Became The Premier League’S Youngest Manager [EN]: Chapter 87

87. Summer Vacation

Helena, completely unaware of the schemes brewing at the U.S. headquarters, cheerfully went to work the next day and immediately barged into the director’s office.

“What are you doing here?”

Startled by the sudden question from the club’s CEO, who had entered his office without knocking, Hyungmin looked around at his laptop and the office, then turned his gaze back to Helena, seemingly bewildered.

“I’m working?”

“Sigh… I knew it,” Helena said.

Helena walked over to Hyungmin’s desk and placed a white envelope on it.

“Uh… what’s this?”

“A plane ticket to Korea. Round trip, first class.”

“…?”

This time, she definitely used the club’s budget to purchase it.

Helena crossed her arms, looking down at Hyungmin’s bewildered expression with satisfaction.

“You haven’t been back to Korea in over three years, have you?”

“Ah… that…”

“Were you planning to go this summer?”

“No, I have to reorganize the team and plan for the next season…”

Helena sighed deeply.

“Taking a good rest is also part of the job. You’ve been running non-stop since the beginning of last season, right? Go and relax for about two weeks this time.”

“Uh… the summer transfer market…”

“I’ll tell Jonathan to call me if anything urgent comes up, so just go without any complaints! By the way, it departs from Manchester Airport tomorrow morning, so don’t be late!”

***

*It’s an expulsion if you call it an expulsion, but since I received a round-trip ticket, it’s certain that they want me to come back.*

Still bewildered, Hyungmin returned to his accommodation, packed his luggage, contacted his family to let them know he was briefly going to Korea, and boarded a plane at Manchester Airport the next morning.

It was a little over 12 hours of direct flight to Korea via London Heathrow Airport, but the first-class seat, which he was experiencing for the first time in his life, was really comfortable.

He took various poses with all sorts of the latest electronic equipment and a chair that unfolded at various angles and transformed into a bed, but only for a moment.

Overcome by a strange sense of fatigue, Hyungmin fell asleep and woke up from a deep sleep with the vibration of the plane landing at Incheon Airport.

He had just woken up and was still dazed, but Hyungmin felt a new emotion as he arrived at Incheon Airport after nearly three years.

*Incheon Airport hasn’t changed much…*

As he stood in line to scan his passport at the automated immigration checkpoint, he felt people glancing at him, but Hyungmin didn’t think much of it.

Since he didn’t have much luggage anyway, just a small travel bag he brought on board.

Therefore, unlike other people returning from Europe with a lot of luggage, he didn’t have to wait for the luggage to come out, and he immediately passed through the arrival hall and baggage claim, and went outside the security gate, but…

…I almost lost my sight.

“…Director! Director Kim Hyungmin!”

“…I’m Kim Jinwoo, a reporter from C! Director, how do you feel about returning in triumph…?”

“…Director, you’ve returned after a long time…!”

“…Director!”

“…Director Kim Hyungmin!”

Hyungmin reflexively raised his arm to cover his face from the hundreds of camera flashes bursting in front of him, and dozens, no, probably over a hundred reporters began to pour out questions like a storm.

Recorders, microphones, and even photo cameras with huge flashes attached.

The noise and light caused Hyungmin’s dazed soul to attempt to escape from his body.

Just as the reporters were about to cross the fence in front of the security gate and rush towards Hyungmin.

A heavy hand landed on his shoulder.

“Ha, this guy. You still haven’t changed your cluelessness even when you’re away from the stadium.”

“Who…?”

A sleek, tall figure of 190cm [approximately 6’3″] wearing sunglasses snatched the travel bag from Hyungmin’s hand.

Jung Taejin, the veteran striker of the Korean national team, who had appeared in Hyungmin’s dreams as a nightmare on the field, as a reliable teammate, and on the training ground as a hated opponent throughout his high school years, grabbed his high school classmate’s wrist.

“Okay, shut up and run!”

The tall figure of 190cm held the travel bag, which looked like a handbag to him, in one hand, grabbed the wrist of a skinny man in his 30s who was 180cm tall [approximately 5’11”] with the other, and began to sprint through Incheon Airport.

“Hey… no… why…?”

Hyungmin barely managed to keep up, panting.

“Hey, if you get caught by those guys, you won’t be able to go home today! You don’t even have an agency, do you?!”

“Huff… an agency… huff… why… huff… do I need…?”

“Yeah. Just keep living like a noble crane on your own. See how well you do.”

Two men who were either active professional players, with the former still being the main striker on the national team just before retirement, or had retired a long time ago but still maintained a minimum level of fitness by conducting training as a professional soccer team manager.

The two of them sprinted with all their might through the long passage leading from the arrival hall to the parking lot, barely outrunning the chasing reporters.

“Here!”

Hyungmin, who was leaning against the car door and panting, heard the sound of the trunk opening and his travel bag being thrown inside, along with the sound of the driver’s side door opening.

“Hey, get in quickly!”

Before Hyungmin could even sit in the passenger seat and fasten his seatbelt, the car, already started, smoothly began to exit the parking lot.

Only now, having regained some composure, Hyungmin looked around and saw one or two of the fastest reporters entering the parking lot, but they were visibly unable to find them among the many cars leaving.

Fortunately, they were not exposed to the reporters thanks to the dark tint on Taejin’s car windows.

Hyungmin, who had been lying deep in the passenger seat to avoid his face being revealed, sat up properly as the car left the airport parking lot and entered the highway, feeling the tension that had unknowingly built up release.

Then, the veteran striker, who skillfully merged onto the highway, said to Hyungmin as if he was frustrated.

