Haneul High Baseball Team [1]
Before I knew it, time had flown by, and spring—the season when flowers bloom—had arrived. On the streets were students heading off to school in their uniforms, some of them constantly fiddling with their collars because they were so pleased with the new ones. .........Fuck. And there I was, grimacing at the packed bus and barely managing to board it.
Thank god the depot is in Nowon... If it had been a route where I boarded midway... that would have been a nightmare.
When people thought of taking the bus, they usually pictured squeezing through a crowd packed like sardines and struggling their way to school. In fact, aside from my father who commuted by car, my mother was currently screaming about the traffic congestion.
But this city bus bound for Haneul High School started from a depot in Nowon District. That meant I could claim an empty seat before the other passengers swarmed in. And the depot was only a four-minute bike ride from home.
The plan was simple: ride my bike to the depot, then take that same bus straight to Haneul High. It was pretty nice. The trip took exactly one hour. Thanks to that distance, even if the roads became paralyzed by traffic, leaving an hour early would still get me to school on time.
Even so, the bus still ends up crowded.
I sat comfortably in a single seat near the rear wheel, playing on my phone in the nearly empty bus. Before long it was almost eight o’clock, most passengers had gotten off, and the interior had grown quiet. That was when the students wearing Haneul High uniforms appeared.
This stop is Haneul High, Haneul High. The next stop is Samseong Station....
Time to get off.
-Beep!
After tapping my transportation card, I strolled leisurely toward the main gate. The uphill path to school was ridiculously steep, as if they had carved it straight out of the mountain, but of course money made anything possible—an escalator sat perfectly installed along the slope. It was a day that truly showed me what it meant for a massive corporation to sponsor a school with genuine commitment.
When I rode the escalator up the hill, students who must have come from the dorms—ones I hadn’t seen at the bus stop—began to appear one by one. I had already visited the school the previous week for the entrance ceremony rehearsal. Still, standing in front of the gate on March 2nd, the actual first day of school, gave me a different feeling, so I started walking in slowly like the other students…
“Man, no matter how many times I think about it, the start of school is absolute garbage.”
“Mm-hm, I completely agree. It’s always a fresh new day of annoying pain.”
“...........?”
“Hey there.”
“Jeez, could you please not pop out of the bushes like that and scare people?”
For some reason, Yang Uijin had just sprung out of the garden shrubbery right in front of me.
“Because this is the fastest route from the dorms to here, obviously?”
“Still, I think you might be the only second-year showing up on the first day of school in gym clothes instead of the uniform.”
That was true. Even though it was the entrance ceremony for the freshmen, Yang Uijin was wearing his gym uniform instead of the regular one.
“Well, I’m a second-year, so I don’t really need to attend the first-years’ ceremony… and we have baseball practice right after class, so gym clothes are more comfortable. Most of the athletes will probably be in gym clothes all day anyway, right?”
He had a point. Haneul High apparently allowed students in the arts and physical education tracks to wear gym clothes freely around campus. In my previous life, nobody had cared what you wore… I remembered the days when they didn’t even confiscate smartphones in the name of student rights. Then again, Haneul High didn’t confiscate phones either.
“Yeah, that seems about right…”
The moment I found myself nodding at Yang Uijin’s logic, he glanced up at the sky for a second and spoke again.
“Shall we head to the auditorium? Since you’re a special admissions athlete, you’ll probably have to do the oath like Kang Min, right?”
“Yeah, I suppose so.”
Haneul High operated a special talent admission system. In name it was for “gifted students,” but it was essentially a full scholarship program. They selected the top performer from entrance tests across most sports—baseball, soccer, basketball, table tennis, badminton, taekwondo, shooting, ice hockey, archery, and more. That person received the captain’s armband along with a full scholarship, making it a dream position every Haneul High student coveted… but I hadn’t particularly wanted it.
Special admissions athletes were exposed to the media nonstop. At a school as prestigious as Haneul High, failing to live up to the title meant immediate public criticism. Being analyzed by rival schools in real time was a given, and major-league scouts showed up just because you supposedly possessed “wings.”
My dream of just playing baseball comfortably has basically flown away…
I had never really demonstrated leadership, and since most of the players were from Haneul Middle School, they would probably listen to Kim Sihu more than me. I still didn’t understand why the coach had given the special admissions spot to me. If I had half-assed it during the tryouts, Kim Sihu would have gotten it…
But with an S-rank History skill, how could I possibly hold back?
