~

I hadn’t spoken to Seung-Ho properly since that night, but for each day this whole week I would of course find myself thinking about him. Most of the time I was thinking about how everything was with his parents than just him in general. A part of me wanted to comfort him and ask him how things were at home, but another part of me knew that I shouldn’t do it with any misplaced motives.

I was disgusted with myself, the more I tried to forget about the way he made me feel the more he came up in my mind. Is this a curse? I probably shouldn't even feel this bad about something as natural as liking someone, but why? Why is it so hard to stop liking somebody?

This morning I had to wake up earlier than usual for basketball practice. The new team was being formed after the previous seniors left, so try-outs for the freshmen were taking place. I know what you’re thinking, me? As short as I am, I actually enjoy basketball and I’m actually not too bad at it.

I struck up the confidence to not let my height discourage me and applied when we were in high school. Although the other girls on the team were pretty tall, my winning streak from the old team must have helped get me in to the University team. And I mean, it was either basketball or acrobatics.

Acrobatics was a no-go area.

Somehow, I had become a key figure for the team, and even though I won’t be doing much this year besides help with training, my presence was needed to reassure everyone else.

After getting on the shuttle bus, I fell asleep and almost missed my stop, but I still managed to arrive an hour early. When I saw that no one was there yet, I started to question my ability for timing. I hated to be late, so I usually tried to arrive early for any appointments that I have, but once again I came too early.

With no one there, I decided to make the best of my hate for lateness. I found an empty cubicle in the changing rooms and snuggled up with my bag to make up for lack of sleep.

I opened my eyes once I heard the sound of the door opening and closing with its usual creak. I let out a yawn and frowned after checking the time on my watch to find out it had been forty minutes already. It felt like five. But it’s better that I slept here than in class, I guess.

As I stood up and started to change into a more appropriate outfit, I could hear familiar voices coming through the door and it wasn’t until their conversation had progressed did I recognise the owners to be Bo-Ra and So-Hee.

“Did you sort out your application for that internship yet? Didn’t you say the deadline was in a few weeks or something?” That soft voice belonged to Bo-Ra. Oh? Application? I hadn’t heard she was applying for an internship.

“I’m almost done, I’ll just need to gloss over it. I think I’ll get Seung-Ho to help.” That was So-Hee.

I was going to call out to them, but with my sweatshirt wrapped around my head, I paused when their flow of conversation drifted to something else.

“How are things with Seung-Ho going?” Bo-Ra asked, and I could hear So-Hee let out a huge sigh. She was probably rolling her eyes right about now, which was what she always did, the two actions worked like a combo.

“I don’t know, it’s going alright I think. It’ll probably be going better if there weren’t other people in the way, you know.”

“Other people like who?”

Yeah… Other people like who? I had to pull the sweatshirt over my head to come back to my senses. I was acting like I was eavesdropping on them, technically I was but I didn’t mean it in that way and I wasn’t liking the sudden feeling of curiosity that washed over me.

So-Hee scoffed, only speaking after shuffling around for a few moments. “Who do you think?”

“So-Hee-yah…”

“What?”

“Is that why you still haven’t said anything about the application?”

“Who knows, she might want that too?” I heard a soft laugh from So-Hee, “Let’s just go.”

The voice that I was going to use to call out their names, soon grew smaller and I haphazardly finished dressing myself. Who would be getting in the way of the two of them… It couldn’t be me that she was talking about. I’ve never done anything out of the ordinary to insinuate such, if anything I’ve done less of the things that we used to do as friends…

Or could that have been the giveaway?

I waited for them to leave before I stepped out, weaving my way through the sudden flood of girls that were getting ready. I shook off my earlier thoughts and went into the hall.

Taking a look at the new recruits I was not surprised by their physiques, I was sure that they were all at least 6 foot, but still they all looked good. They had fire and nervousness in their eyes, which was what I looked out for. Even though we’re edging closer to the twenty-first century, a lot of the male teams still thought that we as girls don’t know what a ball is let alone actually know how to play basketball so seeing the girls so enthusiastic made me happy.

Greeting the players on the current team, I took my seat in the judges position alongside Bo-Ra and So-Hee.

After watching the game for some time, I noticed that number 4, the power forward, wasn’t doing their job properly. Yeah, it’s basketball so players can be where they need to be, but it has formation for a reason and she was not doing a good job to keep hers at all, so I called her and asked her to switch to the centre position.

“Yes, Sunbaenim. But is that okay? So-Hee Sunbaenim put me in that position.” She said, and I gave her a warm smile.

“It’s okay, go to the centre. I’ve checked, and you used to be point guard in your old team, it doesn’t seem like you’re acquainted with this position or the other players yet. We’ll focus on getting you adjusted during later training, but for the sake of this game please switch.” I advised, and she looked at me with grateful eyes.

As the game was about to continue, I felt Bo-Ra nudge my side and I turned to her. She motioned her head towards So-Hee who was staring at me tensing her jaw slightly and I frowned. I wondered what had happened within between the start of the game and now to have annoyed her. So-Hee only made that face when she was irritated or trying to hold back her thoughts. I mouthed ‘what?’ supportively so she could tell me. It’s better I hear whatever she has to say than the person who is the actual object of her anger.

“Yah…” So-Hee spoke softly, but her eyes displayed a greater look of annoyance. “What are you doing right now?” She asked.

“What do you mean?” I returned, “Ah, you mean… Switching her position? You saw her struggling and making a mess of the game, I couldn’t-”

“That isn’t your call to make. I’m Captain, remember?”

I swiped a look at the girls playing and I chuckled slightly not being able to decipher the mood. Was she joking, or was this as serious as she’s making it out to be? “What do you mean? Why are you being this serious?”

“What I mean is, it’s our first day back and you’re already trying to take my position as Captain? If you wanted to be captain so bad why didn’t you just apply instead of undermining me like this?”

“What?” I could only form that word not knowing what spurred her sudden comments. Did I miss something? Did she have a bad morning? Did she have a fight with Seung-Ho? Why am I the punching bag this morning.

The most interesting thing about this situation was the way that So-Hee was speaking softly, but the underbite to her tone couldn’t be missed.

“You’re always playing tricks… no wonder Seung-Ho acts like that around you.” She said the last bit in a cotton-like murmur that if I wasn’t sat next to her I wouldn’t have been able to hear it. Seung-Ho had a great body, but the boy hated sports and rarely ever stepped foot in a gym. So, what exactly did Seung-Ho- the least enthusiastic sport person that I could think of, have to do with basketball?

Women’s basketball at that.

“Just how many things are you trying to take away from me.” She added, still mumbling and my eyes slanted at her jab.

Hold on, what did that mean? With a confused expression on my face, I stood up now not liking the accusatory tone So-Hee was using. I really didn’t expect this whole situation to turn on me when I was just trying to help a recruit. This was the reason why I didn’t spend every second of my day with So-Hee like I used to, she makes everything about her, jumping to conclusions without really asking anything first.

I placed my index finger to my temple and started to rub it. It really was too early for this.

I also didn’t like where this animosity was coming from nor do I think I deserve to be the recipient of it. My mind drifted back to what I heard earlier in the changing rooms and it felt like I was starting to get closer to the answer of ‘who’ was in her so-called way and well, it was starting to look a lot like me.

Yes, I liked Seung-Ho and if I ever made it obvious then that was my fault, but I had never done anything that insinuated us being more than friends.

I spoke calmly, “Yoon So-Hee, I