Kai and I sit through the volleyball team’s practice every Wednesday afternoon. Soobin had been trying to recruit Kai into the team ever since we entered highschool, but Kai was too lazy to ever make it to try-outs. It was the first pre-season training session that day, and I was surprised to see a familiar face accompany my brother to the session.

Soobin was the captain of the boys’ volleyball team. Yeji was captain of the girls’ soccer team and they trained on Wednesday afternoons as well. Yeonjun, as far as I know, had swimming training on Tuesday afternoons, so it was quite a rare sight to see him in full gym wear, talking passionately to Soobin who was writing on a clipboard.

Kai nudged me. “Isn’t that her?”

I followed his gaze and saw Jisu stretching with the rest of the girls’ varsity volleyball team on the other side of the gym. Her long hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, and she was listening attentively to Yuna, one of the sophomores who made it to varsity this year.

“And is Yeonjun trying out for the volleyball team this year?”

I smacked Kai’s arm. “You should be down there.”

“Uh oh, not you too.” Burying his face in his hands, he let out a long groan. “What’s with you and Soobin? Just let a young tree rest.”

“A young and growing tree should be down there supporting the volleyball team. What happened to my best friend who made it his goal to join a sports team during highschool, huh?”

Kai gave me a rotten look.

“We’re just sitting up here watching them, imagine if Soobin catches us… I mean, you. Imagine if he catches you.”

“He can beat my .”

“Kai that’s gross.”

“Sorry.”

We sat next to each other in silence, and watched the teams below move about. When the girls’ volleyball team started playing, all I could focus on was how serious Jisu looked when she was playing. Even from a distance, I could see her eyebrows furrow up as she focuses on the ball. Her passes were immaculate, and the other girls seemed to never be able to intercept her smashes.

Though at one point, she must’ve sensed me looking at her because we made eye contact for a brief second before I looked away.

On the other side of the gym, Yeonjun was getting trodden on. The swimmer clearly functioned better in water than on land, because his passes always caught onto the net, or flew way too far to be received.

I wonder how Soobin was going to reject his best friend’s tryout for the team.

“Hey, look.” Kai nudged me and dragged my attention back to the girls’ team. They were taking a break, most of the girls had their eyes glued on their phones. Yuna was speaking rather animatedly to Sana, their captain, who looked overtly concerned. She kept counting and recounting the girls, and Yuna was desperately trying to make a point with her.

“What do you think is happening?” I asked Kai, who was already looking up our school intranet for volleyball news.

“I’ve no idea.” Kai answered. “Oh wait, I’ve got something.”

I quickly leant in to read from his screen too.

“-Myeongun High school’s sport teams have all qualified for the regional autumn championships with the unfortunate exception of the following teams due to inadequate team sizes: Junior varsity Boys’ Lacrosse, Varsity Girls’ tennis and Varsity Girls’ Volleyball… well damn, that’s a pity for them.”

I looked back down at the girls while Kai continued to read the announcement. Jisu had walked over to the water cooler on the boys’ side of the gym and was waiting in line to get her drink bottle filled up. Yeonjun was just a few feet away on the bench, scrolling through his phone while dabbing his sweat away with a towel.

After Jisu had her bottle refilled, she headed back to the girls’ team, passing by Yeonjun who looked up and caught her line of sight. They nodded curtly at each other before heading their own ways.

Their short interaction sparked something inside of me. I didn’t know what clicked, but something did, because I had left my bags behind and started running down the stairs.

“Soojin what the– where are you going?”

I got to Sana right before she gathered the team together again. She was known across the underclassmen as the kindest senior you could meet. Her Japanese accent often showed up when she got too excited, and from what I heard, that happened quite often.

She was looking at me now, with a look of confusion. She had no idea who I was. I stopped doing sports a long time ago now, and a senior like her wouldn’t know who a sophomore-nobody was. She was opening to say something. Her eyes were apologetic, as if she was already going to ask me to leave. I had to think fast.

“I want to join the team.”