I thought we would start training right away, but Yun Donghyeok put Ryu Jaeyul and me in his car.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll know when we get there.”
I’d heard the ER Hawks players ran in the mountains during their training camp.
Was this outdoor special training this time?
Well, winter was better for running than summer.
But the car that should have been headed for the mountains stopped in an area lined with large shopping complexes.
“Uh…!?”
The moment I turned my head at Ryu Jaeyul’s voice, what I saw was—
[ Baseball General Store ]
Yajongsa, for short. It was the largest baseball equipment specialty store in the country, and a place any amateur baseball player would have definitely visited at least once.
But why were we suddenly here?
Professional players received gloves and bats through sponsorship contracts with famous brands, so they had no need to come here.
Ryu Jaeyul and I weren’t first-team level, but we still received support from the club.
“Get out.”
Before I could even ask, I got out of the car at Yun Donghyeok’s words.
“Senior, aren’t we training?”
At my question, Yun Donghyeok folded his arms and answered.
“Chae Gangwoo, Ryu Jaeyul. What do you think you need most right now?”
What did we need most?
“…Skill?”
Yun Donghyeok let out a hollow laugh.
“At least you know.”
“…No, I’m working hard!”
“Work hard at growing too. Anyway, the reason I brought you here is…”
Yun Donghyeok jerked his chin toward Yajongsa.
“To go there.”
“Yajongsa?”
“Yeah. You know there aren’t any full-time knuckleballers in Korea yet, right? That’s why there aren’t any dedicated catchers either.”
Players who threw the knuckleball as their main pitch were hard to find not just in Korea, but overseas as well.
“But you’re different, Chae Gangwoo.”
Ah. Now that I thought about it, my main pitch right now was the knuckleball. I wasn’t throwing any other pitches.
“Well, I don’t know yet whether you’re a full-time knuckleballer or not. But for now, that’s the case, right?”
Yun Donghyeok’s gaze turned not to me, but to Jaeyul.
“Ryu Jaeyul is the dedicated catcher for a pitcher who throws the knuckleball. Then what does a dedicated knuckleball catcher need?”
I still didn’t get it. What did he need?
He just had to catch the ball…
Wait.
I had heard this somewhere before. Back when I joined the elementary school baseball team, when everyone was trying to throw knuckleballs because they said it was a magic pitch.
They said you needed a different mitt to catch a knuckleball.
Ah.
As I let out an exclamation as if I’d only just remembered, Yun Donghyeok nodded.
“Because of the nature of the knuckleball, the pocket has to be bigger or deeper to catch it. Something closer to a round shape is better too. It should have some padding as well.”
Ryu Jaeyul’s eyes also widened as if he understood.
“A knuckleball mitt is a specialized mitt, so the club won’t support it.”
No club would support the second team all the way to specialized mitts. Maybe if it were a first-team starter.
“So this senior of yours is going to buy one for you.”
Yun Donghyeok grinned.
“A mitt exclusively for knuckleballers.”
In other words, Yun Donghyeok had brought us to Yajongsa to buy Ryu Jaeyul a mitt exclusively for catching knuckleballs.
“Senior!”
Ryu Jaeyul cried out as if he were moved.
“Let’s go in first.”
We followed Yun Donghyeok as he took the lead.
Jingle.
The bell attached to the door rang. It had been quite a while since I’d come to Yajongsa. Back in elementary school, I used to come just to look around.
I’d even once grabbed an expensive glove without knowing any better and begged my parents to buy it for me.
“This place hasn’t changed.”
I muttered as I looked over the gloves on display.
“Oh! Player Yun Donghyeok!”
The owner recognized Yun Donghyeok and greeted him.
“Hello, sir.”
“It’s been a while. What brings you here?”
“Do you happen to have a mitt for knuckleballers?”
“Knuckleballers?!”
The owner tilted his head, then continued.
“It’s a product that hardly ever sells, so we don’t have any in stock. If you order one now, it’ll take at least a week, even at the fastest.”
“I need one now. Do you perhaps have a used one?”
“Used? Hold on.”
After checking the inventory, the owner raised his voice.
“We’ve got one used Rawlings! Wait here.”
A moment later, what the owner brought out in his hand was different from the catcher’s mitts I had seen until now.
Just as Yun Donghyeok had explained earlier, the pocket was large and deep, and its shape was closer to a circle.
Yun Donghyeok examined the mitt he had brought over from various angles.
“Seeing how well it’s been broken in, it looks like a former player used it.”
“This was used by Eom Chunghyeok.”
“You mean catcher Eom Chunghyeok?”
Eom Chunghyeok. He was the star catcher of the Fire Hunters, last year’s number one team in professional baseball.
“Yeah. Two years ago, they said their foreign import was going to throw a knuckleball, so he bought it for practice, but in the end he said he didn’t need it.”
At that, Yun Donghyeok nodded.
“Maybe used is better. A knuckleball mitt would be stiffer because of the depth, but this one’s already broken in, so it shouldn’t be bad.”
“Right. It’s good to use. But why the sudden need for a knuckleball mitt?”
“Ah.”
Yun Donghyeok grinned and pointed at Ryu Jaeyul.
“He’s going to use it.”
“Hm?”
The owner looked back and forth between Ryu Jaeyul and me.
“And this friend?”
“That friend is the pitcher.”
I quickly bowed my head.
“Hello. My name is Chae Gangwoo!”
At that, the owner burst into a hearty laugh.
“I don’t think I saw you in the draft. A rookie?”
“Yes!”
“Even if you’re called in the first round, that doesn’t mean you get to start in the pros. You never know what’ll happen in life. Work hard.”
As if encouraging us, the owner patted my shoulder and Ryu Jaeyul’s.
“Thank you!”
“Thank you.”
