On The Rise As A Catcher [EN]: Chapter 54

“Here, take this.”

Song Seok-hyun’s mother took his hand.

When Song Seok-hyun opened his hand, there was 100,000 won in it.

“Buy something delicious for the kids today.”

“No, it’s okay. What are you talking about all of a sudden? I’ll take care of it.”

“Oh, those kids have been coming to the hospital every day to take care of me. Especially Na-young, she came every morning.”

“Na-young did?”

“Yes, she said it’s better for women to be together when there’s something uncomfortable, so she came every day. Do you know how sorry I felt?”

“Ah…….”

Song Seok-hyun scratched his nose.

“Mom, it’s just a slight twist in your back. You’re not hurt anywhere else. You’ll be discharged soon.”

“What are you talking about? Cheol-hyun told me you hurt your knee and ankle this time, so you have to rest for a while, right?”

“Cheol-hyun is exaggerating. It’s just a supermarket job, what’s so hard about it? All I do is sit. It’s not good to leave the store empty for too long. I can work slowly.”

“No way. You’ll ruin your health. Don’t do that, rest when you need to. I have my salary, even if it’s not enough. If you add that to the money I’ve saved, it’ll be okay for a while.”

“Enough, enough. Don’t talk nonsense. If I rest with that, who in Korea would work and live?”

“Oh, come on. Stop being stubborn.”

“I’m not seriously ill, I can just wear this support belt. It’s okay. More than that, make sure to buy your friends something delicious today. And go home and sleep. Cheol-hyun is going to watch over me here.”

“I should be the one watching over you. Cheol-hyun must have been here every day too.”

“Mom is getting discharged the day after tomorrow. You’re already tired from exercising, you’ll get sick if you sleep in a place like this. I’ll feel more uncomfortable if you’re here.”

“No way. I’ll be here today. Cheol-hyun needs a day off too.”

Song Seok-hyun didn’t budge despite his mother’s repeated dissuasion.

“Ugh, then at least buy the kids something delicious to eat today. If you’re not going to do that, just go home.”

“……Okay. I’ll treat them to an expensive dinner.”

“Okay, and tell Na-young I said thank you.”

“Yeah.”

Song Seok-hyun came out of the hospital room.

Kim Na-young was leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the hospital room.

“How is your mother?”

“She’s fine. You probably know better than I do. You’ve been coming every day, right?”

“It’s only been a few days.”

“Thanks.”

“No need to thank me. Your mother cooked for me and let me sleep over when my dad was hurt and in the hospital.”

“Still. That was a long time ago.”

Kim Na-young straightened up.

“Shall we go for a walk?”

“A walk? Let’s all go out for dinner together. My mom gave me money to treat you guys anyway.”

“……Really? Uh…… then shall I buy some snacks?”

“Snacks? For what?”

“Your senior [older teammate] who came with us, and Cheol-hyun and your mother too, they might want something to munch on.”

“We’re going to eat soon, there’s no need to…….”

Before Song Seok-hyun could finish, Kim Na-young grabbed his arm.

“Let’s go quickly.”

“Okay…… sure. Alright.”

Kim Na-young pulled Song Seok-hyun’s arm tightly, and Song Seok-hyun slightly shrugged his shoulder.

The two of them went down to the convenience store on the first floor, close together.

As the two of them were coming back up with the snacks, Song Seok-hyun rummaged through his pockets.

“Ah, damn it. I left my phone. Take these snacks up. I’ll go get my phone.”

“Your phone……?”

Kim Na-young hesitated for a moment, then pushed Song Seok-hyun’s back.

“You take the snacks up. I’ll go get your phone. I need to buy something anyway.”

“Really? Then I’ll ask you for a favor.”

Kim Na-young went to the convenience store and asked the part-timer for the phone.

The part-timer handed over the phone.

Kim Na-young opened the phone.

Smirk.

Kim Na-young, reflected in the phone screen, was smiling.

* * *

Before they knew it, Kim In-hwan was included, and the five of them had dinner.

After the meal, the five people parted ways.

