Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
54. Dongsaeng (8)
The ‘irregular luncheon’, hosted by a busybody[1] Jin, continued for dozens of years.
The start of this social meeting was a large-scale kidnapping incident.
Eight children of rich[2] houses, who came to the children party of a son of a certain tycoon, and the culprit demanded a huge ransom and the billionaire’s life as a price for releasing the children.
When the tycoon took responsibility and was about to pay the entire ransom and cut their life short.
— I’ll save the children. But — there is a condition.
A certain Jin suddenly appeared and made a suggestion to the tycoon.
The tycoon was half convinced, half suspicious, but after the Jin revealed his identity, they became certain that he had the power to truly fight thousand of men and agreed right away.
— What is the condition?
The other party spoke with a bit of awkwardness.
— … I don’t have the fortune of children[3]. My tribesmen are the same. So until your child is still young, send him sometimes to talk.
The busybody Jin saved all the children, and the tycoon fulfilled their promise.
And all the parents of the children, who learned about the suggestion of the busybody Jin, decided to send their children to the place designated by the Jin to repay their gratitude.
The ‘irregular luncheon’, which started like this, at some point became the social venue for the children of powerful figures.
But because of it, everyone wanted to send their children there, so as a result the number of participants decreased.
— It’s difficult to listen to pleasant conversations shared among many like this, huh?
— I’ll call the children close to me and the tycoon, who made a promise. We will take care of the invitations.
In the end, the tycoon and their descendants took on the role of sending invitations.
The conditions of the invitations weren’t completely revealed, but they were roughly the following conditions:
First, the person has to be a child of an influential figure.
Second, has to be a Player.
Third, has to be a middle schooler or highschooler.
As a result, there was less than thirty people, who were invited to the ‘irregular luncheon’.
Ju Su-hyeok and Tao Wonu accepted the invitation and participated in the luncheon.
“Hello, Wonu hyung…. What about Sihu?”
“Went to see baseball. I heard you gave him the tickets.”
“Sihu’s friend is a Ju-Oh fan. I thought he would use it for his friend, but…”
After Tao Sihu became a highschooler, he was sent the irregular luncheon’s invitation, but he always found an excuse after excuse, and didn’t come.
“That bastard has his own thoughts. Leave him alone.”
“… Yes.”
Even though Tao Wonu spoke like this, from the worry filling his face, it seemed he was worried about Tao Sihu.
While the two people fell silent, a vibration alarm came from Tao Wonu’s device.
Tao Wonu checked the device and sighed.
“Junyeol-yi contacted me. He said he had caught Geun Chansol and Wang Chansol trying to infiltrate the staff area to reveal the host’s identity, eh? Hyeji is also said to be there.”
“Hahaha, I guess seniors-nim didn’t give up yet.”
“If I didn’t come today, you would have to catch those bastards.”
The busybody Jin didn’t reveal his identity, and the descendants of the influential figures, who received his help, also didn’t actively try to reveal it.
Even so, Geun Chansol and Wang Chansol were exceptions.
‘… Starting from next year, we will have to face class 0’s senior-nim without Wonu hyung, huh?’
Ju Su-hyeok watched Tao Wonu’s back with a subtle feeling.
Thinking about it now, Tao Sihu asked about Tao Wonu’s well-being, but… Tao Wonu was as usual.
Someone tapped Ju Su-hyeok’s back, who stood blankly for a moment.
“Yap, hi!”
The one who called out to Ju Su-hyeok was Namkung Gyu-yeon.
“Uh? You came this time, Gyu-yeon.”
“I originally planned not to come, sir~. But yesterday Gyubin oppa suddenly said I’d want to come here~.”
“Gyubin hyung?”
“Yep, he said he had a precognition that I may see something good if I come? Something that you can rarely see.”
Ju Su-hyeok spoke with a bit surprised gaze.
“Is it perhaps related to ‘that skill’?”
Namkung Gyubin, no, Hong Gyubin was famous for his Foresight skill.
Namkung Gyubin just smiled meaningfully, and didn’t reply.
In that moment.
“Host-nim is entering.”
The door opened and someone wearing a mask appeared.
“This is the first time I see Him appear in person.”
“Didn’t He observe from the distance every time?”
Whispers were heard from everywhere.
The mask-wearing host walked straight to a certain spot.
