The atmosphere was heavy, everybody was on their feet as they waited for the referee to blow the whistle for probably the last point in the game, suddenly everything was so clear yet blurry, everyone could feel the heaving breaths of the players, suddenly every single movement made the players alert, the loud crowd’s cheers either died down or every sound just faded into white noise. It was the 5^th set, race to 15 points, Thaddeus High School was up by 2 but their rival school loved come from behind wins so Thaddeus wasn’t going to be complaisant this time.

The referee blew the whistle, the server from Lorenzo High School breathed in deep as she bounced the ball a few times, Jennie then counted in her head, at 2 seconds left before an error, the server served the ball, suddenly everyone backed up a bit, the ball was either going out or it might just hit the line, Jennie couldn’t take the risk of hoping it’d be out so she backed up a few more steps and received the ball knowing well that it was coming straight at her; Justine then set the ball to her left, leaving Chaeyoung open to spike, the blockers from Lorenzo High were quick to block her but Jennie dove down to the floor saving the ball before it hit the floor, Justine went for a 1-2 play but the other team’s libero saved the ball and gave it to their setter who had set it up to their ace spiker who hit hard but their middle blocker, Lisa, was right on time to block the girl, the ball was saved again but this time it was an over receive, Jennie made sure to perfectly receive the ball and hand it to Justine who set it up to Chaeyoung for the kill…

Then time froze.

Jennie buried her face in her hands as she fell down to her knees, she was screaming all the while, hands were shaking her and some were hugging her tightly, soon enough she was being lifted off the floor, Jennie removed her hands and saw white confetti everywhere, her team was jumping up and down as they celebrated their victory, storms of photographers came rushing to them, taking pictures of the moment.

…

Jennie and her team were busy singing “We Are The Champions” by Queen to even notice their coach yelling at them to take a shower already, the victory song died down after singing the chorus 4 more times. Unfortunately, despite the victory, the dug out only had 3 shower stalls, meaning others would have to wait. Jennie decided to shower last.

“Hey, Jen, great game today. Congratulations” Chaeyoung, their captain, said as she was drying her hair with a towel, she was now wearing their championship shirt and sports shorts

“You too, Chaeng. I’ll hug you again once I’ve showered” Jennie said, Chaeyoung chuckled and nodded at that

“I’ll go ahead, you and Lisa are the last ones after those three are done but we’ll wait for you guys okay? Party at the school gymnasium” Chaeyoung informed

“Alright, see you there” Jennie said

Jennie looked over to her right to see Lisa in one corner messing with her phone, looked like she was watching the video of their fresh victory from a while ago. Though Jennie wanted to talk to the girl, she and Lisa weren’t exactly friends, and it’s not they hated each other or something, it’s just that they didn’t know each other well, she was a year ahead of Lisa and the only thing they shared in common was the fact that they were in the same sports team, and that’s it.

Lisa also never seemed to want to talk to her anyways, they weren’t partners during drills, they weren’t really close despite being dorm mates, they only talked during real games and sometimes during practice games, and they would high five each other but that was it.

“Jennie, you’re up” Justine said

Jennie nodded.

“You too, Lis” Brooklin said

Showers were absolutely good, it was better than that ice cold bath that their coach would let them do after training, though it was the most brutal thing on earth but it did always help their bodies cope with the pain and fatigue. But showers were bloody awesome; Jennie made it quick though because she was sure if she stayed longer than 30 minutes in the shower then she’d end up having zero chicken wings left at the party in the gymnasium, Chaeyoung likes to eat a lot you see and she sometimes forgets to leave some for the rest. So after 20 minutes, Jennie was done dressing up, since her championship shirt was all sweaty because she had used it a while ago for the picture taking, she decided to grab her volleyball jersey sweatshirt that was lying on the bench outside the stalls. Lisa wasn’t done showering yet so Jennie decided to go ahead.

“Hey, I’m heading out” Jennie yelled, not expecting a reply, but she got a short “ok!”

Luckily Thaddeus High was literally 2 streets away from Lorenzo High so it only took Jennie a few minutes to get there. She was immediately welcomed with high fives and random hugs and compliments.

