I Went to Sajik Stadium with Epinel (Roughly the Crayon Shin-chan BGM) [Complete]

(Notice) In chapter 24, I wrote [4th~10th Place Rewards: 400,000 won LT Gift Card], but the reward seemed too generous, so I'm changing it to a 50,000 won gift card.

"Even though it's called the Busan high school baseball tournament, aren't there college students and adults participating too? How can you talk like first place is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠already in the bag?"

"Well, as long as there aren't any pro players, we're winning for sure."

The people wearing Busan High uniforms muttered among themselves.

'.........Those two definitely can't enter as a team. Their relationship isn't exactly great either.'

As expected, the two Busan High players who had checked the participant list with the staff finally seemed to realize the situation. They started scurrying around in a panic, trying to recruit someone to team up with them…

"Hey, the white-haired lady over there! Want to team up with us?"

'These bastards?'

While I had stepped away to the bathroom for a moment, two guys were already swarming around Epinel, who had just finished submitting our entry form.

"Ah, Seojun!"

Epinel spotted me and immediately came running over.

"I can roughly tell what's going on from how loud those guys are being. I'll handle this."

"Ah, where did you suddenly… You should have mentioned you already had a partner."

"It's fine. I didn't expect anyone to rush in without even checking the participation conditions."

She was openly giving them attitude. The two Busan High players finally read the room, apologized, and backed off politely.

'A pure fastball pitcher, huh. His movement is seriously worse than a middle school league player.'

At least his fastball had decent power, so that was how he made a living. If he ended up starting tomorrow, I should give the team a heads-up on how to attack him.

I decided to check the info on the student following Cho Seonghu as well.

'These stats would have been perfect if he were a first-year. It's a bit of a shame he's already a second-year.'

Wait, actually… the average stats for a pro second-team draftee are around 70, so maybe these are pretty good?

When I checked the rules with Epinel, the positions were split into pitcher and batter. Each pair would choose one and accumulate points.

For pitching, hitting the target gave 100 points each time. For batting, every ball hit was worth 100 points.

Both sides got ten attempts. The women's side had shorter distances to the target or slower pitching machine speeds.

"Epinel, which one do you want to do?"

"Hmm… I'll take the pitching side!"

Epinel confidently chose pitching. She stepped up to the mound to practice… For me it was exactly the regulation distance from the rubber to home, but for her it looked like about three-quarters of that.

When I turned to look at the batting side, the machine was set to around 120 km/h for women and 140 km/h for men.

'So you have to clear that yellow line for 100 points. The blue line is the women's zone.'

There was a blue line near second base and a yellow line where a center fielder would normally stand. It might actually be harder than it looked to clear it.

Oh, and a home run was worth 200 points… Personally, I was planning to hit ten home runs for 2000 points as a safety net so we could easily take a high ranking no matter what Epinel scored.

'Besides, I'm not that interested in the membership anyway…'

I hadn't decided which team to root for yet, but it definitely wouldn't be the Oceans. Unless I got drafted by them later, of course.

I barely ever came to Busan anyway. What would I even do with a membership? At best I'd only get to watch a few games against Seoul teams. The second and third place prizes were way more attractive. Or so I thought…

-Crack!

A clear, bright crack of the bat rang out. I turned and saw Epinel using an underhand motion, steadily hitting the targets one after another.

And the feeling that washed over me when I saw her was…

'If we want second place, I might actually have to pitch…?'

No, more than that—why did she throw better than most of our team's pitchers?

Her velocity was only in the 105~110 km/h range, but with that filthy movement on the ball… If this were the early days of Haneul High when we were short on players, she could have been a key bullpen arm.

'Still faster than Yoo Heegwan… almost said that out loud.'

Even against Haneul High's second team, she could probably dominate. Her velocity was a bit slow, but every pitch went exactly where Epinel wanted it to.

Good control meant at least half the pitches would be competitive no matter what. Paired with a top-tier catcher who could call a great game, that control became an even more dangerous weapon than raw velocity from the batter's perspective.

In the practice round meant to narrow it down to the top ten teams who would receive prizes, Epinel threw ten pitches and hit the target with every single one—an incredible feat. Meanwhile, I took it easy since it was just practice…

[Lee Seojun & Epinel]: 2000

We both scored a perfect mark and advanced to the final round together.

...

...

...

The Busan High duo I saw earlier must have somehow found partners and made it to the finals too. The pitcher Cho Seonghu came out with a middle-aged woman who looked like she came straight out of one of those viral videos where people wave flags at the stadium. The batter An Seongho was paired with an ordinary-looking woman.

'So those two are ninth and tenth place.'

Most of the standout players seemed to have advanced. Besides Busan High, there were plenty of players from other schools and nearby universities.

The match order was simply the reverse of the preliminary rankings. The team in tenth—Cho Seonghu's pair—scored 1400 points. The ninth-place team—An Seongho's—scored 1500.

'So the preliminaries really were just warm-ups, huh.'

Even though the targets had gotten smaller, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the scores had gone up significantly.

Other players kept posting their scores. Before long, the highest mark was 2100 points from a college couple that had hit three home runs.

'Ten hits would be enough to comfortably take second.'

Since second place was at 1900 points, how many targets you hit was the real key.

"Hup!"

Epinel hit nine out of ten pitches.

'So I just need 1100 points.'

Three home runs and five hits would be plenty. I stepped into the batter's box and calmly hit three consecutive home runs, then took a bit off the next five to finish with exactly 2000 points.

"Wow! We won a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠prize!"

I watched Epinel jumping for joy and smiled. We had secured second place.

...

...

...

I hadn't expected them to hand out the prizes right away, but before I knew it, Epinel and I were each holding a neatly packaged box for the latest iPad model.

It was a little extra luggage, but it wouldn't be a problem for eating lunch and continuing with our sightseeing plans.

Before long we had made it all the way to the beach. We didn't go in the water, but I watched Epinel write our names in the sand right before the waves came back in.

[Epinel]

-Swoooosh!

"Ah, I almost had it!"

"Want me to help write it?"

I picked up a nearby stick and walked over to her. Epinel happily agreed that we should write each other's names.

'Hmm… this is trickier than I thought.'

My name had simple strokes and was easy to write, but Epinel's had a lot more. It was going to be tight to finish before the next wave rolled in.

Still, by focusing hard, I managed to complete the characters just before the wave arrived. Since it took a little while for the water to reach us, I got a moment to glance at Epinel's expression…

".........."

When I looked down at the writing, I saw that Epinel had drawn half of a heart between our two names.

'........What a complicated feeling. Joy, happiness, embarrassment—it's all mixed together.'

Yang Uijin sunbae had said he was the one who confessed first… I never imagined I'd be on the receiving end.

'I thought at least I'd be the one to do it.'

The waves were slowly creeping closer. I quickly moved the stick and completed the half-heart Epinel had started. Her whole body trembled. She must have seen me finish it.

-Swooooosh!

The wave rolled in and washed away the letters we'd worked so hard to write, turning them back into sand…

The relationship between me and Epinel was not washed away.