WELCOME HOME, KIM SEOHAN.
our town hall archives show he is a local and a EAST VIEW resident, living on PINETREE STREET NO. 4, and he is currently a PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYER / ASSISTANT BASEBALL COACH AT EAST VIEW PREP.
🡒 ready to access his files? read on below ...
seohan is a “rainbow baby”; considered a miracle to his parents after they suffered from fertility issues and miscarriages. he grew up an only child and very loved, perhaps to a fault.
it was his grandfather who originally got him into baseball; they used to watch games on tv together or go in person to local matches. seohan’s grandfather coached his first little league team and instilled a lifelong passion into him.
maybe it was all the love from his parents; it somehow turned into pressure that seohan put on himself to be the best in everything and anything that he did. he wanted to make them proud, he wanted to hear their praise and bragging about him. he was a straight-a student, he was on the varsity team in school, he’s handsome, his girlfriend was the prettiest girl in school. he could not falter or slip; he’d spend long nights studying and beat himself up if he got any marks off of an exam.
seohan left gaenari and headed to seoul, enrolling in SNU for athletic training, only to have his studies cut short by being scouted for a KBO futures team while playing there. he ended up close to home again on the hanhwa eagles, playing the sport he loved professionally. he quickly gained public attention for his good looks as well as his skill, meanwhile back home he had become one of the town’s legendary success stories. perhaps he was something of a hero, then.
for a while, seohan was riding high. he had a beautiful girlfriend who he loved dearly, endorsements and sponsorships that kept his lifestyle more than comfortable, and played his favorite game for a living. it was expected that he’d be pulled up to the regular KBO league, offered a huge contract in exchange for his loyalty to the team, rather than risk him getting scooped up by another once his rookie contract expired. but that would never happen.
he had been called up for a major league game, his first ever. perhaps it was nerves, or just a reality check when things were going too well, but seohan found himself scrambling for first after a botched hit sent the ball right toward the second baseman. he slid, but the movement was miscalculated; seohan had to be carted off the field into the locker room, where x-rays confirmed his worst fears: it wasn’t a broken bone, it was something worse.
the next day he finds out at the hospital that his season is over; an ACL and meniscus tear that needs surgery immediately. so much for that contract, that breakout game; now seohan was struggling just to get back out onto the diamond. his girlfriend, who swore up and down to help and support him during this time, took one look at the scars on his knee and disappeared, leaving a note that she no longer felt attracted to him after seeing his injury. brokenhearted but in need of more assistance than his friends in daejeon could provide, seohan made his way back home to gaenari.
now, he works on his recovery with help from his parents. he coaches the high school baseball team as a favor to the coach who first saw his potential at that age, and perhaps so he doesn’t have time to wallow in how far he’s fallen. he hates seeing pity in their eyes, he hates the feeling that he’s disappointed everyone by not making it to the top. but all he can do is continue on.