“Jennie, congratulations, girl!” Dahyun said as she tackled the girl

“Thanks, Dahyun” Jennie

“Oh and I didn’t know you and Lisa were dating?” Dahyun said

“What?” Jennie asked

Sana then came up from behind Dahyun tugging on her shirt.

“Sorry, gotta go Jennie, congrats again!” Dahyun said

Jennie shook her head as she made her way to her locker to drop off some books first, she was met with more hands tapping her back, congratulating her and occasionally telling her how happy they were for her being brave.

“Jennie!”

Jennie was now on her way to the gymnasium when someone called her name from behind, Jennie looked back and saw Jisoo running to her with a huge grin.

“Hey, Unnie” Jennie said

“You crazy girl! Why didn’t you tell me you and Lisa are dating?” Jisoo asked

“Um…because we’re not?” Jennie said

“Don’t be silly, you two come back to school just a few minutes apart and you’re wearing each other’s jersey sweatshirts! That’s so cute, Jendeukie!” Jisoo squealed as she hugged Jennie

“Whoa what?” Jennie asked

But before Jisoo could answer her, their coach called for Jennie to hurry up to the gymnasium so they could start the party already.

“I’ll call you later” Jennie said

“You better! I want details, sis!” Jisoo said

Jennie ran to the gymnasium, it was decorated in gold and red, their school colors, their mascot which was a wildcat that looked more like an adorable kitten, was happily playing Just Dance with some girl from the team. There were two long tables in the middle of the gym, and it was filled with unlimited food that Jennie was sure made Chaeyoung very much happy. The rest of the team were having little chitchats and others were shooting hoops using volleyballs; but what Jennie’s eyes spotted immediately was her sweatshirt…yes her freaking sweatshirt.

Jennie looked down at the sweatshirt she was wearing and saw that it was the same red and gold sweatshirt, it felt like it was hers but the size definitely did seem a bit bigger than usual, and the sleeves were almost reaching her mid-palm area. Plus judging from the huge KIM plastered on the top part of the back of the sweatshirt and the huge number 16 too, Jennie was sure the person in front of her was wearing her sweatshirt and she was probably wearing that person’s sweatshirt.

Suddenly Jennie saw Hannah tell the girl to look behind her, and Jennie wanted to faint when she saw it was Lisa wearing her sweatshirt.

Oh great, we’re not friends in the first place and now this is either gonna be really funny or really awkward. Jennie thought

Jennie saw Lisa blush as the middle blocker then started walking towards Jennie.

“Um, we switched sweatshirts?” Lisa said, her eyes never looking at me

Before Jennie could even reply, their coach whistled loudly to grab their attention.

“Hey, gather up now!” their coach yelled

The team then formed a huge circle around the table of food.

“First of all, I wanna say that I’m proud of you girls, you did bloody amazing today, you survived 5 sets and that last point was beautiful. So congratulations to everyone. Oh and Jennie, Lisa? Nice sweatshirts, lovebirds” their coach said

Jennie almost choked on her own saliva, Lisa on the other hand really choked on her own saliva, Justine had to hit the middle blocker’s back several times before Lisa calmed down, the whole team was hollering though and they had successfully pushed Jennie and Lisa to stand next to each other whilst the feast then began.

Jennie stood awkwardly next to Lisa, she was really hungry right now but her body didn’t seem to move and Lisa was stiff as a stick next to her too, Jennie sighed as she looked at the petrified Lisa. Jennie shook the thought away and just started to dig in, after a minute or so she felt Lisa move to eat as well, all the while they were next to each other, making their teammates tease the hell out of them, and if there’s one thing Jennie learned being with her teammates? It’s that whether it’s true or not, you never defend yourself  because they’ll only end up teasing you more and it usually lasts until you’re about to fall asleep. And as Jennie puzzled it up, she was betting Lisa knew about that too which was why Lisa chose to shut up and just blush at every single person coming up to them to tease them.

The feast was over in an hour, their coach had shooed them out of the gymnasium and had advised them to go home straight away since they were exempted for today’s classes.

“Um, J-Jennie?” Lisa called out

Jennie stopped and breathed in deeply as she turned around and was faced with Lisa.

