“Why are we here so early?” Hyukjae grumbled.

“Because on-the-field success and high participation in sports is not random, it requires focus and dedication to athletics,“ I recited. Honestly I just needed to check whether Hyukjae is capable to at least kick the ball or if I should back down from the bet.

“And this is from which book?” Hyukjae was making no effort in moving and decided to sit on the cold ground instead.

“Stand up Hyukjae. You asked me to help you so behave now,” I scolded the elder.

“Yessir!” He suddenly jumped up startling me completely. I regained my composure and gestured to the field. Hyukjae sighed but followed me on the grass.

The white head told me straight that he counts with me as the captain of his make-shift team. I, Hyuk and four other students would need to win this ridiculous match. Minho would have five of the university soccer team players and tons of experience on top of it. No matter how I look at it, we have no winning chance.

“Okay, I´ll go to the goal post and you try to score,” I instructed and threw him the ball I was holding all this time.

Hyukjae nodded sleepily and started stretching. I in the mean time walked to stand in front of the white net. I felt like I was doing something completely useless and unproductive but according to Hyukjae, the change in the university team was needed and I decided to believe in him. If the school prospers from it, I might as well give it a little exercise.

“I´m ready!” Hyukjae yelled at me and I prepared for his attack. The older teacher made a few long steps and kicked the ball with surprising speed and accuracy. The ball effortlessly ended in the goal and I was left staring at the unexpected athlete in front of me. No, this isn´t possible. This wacko is a total klutz, he can´t do sports. I picked up the ball and sent it back to Hyukjae. He was just lucky, this time I´ll catch the ball.

Hyukjae shook his legs to relax his muscles and looked at the empty spot on the left next to me. So easy I thought and when I saw him kick the ball I rushed to the left to catch the shoot. Unfortunately Hyukjae shot the opposite direction he was looking at and I ended up on the ground very far from the ball. To be honest my ego was hurt by this and I became suddenly serious. Throwing the ball at Hyukjae again I waited for the next shoot. He scored again, impossible! From the following six hits I could catch only two and making the sad reality sink in I called it my defeat.

“So, will you play with me? I´m not the best but you shouldn´t give up on me so soon,” Hyukjae brought me a bottle of water and sat next to me on a bench.

“You knew I wanted to give up?” I asked him and sipped from the bottle.

“Not hard to guess,” he chuckled, “but I had to practise till late at night yesterday. I haven´t played since high school,” the white head confessed. So he was practising here the whole night? No wonder he looked tired this morning. Is the match this important to him?

“Why do you put so much effort in this bet?” I asked him honestly.

“There are more reasons. First I want the team to feel stronger and more confident after I extinguish that flaming charisma Minho,” I laughed at that. It´s true that the economy teacher gets sometimes overly competitive but I also had to agree that Hyukjae´s reasoning sounded convincing. The kids might really gain from this bet. “And secondly,” he continued, “I would feel embarrassed between you two athletes with my lousy skills. But I don´t think the practise helped much.”

“Don´t worry, Hyuk,” I patted his back, “you are not bad at all. I even think we have some nice chances against them,” I gave him a smile. Something I wouldn´t expect from myself.

“Thanks, Donghae. We will crush them on Friday,” Hyukjae announced and helped me up. I watched the thin man walk towards the school in exhaustingly slow pace. I would support the man with all my might. He´s a nice guy inside and not as crazy as I thought, and according to my findings, school-sponsored sports appear to provide benefits that seem to increase, not detract from, academic success.

The next few days we spent by training. After school we would gather the kids and together we would prepare for the match. I was established as the trainer and captain of our small team of volunteers while Hyukjae was apart from the player playing the role of our nurse and cheerleader. Speaking of cheerleaders, Hyukjae sometime during teaching hours managed to collect about ten girls and even some boys that would cheer on us during the match. I was surprised how big this little bet over cupcake grew. But at the same time I was ready for the challenge.

