Chapter 95: Party

[Guerrero’s face turns redder and redder at the sound of his own screams coming from the phone speaker.]

“Taewoo!! I won’t forgive you!”

The screen of the phone he threw with trembling hands showed a video thumbnail titled

[A Scoring King Who’s Also a Good Goalie].

It was a perfectly captured moment of him getting hit by Jeong Taewoo’s ball and falling down in an exaggerated manner.

“Well, who told you to provoke me?”

Jeong Taewoo shrugged his shoulders.

“Still, that was too much!”

“Tsk tsk, foolish Guerrero. Always starting fights and then getting hit… Shouldn’t he have realized by now?”

Sanchez, who was sitting on the chair next to him, clicked his tongue.

“Sanchez, you weren’t any better.”

There was also a video of Guerrero getting hit by Jeong Taewoo’s ball, but Sanchez’s video was worse.

Even someone who didn’t know anything about soccer could see that he was trying harder than anyone else, but the scenes of him giving up goals due to his physical limitations made people laugh even though they felt sorry for him at first.

Perhaps that was why it was recording high views alongside Guerrero’s video.

“Hey, at least I didn’t act like a comedian like you!”

“Are you looking down on comedians right now?”

“That’s not what I meant!”

Jeong Taewoo was dumbfounded as he watched Guerrero and Sanchez suddenly start fighting with each other.

‘What’s with them, why are they suddenly fighting among themselves…’

“And no matter what, why would you throw your phone?”

When Jeong Taewoo picked up Guerrero’s phone and looked at the screen to check if the screen was broken, the video was still playing.

[Ugh! Please! Stop it!~ Ack!]

‘I did hit him a lot…’

Just how many times did I have to hit him for a video of hitting the goalie with a kick to be a whopping 6 minutes long?

I stopped counting after hitting him 10 times, maybe I should’ve stopped earlier…

But that thought was only for a moment, and his heart felt much better when he saw the number of views on the video.

[A Scoring King Who’s Also a Good Goalie] Views: 1,200,000

1.2 million views in just one day since it was uploaded. A whopping 1.2 million people had watched the video of Guerrero getting hit with the ball.

‘Should I try filming it again later?’

While he was thinking about filming [A Scoring King Who’s Also a Good Goalie 2], Guerrero suddenly stopped fighting with Sanchez as if he had sensed murderous intent and turned to look at him and shouted.

“Taewoo! Don’t get any weird ideas!”

“Whatever.”

He was startled for a moment, but pretended to be calm with his amazing acting skills.

“Hmph… Suspicious. I definitely felt a strange feeling.”

He seems to have gained some strange ability from getting hit so much.

“Oh, right, Taewoo, when are you going back to Korea this time?”

Jeong Taewoo considered his schedule for a moment at Sanchez’s words.

‘If I participate in the party hosted by Manchester City…’

“I think I’ll go sometime next week?”

“Oh, are you going to participate in the party?”

“Sanchez, aren’t you going to participate? I heard the club owner is coming too.”

He was looking forward to it since Manchester City’s club owner was also participating in this party.

‘I’m sure they’ll make me golden goalie gloves at least, right?’

Kim Chanki had received countless golden soccer shoes in his day, so he wondered what this club owner would be like.

“Yeah, I have a vague schedule so I probably won’t be able to participate. I’m going on a trip with my grandmother.”

“Is that so? It’s a shame, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Going on a trip with your grandmother comes first.”

Guerrero chimed in slightly.

“I’m going to participate, do you want to go together?”

“Ugh, why would I go with you? I’ll go separately.”

“Why not? I just bought a new car…”

“Enjoy your new car by yourself.”

“Taewoo, where are you going?”

“What do you mean, where am I going? I’m going home. See you at the party.”

Guerrero’s lips pouted as he watched Taewoo, who only said what he wanted to say and left.

“Who do you think wants to go with you? Huh! I was just saying it out of concern that you wouldn’t have any friends!”

Sanchez shook his head as he watched Guerrero’s behavior.

‘They’re definitely good at soccer, but both of them, ugh…’

They really were embarrassing friends no matter where you took them.

***

Three days later, the party hosted by Manchester City was held.

The party venue was the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel in Manchester, near the Etihad Stadium.

It was a 5-star hotel boasting a magnificent Victorian architectural style, and it was a place where the club’s special events were often held.

Looking around, the players had come with their families or girlfriends, but I was standing all alone.

“Taewoo, please strike a pose for us!”

“V”

‘Is this how Damin does it?’

It was the gyaru V that was popular on the internet these days.

He knew about it because Damin had posted it on Instagram, but he couldn’t understand why this was popular at all.

‘Is it because pretty people do it?’

That seemed plausible.

No matter how trendy a gesture might be, it would be difficult to become popular unless your looks supported it.

