-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: I Became the Club Owner (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Three days had passed.
In that time, Jeong-woo had tried everything he could think of.
He'd visited law offices all over the place and even gone to the police station.
But he couldn't find a solution.
He learned that you could renounce an inheritance within three months of it being initiated, but since he'd already accepted the gift outright, that option was off the table.
"This is fucking bullshit, a scam...!"
In a dark semi-basement room with the lights off.
Jeong-woo curled up in a fetal position on the cold floor and growled under his breath.
Of course, it was partly his own fault.
Buried in the stack of complicated documents, the back page clearly listed debts totaling 150 billion won.
It was the kind of thing you'd naturally overlook if you didn't scrutinize it closely.
"Not even a loan contract or anything, goddamn..."
Of course, Park Sang-ho's agent hadn't mentioned it either.
Even so, he couldn't find a way out.
The police said there was nothing they could do.
He couldn't even track down Park Sang-ho's lawyer, and the phone number on the business card had been disconnected.
When he contacted the club, he learned that one of his grandfather's blood relatives had been hired as the inheritance agent from the start.
In other words, they'd known it was a bomb and tossed it to him just in case the shrapnel flew their way.
That relative had gone into hiding too...
"You fucking bastard!"
They'd deliberately passed the bomb around.
After that, Jeong-woo had lain there like a corpse.
It wouldn't be wrong to say he'd spent every day drowning in booze.
Even as he lay there,
Tears flowed silently, one after another.
It felt like his tear ducts were broken.
"Some punk chokes on a peanut and croaks... Fucking hell, life really sucks."
Curled up in a ball, he hiccupped sobs and grumbled about his rotten luck—that was the best he could manage.
"Yeah, goddamn it. My life's always been like this. Tell Jesus and Buddha to fuck off. What kind of life is this? Huh? Did they dump every ounce of bad luck on me? You fucking assholes."
He felt like he had to vent to the air at least.
If he couldn't even do that, he'd go insane from the frustration.
"I thought I was finally gonna live well for once, and what? Debts of 150 billion? You kidding me? Who the hell lends out 150 billion! Fucking...!"
Of course, the banks weren't idiots.
Those debts had been racked up back when they were in League One.
Bolton's club value at the time made that level of debt feasible.
The problem was that while the club's value had plummeted exponentially, they'd dragged over 100 billion in debt all the way down to League Two.
Woof! Woof!
"Yeah, I'll die. I'll just die. But next time I reincarnate, I won't ask for much. Just don't let me be born poor. A normal family would be fine."
Woof! Woof! Woof!
"Fucking hell. You punk-ass kids who drop your phone in the toilet while shitting...!"
Woof! Woof! Woof!
Crack!
Veins started bulging on Jeong-woo's forehead.
Somewhere, a dog kept barking nonstop.
As if refuting his words.
"Those dogshit scammers should all be boiled alive and beaten. But first, this fucked-up country needs to fix its goddamn laws. A world where scammers live well...!"
Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!
"..."
The barking only got worse.
Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!
"Ah, enough!"
Finally, Jeong-woo shot up halfway, propping himself up roughly.
Even then, the dog yapped on obnoxiously.
Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!
Unable to take it anymore, he bellowed in rage.
"Yaaaaaaah!"
The nameless dog replied sharply.
Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!
Jeong-woo yelled back louder than the dog, veins throbbing in his neck.
"Shut that fucking barking up, you goddamn mutts yaaaaaa!"
* * *
Hee-won sat on the living room floor with his wife and daughter, eating apples while watching the news.
[Now, we'll get the weather update from caster Jung Min-young in Daebak-dong.]
[Yes! This is Jung Min-young. Freezing temperatures below zero are continuing from this evening.]
Hee-won's wrinkled face scrunched up even more at the mention of tomorrow morning's low of minus eleven degrees.
"Whoa, cold snap, huh? Make sure you wear the scarf Daddy made by hand when you go to kindergarten tomorrow, okay?"
"Yeah, Daddy."
His daughter nodded brightly, and Hee-won's lips curled up to his ears in an instant.
"Aigoo, so pretty, hehehe."
Still unaware of Jeong-woo's situation, Hee-won pinched his cotton-candy daughter's cheek lightly.
