I like the idea of some of the groups from smaller companies filling out the rosters for the four main groups in the league. Partly to fill out rosters but also because I’m the world’s biggest er for literally all the girl groups. The Dreamcatcher girls are also under SMU to fill out the roster (can’t have just five girls playing on the court) because I love them too much. Likewise, Lovelyz are under YGU to fill out theirs. More to come for JYPU and RBWU? You’ll have to see…

This one takes place a few weeks after tryouts, right before the official season begins. RV team dynamics is the next drabble on the list, I wanted to practice a bit with writing an “action” scene while people left their comments on what they want to see next.

Joohyun awoke to her phone buzzing incessantly. She groaned, blindly reaching over to her bedside table to check the caller ID. There were precious few people she’d allow to disrupt her beauty sleep. Unfortunately for her, Kim Jennie was one of them.

“What do you want Jennie?” was Joohyun’s greeting.

She heard a scoff coming from the other side of the line. “Good morning to you too, Captain. It’s like nine am, what are you still doing in bed?”

Joohyun rolled over in bed, stifling a yawn. “I had to study for this stupid Psych test I have next Tuesday. But I digress, you better have a good reason for calling me.”

“I swear I do. You know how like a quarter of our campus flooded last semester because of that typhoon?”

Joohyun grunted an affirmative. She had the sneaking suspicion there was more to this story. “Yeah, and?”

“Long story short they discovered black mold in our gym so it’s been closed until further notice. Do you mind if we swing by today to scrimmage with you? Our school still hasn’t found us a replacement place to play.”

Joohyun sighed. There it was. It’s not that she didn’t like the YGU girls. They were all sweet girls, and majorly talented to boot. During season play they were almost always the first and second seeds and both teams always consistently made it to playoffs. They were just so…weird.

Like Sooyoung had said, the YGU girls were “whack as ”. Their libero Jisoo was the only normal girl on the entire team. Out of all the teams in the league they interacted with the YGU girls the most, mostly because their campuses were close together. It meant they met up often outside of the season to practice together and scrimmage.

But how could she refuse? Jennie and her girls had been nothing but kind to them, it would be rude to turn her down. Besides, she was looking forward to seeing how Seungwan and Seulgi played with them on the other side of the net.

“We’ve got practice today at 3:30, don’t be late.” Joohyun heard the other girl cheer as she abruptly hung up and curled back into her covers.

I’m going to need a metric -ton of coffee to deal with the YGU girls today…

That afternoon before practice began, Joohyun gathered her girls around to announce the surprise scrimmage. They quickly fell in, huddling in a small semi-circle to listen to what their Captain had to say.

Joohyun surveyed the eleven other girls in front of her. Aside from Sooyoung and Yeri, who were coming in as scouted freshmen, and Seulgi and Seungwan, who had passed the team’s tryouts, the other seven girls had been playing with Joohyun since she joined as a freshman.

She didn’t have a co-captain, but if she did, Minji would be her first pick. Her leadership skills rivaled Joohyun’s own and she always seemed to be one step ahead of the other team when thinking strategy.

Bora and Siyeon were attached at the hip and Joohyun thought it was almost sickeningly disgusting how they were constantly touching one another. It even extended to the rest of the team, much to Joohyun’s dismay. She liked skinship, but on her own accord. It didn’t help that Bora seemed to have an obsession with touching everyone’s butts. But she and Siyeon synergized well together as back line defenders and always gave her good passes so she’d overlook their flirty tendencies.

Handong had come to SMU from China and had quickly wormed her way into Joohyun’s heart. She was on the shyer side and always projected a calm aura to everyone around her. Put her on the court however and she was one of the most vicious wing spikers Joohyun had ever seen. The duality was honestly impressive and lowkey scary.

Yoohyeon was the team’s other middle blocker, clocking in at only a centimeter shorter than Sooyoung. Seeing the two of them block together had already given them a name: The Great Wall Of SMU. They seemed to share a similar mindframe as well and Joohyun knew that whenever she’d set to them they’d know exactly where to attack.

Dami and Gahyeon were their team’s best servers. Dami in particular was known for holding the record for most aces in a season. Her serves were fast, powerful and precisely aimed. Joohyun swore up and down that she had the ability to spot the opposing team’s weakest receiver just so she could serve directly to them.

Gahyeon on the other hand, preferred strategy and math to Dami’s power and speed. Joohyun knew some league players looked down on Gahyeon for serving primarily underhand, but they quickly learned otherwise. She had the uncanny ability to calculate the physics behind her every serve, throwing other teams for a loop when her supposedly “easy” serve would suddenly drop and score an ace.  

