#34

Kwon Jung-hyun’s face gradually grew cold, but Shin Ho-jae continued speaking, indifferent.

“I told you I would play along as you wished, didn’t I? And I also told you never to touch my family again.”

“…….”

“I thought you’d understand if I put it that way. How stupid of me. There’s no way a piece of trash like you would ever consider my position.”

He deliberately chose sharp words. Shin Ho-jae’s eyes, wide and piercing, glowed blue.

Trash? Jung-hyun, who had remained silent, let out a hollow laugh, repeating Ho-jae’s words.

“What exactly did I do to deserve being called that by you, Mr. Shin Ho-jae?”

“What did you do? Are you really asking because you don’t know?”

“I know very well. Since it seemed like an urgent situation, I drove you myself and lent you the living room of my house. Oh, and I even called back the employee who had gone home to pay for your taxi. Could you explain to me where in all of that I did something worthy of being called trash?”

Shin Ho-jae clenched his fists tightly. His jaw muscles tightened and relaxed repeatedly before he finally managed to speak.

“……You said you wanted to sponsor my sister.”

“I did. So what?”

A scoff escaped his lips involuntarily. How could he be so loathsome?

“If you remembered what you did to me, you wouldn’t be able to say that.”

“…….”

“Is it being a family to just stand by while you demand saliva or sex from a girl who is only twenty-two? She’s not just anyone; she’s my own biological sister!”

“…You seem to think I’m some kind of shameless degenerate who loses his mind and pounces the moment he sees an Alpha, but I have tastes too. The offer I made to Ms. Yeon-jae was a pure sponsorship. Born out of goodwill.”

Pure? Goodwill? Those were words that truly did not suit him. Shin Ho-jae glared at Jung-hyun with a freezing gaze.

“Since you said you had something to tell me, I thought Mr. Ho-jae intended to apologize to me. For misunderstanding my sincerity and acting rudely in front of his sister.”

“How much was it?”

“What?”

“The taxi fare. I asked how much it was.”

“…Do you think I’m doing this right now just to get taxi fare?”

“I don’t want to owe you a single cent.”

Shin Ho-jae immediately took out his phone, entered the chat window with Kwon Jung-hyun—whose number he had never saved—and transferred 30,000 won.

Almost simultaneously, the phone in Kwon Jung-hyun’s pocket vibrated with a buzz. Jung-hyun checked it, and his face stiffened.

“The taxi fare is paid. Please also cancel the suit you had made for me. I don’t want it.”

“……I have no idea what on earth you’re doing, acting so erratic. Mr. Shin Ho-jae, I know you’re young, but let’s distinguish between public and private matters. We are at the stadium. And you have a match in a few hours.”

Ho-jae’s eyebrow twitched.

“Then, as an adult who knows how to distinguish between public and private matters, is that why you’ve been selling off other people’s family histories?”

“What?”

“How did you find out about my father? Even the people at the club don’t know.”

For a fleeting moment, a look of dismay and confusion crossed Kwon Jung-hyun’s face simultaneously.

“…I knew because I heard it from Advisor Park Nam-woong.”

“He is not the type of person to talk about others lightly.”

“He didn’t do it lightly. The atmosphere became serious as he brought up the topic of retirement, and the story happened to come up.”

Shin Ho-jae stared intently at his face.

His words themselves were entirely plausible. They also aligned with Coach Park’s story about bringing up retirement first.

Since Coach Park viewed Kwon Jung-hyun as some kind of wingless angel, he probably said it with good intentions.

But what about Kwon Jung-hyun? Just as he had used club information to raise his own stock, wouldn’t he have judged Ho-jae’s story to have utility? That’s likely why he leaked it to people like Reporter Kim.

“You seem to be on close terms with Reporter Kim In-jung of Daily One. Close enough to have private drinks. Is this what they call collusion? How much do you pay him in exchange for writing articles tailored to your taste?”

At the mention of Reporter Kim’s name, Kwon Jung-hyun’s eyes narrowed as if he had finally found a clue. Ho-jae drove the nail in.

“Did you think it would help the club’s performance to take someone’s father, who is perfectly alive, and sell him as being in a brain-dead state?”

