Shooting Trajectory is Visible - Chapter 55



Only Krnovel

Two days after the match against Dortmund, we visited the Heinz von Heiden-Arena again.

It was for no other reason than work.

League match.

Hannover had put on a fantastic performance two days ago that made everyone’s hearts race, so naturally the stadium was packed for this match as well.

“Kim! Why aren’t you going to the game today?”

“Why isn’t Kim the goalkeeper for today’s game? Why!? Why!? Yan! Say something!”

The crowd inside the stadium was collectively raising their voices in disappointment that I, the hero of the previous game, would not be playing this time.

Even I, sitting on the bench, could hear it all.

Yeah, I was on the bench for this game.

In the past, I used to watch the game with people from the stands, but not anymore.

‘It could be that he’s on the bench because the second-choice goalkeeper is injured, but it doesn’t feel that way.’

After the last game, I could clearly feel that the way my colleagues and staff looked at me had changed.

Ron-Robert Ziller, who had seemed unconcerned, praised me for my great performance, but his expression clearly showed a sense of caution, and Leo, who was the second option and is currently out of the lineup due to injury, did not look too pleased either.

Because such gazes were so familiar in the same position, they were not unpleasant.

‘At least this is a pro, so I guess they won’t try to pickle me like they did at Suyang High School…’

“Jan is a fool!”

“That’s why there’s no change in the team!”

“I received the most investment of any director in history, but my results were the same!”

“Jan, Jan, get out of here and get back to your house!”

The audience soon joined in and began cursing the director. I cleared my throat and controlled my expression.

I’ve heard a lot of cheers from players, but this is the first time I’ve heard a cheer from a coach. It’s almost like a sarcastic, hot cheer that seems to have just been made.

They pour out in a row.

“The goalkeeper from last game was on the bench! He got the MOM award!”

“The goalkeeper from last game was guarding the goal! He conceded two goals!”

“What Chiller is good at is sucking Yan’s dick!”

“What chillers are good at is holding their own!”

I bit my lip desperately to keep myself from laughing. I never thought that the German lessons I received from Sophie would shine here.

‘These people have extraordinary unity. Did they start writing songs as soon as they found out I was left off the starting lineup?’

It was funny and I was grateful for the fans raising their voices for me, but on the other hand, I also felt a chill.

If I fall short of your expectations.

If I make a lot of mistakes.

I realized that the feelings they were showing me could change in the opposite direction.

‘Even though Chiller is the captain and has contributed a lot to the team, it’s frustrating to see them push me this much just because I did well in one game…’

The moment I can’t do it, the fans will turn their faces away and immediately tell me to send that damn Ching Chang Chong to North Korea.

They curse at fellow Germans without mercy, so it must be even worse for me, a foreigner.

‘It’s no different from when I was in Suyang High School.’

If you slip even once while playing, you’ll be headed straight for hell.

Fortunately, since it was a special position, Son Heung-min suffered less racial discrimination than expected, but the goalkeepers started showing signs of it as I suddenly rose to prominence. I just hope it’s just a worry.

“Kim. You, you’re getting a lot of love from your fans?”

Corsic, whose name was on the bench with me for this match, spoke with a smile.

I reacted indifferently.

“A little bit.”

“why?”

“Um······It’s rough.”

This is the extent of my foreign language sentence structure. I am still lacking in using crude and obscene expressions like Korean.

Still, Korsic nodded, as if the meaning had been conveyed well.

“This is how European football was originally.”

*

The game is over.

The score is 2:1.

It was a comeback victory.

It took some time between conceding the first goal and scoring the equalizer, so the fans’ anger was intense.

Instead of cheering, only curses toward the chiller and the coach poured out from the stands.

Then, when the equalizer and then the go-ahead goal were scored, they started singing a cheering song praising the team as if nothing had happened.

No matter how much sports fans are good at making happy and sad comments, it’s really shameless…

Even Bento, who recently led the Qatar World Cup to the round of 16, was considered by people to be a weakling before the World Cup, but now he is being treated as a great coach.

Looking at these cases, it is clear that the sports world is useless. The results are the best.

There are people all over the world who will applaud a game even if the content is terribly boring.

“···Kim is a soccer player, so he has to eat foods with a lot of carbohydrates. Things like that.”

The next day, I was shopping at the mart with Sophie.

