ASR 3

Chapter 3

[That is an excellent mindset.]

The angel praised me enthusiastically as I made my firm resolution.

For a moment, the faint resentment I felt toward it for choosing me as an apostle rose to the surface, then faded away.

When I thought about it, if I hadn’t become an apostle, I wouldn’t have met my family.

[So, what are you going to do from now on?]

First of all…

I had to become a football player, didn’t I?

[Then I suppose you should join a youth team somewhere.]

Right.

Joining a football team would be the beginning.

And to do that, I would have to convince my parents.

[Yes. You are a minor, so you cannot even begin without your parents’ consent.]

Exactly.

My mind might have become that of an adult, but physically, I was still a minor.

I was too young to do whatever I wanted without my parents’ permission.

I needed to convince Mom…

Just then, I heard the sound of buttons being pressed on the digital door lock.

Ah. Was it already that time?

I pushed aside my thoughts, left the bathroom, and looked toward the front door.

Mom walked in.

My mother, Han Ji-eun.

Like me in my previous life, my mother had been an orphan.

An orphan becoming an English teacher at a private academy wasn’t exactly common.

Even from what I remembered, there were only a handful of orphans who had overcome difficult circumstances and attained a high level of education.

There hadn’t been a single one at my orphanage.

The nun who ran the orphanage wasn’t exactly a bad person, but strangely enough, many of the children ended up going down dark paths after becoming adults.

But my mother had worked hard and become an academy teacher.

That alone was remarkable.

“Son, what’s gotten into you? You’re greeting me at the door like this?”

“Who knows?”

Come to think of it, I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d been affectionate toward my mother.

As I’d entered adolescence, I’d grown a little distant from my family.

You know that feeling, don’t you?

The feeling that you’re all alone in the world.

Of course, that was a luxury.

You had to be abandoned by your parents, beaten half to death by older boys at an orphanage as some kind of initiation ritual, or be adopted only to get abandoned again and sent back to the orphanage before realizing just how precious it was to have perfectly normal parents.

And that was exactly what I had been doing.

Well, it was probably normal for kids my age who had lived ordinary lives.

It was Jang Ik-deok’s life that had been unusual.

“You’re hungry, aren’t you, sweetheart? Mom will make you dinner!”

My mother taught children at the academy even in the evenings, but she always made time in the middle of her schedule to come home and prepare dinner for me.

This was that time.

Back then, all I’d done was complain that I didn’t want home-cooked food and whine for money so I could buy mala tang instead.

What a spoiled little bastard I was.

“Mom, wait a second.”

“…’Mom’? And you’re speaking politely all of a sudden? Are you sick?”

Mom looked at me with concern.

Was me speaking politely really that alarming?

To be honest, even I felt a little awkward.

I’d always spoken casually to my parents before.

But now that the memories of my previous life had returned, I found it difficult to speak to them as casually as before.

“I’m not sick. Oh, and you don’t have to make dinner tonight.”

“Huh? Why? Do you want to order something? Should I get you some mala tang? Or a hamburger?”

I shook my head.

“I’ll make it for you.”

“…My son? Making dinner?”

Mom looked absolutely horrified.

Well, that was understandable.

Choi Yo-han had never cooked anything in his life.

But Jang Ik-deok was different.

“I’m serious. Mom, I practiced because I wanted to cook for you and Dad.”

“R-Really…?”

“Yeah. It won’t take long, so sit down and wait for a bit. Have something to eat before you go back to the academy. Don’t just fill yourself up with triangle kimbap.”

Because the timing of dinner was awkward, Mom often filled her hungry stomach with something quick and simple.

Honestly, even before I remembered my previous life, I hadn’t liked that.

Why did she have to work without even eating a proper meal?

Why was she working so hard to earn money?

I’d actually thought things like that.

Even though she was obviously earning that money for me.

Anyway, what should I make?

I’d impulsively said I would prepare dinner for her, but…

Jang Ik-deok had lived alone for a long time, so he was actually quite skilled at cooking.

