Hit by a Pitched Ball Chapter 1

That day began quite ordinarily.

‘He’s even checking things like this.’

The voice was bored. The man who had been playing a mobile game lifted his head and grumbled at Yunjae, who was sitting in front of the television. Yunjae gave him a light sideways glance, shrugged, and turned his gaze back to the screen.

[BG Wolves will select Korean High pitcher Ha Taebeom.]

[Yes! Korean High School pitcher Ha Taebeom has been selected. Congratulations. Ha Taebeom was mentioned early on as a first-round candidate. We’d like to hear in detail the reason for selecting Ha Taebeom.]

The Wolves’ general manager opened with a brief greeting and named Ha Taebeom. Applause followed, and the announcer asked a formulaic question. Yunjae, propping his chin on his hand until his cheeks were pushed up, muttered to himself, ‘What reason, they pick him because he’s good. If they don’t pick him, who would they pick.’

‘You know him?’

‘…The best among this year’s rookies. He’s played for the national team too.’

While answering the question, the Wolves’ general manager finished the selection and put down the microphone. Applause broke out here and there. The screen switched. Footage of Ha Taebeom, youthful-faced and wearing the Korean High uniform, pitching continued. Yunjae felt warmth approaching from behind. The man who rested his chin on Yunjae’s shoulder surveyed the young player filling the screen with a dissatisfied look.

‘He’s your type.’

‘Are you crazy?’

∞ ∞ ∞

“Hello.”

“…Oh, yes. Hello.”

The moment his eyes met those languid ones, a certain day from years past came to mind. Unlike its beginning, it had been an unordinary day. It was probably the day he learned that his past lover had been deceiving him. Had the doorbell rung when he’d put on the rookie draft broadcast he had no interest in and started taking off his clothes on the sofa?

And what happened after that?

“The junior I mentioned before. A baseball fanatic.”

“Don’t. He doesn’t like Taebeom.”

“Oh, right. Taebeom is Yunjae’s sworn enemy, wasn’t he?”

“Why would I be?”

At the bewilderingly continuing conversation, Yunjae could say nothing, only twitching his lips as he took his seat. He found a spot as far from Taebeom as possible and distanced himself from attention.

“It’s not that I dislike him, it’s just that he’s a bit… unlucky.”

He wanted to phrase it neatly, but he had no talent for that sort of thing. After a brief silence, the first to burst out laughing was Ha Taebeom. ‘Wow, what’s up with that hyung?’ He buried his forehead in Mingu’s shoulder and said that. Feeling embarrassed, Yunjae quietly picked up his beer and filled his glass.

He tried hard to ignore the identity of the sense of dissonance that knocked on his instincts. His预感 was not good.

∞ ∞ ∞

The reason Ha Taebeom was particularly irritating was because of the remarkable records and win rate he produced against the Buffaloes every season. On a day without baseball, a sports channel had even broadcast a compilation of Ha Taebeom’s starting highlights against the Buffaloes. Back then, he’d said a lot of terrible things about a kid six years younger than him….

If he’d known they’d meet like this, he should have held back a little. Yunjae attributed the reason for his discomfort to his past self, not the present.

Fingering his glass beaded with moisture, Yunjae swallowed a sigh. Should he quit this gathering too? Yunjae took a sip of beer and scanned the faces of those present one by one.

It had been quite a while. It had continued since his university days. The predecessor of this gathering was a club. It was Yang Seongjun who had dragged Yunjae, who considered all interactions outside academic activities unnecessary, into the club. Back then, the only thing he’d shown any interest in was baseball, so he’d simply chosen a baseball-related club.

The funny thing was that it was around the time he’d actually started getting close to the people in the gathering. Yunjae, who hadn’t adapted well at all, became close to people just around the time the club lost its direction and fell apart. Because he’d worked hard to clean up the mess when the club received its dissolution notice under the stigma of being a dating club. The self-proclaimed ‘executive board’ he’d become close with back then was the start of this current gathering.

