Chapter 49
Chapter 49
Translator Wjin
Chapter 49
[Did you see Tae-Hyun the God's documentary?]
-I really watched it while shedding tears 😭😭😭
-Why did our gallery master have to go through such a hard life 😭😭
And I wonder what those idiots spouting nonsense about it being fake will say now that even the part-time job bosses showed the pay stubs. Morons.
└ He’s really so pitiful 😭
└I just found myself reflecting on my own life while watching the video… He's trying to achieve his dream while working two part-time jobs a day, and I'm just wondering what I'm doing.
└My whole family are Phoenix fans, so we watched it while eating, and even my dad teared up a little…
└I hope all the malicious commenters die
└Since they even revealed the pay stubs, the guys spouting bullshit about it being fabricated will definitely be exterminated. What a relief…
“It was a good thing I filmed it.”
After the documentary aired, the number of malicious commenters had definitely decreased a lot. Especially the ones who mentioned it being fabricated were now almost non-existent.
“So that's one thing solved.”
Now, the mountain called the Phoenix championship remained… Isn't this mountain a little too high? Of course, the situation could be seen as having improved because Lee Seung-Tae gave up the Majors and chose to go to the Phoenix.
But the Phoenix was still the Phoenix. They weren't called the owners of 'last place' for nothing. They weren't a team that would change in an instant just because Lee Seung-Tae and I joined.
“It would be somewhat resolved if Shin Ha-Yoon joined as a coach, but…”
This wasn't an empty statement, but a fact. To others, Shin Ha-Yoon might just seem like an ordinary high school girl, but to me, who knew the future, she was a very coveted talent.
There was nothing to say about Shin Ha-Yoon's coaching talent, as she would become the first Korean female coach in the Major Leagues.
And wasn't she the type of person who, even while calling me a punk, had the passion to bow her head and ask to record my batting form as data?
Most importantly, she actually produced results. When the Dinos weren't getting good results even after Lee Ji-Ho joined, Shin Ha-Yoon intervened and fixed the team. No, was it more like she remodeled it?
She didn't spare any advice, regardless of whether they were pitchers or fielders, and many improvements were actually made.
Thanks to her, the Dinos made it to autumn baseball just one year after Lee Ji-Ho joined, and by recruiting Shin Ha-Yoon, even as an intern, they even aimed for the championship.
“She would be perfect if she came to the Phoenix…”
Considering that, she was a desperately needed talent for the Phoenix. Since she was a Phoenix fan, she would have a lot of accumulated data too. Just as I was wondering if there was a way to make Shin Ha-Yoon a Phoenix coach, my phone vibrated.
Speak of the devil, it was a text from Shin Ha-Yoon.
[Come to the fountain at Hyuksan Park. I'll be waiting.]
“What's this all of a sudden?”
Not only did it come out of the blue, but I had no idea what it meant.
[What's up.]
“Aargh…”
No reply. Now it felt weird to just ignore it… What if she was really waiting at the park?
“…I guess I'll stop by while I'm on my run.”
I roughly put on my training clothes and left the house.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇;
I arrived at the fountain at Hyuksan Park. Since there weren't many people, Shin Ha-Yoon was immediately visible, but something was a little strange. She was standing with her head bowed, as if she had committed a crime.
“Why is she like that…”
It was an unusual atmosphere at a glance. Should I go or not… After contemplating whether to pretend I hadn't seen her and go back, I just approached her.
Then, Shin Ha-Yoon slowly raised her head.
What's with her complexion…? Her eyes were drooping, and she couldn't even meet my gaze properly.
“Why are you making the person you called over feel awkward? What's going on?”
“……”
Shin Ha-Yoon's lips trembled. She just stood there without answering, and for some reason, I felt like the guilty one. It was only after a long while that Shin Ha-Yoon slowly moved her lips.
“…I'm sorry.”
“What…?”
When a very unexpected word came out, I raised my voice, and Shin Ha-Yoon flinched as if frightened. Shin Ha-Yoon, with trembling eyes, managed to meet my gaze and said.
“……I know it's late. I should have properly apologized that day when I heard it in the interview…. I shouldn't have just sent one text and pretended not to know…. I'm sorry… really… I'm sorry.”
Her voice was full of tears. As if it wouldn't be strange if she burst into tears at any moment.
“…I'm just a little flustered. I don't know why you're suddenly apologizing.”
