Byunghun couldn't wait to get his hands on the rubber ball. He anxiously stared at the crowd through the thick curtains watching the audience members get seated by the staffs around the campus.

It was reported that all the sports team were to introduce the students (mainly the first- years) what their club had to offer. For every club, today was the battle ground for getting the first-years interested enough to join their club. However, since the basketball club was already pretty big, the members didn't sweat it too much. They all had a different approach when it came to this kind of event. Representing the basketball club was a big chance for all the participating players to impress the coach and the girls.

He checked his blond hair in front of a mirror, wondering if he should go back to dying it black. The team members didn't have any opinion on dying hair, as several other teammates had their hair blond. The school didn't have any strict rules about hair color, but Byunghun knew that the girls were desperate for guys in black hair. Apparently, guys with their natural hair looked more "handsome" or "less rebellious" and "more reliable," as quoted by his love-expert friend, Dasom.

"Byunghun! We're getting warmed up," Daehyun, one of the basketball members, informed him. "Want to jog in pace with us for a few minutes?"

"Hold it!" a feminine voice shouted.

Byunghun turned around and felt his head spin. A splash of cold water drenched his white jersey and his perfectly combed hair. Naturally, he would scowl, but this was special. His eyes met the girl of his dreams–or, actually, the girl he's been crushing on for quite awhile.

"Hey! Luna, quit it, will you?" Daehyun complained after getting splashed. "Or should I call you Sunyoung?"

"Shut up, Daehyun. You know that there's only one person who can call me by my real name," Sunyoung retorted, rolling her eyes. She stuck out her tongue while flipping her short blond hair in front of his face. "Besides, this is important! If you manage to stand at the right spot, the 'sweat' will glisten and the girls' eyes are going to twinkle."

"Again, we don't really need all this, Sunyoung. We have plenty of team members in this club, so we don't have to impress the girls much. Besides, this is an all-boy basketball team. There's no reason to recruit the girls," a chisel-featured man said, approaching the three.

"Yeah, listen to the captain!" another teammate hollered across the room.

"B-But Jongdae—"

The basketball captain shushed her by bringing her close to his chest, embracing her with his thick muscles. She blushed and turned bright red as she hid her face from the crowd.

"Ew, get a room you two!" Daehyun shouted, clearly disgusted to see such a lovey-dovey interaction.

"Shut up, Daehyun. You're just jealous that you don't have a girlfriend as great as mine," Jongdae said, giving his girlfriend a quick peck on the forehead.

The corner of Byunghun's lips twitched. He had only gotten news of their relationship yesterday after hearing how Jieun had gotten into a fight with some of the younger girls. As much as he didn't want to hear it, he discovered that the two had been meeting up during vacation and had gotten close. According to the latest rumors, his crush and his captain were dating for the past two weeks.

It's just two weeks, Byunghun kept assuring himself. They'll break up sooner or later.

However, at the rate the two were going, Byunghun almost wanted to give up on the thought of pursuing his love for Sunyoung. It was annoying to see them be together, but Byunghun didn't have the rights to say anything. Besides, he was sure that he would've done the same if he was dating the captain's girlfriend.

He balled up a fist, then looked at the stage. The curtains opened, and the entire student body clapped their hands. Some were clearly interested to hear what clubs or afterschool activities the school had to offer, while others just watched with boredom. The vice principal went up to the stage, welcoming everyone (old or new) back to school, ignoring whether they wanted to come back or not. He introduced everyone to the student council body, where Taemin and his cabinet sat in a straight row.

Byunghun noticed how awfully beautiful the woman next to him was. She looked sophisticated, yet her facial expressions brought out her youth. He figured that the vice president was a first-year, but he thought it was impossible for first-years to hold a spot in the cabinet. The girl sitting next to Taemin had smooth, black hair that brushed against her shoulders. She had large eyes which didn't avert away from the audience, and her small nose helped emphasize her doll-like features.

"Now, I would like Lee Taemin, your student council president to make his speech. Afterwards, I'd like my granddaughter and the vice president of the student council, Jung Soojung, to come up and introduce the clubs as they come out and present themselves one by one," the old man said, turning back to his seat as Taemin rose to the podium.

