On The Rise As A Catcher [EN]: Chapter 4

Song Seok-hyun saw the red-faced man clutching a soju bottle. His mother looked flustered.

“Mom!”

Song Seok-hyun called out and stepped in front of the man.

The man recoiled at the sight of the large man.

“Wh-what is it?”

“Mom, what’s wrong? What happened?”

His mother waved her hands dismissively, embarrassed.

“It’s nothing, it’s okay. Go inside. It’s nothing. Just go inside.”

“What is it? Tell me what happened.”

“Tsk. I said go inside. You go home, now.”

“I need to know what happened before I leave.”

Song Seok-hyun glared directly at the man.

The face was familiar.

It was the man who went around the neighborhood supermarkets causing trouble.

Even when reported to the police for being a welfare recipient, he was often released with a warning, making him a nuisance to the nearby stores.

Usually, it was just racking up debts of 3,000 won or 5,000 won (approximately $2.50-$4 USD) and not paying, so everyone turned a blind eye.

This was the first time Song Seok-hyun had seen him causing such a scene.

“Hey, go away. You punks, get lost.”

“Mister, what’s wrong? What’s your problem? Tell me.”

“Tsk! Tch! Go away, you punk! Get lost, quick!”

Song Seok-hyun’s mother also pushed him from behind.

“Go on, quickly. I’ll see you at home. Okay? Mister, here. Take this and go. Go quickly.”

The man squinted and shrugged.

“You should have done that from the start. If you sell the wrong item, you should apologize. How dare you hold your head high to a customer! The customer is king, don’t you know?”

Song Seok-hyun took a deep breath.

*He’s just drunk anyway.*

*Getting involved would only be a loss for me.*

But it was hard to tolerate him treating his mother carelessly.

“Mister, you got what you wanted, so leave. And don’t come here again. Next time, bring money. You get money from the government every month, so why are you taking other people’s things without paying? That’s stealing. No, it’s robbery.”

His mother was surprised and tried to stop Song Seok-hyun.

“I told you to go home!”

“Wh-what? Robbery? You little punk!”

The man trembled, then grabbed Song Seok-hyun by the collar.

Song Seok-hyun twisted the man’s elbow to the side and threw him to the ground.

“Ouch!”

The man groaned as he fell.

“Aigo [Oh my!], I’m dying! I’m dying! People of the neighborhood! This young kid is hitting people! He’s hitting people! He’s hitting people at this supermarket!”

Song Seok-hyun dusted off his collar.

“Mom, go inside. And if that man comes again, tell me. Then I’ll really—!”

“You! Can’t you just go home? I told you not to interfere in adult matters! Don’t get caught up in things like this! This is my business!”

“That kind of guy clings on more if you seem weak and treat him well. If he hangs around our supermarket, customers will leave. If he causes trouble, you have to be firm…”

“Oh, no!”

His mother’s scream.

Song Seok-hyun turned around, sensing something dangerous behind him.

Thwack!

With a dull sound, his arm tingled.

He instinctively closed his eyes, but something hit his face.

“Seok-hyun!”

His mother’s voice cracked as she screamed.

Song Seok-hyun opened his eyes and looked around to see what was happening.

“Oh, oh, oh…”

The man was holding a broken bottle in his hand, and shards of glass were scattered on the floor.

Song Seok-hyun’s elbow throbbed.

Blood was flowing.

“This… this crazy bastard!”

Fire flashed in Song Seok-hyun’s eyes.

In an instant, he understood what had happened.

The drunk tried to hit him with the bottle, and Song Seok-hyun instinctively blocked it with his arm, injuring his elbow.

The man, stunned by the sight of blood, staggered backward.

Seeing Song Seok-hyun’s furious expression, he turned and ran.

“Seok-hyun! Seok-hyun! Hold on! Hold on!”

Song Seok-hyun couldn’t hear anything.

He ran to chase the man.

The man also ran for his life, looking back as he fled.

The chase didn’t last long.

It ended before the man could turn a corner of the alley.

Screeeeeech!

Bang!

A one-ton truck stopped abruptly.

Song Seok-hyun stopped running.

For the first time in his life, he saw someone flying through the air.

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

He realized for the first time that even when a person is hit by a car and flies through the air, they roll several times on the ground.

He realized how light a person’s body could be, and how a person’s head could bounce like a soccer ball.

“……Ah.”

