“Excuse me,” Hana said, approaching a plain-looking boy sitting on a bench. He is casually bouncing a tennis ball with his racket. “Do you know who Kim Joonmyeon is?”

“Suho? Er, yeah. I’ll take you to him.” The boy stands up, smoothly tucking away the tennis ball into his pocket. Hana follows him as he weaves through the crowd. The boy finally arrives at the water stand, where a tall man is fiddling with a water spout. His back is turned towards Hana and the boy.

“Hey, Suho.” The boy snaps his fingers, and Suho turns around. Hana’s eyes shoot up. Damn.

Joonmyeon has smooth, neat brown hair, brushed cleanly to the side. He is dressed in a white tennis top and crisply ironed shorts. And the killer smile Joonmyeon shoots Hana makes her cheeks flush.

“Hi,” Hana says.

“Hey, Donghae.” Kim Suho greets the other boy before turning to Hana. “Hi. Who are you?”

“Oh, I’m Hana- I mean, Professor Oh. Your tennis partner,” Hana smiles.

“Wow, Professor Oh?” Kim Joonmyeon lets out a low whistle. “I’ve heard a lot about you. But I wasn’t expecting you to be so-,”

“Wait, what? You’re Professor Oh?” Donghae gawks. “Wow. I thought you would be meaner. No offense.”

“Uh... thanks,” Hana laughs. “Hey, Joonmyeon, I was thinking we could rally a little bit, so we could get a feel for each other’s tennis styles. Are you available right now?”

“Yup! I was just filling up my water jug,” Joonmyeon replies cheerfully, holding up a gallon-size water bottle. “Let’s go hit. See you on the courts, Donghae.”

“Thank you, Donghae,” Hana waves, and she and Joonmyeon make their way to an empty tennis court. Donghae is still gaping at Hana in surprise.

“Okay, I understand you might not have played tennis before,” Joonmyeon tells Hana as they get on opposite sides of the tennis court. “And that’s totally fine. I’ll just feed you a soft ball and you hit it.”

“Um-,” Hana tries to say, but Joonmyeon cuts her off.

“Are you ready?” He slightly taps a tennis ball over the net. “Now, try your best to-,”

A ball whooshes past Joonmyeon so quickly he doesn’t have time to react. He watches as it lands right onto the baseline and spins forward.

Joonmyeon slowly turns towards Hana. She is twirling her tennis racket with her right hand, giving him a cheeky grin.

“Damn,” Joonmyeon breathes. “Professor Oh, are you forgetting to tell me something? Like, I don’t know, something along the lines of ‘I won the French Open’?”

“I’m not that good,” Hana laughs. Her cheeks are tinted pink. “And in my defense, I did try to tell you that you didn’t have to feed it so lightly.”

“Let’s start rallying for real now.” Joonmyeon feeds a ball that is much trickier to hit than the last one. He intentionally puts backspin on it. Hana, however, has no trouble getting to the ball. She slams it back at him, accurately aiming at his backhand.

Within 5 minutes of Hana and Joonmyeon’s tennis warm up they have attracted a large crowd of students.

“Holy , is that Professor Oh?” one boy gasps. “She is so good. And Suho’s her partner... yeah, they’re going to win.”

“Professor Oh looks so cute in a tennis skirt, and she’s old. I hate my life,” another girl pouts.

15 minutes later, a voice rings through the tennis center: “All participants in the teacher-student tournament, please make your way to the podium! We’re going to start!”

Hana and Joonmyeon are absolutely convinced that they are going to win. They are extremely happy with each other’s skills; the two even made a handshake guaranteed to demonstrate their supremacy on the tennis court via fist bumping and hand slapping. Hana and Joonmyeon make their way to the podium, enthusiastically discussing the best kinds of doubles plays.

“I’ll be right back,” Joonmyeon tells Hana. “I’ll go check who we’re playing first.”

“Gotcha!” Hana smiles, and Joonmyeon hurries away. She takes a seat on a bench, leisurely tossing a tennis ball up and down. Suddenly, the sound of squealing causes Hana to look up.

