The Catcher’s Heart Leaps Before the Final Game
"So who did you come for this time?"
"Come on, Coach. You already know, don't you?"
The unnamed club's scout spoke to Coach Kim Ik-hyun with easy familiarity.
"You ought to drop by more often. We've still got a second-year who can really pitch, you know."
"Sorry about that. My club's a bit far from here, isn't it?"
"Oh, listen to this scout. Try saying something that actually makes sense, will you?"
Of course, Coach Kim Ik-hyun had a pretty good idea why his junior had shown up at Suseok High.
It was obviously because of Choi Seungtaek.
Ever since Choi Seungtaek had suddenly become the hottest name around, calls had been pouring in from every direction. His initial evaluation had been a C Grade prospect, but starting with the Blue Dragon Flag he'd grown so fast that scouts had been forced to keep updating their files. Most of them currently had him as a B Grade prospect with a slight plus attached, but after watching today's batting, the unnamed club's scout had a feeling he'd need to bump that all the way up to A Grade.
"Ahem — Coach, that second-year you're talking about is Lee San, right? We all know he's going to get snatched up with a first-round nomination. That's a little awkward, isn't it? Haha."
"Still, you ought to stop by now and then if you want to hear this and that. Cold of you, only showing up when you need something."
"I'm sorry about that, Coach."
Coach Kim Ik-hyun was needling his scout junior.
"Anyway, Coach — have a lot of other places been asking about that kid?"
His junior cut quickly to the point. He'd been playing it fairly meek, but now he was getting down to business.
"Calls? Plenty of those. And someone even came in person before you did."
Whoa, shit. At this rate I'm going to lose him.
The unnamed club's scout snapped fully awake. Calls were one thing — those could come from anywhere. Showing up in person was different. Sure, they'd probably come to check on Kang Taepoong and looked at Seungtaek while they were at it, but the mere fact that another club's scout had come to see Choi Seungtaek was enough to get him going.
"Ahem, sorry to keep asking, Coach, but which clubs have been in touch?"
"That's for you to find out, kid. Pick up the phone and start calling around."
"Come on, Coach!"
Coach Kim Ik-hyun always enjoyed teasing his juniors at times like this. After Kang Taepoong had locked down a first-round nomination, he'd figured this kind of thing would die down for a while. But with Choi Seungtaek suddenly rising, the calls had started coming in again. And at moments like this, it was more important to stoke a little competitive fire and drive up the player's value than to just hand over information on a platter.
After letting the silence hang for a beat, Coach Kim Ik-hyun loosened up a little.
"One club came and watched him in person, and counting the Gwangju Pigeons, about three teams have been in contact. Include you and that makes about five clubs overlapping… so what are you going to do?"
But the unnamed club's scout wasn't going to be that easy. He sized things up fast.
The club that came in person is probably the Falcons. They wouldn't have come specifically for Choi Seungtaek. They looked at him while they were checking Kang Taepoong. So they wouldn't be that high in the order.
The unnamed club's scout ran through the teams in his head, including his own, thinking about clubs that were weak at catcher.
The other two are probably the expansion Gangnam Parrots and the Ulsan Egrets. Or… their catching corps is deep, but given Manager Park Wangyu's interview, it could be the Cranes.
Coach Kim Ik-hyun hadn't said much, but the scout had managed to put together an estimate as fast as he could.
In that case, we can still take him around the fourth round.
Choi Seungtaek was tidying up the indoor training facility. He packed the balls he'd been hitting back into their boxes, put them away in storage, and straightened the place before heading out.
Park Gayeong waited while Seungtaek calmly cleaned up, then spoke first.
"So what are we doing now?"
"Hmm… we should probably grab dinner, right? Is it a little early?"
"No. But are you going like that?"
"Is it that bad? Then I'll just go change real quick."
"You're just going to change clothes?"
They'd finished cleaning and were heading outside when Gayeong glared at him. His clothes were already soaked through with sweat. Park Gayeong had absolutely no intention of walking around with him like that.
"Just go shower while you're at it. You live in the dorm, so you can wash up, right? You've got plenty of clothes too."
"Yeah! I can. But is it okay if I shower?"
"It's not whether you can shower! You! Looking like that! How are we supposed to go around together?!"
When Park Gayeong put quiet force behind every word, Seungtaek felt a flicker of fear.
"Stop saying weird stuff and just go. I'll wait in front of the dorm."
"Ah… okay! Then I'll be right back."
"How long do you think you'll take?"
"Fifteen minutes from now."
"Fifteen minutes?"
Seungtaek had already bolted for the dorm like a shot, so he never got the chance to answer Gayeong's question. But he really did come back in fifteen minutes, showered and changed.
"Wow. You really are fast."
"Of course. You get fast living in a group. And knowing you were waiting made me naturally even faster."