Ah, so that's how the first-year got into the cabinet. She used her grandpa's authority. Sneaky, Byunghun thought, smirking as he took another look at the crowd. He finally saw his five friends in the audience.

Dasom was sitting next to Junhee, who quietly read a book in order to look away from the performances. He chuckled when he saw the leader of their group try to chat with the independent woman, who remained calm and silent. He looked across from them and saw Eunji sitting alone, but she was sitting next to a timid guy who looked older than they did. Jieun was sitting at least four rows behind them, sniffing Hyunwoo's hair, who unfortunately sat in front of her.

Finally, Byunghun broke into a grin as he watched Taemin finish his speech and sit back down at his chair.

"Hey." Sunwoo, one of the best defenders on the team, tapped on Byunghun's shoulder.

The skinny boy looked startled as he turned around and faced the third-year who had an oddly large nose.

"Oh, what's up?" Byunghun asked curiously.

"We're going up soon. Captain wanted me to find you," he said in a husky voice. He let out a sigh. "It's too bad that Luna decided to quit being the manager. I hope the next managers aren't going to be annoying. Remember how she had to chase those annoying fake managers away so that we could practice? Man, girls who lie aren't cool!"

Byunghun was about to agree until he heard Soojung call up the basketball team. From behind, Jongdae rested his hand on Byunghun's shoulder. He gave him an encouraging grin, causing Byunghun to dislike him even more than he did.

"Ready?" Jongdae ask.

"Actually, I–"

"Go!" the captain shouted, pushing Byunghun onto the stage.

Suddenly, orange basketballs flew up in the air, bouncing back down as gravity did its job. Sunyoung appeared across the stage, holding up a basketball loop for the guys to shoot. Everyone scored into the basket except for a few sloppy players who kept stumbling around. Byunghun, on the other hand, saw the chance to make a perfect shot: everyone else was dribbling and the basket was open. From where he believed would be a three-pointer, he readied himself to score until he spotted another ball fly over his head, making it into the basket. 

The audience erupted into cheers. The magnificent shot had awed several people, especially the new freshmen girls. Byunghun slowly turned around, and saw the captain wave at the audience. He proudly ran over to his girlfriend, catching a ball before it could touch Sunyoung's shoes. The manager smiled at him with glee, amazed at the way he made a three-pointer.

"…In addition, the basketball club is looking for new managers, preferably female. The duties these managers must do consist of cleaning dirty towels and the boy's locker room, supplying the boys with drinks, and cooking at the basketball camp. Any interested managers may talk to Park Sunyoung, who will be at the basketball courts with the boys after school," the vice president announced, carefully reading the note cards that the basketball club gave her.

Byunghun almost frowned when he saw Sunyoung wave at the audience while Jongdae had his arms around her shoulder. He took a deep breath, then decided to blend in with the other members. He made a lazy lay-up like most of the players, and jogged out of the stage once he saw everyone else leave.

Before anyone could find him, he hid himself at the empty hallways and heaved a loud sigh to himself, disappointed at where he was standing. He didn't want to be here. He wanted to be back on stage, standing next to his crush, talking to her, smiling at her, and maybe even flirting with her.

"U-U-Um, excuse me," a soft voice stuttered. Byunghun looked up and saw a rather young first-year stare at him with curious round eyes.

She looks cute, he told himself. Why don't you just flirt with her? She's a girl like Sunyoung...

"May I help you?" he asked, ignoring his thoughts.

"I-I-I'm so s-sorry, but do you k-know where the basketball c-courts are?" she stammered, slowly looking away. She kind of looked sick, maybe even embarrassed. Figuring that she was just shy, Byunghun drew out a map of the school and pointed to a rectangular box near the gym.

"The basketball courts are near the gym. Since we're pretty near the gym from here, all you have to do is walk over to your left, exit, and you should find the basketball courts in less than two minutes." Byunghun shoved the paper in front of her hands. "Do you want the map? I had it since I got lost trying to find the gym a long time ago, but I don't need this anymore."

"T-Thank you!" she exclaimed, taking the map.

"No problem. By the way, I'm Lee Byunghun. I'm one of the basketball players. If you need anything from me, just ask," he said.