Yunjae smiled bitterly as he reminisced about those days. Back then, he hadn’t been as lonely as he was now. Until the incident with his past lover, everyone had been favorable to him. Still, he didn’t want to resent them.

In fact, most of the people in the gathering were closer to his past lover than to him. Even the man he’d dated while in school, though now absent from the gathering, had been one of its members. His relationship with that man had lasted quite a long time. They’d had a secret relationship, disguised within the gathering as close senior and junior.

That was why he’d been even more attached to the gathering. Back then, they’d helped each other often. They’d shared both joyous and sorrowful occasions together. That is, until he learned of Choi Jihyeok’s betrayal. Until his secret brought an unjust situation upon him in an unwanted way, Yunjae had been sincere about this gathering.

At some point, it seemed that meetings excluding him had become more frequent, led by Choi Jihyeok. And each time, he’d started attending with a new woman. He’d deceived everyone. Since the gathering members at the time had no idea about Yunjae and Choi Jihyeok’s relationship, they couldn’t have found it strange. And he’d had no obligation to inform them.

Back then, the two were regarded as the closest senior and junior among the group, and one word from Choi Jihyeok—’Yunjae is busy’—was enough to gain agreement. Then it raced toward the very end. Everything ended when the woman who was Choi Jihyeok’s other lover at the time, and now his wife, found out. The man he’d thought he loved, and the gathering members he’d genuinely liked—all of it. Yang Seongjun also stormed out of the gathering over the incident that arose then. He’d suggested Yunjae leave together, but Yunjae hadn’t.

Yunjae recalled the day that had dragged him down to the very worst, and drained his beer completely. At the end of his wandering gaze, he saw Geonho and Mingu. Yunjae observed them carefully.

Geonho, who had been the gathering’s leader at the time, had helped Yunjae stay by sorting out the situation. His decision—since he’d also been friends with Choi Jihyeok—was unexpected even to Yunjae himself. The other members must have felt the same. But things didn’t flow in the desired direction, and eventually Choi Jihyeok left.

The members who had secretly hoped Yunjae would leave instead began to change their attitudes little by little from then on. One by one, the many considerations that had been purely favorable disappeared, and distance grew accordingly. Only Mingu, who was closest to Geonho, treated him as before. That atmosphere continued to this day.

He didn’t want to blame others. Staying in this gathering until now was ultimately his own decision and choice. Of course, he could have left at an appropriate time. When a quiet period came, naturally. With the plausible excuse of being busy.

But he hadn’t. Perhaps he’d considered it a way to prove his integrity. So what if a man likes a man? Why should I hide? I didn’t do anything wrong. I have no interest in any of you, so don’t worry.

That childish stubbornness had ultimately led to today.

Yunjae had lingered here until now, relying on them and drifting along. Simply because he didn’t want to be alone just for liking men. Because he absolutely didn’t want to understand why he, the victim, should have to hide—he’d endured until now.

But his resolve, which had been bold until a few years ago, occasionally brought him feelings of self-alienation, and now he endured not out of that stubbornness but out of anxiety that if he didn’t even meet these people, he’d become completely cut off from society. Maintaining a moderately amicable relationship was convenient in many ways.

‘I’ve gotten older too. Am I lonely?’

Lost in troubled thought, quite a bit of conversation had passed. Until then, Yunjae hadn’t the faintest idea that someone was watching him intently. He was merely sunk in melancholy, like someone who’d been swindled.

Taebeom found Yunjae quite interesting to watch. With a face that looked like he’d been born and raised without knowing worry, he kept letting out deep sighs—that pale face made it hard for Taebeom to look away.

Taebeom responded formally to the annoying attention directed at him. All the while, he stared persistently at Yunjae. Yunjae, as if feeling the intense gaze, tilted his head and looked around. Eventually, their eyes met.

His nearly expressionless face flinched in surprise, emotion clearly showing. Their gazes locked as if time had stopped for a moment, then eventually broke apart as Yunjae looked away first.