Chapter 41 – I Won’t Lose
Yoon Jae-jun was always easygoing.
Whenever someone talked about his skill, he simply said okay.
Whenever someone talked about his catching or how he led pitchers, he simply said okay.
What else could he do?
He lacked experience.
He still had shortcomings.
Those things could be fixed.
Whatever he lacked, he could build up over time.
“How is the cleanup hitter getting pushed aside for the number-three hitter? And that guy’s even a pitcher.”
The opposing catcher said that after issuing an intentional walk under orders from the bench.
Yoon Jae-jun casually ignored him.
But inside, anger was boiling.
You bastards are looking down on me?
CRACK!
That was why he hit a home run.
He didn’t want to lose.
When it came to batting, he had no intention of losing to anyone.
Whether it was Choi Seong or Babe Ruth.
“Exactly. Why did you have to look down on me, sunbae?”
The opposing catcher didn’t answer.
He simply ripped off his mask and glared at Yoon Jae-jun.
“Cocky little rookie bastard.”
Yoon Jae-jun ignored him and strode around the bases.
He barely swallowed the words that almost came out of his mouth.
If I hit a home run, isn’t that skill rather than arrogance?
His performance had definitely skyrocketed after joining the Choi Seong School.
Choi Seong’s methods were always strange.
They looked simple.
What made them frightening was that they actually produced results.
3–0.
They had just broken down a starter who had initially seemed almost impossible to defeat.
The first method Choi Seong had suggested was simple.
Predict the pitch.
Once Yoon Jae-jun trusted that advice exactly as it was, the results changed.
After joining the Choi Seong School, his era of success had begun.
That wasn’t even an exaggeration.
3–0.
They walked me intentionally.
But the next batter was even stronger.
Judging purely by stats, Yoon Jae-jun probably had more power than I did right now.
That was why he was batting cleanup.
This wasn’t the kind of game where walking me solved everything.
Manager Park Pil-seong had been far too careless this time.
He kept focusing on me and failed to look at what came next.
By now, even he would admit it was a mistake.
Why?
Because with that home run, Yoon Jae-jun had just taken sole possession of first place in home runs.
“YOON JAE-JUN! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?!”
“Aren’t you seriously becoming a real cleanup hitter now?”
“This is amazing! Nobody’s beating this!”
Leaving the players’ cheers behind, Yoon Jae-jun grabbed my hand tightly.
Why was he doing this?
A pitcher’s hand was sensitive, you know.
“It’s all thanks to the Choi Seong School, everyone! It’s not too late, so sign up right now!”
Yoon Jae-jun shouted excitedly.
It looked like the dopamine from hitting a home run had completely taken over his brain.
The looks in the other players’ eyes changed even more.
Kwon Geon-woo and Go Gyeong-tae joined in from the side.
“After joining the Choi Seong School, my era of success began.”
“Long live the Choi Seong School! Sunbaes, you should all try it too!”
Stop.
Just covering for you guys was already exhausting enough.
Helping the middle relievers in the bullpen was already pushing me to my limit.
I needed time for my own training too, damn it.
“Ohhh! As expected of our temporary captain!”
“Can’t you take a look at my batting form too?”
“My defense hasn’t been going well lately... especially my throws...”
“Can you tell me what kind of diet I should follow? I really want to lose weight... My body feels too sluggish...”
I quietly looked toward the coaching staff.
What are you doing...? You’re supposed to stop them...
But Manager Rodriguez and the coaches were smiling brightly.
Right.
These people believed completely in a hands-off approach.
They believed that was how a player’s true potential could explode.
In my previous life, that philosophy had failed in Korea.
But in America, it had become a huge success.
“I don’t have enough time to teach everyone right now. And this team already has coaches.”
I gave the simple answer to the players who kept gathering around me.
Then a title notification appeared.
[Choi Seong has fulfilled a special condition. Potential acquired.]
[More than half of the players registered on the first-team roster support Choi Seong.]
[One-Team Maker: While serving as captain, including temporary captain, all players’ stats increase by 1%.]
A title that raised the stats of the entire team?
Not bad.
Considering I would literally die if we failed to win the championship, this was exactly the kind of title I needed.
“For now, talk to the coaches first. If you still can’t solve your problem after that, come to me.”
When the system itself was giving me a title and telling me to unite the team, how could I refuse?
In the past, I had always been a completely independent player.
Naively, I had listened to the manager and coaches and solved my problems only that way.
And the result was—
Even if baseball is a team sport, don’t we win as long as I play well?
That had been my mindset.
But now...
“Long live the Choi Seong School!”
“Even five minutes would be enough later! Our junior is making us happy!”
“Now this is what you call happy baseball!”
Receiving affection from the dugout instead of only from the fans felt different.
So this is what a team feels like.
CRACK!
Right as I thought that, Daniel Sanchez, who was at the plate, got a hit.
That guy quietly did his job.
Of course, before and after training, he did send me slightly uncomfortable smiles.
Our big inning didn’t stop there.
Starting with Daniel Sanchez reaching base, we scored two more runs.
5–0.
By the middle innings, we had already put up five runs and knocked out Daejeon Hawks’ fourth starter, who had nearly been having the game of his life.
Pitch quality mattered.
But mentality mattered just as much.
Without both, you couldn’t play properly.
Yang Gi-won’s expression brightened.
He was finally getting close to his first win of the year.
Yang Gi-won soon finished with six innings and three runs allowed, recording a quality start before leaving the game.
Afterward, we added another two runs and gave up three.
The final score was 7–3.
Yoon Jae-jun became the game MVP, and his interview was memorable.
