Yejin was absolutely exhausted. Although it was only the second day of school, junior year was not going as peacefully as Yejin had hoped. Teachers started actual lessons today and most of them assigned homework that was due the very next day. It was now the end of 7^th period and Yejin could only hope that the rest of the day would be better. *Next period… is gym. Ugh. I hope we don’t run or anything. And God forbid we do muscle building activities. Those are the worst…*

As Yejin kept ranting in her head about all the things she didn’t like about physical education, the bell rang to end the class. Her language teacher, Mrs. Cha, abruptly ended her spiel about the importance of figurative language in literature. “Class! Remember to finish reading the essay I gave you in class today and write a 600 word response. Typed!” she added as students packed up their backpacks and shuffled out the door. Yejin groaned and lumbered to the girls’ locker room on the first floor. Today, the students were actually ordered to change into their gym clothes, which meant that they’d be doing something active for the class.

Yejin scrunched her nose as she studied the gym outfits provided by the school, which consisted of a large red t-shirt with the school name on it and black track pants that had white stripes going down the sides. *Someone call the fashion police. Hurry!* Yejin thought as she reluctantly changed out of her school clothes. Once she was done changing, Yejin looked at herself in one of the full length mirrors that lined a wall of the changing room. She debated whether or not she should tie her hair up into a ponytail. In the end, she ended up tying it only because she didn’t want hair all over her face in case the students would be forced to run.

As all the students gathered into the large gymnasium, Mr. Lim began taking attendance. Yejin couldn’t help but notice the large group of BTS boys sitting together and joking around. The girl felt slightly jealous and lonely due to the lack of friends she had in this class. She sighed and hoped this class wouldn’t require a lot of group or partner work. As Mr. Lim finished taking the attendance, he started announcing the agenda for the day, causing all the students to quiet down and listen.

“Class, today, we will be playing dodgeball,” he started and the body of students let out a collective groan. Yejin facepalmed herself and started rehearsing a scene in her head where she would fake a stomach ache and ask to go to the nurse’s office. “You all know the basic rules: throw a ball at an opponent and the person who gets hit will be out; unless they catch it. In that case, the person who threw that ball is out. But I’ve noticed from past years that the game usually ends too quickly when a group of boys from one side is the remaining survivors,” Mr. Lim stated and everyone turned their heads to stare at BTS. Although some members a bit more than others, BTS was known for their athletic skills.

Most of them were on sports teams at the school and the ones that are could be acknowledged as the best players. Jungkook, Taehyung, Hoseok, Jimin, and Jin were especially athletic while Namjoon and Yoongi were decent competitors. “Therefore,” Mr. Lim continued, making all the students put their attention back on him, “I will be adding a couple of new rules.” The students looked at each other and shrugged, wondering what the new rules would be. “First off, in order for a team to be declared the winner, there MUST be at least one boy and one girl standing when the other team is defeated. That way, we can actually work on our teamwork skills and prevent the situation where one group of guys is the winner. Secondly, you will no longer be able to choose your teams. I will be numbering you off into either team 1 or team 2,” and at this second rule, everyone made dying whale noises.

Frankly, Yejin didn’t care which team she ended up on for a few reasons. First off, she knew she was probably going to be hit in the first minute of the game. Second, she was not competitive when it came to sports. Third, she didn’t have any friends in this class anyway.

When Mr. Lim approached the groups of BTS boys, he made sure to split them evenly. “Jungkook, Taehyung, Jin, and Yoongi. You guys are in team 1. Jimin, Hoseok, and Namjoon… team 2,” he stated before moving on. The guys parted and went to their respective side of the court.

Jin, being the oldest, gathered his three friends from his team before the match started. “Guys, we need a game plan,” he said. “We can’t just win by ourselves anymore. We need a girl standing with us when we win.” The boys stayed silent as they looked around at the players on their side.

“Yejin!” Taehyung suddenly piped up, pointing at the girl who was bouncing a red dodgeball by herself in a corner.

The corner of Jungkook’s lip went up. “We’ll have Yejin as one of the survivors when we win,” he said.

Jin raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure…? She doesn’t look exactly… athletic.”

Jungkook shrugged. “We’ll help her out,” he said and Jin nodded in understanding.

“Yoongi hyung, you got the game plan?” Taehyung asked, to make sure. Yoongi just lazily nodded in response.

Mr. Lim blew the whistle. “Alright guys! You have 30 minutes to become the winning team. Ready… GO!”

Almost immediately, red balls started flying all over the room. Yejin’s pathetic tactic was to stay hidden as far back as she could. As expected, more than half of the students were out within the first few minutes. Now, it was all the decent players dodging left and right as they tried to aim at their opponents. Yejin observed how strong the remaining players were throwing the balls to the other side and gulped. She didn’t dare try throwing a ball, as she guessed her ball wouldn’t even reach the other side. She now regretted not standing up front and just getting hit in the beginning, when it wouldn’t have hurt as much.

Yejin sighed and started shuffling towards the center line, awaiting her doom. *Better to embarrass myself now than later, right?* she asked herself. As one of the boys from team 2 spotted Yejin, he smirked and raised his right arm, which held a red rubber ball. Yejin gulped and shut her eyes. She couldn’t fathom the embarrassment she would experience if she happened to get knocked out from the ball in front of her entire class so she raised her arms over her head as a shield of protection.