"Y-Yes, I saw you. My name is Kwon Sohyun," Sohyun said softly, biting her bottom lip.

Suddenly, Dasom and Junhee made their appearance. They ran towards the two, panting as if they had just ran a mile. Dasom turned around, then balled a fist as she raised her arms high in the air.

"You idiot, Myungsoo! You'll pay for this!" she declared loudly.

Junhee looked up at saw Byunghun staring at her, obviously confused about the situation. She leaned close to Byunghun's ears, ready to whisper out the situation.

"Dasom got bored and dragged me out of the gym. Myungsoo spotted us and told the teacher. We started running away, and now we're trying to find out how to get back into the building," Junhee explained in short breaths. "Oh man, exercising is just not for me! Music is my main passion. By the way, who's this little first-year?"

Byunghun jumped in surprise as he had forgotten about the girl. "This is Kwon Sohyun. Sohyun, the girl with shorter hair is Dasom and this girl with the red hair is Junhee."

Dasom flashed Sohyun a smile while extending her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh, no! The pleasure is mine," Sohyun said.

Byunghun raised an eyebrow. Sohyun wasn't stuttering this time. He watched how smoothly Sohyun was talking to Junhee and Dasom. It was more of Dasom doing the talking, but Sohyun was able to respond without stumbling over her words. Junhee threw in a few questions here and there, but Sohyun never looked shy to speak.

Maybe she likes me? he thought. Maybe she likes me, and that's why she stuttered–

"What in the world are you two doing?" A voice behind them let out a groan.

Dasom turned around and grinned when she saw Taemin approach them with a disappointed frown. Junhee hid behind Dasom, ready to make a run for it.

"Oh, Taemin! Join us! By the way, this girl is Kwon Sohyun, a first-year. This blond dude over here is Taemin. Despite his grumpy looks, he's the top in our grade," Dasom informed her.

"Enough with the introductions. You–" Taemin gestured his chin towards Sohyun, causing her to cringe. "–what are you doing here?"

"I-I-I just wanted to g-get a head start… L-Like, I wanted to know w-where the basketball c-courts were," Sohyun stammered again.

"You know, you stutter a lot when it comes to boys. Are you just shy around boys?" Dasom asked, being the observant girl she was.

Sohyun kept quiet and pressed her lips together.

"Ah, no, not exactly," she said. "It's more like… I'm afraid of them?"

You're what? the four thought in unison.

"Then why do you want to know where the basketball courts are? There's no girls' basketball team at this school," Junhee pointed out.

"No, I was thinking of being a manager," Sohyun tried to explain.

"And be surrounded by tons of guys? I don't see where you're going with this." Dasom rested her hands on her hips, awfully curious about Sohyun's little story.

"Well, I like basketball. There's no girls' basketball team. Apparently, I can't make a new club until I get an advisor, and there are no available advisors. So until there's an available advisor, I thought that I'd manage the boys' basketball team and see how things go," Sohyun explained, still looking at the girls.

"I have no idea what you were thinking, but you're definitely not getting in," Taemin said, rolling his eyes. "Anyways, you two!" He glared at Dasom and Junhee. "You better go back because I'm giving you some time to run."

"Fine, fine! Oh, by the way…" Dasom pulled out the journal from her blazer. "Jieun told me to give you this. She would've personally gave this to you, but you know what she does with her time."

"Dasom! Hurry!" Taemin urged. The two girls ran off, while Taemin followed by walking.

Byunghun looked behind at Sohyun, who stared out at the window, hoping to find the gym. He glanced at Taemin, who gave him a look to follow them. 

"Um, good luck, Sohyun!" Byunghun managed to say before running to catch up with the rest of his friends. He didn't look back to hear what Sohyun had to say. Instead, he disappeared at the corner, thinking that Sohyun would be a decent person to replace Sunyoung.

At least she's cute, he thought, breaking into a small smile.

At the end of the day, after practice had ended, it was announced that Sunyoung would withdraw her position as manager while two other girls were going to step up and help out the team: the "energizing beauty," Son Naeun, and the former middle school co-ed basketball captain, Kwon Sohyun.