“Hey, why don’t you answer your phone?”

“Phone?”

Hyungmin fumbled in his pocket for his phone and turned it on, and suddenly the phone started vibrating like crazy.

More than 50 missed calls, and almost 200 text messages.

Only a few from his mother and father.

Excluding those, most of the calls and texts were from unknown numbers.

“Uh… is this your number?”

“Yeah, you idiot. Save it. Let me brag to people around me that I know Director Kim Hyungmin.”

“Whatever.”

Hyungmin, who muttered as if he was dumbfounded, was saving Taejin’s phone number when he suddenly seemed to remember something and raised his head.

“How did you know I was arriving today?”

“Are you stupid? There’s a banner on the front page of Nver [a popular Korean web portal]. It says, ‘Welcome home, Director Kim Hyungmin, who has elevated Korea’s status in the home of football.'”

“Huh?!”

Hyungmin, who rarely visited the green website, made a dumbfounded expression at the large, shimmering banner in the center of the page.

“I was worried, so I contacted your mother and father, but they weren’t preparing anything. So I told them I would go pick you up at the airport.”

“My mother and father? Whose mother and father… our mom and dad?!”

“Yeah, you idiot.”

“How do you know our mom and dad’s contact information?”

“Ha…”

Taejin, who was holding the steering wheel, sighed deeply.

“You didn’t make a cell phone even after you went to college, so I always contacted you through your mother’s cell phone. Don’t you remember?”

“…Actually, I don’t remember that time very well…”

As Hyungmin muttered, Taejin glanced at him and then turned his head back to watch the road.

“Yeah, well… you might not remember. Anyway, I’ve contacted them from time to time since then, right?”

“My mom and dad?”

Hyungmin, who was dumbfounded by his high school classmate’s reply as if it was obvious, suddenly remembered something and asked.

“How often?”

“What?”

“How often did you contact them?”

“Well… once or twice a year? I usually contact them once during Lunar New Year [Seollal, a major Korean holiday] and once during Chuseok [Korean Thanksgiving], so I think I contact them about twice a year?”

“Do you contact them first?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

Hyungmin briefly covered his head at the expression on his classmate’s face, who was glancing at him as if he was crazy.

Helena’s dumbfounded expression at the number of times he contacted his parents flickered before his eyes.

“…Is this why they say it’s useless to raise sons…?”

“Hey, I’m a son too? I contact my parents often?”

“Yeah, good for you for being such a filial son.”

It had been like this since before.

If it weren’t for the nightmarish moments on the training ground, if it weren’t for the insurmountable gap between him and himself.

Always a reliable and dependable classmate.

Always popular because of his humble and easygoing attitude compared to his skills and appearance.

Hyungmin, who was lost in thought about the old days for a moment, shook off the bad memories that were trying to creep up and deliberately looked at the surrounding roads, tilting his head.

*Has my neighborhood been demolished and a park created? Why is it so overgrown with bushes?*

*Seoul would have been redeveloped and more high-rise buildings would have been built, but they wouldn’t have created a new park, would they?*

“Hey, where are we going?”

“You’re asking early. Where else would we go? We’re going to my house.”

“Your house? Why am I going to your house?!”

Hyungmin asked with a bewildered expression.

“Ah, to be exact, it’s not my house, but my villa… but anyway.”

“No, that’s not the point, why am I going to your house? I haven’t even seen my parents yet!”

“Ha…”

The tall classmate holding the steering wheel sighed deeply.

“Hey, there are reporters and broadcasters camped out in front of your house right now. The apartment management office seems to be somehow blocking them from entering the building, but it’s impossible to enter at all right now.”

“So we’re going to your house… no, your villa?”

“Yeah. It was touch-and-go to bring your mother and father here in advance before the reporters came.”

*What is this?*

Hyungmin muttered inwardly as if he was dumbfounded.

*Why am I getting kidnapped so often by people around me?*

The car, which had been driving for quite a while, arrived in a rural area with sparse lights around.

Of course, it wasn’t openly called a rural area, as the roads were well-maintained and the streetlights were well-placed, but the two- or three-story houses surrounded by high fences were sparsely spaced apart.

“Where is this?”

“Paju [a city in South Korea]. Well, to be exact, it’s somewhere near the edge of Paju, but anyway, it’s Paju administratively. My wife wanted to get out of the city on weekends and enjoy nature with the kids, and a piece of land happened to come up, so I bought it and built a house, you know? But these days, the taxes are no joke.”

While watching his classmate grumble that when building a house, he had to have complicated consultations with the Korea Water Resources Corporation and local governments about the sewage system, and to bring in electricity, he had to have complicated consultations with the Korea Electric Power Corporation and local governments, and once he built it, he had to come every winter to manage the pipes so they wouldn’t burst, and in the summer, he had to mow the lawn, catch mosquitoes, and even catch mice, so there were a lot of annoying things, Hyungmin muttered in amazement.

“…You really haven’t changed.”

“What? My face? Well, I’ve always been young-looking. Heh.”

Hyungmin chuckled at his classmate’s appearance, who was nodding as if satisfied with his own joke.

“No… you’ve always been very mature, but I feel like you haven’t changed even after time has passed.”

“What are you talking about?”

Was it jealousy at first, then frustration, and then resignation at the end, or was it respect?

Hyungmin, who discovered his own calm self without feeling as hurt as before, said.

“Thank you.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome. Probably starting tomorrow, you and I will be plastered all over the newspapers together, so thanks to you, I’ll have to hide here with you for a while.”