To the place where the invitee, who came for the first time today, stood.
‘Uh? This is a kid from class 0…’
The host spoke to the invitee with pretty eyes, Hwang-ho, in the form of highschool student.
“Long time no see, eh?”
* * *
Thanks to Ju-Oh Dragon’s explosive batting lineup today, they kept hitting from the first half, and there was a breathing space throughout the match.
Even Jang Namuk, who was so nervous before, drank cool kimchi broth[4] and was quibbling over the number of future cases.
Han Yi, who was tired of Jang Namuk talking too much, turned her head and sucked the cookie shake, but Tao Sihu patiently listened to his story and sometimes chimed in.
‘If I had someone listen, I could talk as much about Snare or my Playable Characters.’
The title heroine, An Dain, listened to the story about Snare, but talking about my Playable Character was a difficult situation, so I felt sorry.
To just sum up the game, Ju-Oh Dragons stole the 3rd game of the Korean Series.
In the 1st and 2nd games held in SZ Stars home, Ju-Oh Dragons had 1 win and 1 loss, so they currently had 2 wins and 1 loss.
In other words, if Ju-Oh Dragons win just two more times, they will become the final victor of KBO league after 15 years.
Jang Namuk was very excited as he made hopeful predictions.
‘The title hero’s team is doing well, so I’m also happy.’
They say that in baseball you have to watch until the end, so we didn’t know yet how it would turn out.
Even so, I decided to cheer for Ju-Oh Dragons.
“It’s the first time I visited a baseball stadium, but it was fun! Singing the cheering song, shouting slogans together, and waving the cheering sticks, with it, it gradually became fun.”
“Ju-Oh is Ju Su-hyeok’s company, right? Should I become Ju-Oh Dragons’ fan with this chance?”
At those words, Jang Namuk started promoting right away.
“Well thought, guys-ah. There are many athletes in Ju-Oh Dragons who enter as national representatives in WBC or Asian Games, so the fun of watching national games increases if you’re our team’s fan.”
“The national representative athletes belong to this team?”
“Yeah, majority among the athletes on the roster today have experience in the national competitions, or have a high chance of entering the next national competition… Ah.”
Jang Namuk’s promotion, which almost ended in success, was ruined, because of his sincerity and honesty.
“… But to participate in the national competition training, the team training for the regular league is reduced, so sometimes there are holes in the defense and incidents dropping the hitting rate occur. And because there is no proper end on our side, the bullpens sometimes give up, so we often ended up with reverse defeat. So our team is 2nd place ever year.”
What started as a promotion, ended a warning.
It seemed that Jang Namuk shouldn’t work in sales.
The pre Ju-Oh Dragons’ fans, who heard Jang Namuk’s words, fell into worry again with droopy faces.
“Speaking of the Dokgo Miro from Playlist, you said you’re in the same class. Uram and Lena, are the ones who appeared in the busking video, right? Uram on piano, and Lena with violin.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
The one who saved the atmosphere ruined by Jang Namuk was Tao Sihu.
As if Tao Sihu had quite sharp eyesight, he just looked at their back profiles, and recognized right away that the two today were the ones playing accompaniment.
“She sings well, and her voice is good. Even when all Playlist participants were singing the anthem together, the part sung by Miro had something different about it.”
At Dokgo Miro’s story, Min Guerin, who was wary of Tao Sihu she was unfamiliar with, spoke at length for the first time.
“… Right? I think Miro’s singing sounds even better live.”
“Even without accompaniment, she sang well.”
“The tune and beat were all perfect. I don’t think it’s easy to sing like this in the stadium, through a mike, so it’s amazing singing skills.”
Usually, before playing a sport match, there is a time to sing the anthem together.
In a regular league, unless it was some special event, a recorded anthem is played, but in Korean Series, singers or chorus are invited and perform the anthem live without accompaniment.
As Mok Uram said, it took quite the singing ability to perform a complete anthem without accompaniment and single mistake.
A poorly sung anthem would be an eternally shameful stain in a singer’s history.
But the participants of the Playlist, who were all talented people, suffered no such humiliation.
Dokgo Miro was in charge of the high notes in the refrain part, and she pulled it off with a very clear voice.
Dokgo Miro’s performance didn’t end just on the singing the anthem together.
“Miro is at Playlist, but she seems to fight well. When the foul ball flew at the audience, she was the first one to respond and hit it.”
