PUCKD Ch 6

It was the fifth winter since Shin Hojae started playing in the Canadian league.

As soon as he heard the news, Shin Hojae hurried to Korea. At the time, his father was in the intensive care unit with a nasogastric tube. As soon as he saw him, Shin Hojae knew he wouldn’t be able to return to Canada.

It was the time of the season when the AHL*, where Hojae played, was nearing its end. Everyone predicted that Hojae’s team, the Montreal Highlights, which was recording unprecedented points, would be promoted to the first division.

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

It meant that in just a few weeks, he could stand on the NHL stage of his dreams.

But Shin Hojae gave up everything and stayed in Korea.

He was afraid that he would let his father go in vain if he stayed on the other side of the globe just to fulfill his own greed. If that happened, Hojae felt like he would never be able to forgive himself.

There were many players in their 30s among active NHL players. So, even if it wasn’t now, he could try again anytime. But now was the only time he could stay by his father’s side.

The problem was money.

If you’re a hockey player in Canada, you might think you’d get a salary in the hundreds of millions of won, but that only applies to NHL players in the first division.

The circumstances of the players in the second division, where Shin Hojae played, were not like that. Considering the high cost of living in Canada, Hojae’s weekly wage was just enough to stay abroad without asking his parents for money.

After surgery and rehabilitation treatment without any proper insurance, Hojae’s family’s financial situation, which wasn’t that great in the first place, rapidly deteriorated, and eventually reached a point where they couldn’t pay hospital bills on time.

Like someone driven to a corner, his emaciated mother thought of a way to get a refund on Yeonjae’s college tuition. At that time, Shin Yeonjae was a freshman who had not even been enrolled in the Department of Performing Arts for two months.

Shin Yeonjae locked herself in her room and cried for several days, but finally gave in and even handed over the bankbook where she had saved her New Year’s money for 20 years. She even added a rather mature remark, saying that she could go to college later and focus on her father’s treatment for now.

While Hojae was secretly proud of his sister, his mother, on the other hand, said that she felt a shock as if someone had hit her head. She realized that what she was trying to do was to hold on to her husband’s life by mortgaging her children’s dreams.

The mother wanted to give up on the treatment. If her husband didn’t last long and passed away, she would accept it.

Hojae and Yeonjae were somewhat resentful of their mother’s cold words, but her will was firm. Just like that, as days went by without making any decision, it was coach Park Namwoong who suddenly appeared and paid off the hefty hospital bills.

Thanks to him, their father was able to recover enough to be discharged from the hospital and receive home care.

Shin Hojae joined Blue Wolves that summer.

“Shin Hojae. Come out for a second.”

Hojae, freed from his thoughts at Shin Yeonjae’s voice, raised his head. Shin Yeonjae, standing at the doorway with a very serious face, grabbed Hojae’s arm and dragged him into her room.

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

And as soon as she closed the door, she whispered,

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

Hojae just nodded. Shin Yeonjae’s face was quickly filled with anxiety and worry.

“What are you going to do? Are you going to transfer to the Tigers in Gangneung? Or go back to Canada…?”

Although they hired a caregiver during the day, it was the family who took care of their father 24 hours a day.

His mother, who quit her job and runs a small convenience store, Yeonjae, who is attending school, and Hojae, who is playing hockey, took turns staying by their father’s side. The family’s belief was that no matter how good a caregiver is, they can’t be better than family.

If Hojae went to the Tigers in Gangneung or Canada, the burden on the remaining family members would be considerable.

It wasn’t just about the burden of labor. Since their father became bedridden, the three family members relied on each other more than ever.

So, if one of them left, the triangle that the family barely held up might lose its balance and collapse. Yeonjae must be unconsciously worried about that too.

Shin Hojae slowly shook his head.

“I’m staying with Blue Wolves.”

“…Is there a way?”

Leaving behind Shin Yeonjae’s bewildered face, Hojae walked to his room.

On the small desk he had used since elementary school, he saw a square business card neatly placed. It was the business card he received from Kwon Junghyun.

°❀•°❀°•❀°

“For someone who contacted me in a day, you don’t look very good. You look like you’ve been dragged here against your will.”

Kwon Junghyun flipped through the room service menu and glanced at Shin Hojae before speaking.

It was a hotel room at the MJ Hotel in Jangchung-dong, Seoul.

