The rest of the week passed and it was now three in the afternoon on a Friday. It was settled that Yejin was improved rapidly but was still not good enough to play in a game. She had multiple bruises and cuts littering her body that she tried to cover with her uniform blazer and thick black leggings that came with her exerting all of her energy into improving her skill at the sport. Everyday after school Jackson showed up with the team and sat alone as he watched them all practice without him, watching Yejin take his place. And everyday he tried his hardest to get her attention, even yesterday going so far as to follow her outside of the school. But she never acknowledged him.

On Tuesday Yejin told her father that her phone was broken and no longer worked. So he said in the meantime while it was getting fixed, Areum would have to check up on her at school and always know where her sister was just in case. The older girl took this to mean they should go to school together, but outside of that she left Yejin to her own devices. The younger sister had guessed she knew about her plans to join the basketball team, since most of the school knew about it, but she never her word of it from the girl herself. So Yejin just assumed that Areum wanted to maintain the illusion that they didn’t know one another at school for her reputation's sake. Which made the younger girl a bit annoyed yet she didn’t care enough to bring it up.

Now it was three in the afternoon on a friday and Yejin still warmed up with the guys despite her not being in the game. During the time when she was away from the group before the game started she planned to tackle the pile of homework she was behind in. Soon enough the group was called to the locker rooms to get hyped for the game and the girl went over to her backpack and pulled out her assignments, ignoring the lone boy who stood up from his spot. She was sorting through her pile of folders when he sat next to her and at this point it had become much easier to pretend he wasn’t there. Yet his presence still put her on edge and she had to hide the change of exhaustion to excitement that her body naturally felt when he was near. After a few minutes of shuffling, she decided to work on math first and pulled out a pencil before starting where she had left off.

“Do you need help with that?” Jackson asked, his voice right next to her ear. Yejin tucked a bit of hair behind her ear and focused on the problem. Her mind felt hazed and her body was sore from the week’s work and she wanted to be anywhere but here, next to this boy, and doing anything besides work for the subject she most hated. When a second of resting her eyes didn’t help and made her feel even more tired, an idea came to mind. She picked up the paper and pencil and handed it to the boy. He raised his eyebrow and even though she so badly didn’t want to, Yejin looked at him.

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