Preparing for the Comeback
I headed down to my hometown house and rested for three full days until Sunday. With Mom loading the table until it nearly buckled under every meal, I lazed around and ate like I had nothing left in the world to envy.
Exercise amounted to little more than a quick jog around the neighborhood each morning.
Ho-min kept nagging me to hit the local gym for some weights, but… I'd become a body that couldn't leave the house.
Or more precisely, a body that couldn't leave the bed?
Aside from heading out to the living room for meals and going on that morning jog, I didn't even think about moving from the mattress.
Thanks to that, after three days I felt like I'd put on a bit of weight.
"Baseball players can stand to bulk up a little."
I told Ho-min that and got an earful of every curse under the sun.
Ah! The interview I'd talked about with the manager had been called off. If nothing had happened, I was supposed to do it today, but in the current situation an interview would just be asking for a public roasting.
Staying quiet and lying low was better for everyone.
Haa… I really want to rest more…
If it were up to me, I'd have spent the entire suspension period right here, but unfortunately that wasn't possible. I'd promised Ho-min before coming down that we'd head back up Sunday night.
Honestly, I could have shouted "Promises are made to be broken!" and ignored it, but I still had to take the last remaining pill, so I had to go to Seoul.
I'd thought about bringing it down with me, but—if I had, I really wouldn't have wanted to go back up, so I deliberately left it behind.
Call it foresight for a situation like this? I'd set up something that would force me to move… Looking back, it was a truly excellent choice.
I had to return starting Wednesday, so tonight I'd head up and start training again gradually from tomorrow. I needed to loosen up the shoulders that had stiffened from a few days of loafing, and get my body back to its previous condition.
"Let's get going already."
Ho-min, who'd gone home to pack his things, came back.
Whether he'd already told his parents or not, Ho-min had quit the family barbecue restaurant he'd been working at on the same day he told me and my parents.
Then he'd immediately started packing and sending things to Seoul—bulky items like clothes and daily necessities went by courier first, and he only brought the sensitive, important stuff like his laptop and tablet today.
"Both of you, make sure you eat well. Got it?"
"Yes. Don't worry. I'll make sure Hajin eats properly."
"Alright. Mom's trusting our Ho-min, okay?"
"······"
No matter how you looked at it, my parents had zero faith in me.
"Well then, we'll be off. I'll keep in touch~"
After coming up to Seoul, unpacking Ho-min's things simply, and waking up on Monday, I took the last remaining pill from the wooden box.
Looking at the empty wooden box, that sense of frustration washed over me again.
I had to meet that hooded woman next Sunday… I was so anxious about whether I'd be able to meet her if I went to that alley after the game.
Why didn't I talk about the next meeting time or place back then? Haa… What an idiot…
Thinking about it now, I'd been so stupid then. If it was someone I needed to meet again, I should have set a meeting appointment. I shouldn't have just let her go like that.
"What are you doing? We should get going soon, right?"
Ho-min, dressed in training gear, called me and urged me on.
Today's training was planned for the team training ground, and Ho-min had insisted on coming along, so I agreed.
On a weekday it wouldn't work, but today was Monday. It would be empty, so no problem, I thought. I'd even called the team to confirm and gotten permission.
"Mandeok hyung is heading out now too."
Ho-min, who'd suddenly gotten close with Ko Mandeok, had called Ko Mandeok out for today's training as well.
After being discharged, Ko Mandeok had played his return game on Sunday and, as if he'd really gritted his teeth, recorded three hits in three at-bats.
Maybe he'd been anxious about a rival's efforts; watching him play, he ran harder than anything I'd seen so far.
Arriving at the training ground with Ho-min and doing stretches, Ko Mandeok trudged in.
The two of them made a fuss like they were reuniting after being separated families, expressing their delight. I quietly kept my distance, not wanting to insert myself into that.
"Did you gain weight?"
That was the first thing Ko Mandeok said the moment he saw me. Had it only been three days, and it was already that noticeable?
"You're gonna get cursed out, you know? Your face looks way too good. You should have suffered a bit mentally and shown some signs of it…"
"… Do we have to go that far."
"No, no. People are so relentless. They'll notice you gained weight right away and say something. Like, that bastard beat someone up and then how well did he eat all by himself to get so plump and fat, something like that."
"Hmm… That's a sufficiently possible statement."
Following Ko Mandeok, even Ho-min piled on.
"This won't do. Let's not sleep on Tuesday. We can pull an all-nighter for a day, right? Your face will probably be a mess."
"Oh~ That's good. If you show up all haggard, people will feel a bit sorry for you."
I have to look pitiful so I shouldn't sleep? What kind of solution is this?
"If you'd been alone, you wouldn't even have thought of a method like this. Be glad you got a good manager. Hehe."
"Manager?"
"Ah! Yes. I decided to be that guy's manager. He's the type who can't do anything alone."
"Manager, huh… Like an agent?"
"For contract issues, you need a specialist for that. I'm more like… a secretary feel?"
"Really? That's nice for you, Hajin. Convenient."
Nice my ass. I was already getting annoyed.
After stretching, we continued with running and weights.
After lunch, we loosened our shoulders with tosses, and saying let's throw a few lightly, I took the mound.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
"Nice! Is it because you rested? The ball's end seems better?"
"Really?"
"Yeah. Just right. Let's keep it simple for today and throw properly tomorrow."
