The Returned Catcher Wants to Win the Championship - Chapter 2: Morning Class
The school uniform felt strangely out of place.
Since the Blue Dragon Cup had ended in defeat, Choi Seungtaek had to attend regular classes in the mornings once again.
After the introduction of the high school baseball weekend league, the baseball club had also begun following the same schedule as other students in the mornings. At first there had been plenty of complaints, but over time the new routine had slowly taken root.
Choi Seungtaek actually approved of the system. Only a small number of players would ever make it to the pros.
Every year roughly a thousand students graduated from high schools and universities to enter the draft. Yet only about a hundred were selected each season. The competition ratio sat at roughly 10-to-1. A hundred lucky souls signed professional contracts, but the remaining nine hundred—guys who had never been trained as ordinary students—faced an uphill battle from the very beginning.
Once the lives of those undrafted players started to surface in the media, the culture gradually evolved. When Choi Seungtaek had been with the team’s talent-scouting department, the movement toward making all athletes treat their studies seriously and train in the afternoons had become completely natural.
Of course, in 2014 that morning class was little more than a sweet break before training for the 3rd-year Choi Seungtaek.
He walked into the classroom and immediately spotted a familiar seat.
He had spent so many years avoiding study that it made perfect sense he could not keep up with a senior-year class just before the college entrance exam.
“Hmm… does this still fit?”
The uniform from his first year of high school already felt a bit small. Especially across the chest it was tight enough that he had no choice but to leave it half-unbuttoned.
Choi Seungtaek had struggled to find his classroom. Even the memories from his high-school days were hazy, and waking up only to sleep made them even fainter.
He claimed a seat in the back row reserved for the baseball club and was relieved to find Kim Min-jae, the third baseman, already face-down and snoring.
“What a jealous kid. You actually got to sleep. I wish I could do that too.”
Since he knew he could never keep up with the syllabus anyway, and there were only three months until the exam, it was only polite for the athlete to get some rest.
Yesterday’s loss had left a sour mood, and sleep had come even less easily than usual. So he decided to use this quiet period to catch up on what he had missed.
He closed his eyes and almost immediately felt a sharp, annoying sensation behind his temples.
“This stupid… I can’t be this lazy anymore.”
He realized that every day for the next month and more he would have to sit through four hours of this useless daze or sleep. It was infuriating.
“Then what do I do? What smart thing can I possibly do in four locked hours?”
His mind spun. He remembered the experience he had gained as a talent scout. Ignorance of the enemy is the beginning of victory—basic truth, and right now the only enemy was himself.
Choi Seungtaek scanned the classroom for something he could exploit. Unfortunately there was nothing worth recording.
He looked at the other students. Up front sat a girl whose perfume smelled pleasant.
“Let’s borrow that first.”
He tapped her chair.
“Huh?”
The girl turned around.
“Oh… hello?”
Her eyes widened in surprise. The baseball club member who usually only slept had actually spoken to her.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Sorry, but could you lend me just one notebook?”
“A notebook?”
“Yeah! I’ll pay you back.”
“Uh… you mean one notebook, right?”
“Yeah. Exactly. Is there one?”
The girl paused, then handed him a nice notebook.
“Nice! Got it.”
“Whoa, Seungtaek, you’re bothering the same-class girls already? What’s this about?”
Kim Min-jae had woken up at some point and spoke with a playful smirk.
“It’s nothing like that. Just go back to sleep.”
But there was still nothing useful.
“Damn it. I should have borrowed something useful too.”
Tap, tap.
Choi Seungtaek apologized with a sheepish expression.
“What? Again?”
“Uh… I need something useful too…”
“Oh…”
The conversation had gone awkward. The girl looked a little uncomfortable, but she still lent him the notebook.
“T-thank you.”
“No problem.”
I’m such an idiot. I’m such an idiot.
Choi Seungtaek opened the notebook and was immediately interrupted by another excited voice beside him.
“Whoa, Seungtaek. You’re borrowing the same-class girl’s notebook even though you’re only going to borrow it later. Typical catcher, always ready for a verbal fight.”
“It’s not like that. You’re crazy?”
Choi Seungtaek startled, but Kim Min-jae’s mischief only grew.
“You know the girl in front is the class president, right?”
“Eh? She was? I didn’t know.”
Kim Min-jae grinned triumphantly. He immediately waved at the front.
“President! Hello?”
“Hi, hello.”
“The president must be annoyed. Even though she’s in the same class and you still didn’t know.”
Oh no… this brat.
Choi Seungtaek saw a flash of irritation cross the president’s face.
“Kheuk…”
Choi Seungtaek felt a pang of guilt. He could not even recall the girl’s name from his past memories. Kim Min-jae had just revealed truly secret information.
But the attack did not end there.
“Seungtaek, do you know the president’s name? You don’t even know her name?”
Choi Seungtaek froze like someone who had swallowed a mouthful of honey. Kim Min-jae delivered the final blow.
“Right? You don’t know the president but you already know her name?”
Damn it. I’m completely screwed.
