Chaeyoung focused on the sound of her own breathing. Inhale. Exhale. She let herself get lost in the rhythmic inner workings of her body and mind. Calm. That’s the energy she needed to exude. Confident and calm would be the key. Confident and calm would lead her to victo-

“OUCH!” She yelled out loud whilst grabbing at the side of her head. She rubbed at the sore spot where a ball had just seconds before hit her on her head with no warning.

“Sorry to interrupt your self-motivational meditation sesh thing, but we’ve gotta regroup.” Jeongyeon, the thrower of said ball and the team’s goalkeeper, said. 

With a huff Chaeyoung stood up off the locker room benches and made her way to the pitch. She rolled her shoulders as she walked, shook her arms out and rolled her head. She found her team standing around their manager in the technical area. 

Seoul City’s manager, Moonbyul, turned to look at every player as she spoke. “Listen up, we’re going to be playing offensive today. We may be at the top of the league currently, but the Dragons are at the top of their form right now. They’re catching up quickly, and we cannot under any circumstances afford even the smallest of slip ups or mistakes, alright?” 

The team nodded furiously, looking around at each other with looks of determination on their face.

“I want you guys to dominate the field. They’ve come all this way from Daegu, so let’s give them a good game!”

Everyone gathered into a circle and placed their hands into the center. They counted down from three to two and finally one with a raucous cheer. It helped to build team morale. Moonbyul began talking to the players separately one-on-one ,debriefing them on the attack strategy, as the players went back to preparing for the match.

Chaeyoung started doing her warm-ups while she waited, she liked to keep her body moving before every game. Any moment of stillness resulted in the nerves creeping in, and that never ended well for her.

Rosé, a support striker on the team walked up next to her. “Hey, how’re you feeling about the match?” 

“The Dragons are good for sure, but I know we’ll be better. Got your aiming all calibrated?”

“You bet!” The older girl replied with a grin and two thumbs up. “I’m getting a lot of good vibes right now. I can feel it in my stomach. Actually that might be the taco I had for breakfast.”

“Where are my attackers? Ah there you are!” Moonbyul approached the two. “Okay guys, 3-4-3 positioning, you clear?”

They saluted Moonbyul in mock seriousness. “Yes ma’am.” They said in unison.

“Good good, I know you’ll all give me 110%. I want to see the same energy from last week’s match! Now where’s Yoobin?” Their manager rushed off in a flurry looking for the left wing player.

Rosé noticed some members from the Daegu team waving her over. “Hey I gotta go catch up with some old friends, see you in a few.” 

Chaeyoung nodded and watched Rosé run off towards them.

Chaeyoung resumed her stretching, looking at the other team across the pitch to keep her mind occupied. Her eyes landed on the opposition’s goalkeeper, her name was Chou Tzuyu, and she stood a good foot taller than Jeongyeon despite being one of the younger players on the field.

Jeongyeon walked over to Chaeyoung and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Damn! Think you can get past the great wall of China over there?”

“She’s Taiwanese, and I’m not sure actually.”

Jeongyeon looked surprised. “Oh, you know Tzuyu?”

“Yeah, we met at a football academy a few years back, but she lives so far away we barely get to meet. We’re still pretty good friends though.”

“Who we talking ‘bout?” Sana spoke from behind them, causing the two girls to flinch. 

Jeongyeon clutched at her chest with a gasp and glared at the midfielder. “Sana! Again with the popping up, stop it!”

“Yeah yeah you’re a scaredy cat we get it, anyways who are we looking at?”

“Tzuyu. The goalkeeper, I’m friends with her.” Chaeyoung explained.

“Ohhh. I’ve got a friend in the Dragons too actually!” Sana scanned the field, trying to find the person she was talking about. 

“Oh over there! Number 37. Mina! Miiiiiinaaaaa!” Sana waved her arms about enthusiastically.

The player she was calling turned around, her hair fanning out in slow motion like she’d come straight out of a movie. She spotted Sana waving, and started jogging towards her, her straight-out-of-a-movie hair bouncing with every step.

Chaeyoung swore there must’ve been a very strong stadium light aimed directly towards this Mina’s back, because she seemed to almost be glowing, like there was a halo surrounding her.

“Sana! How’ve you been?” Mina began talking to Sana, unaware of Chaeyoung stood off to the side blatantly staring at her.

