Hiring an Agent

High school baseball is a reasonably popular sport in South Korea.

That doesn't mean every high school player and team gets attention, or that every game becomes a hot topic — of course not.

With over 150 high school baseball teams and roughly 70 games being played simultaneously every weekend during weekend league season, nobody outside a small handful of star players gets much notice.

Even once the Bonghwangdae-gi begins, out of the countless teams starting from the Round of 256, only a few popular programs draw any real interest.

And even that "interest" mostly takes the form of people combing through box scores rather than actually watching games. As a result, the crowds at high school baseball games are overwhelmingly made up of family and acquaintances of the players, or scouts sent by professional and university teams.

But Kim Yi-seon and Wirye Jeil High, riding this latest wave of buzz, had become the exception to that rule. By the time the Round of 64 of this Bonghwangdae-gi rolled around, hundreds of spectators were already showing up to watch them play.

The woman now busily sweeping the ballpark with her telephoto lens was exactly the type of person who appears wherever that kind of popularity gathers.

She was an executive and celebrated uploader of the famous portal-site cafe, the High School Baseball Lounge. Within the cafe, she enjoyed constant prestige for the quality of her photos.

Her camera caught the players in their unguarded moments. Even if she'd been aiming for it, this was a rare, hard-to-come-by shot. A lucky day.

The photo captured Kim Yi-seon in the sweltering heat, his uniform loosened and hanging open, fanning himself by fluttering the collar of his jersey. Framed within it: his collarbone and the muscles of his chest, on full display.

That's right — the High School Baseball Lounge was a famous community, sure, but its fame had a rather distinctive flavor. To put it elegantly: a haven for groupies.

Borrowing the blunt phrasing of the Baseball Gallery, you might call it a community of "the hammer-wielding harlots out to ruin promising prospects."

Kim Yi-seon had landed on their radar more recently than you might think. Groupies aren't after just any cute boy to date — their goal is to stake a claim on famous stars or prospects destined to make it big.

Which is why their eyes are sharper than any amateur scout's. Wasn't it one scout who joked, "If a good-looking kid isn't getting chased by strange women, I take a second look before committing"?

Even with their practiced eye for talent, there are far too many high school games for these women to watch them all. So they usually make their approach only after a player has shown enough promise to be worth the effort.

And Kim Yi-seon, newly the talk of the town, was a perfect fit for their sights. That swing alone, that raw power — proof enough of considerable skill and ceiling.

Proving the point even now, beyond shady characters like herself, she could spot one or two figures who looked like actual, legitimate scouts.

And above all — that face.

"Cha Il-sung, you absolute lunatic — first time I've ever seen a guy call his shot on a homer he couldn't hit because of a girl."

Whatever pleased him so much, there he was with that playful, grinning face. That boyish charm combined with his looks was devastating. Was he chatting happily with a teammate?

No question about it — this was prime merchandise. If she uploaded these photos, a swarm of cafe members would be trailing Kim Yi-seon within the hour.

She'd briefly considered monopolizing him for herself for a while, but her sense of duty as a cafe executive won out. And so, busy clicking the shutter to deliver as many photos and records as possible, at that very moment—

"Excuse me, may I see those photos for a second?"

She found herself face to face with a doll-like girl radiating frost from every pore.

---

After the game, at the fan service event the coach had arranged. The Jeil High baseball players sat clustered around tables that had appeared from who knows where, signing autographs and posing for photos.

Watching Kim Yi-seon seated at the end of the longest line, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Kang Min-ah offered a single remark.

"Ye-eun-unnie. He's handling this more quietly than I expected."

Lee Ye-eun answered with a light laugh.

"What did I tell you? That you'd understand why soon enough?"

"Shut it. That's not what this is about."

Still, she had no intention of ever understanding how Lee Ye-eun kept Kim Yi-seon wrapped around her finger.

"Please. You think I started out like this? Watching that sorry sight, how am I supposed to keep the rage from boiling up inside me?"

The scene the two of them were observing was something else entirely.

Crazed women sidling up with lecherous smiles, pressing their bodies close while asking for autographs.

Molesters whose wandering hands went well past fingers — to forearms, and further up, to chests.

Sluts who made a point of asking if he had a girlfriend, then left behind notes scrawled with phone numbers and hotel locations.

Watching him soak it all up with a clueless smile, Kang Min-ah genuinely couldn't understand why Lee Ye-eun was standing by watching instead of intervening.

