DAY 7: Of Evil Ideas, Ice, and Falling

At least, this was the idea Kris held on to for dear life as he managed to slip on the ice for the tenth time in five minutes. He should have known that agreeing with his roommates’ ideas often ended up with lots of regret, embarrassment, or a combination of both. He had only been minding his business, studying for next week’s accounting exam when his roommates decided to barge in and drag him out to join them in the ice skating rink despite his protests; only to be abandoned for Minseok, Luhan, and Soojung once they got there.

Kris grabbed the railings and attempted to make himself stand up on the ice again. Finally! He managed to get himself to stand. He moved one foot forward, as he saw Yixing doing, only to fall flat on his back.

“.” He said, rubbing his head. He had planned on just sitting there, not caring if he looked like a total moron. His cool image had vanished the moment he fell on his in the skating rink.

“Hey, are you ok?” a soft voice asked. Kris looked up to see a tall, tanned boy with dark eyes that looked as though they needed sleep. The size of those eye bags was alarming. “Let me help you.”

Kris took the outstretched hand and managed to stand up. He wobbled and would have fallen again, had there not been a supportive hand behind his back.

“Woah, careful now.”

He looked back to see the other boy smiling at him, like he was the most amusing thing he had seen in some time.

“Want to keep me company?” the boy asked, shuffling his feet on the ice, looking at his skates like they were the most interesting thing in the world. “My friends kind of abandoned me in favor of other people, and you look like you’ll fall flat on your face if I let go.”

Kris noticed that the other boy’s hand was still on his back while his own were gripping on the other boy’s arm like a lifeline. It looked like he didn’t seem to mind so much, even if Kris seemed to be draining the life out of his arm.

“I’m Tao by the way,” he boy said, leading the way around the ice skating rink., with Kris still holding on to his arm for dear life.

“Kris.” He said, still trying to get his bearings as he found himself being dragged along the rink. He was pleased that he wasn’t falling flat on his on the ice.

“Try not to lean back so much,” Tao said, skating behind Kris to fix his posture. “Try positioning yourself like this.”

Kris observed that Tao’s knees were slightly bent and that he was leaning forward. He tried imitating the posture, wondering if he looked stupid doing it.

“Don’t worry about looking stupid.” Tao’s voice said, suddenly interrupting his thoughts. “Now try letting go and moving on your own.”

Kris gingerly let go of Tao’s arm and pushed one foot forward as he attempted doing earlier. And he did the same with the other… and again… Hey! He’s actually skating on his own. This was definitely going to be something to tell Yixing and Jongdae later on. As he was about to turn toward another direction, Kris suddenly lost his footing and found himself sitting on the ice again.

Tao skated over to him, giggling like a little girl while he did. “Are you ok?”

“I was doing fine a minute ago,” he grumbled once he was back on his feet.

The glare Kris intended to give him disappeared the moment Tao put his fist near his cheeks and did the famous “bbuing bbuing.” There was just something about the other boy’s aegyo that made all sorts of sarcastic thoughts forgotten.

“Come on,” Tao said, offering his hand, “try again… and don’t look down.”

Kris did as instructed, and he found himself gliding around the ice with Tao. He learned that the other boy was in Seoul to visit his cousin for the holidays and that he was really from Qingdao, China. Tao also revealed that he was fond of pandas, and when Kris commented that Tao looked like one, Tao merely pouted in a way that Kris found endearing. It was incredibly easy talking to Tao, that Jongdae had to “accidentally” ram into him on the ice in order to catch his attention.

“I’m spending the night at Minseok’s, and Yixing’s going home with Luhan and Soojung tonight,” he said, eyeing Tao from head to toe before smirking. “And I was wondering if you’d be fine on your own, but it seems like you won’t be lonely tonight.”

Kris merely raised an eyebrow at Jongdae who smirked and shouted, “No on the first date!” before skating away at top speed. He shook his head and sighed. Sometimes his friends could be so embarrassing.

“So…” he muttered, looking at Tao, hoping the latter wasn’t thinking that he was some kind of ert. “Want to have dinner with me?”

“That’ll be good.” Tao smiled, with a little twinkle in his eye.

Not all of Yixing and Jongdae’s ideas ended up in embarrassment or regret. The chances of their ideas actually hitting gold was like catching lightning. If he got to meet people like Tao more often, he didn’t mind going along with their schemes once in a while.

Maybe Yixing and Jongdae weren’t always the world’s most evil bastards after all…

by aore86
Tao | TaoRis
395 words. Tao’s motivations don’t always seem right.

Zitao wasn’t a really huge fan of basketball or sports in general. In fact, he had never even bothered with the collegiate league until he got into one of the leading universities when it came to basketball.

Blue Eagles for the win. Aww yeah. Champions for four years in a row, and now driving for five.

Ehem.

At first, he was the only into the games for the sake of school pride, but as he watched game after game, he couldn’t help but be entranced by team captain Wu Yifan aka Kris.