I really meant that I purely didn't know, but Shin Ha-Yoon seemed to take it differently and dropped her head.
“Yeah…. Right…. Apologizing now…. I know it's meaningless…. It's all just excuses and justifications, but… still… I really! I really didn't know. That you… were in such a difficult situation. No… no. It was all just my fault…. I shouldn't have said that just because I believed some false rumors.”
As soon as I heard the words ‘false rumors’, I immediately understood the situation, and the tension left me.
I had wondered what serious matter it was, but it seemed she was feeling guilty for treating me like a punk at the beginning of the semester. This was… should I call it foolish, or just like Shin Ha-Yoon?
“You were a bit harsh on the first day.”
“…I'm sorry.”
“No, I'm kidding. I didn't even care. So you don't have to take it so seriously.”
“How could I not care…. I'm sorry…”
No, I'm really saying it's okay… She was really like a person who had committed a mortal sin, apologizing to me when I hadn't even thought about it until she had brought it up.
“If you're that sorry, then just help me with some coaching for the Phoenix. I need to make the Phoenix win the championship, so this is great.”
It was a joke, but Shin Ha-Yoon's head slowly came up.
Could this actually work…? I tested the waters a little more.
“The thing I said about you having a talent for coaching, I was serious about that. So. Don't go to another team, and use that talent for the Phoenix.”
Shin Ha-Yoon just stared at me blankly without answering.
…I guess it's not going to work. Well, this was a bit too much of a freeloader mentality. No matter how much she had done wrong, asking for a passion payment without pay was a bit much.
Let's see, the contract money I got from Lee Si-Ha, after taxes… I should have about 700 million left, so should I invest… it now? Just as I was wondering how much I should pay her a month, Shin Ha-Yoon's mouth opened.
“I'll do it.”
“Huh?”
“I'll be your personal coach.”
No, I mean, if she's willing, I'm all for it, but… Didn't the content change a little?
“Thanks, but you don't have to be my personal coach. There are a lot of Phoenix players who need coaching. It's enough if you just build up some data on those players.”
Shin Ha-Yoon shook her head.
“You're going to be a Phoenix player too.”
“Well… that's true.”
“So you're included too, right?”
“…Well, that's true. Then how much for a monthly salary?”
Judging by the atmosphere, I could probably just get away with it, but still, my conscience would prick me.
“Salary?”
“We have to separate business from personal matters.”
“It's okay…”
“No, I'm not okay. I'm in the position of seriously hiring you.”
Shin Ha-Yoon nodded with a somewhat disappointed expression.
“I'll think about the salary and tell you later.”
“Well, that's fine too.”
“Then are we starting right from today?”
“Do we have to? We haven't even written a contract yet.”
“It's okay. I want to start from today.”
Shin Ha-Yoon's eyes were now not just regaining their vitality, but overflowing with motivation.
“Then I'm not paying you for today, okay?”
“It's okay. I did something wrong in the first place.”
It was just a joke.
Shin Ha-Yoon sat down on the bench and patted the spot next to her.
“Um… it's a little hard to do this standing up.”
As I sat next to her, Shin Ha-Yoon took out her phone and started scrolling through videos. At a glance, it looked like there were a lot of videos… and for some reason, it seemed like they were all of me.
“Did you come to see my games too?”
Shin Ha-Yoon nodded. She said she always went if the stadium was close, and if it was a bit far, she would spend her allowance to go…
“I just did it to gather data, okay? There's no special meaning.”
“Who said there was?”
At my words, Shin Ha-Yoon, who had been quiet for a moment, suddenly started talking.
“……You have a lot of things to fix. I couldn't say it until now, but you have a lot of parts to fix too.”
“Uh… right.”
“Look, the thing I said about your side coming out too much, it was fine until the President's Cup, but it collapses a bit when you're facing Ryuji in the Japan game, right?”
“That was a situation where I had to put in a little more power.”
“I don't know what happened, but you have to maintain it consistently.”
“Uh, right…”
Anyway, that's how Shin Ha-Yoon's coaching officially began.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇;
“So that's a rough explanation of the Phoenix's problems.”
“Then let's wrap it up. The sun has already set.”
“You're right. When did it get so dark?”
Shin Ha-Yoon, who had stood up from the bench, thought that today's events had turned out very well. When she had just come here, she couldn't even think of what to say to apologize.
But Cha Tae-Hyun had forgiven her as if it were nothing, and had even praised her talent and asked her to be a coach.
