Season’s End
Miju stayed with me for two more days.
She was so serious about learning the ropes the hard way that, over those two days, she threw herself into it with almost frightening intensity.
If I exaggerated just a little, I wondered whether my dick spent more time outside my clothes than inside them.
Even when she wasn’t actively doing anything, she simply refused to let her hands stop.
"Still, one thing really is crazy no matter how I look at it."
If Miju had gone this far, that meant the actual play had gone just as far, too.
Usually, when things went that way, there should’ve been at least some small problem with the body. If nothing else, I should’ve been tired. But...
"My condition is way too good."
I had no idea why.
But one thing was certain: the more I did it, the more it seemed to benefit me.
If there had been any real issue for me, Jumi would’ve stopped me. But she hadn’t. If anything, she’d encouraged it.
She even coached me from the sidelines, so what was there to say?
At first I’d been suspicious, but not anymore.
Jumi was clearly getting a lot out of having me around.
And I understood now that she couldn’t force it, either. She’d tried to convince me from the very beginning, and even now, if she pushed at all, it was only ever to hurry me along. She never went beyond that...
In any case, if I added everything up and thought it through, it seemed like Jumi wanted the two of us to come out ahead together.
So she’d make sure nothing ever harmed me.
"Maybe I should work even harder?"
For an athlete, getting your body in better shape was obviously a good thing. On top of that, I was directly reaping the effects. As a bonus, it put me in a good mood, too.
And if my skills improved, my salary would go up. Then there was the fact that I could make money from that little side hustle, as well...
"There’s not a single downside."
As for the risks that would come if what I was doing ever got exposed, I’d spent the last two days searching for answers.
I still didn’t know whether I’d come up with anything useful until I actually tried it.
"How’re you feeling today, Jun-young?"
"Great."
"The manager said if we’re still winning today, he might call you in."
"Yes. I’ll be ready."
"Good. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing lately. You’re killing the ball."
"Haha. Yes, sir."
Seong-hun hyung... nothing had happened yet, but I still felt guilty.
It was because of his wife, Kim Hyun-young. The timing was all that was left to settle now.
I didn’t know how far our team would go, but once everything was over, I figured she’d be mine before long.
Miju had worked her magic so well that the two of them were practically best friends now.
She’d said they were coming to the stadium together again today, too... Maybe they were already here.
* * *
Our opponent today was the Hawks, the runaway first-place team that had already clinched a direct ticket to the Korean Series.
We’d secured a wild-card spot ourselves, but our push for fourth place still wasn’t over.
If we won our last two games, nobody knew what might happen.
Of course, that came with the condition that the current fourth-place team had to lose both of its remaining games.
Either way, today our team was going in with everything it had.
Our starter was Seong-hun hyung, coming off four days’ rest.
The schedule worked out nicely. It meant our number one and number two starters could both be used in the remaining games.
But once the game started, the Hawks were every bit as terrifying as expected.
Even with their pitching staff at a disadvantage, they kept finding ways to scratch out runs against Seong-hun hyung and drag the game into a tight battle. By the time the top of the sixth began, we were ahead by only a single run.
"Why aren’t they calling me?"
Normally, by this point, I should’ve heard the words telling me to get ready.
I was already warming up on my own, slowly and steadily, but they should still have told me I was coming in soon.
Seong-hun hyung would probably be done here. And yet there was no word at all.
"Am I really going to get pushed back again after coming this far?"
I had never been part of the true setup corps to begin with.
No— I had been, but then I’d been shoved aside.
I thought I’d taken my spot back again, but still... it stung.
Someone else took the mound in the top of the seventh.
He gave up a hit, but held them scoreless.
Then, in the top of the eighth, Moon Chan-young suddenly left the bullpen and headed to the mound.
"Two-inning closer?"
We were still in a one-run game, so I figured the manager was giving the ball to the pitcher he trusted most.
Moon Chan-young walked a tightrope, allowing two walks, but somehow managed to escape without giving up a run.
And just as the bottom of the eighth was about to begin—
"Jun-young. Get ready."
"...Huh? Me?"
"Yeah. Make sure you’re ready to go in as soon as I call."
"...Yes, sir!"
Closer.
A closer.
The chance to become a closer, something that had seemed so far away, had come to me.
And in a crucial game that would decide the battle for fourth place, no less.
My heart was pounding like crazy.
I could feel, all by myself, that I was nervous.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t throw the ball.
If anything, the nerves were making me feel better.
"Never thought it’d be like this..."
Since when had I become this steady?
I didn’t think I was weak-minded, exactly, but I also wasn’t some fearless bastard, either...
I guess that meant I’d gained that much confidence in my own ability.
The bottom of the eighth ended quickly.
Now it was time for the final defensive inning in the ninth.
I headed to the mound to protect the team’s victory.
