PUCKD Ch 57

It was while Hojae was rubbing his neck and trying to recall his memory. His mother called him in a cautious voice.

“Oh, Hojae…. The hospital bill for your father has arrived. We’ve been trying to save money, but we’re a bit short.”

“How much?”

“About ten million won…. Can you get a salary advance?”

Hojae briefly smiled and gently stroked his mother’s back. It was his way of saying not to worry.

“It should be possible. I saw another friend get an advance before.”

“Really? That’s such a relief then. Please ask about it.”

“Yes. Don’t worry about the hospital bill. We decided to stay with Dad a little longer, didn’t we?”

His mother smiled, her expression considerably relieved, and stroked Hojae’s arm.

“I’m so lucky to have you, Hojae. Your mother and Yeonjae live just for you, Hojae.”

Hojae slowly nodded.

On his way home alone, he took the bus. The illuminated signs flashed quickly past the window. Hojae fixed his gaze on the external scenery with a blank look.

The talk about the advance being possible was a lie. He was planning to ask Doomin or Minchul if they could lend him the money.

The life support equipment keeping his father alive cost a lot of money every day. However, he didn’t want to let go of his father just because of money.

The longer his father lay unconscious, the things that piled up were, for some reason, guilt and burden.

The guilt of continuing his daily life while leaving his father like that, and the burden that he, among the family, had to be the one they could lean on.

His eyes felt strained. Hojae rubbed his eyes. His sleep had reduced recently.

How long he could hold onto his father, whether he might suddenly leave them even today, and whether he could properly support the remaining family afterward. There was too much to think about.

An old favorite song started playing from his earphones, which he put on out of habit. It was music he listened to a lot while in Canada.

Music is a tool that allows for easy time travel, and it instantly transported Hojae back to a certain time four years ago.

It was on the bus ride back after an away game, sometime ago. Shin Hojae was looking at his phone screen next to a sleeping teammate.

It was to see the brief reviews that were always uploaded to the ‘86’ account after the games.

Back then, his English wasn’t as fluent as it was now, and he considered all his teammates rivals, so he usually kept his mouth shut. Since it was hard to voice his concerns to his family or friends in Korea, the SNS and the ’86’ account were his only source of comfort during that time.

He thought about that time often recently.

Is it because the current him needs an outlet to confide in, like back then?

The music switched to a recent track. The past playing in his head was abruptly cut off, and the flow of thought naturally reached someone.

‘CEO Junghyun is not a bad person. He was so cautious about introducing me to the academy and asked me not to tell you that he helped….’

He imagined him introducing Shin Yeonjae to the academy even after hearing him call him disgusting, and then asking her not to mention that he had helped.

If it had been him a while ago, he would have scoffed and said it was an impossible thought, let alone an imagination, but for some reason, the imagination came very naturally.

He hadn’t seen Kwon Junghyun since the away game.

It was because he postponed all their meetings, saying he would be busy for a while. Hojae had no right or reason to refuse his wishes, so he had no choice but to comply silently.

Hojae inadvertently frowned. He had an incredibly awkward thought without realizing it.

Wanting to see someone’s face. What a ridiculous thing to think.

It had been a month since his father was admitted to the ICU. The Asia League was also nearing its halfway point, and the season had turned to winter.

🏒

Today was a home game against the Sakhalin Ratsvam from Russia.

The Blue Wolves’ league rank was 3rd out of 8 teams. The HI Tigers and Red Falcon Hokkaido were ahead of them, and the 4th-ranked Sakhalin Ratsvam was in close pursuit.

As a Russian club, they were physically different from the East Asian players and were never an easy opponent due to their unique rough defensive style.

“Those guys were glaring at Alexei like crazy, weren’t they?”

It was while heading to the locker room after the pre-game warm-up. Yook Doomin said to Minchul in an excited tone.

“Why?”

“Dongjoo Hyung said Alexei used to be with Ratsvam a long time ago. Something about leaving on bad terms or something.”

After the training camp, Ahn Dongjoo and Alexei had become completely close. He heard that Ahn Dongjoo’s girlfriend and Alexei’s wife had even met up a few times as a foursome.

“No way, surely they wouldn’t tackle the goalie?”

“Right? You don’t touch the goalie even by mistake. Oh, there’s Alexei. Hey! Are you okay?!”

Alexei, wearing the goalie’s protective gear, lumbered over and gave a thumbs-up to Doomin’s concern. Contrary to Doomin’s worry, he didn’t seem too bothered.

However, the incident happened in the first period.

The Ratsvam players dared to body-check the netminder during a rebound situation in front of the goal.

Although ice hockey is a sport where physical contact is allowed, it is an unwritten rule that the goalie is an exception in any situation. That is to say, touching the goalie was akin to a declaration of war against the opposing team.

Everyone on the bench sprang up, and Ahn Dongjoo was the first to rush out, cursing.

As other players joined one by one, the Ratsvam players also rushed onto the ice, not to be outdone.

It was a bench-clearing brawl. The overheated passion showed no sign of easily cooling down. The roar of the audience, the urgent whistles of the referees, the shouts of the players.

Shin Hojae joined the coaches a little later to break up the fight. When he saw a Ratsvam jersey mixed with grey and orange, he immediately pulled them away and pushed them back.

Then, someone’s fist flew toward his face. His jaw snapped to the side with a dull pain. And when he raised his head again, Shin Hojae’s eyes were different from before.

Shin Hojae shoved a player nearby. Rough curses followed. He shouldered the heavy opponent and swung his fist widely.

The surrounding noises were blocked out, as if he were wearing noise-canceling headphones, and he could only hear his own breathing in his ears.

Haa, haa, ha.

Shin Hojae continued to push past the players in front of him, relentlessly surging inward. He felt as if the guilt and burden that hadn’t found a release were peeling off layer by layer. He couldn’t stop.

Someone grabbed Shin Hojae’s jersey. Hojae swung his arm roughly to shake it off.

Then, he suddenly felt a dull impact on his head. His head, encased in the helmet, rang, and his body tilted sideways.

Waaaaaaah!

Beep—! Beep! Beep!

“Shin Hojae!”

“Hojae Hyung!”

At that moment, the surrounding noise flooded in all at once. It was loud enough to make him want to cover his ears.

Thud!

At the same time his body hit the ice, his vision went black.

🏒

Shin Hojae slowly opened his eyes.

In his blurred vision, he saw a familiar ceiling pattern. Where am I…?

Ah, the game. I was definitely in a game.

“You shouldn’t move suddenly.”

As he instinctively jumped up, someone gently pressed down on his chest.

“…How’s your head? Are you dizzy?”

Following the hand placed on his chest, he slowly raised his eyes and saw someone’s face.

It was Kwon Junghyun. It was a face he hadn’t seen in a long time.

Hojae stared blankly at his face. He had a shadowed expression, as if troubled.

Question marks, as if made of fog, formed and scattered in Hojae’s mind. He couldn’t easily recall the reason why he had such an expression.

“This is the medical room within the club. Mr. Hojae came here during the game.”

“The game…”

“The game is over. We lost 2 to 4. It finished about 2 hours ago.”

“……”

“They said you got onto the stretcher yourself and laid down on the bed yourself after arriving here. Do you remember?”

That was news to him.

He remembered going into today’s game, but as if someone had cut that part out with scissors, he had no memory of it. As he merely frowned, Junghyun sighed softly.

“The team doctor said it was a concussion. They said you might have partial memory loss, and it seems they were right.”