In gym class, Coach Ahn just let the students do what they wanted as long as it didn't involve destroying school property. EunMi and SoonLi were taking turns taking basketball shots when the latter asked,

"So what's up with you and ChangMin-sshi now?"

"Nothing, I guess. We're back to how everything used to be," EunMi plainly replied, making a perfect shot without having the ball touch the rim. She passed the basketball to SoonLi, who remained skeptical and asked,

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," EunMi said, catching the ball that had bounced off the backboard. SoonLi wasn't completely convinced, but she decided to let the subject go for now. After EunMi  had made another basket, SoonLi said,

"Speaking of which, he's not brooding around like usual."

Bouncing the basketball at her side, EunMi turned to where SoonLi was looking, finding ChangMin just sitting on the bleachers as if deep in thought.

"Maybe we should invite him to play a game."

"What?!" SoonLi asked incredulously. "You guys are too competitive. You'd trample over my body if it meant beating each other at anything."

EunMi gave SoonLi a knowing look, and SoonLi just shrugged. Playfully rolling her eyes, EunMi kept the basketball in her hands and approached the lone boy sitting on the bleachers and asked him, smiling,

"Wanna play a game?"

Surprised, ChangMin looked at EunMi, but surprise quickly turned to annoyance as he coldly answered,

"No."

"Fine. If you're so scared you're going to lose..." EunMi trailed off, starting to walk away.

Glaring at her, ChangMin retorted, "I didn't say I was scared of losing."

"You didn't have to say it," EunMi replied, smiling calmly.

Seriously irritated now, ChangMin stood up and walked past EunMi, mumbling under his breath, "Fine. One game."

EunMi was about to ask SoonLi whose team she wanted to be on, but the latter quickly sat on the bleachers and said,

"There's no way I'm playing with you two. You're playing one-on-one."

Frowning, EunMi stuck her tongue out at SoonLi, who returned the gesture. Dribbling the ball over, EunMi stood on the free-throw line and said to ChangMin,

"Okay, the rules are simple. First one to score ten points wins."

"Hmph," was all ChangMin said in response. Immediately, EunMi dashed past him and easily scored a point with a perfect lay-up. Smiling at ChangMin, she simply said,

"One point for me."

She passed the ball to ChangMin, and they switched positions--ChangMin on offense, and EunMi on defense. ChangMin had an advantage with his build and height, but EunMi was quick on her feet and could jump high enough to block shots. Just as ChangMin attempted a shot, EunMi had knocked it out of his hands, passing the ball from her right hand to her left behind her back, and quickly dribbled the ball to make another lay-up, left-handed this time. Maintaining her smile, EunMi passed the ball to an irritated ChangMin, who easily caught it and tried to advance toward the basket. But EunMi was blocking his path, never moving away from ChangMin's view, which in this case was incredibly annoying to him. In a blink of an eye, ChangMin faked a right, but pivoted the opposite direction on his left foot, shooting the ball for the point.

Catching the ball ChangMin had passed to her, EunMi bounced it at her side, calculating how she would get around the other, who was nearly a foot taller. She first faked a left, which ChangMin saw through and followed her to the right, but EunMi pivoted once more to her left, going for a right-handed lay-up. Just as the ball left her fingertips, ChangMin jumped up and used his height to catch the ball in his left hand, quickly passing to his right, and dunked the ball into the basket.

They were tied now.

With the ball in her possession again, EunMi attempted to break through ChangMin's defense, but he was too tall. However, she had managed to inch closer to the basket with each attempt, and now she was just ten feet from it. Taking this into account, EunMi bounced the ball on the ground so that it rebounded through ChangMin's legs, and she dashed around him, catching the ball and threw it in the air, but ChangMin swiftly knocked it off course, sending it out of bounds. As EunMi went to retrieve the ball, a group of girls in that were in that area handed it to her and whispered,

"We're rooting for you!"

"Thank you..." EunMi replied, smiling sheepishly, and went back to the half-court she and ChangMin were playing on. Glancing around, she noticed that a majourity of the students in the gym had stopped to watch their game. With a deep breath, EunMi cleared her thoughts and focused only on getting past ChangMin and scoring eight more points.
 

