PUCKD Ch 4

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He hadn’t skipped his daily workout routine since he started training.

Rain or shine, even when he wasn’t feeling well due to a cold or gastroenteritis. Unless he was physically unable to exercise due to a broken limb, it was something he absolutely had to do. He felt anxious if he didn’t work out.

Even if he weren’t Shin Hojae, almost all athletes live that way. Their bodies and muscles are their assets, so they oil, sharpen, and polish them every day.

Even if he’d received a sponsorship offer from some beta guy the day before.

“Whew….”

Hojae wiped his sweat and picked up his phone, which he had placed some distance away. His gaze was serious as he pressed the stop recording button and replayed the recorded footage.

Shin Hojae was the only one in the Suwon Blue Wolves training room. It was the off-season, and other players avoided the slightly subpar gym within the team facilities.

There was only one reason why Shin Hojae, who didn’t live in the dormitory and commuted from his family home, used this distant facility: it was free. Of course, Shin Hojae did feel the difference.

The training room at his Canadian team was filled with state-of-the-art equipment and cutting-edge facilities, and physical coaches would help players train their weak points without him having to ask.

Thanks to a system that took care of everything from his diet to his laundry, Shin Hojae only had to focus on his condition and improving his skills.

However, after returning to Korea, he had to do everything himself.

There were physical coaches here too. However, with only two coaches in charge of everything from skating and skills to strength, conditioning, and mental care for forwards, defensemen, and goalies*, the quality was inevitably lower.

*The term for goalkeeper in ice hockey

Players with the means hired personal trainers to supplement what was lacking in the team training and to improve their skills, but this was impossible for Shin Hojae, who was always short on cash.

Furthermore, last season, Shin Hojae had actually ended up helping the coaches. The reason was that he had returned after experiencing advanced ice hockey training.

He understood that the domestic situation was less developed compared to the Canadian team’s system, but as an individual, Shin Hojae found it frustrating.

It was then that a message window popped up over the video he was watching.

Yuk Dumin

It was lunchtime, now that he had finished his morning routine. Normally, he would have run home to both burn calories and save money, then made do with a simple meal, but…

Ji Minchul

Yuk Dumin

Ji Minchul

Yuk Dumin

Ji Minchul

Yuk Dumin

Ji Minchul

Yuk Dumin

Ji Minchul

Shin Hojae chuckled and replied briefly, “I’ll be there.”

It was a welcome distraction, as being alone would only bring back yesterday’s events and make his head spin.

“Hojae’s here.”

“Hojae~ You’re here~?”

As he entered the one-room studio apartment, Minchul and Dumin greeted Hojae warmly. The two were a defenseman and a forward, respectively, for the Blue Wolves, and had been friends with Hojae for ten years since elementary school.

In front of the desk where the two were sitting side-by-side, he saw a large monitor, a microphone, and a broadcasting light. Shin Hojae put his bag down next to the bed and said,

“I didn’t hear anything about turning on the broadcast.”

“It’s not live, just recording. We’ll edit and use it if it’s good, otherwise we’ll just scrap it.”

“No way. I saw him turn on another light when Hojae was coming.”

“Do you guys know? The life of an influencer where every move turns into money and views? Do you know how it feels when you eat without the camera on and it turns out funny?”

“He’s a true monster spawned by YouTube.”

“Chul, shut your mouth and eat for free, or keep yapping and pay your share by the book? For your information, it’s 85,000 won.”

“Mmm.”

“What was that?”

“The sound of Chul shutting up.”

“Crazy bastard.”

Hojae sat down in the empty seat, tuning out the familiar bickering between the two.

The table was laden with a balanced, protein-rich meal, from vegetable smoothies to yukhoe (Korean raw beef), beef steak, and salad. Accustomed to the dietary management he received during his time in Canada, Shin Hojae was particular about the nutritional value of everything he ate, and this spread was perfect for his taste.

“By the way, what did you do yesterday, Hojae? I told you to contact me after physical therapy, but you ghosted me.”

Ji Minchul asked, picking up a piece of soy sauce chicken with chopsticks, which was clearly not meant for Shin Hojae.

“Yongsoo called me, so I went to Seoul for a bit.”

“Yongsoo? Why?”

“Seoul? Where?”

Ji Minchul, with his short hair and blunt features, and Yuk Dumin, who had recently decided to transform his image and spent five hours bleaching and dyeing his hair light pink, both widened their eyes and stared at Hojae simultaneously.

Unlike Hojae, who moved to Canada at 18, the two had graduated high school in Korea and played in the university league. However, physical distance couldn’t break their friendship. This was possible because they had been sharing their worries and secrets without hesitation since they were young.

