When I arrive back to school the following Monday, the student body is chaotic in celebrating our win. Literally, like wild animals that got released from the zoo. It's nearly 8 in the morning, but the school is the most awake and alive I've ever seen it. As I'm walking to class, bunches of confetti is thrown right in my face. Then, a huge, tall guy I presume from the wrestling team embraces me in a bear hug to lift me up and down.

"Let's go, Yerin!" He shouts, and I want to tell him to please never do that again.. but I let it slide this one time.

The entire day goes by on a similar note. We got shouted out on the morning announcements, and my whole class erupted into shrieks and cheer when my name is mentioned. I want to hide in embarassment, because I've never been recognized on a scale like this before. But I weirdly want it to keep happening.

When class ends, Aimee texts me to meet her at the front courtyard, the two of us spending some cute, quality time on the grass. 

"No way," I say, once I sit next to Aimee on the grass and she takes out a familiar plastic container.  This is Aimee's infamous dessert container, and she always packs this one specific baked good inside. "You made me the brownies!"

Not just any brownies. White chocolate brownies with pistachios - Aimee's speciality and my literal kryptonite.

"To celebrate your win! And also the fact that you were able to pull yourself together after that one incident. I was in the crowd almost in tears! I get your coach would be mad, but to bench you for an entire ing half?!"

"You cried?! Cause of me?" I repeat and take a mouthful of the brownie.

"Yes! I know how important this first game was to you!" Aimee supplies, and grabs her own brownie from her pink container. I pout, because my best friend is an actual angel. "But you should have seen Jungkook's dramatic piece at halftime. It was sooo climactic, like a scene in a movie or something. He looked like one of those action movie stars - what's that one guy's name... he's in all the Hollywood action movies. The Brock, The Shock, or something like that?"

"The Rock," I answer for her, and we share a giggle together. "I'm so sad I missed it. It was so sweet, I still can't believe that they would do that for me. They hardly even know me."

"Well, I guess that's the bond of teammates, right?" Aimee says, and I nod to agree. "Anyways, how has the dynamic been with them? When we went to that party, it seemed like they were really warming up to you - I'm jealous. Any improvement with Jungkook?"

"Not really," I answer. "I guess we had a pretty good heart-to-heart in the locker room, but that was because I wasn't in my soccer head. And also, that thing he did with the poster was kind of cute, I guess. But he'd probably do that for any teammate."

"So both you and I can agree that he has a good heart then," Aimee says. "Regardless of the relationship between you guys, friend or teammate or not, he's a good guy."

"I guess you're right."

"I'm surprised you haven't pounced on any of them yet! Cute soccer player, and they're all sweethearts that stick up to bullying! That's like, really hot."

"Tell me about it," I answer back. Time with Aimee is time to spill all of my girly secrets, because I need an outlet to release my true thoughts, and Aimee eats up this like it's a meal. "You should see them with the sun is setting behind them during practice, and then they lift their shirt up to wipe the sweat off.... girl. It's actually pretty hot."

"AHH!" Aimee squeals like a child receiving a Christmas present. "Tell me the truth. Who has the best abs?"

"Hm...," I think, while I munch on a brownie. "Daesung is the one on a cut right now, so his no-rice, no-noodle diet is reaaally serving him well in that department. Honestly, Jin looks good too; if it's one Daeun did right in life, it's him."

Aimee almost chokes on a pistacho, and from that, I nearly choke from seeing her struggle catch her breath.

"They're all pretty ripped. But if I had to be completely honest," I say, once we've both gathered ourselves, "it would be Jungkook. I mean, he's been on this soccer  since he was in diapers. He looks disciplined. Toned."

"Wowww," Aimee cooes. "Kind and ripped. Imagine scoring someone like that."

I lightly chuckle at my best friend mesmerizing Jungkook. "You're right by saying that - it'd only be in our imagination."

"Girl, whatever!" Aimee slaps my arm, and I scoff at her. "You're bound to score another soccer player, you'd make a huge power couple. With all your time on the field, it's a no-brainer you'd meet someone there too."

"Whatever."

I then feel my phone buzz uncontrollably in my back pocket. This has to be our soccer team groupchat, because there would be no other reason for me to get a text message that's not from this or Aimee. 

Coach Soo

EMERGENCY MEETING IN 15 EVERYON GET 2 TH LOKER RMS NOW. IF YOU DONT GET HERE UR OFF TH TEAM

Taehyung

i'm literally at the sauna spa

Namjoon

I'm at tutoring.

Jin

I'm with my girlfriend, she'll freak if I just suddenly leave

Yoongi

I can't make it coach, sorry

Coach Soo

I DONT GIVE A WHEREVER YOU ARE !!!! GET HERE IN 15

"What the hell, there's like an emergency team meeting in fifteen," I say out loud, and Aimee has a bewildered look on her face.

"What do you think it could be? Hopefully, it's not too bad."

"I honestly have no clue. This just hit us all out of nowhere - today was such a good day for all of us. I wonder what happened," I say and put my phone back into my pocket. My mind races; being my pessimistic self, I'm quick to think of the absolute worst that could happen to our team. We're already cutting it close with the roster; if we are out on person, I think we have to forfeit the rest of the season! "Whatever it is, I'm sure it's super serious. I'm just going to get there early, maybe talk to Jungkook and Coach Soo about what happened."

"That sounds good. Let me know how it goes, kay?" Aimee, being the understanding friend she is, quickly packs up her container and whips her bookbag across her back.

