Perfect Agent [EN]: Chapter 266

Promise and Faith (5)

The very next day,

Lim Ye-ji distributed an official press release to sports media as promised.

└If Lim Ye-ji said it herself, it’s official. Shouldn’t we consider the situation resolved?

└Isn’t it possible that Lim Ye-ji is being threatened? Like, if she doesn’t say this, something bad will happen.

└What do we do with those who still don’t believe it even after all this? Go to a hospital.

└I sincerely believed it without a shred of doubt. Dream Agency forever.

└Where did all the people who called Kang Hyun-woo a bad guy go? There seemed to be quite a few people cursing him.

└Then how was the contract between YJ Agency and Dream Agency made? They just let them take the league’s best players all at once?

└Doesn’t that mean YJ Agency just released them?

└Does that make sense? I can’t understand it no matter how I think about it.

└I don’t know what’s going on, but since YJ Agency said there’s no problem, I guess it’s settled.

For the first time in a while, I could smile at the agency meeting.

“You’ve all worked so hard.”

I looked at Jung In-gyu and Lee Ju-hyuk alternately and said.

“You too, Representative. You’ve worked hard.”

“I thought it would be resolved well, but I’m so glad it ended well.”

Deep smiles were also on Jung In-gyu and Lee Ju-hyuk’s faces.

It hadn’t even been a week, but it felt like I had been suffering for months.

“I’m really grateful to our players too. It must have been difficult for them to live like that for a few days.”

“Everyone has been through a lot. Even though the bodyguards blocked them from the surroundings, it must have been very difficult for them.”

Jung In-gyu took a deep breath and smiled.

“But just in case, please maintain security for the time being so that there are no problems.”

“I understand. I’ll make sure nothing goes wrong, so don’t worry.”

Jung In-gyu nodded and replied.

“Are there any players training now?”

“Yes, I went down earlier. They were training hard today too.”

After hearing Lee Ju-hyuk’s answer, I finished the meeting and headed to the training ground.

* * *

After a while, when I went down to the training ground, I could see the players training.

Oh Seok-hoon, Park Seong-ju, So Young-jun, and Choi Woo-jin were sweating together.

“Oh, Representative!”

Park Seong-ju, who saw me first, shouted, and everyone’s eyes turned to me.

“Representative, I missed you.”

So Young-jun suddenly ran over and hugged me.

“Why are you doing this? It’s disgusting.”

Even though I tried to shake him off in disgust, I couldn’t overcome his strength because he was hugging me so tightly.

“I missed our Representative so much. Seeing you like this really puts my mind at ease.”

I was able to break away only after hugging for a while.

“Everyone has been through a lot. I should have let you focus only on baseball during this important time, but I made you suffer like this for no reason. I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry, Representative? Is it because of that phishing thing? Those bad guys.”

Oh Seok-hoon said, looking at me.

“Those guys, what’s with suddenly spreading strange rumors and causing such a fuss?”

Park Seong-ju’s face turned red, unable to contain his anger.

I patted them both on the shoulder.

“Doesn’t that mean our agency is doing that well?”

Choi Woo-jin said with a big smile.

“Wow, Woo-jin, you must be really happy. You’re a player for a successful agency, and your team is about to win the championship.”

So Young-jun couldn’t hide his envy as he looked at Choi Woo-jin.

“I haven’t won the championship yet. I have to play well even a little bit to win.”

“That’s pretty much the same thing.”

So Young-jun took a deep breath.

Then Park Seong-ju said with strength.

“Senior, the season isn’t over yet. The Buffaloes still have a good chance of winning.”

“That’s right. You never know until the end. Our team can definitely do it.”

Oh Seok-hoon also added a word.

“Seok-hoon, we can do it!”

“Yeah, we have to try. It would be cool to turn it around at the end.”

Oh Seok-hoon and Park Seong-ju bumped fists and strengthened their will.

“Come to think of it, everyone here is a player from a team trying to win the championship. We came in last again this time. Ha- I’m really lonely. When are Jung-hwan and Su-young coming? I miss them.”

So Young-jun made a pitiful expression and looked at the empty air.

All I could do was pat him on the shoulder.

“Young-jun, you did really well this season. If this continues, you’ll be able to receive the Golden Glove [award for the best player at each position] without any difficulty. What are you worried about?”

Compared to the starting shortstop of other teams, his offensive power was beyond comparison, and his defense was simply the best.

“Still, it’s different from the team winning the championship.”

Regret was still written all over So Young-jun’s face.

“You can just win the championship by going to an international competition.”

At my words, Park Seong-ju suddenly changed his expression, grabbed So Young-jun’s hand, and said.

“Young-jun, we have to go out and win this time. What could be better than Korea winning?”

“Hmm… that’s true.”

It seemed that So Young-jun’s heart was relieved a little.

“With this lineup, we can definitely win!”

Expectation was felt in Park Seong-ju’s expression.

“Can we really win? But it seems like it won’t be easy because there’s America and Japan too.”

