7. A Woman Makes Her Move (2) (Illustration Ahead)
"Honestly, a guy like Tae-oh is pretty decent, even as a man, don't you think?"
"……."
At those words, tossed out so casually by someone, Kim Na-hyun quietly swallowed her breath.
"Ah, and Yu-seul's off again."
"What? He is decent and you know it. Tall, great build for a guy, too."
"Too tall for me. I'll grant you he's handsome, but a guy should have a little cuteness to him, you know?"
"And I'm tall myself, so I like my guys short."
Kang Ra-hee tacked on, giving much the same reason. It was a throwaway answer, and yet Kim Na-hyun felt an odd little wave of relief wash over her anyway.
"I think Tae-oh Oppa is cool!"
"Speaking of which, Do-hee — what's so great about Tae-oh that you come waddling after him every single day?"
"The way he works so hard is what's cool about him! Even being a guy, he never gives up and throws himself into baseball. Honestly, I was pretty down last year when I didn't get selected, but watching Tae-oh Oppa push himself makes me want to work harder too."
"…Well, Tae-oh does have that going for him, I guess."
Cha Seo-rin nodded quietly, as if endorsing Min Do-hee's point.
"Even as a guy, he works that hard — so if the rest of us goof off, doesn't it kind of make us look bad? I mean, why else would someone like Coach Yoon have put him on the roster last year in the first place? She put him there so we'd get motivated watching a man bust his ass like that."
"Wow, though — I never took Tae-oh for a guy with that kind of pop in his bat. Doesn't seem like even Director Yoon Gaeul saw that one coming."
"…Well, watching him play defense, it is kind of cool. These days Coach Yoon builds half the drills around him, and he doesn't so much as grumble about it."
With Cha Seo-rin pretending to poke fun while letting her real feelings slip through sideways, the appraisal of Kang Tae-oh rolled on.
"Guys who are too ripped are a bit much for me, honestly."
"Oh, what would you know, you tasteless thing? The whole point of a guy like that is having him pinned under you in bed, panting his lungs out."
"Considering Tae-oh's build, Mari, I'd say you'd be the one getting pinned."
"If it's Kang Tae-oh, I could just barely take it."
"As if Tae-oh would ever give it to you."
"…I like strong men, myself."
When it came to Kang Tae-oh the man — as opposed to Kang Tae-oh the player — opinions split roughly down the middle.
"What about you, Na-hyun? What do you think?"
"Wha—?! M-me?!"
"Yeah. Does Tae-oh do it for you, or not?"
"I, I'm not really into guys with that much muscle…"
"See that, Seo-rin? Told you muscle-lovers have zero taste. Maybe if he were just some skinny guy, sure — but who'd take home a hulking brute like Tae-oh?"
"…Shut it, you little shit."
Getting into an uproar over talk of one man was typical women's-athletic-team behavior, all right — except that Kim Na-hyun was the one being rattled by the subject of it all.
No, no. If this keeps up….
The thought that more and more women were setting their sights on Kang Tae-oh was turning her mind into a tangled mess.
Ever since that incident with Kang Tae-oh, the first place Kim Na-hyun's gaze went, every day without fail, was to him.
During training. During breaks. Or when she crossed paths with him moving between lecture halls during class.
All he'd done was show her his bare body that one time — but what he'd said that day kept pulling her attention back, again and again, whether she willed it or not.
"Na-hyun sunbae, class finished?"
"Ah— yep! A-and you, T-Tae-oh…?"
"Just wrapped up mine too."
"W-what a coincidence! Then wanna grab lunch together? It's my treat!"
"Sure, sounds great."
After that she staged a few more of these "coincidences," attempts at something like dates — but ever since that day, the way Kang Tae-oh looked at her never once felt like the way a man looks at a lover.
Just a comfortable senior of the opposite sex, maybe. That was the best way to put it.
Granted, that had always been their relationship, but still — they had seen each other naked.
He was even the junior who'd come right out and said that one look at her had gotten him hard — and yet here he was, treating her exactly as before, cool as anything.
I really should have just jumped him that day….
She had all but begged him to fuck her, then bolted like a complete idiot.
Even putting herself in a man's shoes and imagining it, it was the kind of behavior that would drain anyone's affection dry.
If she'd found the courage just once back then, she wouldn't be this on edge now. And what if, while she dithered like this, Kang Tae-oh started dating one of the other women on the team…?
'Oh, Tae-oh and I have actually been dating for a while now?'
