It was quiet in the gym as they sat and waited for Hyunjin to start talking. She was a little nervous since not everyone knew each other.
She cleared her throat and stood up ” I just wanna say thanks for joining me. I thought I was fucked yesterday since I don’t have a lot of friends”
She sheepishly looked down because even though she was well known at school, Chaewon was her only true friend.
The girls just smiled and Haseul patted her shoulder. Hyunjin raises her head and smiles at the class president.
“Well why don’t we get to know each other before I start talking about baseball?” Immediately hearing that, Jiwoo stood up and introduced herself.
“Hi I’m Jiwoo. I’m a junior and hopefully we can all become best friends!” Some could say she shines brighter than the sun when smiling. Looks like Yerim found her twin.
They chuckled and then proceeded to introduce themselves too. “Shouldn’t you be in like sixth grade?” Sooyoung questioned pointing at Yeojin.
Laughs were heard and Yeojin was held back by Yerim before she could jump her ass.
“Shouldn’t you be in a retirement home you hag? I bet your bones pop at every movement you make” Sooyoung just glared at her and they were at each others throats.
Jinsoul and Yerim held them back before there was a smack down. Hyunjin smiled and felt someone leaning against her shoulder.
Turning, she was met with Heejin leaning against her due to laughing too hard. She didn’t even notice that she was in her personal space. But Hyunjin didn’t push her and just let her be slightly blushing.
After having fun talking, they asked for Hyunjin to start explaining about baseball. She took out her notebook where she had drawn the outline of the field.
Pointing at the picture ” So this is how the field looks like. This is home plate, where you bat and score at. This is first, second and third” she pointed to the different bases.
“Then you have the outfield. Three people will play out here while the rest are infield. The pitcher will stand here on the mound” pointing at the middle “then you have the catcher here behind home plate”
The girls nodded and took in everything she said. They paid attention well to understand how baseball worked.
“Now for the positions, you guys can choose your own but only nine can be on the field. I was catcher before so that’ll be my position”
Hyunjin explained and she saw how the girls were thinking very hard. She was trying to make it easier but it can still be complicated.
“Can I choose third base as my position?” asked Jinsoul as she pointed to the picture and Hyunjin just nodded at her.
Yerim looked a little confused ” wait what do you call this position?” She pointed to the outfield.
“this is center field, right field and left field. You’ll mostly catch fly balls out here but you can also catch home runs” the black haired explained and Yerim nodded.
“I wanna play this one”
“I wanna play here”
“I wanna be in the middle”
All of the girls started yelling out which position they wanted to play. Hyunjin couldn’t comprehend their answers well so she made them quiet down and speak individually.
“okay who is going to play shortstop?” She was met with confused looks. Then she remembered she didn’t explain this position.
Pointing at the space in between second and third “this is shortstop, this position helps both third and second with ground balls. And it is also considered the captain of the infield” they nodded at her statement and Haseul raised her hand.
“I can play shortstop and since I’m class president, I can be captain” Hyunjin agreed and then helped the others with their positions.
They still hadn’t picked who was going to be pitcher and a designated hitter.
“Okay so who is going to be the designated hitter and who are the pitchers?”
Complete silence was heard. You can only hear the air conditioner in the back humming. The redhead asked the question all of them were thinking.
“What’s a designated hitter? Also why do we need more than one pitcher?” Everyone was just getting more confused and wondering why baseball was so difficult.
Hyunjin keeps forgetting that she’s making it difficult to understand. She mentally slapped herself and tried to make it easier.
“A designated hitter is someone who bats for the pitcher since they can’t always bat. But they don’t play a position since there’s a pitcher” nods were seen as she explained ” they can have a position but can’t play it all the time”
Chaewon thought about what she said and decided to choose the position. “I’ll be the designated hitter and my position can be third base” she thinks its easier to just bat than doing both.
“Okay but who are the pitchers?”
Both Heejin and Jiwoo raised their hands. Jiwoo chose to pitch since her brother used to be a pitcher.
Heejin chose to be a pitcher knowing she has a strong throwing arm. And maybe she also chose it because Hyunjin was the cather who knows.
“Now listen, Jiwoo will be the opening pitcher. You’ll pitch for about six innings before Heejin comes in to pitch the last three innings. We need two because you’ll get tired quick Jiwoo” they nod and smiled at each other.
Everyone was comfortable with their positions except for one person. She didn’t even have a position since everyone took them before she can choose.
“Wait but I don’t have a position and there isn’t anymore positions” the girls looked towards Yeojin and saw that she was right.
Hyunjin noticed it and got an idea ” that’s because you’ll be our backup player. You can choose which two positions to play but you won’t play unless someone is hurt” she saw how Yeojin had a sad expression but tried to hide it.
“Trust me, you’re still an important person to the team, everyone is” that made Yeojin smile as she nodded and the others also smiled at her. Yeojin had become their baby since meeting up.
“Ok then can I choose to play second and shortstop?” when Hyunjin nodded she happily gave Hyejoo a hi five.
Haseul then nodded in confirmation ” okay now that we got our positions, can you teach us more of the basics?” they turned towards Hyunjin.
“There nine innings we have to play to which you only have three chances to do something. When we bat, we have to make sure we score points until the guys put out three of us. And same thing goes for them” they nodded as they listened intently.
Some were confused a little but they were slowly understanding. Hyunjin would make sure to explain more slower and simpler.
“We have to make sure that they don’t get passed second base because it’ll be easier to score. Thats the pitcher’s job but the catcher is helping by telling the pitcher what type of pitches to throw”
Jungeun asked a question ” Wait if you strikeout then that counts as an out right?”
“Yup. You have a strike box that goes from your waist to your knees. A strike is when you fail to swing at a ball in the box, swing at a pitch and miss or if you hit a foul ball with no strikes” she was cut off by Yerim
“Oooh a foul ball is when it goes out of bounds right?”
Hyunjin nodded with raised eyebrows and Yerim was given pats when she was right. She was smiling brightly and Yeojin was staring at her with heart eyes.
Hyejoo watched her short friend look so in love with Yerim. She’ll tease her about it later when they leave.
“But you can’t strikeout with foul balls. You can hit as many with no limit” she made sure they caught up with her .
“A ball is a pitch outside of the strike zone which is either up, down or the sides. Thats if you don’t swing at it and if you do then its a strike.If you get four balls then you walk to first base” She looked at the girls to make sure they didn’t look confused.
She continued to explain after making sure they weren’t lost. Almost an hour later, Hyunjin had finally finished the basics and made sure they understood.
They only had a week to prepare for the game so that meant they had to learn well and fast.
Hyunjin wanted teach them well enough that they can win but she doesn’t want them to feel pressured.
“Okay so we’ll start learning after tomorrow so you guys can have a chance to get equipment” they nodded and Haseul decided to make a group chat with all of them for easier communication.
They got up and headed towards the exit. Hyunjin thanked them one last time for helping her and then went their separate ways.
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A/N: i decided to put the basics of baseball in case of some readers that don’t know the sport
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