"Lemme snag a bit of cotton candy!"
"Euuu! Nooo!"
The weather caster continued explaining the current and tomorrow's forecast from a familiar street in Hee-won's eyes.
[...With rush hour underway, the perceived temperature is minus three degrees...!]
That's when it happened.
[Yaaaaaaah!]
A voice full of raw anguish blasted through the TV speakers like it would shatter them.
"Oh my god!"
His wife, who had been watching intently, jumped in fright, trembling.
Hee-won startled too and stared at the TV screen.
"What the hell?"
Even the weather caster looked flustered by the unexpected chaos.
But she quickly composed herself and pressed on.
[With rush hour underway, the perceived temperature is minus three deg—]
She couldn't finish.
[Shut that fucking barking up, you goddamn mutts yaaaaaa!]
A man's voice followed, swallowing the caster's words whole.
Looking like a rookie, the caster now had a face on the verge of tears.
[M-minus three degrees...! No, about tomorrow's weather..., uh, minus three degrees...!]
Startled by the sudden shouting, she'd mixed up her script segments.
The screen cut away soon after.
"Oh dear, oh dear!"
His startled wife smacked Hee-won's thigh twice, good and hard.
Hee-won narrowed his eyes, recognizing the familiar apartment behind the caster just before the switch.
"That apartment behind the weather caster just now... looks like where Jeong-woo lives?"
It was Daebak-dong, after all, so it had to be his neighborhood.
"Uncle Jeong-woo?"
His daughter poked her face in, eyes wide.
Hee-won smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, Uncle Jeong-woo."
She scrunched up her nose right away.
"Uncle Jeong-woo grumpy!"
Kids saw the truth.
Hee-won stroked her head and agreed.
"Yeah, he's grumpy."
Then, to his still-bewildered wife, he added,
"That neighborhood's full of real characters... I mean, folks with strong personalities. You can tell just from Jeong-woo living there, right?"
He'd toned it down since his daughter was on his lap.
"Yeah, makes sense."
His wife, who knew Jeong-woo, nodded immediately.
No one would guess the owner of that scream-like outburst was Jeong-woo.
* * *
A few days flew by.
At Jeong-woo's place.
[Team Name: Bolton Wanderers]
[League: EFL League Two]
[Overview: A club with a long history and tradition, where Korean legend Lee Chang-yong once played.
(Despite that, they say it never lived up to the hype.)
Midway through the 2020-2021 season, Bolton is struggling even in League Two, sitting at 21st out of 24 teams...
(Most experts think Bolton's fate was sealed the moment they nearly got expelled from the league.)
Bolton had crumbled so badly they once didn't even have 11 players for the squad—a dark chapter in their history.
(At least now the squad's much bigger.) (Bolton is doomed ㅜㅜ)]
"Who the hell crossed this out?"
Jeong-woo scowled midway through reading Bolton's history on Tteul Wiki.
Having learned of his friend's plight, Hee-won slowly scrolled down and clicked his tongue.
"Whoa, lost yesterday too. Lost to the 23rd-place team 4-0, even."
"Dust."
Jeong-woo puffed hard on his cigarette and exhaled a sigh laced with smoke.
A few days later, his mentality had somewhat recovered.
But there were side effects.
"Goddamn."
"Who you cursing at?"
"Dogshit."
"Not me, right?"
"You bastard."
He'd started spewing curses like Tourette's.
At Hee-won's follow-up, Jeong-woo just turned his head with a grimace.
"Fucking watermelon-eating..."
"Hey, be straight. Did I do something? Feels like you're cursing me."
Hee-won eyed him suspiciously.
Jeong-woo, facing the wall, replied.
"This ain't cursing."
"..."
Having given him time to recover, Hee-won cautiously asked,
"So, what now?"
It was something Jeong-woo had agonized over these past few days.
Tears had overflowed nonstop thanks to his broken tear ducts, even amid it all.
Jeong-woo glanced at Tteul Wiki again and pinched his nose bridge.
"I've got Plan B and Plan A."
"Don't you usually say Plan A first?"
"B came to mind first."
"..."
Since it was Jeong-woo, Hee-won just nodded slightly in acceptance.
Soon, Jeong-woo lit another cigarette and spoke.