“Cheongdam-dong. The director and head coach were there too. I think it was a meeting for a takeover, some kind of business entertainment.”

Shin Hojae answered casually as he snapped his wooden chopsticks in half. Crack, the chopsticks split perfectly.

“Takeover?! With who?”

“Who?!”

The two raised their voices at the same time. Naturally, the team’s acquisition was also their biggest concern.

“Myungjeong Group.”

Hojae answered briefly as he took a large bite of the lightly dressed salad.

Athletes, whose bodies are their assets, are very interested in diet and supplements, as well as training methods, and when they are together, all they talk about is such things.

He had been following the practice of eating greens before a meal ever since Yongsoo told him it was good for the body. He had also passed this on to Dumin and Minchul, but they had only pretended to follow it a couple of times before reverting back. Even now, Dumin was already tearing into the red-sauced chicken.

“Myungjeong? Is that the Myungjeong that owns Korean Air?”

“Wow. If they take over our team, can we fly business class on away games?”

“And Myungjeong…isn’t that the company that sponsored Hojae in elementary school?”

“Oh, that old man with white hair?! I remember him!”

“Please take over our team, Myungjeong-nim.”

Dumin pushed aside Ji Minchul, who had clasped his hands together playfully, and picked up his chopsticks with a rather serious look.

“I think there’s a possibility.”

“Why, why? How, how.”

“Why else would they invite our Hojae to such a meeting, even if they didn’t invite Yongsoo?”

“Because he’s Hojae? Because he’s the top scorer? Because he almost made it to the NHL?”

“The future owner must be a fan of our Hojae, and wanted to see his face! Otherwise, why would a player be at a meeting like that? Right?”

“That makes sense.”

Shin Hojae silently dipped a piece of yukhoe in sesame oil and put it in his mouth.

‘Wanna sleep with me?’

Director Kwon Junghyun’s absurd proposal came to mind again. Even in front of the two of them, he was a little hesitant to talk about that.

Meanwhile, Yuk Dumin and Ji Minchul each grabbed their phones and started busily moving their thumbs. Unlike them, Shin Hojae silently focused on chewing.

After he finished off the few pieces of yukhoe and picked up his vegetable smoothie, a screen filled with pictures was suddenly thrust in front of him.

“Is this him? Kwon Gihyuk. Vice President of Korean Air?”

An unfamiliar man was smiling brightly in the photo. The face with dimples below his lips resembled the man he had met yesterday, but it wasn’t him. Hojae shook his head.

“His name was Kwon Junghyun.”

“Oh, really? Kwon… Junghyun, Myungjeong Group. Hmm? There’s no one like that…?”

Dumin pouted his thick lips and scratched his head, and he heard Ji Minchul muttering beside him.

“Huh…? Then, could this person be Kwon Junghyun…?”

Yuk Dumin and Shin Hojae’s gazes turned to Minchul’s phone screen.

[Exclusive] Verbal abuse, sexual harassment, violation of aviation law… Is Myungjeong Group’s hidden heir a “chaebol brat”?

Under the somewhat provocative title, the article contained allegations about the third-generation heir of Myungjeong Group, who had never made a public appearance.

From rumors of him forcing the president of an affiliate, who was old enough to be his father, to kneel in front of employees and throwing coffee in his face while hurling verbal abuse, to rumors of him assaulting a flight attendant and being arrested by local aviation police, only to be released without charges and have the flight attendant fired instead. In addition, there were stories of him sexually harassing secretarial staff on every business trip he took.

It was hard to believe the claim that Myungjeong Group was spending hundreds of millions of won annually on settlements.

“These are the kind of bastards who bully apartment security guards!”

“Anyway, there are too many people in this country who are rich in money but poor in character.”

As the two said, it was an article that made one frown involuntarily. Shin Hojae was deep in thought.

The name he gave, which didn’t show up in searches even though he claimed to be the heir of Myungjeong, the man’s words and actions in the smoking room that matched the contents of this article too perfectly….

It was hard to find a reason why the ‘third-generation chaebol’ in the article wasn’t Kwon Junghyun. Minchul, tapping on the screen, spoke again.

“There’s a captured image of a plea written by a secretarial staff member, which has since been deleted.”

“Let me see.”

“They say the secretarial staff this guy targets are all handsome alpha males. There’s even a rumor that one of them got a Rolls-Royce for letting him top him.”

“…Oh my.”

Dumin let out a short exclamation, and his eyes turned to the ‘handsome alpha male’ present.