'Those proceeding to the Finals, can you please make your way to the call room? Thank You'

Calm yourself Haneul. You're in the Final and you're in Lane 4. That means you're the fastest one here. All you need to worry about it Lane 5 and 3. 

'As a reminder, those required for the finals are: Shin Haneul, Go Danbi, Chae Eun Mi, Kim Shinyeong, Chung Sooji, Kang Mi-Young, Joo Sun and Bae Seulgi'

Breathe in. Breathe out. Goggles on? Check. Hat on? Check. 

'The Final of the girls Freestyle 50m will start in 5 minutes'

You jumped up and down and swung your arms. 

Blood circulation? Check. Adrenaline pumping? Check. Muscles stretched? Check.

Kai stood beside you as he had also made it to the final. Kris had just missed out on a spot, coming 9th in the heats. 

'You ready?'

'You bet I am. I just want to get in and tear it up'

Kai chuckled and carried on stretching himself, leaving you to prepare. You were called out and Kai gave you a small 'fighting!' to cheer you on. Walking out you could see Chanyeol, Daehyun and Lay at the sidelines, ready with their black banners. You looked at your arms and saw the black warpaint. 

Alright. This is business. 

 

As you walked out, you glanced the girl, Go Danbi, in Lane 5. She was the second fastest and your biggest threat. She looked at you with burning eyes. 

'Hey foreigner, you're going down'

Eun Mi was on your right side, also throwing insults and taunting you. 

'Think you're gonna win this, Shin Haneul? 'Cause you're not'

Forget them, Haneul. This is your race. This is just a poxy stupid school competition. Back in the UK, you ranked 5th nationally. This is where you will shine and prove all those es wrong.

You leaned over the edge of the pool and splashed water on your costume. You then adjusted the starting block and you knew you were ready to go. Lay watched you in awe. 

She really does know what she's doing, doesn't she? She looks so proffesional up there.

You were all intoduced to the crowd and asked to say something into the loudspeaker. Everyone quickly uttered a 'thank you for cheering for me! Let's go (insert team color)!' but you. You knew you wanted to make a big statement. 

'Listen. I know a lot of you hate me but I'm telling you this: if I win this race, you will all respect me. You do not need to bow down to me but you must see me as a person worthy to be in our school without being bullied. I'm going to prove to you all that Haneul Shin is not a loser. I'm a winner and I'm going to tear all of you down'

You eyed Danbi and Eun Mi who scowled at you. The judge nodded and smiled at you, admiring your confidence. He blew the whistle symbolising the race was about to begin. 

This is it, Haneul. You better win this, for God's sake. Imagine if you didn't- then what would everyone say?

3 whistles. Get on the block. 1 long whistle. Take your marks. Go!

 

You dived in half a second late. You had expected that. Take off's weren't your strongest point. You untilised your skills in underwater kicking, came up and took a breath to the right to catch a sly glance at Eun Mi. She was behind you by quite a long shot. You were approaching the 15m mark. As you came under the flags at the end of the pool you knew it was crunch time now. As you turned, you saw Danbi turning just ahead of you. 

. I concentrated too much on Eun Mi!

As she kicked off whilst you were still turning, you noticed she was already at the surface. 

doesn't know how to use underwater kicking. Bingo!

You pushed off the wall with all your might, butterfly-kicking your legs as fast as you could until you reached 10 metres. At this point, you were now neck and neck with 15 metres left to go till the end of the race. You weren't sure who was ahead but you knew you didn't want to be 2nd. Your lungs were burning now and you took a gasp of air, giving Danbi a slight push ahead. 

Damn it, she's like a mermaid. I swear she hasn't even taken a breath of something. God Haneul... You can't lose this. You can't.

You could feel yourself tearing up and the water began to seep around your goggles, blurring your vision. You didn't care though, you propelled your arms round faster, gripping the water harder and kept your head straight. 

'Don't fight the water. Water will always win' 

The words of your swimming coach back in London echoed around your head.

'Head straight, grip the water and don't let it slip. I believe in you Haneul. You can get this National Qualifying Time'

Danbi began to show signs of running out of breath. You knew it wouldn't be long until she'd have to take it- and it'd be at the most vital time too. As the final 10 metres came into view, you held your breath for all that was worth, shut your eyes and swam like you'd never swam before. You thought of how pleased your parents were when you rang them to tell them you had qualified for Nationals. You thought of how your brother had come home specially to give you a congratulatory present. You thought about how blissful it would be to never deal with bullies again. You thought about the smug grin on Danbi's face if she beat you. You slammed straight into the timepad, almost punching through it and looked up at the screen. You tore your hat and goggles off and noticed that no one was cheering. 

1- Haneul Shin (BLACK TEAM): 27.58

2- Go Danbi (PINK TEAM): 28.87

3- Chung Sooji (RED TEAM): 29.94

4- Kim Shinyeong (GREEN TEAM): 30.56

5- Chae Eun Mi (BLUE TEAM): 30.82

6- Kang Mi-young (YELLOW TEAM): 30.86

7- Bae Seulgi  (BLACK TEAM): 31.44

8- Joo Sun (RED TEAM): 31.52

I beat her by a whole second?! A WHOLE SECOND?!

