“So this is a ball.” Chanyeol throws a faded red ball with black lines all around it to Tao, who promptly misses it. It thuds to the ground heavily and rolls away to Kris’s feet, where he picks it up using the toe of his shoe and throws it easily back to Chanyeol.

Kris distinctly whispers a little ‘you don’t say’ but it’s quickly overpowered by Chanyeol’s deep as balls voice.

“Right, we might have to work a little on your catching and stuff.” Chanyeol covers up Tao’s mistake with a grin. “I’ll explain the positions of the team. I’m the Point Guard, Kris is the Center, there’s Zelo and Zhou Mi, they’re the wing players, and Changmin’s the Power Forward. Do you know how to play?”

Tao swells with pride because yes, he thoroughly researched that part this morning.

“Well I read an article on Wikihow.” He announces proudly. Out the corner of his eye, he sees senpai scoff and turn away and he dies a little inside.

Chanyeol shrugs. “Eh, good enough. The team couldn’t make it today, just Kris, so it’s just gonna be us and his jealous .”

Tao gasps internally. Senpai? Jealous? No way. There’s nothing to be jealous of.

“Let’s see if you can pass.”

And just like that, the trials start.

***

After an hour of testing just about every element in the game, Kris realizes with a sigh that there really is nothing to be jealous about. Tao can’t catch, he can’t pass, hell, he can’t even run fast enough.

Ok, so Kris isn’t exactly the best player ever, but he’s pretty good at passing and that sort of stuff. The only thing he can’t do is shoot.

And it seems like the only thing Tao can do is shoot, because now that they’ve moved on he’s tossing ball after ball into the hoop perfectly each time while Chanyeol stares and stares and stares because holy  Tao needs to be on his team right now.

“You’re in!” Chanyeol shrieks and engulfs Tao in a bone-crushing hug while the other whimpers and sends puppy-eye looks to Kris, who scoffs again and looks away.

“We can send Zhou Mi to the bench, he’s never liked basketball anyway.” Chanyeol squeezes Tao tightly. “Oh my god, Taozi, you’re our savior.”

Kris bitterly stands up from where he’s been observing and turns to walk away. “Beginner’s luck.” He calls over his shoulder. “You can’t throw a ball into a hoop if you can’t even catch it in the first place.”

Chanyeol gasps in shock and rocks Tao comfortingly from side-to-side. “You just jelly, Wu Yifan. Jelly.” He yells after the retreating figure. “Jelly, I say!”

Kris waves goodbye without even looking back. He disappears around the corner, along with Tao’s hopes and dreams of being eternally together with senpai.

“It’s ok Taozi I think you’re amazing.” Chanyeol squishes Tao even tighter and Tao can’t breathe anymore. “Practice is on every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday so you’ll be seeing the rest of the team tomorrow. We’ll break you in then.”

Tao raises his eyebrows at the choice of words and would have protested (because Wednesday is anime night good ing lord) if not for the fact that he literally has no air in his lungs. He chokes and femininely hits Chanyeol in the chest with closed fists.

“Oh, right, sorry. I do that to everyone.” Chanyeol lets Tao go with a sheepish grin that doesn’t even look remotely guilty. “Ok, shoo now. Be on your way. Roam the lands.” Chanyeol casually shoos Tao away with several flicks of his hand in the general direction of the door. When Tao keeps on standing there obstinately, presumably to catch his breath, Chanyeol takes more drastic measures and nudges Tao out by means of poking dat fine .

“Stop poking my ow hey stop Chanyeol no.” Tao shrieks like a little girl and hops his way out of the court. He picks up his leopard print bag and stuffs a leopard print cap over his hair and quickly dashes out of school like a leopard because if he’s gonna be missing anime night tomorrow…

Then he has a lot to make up for. And, well, he’d better get started.

“I’m gonna finish watching One Piece.” Tao grits his teeth as he runs. A respectable dream that will never come true, but if there’s a will, there’s a way, right?

...

((no.))

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tao luvs him sum anime yus yus

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