“President Kim Gayoung! Hello?”
“Hi, hello.”
Kim Min-jae waved just as loudly, clearly for Choi Seungtaek’s benefit.
“See, Seungtaek? I told you her name! You should thank me.”
“Yeah, thanks, Min-jae. Really grateful.”
Choi Seungtaek answered with a sarcastic edge, but Kim Min-jae threw his head back in laughter.
“Hehe, why are you thanking me? You’re the idiot here. You should thank Gayoung for lending you the notebook and pen.”
Haa… son of a bitch.
“Go on, try it. President Gayoung, thank you. When you’re grateful, you say it like this. Easy, right?”
Ahhh! I’m going to die. My dignity is gone.
Choi Seungtaek gritted his teeth; he could hear them grinding.
“President Gayoung… thank you.”
“Haha, you don’t have to.”
The president looked slightly embarrassed thanks to Kim Min-jae’s teasing. Choi Seungtaek glared at Kim Min-jae with a face turning red.
“Hehehe…”
“I’m going to kill you.”
“I’m really going to kill you.”
He lunged at Kim Min-jae, but the third baseman only laughed for thirty seconds before quietly returning to his desk.
“Ha…”
Choi Seungtaek finally opened the notebook the president had given him. It was brand new and perfectly clean.
I need to make a plan. The President’s Cup is only three days away.
The Golden Lion Cup and Blue Dragon Cup were the championship tournaments for the best weekend-league teams. The President’s Cup, by contrast, was open to every team in the country, so the early rounds would be much weaker.
So even if he did not play in the first few games, they could still win.
That gave him roughly a week and a half.
What should I do in that time?
Choi Seungtaek decided to start with himself.
He used his phone to gather every record from the Blue Dragon Cup and played the videos of himself playing so he could watch his own mechanics.
“This is terrible. How did a scout like that pick me in the tenth round? What were they thinking?”
The Choi Seungtaek of the past who had reached the Blue Dragon Cup was honestly awful.
Even as a high-school player he had been passable as a defensive catcher, but when measured against professional standards he had been trash.
He wrote every objective fact about himself into the notebook with the sharp eye of a talent scout. After reading his own brutally honest self-criticism, he felt strangely relieved.
He had just dissected himself, but the words were accurate.
“Is your baseball club really that bad?”
“Huh? Oh, you startled me.”
Choi Seungtaek jumped at the voice coming from behind. He had been so focused he had not heard a thing.
The class homeroom teacher.
“You all love your sports teams, but staring at your phones and watching videos behind me is a little much, don’t you think?”
“Teacher, I’m studying right now.”
Choi Seungtaek answered immediately. It was important to stop any misunderstanding before it started.
“Studying? What video?”
“This… the person in the video is me. It’s a tournament game.”
He pointed out the words “Blue Dragon Cup Quarterfinals” and the name of the school on screen.
“Hmm… that makes sense. So what is this?”
The homeroom teacher took the notebook. He read the entries.
“Choi Seungtaek, batting average…”
Wait, are they all listening while he reads this aloud?
Choi Seungtaek suddenly felt dizzy with shame.
“If a scout took him to the pros, he would be laughed at. In every department he falls short of professional level…”
The teacher’s voice gradually grew quieter as he read.
“Seungtaek, there’s no need to be so harsh on yourself.”
The teacher’s face had hardened. Kim Min-jae, who had been listening to the brutal self-assessment, quickly jumped in.
“Teacher, after we lost badly in the Blue Dragon Cup yesterday and got eliminated, everyone is feeling a little down.”
“Oh, I heard about that. You’ve had a change of heart. Don’t… don’t do that.”
The teacher handed the notebook back.
“No, it’s fine, Teacher. I’ll keep doing this quietly as long as it doesn’t bother the other students.”
“You’re still writing this?”
“It’s the right time for honest self-examination. It’s like taking the college entrance exam in November. I’m preparing for it. The seniors are preparing for the test, and I’m preparing for baseball.”
Choi Seungtaek opened the notebook again.
“It’s kind of like an answer sheet. Everyone else studies the same way. The seniors study for the test, and I study baseball.”
“Alright, I got it. I’ll tell the other teachers you’re studying too, just quietly.”
“Thank you. I’ll make sure not to make any noise during class either.”
Still, the teacher could not help but ask one more thing.
“But do you really have to watch the videos? The other teachers might not understand.”
“I have to watch and analyze them, so I have no choice. But I’ll do it quietly without making noise.”
“Hoo… alright.”
The teacher finally relented. It seemed he respected the effort.
After the teacher returned to the podium to prepare the lesson, Choi Seungtaek turned to the next video.
But it did not load.
The data had already been used up long ago when he was still poor.
“No way.”
Just as despair set in, one evil thought surfaced.
“Ah… this is too much. But I have no choice.”
He quietly reached out to the girl’s chair.
“Hey, Gayoung?”
Choi Seungtaek held out his hand, palm up, begging.
“Can I borrow your phone for a second?”
[I’ll pay you back later!]