The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 384

384. Extra Story 2: King of Gopchang

Gwanak-gu, Bongcheon-dong.

Sharosu Street, near Seoul National University Station, about 30 minutes from the university itself. Just off Sharosu Street, a certain store’s walls were plastered with various gloves, bats, and autographs of professional baseball players.

“Boss, two more servings here, please.”

“Yes!! Coming right up!”

“Oh, and another bottle of Soju [Korean distilled rice liquor], too.”

“Yes!! Right away.”

The interior was spacious, with nearly twenty tables. However, business seemed slow, with only five tables occupied.

Inside, a sturdy man, appearing to be in his early to mid-thirties, was sweating as he carried out parboiled gopchang [small intestines of pork or cattle].

“Boss, beer here!!”

“Yes!! What kind would you like?”

“Cass, please.”

Even with only five tables, it seemed impossible for him to handle everything alone, from parboiling the gopchang to serving customers and managing the bills. There were no other employees visible. Naturally, orders were piling up.

“Boss, when is our gopchang coming out?”

“Coming right up!!”

“I’ll just grab the beer from the fridge.”

“Yes!!”

“I only see Jinro in the fridge. Do you have any Saero besides Jinro?”

“Just a moment!! I’ll bring it to you soon.”

“Boss, check, please.”

“Yes!!”

It was utter chaos.

Just as he felt he was reaching his limit, the store’s entrance door opened, making matters worse.

“Welcome!! This way!!”

“It’s me.”

It was a man who looked to be about the same age as the owner. His complexion was slightly pale, likely because the owner’s face was so tanned. He grabbed an apron from under the counter with a practiced movement and put it on.

“Go grill some gopchang. I’ll take care of the hall.”

“Thanks. An employee suddenly bailed on me…”

The addition of just one person made the store’s operation much smoother. The newcomer skillfully handled serving customers and processing payments at the counter as if he’d done it many times before.

Four hours passed, and with midnight approaching, the two men sat facing each other in the empty store.

A plate of perfectly grilled gopchang sat between them.

And a bottle of soju.

“Thanks a lot today. I’ve been looking everywhere because the part-timer didn’t show up without a word, but it’s really hard to find people these days.”

“Everyone around me says the same thing. Finding a part-timer is like finding a needle in a haystack.”

“What did you tell your wife to get out here?”

“What else? I told her your store had another crisis and I’m going to make a lot of money. Give me a good hourly wage. You know this is a night shift, so I need overtime pay, right?”

“I know, I know. How’s Hayoon?”

“Oh, don’t even get me started. She’s so cute. Recently, she made a carnation as a Parents’ Day gift from kindergarten. We used to just make them with folded paper, right? But these days, they make them with some kind of clay, and she sculpted our faces on it and brought it home. I think our Hayoon is a genius. I think I should have her study arts.”

“Stop it. Stop it. You know how much money goes into arts and sports. Just have her study academics. That’s the best.”

The owner shook his head, looking tired.

The man looked at the owner and smiled wryly. The more bitter the smile, the sweeter the soju.

Having been athletes themselves, they both knew better than anyone how difficult arts and sports were and how slim the chances were of achieving success.

“Hey, you shouldn’t say that. You even went pro.”

“What’s the point? I’m just a gopchang restaurant owner now.”

“You could make good money as a coach or a teaching pro. It was your choice to open a gopchang restaurant here. Didn’t our school offer you a coaching position?”

“Yeah. They did.”

Pro.

He was a player who had played on the professional first-team stage. Considering that his alma mater wasn’t a prestigious high school, it was natural that he would have received an offer.

“Yeah, I knew it. Honestly, with your career, you should have gotten a coaching offer no matter what.”

“My career isn’t that great. Compared to that guy playing in the States… Oh, sorry.”

“It’s okay, man. It’s already been 14 years. Pro? Yeah, well, it’s a shame. But I’m happy enough now. I have a house with a bank loan. I have a sly wife and a cute kid.”

“Yeah, you really have to be grateful to your wife. Where else would you meet a woman like that?”

“What nonsense are you talking about? She chased after me when we were in college. Oh, right. Do you want to go on a blind date? One of my wife’s friends broke up recently. She’s a junior from our school, so I’ve seen her a few times. She’s a really nice person.”

“No, man. Your school is a prestigious university. I don’t get along with educated women.”

“Prestigious university? These days, they’re not meeting their quotas everywhere, so the atmosphere is fierce. My wife is worried she might get fired.”

“Hey, even if there are only 200,000 test takers for the college entrance exam, Seoul universities won’t go bankrupt, even if this store does, right?”

“Ah… Well, I guess so?”

“Wait a minute!! If you say that here, it feels like our store really will go bankrupt!!”

A light laugh.

The soju glasses clinked again. What was supposed to be just one bottle turned into two, then three.

“But seriously, don’t you have any thoughts of meeting a woman?”

“Of course, I want to meet someone. Hayoon is so cute when I see her. I want to have a child like that, too. But how can I afford to get married in my situation?”

“What’s wrong with your situation? My situation was much worse than yours when I got married.”

“But your wife passed the teacher employment exam right away and told you to come into her one-room apartment with just a spoon. And she was still young. It’s different for me. Besides, my body isn’t so good.”

“You said you’re all better now. Aren’t you?”

“Being all better means the hospital can’t do anything more for me. But it still throbs when it rains, and it’s uncomfortable here and there.”

Ten years.

