Kris, of course, made the basketball team with little trouble. He was seen around the dorm a little less, as practice started to monopolize more of his time.

Yixing found that he actually kind of missed the big guy being around all the time, mostly just because he had already gotten accustomed to it.

As the date to Kris’ first official game drew closer, a date that he bragged about twice a day, there was a lot of hype around the school. Most of the girls already had giant crushes on the supermodel anyway, and the superstar athlete thing only added to the general appeal.

“Yeollie says that the coach is really impressed with him,” Baekhyun informed the group as they made their way to the gym for the big game. “He might even be starting, even though it’s his first game.”

“There’s a rumor going around with some of the underclassmen that Kris Ge only got on the team because he’s good looking and the coach wants to attract more fans,” Sehun muttered, giving a passing rock a vicious kick to the side of the road.

“That’s a load of bull,” Yixing snapped. “I’ve had my kicked by him enough times to know from experience that he’s amazing at basketball.”

“That’s what I told them too,” Sehun replied with a small smile. “Kris asked me to practice with him once when you were busy and I got demolished.”

Through a combination of Chen’s position on the student council and Chanyeol and Kris’ requests, the boys were able to secure the best seats in the house, the first row in the student section.

“Although, you have got to admit, having Kris on the team does increase ticket sales by quite a lot,” Kai observed, glancing around.

The gym was packed almost to the limit, a rare sight for a non-championship game like this one.

“I think kids from other schools even came to see Kris play,” Luhan added, tilting his head towards a little circle of kids who were wearing the uniform of the neighboring school.

Xiumin only shook his head and grumbled, “fame.”

As other members warmed up and practiced layups on the court, Kris and Chanyeol spotted the little group huddled near the railings, and scampered over. Both giants hooked their arms over the lower rail, and everyone leaned down to make their voices heard over the crowd.

“Glad to see you made it, Xingxing,” Kris drawled, winking at Yixing with a suggestive smirk.

“Don’t call me that,” Yixing mumbled back out of habit. None of the others even batted an eye, because they had all gotten used to Kris’ strange ways.   

“Coach says Kris is starting today,” Chanyeol announced, clapping Kris on the back proudly. “He is our best long-range shooter on the team right now.”

“I’ll laugh at you if you , so you better go out there and kick ,” Yixing laughed.

Kris stuck out his tongue, then reached a hand up towards Tao, pointing at the bag of chips he was holding. Tao sighed, but gave a handful to his gege.

“Good luck, both of you,” Chen interrupted, bringing sanity back into the conversation.

At that moment, the basketball coach blew his whistle, calling the team back to the bench.

“We’ll go out to eat after, win or lose,” Kris called back as he and Chanyeol started back towards the bench. Then, he turned, looking over his shoulder, and grinned at Yixing. “Don’t forget to cheer for me, Xingxing.”

Yixing felt his lips curl into a begrudging smile, even as his cheeks tinted with a blush. “Honestly…” he muttered, rolling his eyes.

Tao, a little annoyed at Kris for stealing his chips, stood up, offering to get food from the concession stand. Xiumin went with him to help carry the purchases, when basically everyone said they wanted a soda.

Yixing leaned back, enjoying the anticipation in the atmosphere as tip-off time drew close. Kai and Lu Han were whispering to each other as they scoped out girls a few rows over, under the disapproving eyes of Chen and Baekhyun. Suddenly, Yixing felt eyes boring into the back of his head, and turned to see Sehun, studying him intently.

“Something wrong?” Yixing asked, confused.