I’d just enjoy the attention. Anyway… it’s about time to start gathering Lee Taehyun and the others. The Daeji High baseball team…
Three years ago, the entire starting lineup had been caught committing school violence and frequenting illegal entertainment venues, leading to the team’s immediate disbandment. Just as the baseball field itself was about to be demolished for additional athletic facilities—including a new soccer field—Lee Taehyun and his childhood friend Kang Ayul enrolled at Daeji High and revived the baseball club in name only. They gathered students who had quit baseball for various reasons, along with those who had transferred in and given up on their dreams after losing starting spots.
During that process, thanks to some provocation from our dear Kim Sihu, they faced off against Haneul High’s second- and third-string players in the first 3X3 Heaven-and-Earth Match. After also defeating other athletic club students who had looked down on the Daeji baseball team in a game that wagered the baseball field itself, Taehyun’s club somehow managed to secure a Weekend League roster spot.
After that came the early part of 3X3: Taehyun single-handedly carrying the team in the Weekend League while the supporting cast awakened every time the protagonist fell into a slump, opening the path to the national tournaments.
No matter how I think about it, it really would have been hard to ruin an ending that badly.
After turning pro, the story ended with him abandoning Kang Ayul, going to the major leagues, and marrying a team manager there—the absolute worst possible ending. In any case, having entered as a baseball special admissions student, I would be Haneul High’s captain for the next three years and face off repeatedly against Lee Taehyun, captain of Daeji High, in Heaven-and-Earth Matches.
Well, since we’re in different regions, we’ll only meet in the major national tournaments.
Haneul High was in Seoul Region A, while Daeji was in Seoul Region D. The real showdown against Taehyun once his skills reached their peak would probably come during the third-year Presidential Cup.
I organized the whirlwind of thoughts in my head all at once and said goodbye to Yang Uijin, who had walked me all the way to the auditorium.
“See you later at the baseball club room?”
“We have an entrance ceremony today and we’re still training?”
“Haha, we’ll just do some quick greetings with the third-year seniors… check the starting lineup, that sort of thing. We’ll probably have a practice game against a nearby school before the end of this week if things go quickly.”
…As expected from one of the absolute best schools.
While Lee Taehyun and Kang Ayul were desperately scrambling to find practice opponents, practice match offers flew into Haneul High without them even asking. They could even schedule games against nearby university teams… It was another day that made Haneul High’s prestige feel even higher.
The entrance ceremony itself was simple enough. When it came time for the oath, I just read the words on the paper in a lifeless voice like everyone else and stepped back down.
… … …
“Let’s see… Is 1-A this way?”
The main school building had four separate wings. Three of them were used by each grade level from first to third year, connected in a row, while behind them stood a newly constructed modern building that would house the arts and physical education students I would spend the next three years with.
-Slide.
When I opened the door and stepped inside, unfamiliar faces turned to look at me. A few who recognized me as the baseball special admissions student asked if I had a favorite team, but most simply went about their business like typical students at an elite school—watching soccer highlights or idol music videos.
You’ve all worked hard. I need to work hard too.
The dream of becoming a pro player that had been stained by injury—I would definitely achieve it this time. After going home that day, I hadn’t heard anything from Epinel, so I still hadn’t properly memorized the faces of the players chosen as starters. From what I heard, some accepted students had been secretly steered toward other schools, so they had done additional recruitment… which meant some new faces would be mixed in with the ones I had seen before. I should at least memorize their faces when I go this time, I thought as I headed to the baseball club room—only to be greeted by…
Toward the Summit
…and the reliable-looking second- and third-year seniors who had been waiting for the first-years with serious expressions.
“What the—? We got here fifteen minutes ago. These freshmen these days are so damn MZ—ack!”
“Yang Uijin, we literally just got here too.”
“You can ignore most of what this guy says… There were some dirty tricks trying to steal Haneul High’s players, but the strongest Haneul High baseball team must never pay any attention to such things! We welcome you for enduring temptation and officially joining the Haneul High baseball club!”
The person saying that was currently searching every high school the defectors had gone to and writing them down in a notebook, by the way. Aside from Yang Uijin, whose behavior made me slightly tempted to run away, it was a baseball team I genuinely liked.