18. Strike

Pairing: Chanseul [Chanyeol & Seulgi]

Concept: Sports!Au

Inspiration: That's Okay | D.O.

She had never really been good at it but she always did her best while he had always been good at it and he wanted the best for her. Watching from behind, keeping a strict but warm eye on her and allowing her to make mistakes to learn step by step. Chanyeol believed it was the right way to do it but Seulgi was still stuck with the same problems that she had at the beginning of the semester and it was becoming alarming.

"Can you do it?" Chanyeol had asked her seriously at the beginning of one after-school practice. He had stopped her from playing and called her to the side to talk and although Seulgi was nervous (everyone knew how intense the team captain was), she tried to not let it show. "Do it."

"Do what?" Seulgi frowned.

"Just do it Seulgi," he continued, as if to motivate her.

"What?"

"Ok, maybe you can't do it."

With that said, Chanyeol walked away and resumed his supervision of the practice and left Seulgi completely clueless. Chanyeol was many things: passionate, competitive, handsome, incredibly gifted, handsome again, talented and almost pretty good at everything he did. But he had never really been good with Seulgi and it was fine because she eventually got used to his blunt and awkward ways. Chanyeol wasn't mean, he just didn't know how to act around her and it was fine even if she was always confused after spending time with him.

Fortunately for Seulgi, the explanation to this strange situation came the next day.

Chanyeol deciding on his own to become Seulgi's trainer hadn't only surprised her but the whole bowling team when he announced the news. The "do it" he was talking about was to "progress" and although it seemed obvious after she understood, Seulgi still had no idea how to do it. It was sudden, random and hard to explain but he called it a challenge. Seulgi didn't know if she should have been flattered, thankful or downright embarrassed by the team's captain's encouraging words back then but she was glad in the end to receive his help. She always believed that Chanyeol's intentions were good even if his words weren't exactly kind.

She didn't take it personally when he said that her "posture was so bad that it could send her straight to the hospital in the bed right next to his old neighbor who lifted a bag of rice too heavy for him" or that she had "the strength of a four year-old" or even when he told her to stay seated while the others played two weeks ago to "learn a bit although an intercollegiate tournament was far from being the place to start learning how to hold a ball".

All in all, Seulgi knew he only wanted the best for her.

"Aim for it," Chanyeol said as he watched from behind. He frowned and then sighed when Seulgi held the ball. He knew it was too heavy for her but she had to get used to the weight soon or else she would seriously get behind the rest of the team. Her fingers were crooked and misplaced and if she didn't correct that soon enough, she could get hurt but it was the third time Chanyeol reminded her this week and she still couldn't get it right. At this point, she would need to hurt a bit to remember. "If you focus enough, you only have to look at one of them and the rest will follow with the right amount of strength," he reminded her. "One pin for all."

Seulgi nodded although she didn't quite get what he meant and walked closer to the alley. She felt a tug on her sweatshirt and looked behind to see her tall coach towering over her. He gently pulled on her shirt until she was back again exactly where she started.

"Without a good start, you're leaving it all to luck," Chanyeol said. "I thought we already worked on that?"

Seulgi nodded again although she knew he would scold her for the exact same thing another time because it happened often and even if she said yes, she still didn’t master that move yet. She had no idea bowling was so hard when she signed to join the extracurricular club and she wished she had been motivated by the right reasons and not just the captain's pretty smile. Because Chanyeol didn't smile much around her now.

It was most of the time a frown and a sigh followed by the despair