So Young-jun tilted his head and said.

“Senior, we can do it. Because it’s us, we can go out and destroy them all.”

Looking at Park Seong-ju clenching his fist, I added another word.

“Of course. Because they’re our players, they can do it. We can do it!”

“Aja aja! [fighting, fighting!] Let’s destroy them all!”

When Park Seong-ju shouted, everyone shouted and raised their energy.

It ended only after everyone shouted until their faces turned red.

I was out of breath because I had put in so much effort.

Choi Woo-jin, who barely caught his breath, continued the conversation.

“I want to participate in the competition with my seniors too… but I’m not a professional player yet, so they won’t pick me, right?”

“Woo-jin, you don’t have much time left either. After next year, you’ll be so busy being called out whenever there’s a competition.”

I stroked Choi Woo-jin’s head and replied.

“It would be really reassuring to play with my seniors on the same team.”

Choi Woo-jin looked around at the other players and said.

“Oh, by the way, what’s going to happen with this incident? Since YJ Agency resolved it, can we consider it over like this?”

So Young-jun tilted his head and looked at me and asked.

“We can’t just end it like this. Shouldn’t they take responsibility for their actions?”

Everyone, including So Young-jun, looked at me.

“Everyone, wait and see. I’ll make sure they can’t do this again after this incident.”

As soon as I finished talking with the players, I immediately started responding at the agency level.

The content of the future plans was posted extensively on the agency’s SNS [Social Networking Service], including asking Lee Soo-min to publish articles.

└Yeah, we need to root out these things properly.

└I hope all the tabloids go bankrupt this time.

└The comment is scary. It feels like they’re going to sue until they die.

└Kang Hyun-woo seems nice, but when you see this, he has a scary side.

└Those who criticized Dream Agency this time should bow their heads and reflect.

Our agency began preparing for a lawsuit for damages against not only Phishing TV, which spread fake news for the first time, but also all media outlets that copied and posted articles without filtering.

When we actually signed a contract with a law firm and started filing lawsuits in earnest, officials from the media outlets could not hide their surprise.

Some media outlets even had high-ranking officials visit the agency directly, asking to withdraw the lawsuit.

Originally, the plan was to receive compensation for damages unconditionally through lawsuits without leniency,

I decided that restoring the trust of fans and the baseball world was more important than receiving a few bucks.

Instead of withdrawing the lawsuit, we set a condition that they publish an apology report for a week.

In the end, many media outlets published extensive corrections and even posted apologies on their main pages.

Of course, Phishing TV, the source of fake news, was an exception.

Even if it takes several years to complete the lawsuit, we planned to make Phishing TV pay the ultimate price.

* * *

Even during the time when the agency was in turmoil, the regular season clock continued to tick.

Before we knew it, there were less than 10 games left until the end of the season.

The number of teams that were eliminated from the postseason was gradually increasing.

Not only the Pelicans, who recorded the lowest ranking again this time, but also the Angels, where Jang Su-young belongs, and the Doubles, where Choi Jung-hwan belongs, failed to advance to the postseason again this time.

Na Jun-ho’s Dragons finished 4th, barely succeeding in stepping onto the postseason stage.

The Jaguars, who pushed the Wolves to 3rd place, and the Buffaloes had already received invitations to the postseason with plenty of time to spare.

But the winning team of this season has not yet been determined.

The difference between the 1st place Jaguars and the 2nd place Buffaloes was only 0.5 games with only 10 games left in the season.

The Jaguars were given the opportunity to count down the magic number to win.

However, if the Buffaloes were to win all of their remaining games, the Jaguars would have to win 10 out of 10 games to secure it on their own, so it was not a meaningless number.

It meant that the team holding the magic number could change due to a single game.

Therefore, the two teams had no choice but to pour everything they could into each game as if it were the postseason.

Michael Scott recorded 19 wins and an ERA [Earned Run Average] of 2.10, already confirming that he was the pitcher who performed the best this season, as well as the most winning pitcher.

Go Ji-hoon finished his last starting appearance this season with 17 wins, an ERA of 2.75, and 172 innings pitched.

He showed even better performance than last season.

It wasn’t very noticeable because there was Michael Scott, who performed at an MVP [Most Valuable Player] level, but it was definitely an amazing performance.

And Oh Seok-hoon, with a batting average of 0.361, virtually secured the batting title, and Park Seong-ju, who recorded 39 home runs, virtually secured the home run title.

So Young-jun was still recording a batting average of 0.310 and 25 home runs.

Even if he didn’t get a hit in all of the remaining games, he could record 30%.

A batting average of 30% and 20 home runs.

He succeeded in breaking his career high once again, as well as the goal he had set.

That’s how this season was heading towards the end.

However, even though the number of remaining games was decreasing one by one, the winning team was still not determined.

The Jaguars players were not showing their true skills, perhaps because of the pressure to maintain first place.

In the end, the Jaguars and Buffaloes’ championship competition had to be decided in the last game of the season.