"You did what?!" Krystal yelped, inhaling half her glass of orange juice through her nose and then choking on it. Hyejin sighed and patted her back till she was okay. Krystal her, eyes as wide as saucers.

"You challenged Kris friggin Wu to a basketball game?!" she spluttered at Hyejin.

"Technically, he challanged me..." Hyejin muttered. 

"And you agreed?!" Krystal fumed at her, "What were you even thinking?"

"Wasn't thinking." mumbled Hyejin.

"When is the game again?" Krystal asked, hopelessly.

"Today evening..." Hyejin groaned.

"Congratulations! You are royally screwed!" Krystal threw up her hands sarcastically.

"Now you're plain insulting me!" Hyejin frowned at her, "I can play basketball, you know!"

"Honey," Krystal grabbed her shoulders with an exaggerated air of patience, "You've only ever played with girls. No matter how strong you appear when playing with girls, IT DOESN'T MAKE YOU STRONG ENOUGH TO BEAT KRIS WU!"

"I can play well enough to not make a fool of myself!" Hyejin snapped at her.

"Hyejin! What if Kris is too aggressive on court? What if you get hurt or something?" Krystal shook her roughly.

"I can play rough too!" Hyejin yelled back at her, 

"You wish!" Krystal snorted, flipping her hair.

"You wish!" Hyejin mock-imitated her, fliiping her hair as well.

Krystal rolled her eyes at her and got up from her seat. "I still have a class to go to." she said, "You should use this free hour to go...practice?"

"I should?" Hyejin bit the lowed lip uneasily, "Kris will never let it go if he finds me practicing! I made such a show of confidence!"

"Seriously?" Krystal narrowed her eyes at her, "Of all the things you should be worrying about, you worry about Kris Wu picking on this matter?"

"You're right..," Hyejin sighed, "I'll go score some baskets before the actual game."

"Don't tire yourself out completely though!" Krystal yelled as she walked out of the cafeteria.

"I won't!" Hyejin yelled after her, standing up herself. She swung her bag over her shoulders and slowly walked to the basketball court. She could hear the thwacking of a ball against the ground and hastened her pace to see who beat her to the court.

"Lay?" she called out, watching the boy successfully throwing the ball into the basket. He turned to her with his dimpled smile and she couldn't help but smile back.

"Hyejin?" he ran to her, "You're here early. The match isn't till another two hours, is it?"

"No," Hyejin shook her head, "I came to...practice... Now go ahead and laugh!"

Lay chuckled. "Why would I laugh?"

"Because I'm here to practice?" Hyejin bit her lip.

Lay laughed out loud. "Oh God Hyejin! Aren't you adorable?"

"Don't!" Hyejin yelped, slamming her palm on Lay's mouth, "Don't call me adorable!"

Lay raised his hand in surrender and nodded. Hyejin slowly removed her palm, cautiously checking around to see if anyone had heard him. Lay smiled to himself. There was something incredibly drawing about this girl. And Lay was finding himself inexplicably drawn towards her.

"Whew!" sighed Hyejin in relief, "I don't think anyone heard that!"

"Why would that be such an issue, though?" Lay asked her, genuinely curious.

"Oh, I dunno. Adjectives like adorable and sweet make me appear weak." Hyejin shrugged, "I don't like to appear weak."

"You're very far from weak, Hyejin." Lay told her, sincerely. Hyejin smiled at him. It was her special smile. Her genuine smile. It came out only when Hyejin smiled from her heart. 

"Thanks Lay."

This. This is the point where Zhang Yixing fell in love with Cho Hyejin.

***

"You ready?"

"Uhuh."

"You nervous?"

"A little."

"You scared?"

"Very."

"You know you're screwed?"

"Yeah."

"You know Kris Wu is gonna kick your ?"

"I do."

"You still gonna do this?"

Hyejin turned and looked at Krystal firmly in the eye.

"I'm not going down without a fight." she said, more confidently than she felt.

"Spoken like my girl!"

"Lay? What are you doing here?" Krystal asked, turning to the new addition.

"Me?" Lay asked, pointing to himself, "I'm h