ChapterTwo

Yuri hated December.  Some other people should have been made their birthday month their favorite but it was different for Yuri.  She hated her birthday month since she thought December is the coldest month throughout the year, and it’s especially cold on her birthday. 

That Friday was December 5^th, her birthday.

And here she was on the eve of her birthday, on the grounds of another school, holding her pink and white cheering scarf to her neck right at the center of green and white crowd of the other school.  She stuck out like an odd tomato in her opinion and she lost count at how many times she already heard a jibe about her, some unnecessary push whenever a player from the other school gets punishment and malicious looks. 

“It to be an audience,” she muttered when the guy in front of her turned to her to flash his triumphant smile.  Nichkhun, a player from her school, just fell face first on the ice.  She was surrounded with loud cheers and colorful curses she rather not remember especially when some of those were towards Yunho.  “Even the audience gets aggressive.”

The game went on and she finally understood how the game works.  Yunho already have four assists and two goals and the crowd is getting more violent as their team hasn’t scored for the third period.  She was getting excited every time the players from her team had the puck.  When Wooyoung, another of Yunho’s teammate, scored another goal, she stood up, waved her pink scarf, revealing a school t-shirt, and screamed for his name.  Some of the players pointed at her, celebrating that goal as she ignored all the snide remarks people were throwing at her.  She didn’t know hockey could be this exciting.  She waved at Yunho when he looked up at her but he just nodded at her absent-mindedly.  She felt a bit disappointed but she understood that he has to focus on the game as an athlete herself.

It was three minutes until the game ends when the other team got more physical than ever.  It was like how she imagined it to be, violent, yet there was no foul called.  As the other team started catching up, the cheers started to get more violent, too, urgent the players to be more physical until they tied the game. 

Nineteen seconds left and Nichkhun got the puck.  Wooyoung was surrounded by two defenses and their two defenses are already at the middle, preparing for the push they’d need for the attack.  The seconds wind down as Nichkhun and Yunho tried to pass each other the puck.  Doojoon from the middle started skating to the rink to help Yunho, Wooyoung skated to the middle, trying to evade the pinch.  Doojoon was fast, he got through a defense player and Yunho made a risky pass to him.  Yuri didn’t know what exactly happened but the next thing she knew, Yunho was already by the goal to secure the game for them.  The arena was filled with disappointed groans and more profanities towards Yunho while she jumped and screamed.  Yunho ran towards her side of the rink to kiss his fist and pointed at her before his own teammates tackled him to the ice and got trampled on.  She felt her heart swell with pride.  She knew what it feels like winning for the sake of her school’s pride but this never quite come close. 

“Hey, miss,” a guy in green jacket called her, “I wouldn’t be so brave to go outside alone if I were you.  Tell your boyfriend that we’re going to floor them at the finals.”  After the guy turned his back, more comments and threats were directly aimed at her.  She just bowed and remained at her seat.  She wouldn’t be a fool to get herself in a queue of an angry and disappointed crowd.  She just watched on as a   zamboni machine came in to flatten the ice. 

She was someone who never takes risk when she knew the tide won’t fare well for her.  She knew how it feels to lose because she lost many competitions in her life but she kept on practicing, spending more and more hours in the pool just to get to her target time.   She doesn’t like losing and she doesn’t like getting herself into an unknown situation but she contradicted herself today.  She smiled at herself.  She contradicted herself the moment she got herself involved with Yunho.  She doesn’t know where this all going to lead her or them.

“Oi.”

She turned to see Yunho at the top of the steps, his hair was wet and he’s got that pink scarf that matched hers around his neck.  He was breathing heavily when she came to him. 

“I was looking all over for you.  I thought you gone home without me,” he said through heavy breathing.

“You ran here?”

He nodded.  “One of the staff said there’s a lone fan here.  It has gotta be you, right?  Got to be you,” he managed to say between his heavy breathing.

Yuri smiled and put her arms around his neck.  “Gotta be me,” she said with laughter in her eyes and hugged him.  He put his arms around her waist and buried his head on the crook of her neck.  He caught his breath and inhaled her scent.  They stayed like that for a long time until the lights on their part went out.  Only the rink remained lit up and they both laugh.