Before we knew it the D-day was here. The news about our little fight got spread among all faculties and when I arrived to the field I was horrified by the amount of students that came to watch. I gulped loudly and my eyes kept darting over the audience. This doesn´t look good.

“Welcome to our battlefield!” I spun around to catch a sight of Lee Hyukjae who was holding a mike in his hand and acting like a ing MC. “On the right we have our incredible school soccer team with The Great flaming charisma, Choi Minho as the captain,” Hyukjae gestured and the students started cheering loudly. “On the left is standing our impromptu made but definitely not to be underestimated team with The Handsomest of the teachers, perfect boyfriend material Lee Donghae!” I choked on the introduction but nobody could hear me over the unbelievable roar coming from the students. Are we that popular?

Hyukjae then gave up his MC position to Park Jungsoo, who appeared out of nowhere, and went to prepare for the match. I was getting distracted by Hyukjae´s white apple hairstyle decorated with pink ribbon and hoped our opponents would feel the same at least. We could score thanks to that hairstyle some.

“Don´t worry, we trained hard so we will win. Don´t let them look down on you,” Hyukjae told us and with that last sentence we went to disperse on the smaller than usual field. The match itself would be shorter since we lacked players and mostly seriousness in sport required.

The game started and Minho immediately got a hold of the ball. Our goal keeper was already shaking and I was worried that we might not be able to withstand even for a minute. But luckily Hyukjae was good in defence with his hairstyle and all. At first he tried to steal the ball from Minho but the economy teacher has way too long legs. What our opponent forgot, though, was that Lee Hyukjae isn´t just an ordinary person. The white haired teacher changed his tactics and instead sprinted towards his own goal post. There he climbed up and with an unbelievable precision imitated monkey.

“What the hell?” Were Minho´s last words before he tripped over his own feet and unceremoniously fell on the ground. Our team didn´t wait for him to get up and stole the ball. Our opponents still astounded didn´t stand a chance against mine and Lee Junki´s, psychology student that plays pretty well, matched attack. We scored a goal and the audience screamed.

To make it short, the rest of the game went about the same.  Minho would try to break through but would end up shocked either by Hyukjae´s unexpected skills or his unbeatable sense of humour. This way we managed to beat the school´s university team five against two points. And when Park Jungsoo announced the end of our match, everyone sprinted towards Hyukjae. Even I couldn´t help but jump at the lithe man that of course couldn´t withstand it and fell down on his . I didn´t even feel guilty how excited I was from our crashing victory.

“Hyuk, you are a genius!” I told him and gave him a hug.

“That´s nice but I-I can´t breathe, guys,” Hyukjae croaked from under the mountain of people on him. We pulled the poor excuse of a human up on his tiny but perfectly shaved legs and continued patting him. “I have something to announce, give me the mike, Leeteuk!” Hyukjae demanded and in the hectic situation everybody ignored his improper way of addressing the director.

“Ehm, ehm,” he spoke into the microphone and everyone tried to calm down to hear his speech. “As you all know this game was based on a single bet between me and Mr. Choi. So I happily announce that Choi Minho has resigned from his spot to fill the place of a goal keeper,” loud cheering interrupted Hyukjae for a bit before he could continue, “but our great university team doesn´t need to worry since my team´s players are going to support them with all they got. Please applause!” Another roar and cheering filled the field. I wanted to give Hyukjae thumbs-up but the guy already disappeared in the crowd somewhere. I sighed and decided to return home.

“Wait for me!” Suddenly I got ambushed by the white monkey. “You were awesome today, thanks,” he simply said and ruffled my hair. Oh , don´t tell me I just blushed.

Hi! Gosh, this chapter is a bit too long. Well, I hope you still like it. I´m not very satisfied with this story so far and when I read it, it seems pretty messy. I might end it sooner than later but for now I don´t have any better idea. :) I hope SJ will start winning some program from next week. 2PM are having their comeback too but I hope it won´t affect SJ too much. Anyway, what´s with all that Donghae cosplay?! Are they playing some game again? Or is it a bet too? Thank you for reading and take care of yourself, guys. - Painter PandaHero