Episode 2
* * *
A few days had passed since then.
The only thing I’d done since being discharged from the hospital was stay cooped up in a room with nothing but books.
“This is my room….”
Books stacked like a mountain.
I couldn’t see any novels or comic books anywhere.
It wasn’t even easy to find a title written in Hangul.
Books filled with English words even I, having lived abroad for so long, couldn’t make heads or tails of.
Just what kind of life did one have to lead for a room to end up like this?
“Sigh….”
When I exhaled, the lump of flesh attached to my stomach jiggled.
Where had my firm six-pack gone, and why had this lump of flesh been placed before me?
It was at times like these that it truly hit home.
“…I really did die.”
My cause of death was a heart attack.
Yes. A heart attack.
Does that make any sense?
That I, who had possessed the healthiest and most perfect body on Earth, had died of a heart attack?
I had merely shut my eyes for a brief moment.
And yet, the original me had died, and I had been shoved into this flabby, fat-laden body.
This was an agony that no one who hasn’t experienced it could ever understand.
I was someone who should have stood on the Ballon d’Or stage.
I was the one who should have claimed the 2028 Golden Ball.
And yet, look at me now.
I couldn’t bear this situation where everything had ended just as I was about to stand at the pinnacle of the world.
What had become of all the effort I’d put in, what had become of the career I’d built?
“Fuck….”
Anger flared up.
A tremendous rage I couldn’t suppress no matter how hard I tried.
My hand moved of its own volition.
Bam—!
I struck the wall without realizing it.
Pain surged through me, and only then did I come to my senses.
“This is….”
To think Ji Hakyeong of all people couldn’t control a single emotion.
It was ugly.
And shameful.
“What the hell am I doing….”
As I pressed my head against the wall, drowning in self-loathing, someone swung the door open.
A muscular man completely unlike me.
The family of this body, nonexistent in my previous life.
It was my older brother, I Seonghyeon.
“Hey, I Dohyeon. What are you doing?”
It was a voice as small as a mosquito, unbefitting his bulk.
So much so that it briefly reminded me of my manager.
It was a voice that stirred old memories, but I didn’t have the energy to care about such things.
I only wanted to hide this shameful display.
“I caught a mosquito.”
“…It’s December, though?”
“Maybe it was a fly.”
“Where the hell are there flies in winter, dumbass.”
“Then I caught something, alright.”
“……”
I Seonghyeon, who had been staring at me for a moment, finally spoke.
“Feeling suffocated?”
“……”
“Come out. You’ll feel better once you run.”
Normally, I would have gone out without a second thought.
Because anywhere was better than this damned room.
But I shook my head.
“I’m good.”
I Seonghyeon looked like he had plenty to say, but he didn’t urge me further.
He quietly left as he was.
Click—.
The room fell silent once more.
I rolled my eyes down to look at my legs.
One leg was grotesquely long.
This was the reason I hadn’t gone with I Seonghyeon.
*What kind of running could a guy with bad legs even do….*
If I ran with legs like these, I wouldn’t last long.
It would only be compared to my former body of steel.
It would only add to the self-loathing.
*…Football is over for me now.*
Rather than kicking a ball with a body like this, it would be better to start studying from this moment on.
No matter how much of a blockhead I am, isn’t that better than being a limping footballer?
That was something that could never succeed even if the heavens turned upside down.
My knees would just get destroyed.
Right.
My body is just a wreck….
…….
…….
Hm?
Wait….
*Hey, hold on.*
Suddenly, a player came to mind.
A Brazilian magic dribbler who had conquered the world alongside Pelé in the distant past.
Garrincha.
He had used his abnormally developed left leg to toy with countless players.
Moreover, the disability he possessed had evolved into a unique strength, and he would showcase dribbles that defenders simply couldn’t stop.
That player had been a cripple too.
He had been a disabled man whose right leg was 4 centimeters longer than his left.
*……But that’s Garrincha.*
He wasn’t a being you could compare to this lump of flesh.
It had only been possible because he possessed a left leg like steel, bestowed by the divine.
With such a pathetic body, even dreaming of it was impossible….
*…….*
Come to think of it, I hadn’t even examined this body yet, let alone touched it.
So there was no way I could know how developed it was.
*Ey, no way….*
There are people like that from time to time.
People who have muscles attach to all the right places even without exercising.
It was a characteristic seen in those commonly called geniuses.
I slowly moved my hand and grabbed my left leg.
Squish—.
It was an unquestionable lump of flesh.
* * *
Click—.
When I stepped outside, a cool breeze washed over me.
It was the Korean night air I was greeting after a long while.
A refreshing crispness of a completely different dimension from Barcelona’s sticky air flooded over me.
“Sss…! Haah….”
Taking several deep breaths, I walked slowly.
There was no discomfort in my gait.
It was thanks to the insole I had placed in the shorter leg.
*There’s no need to go around limping deliberately.*
But this was a luxury only possible in daily life.
I removed the insole, placed it in my pocket, and slowly began to run.
“Huff… Huff….”
Before even a minute had passed, I was out of breath.
Soon, my legs began to tremble as well.
If the insole had been in, my ankle would have twisted from my leg buckling.
That was why I had removed the insole.
“Kuh… Huff, keuk….”
A metallic taste quickly spread throughout my mouth.
It felt like my blood was flowing backward.
And I hadn’t even run for five minutes.
In the end, I fell flat on my face in the most pathetic way before even getting through the alley.
“Argh, damn it!”
Humiliation coursed through my entire body.
When I hurriedly looked around, there was no one in sight.
Thank god.
I sprawled out flat at the mouth of the alley and gazed up at the night sky.
“Haah… Haah….”
As I caught my breath, I recalled what had happened after I’d grabbed my left leg.
*—……Am I really a blockhead?*
I had thought after taking my hand off the leg.
There was one difference between Garrincha and me.
The position of the abnormally long leg.
It goes without saying, but weight always flows from top to bottom.
Therefore, it was only natural for the shorter leg to be more developed.
Since Garrincha’s shorter leg had been his left, it was natural for his left leg to have developed,
and since my shorter leg was my right, it was right that my right leg should be the developed one.
Clasp—.
The moment I touched my right leg, I was engulfed in a thrill.
Because within this body that looked like a lump of flesh and had likely never exercised a day in its life, I felt a hardness like steel.
Moreover, a leg like iron that wouldn’t pale in comparison to my younger self.
It was a leg that belonged to the realm of so-called innate talent.
That was why I had rushed straight out.
Wondering if this lump of flesh had done any regular exercise.
As expected, there was nothing of the sort.
The metallic taste lingering in my mouth was the proof of that.
A right leg already fully formed despite not having done any exercise whatsoever.
It was a miracle to me.
*This isn’t a joke; there’s really a chance.*
A second Messi, a second Ronaldo, a second Pelé—they exist.
But a second Garrincha absolutely does not.
His innate athletic ability and the destructive power of his God-given left leg were things that couldn’t be imitated from the very beginning.
Two legs of different lengths would display a new dribbling style never before seen.
Just as Garrincha had back then.
No, rather, to defenders who had been refined by the systematic training of the modern era, it would be even more fatal.
Perhaps I could play football even more special than I had in my previous life.
*I was called the Perfect Man. And if I add an irreplaceable dribbling ability to that….*
With a faint smirk, I rose from my spot once more.
The strange rhythmic sensation I felt while running.
That unique sensation was telling me.
Once again,
to stand tall at the pinnacle of the world.