It wasn’t even something special, really. Who wouldn’t be entranced by an extremely good-looking guy in an arm-baring jersey and shorts? Not to mention Wu Yifan played basketball like he was selling it. The guy strutted on the court like it was his ing runway.

And so Zitao found himself lining up at 5 in the morning to get tickets to the games instead of just watching from his television, only to find out that by the time it was his turn to purchase tickets, they were already sold out. This has happened so many times that eventually, Zitao decided to put his Wushu skills to use.

Not like that.

Having learned wushu for years, and even winning competitions left and right, Zitao has an impeccable control over his body, knowing how and when to twist his limbs, how to leap gracefully into the air and land just right. The flexibility that came along with the years of conditioning allowed him to move his body like no other could; it really was no surprise that Zitao had managed to secure himself a spot  with the Blue Babble Battalion: the university’s renowned pep squad.

With the Blue Babble required to be present for half-time performances, he needn’t worry about lining up for tickets anymore. That wasn’t the best part. Oh no.

Clad in a white and blue ensemble and a confident smirk on his face, Zitao executed a series of leaps, flips and tumbles, ending it with a perfect split for their routine’s finale. The crowd of blue and white roared as the squad practically skipped out of the stage.

“You were great out there, Tao.”

Flashing a smile, Tao replied “You too, Kris-ge. Make sure to knock them dead in the second half.”

The best part? Zitao knows that Kris was ogling his .

[A/N: Part of the EXO on a Hill AU]







DAY 11: From Zero to One
by elaineleyn
Chanyeol | KrisYeol
947 words. How Chanyeol started basketball (A back story to One on One.)

Chanyeol did not like sports as a young teen. He had never liked doing something that would make him sweat; he had always been uncomfortable with the feeling of drenched clothing sticking against his bare skin. The smell of perspiration was not the most pleasant kind for his sensitive olfactory senses as well.

But all these vain concealments put aside, the main point was just pretty simple: sports never appealed to him.

He was at the stage where most boys of his age would start talking about how they wanted to be part of South Korea's Red Devils when they grow up, if not debating on who the best team in the NBA was. But Chanyeol preferred anything over sports – television, anime, and even books because although he didn't seem like one, he was actually a wide fiction-reader.

And the closest thing he'd get to sports was Slam Dunk for basketball, Striker for football, or Knock Out for boxing. And his Physical Education class, of course.

But this did not mean Chanyeol at sports. He was good at them–excellent to the point where most sports clubs in his school had been trying to recruit him into their teams. But he just didn't really like sports. Although some talent was given naturally, who said you had to like something to be good at it?

Nothing is permanent in this world, change happened. No, unlike the typical “he-grew-out-of-it” stage, there was another external factor that brought about it.

Let's just make it cheesy as it should sound and say it involved fate.

The first time Chanyeol took the alternate road home from school, he had discovered a park that housed a small basketball court, enclosed in frames of grilled aluminum fence covered in wild  green vines. Curious and observant, he noticed that there was a hole – a forced entrance probably – near the leftmost corner bottom of the fence that had been cleared out of weeds. Peeking through it, he realized that for a supposedly abandoned basketball court, the concrete floor looked like it had been swept clean of dried leaves.

He had confirmed his suspicions the second time he passed by that same alternate route. There was a tall blond teenage boy with a ball in his hand, clad in a white shirt with sleeves folded up and royal blue jersey shorts. Not wanting to appear rude and creepy, he had kept himself hidden, watching from a distance. It only took a few seconds for him to become conscious about closing his mouth when the blond boy gracefully executed a perfect lay-up shot. He did not even notice he had been holding his breath.

It had become a sort of a routine for him after that – taking the longer way home, passing by the secret park, and hoping to catch a glimpse of the blond teenage boy while making sure to stay covered; he didn't want to seem like a stalker, although he wouldn't admit it was a bit similar to that.

Once, the blond boy had been doing free throws and Chanyeol couldn't help but admire how accurate and calculated the shots were. There might be something in the way how the blond boy flicked his wrist, or how he had seemingly memorized the concept of projectile by heart.

The other time, the blond boy had been doing jump shots. He wasn't just playing basketball on the ground, because the moments of what seemed like pauses on air were better in Chanyeol's opinion. Those were the moments he wished he could take pictures of to preserve as a beautiful memory.

However, one day, the blond boy wasn't in the park. The boy was never late, always arriving minutes before him. He waited for a few minutes, thirty minutes, an hour, and two. But the boy did not arrive.

The day after that, he still didn’t.

And the day after, and the day after.

Chanyeol had stopped taking the alternate route home too.

But this story would not end here–it had been a start of something new.

He heard a lot of scandalized gasps from his classmates when one day, he showed up in class with an application form for the basketball club in one hand. He continued this new-found hobby of his in high school, even taking home the championship for the school during his senior year. The memories of his after-school secret adventures remained etched in his heart; it wasn't just a motivation, it was an inspiration that kept him moving.

