A Familiar Shadow

“Why suddenly Cha Seok-young?”

He responded casually, but inwardly, he flinched. He had been thinking of Cha Seok-young ever since the training discussion came up.

Four days had already passed since the first group training. During that time, voluntary training was held every day, and Hyun attended without fail. And each time, he was utterly exhausted. In just five days, his eyes had become sunken.

‘Why do you look like that? You’re not already tired, are you?’

Yesterday, Cha Seok-young mocked Hyun with such words. At his sarcastic remark about how he could play baseball with such stamina, Hyun almost blurted out the truth.

‘It’s all your fault.’

More than the painful rehabilitation stretches, the 55-meter sprints under the scorching sun, or Shim Sang-jin, who only picked fights when no one was looking. He was struggling most because of Cha Seok-young, who volunteered to be his training partner.

Recalling the past few days, a sigh escaped him naturally. Kwon Hyuk-won raised his voice from across Hyun, who was lightly shaking his head.

“It’s not ‘suddenly.’ Since Cha Seok-young is your friend, it would be nice if he looked out for you a little during training.”

“……”

“Or at least introduce you to some friendly seniors and juniors. He must have a lot of acquaintances in the baseball world.”

‘He makes a fuss just for me to talk to a teammate, so there’s no way he’d introduce new people first.’ It would be a miracle if he didn’t yell at me to throw one more ball instead of wasting time greeting people.

“I’m not looking for such favors.”

Hyun chuckled hollowly and turned to the next page of the script. The episode title was written on the very first line.

[The joy of unrequited love comes with pain]

For some reason, these words made his heart ache again. Hyun’s sunken gaze lingered on the letters for a long time.

“I’m not telling you to take advantage. What I mean is, don’t overdo it with just exercise. Play around with your friend a bit. If you two get along, it’s good for everyone.”

‘Good for everyone, my foot.’ He had no idea that Hyun was on the verge of a heart attack every day because of Cha Seok-young, who kept touching him and clinging to him whenever he had a chance.

“Am I wrong? If you do that, you’ll get proper screen time, and your popularity will rise.”

“Still, it’s a baseball program. People will want to see good games, so we should be good at sports first.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. There are tons of people who will love it just by seeing you two in the same frame.”

‘No way.’ Hyun laughed as if it were ridiculous and stood up. If he stayed any longer, the talk about Cha Seok-young would be endless. In such a situation, it would be impossible to concentrate on the script.

Just then, he also received a call from Song Him-chan. Hyun picked up his sparkling phone and gathered the script bundle.

“I’ll take the rest and review them.”

“Alright, anyway, watch your shoulder! And broadcast comes before baseball. Huh? Don’t just do baseball!”

The admonition, following him even beyond the door, was persistent. If Cha Seok-young had heard it, he probably would have glared coldly. Hyun, who smiled as he left the office, was soon met by the van.

Comments:
Chayo completely blew up, why is it so quiet here? ㅡㅡ Did no one see the pre-release video?
└ OMG just saw it. What’s with the thumbnail?? Crazy?
└ The 3-minute video is almost half Chayo ㅋㅋ So good.
└ But how did the search term become Chayo?
└ Cha Seok-young + HeyYou >> Chayo
Ah, Cha Seok-young is so funny. He’s like Jung Hyun’s personal 1:1 PT instructor.
└ Seriously, doesn’t he look at other pitchers? ㅠㅠ
Seriously, he’s a PT instructor himself ㅠ But instructor.. you have a lot of skinship.
Am I the only one who sees Jung Hyun’s face turning red?
└ No, it’s me too, he looks like he’s about to explode;
Honestly, at first, I just came here to look because of his face… but the more I watch, the more touched I am (┬┬﹏┬┬) Seeing friends who shared the same dream reunite and train together…
Why are baseball players so promiscuous these days? They’re having s*x instead of lifting weights (⁎ᵕᴗᵕ⁎)
└ After posting, I feel awkward comparing it to the comment above.. I feel like trash.
└ Then why don’t you delete it? ㅠ
└ Probably because I am trash..

The opening game was now three days away. As the game drew closer, the focus shifted to group training.

Excluding the mentors, the Re-emergence Dreamers had a total of four pitchers. Excluding the ace pitcher who was still recovering from injury, three remained: Hong Seong-bin from the independent league, Yoon Jung-ho, who recently retired from the professional league, and Jung Hyun.

Among them, Hyun, with the shortest baseball career, devoted himself even more diligently to training. With only three pitchers on the team, even if Cha Seok-young covered 1 or 2 innings, they couldn’t solely rely on him. For the team to win, everyone had to do their part. Hyun gritted his teeth and threw the ball.

First, he pitched 30 balls, took a short break with simple catch-ball, and then threw another 30 balls. Around the time the number of thrown balls exceeded 80, he felt his shoulder muscles tighten.

He barely managed to complete 90 pitches, gasping as he searched for a water bottle. Even the small movement of opening the bottle cap and tilting his head back bothered his shoulder. The burning sensation in his shoulder blade felt distinctly unpleasant. As he drank water with a serious expression, Yoon Jung-ho, who had pitched with him, approached.

