Flyers Baseball Park
"……The Wonju Flyers?"
I couldn't hide my shock at a name I had never even considered.
"Ah, yes! The club negotiations are done — just the formal paperwork left. Did the team not say anything to you?"
Her bright voice came through the phone, accompanied by the rapid clatter of a keyboard.
"Ah, no. I just heard about it myself."
"Oh, then a club car will be at the main gate of Wales Park tomorrow morning at eight. Could you meet us there?"
"……Yes."
An energetic reply came before I'd even finished speaking.
"Great, then I'll see you then!"
— Click.
The moment the call ended, the reality finally hit me. I had actually been traded.
……I'm really leaving.
I dragged myself up from the chair and looked out the hallway window. Beyond the glass stretched the field of Wales Park — the ground I'd called home until yesterday.
My eyes grew hot, and a single tear rolled down my cheek.
"It's fine. I'm only leaving for a while. I may be walking away like this now…… but someday I'll come back as a player this team actually needs."
Even if the team abandoned me, I don't care. I'll never abandon the Wales.
I made the vow to myself and slowly started walking back toward the dormitory.
The next morning, I left the dorm right on time.
"Haaaawn……."
I'd spent the entire night tossing and turning over the grief of leaving the Seoul Wales, and hadn't slept a wink. Dark circles hung heavy under my eyes as a result.
The Wonju Flyers…… the Wonju Flyers, huh.
Honestly, the name alone made me uneasy. It wasn't just because I'd given up a walk-off home run the day before — the club genuinely had a reputation for some pretty grim rumors.
A franchise that hadn't been around long, based in a city that wasn't a major metro, always scraping by on a shoestring budget. They never even tried to re-sign their own free agents. And they didn't invest in facilities, either — still using the same rundown stadium and training grounds from the day they rebranded after the acquisition.
They filled most of the roster with rookies on minimum salaries, finished dead last every year, and used that to lock down the top draft picks. The worst, weakest team in the league.
……Though I was the one who'd snapped their eleven-game losing streak.
Still, the thought of joining a team like that made the road ahead look bleak. Would I even be able to train properly……?
I was still fretting when the main gate of Wales Park came into view. A luxury sedan sat parked on the road out front, and beside it stood a woman in a tailored suit.
"That must be her."
She seemed to recognize me too — she raised a hand in a bright wave, as if to say over here. As I drew closer and her face came into focus, I stopped mid-step.
A small, slender face with sharp, well-defined features. Mid-to-late twenties, roughly. Porcelain-pale skin, eyes that tilted up just slightly at the corners — and yet the overall impression was soft and warm.
Her hair was pulled into a light half-up style, and the neat suit suited her so perfectly that the whole picture looked like a frame from a movie. It stopped me cold.
I'd been half-dead from sleep deprivation moments earlier, but the sheer polish of her beauty snapped me wide awake.
While I stood there, momentarily stunned by the most overwhelming good looks I'd ever seen in my life, she closed the remaining distance, offered a gentle smile, and greeted me kindly.
"Hello, Han Doyoon. I'm Cheon Sojin, Operations Team Leader for the Wonju Flyers."
"Ah — ah, yes…… Hello."
"Shall we get in the car? We've got a lot to do today."
I loaded my bags and climbed into the passenger seat, immediately locking into a state of high tension. It was a different kind of nerves from what I felt on the mound — something completely new and unfamiliar.
I'd started baseball in elementary school and spent every free hour of middle and high school on the diamond. Outside of my mother and little sister, sharing a car with a woman was no small ordeal.
And then—
"Is anything uncomfortable?"
"Hup…! Ah, no. I-I'm fine……."
So this is what cattle feel like on the way to the slaughterhouse.
The farther we got from Seoul, the more the destination — the Wonju Flyers — pressed down on my chest.
State-of-the-art training facilities, clean showers, a convenience store five minutes from the dorm…… goodbye!
"Haha. You seem pretty nervous."
"Y-yes……"
"We've signed five players in this trade window, including you. Want to know the funny part?"
"What is it?"
"Every single one of them was just as tense as you are. I suppose it makes sense — we're the perennial last-place team, and the rumors about us aren't exactly flattering."
A soft laugh filled the car. I muttered to myself.
Rumors…… is a strong word when I've actually seen the condition of that stadium……
"Some of the rumors are true, some aren't. I won't bother explaining them one by one. You'll see for yourself soon enough."