His classmate, who had played baseball for ten years longer than him, had ten years’ worth of injuries and the aftereffects of those injuries. At that thought, he clinked his glass again.

“Hey, shouldn’t you be heading home?”

“It’s okay. It’s okay. She’s not at the age where she wakes up at night. Besides, tomorrow is a day off. And if I go home now, it’ll be by taxi, and there’s still a 40% surcharge since it’s still 1 a.m.”

“Can’t you walk there in 30 minutes?”

“These Bongcheon-dong hills are too tough.”

“You need to exercise, man. Look at your belly. You haven’t even run 100 meters since you graduated high school, have you?”

“I’m still in good shape compared to my peers, okay? More than that, can’t you really find an employee?”

“Employee? I don’t know. I’d like to hire one if business gets a little better. But it’s not easy. Why? Are you interested? If you’re interested, bring in some investment and come in. We can be co-owners together.”

“Quit my perfectly good job and work here? Hyunju would kill you, wouldn’t she?”

“You’re the one quitting your job and partnering up. I’m the one who’s going to die?”

“You should have treated her better.”

“Don’t I treat my wife well enough? I think I got Hayoon a really good gift this time, too?”

“But you call me out every time you have a crisis like this. And honestly, I only give half of the money I get from working for you to my wife and use the other half as my slush fund.”

“What, you little…”

“You think your store’s business hours are until 2 a.m., too.”

“This won’t do. Really?”

Friends who used to have fun calling each other ‘you son of a bitch’ and ‘you little…’ when they were young gradually become distant as time passes and they live their own lives. It’s fun to meet up after a long time and talk about the past, but when those past stories run out, what hovers between them is awkward silence. Or, in many cases, it’s the bragging of someone who’s doing well.

But in the midst of that, there are usually one or two very special friends.

Yeah, like this guy who’s clinking glasses with me like this in front of me.

“Oh, wait a minute. Hey, what time is it now?”

“Wait a minute. 4:11. It’s 4:11 AM. The first bus will be here in 40 minutes. So, we can have just one more bottle.”

“No, 4 AM is when the game is on.”

“Game? Hey, are you drunk? It’s not 4 PM, it’s 4 AM. What game are you going to watch at this hour?”

“The Major League, man. The Major League. I think he’s playing today.”

He turned on the 55-inch small business TV hanging on the wall of the store.

As if proving the recent popularity of the Major League in Korea, all the cable sports channels were broadcasting games from different Major League teams.

Among them.

An Asian man in a striped uniform was swinging his bat.

-Whoosh!!

“Strike!! Out!!!”

A clean strikeout.

While the commentators were filled with regret at the swing and were talking about this and that, the two men clinked their glasses again.

“A Major Leaguer… Did you ever imagine it when we were in school?”

“Would I have? My dream was to be on the pro first team.”

“By the way, the timing is amazing. How do you turn on the TV at the exact moment when he’s striking out? Did you turn on the TV and make him strike out?”

“Maybe? Strangely, I feel like he’s a bit sluggish when I cheer for him on TV.”

“You were cheering for him, right?”

“Of course. He’s an alumnus. That signed bat in the center is his.”

“What? He came to the store, too?”

“No, he’s busy, so he can’t come to the store. I just told him to send me a signed ball, but he sent me a signed bat by courier as a congratulatory gift for the opening. He said he’d stop by later when he has time.”

Fourteen years ago.

They had definitely played on the same field, but now they were alumni who had become too far apart.

The man who retired ten years earlier and the man who played ten years longer both looked at the man swinging and returning to the dugout with envious eyes.

“It must be fun, right?”

“Of course. It’s the Major League. It’s probably the most fun in the world.”

“If I had worked harder, could I have gone too? If I had run that half lap that I didn’t run because it was hard back then, if I had swung the bat 100 more times…”

“No, I’ve tried that a lot, and it doesn’t work. Effort is just being able to scratch all seven digits written on a lottery ticket. The numbers written on it are innate, so there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Seven digits… I guess we scratched them all, too?”

“I don’t know. I definitely scratched them all. You did about six and a half?”

“What are you talking about? I worked harder when I was in high school, okay?”

“Yeah. You did. But you went to the humanities department in college. I? I persuaded you so much to go together.”

“Was that a situation where I could go just because I wanted to go together?”

-Woo-oong

“Hey, wait a minute. My wife’s calling. Yeah, yeah. No. Work ended a little late. No, customers suddenly came at the last minute. I had just one drink after work. Yeah, I’m going to take the bus. The first bus is coming soon. No, you don’t have to come pick me up. Hayoon is here, too. Oh, your mother didn’t go in yesterday. Okay. Yeah. Then I’ll wait in front of the store.”

“What? Your wife is coming to pick you up?”

“Yeah, I really have to finish this last drink and get up now. If she comes by car, it’ll take about five minutes, so I think I should go out.”

“Hey, just sit here. You can’t drive that old car you inherited from your father anyway. You can hear that rattling sound from 100 meters away, so it won’t be too late to go out then.”

Life was bitter, and the alcohol was sweet.

And the junior who went to the Major League struck out swinging as always.

-Whoosh!!

“Strike!! Out!!!”

But they knew.

How great a miracle it was that that guy was playing on that stage wearing that red striped uniform.

[Ah… Jo Yu-jin!! It’s his second strikeout of the game.]

[He needs to watch the ball a little more.]

A dim dawn.

From far away, the rattling sound of a 26-year-old SUV with 320,000 km on it could be heard.