PUCKD Ch 18

So, did Peter agree to it? Seeing how naturally his hands touched Kwon Junghyun, the possibility didn’t seem to be zero. Did he mix tongues like he did with me, let out a pleased moan, and get an erection, unable to control his arousal?

Fuck.

Hojae chewed on the curse inwardly. There he goes again. Thinking these thoughts again.

Why would he even ask such a question? Of course, he would have. This is a man who calls himself a man desperate to become an alpha.

Shin Hojae quickly pushed the thought away and glanced at the person sitting in front of him. Kwon Junghyun was staring at the pool with his chin propped in his hand, his expression somewhat subdued.

The yellow and blue lights from the water’s surface flickered in his eyes. Beyond his gaze, the affectionate-looking elderly couple was still visible.

It was a completely different expression from his usual one. He looked somewhat dazed, and the corners of his mouth were turned down.

For some reason, Hojae’s throat felt dry, and he lightly licked his lips. He felt as if he had just peeked beyond a door that should never have been opened.

So he lowered his gaze. And then, the man’s long fingers came into view. Unlike his own large and thick hands, they were hands that evoked the impression of being pretty, despite belonging to a man. Hands that looked like they had never done a day of hard work.

Hojae’s eyes stopped at one point. A scar that didn’t match the straight, slender fingers caught his eye. The protruding part of the back of his hand was red and raised, almost like chapped skin in winter.

To say the back of his hand was chapped, it was currently June, and it didn’t fit with the man’s perfectly manicured nails.

He was so preoccupied with these thoughts that he didn’t consider how he might have looked, staring down like that.

“It’s an ordeal, isn’t it? Makes you wonder if two hours have ever been this long.”

At those words, he snapped his head up to find Kwon Junghyun, who had somehow returned to his usual expression, looking at him with the corners of his lips raised. Shin Hojae swiped the back of his hand across his face and muttered.

“It’s not that bad….”

“You can be honest.”

Hojae furrowed his brow and rolled his eyes.

When he received the sudden call and came down to the lobby, the emotions dominating Hojae’s mind were certainly things like annoyance and displeasure.

But just now, he really hadn’t thought it was that terrible. Since when did he start feeling that way? The boundary was blurry. He was somewhat confused.

“Maybe it’s the jet lag, but I’m feeling a bit tired too.”

Junghyun stood up from his seat.

“I’ve finished my drink, shall we go? Let’s count this as two hours fulfilled.”

The man stood up and turned around first. Shin Hojae glanced at the glass. The round-bottomed glass had almost the same amount of liquor as when he first saw it.

Hojae also stood up from his seat. In the corner of his vision, he could see the man signing the bill the waiter had given him.

If I leave now, we’ll probably end up in the same elevator. An awkward feeling crept up on him, and he mentally retraced the location of the emergency stairs.

“Good night.”

A concise farewell came first from Junghyun, who had finished signing. When he looked up, he was already far ahead.

As if he knew Hojae would be uncomfortable. Shin Hojae felt a strange sense of unease and scratched the back of his neck.

Beep.

After tapping the key card and entering the room, he found Yook Doomin asleep in the exact same position he’d seen him in earlier. It seemed Ji Minchul had gone back to his own room.

Walking past Doomin towards his own bed, Hojae suddenly stopped. A wet towel was sprawled on the sheet where Yook Doomin was lying. Shin Hojae cleared away the wet towel and took off his clothes to shower.

As the hot water poured down from the top of his head, the unsettling feeling he had felt at the poolside lounge bar was quickly and cleanly washed away.

『I realized a lot at the company dinner yesterday. That the time I’ve spent with our players has been too short. And that some players seem to have spent very little time even with each other.』

As if in consideration of the previous day’s dinner party, an announcement had been made that the next day’s practice would start late in the afternoon.

Thanks to that, the players, who had soothed both their hangovers and fatigue, gathered at the training ground in much better condition.

『But ice hockey is a team sport. And in a team sport, you can’t lead the game just by having one outstanding player. The most important thing is the trust and solidarity among the players. That is teamwork.』

While the interpreter was translating the coach’s words, Peter’s gaze turned towards Shin Hojae. Hojae furrowed his brow slightly.

『No matter how perfectly I give instructions from behind the rink, it is not me, but you who are playing on the ice. It is also you who read and judge the ever-changing flow of the game.』

The coach’s gaze swept over all the players again as he continued.

『To make accurate and appropriate judgments, knowing your fellow players well is just as important as knowing yourself well.』

At Peter’s signal, Head Coach Yoo Goohan stepped forward with a deliberately stern face. In his hand was a rolled-up bundle of paper.

『I talked a lot with the coaches last night after the dinner. And we came up with an interesting idea. I hope that the ‘game’ we play today will, albeit indirectly, help our players feel what teamwork is. That is all.』

At the word ‘game,’ the players stirred slightly.

What Coach Peter, the coaching staff, and the club employees had prepared from early in the morning was, in a word, ‘teamwork training.’

It was a simple game where the team that was the fastest to find hidden flags scattered around a small campsite near the training ground and return would win.

Each team was given one map showing the flag locations, and the only rule was that when returning with all the flags, everyone had to come back to the starting point together. The method of getting the flags was up to them.

The problem was that the ‘team members’ were chosen by the coach and his staff.