Park Gayeong wondered if he'd just rinsed off in a hurry, but she decided to let it slide — he'd done his best.
"You said you wanted meat, right?"
"Yeah."
Seungtaek glanced at Park Gayeong, reading her face. After all that batting practice, his stomach was already rumbling. The urge to eat something — anything — was only getting stronger.
"All right, let's go. There's a decent place nearby."
Park Gayeong led Seungtaek straight to the barbecue restaurant she'd already had in mind. Watching her take him there without a moment's hesitation, Seungtaek was impressed by her follow-through.
But Gayeong's treating me to dinner too… that feels a little weird.
They'd come to eat meat, but he wasn't the one paying, and Seungtaek felt strangely guilty.
"Welcome. How many?"
The server taking orders on the floor tilted her head at how young they looked, but they were customers, so she decided to seat them.
"Two. Where should we sit?"
"Would you like that table over there?"
The server gave them a fairly cozy corner table.
"Wow, nice table."
"Yeah. This is actually really nice."
Seungtaek's family had always been poor, so whenever he'd needed to put on weight for baseball, he'd usually just boiled a lot of ramyeon. Building his body on meat had been out of the question, and even after he'd gone pro, he hadn't been able to eat meat freely unless a senior was treating him. But getting to eat meat like this as a student, thanks to Park Gayeong's comfortable finances, left him with a truly peculiar feeling. It was even more so because this wasn't some all-you-can-eat place with frozen meat — anyone could tell they used premium domestic Korean pork.
I shouldn't feel this way. This is a little weird, isn't it?
Seated, Seungtaek looked at the menu. Good meat meant a good price. The cost of a single serving made his eyes spin.
"Hey, Gayeong — are you sure it's okay to treat me at a place like this?"
"Yeah. It's fine. I get a lot of allowance."
I'm jealous.
But he couldn't keep moping about it.
"Then I'll grill the meat. I'm really good at grilling."
If someone was treating you, the least the person being treated could do was grill the meat. After years of playing gofer for his seniors, Seungtaek took pride in his grilling, and he was genuinely good at it.
"Four servings of samgyeopsal, please."
"Four servings?"
"Yeah. You need to eat a lot."
Whether she'd factored in that Seungtaek was an athlete, Park Gayeong ordered big from the start, and the slight sulkiness he'd been carrying melted away, replaced by something like respect.
A moment later the meat arrived, and Seungtaek went to work.
Sizzle—
The meat hissed appetizingly on the grill, and Seungtaek's hands moved fast.
"What? You really are good at this."
"I just don't get to eat it much. Grilling, though — I'm actually really good. I'll cut it so it's easy to eat."
His seniors had often brought their kids along, so Seungtaek could even cut it down to kid-sized pieces. He cut the meat a little larger than those kid portions, neat and tidy, and Park Gayeong couldn't help being surprised all over again at this unexpected delicacy.
"What's this? You're cutting it so cute."
Seungtaek slid the daintily cut pieces over in front of Park Gayeong, and she smiled a little at the sight.
"How's that? Just right? Want me to cut them smaller?"
"I'm not a baby. I can eat pieces this size, you know."
Park Gayeong picked up a piece and ate it.
"Mmm… that's good. You really grilled it well."
"Hehe."
Seeing Park Gayeong so satisfied put Seungtaek in a good mood too. After a bite or two of meat, Park Gayeong tossed out a question.
"Hmm… is there anything else I can help you with?"
"Anything you can help with?"
"Yeah. So you can win the championship."
At Park Gayeong's words, Seungtaek fell into thought.
Hmm… what would be good?
Then, for reasons he couldn't quite name, a thought surfaced.
"Hmm… we've got the semifinals on Wednesday. Gwangju Hana High is the opponent. They're a pretty strong team, but I think we can beat them."
"Huh? Really? And?"
Park Gayeong found it a little odd — Seungtaek's words seemed to come out of nowhere.
"And the finals are on Sunday. August 24th."
"I see. So the finals are next Sunday."
Put that way, the finals were already almost here. Park Gayeong was struck by how fast time had gone.
"Huh? What?"
Thump.
Thump.
Strangely, Seungtaek felt his heart beating faster. His tongue kept getting tangled; the words were getting harder to get out. The last part barely made it past a whisper.
Thump.
Thump.
As if she'd just heard a confession, Park Gayeong's face went red.
Thump.
Thump.
Park Gayeong, too, felt her heart beating strangely fast. Neither of them could say another word. They just sat there, quietly staring at the grill.
…
"Um… Seungtaek?"
"Yeah?"
"The meat's burning…"
"Crap! Sorry. Meat this precious—I'll eat the burnt ones."
Seungtaek hurriedly salvaged what was on the grill.