Chapter 3.                           

Yu An.

I feel warmth on my cheek. I wince and shoot I just feel asleep! Oh goodness. I agreed to go with Chanyeol to the hospital today.

“Time, goodness the ti-” I froze. Chanyeol’s sleeping in front of me. I smile. He must be tired from today’s practice. I look at the time and thirty minutes have passed since our waiting time. I guess he’s waiting for me to wake up huh?

“Chanyeol.” I mutter. He groans and remains asleep. I chuckled. He’s cute. “Chanyeol we have to go.”

His eyelids fluttered and his eyes opened. “Good Morning.” I whisper and he sits up rubbing his eyes.

“…I was waiting for you when I saw you here. I thought you needed sleep so I didn’t wake you up.”

I smile. “I thought so. Sorry I need to wake you up though.”

“It’s fine. I’ll fall asleep at home later anyway.”

I zip my bag close after putting all of my things inside and I noticed him watching me. I guess he’s waiting for me to stand up. Chanyeol has always been so quiet but considerate towards others. I guess he just don’t know how to put everything into words.

We make our way to the bus stop and got off at the stop at the hospital where my brother is. Chanyeol stops as soon as we got off the bus so I waited for him.

“What is it?” I asked. He stares at the guy behind us who sat at the bench.

“Nothing.” He replies and continues walking beside me.

We rode the elevator all the way up to the fifth floor where my brother is. He is watching the television when we went inside. He catches my eyes and looked surprised.

"Yu. Why are you here?" I chuckle and approached him. "And who's this?" He asked pointing at Chanyeol like it's strange for me to be with someone else other than him.

"Chanyeol, meet my brother. Oppa, he's Chanyeol. A-"

"Please don't tell me he's your boyfriend. I'm not ready for my sister to move out of home yet."

I laugh. "He's my friend and no I don't think I will move out yet even if I have a boyfriend."

He sighs in relief and shakes Chanyeol's hand. "Nam Joohyuk. Yu An’s older brother. Athletic instincts, what's your sport?"

Chanyeol blinks in surprise. That's an ability my brother has. He has a feel for athletes like him. I think it's not a bad idea to bring Chanyeol with me today.

"I run." I giggled at Chanyeol's short response and my brother’s anticipation that he will elaborate it further. "Oh, for three years. But I started being serious about it when I was in elementary."

My brother smiles. I can tell he likes him already. "I wanna see you run someday. Better be ready when that happens."

"I don't see any reason why I have to prepare for that. I just run not to impress."

My brother laughs. "I like this kid." He says to me pointing at him.

"You should hurry too. I want to see you swim." My brother's face softens. "Is it bad?"

"No. Doctor says I should just rest for three months and it'll be good as new."

Chanyeol's face displayed horror. "Must be terrible."

"I know. Not being able to do your sport is a torture for an athlete."

I smile as I take out the lunch that I prepared. I like that they both get along. I don't even see Chanyeol talk this much when it's just the two of us. I only see him talk a lot with Baekhyun.

"I prepared lunch for you. I read that meat is good for you so I prepared braised beef with tofu."

"Oh, as expected of you. Thank you!" My brother started eating but stops. "It will make me feel bad if I eat by myself. You both should eat too but don't expect me to share this. I mean, you bought it for me right?"

I laugh. "Oh don't worry oppa. I have for us too." I bring out the lunch for me and Chanyeol then handed him the chopsticks. "Here, I know you're starving for today's practice."

"Thank you." He replied and we all started eating.

When we got out from the hospital, something (or rather someone) made Chanyeol stopped. I look back and he's staring at the guy. I did too and I realize that his physique is quite familiar to me though I can't picture who.

"Baekhyun, I swear-"

Baekhyun?

The guy removes the cap that he's wearing and indeed it is Baekhyun. He chuckles and shakes his head then looks at me.

"I'm sorry I followed both of you. I just felt betrayed that I am not invited." He says.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to leave you out of this. It's just that Chanyeol discovered and-"

"It's fine. I won't force you."

"We just visited my brother that's all."

"You have a brother?"

I nod. Chanyeol sighs and sits on the bench as we wait for the bus.

"Baekhyun please tell me you're not mad." He says.

"I'm not." Baekhyun laughs and ruffles Chanyeol's hair. "I'm glad that you came with her."

"The bus is here!" I say and we all sat at the back of the bus. I wonder what Chanyeol's been worrying about though.

"Look, the track team is looking for a new manager." Yeon Hee says.

"Baekhyun mentioned that their manager is scouted at Australia. Maybe she took the offer."

"Oh? Yu An, Yeon Hee." Yoochun, the captain of the track team greeted. "You both gonna watch today?"

"Yes."

"I see." He looks stressed. I guess it's because he's been doing all the work since they don't have a manager.

"Do you need any help sunbae? You look exhausted." I asked.

"Well, I've been managing everything since Hae Jin went abroad." He chuckles. "Well I have a offer for you both. Mind being temporary managers until I find a replacement?"