But I couldn’t suddenly prepare some complicated dish as Choi Yo-han and shock Mom.

Right.

Something simple would be best.

I took rice from the rice cooker and eggs, oyster sauce, and green onions from the refrigerator.

I decided to make egg fried rice.

Deliberately pretending to be clumsy, I infused oil with the aroma of green onions and began stir-frying the rice.

I made sure the fluffy grains of rice were balanced perfectly with the fragrance of soy sauce, the savory richness of oyster sauce, and the nutty flavor of eggs.

Then I placed the finished fried rice in front of Mom.

“Here, Mom. Eat.”

“Oh my goodness. Did my son really make this?”

“Yeah. Try it and see if it tastes good.”

Mom’s face immediately broke into a smile so wide that her mouth nearly reached her ears.

She seemed happy simply because her son had cooked a meal for her.

“If my son made it, anything would taste delicious.”

Saying that, she scooped up a spoonful of rice and put it into her mouth.

She chewed a few times.

Then her eyes widened.

“What? Why is this actually good?”

“I told you, I’ve been practicing whenever I’m home alone.”

“This is seriously delicious. My son has a talent for cooking! You could become a chef!”

“I don’t want to be a chef.”

“Really?”

Of course not.

I hadn’t been reincarnated to become a chef.

I casually asked my mother,

“What do you think… if your son became a football player?”

Mom paused at my question and fell into thought.

Of course she had to think about it when I mentioned football.

My family loved football.

Even my name, Yo-han, hadn’t been chosen because my family was Christian or Catholic.

My grandfather was a fan of Johan Cruyff and named me after him.

Everyone in my family loved football.

Mom herself was a passionate Chelsea supporter.

So wouldn’t she approve if her son said he wanted to play football?

…You’d think so, but no.

“Hmm… You don’t even like running, and suddenly you want to play football? Son, football isn’t easy. Do you know how hard it is? And you’re already too old to start. If you start now, you’ll never become a professional.”

Ah.

I was the problem.

My mother loved me, but she wasn’t the type to simply sympathize and blindly support everything I wanted.

My mother was an extreme T.

“Let’s talk about that when the whole family is together. And from now on, you don’t have to come home just to make me dinner. I’ll take care of my own meals. I even know how to cook rice. Well, the electric rice cooker does most of the work, but still.”

“After seeing you cook today, I suppose that might be all right. Still, if possible, Mom wants to cook for you…”

I firmly shook my head.

“I’m not a little kid anymore. I’ll ask you to order something for me whenever there’s something I want to eat.”

“Well… okay. Let’s talk about that too when the whole family is together.”

Mom seemed uncomfortable with the idea of not taking care of her child’s dinner.

After eating with me and chatting for a while, she checked the time and hurried back to the academy.

“Mom being against it… I guess I’m facing an obstacle right from the start.”

[It is fine. There is no parent who can defeat their child. If you continue to show enough passion, they will eventually allow you.]

I couldn’t agree with the angel.

There were parents who abandoned their children.

Wasn’t it possible for parents to defeat their children too?

[Is that so? Are your parents that type?]

Hmm.

Actually, no.

Mom pointed out reality so coldly because she wanted me to make a careful decision.

If I made up my mind, though, she was the kind of person who respected my decision and supported me.

[What about your father?]

Dad?

Well, the final decision-maker in our family wasn’t Dad—it was Mom.

So I should be fine.

It wasn’t because Mom was domineering or anything.

She was simply the most rational person in the family.

If Mom was rational and methodical, Dad was emotional and spontaneous.

They were complete opposites.

Still, while I loved Mom, I loved that side of Dad too.

He wasn’t authoritarian.

He was easygoing and fun.

Whenever his wife or son was sick, he’d stay up all night taking care of them before casually going to work the next day. If the sick person wanted something to eat, he’d go out of his way to find it and bring it back.

He was a warm person.

