A Rookie In The Baseball Team Is Too Good [EN]: Chapter 221

57. You Should Avoid Greasy Food (1)

About ten minutes later.

Ji-seop was leaving the stadium with Cheon Jin-woo.

“Oh, are you off work now?”

“Yes! Thank you for your hard work, Foreman!”

After greeting the stadium security guard, he started walking towards the crosswalk in front of the baseball field.

Ji-seop turned to the Cannons’ captain and began to speak.

“Senior.”

“Yes.”

“Did you ever play with magnets when you were a kid?”

“Magnets?”

“Of course.”

Cheon Jin-woo replied.

“Who didn’t? They often handed them out at school.”

“Right? When I got a magnet as a kid, I mainly played with it in the sandpit on the school playground.”

Ji-seop continued.

“You bury the magnet in the sand and move it around, right? Then, you don’t know where it came from, but a lot of iron filings stick to it.”

“Ah, that’s right. I remember doing that too. I collected those iron filings and brought them home, and my mother scolded me…….”

Cheon Jin-woo nodded slowly, looking lost in memories.

Then, as if a question suddenly arose, he turned to Ji-seop and asked.

“But why are you suddenly talking about that……?”

“No, I suddenly had this thought. Doesn’t this corporate card have a power like a magnet?”

Ji-seop shook Seo Chang-ki’s corporate card.

“I was clearly only trying to bring my senior out with me…….”

Swish.

Ji-seop turned his head back.

“When I came to my senses, there were so many iron filings stuck to me.”

“Ah.”

Cheon Jin-woo, who was turning his head following Ji-seop, gave a soft smile.

The ‘iron filings’ following the two strongly protested, though.

“Hey, Hyung [older brother or senior]! Come on, even so, what’s with the iron filings!”

“Shouldn’t you see us as complete gold filings at our level?”

“We followed you because we thought you two old guys would make things awkward, but the treatment is too bad from the start?”

Lee Soo-bin, Kyung Seon-woo, and Go Chang-deok from the power analysis team were grumbling complaints towards Ji-seop.

Jimmy Morris, who had heard Ji-seop’s story from his interpreter, also chimed in.

“Hey, Ji-seop! Credit cards originally have some magnetism! That’s why they’re called magnetic cards, right? Haha!”

“Yes, yes.”

“Thank you for the kind words.”

When Ji-seop stood in front of the crosswalk with a hollow laugh, another iron filing spoke to him.

“Where are we going, Hyung?”

“Well, with this many people at this hour, there aren’t many places we can go…… Hmm?”

Ji-seop blinked.

“Jang-ho, where did you come from? Didn’t you say you were going home?”

“Yes, I did go home.”

Ryoo Jang-ho answered calmly.

“But Soo-bin called me. He said you showed up at the indoor training facility with the team manager’s corporate card.”

“So you turned the car around?”

Just how far does the magnetism of the team manager’s corporate card reach?

At this time, Ji-seop was thinking that to himself.

* * *

Originally, Ji-seop’s goal was to go out towards Yeongsan City Hall with Cheon Jin-woo.

There were definitely quite a few expensive restaurants lined up there compared to near the baseball field.

He had also received the corporate card from the team manager, and there had been some achievements that day.

He was thinking of having a delicious meal with Cheon Jin-woo and talking about the remaining season, but – at this hour, with this many people, there was only one restaurant they could go to.

“Mother, we’re here!”

That place, known as the best restaurant near the KH Cannons Field, [Jeonju House].

It was almost midnight, and nearly ten burly baseball players had flocked in, but the owner of Jeonju House wasn’t very surprised.

“Yes, sit over there. The food will be out right away……. No alcohol, right?”

“No, we have a game tomorrow.”

“Oh, how commendable?”

The events that followed were no different from the usual pattern.

Special hangover stews were served according to the number of people, followed by three plates of Yukhoe [Korean-style beef tartare] and Ji-seop’s favorite boiled beef slices.

Once the table was full with all sorts of side dishes, the players would inevitably shout out.

“Thank you for the meal, Mother!”

“The radish kimchi is amazing today too?”

“Yes, eat a lot. If anyone needs more rice, just raise your hand so I can see you.”

As everyone began to bury their noses in their bowls and devour the soup, Kyung Seon-woo, who was scooping up soup across from Ji-seop, suddenly turned his head to one side.

“Um…… Senior Cheon Jin-woo.”

“Hmm?”

“Are you under a lot of stress these days?”

Kyung Seon-woo, known as the ‘Hyena’ of the Cannons.

The next thing he said strangely twisted the atmosphere of the day.

“Looking at you now…… it seems like your forehead has gotten a lot wider? Are you getting stress-related hair loss or something?”

“H, hair loss?!”

Cheon Jin-woo was in his mid-30s.

An age where his heart would sink at the mere mention of the ‘H’ in hair loss.

However, the young players of the Cannons, unaware of his feelings, began to stir without any tact.

“Oh, that’s right? Now that I hear it, it seems like your forehead has gotten a bit wider these days? It seemed much fuller at the beginning of the season…….”

“No, rather than your forehead getting wider, it seems like your hair is getting thinner? Right, Senior?”

“W, what nonsense are you all talking about?!”

Cheon Jin-woo always had a charismatic appearance, but at this time, anyone could see that his pupils were shaking.

“You guys are only seeing me with a hat on. I’ve had a wide forehead since I was young, okay? Suddenly hair loss, what freezing hair loss…….”

“Really, Jin-woo? It looks a bit like that to me too?”

Go Chang-deok opened his mouth with a worried expression.

