On Wednesday morning I walked to my locker to put my books away. As I was putting my books up a hand reached out with a carton of orange juice, putting it directly in front of my face. I turned to my left to see Jeno, leaning against the locker next to mine with an arm held out. His uniform was ed like usual and showed his grey graphic tee. I looked at him questioningly.

“You seem like you like it,” he averted his eyes.

I took the orange juice from his hand, “I do, thanks, but I don’t have anything to pay you back.”

He shook his head, his black hair swaying left and right as he did, “It’s fine, just take it.”

“Thank you,” I smiled.

“Are you busy on Friday?” he asked.

I thought about my schedule for this week, tomorrow night I have cram school and usually, I would bake cookies with Songhi on Friday nights, really more of me baking for her to satisfy her sweet tooth, but she’s going over to a friend’s for a sleepover. “Not that I know of,” I answered Jeno.

He looked down at the floor, “Well then you should come to the game on Friday.”

“Are you playing?” I asked not thinking.

Nice going Hyeri, asking an obvious question, of course, he’s playing, he captain and part of the starting line up.

“Yea, my team and I, we’ve been practicing really hard all year long, it’s against Seulri High School, our biggest rival right now. It’ll be a good game,” he explained.

“Really? I’ll come then,” I closed my locker and only had the workbook and pencil case I would need for my first class.

He broke into a smile, “I’ll be on the lookout for you in the stands then, cheer for me please.”

I nodded, “I will.”

“Here, I’ll walk you to class,” he stood up from the locker and straightened his back, grabbing my textbook from me before starting the way to my class.

That Friday I was walking out the school doors to the entrance, my arm linked with Eunah’s as Donghae walked on our right.

“Eunah,” I waited for her to take her attention off of her phone, “What do you usually wear to a basketball game?”

“Simple, the school colors, of course, wait,” she paused as she must have realized why I asked, “You’re going to the game tonight?” she stopped in her tracks making Donghae and I stop as well. “Hyeri, this is the first game you’re going to since the homecoming game!” her face filled with joy. “Come on! We’ll pick an outfit at my house,” she began skipping as she pulled me towards the entrance.

Thinking about it, Eunah is right, tonight’s game would be my first game since homecoming. The only reason why I had gone to the homecoming game was because it was the biggest game of the regular season, not only that but I went as Mark’s date. Both of us agreed to go with each other because we didn’t want to go to homecoming alone. Typically, couples would go together and those who are single would use it as an opportunity to ask their crush, usually, it would end up well and they would start going out with each other. Like other couples and singles, I made the proposal to ask Mark to homecoming grand. I went the extra mile to hand-make a poster and got his favorite food, then waited after school to surprise him. A lot of people saw and liked my proposal to him, even thinking that by the end of homecoming we would end up together. Of course, that didn’t end up with Mark and I. Instead his friend stood between us during the game and I barely got to talk to him, we didn’t even get any pictures at the game together.

“You look so cute!” Eunah squealed as she smeared yellow face paint on my face as though I was in the military. She had me change into a white tennis skirt that went to my mid-thigh and a yellow knit crop top and tied half of my hair up with a matching yellow ribbon.

“Is this really what they wear to basketball games?” I asked tugging down on the tennis skirt.

“Yup,” Donghae answered, “For the record, it does look cute.” He was seated at Eunah’s desk snacking on the fresh fruit that her maid brought in earlier.

“How much time do we have until we have to get there?” Eunah asked.

Donghae turned his wrist to check his watch, “Two hours, plenty of time.”

“Aren’t you going to change?” I asked him.

He bit into a strawberry as he shook his head, “Don’t need to.”

Eunah rolled her eyes, “Don’t even bother trying to convince him, he won’t dress up for these occasions.

An hour later Eunah was also done getting ready, wearing an outfit similar to mine, but her colors were opposite. After she smeared face paint onto Donghae’s face who didn’t try to get out of it, the three of us headed back to school where the game would be held. Eunah insisted that we try to be there early to get better seats, which she wasn’t wrong. Even though we were twenty minutes early we were able to get seats in the front row.

“Hyeri these are for you,” Donghae passed me a pair of flimsy pom-poms and gave a pair to Eunah as well. “For when you cheer for them,” he explains, seeing my lost face.

“Right,” I ruffled the pom-poms against each other a bit.

Soon the stands became packed as students flooded the gym. The school’s band stood in the stands and began playing a preppy tune, rattling up the audience as they did. Soon the stands became a sea of yellow, students wore the color, painted their faces, and even brought noisemakers to bang against each other. The other side of the gym was no different, students from the rival school flooded the stands in their forest green attire. The band ceased as soon as our principal walked to the center of the gym, a microphone in hand.

“It’s starting!” Donghae said excitedly.

“Good evening, students, parents, faculty, tonight we have a great game ahead of us,” he started.

“Wooo!” the cheerleaders screamed, ruffling their pom-poms together.

“Yes thank you,” our principal smiled at them. “Now without further a due please welcome our Hanroo Wolves!” he gestured to a large yellow painted banner the cheerleaders had brought out. The band began playing again, strumming on their drums and building the in the audience.

“Let’s go Wolves!” the cheerleaders screamed as our basketball team ran through the banner, shredding it into two pieces, at the very front was Jeno and Haechan who were in the white-yellow accented jerseys. Jeno wore a matching yellow headband and focused on the court next to him, meanwhile, Haechan had his front brown hair tied up with a small elastic and cheerfully waved at the crowd as he ran to the center of the gym. The whole basketball team lined up at the center of the gym. The crowd roared as they came out, clappers were going off and some students had even brought air horns.

“Jeno! Haechan!” Fangirls screamed in the stands.

The principal waited for the crowd to die down before announcing the rival school, “Yes and now please welcome the Seulri Falcons!”

Cheerleaders in green had made a pathway from the opposite gym door and ruffled their pom-poms as the rival school entered. The opposite stand came to life as the basketball team came in. Sneakers squeaked against the waxed floor as they did. Among their players, one stood out, a male with light brown hair and pink lips. Jaemin? He must’ve caught me staring because as soon as he got to the center of the gym where he was lining up he smiled and waved at me.

“Hyeri, do you know him?” Eunah turned to me and pointed at Jaemin. Some of the students in the stand around us turned around to see who it was that he was waving at.

I nodded and weakly waved back at him, “Yea, he’s my childhood friend and neighbor.”

“Ohhh,” Eunah turned back to the court.

Jaemin smiled at me once more before facing his opponent, Haechan. Jeno who was beside him was glaring at Jaemin instead of the person in front of him.

The principal waited once more for the crowd to die down, “Thank you, everyone, for your support, now boys we’ll have a fair game tonight and everyone will have fun.”