00007 A Special Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Saaah—
Feeling the chilly mountain breeze against his throbbing head, Minjun raised his eyelids.
"Nnngh…."
The pain swirling around his temples made it difficult to open his eyes properly, but he felt that something about the objects entering his vision was strange.
"Huh? This is… up a tree?"
He was clearly sprawled limply atop the tree he had climbed down from earlier, like laundry hung out to dry, and looking at the sky, he could tell that quite a bit of time had passed.
"Gasp!"
Forgetting the pain in his surprise, Minjun quickly climbed down the tree with the feeling that he had forgotten something.
"Huh? Junmin! Where did Junmin go?"
Flustered that Junmin, whom he had been talking with, was nowhere to be seen, Minjun looked around in every direction. Wondering if he had mistaken everything for a dream, he checked for the bellflower roots he had gathered to present to his mother.
But as expected, they weren't there, allowing him to realize that it definitely hadn't been a dream.
"Di… did a ghost bewitch me? No, he was kind……?"
He had said he would grant his parents' health and help him become a soccer player, which was his dream, so it didn't seem like the work of a ghost.
"Then… what is it?"
The moment he tilted his head in confusion, Minjun saw something bizarre unfurl before his eyes.
Name: Kim Minjun
Date of Birth: November 24, 1987
Nationality·Age: Republic of Korea·11 years old
Height·Weight: 140.2cm·36kg
Dominant Foot·Weak Foot: None
Position: None
Ability Stats
●Attacking - 15
Shooting 15
Finishing 16
Mid-Range Shot 14
●Passing - 19
Short Pass 22
Long Pass 18
Cross 17
●Technique - 13
Heading 10
Positioning 21
Individual Technique 12
Penalty Kick 10
Free Kick 12
●Defense - 14
Sliding Tackle 14
Standing Tackle 12
Man Marking 16
Defensive Organization 14
●Speed - 21
Top Speed 20
Acceleration 23
Agility 22
Dribbling Speed 19
●Physical - 24
Stamina 25
Power 24
Body Balance 23
"What is… this?"
Having read through the letters flickering before his eyes, Minjun honestly couldn't help but be dazed.
Forgetting that it was getting late, he stared blankly at this for a long while, reading and trying his best to understand the situation he had found himself in.
But the only conclusion that came to him was the worry that he might have fallen ill with some disease causing hallucinations.
"I've never done anything bad…?"
He rubbed his eyes, yet it remained; he opened and closed his eyes countless times, yet the user information remained. Seeing at the end that it would disappear if he wished for Football Edit to turn off, he tried it on a whim.
When he did, the letters that had been floating there vanished as if by a lie, and after spacing out again, he repeated turning it on and off, realizing that this wasn't a dream or a hallucination, but the reality that some tremendous event had occurred.
As he tried his best to accept the situation, a thought suddenly flashed in his mind—none other than concern for his parents.
He had clearly said he wished for his parents' health, and seeing this strange change in himself, he couldn't help but worry about their well-being in many ways, wondering if something like this might have happened to them as well.
He quickly shouldered his bag, gathered his things, and ran home, arriving when it was nearly 8 in the evening.
"Mother! Father!"
"Kim Minjun! Didn't Mom tell you not to come home this late? No matter how much you like playing, this is too much. Didn't Mom tell you to be back in time for dinner?"
"Aah…"
Seeing his mother looking ordinary, unlike himself, Minjun felt immense relief and his legs gave out, making him slump down. Startled by Minjun's sudden state, Yeonhui, who had been about to scold him, approached him in surprise.
"Minjun! Are you okay? Oh my! What have you been doing to get this dirty……."
As she carefully examined his shoe bag and backpack, Yeonhui couldn't help but be shocked to see them full of arrowroot roots, realizing Minjun had come from the mountain.
"You were in the mountains all this time!? How dangerous!"
"Well… I'm sorry. I fell asleep in the mountains without realizing it."
"What? You really… No, first go wash up and drink something warm. Goodness!"
Seeing Minjun squirm and glance at her nervously as she kept pressing him, she decided to let it slide for today since he himself seemed to be reflecting after such a fright, and dragged him to the bathtub to let his body warm in the hot water.
For now, scolding him was secondary; what mattered most was that Minjun's body temperature was quite chilly, so she couldn't let him catch a cold. Above all, unlike Minjun who had come home, her husband Suman had promised to come home early but was out of contact, perhaps having a hearty drink or two.
* * *
Life had changed.
After obtaining the strange thing called Football Edit, Minjun paid extremely close attention to his parents' health, and one day, he heard something truly astonishing in their bedroom.
It was that his mother, who had always been sickly, had regained her health to a degree beyond that of a normal person, and through this, he realized that Junmin, whom he had met at the foot of Songam Mountain, had not lied.
Whatever kind of being he was, he had granted Minjun's wish in exchange for just a single bellflower root, and had also bestowed upon him something to help him play soccer well.
Thus, to express his gratitude, Minjun gathered bellflower roots and various other things and went to the place where they had met, but he could not find Junmin. He simply placed them atop the tree where he and Junmin had talked and spoke.
"This isn't a dream. What I experienced is definitely reality… and I'm truly grateful. You granted my wish… and gave me something that helps me with soccer, which I wanted to do well in. I don't really know what kind of being you are, but thank you so much. And through effort, constant effort… I'll become a great soccer player. You've disappeared, but… the thing called Football Edit that you made still remains. Believing that you're watching, I'll work hard."
It was a brief connection.
At most, it had been less than 20 minutes, a relationship that had remained one of mere curiosity.
But Junmin had called him a special friend and had fulfilled everything for him.
And so, Minjun made a resolution.
When Junmin… Doughnut Kepler II returned here, having created and bestowed such a thing upon him, he would become a soccer player of a level he wouldn't be ashamed of.
From that day on, Minjun clearly set his dream of becoming a soccer player and held a secret he could tell no one.
---------------------------= Author's Afterword ---------------------------=
Bowing, bowing.