PUCKD Ch 21

Shin Hojae snatched his hand away as if he had touched fire. Then, he immediately turned around and continued on his way. The sound of footsteps following a little late could be heard.

Hearing the sound of them speeding up, Shin Hojae slowed his pace slightly. If he walked fast in those shoes on a rainy road, he could slip. Soon, Junghyun, who had caught up to Hojae, stood beside him.

“Thank you. It’s warm.”

“…….”

“It seems you can’t just walk past someone who’s cold.”

Originally? It was a statement that made it sound like something similar had happened before. Their eyes met again. A faint smile was on his face. Shin Hojae’s gaze was momentarily caught by that face before he hurriedly looked away.

From here, they had to enter a side trail, not a well-maintained path. Shin Hojae walked forward, checking on Kwon Junghyun as he went. His body temperature was dropping rapidly due to the rain.

If that was the case for him, who usually had a high body temperature, Kwon Junghyun’s would be dropping even faster. With his vision dimming and the rain added on top, it was difficult to see the path.

Perhaps because of that, Junghyun was also concentrating on walking without a word. They were almost near the first point, but he was anxious because he still couldn’t sense anyone’s presence. Shin Hojae’s thoughts stopped right there.

“Is, is anyone there!?”

He heard the sound of someone shouting in a tearful voice.

Shin Hojae and Kwon Junghyun immediately turned in the direction the sound came from.

About 50 meters away from the first point, Ahn Dongjoo was sitting under a tree, taking shelter from the rain. It didn’t seem very effective, as his body was already very wet. Moon Seungyeol was also seen leaning against him in an unnatural pose.

“Uh, uh…? CEO, Hojae…”

Ahn Dongjoo, his eyes wide with surprise at recognizing their faces, trailed off.

“We came looking for you since the promised time had passed. I’m glad we found you. Can you walk?”

“Well, that’s…”

Ahn Dongjoo’s gaze shifted from his own ankle to Moon Seungyeol, who was clutching his side.

Shin Hojae immediately knelt on one knee and touched Moon Seungyeol’s side as if to palpate it. Moon Seungyeol furrowed his brow and let out a groan through his clenched teeth.

When he lifted the t-shirt, he could see an area where the skin was red and scraped as if he had hit something hard. Fortunately, there seemed to be no bleeding or broken bones.

“What happened?”

At Kwon Junghyun’s question, Seungyeol, with a dark expression, opened his mouth.

Moon Seungyeol, who had started first, had wasted quite a bit of time finding the hidden flag. After finally finding it and touching his phone to return to camp, he realized the battery was dead.

His old phone had quickly drained its battery trying to connect to the internet in this place where the signal was weak. Unable to see the map he had taken a picture of on his phone, he was at a loss for how to return.

Then, he remembered hearing that Ahn Dongjoo’s flag was nearby. He thought it would be fine if they met up and looked at the map together to get out, so he searched his memory and found where Ahn Dongjoo was. However, Ahn Dongjoo had also twisted his ankle and was stranded across a stream. On top of that, he had dropped and lost his phone while crossing the stream.

Moon Seungyeol crossed the stream and carried Ahn Dongjoo on his back, and the two had no choice but to rely on their memory to find their way. In the process, Moon Seungyeol also slipped on a rain-slicked rock and hit his back hard, and that was how they ended up stranded like this.

“This wouldn’t have happened if we had all stuck together.”

A caustic remark slipped out of Shin Hojae’s mouth. Ahn Dongjoo’s face darkened, and Moon Seungyeol’s brow furrowed.

“…Is that really something you should say to people who are injured?”

Moon Seungyeol seemed about to curse after ‘Is that really,’ but he glanced at Kwon Junghyun and lowered his voice into a growl. Kwon Junghyun stepped in front of Shin Hojae just as Shin Hojae was about to reply, ‘I’m saying it precisely because you’re injured.’

“Your judgment was good. If the two of you had gotten lost further away while trying to find the path, things would have gotten uncontrollably out of hand. You purposely found where the flag was and stayed together, right?”

Unlike his own annoyed self, it was a calm voice. Moon Seungyeol, seeming a bit flustered, stammered slightly.

“…W-well, not exactly, it was out of necessity.”

“Even if it wasn’t on purpose, you must have made the best decision in the moment.”

Junghyun smiled and gave a slight nod. With the look of the perfect club owner he had seen on the podium.

“They’re our players, after all.”

At those words, the hardened expressions of Moon Seungyeol and Ahn Dongjoo began to soften. Moon Seungyeol even bowed his head first to apologize.

“…I’m sorry. For making you come all the way out here to find us.”

“…I’m truly ashamed.”

“Instead of saying that, tell me about your current condition. Are you shivering or cold? In a place with low temperatures like this, you can get hypothermia even in June.”

“I’m okay for now.”

“You know your own condition best. If you downplay your condition out of apology, everyone here will be in danger. You know that, right? Since you’re our players.”

As Junghyun spoke with a stern face, Ahn Dongjoo, who had been watching furtively, tentatively raised his right hand.