At first, I was cautious about asking her because I thought it was rude, but Sophie readily accepted my request, and the one time I received help from Sophie I still receive it to this day.

Once a week.

When I said that it was okay and that I could do it on my own, Sophie said that there was no need to feel burdened and dragged me along even more confidently.

‘It’s no wonder people around me misunderstand me…’

To be honest, if someone else saw them now, they would look like a couple. But that’s definitely not the case. It’s because Sophie is so kind, so-

“Kim?”

“Oh, yes. Wow. Bananas. They’re really cheap. 1.6 euros. 1 euro is roughly 1,400 won in Korean currency, so that’s about 2,300 won.”

Sophie tilts her head at my words.

“Are bananas expensive in Korea?”

“Yes. It’s not just bananas that are expensive. Watermelons are expensive, cantaloupes are expensive, apples are expensive, and just about everything you put in your mouth is expensive…”

Ah, the distribution center.

I heard that Korea has a system where both producers and consumers suffer losses, and only middlemen make huge profits.

When I bought groceries directly in Germany, I realized how unreasonable it was.

How can the price be half that of Korea? In some cases, it was even half of half. Even though Germany is a wealthier country than Korea!

“Kim!”

It was a thick male voice.

What is it? A fellow Hanoverian?

When I turned my head, it was a white man I had never seen before.

The man smiled broadly and spoke to me in English.

“I enjoyed the Dortmund match! I saw all of our team’s promising players here!”

“Ah. Thank you.”

“Can we take a picture together? I’d also like to ask for your autograph, but I don’t have a pen right now.”

“sure.”

It won’t be difficult.

The man picked up his phone, brought it close to me, and took a picture in selfie mode.

“Thank you! But is the person next to you an interpreter?”

“Oh, yes. That’s right.”

“Ohh···.”

A male fan who secretly looks us up and down. ···I told you, it’s not like that.

“Are you in the getting to know each other stage? Are you two lovers since you’re in the grocery section together?”

“That’s not the kind of relationship we have.”

“Oh, really?”

The man looks at Sophie. Sophie is speechless and hesitates to look away.

“I hope you come out for the next game, Kim. Otherwise, you’ll just have to go to the stadium and swear at the coach.”

I nodded awkwardly.

And then we awkwardly walked around the grocery section one more time and just walked out of the store.

Until then, it was fine, but after meeting the fan, an awkward atmosphere began to hang around.

*

Although the league schedule was in full swing, Hannover did not just put their players into the game.

Besides that, there were many players who had many uses.

Since I was receiving a much higher salary than other people in society, I was asked to do social service commensurate with my salary, and I was also asked to do the same.

“The place we’re going to today is a children’s hospital a little bit outside the center of Hanover. But it’ll only take 30 minutes by car to get there.”

Sophie said, fastening her seatbelt.

I also fastened my seatbelt in the passenger seat.

“Are we the only ones going? What about the other players?”

“Kim played a big part in the Dortmund game this time, right? That’s why he’s so popular with the kids. The kids might not be interested in the other players, so Kim is the only one going to the children’s hospital. The other players will all go to different places to volunteer.”

“aha.”

The aftermath of my debut was really big. Before my debut, no one recognized me when I walked down the street, but now a lot of people recognize me.

Even though he has only been in the team for a short time, he already has child fans.

I felt strange.

Just two months ago, he was just an ordinary high school student.

‘Isn’t it ordinary? I can see the shooting trajectory, so it can’t be ordinary···.’

Sophie explained the precautions all the way to the children’s hospital.

“They range from very sick children to those with milder conditions. We will be at the hospital for about three hours today, and we will meet as many different children as possible.”

“And since the kids are mostly not familiar with English, I’ll have to speak German. I’ll translate for Kim anything she doesn’t understand or has difficulty interpreting, but I’d like Kim to be more proactive in communicating today rather than me.”

It’s finally time to put into practice the German I’ve been studying for over a month and a half.

The players know that I can’t speak German at all, and they are adults, so they are considerate of me, but the kids don’t care about me. Rather, I am the object of their consideration.

Also, Sophie said things that she couldn’t understand or that were difficult to interpret, but since they were children, there was no way they would use grandiose words.

‘That is, it comes from the things I learned.’

Even though I’m only going to meet the Jammins, I’m secretly nervous.

“Is there anything else I should be careful of?”