“If I say I want to do something, Dad will probably just tell me to go for it.”

Dad was the type of person who supported me first if there was something I wanted to do.

He didn’t worry about the circumstances or what came afterward.

He was definitely different from Mom.

“Besides, Dad used to be a football player.”

[For a family you were randomly born into, you have quite a good environment. Your father was a former player, after all.]

“Only until college, though.”

From the perspective of someone who had once been called the greatest player in Korean football history, it wasn’t much of a career—if it could even be called a career.

But in reality, he’d made it pretty far.

Most people who started playing football failed to get recruited after high school and tried to enter university instead. Even then, many couldn’t find a place, while others struggled in the K3 League or even lower divisions before eventually giving up their dreams.

Of those who started playing football around elementary school age, only about 0.1 percent ever made it to the professional leagues.

Only around 3 percent made it to university teams or company-sponsored teams.

Dad had at least made it past that three-percent threshold.

If he’d performed well in the university league, he might even have crossed into the K League.

But an injury stopped him.

A torn anterior cruciate ligament.

A devastating injury for any player.

For someone dreaming of becoming a professional footballer, it was practically a death sentence.

[That is an unfortunate story.]

Actually, there were plenty of stories like that in my family.

My grandfather had been a former player too.

[Your grandfather?]

“Yeah.”

Grandpa had made it all the way to the K League.

He retired relatively early, at the age of thirty, but he’d spent a long time as a regular rotation player in the league.

I’d never heard the full details of his career, but he once told me that there had been a season when he’d performed so well in the K League that he had even been considered for the national team.

Unfortunately, the national team call-up never happened.

And even now, Grandpa still considered it one of the greatest regrets of his life.

[Your family has many regrets when it comes to football.]

That’s right.

When I thought about it, that was true.

Dad had failed to become a professional.

Grandpa had failed to become a national team player.

Both of them had come close enough to almost touch their dreams.

But in the end, neither had reached them.

“If I succeed as a player, I’ll become the greatest filial son in this family’s history.”

[Shouldn’t you convince your mother first?]

That was true too.

First, I needed to get Dad on my side.

If Dad and I persuaded her together, Mom would at least seriously consider it.

A little after eight, Dad returned home from work.

The moment he walked in, I told him that I wanted to play football.

“Football?”

“Yes.”

“Football… It’ll be tough, you know. You weren’t interested in football before, were you? Why all of a sudden?”

Dad looked at me curiously.

The entire family loved football, but I was the only one who had never shown much interest.

I liked watching game streams more than watching football.

What should I say?

After thinking about it for a moment, I decided to make up a vague excuse.

“The kids at school said I’m really good at football and told me I should give it a try.”

“Hmm.”

Dad crossed his arms and looked at me.

“The kids said that?”

I nodded.

Dad thought about it for a moment.

Then—

“Sure. If you want to do it, you should!”

He nodded without hesitation.

What a cool guy.

There was no second thought.

If I wanted to do it, then I should.

“Is it really okay to give me permission that easily?”

“You said you wanted to do it.”

“What if I fail?”

Dad snorted and smiled.

Then he ruffled my hair.

“Why are you already worrying about something like that? You’re just a middle school kid. You haven’t even properly started yet.”

“Huh?”

“You think you’re all grown up? You’re not. You’re still a minor. It’s okay to fail as many times as you need to. Even if you fail, you’ve got your mom and dad, don’t you?”

Dad smiled.

“Parents are there to clean up after their children while they’re growing up and making mistakes. Leave what comes afterward to Dad and go challenge yourself right now.”

I pressed my lips tightly together.

Back when I was Jang Ik-deok, I had no parents like that.

And I had been afraid every day.

But now…

There was nothing to be afraid of.

I’d already lived one life.

In a sense, I was already an adult.

Yet a single sentence from Dad made me feel safer than ever.

“I’ll… do my best not to fail.”

“That’s the spirit. Do your best!”

Dad grinned and stood up.

“But, Yo-han.”