‘The world is still all about looks…’

Of course, he was one of the people who was benefiting greatly from his looks right now, so it wasn’t his place to say that.

‘Ah, I just miss Damin.’

Seeing the couples being lovey-dovey around him made it difficult to bear.

He was confident that he could be more lovey-dovey than anyone else…

Even the Guerrero that he had trusted was being lovey-dovey with his girlfriend in the distance, ugh.

He had told me to ride in the car together, so I thought he didn’t have a girlfriend, but it turns out he had a woman.

And she’s quite pretty too.

‘Not as much as Damin, but… She’s almost too good for Guerrero.’

When I met her earlier and offered to help, thinking that she was being threatened or something, his girlfriend couldn’t hold back her laughter, so it didn’t seem like she was being threatened.

‘She must really have a gentle personality.’

Well, there are a lot of women with unique tastes in the world.

The captain approached him, seeing him drinking alone.

“Taewoo, where are your friends Guerrero, Sanchez, and Castillo?”

Hailey, his wife, was also with Matias.

Instead of speaking, I pointed in two directions.

In one direction, Guerrero was kissing his girlfriend, and in the other direction, Castillo was feeding his girlfriend.

“Ahem… What about Sanchez?”

“He said he was going on a trip with his grandmother.”

Matias met Hailey’s eyes and smiled slightly.

“Shall we keep you company?”

“It’s okay. You two have fun. I’m going to head in after a while.”

“It’s not even 11 o’clock yet?”

“I’m tired.”

He wasn’t actually tired. It was just that he couldn’t stand the sweet atmosphere around him.

If Damin had been here, he would have been like that too… No, he would have been even more lovey-dovey than that.

At that moment, all the lights in the party hall suddenly went out, and the club owner came out holding golden soccer shoes, golden goalie gloves, and a golden captain’s armband.

“Oooooooo!”

The players’ attention naturally turned to the golden trio that the club owner was holding.

The club owner spoke into the microphone.

“We prepared this to give to the three players who worked hard for our Manchester City this season.”

Clap clap clap-

The club owner was practically the players’ sugar daddy.

Fortunately, other than Guerrero, there weren’t any clueless players who didn’t give a passionate applause while their sugar daddy was talking.

“Well, the golden captain’s armband that I will give first is my reward to a player who has led our Manchester City well with tremendous leadership and soccer skills, in a nutshell.”

Although the club owner didn’t mention a name, everyone knew who the protagonist was.

“What are you doing, go up there quickly, Captain!”

“Ahaha, you’re not going to send the club owner a heart too, are you?”

“Hahaha!”

Our captain, who was always kind and shy outside of the stadium, blushed and walked up to the stage.

“Manchester City exists because we have Matias. Thank you.”

Matias, who practically received the greatest praise a club owner could give to a team player, once again had tears in his eyes.

“Sniff… Thank you.”

“Hahaha, I look forward to working with you next year too.”

“Yes.”

As the captain went down, the club owner picked up the next golden soccer shoes and called Guerrero’s name.

But Guerrero was acting lovey-dovey with his girlfriend and didn’t come out, so he was eventually dragged out by the staff.

“As expected of Guerrero, his personality is really fiery. I look forward to you scoring goals with that fire next year too.”

“Of course! As long as I’m here, there will be no defeat for City.”

“Yes, it would be really great if that were the case.”

“Then, finally, the Manchester City golden goalie gloves… Everyone knows who this is, right? Jeong Taewoo, please come up.”

Manchester City’s players all applauded sincerely, and I replied with a nod.

“Your dedication, your hard work, I’m truly grateful.”

Looking at the golden goalie gloves, which were very different from the golden soccer shoes, the past season flashed through my mind like a kaleidoscope.

The conflict that arose over the starting goalie position from the preseason, the consecutive clean sheet record, and then the undefeated championship.

So much had really happened.

Clearly, it didn’t feel like everything was resolved yet.

For some reason, the Soccer God hadn’t appeared in a long time, and the World Cup was also coming up soon.

If I didn’t succeed this time, I would only have one chance left.

‘But I should enjoy myself now.’

I lifted the golden goalie gloves trophy high above my head.

“Taewoo is so handsome!”

“Hahahaha, seeing Taewoo act like that, he really is still a kid, hahahahaha”

Matias, Guerrero, and I, who had received the golden trophies, took a picture with the club owner.

If I were to remember this moment later, I wanted to leave it as a truly good memory.

“If this is the kind of performance I need to give to get this trophy, then I’ll get it every season.”

“Yeah, that’s gotta be Taewoo!”

“The fine line between sassiness and confidence is what we can call Taewoo.”

I hoped that my life as a goalie could shine like this brilliant golden goalie glove trophy.

It was a night when he was feeling emotional for no reason.