“······Hmm. Please treat the children well. There are many sick children, so they will be very happy when they see the hero who defeated Dortmund in person.”

“is it so.”

These are sick children. I don’t feel good about it.

*

And then we arrived at the children’s hospital.

The building was an ordinary modern hospital. A five-story hospital.

However, unlike in Korea, there were hallways on each floor. There were no glass windows.

Once inside, Sophie chatted with the office desk clerk and we walked around the children’s ward to see if we were cleared.

The ward had a unique atmosphere.

The ward’s uniquely gloomy atmosphere and the children’s uniquely soft and lively atmosphere.

The two atmospheres overlapped to create a mysterious feeling.

I grabbed the doorknob of the nearest ward and opened it. There were children there with shaved heads.

To be exact, they were joking and chatting amongst themselves, but when two strange men and women entered the hospital room, silence fell in an instant.

I smiled brightly and raised my hand to break the awkward atmosphere.

“Hey guys?”

He even spoke German perfectly, which he had honed for this day.

“who are you?”

Oh. This is something I hadn’t thought of. I was momentarily taken aback, but I responded immediately.

“The goalkeeper who stopped all of Dortmund’s shots.”

“Huh! Kim? It’s Kim!?”

Then there is an immediate response.

The white woman guarding the sickroom was smiling brightly. I think she knew I was coming.

“Kim, the person you all wanted to see so badly, has come in person!”

“Wow!”

The children, who had been a little wary, suddenly rushed towards me. They had their heads shaved and looked like foreign monks, and I hugged them all at once.

Five children competitively dug into my arms.

“Kim! Kim!”

“Yeah, yeah. Nice to meet you, kids.”

“I missed you so much!”

“Kim! Kim!”

As the children calmed down a bit, the questions started pouring in in earnest.

“Kim! Why didn’t you come out for the last game?”

“Is it true that at your inauguration ceremony you said you would promote Hannover and win the First Division trophy?”

“Kim is from Korea, right? The same country as Son. Right?”

They were very curious, like children.

I answered each one, one by one.

Gentle and gentle. That is, so that children can understand.

To begin with, my German level was just about that level.

“Kim! I really enjoyed the Pokal Cup. So even if I can’t come out right away, I’ll be able to see you again soon, right?”

I spent quite a bit of time with the children here. Time was limited and there were many wards to visit, but I couldn’t just leave.

“Promise me, Kim.”

It was a little boy. I looked straight at the child and said.

“What promise?”

“Kim will never leave our team until we get promoted and win the Bundesliga.”

It’s not an easy promise to keep, is it?

When I said that back then, it was just showmanship.

So I was worried that if I made a rash promise, my child would get hurt for no reason.

Because later on when you see the transfer news you might be like, ‘Kim is a liar! Whoa!’

But it was also funny how he beat around the bush and refused.

Many adults make promises to their children, but it is rare to find someone who remembers and actually keeps their promises.

I’m not an adult yet, and I don’t know what will happen in the future, but I smiled and responded to the serious expression on the child’s face.

Even if you’re not an adult, the answer to what to do in a situation like this has already been decided.

“Of course. I will definitely keep it.”

“Really? Really?”

“certainly.”

Then he added a footnote.

“I should be able to play in the game before then.”

“Kim! Then let’s make one more promise!”

“huh?”

This time it was a girl.

The girl spoke with bright eyes and a husky voice.

“Promise me you’ll come to the game again next time! I want to see Kim again!”

Sophie and the female nurse laughed.

It was a childish wish.

“I will definitely keep that too. Promise.”

He held out his little finger. This is a universal gesture. The girl, who realized the meaning, also held out her little finger.

Then the boy from earlier says, “Me too! Me too!” and puts out his little finger.

Sophie and I left the hospital room after a few more minutes. The children were upset that we were leaving so soon, but there were other children we had to meet.

When I explained the situation, fortunately the children seemed to understand.

Sophie left the hospital room and looked at me with a big smile.

“Kim.”

“yes?”

“Your German has really improved a lot. I think you have a talent for languages.”

“···Is that so?”

“Of course! It doesn’t make sense to be able to communicate so freely with children in a period of less than two months.”

I drew a faint smile on my lips.

I guess I am my mother’s son.

“Then shall we go to the next room?”

“Yes. Let’s go.”

End

ⓒ Doctor Am

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