Episode 4
4. Tryout
Immediately after Baekho claimed victory, Flex Gym went out for a team dinner.
Na Jeongho cracked open a bottle of soju, looking disappointed.
“Man, if only Baekho wasn’t a kid, I’d teach him judo, I tell you. Want some?”
“Director. That’s dangerous talk.”
Beside him, Sambo Coach Ma Hansang gave him a scolding while pouring cola into a glass.
“For you, this is enough, right?”
“Of course. Finally, I can eat all the meat I want!”
Baekho drooled as he watched the meat sizzling on the grill.
Given his physique, cutting weight wasn’t difficult for Baekho.
His average weight was 82kg, and the amateur middleweight class was 75kg.
But that didn’t mean there were no dietary restrictions.
Baekho’s body was a mass of muscle. Naturally, reaching his target weight while maintaining that muscle was inevitably difficult.
So the feast after a match was something he had longed for.
Under the pleased expressions of his Flex Gym seniors, Baekho began repeatedly wrapping rice and meat in lettuce and shoving them into his mouth.
Na Jeongho stacked three slices of meat at once and put them in his mouth.
He then downed a shot of soju.
“Kyaah~ Baekho’s skills are the same in boxing, too. No, did you say you originally do boxing?”
“Yes. I’ve been doing it since fifth grade in elementary school.”
“Baekho. But isn’t boxing on the decline these days? I heard it’s tough. Have you thought about switching to MMA?”
Na Jeongho looked expectant. But Baekho was firm.
“I plan to do both. But I’m starting with boxing.”
“What a shame. No, if you really went into MMA, you’d be a real gem.”
Na Jeongho continued to express his regret, but Baekho had been consistent from the beginning.
Boxing first, then MMA.
‘I definitely switched to MMA, but it was too late.’
He had joined MMA late, learning it after being a boxing prospect.
Having regressed after working hard to learn it, he was confident he could do well in that area too.
But fundamentally, he believed the place where he had to succeed was boxing.
‘This life will be different!’
The discipline that had led him to the stage of fighting, the first gloves he ever grabbed.
It was a barren field in Korea, but he was determined to make a name for himself in that very boxing.
Baekho resolved to start anew from there.
He was trying to properly undo the first button that had been fastened wrong.
‘And crucially, the pay is better.’
That wasn’t to say he was choosing boxing first simply out of honor.
It might be past its prime domestically, but worldwide, boxing’s popularity was incomparable to MMA’s.
The fight purses and the fame of superstars were on another level entirely.
Baekho believed that starting with boxing was the right answer, both realistically and ideally.
‘I’ll make use of my MMA knowledge slowly, later on.’
For now, he was just building up the basics.
After wrapping up the after-party with them, Baekho returned home proudly with his medal.
‘They’ll be happy when I show them.’
But Baekho thought he still lacked much more.
‘This might be enough domestically. But to go out into the world, I have to work twice as hard as everyone else.’
Oscar De La Hoya, who had once dominated the boxing world, had once said this:
[“It might sound cliché, but to succeed, work twice as hard as everyone else. That’s the only advice I can give.”]
You couldn’t get ahead by putting in the same effort as everyone else.
Baekho realized he needed drastic measures to do so.
He had to tell his parents about that decision now.
The evening Baekho returned after finishing his match. At the dinner table with both parents gathered, Baekho shared his news along with the gold medal.
“A gold medal?”
“Our son won?”
His parents stroked their child with emotional expressions.
“Haha.”
Baekho felt his heart ache, remembering how his parents had been happy when he won even before his regression.
But the truly important conversation was just beginning.
Baekho gulped.
“Dad, Mom, I have something important to tell you.”
The two, who had been joyful, grew serious at Baekho’s grave expression.
His father had him sit down right away.
“Looks like you’ve made a big decision.”
“Yes. I thought you might be disappointed……”
Baekho brought it up with a trembling heart.
“I’m not going to attend high school. I’ll take the high school equivalency exam instead.”
“……”
“……”
A brief silence. Baekho felt like he was sitting on pins and needles.
Even though he was an athlete, he didn’t know how Korean parents would take the declaration of giving up on school.
His mother took Baekho’s hand. A warm touch, a warm gaze. Baekho’s anxiety seemed to ease a little.
