Her wrist bent as the band wiped the sweat off her forehead. Taking her position again, the girl stood astride and readied to receive the shuttle that was aimed for the corner, but with her agility, the shuttle bounced off her strings and to the opponent’s back court. Yet her opponents were skillful enough to return it with ease towards her partner. The girl looked over to her partner that had a peculiar glint in his eyes that meant he was going to end this. Her partner expertly only allowed for the shuttle to graze over the net that it bounced on the white cloth a little and over. Panic was seen in her opponent’s eyes as they rushed for the shuttle that just made it over onto their side, but because the girl had set them to the back court, they couldn’t reach it in time. “Point set and match!”

Gripping her racquet tightly, the girl screamed out while her partner tackled her, “Yah! Jiwoong we are going onto the next round!”

The coach smiled before walking up to the two boys, “Nice nice. Jiwoong how does it feel to have Minho as your partner this time?”

Taeyeon finished taking a huge gulp of her water, “Minho is a nice partner but Nichkhun was good too. I don’t think it matters as much.”

The coach rubbed his chin, “I think Nichkhun will focus on singles this year because he is preparing for the Junior Olympics. With you and Minho as a pair, I think you could be our top doubles team.”

“I want to do singles too.” Taeyeon had a determined look in her eyes as those words spilt out of .

“Are you sure that isn’t too much for you Taeyeon? You are either going to be a doubles player or a singles player. I think you have better potential as a doubles player.”

Taeyeon had decided that she wanted to try for the Junior Olympics and that was a singles based tournament but she was hesitant to tell the coach about her plans because she didn’t know if she was going to be trying out for the boys team (to help her brother) or for the girl’s team (to secure her future), “You really don’t think it is possible to do both?”

“Nichkhun come here!” The coach yelled out before looking back at Jiwoong, “How about we find out with a friendly match. Doubles is played first which you just completed and now you have to play singles. I will be watching your stamina and obviously the outcome.”

Taeyeon gulped as she looked over to Nichkhun who was jogging over. She was tired from such a hard match with her teammates that was going to decide the order of play within the team against other schools, but now she had to play a full singles match without a break. She seriously was lacking confidence as the boy who just finished stretching stood before her, “Well well it looks like an interesting match up.”

Taeyeon scoffed in her head at the boy’s remark before holding out her hand, “Good match.”

The boy smiled as he shook back, “Like wise.”

-----------------------------

Jessica’s legs were sore from the intense practice so she lagged behind her other teammates that were always filled with so much energy. It never made sense to her how they could jump, let alone walk, with the practices that became more intense. However, as she was walking, her eyes caught a whole bunch of people looking into the gym that the badminton team used, “I wonder why so many people are looking in...”

Knowing her girlfriend must be in there, Jessica stopped following her teammates that were going to get food so she could find out what was going on in the gym. As she approached the other people who were looking in, she saw a classmate she knew, “Hey what is going on in there that people came over?”

Seeing that he knew the person that was talking to him, “Jesse you really didn’t hear that Nichkhun is playing a practice match with the new kid?! The whole school knows.”

“New kid? What is so special about this match...” Jessica mumbled as she tried to get a better look.

Her classmate knocked on Jesse’s head, “Seriously do you only know about soccer? Nichkhun and that kid Jiwoong are the top contestants to make the Junior Olympic this year. Everyone knows that. This match is epic! Having two people that could represent our country in the future are matched up even before the season starts. You could say this match will decide who will be the next Olympic badminton player!!!”

Jessica blocked out everything when she heard that it was her girlfriend was playing Nichkhun, “Jiwoong better kick that guy’s .” Continuing to mumble to herself, Jessica squeezed in further to get a better look. Out of amazement, she saw the gym’s bleachers filled with other students cheering for the two players on the center court. Even all the other badminton players stopped their practice to watch this match unfold. Never would she have thought that badminton would be so popular, but she did remember that at her practice soccer match, many of the boys came to watch her teammates play each other. This school really liked sports...

Minho saw Jesse looking in so he reached to pull him in, “Jesse your roommate is amazing!”

Jessica smiled as she finally entered the gym and looked up at the score, “So umm who is winning...I don’t really understand this game.”

Minho pointed to the left of the board, “You see that 1 says that Jiwoong won a game,” Minho then pointed to the right side of the board, “But you see that Nichkhun also won one game. In badminton you play the best out of three. The larger numbers is the current game score which you play up to 21.”

Jessica looked at the score, “Wow this is tight, 10-10 and whoever wins this game will win the match....wow...just wow...” Never did Jessica think Taeyeon was this good. I mean she was a girl that was playing one of the top boys in the school and maybe nation for his age and she was holding her own against him.