“Does everyone besides me just happen to have a friend in the Dragons?” Jeongyeon muttered.

The goalkeeper didn’t receive a response and looked at the younger girl confused. It took her a few seconds to realise that the striker had been captivated by the rivalry’s team member, she snickered to herself when she saw Chaeyoung’s expression.

“You want some tissues? Seems like you’re drooling a bit riiight there.” Jeongyeon placed her hand underneath Chaeyoung’s jaw and pushed upwards, snapping it shut.

The younger girl twisted her head out of Jeongyeon’s hand, a light blush on her face. All words of objection died on her tongue as she realised she’d been caught red handed.

“You’ve got Im Nayeon don’t you?” Chaeyoung teased, knowing it got on the older girl’s nerves.

“Not. My. Friend.” She replied through gritted teeth.

“Whatever you say.” Chaeyoung smiled to herself, feeling satisfied that she got back at Jeongyeon. “Anyways, having your friends as your rivals can be both a good thing and a bad thing.”

“What’s the good?”

“You know all of their tricks.”

“And the bad…”

Chaeyoung saw that Tzuyu had noticed her and waved.

“They know all of yours.”

The whistle blew so all of the players walked onto the pitch and stood in a line. The two teams passed by each other, shaking hands with every player to show good sportsmanship. They then took their positions as Jihyo the team captain of Seoul City, and Nayeon the team captain of the Daegu Dragons faced each other in the center of the pitch. They shook hands with each other. The referee tosses a coin into the air and it lands on the floor, she signals towards Jihyo who nods. The referee points towards the Seoul City team’s half.

The match begins and Seoul City takes the offensive, pushing against Daegu’s defenders. The midfielders take any chance they can to pass the ball forwards to the attackers. Tzuyu is a fantastic goalkeeper, she’s able to make quick decisions that are accurate 99% of the time. 

Around twenty minutes had passed, and Chaeyoung finally spotted the perfect opportunity to score. Yoobin passed the ball to her and she found an opening in the defense. Chaeyoung stormed ahead, aware that Seulgi was gaining on her right. She weaved around Elkie, putting her football trickery to good use.

Her goal was so close! A flick of her foot at the right angle and the ball would go flying, slip past the goalie’s hands into the back of the net. 

Chaeyoung had the unfortunate habit of being too focused on one part of the field. Leaving her vulnerable to attacks from full backs that weren’t in her peripheral vision. 

So she didn’t see Myoui Mina charging towards her left at the pace of a stampeding bull with all the elegance of a leopard, her swift movements tackling Chaeyoung, knocking the ball off course and sweeping her off her feet. Literally.

What Chaeyoung did see were her hopes of scoring disappear as quickly as the ball slipped from her possession. What she did see was the imminent fall that awaited her, only she wasn’t falling onto the familiar hard turf beneath her feet. No, instead she fell onto a firm body that let out a hefty ‘oof’ at the collision. Her hands had instinctively went out to brace her fall. 

Chaeyoung would’ve much rather preferred the bruising brutality of the grass. 

The shorter girl opened her eyes, they had a tendency to squeeze shut anytime she predicted something painful would happen, and found two wide eyes staring right back at her. Shock and slight bewilderment held in the stare. 

She was on top of Mina. 

In between Mina’s legs. 

Her hands were on Mina’s-

Oh God. Oh god her hands were not where they were meant to be and oh she could hear Jeongyeon’s breathless laughter from behind her and oh god-

Chaeyoung immediately retracted her hands like she’d touched something hot. 

Well they technically did touch something hot, but now was not the time for that. 

“I’m so sorry! I just fell and I-I kinda just- I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to be inappropriate!” Chaeyoung squeaked out as she scrambled to move backwards. She surveyed Mina’s face, she’d kept a slightly surprised expression through everything, but had looked more and more bemused as Chaeyoung spoke. The younger girl stayed sat on the floor, her legs had turned to jelly and she found herself unable to stand up.

Mina pushed herself off the ground and dusted herself off. She then walked towards Chaeyoung, who kept her eyes on Mina’s face. She was searching for any signs of anger.

Gone was the overconfident, cocky persona of Seoul City’s striker. Replaced instead with a bashful young woman, flustered by her actions. Mina smiled a genuine smile that made Chaeyoung feel as thought butterflies had manifested in her stomach. She grabbed the older girl’s hand and allowed herself to be pulled up, but when she made to detach her hand Chaeyoung found herself being tugged closer into Mina’s. Their shoulders bumped together as Mina tilted her head down to look at Chaeyoung in the eye.

