Chapter 70
***
‘My child….’
A father-to-be, Yannik Voigt.
He was sorting out his thoughts while sharing a cigarette with Park Chan-hyuk.
Yannik Voigt had never even imagined something called “marriage.”
From the start, he had planned to live alone, so he could even give the higher weekly wage the club was offering him to another teammate.
‘Well... if I ever got married someday, I thought I’d want it to be my current girlfriend. Still, I never expected to have a kid first.’
After breaking up with his ex-girlfriend over various troubles, Yannik had lived single for a while.
Then, after seeing his current girlfriend working part-time at a cafe, he fell for her at first sight, confessed, and started dating her.
His girlfriend didn’t even know who he was. She had no interest in football.
“…What is this?”
“Data Structures and Algorithms.”
Yannik Voigt found it nice to see his girlfriend focusing on her studies.
As their relationship grew longer, the two naturally ended up living together.
'And then she got pregnant.'
Children are said to be the greatest gift from heaven.
But because it was a gift given at a completely unexpected time, he couldn’t help but have all sorts of thoughts.
‘I’m not sure about marriage yet… but I guess I need to raise the kid well.’
In fact, many football players lived in common-law relationships without ever getting married. It minimized legal burdens and allowed for a flexible relationship.
Swish.
“…What is this?”
“A new contract?”
While he was lost in thought, Park Chan-hyuk had pulled out a new contract.
It was a contract that removed appearance bonuses and instead quadrupled the goal bonus.
“…Something’s off.”
“Just score. If you score, there’s no problem.”
And the words that followed from Park Chan-hyuk awakened the dormant soul inside Yannik Voigt.
“You’ve gotta earn baby formula money, Yannik.”
Park Chan-hyuk’s voice was like a devil’s temptation, but he had no choice but to sign that contract.
***
Yannik Voigt signed the contract I handed him.
Replacing the appearance bonus with a higher goal bonus wasn’t common, but it wasn’t that rare either. It was to motivate the player.
‘There are even players who bet on themselves to stay motivated, so what?’
Of course, it wasn’t a common case. It would only increase the pressure on the player himself.
‘If it doesn’t work, I can just change the contract back to the original.’
Well. It looked like this contract with Yannik Voigt would go smoothly.
So far, Yannik Voigt hadn’t been the type to buckle under pressure.
‘Pregnancy is a slightly different case, though.’
Just the fact that he hadn’t asked for leave even though his mental state was shattered was enough to call him pretty tough.
‘Since it’s come up, I should probably give him a short vacation.’
I decided to give Yannik Voigt one match of rest.
- I’ll give you a break for the next match. Go enjoy some sea breeze with your girlfriend.
- I’m really fine, though.
- Just go.
It was meant to be an opportunity for him to talk seriously about the future with his girlfriend.
Personally, I didn’t think it was a bad thing for a football player to secure a stable family early.
The sense of responsibility as a captain and as a provider felt a little different.
‘Well... I can say this because it’s someone else’s business.’
I thought this incident would be a good chance for Yannik Voigt to mature a little more, since he was Union Berlin’s captain.
‘Still, it’s a relief it wasn’t a physical problem.’
Since it was a psychological issue caused by his girlfriend’s pregnancy, I felt a little less worried.
‘The next match is against FC Carl Zeiss Jena. Since they’re bottom of the table, it probably won’t matter much even without Yannik.’
Anyway, I took a look at Union Berlin’s schedule.
‘Then the first match Yannik plays after coming back from vacation will be the cup.’
The second round of the DFB-Pokal was against Paderborn, another team from the same league as Union Berlin.
‘A decent test case.’
It seemed like that would be the time to check the performance of the changed contract.
***
Yannik Voigt went on vacation first thing the next day.
“Coach! We want vacation too!”
“Then do you want to get your girlfriend pregnant too?”
“…Training is fine for me! Coach!”
“Good, let’s do our best.”
The other players also asked me for vacation, but once they heard why Yannik had been allowed to take leave, they quietly left the room.
“Boss, I’m heading out!.”
“Yeah, have a good trip.”
Seeing Yannik Voigt happily go on vacation with his girlfriend, I suddenly felt lonely.