When nothing happened, Yejin peeked from behind her arms. Standing in front of her was Yoongi, with a red ball in his hands. Confused, she looked around. *Where did the ball go?* she wondered. At that moment, Mr. Lim blew his whistle.

“Dongmin from team 2… OUT!” he announced and the boy who had aimed a ball at her left the court with his head hung low. The realization hit Yejin almost immediately and she stared at Yoongi with a dazed look.

“T-thank you…” she stuttered.

Yoongi shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. But don’t just stand there… try and dodge the balls, okay?” he advised before walking off to find another target.

Yejin just nodded as she silently retreated back to her corner. *Okay. Suicide attempt… fail. I guess I’ll try to stay alive in the game? Ugh who am I kidding…? I at this,* Yejin debated in her head. While she wasn’t paying attention, a red ball suddenly whizzed past her head and loudly smacked the wall behind her. Yejin eyes widened as she gasped from the shock. She turned around to see who had thrown the ball at her. It was a guy from team 2, who laughed at Yejin’s reaction.

Yejin’s face became red with embarrassment as she saw the opponent’s friends come over to him to high five him. However at that moment, Jin, who had saw what had happened, grabbed a red ball near his foot and threw a fast ball at the opponent. The boy on team 2 did not see it coming and the ball hit him straight in the chest.

Yejin heard Mr. Lim’s whistle again, along with a, “Youngjae from team 2… OUT!”

“Are you alright? The ball didn’t hit you, right?” Jin approached Yejin and the girl looked up with a grateful look.

“Yeah, I’m good. Thanks,” she smiled and slightly blushed.

Jin let out a relieved sigh and grinned, “No problem.”

The game was slowly coming to an end. As Yejin looked at the remaining players on her team, she panicked. *WHAT?! I’M THE ONLY GIRL LEFT? GREAT. NOW I’M GOING TO BE THE REASON WHY MY TEAM LOSES AND EVERYONE IS GOING TO HATE ME,* the girl realized. She let out and annoyed sigh. What was she to do in this kind of situation? If she stood still, she would get hit. If she threw a ball, it would be caught. *How did I even get this far? Like… dafuq?* Yejin continued in her mind.

From the other side, Jimin was getting ready to throw his next red ball. As he examined team 1, he noticed that if he could get Yejin out, his team would win right away since their team also had one girl left. Yejin made eye contact with Jimin and immediately knew she was his target. *Omgomgomg what do I do? Do I dodge it?! What if I get hit though?? I’m pretty sure he has a strong arm… then do I catch it?!?! Oh heck to the no. That is wayyy too risky!* she rambled in her mind. As she panicked, she eventually just stayed frozen like a deer caught in headlights, neither getting ready to dodge nor catch. “This is it… the part where I screw it up for my team…” Yejin whispered.

At that moment, Yejin felt a hand tightly grab her wrist and pull her from where she was standing. Everything happened so fast and Yejin felt her head spin as she collided with someone’s chest. Taehyung’s chest.

Yejin looked up at her savior with a bewildered expression. “Wha- How- You-“ Yejin couldn’t even complete her sentence.

Taehyung only giggled, causing his eyes to smile, and let go of Yejin, who immediately straightened herself up. “Stay safe, Yejin. You’re our only hope now,” Taehyung nodded and backed away.

“Oh okay thanks, way to put all the pressure on me,” she mumbled under her breath but truthfully, Yejin still had a hard time processing what had just happened. *Why is everyone saving me today??* she questioned.

As Yejin did another check of the game, she noticed that what Taehyung had said was right. Each team had all BTS members and only one girl remaining. However, the girl on team 2 was a true athlete. She had a strong throwing arm and was a fast runner because she was on the school’s softball team. *I think her name is Joohyun?* Yejin recalled. Nonetheless, Yejin did not see her discreetly take a ball in her hand and aim directly for her.

The entire gymnasium was full of students, each cheering on their own team. Yejin saw a ball rolling nearby her feet and decided to pick it up. As she was bending down, Joohyun quickly threw the ball towards Yejin; but at that moment, all Yejin noticed was a blurry figure jump in front of her and land on their back with a loud thud. She quickly looked to her side to see what had happened and noticed Jungkook laying on the ground. With a red ball in his hand.

“TEAM 1… WINS!” was what came out of Mr. Lim’s mouth and there was loud cheering.

Yejin just looked around with wide eyes. “Wait what? We won? Dafuq…” she said quizzically.

“Jungkook! Nice save man! The team totally owes you this one,” Yejin heard a student say and she stared at Jungkook. She gave him a questioning look with her head tilted to the side and he just winked at her.

A/N: Hey guys~ How'd you like this chapter? I think it's my longest one yet.

That moment when you have a load of homework but you do none of it because you're busy updating OTL

But I knew I had to update tonight because just with the last chapter, my number of subbies more than doubled!!!

And I know I still only have 10 subscribers and other authors be celebrating their 1000th sub or whatever but I'm so thankful.

You guys give me hope with your kind words of encouragement so please leave comments ^^ Thank you <333