One by One, the Manga Characters Appear

Unlike high school baseball, middle school baseball has no standalone league of its own. Which made it genuinely difficult to evaluate any given team's objective strength.

Even qualification for the three major tournaments of junior baseball — the Baekho Cup, the Presidential Cup, and the KBO Commissioner's Cup — was decided not by any transparent method like preliminary rounds or league points, but purely by the arbitrary invitations of the tournament organizers.

"Therefore, our first goal will be to put up strong results at the Gyeonggi Southern Youth Baseball Tournament."

When the coach finished speaking, he swept his gaze around the room and asked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠if anyone had questions. I deliberated for a moment, then raised my hand to request the floor.

"Yes, Yi-seon. What's your question?"

"If we win that tournament, do we get into the Commissioner's Cup?"

"That's ultimately up to the organizers, so I can't say for certain — but being the most recent winner of the metropolitan-area tournament should earn us favorable consideration."

The Gyeonggi Southern Tournament, held in April, was one of the earliest events on the junior baseball calendar, the coach explained — which meant a championship-caliber result would work in our favor for the Commissioner's Cup in early June.

This time it was Kang Min-hyuk who raised his hand.

"Ah, yes, Min-hyuk. What are you curious about?"

"Based on what you've said, this tournament is clearly an important one. I would like to know if there is a specific reason we will be competing with primarily first and second-year students."

"No special reason. The name sounds grand, but the entry requirements don't care whether a team is an official athletic club or not. More than half the participants will be schools with nothing more than casual baseball clubs, plus junior community teams. Beyond the later rounds of the bracket, I plan to use the early games as experience for you first and second-years to build chemistry."

In other words, the opposition wouldn't be worth fielding a full starting lineup against.

"Any other questions? If not, we'll wrap up here. The application for the Gyeonggi Southern Tournament has already been submitted, and I'm told sixty-four teams will compete. That means six single-elimination wins to take the title. Are you all confident?"

"Yes, sir!!!"

"Good. Then today's training ends here — dismissed. Starting next week we'll focus on team-level drills for the tournament, so don't go slacking on your individual training."

The members poured out of the club room in a rush, and the two managers lingered to tidy the place up before emerging a short while later. Kang Min-hyuk, gathering up his childhood friend Lim Song-ah, was the last one out the door.

"Hey, Kang Min-hyuk! We're heading to my place today!"

"Will your mother be home by any chance? If so, I would hate to impose."

"She's been dying to get a look at your face, apparently. Stop whining and come along."

After that intra-squad game, Min-hyuk and I had gotten pretty close. To be precise, it was the two managers — each other's childhood friends — who hit it off first, and Min-hyuk and I simply started hanging around them by extension. Ever since, the four of us had been taking turns hosting study sessions at one another's houses.

A study group might seem to come out of nowhere, but under strict directives from the Ministry of Education, student athletes were still students: every athlete was required to attend all classes, and if your grades slipped below a certain threshold, you couldn't participate in club activities at all.

Me, I'd taken the college entrance exam in my past life and graduated from a decent university, so middle-school coursework was nothing I couldn't handle even with limited study time.

"I still don't understand. Why does 0.99999... equal 1?"

"Min-hyuk, think of it as 1/3 written out in decimal form. See? Look here."

The problem was this guy, Kang Min-hyuk. He had the face of a model student council president straight out of a drama, and he was hopelessly bad at studying.

He wasn't even the usual type who half-dozes and goofs off in class. True to his earnest nature, he listened attentively and genuinely tried to understand — so how did he still end up like this?

If that guy slacks on studying to prep for the April tournament and ends up ineligible for the KBO Commissioner's Cup in early June, it'll be an outright catastrophe.

Meanwhile, in a complete inversion, Lee Ye-eun — a textbook popular gal — had perfectly respectable grades. What universe was this? Had the roles of the model student and the gal been swapped?

"Hey. You're looking at me with something impure in your eyes."

"Going purely by behavior, the abnormal thing is you, not your grades."

"That's because if my scores are low, you tease me after every single test. You screw up and then don't even remember doing it?"

"Screw up? I'd call that a win, wouldn't you? It's the reason your grades improved."

"Forget it. Why am I even talking to you."

There goes Lee Ye-eun, sulking again.

Anyway, we were waiting for the bus at the stop to head to my place when, right on cue, my phone rang.

"No, it's fine. You don't need to apologize. Yeah, I'll bring them over some other time."

Hanging up, I glanced around at the others waiting with me.

"Sorry, guys, but going to my place is out today. Can anyone else host right now?"

"Then come to my house. My mother is busy, so she won't be home today."