She gave me a meaningful smile and went on.
"But I can promise you this much. It's going to be a lot better than you're worrying about. So stop fretting and get some sleep. Look at those dark circles. It's written all over your face that you didn't sleep last night."
The moment I heard that gentle line, the tension somehow drained out of me.
Was it her looks? Or that warm way of speaking? She was a complete stranger, and yet her words put me at ease for reasons I couldn't explain.
……Ah. So this is what it feels like to get charmed by a nine-tailed fox.
That was the last thought I had before my eyelids grew heavy and sleep pulled me under.
"Han Doyoon, we're here. Wake up."
"Mmmngh……."
I forced my eyes open, expecting the shabby Wonju Civic Stadium to fill my vision……
……Except it didn't.
"Wh-wh-what……! What is this??"
The sight was so far from anything I'd imagined that sleep vanished on the spot, and a stream of pure astonishment tumbled out of my mouth.
The first thing that hit me was the practice fields — two of them, twin diamonds facing each other side by side. Behind them stood a building that looked like a dormitory, sleek enough that you could have sold it as a five-star hotel and no one would have blinked.
And that wasn't all. Bullpens for the pitchers, batting cages for the hitters — everywhere my eyes landed, well-kept facilities stretched out in clean, orderly rows.
It was so meticulously maintained that I wanted to change into a uniform and start training right then and there.
"See? I told you. A lot better than you were worrying about."
"No, this isn't 'a lot better than I was worrying about'…… these facilities are just straight-up incredible."
She wasn't exaggerating. Objectively, this place was excellent — so good that for a brief, traitorous second I wondered if it might even outclass the facilities of my old team, the Seoul Wales.
But staring at all this luxury raised a question in the back of my mind.
Wait. If they can afford to spend money like this, why have they been so tightfisted until now? They got mocked as a freeloader franchise for years.
The doubt must have shown on my face, because Cheon Sojin grinned.
"Looks like our Han Doyoon has a lot of questions. Shall we talk while we head to the dorm?"
Still half-dazed, I kept glancing around as I followed her.
"Hmm…… I bet this is the big one, right? 'If you had this kind of money, why the hell were you cosplaying as a pauper franchise all this time?'"
She glanced back over her shoulder and delivered the line in a deliberately ridiculous voice.
"Yeah, exactly."
I was still so absorbed in gawking at the facilities that I answered without thinking.
"Oh? So Han Doyoon, you've always thought of us as a pauper franchise?"
"Ah — no, that's not — I mean……! Cheon……!"
Wait. What am I supposed to call her?
I'd fallen asleep almost as soon as I got in the car, so we'd never sorted out forms of address.
Sojin-ssi? Cheon Sojin-ssi? Team Leader? Team Leader Cheon?
"For now, call me Team Leader Cheon. Once we get a little closer, I'll let you use my name."
She said it with a playful smile, as if she'd walked straight into my head and read the whole debate.
"Why would Team Leader Cheon say something like that to me……!"
"Ahahaha. Okay, okay. I'm sorry — I'll stop teasing. Your reactions are just too funny."
"……Yes, ma'am."
Seriously. I'm thinking it again.
This person — no, this fox — might actually have nine tails.
Just look at her. Saying "sorry" with her mouth while laughing like she's having the time of her life.
"Anyway, back on topic. It's true our club doesn't have money. So! We worked hard to find a way to survive."
She'd stopped laughing. She started twirling a finger in the air as she explained.
"There are plenty of cash-strapped teams in MLB for all kinds of reasons. When we looked at how those clubs put up results, it basically came down to two approaches."
"First — if you don't have a roster that can win right now, you sell the expensive, ready-now veterans who still have talent, and you stockpile prospects and cash. People usually call it tanking. They do it aggressively. And while they're at it, they lock down high draft picks and spend years just accumulating young talent."
The sudden shift into serious mode felt a little awkward, but I focused and listened.
"And second. Once you've gathered all those prospects, what do you need to develop them?"
"Um…… good coaches?"
The abrupt question caught me off guard, but I scrambled for an answer.
"Well, that's part of it — but the most important thing is this."
Cheon Sojin spread both arms wide and delivered the line with dramatic flair.
"The best training facilities money can buy."
She turned fully around, beaming.
"Welcome to Flyers Baseball Park, Han Doyoon."