After the Playlist participants finished singing the anthem, they didn’t leave the stadium and watched the game until the end.
They sat watching the game from the home team’s first base, and during the match, the foul ball happened to fly there.
The one who reacted right away and hit the foul ball was Dokgo Miro.
“They uploaded the video clip! I saw it from the distance at the time, so I didn’t know, but she was really fast.”
“Let’s play it again.”
At Han Yi’s suggestion, Kwon Lena opened a hologram and played the video.
At the screen, Dokgo Miro held an iron club with a head full of spikes and smashed the foul ball.
When running around the Eungwang District as a back alley king[5], she was holding a baseball bat full of iron nails, but as she couldn’t adopt it as her battle weapon, it seemed she selected a blunt weapon similar to it, a morning star.
“What weapon is it? A mace?”
When Kwon Lena pointed at the screen and asked, Mok Uram replied:
“It seems to be an R rank Beginner Morning Star, provided by the school. A morning star is longer than a mace. But…”
“But?”
“It’s a weapon that should be used with two hands, but She swings it with one hand so lightly, eh? For Her to react in such an emergency situation and hit the ball like this, it means she has quite a lot of physical and arm strength.”
Naturally if she was called the back alley king, her power wouldn’t be ordinary.
While the children, who felt the back alley king’s dignity, were a bit surprised, Song Daeseok suddenly opened his mouth.
“Geurin-yi can also do this much.”
I thought that Song Daeseok was suddenly talking nonsense, but it was true.
During the exchange with the Military School, they went to see the ice hockey, a puck went over the fence and Song Daeseok was almost hit.
At the time, Min Geurin kicked the puck and slammed it into the ring.
She hit the puck, so wouldn’t she be able to hit a baseball ball?
At Song Daeseok’s words, Tao Sihu looked at Min Geurin and fell into thoughts for a moment.
As if he knew about the events, which happened during the ice hockey match, he exclaimed with an admiration.
“Ah, it was during the hockey match with our school, right? That was quite a kick.”
“Uh… Thanks.”
“Geurin-ah, don’t thank him!”
Song Daeseok, who was the first one to bring up Min Geurin’s story, so I didn’t know what he was doing.
When Song Daeseok started to be unreasonable, Min Geurin started to persuade him, and Tao Sihu recognized the relationship between the two straight away and took a step back with a smile.
We shared stories about Dokgo Miro, Playlist and Ju-Oh Dragons, and then parted.
As I came back to the dormitory, I saw unread device messages piling up, but I didn’t have the mind to read them, so I left them alone.
‘They would call if it was urgent.’
I made such an excuse, and quietly stared at the holographic clock.
The dormitory room was extremely quiet, and no sound was heard. If I knew it would be like this, I would bring at least an analog clock.
The number on the clock kept changing, but my eyes didn’t close.
‘… Sleep doesn’t come.’
I planned to wake up early tomorrow, drop by a flower shop, and visit an enshrinement hall after visiting the flower shop.
After that, I decided I would return to dormitory and change clothes, and go to the Hwang Myeong Research Institute to meet with Cheon Dongha.
There were many things to do tomorrow, but sleep didn’t come.
Finally, the day changed, and the sun dawned, but I alone laid with my eyes opened.
*~*~*
[1] busybody — ‘호사가(hosaga)’, ‘호사’ (hosa) part also means an extraordinary person, a warrior and a scholar. I also have a feeling you can connect it to this Jin’s identity in some other way, but I’m on blank right now on how.
[2] rich — literally ‘precious’.
[3] I don’t have the fortune of children — what he literally says is ‘I don’t have child luck’, while it most certainly means they don’t have luck with children, such a short sentence always makes me suspicious.
[4] kimchi broth — there is a related proverb, ‘No one plans on giving rice cakes, but you have already drunk kimchi’. It has a similar meaning to ‘Don’t count your chickens before they hatch’ in English.
[5] back alley king — hey, so did I ever mention that ‘패왕 (paewang)’ can be also interpreted as ‘defeated king’? It just occurred to me that I didn’t seem to mention it…
Translator’s note: … And I’ll be kept awake by all the baseball terminology in this chapter. I’m very sorry for all baseball fans out there, but I still lack the knowledge to translate it properly I’m afraid.
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