These Are the Benefits
After the game ended, during the meeting for the next matchup, Manager Kim Young-ho curled the corner of his mouth slightly upward.
"How'd Kim Hu-seong do today?"
The chief coach checked the stats right away.
"Two home runs, one walk, three fly outs."
Manager Kim Young-ho leaned back in his chair and let out a short breath.
"He's definitely hitting well right now. We can cover for Jeong I-hun being out to some extent thanks to him."
Then he furrowed his brow a bit.
"But is using him as the leadoff the best call?"
The hitting coach shook his head and offered his take.
"Honestly, a power leadoff is nice, but considering left-right balance and speed on the bases, third in the order feels right."
The chief coach chimed in too.
"Yeah, I agree. He likes leading off innings, so third seems better than dropping him to cleanup or five-hole."
Manager Kim Young-ho tapped his fingers on the desk.
"Good point. Then let's go Gu Min-seok, Kim Han-seong, Kim Hu-seong."
But then, as if something had just occurred to him, Manager Kim Young-ho asked,
"What about that other thing, though?"
The chief coach paused for a second.
"What do you mean?"
Manager Kim Young-ho tilted his head.
"Kim Hu-seong's home run ball. Wasn't someone fighting to take it?"
The chief coach shrugged and reported back.
"A Pigeons fan just took it back. Hu-seong didn't look too happy about it."
"Damn, he ran into a real piece of work."
Then Manager Kim Young-ho thought for a moment before adding,
"Hey... tell Hu-seong this: not many people keep their first home run ball anyway. What matters more is a high-number one. Tell him to smash like 60 this year, and we'll get him a nice commemorative ball to frame properly. It's motivation. Got it?"
"Yes, sir."
Right then, the chief coach who'd just answered looked at Manager Kim Young-ho like something had clicked.
"Oh! And the GM had a request."
"A request? What is it?"
"He said to start treating Hu-seong with priority from now on."
Manager Kim Young-ho's smile vanished in an instant.
"How much priority?"
"Probably Jeong I-hun level."
"What? That means treating him like the posting guys, top-tier perks... Isn't that too fast?"
"Seems like internally, they're viewing him as that kind of asset."
Manager Kim Young-ho shook his head.
"He might get cocky, though..."
"But... you know Hu-seong. He trains like a beast, so maybe it won't be an issue?"
"Those late bloomers who make it big... Well, if he crashes and burns, that's on him. If they say do it, we do it."
Meanwhile, over at the Gwangju Pigeons, it was pandemonium.
"Hoo..."
In their meeting room, sighs piled up from the manager's seat.
The Gwangju Pigeons manager rewound the batted ball trajectories on the monitor over and over before letting out deep sigh after deep sigh.
"How the hell did Kim Hu-seong come back so transformed?"
The manager muttered.
"He tormented us last season too, and now he's a slugger. Pitching coach, got any ideas?"
The pitching coach, face stiff as a board, began his report.
"Too few games to say for sure yet. What we know is he used to be that annoying cut-heavy type... but now every pitch he touches turns into home run distance. The pitchers are a bit spooked."
"No, that can't happen. The pitchers are scared?"
"Yes. Thompson's stuff isn't off, but he gave up two bombs to start, so everyone's dreading facing him."
"Jeez..."
The Pigeons manager rubbed his forehead.
"No weaknesses at all?"
Impatience crept into the manager's voice.
"We're checking with the analytics team nonstop. But with so few games..."
The pitching coach said regretfully. Then he paused, choosing his words, before mentioning the one silver lining.
"The closest thing to a weakness... he didn't homer off slower fastballs? We got him on a few fly outs that way."
The manager closed his eyes at that. And let out a long sigh.
He slowly lifted his head.
"Got it."
The pitching coach added cautiously,
"But he hasn't faced James yet, right? We got a good foreign arm this time—James'll handle it."
"Haa... yeah. Gotta trust him."
Back at the away lodging, senior Hwang Do-yoon was propped up next to me, chin in hand, straight-up teasing me.
"So you didn't get the ball? That's hilarious, lololol."
His laughter wouldn't stop, making me feel even more wronged.
"Yeah. So I'll hit more homers tomorrow and the day after to give them extra balls."
I said it all deadpan on purpose.
Hwang Do-yoon burst out laughing even harder and waved me off.
"Yeah, that's the spirit."
"Already hitting the sack?"
He noticed me getting ready for bed and asked.
"Obviously. I've been suffering from sleep issues forever. Gotta rest up to crush them tomorrow."
I nodded like it was no big deal. This was dead serious.
Right now, my body needed basics more than any technique: solid meals, solid sleep.
Hwang Do-yoon nodded briefly.
"Fair enough. I'll chill a bit longer."
He pulled out his phone.
And started watching YouTube vids right there.
...Uh... kinda loud.
Earphones, man...
But luckily, I conked out pretty quick.
And the next day, during away game practice.
"Hu-seong, come here a sec?"
I stopped stretching when the first-team manager beckoned me over.
"What's up?"
I asked, and he grinned for no reason, looked me up and down, then spoke.
"The club says to give you some perks."
Perks?
"Perks?"
"Yeah. The kind for players who earn 'em. Biggest one's free training."
I froze for a second.
"Free training? What's that?"
The manager chuckled like it was obvious.
"What else? Train however you want, completely free rein. Skip what you want. Do extra if you feel like it."
It sounded huge, but for some reason, it didn't excite me.
I asked carefully,
"How free we talking?"
"Totally. You can skip every single session."
That possible?
"Uh... is that really okay?"
The manager shrugged.
"Yep. Permission came down, so I'm here to tell you."
...This feels off.
Why the sudden weird perk?
But the manager's next words left me speechless.
"Truth is, you've been doing your own thing since last year anyway, so it's more like they won't hassle you anymore."
"...Pardon?"
I blurted out dumbly, and he gave me that "don't play dumb" look.
"We didn't like how you trained, right? Told you to cut back, but you snuck in extras. Now it's gone from 'not listening' to fully autonomous."
...Can't argue with that.
"Ah... got it."
I cleared my throat awkwardly and replied short.
"And there's more. Follow me."
But the manager kept going like that wasn't the end.
What's next?
We ended up not at the practice field, but the dugout.
"Why here?"
He popped open the fridge and pointed to a shelf.
"See this? Front four shelves are yours from now on. Drink whenever."
I peered in and froze.
"Wait... what's this?"
The first-team manager said casually,
"What else? Beverages. Help yourself from now on. Not unlimited-unlimited, but this shelf! Everything in here is fair game for you. Used to be Jeong I-hun's exclusive. Yours now. Congrats."
...Holy...
Fuck... this is so stingy. So fucking stingy.
What the hell is this?
I stared blankly at the shelf again. It was narrower than expected.
Hard to call it a real perk, but given our club's damn rules, it kinda was.
This their idea of good treatment?
Like, we acknowledge you now. But you know we can't spend much, right?
Something like that?
No... what the hell...
All my energy drained.
Just moments ago, I was pumped to smash the Pigeons...
The tension in my body just deflated.
"...Anything else?"
"Early checkout, long showers, leave lights on—no one's yelling."
...Even stingier, fuck.
Arrrghhh.
Why you gotta do me like this.