Chapter 16.2: France!

Translator: Pineapple

Editor: Oer

August 11.

After Han Woo Jin arrived at the parking lot, he saw one person that he didn"t recognize. He noticed that person was looking at him and put out his hand.

"Nice to meet you, you"re player Han Woo Jin right?"

"Yes, but who are you?"

"Ah, sorry for not introducing myself. I"m that kind of person." The man said as he took out a business card from his pocket.

[Sports Agent Choi Joon Sung]

Cell phone: 010 - x.x.xX - x.x.xX

Email:

"Agent?"
"Yes, I"m the agent that"s taking care of player Choi Yeon Hyuk."

Once you saw this man he immediately looked pleasing to the eye. His eyebrows had a soft curve to them which reminded Han Woo Jin of a racc.o.o.n. If somebody came closer to him, they would instantly be relaxed around him.

Han Woo Jin slightly bowed his head and greeted him. If he"s Choi Yeon Hyuk"s agent, he must understand why he"s here.

"You"re also going to the Metz Open with him?" (HWJ speaking)
"Yes, it"s been a while since i"ve been to Europe, it"s not as great of a place as I expected." He answered with a smile. He was the type of person that was easily able to make those he speaks with feel good about him.

"Quit your chatter and get in the car. If we"re late and miss the plane ride that"s $5,000 down the drain."

"Yes, Coach."

They immediately listened to Coach Jeon"s words and got into the car. They entered a large van that had two more seats open after the six people entered the car.

Han Woo Jin wondered where they got this kind of car and suddenly Shin Sae Yeon greeted him.

"Come on in, Woo Jin ssi. How is your condition?"
"I"m good. Did you have a good vacation? Your face looks brighter."

"Should I start doing face packs from now on?"
"Uck, don"t tease me like that. I"m sorry."

They two of them jokingly spoke to each other about casual things. The two people didn"t hold back and it clearly showed that their relationship was a lot deeper than before.

Even Choi Yeon Hyuk looked at Han Woo Jin with a weird expression.

Inside of the van, the two teams of the players and agents sat in the back while Coach Jeon Sang Shik sat in the front to drive.

Han Woo JIn tapped the window that was connected to the driver"s seat. The window opened and he heard the tough voice of Coach Jeon.

"What?"
"Coach, are you going to drive?"
Han Woo Jin and choi Yeon Hyuk also had driver"s licenses. And the agents could also drive, so Coach Jeon didn"t need to be the one driving.

However, Coach Jeon refused them.

"I want to drive this car. Why? Do you want to drive?"
"…No, it"s okay.

Han Woo Jin quickly closed the window.

The matter was decided on who would drive before Han Woo Jin arrived so the others just smiled.

Han Woo Jin put on his seat belt and closed his eyes as the drive to Incheon airport would take over two hours. He will have time for plenty of sleep on the plane ride but recently he hasn"t had much time to sleep because of his training.

Choi Yeon Hyuk also closed his eyes and began nodding off.

Seeing the two players falling asleep, the two agents also went to sleep. The car immediately became silent.

Han Woo Jin and company soon arrived at the Incheon airport and left the car. Coach Jeon looked like he really enjoyed driving the big van, as he patted the car door before leaving.

As soon as the entered through the doors of the airport, they saw a large crowd of people. Shin Sae Yeon and Choi Joon Sung left to get the tickets and Coach Jeon wandered off, saying that he wanted to go explore the airport.

Now only the two players were left behind.

The two of them had blank expression inside the airport and felt like their dream was coming true, going to France.

"We"re going to France."

Choi Yeon Hyuk mumbled. Han Woo Jin felt an emotion in his voice. France ATP tour. It"s incredibly difficult for a Korean player to even reach the preliminaries in that kind of tournament, and he"s going to partic.i.p.ate in it.

But he will show them his true skills. He was surprised about going to France but there will still be many more opportunities in the future for him.

"We"re going to go there many times in the future."

"Are we?"
"We must."

He"s right. They must. This tournament isn"t the end, it should be the beginning and the stepping stone for their careers. The end of a tennis player"s goal isn"t just an ATP 250 tournament.

"This punk reached every goal."

He reached one of the four grand slams.

Korea"s tennis genius who received second place at the England, Wimbledon. He laughed  because that kind of prodigy is nervous about a measly ATP 250.

Choi Yeon Hyuk saw Han Woo Jin laughing and put on a curious expression.

"You"re not worried?"
"No way. I"m really nervous. I wanna pray to a cup/dish of water for some luck." (It was an old Korean saying/tradition thing that they did in the past for blessings)

In fact, Han Woo Jin"s mother Lee Yoo Lim tried that for him one time but his father nagged her for being superst.i.tious and she didn"t go through with it.