“Hmm, I’m feeling generous. A knuckleball mitt doesn’t sell well anyway, and it’s used, so I’ll just give it to you.”
At that, Yun Donghyeok declined.
“It must be expensive. It’s all right.”
“Forget it. Later, when you two make it as pros, just promote the shop for me.”
Ryu Jaeyul bowed his head.
“Thank you.”
“But.”
The owner tilted his head.
“You’re a rookie, so why do you need a knuckleball mitt?”
“Ah. Because right now, the only thing I know how to throw is a knuckleball.”
When I grinned after saying that, the owner spoke with a look of disbelief.
“What? Your main pitch is a knuckleball?!”
Right now, the only thing I could properly throw was the knuckleball.
“Yes.”
At my answer, the owner whipped his head toward Yun Donghyeok.
“Is that true?”
Yun Donghyeok looked back and forth between me and Ryu Jaeyul, then opened his mouth.
“Since we’re going to try out the knuckleball mitt anyway, would you like to take a look?”
Before I knew it, I was preparing to throw a ball in the parking lot in front of Yajongsa.
The owner and Yun Donghyeok were watching Ryu Jaeyul and me with their arms folded.
“Whew.”
Ryu Jaeyul was wearing the newly acquired knuckleball mitt. Since I hadn’t brought my glove either, I was wearing a used glove they had for sale.
They weren’t familiar gloves or mitts, but it didn’t matter.
Inside the glove, I rolled the ball with my fingertips. I pressed down on the surface caught under my nails. The joints of my index and middle fingers bent.
This feels good.
It happened in an instant. I swung my arm just like that.
Whoosh.
Thud.
With a dull sound, the ball buried itself in the mitt.
Huh? I think that had some speed on it.
That was when—
“Huh. I’ve been in this business for thirty years and seen all kinds of pitchers.”
The owner continued with a surprised expression.
“But this is my first time seeing a player who really throws a knuckleball. Haha. Looks like the Hawks might make fall baseball this year?!”
“He still has more to learn.”
“Of course, of course. If he learns well, there’ll be nothing to worry about! Oh, this isn’t the time for that.”
He seemed to hurry back into the store, and soon the owner came out with something in his hand.
What the owner held out to Ryu Jaeyul and me was autograph paper with “Yajongsa” written on it. It was the same as the autograph papers from players that filled the walls of the store.
“I should get your autographs in advance. You haven’t signed for anyone yet, right?! Write that this is your first autograph here too.”
An autograph!
Now that I thought about it, I had never given someone an autograph before. Last year, while practicing my signature in preparation for getting drafted, I had signed for my parents once.
My heart began to pound.
“D-Do I sign here?!”
“Yeah. Write Hawks too.”
“Understood!”
How had I done it again? I wrote “Chae” big, then wrote “Gangwoo” small underneath.
And the most important thing.
“A star?”
At Yun Donghyeok’s question, I nodded.
“Because I’m going to become a star.”
There was “Chae,” scrawled large. Underneath it, “Gangwoo” written small. And beside a line drawn with a slash, there was a big star.
Ryu Jaeyul looked at the paper I had signed and muttered.
“That’s seriously childish.”
At that, I looked at Ryu Jaeyul’s paper.
“Hah?”
Neatly written Korean characters. Three syllables.
Ryu Jaeyul.
“That’s the worst…”
“What? It’s better than yours, okay? What’s with the star? An autograph isn’t a joke.”
“It has a grand meaning, you know? What’s your autograph supposed to be? It’s not creative at all.”
“You know the word creative?”
“Hey!”
Watching the two of us bicker, Yun Donghyeok let out a hollow laugh.
“Even your autographs match your personalities. All right, enough. Get ready to go.”
“Ah, yes! Here you go!”
I quickly handed the autograph paper to the owner.
“Then let’s go.”
At Yun Donghyeok’s words, we moved quickly. We didn’t forget to say goodbye to the owner.
“Yeah, work hard! I’ll see you on TV!”
TV. He was probably talking about a live professional baseball broadcast. And for us to appear in one, that meant being first-team starters.
“Yes!”
Just thinking about being a first-team starter made my chest swell.
I was getting into Yun Donghyeok’s car with an excited heart when—
“Ryu Jaeyul’s been taken care of, so now it’s Chae Gangwoo’s turn, right?”
“Pardon?”
Taken care of?
“Do you know what a pitcher—especially a knuckleball pitcher—has to consider most important?”
What a pitcher had to consider most important?
Building up my body? Lower-body strength training? My shoulder?
“It’s more or less the same for all baseball players, but for a pitcher…”
For a pitcher?
“Nail care is essential.”
“Ah.”
An exclamation escaped my mouth on its own.
For a pitcher, the fingertips were the final point of contact with the ball. They couldn’t be too short, and they couldn’t be too long.
Just like getting blisters on your hand, if your nails broke or split, it affected your pitching.
Especially for a knuckleballer, nail care was essential. Since you pressed and gripped the ball with the tips of your nails, if your nails weren’t maintained, it was hard to grip it steadily, and the ball could take on spin.
If a knuckleball had spin, it was no longer a knuckleball.
“How are your nails right now?”
At Yun Donghyeok’s words, I immediately checked my nails.
Since I had aimed to become a pitcher from a young age, I had taken fairly good care of my nails.
The only problem was that maybe because I had been throwing knuckleballs, the nails on my left hand felt weaker than those on my right.
“I think they’ve gotten a little weak.”
Yun Donghyeok stopped the car.
“Get out.”
As if under a spell, Ryu Jaeyul and I got out of the car, and Yun Donghyeok led us once again to—
A nail salon specializing in nail strengthening.
And exactly one hour later, my nails were shining brilliantly.
Like a well-polished blade.