She could feel the rumble of his laughter on his chest and felt like this was just a dream.  When did she ever think that she’d be like this with Jung Yunho?  Never.  It wasn’t like he was out of her reach or their worlds didn’t collide, it was just that she had expectations of him.  And he just proved to her that he wasn’t what she expected. 

Yuri stared at the copy of The Pink Post she was holding and felt the color in her face drain.  Right at the front page of the paper was a blurry picture of the silhouettes of two people who supposedly broke in the indoor pool of the campus.  No names were dropped because no one could figure the couple who were in the act of running when the picture was taken.

“Didn’t you hear about it?” Seohyun asked.  

“Coach didn’t tell us anything about it,” she said trying to hide that she was rattling.  The pool was supposed to be closed except during the practice of the players at a certain time as it wasn’t swimming’s season yet.  She reached for her coffee only to spill it on the paper in front of her.

“Are you okay?  You’re unusually flustered,” Seohyun eyed her suspiciously.  “Do you know something about this?”

“I’m fine and I don’t know something about it,” she snapped at the younger girl. 

It was a complete lie, of course.  She knew something about it, she had something to do with it.  In fact, she was one of the two silhouettes captured.  The other one was Yunho.

They didn’t intend to take a dip into the pool, it was an accident or so Yunho said.  They broke in at the indoor pool because Yunho wanted to see it.  He was already a senior and he hasn’t seen it yet so they broke in.  While they circling the large pool, he slipped sending both of them in the twelve-foot deep area of the pool.  They had fine for a while until they heard intruding steps.  They managed to escape with their wet clothes but they didn’t know that there was a picture of them taken.  It was just lucky enough that it was hard to identify who the couples are.  And if anyone would point a finger at them, no one would believe that they would be together.

“Whatever’s bothering you, you better take care of it.  I don’t want to deal with your mood swings when you are bothered.”

“Yeah, I better.”  She stood up and left Seohyun at the table gaping at her.  It was out of her character.  Normally, she’d deny that there is something that’s bothering her. 

Yuri has always been a good student.  She wasn’t smart yet she worked her way to be on consistent on her grades.  Her skills weren’t enough to get her into the swimming team of their university so she studied probably harder than their valedictorian in high school.  She never got into a party until she’s in the university because she never had time before.  It was different in college, everyone had good grades in high school and most of them weren’t even half as hot as they are now.  A lot has changed but she still had that sense of obedience.  She never got into trouble because she always followed the rules.  If anyone finds out about the identity of the silhouettes, she’d be in big trouble.  She needed to talk to Yunho.  She’s too much of a coward to face this alone.        

“You sure it’s them?”

“Yep.  Apparently they have been going out for more than three months already.”

Yuri stopped in her tracks.  There were two guys sitting on the ground.  One of them was reading a copy of the paper while the other who she could recognize as Yunho’s roommate was playing a game on his phone. 

“No !  Why didn’t you tell me?” said the guy reading the newspaper.  It was Doojoon, Yunho’s teammate.  The other guy just shrugged.  “You know that we’re going to be in trouble if Yuri shows up at the finals, right?”

“It has nothing to do with me,” the roommate said. 

“Come on, you don’t always love the guy.  He’s the biggest pain I your neck,” Doojoon said finally letting go of the paper.

“That bet was stupid,” he simply said.  “And as much as I hate him for loitering around the room, he still treats me as his brother and the same with me.”

Doojoon hit him playfully.  “Cheesy bastard.  I see what you get for hanging around with him too much.”

“Speak for yourself.  I know you share a tub when getting yourselves iced after a game.”

Yuri was rooted on her spot, still unseen by the two guys.  Did she ever mention that she’s the stupidest person alive?  And unlucky?      

A/N:  Hi dear readers!  I hope you like this chapter and I'm sad that I had researched about hockey and that was all that I could write about it.  Yes, I researched about it that I could enjoy watching it knowing what's happening.  And I wanted to write that pool scene a little bit longer but I don't think it's that necessary or I would get too mushy again.  Anyway, I am inserting a new character fpr the next chapter.  The flow of the story would be the same and this character would just be a random dude, and now he has a name!  And please tell me what you think of Luhan and Kai and Baekhyun!  Kai and Baek are my biases, and LuKai's my bias.