Kris was first to begin cheering, hooting and whistling and after that the crowd erruptured into applause. Kai was standing behind Lane 3 and leaned over to tap you on your head as you stared around, dumbfounded.

'Haneul-ah? That was amazing. Chukahae!'

'O-Oppa... I did it! I did it!'

As you climbed out of the pool, Danbi offered her hand. 

'I apologise for treating you that way. You're really amazing, do you know that? How did you learn to swim that way?'

'Thank you Danbi-ssi. I used to train 9 times a week'

'9?! No wonder you're so good. Congratulations!'

 

With you standing on the podium, Kris watched on like a proud parent. Kai had come in 1st place too and you stood beside him on the blocks smiling for the photo. You didn't care that your hair was dripping wet and you looked like an idiot. You had your pride back and no one could take that away from you. The team points were announced at the end of the festival leaving you with even more to celebrate about. Daehyun had scored almost half of your teams points with his constant victories. 

'In 6th place, we have Pink Team with 78 points!'

Yun Hee went up to collect the medal. Chen and Sehun shot her evil looks and you giggled seeing them like that.

'In 5th place, we have Green Team with 84 points!'

The Green team captain, Jung Hwa went up and collected his medal. He bowed and you could tell he was a good student. It made you happy knowing there were actually nice people in your school

'In 4th place...Yellow Team with 97 points!'

Su Ho went up grinning. The girl giving the medals smiled at him and of course, he smiled back. Walking away, he gave you and Kai a wink and chuckled to himself.

'So now it's crunchtime. Who are the top 3? Well... In 3rd Place, Red Team with 112 points!'

You heard Sooji groan and walk up to the podium menacingly. Kai whispered in your ear. 

'She looks so angry... Like a monster'

You laughed and punched his arm.

'Don't say that about girls, no matter how scary they are'

After she sat down, Mr Park announced the final results.

'In 2nd place... With 124 points is... Blue Team!'

What?! So we came first?!

'Which means that with a grand total of 147 points, Black team are the overall winners! Congratulations!'

Kris stood up and proudly went over to collect the small trophy. He took a photo with Mr Park and went to sit down. You noticed Lay hadn't gone up. He and Daehyun were still sitting down with Chanyeol on the sidelines. You waved frantically to him. 

'Lay? What are you doing? Get up here!' you mouthed to him

'I'm not the Team Captain, remember!'

You looked to Daehyun who was trying to hand back Lay the captain armband.

'Lay, I don't want to go up there!'

'Then I'll choose Haneul to accept it'

'Me?! What are you doing, Lay? I'm not the team captain!' you hissed.

'I want you to go up there. Winning that race isn't enough for me. I want to see you there, showing everyone that you won'

'A-Are you sure?'

'Positive. Seeing you not getting hurt is the best thing for me'

You sighed and Kai squeezed your hand and gently gave you a push as you stepped down from the '1st place' block. Mr Park handed you the enormous trophy and smiled. 

'Well done, Haneul. You deserve this'

Lay watched from afar, happy to see you collecting the trophy. 

See Haneul? That's where you belong- in front of everyone showing them how special and beautiful you really are.

 

 

 

 

 

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MESSAGE TO YOU ALL WHICH YOU SHOULD MUST ALL READ BECAUSE IT IS FILLED WITH SPOILERS AND APOLOGIES AND QUESTIONS:

Sorry if this didn't have many fluffy moments. I used to swim a lot so writing this was kinda like writing my old memories haha so I guess I got a bit carried away with all the details. Tell me- do you prefer it when I write with a lot of detail (so long paragraphs describing things) or with a lot of talking and conversations? And would you like me to put a bit more in on what the boys think? I know I let you in on what Haneul's thinking but do you want to know EXO's thoughts too? Like how I've put Luhan and Lay's thoughts in a lot of the time. Would ya like that? Comment and tell me so I know ^^

And yes, about Shinyeong and Daehyun and everyone I've suddenly brought into this story- something big will happen eventually and I'm not telling you if it's good or bad ;) 

I need more Kai moments... And more Sehun moments. The main love line characters from EXO are Kris, Luhan, Sehun, Lay and Kai. I'm truly sorry to the people I played around with before with D.O but I am officially friendzoning him. I did originally plan for him to be the main love interest but this story is kinda just being written as I think it so the plot changed and I have no clue where it's going really. I just read comments and they usually inspire me to write the next chapter and what will happen in it. Please don't hate me D; I literally think up plots as I write them or when I'm in the shower or walking around the house. I'm just as clueless as you are about who I'm putting Haneul with in the end. Maybe it'll be none and I'll have to make a sequel and be an evil author... ;D About Chanyeol- I'm still deciding where to put him. I'll make it clear in further chapters where I'm putting him but for now, there are 5 love interests from EXO OTL

Thank you to everyone who's shown interest in this story ^^ I hope you'll all comment advising me what you like best, how I can improve etc because really- I'm here to please you all :) I want to write a story everyone likes so please answer the questions I asked above and don't hate me for cutting D.O out of the love story. He'll still be an amazing oppa to Haneul/You.