"Hm, sound good to me. What do you say Yu An?"

"We'll take it." I replied.

"Oh you don't know how comforting that is! Let's introduce you both then!" We make our way to the track field and saw the rest of the team. "Everyone! Gather for a second!"

Every stopped and approached us. They don't look surprised since they see us every week not to mention Yeon Hee and I watch their practice sometimes.

"Listen, I have found these two angels that will help me manage the team in exchange for Hae Jin for the meantime. That means Yeon Hee and Yu An will be our temporary managers. I guess it won't be hard since you both are familiar about how it works right?"

"I guess so." We replied.

"Good. We'll be in your care then."

"Please take care of us!" The rest of the team added.

"Okay back to practice!"

Baekhyun walks over to our direction. "You sure you can both take the job?"

"Sunbae needs help and besides, there's two of us so it won't be much work." I replied.

"Okay. But if you need help you can ask me."

I smile. "Thank you Baekhyun."

He nods and runs back to his position. I saw Chanyeol looked and I waved to greet him. He nods in reply. "Shall we get to work then?"

Yeon Hee and I walked to the nearest drinking fountain to get their drinks refilled. I guess this is too much work for sunbae when he has to monitor his team and also practice at the same time. I'm glad we took the job for him.

I was on my way back from the faculty office when I saw Baekhyun and Chanyeol talking to someone. He looks like some kind of professional considering that he's wearing a suit and tie. He hands something to the both of them and Baekhyun gladly took it while Chanyeol's being Chanyeol. They bowed and bid farewell to the man and they noticed me.

"Yu An!" Baekhyun rushes to me and showed me the card. "Guess what?"

I took the card and it looks like the man is some kind of sports professional. I look at Baekhyun then back at the card looking clueless. I honestly don't know how the sports world works.

"I don't know."

"I asked you to guess." He sighs. "But anyway! We just got scouted by someone who's working at Australia!"

I gasped. "Wow! That's great!!"

"I know! We can both go there for schooling for college and be national athletes!" I can tell that Baekhyun is getting hyped up but I don't think Chanyeol is. He's being so silent not the usual kind of silent. He's been staring at the card that was given to them. I wonder if something's up?

"That's great. I'm happy for both of you."

"I'm heading to the cafeteria. I'm starving." Chanyeol says.

"Huh? But lunchtime is over!" Chanyeol ignored him and walked away. "Something's up with that guy."

And I do think so too. Problem is, you can't get through Chanyeol easily.

It's my third week of being the track field team's manager and it's exhausting. I think Yeon Hee's stamina got challenged and now she's got coughs and colds. I am now alone for the first time this week and I hope all goes well.

Thankfully, today's practice ended early because a lot of them have quizzes and such. But I don't think Chanyeol cared about any of that. He's out there running by himself. I looked around for Baekhyun but he's not around which is odd. He stops when he sees me and catches his breath.

"Why are you still here? Practice is over." He asks.

"I can say the same for you."

He sits on the edge and I feel like I should sit beside him so I did. Something's up with Chanyeol but I can't make myself to ask. I've always felt that he is the kind of person that you can't easily get into.

"Yu An, what made you decide on a future?"

Hm? I guess this is about the career info that we have to turn over? Is that the reason?

"I guess it's because of my brother. I want to help him be a strong athlete."

"If your brother wasn't an athlete, would you still be a doctor?"

"I guess so? When my mom introduced me the idea, I actually liked it. I was interested so I started looking into it. I guess I loved pursuing medicine."

"I see. Something you love."

There was a pause or rather, he is being silent. There's something but he's not saying anything and that's when I see it. The business card that was given to him when he was scouted by the Australian man.

"Is it that? Are you having troubles because of that?"

"Yeah. And the career sheet made it worse. I... I didn't think that I would come to a point where I have to decide on my future. I thought it would just go by itself. Turns out I was wrong."

"Don't you love running? Aren't you going to pursue it?"

"I do love running. But I am not thinking of anything just yet. I don't know. I asked Baekhyun and he was so hyped up when we got scouted. How he wanted to go there as much as possible. I'm.. I'm not like him you see?"

I looked at him and he's taking this more seriously than I thought. I am thinking that I'm seeing a new side of him right now. We're at the point where we have to decide if we want to enter college or not. I guess that really was a spur of a moment for Chanyeol.

"You don't have to force yourself to decide you know?" I stand and sat in front of him and pat his head. He looks a little different. He's worrying about this. "Just listen to your heart and figure out what you love. For the meantime, why not just run until you chased and found what your goal really is? Just have fun running just as how your coping up right now."

"I may have to enter college you know? I don't even know what to do there."

I chuckle. "I told you to run until you've realized what your goal is Chanyeol."

He smiles and searched through his bag and I watch him. He grabs a notebook, a pen and our career sheet. He scribbled something and I smiled. He wrote running.