[CONTENTID1] FIRST TO SCORE [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2] 12th Hit [/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3] 

“Thank you for coming all the way here, Coach Im.” Coach Kang, reaching out her hand to shake the other coach. “I hope you weren’t bothered by the distance.”

Coach Im chuckles. “Don’t worry. It may have taken a while to reach this school, but it was fun at most. My kids get to do some sightseeing of the beautiful city.”

“I see.” Coach Kang chuckles. “Well then, please follow me.”

With all the pleasantries out of the way, Coach Kang led them to the field where they will be playing at. The field itself wasn’t that far from them so it only took a while for them to settle in and prepare for the practice game.

~*~

Back at the bullpen, the main battery of their team is currently warming up. Standing at the other side of the corner is the pitcher, she throws the ball to her partner and she can’t deny that the sound of the ball being thrown to the mitt sounds perfect. The way the ball left its thrower, the catcher could tell that it was a good throw.

Although…

“That could’ve been a hit!” Chaewon – their captain/catcher exclaims, throwing back the ball to the pitcher. “fix your form and throw it lower, Yuj!”

“Got it cap!”

Chaewon places the mitt to the lower zone, close enough to earn a strike from the umpire. An inside throw to left batters. Yujin winds up, her foot stepping on the rubber slab. Since this is still warm-up, she imagines that there’s a batter standing just inside the batter’s box. She takes a long step, creating a momentum to throw the ball right to their catcher’s mitt.

This time, it ended right where Chaewon wanted it to be thrown at. The grin on her face widens. “Were you secretly practicing outside the field?”

Yujin scoffs. “You think I’d have time for that when I was threatened to not play unless I have good grades?”

“And who’s fault do you think that is?” And Yujin just kept mum. She need not to answer that. She knows the answer already.

Chaewon threw the ball back to her. “5 more and we’re done!”

“Aye cap.”

They continued doing that for a while, unbeknownst them, the other school had already arrived. When they were down to the last ball, Honda Hitomi, the baseball team’s manager, came jogging towards the bullpen. The battery stopped for a while after noticing her presence.

“Cap! Coach said to gather the team at the dug-out!”

“Did she say the reason why?”

Hitomi nods. “Apparently, the other school has already arrived.” That caught everyone’s attention. Them arriving here means the practice game is starting sooner than expected.

Chaewon sighs. “Roger that.” She faces Yujin. “Yuj, give me one more fastball.”

“I thought we’re stopping at 5? Now you want to add one more?”

“Stop whining and just do it.”

Yujin flinched. Chaewon rarely gets mad at her teammates but when they don’t listen to her, the irritation she had always kept from the deepest part of her brain would resurface. So you don’t want to get on her bad side, or else you’d see something that you wish you didn’t have.

“Fine. Let’s do it.”

For Yujin’s last throw, Chaewon crouched on the ground, she places the mitt down the middle of the strike zone – just right were every pitcher wants it.

A head-on battle against the batter.

“Give it to me, partner.”

Yujin grins. Breathe in. Breathe out. She raises both arms, winding up for the last time in the bullpen, she tries to remember the feeling she got whenever she stands on the mound.

This was it. Breathe in. Breathe out.

She raises her knee slightly above the thigh, she steps her right leg forward, letting the ball roll towards her fingertips, she released the ball throwing it down the middle. It created a loud thud that it sound resonated inside the bullpen.

Their other battery also happened to be warming up with them witnessed something incredible. From the way they reacted, Yujin could tell that they were fresh members that just entered the team. The two of them were in awe that they even stopped warming up.

Chaewon on the other hand, even though she hid it perfectly, she almost fell on her . Standing up from her crouching position, she removes her mitt to massage her hands. It went ing numb.

“ you, Yuj.” And Yujin just laughs at her.

“Glad you liked it.”

~*~

The crowd, although it only consists of students from their school and some outsiders that were allowed in some circumstances, it was enough to fill the seats of the entire bleachers. It was expected that this game would garner attention since it was one of the sports that was very popular especially for highschool students.