'I'm going out with Tae-oh Oppa now!'
'Ever since he homered off me, I can't stop thinking about him every time we cross paths….'
"Aaargh, aaaaagh!!"
Kim Na-hyun violently shook off the ominous scenarios blooming in her head alongside the delusions.
This couldn't go on — and with that thought, she made her decision.
That day's mistake was the whole problem….
She'd sat there like a moron and failed to properly take the seduction Tae-oh was laying down — so even if he'd had feelings for her to begin with, they must have cooled right off.
Kim Na-hyun steeled herself: she had to set right what had happened that day.
…After all, within the baseball team, she was still the only one who knew Kang Tae-oh's secret.
"Practice over. Good work out there."
"Thank you, Coach!"
The members of the baseball team bowed in unison at Director Yoon's words.
"Thank you, Coach!!!"
I answered with a spirited shout of my own — over these past few days I'd grown used to training shoulder to shoulder with the other members. Part of it was gratitude, too, toward Director Yoon Gaeul, who had seen potential in me in spite of my being a man and slotted me into the C League starting lineup.
"Anyone starting tomorrow, double-check your gear. I don't want people showing up without their spikes or gloves."
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Assembly tomorrow is nine thirty, so have breakfast and be fully ready by then…."
The C League opener was an away game at Icheon Stadium.
After barely ten days of watching me practice, Director Yoon had named me the starting third baseman for the opening game. Honestly, I couldn't help but be grateful.
Sure, I'd been driving the ball deep with some regularity in batting practice, but in the end it was Director Yoon's call to shift Kwon Ye-rim and Do Yeon-seo — the incumbents at third — over to the bench and designated hitter spots.
Honestly, I'd braced for Kwon Ye-rim to chew me out.
From her point of view, a male junior had more or less stolen the starting job she'd held.
Instead, to my surprise, she'd defended the move — saying it was a relief someone could hold down third base, that the team's offense would sag if she stood at the hot corner. She even told me not to sweat it, since after graduation she'd be doing something other than baseball anyway. Thanks to her, some of the weight I'd been carrying came off my shoulders.
While I was mulling all this over, tomorrow's opening-day starter crept up behind me — Baek Ha-rin.
"Kang Tae-oh."
"Hm?"
"…Tomorrow. Don't let anything through."
"Nothing's getting through. You just make sure you don't get taken deep again tossing like you did last time."
"Ugh…."
Baek Ha-rin's face crumpled on the spot, and she stalked off mid-stride.
I understood that with a man planted on the hot corner, a pitcher was bound to be wound tight — but if she was going to fire off a line like that, she should have expected one coming back.
Not that I held any real feelings for Baek Ha-rin, mind you. If anything, I was rather grateful to her.
Trace it back far enough, and this chance to start in the C League all began with me turning a mistake pitch of hers into a home run. Even the second chance I got came because she'd asked Director Yoon to put me in the batter's box against her. As long as it meant playing real baseball again, I could stomach Baek Ha-rin's attitude all day long.
"Ahh, I'm all grimy. Hey — who's coming to shower?"
"Me! Me!"
"Tae-oh, you're not heading to the dorm? The men's dorm has shower hours too, remember."
"I'm going to get a bit more practice in and head back later. Good work today, everyone."
"Okaaay~. You're starting tomorrow — don't stay up late, now~"
After waving off the members drifting toward the team showers, I lingered on the field under the pretext of extra practice and put in about an hour of tee work.
Then, figuring the others would surely have cleared out by now, I stepped into the shower room.
…No one here.
I'd always been careful, but after that incident the other day, I'd grown doubly cautious about entering the shower room.
It would be mortifying to walk in for a shower and come face to face with someone while buck naked. Granted, with how bold these athletes were, most of them probably wouldn't bat an eye at letting me catch an eyeful — but there were women like Kim Na-hyun, too, who weren't exactly used to men.
It does make me nervous that the door doesn't lock from the inside.
What if, just like last time, some other member happened to wander in mid-shower and we ended up in another mortifying encounter?
So thinking, I resolved to wash as fast as humanly possible and get out —
"…Uh— uhhh?! K-Kang Tae-oh…?!"
"……."
"O-oh, oh right~!! Y-you usually have the place to yourself around this hour, don't you, Tae-oh~? S-sorry! I went and completely forgot~."
And true to form, all my careful resolve counted for nothing: Kim Na-hyun came strolling into the shower room behind an act so transparent a child could have seen through it.