“I SAID WAKE UP!”

“OUCH!” Wooyoung bolted up right away when his mother spanked his bottom with her broom.

“Mom, that hurts!” He complained while rubbing his . It was probably red now from the smack just now, but Wooyoung still wouldn’t want to open his eyes.

“Look at the time!” Mrs. Jang shouted one last time before she retreated from the room to continue with her daily chores.

Wooyoung’s small, squinty eyes narrowed at the digital clock on his study table across the room, but those small eyes widened soon after, and the room was filled with a loud scream. Darn, this was all because of that stupid cram session last night!






Wooyoung paused right a couple of steps before he reached the entrance to his class to smoothen his uniform and his ragged breath, pretending that he wasn’t rushing and to make sure he looked cool while entering the class despite being late. He took one last attempt of doing so by running his fingers through his hair at the sides of his head before he entered his classroom with arranged steps.

“Mr. Jang-”

“Hey, teacher!” Wooyong raised his hand as if attempting a high five with the teacher. However, his effort was ignored, and the whole class laughed at him for being silly like that. He simply shrugged at the reaction. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence that Jang Wooyoung embarrasses himself like that but still managed to be funny and looked cool. No wonder he got quite a fanbase despite his average height and look compared to the rest of the basketball team.

The teacher was about to open his mouth and start his lecture on Wooyoung being late when suddenly an announcement echoed throughout the corridor.

“To student named Jang Wooyoung, please report yourself at the Principal’s Office immediately. Repeat,”

The repeated announcement could no longer be heard when the boys started to cheer for Wooyoung, as if he had done a heroic deed when it was obviously the other way around. Munhwa really couldn’t understand this part of boys and definitely not liking it. Just look at that proud look on Wooyoung’s face, being cheered on like that.

As if sensing Munhwa’s stare at him, Wooyoung looked back and made eye contact with her.

Munhwa took the chance to mouth ‘What have you done?!’

Wooyoung ignored her anyway and continued his cool act by waving goodbye to his classmates before he left the classroom again before he could even put down his bag. The truth was, his knees began to shake from nervousness. Came again that rare moment when he earnestly pray to God asking for his help.

Actually, Wooyoung had expected what the principal was going to scold him about. It was about his ranking from the last exam. His academic records had been declining so greatly compared to his ranking before that. He had always been not so bright in the academic field anyway but a star in sports, so the principal was concerned.

Wooyoung went through a 2-hour long lecture from the principal. The thing that he feared the most; which had always been the main worry of Taecyeon and the whole basketball team had finally became reality. The principal had given him a second chance to improve his ranking with a special reseat examinations; if he failed to at least pass all the subjects, the principal would prevent him from taking part in any activities held by the basketball club for the rest of the remaining semester. But next semester was when the match season starts.

When Wooyoung was finally released from the office, it was already recess. Wooyoung didn’t return to the classroom though, because he knew Munhwa would be as nosy as ever asking him every details of his meeting with the principal. So, while trying to come up with a simpler, less worrying story of his encounter with the Principal, Wooyoung decided to spend the whole recess at the library, at thepart where it is most likely to be occupied.

“Ahh,” Wooyoung sighed, “What should I do now? You messed up big time, Jang Wooyoung,” 

“I heard you didn’t come to school yesterday. I hope you’re spending your time with your parents,”

Wooyoung suddenly heard a familiar male voice. Where did he usually hear it? Was it the school gate?

“Forget about yesterday. I want to talk about last Sunday,”

This time it was a female voice. This one was more familiar than the previous one. Wooyoung turned around and tried to have a peek between the books to see who were conversing at the other side of the book rack. Again, his small eyes widened to see Nichkhun and Minsun there. No wonder they sounded so familiar. Nichkhun was the one who always caught him coming late to school whenever there was no morning practice with the basketball team and Minsun was… well, Minsun.

“I hate it when people joke around about my grandmother being sick or things like that,” Minsun added.

“But I didn’t say anything about your grandmother,”

“You said her name, didn’t you?”

That was the first time Wooyoung thought Minsun sounded very angry. It wasn’t like she raised her voice or spoke in a rude tone, but he could feel how angry she was from the desperation and disappointment in her voice.

“Besides, I was with Taecyeon sunbae at the moment. How do you think I felt that I had to lie to him?”

“But your parents want to see you. They had been planning for this weeks ago. Do you want me to actually tell them to wait for you because you’re on a date? You guys haven’t seen each other for years, for heaven’s sake.”

Minsun sighed. “You know how I feel about my parents.” Her voice weakened. She was hurting, Wooyoung could tell, but of what, he wasn’t sure.

