55 — Training Camp IV

"......"

A dream.

That had been all. Nothing but a stupid fucking dream. And the first coherent thought that I had upon waking was a single, desperate plea for sanity.

God fucking damn it. Why?

Of course, there was no answer. No amount of rationalizing or self-reassuring would explain what the fuck I had just dreamt. Maybe it was merely some twisted wish-fulfillment. The unconscious painting its dirty little pictures on the back of my eyelids.

Were dreams a disguise for things we don't admit?

I exhaled, trying to gather my bearings. There was a sheen of sweat on my skin, cold, almost feverish, and a twisting, sickly, pulsating feeling on the pit of my stomach. It felt heavy.

It was wrong.

But it also felt... really good.

And that was a problem. This shit was going to mess me up—I already knew it.

I glanced to the window of the dorm, and saw the morning sunlight slowly trickle in from the open window.

I had a training to go to in two hours. Breakfast. Shower. All things that would keep me distracted.

But first things first.

I lifted my bedsheet and saw that a familiar tent had risen there.

God fucking damn it.

…

Jong-su launched into a risky tackle. I feinted with a Ronaldo Chop—a downward chop motion on the ball—and slipped away from him in the opposite direction.

"Son of—!!" I left the exclaiming Jong-su stumbling past me and continued to sprint.

I scanned the area in front of me. The defenders were in a semi-organized formation. I needed someone. My eyes sifted through the bib-wearing opponents, before zeroing on someone.

He shifted, making the one pressing him committing, before taking off in the opposite direction.

"Kim!" I sent the ball in an arched pass.

A beautiful, soft curve that vaulted across the field.

The right amount of spin and force on the pass to give the recipient an extra moment to bring down the ball with a deft touch. Jun-hwan made it look effortless as he received the ball with a controlled touch.

He started running with the ball, a couple of opponents quickly zeroing in on him. I surged ahead, quickly overtaking them from the flank. The two opponents swarmed Jun-hwan, trying to box him in and block the possible passing routes, leaving me wide open.

Jun-hwan fainted to the right. He drew in two markers and waited for that perfect split-second, that tiny opening in the offside trap, before letting loose a powerful pass through to me. The pass sliced past several players, curved like a half moon, and rolled at my feet, as perfect as I'd expect from someone like him.

I received it perfectly and shot at the goal without any preamble.

The goalkeeper, seeing the dangerous Kim Jun-hwan advancing earlier, had left space to the right side. I didn't even have to kick it hard. A gentle tap. The ball rolled lazily in.

I didn't celebrate; it was a practice match. Merely nodded towards Jun-hwan for the beautiful assist.

The coach blew the whistle. "Enough." The assistants whispered among themselves before voicing it out to the coach, who sighed, and replied with a curt 'I know.'

I rolled my shoulders, exhaling.

Our teammates slightly cheered and talked about the amazing last-minute play that happened.

"Good work out there." Jong-su patted my shoulder, groaning. "Honestly, I don't want to play against you anymore." A couple more teammates came in and voiced their agreement.

While the final score wasn't as exaggerated as the ones I've had back in the kids' league, it was still quite the bitter pill to swallow. The bib team was defeated 6 to 1.

Of course, not every match was as one-sided as that. For example, whenever I was pitted against Jun-hwan, the match was more… even. In the sense that, instead of a 6 to 1, the score usually went to a 6 to 2, maybe 3 if he had better teammates.

The overall opinion was that, whichever team I ended up in, would win.

Whichever team Jun-hwan and I ended up in, would win by a landslide.

While different mixes yielded mixed results, a team consisting of the both of us was nigh unbeatable, especially considering how well we synergized on the pitch. For obvious reasons, the coach never made a team consisting of all the prodigious players at once.

"As expected, it's no point having Cha and Kim on the same side for a scrimmage. We might as well use those matches for team building instead." The coach said, causing more than a few teammates to chuckle. He was always like this—straightforward. No mincing words. He pointed at Jong-su. "Jong-su, you have good judgement and are quite quick-witted, but you tend to go for tackles when they're unwise or unnecessary. Try to control your aggression and play calmly and you will be more efficient and useful to the team."

Then the coach turned and faced Min-hyuk.

"You need more confidence and aggression, Min-hyuk. Your size, height, power, and speed, these are your tools and assets, so use them! Don't be passive and just wait for others to act before you start doing something! That will only make your actions look forced and ineffective!"

"Yes sir!"

The coach nodded approvingly. Then, his gaze fell upon Sung-tae and he started drilling into him with a litany of both good comments and advice.

Sung-tae listened intently to him.

And so did the rest of us.

"Lastly... Cha Jae-il... and Kim Jun-hwan..."

Both of us looked up.

"Honestly? Not much to be said." There was a hint of satisfaction and amusement in his tone, but his face betrayed nothing. "Splendid as always. Keep it up."

I nodded. Jun-hwan did the same.

Coach Ahn Ki-seok clapped. "Everyone hit the showers."

As I walked out along with a yapping Jong-su and Song Sung-tae, I noticed a lone figure in the stands. Noticeable, considering how empty it had been all around us. Though the figure herself—herself, because even from a distance, she was too feminine to be anything but a woman—wore a surgical mask, sunglasses, and a lowered cap.

An abnormal get-up, for sure. She must've been sick, and I wondered what was her identity. I doubted they'd let a completely, unrelated person in here for no reason.

The moment she sensed my gaze, she calmly stood up and walked away.

I blinked.

"......"

xXx

The days blurred into weeks. And soon, at one of our nightly meetings with Coach Ahn Ki-seok and the rest of the managerial staff, we received a couple of important pieces of news. "First of all, I must announce that three players from this edition's batch have been released. After thorough consideration, we deemed them to be... insufficient for the current level of our squad."

He then mentioned the names. It wasn't the first time this happened. Within the initial weeks of the training camp, a slow trickle of players from a pool of around 40, had to be sent home.

"Second of all, as we're approaching our final preparations for the World Cup in Japan. We've decided that it's about time we test the current team's cohesiveness and skill with friendly matches."

"Where will the friendlies be?" Someone raised this question.

"They'll be at home, I hope." Sung-tae added, leaning back on the chair and crossing his arms. He was one of those people. The ones that hated long flights, the type of people that found any excuse to stay home.

"I know you'd hope for home field, but unfortunately, you're not that lucky." Coach said, giving a small snort. Then his face morphed back into his standard professional look. "As of right now, the KFA is currently in talks with different national football federations in Europe, in an attempt to set up at least two friendly matches in the continent." He paused, his eyes almost crinkling in amusement as some gasps rang out through the room. " However, I don't believe you're all quite ready to face them yet. Instead, your first friendly will be held in Thailand, against their National U-17. After that, we're going to head back here and have another round of training for three weeks. That's the plan for the moment."

While there was the expected excitement and tension around playing in Europe, many didn't mind having to play in another Asian country.

Thailand. I had never been there before and had no reason to ever think of visiting. I don't recall ever playing against them either; not their national team anyway, so this would be quite the novel experience for me too.

Of course, Thailand wasn't exactly a threatening team for anyone in Asia. It was, for all intents and purposes, a mediocre nation. But that's what made the perfect practice ground. The Thai League 1 was a strong middleweight. Neither the weakest nor the strongest of Asia. The perfect measuring stick to see if Korea had any hopes against European giants like Germany, France, and the like.

It was the ideal match for our first friendly.

Coach Ahn ki-seok cleared his throat. "That's all. Going forward, we'll analyze some plays and you'll be dismissed. It'll be the last training day until we get back from Bangkok next week. Any questions? None? Okay."