“He stayed focused since the beginning, and he’s very good with his speed too,” Coach Cho leaned closer to Munhwa and whispered those words as they both watched the drill went on. Munhwa nodded as she jot them down, her eyes keenly glued on that certain new member, Seo Jin. They had started their intensive summer training course three days ago. There were four days left so it was normal to see some of the boys beginning to show signs of depletion and even regret for joining the basketball club in the first place.  Since Miryung’s basketball team was so famous, a lot of people initially joined for its fame, but more than half of them left after a while, unable to withstand the strict discipline. Seo Jin, however, showed so much potential as a freshman. He didn’t just complete the training course diligently, but amongst these rookies, his skills and maturity as an athlete just stood out.

They were having agility drill that day. Wooyoung, as the team captain, bore the responsible as a supervisor as well as setting an example to the new members. Wooyoung also made sure that the training went about smoothly. One of the players was injured during the first drill this early morning. It wasn’t anything serious but he had to skip the next set of training course. Right now, they were doing the third set of the day, which was shuttle with passes. Players took turns to sprint along designated route and exchanged passes with the coach who acted as the focal point of each route. They repeated similar regime until the third route where they dribbled the ball until the finishing point. Seo Jin seemed like he was about to pass out, just like every other members, but he stayed focused and did his part well. However, one of the members fell in the middle of the drill, interrupting the flow of the drill. To everyone’s surprise, Seo Jin paused to help him up while signaling the members behind him to go ahead first.

“Jin, I don’t think I can do this anymore,” the boy told him in regret.

“Of course you can. We both joined this team together, right? C’mon. Get up and start running again. We don’t want them to kick you out of the team.” Seo Jin whispered quickly to his friend.

“But, I-”

“Don’t think. Just do it! You can do it, okay?”

His friend took a deep breath and nodded with determination this time. Seo Jin pat loudly on his back, getting his friend all burned up again. The next moment, his friend was back on his feet and started sprinting again, fresh as new. Seo Jin waited for the right time to get back into the flow of the drill, and then continued his route until the finishing point. The seniors who had been watching secretly added points to Seo Jin’s records. They created a new system to encourage more competition. Seniors were free to add points for any of the new members based on their performance, and the member with the highest points will be rewarded later.

“He had a strong sense of teamwork too,” Munhwa said to Coach Cho, at the same time, adding to her notes. Coach Cho nodded, wholeheartedly agreed with Munhwa’s opinions.


-

Last year, thanks to Minsun, all the basketball members get to have a very enjoyable intensive summer training at her summer villa. This year, they had to do it at the school. Despite being the best high school basketball team in the nation, they don’t get much allowance from the school since the principal was not very fond of sports and naturally a cheapskate in general. They already spent a lot on their equipments and welfare; they barely had any left to book a camp for their summer training. The kids however, could care less about those. They all had fun as long as they were together.

The sky had turned dark and the citizens had begun to settle at their home, but a certain group of boys were still wide awake and noisy. The whole team had just returned from dinner and now was getting ready to hit the sack. They had converted the classrooms for sleeping purposes, one for the boys and another for Munhwa and the other two girls, Juni and Yoonah, the two girls who caused the whole uproar about Minsun. Ever since they admitted to their fault, they had somehow ‘volunteered’ as the team’s supporter-slash-assistant. They assisted with random tasks from helping Munhwa to gym cleaning.

The seniors were having a brief meeting with the coach somewhere, leaving out all the juniors at the assigned classroom. They had a good relationship with the seniors in general, but since they haven’t known each other for long, when the seniors weren’t around, the juniors were able to loosen up a bit more and said things that are off-limit between seniors and juniors.

“Right here?” Seo Jin asked one of his team mates, Surok, the one who fell during one of their drill earlier that day. Surok was facing Seo Jin with his so the latter could help him out at putting on heat plasters on his sore muscles.

“Yeah, yeah,” Surok nodded. Seo Jin neatly put on the plaster and then pat loudly at the spot. Surok groaned in pain loudly. He turned around to playfully throw a punch at Seo Jin, but the latter avoided easily, laughing loudly. Most of the new members had passes plastered at random parts of their bodies, mostly on their sore legs and arms.

