Perfect Agent [EN]: Chapter 205

205. How to be Good at Baseball (4)

The baseball academy didn’t seem particularly special at first glance.

From the entrance, I could sense the focused atmosphere of people working out.

The first thing that caught my eye was the Victory Baseball Academy logo, highlighted by pin lights.

I was about to step forward, but Jung In-gyu was just standing at the entrance, craning his neck, looking around.

“In-gyu, what are you doing? Let’s go in.”

“Are you sure this is okay?”

“What could happen? It’s just a place where kids train.”

“I guess so. Haa…”

“Don’t worry. I’m here with you.”

I took Jung In-gyu’s hand; he seemed nervous, and we slowly walked inside.

The inside was quiet since it wasn’t training time for the players.

I quietly moved, trying not to make any noise as I went inside. I saw trophies displayed, along with certificates attached to the wall.

I hadn’t received many awards for baseball as a player, so where did all these awards come from?

I wanted to look at them one by one, but that wasn’t the priority right now.

I quietly moved further inside.

After a moment, I heard footsteps.

Jung In-gyu and I stopped and waited for the footsteps to get closer.

Luckily, we met Lee Han-seung right away.

I could tell it was him intuitively, thanks to the unpleasant aura he gave off.

“Oh? Are you Kang Hyun-woo?”

Lee Han-seung recognized me as soon as we made eye contact.

“Hello, Senior.”

I greeted him cheerfully, and Jung In-gyu followed suit.

“Nice to meet you.”

Fortunately, Lee Han-seung seemed welcoming.

“Senior, how have you been?”

“Just making a living, more or less.”

It was the first time I’d spoken to him directly, but we were able to talk as if we’d been close for a while, simply because we were senior and junior in the baseball world.

Because of that, I was able to shake his hand naturally.

-Satisfied with the recent success of the academy.

-Considering ways to increase sales.

The information window showed his name as it was during his playing days, not his changed name.

It bothered me that someone who trains players was worried about sales, but I shouldn’t necessarily see it negatively.

Increasing sales by teaching the students well would be a good thing.

“But who is this?”

Lee Han-seung looked at Jung In-gyu, then turned back to me and asked.

“This is Coach Jung In-gyu, who works with me at our agency.”

“Oh, I see. Nice to meet you.”

Lee Han-seung greeted Jung In-gyu happily as well.

Meanwhile, I quickly scanned Lee Han-seung from head to toe.

The first thing I noticed was Lee Han-seung’s tattoos.

His arms were covered, and I could see tattoos peeking out through his shirt as well.

And then there was the watch on his wrist.

I could tell it was expensive at a glance.

The car parked outside was also an expensive foreign car, so he must be making good money these days.

A thick gold necklace hung around his neck.

If that was real gold, it would be heavy and put a strain on him. I wondered if he’d have problems with his neck disc.

If I had met him without knowing he was a baseball senior, I would have thought he was a neighborhood thug.

Lee Han-seung, who had finished greeting Jung In-gyu, turned his head and looked at me.

“But what brings you here?”

“Ah, it’s nothing much. I heard that you’re running a great training facility, Senior. I wanted to meet you and ask you about it.”

“Oh, I don’t know if I have any advice to give. There are so many better places.”

“I’ve heard from the parents of the players you’ve taught that you have quite a reputation.”

I even said things I hadn’t actually heard to lower his guard, even a little bit.

“I’m touched that a junior who runs a great agency is saying that.”

Despite his humble words, the corners of Lee Han-seung’s lips seemed reluctant to stay down.

“Let’s go inside first.”

Lee Han-seung gestured for Jung In-gyu and me to go inside.

“Yes.”

Jung In-gyu and I followed Lee Han-seung inside.

We sat facing each other at the conference table in the CEO’s office.

Lee Han-seung brought two canned drinks, handed them to Jung In-gyu and me, and sat down across from us.

“How’s work these days?”

“I’m working hard not to cause any trouble for the seniors.”

“You’re too modest. All the good kids these days are in Dream Agency.”

Lee Han-seung replied with a greasy smile.

“It’s not that I’m doing a good job; it’s just that the players were good from the start. I’m just lucky to be recognized thanks to the players.”

“Hey, it’s the same with students; who the coach is, is important. When I was a player, the team coaches didn’t help much. All they did was hit fungo [a baseball training drill where a coach hits balls to fielders] a few times.”

Lee Han-seung frowned deeply, as if looking back on the past wasn’t pleasant.

I didn’t agree with what he said, but there was no need to argue about it here.

“It’s definitely different these days. Until a few years ago, there wasn’t even equipment to analyze things scientifically.”

“Kids these days have it easy playing baseball. The seniors don’t hit them either. I think it would be a disaster if they did that these days, right?”

Lee Han-seung said with his arms crossed.

“That’s right. The old ways of teaching and the relationship between seniors and juniors would be difficult to maintain now.”