“They’re still your parents, Minsun. They want to see you, aren’t you happy?”

Minsun chuckled bitterly. Even though the gap between those thick books were small, Wooyoung could see tears welling up in her eyes.

“I’m not. I tried to, but the fact is I’m not happy… No matter how bad that sounds…”

“Minsun, look. I’m sorry,”

“How long are they going to stay this time, I wonder?”

“Why don’t you give them another chance?”

Minsun sighed again. She looked at the ground.

“What if history repeats itself? What if I end up losing the people who accept me as who I am? My friends, my…” Minsun’s voice stuck in . She tried hard to control her emotions, not to show her weakness to anybody. But of course Nichkhun, and Wooyoung not to forget, knew that she was on the verge of tears.

“Do you… like Taecyeon?” Nichkhun suddenly asked.

Huh? Taecyeon? Wooyoung leaned in closer to the book rack and supported his weight by placing his hands on the rows of books below him.
“Why do you always ask about him? I told you we were just…” Minsun paused to look around, to make sure nobody was around, but Nichkhun took the chance to slip in his comment.

“I know, but I still don’t like the fact that you’re always with him. You don’t know him.”

“Why? What’s wrong with him?”

“I don’t trust him. I don’t want to see you get hurt. I know because we used to-”

“WOAH!” Wooyoung yelled when the books he was using as his support fell onto him because he put too much weight on it. Dozens of books as thick as dictionaries fell onto him, and that left quite a gap on the book rack. And of course, he could clearly see Minsun and Nichkhun now, looking at him in surprise.

“Wooyoung?” Minsun asked.

Laying still under the piles of thick books, Wooyoung forced himself a smile, a nervous one.

“H-Hi, Minsun.”




2.30 p.m.

Everybody was present at the gym, clad in their training suits, but they weren’t practicing. Instead, they were all surrounding a certain person who started to break in cold sweat. 

“The principal said what?” Taecyeon asked in his deep, threatening voice, paired with his black, sharp eyes burning with rage.

Munhwa sighed and held her forehead in her palm. “I knew this is going to happen.”

“H-Hey. Relax okay? I’ll sort that out, I promise!” Wooyoung laughed nervously. Minsun was there too, but she was with her Mathematic Club members. She could only watch Wooyong from afar and shook her head. When Minsun coincidentally met Wooyoung at the library earlier, Wooyoung was forced to tell the truth of why he was there or else Minsun wouldn’t be convinced at him denying that he wasn’t following her and eavesdropping on her conversation with Khun, even though that was half true. So then when the truth was out, Wooyoung had no chance of hiding the real story from Munhwa or the rest of the basketball members as he had planned earlier.

“You do know that the Summer League is after the summer holiday! And you’re supposed to pass 6 subjects you failed in 2 weeks?! How in the world are you going to sort that out?!” Taecyeon grabbed onto Wooyoung’s shirt by the collar.

Wooyoung laughed nervously even more. With his trembling fingers, he tried to peel Taecyeon’s fingers off him but that guy was strong. He wasn’t selected as the captain for nothing.

“Of course I can do it. Don’t you trust me?” Wooyoung’s trembling fingers stayed glued to Taecyeon’s thick arms. He could feel Taecyeon’s veins popping up on his arms, which sent more cold shivers down his spine.

Jaebum sighed. “That’s what you get for going around snooping on others’ business,” Jaebum muttered under his breath. Even as Taecyeon’s closest buddy, he couldn’t really stop that guy when he was mad. Especially when it involves basketball. It was useless to talk into him when he reached his boiling point.

“Taecyeon sunbae, please let him go. There is nothing we can do right now. Why don’t we sit together and think a way out of this?” Munhwa begged. She timidly brushed Taecyeon’s arm up and down as an attempt to calm him down. However, as if nobody else exists there, Taecyeon ignored her plead and dragged Wooyoung out of the gym to the track field.

“Jaebum sunbae, can’t you do anything about that?” Munhwa quickly went to Jaebum and asked, begging for his help. 

Again, Jaebum sighed.

“I can try. But you know it’s not easy to stop Taecyeon,”




Taecyeon was standing like a statue at one side of the field, giving instructions to Wooyoung all while keeping his hawk eyes on him the whole time, making sure he complied to his every order. Some of the basketball members followed, but Taecyeon immediately scurried them back to the gym. He even forbid Munhwa from comig along and told her to take care of the rest of the members at the gym. So far, he had made Wooyoung finished a set of 200 push-ups. Right now, Wooyoung had been running for 23 laps around the field with a tire tied to his waist, adding weight to be dragged around behind him.