“At least take me out to dinner first.”

A loud wolf whistle cut through the air, followed by laughter and a few noises of amazement.

Chaeyoung’s face was burning as red as her football kit.

The referee quickly got the game back on track, having had enough of watching a rom-com play out in front of her on the pitch. It seemed both teams had decided to pause the game to watch the unfortunately embarrassing encounter the two players had. 

As Mina had kicked the ball out of play, the ball went over to Seoul City’s outside midfielder. Jihyo jogged up to the sideline and picked up the ball. She carefully surveyed the pitch, and threw it towards Momo who was open. She quickly passed it to Rosé, she was confronted by Joy. They danced around each other, but Rosé managed to kick it through Joy’s legs giving her an opportunity to score. She took advantage of the weak defense to cleverly tap the ball into an unprotected area of the goal. Tzuyu’s leg barely missed the ball, and it rolled into the net like nothing.

All of Seoul’s players cheered, nearby players going to hug Rosé. They resumed play, aware of the clock ticking. Before Chaeyoung knew it the whistle had blown and it was half time. Each team returned to their respective technical areas for a break.

Jihyo caught everyone’s attention with a clap. “Good job everyone! Rosé that was a brilliant goal, I want to see more of that play from here on out. We may have the lead but remember, this is a game of two halves. Anything could happen in the second half so we cannot lose focus!” The team nodded in agreement.

“Also.” Jihyo had a devilish smile on her face, “Can everybody please give a round of applause to Chaeyoung!” 

The team all looked around at each other, a few of the players hesitantly clapping their hands together in confusion.

“We got that goal right after your little incident with a certain player on the field. It seems you’re our lucky charm this match!” Jihyo said with a wink, causing the entire team to go into an immediate uproar with a red faced Chaeyoung in the middle of it all. It was rare for Jihyo to crack a joke in the middle of a match as she liked to have a professional atmosphere. 

“Sorry Chaeng, it was just too good to pass up.” Jihyo said with a pat on Chaeyoung’s back. “Anyways, it seems to have gotten everyone feeling lively again. You really are the lucky charm!”

Chaeyoung playfully pushed the captain away with a shove, but couldn’t hide the smile on her face. She drank from her water bottle and wiped at her neck with her hand towel. Her eyes unconsciously drifted over to the Dragons area, and she found Mina looking right back at her. 

The players all resumed their positions on the field. The whistle blew, and the second half started.

The ball had mostly stayed on the Dragons’ side of the pitch, making their defenders work hard on protecting their goal. 

Chaeyoung had the opportunity to shoot a few times, but everytime Tzuyu would block the football, predicting exactly where Chaeyoung would shoot. The striker cursed under her breath every time. She wouldn’t be scoring this time.

As the second half came closer and closer to finishing the Dragons’ tried riskier moves. With only ten minutes left on the clock it would seem like the Seoul team had it in the bag to an uninformed observer. But everyone in the stadium knew, it could turn easily.

And it did.

Gahyeon, a full back, booted the ball across the pitch, it was a brave albeit desperate move. With a lot of the Seoul players further up the rival’s end of the pitch, it left their defenses vulnerable. The kick had been vague, directionless. But it worked. Lisa attempted to head it, but even her height couldn’t make up for the distance. 

Dahyun received the ball on her chest and quickly set off, running like hell and searching to pass to Nayeon. Yeri attempted to intercept the ball, but it slipped past her too fast, and before anyone could blink Nayeon had shot the ball into the top right corner of the net. Jeongyeon wasn’t fast enough to block it in time, her fingertips barely brushing the ball. She got up off the ground, huffing as she did so. Nayeon flicked her hair with a smirk, irritating Jeongyeon to no end, before being tackled by hugs from her teammates.

It was all to play for in the final five minutes, and before anyone had noticed it went into extra time.

The extra time was hectic to say the least. The football was constantly moving up and down the pitch, both Jeongyeon and Tzuyu worked overtime to block the constant last-ditch attempts at goals from the players.

The whistle blew, and that was it.

Chaeyoung wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. The extra time was all used up.