“Yoon Jae-jun, you went one-for-three today, but your three-run home run opened the door for that huge inning! How do you feel about today’s game?”
Standing right in front of him was the announcer Yoon Jae-jun was always talking about liking.
I watched and snickered.
I vaguely remembered him saying he wanted to do an MVP interview in front of that announcer someday.
Yoon Jae-jun had finally completed something on his bucket list.
But what came out of his mouth was completely different from what I expected.
Was it because he had been crouching behind home plate until the final inning?
“Choi Seong School...”
“Excuse me?”
“After joining the Choi Seong School, my era of success began!”
It was a short and powerful interview.
The moment I heard it, I smacked my forehead.
That guy was never getting married.
[Unique Interview From Yoon Jae-jun... “My Era of Success Began at the Choi Seong School”]
[The Oceans’ Choi Seong School Becomes More Frightening... Players Say in Unison, “We Want to Learn Too”]
[Yoon Jae-jun Gives Choi Seong All the Credit Again... Just What Kind of Player Is Choi Seong?]
That day, my name was plastered across the headlines.
Underneath them came endless comments.
What even is the Choi Seong School? Why is everyone going crazy over it?
Isn’t Yoon Jae-jun getting brainwashed by Choi Seong every day? LOL.
Apparently they don’t even share a room. At this point, it’s actually scary.
Still, the Hawks didn’t get their tenth win, so that’s a win for us lol.
Yeah, three teams are tied for first right now.
Who’s going to get ten wins first?
Anyway, please put Yu-gam in the Choi Seong School too, for fuck’s sake.
Seriously. If it wasn’t for him, we would’ve scored three more runs.
Yu-gam’s a good kid and he’s nice, but... he’s just kind of awkward.
Yoon Jae-jun smiled brightly inside the locker room.
“Seong-ah, if it weren’t for you, I would’ve been nothing.”
True.
At this point in time, he probably would have been nothing.
He likely wouldn’t have reached this level until another three years from now.
“Yeah.”
“So I’ve decided to worship you.”
“What?”
For the first time since returning to this life...
I was genuinely caught off guard.
What kind of nonsense was this about suddenly worshipping me?
There was absolute conviction in Yoon Jae-jun’s eyes.
No.
It was closer to madness.
“From now on, I’ll follow you. Whatever you tell me to do, I’ll accept it.”
“What?”
I turned my head away from his intense gaze.
This was beyond uncomfortable.
“Forget that and just train properly. And catch my pitches properly too.”
“Okay, Seong-ah!”
If this conversation continued any longer, I felt like the genre of this story was going to change.
So I hurriedly left.
Calmly training was definitely the better option.
Time flew by.
We defeated the Daejeon Hawks in the next game and reached a record of nine wins and three losses.
That created the strange situation of three teams being tied for first place right before reaching ten wins.
The Busan Oceans, Daejeon Hawks, and Gwangju Jaguars were all tied at 9–3.
Our next sacrifice for our tenth win would be the Masan Wolves.
They were a monster team that had gone from the Wild Card Game all the way to finishing runner-up in the Korean Series last season.
Since today was Monday, I had one day to rest before taking the mound.
If the rotation stayed the same, I would be the next starter.
I needed to calmly prepare to pitch.
The unwritten rule before a start was to keep things simple, avoid carbohydrates, and focus on protein.
So I ate eel followed by boiled pork.
Of course, I ate with my parents.
Monday was the only day I could eat with them or spend some proper time together.
On every other day, I came home around midnight because of games.
“Our Seong is unbelievably popular these days. Everyone around me keeps begging me to get your autograph for them.”
Dad spoke in a noticeably cheerful tone.
In the past, he would usually just brush things off.
But things were different now.
“You can bring them to me. Or should I just sign some paper right now?”
“What? If you do that, I’d really appreciate it. That’s my son~”
Thinking back, I had been completely introverted until my second year of high school.
I used to hate things like this too.
Now, I didn’t care.
Signing autographs wouldn’t wear me out.
It was only a little bothersome and embarrassing.
“Sure. Later, if they want signatures on clothes or anything like that, bring those too.”
“Then... could I ask for about thirty? People in my department are going crazy over it, and even the department next to ours keeps asking.”
“Honey. Our son is busy. Why are you making him do things like that? Son, here’s the eel tail.”
I immediately opened my mouth and ate it.
“Did you get your hospital checkup?”
“Yeah. They said everything’s perfectly fine, so stop worrying so much.”
“Then alcohol is banned from now on.”
My parents shook their heads as if they were already sick of hearing me say that.
“Anyway, give me everything you want signed. I’ll do it now. Mom, do you need anything?”
“My son’s already grown up this much. What more could I need...?”
After hearing that, I transferred twenty million won into Mom’s bank account.
It was part of my signing bonus that had just been sitting there without being invested anyway.
Her eyes widened when she saw the amount.
“Mom, go take a trip somewhere with your friends.”
“Son. Instead of autographs...”
“No. Dad would just use the money to drink.”
At those words, Dad immediately looked dejected.
Still, his son was a professional baseball player.
Not only a Rookie of the Year candidate already, but someone trying to set new Korean baseball records.
I quickly finished Dad’s autograph assignment.
“Do you want to come watch tomorrow’s game?”
I might set my first record since making my professional debut.
Consecutive scoreless innings.
The record was nineteen and two-thirds innings.
So I only needed to go beyond that.
“Of course we’re going! It’s our son’s game!”
I nodded at Dad’s shout.
Watch closely.
Watch your son keep growing higher and higher.