Especially when one woman asked him to sign the belly of the t-shirt she was wearing, pressing herself into him — and he signed it without a moment's hesitation, Kang Min-ah nearly let out an audible shriek.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Want me to go clear them out? Min-ah, isn't it selfish of you to want me to be the only villain here?"

Lee Ye-eun answered with a shrug, as if it were no concern of hers.

"Normally you'd have chased every one of them off by now."

"I don't know what fantasy you've got going, but I'm not that kind of person."

"Oh, please. Then how do you explain Kim Sa-rang and Choi Soo-bin transferring schools?"

This was the part she'd left out back when she'd explained the women who used to circle Kim Yi-seon. Partly he was too oblivious to notice, but more often than not, Lee Ye-eun had blasted them out of orbit so fast they were gone before he ever caught on.

The nickname "Mad Dog" hadn't been handed out lightly.

When Kang Min-ah pressed her this far, Lee Ye-eun couldn't hold it in and burst into raucous laughter.

She laughed for a long while, wiped her eyes with a swipe of her hand, and answered with a tone that was almost fond.

"Haah, honestly. Min-ah, you only had the sanitized version, huh? You think I ran them off just because they liked Kim Yi-seon?"

"Wasn't it?"

"Of course not. Whatever they did, if Kim Yi-seon wasn't interested in them, why would I bother?"

She cleared her throat, then began speaking lightly, as if it were nothing.

"Kim Sa-rang — I thought she was just chasing him around the ballpark, but she kept crossing the line until it escalated to full-on stalking. So I told her to crawl back into her hole before I reported her and spread the word.

Choi Soo-bin? That one was actually planning to spread a rumor that she'd slept with Kim Yi-seon. I'm not soft enough to lose to an amateur like that."

After that, she folded down her fingers one by one, picking through case files like a veteran detective.

"Come to think of it, back in elementary school some lunatic stole his gym uniform, smeared her own blood on it, and tried to put some kind of curse on him. There was a girl who tried to slip something weird into his food. A genuinely insane one who tried to frame him for sexual assault. It's not like one or two weirdos sniffing around — there's been an endless parade."

A catalog of anecdotes dizzying just to hear.

"...Is all of that actually true?"

"Believe it or don't. More madwomen will keep coming, and you'll find out soon enough."

She absolutely did not want to believe it — but Kang Min-ah had come face to face with one today herself. A feral, maddened beast.

"I actually saw one today, too. Some strange middle-aged woman aiming her camera at Yi-seon oppa's chest."

"What? Is there no end to the lunatics out there? So what did you do?"

"I asked the school-discipline teacher and had the police called. Yi-seon oppa may be a boy, but he's still a minor."

Lee Ye-eun let out a deep sigh and launched into a lament about her lot in life.

"It's all because Yi-seon's sense of distance and danger is completely warped. So every random nobody gets it into her head that maybe he's interested in her, and then the actual lunatics go into heat and come charging in. And I'm the villain in all of it."

Kang Min-ah had little desire to learn what kind of history Lee Ye-eun carried. Even if she knew, she had no intention of condoning her methods.

But — as much as she disliked it, as much as she still refused to understand, as feral as this mad dog of a woman was — she did understand one thing: this was a mad dog they needed on their ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠side.

"...Ye-eun-unnie. No — Unnie. Shall we call a truce and work together?"

"Hm? A truce? Didn't we already make peace? I don't actually dislike you, you know."

Not disliking her was as far as Lee Ye-eun would go — even as a throwaway pleasantry she wouldn't say she got along with her. Right to the end, she held one word in reserve.

"I don't just mean agreeing not to fight. I mean cooperating."

"And why would I do that?"

See? She claims she doesn't dislike her, but the moment the word cooperate leaves her mouth, here comes the scowl.

"How long do you plan on protecting Yi-seon oppa with these crude tactics? His fame is only going to keep growing nationwide, and this is the guy who says he's going all the way to the pros. Are you planning to rally your friends to solve it then, too?"

"Is that so? And I suppose you have some brilliant alternative?"

---

"Yi-seon oppa. My mother says she'd like to meet you. Could you come with me?"

Min-ah, showing up at my house first thing in the morning the day after the game.

Bowled over by the sheer force of her pushiness, I let myself be dragged along in a daze — and before I knew it, I was standing in her mother's office.

Everything about the space radiated the atmosphere of a serious business — solemn, imposing. It was here that I came face to face with Min-ah's mother.

"Hmm, Yi-seon, was it? First time I've seen you without my son along."

I'd met her once or twice before, but every ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠time, the sheer charisma hits me anew. If Min-ah ends up like this in her late thirties — that's the thought the polished, seasoned elegance of her appearance inspires, an intellectual aura wrapping the whole room.