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

But now that he had come this far, he couldn’t keep showing his displeasure forever. Shin Hojae composed himself and looked at the man.

“Want something to drink?”

“No. I’m fine.”

He didn’t seem to want to drink anything either, as he briskly closed the menu and walked toward the table. Then he sat on the brown leather sofa in front of Shin Hojae and crossed his long legs.

“Have you thought about my proposal?”

“I’d like to hear more about the acquisition of the team first.”

Kwon Junghyun smiled slightly and opened his mouth.

“A bad rumor recently circulated about Myungjeong Group.”

“…A rumor?”

“A malicious article came out. I prevented it from being reported, but the shareholders wouldn’t miss such rumors.”

“…….”

“Thanks to that, the damage has been significant.”

Shin Hojae calmly looked at the man’s face as he spoke lightly. The ‘malicious article’ he mentioned must have been the article Shin Hojae saw.

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

“…….”

“There’s nothing as effective as using sports marketing to improve a company’s image. It’s a traditional method.”

Hojae furrowed his brows slightly. So that means Myungjeong would also acquire Blue Wolves out of necessity. Then there’s no need for him to accept the man’s proposal.

He was about to say so when he closed his mouth again at Junghyun’s following words.

“Naturally, it’s less work to acquire a team that’s already on the FA market than to build one from scratch. You may or may not know, but there are quite a few sports teams besides Blue Wolves looking for acquiring companies.”

“…….”

“To be honest, the old men on the board are more interested in the basketball team in Busan.”

Shin Hojae’s face darkened.

Compared to ice hockey, the cost of acquiring a basketball team would be relatively low. This is because there are fewer players and no equipment such as protective gear or sticks.

“But I want to acquire Blue Wolves.”

“…….”

“Like I said, I’m personally a fan of Shin Hojae.”

Shin Hojae lowered his gaze and clasped his lightly held hands together.

The story about being a fan still didn’t sound quite right.

One way or another, what he really wanted was to sleep with him. If his preference was to molest alpha secretaries, it would probably be a way to humiliate him.

The thought of being under the man made him nauseous. Shin Hojae took a few seconds to compose himself and finally raised his eyes.

“…What if I refuse the offer?”

“Then there’s no reason for me to choose Blue Wolves, is there?”

It was what he had expected, but it was even more devastating to actually hear it. Hojae clenched his molars so hard that his masseter muscles bulged.

“I want to grandly say I’ll buy the team, but because of the picky board members, it seems like I’ll be temporarily running the business for a year. I’m thinking of a budget of about 13 billion won.”

13 billion won. It’s an amount that’s difficult to put out in this recession, unless it’s Myungjeong.

The fact that he had already witnessed an acquisition deal fall apart due to a budget overrun made it even more impactful.

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

Hojae quietly swallowed his saliva to hide his anxious face.

He was right. If left alone, Blue Wolves would disband in six months anyway. Then, whether it was a conditional acquisition or whatever, it was natural to seize the opportunity.

Shin Hojae abruptly stood up from his seat. He grabbed the hem of the t-shirt he was wearing and slowly exhaled as if preparing himself. His firm chest moved up and down.

On the one hand, he was relieved that it was something he could handle. Even if it involved humiliation and pain, it would be something he could endure once. Besides, even if his opponent was a man, he was an ordinary person with a lower weight class than him. In the worst case, he believed he could subdue him with force.

Even though he knew he couldn’t punch the man down and run away in the middle of it since he made the acquisition of the team a condition, that fact provided him with a very small comfort.

Shin Hojae immediately threw off his t-shirt. The black t-shirt fell to the floor with a thud, revealing the bare body that had been hidden under the thin fabric.

Shin Hojae’s skin was pale, almost white. White skin and perfectly sculpted muscles. He looked like a perfect sculpture carved from pure white marble.

He felt Kwon Junghyun’s blatant gaze. The gaze persistently followed from Hojae’s chest and arms, to his abs and hip bones, and even to the veins bulging on the back of his hands.

He remembered the man’s face when he watched his video at their first meeting. Was it the same look back then?

He was embarrassed back then with just a video, but he never imagined he’d be doing a strip show in front of the man like this. You never know what might happen in life.

There was no reason for the indoor air in May to be cold, yet goosebumps appeared on Hojae’s forearms. It must be due to his aversion to the situation itself.

Nevertheless, Shin Hojae threw off his pants with his momentum alone. And it was when he finally touched the band of his underwear.