1 [Chapter 1] Best moment?

"congratulations. With this victory, Team SKY's unified Grand Slam championship was decided. Everyone is saying that the person who made the biggest contribution to achieving this feat is the coach. What do you think about this?"

Lee Sang-hyeok rejected most of the interviews that came after winning the championship, but he could not even refuse an interview with LGN (Live Game Net), which had been in charge of relaying the SKY team's live broadcast for a long time.

"It's not my ball, it's the players and coaches' ball. I was just giving them little advice."

Humble Lee Sang-hyeok's answer. But this was just a broadcast comment. Sang-hyeok himself was well aware that he actually made the SKY team win.

The team's ace and recognized as the strongest in 'Eternal Life (EL)', Choi Sang-yeol of Crash, boasted of the 'Cheonryongpaebeop', which was also completed by Sanghyeok.

In order to create the best player named Choi Sang-yeol, Sang-hyeok received full support from SKY Telecom and brought Card Master, who had been evaluated as the strongest only in theory, into reality, and the player who benefited from it was Choi Sang-yeol.

Many other things were completed through Sanghyeok. In fact, the SKY team was a team that could be said to have been made by Sanghyuk himself.

In the first place, SKY Telecom almost dismantled and rebuilt their professional gaming team, which finished last in the 'EL Master League' for 3 consecutive years, and from the time they scouted Sang-hyeok, who was making headlines online at the time, they would spare no support for Sang-hyeok. He asked to make the SKY team the best, and as promised, Sanghyuk created a flawless SKY team in 3 years.

Of course, a lot of things happened along the way, but Sang-hyeok kept his promise anyway.

"All fans already know this, but you are so humble."

"I was just telling the truth."

Sang-hyeok was not a hot-blooded 20-something, but an old man in his 30s, and he would be in his 40s in 4 years, so he did not like interviews that stood out like young directors do.

Of course, the interviewers didn't like this style. Is that why? The reporter abruptly asked a question that was not in the original script.

"Then can you tell me if this is true? Recently, rumors are circulating in various communities that the SKY team and the coach will part ways after this tournament. Is this really true?"

"It is groundless."

Sanghyuk gave a short answer. He had no reason to answer at length, as the question was not in the script in the first place. However, Sang-hyeok, who answered, had a completely different idea from what he said.

'It's true. It's very irritating...but it's true.'

In fact, he had already received a notice of termination of the contract. However, since this was a fact that would be announced at least three months later, it could be legally delayed if said in advance.

Sang-hyeok's boring answer made the reporter slightly teary-eyed and continued the interview. Normally, other people would try to give funny answers even if they were forced to, but Sang-hyeok, as if trying to explain why he was nicknamed 'Ice Man', only kept a firm expression and repeated boring answers.

In the end, the interview ended without much fun or emotion.

The reporter, who expected it to a certain extent, but felt unfair that it turned out to be an interview with nothing to be saved, finally asked a question that was not in the script.

"Is this moment the best moment the director has dreamed of?"

Receiving an unscripted question once again, Sanghyuk pondered the question for a while.

The best moment... Thinking for a moment about the meaning of that and the reality he faced, Sang-hyeok smiled and opened his mouth.

"of course. This is the best moment for me."

This too was a lie.

It couldn't have been the best moment ever.

Although he managed to climb up from the bottom of despair and reach this place... the best moment he wanted was not like this.

The interview was over, but Sang-hyeok sat still for quite some time, recalling the reporter's last question in his mind.

'The best moment I really wanted... that probably won't come true forever... After all, is this the limit of what I can achieve realistically?'

Sanghyuk smiled bitterly and shook his head.

What made me even more angry was that even the realistic limits that I had barely achieved were completely taken away.

It was Sang-hyeok's mistake for not reviewing the contract in detail, but even so, it was too much. In fact, all of this was created by Sang-hyeok, but they were forcing him to give up all of this.

It is true that there have been a lot of disagreements with SKY Telecom over the past two years, but I never thought they would hit the back like this.

"Haa... that's hard."

Sanghyuk let out a big sigh and muttered with a dejected expression.

He was the one who lived a life of being taken away. But this time he was taken away once again, so everything felt futile.

"Where the hell did it go wrong?"

Sanghyuk wanted to turn everything back. If he could really turn everything back then he really wanted to live a life of taking away, not a life of being taken away. But, as always, this was Sang-hyeok's vain delusion.

'If I could be born again, no, if I could go back to that time...'

Sanghyuk thought about this dozens or hundreds of times a day.

However, no matter how desperately he wanted it, this was something he could never achieve. Sang-hyeok was well aware of that, but even so, he lived a life full of regrets, so he had no choice but to think about this every day.

Sang-hyuk's earnestness piled up over and over again.

He continued to build up his earnestness over and over again.