“…What did you say?”

“You seem intent on continuing to deny it, so why don’t you see for yourself.”

Ho-jae handed his phone over to Kwon Jung-hyun, showing the article page. As he checked the screen, a clear look of panic surfaced in Kwon Jung-hyun’s eyes.

“Go ahead and try to make an excuse for this too. I’ll listen.”

“……It is true that I had drinks with a few reporters who are favorable to our club, including Reporter Kim.”

“I bet you did.”

“But it was merely a standard entertainment gathering; I never discussed the players’ personal lives or requested specific articles. I will have to check where Reporter Kim heard such a story and wrote the article.”

“Is the only excuse you could come up with ‘I didn’t know’? You’re even less sincere than you were with Shin Yeon-jae.”

“…Regardless, managing reporters was something the club should have handled, so I apologize.”

“No. That’s not enough.”

At the voice laden with anger, Kwon Jung-hyun fell silent and looked at Ho-jae.

“…What is it that you want?”

“There are two months left until the season opens. I want there to be no time spent meeting you until then.”

He didn’t mean that the meeting time would be postponed, but that the meetings for the next two months should be completely erased. Jung-hyun asked back with a calm face.

“…Does that mean you want to terminate the contract?”

Shin Ho-jae let out a smirk. Terminate? There was no way he could do such a thing.

The lifeblood of the team was in the owner’s hands; how could he dare mention termination?

“No. I will fulfill the contract as it is. However, I mean that I want to focus on training until the season starts.”

“…….”

“Setting aside two hours a week is more cumbersome than I thought. I told you even before the contract that I wanted to prioritize training and condition management, so you know what I mean.”

Seeing that he didn’t ask again, it seemed he understood perfectly. Ho-jae pressed his advantage.

“After the opening, I will resume fulfilling the contract as scheduled. …But before that, I think there’s one thing you should know.”

Shin Ho-jae looked straight into his face with eyes that had grown quiet and still.

He couldn’t demand termination himself, but he could make Kwon Jung-hyun want to terminate it.

“You said before that you wanted our relationship to be consensual.”

“…….”

“I don’t think I can do that. What should we do?”

Shin Ho-jae clenched his fist before uttering the next words. As he slowly closed and opened his eyes, a deep light of contempt lay within them.

“…Because kissing a man is even more disgusting than I thought.”

These were words he had sharpened specifically to hurt Kwon Jung-hyun, but at the same time, they were words he was saying to himself.

If Kwon Jung-hyun was a piece of trash who didn’t know his limits, then what about himself, who had wanted to kiss such a man? And what about how his genitals had stiffened and he had gone into heat from a single kiss with him?

To a man who unhesitatingly offered sponsorship to his younger sister. To a man who, without guilt, turned a father who struggled to survive until his palms were covered in calluses into a brain-dead state.

How… how could he harbor such feelings?

He felt terribly disgusted and contemptuous of himself. Ho-jae’s eyes grew hot.

In the face he saw only by looking up, the faint smile that had always been there had vanished at some point. The firmly closed line of his lips suddenly felt unfamiliar.

To others, it might have looked as if he were simply standing there expressionless, but for some reason, Shin Ho-jae could glimpse the hidden emotions in his eyes.

Murky colors like sadness and resignation, anger and regret, were sunken and tinged with a cold light. A blue-gray abyss. How should he describe it?

Yes… they were eyes that looked exactly as if they were hurt.

Shin Ho-jae quickly averted his gaze from those eyes.

So what if he was hurt? He had said those words specifically to hurt him, so wasn’t this a good thing?

It should have been, but why did his heart throb and chill as if he had made a wrong choice?

Shin Ho-jae clenched his fists painfully tight.

The outside air, damp as if it were about to rain, clung to his cheeks. It was the kind of weather that made one want to hurry inside to the air conditioning.

“Since you have nothing more to say, I’ll be going in now.”

Shin Ho-jae didn’t linger and moved his feet. He brushed past Kwon Jung-hyun, who was standing by the door, and pushed the handle.

Thump. The sound of the door closing sounded excessively empty.

35 – Puck Drop