~ _ ~ _ ~ _~ _ ~ ==== ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ ==== ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~  _ ~

Nearly twenty minutes had passed, and ChangMin and EunMi were still tied at two points. One of them would break through to make a shot, but the other either quickly stole the ball or knocked it off course. Currently, EunMi had possession of the ball, and everything else in the gym seemed to be in a stalemate. By now, everyone--including Coach Ahn--had stopped to observe the game between the two students.

Unlike the day they ran the 1.5 km for their mid-term exam, the two were tired--exhausted, even. In addition to stress from studying for classes, they had both undergone significant emotional stress, having to deal with feelings they never understood--and still didn't. Aside from the hushed whispers of the spectating students, the only sounds heard were their heavy breathing and the bouncing of the basketball against the wooden floor.

With one last push, EunMi used whatever strength she had left to run past ChangMin and towards the basket. Jumping in the air, EunMi went for a lay-up at the same time ChangMin had jumped up to block her.

Without warning, the two collided and fell to the ground. In the process, ChangMin had fallen backwards, his right foot taking the force of the fall. He felt his ankle tighten and twist painfully to the right, and EunMi had also fallen on top of him, her elbow digging into his ribs as they hit the floor.

"Ow..." EunMi murmured under her breath and got off of ChangMin, standing up to rub her shoulder. When she saw ChangMin clutching his side in pain, she immediately kneeled beside him, instinctively placing a hand on the other's arm and asked,

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," ChangMin groaned, shrugging her off. He tried to stand up, but quickly sat back down when he felt the pain searing through his right ankle. Worried, EunMi told him with a sense of urgency,

"You really should see the nurse. Here, let me help you."

As soon as EunMi touched his arm, ChangMin pulled away and snapped, "I don't need your help."

"Yes, you do," she quickly retorted. "Now stop being a baby and let me help you."

"I'm not being a baby," ChangMin shot back, glaring at the girl next to him, who replied just as quickly,

"Fine! So be a man and just let me help you!"

Momentarily taken aback by the demanding tone in the other's voice, ChangMin turned to glare at the wall and mumbled,

"Whatever..."

He let EunMi help him stand up, and, after getting permission from Coach Ahn, they slowly made their way to the nurse's office. As much as it hurt to limp all the way there, ChangMin knew it would've hurt ten times as much if EunMi hadn't been there to help him.

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ ==== ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ ==== ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

It had taken them a good ten minutes to make it to the nurse's office, which wasn't even that far away. When the nurse saw the giant bruise forming on ChangMin's sprained ankle, she asked him with wide eyes,

"What were you doing? Hapkido?"

"Um, no... I was playing basketball," he awkwardly replied.

"Against who? Choi MinHo?" the nurse asked, referring to the captain of the basketball team. But ChangMin didn't respond and looked away, feeling a little embarrassed.

"H-He was playing against me..." EunMi quietly answered, raising her hand.

The nurse stared at the 162 cm tall girl for a long, awkward moment before saying, "Oh... I see..."

Soon after, the nurse had tightly wrapped ChangMin's ankle, much to his discontent because it hurt more than EunMi's bony elbow being jammed into his ribcage, where he was sure a second bruise had formed. The nurse then left the room to look for ice for ChangMin's ankle, since the ice machine in her office wasn't working for some reason. The two students really hoped she would return soon, because the silence was just too uncomfortable.

Five painstakingly long minutes had passed, and ChangMin couldn't take the silence anymore, so he said the first thing that came to mind.

"Thanks...for, you know..."

Completely shocked at hearing the word "thanks" come from ChangMin's mouth, EunMi stared at the boy who was busy looking at a poster that described the proper hand-washing process. After a few moments, EunMi softly replied,

"...You're welcome."

The two students just sat there in the nurse's office, looking in opposite directions. The silence was still uncomfortable, but it was slightly less terrible this time around.

Happy new year! And as a present, I have given you cutesy-but-kinda-fail-romance! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter~ I worked really hard on this one.

For those of you who didn't know, hapkido is a type of martial arts, originating in Korea~ Also, the Choi MinHo the nurse was referring to is the one from SHINee. And...162 cm is around 5'4", so that's why the nurse was looking at EunMi strangely. Haha. I mean, how often is it that you see a 5'4" girl injuring a 6'2" tall boy?

Freshly-baked cookies to:

toxic_rainbow_pandas
NagiHime
_loveless