For the next month or so, trainings started to intensify as the Softball team progressed into the final round of the tournament, doing incredibly well despite the fact that Nayeon benched. Nayeon herself was already very grateful that Coach has registered her such that she wouldn’t feel left out, and if they won something she would get a medal as a souvenir.

 

Their final opponent was an extremely cocky team known as the Thunders who’ve always despised the Hunters as they always trashed them in every single game they played. This time around, hunters were not expecting things to turn out any better, especially since they're missing their ace player on the front-line. It was almost impossible to score even a run against the Thunders unless they were on top form.

 

“Guys listen, we will be against the Thunders later in the afternoon and I understand that you all are worried. I just want all of you to know that we don’t have to worry, just as long as we do our best.” Nayeon spoke to Hunters in the capacity of the captain thinking that this might make them feel less nervous, but received several pairs of doubtful eyes looking at her questioningly in response. “Think of it logically,” she continued. “Since they are the ones who always trashed us, pressure’s on them not us. If we really lose, then fine, maybe they truly are better, maybe they must have been training a lot harder than we did. But if we end up winning, it’s a huge bonus! Just head out there, relax, and have fun!”

 

The teammates then loosened up quite a but after hearing that as it really did make sense. “Let’s get changed and get into the field! They’re here already.” Nayeon gazed towards the gate leading to the field.

 

“Let’s cheer before we take the field!", Soomin commanded. It was a tradition. “Hunters on three… one… two… three!”

 

“HUNTERS SARANGHAJA!”

 

The game commenced and by the bottom of the third inning the score was 2-1, with Thunders leading. Nayeon was hopeful, at least their score wouldn’t be held to zero this time round.

It was Xing Tong up to bat next. Xing Tong was the strongest in the team excluding Nayeon and Nayeon had faith in her, believing that she would be able to snatch the scores back for the team.

 

“Oh my, this is so exciting I think my heart is jumping out.” Luhan grabbed Sehun by his arm and shook him anxiously. “So is mine. God knows what will happen next, they are doing exceptionally well, way out of expectations.”

“Bammmm!” With a smooth swing of the bat, it contacted the ball squarely, sending it over the fence. IT WAS A HOMERUN!!! Her teammates were so happy they rushed onto the field and gave one another big hugs and air fives. Nayeon replayed the hit, mouth agape. She never was able to hit that well. Now the score was 2-2 and it was a tie. The score remained until the last inning of the competition. Hunters have their last chance to attack and clinch the champion title.

 

“Let’s go girls we can do it!” Nayeon cheered. But her hopes were drained slowly as the score showed no improvement by the second out of the inning. Hunters had no one on base and JiaQi was up to bat. As much as Nayeon wanted to believe that the petite girl from Taiwan can make a nice hit and earn a homerun to score a point, she knew that Jiaqi was not capable of that.

 

“Coach, please, for once, let me bat for JiaQi. Let me be her pinch hitter.” Nayeon made a ridiculous request.

 

Coach gawked at her as if she was out of her mind, but after hesitating, Coach called out to the umpire, “TIME!” The whistle was blown as the signal.

 

“Ump, 54 for 21 (to tell the umpire that they are changing players. Numbers are their jersey numbers.)”

 

“Coach you can’t do that!” Chen called out to their coach and stood up to pull Nayeon back to the bleachers. “Nayeon you can’t. Your hand hasn’t healed completely. What if…”

 

“Chen, shut up and listen to me. Let go.” Nayeon spoke sternly, eyes on Chen’s hand that was grabbing onto her arm so hard it started to hurt. Chen slowly released his grip on her hand, leaving red marks on her tanned skin. “Let me do something for the team, even if it’s for the last time. Aigoo, don’t worry okay just wait and see. I’ll do you proud!” she then teased when she realized how fierce she might have sounded.

 

“Batter’s up!”

 

Nayeon took her favorite homerun bat which have been through many matches with her, bringing her as much as 40 homeruns in a year.

 

“STRIKE ONE” The umpire held up his fist to show that it was a nice ball pitched, but Nayeon didn’t even budge, let alone swing at it.

“STRIKE TWO”

“NAYEON! YOU WANTED TO PLAY AND I LET YOU. BUT WHAT IS THIS?!” Coach held her palm to her face, not knowing what to do next.

 

On the third strike, Nayeon went for it. With a nice swing, she sent the ball out over the center fielder. The whole bleachers stood up and cheered at the nice hit. By the time they relayed the ball back into the infield, Nayeon was on her way back to the home plate. Who would have guessed that with the powerful throw of their shortstop the ball reached the catcher just as Nayeon slid into the plate? Nayeon collided with the catcher who had a ball in her glove, and the catcher landed on top of her.

 

Everyone was so anxious to know if that was an “OUT” or a “SAFE”. If it was a “SAFE”, Hunters would have won, if otherwise there would be a tiebreaker. Waiting for the umpire to make his call was surely an agonizing few seconds.

 

“…… SAFE! GAME OVER! Hunters of SMT International won Thunders with the score of 3-2!”

 

“WOOHOOO WE WON! NAYEON WE WON THEM! WOOHOOO!” the girls were more than elated that they won the Championships, but more so that they proved that they were not inferior to Thunders. Nayeon helped herself up from the ground and dusted the sand on her pants, smiling to her teammates as tears of joy rolled down their faces. EXO came down from the bleachers to give their congrats to the Champions who have fought hard.

 

Kris and Lisa engaged in a tight hug, while Kyungsoo and Soomin kissed passionately, earning a few “oohhh”s and “ahhh”s all around.

Amidst all the “congratulations” and “wow you did great” were Nayeon and Chen. “I told you I would do fine didn’t I?”

“Yeah, I always trusted you! Well done…. HIPPO” he yelled and ran away.

“YAH KIM JONGDAE COME BACK HERE!” Nayeon chased him around the field until the duo were so tired they collapsed onto the grass.

 

“Jongdae-ah… It’s really nice to see the sky turn dark and the stars come out isn’t it? I wonder how many more stars I will see.” Nayeon sighed in contentment.

“What’s that supposed to mean…?”

“NOTHING. HAHA WHY ARE YOU SO DUMB” Nayeon teased.

Before Chen could react, Chanyeol called out to them. “Hey you lovebirds, quit the lovey-dovey stuff let’s go back to the basement! Coach is treating us to celebratory dinner!” he paused before lowering his voice, “I got coach to get some beer as well”

 

Author's note:

This chapter has alot of weird terms if you guys want to you can check them out on the net but basically in baseball both teams gets to bat (attack) and field (defend) and to win you have to score when you are batting/attacking. something as such! Thanks loads to te best Beta in the world too!