That's How It Turned Out

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Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Fingers drummed a steady rhythm against the desk.

In the quiet room, where the only sound had been the soft meeting of fingertip and wood, a single voice cut in.

"What are you going to do?"

"Well… hah… it's tough."

"Skip. No—Donghoon. I get what you're worried about, but isn't it too much of a waste not to use him?"

"But…"

The Sunday game had ended hours ago, yet Manager Park Donghoon was still cooped up in his office, fretting alongside Head Coach Kim Myeong-gu. The headache keeping him from going home had a name.

"This is Hajin's first full season as a starter. Even if he only pitches, I'm not sure he'll last until the end of the year… two-way play is a bit…"

"That's something we can manage. If it looks like he's struggling, we can tweak his start days here and there. I'm not saying we make him a full-time hitter either."

"Still…"

"Two days. Just put him in for the two days between starts. No defense—just three or four plate appearances."

"Hah…"

"And the stamina thing? Is a little extra work really going to cause a big problem? It's not like Hajin has to run the bases every single time."

The head coach was pushing hard for Kang Hajin to go two-way. He'd already thought the kid had real potential, but after watching that grand slam as a pinch hitter today, he was completely sold. In his eyes, Hajin had the makings of a star even if he switched to hitting full-time right now.

That was why he'd sought out Manager Park after the game—only to find the manager wrestling with the exact same question.

"If he were still closing like last year, I wouldn't have hesitated either. But…"

"Donghoon. You already know the best setup is Gyeongmin at first and Tae-seong at third. The problem is we don't have anyone decent for the DH spot, so we keep twisting ourselves into knots every time. Let Hajin take two games, and use Jong-seong for the rest. If Gyeongmin starts looking worn out, give him a day off here and there. Perfect, right?"

"Hah… Fine. Let's ask him first."

"…And if he says no?"

"Then there's nothing we can do. Kids these days aren't like us—they don't just do whatever the manager says."

"Yeah. True. But from what I've seen, Hajin's going to say yes. Why else would he have been grinding batting practice like that?"

"……"

"He wanted this from the start. So ask him, and if he likes the idea, we put him in right away."

"……All right."

"Puhah. You see this?"

"What?"

"They ran a poll about you."

"Huh? About what? Let me see."

At the mention of a poll with my name on it, I leaned in toward the monitor. The site Ho-min had open was our team's Savers community board.

A vote on whether I should go two-way… and the results were pretty unexpected.

"Whoa… four percent actually want me to switch to hitting?"

"Right? Heh."

"No way… seven games, five wins one loss, 1.57 ERA, and four percent of people want me to ditch starting and just hit? Is this real? On our own team board?"

"Kek. I was so baffled I had to show you. Guess that grand slam left one hell of an impression. Heh."

"Still, though."

"The comments are a mess already. People are hunting for whoever voted hitter."

He scrolled down to show me the replies, and just like he said, it was pure chaos. Watching the flood of wild jokes and rants for a moment left me feeling a little dizzy myself.

"They're going nuts demanding two-way."

"Works for me."

"You actually gonna do it?"

"If they let me. That's exactly why I put in all that batting practice—if they offer, I'm taking it."

"It's not gonna be normal work, you know? There's a reason all those guys who talked big about going two-way ended up flaming out. People say it's ridiculously hard."

"I'm not even playing defense. In a three-hour game, how long am I really out there—ten minutes? Even if I get a hit and run the bases, twenty minutes max."

"Okay, yeah, fair point."

Honestly, I was a little excited.

After I hit that grand slam and came back to the dugout, taking a barrage of skull-rattling high-fives until I finally escaped, I'd happened to catch sight of Manager Park. I hadn't been looking for him—my eyes just landed on him when I turned my head.

Anyway. The expression on his face then… it was happy, but also somehow complicated. Like he couldn't quite decide what to do.

Seeing that, a thought had suddenly hit me.

If things go well, I might lock down a spot as a hitter pretty soon.

"Aren't you just overthinking it? Your manager always looks kinda… grumpy, doesn't he?"

"No, it was different, okay? I'm serious!"

"The hit and steal on Children's Day was nice, and the grand slam was great too, but… jumping him straight into the lineup after just two at-bats is a stretch…"

"I got a feeling, I'm telling you."

"……That feeling of yours that never lands."

"Hey. I'm a guy who hits on feel."

"Bullshit. Do you even know what that means? Saying you hit on feel is just another way of saying you got lucky."

"That's not what I mean. Seriously, how else was I supposed to know that pitch was a forkball? But my gut said it was dropping—and boom, it actually dropped."

