The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 3

My Life’s Darkest Chapter (2)

Why, though?

What’s certain now is that this Hank Aaron card and Baek Dong-hwi are connected somehow.

Baek Dong-hwi…

As far as he remembered, Baek Dong-hwi was a fairly successful entertainer. Choi Su-won, born in ’08, remembered seeing him on comedy shows when he was very young. Even when he was busy with sports and didn’t watch TV often, he frequently saw his face on programs playing in restaurants.

He unfolded his unnecessarily folded smartphone and searched for Baek Dong-hwi’s name in the familiar green search bar.

“Nothing…”

The search results were pathetic. Only social media accounts of unknown Baek Dong-hwis greeted him. He racked his brain, trying to recall the famous entertainment programs he clearly remembered Baek Dong-hwi appearing on. But in their place were unfamiliar celebrity faces.

Could his memory be wrong? Or was it just a dream? But how could he explain this signed Hank Aaron card that said ‘New All-Time Home Run King’?

***

“Late, huh? You little punk, always slacking off. This is why commuting guys are no good.”

“Hey, hey, leave him alone. He’s the great ace who led us to victory yesterday. We commoners should just shut up and train our asses off. Right, Su-won?”

“…”

“Tch, ignoring me again. Seriously. Is being good at baseball a noble title or something?”

“Hey, what nonsense are you spouting? Does our Su-won only have baseball going for him? Huh? His family’s well-off, too. Huh? His parents are close to the coach. They’re higher up than the coach, aren’t they? We losers should just be like, ‘Oh, Choi Su-won, Ace-nim [Ace-sama, showing extreme deference]. Could you please put me in the starting lineup for the next game?’ We have to suck up like that.”

It was early morning.

He had been frantically searching on his smartphone and ended up late for morning practice.

In fact, the number of pitches he threw in yesterday’s game was exactly 105, the maximum allowed under high school baseball pitching regulations. Since the next game was a week away, it was the maximum number of pitches allowed. His body felt heavy, and his shoulder wouldn’t lift properly.

But unlike what those guys were sneering about behind him, he had never missed practice, even on days like this. Of course, there were many truths in what they said. First, he was good at baseball. And second, his family was quite well-off.

– Creak

The front door opened, and the teacher came in.

The guys who were chatting in groups of three or five went back to their seats. Among them were the ones who had been openly badmouthing him from behind.

Class began.

He certainly wasn’t bad at studying, but the class content didn’t register at all. His mind was too preoccupied.

What on earth was going on? Who was this Baek Dong-hwi, and why couldn’t he be found even when searching? Above all, how did he get to that position, and why did he have to do it again?

Ah, of course, the reason he couldn’t understand the class content wasn’t just because of that. After all, it was a class after twenty years, and he thought there was a problem with the content itself.

Math was originally a subject designed to be incomprehensible, so he could accept that, but he was clearly Korean, yet for some reason, he couldn’t understand Korean either. Even English. Yes, he had spent nearly ten years in America and could now freely converse with locals, but he didn’t know why he had to memorize these strange terms they used.

He had heard that even four years ago, seniors used to sleep during class and skip some classes, replacing them with videos, as a consideration for sports talents, but after the law changed, there was no such thing.

Even a clause prohibiting participation in competitions if you failed a subject was newly established, so it was hard to just lie down and sleep.

7th period. After listening to all the classes until 4:10 PM, he took the smartphone and bag he had submitted in the morning and headed to the gym.

“Oh, the precious one is attending afternoon training, I see?”

“Hey, will he really? The coach will probably say, ‘Oh!! Our precious ace threw 105 pitches yesterday and worked so hard, so please watch from over there.'”

“Really?”

The morons in the same class were whispering useless stories again. What were those two’s names again? Let me see… Timon and Pumbaa? They certainly looked exactly like Timon and Pumbaa, but… Yes, he didn’t remember exactly, but their names were roughly similar.

