The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 43

43. Except Him (1)

“Unnie [older sister or female friend], what is it? What are you watching?”

“Oh? Ah, a friend from school is in a competition. It’s being broadcast online.”

“School friend? Competition?”

Yang Ji-na craned her neck to look at her smartphone.

On the screen, a rather pretty woman was chattering away. Roughly in her early thirties? Though hidden by heavy makeup, it couldn’t escape Yang Ji-na’s sharp eyes.

“Wow!! This is insane. Insane!! Seriously, what’s up with this team? Four games so far. All of them are called games [a decisive victory where the game ends early]!!”

[Bulsareujo donated 3,000 won.]

─Bulsareujo: Feels like I’m watching the future of our team.

[Son of Daejeon Choi Soo-won donated 5,000 won.]

─Son of Daejeon Choi Soo-won: Seems like we’ve found the last piece our team desperately needs.

“Thank you for the donations, Bulsareujo and Son of Daejeon Choi Soo-won.”

─20C Most Losses: Last piece? Our team doesn’t even have one piece to begin with?

─Happy Baseball: I am happy, I am really, really happy.

─L9: One step away from being the second-worst team in KBO [Korean Baseball Organization] history. If that one step leads to a dynasty for the next 20 years, I’ll gladly correct L9 to L10.

─886899: Honestly, Jo Gyu-chan seems better than him. What our team needs is a pitcher.

─Son of Daejeon Choi Soo-won: Choi Soo-won pitches and bats, he does everything. What are you talking about?

─886899: That’s only in amateur leagues. Will that work when he goes pro? They have to play 144 games.

─Bulsareujo: Ohtani does it, there’s no reason why Choi Soo-won can’t.

─886899: Ohtani only won MVP [Most Valuable Player] once in 2021, and hasn’t shown anything like that in the three years since. Two-way player? Ha!

─DogThatBarksAtIdiots: Woof woof

─20C Most Losses: Are you all stupid? Jo Gyu-chan is graduating this year, and Choi Soo-won is graduating next year. Why are you even arguing?

[Son of Daejeon Jo Gyu-chan donated 5,000 won.]

─Son of Daejeon Jo Gyu-chan: That’s right. Jo Gyu-chan is also our son, and Choi Soo-won is also our son. There’s no reason to fight over our older son and younger son.

“Thank you for the donation, Son of Daejeon Jo Gyu-chan. That’s right. Jo Gyu-chan is ours, Choi Soo-won is ours. Now, Phoenix, all that’s left is to soar!!”

─20C Most Losses: Well, there’s nowhere lower to fall, so all that’s left is to soar.

The comments and donations kept pouring in.

Yang Ji-na swallowed hard.

“Is this ajumma [aunt or middle-aged woman] making 13,000 won in just one minute?”

“Looks like it.”

“No, Unnie!! Not ‘looks like it’… Wow, some people work their butts off and barely make 10,000 won an hour, but she’s just sitting there watching baseball and chatting and makes 13,000 won in one minute? How much is that in an hour? 13 times 6 is 68? 680,000 won?”

“It would be 780,000 won.”

“Oh, right. Anyway, that’s insane. Should I just quit everything and try doing something like that? Honestly, I look way better than that ajumma.”

“Ji-na, that’s not easy either. And it would be a waste after practicing all this time.”

“It is a waste. But what’s the point of it being a waste? Who knows when we’ll debut. Sigh, I thought we were finally going to debut this year…”

Seventeen. And sixteen.

Now high school sophomores and freshmen. In society, they are still young and fresh. But their lives have already begun. As of 2025, the average debut age for female idols is eighteen in international age, not exceeding twenty in Korean age.

Yang Ji-na is only sixteen. But she entered as a trainee at the age of eleven, and five years have already passed. Is she lacking in skill? No. She is one of the top five trainees in the company. She has been in the debut group for over a year.

What about Park Eun-jin in front of her? She has been in the debut group for over two and a half years.

Debut is just luck.

“Seol-ah Unnie is moving to KG. They said there’s an open rapper position in the team they’re preparing.”

“KG?”

“Ah, Seol-ah Unnie knows it too. It’s a third-tier company, and the team’s preparation period is short. But what can she do? She’s graduating in a few months, so she has to debut at least once.”

“No, not that. The CEO is letting her go? She’s in the debut group too.”

“Debut group my ass… We’re indefinitely postponed anyway, so the CEO should let her go if he has any conscience. Seriously, the CEO… Investor or whatever. Sigh… How could he trust those kinds of guys?”

Amid Ji-na’s lament, Park Eun-jin’s gaze turned to her smartphone. Naturally, Yang Ji-na’s gaze followed.

There, a young man stood at the highest point of the stadium, chin raised.

“Wow, what’s this? Is this Unnie’s school friend? He’s handsome. Is he your crush?”

“Ah, it’s nothing like that. He’s just a clueless idiot.”

“What? Did you get rejected?”

Was I rejected? Is that what you call it?

The conversation with that idiot, who started giving life advice instead of sweet talk during a pleasant walk in the park that night, flashed through her mind.

