stones. Resting briefly here could actually be poisonous. Seeing Ho-jae’s gesture, the coach canceled the timeout.

With his shoulders slumped, Hyeong-hun entered the penalty box. The game would resume once the referee dropped the puck at the face-off circle.

Shin Ho-jae bent his waist deeply and focused all his attention on the puck. Na Dae-il’s face in front of him wore a faint smile, as if he already sensed victory.

Shin Ho-jae did not smile. However, he didn’t feel like they were going to lose at all. It was strange.

It was hard to even move his arms because of his shoulder, and he was so exhausted that his sweat felt heavy.

How many people here sense our defeat? Probably almost everyone.

Suddenly, Hyeong-hun in the penalty box and the faces of the players on the bench came into view. Hyeong-hun had taken off his helmet and gloves and was kneeling in the penalty box with his fingers interlaced, eyes tightly shut. He looked as if he were praying. He definitely told them he wasn’t religious.

A small chuckle escaped him inwardly. The players on the bench were all leaning against the railing, gripping each other’s hands tightly.

At that moment, the puck dropped from the referee’s hand. Once again, Shin Ho-jae swung his stick a step faster than his opponent. The puck belonged to the Blue Wolves.

The path to the goal seemed wide open. It couldn’t be, but that’s how it looked to Shin Ho-jae. Tigers’ defenders were closing in quickly from both sides.

Ho-jae shook them all off with a few fakes and swung his stick. There was almost no strength left in his right arm, but thanks to the firm taping, he was able to keep it steady.

He felt the sharp sensation of ice crystals scraped by the stick hitting his chin. It felt refreshing.

The puck hit by the stick flew rapidly. A red jersey threw himself to block the puck, but the puck narrowly missed the player’s side and was sucked straight into the goal.

Waaaaah!

Before the sound of the foghorn, the cheers of the crowd shook the stadium.

Shin Ho-jae threw off his helmet and tossed his stick onto the ice, gloves and all. Hyeong-hun, tear-streaked, ran out of the penalty box, and Ji Min-chul, Yuk Du-min, Lee Sang-gon, and all the players on the bench threw their helmets and sticks and piled onto Shin Ho-jae.

“Ah, fuck! I knew Shin Ho-jae would do it!”

“Ah, Sang-gon hyung, you said earlier that you thought we’d lose!”

“Ho-jae, Ho-jae!”

“Waaaaah! Aaaah! Ah!”

With a pop, confetti fireworks exploded. Rainbow-colored confetti fluttered over the ice, sticking to the players’ shoulders, faces, and skate blades.

“Is Ho-jae hyung crying?”

Hyeong-hun’s eyes widened as he looked at Ho-jae’s face. Since he had never cried during a game, he seemed genuinely fascinated. Then, as if trying to comfort him, he gave his back a light pat.

“Don’t worry. There’s no one here who isn’t crying right now.”

Ho-jae smiled, baring his teeth with a wet face. Soon, Du-min shouted, “Peter!” Peter had descended onto the ice at some point. The players draped their removed jerseys over him and cheered together.

Behind him were Advisor Park Nam-woong, Choi Yong-su, and Moon Seung-yeol, who had bandages wrapped around his face. Just as Hyeong-hun said, everyone’s faces were damp.

In the stands, Blue Wolves fans in blue jerseys were embracing each other, savoring their first championship. The Tigers fans, deeply disappointed by their failure to achieve a fourth consecutive win, were leaving their seats gloomily.

Yes, it was the Blue Wolves’ first championship. It was a great reversal for the perennial second-place team that no one had predicted would win, having barely made it to the playoffs by a stroke of luck in the regular league.

After the final greetings between the two teams, the ice became a complete festival for the Blue Wolves. The well-dressed association president came out with a fairly large trophy, and amidst a barrage of camera shutters, Shin Ho-jae, Choi Yong-su, and Moon Seung-yeol received the trophy together.

Yong-su and Seung-yeol immediately handed the trophy to Peter. Peter pretended to bite the trophy, and everyone laughed loudly.

Shin Ho-jae took it all in and cast his gaze toward the distant stands. It was the VIP section. It was a place Jung-hyun used to frequent when he was the owner.

Naturally, those seats were empty. Ho-jae’s gaze lingered there for a long time.

* * *

“Don’t worry. I’ll definitely bring it back to the club tomorrow. Yes, yes. Please drink in moderation. Yes, goodbye.”

Shin Ho-jae hung up the phone with Advisor Park Nam-woong and put his phone in his pocket.

After the final game, commemorative photos, interviews, and time with the fans, the Blue Wolves took a chartered bus and returned quickly to Suwon. This was in accordance with everyone’s opinion that they wanted to enjoy the joy of victory at their home stadium.

Around now, a celebratory dinner would be in full swing at a large galbi restaurant near the Suwon stadium. Shin Ho-jae had just left after making a brief appearance at the dinner, borrowing the trophy for a while.

When he mentioned borrowing the trophy, everyone looked bewildered, asking what kind of nonsense that was, but they all agreed when Ho-jae said he wanted to show it to the former owner.

“Whew.”

And so, Shin Ho-jae was now in front of Jung-hyun’s house.

He knew well that this was a foolish act full of lingering attachment. But regardless of their relationship, he desperately wanted to show this trophy to Jung-hyun, the owner of the Blue Wolves.

Ho-jae readjusted the heavy duffel bag containing the trophy and carefully pressed the doorbell.

However, there was no response from inside. Shin Ho-jae waited for a moment and pressed the doorbell once more. It was the same this time.

He put his hands in his pockets and hesitated for a moment. Should he just go?

But next week… is Jung-hyun’s wedding.

If not for the excuse of showing him the trophy today, the next time he would see his face would be in an internet article. The greed to see his face one last time reared its head again. Just as he was wondering if he should climb over the wall like last time, a voice came from behind.

“Could you move aside for a moment?”

It was a voice from behind. Startled, he turned around to see several men in work clothes staring blankly at Shin Ho-jae.

As he instinctively stepped aside, one of them opened the gate with a key and walked inside without hesitation. Standing there with a dazed face at the sudden situation, Ho-jae called out to the man entering last.

“Excuse me, but why are you going in? And how do you have the key?”

“Huh? I came because I was commissioned by the owner here to organize the belongings. Is there a problem? …Uh?! Aren’t you player Shin Ho-jae?”

The man, who had been looking at Shin Ho-jae with wary eyes, immediately requested a handshake with a delighted face. After awkwardly complying with his request for a photo, Ho-jae was finally able to ask what he was curious about.

“Organize the belongings… are you saying the owner of this house doesn’t live here anymore?”

“I don’t know the details, but that seems to be the case. I was commissioned to empty the place completely.”

“……”

“You said this is the house of someone you know, right? We’ve cleared the first floor, but we haven’t touched the second floor yet. If there are things you need to take, take them before we organize them. Normally I shouldn’t do this, but it’s in celebration of player Shin Ho-jae winning today.”

Saying so, the man winked. Shin Ho-jae did not decline and stepped inside the gate. The entrance, which had been held wide open with a heavy fire extinguisher, was the first thing to greet him. That was the only familiar thing.

As he went inside, the console in front of the entrance where mail always piled up messily, the sofa and table in the living room where he had shared many conversations—all of them had vanished without a trace.

For a very long time, Shin Ho-jae stared with a blank face at the living room floor where the sofa had been. Perhaps the sofa had been in one place for a long time, as the color of the flooring was distinctly different from other areas. It looked exactly like a space where Jung-hyun had been.

Jung-hyun was gone.

119 – Puck Drop