It was 6AM and Jiwon was already inside their homeroom in deep thought. He needed the peace and quiet to think. He was in a mess, he thought. The interschool basketball quarter finals was just 2 weeks away and Jiwon's team was getting more focused with each passing day. But, as luck would have it, Junhoe, their power forward, was forced to sit the coming games out...

"I was called to the teacher's office earlier... I'm... I'm failing almost all of my classes this semester. I can't play ball for the rest of the term until I get my grades up and out of the danger zone." Junhoe said, tears forming at the side of his eyes. Jiwon could only sympathize with him and pat his back in consolation. He knows how hard this must be for Junhoe. Both of them were juniors and this could be their best chance at a championship.

Recalling that moment from earlier made him groan in frustration. He lightly banged his forehead on the desk.

From the open door frame, Yoojung was peeking, watching him, she knows why he was like this, and she shared his feelings. ‘He must be hurting right now’. She thought it was best to leave him alone at a time like this. She was about to leave when Jiwon spoke as he pulled his head off the table.

“Are you just gonna stand there or are you coming in?”

“I actually remembered that I left my bag inside my locker, so I’m just gonna go out and get it. I’ll leave you alone here, so just… go back to whatever you were doing earlier… I’ll see you later!” She spoke so fast and was gone in a second that Jiwon didn’t even have time to tell her that she was already wearing her bag on her back.

“Silly girl.” He said and went back to being in deep thought.

Upon practice that afternoon, the entire school was gathered in the gym to watch the try-outs. Jiwon was giving all the substitutes a chance to try-out to replace Junhoe in the next game, but everyone was falling short of his expectations. Sure, they practiced, but he can tell just by watching them that they weren’t ready yet. At this point, he thought that their best chance at winning was if they secretly break the leg of one of their opponents before the next game. Or he can do it alone, cripple the heck out of one of those fools. In the end, he shook those nasty thoughts away.

“Jiwon-ah!!!! You can do it! I believe in you!” It was Yoojung, shouting at the top of her lungs from the bleachers, holding up a banner. While her bestfriend Suhyun was trying to pull her down to sit. Jiwon didn’t even look at her.

“Stop the over-fangirling, Yoojung! He didn’t even spare you a glance!” It was Seolhyun. She was glaring at Yoojung from the courtside. She and her fellow cheerleaders were practicing the same time as the basketball team so they could watch them play by the courtside and cheer them on. On some occasions, they would stretch their legs a little too much, revealing a lot, leaving very little to the imagination. The boys would hoot and howl, but the girls never got Jiwon’s attention through this. Today was no different, especially since he was troubled with the recent occurrence with Junhoe. Yoojung paid no attention to her or to the glaring eyes of the s cheerleaders.

“Alright, Jin, your turn to try and be our 5th guy. Let’s play ball.” Jiwon called out to one of their bench players, praying to the high heavens that he got the right person this time. The game was a two-on-two, with Jiwon and Jinhwan on one team, and Donghyuk and Jin on the other. Jiwon wasn’t in the mood to show mercy and crushed Jin’s hopes of appearing in the quarterfinals by beating them hard, the score was 20-4 in favor of Jiwon’s team. He drove into the paint for a lay up, when out of nowhere, the ball got swatted and stolen by a guy in school uniform. 

"What the..." Jiwon was surprised by the unwelcomed interjection. 

The guy in question went to the three-point line and threw the ball up in the air seemingly aiming to hit the rim rather than to shoot the ball, he then ran towards the basket and jumped to catch the ball that just hit the rim, only to dunk it into the basket. Everyone was surprised at the move.

"Did he just steal the ball from Jiwon?" Jinhwan voiced out the rhetorical question in everyone's head. 

"Only very few people are able to do that." Donghyuk said, thinking Jiwon wasn't an ace for nothing. 

“…But did he just catch his own miss and dunk it?” Junhoe who was sitting by the bench was astounded, and so was the rest of the court.

Everyone was surprised at what happened and their eyes were all fixed on the student whom they all feared, the same person who knocked the ball out off Jiwon's hands. No one said a word lest he/she be the object of his wrath. 

Hanbin.

Yoojung immediately crouched to the floor in fear of Hanbin.

"Is this it? This sorry excuse for a basketball team was what you wanted to get out of detention for?" Hanbin said while dribbling the ball he recently stole, obviously mocking Jiwon's skills. He was clearly directing the question to someone in the crowd, yet no one dared to answer. "This might be the only time I actually feel grateful towards you, loser. Your gay of a game gave me a slave", Hanbin continued, now looking at Jiwon. 

"I don't give a rat's about what you have to say or whoever this slave is. You can talk about your business outside my court, you immature loser." Jiwon said dismissively. Hanbin scoffs at this and scans the crowd for a certain person before continuing, "Hah. Alright! Alright! I'll go, I just have to make one more announcement.” He said to Jiwon before turning his attention to crowd, “I hope you haven't forgotten our agreement in detention. Your slavery starts tomorrow... Kim Yoojung-sshi." Saying the last part of his announcement a little slower for emphasis. Jiwon's eyes widened at the mention of her name.

“What? Is she not here? It’s unlike you to miss a practice of your idol. Are you hiding?” He continued when no one responded to his message.

Yoojung was in fact hiding. She was crouching, using the banner she made to cover her face, in the process getting well acquainted with all the smelly feet on the floor. “Aish, seriously!!! Don’t these people wash their feet? I’m dying here...” She whispered to herself, trying to make light of the situation. “Just a few more minutes Yoojung, it in! You might just die out of the stench here anyway, that’s better than morbidly dying in he hands of Kim Hanbin, the murderer. Yup, I guess die with the stinky feet it is…” She concluded after holding her breath for a long time avoiding smelling the stench coming from the feet around her.

Hanbin on the other hand took out his phone to dial a number.

“Alright! The coast must be clear, I can no longer hear anyone going wild on the court, I’ll just crawl quietly ou…” her musings was cut by a ringing sound. A very familiar ring tone, she thought. Everyone was suddenly looking at her crouching figure. Yoojung looks up at all of them and tells them not to mind her, she kept shooing them away to divert the attention away from her. “The people here are being too obvious! Can’t they see I want to preserve my life???”  She thought to herself while using her hand to motion the others to stay out of her business.

“Yoojung-ah, your mobile phone… it’s ringing…” Suhyun finally told her.

The color from Yoojung’s face drained and she slowly took out the phone to see who called her. Lo, and behold, it was none other than the devil himself. Seeing as she didn’t have any other choice, she picked up the call.

“Ireona.” She heard through the phone. And she slowly stood up, obeying the voice from the other line.

Once she was up, Hanbin’s face lit up and Jiwon’s face fell. “There you are, Yoojung-sshi! Glad I was able to deliver my message.” He said pointing his finger at her then curling the same index finger to motion her to come down and follow him. Yoojung had no choice but to follow him lest he hurt her.

“Yoojung-ah…” Suhyun called out as if to stop her.

“Don’t worry about me, Suhyun-ah, I’ll be fine… I hope.” And wit