“Seo Jin, you crazy beast,” Surok said as he gave Seo Jin a playful kick at Seo Jin’s shin. They both were sitting on the floor, on their respective sleeping bags as they continued to play around.

“How did you stay pumped up throughout the whole drill? After the third day, I started to doubt if I was really fit for the team.” Surok added.

“Oh, come on Surok. We’ve been playing basketball throughout elementary and middle school. The main reason we enroll to this school is for the basketball team, remember? How can you say that?”

“I know, but this team is different. They’re crazy, man. No doubt they’re one of the best players in the nation,” Surok shook his head in disbelief. He must have been crazy to get himself involved in this situation despite his passion for the sport, but Miryung’s varsity team proved that this sport wasn’t just any game, on another whole level.

Seo Jin laughed, “I told you. Just do it. Don’t think, just do. You got to keep that in mind and in no time, we might find ourselves playing as main players,” Seo Jin wiggled a suggestive eyebrow, causing Surok to laugh out loud, throwing his head back in defeat.

“Man, you’re crazy!” Surok laughed again.

“I’m serious!” Seo Jin laughed along, but still keeping his firm belief. “You’re not giving up, are you?” Seo Jin suddenly turned a little serious. The previous smile still lingered on his lips because he didn’t want the atmosphere to turn awkward in case Surok did have that thought.

“Nah,” Surok brushed away his suggestion, “We’re in this together. I still remember our promise. But hands down, you’re way too far ahead for me to catch up. I think you’re going to top that scoring system.” The other freshmen nodded in agreement. Seo Jin was a bit abashed when they started teasing him about being the next star player of the team.

“We still don’t know that for sure, stupid!” They all broke into laughter as Seo Jin kicked Surok back.

“I wonder what’s the reward for coming out on top?” one of the freshmen asked curiously.

“No, no,” Surok chipped in, “let’s ask what Jin wants for the prize instead.”

“I said we still don’t know for sure who would come out at the top!” Seo Jin shouted in masked frustration. Honestly, he had high hopes at topping the scoring system. He had always been ambitious and competitive.

“Maybe... a date with Munhwa sunbae?” Surok suggested mischievously, causing the rest of the boys to whistle in the midst of aggravated excitement. Seo Jin blushed a little at the thought but laughed along with the rowdy boys.

“That’s not so bad,” Seo Jin played it cool and shrugged.

“Not so bad, you say? I bet you’d flip tables if that was the real deal,” Surok cackled. He knew Seo Jin well, of course he knew the kind of girl who could pick Seo Jin’s interest. And Munhwa matched his interest well. The rest of the boys continued being loud, teasing Seo Jin about his skills and his interest towards the team’s secretary. They made quite a commotion until they heard knocks on the door. Everyone quiet down instantly, thinking that it could be the coach or the team captain, Jang Wooyoung who was known as ‘the devil’ among the freshmen, but then, Munhwa’s cute face peeked between the door.

“Hey, guys,” Munhwa greeted, smiling brightly at the boys as she made her way into the classroom uninvited. Being the only girl in a team of masculine, loud boys these past few years made her comfortable enough to even walk in and out of a male changing room, barging in their allocated ‘dorm’ was nothing to her. Nevertheless, the boys all settled into a more proper position and poses compared to before where limbs were all over the place with obscene words spewed towards each other.

“Hi, sunbae!” The boys greeted back. Munhwa walked to the rows of desk neatly arranged at one side of the room and placed a plastic bag on one of the desks.

“I just got back from a convenience store, so I bought some energy drinks and more passes for you guys,” Munhwa crouched next to Surok and looked closely to his plastered legs.

“Let me see your legs,” she said gently as she proceeded at checking on his leg. The coach and her had his leg checked earlier when he tripped during one of the drills. Fortunately he wasn’t injured but Munhwa wanted to make sure that there were no new symptoms arise. Munhwa gently held his leg, turning it side to side and playfully slapped it when she was sure that he was fine. Surok yelped in pain but Munhwa just laughed at him along with the rest of the boys.