“Luck? Yeah, it’s important. They say luck is 70% and skill is 30%, right? I quite like that saying. No matter how you think about it, it’s true. Luck is 70% and skill is 30%. That’s how the world is. But the point of this saying isn’t to blame luck. Rather, it means that even the most important thing in the world, luck, is only 70%. It’s easy. If you make that 30% skill three or four times better than others, you can beat anyone, no matter how lucky they are. If you don’t believe me, I’ll show you. I’ll show you how to beat everyone with skill, no matter how bad your luck is.”

How difficult would it have been to just say, ‘That must have been hard’? The story of being three or four times better than others was truly꼰대-like [kkondae: a Korean term for an older person who is condescending or preachy]. Moreover, the meaning of ‘luck is 70% and skill is 30%’ that I searched on the internet at home was very different from Soo-won’s words. If I had known the meaning in advance, I could have given him a good comeback.

‘He’s such a jerk.’

But despite that, the reason why she keeps stealing glances at him is probably because of that last word.

“Park Eun-jin. So don’t give up. You’re still too young to do that.”

It was a foul.

It’s not like some youth drama, but to utter such cheesy lines with such a serious look.

But at the same time, she had to admit it. That last word was exactly the story she wanted to hear.

“Stop talking nonsense and let’s practice some more.”

It is common to be betrayed by the sweat you shed.

But what can you do? If the only thing you can realistically do is shed sweat, then you have no choice but to do that.

The air in the underground practice room heated up.

***

Four consecutive called games.

No one had expected it. Even Choi Soo-won, an ‘MVP-level’ player in the major leagues, was certain that he would not lose easily, but he did not expect to rise so easily and unilaterally.

And Jo Gyu-chan of Gyeongha High School was the same.

“But that’s it.”

He muttered to himself.

Who is the best baseball player among those born in ’07, and who is the biggest prospect in this draft are matters of opinion. Jo Gyu-chan himself admitted it. Baek Ha-min, who was originally a little short of him, finally rose to the same level as him through the last national tournament. Of course, if you go into the details, he is still a little short of him, but that’s enough to be considered a rival of the century.

Anyway, if you have to pick the best player, opinions may vary, but if you have to pick the strongest high school, there is no room for disagreement.

Gyeongha High School.

Won all five national tournaments last year except for the New World Big Mart Cup. Surprisingly, the main players in the victory at the time were not seniors but juniors, and the current power of Gyeongha High School, where the juniors at the time became seniors, has risen to a level that is no exaggeration to say is the strongest ever.

“Well, Choi Soo-won. I’ll give you credit. You’re the best among those born in ’08. No, maybe you’re the best high school hitter right now. When I imagine facing you, it’s harder than facing Byung-cheol. But you’re just from Joongang High School. If you had come to Gyeongha High School, things might have been a little different. No, maybe even if you had gone to Cheonnam High School, we could have had an interesting match.”

Yes, Joongang High School is definitely not a negligible opponent.

Basically, Choi Soo-won is an unstoppable monster, and when he is guaranteed a walk in his at-bat, Jo Gyu-hyeok, who comes after him, is also a hitter who cannot be ignored.

But that’s it.

No player is greater than the team.

Of course, sometimes there are guys who have watched too many Japanese cartoons and mistakenly believe that it is possible.

But I can say with certainty that it is impossible. Baseball is a game played by at least nine people, and even in a tournament like now, the strength of all twenty-five people is needed.

Yes, maybe there are players who do the work of two people. No, beyond that, there may be players who do the work of 4.5 people like Jo Gyu-chan himself. If the starting pitcher pitches a no-hitter, he has done half of the game alone.

But that is impossible for a hitter. You can’t stand in someone else’s at-bat just because you hit better. It’s a fair 1/9. So, in that sense, I would like to emphasize once again.

“Hehehe, yes. No player is greater than the team.”

Jo Gyu-chan laughed quietly.

‘Hey, why is Gyu-chan like that again?’

‘Leave him alone. He’s always like that on the days he starts as a pitcher.’

‘No, he only did that on special days like when he was facing Baek Ha-min, right?’

‘Joongang High School has also advanced with four consecutive called games recently. And it’s good if he’s like that. He pitches better on the days he acts like that.’

‘Well, that’s true.’

***

It was a morning that was not much different from usual.

I woke up a little later than when I used to go to school. But I woke up earlier than the routine of a professional who has been playing for 16 years. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel like lying in bed any longer. I got out of bed and lightly warmed up with dynamic stretching. My body felt very light without any stiffness.

I finished breakfast with soft scrambled eggs, bacon, and some bread, and gulped down a scoop of protein supplement. Was it because I shook it a few more times than usual? The supplement without any lumps was very clean.

I took a taxi to school. Was it because it was a different time than usual? The signals that would usually turn red once or twice showed blue lights in an unusual way. Thanks to this, the taxi fare was 300 won less than usual, and it dropped neatly to the nearest thousand won. It was a trivial matter, but I felt very good.

The good things didn’t end there.

Since there were no school buses at school, we chartered buses to use during the tournament, but the condition of the buses was somewhat random depending on the circumstances of the bus company. And today, the cleanest and best-conditioned bus among them was parked on the playground.

Semi-finals.

The strongest in the nation.

The game against Gyeongha High School began.