6th October 2018

“You’re wearing your glasses.” It was a statement. Clear and simple.

“My landlord lost my contacts.” It received a simple explanation.

“How did he lose your contacts?” It withdrew a simple question.

A shrug. A complex answer.

Seungcheol frowned at Jihoon, but Jihoon didn’t expand on his response, leaving Seungcheol to sigh in response. Instead he changed focus. “Your glasses suit you.” It was true. The round framed glasses that perched on Jihoon’s face further emphasised his soft appearance, even if he tried to appear harsh.

“I hate them.” Jihoon walked off. Seungcheol stood, watching him go.

“Trouble in paradise?” Jeonghan rested an arm on Seungcheol’s shoulder.

“Looks like you got it bad.” Soonyoung rested his arm on the other shoulder.

“He’s just complicated.” It was all Seungcheol could offer.

“I didn’t know Hoonie had bad eyesight.” Jeonghan moved on.

“Yeah. He doesn’t wear his glasses very often. He mainly wears contacts now.” Seungcheol chuckled. “He claims to hate those glasses, but he’s the one who picked them out.”

“He’s just a tsundere.” Soonyoung claimed, moving to walk away.

Seungcheol coughed. “Weeaboo.” And another cough.

Soonyoung only shrugged. “I can’t help that anime is good.”

Seungcheol sighed and glanced around to see if all the members had arrived yet. He smiled when he noticed they were all there. He cleared his throat. “Everyone gather up.” He was ignored. “Guys.” He halfheartedly sighed.

“You know if you keep sighing like that you’ll turn into an old man.” Jeonghan teased, before stretching slightly. “Oi! Dickwads!” Jeonghan yelled. Everyone instantly turned to him. He turned to Seungcheol. “Proceed.”

Seungcheol may have mumbled an “I hate you” under his breath, but no one needed to know. “Everyone gather up. I know this is just a practice match, but it’s our first time playing a proper game with each other in a while so try and use it as a chance to resync with everyone. Chan this will be your first time playing with us properly so just try your best to follow our flow and don’t be disheartened if you don’t understand Hoon’s actions. He’s unpredictable. Fists in.” Everyone’s fists formed a circle, Chan’s managing to find their way into position. “Say the name!”

“SEVENTEEN!” Everyone, but Chan shouted in unison, before steadily making their way towards the van.

“So why exactly are we called seventeen if we only have 13 members?” Chan decided it was the time to ask.

“Well, initially we had seventeen members, but everyone began to leave until we had about 13. Then, Samuel left last year, but then you joined!” Soonyoung explained.

“I miss our little baby, Samuel.” Seokmin added.

“Let me guess, Samuel was another one of Jeonghan’s babies?” Chan sighed.

“No. Samuel was Hoon’s small child.” Jeonghan shook his head. “Hoonie wouldn’t let me have him.”

“Anyway, we still have a reason for being called seventeen even though we only have 13 members.” Soonyoung got everyone back on track.” Basically, we have 13 members, but in the game we split into 3 units. We have the pitcher-catcher duo of Mingyu and Hoonie, which makes up one unit. We have the bases trio, Coups, Hannie and Josh. Then, we have th