Chanyeol found the blond boy again years later on television, finally putting a name to the face he had always admired from afar as a young boy, playing for the Blue Assassins of the Intercollegiate Basketball League of Korea. Kris Wu, Number 14 of the Blue Assassins.

Because to say that the blond boy was able to tick Chanyeol's interest in basketball would be an understatement; the blond boy led Chanyeol to Kris himself and he could wish for nothing better.

They would finally meet in a bar again years later, when Chanyeol was about to enter university. With his new found confidence -- more mature, more mischievous, more daring -- Chanyeol would use this opportunity to his advantage and catch Kris Wu with himself as the perfect bait. They would soon put aside the fact that they play for two rival schools and develop a unique relationship after that.

Chanyeol still did not like sweating. But if it involved Kris and things that could happen in a cramped locker room with two growing men with needs, he could probably make an exemption.







DAY 12: Absolutely Smitten
by westkitsune
XiuMin | XiuChen
836 words. Chen is absolutely smitten with promising soccer player Xiumin (A back story to Of Evil Ideas, Ice, and Falling)
A/N: Should be Xiumin-centric but ended up kinda Chen-focused lol


He watched him from afar.

By the window of the University's library, Kim Jongdae stares helplessly smitten at the figure running around below. He tried hard to study, he really did -- convinced himself the sole purpose of going there, no matter that he doesn't need it, was study -- but really he always ended up studying about the human anatomy in action. And not by the book, mind.. oh no, it came in the form of one promising soccer player named Minseok.

He met the older student in one of their school's exchange programs to China, and being the only two Koreans in class and not to mention being terribly Mandarin-challenged Jongdae ("Chen," his Chinese roommate Yixing would remind him. "Jongdae is much too difficult to pronounce for me,") has found himself depending on Minseok (or should it be Xiumin, the name he is called by in China). Xiumin had participated in many University soccer competitions, and being part of the student exchange program in China didn't seem to deter him from that notoriety.

So it came as no shock to him when he was roped by Xiumin into watching him and some other University students play against their host school's Team ("C'mon Chen," Xiumin wheedled, and seriously Xiumin calling him by his Chinese name with those bun cheeks puffed is not good for his resolve- "Leave your books behind -- and no I know you're in chapter who knows what in Deathly Hallows but I couldn't care any less - come cheer for your fellow Korean~")

And so Chen followed unwillingly - okay maybe not so unwillingly, but he did prefer to hole up in his room, donning his Harry Potter glasses and burying himself in a book or composing songs… so drag his feet he shall do - towards the field to watch the soccer game. And while Chen thinks soccer is the only sport worth watching, it does get pretty boring really easily (he thinks more than an hour has passed and the score is still 0 - 0).

All of sudden a commotion brought his wandering mind back to the game, and he looked around the field in time to see Xiumin running towards the far right near the opponent's goal keeper, waving to his teammate to pass the ball towards him. Luhan, the school's resident star soccer player, is hot on his heels, determined to perform a man-to-man defense, however it seems everyone is in for a surprise.

Xiumin's seemingly chubby demeanor masks the obvious agility in his steps, and he managed to twist left just in the right moment before falling short of stepping outside the line. Luhan had fallen into the trap and almost crashed into the outskirt railing, leaving enough room for Xiumin to navigate to the left and kick the ball past the stunned goal keeper.

And amidst the scattered applause of the short number of exchange students (Xiumin would later on claim it was a thunderous one) Chen himself couldn't keep the excitement as he jumped into the field and threw himself into a full-on hug with his Baozi (and he would deny later on that he wasn't able to control his feels.)

"That was some good feinting skills back there.." Chen remarked, and Xiumin laughed

"Naw, I just copied it off the Wronski Feint," and Chen had to pause and stare at him because seriously he did not just say he had performed a Wronski Feint without having gone through Goblet of Fire at least once and dear god did he just really perform Wronski Feint in just about the most amazing sport ever existed.

And so Chen has been in love ever since.

However, now that they were back Korea and in the normalcy of their daily lives, there was no longer any need to interact so closely with Xiumin -- or should it be Minseok now, Jongdae thinks wistfully -- and so Jongdae is reduced to watching the version of this Minseok bent over, drenched in sweat, to the point of exhaustion, practicing like soccer is the very air he breathes.

Gathering what was left of his confidence (he was sure he wasn't this much of a troll before, it definitely was Yixing's influence and he was sure the moment Yixing had decided to follow them back to Korea bringing his faced buddy Kris along that his innocent self is gone forever) he approached Minseok while the older boy was on his way to the showers to invite him over for a round at the local skating rink.

"I don't know.. I seem to have an affinity for ice so if challenging me was your goal then you might be disappointed"

"Well… If you can skate as well as you play the ball…"

"Is that a dare?"

"Only if you agree to it."

"It's a date then."

And Jongdae smiled because he thinks Minseok's daring smirk, which once only graced during a soccer game but now apparently included him, is back once again.