“You know what is awesome is that Jiwoong played doubles with me earlier while Nichkhun didn’t play any matches before this one. That little boy’s stamina must be something.” Minho was watching the match as if his biggest idol were on that court.

Jessica observed her girlfriend as she saw the dark circles under her eyes and a dazed look, “Minho who won the first match?”

“Jiwoong 21-18.”

“So Nichkhun won the second...”

“He won 25-23.”

“But that is more than 21?”

“You have to win by 2 points. It was a shame because Jiwoong was in the lead by 5 points but Nichkhun came back so fast.”

Jessica sighed, “I think he is tired.”

Minho shrugged his shoulders, “Maybe but he is still doing well.”

Jessica sighed in worry, “I don’t think it is just his body that is getting tired...his mind is too. Jiwoong is at his limits.” That look was very familiar to Jessica as she has seen it numerous times in the room when Taeyeon was ready to collapse from exhaustion (due to activities your author will not disclose).

Minho scrunched his face, “You think? That is such a shame. Anyone with eyes can see that Jiwoong should beat Nichkhun and you can see that from Nichkhun’s face. Our team captain only becomes super serious like this if he is playing someone who is at his level or higher.”

Jessica had her eyes locked on Taeyeon as she wiped her sweaty hand on her pants while walking back to the line to receive the next point. Taeyeon’s legs bent as she watched for the shuttle to go over. Jessica could see the slight twitch of hesitation in Taeyeon’s leg as it moved forward to hit the shuttle back but the twitch of hesitation was still there as she went back to prepare for Nichkhun’s counter attack that she luckily reached out for blindly and hit it, but the placement of her next shot was not ideal and Nichkhun slammed the shuttle down onto the back corner. Jessica groaned as the crowd cheered. Just from one the one point, Jessica could see that Taeyeon’s legs must feel like lead that were hard to move. She was no longer going to be agile and that was what was going to make her lose the match.

“21-15 set and match!” The crowd rushed towards the winner but Jessica went towards the defeated player that went to sit on the chair.

Bending down, Jessica looked up into Taeyeon’s eyes that were half-lidded, “You did well.”

Taeyeon was surprised to see her girlfriend here, “Were you here the whole time?”

“Just for the last game. Sorry.”

Taeyeon groaned as she reached for her water that was empty, “So you came to see me lose.”

Jessica saw that Taeyeon’s bottle was empty so she reached into her bag and took out her water that still had some left, “No. I saw you take on one of the best junior badminton players who is a boy and almost defeated him if you were not so tired. Everyone thinks you could have beat him if you were not so tired from your doubles match.”

Taeyeon took the bottle Jessica offered to her, “Who were you talking to?”

“Minho, but I could hear your other teammates talking too.”

Taeyeon let out a bitter chuckle, “Almost doesn’t cut it. I lost.”

Jessica stood up and patted Taeyeon on the shoulder, “I will treat you to ice cream for your loss because I am proud of you.”

Taeyeon looked up in amazement, “You are proud I lost?”

Jessica crossed her arms, “The next time you play him, you will win so being merciful once is pretty nice of you.”

“Are you serious?”

Jessica laughed, “No but I am still proud of you. Even if you don’t believe it, you played well enough for everyone here to think you deserve to be on the Junior Olympics team.”

Taeyeon laughed as she let Jessica help her up, “Ice cream you say?”

“Kim!”

Taeyeon separated from Jessica as she heard her coach coming up, “Hey I will message you. I forgot I am still in practice.”

Jessica smiled as she reached for Taeyeon’s empty bottle to put in her bag, “I am going to leave my bottle here for you. We can get ice cream when you finish.”

Taeyeon gave Jessica one last smile before running off to meet her coach.

--------------------------

“So what is a pretty girl like you doing here staring at her phone.”

Jessica jumped in fright with a boy mentioning she was a girl, but her fear quickly turned to anger when she realized who it was, “Taec...seriously don’t do that!”

Taecyeon was laughing at Jessica’s reaction, “Do what?”

“Say the g-word around me.”

“I came up to you because you were alone and literally no one is around you. Where is that roommate of yours?”

Jessica rested her head on her hands, “Talking to her coach...for an hour.”

“Oh...no wonder you look glum.”

Jessica raised her head, “Have you seen other members of the badminton team around?”

“Some but I haven’t seen Nichkhun...maybe the coach is talking to both of them.”

Jessica put her head back on the table, “Seriously what takes an hour to talk about.”

Taecyeon patted Jessica on the back, “I am sure she will be here soon.”

“I never feel comfortable when Nichkhun is with Tae...” Just then a man caught Jessica’s attention, “Wait...isn’t that their coach?”

Taecyeon turned to take a better look, “Oh I think you are right.”

Jessica stood up, “I think I will go...nice talking to you Taecyeon.”

Taecyeon waved, “Anytime.”