His elbow throbbed.

The pain was intense, but he instinctively realized that something significant had happened.

It wasn’t just a simple injury.

Maybe, maybe…….

Song Seok-hyun shook his head, snapping out of his memory.

The incident led to him being called to the police, and the school was in an uproar for a while. The police comforted Song Seok-hyun, saying he was not at fault, but the weight of guilt was heavy.

The problem was that it didn’t end with guilt.

At the time, he just thought the skin on his elbow was a little torn, but his elbow kept throbbing.

Even after a thorough examination, nothing came up.

He could throw the ball, but if he threw it a lot, his arm would tremble.

Even if he threw the ball a little, his control started to waver.

Time passed, but it didn’t get better.

It got worse the more he threw the ball.

It was only when he was about to enter his second year of high school that he realized he had no hope as a pitcher.

“If only I had given that man what he wanted quickly and sent him away, none of this would have happened. It’s all my fault. I ruined my child’s life because of those few thousand won.”

“No, no, Mom. Why are you saying that? It’s that man’s fault, not yours. What son would leave a man who’s causing trouble to his mother alone?”

“I’m so sorry, Seok-hyun… He can’t even play the baseball he loved because of me… It’s all my fault, it’s all my fault. Huhu, hiccup. I have no face to see your father even if I die. I’m a sinner. Hiccup, hic, hiccup.”

“Mom…”

Song Seok-hyun lowered his head.

He muffled his sobs and lay back down on the bed.

The past year flashed by like a slideshow.

A pitcher who can’t throw the ball.

With only about a year left until the senior year draft day.

Even if he practiced another position, it would be difficult to get drafted into the pros within a year.

The only hope was to go to college and then go pro.

Due to his family situation, he had to get a scholarship to go to college, but even that wasn’t easy.

All that was left was to give up baseball or desperately try to debut as a pro in another position.

However, even though Woojin High School was a new team, they had already recruited good players through transfers, so there was no position for him to take right away.

That’s when Jung Mi-nam stepped up.

A childhood friend from elementary, middle, and high school, and his catcher.

Jung Mi-nam’s skills were barely enough to be a regular catcher, but he went to high school with Song Seok-hyun because of him.

One of the reasons why it was easy to get in was that catcher was a position that everyone avoided.

Woojin High School didn’t even have a professional backup catcher.

Jung Mi-nam actively recommended Song Seok-hyun for the backup catcher position.

There aren’t many catchers even if you search the whole country.

The catcher position is difficult, but there are fewer players, so the chances of going pro are higher.

Song Seok-hyun and Jung Mi-nam had been helping each other train for a long time, so they had a high understanding of the catcher position.

Song Seok-hyun devoted himself to catcher training with Jung Mi-nam. He even cut down on sleep and worked hard.

In just half a year, he was considered decent and soon surpassed Jung Mi-nam.

As if he had been waiting for it, Jung Mi-nam used a fake illness as an excuse to hand over the catcher position to Song Seok-hyun.

Song Seok-hyun even got angry, but Jung Mi-nam laughed it off.

-Why would I do this hard baseball if I’m not doing it with you? I came here to catch your ball. I don’t like baseball as much as you do. So it’s right for you to play baseball. You’re better at it too.

That day, Song Seok-hyun cried all night until his eyes were swollen.

Jung Mi-nam was with the team as a backup catcher, but in fact, he had given up on baseball.

Song Seok-hyun practiced even more desperately.

He endured the cold stares of his teammates and developed his skills to the point where he was better than a regular high school catcher.

He was confident that if he played in a game in his senior year, scouts would write down Woojin High School’s Song Seok-hyun in their notebooks. He was so excited that he dreamed of being drafted in the 9th round at worst, and in the upper rounds at best.

It wouldn’t have been impossible if there hadn’t been that boneheaded play.

“…….”

Song Seok-hyun’s eyes turned red.

Tears streamed down his cheeks.

He pulled the blanket over his head.

* * *

Today was Saturday.

It was a day when he didn’t have to go to school, but it was meaningless to Song Seok-hyun anyway.

Song Seok-hyun shaved and applied wax to his hair.

He took out a suit from the closet and neatly tied a tie.

Breakfast was set on the table.

[The soup is in the pot. Heat it up and eat it.]

Song Seok-hyun put the memo written by his mother in his pocket and left the house.

He changed buses twice and drove for an hour.