"I will," I gather my things as well, and pull myself to my feet. "Call you later tonight?"

"9PM sharp or I think you'll want nothing to do with me forever," Aimee says from below me. "Love you mean it!"

"Love you too," I giggle as I start walking away. School is vacant by now, but some stragglers are still roaming about, probably waiting for their parents to pick them up. 

The walk to the locker room is shorter than I thought. I finally get to the familiar stone cold, gray door and bust it wide open. "Hello?" I say out loud.

"Helloooo?" I repeat again as I walk deeper into the locker room, just to confirm. Silence follows.

"NO, NO, JUNGKOOK! My decision is final, and nothing is going to change that, you leave me no choice!" I hear Coach Soo's voice from his office, down the hall. Jungkook is in trouble? Oooh, . This is juicy.

Wait, it's not juicy. What did he do, and what is his consequence? He better not be on probation or something; our team would be completely lost without him.

I creep closer to Coach Soo's office, making extra sure that my steps don't make any sound - though I'm pretty sure it would be practically silence compared to Coach Soo's monstrous volume. I quickly duck my head when I turn the corner, because his office has a giant window wall to wall, which is a little weird considering he's right across the showers (if you ask me).

I peep from below the glass window and am able to see Jungkook's body across from Coach Soo's from this angle. He's wearing a grey henley, which fits so well in his bicep area. I wonder how much he can lift.. is it possible he could lift me up?

Oh , he's actually in trouble - I forgot. Oh , I should be paying attention to the conversation instead.

"Coach, this is ing ridiculous. I make one mistake and you think the best decision is to bench me for the next two games? How can I expect to go to college with two games missing from my record?! I'll be lucky if I even get one scholarship from a ty rural school in Andong!"

Holy . Jungkook's benched for the next two games?! How are we going to survive this? Our teamwork is going to go to absolute without him on the field. There's no way Coach Soo can expect for all of us to be on board with this. We're going to fight back - we've got to. We need Jungkook.

"Don't minimize this as just 'one mistake', Jungkook. You're lucky that Jinwoo guy didn't press charges - you could've been in jail, you're lucky you're out on the bench instead. And I don't appreciate you talking back and cursing at me, remember that you're just a high school student, boy."

Jinwoo?! Press charges?! JAIL?!

My head can't take all of this so quickly. But Jinwoo, I make it a mental note to practically embed that name into my brain. I'll need to refer back to it soon.

"You can't do this to me!"

"I'll do what I want to you! You know what, you're benched and you're forbidden to go to practice for the next two weeks. Raise your voice at me again, and I'll bump it up to four weeks."

"Coach," Jungkook now says in a lower tone, defeated. "Please, I'm sorry. It was a mistake, but you understand that I did this because I was standing up for my teammates. You know I'd do anything for them, Coach. I'd do anything for this team!"

"I know, I know that, Jungkook. But you got to see why my hands are tied here. You should've left it alone. But this case, you throw a punch at someone, give them a black eye, just because they made some mean poster about Yerin? Why do you want to throw a fit now when it suddenly comes to the new girl?"

"That's where I'm getting frustrated, coach. You want to emphasize on the gender part of it - I was just looking after my teammate, boy or not."

"Principal Choo won't think of it that way. Neither will the athletic school board's. They'll think we're giving her special treatment. They'll think you must have something going on with her! They warned me of this from the very beginning. I'm not giving any exceptions to Yerin, because that's the rules we were told to follow. Rules are black and white. If they hear about this, it's a violation of rules in their handbook."

"Gahhh, why are rules so -freaking stupid," Jungkook groans.

"Well, they're there for a reason. Rules are meant to be followed, just like how consequences should be in place to those that don't follow them."

"Coach, please. I'll do anything." Jungkook pleads.

"Once I've seen you learned your lesson of self control, then we'll talk. But for now, I'm adament in my decision. I don't want to see you on my field during practice for the next two weeks."

I hear Jungkook audibly scoff. Just then, I hear the locker room door obnoxiously open and slam into the brick wall behind it.

"I ING SKIPPED OUT ON A 100 DEGREE SAUNA FOR THIS!" Taehyung's voice calls out, and I roll my eyes. Of course he'd make a scene entering. I take advantage of my teammates' rambunctiousness and tiptoe on my knees away from Coach Soo's office. When I get back up, I quickly straighten my top and get rid of the wrinkles, but suddenly, my head starts feeling dizzy. That was one heavy conversation - it's a lot to take in, and I don't know how we're going to handle not seeing Jungkook at practice for two weeks.

I realize I have to pretend that I'm hearing it for the first time with Coach Soo announces it, so I put my little facade on and make my way towards Taehyung.

The locker room soon starts filling up with more and more boys as the 15 minute countdown dwindles down. I take a seat at the bench with the greatest view of the locker room entrance and start counting the heads that come through. Everyone gets here, on time. damn. 

I turn back around on the bench and meet eyes with Jungkook. He gives me a smile, but awkwardly breaks eye contact after a short moment. Ouch.

"Alright, team." Coach Soo's commanding voice fills all corners of the locker room once he steps out in front of us. "I know you're curious as to why I called this emergency meeting, and I apologize for making you leave your afterschool plans at the drop of a hat."

"Are you really that sorry?" Taehyung snarkily says from the side. I watch as Coach Soo eyes him top-to-bottom, almost scowls, and then rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry that you walked out in public in that," Coach Soo remarks, and it livens up the tense mood a bit. "Anyways, I have some important news that you needed to know ASAP, and so that