I found myself wanting a girlfriend, if not marriage.
‘That’s only natural at this age.’
Before my regression, I was in my late thirties, but now I’m 20, or 22 by the still-not-abolished Korean age system.
It was an age where just brushing against a spark could set things on fire.
‘At this good age, I’m... getting ground down in the coach’s office.’
Humans are living beings, so no matter how strong their mental fortitude is, they can’t beat hormones.
-Park Chan-hyuk: Hey, Park Jeong-ah. Hook me up with a girl.
In the end, unable to bear my loneliness, I asked my one and only younger sister to introduce me to a woman. I meant a coworker from the company my sister ran.
-Park Jeong-ah: (Park Chan-hyuk arranged-marriage list .jpg)
-Park Jeong-ah: Let me know if there’s anyone you like.
Not long after I sent the message, Park Jeong-ah replied.
‘...What is this.’
I couldn’t hide my bewilderment at the message Park Jeong-ah sent.
The message contained personal information, and every single one of them was the child of a wealthy family.
‘...What is this, an arranged marriage list?’
I clearly asked her to set me up, so why is she picking out my grave plot?
***
Park Jeong-ah’s family had tried to assimilate into German culture, but other people still tended to see them as immigrants.
Still, through years of effort, they had shaken off the image of being a nouveau riche family from Asia, though they still hadn’t been fully accepted among the upper class.
They had built a kind of shield by receiving investments from the German government and investment companies, but they couldn’t trust them completely. For stable business operations, it was necessary to bind themselves to the upper class through marriage.
In any country, the natural way to join the upper class is through blood ties.
Objectively speaking, Park Chan-hyuk wasn’t a bad marriage prospect.
In many ways, his conditions were quite good.
‘Former football player, so he’s fit and has a decent build.’
On top of that, Park Chan-hyuk held half of the investment company’s shares, and he was currently the manager of Union Berlin, earning passionate support from the club’s fans.
I couldn’t calculate the exact number of fans, but there were more than 30,000 official members alone.
For reference, the fact that Park Chan-hyuk was the manager of Union Berlin was already a huge help in running the company.
‘For some reason, my brother is hugely popular with Union Berlin fans.’
They’d definitely rise up immediately if the German government ever said Park Chan-hyuk had been wronged.
‘It’s true the club itself has always been historically rebellious, though.’
Right now, the former East Berlin region was turning increasingly far-right, and all kinds of racist incidents were happening.
But in Köpenick, where Union Berlin was based, there was no racial discrimination.
The family was preparing to move to Köpenick for that reason.
Still, the only thing that was a problem with an arranged marriage was...
‘I feel sorry for the future sister-in-law who’s going to marry that bastard...’
[Union Berlin manager Park Chan-hyuk, on the recent celebration controversy... “If you don’t want to see my celebration, then don’t concede a goal.”]
Park Chan-hyuk himself was the risk factor.
***
I turned down Park Jeong-ah’s proposal.
I had no intention of dying at 22.
‘No, seriously, this isn’t an arranged marriage... We’re not some conglomerate family or anything.’
...Were we a conglomerate family?
Come to think of it, maybe we really were a conglomerate family.
‘Hoo. Let’s think about it later. The match comes first right now.’
Union Berlin’s opponent was FC Carl Zeiss Jena, the league’s bottom team.
Union Berlin completely dominated the match.
Tactically as well as in terms of squad quality, the difference was overwhelming.
Roberto Lewandowski started as the striker in place of Yannik Voigt, who had gone on vacation.
Roberto Lewandowski also dropped back to the attacking midfielder position and actively helped link play.
He still looked like he needed a bit more tempering, but his playing style already felt fairly complete.
Lewandowski’s pass went to Timo Breitner, who was making a run into the space behind the defense.
Timo Breitner calmly struck the ball and buried it in the net.
‘Just because he’s a classic winger doesn’t mean he has zero scoring ability.’
I raised my left hand above my head from the bench in response to Timo Breitner’s goal.
“Nice!!!”
For the record, this wasn’t me showing favoritism toward Yannik and Hongmin.
That was because my right hand was handcuffed to the bench pillar.
“Daniel, can’t you unlock this for me?”
“No.”