“If anyone else is hurt, don’t hesitate to tell me or Wooyoung, okay? We don’t want anyone to get injured.” Munhwa told the boys. They nodded in unison, but when Munhwas about to leave, Surok suddenly raised his hand. A new idea popped up into his mind.

“Sunbae, wait!”

Munhwa stopped in her steps and turned around again. “What is it?”

“Please have a look at Seo Jin! He said he has been having back pain!” Surok shouted, earning him a wide-eyed ‘what-are-you-trying-to-do?’ look from Seo Jin.

“Really?” Munhwa immediately walked closer to Seo Jin and kneeled right next to him on his sleeping bag. Surok helped himself at turning Seo Jin’s back towards Munhwa despite Seo Jin trying to stop him, mouthing inaudible threat at the guy. Before Seo Jin managed to do anything, Surok pulled Seo Jin’s shirt up, revealing his to Munhwa. It was just a common muscle pain really, but they ran out of passes, and Seo Jin had insisted that Surok had the last passes for his back instead, so Surok was repaying his gesture by getting Munhwa’s attention on him.

“I’m fine, sunbae, it was nothing,” Seo Jin said despite being totally abashed at Munhwa’s attention on him. Munhwa ignored him and gently pressed her fingers on a red mark at his waist, causing him to yelp in pain.

“Does it hurt really badly?” Her eyes widened in worry.

“Ah, it was nothing. Seriously, I’m fine,” Seo Jin repeated.

“Are you sure? Will you be fine tomorrow? The training will only get harder tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. It’ll be fine after I put on those passes,” Seo Jin said as he attempted to pull his shirt down and turned around but Munhwa held his shoulder, stopping him from doing so. Munhwa looked at Surok and asked him for the passes she brought just now. The boy acted as he was told right away. Munhwa pulled the shirt up again and gently put on the pass on Seo Jin.

“Because you said so, I’ll let you join the drill tomorrow morning. But I’ll have the coach to look at this first just in case, okay?” she said when she finished.

Seo Jin couldn’t even look straight at her when all his friends gave him knowing looks and suggestive smile. Munhwa left soon after and told the boys to sleep early. The young boys all crowded around Seo Jin, asking things like ‘How does it feel to have girls’ fingers on your ?’. They were all trying to get Seo Jin to confess that he was enjoying it. Seo Jin played cool and didn’t admit to a thing, though he smiled wide as he said that he would treat Surok to samgyupsal (Seo Jin’s father owned a small meat restaurant by the way).




2.30 a.m.

Shot after shot, Seo Jin refused to stop. Some of the balls perfectly went through the loop, some bounced back when it hit the scoreboard instead, and some just went totally off the aim. He wasn’t really practicing. After the three days tiring himself out, he couldn’t really performed his best anymore. He was just letting the time past unknowingly since he couldn’t fall asleep. It was weird, he was dead flat tired and his body ached all over, but he still couldn’t bring his eyes shut. Probably he was thinking too much about being the main player after the little chat he had with Surok.

Seo Jin dipped his hand deep into the steel cage to reach for the last basketball in it and then carelessly threw it towards the loop. To his surprise, the balll made a nice shot, easily passing through the loop before it fell back to the ground and bounced away.

“Seo Jin?”

Seo Jin was so surprised that he turned abruptly. It was a female’s voice, and his guess was right; it was Munhwa. The girl had a small flashlight in her hand and she was cutely dresses in an oversized pajama t-shirt, paired with a cotton legging with Mickey Mouse pints on it. She seemed a little sleepy as she kept rubbing the corner of her eyes as she made her way towards Seo Jin.

“Are you practicing?” She asked as her head made a slow turn from left to right, scanning the gym and all the scattered balls all over the place.

“Nah,” Seo Jin brushed her off as he picked up one of the balls, returning it to the steel cage, “more like playing around. I can’t fall asleep.”

Seeing how Seo Jin began to clean up the place, Munhwa automatically helped out. She was so used to keep the gym clean, whenever she saw someone doing it, she just had to help out.

“Sunbae, it’s okay, I can manage.”

“Let me help. You have to go to sleep soon.”