“The clingy one isn’t here today, huh?”

He asked expressionlessly, massaging Hyun’s shoulder. Unsure how to react first, Hyun just twitched his lips for a moment. Yoon Jung-ho then added, to Hyun whose eyes had widened.

“Cha Seok-young, I mean. Where did he go?”

“The coach took him earlier. To film a meeting scene before the opening game… He said it would take a while.”

“Ah, so that’s why I didn’t see him.”

He still hadn’t adjusted to the reaction that assumed the two of them would naturally be together. Moreover, Yoon Jung-ho was notoriously blunt and rarely revealed his true feelings, which made it even more awkward. Hyun dispersed a faint smile and gripped the ball again.

Around the time his entire body was soaked in sweat, the training coach appeared. He poked his head out from the corridor towards the bullpen and shouted.

“If you’ve finished throwing, you can go on your own.”

“Yeeesss.”

Yoon Jung-ho gave a drawn-out reply and began to pack his bags. Thanks to him, the catcher and Hong Seong-bin, who had been watching nervously, were also able to discreetly pack up their equipment.

Hyun deliberately sent Song Him-chan ahead and lingered in the bullpen, buying time. The Re-emergence Dreamers had an atmosphere where everyone went to the showers together after training, so it would be dangerous to leave now. If he were to encounter Cha Seok-young, who might have finished filming, and end up showering together, it would be a disaster.

He stayed alone, loosening his shoulder with tubing, and meticulously tidying up the dirt. Only after tidying up the catcher’s spot did silence fall everywhere. The boisterous curses and shouts had disappeared, and Cha Seok-young still showed no sign of returning.

He was in the middle of hurriedly packing his bags, thinking it was the perfect time to leave now. Then, from beyond the corridor, he heard someone chuckling.

“Our Sang-jin hyung is getting old now.”

“What, you bastard?”

It was Seon Dae-gyu and Shim Sang-jin’s voices. There was a smack sound, as if an arm had been hit, but Seon Dae-gyu was not intimidated and instead spoke even louder.

“His defensive errors were no joke. I saw it, that’s thumbnail material. It’s an error for 10 years of archiving.”

“You bastard. That wasn’t my error, Jeong Hye-seong’s throw was crap.”

“No, it wasn’t. It was completely easy.”

“This, damn it! Ugh, seriously, I feel like making him hit five thousand fungo balls.”

“Hyung-nim, a hundred was already enough to seem old-fashioned, so please don’t do that.”

The ominous conversation gradually receded down the corridor. Hyun, who had been standing still and blinking, belatedly walked towards the window of the bullpen. Someone was seen busily running around the wide field.

It was Jeong Hye-seong. He was covered in sweat, struggling and throwing his body this way and that to catch the balls spat out by the fungo machine.

“Even in this day and age, they make you train like that.”

Just as he gasped in shock, a new ball popped up with a thwack. Jeong Hye-seong desperately ran and slid through the grass, but the merciless ball slipped through his glove and rolled away.

Jeong Hye-seong, who had fallen with a grunt, didn’t get up for a while. Seeing his subtly heaving back, and wondering if he was crying, Hyun unconsciously ran outside. He quickly reached deep into the infield and first turned off the ball-shooting machine.

“Hye-seong-ssi, are you okay?”

Jeong Hye-seong started and looked up. After seeing Hyun’s face, he half-relievedly but embarrassedly got to his feet.

“Yes, I’m fine. Thank you.”

The awkward nod was the end of their break. Jeong Hye-seong, who had quickly approached the machine, stared at Hyun. His eyes seemed to ask if Hyun was going to keep standing there now that the ball would bounce again.

“Just a moment.”

Hyun deliberately walked very slowly. He leisurely stepped on the dirt and stood in front of the machine. Jeong Hye-seong’s rough breathing had somewhat calmed down.

“I’ll press the button for you at the right time.”

“What? Oh, you don’t have to.”

“I’m bored. You get bored training alone too, don’t you, Hye-seong-ssi?”

“Still…”

“Let’s finish quickly. We don’t have much time.”

When Hyun pointed at the clock on the scoreboard, Jeong Hye-seong, who had been hesitating, moved his feet. He stood on the outer part of the infield, where the dirt ended and the grass began, and shouted fiercely, tapping his glove. It was a signal that he was ready.

The two continued training until the fungo machine cried out for more balls. The field was completely covered in white balls.

After training, they started picking up balls from near home plate. Jeong Hye-seong was aghast and begged to pick up the balls alone, but Hyun pretended not to hear.

Hyun smiled and reached for a ball.

“When will you finish picking them all up alone and go home…”

‘…go home?’ The words he was about to utter were swallowed as soon as he saw the feet entering his sight. Straightening his awkward posture from picking up the ball, he slowly raised his head. Long legs, a torso starting from a height, and sculpted features came into view one after another.

It was Cha Seok-young.

“You seem confident about the opening game? You even have time to help others.”

He stood askew, smiling with crinkled eyes. It felt as if a cold admonition would soon fly at him, telling him to throw his own balls one more time instead of worrying about others. Hyun quickly cut him off.

“We trained together. I wasn’t just playing around.”