Minjoo, has been walking around the bleachers trying to find a spot where she could watch properly, but she had yet to find a space for her.

She could hear the sound of the bell, the game was about to start and she was starting to lose hope.

Not until someone called her name.

“Minjoo!” A familiar voice calls out to her. Minjoo tried tracking where it came from – it was from the bleachers. She looked up and finally saw who it was. “Are you watching the game too?”

It was Hyunjin. Hwang, not Kim. “Yeah! But I think I’ll have to pass! There’s no spot left!”

“Lucky you we have another spot!” Minjoo brightens. “Hurry up here!”

Minjoo was happy that all her effort into coming here was not wasted. She hurriedly walked towards the stairs of the bleachers, dodging every student that she would encounter. Finally, she got up to the bleachers, she sees Hyunjin sitting at the very top with some students she have no idea who they are.

“Sit here. No one’s seated here yet.”

“Thanks. I was gonna go home if there were no seats left.”

Hyunjin chuckles at her predicament. “Good thing I saw you.”

-

At the dugout, they could hear Coach Kang calling for them, but their Captain, Kim Chaewon, called for everyone first. At first, some of them were baffled as to why they were called by the captain, but with Chaeyeon complying first with the request, everyone of them started to follow her. Right now, they are huddled up in a circular formation.

“This is our first practice game after suffering a stupid defeat from the First Academy. And right now, I don’t want you to dwell on that. Instead, we move forward and face the present which is facing our opponent right now. Especially you.” Chaewon says, pointing at their star pitcher.

Yujin tried not to think about it. She was the reason they lost in the first place anyway. “We aren’t that stupid to not to see what happened last time. She hit you, you punched back. End of the story. Period. No more dwelling on that.”

“Right now, I want you to focus on playing this game and this game only. Don’t you ing lose your focus, or I will really pull you out of the game.” The authority behind their captain’s voice was strong. It just proved the point that she really is indeed fit to be captain of the baseball team.

Chaewon pushes her hand forward. All of them followed it, hands slowly piling up in the center. “Are we clear on that?” A series of ‘yes’ came echoing. “Then let’s win this game.”

“Bulldogs? FIGHT!”

“FIGHT!”

After that, her teammates got out first, running towards the field to greet their opponents. Although it was only a practice game, they were still surprised that a lot of them are watching them. Trailing behind them is Yujin who still haven’t spoken since that gathering earlier.

Chaewon wasn’t the only one who noticed it. Even Chaeyeon noticed it too.

Chaewon eyed her vice-captain – Chaeyeon didn’t get it at first but she finally understood it.

As she got closer to Yujin, she s her arms around the girl, bringing her head down to level it with her. It took the blue-haired girl by surprise as well, giving only a questioning glare at Chaeyeon.

“You’re too silent. It’s not like you to be this.” Chaeyeon points out. “It’s not like you were the only reason we lost that game. By your logic, I was at fault too. I could have scored us another run, but I wasn’t even able to touch the ball.”

Yujin lifts her head, she sees her buddy smiling apologetically at her. “So don’t you go telling that it was your fault at all. Okay?”

Finally, Yujin smiles. “Okay..”

“Good. Now stop acting like a baby and focus. We don’t want Cap’s effort to go to waste.”

~*~

Before the game starts, captains from both teams were summoned by the umpire. They decided who will stand on the batter’s box first by a toss coin. Chaewon chose heads while the latter chose tails.

The umpire tossed the coin – it was tails. Second Academy will be batting first.

Nevertheless, they will get to play at the bottom inning anyways.

Chaewon laughs heartily. She reaches out her hand to the other captain. “Can’t believe that after suffering defeat from a top school, we’re gonna get battered by another prestigious school? Talk about being unlucky.”

The other captain – Captain Son Chaeyoung, shrugs. “Stop acting, Chae. You look stupid.” She reaches for Chaewon’s hand, shaking it respectively.

“Let’s not play dirty like the other schools, okay? I had a hard time convincing our coach to let Yujin play just for this practice game.”

“Relax, we take pride in our sport