After a few warm-up pitches, I threw my first pitch to the batter.
Bang!
I got the strike call on a four-seam fastball that bit cleanly into the inside corner of the batter’s body.
152 km/h
Even without putting much force into it for command, I was already reaching that kind of velocity now.
Then I threw two sinkers in the high 140s, getting one strike and one ball.
At that point, Tae-hwa hyung chose a slider that moved in the opposite direction from the sinker.
Bang!
"Strikeout!"
After swinging and missing, the batter didn’t even bother looking back at the plate. He just stared at me blankly.
But Tae-hwa hyung was the same. He even lifted his mask and looked at me like he’d lost his mind.
"What the hell did I just throw?"
The 146 km/h reading wasn’t the issue.
This movement... I’d never, not even once, seen a trajectory like that with my own eyes.
It was the kind of pitch that made you wonder if even elite major league slider specialists could throw something like it.
And it had come from my hand.
"Now I’m starting to scare myself... am I really okay?"
One pitch, and I could see things changing this drastically. It made me afraid to imagine just how far this might go.
I’d need to talk to Jumi about this again.
After feeling my pitches for himself, Tae-hwa hyung had no hesitation at all.
He sent signs immediately, and every single one of them attacked the zone.
And the result was...
"Strikeout!"
I finished the last count with another strikeout.
Once again, all three outs came by strikeout.
* * *
"Are you an idiot?"
"What?"
"What do you think you are? Of course there’s a limit."
"...So that’s what it was?"
As soon as I got home, I grabbed Jumi and asked her.
I asked how far this thing could go.
Jumi said she didn’t know. She had no idea where the upper limit of my ability was.
So she wasn’t turning me into a superhuman. She was only drawing out the limits I already had.
That was a relief, but somehow it still left me feeling disappointed, too.
"Oppa. We already finished talking, right? Then hurry up and come up here."
Doesn’t this girl ever get tired?
Miju, who had come to the stadium with me today, had come over to our house again.
In just three days, she’d already left her things at my place.
Underwear, along with simple cosmetics and toiletries.
"You’re not planning to move in here, are you?"
"Would that be so bad?"
"...No. No, it probably would be."
Being with Miju wasn’t bad.
She was pretty, and although she was wildly off the wall, she was still someone I could talk to.
But I needed some time to myself, too.
Having to deal with that little ghost, Jumi, was already exhausting, so adding one more person to the mix was a little...
"Seol-ah unni said she wanted to see you again."
"Huh? Already?"
"Not really already."
"No, I mean... the problem isn’t the timing. She wants to spend another ten million won?"
"That’s what she said."
Was ten million won only a huge amount to me?
How many women were there who’d burn through that much money in a single night?
Sure, the effect was incredible, but even so...
"I kept telling you. They’d come carrying money in both hands."
"Yeah..."
Jumi had been right.
Really, it seemed like I was the only one who hadn’t known.
"When should we set it for?"
"...L-let’s wait until the season’s over first."
"Then maybe next week?"
"Isn’t that a little too soon? Let’s wait for now."
It looked like, once this season ended, I was going to be busier than ever.
* * *
The Warriors, who were in fourth place, lost.
They lost, and lost, and lost again.
By the time they’d dropped every one of their remaining games, our chance had finally come.
I heard the news in the closing stretch of the season finale.
Rodriguez, who started for us, had been rough—4 innings, 5 runs allowed—and we were still down by three runs.
Just as the mood was turning grim and defeat seemed inevitable, the news we’d been waiting for sent the team’s morale surging.
And then, like a miracle, our bats finally exploded.
Five runs in the bottom of the eighth.
Our team completed the comeback, and the final inning on the mound was once again mine, just like the day before.
Four-seam, sinker, slider.
Using those three pitches, I finished the inning in eleven pitches.
We ended the season in fourth place.
A team riding momentum is a frightening thing.
We took fourth on a winning streak and came into the wild card round, while the Warriors arrived having failed to stop their losing streak.
Of course our side had to be in a better mood.
With Donis, our number three starter, on the hill, we sent the Warriors packing in just one game.
But that was as far as it went.
We advanced to the semifinal playoffs, but couldn’t carry the good mood with us, and finished the season at one win and three losses.
As for me, I had to settle for appearing in one playoff game and earning a save.
Everything was over now.
I had time on my hands for a while.
The other guys were all planning nothing but rest, but I...
"Again?"
"I’m telling you, yes."
"No... Didn’t you say we’d decide after looking at it first?"
"I don’t know. She just said to book it."
"What the hell is even going on here?"
Another reservation had been set.
After Seol-ah and Kim Hyun-young, there was another one.
That made three already.
"Being busy is a good thing, right?"
"Huh? Yeah. Of course."
Of course it was good.
Almost absurdly so.