The next morning, as soon as AJ stepped foot into the school compound, the shaggy-haired one was welcomed by the guy basketball team, aka Kai’s gang. They put her in a playful headlock only to call her by very uncreative insulting nicknames such as “lettuce hair” or “dweeb master”. She honestly thought if they were to make fun of her, they could have done better, but then again, THIS was the guy team, Kai’s minions who worshipped a guy that couldn’t pass his class for god’s sake. She struggled a bit to get out of their grip, not wanting to hurt them physically. She already anticipated there was more to come.

AJ’s instinct told her basketball practice would be hell that day, and true to that, she was constantly being roughed up by the guys. Sitting on top of the bleachers, James had been holding back his anger since practice started, AJ rolling on the floor once more after an unsuccessful finger roll*, one guy accidentally slammed her frail body onto the ground as he tried to block her. Seeing the smug grin on his face, James knew better. Having neither an official coach nor a referee for the team, unfortunately, had resulted in a bruised-up AJ.

James saw this as a discriminating act. It wasn’t like AJ did anything to offend the guys team, yet there she was, clutching her bleeding knee in the key*. Clicking his tongue, he called out for a foul yet to no avail. The girls gathered to help her up but stubborn AJ stood up on her own and limped away from the court without a word. He wondered whether things could have happened differently if Krystal didn’t have to go home early because of family matters. The proper class president would most likely not allow something like this to happen to her classmate, let alone a girl. James would like to think she considered AJ one of her best friends then, but his gut told him there was more to it than it appeared.

James finally caught up to AJ half way to the infirmary, silently cursing himself for having worse stamina than the bleeding girl. Panting heavily, he jogged up to her side and hooked one arm on his shoulder to help her walk. The shaggy-haired girl smiled gratefully.

“It’s good to have you around, dude.”

James scoffed. “Yeah right, wait until Krystal hears about this.”

“Nah leave them be. They’ll get bored with me pretty soon.”

“Seriously tho you llama, you have a black belt in taekwondo just for them to gang up on you like that? What for?” He grumbled.

AJ sighed. It wasn’t like she couldn’t fight back. The last thing she wanted, being a transferee, was to get attention from teachers and her peers alike for getting into a fight at school. She didn’t want James to second-guess anything anymore, so she went on to explain.

“In all honestly, I don’t think they tried to hurt me physically, not deliberately at least. My guess is, they just follow Kai’s order to keep me away from Krystal.”

“Because he considers you a threat to their relationship?” James caught on.

They both groaned when they got to the infirmary with no nurse in sight. Plopping AJ down to one of the stools, James moved to get some cotton balls and a bottle of antiseptic. Just when he was about to pour the solution onto AJ’s wound, the door opened to a slightly sweaty basketball team member, the only short-haired girl aside from AJ herself.

“Eunjung?”

“H-hey! I came to check up on AJ. How’s your wound?” She croaked while catching her breath. Poor girl must have run all the way here.

The girl in question was dumbfounded. For sure they were classmates and even teammates in basketball, yet they never really conversed, yet here she was, asking about AJ’s conditions when no one else did. Before AJ could mutter an answer, James already beat her to it.

“That’s so nice of you Eunjung! Come on in and let’s see how we can help this llama.” He chirped.

Nodding her head, Eunjung carefully stepped inside while looking around for the nurse.

“She’s not here. Must have been out for a while as we didn’t see her walking out.” AJ spoke up when she noticed the former’s confused eyes.

“O-oh okay then. How can I be of help?”

James handed her the bottle and instructed her on how to pour it on the open cut for him to disinfect it. As she poured, he dabbed on the scraped skin with utmost care while gently blowing air onto it to sooth the pain.

“Yah! Keep still!” He brusquely looked up and snapped when Eunjung’s hand shakily squeezed the bottle, catching both of the girls off guard only to scratch the cotton ball against AJ’s wounded knee.

“DUDE IT HURTS!”

All eyes widened when blood came gushing out of the wound. Eunjung let out a shriek with James screaming right next, both of them stammered apologies after apologies when the nurse came to their rescue, eventually kicking the two useless friends out. AJ only chuckled in pain.

‘At least I made a new friend.’ She smiled at the thought.

A/N: Hello people~ first of all, I apologize for the late update. I was on vacation the past week and finally got to catch up on some much needed sleep (I suffer from insomnia, pretty badly actually). Took some time off work for personal healing and tried to squeeze in this short one for you on the phone. I’m not really satisfied this with chapter, yet I got to introduce a new character who will play a rather interesting part in the storyline later on. Oh and I knew I threw in some basketball terminology. For those who are not familiar with the sport, below is the clarification:

*Finger roll: an advanced variation of a layup that involves a player turning their palm up and rolling the basketball of the tips of their fingers. This can create a 'soft' layup and also allow the shooter to finish with arc that negates a shot block attempt.

*Key: free throw lane

p/s: Thank you for supporting this fic! I was really nervous starting this as I only had the beginning and the end of the story in mind, but will try my best to finish it (I know the feeling of being cliff-hanged). I love plot twists as well so let's see how this goes? :)