After the stream ended, Sampoong is left with more questions than he had answers for. Is Duri somehow jealous of Caro, despite the fact she interacted with her? If so, what could she be jealous of? I thought respecting each other’s lives away from each other was key, it seems it’s no longer the case.
The following morning, Daegu time, after breakfast, the couple is, once again, facing their issues. (And this scene is loosely translated from Korean, too)
“Yeobo, what about we watch Caroline together this morning? She might feel a little exotic to you, because she is, but I assure you, she isn’t the kind of girl I would want to have a fling with” Sampoong asks Duri, feeling a little uneasy because he can sense some lingering jealousy in her.
“Caroline? I only found out yesterday about her existence!” a triggered Duri starts getting her face red. “I really hope so for you! She had me worried that you might have cheated without me noticing!”
The couple sits down around Sampoong’s computer so they can watch Caro stream her briefly playing that online TRPG, and then dive into the writing of a new arc, with a third plot-bearing game marking its start, but that, for some reason, she doesn’t seem like writing the chapter containing the game just yet.
“For those who are new to this stream, earlier in this NaNo adventure, we talked about the NHL trade deadline, albeit a little briefly. As with all the major points in a hockey season, the trade deadline is a big deal in Canadian sports media, with a big chunk of media coverage going to trade speculation and trade analysis. It takes place forty days before the end of the regular season” Caro starts explaining what it is, but then another viewer asks a question.
“What kind of players get traded at the deadline?” Lagado asks.
“Usually, teams out of playoff contention trade away players on their final years of their contracts for picks, prospects or other players, often injured or underperforming ones. In the cap era, trade deadlines tend to see supporting pieces without star power leave, and it has become more complicated to run; star players usually move towards in a period starting from draft day”
“It’s easy to imagine the rumor mill being active for teams like the Constellations with trade targets” Capitolium comments. “I trust you know that the three to seven days prior to the trade deadline sees a surge in trade rumors circulating”
“Yeah, I know, in Montreal, it would mean that every WAG and their relatives in the city would know about which players are likely to be traded away, and which ones aren’t. Anxiety-inducing for those players, and their loved ones, very easily” Caro follows up.
“Montreal? Where the hell is Montreal? What makes Montreal so special in the hockey world?” Duri yells at Sampoong in Korean, not realizing that he pressed the PTT in the VC of Caro’s Discord server, and everyone else watching Caro only understood the words Montreal and hockey, laughing with them.
“Please excuse my girlfriend’s lack of knowledge of hockey, she’s new to the stream, and she’s a Korean girl who never heard of the sport until now” Sampoong explains in English.
Sampoong then whispers the answers to both questions in Duri’s ear, in Korean. However, his face turns tomato red after seeing Caro burst in laughter upon hearing Duri asking questions in Korean on air.
However, Glitter stops watching the stream upon hearing about how the trade deadline would be a source of tensions among the NHL front offices as well as among the players in the trade rumor mill and their WAGs. I never, ever saw a hockey romance book where trade rumors poison relationships between a player and his WAG. And somehow, Caro thinks she knows better than more established hockey romance writers about how the transactional aspect of the sport affects players in relationships? I guess, I need to go back and double-check my TBR pile. Or maybe I need to switch gears in my reading, since I read dozens of romance books in these past few months… no horror either.
But when Caro starts sprinting with the viewers in her chat, Sampoong shows his love interest clips, in English, from past Montreal Canadiens games, showing the main elements giving hockey its entertainment value. Saves, goals, hits, and fights. And certainly how it would feel to be there, in Centre Bell, among 21,105 hockey fans who make the in-person experience one of the best in hockey.
After Sampoong showed her this eclectic selection of clips from Habs games, he asks a question to her, loosely translated from Korean:
“How do you feel about Caro now, still feel like I’m having a fling or affair with her?”
“It’s too premature to judge, after just a few minutes of watching her. There were times when you seemed to be watching her for hours on end!” Duri deadpans him.
On Caro’s manuscript, new words get added to it at a frenzied pace, especially when Emma called Gus to talk about trade rumors. And the concerns that might send him away from Montreal for at least until the end of the Stanley Cup Final. Or longer.
Jacques: What sources of tension do you want at the trade deadline?
Marie-France: I’m afraid that one source of tension is already thrown out the window
“Damn it! I already wrote the draft day scene as if Gus was traded away!” Caro curses herself.
Not to mention that my prospective post-draft plot involves Montreal making an offer sheet on Gustavs after losing a D-man to free agency! If he wasn’t traded at the deadline, there just wouldn’t be an offer sheet, Caro refrains from giving out spoilers.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“What makes the trade deadline interesting from a fan’s perspective has multiple facets: if a player is traded away, who, when, to whom, and for how much, being the main ones” Capitolium adds to this discussion of tension sources. “Tthese sources of tension also apply to major junior hockey; however, in major junior, players play for three to four seasons at most, and draft picks are traded like crazy in major junior”
“Sure, in the long run, the evolution of how the assets pan out adds another layer, but this draft-day scene forced my hand on the first two, and the third one is in a narrow week-long window”
Marie-France: Much like, in romance, what suspense you do have will often lie in the timing and whether it will last, or, in a love triangle or harem romance, with whom, because of the happy ending requirement”
Maridun: Oh God, love triangles; sometimes a third-act breakup can tear one apart
Oh crap, love triangles! In the last one I read, I could have told by Ch3 which one would form the final couple, Sampoong is left wondering what appeal could there be for love triangles. But then Caro asks a question to Capitolium:
“Considering that you want your MMC to be playing at the Memorial Cup, do you want your own story to have a trade deadline arc?” Caro asks the challenger.