“Jin-woo, you need to take care of it quickly. You can easily get medicine at any hospital these days…….”

“No, Hyung. I heard that players shouldn’t take hair loss medication?”

“That’s right, the trainer Hyung said that last time. Some ingredient in hair loss medication is designated as a banned substance…….”

“Really? Oh, then what is our Jin-woo supposed to do now?!”

The Cannons’ players were subtly driving their captain into being a balding person.

Cheon Jin-woo, the person in question, began to protest with a serious expression.

“I’m telling you, no! I really had a wide forehead since I was young. Damn it, you guys just wait and see.”

Cheon Jin-woo put down his spoon and picked up his phone.

He was trying to find his old appearance by opening the internet search bar.

But as if it wasn’t working out, he made a frustrated ‘tsk’ sound.

“All the pictures on the internet are of me wearing a hat……. Ah, if I had known this would happen, I should have taken my profile picture without a hat.”

“Hey, Captain! Hair loss is not a crime.”

Jimmy Morris pointed at Cheon Jin-woo with his spoon and grinned.

“Someone said that before, right? It’s not that your hair is receding, it’s that you’re moving forward!”

“You just shut up for a bit?”

Cheon Jin-woo glared at Jimmy Morris once, and then, as if something came to mind, he snapped his fingers with a ‘snap’ sound.

“Ah, that’s right! There was that method!”

“Method?”

While everyone was just blinking, Cheon Jin-woo stretched out his neck and looked towards the kitchen.

“Mother!!”

And the following words.

“The picture I took here when I was a rookie……. You have it, right?”

* * *

It was about 10 minutes later that the owner of Jeonju House brought a picture.

“Here it is. Is this what you’re looking for?”

“Yes! Thank you, Mother!!”

“Alright, look at this, you guys!”

Cheon Jin-woo put down a picture he received from the owner in front of his fellow players.

“Oh…….”

“This is…….”

It seemed to be a picture of Cheon Jin-woo around the time he was drafted into the pros.

He was wearing the Cannons’ uniform, but he hadn’t yet escaped the buzz-cut hairstyle typical of student athletes.

Cheon Jin-woo seemed to want to eliminate all the controversy with this one picture, but the hyenas of the Cannons, who had caught a case, were nitpicking at everything.

“Look at this! Looking at this makes it even clearer! Senior, you’re definitely starting to lose your hair, right?”

“That’s right, the hairline has gone up quite a bit! Now give up and accept it, Senior!”

“Jin-woo, I just looked it up, and it seems like you can use hair loss medication if you report it to the association in advance? Should I ask the trainer about it tomorrow?”

“Ah, are these people for real?!”

Cheon Jin-woo seemed wronged and thumped his chest with his big fist.

The players seemed to find the captain’s appearance amusing, exchanging glances and giggling among themselves.

Just as a fierce debate was taking place among the players over whether or not Cheon Jin-woo was losing his hair.

“Mother.”

Ji-seop was talking to the owner of Jeonju House, who was watching the players from a step behind.

“That…… where did you get it?”

“Huh? Ah, that picture?”

The owner picked up the radish kimchi plate that the players had emptied and said.

“It’s a picture I took as a *ginyeompoom* [souvenir] on the day Jin-woo first came to our house.”

“As a *ginyeompoom*?”

“Oh, didn’t you know, Hyung?”

Lee Soo-bin, who was busy teasing Cheon Jin-woo, joined the conversation.

“I probably have a picture from my rookie days here too? When you get drafted into the pros and come to the baseball field for the first time……. You almost always end up at Jeonju House.”

When the front office staff takes the rookie players out for lunch, the owner takes a picture as a *ginyeompoom*.

He also added that once you take a picture, you can eat rice for free at Jeonju House for at least one season.

“Ah, those were happy times. I could really eat anything back then…….”

“You bastard, how much did you eat?”

Looking at Lee Soo-bin’s wistful expression, Ji-seop was more worried about the business condition of Jeonju House than thankful.

“Are you okay, Mother?”

Ji-seop pulled on Lee Soo-bin’s chubby cheeks and continued.

“There must be more than one or two guys like this in our Cannons? Even if they’re rookies, if you give the players free meals for a season…….”

“Oh, don’t look at me like that. It’s all a business strategy.”

The owner gave a playful smile.

“If I get them hooked on our food since they were rookies, they’ll come back often later, right? And they’ll let me get away with it even if I make a few mistakes.”

“No, well, there might have been something like that…….”

Cheon Jin-woo debuted as a professional 18 years ago.

That means the owner’s ‘free rookie player service’ has been going on for almost 20 years now.

No matter how much of a business strategy it was, would it have been possible to continue that long without affection for the players?

Ji-seop couldn’t help but look at the owner with a fresh perspective.

“You’re amazing, Mother.”

“Oh, amazing is nothing! A business person doesn’t do things that lose money. Thanks to that, we’ve been doing business in this place for almost 30 years, right?”

While saying that, the owner took out a few bottles of cola and put them on the players’ table.

It was right after that that she suddenly made a serious expression and continued.

“Ji-seop, I had something I wanted to tell you when you came…….”

“Yes, what is it?”

Ji-seop looked at her while handing out the cola bottles to the players.

“Before this season ends, would it be okay if I treated our players to dinner?”

“Dinner?”

“Yes, we’re on the verge of winning the first championship in the club’s history. If possible, I want to be the first to congratulate the players.”

“Ah, if it’s something like that…….”

It might be a little difficult right now.

Originally, Ji-seop was going to answer like this.

Because as the Cannons’ first championship was approaching, there were so many people who were offering to hold the celebration.