And delivering the coup de grâce to that charisma: the certificates hanging on the office wall.

That's right. Kang Min-hyuk and Kang Min-ah's mother was a thriving lawyer.

Both in the manga and in real life, she was so busy I rarely saw her — precisely because she was so capable, a lawyer famous in her field. Even in the manga there were satisfying episodes where her legal expertise untangled her children's problems.

And a lawyer like that wanted to see me? Through Min-ah, no less — not her own son, Kang Min-hyuk?

No matter how fast Min-ah had matured, however pretty she was, however many excuses she could produce, she was still a middle schooler.

And the parent — a lawyer, at that — had summoned that child's boyfriend. Legally speaking I might not have done anything wrong yet, but I was scared. Very scared.

While I sat frozen stiff under the terror of age-of-consent laws, Min-ah's mother served me tea with a light laugh.

"There's no need to be so tense. I called you here to help you, this time."

This time? Meaning next time you'll be hauling me in for the kill? And help? What could I possibly need help with? Help as in making sure I can't draw another breath, maybe?

"Min-ah told me. Someone took unauthorized photos of you yesterday, didn't she?"

Ah. Right. That happened.

Come to think of it, Min-ah and Ye-eun had filled me in. But could that even be prosecuted? Before, at the ballpark, they said filming was allowed since everyone had consented.

"Oppa. I know what you're thinking, but that doesn't mean committing a sex crime is acceptable."

Well, common sense says as much. Finally my shoulders loosened a little.

Apparently the comedy routine between Min-ah and me entertained her, because Min-ah's mother's smile had now bloomed into a full laugh.

"Honestly. He barely talks usually, yet he comes all the way to my office on his own — you surprised me. But seeing you now, I understand the appeal. I've never once seen my daughter this sweet on a boy."

Min-ah's ears went crimson at her mother's open teasing.

Having thoroughly savored her daughter's reaction, the mother continued breezily.

"Since this is fundamentally a matter of sexual harassment of a minor, resolving it itself won't be difficult. There may be some legal sticking points, though, so it would be best to retain a lawyer."

With that, she handed a document across the desk to me.

"Um... Min-ah's mother? Didn't you say retaining a lawyer? This looks like a different document."

"Oh, that document is correct. You are a baseball player, aren't you, Yi-seon? For someone in your position, an agent arrangement is far more practical."

The title printed at the top of the document: [Certificate of Agent Retainment]

"You worked as an agent too?"

I had no idea about that part of her background.

"I'm just starting. I originally prepared it to handle my son — but my daughter begged so hard that my first client changed."

Then, shifting to a considerably more serious tone, she explained.

"I'm not asking you to decide anything right now. You're still a student, Yi-seon, so your parents' consent would be required as well. Even so, my recommendation is an agent contract. You'll need to find an agent eventually regardless, won't you?

I don't mean to boast, but I'm a lawyer with considerable name recognition in the industry. Compared to the broker-grade agents who don't hold so much as a legal license, let alone a lawyer's, I'm confident I'm categorically better for you."

Listening it through, it did sound compelling. And looking at the paperwork, the fee schedule was almost entirely blank, with a note reading "for my son's friend." At this point it was essentially free.

And Min-ah, who had been listening quietly all this while, began to chime in softly.

"If you sign the agent contract, Unnie Ye-eun and I agreed to help as well. It's nominal, but we'll be registered as interns at Mother's agency."

"You and Ye-eun?"

"Yes. All sorts of situations are bound to come up, and busy Mother can't personally resolve every single one. And neither I nor Unnie can keep handling things under vague titles like 'baseball club manager,' can we?"

Hold on — so Min-ah's mother already knew about Ye-eun, too?

Which meant that, in Min-ah's mother's eyes, I was a man dating her underage daughter while effectively having another girlfriend besides?

The tension I'd let down came flooding back. This was not a favor I could simply accept with a thank-you!

As I began trembling all over again, Min-ah's mother finally burst out laughing, unable to hold it in.

"I'm not that much of a traditionalist, so relax. I honestly wondered what had so thoroughly scrambled my daughter's judgment, but seeing you now, I understand. Even her taste in men takes after her mother."

After laughing heartily for a good long while, Min-ah's mother caught her breath and delivered her final words.

"The agent credentials were originally prepared for my son — but a son-in-law is legally a son too, isn't he? I look forward to working with you, Yi-seon."

She was clearly favorably disposed toward me, yet even her closing line carried a crushing weight of expectation.