“You see, in major junior, it depends on the league. The OHL doesn’t allow first-rounders to be traded, but the Q does, and if you thought the NHL could be desperate, some Courteau Trophy-contending teams might trade out of the first four rounds for the next three years just to have a shot to win it all. But I don’t want my MMC to be traded away, rather, my MMC’s team is going to be a buying team, the one trading away these picks” Capitolium answers her viewer.
As the two write more on their own trade deadline arcs, Caro has Emma telling Gus about trade rumors around him, and then poisoning a fragile relationship until the trade deadline hits, or a trade occurs.
However, back in Daegu, Sampoong and Duri are still at each other’s throats, but this time around, the former doesn’t have his push-to-talk button active, so unlike last time, they could argue with each other, in Korean, without being heard by Caro’s viewers.
“See, now, Caro seems to talk so much about hockey, as well as romance books; never did she have any sexual or romantic overtone to what she was saying, and she has several viewers who chime in on various things, without being particularly attracted to anyone!” Sampoong tries to reason with Duri.
“I was wrong about Caro, I apologize” Duri adds, without providing more answers to him.
“I accept… for now. But why did you seem to distrust me in my dealings with other women outside of you lately?” Sampoong asks her, his face turning red, feeling like trust has gone downhill.
“We had so little intimacy these past few months that I have the impression someone or something else might be the cause!”
“Perhaps your situation at work might hold a clue. I respected it, thinking that, if it made our life together better in the long run, maybe short-term sacrifices will make it worth it!”
“You probably read a lot of romance books where intimacy is the order of the day. I want two books, please: one with the couple struggling to get intimacy, the other, a couple that functions well”
“Wait a minute…” Sampoong then starts combing his ebook library.
I have the impression that sex is not what Duri wants in a book, more like focusing on the actual relationship. Unfortunately, it seems like sex overshadowed the relationship part in my past readings, and I didn’t feel much of the couple’s dynamics outside of sex, Sampoong then turns to his go-to person for reading recs on Discord: Glitter.
Sampoong: My two requests must be primarily about the relationship outside of sex: first, a book about a couple struggling to get intimacy because of trust issues, and second, a book about a couple that functions well
Glitter: I’m surprised by the first request, but the second one might be better fulfilled with non-fiction; you see, the second one would be a tension-killer for a lot of romance writers
In the past, Sampoong was the kind of guy who swore by the quality and amount of sex, but if he had to choose between quality and quantity, he usually chose quality. A non-fiction book that could address trust issues in a couple would probably be a little dense for him, though. Because of his sudden shift, I feel like he has trust issues in his own relationship, Glitter muses, while she checks against the books she knows about or read.
Sampoong: What do you mean, a tension-killer?
Glitter: A healthy relationship might be something to wish for, but would make for a relatively short story, if at the core
Sampoong: I’m not concerned about story length
Glitter: Using fiction to fulfill a wish for a healthy relationship typically means the good part of the book will lie outside the relationship
Sampoong: Where would you look for healthy relationships in romance books?
Glitter: Sci-fi romance is probably your best bet, historical and fantasy second; for historical, please keep in mind the time and place of its setting as value systems might have changed
Sampoong: A well-written romance book will make you wish to see a couple’s life once together
Glitter: Most romance books tend to focus on the early stages of a relationship; this is where tension and passion climax
Sampoong then receives one rec apiece from Glitter, based on his requests. I guess, if these books help us make sense of what’s happening to us, all I need to do is check their prices against our budget. Then I’ll let her read them both, provided they don’t cost too much, he thinks as he checks out the two books, as well as their prices.
But on air, however, Caro seems to be a little shaky when she has Emma voice her concerns over the trade deadline, especially with one of the Constellations’ D-men now being healthy enough to come back into play. Speaking of which, she may as well have a scene with the D-man Gustavs replaced for the season up to this point.
And add perhaps a few paragraphs, where appropriate, about that player’s rehab. Oh boy, when back from injury, one would typically want him to play fewer minutes to ease his transition back into play, Caro then keeps a note to this effect before drinking coffee and starting the final sprint of the day.
“I’m so going to overshoot the daily par tonight…” Caro feels like all the modifications she’s about to make to give more of a story role to the injured player Gus fills in for a good chunk of the season are a necessary evil.
“Caro, you struggle to pace yourself. There are days where you barely get to about seventeen hundred words, but tonight you’re clearly above that number!” Capitolium warns her in a comment.
Once that sprint ends, she starts feeling the pain of writing at frenzied pace, puts Bengay on both hands and she updates her daily word count. 2150, for a total of 34,000. For the weekend, the plan is going to finish this chapter, write the game before that and then dedicate a whole chapter to the front office action. About the endless number crunching by assistants, back-and-forth on the phones of various GMs. And, maybe, get the 40,000-word cheevo on November 17.