"Come on Yuri! You've done this a million times, what's wrong with you today?" Nana yelled from outside the mats.

I bit my lips and looked down at my shoes, unable to answer her question. 

"Alright everyone, take five."

I muttered multiple apologies to everyone involved in my back tuck mount to gladiator. It wasn't an easy stunt but I had nailed it multiple times before today; I did not know what was wrong with me. Jungah was my mid-tier and she was an experienced senior, this stunt should have been a piece of cake but today I found myself either unable to complete my rotation or landing too far front or back of Jungah's leg, making her unable to catch me successfully.

I got off my mats and grabbed my water bottle before Nana’s shout of my name reached my ears. I sighed out loud despite the call being unexpected; I do after all deserve another one of her lectures which could turn out either good or bad, depending on her mood. Nana was a great captain who knew how to bond her team well, fostering a high degree of trust and reliance amongst us. All the flyers trusted their bases to ensure their safety, their mid-tiers to support them in their stunts and the bases in return depended on their flyers to shine. The Woollim cheerleading team was one big family indeed, just how a closely-knit team was supposed to feel like, the key to success.

I knew I deserved what Nana was about to throw at me, I had after all just broken this trust. I had given Jungah about twenty bruises on her thighs due to my bad landing positions and the YaDong couple had both suffered elbow jolts from me when I had one of my bad falls. My fingers unconsciously crossed themselves low in front of me as I stood in front of Nana.

“Yuri…what’s wrong with you today?” she asked me the same question for the second time today, a question which I could not answer.

I simply bowed down in shame and apologised.

“Sorry? Is that all you can say? We are only ten days away from competition Yuri. Ten days. That makes it exactly nine practices before competition if we have a session every day. We should be doing full routines by now, hopefully ten successful runs per session so we can hit a hundred. Why are we still perfecting individual stunts?”

I kept terribly silent, feeling extremely shameful, allowing Nana to continue the verbal abuse I knew I deserved.

“There was a reason why the committee selected you to be on the team, Yuri. We saw the potential in you and we could see that you were able to cope with the difficult stunts both physically and mentally. Now you are showing otherwise, you have to buck up if you want to remain on the team,” Nana threatened, almost making tears spring to my eyes.

“I’m sorry Nana, I will try harder and not disappoint the team.”

“Alright everyone, back on the mats. Let’s try that stunt again we have only fifteen minutes left.”

We got back on the mats with full force as I was geared and ready to go, energized by a passing good luck hug and kiss from Raina and Lizzy as well as a quick ‘we can do this’ from the YaDong couple.

However, today proved itself to not be my day as I continued struggling through the rest of the training session, barely succeeding with one smooth run after five tries. This was definitely not up to standard fit for nationals and I could the anger and disappointment in Nana’s eyes as she gathered the team for the cool-down and debrief.

“Ok everyone, I think we all can see that we’ve had a rather bad training session today so I need everyone to go home and rest well, please recuperate both your body and mind. I understand that stress is starting to get to us as the championships draw here and all of you are scared but you cannot let your nerves control your body and ruin your ability to execute the stunts. We have been doing this for the past months, we don’t want our efforts to go to waste right?”

The guilt was eating me alive as I chewed on my bottom lip.

“So…I have decided that we will be having training every day from now on until we hit one hundred perfect runs of the entire routine. We have wasted too much time today on one bloody stunt and we need to catch up. That’s it, you’re dismissed.”

I immediately ran up to Jungah to first apologize to her before continuing with the rest of the team individually, no one could deny that it was me that landed the team in such a position. However, they were all kind enough to wave it off, explaining that it wasn’t my fault and that this was merely measures put in place to prepare us for the nationals. Despite all the reassurances, I knew they were all just being nice. I just picked up my bag and started walking towards the gate since Woohyun wasn’t anywhere to been yet.

“Hey babe, don’t think too much alright? You’re great and today was just your off day. Tomorrow will be good ok?” Hoya caught up with me and slung his arm around me as he consoled me.

His boyfriend towed behind shortly and took the spot on my opposite side, keeping silent as a form of comfort. Lizzy and Raina’s cute voices could be heard behind as well as they chattered on non-stop about how they could help with making some of the stunts smoother.

It was only a couple more steps before Woohyun could be spotted walking towards my direction, waving his arms enthusiastically to catch my attention. It was unfortunately that I could not return his excitement as I remained down at my failure at training and Woohyun caught it immediately.

“What happened baby?”

I was thankful to have Lizzy answer on my behalf, explaining to Woohyun that I had a bad practice session and I also vaguely heard her requesting for Woohyun to cheer me up.

Woohyun kept silent throughout the walk back to my dorm, giving me my much needed personal space to reflect on my actions which I was extremely thankful for.

The smell of strawberries filled my nose the moment I unlocked the door and was surprised to find Seoul’s most famous strawberry shortcake sitting on my living room table; my ultimate favourite.

“That’s why I was a bit late, I drove all the way to the Tous Les Jours to pick this up. I know you’re going to be busy with practices these two weeks and you’d appreciate this little cheer-you-up delight.”

Touched tears sprang to my eyes as I snuggled into Woohyun’s chest, seeking comfort and expressing my gratitude at his sweet gestures. This was definitely why I loved Woohyun so much, he is always there for me knowing what to do.

“Come on baby, go enjoy your cake and take a shower, I’ll give you a massage later.”

That gave rise to a raised eyebrow from me as I started questioning his overwhelming giving character, “are you having dirty thoughts again?”

“Gosh baby no, shoo, stop being paranoid and eat your cake I painstakingly went to retrieve for you. I even skipped hanging out with the guys for you.”

“Thank you honey,” I graciously said as I placed a peck on his lips before diving into my mouth-watering dessert; ignoring the amount of calories in the much-needed comfort food.

The shower I took also helped in removing a large amount of tension from my muscles and I came out of the bathroom feeling refreshed with a y fiancé waiting on the bed with a bottle of oil in his hand.

“Come on baby, take off your shirt.”

“Whoa, I thought you said no dirty thoughts. Nam Woohyun!” I screamed at him.

“You’re wearing a bra right? I’m serious here. I promise no dirty thoughts. I just wanna give my stressed fiancé a treat.”

Despite the doubts in my head I removed my top anyway before lying on my front. However all negative thoughts flew out of my head the moment Woohyun’s strong fingers found my tight knots.

Within seconds, I was embarrassingly reduced to a pile of mess as my fiancé managed to hit all the right spots. The lavender scent emitted from the oil also acted as an effective stress-reducer and I found myself slowly drifting into slumber.

As Woohyun shifted into position to give me a head massage, I felt his hard-on poking into my -crack as he straddled me.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

I was too relaxed to care and simply giggled into the pillow as I melted under his touch once again. The session soon ended and I put my shirt back on before snuggling back under the comfortable covers.

“Join me baby?” I gently called out to Woohyun as I slid over to my side of my place and patted the other side.

“Erm…let me…take care of my…little…problem first.”

Guilt his me as I sleepily offered, “need my help?”