“…I, I think I’m a little cold.”

Shin Hojae observed him. One of his shoulders was practically soaked from the rain, and since he had also fallen in the stream, all of his clothes looked damp.

“Take off your wet clothes and change into this.”

Saying so, Junghyun quickly took off the windbreaker he was wearing, which was Shin Hojae’s. Shin Hojae immediately reached out and stopped the back of his hand as it was pulling down the zipper. Junghyun’s eyes followed, as if asking what was wrong.

A small sigh escaped. Who on earth was worrying about whom?

With droplets of what could be sweat or rainwater clinging to his smooth nose and lips, and his bare legs covered in wet leaves and small scratches.

“Keep it on. Your body temperature is dropping too, CEO.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re the one who said that if we downplay our condition out of apology, everyone will be in danger.”

Shin Hojae, throwing Kwon Junghyun’s words right back at him, swiftly pulled off the short-sleeved shirt he was wearing. His bare, pale torso was immediately revealed.

Of course, this shirt was also a little wet, but since it had a water-repellent coating and he had been wearing a waterproof windbreaker over it halfway, it was in much better condition than the others’ clothes.

Ahn Dongjoo, though hesitant, took off his own clothes and changed into Shin Hojae’s t-shirt. Shin Hojae folded Ahn Dongjoo’s t-shirt and put it in his pocket.

“…You’re planning to go like that?”

Moon Seungyeol, who had been watching, asked Hojae with a sour expression. Hojae just nodded.

He was concerned about getting scratched by tree branches if he were bare-chested, but he judged that at this temperature, the drop in body temperature from wearing wet clothes was a bigger problem. As if he had the same thought, Moon Seungyeol sighed.

“Then at least wear this.”

And then he took off the windbreaker he was wearing and tossed it over. Shin Hojae, who reflexively snatched the piece of clothing that flew in an arc, looked at Moon Seungyeol crookedly.

“It’s fine. Why would I take a patient’s clothes?”

“Ah, just shut up and wear it. It’s because I can’t stand the sight of you showing off your body.”

At those words, he saw Ahn Dongjoo suppress a laugh with a hoop.

“…….”

Deciding that arguing here was a waste of time, Shin Hojae put on Moon Seungyeol’s windbreaker.

Junghyun’s gaze slowly fell from Hojae’s upper body and turned back to the two men.

“What about your injuries?”

“Ah, my ankle was already a bit bad to begin with, I think the ligament is torn. As for Seungyeol hyung…”

“There seems to be no bone damage or bleeding, it looks like a bruised muscle from the contusion.”

Shin Hojae answered on Moon Seungyeol’s behalf. It was what he had thought when he looked at the wound earlier. The players were sensitive about their respective injuries, making them almost semi-experts. Moon Seungyeol nodded as if he had come to the same diagnosis.

Junghyun lifted his head and looked at the sky. The rain, which had been growing heavier as if it would pour down at any moment, had let up slightly.

“The staff will be looking for us. The signal doesn’t work here, and our body temperatures will drop if we stay in the rain, so I think it would be better to move a little to close the distance. What do you think?”

“CEO, could you help Seungyeol hyung up. I’ll carry him.”

Shin Hojae answered Junghyun’s words immediately.

Hojae handed the map he had been keeping to Moon Seungyeol, who was staring at him with wide eyes.

“Hyung, you look at the map for us. And Dongjoo hyung, the CEO will support you.”

“Let’s do that.”

With Junghyun’s help, Shin Hojae got Moon Seungyeol on his back, and Junghyun supported Ahn Dongjoo as they began to slowly descend the mountain path.

Even though it wouldn’t be easy to distinguish between the similar-looking mountain trails, Seungyeol looked at the map and gave directions without hesitation. When a fork in the road appeared, he would give notice 50 meters in advance, and he never hesitated or got lost, preventing Junghyun and Hojae, who were carrying the injured, from wasting unnecessary energy.

It was typical of Moon Seungyeol, who had been talking about efficiency even before the game started. He probably wouldn’t tolerate wasting energy inefficiently himself. Being a similar type to him, it was easy to understand.

When Junghyun asked how he could read the path so well, a plain answer came back that it was because he had lived in the countryside as a child.

Hojae said nothing and readjusted Moon Seungyeol on his back. Even though they had been playing together for over a year, there were many things he didn’t know.

How long had they walked like that? He could hear Kwon Junghyun’s breathing from behind getting progressively rougher.

No matter how consistently an adult male exercised, it couldn’t compare to the training volume of a professional athlete. On top of that, he was now supporting a man heavier than himself while walking on a slippery mountain path.

However, Shin Hojae was also carrying a person on his back down a drizzling mountain path, which was why he was a little late in checking behind him.

“Ugh!”

Along with Ahn Dongjoo’s short cry, two figures tumbled forward in front of his eyes.

Shin Hojae reflexively reached out and grabbed someone’s clothes. But the water-soaked fabric slipped through his hand and escaped in vain.