As Xiumin had advised, after the bell had rung, Sehun rushed to the locker room, his backpack b with his sports attire. He had knotted the cleats together and thrown them over his shoulder. He sprinted to the halls and found the entrance to the boy’s locker room.

The rest of the team was almost completely changed. Sehun didn’t quite get how they did it. Did they teleport and change their clothes with some spell that he was simply unaware of? He was perplexed.

“Sehun! We saved a locker for you over here between Luhan and I.” Kai called, beckoning Sehun over with a wave of his hand.

Sehun smiled and rushed over to Kai. Kai opened up the locker for Sehun and Sehun promptly put his things inside.

“Xiumin also found some of his old shin guards and cleats for you too. He left them inside there.” Kai instructed, pulling on his goalie jersey.

“Oh. That’s awesome. But… I have cleats now.” Sehun said, displaying the brand new Nike cleats that had been sent to him anonymously.

“Whoa, dude, those are like, top of the line.” Kai gushed, walking toward Sehun with a star struck look on his brown eyes.

Sehun’s face got hot. He had to assume whoever gave them to him spent a pretty penny on them, due to Kai’s reaction of pure wonder. He suddenly felt very guilty and even a bit out of place. He didn’t deserve them and yet somebody had willingly gifted them to him. He felt unworthy and he also wasn’t a charity case…

“Where did you get these?” Kai asked, putting his hands on them.

Sehun hesitated. Should he tell the truth about them or lie to protect the person who had given them to him? It wasn’t his right to tell anybody. If the person wanted to remain anonymous, Sehun would protect them.

“Um… my mom gave them to me over the weekend, I forgot to wear them yesterday.” Sehun lied and Kai shook his head with jealousy.

“Your mom loves you a lot, those cost a fortune.” Kai commented before turning back to getting ready. He slowly pulled on his goalie gloves before slamming his locker shut.

Sehun pulled Xiumin’s old shin guards on, feeling overwhelmed by the amount of questions filling his head. He didn’t know how to act around Kai, he surely didn’t want to offend the guy, but he needed to protect the secret.

“So…... is Kyungsoo going to be here today?” Kai asked, pushing back his hair before tying a bandana in his dark hair.

Sehun chuckled. He was dumbfounded by Kai’s interest in his peculiar best friend but at the same time, it was good to know that people beside just himself liked the crazy guy for who he was.

“As always.” Sehun said, pulling off his jeans and jumping into his training shorts.

“Oh, good. I like having his positive energy around. I just wish he wasn’t so afraid of me, I want to introduce myself.” Kai shared, cracking his fingers and his neck in warm-up.

Sehun yanked his shirt off and replied, “I think that I can help you with that. Sometime during practice, give him this as a conversation starter and then introduce yourself.” Sehun handed Kai a chocolate bar that he kept for emergency Kyungsoo situations. There was nothing his best friend wouldn’t do for a Crunky bar.

Kai smiled and took the bar, shoving it into his pocket before running out of the locker room.

“DAMMIT!” Luhan’s voice boomed as he rushed into the locker room, clearly running behind as he was still in his school clothing.

Sehun was startled by the entrance and froze, besides his shorts and shin guards. While Sehun had been comfortable changing around the rest of his teammates, he felt incredibly self conscious after Luhan’s arrival. He had assumed that Luhan was already out on the field.

When Luhan saw Sehun, he froze too. The two boys breathed deeply, eyes connected intensely.

Sehun was the first to look away, the alarm on his phone letting him know that he was almost late for practice. He needed to hustle if he wanted to avoid Xiumin’s nagging and outward mocking and yet, he was rooted to the spot because of Luhan’s presence.

“Er- you’re late.” Sehun stammered before pulling on his practice jersey.

“I know. Minji was giving me a hard time about… things.” Luhan explained, throwing down his bag next to Sehun’s.

“Oh. Are you okay?” Sehun asked, a wave of concern for his friend rushing through him.

“I’m fine, she’s not, I mean, she totally has a right to be upset with me and stuff. It’s just all so confusing sometimes.” Luhan muttered, pulling off his own shirt as Sehun did up his cleats.

“I guess so. But if it’s confusing, is it worth it?” Sehun wondered aloud, wishing he could take the words back as soon as they had passed through his lips.

“Sorry. I have no right to comment on your relationship.” Sehun apologized, standing up straight.

“No. It’s totally fine. It’s good to get another perspective. Thanks.” Luhan said genuinely.

Sehun relaxed in relief. The last thing he wanted to do was to mess up his new friendship with Luhan. It meant too much already to screw it up.

“Nice cleats, by the way.” Luhan commented fleetingly as he finished getting dressed.

“We should, uh, get out there.” Sehun stated, and Luhan nodded in agreement.

The two guys jogged out of the locker room together and joined the rest of the team. Thankfully, they made it in the nick of time as Xiumin trilled the starting whistle.

The practice began and ran as usual, starting with conditioning and then moving onto ball skills.

Kyungsoo had accompanied Sehun to practice (against Sehun’s protests) and this time brought a large sign.

When Xiumin started a drill that Kai didn’t need to be involved in, he sauntered over to the sidelines and waved up to Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo’s breath quickened at the stranger waving toward him and he almost started to retreat when Kai pulled something out of his pocket. A Crunky Bar.

Kyungsoo felt utterly conflicted as he salivary glands began to work their magic. He wanted the chocolate bar but he was terrified of the person wielding it. That’s when he decided to take a leap of faith and walked down to Kai.

“Hi.” Kai greeted and Kyungsoo barely made eye contact, sweating under the pressure of interacting with someone he didn’t know.

Kai knew that this was probably as good as the exchange was going to get for now, so he handed the chocolate bar over to Kyungsoo, their fingers brushing only for an instant. The contact was just enough to get Kyungsoo to look up at Kai, their eyes locking for a moment that Kai made sure to lock into his memory. Kyungsoo’s eyes were so shockingly large that it made Kai’s breath hitch with curiosity.

“Thanks…” Kyungsoo muttered, clutching the candy in his hand like it was a treasure. He trailed off, realizing he didn’t know the name of who he was thanking.

“Jongin. My name’s Jongin but most call me Kai.” The dark-skinned boy responded and Kyungsoo nodded in understanding.

“Kyungsoo.” He blurted before scurrying away back to his spot on the bleachers.

Kai returned to his position is net, satisfied with how his first interaction with the guy had gone. He even caught Kyungsoo stealing glances at him between bouts of cheering for Sehun.

Sehun and Luhan had gone hard during practice and by the end of it, they were both exhausted and dripping with sweat.

When Xiumin dismissed them, the guys ran toward the lockers screaming, “SHOWERS!”

Panic struck him as he realized what that meant. He would have to somehow keep his composure while a unclothed Luhan showered near him.  Even the thought of it made him blush. What the hell had he gotten himself into?