And her breath is literally snatched away from .

Kai is leaning against the chain-link of the tennis court walls, running a hand through his tousled blond hair. He is dressed in a dry-fit white shirt that clings to every contour of his chiseled abs. The sunlight hits his body perfectly, giving Hana the impression that Kai is literally sizzling. And his eyes... his deep, chocolate-colored pools are blazing with determination and confidence. Groups of giggling girls and admiring boys are surrounding Kai.

Hana gulps. Hard.

As if sensing her gaze, Kai’s eyes land on Hana. He says something to the people next to him, and they all turn towards Hana- and then start laughing. She tenses uncomfortably.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Joonmyeon returns to Hana’s side. “What are you looking at?” Hana gestures towards Kai, and Joonmyeon stiffens.

The superior look on Kai’s face is wiped off the moment he sees Joonmyeon. The two men stare at each other, intense expressions on their faces. Hana’s eyebrows shoot up.

“Hey, Joonmyeon,” Hana says softly, after several moments. She tugs on his shirt sleeve. “We should go.”

“Right,” he says, clearing his throat. Joonmyeon tears his eyes away from Kai. “Hana, let’s beat him. Okay?”

“Okay,” Hana laughs, still confused. She grabs her tennis bag and follows him to Court 3, where the two will be playing their first match. Before Hana leaves, however, she glances at Kai one last time.

He is staring at her with an unreadable expression on his face.

Kai is pissed. Very, very pissed.

An image of Hana gently pulling on Suho’s shirt and tenderly speaking to him flashes through Kai’s mind. Why was Hana so affectionate towards that bastard?  It makes him sick.

Kai doesn’t know why, but his chest is aching. Hana looks so cute today. What if he was the one playing doubles with her? What if Hana smiled for him every time he made a good shot, or they won a game?

Instead, his worst enemy will be receiving those actions.

“I have to beat them,” Kai mutters.

His first game goes well. Although his partner, Professor Kim, is klutzy and incompetent at tennis, he is a nice man. Therefore Kai makes an effort to block the tennis balls whizzing at Professor Kim’s face.

Kai won’t tell any of his friends, but he doesn’t like taking bets to peg teachers. If he hits teachers, he will lose their favor. And if he loses their favor he can wheedle them into less things.

Plus Kai is squeamish about intentionally hurting people. As corny as it sounds.

So Kai restrains himself. Doesn’t show the opposing teams- who are much worse than him- the full power of his tennis skills. It works. For example, after Kai’s 2nd game, Professor Dae (whom he and Professor Kim were playing against) promises to buy him ice cream because Kai didn’t murder her with tennis balls.

Unfortunately, this cool facade only manages to last until the beginning of the 3rd game.

Kai and Professor Kim are playing against Baekhyun and Professor Hong. It’s no big deal... unfortunately, Hana and Suho are playing on the court next to them.

“Yay, good job Suho!” Kai hears Hana cheer after Suho slams a ball into the alleyway of the tennis courts. He turns towards them- and immediately regrets it. Hana is beaming up at Suho, an ecstatic expression on her face.

And as Kai watches, Suho gently tucks a piece of sweaty hair on Hana’s forehead behind her ear.

“Hey, Kai, are you planning to serve anytime soon?” Professor Kim asks him.

“Right now,” Kai growls, and slams the tennis ball down so hard that it nearly takes Professor Hong’s hat off. He screams and rolls over to the side.

As the game progresses, Kai gets angrier and angrier. He can see Suho and Hana flirting around like a ing married couple. Therefore Kai hits balls harder, and he doesn’t make an effort to avoid hitting Professor Hong or Baekhyun.

“I didn’t know you could play so well,” Professor Kim says, an uneasy expression on his face.

"Calm down, loser," Baekhyun calls to Kai. "If you kill me, I'll never be able to pay back the 20 bucks I owe you."

"If you don't decapitate me I will give you a 100 in my class for the whole year," Professor Hong squeaks.

I need to get a hold of myself, Kai thinks.