Woohyun POV

Now that I knew Hana was here, I needed to play extra hard and win for her to see. So that all the times I complained to her of sore muscles would merit to a win for her to see that I wasn’t an airhead. The team we were playing wasn’t ranked particularly high, but that was no reason at all for me to slack off. If anything, it would give me a better chance to show my skills for Hana to see.

Throughout stretching and warm up, I kept stealing glances over at her. I was glad Sunggyu invited Hanbyul to come, and that she dragged along Hana, and that she was sitting close to the player’s bench. If she stayed up on the bleachers, I would’ve never known she was even here. Hana looked really nice today - she was wearing a denim shirt and black jeans and black vans with a black beanie. The weather didn’t really call for a beanie so I guess it was her poor attempt at disguising herself.

“Hyung? Should we change to stretch some other muscles? We’ve been in this position for like, five minutes,” L said to me, half irritated, half amused.
I chuckled. “Yeah, uh, sorry. Got distracted. Um, let’s stretch our calf muscles now.”
The team snorted. “Yeah, “ they chorused. “Are you and Sunggyu hyung’s girlfriends here today?”
“NO,” I snapped back too quickly. They gave me testy looks.
 “Well, Sunggyu hyung’s is. There, in the red sweater.”

Sungjong turned around to look, and waved animatedly at Hanbyul. Sunggyu stopped stretching for a bit to swat Sungjong on the head, causing everyone to laugh.

“Where’s Hana, Woohyun?” Hoya asked, winking at me.
“What? Oh, uh, she’s the one in the beanie,” I said uncomfortably. The team turned to look, and they all waved at her too.
I cringed and tried to slap every one of them, but there were too many.
“She’s not my – “ I tried.
“Whatever, hyung!” Sungjong teased.
Hoya sniggered. “Guess we’ll have to play extra hard today, boys.”
“Damn right,” I added in, trying not to sound menacing.  “Not that we don’t play hard normally, but yeah, uh, whatever.”
The boys gave me a weird look.
“WARM UP JOG!” I yelled, starting to run around the oval before they could say anything else.

“Captains, shake hands please,” the referee said.
I grabbed the opponent’s captain’s hand and shook it, as I tried, in a friendly way. I was always the one to show good sportsmanship because it was such an ignorant thing to not. Plus, Hana was here. So I needed to show her that I was a friendly, outgoing and the perfect guy.

The ball was tossed in the air, and Dongwoo made a grab for it. I started jogging toward the goal circle, for which I was responsible for scoring in the team, and tried to dodge my opponent. He was massive – the other team had tried to intimidate me with size by marking me with their largest player. But I could dodge him easily, no problem.

The other team had stolen the ball so it was time for Hoya, L and Sungyeol to do the defensive work they were brilliant at on the opposite side of the field, meaning that I could take a few seconds and steal a glance at Hana. She was staring right at me, and when she saw me looking, she jumped a little and looked away. So cute, I thought. I raised my arm to wave at her, but then I remembered that stupid letter and everything that had happened between.

“Girlfriend?” My opponent grumbled, looking at Hanbyul and Hana who were the only girls sitting near the player’s bench on our side.
I eyed him uneasily. What was he doing? Was he interested in Hana? He looked only mildly curious, more interested in my reaction. He was probably looking for something to fire me up with. After all, I was the MVP of the state league three years in a row!
“Yeah,” I said proudly. “Isn’t she beautiful?”
He grunted. “The one in the red’s alright. Not the beanie one though. She could do with a visit to the plastic surgeon.”
I turned to look at him slowly, not even believing my ears.
“What did you just say?” I asked dangerously in a low tone.
“Wow, calm down, mate.” He sniggered. “I said, the one with the beanie was UGLY.”

Something inside of me exploded. Blood pounded hotly in my ears and I could think of nothing but hurting him as much as possible for saying that about Hana. How could he? He didn’t know anything about her or anything she had gone through. He didn’t know how she was caring, smart, funny and perfect. How could he just be calling her ugly so casually, so lightly like that just by looking at her?

My hands were balled into fists. I tried to resist. I couldn’t hit him, or I would get into serious trouble with the football committee. But I just couldn’t help it. I wanted to wipe that dirty smirk off his face – that smirk that knew he had hit a nerve of mine. He knew he had touched on a sensitive subject for me, and he would use it to his utmost advantage. I was never one to want to be physical and fight, because black eyes and bruised lips were not attractive, that was Dongwoo, but at this moment, I could think of nothing but how he would look sprawled on the ground with blood all over his face. That was the least he deserved for saying that about Hana.

“What, pretty boy? Is that your girlfriend?” He chuckled sarcastically. “I thought you had better taste than that. Waaaay better.”
I couldn’t even speak, I was so angry.
“Did she have to pay you to go out with her? Or is she good in bed? I can’t think of a reason otherwise – who would date that…thing?”

Bam. My fist landed right on the side of his jaw and he stumbled over in pain. He lunged toward me but I dodged him easily because I was a smaller build than him. I kicked him in the shin, but he stuck out his foot and tripped me over. Now I was on the ground, and he was hovering over me with his fist raised. I struggled under his grip, which was s around my neck.

I could hear the referee blow his whistle and the game stopped play. But I couldn’t stop – otherwise I would die. This guy was as serious as I was. I raised my knee and kneed him in the balls.

“HEY!” The referee yelled, running over and trying to break us up. It was no use though. We were too locked in combat to even notice a middle-aged man flailing his arms at us.
“WOOHYUN,” Sunggyu thundered, running toward me with the other guys and grabbing me forcefully by the collar of my jersey. “STOP IT. RIGHT NOW.”
Hoya held onto my torso while Dongwoo restrained my arms behind my back. I struggled helplessly against their vice grips, but it was no use.

I glared at my opponent. His teammates were also restraining him, but he seemed more satisfied than worried that he had provoked me. He smiled maliciously at me and I mouthed some swear words at him. He just chuckled even more and sniggered.

“Right boys,” the referee stuttered, fixing his shirt awkwardly. “Time out for ten minutes. No more fighting for the rest of the match, or I’ll suspend you all from playing for the next month. Understand?”

We all nodded miserably.

“What the hell were you thinking, Nam Woohyun,” Sunggyu hissed in my shoulder. “Are you crazy? The first time you ever start a fistfight, it’s on a football field? What got into you?”

I ducked my head in shame. I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway.
Hoya saw me bite my lip apologetically. “Hyung, give him a break. The guy on the other team provoked him. Chill, everyone. It’s fine. Just take a deep breath, it’ll be fine. We’ll win today!”

I looked up at the crowd. Most of them had their eyes on me, but I didn’t care. I found Hana straightaway and looked at her. She had a worried expression on her face and was covering with her hand. Did I regret what I did by beating the guy on the other team to pulp? Nope. I stand by everything I did. She was the most beautiful girl I’d seen.