And I treated a guy like this like a punk….
Thinking about it again, she was a really bad person.
Let's atone for it by trying my best.
Shin Ha-Yoon made a promise. To help Cha Tae-Hyun diligently and help him achieve his dream, the Phoenix championship.
“You've worked hard. I wonder if I kept you for too long.”
At Cha Tae-Hyun's words, Shin Ha-Yoon shook her head.
“No. It wasn't hard at all.”
She was being sincere. What was hard about it? He was acknowledging the effort that no one had recognized until now and was taking her coaching seriously. In fact, Shin Ha-Yoon was so happy that she was a little sad to be parting.
Looking at Cha Tae-Hyun's back as he was leaving, Shin Ha-Yoon said without realizing it.
“Hey…. Um… so are we reconciled now?”
Cha Tae-Hyun, who had only slightly turned his head, chuckled.
“Did we ever fight? You were the only one moping.”
Shin Ha-Yoon also smiled faintly and waved at Cha Tae-Hyun.
Soon, Cha Tae-Hyun disappeared from her sight, and Shin Ha-Yoon looked up at the moon in the sky. She felt as if she could hear the words her sister had said.
‘Someone might snatch Tae-Hyun oppa up if you're not careful.’
That trivial provocation that she had paid no mind to… Now, she was really starting to care about it a little.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇;
After becoming a third-year, quite some time had passed.
Lee Seung-Tae joined the Phoenix as planned and was immediately registered to the first team, living up to his name as a monster rookie by maintaining an ERA in the low 3s, but now, as the season was drawing to a close, he still only had 5 wins.
Because of that, his eyes were dead in every interview, and I was worried that he would be broken by the time I got there.
Chang-Hyun joined the Daejeon Volcanos, and he was also showing a good performance for a rookie, recording an ERA in the mid-3s, and the team was doing unexpectedly well.
To the point where people were saying that the Volcanos might be able to advance to autumn baseball for the first time in a long time.
Because of that, he had become a star among the people of Daejeon, even though he was a newly debuted rookie….
Jin Tae-Hyun joined the Seoul Winners, and since the team had always been weak at the catcher position, he immediately secured the starting catcher spot.
He was also showing good performance with his batting, so it seemed Jin Tae-Hyun was also very popular.
Anyway, everyone was having a not-so-bad season, but.
Hyuksan High was having a slightly disappointing year. Although we won the Golden Lion Flag, we didn't have much success in the other tournaments.
In fact, we only won the Golden Lion Flag because Lee Ji-Ho and I were insanely active; otherwise, we might not have had any championship records this year at all.
Well, it couldn't be helped. It was a team with a poor balance in the first place. It felt like we had failed in the generation change as the third-years graduated.
Today, we had just lost in the semifinals of the President's Cup, the last tournament of the year, with a score of 7:12.
“It's a shame. You scored a lot at the end.”
Lee Ji-Ho said.
“Tell me about it. You should have hit one more home run.”
“You and I hit 3 home runs combined today…”
“Hey! You rascal. If Chang-Hyun was here, he would have said, ‘An ace takes responsibility until the end!’”
“Haha. That's true. But, now that the tournament is over, I just thought of something. Why did you do that to me back then?”
“Back then what?”
“When I was trying to give the signed ball to the teacher, you suddenly lost it and said some strange things.”
Ah. I remembered. When Lee Ji-Ho was trying to give the home run ball to Ms. Mi-Yeon, I got a little excited and stopped him.
“I was just trying to give it to her because I was grateful that she always came to cheer us on. There was no special meaning.”
There probably really was no special meaning. Lee Ji-Ho had definitely shown a different path from Nemas.
“Well, I'm sorry about that. I overreacted. It's hard to explain, but should I say it's like PTSD?”
“Why would you get PTSD from handing a signed ball to the teacher?”
“That's… hard to explain.”
“Really? Well then, it's fine. I just mentioned it because I thought of it. Anyway, now that the tournament is over, want to play a game of screen baseball?”
Jin Myung-hwan, who had suddenly appeared, chimed in, saying, “Oh! That's a good idea.”
“I'm good. I have plans.”
“What's with this guy having plans after every tournament?”
“I know, right. Who is it, anyway? Stop hiding it all the time and just tell us.”
“No way.”
That's a dangerous thing to say. I can't say anything until at least before I graduate.
“Anyway, I'm leaving.”
Well, it's soon anyway. Both graduation and my pro debut.