“Do you really have to?”
“I’m going the athletic route; I can’t do the same as everyone else. It’s not just talent—effort has to go with it. I’d rather devote all three years of high school to training.”
That’s right. Baekho hadn’t felt the need to study in high school from the very beginning.
Since he was an athlete. He wanted to spend those three years honing boxing and MMA and other martial arts.
“I keep up with my studies enough. I’m good at English and Japanese too! So… not attending high school is enough.”
“Hmm……”
Soon, his father, who had been silent with arms crossed, finally spoke.
“Do it.”
“What?”
Fortunately, he had given permission immediately.
“A-are you sure?”
“If an athlete wants to work hard, isn’t that how it has to be?”
“That’s true, but……”
His father patted his shoulder.
“Dad has talked a lot with his friends about your future, too. They say there are many kids in arts and sports who don’t even try hard even though it’s tough. But our Baekho isn’t like that, as you can see.”
“Dad……”
“What parents wouldn’t support their child going into arts and sports? Do as you wish. Go challenge yourself without regrets.”
“Thank you!”
Baekho hugged his father with a happy face. His mother also wrapped her arms around Baekho’s back, and the love between the family grew.
But it wasn’t over yet.
After giving his permission, the father asked one more thing.
“So then, Baekho, what kind of boxer do you want to become?”
“Oh my, honey! Of course he should become a flashy boxer like Ali! He’s so popular.”
“What Ali, have you not seen George Foreman? He knocks opponents down left and right—have you seen that punching power? He lived to a healthy old age too!”
“……”
While his parents’ tastes split to extremes, Baekho began slowly stepping back.
‘A familiar pattern.’
In his head, scenes replayed endlessly where someone sulked after being forced to choose “I like Mom” or “I like Dad.”
Like a cat in a cartoon, he was carefully withdrawing when he heard his father’s voice.
“Baekho.”
“Yes, Dad?”
“What kind of boxer do you want to be?”
The moment the dreaded question finally arrived, Baekho’s gaze darted about frantically.
“B-both are excellent boxers.”
“If you had to pick one?”
His mother smiled and grabbed his shoulder so he couldn’t escape.
“Uh… Ali is… cooler, right?”
“See? Our son takes after his mom.”
His mother jumped up, and simultaneously his father’s expression hardened.
“Son. George Foreman is cool, right? A boxer like that is the best—just like Dad.”
“R-right?”
Baekho had a foot in both camps, but all he got in return were his parents’ icy glares.
“Pick one.”
“Phew.”
Baekho looked more exhausted than during a match.
* * *
The winter of November 2017 was unusually warm. So much so that mosquitoes were still buzzing around his ears.
Smack!
Baekho’s dynamic vision succeeded in catching the mosquito as it tried to disappear from sight.
‘Flying in a damn crazy trajectory.’
Watching the mosquito’s bizarre up-and-down flight path, Baekho touched the string of the tap ball on his head.
The tap ball, which he was regularly practicing with to strengthen his dynamic vision, bounced once in midair.
Using his prediction and dynamic vision, Baekho intercepted the mosquito’s route.
“Got it!”
He found the crushed mosquito corpse in his hand and felt satisfaction.
Having dealt with the annoying mosquito, Baekho had made an important decision for that day.
‘For my future plans going forward, I have to secure it by any means necessary.’
That’s right. Now that he had one accomplishment to his name, it was time to launch a full-fledged job hunt(?) as a middle schooler.
Baekho tried his best to recall everything he knew.
‘For pro team player selection, it all depends entirely on the head coach.’
The Korean Amateur Boxing Championships were usually divided into three classes.
High school, collegiate, and general divisions.
Naturally, the further up you went, the higher and stronger the level.
Above all, the general division athletes had to produce results as members of professional teams to earn their keep.
If they didn’t, their annual salaries would be cut, so they were desperate.
‘That’s why the general division tournaments are so much fiercer than the others.’
Even if a pro championship tournament was held, the number of athletes signing one-year short-term contracts to compete would surge.
Baekho was able to confirm the name Son Uhyeon he had found through the internet.
[Seoul Boxing Professional Team ‘Hanmyeong Insurance’ Launched!]
The Hanmyeong Insurance professional team. The coach who would teach him the most systematic training he knew of right now.