Kim In-hwan lingered before leaving.

As Song Seok-hyun returned to the hospital and was about to go to the hospital room, a nurse called him.

“Are you the guardian of patient Jo Ae-ra in room 512?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“You know she’s being discharged the day after tomorrow, right?”

“Yes, I heard that.”

“We need to schedule her rehabilitation, but we haven’t received an answer yet. Would you like to do it while processing her discharge the day after tomorrow, or would you like to consult tomorrow morning?”

“Rehabilitation?”

“Yes, your mother has severe osteoporosis, so she needs to be careful for a while and do rehabilitation at the same time. You know that, right?”

After talking with the nurse, Song Seok-hyun picked up the phone.

The recipient was his younger brother.

-Oh, hyung [older brother]. What’s up?

“Are you home?”

-Yeah, I’m home.

“Haa, why didn’t you tell me? That Mom shouldn’t work anymore.”

-……How did you know?

“Am I stupid? The nurse told me. She said you shouldn’t lift heavy things or overdo it. You were just lucky this time, but she said it’s dangerous if something like this happens again because you have severe osteoporosis.”

His younger brother hesitated.

-Mom told me not to tell hyung [older brother] for the time being…….

“You still have to tell me. Even if it’s just a supermarket, you can’t help but carry and move things, so how is Mom going to run the supermarket in the future? Neither you nor I can help.”

-…….

His younger brother was silent.

Song Seok-hyun sighed deeply.

“That’s okay. I shouldn’t be getting angry at you.”

-Sorry, hyung [older brother].

“There’s a lot to be sorry about. I’ll talk to Mom, so don’t worry. Instead, tell me everything from now on without hiding anything. Got it?”

-……Yeah.

Song Seok-hyun returned to the hospital room.

His mother was already asleep.

Song Seok-hyun looked at his mother for a long time before lying down on the cot.

Song Seok-hyun couldn’t sleep all night.

* * *

The next morning.

Song Seok-hyun brought up what he heard from the nurse to his mother.

“Mom, get rehabilitation and quit the supermarket.”

“What?”

“You need to build muscle for osteoporosis. Go to the hospital and get rehabilitation. With the money from selling the supermarket, our family can live for 1-2 years. I can go to the first team next year too. Then I’ll get more than 50 million won in salary. Don’t make yourself sick, just do what the hospital tells you to do.”

“That’s a lot of money, a lot of money. Why sell the supermarket? What are we going to live on if we sell it?”

“I’ll set up another supermarket for you. Not now. Sell it first.”

“It’s not something you can decide so easily.”

“It’s a bigger deal if something bad happens to Mom later. Let’s just close the supermarket.”

“Seok-hyun.”

“Mom, I’m an athlete. Don’t you know that mentality is the most important thing for an athlete? I can’t play sports if I’m not comfortable. Especially baseball, you know mentality is even more important, right?”

When the talk turned to his future, his mother had nothing more to say.

“…….”

“So do as I say. You’ll get some money if you sell the supermarket.”

“Haa, these days, no one wants to run a supermarket, so I can’t even get key money [deposit money].”

“Still, if you organize the goods…….”

“You have to think about the credit accounts too.”

“You must have some savings.”

“……It was hard enough raising you two after your father passed away.”

“I guess I cost a lot of money too.”

Raising an athlete in a tight household was as good as shaking the roots of the family.

The more he talked to his mother, the more Song Seok-hyun felt keenly that he was still young.

“Let’s think about tomorrow tomorrow. Even if my salary isn’t high, it’ll be no problem to cover living expenses for the time being.”

“What about you? What are you going to do in the future?”

“I need to go to the first team quickly. My salary will go up if I go to the first team. Don’t worry about that.”

Unlike his confident words, Song Seok-hyun was dejected the moment he came out of the hospital room.

Song Seok-hyun opened his hand and looked at his palm.

His palm was full of calluses.

Song Seok-hyun clenched his fist tightly.

Success as a Catcher

Blessing in Disguise (2)

That afternoon.

Song Seok-hyun relieved his younger brother, who came to the hospital.

