Become A Legend

Sung Min stood still for almost 10 minutes with his head down and his hands on his hips."Keep your heads up, it happens to the best of us," Yuji said as he tapped him on the shoulder. Sung Min walked into the dressing room, deep in his own world of disappointment that he barely notice the jeers and mocking remarks made by the fans. He got into their dressing room, picked up his bag and said goodbye to to his teamates. 

"We'll see you in the evening then," Ginjoru said to Sung Mim who just walked out without giving him any reply. 

 "How was the game?" Na-ri, Sung Min's girlfriend since highschool asked him minutes after he walked into the house.

"It was good, I thought you'd come." He sits down on a sofa. 

"What's the point of coming if you're not even going to play." She brings out two cups of coffee, and drops one in front of Sung Min then she sits down on another Sofa facing him.. 

"Babe you should've been there, it was the last game of the season, and I actually played" He sips some coffee. 

"Wow," Na-ri gently drops the cup of the coffee down on the table, surprised "what was the score?" 

"Umm.... nine.... zero.." 

Na-ri's eyes widened "Nine?! You guys conceded nine goals against that terrible team?" 

 "Yeah..." 

"Oh." She picks her coffee back up and takes a sip, she then dropped the coffee back on the table, took a deep breath and continued, "Sung Min there is something I want to tell you." 

"What is that?"

"Umm.. I don't know how to say this.." She rubbed her shoulders awkwardly. Then she got up and walked into a room, seconds later she reappeared and then sat back down with her legs crossed.

"What is it?" 

Na-ri gently drops a ring on the table, "I leaving." 

"Leaving? What do you mean? Who's ring is that?" 

"The ring is mine, someone asked me to marry him." 

"What are you talking about? I'm confused." 

"Sung Min," Na-ri sits up, clears her throat and then continued "I've enjoyed every moment I've spent with you, but I don't see any future with you. You barely make any money from football, I have to add a lot from my earnings to the little you make, for us to be able to sustain ourselves. This is not the life I want for myself, and I understand that playing football has always been your dream so I am not going to tell you to stop. But someone wants me to be his wife, someone that can support both me and my own dreams. And there was no way I could say no to that because of someone I am not sure I have a future with." 

Sung Min smiled because he didn't want the tears building up in his eyes to drop, "not today, I'm having a terrible day already." 

"It's over, babe." Na-ri picked up the ring on the table, and puts it on her engagement finger, then a knock rocked the door. "I'll get it." She walked to the door and opened it, a young man walked in, Son Dayeun, tall, well built. He tenderly hugs Na-ri, "did you finally tell him?"

"Yes..." Na-ri turned around for a quick glance at Sung Min and their eyes met. Sung Min's eyes was bloodshot, and his jaws was dropped. 

"You told me he was just a friend..." he said slowly. 

"He was, but at some point we fell in love with each other." Na-ri said, now completely saperated from the hug. 

"Babe go to the car," Dayeun said, then he kissed her on the lips, "I want to speak to Sung Min, man to man." 

"Okay, but don't waste time." Na-ri walked out of the door and closed it behind her. 

Dayeun starts walking closer to Sung Min, he dipped his hand into his pocket and took out a bundle of cash. "I hope you don't take this personal man, like they say, all is fair in love and war." 

He then dropped the bundle of cash on the table, " Na-ri told me that you have been struggling, this will help you get by for some months as you adjust." 

"I don't want your money." 

"Take it," He takes out another bundle and dropped it on the other one, "I watched your match today on the TV, and calling it an embarrassment will be a gross understatement." 

He pauses for a bit, then continued, "I know Na-ri is too nice and wouldn't want to tell you the truth, but I will do it. I am the sporting director and Co owner of the biggest football club in Korea, so I am more than fit to tell you this." 

He let out an arrogant smile, "give up on playing football, there is no future for you there anymore. You are 24 and you play like trash, you can no longer improve, this is your peak. I am telling you this as a friend, go find something else to do. While you are still young."

He then takes out a business card from his pocket and dropped it on the table, "when you finally decide to change careers, call me. The cleaning department in my club need more hands." 

Dayeun walked out of the door leaving it wide open.

The silence that befell the house was great, it felt very empty. The emptiness wasn't only felt in the house, it was greater inside of his soul. He slowly walked up the stairs, to his bed, then he threw himself on it, closed his eyes and dozed off. 

The constant buzzing of his phone woke him from his slumber, the environment was almost completely engulfed by darkness when he opened his eyes. Then he tapped on his phone screen. 

"Hello?" 

"Where are you? Everyone is already here we are waiting for you." A voice from the phone replied

" Tae Hyun?" 

"Yes, did I wake you from sleep?" 

"Ye.. no not really, I was already awake." Sung Min sat up on the bed. "Who did you say is waiting for me?"