Shin Hojae stared blankly at his teammates.

Moon Seungyeol, Alexei Vorobyev, Ahn Dongjoo, and Park Hyonghoon.

“Ah, hello, hyungs…! Please take care of me.”

Hyonghoon, whose face still had a youthful look, greeted them with a smile, but everyone remained silent.

It seemed that Peter and the coaching staff had gone to great lengths to create the most awkward combinations within the team.

Hojae looked around. This wasn’t the only awkward team.

Yook Doomin was grouped with Lee Sanggon and the rookie players, while Ji Minchul was with Yongsoo-hyung and the senior players. The latter, at least, seemed harmonious….

Shin Hojae glanced at Alexei and Ahn Dongjoo, who were standing awkwardly.

Alexei, who had only been with the team for two weeks and had mostly acted alone during the training camp (he had also been absent from last night’s dinner), and Ahn Dongjoo, who had lost his starting position to Alexei.

It wasn’t his place to say, but he had never seen the two of them have a proper conversation.

“There’s only one map?”

Moon Seungyeol gestured at the paper map with his chin. Hojae nodded. He scanned the flag locations with his eyes and said simply.

“There are exactly five flag locations. It seems faster for each of us to find one.”

“Each of us…? But we only have one map?”

When Hyonghoon asked, glancing around cautiously, Moon Seungyeol lifted his phone instead of answering. A flash went off. He had taken a picture of the map.

“I thought we were possessed by ghosts who died because they couldn’t practice, but what’s with this outdated variety show imitation? Let’s just finish this quickly and get the reward. Everyone thinks this is a waste of time anyway, don’t they?”

“Uh…. I don’t think we should do that… yo.”

“He said we just have to be all together as a team when we come back with all the flags. There are no rules on how to find them, so doing it my way is the most efficient and fastest.”

Although he partially agreed with that, considering it was a game designed for teamwork, he couldn’t just accept it. Shin Hojae, who had been listening silently, spoke up.

“I don’t think it’s for us to judge whether it’s a waste of time or not. If the coach pointed out our teamwork, shouldn’t we at least give it a try?”

“So what? You’re saying the five of us should move around in a group and find them one by one?”

“Yes.”

“And what if we can’t find all five in time? I can’t accept it if the only reason we have to go the slow way, when a much faster way is obvious, is just for that. Whether it’s a game or a match, I’m the type who’s only satisfied when I win.”

Hojae let out a small sigh. It was the first time he’d had such a long conversation with Moon Seungyeol, but perhaps because they were both forwards, their ways of thinking were similar.

“That’s the same for everyone here. What athlete likes to lose?”

“Did you just sigh at me?”

“Yes. I did.”

“Seungyeol-hyung, Hojae. Stop it.”

Ahn Dongjoo stepped in and stood between them, but Moon Seungyeol just had to add one more thing.

“That teamwork thing. Have you ever considered that it might get worse if the five of us stick together?”

“……”

“He said it’s until 5 o’clock, so let’s meet in front of the camp at 4:30 and go in together. I’m going ahead.”

With those words, Moon Seungyeol turned his back. Seeing him unhesitatingly forging up the mountain path, Ahn Dongjoo also hurried to take a picture of the map.

“W-well, I’ll go find the one at this end. See you later.”

And with that, he scurried after Moon Seungyeol.

Alexei, who couldn’t understand Korean, looked at the remaining people as if to ask what was going on, and Hyonghoon looked at Hojae with a dependent gaze.

“Haaah….”

Shin Hojae let out a short sigh, then roughly explained the current situation to Alexei in English.

His blue-eyed colleague shrugged his shoulders and said mockingly, “Excellent teamwork.” It was the absolute truth, so there was nothing he could say.

In the end, Alexei also agreed to meet in front of the camp at 4:30 and split off. This couldn’t have been what the teamwork training was intended for. This training was a failure before it even began.

“What do you want to do.”

Hojae asked Park Hyonghoon, who was the only one left.

“Uh… If it’s okay with you, hyung, I’d like to stick with you. Peter did say it was teamwork training.”

“Alright.”

Fortunately, the two remaining flag locations weren’t too far apart. It seemed they could find the one at the bottom first, then circle around to find the other before returning to the camp.

“Let’s get going, too.”

“Yes. Oh? But the coach is coming over there… yo?”

“What?”

When he turned around, just as Hyonghoon said, he saw Coach Peter and the interpreter walking over from the opposite direction.

“Hojae, Park.”

“He-hello, Peter.”

Perhaps because Hyonghoon’s first name was hard to pronounce, he seemed to be called by his last name. He suddenly wondered what the other Park on the team was called.

Peter stood in front of Hyonghoon, who was waving his hand awkwardly. The eyes visible behind his sunglasses scanned the two of them sharply.

『Where did the others go?』

“Ah…. well.”

Dragging out his words, Park Hyonghoon glanced at Hojae. For what was supposed to be teamwork training, telling them that the team members had scattered from the very beginning would be shooting themselves in the foot. Hojae made up a plausible excuse.

『We decided to split up to scout the area and then meet up to move together.』

Hmm. Raising one eyebrow, Peter looked at the two of them, then turned back and called out to someone loudly.

『Hyoo! Come over here! I need you to be a spy for this team.』