C H A P T E R  8

“How are you so good?!”, Mark and Jaehyun exclaim from the other side of the court.

“I just am.”

“Pffftt Minlee, you sure are different.”

“Well I wasn’t kidding from before! I take my sports very seriously!” I take my racket and imitate it as a sword, pointing it forwards as I lunge. “Hahaaa! Let’s play more-”

“NO..no, we’re done...we’re done”, they say in unison.

“Minlee, you’re amazing! My partner is the best!”, Doyoung’s comments somehow make their way into my heart. What is this feeling? Am I sick?

“Well, now it’s my turn!”, Haechan haughtily swipes Doyoung’s racket and takes the birdie. “Who are we against?”

“Us! Johnny and I” Yuta and Johnny boldly take the rackets. Yuta confidently hits the birdie to our side.

Haechan misses.

He misses again.

I score after three turns. I hand the birdie over to Haechan to serve.

He misses the serve and hits the net.

“Haechan!!! What are you doing!?!?”

“Hahaha... I don’t even know!!! Kekeke Minlee, sorry!”

“Let’s take a break! Just for two seconds, please!!”

“Okay sure. Seems like you guys need one!”

I go over firmly holding Haechan’s wrist to the side.

“...You don’t know how to play? Right?”

“...no. Minlee, your grip is warm, but it’s hurting me.”

I let go and pause. “Then...how about we switch partners. I’ll win for you”. I go over to Taeil and ask him to play. “Taeil, do you want to play with me?”

“Me..but I’m not very good..and.--”

“No no no you can’t be as bad as Haechan”

“Hey!”

“Sorry!! Please play with me Taeil-ah! Please! I’ll grant you one wish”

“Oh ..okay..”

I grab his wrist excitedly and run back over to our side. “Okay, we’re ready to play!”

The scores change drastically. Taeil is surprisingly good in badminton, which contributes to our win against Yuta and Johnny by two points. After the winning point is served, I rush over to grab Taeil’s hands!

“You said you weren’t good! You liar! You’re amazing!”

“Really? Thank you, Minlee…-ah”

“You are!! We won after all! Taeil, -” I’m cut off by Doyoung.

“So you won. Congrats!” He takes my hands off of Taeil’s, and I see him looking away to hold his face. He’s nice, talented..but very innocent for such an old hyung. Maybe I shouldn’t be so brazen with him.

“Sumin has already called us over for the other section, let’s go now!”

“Oh..okay.”

Doyoung, Taeil and I run out to catch up with the rest of the group. We head to a spacious room on the third floor. Sumin tells us that the next activity is the classic trust falls. We go around one by one switching partners, each taking turns falling and holding the person's back. For the most part, it was really fun(except almost falling when it came to holding Johnny from his size), until it got to Doyoung:

“Doyoung-ah, I’m going to fall..r