"Have you forgotten about our little get together this evening?" 

"Oh.. that." Sung Min wipes the sweat off his face, 'was I crying?" 

"Sung Min are you still there?" Tae Hyun's voice snapped him back to reality, 

"Umm, I don't think I'll make it, so" 

"We won't start if you don't get here Mr Sung" The call cuts. 

Sung Min groaned and got up from bed, then he put on some clothes and started heading to Tae Hyun's place. 

Tae Hyun lived in an old 5 storey building, his apartment is on the third floor. 

Sung Min knocked on the door, and Tae Hyun answered. "Welcome man." Tae Hyun shook his hand, then pulled him in for a hug. "What happened man, you look like shit." 

"It's nothing..." 

The two walked to the sitting room where everyone else is, the whole team except the coach, the room wack packed with people. Everyone in the room was all smiles the moment they saw Sung Min walk in, "welcome bro." Was the words on every person's mouth. 

"Before we begin with the game, I have some few announcements I'll like to make." Tae Hyun said in a loud voice. 

"Are you finally going to retire?" A voice from the audience yelled. 

"No... actually I want to transition to female, go to Europe and become the best female player." Tae Hyun replied sarcastically. 

"It's funny you think you'd succeed as a female footballer bro." Another voice replied and the whole room roared in laughter. 

"What are you trying to say bro." Tae Hyun replied still laughing his ass out. 

A woman of 30 walked into the room, Tae Hyuns wife, she was carrying a tray filled with cupcakes, she then starts walking around the room for everyone to collect their cakes. Getting to Sung Min she took a very close look at him, then said, "What's wrong Sung Min? You look broken." 

"It's nothing Mrs Kim." Sung Min picked a cupcake from the tray and Mrs Lee moved on to another person while still taking quick glances at him.

"I said I wanted to make an announcement, here is it. After next season, the club will be dissolved. The coach told me this after our game today." Tae Hyun's words brought silence to the room filled with chatter and laughter. 

"Why?" Someone asked.

"Because of our bad performances in recent years, no one is willing to sponsor us anymore. No one comes to our games, no one buys our Jersey, no one watches us on TV. Because of all this, there is no money coming in anymore. And if there is no money coming in, we won't be able to pay anybody for long. The reason we didn't close up this season is because Yuji was sold to a division 1 team."

"Yuji is leaving?" Someone said in shock. 

"He's our best player... what are we even going to do next season without him. Might as well shut down the club now." Ginjoru said angrily. 

"Sorry you guys had to find out this way," Yuji said as he stood up, "I don't want the club to close down because of me, what I want is the opposite. That you guys, my friends, get to play for a bit longer. And if selling me will help achieve that, then I will happily leave." 

"No one asked you to say all that bro." 

Everyone bursted into laughter once again. Sung Min at this point stepped out of the room unnoticed, he strolled to the balcony for some fresh air. 

'Is it time for me to give up on all this? Give up on football. If the team gets dissolved by next year, no club in Korea is going to sign a useless player like me.' He pondered as he looked off at the beautiful scenery in front of him. Buildings lit up by light bulbs, then the moon hanging on the sky, watching over every thing. 

'I can't even do anything to help the team at this point, instead of dragging this on for one more year, I might as well quit today.' He took a deep breath,

'I hate to admit it but that jerk, Dayeun was right. It's time I gave up on my dream, at least I can proudly say that I tried. I did everything right, yet I still failed.'

 He took out his phone, typed a resignation letter, and then sent it as an email to his coach quickly to avoid changing his mind midway. Immediately he pressed the send button, it felt as if a big part of him left too. He took a deep breath, felt like crying but decided against it. He turned around to see a ball lying on the floor in corner, he walked up to where it was and kicked it up, then he started to juggle it with his feet. Juggling was one of the hardest skill he learnt in football, and then it turned out to be the only skill he could actually do. As he repeatedly kicked the ball up, his mind drifted off to thoughts of his future, of his girlfriend. Memories of when he was still happy flooded his mind. 

When he returned to reality he realised that he had kicked the ball a bit too high, and it was going to fly out of the balcony. He reached out to catch the ball but he lost his footing, slipped, and then fell off from the balcony. 

One moment he saw himself in mid air, the next moment he saw nothing, utter darkness. Slowly, his consciousness began to fade. 

'So, this is it for me. I wish I did more for everyone.'

[ Will you like to become a legend? ]

A male voice he had never heard before said while the words was floating in the darkness. 

'Is this the same words everyone hear just before they die?' 

[ You have 5 seconds to make your choice.] 

*5* 

'I always wanted to be a legend though,' 

*4*

'Like Pele, Maradona, Lionel Messi, Ronaldo, but in the end they were just pipe dreams of a child."

*2* 

*1* 

'Yes, I'll like to be a legend.'