Jaebum slowly approached him from behind.

“Hey,”

Taecyeon didn’t budge an inch.

Jaebum scratched his nape, not knowing what was the right thing to say to at least make Taecyeon feel less angry.

“Aren’t you being too harsh on him?”

“I’ve been too easy on him before.”

“The others are worried for this kid.”

“Tell them to worry about themselves. We need to think how to win the coming matches without our main player, no, probably the best, playing along.”

“Do you have a plan?”

Taecyeon didn’t answer He was engulfed in silence, but the fire in his eyes didn’t die. Jaebum knew at the back of his head, Taecyeon was thinking of every possible way to get Wooyoung pass his reseat exam and join them in the Summer League. But everyone knew that that was close to impossible. Wooyoung had been neglecting his studies since the beginning of the semester. How was he going to cover all of them for 6 subjects in 2 weeks?

“I’ll do something about him.”

Jaebum nodded several times. Then he looked at Wooyoung again.

“Are you planning to keep this up until one of you faint or something?”

“Yes.”

Jaebum chuckled. “No wonder you’re the captain. Anyway, go easy on the boy a bit. He still needs to study after this,”

“I know what I’m doing.”

Jaebum nodded for the last time and patted on Taecyeon’s shoulder before he turned around to leave. Back at the gym, Jaebum, who was also the vice captain of team, automatically took over on supervising the practice session whenever Taecyeon wasn’t around.




6.30 p.m.

Everybody was surprised the moment Taecyeon finally returned to the gym. Munhwa who was sitting on the bench stood up immediately, expecting Wooyoung to followed suit behind Taecyeon, but it wasn’t happening as time passed by. Taecyeon raised his eyebrows at all the paused activities, and then continued to walk across the gym like nothing happened. He reached for his water bottle on the bench, right by Munhwa’s side and then downed the water hungrily.

“W-Wooyoung…” Munhwa spoke softly, still a little intimidated at Taecyeon after he exploded earlier.

“I’ll leave him to you,” he said casually. With that, Munhwa nodded, picked up her first aid kit and a big bottle of water and rushed outside. The rest of the basketball team looked on curiously, and Taecyeon realized that too.

“That’s all for today, guys,” Taecyeon announced. The juniors bowed to him before they too rushed outside to check on Wooyoung. Jaebum was about to go to Taecyeon and ask if he was okay, but decided to leave him alone when he saw Minsun from the far end of the gym standing up. Jaebum slowly followed the rest to the track field.

Minsun on the other hand, who was now alone since her club meeting ended a while ago slowly stepped closer to Taecyeon and took a seat by his side. Taecyeon was wiping away his sweat, but his eyes remained glued to the floor.

“Are you okay?” Minsun asked first, which was a rare occasion. 

Taecyeon chuckled bitterly. “Better than Wooyoung I guess. Aren’t you going with them to check on him?”

Minsun smiled gently. “He’s got enough people with him there,”

Silence. 

Minsun let the silence took over seeing that Taecyeon was thinking of something deep in his mind. A while later, he broke the silence.

“Can I ask you a favour?”

Minsun smiled again, “Is it about Wooyoung?”




“Wooyoung ah!” Munhwa blurted right when she saw a figure lying still in the middle of the track field. She rushed to him, and he was half-conscious. He was drenched with sweat head to toe, his face pale and looked pretty much dead. The rest of the basketball team followed her and watched nervously.

“Wooyoung! Can you hear me? Can you get up?” Munhwa tapped his cheek that was still wet from sweat, trying to wake him up.

“W…”

“What?” Munhwa leaned closer to him, and placed her ear so close to Wooyoung’s lips.

“Water…” Wooyoung whispered weakly.

“Hold on, okay?” Munhwa carefully lifted his head and let it rest on her lap. She reached for her water bottle and opened the cap. She supported Wooyoung’s head with her arm and placed the mouth of the bottle on Wooyoung’s lips and tilted the bottle slightly, letting the water slowly ran into his mouth.

“Wooyoung ah. Are you okay? Can you get up?” Junho asked worriedly after Wooyoung finished drinking.

“I… I can’t…” He answered. His eyes were still half-opened. He was so drained that he couldn’t even lift his finger. 

“Let’s get him to the infirmary,” Jaebum said, and Junho nodded at him. A rather tall, bigger member of the team, Chansung, took Wooyoung from Munhwa. Junho helped to position Wooyoung on Chansung’s back, and then they all ran to the infirmary.