“We’ve got some visitors showing up to practice today,” Joohyun said. “So everyone better be on their best behavior.”

The girls nodded seriously, probably wondering who was coming. She could see the gears turning in their heads. Was it a scout from the pro leagues? Their head coach coming in to supervise them? Media?

The doors slammed open with a loud thud, causing Joohyun to flinch instinctively. God, why do they have to be so damn dramatic?

Twelve other girls filtered in, dressed in their signature black volleyball uniforms. Her own teammates sighed in resignation.

“YGU in your area, es!”

“Ugh, seriously can’t we go at least three days without seeing them around?” Sooyoung grumbled.

Forty-five minutes later, the scrimmage was well under way.

The match was far too even for Joohyun’s liking. It wasn’t like her team wasn’t playing well, in fact they’d been doing a fantastic job. Seungwan and Seulgi quickly got into the groove, learning how to play against the YGU girls.

They’d easily picked up the other team’s dynamics by observing how they interacted with each other. Joohyun could tell that Seungwan had figured out Jennie’s habit of setting almost strictly to Chaeyoung even though Lisa would sometimes be in the better position. No, the new girls weren’t the problem.

The problem was that the YGU girls had drastically improved over the summer break. Jennie’s sets were more precise, Chaeyoung’s spikes more powerful. Jisoo had gotten better at diving and even Lisa’s jump height had increased to the point where she could easily challenge Sooyoung at the net.  

It was now tied 20-20. Since they were scrimmaging and not playing in an actual match, both sides had agreed on a first to 21 set.

A precise float serve from Yeri started the rally. Out of all of the girls on their team, Joohyun knew that the freshman’s serving skills were on par with Dami and Gahyeon's. Float serves were difficult to pull off consistently and yet here Yeri was, calmly hitting the ball towards the YGU girls. She would have managed to get the ace too if Jisoo hadn’t been watching her.

Jisoo passed the ball to Jennie, who set it to Chaeyoung. With a sly smile on her face, Chaeyoung attacked the ball, breaking through both Sooyoung and Yoohyeon as they tried to block. Joohyun swore underneath her breath. Her spikes must have a lot of power behind them if she managed to outplay the two of them.

Seungwan was waiting though, and she flung herself to the court in order to save the ball and keep it in play. Joohyun felt her heart skip a beat watching the blonde libero scramble to her feet with her hair in her face, an intensely focused expression on her face. Scrimmage or not, she was happy to see that the team’s newest recruits were taking this seriously.

The ball headed towards Joohyun and she took that half-second of time to look at everyone’s formations. She only had enough time to make this one decision. Seungwan had gotten to her feet after saving the ball, but she would need time to recover. Sooyoung and Yoohyeon were both options for her to set to, but their angles were off. She knew the YGU girls would have noticed their spread positioning and moved their blockers around for an advantage. Sooyoung’s spikes were strong but Lisa had a few inches of jump height on her on a good day. So she really only had one choice.

Her spikes may not be strong, but no one would think of trying to block the setter for this play. And it just so happened that Chaeyoung and Jisoo had left a pocket for her to aim for.

On the sidelines Siyeon blew the whistle, ending the match. “Match point to SMU!”

“Nooo, it’s all over for us, Rosie!” Lisa said dramatically, sinking to her knees in faux despair. Chaeyoung rolled her eyes and hauled the middle blocker to her feet, patting her on the back while Lisa sobbed in her arms. “Our dreams of winning the championship have been crushed!”  

“Yah, quit being over-dramatic, it was just a scrimmage.”

“You like it when I’m dramatic though,” Lisa winked at her salaciously and Chaeyoung’s cheeks turned pink, laughing when the other girl shoved her to the ground, refusing to look her in the eyes.

Joohyun smiled, wondering if this year they’d finally get their heads out of their asses and confess to each other.

“Thanks for the scrimmage guys,” Joohyun ducked under the net to shake hands with Jennie, who returned it wholeheartedly.

“Anytime, Joohyun-unnie, we really appreciate you letting us play with you on such short notice,” Jennie said.

“Hey, if you ever need a place to practice until your school gets you a new place to play you’re always welcome around—” Joohyun looked past Jennie to Sooyoung who was mouthing something that looked suspiciously like hell no “—here.”

Jennie’s answering smile was bright. “Thanks, Cap. You’re the best.”