Episode 3 · Catch Me at the Ballpark!

Catch Me at the Ballpark!

Koutarou drags himself to the ballpark after another day of overtime that never seems to end. Same seat, same cold air, same quiet. Then a girl in a vendor's uniform practically bounces up to him with a tray of beer, and she's so nervous about making her very first sale that he buys a cup just to be nice. That should have been the end of it. Except she keeps coming back. Ruriko teases him about his stiff posture, his boring tie, the way he cheers too politely. He pretends to be annoyed. He isn't. Between innings she sprints up and down the stands chasing customers, and he slowly stops checking his phone. The stadium fills up around them, and it turns out everyone here is carrying something: a father teaching his kid the rules, regulars who know each other's names, strangers who only ever meet under these lights. Koutarou came to escape his job. Now he keeps showing up for reasons he can't quite explain, and Ruriko's smile from ten rows away is one of them. So what happens when the season ends and there are no more games to hide inside?