“In my day, they hit me so much when I was in middle and high school, not to mention after I became a professional player. I don’t know why they did that back then. It wouldn’t make me a better baseball player if they did that.”

“…….”

It was difficult to hide my boredom when the old stories came out.

I pretended to drink to mask my expression.

Then Lee Han-seung changed the subject.

“Anyway, what did you want to ask me?”

“We want to build a proper training facility soon.”

I continued to speak casually, but Lee Han-seung’s expression changed rapidly.

“Are you going to teach students?”

Lee Han-seung looked at me suspiciously, as if he thought I might become his competitor.

“It’s not like that. We’re going to make it a place where our agency players and professional players can use it.”

“Ah, I thought you were thinking about middle and high school kids.”

Only now relieved, he took a sip of water and added a comment.

“But when I look at SNS [Social Networking Service], it seems like your current agency training facility is good enough?”

“There aren’t many agency players right now, so it’s manageable. But if the number of people increases little by little, it will be difficult to handle.”

“Wow, are you going to recruit more players? Are you really planning to grow it into a huge agency in Korea?”

“I’ll do my best.”

“We should do business together in the future?”

“If there’s a way we can help each other, we should talk about it.”

Lee Han-seung nodded at my words and smiled faintly.

“Then would you like to take a look around?”

“Would that be okay?”

“Let’s go together. I’ll introduce you.”

Lee Han-seung jumped up from his seat and said.

Jung In-gyu and I left the office, following Lee Han-seung.

I gave Jung In-gyu a signal with my eyes to take a good look.

Jung In-gyu nodded as if he understood.

“I moved the academy here a few months ago, and I put a lot of thought into building the training facility from the beginning.”

Lee Han-seung explained in detail as he walked around the training facility.

I could feel that he was reacting much more favorably since we talked about business.

Because of that, I was able to take a closer look at this place.

I could tell that the building was clean everywhere, as if it hadn’t been built long ago.

It was spacious and clean, but that wasn’t what I wanted to know, so I didn’t pay too much attention to it.

“Did you rent this building and remodel it?”

“No. I bought the land and built it from scratch. It didn’t seem easy to build a training facility in an existing building.”

“Ah, that’s why you were able to make it so clean.”

You even bought the land?

Even if it’s on the outskirts, it would have cost a lot of money to buy it directly.

He seemed to have more money than I thought.

I tried to hide my surprise and focused on Lee Han-seung’s explanation.

“But how long have you been teaching students, Senior?”

“I haven’t been in baseball for that long. Has it been two or three years?”

Two or three years doesn’t seem like a long time.

Then does that mean he made a lot of money in other businesses?

“May I ask how many students are training now?”

“How many students do we have?”

Lee Han-seung couldn’t hide his displeasure, as if it was a sensitive question.

“It’s not that. I’m also wondering how much to charge for tuition to run it so wonderfully.”

“Ah. Well, tuition varies widely. It’s because the amount of time invested in each player is different. We get paid accordingly.”

It wasn’t the answer I wanted, but I was reluctant to ask for more details.

As I was looking around,

There was one room that particularly caught my eye.

For some reason, I wanted to go and open the door.

I wondered what kind of place it was.

I approached the room and was about to carefully open the door,

“You can’t go in there.”

Lee Han-seung, who had rushed over, grabbed my hand.

“Yes?”

I was so surprised that I struggled to calm my racing heart.

“It’s a place where only employees can enter, so I don’t think I can show it to you.”

“What kind of space is it?”

“I told you, it’s a place where only employees can go.”

Unlike the smiles he had been wearing until now, I could sense a sharpness in Lee Han-seung’s eyes this time.

“Ah, I see.”

“Let’s go inside. This is where the players train.”

Lee Han-seung took us to the training facility.

From here on, it wasn’t much different from our agency, and I couldn’t concentrate because the room I couldn’t open kept popping up in my head.

I just nodded at Lee Han-seung, who was explaining enthusiastically, pretending to be amazed out of courtesy.

* * *

As soon as we left the academy, Jung In-gyu and I got into the car.

“In-gyu, doesn’t something seem strange?”

“It’s suspicious, but there’s no definite evidence.”

Jung In-gyu tilted his head and replied.

“Isn’t it too absurd that he bought the land and built the building in only two or three years?”

“He said he used to do other businesses, didn’t he? Maybe he made a lot of money with that?”

“If he was making a lot of money with that, he would just keep doing that. Why would he suddenly get into baseball?”

“I guess so.”

“It wouldn’t have worked by running the academy normally.”

“Then what should we do now?”

Jung In-gyu stared at me and asked.

“I think this is all we can do for now…….”

“Then are we going to end it like this?”

“No, I can never do that. I have to gather solid evidence and hit him in one shot.”

I had already learned through experience.

I couldn’t approach him with vague suspicions.

I had to find someone who could give me clear evidence.

I left a message for the parents I met last time.

I was able to get a reply soon after.

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