grand slam | seokhan

07 || Practice Makes Perfect

“Hey Joshua! Eunwoo! Wait up for me!” Joshua and Eunwoo both turned to see Ren’s head of blue hair running towards them. He caught up to both of them instantly, being faster than he looked, and slung both of his arms over their shoulders respectively before the trio of new recruits made their way to the school’s baseball field.

“Today’s our first day of practice, isn’t this just so exciting? I can’t wait to see what we’re doing today. Hopefully it’ll be easy since we all are newbies when it comes to this sport.”

“Y-Yeah, it is.” Eunwoo nodded, letting out a shaky breath in the process of answering Ren.

The tall junior was just baffled he even got to join the team seeing as he arrived late to tryouts last Friday and yet here he was now walking to their first Monday practice with the two seniors who had joined the team at the same time he did.

Joshua wasn’t as talkative as Ren was, but the brunet did respond when he was spoken to. Meanwhile Ren was pretty much the life of the party among the three recruits. Since Eunwoo was timid and soft spoken and Joshua spent more time studying than interacting with humans, Ren took it upon himself to be the eccentric one out of the three.

It didn’t take long for the trio to show up at the field, but they were surprised that the rest of the team was already there. Seokmin spotted the three students and smiled at them while eagerly waving at them. Unfortunately though, it seemed that in the midst of all the excitement he was experiencing the brunet seemed to forget about how he was currently practicing passing a baseball between him, Mingyu, and Chan.

Mingyu yelled out loud to Seokmin to warn him about the incoming pass, but it ended up just slamming into his left shoulder. He grunted out loud and laughed to brush off the pain while Chan collapsed onto the floor out of amusement for his friend’s mistake.

Eunwoo’s eyes lit up at the unity displayed by the team. It was just like what he imagined being on a team was like and it made him bite his lip out of regret for not having the courage to join the team sooner. The tall junior smiled as Mingyu passed by them and even shared in a small handshake with the tall third baseman.

The two were close and Eunwoo could remember a time before when Mingyu tried to get him to join last year. If only he had overcome his shyness last year to do so, instead of waiting until this year.

“Great, you guys finally decided to show up.” Jihoon spoke up harshly. The three recruits hadn’t even realized Jihoon was standing before them until the captain cleared his throat to speak. “The rest of the team’s already warmed up since you three are already late. I’m going to brief the team as a whole on our drills for today in a few minutes. Stretch on the sidelines before I do so.”

“He’s a real bucket of sunshine isn’t he?” Ren whispered to his peers to try to ease the tensions of the situation. Eunwoo laughed nervously to try to provide somewhat of a response for Ren while Joshua went off to set down his bag in the pit nearby where all the other players’ personal items were.  Sitting in the pit was their Coach who had her head buried in a magazine, which she clearly prioritized over the team.

Eunwoo and Ren followed suit, setting their stuff down before moving on to stretching out their limbs with Joshua. Soon after that, Jihoon organized all the members on the team into a small crowd. While those practicing in the outfield ran in to join the group, Jihoon clapped his hands to gather everyone else’s attention.

“Alright guys, let’s get started.” The three recruits turned to face Jihoon. The short captain waited until the people from the outfield, Baekho and Minhyun, were present to begin.

“Today’s our first practice session, but I can guarantee you that I will not be going easy on any of you because of that. Practice runs four times a week, including Saturdays, and it is expected of you all to attend every session if we want any chance in winning our games this season. Every practice will be harsher than the last, and it’s best if you all get prepared for that sooner rather than later-”