That’s why he would devote his three years there.
The deeper you went into boxing training, the harder it was to do alone.
He needed a coach who could guide him in the right direction with the same goals.
That was precisely why Baekho sought out Son Uhyeon despite having knowledge himself.
‘There’s no way he’ll recruit me, right?’
But there were no head coaches who would recruit a player who would only be a high schooler next year.
That was why Baekho had come after conquering a tournament. He needed at least one result.
For high school and college divisions, the affiliated team was the school they attended, but for professional teams, certain conditions were naturally required.
‘They recruit players on an ad-hoc basis. It’s unavoidable given the nature of professional sports, but that might actually work in my favor.’
The way professional teams recruited roster players was not through open applications.
To be exact, it could be called “the head coach’s game.”
If a city office or some corporation launched a professional team, they would first hire a head coach.
And that head coach would select the players. How? Through back channels.
Others might find it absurd, but the majority of Korean professional teams recruited players through the coach’s personal network.
That was why Baekho was aiming to pitch himself, a middle schooler, into the mix.
‘It’s crazy, but if the head coach gives permission, it’s enough. That’s all there is to it.’
The coach would submit formal approval documents, and the city office or corporation would approve them.
Since people who knew less about sports than the head coach were a dime a dozen, player selection was left to his discretion.
In exchange, he bore the risk. If the results were terrible, he’d be the next to be kicked out after the players.
In other words, he had to meet him somehow and convey his sincerity.
‘I know. Head Coach Son Uhyeon is said to clash a lot over his training methods.’
After leaving to open his own gym following his partnership with An Gihwan, he admitted in an interview that there had been friction during his time as head coach.
[“It was clearly more efficient and took less time. But they complained a lot because it wasn’t familiar.”]
Everyone is like that at first.
“I was too.”
Baekho had also struggled at first because Coach Gerard Cannon’s method hadn’t suited his body.
But Baekho had wasted time and eventually drilled it into his body for a life in combat sports.
[“On top of that, a young coach called the gym owner and meddled in everything. It was a really difficult time.”]
The reason Baekho knew their news so well was that they were the only ones who had stood out and been active in Korean boxing.
He had been incredibly envious watching them talk about new training methods and run all the way to the championship.
‘I should have been in their place.’
He had yielded that spot to them back then, but now it was different.
Because Baekho could seize the opportunity and soar again.
“Sigh. They’re not going to treat me like a crazy kid, are they?”
No matter how confident Baekho was, challenging a professional team was an incredibly difficult task.
If he could at least take a test, he could prove himself. But showing up unannounced was practically insane.
“First, I’ll call and ask.”
Baekho searched the internet repeatedly for “confident self-introduction phrases.”
“Phew……”
At a moment more nerve-wracking than a boxing match, Baekho’s fingers finally began pressing the phone keypad.
[Hanmyeong Insurance Professional Team]
With each digit pressed, Baekho’s heart burned hotter.
‘Start confidently! Don’t chicken out!’
After a few seconds of composing himself, the dial tone connected.
[Hello! This is Coach I Minsu of the Hanmyeong Insurance Professional Team.]
Coach. At that word, Baekho gulped.
“Hello! My name is Yong Baekho.”
“Yes, Mr. Yong Baekho. What is this call regarding?”
“Um… I want to join a professional team, so I wanted to know how to join.”
“Our professional team? Haha, if you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?”
This was the most important part.
‘The internet said if it’s an unfavorable answer, don’t just answer and stop—connect it to a strength.’
Baekho completed the sentence in his head to put what he’d learned to use.
“Yes. I’m a third-year middle schooler!”
“A third-year middle schooler? What? Really?”
The moment he revealed he was a third-year middle schooler, a scoffing voice rang out.
“Hey, hey. Stop joking around and go study.”
“W-wait! I… I… I won a tournament, you know? I want to join and train next year!”
Words popped out like a rapper’s in his urgency.
“Ha, Baekho. This isn’t a place for jokes. My time is precious, so come back after you graduate with some results.”
“Let me at least take a test——”
Click.
The call ended just like that. It might have been too much, but he had expected it to some degree.
Baekho gritted his teeth.
“Well, I just have to go find him.”
Without hesitation. Baekho headed straight for the location of the Hanmyeong Insurance Professional Team.