Kim In-hwan was waiting when he arrived at the terminal entrance.

“Hyung [older brother], you’re already here?”

“I just got here a little while ago too. You? Is your mother okay?”

“Yeah, she says she’s okay.”

“That’s a relief. There’s still time before the bus, should we get something to eat?”

“Ah, right. More than that, hyung [older brother].”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“Come with me somewhere for a bit.”

“Where to?”

“It won’t take long. Quickly.”

Song Seok-hyun grabbed Kim In-hwan’s wrist.

The place the two went together was an ophthalmology clinic near the terminal.

Kim In-hwan hesitated, but Song Seok-hyun pushed him into the ophthalmology clinic.

“I came to get an eye exam.”

“Yes, please have a seat for a moment.”

Kim In-hwan scratched his sideburns as he sat down.

“Why an ophthalmology clinic, an ophthalmology clinic. Our family doesn’t go to the hospital unless it’s absolutely necessary. Everyone’s healthy. Everyone has good eyes too.”

“Being healthy has nothing to do with eyesight. Get an eye exam.”

“I’m fine.”

“It’ll be quick. We came all the way here, so let’s do it quickly. There’s plenty of time left before the bus.”

It didn’t take long for the test results to come out.

Was it 10 minutes?

Kim In-hwan looked at the doctor with a flustered face.

“Astigmatism?”

“Your left eye is fine, but your right eye has some astigmatism. Your vision is 0.8 in your left eye and 0.3 in your right eye. Your left eye is fine, but if your right eye is this bad, you must have felt frustrated in your daily life, were you okay?”

“Uh…… well…….”

“At this point, it’s best to wear glasses. I heard you’re a baseball player? I don’t know much about baseball, but isn’t it important to see the ball in baseball?”

Kim In-hwan immediately went to an eyewear store and got glasses.

The glasses were black horn-rimmed.

Kim In-hwan smiled as soon as he put on the glasses.

“I can see really well. It’s amazing?”

“How have you been playing baseball all this time, hyung [older brother]? If your eyes are this bad, you wouldn’t have been able to see well.”

“I didn’t know either. No one in my family wears glasses, and everyone has good eyes.”

“Hyung [older brother] is a left-handed hitter, so your dominant right eye is especially important, but if your right eye’s vision is bad and you have astigmatism, it’s the worst, isn’t it? It’s more strange that you’ve been hitting until now.”

“Why did my eyes suddenly get so bad?”

“Hyung [older brother], do you play games?”

“I don’t play games these days……. Ah, right. I use my phone a lot at night, is that why?”

“Do you look at your phone with the lights off?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“That’s why your eyes got so bad. Never do that again. Your eyes will get worse.”

“I guess so. Wow, when did my eyes get this bad?”

Kim In-hwan took off and put on his glasses repeatedly.

“It’s a new world. I can see so well. Wow, it’s amazing.”

Kim In-hwan looked at himself wearing glasses through the mirror.

“It’s awkward, wearing glasses.”

“You’ll get used to it.”

“Thank you. I would have retired without knowing this if it weren’t for you.”

“Hyung [older brother] is just oblivious. How could you not know this?”

“I never thought about wearing glasses……. I was stupid.”

The two left the eyewear store and returned to the dorm.

Kim Jeong-ryul’s eyes widened when he saw Kim In-hwan.

“Hey, what’s with you? What’s with the glasses cosplay?”

Kim In-hwan lowered his head awkwardly.

“Turns out I had bad eyesight.”

“Turns out? You didn’t know until now?”

“My left eye is normal, and my right eye is 0.3 with astigmatism. So I don’t know. Usually, people keep both eyes open, no one goes around with only one eye open.”

“Still, you’re so foolish. How could you not know until your eyesight got so bad?”

“Well…… I have no excuse for being foolish. I would have kept not knowing if I hadn’t gone to the ophthalmology clinic with Seok-hyun.”

“Seok-hyun is your benefactor. You should bow to Seok-hyun morning and night. How have you been living all this time? Is Seok-hyun your ancestor?”