"Plan B is bankruptcy."
"Bankruptcy?"
Hee-won blinked in surprise.
Jeong-woo continued seriously.
"I looked into it—bankruptcy in League Two means expulsion and relegation to the fifth tier. I'd have to step down as owner, of course. And on top of that..."
Jeong-woo's eyes twitched faintly.
"My money would go to the creditors tied to the club."
The quickest method with the least risk.
Jeong-woo added,
"Your car, my car—they'd get canceled too."
Hee-won's face fell sharply.
"I bragged to our daughter about ordering her a big car..."
"No choice."
Jeong-woo drew a firm line.
It was the cleanest realistic option.
He had no attachment to the club anyway, so bankruptcy wasn't hard.
Just,
"The loss is the issue."
Even before inheriting, he'd lived hand-to-mouth.
Aid money vanished in under a week to overdue bills.
He'd often smuggled food from the club cafeteria for dinner.
And now bankruptcy?
If he went through with it, even what little he had would be stripped away.
Flat broke.
It hit him suddenly.
'Grandma was right.'
Before she passed, she'd warned him.
[If you meet your grandpa, don't even pretend to know him. He'll only bring you trouble, got it? Huh?]
Now he understood it was advice born of experience.
Having cried out all his tears these past days, Jeong-woo muttered dryly.
"And I'll crash at your place till the discharge. Play with our lovely niece."
"Ah, yeah... wait, what?"
Hee-won nodded mechanically, then his eyes widened.
"For real?"
Jeong-woo exhaled smoke through his nose and bared teeth.
"Yeah. Bankruptcy filing means restrictions on financial activity for a while. Plus, youth unemployment for 20-30s is sky-high these days."
"That's true, but..."
Hee-won's pupils shook faintly.
Jeong-woo tapped ash into the ashtray and brazenly piled on.
"I'm out of the club already. Hard to find work. Hell, no domestic club would take me. I've burned too many bridges. They'd see my name on the resume and send me packing."
*Boastful?* The word rose in his throat but he swallowed it.
Hee-won forced a smile and denied it.
"Nah, you're capable. You'll find something quick."
"Won't."
"You will."
Hee-won said it earnestly.
*Can't have this guy freeloading at our house...!*
Jeong-woo was a parasite among parasites.
Food would run out fast.
His daughter might love having him around, but his wife sure wouldn't.
Despite his thoughts, Hee-won kept up the positive smile.
"My grandma said it: Think negative, and only bad shit happens. So think positive. You can do it."
But Jeong-woo was no pushover.
He stared straight at Hee-won's wavering eyes and put force into his own.
"Think about it."
"Wha? Don't wanna."
Hee-won averted his gaze.
But Jeong-woo's words drilled into his ears.
"Everything gone, mentality shattered—think I'd live right? My body's aching already. Whole body's burning up, driving me nuts! What if I drop dead suddenly? Left to rot a year in this moldy semi-basement from stress?"
"Why you gotta go to extremes?"
Hee-won scrunched his already wrinkled face tighter and muttered.
Jeong-woo ignored it.
"You know? Some neighbors don't even know there's a semi-basement under this building."
Hee-won hadn't either, before Jeong-woo moved in.
"They think it's all storage. You think I'd die peacefully feeling that wronged?"
"..."
"And you? Think you'd live guilt-free if I died? That's why I'll mooch at yours—to prevent that."
Dogshit logic.
Hee-won shook his head.
"Jeong-woo, I kinda wanna kill you right now."
"Hang in there. I already got you a car."
"You're canceling it!"
"Yeah, decided. I'll keep your car order. I showed mercy, right? In exchange, I stay at yours."
"Your mercy can go fuck itself...!"
Knowing he couldn't beat Jeong-woo's shamelessness, Hee-won switched topics.
"So, what's Plan A?"
In that moment, Jeong-woo's eyes sharpened.
*Oh, this guy...?
Something was up, stirring anticipation.
Hee-won fully turned toward him.
Soon, Jeong-woo closed his eyes briefly, then opened them.
"That, we'll have to put our heads together and figure out seriously."
"..."
Hee-won mentally asked his late grandma.
*Do I really have to stick by this bastard?*