In their own way, they were bullying him, and at the time, he was quite hurt that someone hated him for no reason. Of course, the bullying was just those barely audible insults.

Well, thinking about it, neither those guys nor he should have been fighting considering their futures. Even if that wasn’t the case, there was an insurmountable barrier between him, who was 192cm and 87kg, and those little guys who weren’t even 180cm, so a fight itself couldn’t even happen.

“Su-won, you’re here? How’s your body? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just the usual condition after throwing a ball.”

“Okay, then let’s stretch today. Kyung-seok and Ji-min, let’s stretch together. Your bodies must be stiff from sitting at your desks all day listening to classes.”

“Oh, oh. Should we?”

Ah, now he remembered.

The guy named Ji-min was Timon. The guy named Kyung-seok was Pumbaa. Unfortunately, their names were a bit off from Timon and Pumbaa, but it was easier to remember them as Timon and Pumbaa, so let’s just remember them that way.

And the name of this guy who greeted him so cheerfully was Jo Yu-jin. He was the most successful among his classmates, besides him. He was drafted into the pros in the 3rd round and played as the team’s third catching option for about 10 years. Later, he opened a pretty big pork tripe restaurant. He had visited several times, signed autographs, and significantly increased his sales.

If he had any friends in his tough high school life, it would be this guy.

Of course, this guy was his only friend, but unfortunately, he wasn’t his only friend. This guy was born an ‘insa’ [Korean slang for “popular person”], so he got along well with everyone, up and down. So, good guys, bad guys, and bastards alike.

So, for example, even with that bastard over there?

“Oh, Choi Su-won. You came to afternoon training without being late?”

“You’ve arrived, senior!!”

“Of course, I have to come. It’s not like I can throw the ball really well like someone else. I have to diligently attend to get on the mound, right?”

The name of that buzz-cut, acne-covered guy was Ahn Byeong-yeong. In short, he was a bastard.

Before he entered, he was said to be a promising prospect leading Jungang High School. Well, he threw up to 132km/h in his first year, so it was understandable. The problem was that even now, in his third year, he still only threw 132km/h.

Until now, he had been confused about returning to the past and was at a loss as to how to do that thing again.

Besides, the class was so boring that he felt like he was going to die, but after seeing that guy’s face, he suddenly felt like he knew the purpose of why he had returned to this era.

Why, don’t people sometimes have things they regret and want to kick themselves over?

He also had quite a few of those: interviews he did when he didn’t know anything, proposing to his ex-wife, and many other things. And the oldest of all those things was when he was in high school, sucking up to that bastard and trying to look good to him.

“Hey, senior. Honestly, what did that jerk do yesterday? You did everything, senior. What’s the point of just being fast? He throws so many balls. Right? Ji-min?”

“What’s the point of even talking about it.”

“You guys. You’re being too harsh on your friend. Su-won, I’m sorry. Anyway, those guys who only swing the bat don’t know what’s important to a pitcher. What’s the point of meticulously aiming for corners with 130 and making batters swing their bats with amazing breaking balls? The game ends when a 150 pitch comes in. Right?”

In the past, he felt sorry when he heard these words.

That’s because it felt like he had taken that guy’s ace position with his father’s connections, and the actual results seemed to be better for that guy.

Of course, it wasn’t like he was going to give it up, but he gritted his teeth and worked harder to not feel that sorry.

Ahn Byeong-yeong looked at him with subtle eyes.

How did he usually respond here?

Ah!!! Right, he remembered.

“Yes, that’s very true.”

“Huh?”

“What, didn’t you hear properly? I said that’s very true. Originally, the flower of batting is the home run. Isn’t the flower of pitching a fastball? Breaking balls are just the balls of cowards who can’t throw fastballs, the balls of the weak.”

“What did you say, you little punk?”

Ah, was that not it?

Well, never mind if it wasn’t.

The bastard’s expression twisted greatly.