5th September 2018

The gate towered above him. Chan was nervous. It was his first day of College. He wanted to make sure everything went well and it did, until everyone began discussing potential clubs they were going to join. Chan wanted to join a Softball team, but so far he hadn’t seen any teams or sign up sheets from walking around. He could have sworn that Pledis was famous for their Softball team.

“Ah! Mingyu! You’re so clumsy!” Chan heard someone whine. He could hear a slight Chinese accent in the person.

“Sorry! I just tripped!” A guy, Chan could only presume was Mingyu, responded. He could hear shuffling from behind him and he slowly turned around.

“Over what? Thin air? Hurry up! We’ll be late.” The original guy moaned.

“It’s fine. Coups has to register the Softball club again with the college anyway.” Mingyu rose. Chan grinned, turning to them.

“You guys are in the softball club?” Chan questioned.

“Yeah.” Mingyu beamed. “Why are you a freshman? Are you interested in joining?” He leaned in.

“Yeah, but I couldn’t find any posters or anything.” Chan was struggling to contain his excitement.

The Chinese guy laughed. “Seungcheol probably forgot to tell Jeonghan and Joshua to put the posters up. This team’s really hopeless.”

Mingyu could only laugh in response, “I agree. Anyway, kid follow us! We’ll take you to meet the others.”

“I’m not a kid.” Chan pouted.

“How old are you?” The shorter of the two quized.

“I’m 19!” He moaned in response.

“Yup! Still a kid.” Mingyu confirmed. “And it’s not like we know your name anyway.”

“It’s Chan.” Chan exclaimed, trying to keep up with the taller two’s long steps.

“It’s nice to meet you, Chan.” The non-clumsy one smiled. “I’m Minghao, by the way, and the clumsy, idiot over there is Mingyu. If he offers you a handshake, don’t accept it. You don’t know the last time he washed his hands.”

“I’m not an idiot!” Mingyu nudged Minghao. Chan was excited. He was finally on his way to joining the softball team and he had just met two funny players. The walk didn’t take too long and Chan soon found himself in a spare classroom.

“This is our clubroom. Basically we hold discussions here when we’re not training and stuff, but most of the team just come here to chat usually.” Minghao explained as Mingyu opened the door.

“We brought fresh meat!” Mingyu announced and pulled Chan into the room. Everyone quietened down and stared at Chan.

“Hi, I’m Chan.” He barely managed to mumble, losing all confidence in front of the others.

“Right! I’ll introduce you to everyone.” Mingyu grinned. “The one sleeping over there is Jeonghan. He’s lazy, but he’s our second base and our fastest runner. Beware, his angelic appearance is a lie. Don’t trust any of the pretty ones, except Wonwoo.” He blushed a little and looked to the side. “He’s chill. Anyway, the one Jeonghan has his head resting on is Josh. Josh is our shortstop. He ends up doing most of the work between him and Jeonghan, but he doesn’t mind, as like you will here, Josh is in love with him, but he won’t admit it.”

“I don’t love Jeonghan!” Jisoo exclaimed.

“There we go. Next, we have the idiot trio, who seem to be way too energetic. We have DK, he’s the one who’s always smiling.” Seokmin flashed Chan a smile to emphasise Mingyu’s point. “He’s one of our outfielders. Then there’s Hoshi, he’s usually dancing or moving about. Basically, he never stays still and it’s annoying.” Soonyoung was currently jumping up and down for no apparent reason. “He’s also an outfielder. Then, there’s Seungkwan, who’s basically a diva. He’s great though, but he can be a tad melodramatic at times.”

“I’m not melodramatic! You’re the one always going on about Won-” Seungkwan began.

“Moving swiftly on.” Mingyu was currently covering Seungkwan’s mouth. “Woozi is the one that’s actually doing work. Wave Woozi!” Jihoon just stuck his middle finger up before going back to work. “He can be a little grouchy. He does an insane amount of work though, so try not to irritate him to much. He won’t respond very well. He’s kind of in the middle of a massive piece of coursework at the moment so he’s quite stressed out. He’s very reliable in a match though. He’s our catcher.”

“Are these actual names?” Chan questioned, not quite believing the idea that some parent would call their child DK or Woozi.

“No, they’re just nicknames. They’re meant to make it easier for us during the match, but most of them are just pure crack. They’re not even usually shorter than our actual names. We just use them for fun. Like for example, Jihoon’s nickname Woozi came from his low alcohol tolerance.” Seungkwan explained. “Seokmin is DK’s real name and Soonyoung is Hoshi’s. Joshua is technically Jisoo’s English name.”

Mingyu nodded, “Now then, we have Jun and Wonu next. Jun, or Junhui, is the blonde haired guy. He’s another outfielder. Then, there’s Wonwoo, the black haired guy, he’s our 3rd base. Those two are best friends so you’ll see them together a lot, but you’ll also see The8 with Jun a lot, as they’re both Chinese so they like to practice Korean together. It’s also nice for them to occasionally speak Chinese to each other.”

“Mingyu and I also hang out a lot.” Wonwoo slid over and comfortably placed an arm around Mingyu. “It’s a shame we couldn’t manage to keep our 4 bed apartment. Jun and I miss your cooking. Minghao got the lucky end of the deal.” Mingyu laughed in response.

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