grand slam | seokhan

08 || The Old Man and His Mean Curveball

Jeonghan was usually dropped off at the Seagulls’ home field because he needed to be supervised while his mother worked, although it wasn’t every day he got to play. Jeonghan mainly watched the team, only playing when the team was finished and when his father wasn’t exhausted. Recently though, the middle schooler had been more keen on playing than watching. This was a desire that Wooseok couldn’t help but fulfill.

“Alright we can practice, but you have to complete your homework first. You know how your mother gets when she finds out you haven’t done anything but swing a bat all afternoon.”

”But dad! I’m nearly done with it, can’t we just play for a bit?” Jeonghan puckered his lips up into a small frown as he pouted at his father.

He looked upwards at his father with large, wide eyes that watered slightly to emphasize the middle schooler’s desperation. “Only a few pitches and then I’ll go to the pit and finish the rest! Please dad?”

“Oh you evil child, you know I can’t say no to that sad face of yours.” The older male laughed as he nodded, watching as Jeonghan ran over to his duffel bag to unzip it. He pulled out a wooden bat, painted a light shade of red. Red had been Jeonghan’s favorite color when he was eight, something that Wooseok had in mind when buying the wooden bat for Jeonghan’s ninth birthday.

The baseball player grinned mischievously at his son as he wore his brown baseball mitt on his left hand and gripped a rather old baseball scuffed with scars from its constant usage in his right. He eyed the middle schooler standing at the home plate a few feet away from where he stood on the pitcher’s mound and internally praised his son for already knowing how to stand and position himself at the home plate. He was proud of his son, and proud of himself for being such a good influence on the young boy.

Wooseok signalled over for their team’s catcher to stand behind Jeonghan and then cockily exclaimed,“Just remember, you asked for this! I’ve been working on this mean curveball of mine that’ll just go flying past you!”

“Yeah right! Bring it on old man!” Jeonghan furrowed his eyebrows before wiggling them at his father to provoke the older male. This further amused Wooseok who found it fascinating that his son was so much like him already at such a young age.

“Old man huh? Can an old man do this?” Wooseok did not hold back at all while pitching to his son. He hadn’t been a pitcher, since he was more experienced at being the Seagulls’ best hitter, but playing with his son like this had inspired him to practice more on his pitching. With help from his teammates, Wooseok had grown confident in his pitching skills and he wanted nothing more than to show that off to his son.

However, he did not expect at all to hear the ear-shattering sound of the baseball making contact with Jeonghan’s bat, nor did he expect for the baseball to go all the way out into the outfield where the rest of his teammates were residing.

Jeonghan cheered out loud before going on to running to first, then second, and finally third base. While the young middle schooler celebrated by travelling along the bases, Wooseok gazed towards the direction Jeonghan had hit the ball in with a puzzled expression. “Holy shit you actually hit that?”

“Wooseok! Your son, did you see that hit? It was truly incredible!” A loud voice boomed, calling for the baseball player’s attention. His Coach walked onto the field, the short man nearly sprinted, when he saw what talent the middle schooler had.

“Why if it were me I’d train him up for the big leagues starting right now. With talent like that and fine training he’ll surpass his father easily!”

The short Coach continued as both he and Wooseok watched Jeonghan arrive at home plate. The middle school looked beyond excited as he high-fived the catcher who congratulated him upon his arrival at the plate.

“He’ll easily gain twice the income and popularity you have right now, it’s what’s best for him! He’ll be so well off at a young age you won’t have to worry about lending him your funds for college and all that crap! I could start training him right now too, as a favor of course. It’s not every day you see talent like that, how can I look away?”

“You don’t say…” Wooseok mumbled under his breath and he stared at his son. What his Coach was suggesting did make sense to him, and it made even more sense the more Wooseok thought about how much his son loved baseball.

The older male walked over to Jeonghan with a serious expression, startling the middle schooler who paused and glanced at his father worriedly. That was when his father leaned down to meet his eye level and smiled kindly. “What do you say? Do you want to be a professional baseball player just like me, Jeonghan?”

“Jeonghan!”

The dark haired student shook his head as he abruptly left his trancelike state, bringing him back to current events instead of revisiting the past. He pulled his hand, which was clutching the gray fence in front of him unknowingly, away and peeked up to see Seokmin standing in front of him holding a baseball.

“I thought it was you, how are you doing? Don’t mind my sweatiness by the way, practice has been really intense lately. Jihoon is pushing us and the newbies hard so that we’ll actually make it to playoffs this year, although he is kind of being a pain if you know what I mean,”

“Yeah, Jihoon was like that when we were younger too.” Jeonghan agreed with a small artificial smile as he ignored the other question Seokmin asked in favor of brushing the brunet off so that he could leave quickly. Jeonghan didn’t want to spend a single second more standing in front of that treacherous field than he had to.

The senior slowly backed away from the fence to make his retreat, when Seokmin spoke up once again.

“Were you interested in joining us though? I mean you were creepily watching us from afar.” Seokmin hadn’t really noticed Jeonghan standing outside the field at first. That was until Seokmin was forced to collect a baseball thrown in the senior’s direction. It was at that moment that the tall brunet noticed Jeonghan watching their practice absentmindedly with a frown planted across his lips.

“Ah no, I’m not at all. I just heard shouting on my way out of the building and my curiosity got the best of me." Jeonghan shook his head immediately to deflect the question. He decided it was then that he would take his leave instead of sticking around for further interrogation from Seokmin. "I'll see you in class tomorrow morning Seokmin!"

The pitcher watched as Jeonghan’s retreating figure slowly disappeared from sight. He sighed, unsure of what to make of their brief conversation. There was the possibility that the sport made Jeonghan feel uncomfortable, Seokmin theorized this because of the sorrowful expression on Jeonghan’s face as the senior watched the team practice.

On the other hand, Jeonghan would have only been interested in watching them if he had some sort of self-interest in the sport as well.

“Chan, Mingyu, please refrain from killing each other on the field as the act of you two fighting will be both unsightly and disturbing for all of us to witness!” Jihoon yelled from the field, making Seokmin turn from the fence.

The tall brunet made his way back to join the rest of the team so that he also wouldn’t be scolded by their captain like Mingyu and Chan, who were currently butting heads on the field. He was left with an uneasy feeling after speaking to Jeonghan, like the senior was hiding or keeping something buried in his thoughts. "Unless you two do plan on bloodshed, that would at least be fun to watch."

The two juniors ceased arguing, although Chan did feel the need to stick his tongue out at Mingyu in a childish manner (spoiler alert: this only pushed Mingyu’s buttons more). Meanwhile, Seokmin stood on the field next to the duo with a slight frown on his face.

All the tall junior could think about was how saddened Jeonghan was by staring at the baseball field and how he felt like something had to be done about that.

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