"Got it~"
As we were about to wrap up training, Ho-min, who'd been watching from the side, beckoned with his hand and called me as I was about to leave. When I approached, he led me to Ko Mandeok, who was packing up his gear.
"Hyung."
"Yeah?"
"Have you ever caught a knuckle?"
"Knuckleball? No. Our team doesn't have a pitcher who throws knuckleballs?"
"Want to try catching one?"
"Huh?"
What kind of nonsense was this. Suddenly a knuckle? Who's throwing it?
"You know how to throw a knuckleball, right?"
"Who? Me?"
"Yeah."
"No?"
"You said you threw it before?"
"What are you talking about? Ah~ High school? Is that what you mean?"
"Yeah."
"This crazy…"
I had thrown a knuckleball once in high school.
But that was just gripping it and throwing. Not because I wanted to learn the knuckleball, just purely out of boredom.
"Hey. That was just playing around. There isn't a single pitcher who hasn't thrown a knuckleball like that. Everyone knows the knuckleball grip, and the throwing method isn't that hard."
"Then just try throwing it."
"I'm telling you, all I did was throw a few as a joke. And I couldn't even throw it properly then. The ball went wherever it wanted, and with a ton of spin, it was a shitty ball that didn't even flutter!"
"I know."
"······ But you're telling me to throw it?"
"Yeah. I think you can throw it now? You learned the splitter and threw it right away, right?"
"······ Are those the same thing?"
"What's different about them."
Ho-min shrugged and pushed me toward the mound, telling me to just try throwing first.
Then Ko Mandeok, who'd been quietly listening until then, started putting his gear back on.
What? Really try throwing it?
"What's the big deal? Who said to become an official knuckleballer? It's just throwing a few for fun."
Ho-min's words were right. Just throwing a few wasn't a problem.
But maybe I throw this well too?
After taking this medicine, my baseball talent had risen sharply. The pitches I originally threw had become incomparably better than before, and I could use the splitter in games right away. If I threw the knuckleball well on top of that.
Then I'd really be a monster. I might even get scared of myself…
"Ugh. Crazy. I might even get scared of myself~ What the hell is this."
I'd said it to myself, but Ho-min following behind seemed to have heard. Damn.
I dug my fingers into the ball.
I'd learned the knuckleball grip from the internet. There wasn't any other way to learn it besides the internet.
When I searched the internet, a few grips came up, and among them, the one where I dug in with two fingers suited me best.
The other grips felt awkward from the moment I gripped them, and the balls thrown were a mess too.
The ball thrown with two fingers was a mess as well, but it was the best of them? At least it didn't feel awkward.
"Alright, I'll throw it~"
"Throw it gently, gently! I just returned and only played one game."
"It'll be lucky if it even flies somewhere you can catch it. This has no control."
"······ That makes me more anxious? Hoo… Just throw it first."
"Yes~ Here I go~"
Looking at Ko Mandeok sitting, I could see he was extremely tense.
He was sitting with his body slightly twisted, probably thinking of dodging right away if needed.
I didn't bother with a windup.
As Ko Mandeok said, I was going to throw lightly, gently, so no need for a windup.
I pushed the ball hard with the two fingers digging into it. Though it was just a ball pushed with two fingers.
The ball flew toward Ko Mandeok truly without power.
"Uh? Uh-uh!"
Thud.
Even as Ko Mandeok dodged to the right, he stuck out his glove and caught the ball.
He didn't even seem to have seen the ball properly because he was dodging, so how he caught it I had no idea.
But the position where he caught the ball…
"Hyung. If you'd caught it properly, wouldn't that have been a strike?"
"Yeah. Because I pushed the glove to the side, but it came in low."
If Ko Mandeok had sat properly and caught it, it would have been a strike that went well into the low course.
At my words, Ho-min also nodded and acknowledged it.
Ko Mandeok, looking embarrassed, took off his mask and shook his head.
"If I hadn't dodged, it would have hit me, right? Honestly, I just stuck out the glove and the ball came in on its own. Ugh… How am I supposed to catch this?"
"How's the ball?"
"Does it flutter a lot?"
Catching or not wasn't the issue. Whether the ball really fluttered properly was what mattered.
"······ It was jumping around like a crazy bitch."
"Meaning you can't get a handle on it?"
"Yeah. What the hell are you? Soon you'll be throwing knuckleballs too? Haa~ Shit, this is my problem…"
Ko Mandeok scratched his head and looked troubled.
"I thought it would work… Couldn't we use it for getting the count when there are no runners?"
At Ho-min's words, Ko Mandeok nodded without hesitation.
"That would be good. After all, after two strikes it's unstable. Same when there are runners. Can you throw a few more? I need to catch a lot to be able to use it."
"Of course. Knuckleballs don't put much strain or anything."
"Good. Then let's do ten. No, just twenty."
"Yes!"
That day I threw a total of thirty knuckleballs. Of the thirty, about half went in properly. Of the remaining half, about five became batting balls with spin, and ten showed movement more like a changeup than a knuckleball.
Ko Mandeok couldn't catch even ten out of the thirty. The ones he managed to catch were balls that couldn't be called knuckleballs. He didn't catch a single one of the balls that showed proper movement. Still, toward the end the mitt was following the ball, so it seemed like he'd be able to catch them soon.
"If we show the manager and coaches tomorrow, they'll fall over in surprise."
They would. Last time when I showed the splitter, they pretended not to, but they seemed pretty surprised.
What would they say this time. Would I be able to see them really surprised this time?