“I’ll return your sweatshirt after I’ve washed it, I promise” Lisa said

“Uh yeah, me too” Jennie said

“Hey, lovebirds!” Jisoo greeted with a huge wicked smile on her face

“Don’t mind the turtle” Jennie told Lisa

“Don’t call me a turtle!” Jisoo said

Jennie and Lisa laughed at the older girl.

“Oh so because you two are dating automatically gives you the right to gang up on me, huh?” Jisoo said as she narrowed her eyes at the two

“Unnie, you do know we’re not really dating, right? We just accidentally grabbed the wrong sweatshirt” Jennie explained

“It’s true. I didn’t even realize I was wearing Jennie Unnie’s” Lisa said

“Don’t call me ‘Unnie’” Jennie said firmly, making Lisa shy away

“Oh…sorry” Lisa said

“You do realize you guys have this strong chemistry going on, right?” Jisoo said

“How is that even possible? Today might be the first time for me and Lisa to even have a conversation that’s longer than 2 minutes” Jennie said

Jisoo just chuckled.

“Figure it out, lovebirds” Jisoo said as she turned away and left the two behind

Jennie and Lisa were once again left with each other.

“I’m gonna head to the dorm now” Jennie

“Y-Yeah, me too” Lisa said

The walk to the dorm was weird because Jennie thought she’d just be going home as a champion, but who would’ve thought she’d be going home knowing that probably every single person in Thaddeus High thinks she’s dating Lisa Manoban.

…

A few weeks had passed and Jennie thought the rumors about her and Lisa would die down but she was wrong, she was very wrong. 2 days after the rumor had started, Lisa had waited by Jennie’s locker to return her sweatshirt and it only caused the bigger uproar, then a day after that Jennie had approached Lisa during lunch to return her sweatshirt but Jisoo had decided for them to just sit at Lisa’s table and have lunch there, and that was basically a confirmation to everyone that the two were indeed dating.

Surprisingly, ever since the rumors, Lisa has been talking to Jennie more often now, it would be simple ‘good morning’ greetings and asking her how her day was, often times Jennie would rant about how tired she already is even when training hasn’t started yet, Lisa would laugh this ridiculously cute chuckle that made Jennie show her gummy smile to her that would lead Lisa to giggle again.

Training was different too, since the team believed they were a couple, they now decided to two to become drill partners and as much as Jennie liked to believe it would’ve been awkward, it was completely the opposite way, the two surprisingly complemented each other, they were the literal yin and yang of their volleyball team. And their coach was pretty happy with the team’s performance, their games had gotten better and they’ve been beating teams in just 3 sets now. If there was one thing that came out good out of this fake relationship, it would definitely be the lesser training hours because of the great improvement.

After class, Jennie usually hung out around the football field for some peace and quiet, but today Lisa joined her and she was talking about their homework for Mr. Sanders’ History class which was just as boring as Muggle Studies at Hogwarts.

“And it’s due on Friday” Jennie whined as she leaned back against the tree

Lisa chuckled as she leaned back as well.

“I’m pretty sure you’re gonna ace that history paper though” Lisa said

“Yeah, that is if I don’t get over fatigue because we’ve got drills on Thursday” Jennie said

“We could play hooky and skip training” Lisa suggested

“Don’t tempt me, Lisa, I might just agree” Jennie said

The two laughed hysterically, they were leaning against each other, the two continued on joking around with each other, they had kept talking about how weird it was that everyone thought they were a couple even though they never were close friends.

“Are you glad that happened though? Because we’re friends now” Lisa said

“I am actually glad it happened. I never thought you’d be so fun to be with” Jennie said with a smile as she leaned her head on Lisa’s shoulder, Lisa then rested her cheek against the top of Jennie’s head

“Could we be like that though?” Lisa asked

“I don’t understand, what do you mean?” Jennie asked

“Could we actually get together sometime soon?” Lisa asked

Jennie didn’t expect that a smile could come across her face just by Lisa’s question; Jennie subtly grabbed Lisa’s hand and intertwined their hands together.  Jennie looked up at Lisa, her dumpling cheek mushed against Lisa’s shoulder, her cat-like eyes looking straight into Lisa’s eyes.

“Like Friday night? Maybe a movie then we could have dinner” Jennie said

Lisa grinned widely at Jennie’s request.

“I would really like that” Lisa said

 

“Okay” Jennie said

“Okay” Lisa said back