Penalty shoot outs were nerve wracking for everyone involved. The amount of responsibility put onto the goalkeepers to defend their teams’s legacy, and the pressure on the kickers to score a goal was immense. It was practically like gambling. You either got lucky, or you didn’t.

Jeongyeon managed to block Jisoo’s shot.

Seoul City - 0 | Daegu Dragons - 0

Jihyo scored, the first player to go up and face Tzuyu. The team felt hopeful.

Seoul City - 1 | Daegu Dragons - 0

And so it went on like that. One after another a player from each team went up. After nine players had taken their shot, the scores had levelled out.

Seoul City - 2 | Daegu Dragons - 2

Then it was Chaeyoung’s turn.

If she missed this, then the game went into sudden death. 

If she got this. Seoul City won.

She walked up to the line, breathing slowly and deeply. 

Time slowed down for her, it was like there was nobody else present in the world besides her, Tzuyu and the football. She kicked the ball and it all seemed to happen in slow motion. Tzuyu’s expectations for Chaeyoung to trick her and aim in the opposite direction she was shooting caused the goalkeeper to lunge the wrong way.

Chaeyoung kicked the ball straight. She placed every amount of hope she had into the ball. It was a test of luck really. 

And she got lucky this time.

She watched the ball hit the back of the net. Watched Tzuyu’s body hit the turf. 

It was just her, then. Just Chaeyoung standing on an empty football pitch. Only her in that moment, her and a football.

But suddenly Chaeyoung was back into reality. A reality where she’d scored the winning goal and the screams of pure joy surrounded her until she was drowning in celebrations.

The team gathered around Chaeyoung and lifted her up onto their shoulders, rhythmic chants of her names filling her ears as she felt herself being thrown into the air. Finally, she let herself yell a victorious yell. Her fist in the air as she lost herself in the moment.

They placed her back down on the floor and began hugging one another. Moonbyul approached Chaeyoung and gave her a fistbump, the striker looked at her hand like she’d been blessed by god.

She noticed a few of the Dragons nearby and went over to shake their hands, making sure to show respect towards everyone. She saw Tzuyu walking back towards the Dragons benches, and ran over to her.

“Tzuyu!”

The tall girl turned around. “Ah, my greatest enemy, my one true rival, Son Chaeyoung has come to mock me.”

“I come in peace. That was a good game, you get better everytime I see you, taller too. You’ll be playing at championship level before you know it.”

“Thanks Chaeng. I thought I’d catch you out but you surprise me every time. You’re the true definition of a wildcard.”

Chaeyoung opened her arms out as wide as her smile. Tzuyu hugged her with a roll of her eyes, lifting her off the ground slightly causing Chaeyoung to yelp. She dropped her back on the ground.

“I’ll text you later. I’ve gotta go now, and you,” Tzuyu grabbed Chaeyoung by the shoulders and turned her around 180 degrees, “Have to deal with this one here. See ya.”

Chaeyoung was forcibly turned to face the one and only Myoui Mina. Number 37.

Chaeyoung forced herself to overcome her awkwardness and speak. “Hi! Sorry again, about the, you know.”

“Don’t worry about it. It was an honest mistake.” Mina said sincerely. “Congratulations, by the way, that penalty was something else.”

“Thank you.” Chaeyoung suppressed the urge to giggle, “You guys played brilliantly, by the way.”

“Thank you.” Mina fiddled with the hem of her shirt. “Oh I just wanted to say that our team’s gonna be around in Seoul for another two weeks or so. I don’t suppose you’ve got any time for that dinner?”

Chaeyoung’s face seemed to be frozen in a state of shock and happiness mixed together.

“Absolutely! I mean yeah, totally. I can show you around Seoul if you want.”

“That’d be great. Do you want to add me on Snapchat? We can figure out the details later.” Mina took her phone out and tapped the screen a few times. She held it out for the other girl.

Chaeyoung scanned Mina’s snapcode. “I’ve got you!”

Mina grinned. “You sure do. I’ll see you around tiger.”

“Uh, y-yeah! You too! I mean- see ya! Around!” Chaeyoung shouted after her before mouthing ‘what was that?’ to herself. She looked down at her phone and tried not to look too hopelessly infatuated but failed. Talking to Mina felt as exhilarating as scoring the winning goal in a match. 

“Damn Chaeyoung! You scored in more than one way today girl!” 

“Sana! Stop sneaking up on me!"