Seo Jin chuckled, “Well, thank you then. Why are you still out here by the way?”

“I went to the toilet. I thought I might as well check on the gym for a bit, I was surprised to see you here.”

“Did I scare you?” Seo Jin smiled at her, looking mischievous. Munhwa scrunched up her face at him.

“Not the slightest.”

They both began to move towards the goal post, where most of the balls lied around. Seo Jin and Munhwa was working closely together, side by side, when suddenly cockroach appeared and ran right across them. Munhwa wasn’t aware of the vector at first until the small insect climbed over her feet and then back down again, walking away like it was nobody’s business.

“Oh my god!” The sudden interruption sent Munhwa into an instant state of panic. She closed her eyes and jumped to Seo Jin, her fingers tightly clutched onto his clothes, hanging for dear life as she buried her face into his chest.

“Hey, easy there,” Seo Jin chuckled. Munhwa frantically retracted her step. She kept brushing her hair back with her fingers as an attempt to appear calm, as a cover up to her embarrassment.

“Sorry about that,” she said in casual tone, as if her previous act didn’t affect her in the slightest way.

“Yeah, it’s okay. You didn’t do that on purpose, I hope,” Seo Jin teased and laughed again.

Munhwa glared at him before she continued with the cleaning up. Maybe she was embarrassed, but their conversation had stopped afterwards. Seo Jin cleared his throat in the awkward silence, earning him a curious glance from Munhwa. When their eyes met again, Munhwa laughed. So he laughed too.

“So…” Seo Jin said, trying to start another conversation, “where is Minsun sunbae? I thought she would join the training camp?”

Munhwa let out a subtle sigh.

“She has some family matters.”

Seo Jin raised an eyebrow. From the way Munhwa phrased it, it sounded more like ‘family issues’. He started to get curious.

“You know… She seems really close with you guys. Why did she change school?”

Munhwa smiled at Seo Jin, but t the smile appeared a bit solemn.

“Family issues, I guess? I wish she could stay, though,” Munhwa stated honestly this time around.

“Does her parents live abroad?”

“No, her mother lives here. But she insist on sending Minsun to study abroad,”

“What about her father? Does he lives here too? Or...”

“Her step father lives here with her mother. I’m not sure about her real father. Neither does she.”

Munhwa pouted and sighed.

“I really like her, you know? Sometimes, I wish she found her real father, and he could act like a real parent towards her. And most importantly, she can stay here with us.”

Seo Jin nodded acknowledgingly. He could pretty much guessed the gist of Minsun’s situation.

“Ah!” Munhwa quickly turned to him, looking worried, “don’t tell anyone about the things I told you, okay? I shouldn’t have talked about these things so casually,” Munhwa bit her lower lip.

“Hey, don’t sweat it. I’m not one who goes around gossiping.”

“Say, what do you guys think about her? After all those rumors about her?” Munwha asked this time.

Seo Jin shrugged, “I’m not really into gossips, those stuffs. She seems pretty cool to me. Especially at how she maintain a positive attitude after all the things she went through.”

“Glad to hear that,” Munhwa lit up again, “why did you ask about her, in the first place? Do you like her?” Munhwa playfully narrowed her eyes on him.

Seo Jin cleared his throat. This was going in the wrong direction, he better get back in track. Honestly, he just wanted to talk to her, so any topic was fine.

“It’s not that! Just… Anyway, I have someone else I like,”

“Really? Can you tell me?” Munhwa turned into the giddy girl she was whenever it comes to this kind of topic.

“Ha, you wish. What about you, sunbae? You spend your days around popular, good looking guys. Aren’t you going out with any of them?” Since they were on the topic, might as well find out if she was taken or not.

Munhwa rolled her eyes and sighed, “they’re all just headaches to me.”

“Are you sure? Not a tiny bit of crush on any of them?”

Munhwa gritted her teeth and threw a ball at Seo Jin, “no!”

“Okay, okay!” Seo Jin laughed while rubbing the sore spot of his arm which was attacked by Munhwa just now, “got it, no need to get so worked up!” Seo Jin laughed some more.

He guessed he had a chance?