Song Seok-hyun got off at the columbarium.

Song Seok-hyun took a breath and entered the columbarium.

“Dad, I’m here. Your son is here.”

Song Seok-hyun smiled at the photo.

Next to the remains were family photos, solo photos, an eagle-shaped doll, and a signed baseball.

“Have you been well? You’re not busy, but you’re only coming now. I’m sorry.”

Song Seok-hyun forced a smile.

“I’m doing okay. Well… my life seems a little twisted, but other than that, everything is good. Haha, it’s funny to hear a high schooler talk about life. Haha.”

Song Seok-hyun scratched his eyebrow.

“It’s… hard to become a baseball player. It’s not easy. Hooo, I don’t know why it’s so hard for me when everyone else seems to live so easily. Ha, so Dad shouldn’t have encouraged me to become a baseball player back then. It would have been easier if I had just studied. Hey, Dad has a share in this too. Right? Haha.”

Song Seok-hyun was silent after that.

Mute.

The father in the photo was just smiling brightly.

“Well… um… I’m going to try one more time anyway. To be honest, I thought I’d done enough, so I thought I’d have something to say to Dad later, but I didn’t think about Mom. If I quit like this, Mom will regret it for the rest of her life, right? That I became like this because of Mom. No matter how many times I say no, Mom won’t listen to me. Since I’ve already started, I can do a little more and quit, right? I’m not going to college, and I’m young. Right? Right, Dad?”

Song Seok-hyun looked at the father’s photo without answering and smiled like his father.

“Okay. That’s right. That’s really right. This time, Dad, please help me a lot. Okay? Just help me a little. I’m asking you. You said it was your dream to make me a baseball player. Then you have to help me. I’m not asking you to tell me the lottery numbers. I’ll work hard. Just give me a chance to be a baseball player. I mean it. This time, for sure. For sure.”

Song Seok-hyun bowed his head towards his father’s photo.

“I’ll come again next time. I’ll come even if I join an independent baseball team, so wait for me. I promise.”

Song Seok-hyun moved his feet.

The sound of footsteps echoed through the columbarium.

In the place where Song Seok-hyun left, the photo of the deceased Song Ki-cheol was still smiling brightly.

Success as a catcher

Confident

“Are you crazy?”

Jung Mi-nam spat fire as soon as he heard Song Seok-hyun’s story.

“Hey, you crazy bastard! I told you to start a business with me! What’s with the undrafted player? Don’t you know what a high school graduate undrafted player is?”

Song Seok-hyun shrugged.

“I know. I know it well.”

“You know? You’re doing this knowing that you can’t even play college baseball if you become an undrafted player?”

“I wasn’t planning on going to college anyway, so what.”

“Hey, hey! Still, there’s a world of difference between having a possibility and not having one. And you know how high school graduate undrafted players are treated. What is it, that caste system in India… that.”

“Caste?”

“Yeah, that. The bottom of that is a high school graduate undrafted player. They at least try to scout a college graduate, but they don’t even look at a high school graduate and throw them away. Ha, you must have heard something. Right?”

Song Seok-hyun nodded.

“I know. I know it well. Do you think I’m doing this because I don’t know?”

“You’re doing that knowing that? Why suddenly an undrafted player? It’s hard to go to another team if you’re released as a high school graduate undrafted player, and even if you go, you’re the first to be released again. It’s just a waste of time!”

Song Seok-hyun raised his finger and pointed around.

Jung Mi-nam noticed the people in the cafe looking at him and nodded.

“I’m sorry.”

“Lower your voice. Why are you creating a scene? Your face alone is enough to create a sense of unease.”

“Ha, shiba [a Korean swear word, similar to ‘damn’]. It’s frustrating. It’s too much like a bolt out of the blue. I’m even more pissed that you already applied without consulting me at all.”

“Hey, I know very well what kind of treatment high school graduates receive, as you said. The lowest of the low. A lottery ticket that they don’t even scratch and throw away. I know, I know. So what? It’s only a year anyway, right? At most, a high school graduate can only last a year. If you don’t make it by then, there’s no hope. I know that the longest a high school graduate has lasted without debuting in the first team is 2 years, is that right?”

“Ha, yeah. It’s a mayfly’s life. It’s said to be 2 years, but usually, most of them leave before they even complete 1 year.”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

Song Seok-hyun snapped his fingers.