"Really? Then Kang Min-hyuk's place it is. Where do you live?"

"Songrim Apartments, in Moran Village."

"Moran Village? Wow, that's the complete opposite direction from my house. Lim Song-ah, you live around there too, right? If we hadn't all gone to the same middle school, we'd never have run into each other."

We would have, actually. Just on opposing teams.

Still — Kang Min-hyuk's house, huh? Something about this felt deeply off. Like I was forgetting something important... What was it?

"... Kang Min-ah. I am Min-hyuk's little sister."

Ah.

There I was, fidgeting and glancing around for no good reason.

"Kyaa! What is this kid? She looks like an actual doll! Can I pinch your cheeks just once? Wow, she's a total baby."

Lee Ye-eun, apparently smitten with Kang Min-ah, scooped her up into her arms and kept fussing over her, while Min-ah — not one for expressive displays — simply sat there in silence.

"How are you so like your brother and yet not like him at all? You're adorable~ Hey, want to be my little sister? I've wanted a little sister since forever, not a little brother."

"Lee Ha-yul would be hurt to hear that."

"He'd survive. He keeps telling me he'd rather have you as his actual brother than a big sister."

Even with Ye-eun's aggressively overwhelming affection, Min-ah sat there with barely a flicker of change in her expression. That composure was far from ordinary.

The reason I was so wary of Kang Min-ah was simple: in the original story, the two of them got along terribly. Going by the manga alone, they were simply two people who didn't mesh.

And true to that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠incompatibility, whenever they ended up in the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠same room, Ye-eun would bluster her way through, while Min-ah calmly, methodically rebutted her with hard facts — the classic fact-bombing dynamic.

It didn't help that most of the other heroines were kind, diligent types who couldn't manage a cutting remark to save their lives.

With Min-ah serving as the designated fact-hammer aimed squarely at Ye-eun, the latter — decent at reading the room, but honestly outclassed in intellect — suffered a humiliating win rate. Their relationship was practically predator and prey.

And now these two, fated for that bitter feud in the original, were snuggled up together, with Ye-eun gently squeezing Min-ah's little butt-cheeks. Cognitive dissonance didn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even begin to cover it.

Weren't you two supposed to be incompatible on an instinctive level? That was literally your character setting?

"... Are you a friend of my brother's?"

"Huh? Me? Oh — yeah, we're friends. Same baseball club."

I was lost in my own thoughts when Kang Min-ah suddenly addressed me.

"My brother takes baseball very seriously. I've heard that teammates matter a great deal in baseball. Thank you for being a good teammate and helping him."

"Aw, look at you worrying about your big brother. I really do like this kid. Can I take her home with me? Kang Min-hyuk, I'll trade you our Ha-yul for her."

Please stop squeezing the kid's cheeks. Her face is getting properly squashed at this point.

"I mean, playing together isn't something I deserve thanks for. If anything, I'm sorry for showing up at your house unannounced. I'll keep as quiet as I can in the room."

"Please, stay as long as you like. Could you let go of me for a moment? I'll go fetch some drinks."

"Min-ah, should I help?"

"No, thank you, Song-ah. We can't make guests do the work. I'll have it out to you all in a moment, so please have a seat."

She gave a polite bow, slid the door shut, and headed for the kitchen. The moment Min-ah was out of the room, Ye-eun lit up and started chattering away.

"If I have a daughter someday, I hope she turns out exactly like that. How can a child be that cute?"

"Min-ah was even cuter as a toddler, you know. Want to see the photo album?"

"Wait, seriously? Song-ah, you've been through this whole house's albums?"

"Well, we have known each other a long time. Here, look — this one's from when she was five. That's me carrying her."

The girls had abruptly veered off topic and launched into a nostalgia trip, with studying not so much as mentioned. Leave them be and this would go on forever.

"Lee Ye-eun. We gathered here to study, so shouldn't you at least open a book?"

"The only ones who actually need to cram are you and Kang Min-hyuk, right? And Song-ah and I are just doing manager stuff, so tournament prep won't exactly bury us."

"Then why did you even come?"

"Because you've never once done anything properly without me watching over you. I came as a special favor. Song-ah came because she follows Min-hyuk around."

"What is that even... Fine, you're right about everything, so go away and let me study."

"Then I'll go play with our Min-ah. Come on, Song-ah."

"We met her today and she's our Min-ah already?"

"Anything cute is automatically my baby."

Shamelessly declaring this, Ye-eun intercepted Min-ah as she came back into the room with the drinks, scooped her up, and carried her straight out. It was all fine for now — but if this went on and the two of them clashed for real, what on earth was I supposed to do?