Choi Yeon Hyuk was curious why Han Woo Jin didn"t looked worried at all. He wondered how a person like him could show no expression at all.

Han Woo Jin answered with a cynical tone.

"What"s the use of worrying? The tournament will still go on regardless of whether we worry or not and our opponents are probably already decided. Isn"t it better to just not think about it rather than worrying about it and waste energy?"
"… Ah, I guess that works."

Somebody once said this.

The people in the world waste so much of their lives worrying about useless things.

They worried about things that could never happen in reality or things that cannot be changed even if they tried.

Choi Yeon Hyuk"s nervousness was like that. He cannot change anything about the tournament just by worrying about it.

The tournament will begin on the 21st and the schedule would have been decided by then regardless of what Choi Yeon Hyuk hoped for. Choi Yeon Hyuk understood that his concern was useless.

"I feel more refreshed thanks to you."

"You should say that to an air conditioner not me."

Han Woo Jin really didn"t like it when people thanked him because he felt awkward about receiving thanks. He didn"t know if it"s because he had a lack of social skills or because he was too shy about it.

He turned his face and pointed at the air conditioner with his chin.

Choi Yeon Hyuk chuckled at his friend"s awkwardness and Coach Jeon tapped their shoulders because he felt that their atmosphere changed from before.

"You guys don"t seem nervous anymore. If you guys constantly worry, then you won"t have any energy to worry about things that actually need worrying about. You guys need to relax while you have the time.

""Yes Coach.""

The two agents came back with the tickets and continued to where their plane was leaving. Because there weren"t many people to their destination, they finished the airport procedures quickly.

They pa.s.sed the baggage check point and saw a tax free store inside the airport. n.o.body was interested in that shop except for Coach Jeon who wanted to buy some cigarettes.

Their boarding time would begin shortly, so they kept moving forward without checking out the small shops.

Shin Sae Yeon showed the plane tickets to the employee at the gate and pa.s.sed through and got onboard the plane to Paris Charle de Gaulle airport.

The flight was predicted to take 12 hours and 48 minutes.

It was a long flight but they had the opportunity to sleep for half a day.

Han Woo Jin sat down in his seat and Shin Sae Yeon sat one seat behind him.

This was his first time taking a plane to Europe, even including his "previous" life.

"Does it usually take this long?"

Shin Sae Yeon looked as if she expected this question and nodded her head and spoke. An agent needs to know even the smallest information about airplane schedules and flight times.

"This is nothing. This plane is headed straight for France nonstop, which is why it"s 12 hours. If it wasn"t then it would take an entire day."

"A day…"

Just thinking about it made Han Woo Jin felt fed up. He can"t stand the idea of just sleeping or reading a book inside this tiny s.p.a.ce. It would be very difficult for a person like him who likes moving around.

In contrast, Coach Jeon looked excited. He took out a pamphlet and began reading it.

If President Jo didn"t plan for this special contract, Han Woo Jin would never dream of going to places like Europe until he retired. It didn"t matter the goal, just traveling abroad was a great experience for them that made them excited. Not even Coach Jeon was an exception.

"Huehuehue… when we"re done with the tournament, I should be able to take back some wine right?"

He was very excited about that idea. Coach Jeon was excited about getting drunk on wine, but Choi Yeon Hyuk, looked to be in peace. Han Woo Jin"s small pep talk seemed to have made an impact on him.

Choi Yeon Hyuk didn"t worry about the coming tournament anymore and looked at the scene of Incheon Airport outside of his window.

After 15 minutes the captain"s voice came on the intercoms and spoke to the pa.s.sengers. The plane soon took off with little movement and sound.

It hadn"t been long since the plane flew up into the sky until the voice sounded that said that the pa.s.sengers could get up. The pa.s.sengers one by one unfastened their seat belt according to the announcement.

Han Woo Jin was about to go to the restroom, asked Choi Joon Sung who was typing furiously in his notebook.

"Choi Joon Sung ssi, is there internet on the plane?"

"Ah, I"m not using the internet, I"m just organizing the players list who are playing in this tournament."

"Can I take a look at it?"

"I"m not finished yet. I"ll show you later."

He answered like that but if Han Woo Jin wanted to see the list while Choi Joon Sung said that then that would be bad manners. But as Han Woo Jin moved to go to the restroom he accidentally saw a name from the corner of his eye.

Andr…

"Hm?"
Something about that name triggered his brain. He had a weird feeling as if a piece of paper didn"t fully fit into a drawer.

He gave up because he couldn"t remember the name.

He was the one who told Choi Yeon Hyuk to stop worrying a while back, but now he was the one worrying.

He dreaded the idea of spending 12 more hours on the plane and opened the restroom door.

In fact, it was a good thing that he did not see the full name of that player, for if he did, Han Woo Jin probably wouldn"t have been able to get a wink of sleep.

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