Sixteen:

Person by person the stadium began filling up. It was the third day of the Interschool Girls Baseball Tournament. And everyone’s favorite highschool drama was going to take place live today evening. The infamous – Hangang East Sharks vs Hangang West Witches.

The teams had arrived at the stadium hours prior to the actual event to do a warm-up practice on the field. It was an official baseball stadium in Seoul, the grass’s shade less eye-stinging than the one at our school. That was one good relief for me.

I was currently at the base of the entrance, taking in the view of the encircling bleachers where people were settling in their respective seats like colorful dots covering up a canvas. My stomach was twisting in two different feelings. I was nervous to perform infront of such a large crowd for the first time as well as excited since this had been my life-long dream.

“The very first time I came to this place,” Jihyo said as she appeared next to me. Hands on her hips. “I nearly puked. My nerves would not settle each time a new wave of cheers roared through the stadium.” She turned to me with a sweet sad smile. “Too bad we ended up losing to the West anyway. Mr. Yunho fell severely ill with flu and we went to play unpracticed.”

“Must’ve been very disappointing.” I added, fixing my cap.

“Heartbreaking.” Jihyo sighed. “The supporters of West made it worse by hooting ‘losers’ at us. Our then senior, Soojung, got super pissed off and ended up punching someone from the audience. One member of West jumped on her in turn and…you can imagine how it went from there.”

I shivered with even the mere thought and touched my nose in hope I don’t go home with any blue marks on my face today.

“But with you now, I don’t think we’re the ones going back with a defeat.” She smiled again, this time an expecting grin full of hope and determination. I just nodded and tried to get out of there. This was probably the twentieth time someone told me they were relying on me to win it for the East. Not helpful to build morale, I would suggest.

On my way back into the changing room I saw Chaeyoung standing infront of her given locker, hands intertwined and held up in a prayer. She wasn’t religious…so to see her be so indulged in it meant that this match mattered a lot to her as well. I silently back hugged her and muttered low words of encouragement.

“Do you think Mr. Changmin will take it personally if we lost?” she asked, now changing into her uniform shirt. I made a sour face as the neon flashed under the lighting.

“Does he take anything personally at all?” I replied. Well…does he? I don’t think he’s ever been concerned by anything related to us as much as he wishes he could go back to the boys coach position.

Or maybe he was. Now that I thought of it…most of the pressure of performing well today was on his shoulders. He was specifically assigned to us to make a change in our strength and gain us victory after all these years…so if we ended up returning without a trophy or atleast a defeat to the Witches – it would certainly cause some impact on his profession as well.

I felt my chest slightly sinking. Everything was a lot bigger in scale of importance today. I slid into my own uniform shirt that had bold letters DAHYUN printed at the back with the number 13. I smiled as its lavender scent reached my sense. Sana personally washed and ironed it for me…I still don’t understand why. But now I was glad that she did. The scent felt like she was present right next to me.

I closed my eyes and recalled everything from the beginning; from my first day in the team…all awkward around everyone….to today as I was about to represent the power hitter for my school’s baseball team. From the time I thought of First Kiss’s whereabouts to today as we were officially a thing. A lot events that unfolded in my life since that very time…all of them led me to this moment where I was content with everything going on with every relation I had. I was happy.

I was interrupted with a rush of cheers as Jihyo stood at the entrance of the locker-room and yelled our cheer with a fist raised in the air. The rest of the team roared along, creating a loud united thunder.

“Sharks will unite! Sharks will bite!” Jihyo said. I tried to suppress the giggle building up in my throat. This phrase was still so ridiculous and I wondered who came up with it…was it the same person who designed this uniform?

“SHARKS WILL UNITE! SHARKS WILL BITE!” they shouted as well.

“We’ll kick some asses today!” Jihyo said again, inhaling a long breath, “Whether we win or not!”

That confused us for a split second until we figured out she was referring to the inevitable brawl that takes place at the end and so we cheered again in agreement.

With that ending, we lined up and stepped out into the field. My heartbeat almost dropped at the scene. The whole stadium was filled up with the giant overhead lighting blurring away the natural evening skylight. It was noisy with chatters, hoots, fan cheers, pompoms and whistles. On both sides of the bleachers the colors were divided. The right side was full of neon and pink banners for the Sharks while the left full of grape purple vertical banners for the Witches. I was suddenly very envious of their color. Their uniform shirt was a mix of the similar grape purple and mauve and their pants were plain white alike ours.

Their team was lined up opposite of ours, looking smug with overconfidence. Winning for the past six years definitely got to their heads.

I turned back to the right at our supporters and spotted my family sitting in the fourth row. Mom and Pa…yes I started calling Mr. Siwon as Pa like Nayeon, were sitting together with Mom holding our camcorder and Pa lifting a slogan with my name printed in red and yellow. I laughed and waved at them. They caught my sight and waved back, pointing my position to the rest three. Nayeon and Sana sat on either side of Baekhyun who had taken special leave for today and was still wrapped in bandages from chest below. He gleamed with joy and tried to lift his arm as much as he could to wave as well. He was wearing the ‘World’s Best Brother’ shirt I had bought for him much earlier but didn’t get the chance to gift him. Sana and Nayeon were also holding slogans with my name and lifted them up to cheer m