"Hah…… Crazy bastard. And this is the guy who wants to go two-way… You'll be stuck as a .100 hitter getting roasted until you go back to just pitching."

"You little shit…"

Monday. It should have been a rest day, but with a start scheduled right on Tuesday, I headed to the stadium at the time I'd arranged with Ko Mandeok.

When I arrived, quite a few guys were already out doing their own individual work. Plenty of teams ran full practices even on Monday off days, but Manager Park handed out free rein on rest days and told everyone to handle it themselves.

Because of that, from last year through the start of this season, the training grounds had often been empty on Mondays… but with the team playing well, the place was buzzing these days.

I made a loop, saying hello, changed clothes, and was loosening up with some stretches when the head coach walked over.

He told me to go see the manager.

The second I heard that, a thought flashed through my head: Could it be?

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"I want to try you at both."

My hunch turned out right.

Manager Park hit me with that the moment he saw me—no greeting, no small talk, straight to the point.

"I'd like to try it."

So I answered just as fast, without a second of hesitation.

"Good. Two days between starts. No defense. You'll go in as the designated hitter."

"Thank you."

"All right. Go on."

Clean and concise, wasn't it?

"What'd he say?"

Ko Mandeok came over the second I got back to the field.

"He wants me to do both."

"Two-way?"

"Yeah."

"As a starter?"

"Yeah."

"Whoa… they're actually doing this."

"What, you thought they wouldn't?"

"I figured maybe the occasional pinch-hit. Never thought they'd drop you straight into the starting lineup."

"Guess I hit a little too well. Heh."

"……You smug bastard."

"Ehehe."

He grumbled about how annoying I was, but Mandeok's face was full of smiles too.

There was just one thing that bothered me.

"Our juniors picked the wrong senior—now they're losing their spots."

Guys like Jeong Jong-seong, who had been getting occasional starts as DH, and a few others who picked up chances whenever Seo Gyeongmin slid into the DH role, were getting squeezed out because of me.

"The captain isn't going to play first base full-time anyway."

"Still, they'll get fewer looks than they do now."

"Tch. Then you go give your spot to Jong-seong, hyung."

"What was that?"

"Jong-seong's a solid catcher too, you know."

"No way. He still can't handle your pitches perfectly. His game-calling needs more work too…"

Watching him fluster and ramble made me feel a little better.

And then the next day.

"Huh?"

"Eh?"

"……What the hell is this?"

For some reason, my name was sitting right there in the seventh spot on the lineup card in front of us.

"What? He said only the two days between starts."

"That's what I heard too…"

"You're going out on a start day too?"

"No. He never said that. I—I don't know."

The other players murmured among themselves while Mandeok stared at me like I'd grown a second head. Hitting in a game was great, but this was completely outside what I'd expected, and I was thrown for a serious loop.

Especially since yesterday, when ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I ran into Jeong Jong-seong, I'd even joked around and told him to go crush a home run for me today… and I'd told Yang-gyu that if he got in, he should steal six bases…

And now this? It looked like I'd just been messing with the kids.

"Uh, Coach…"

I wanted answers, but I wasn't about to ask Manager Park. I already knew exactly what he'd say—face completely blank: That's how it turned out.

So I went to the head coach instead as he was just stepping into the dugout…

"That's how it turned out."

Damn it. How do two people this identical even end up working together?

"No, wait, about that…"

"The manager wasn't originally planning to put you in today. He wanted you focused purely on pitching, but… well."

"So? What happened?"

"Jong-seong's not feeling great."

"What?"

Now that he mentioned it, Jeong Jong-seong was nowhere to be seen.

"Then what about Yang-gyu…"

Even without Jong-seong, they could have put Seo Gyeongmin at DH, moved Shane to first, and stuck Ju Yang-gyu in the outfield.

"Well, the opposing starter is… ahem."

The head coach cleared his throat awkwardly and glanced around to make sure no one was listening.

Today's opposing starter was the Warriors' ace, Jon Reiner. He'd taken the loss against us on Opening Day after giving up five runs in five innings, but since then he'd clearly found his footing and kept stacking wins. In particular, he was racking up strikeouts with a two-seamer that touched 154 km/h paired with a changeup.

What the head coach was saying was that he didn't think Ju Yang-gyu was ready to face that pitcher yet… and the answer to that problem was me?

"Just play loose. No pressure. Got it?"

There's a ton of pressure, though?

"We even dropped you to seventh so you could relax. So… we're counting on you."

He says play without pressure, then turns around and says he's counting on me? What is that?