Ignoring the continuous vibrations coming from her phone, Wendy huffs as she turns another corner in their subdivision, almost hitting a signpost in her quick turn. She adjusts the cap covering her blonde hair and slings her duffel bag in her right shoulder before turning in her feet to run again, now nearing the exit of their place.

 

Now, if you're wondering why she was trying to run like her life depended on it—well, it absolutely does—their school's volleyball team will be competing in the Spring Interhigh Finals, also the last match she will be playing in her senior high school year before she moves on to college. 

 

It is a big event, but Wendy is running late on their call time. Even though her house is just a walking (now running) distance from her school.

 

Wendy mentally curses herself for letting her body get used to oversleeping during Friday nights, plus blaming her closest friends and teammates—namely Yeri and Seulgi—for having a 'slight' drink last night, like a celebratory and wind up sesh. But she is far more concerned about their coach.

 

She stops running for a bit to catch her breath, her chest heaving as she slightly crouched, both hands on her knees. With a quick move, she fishes her phone out of her pocket, seeing tons of messages from her sister and her teammates-slash-friends.

 

But the one that stood out on her panicked eyes is the almost hundred missed calls and messages from their one and only lovely coach, Tiffany Young. Wendy could already imagine the lines her coach's gonna scold her with and it slightly sent shivers down her spine.

 

After another string of curses, she pockets her phone again and returned to dashing, kinda thankful that there's little to no people in the sidewalks.

 

In the middle of running, her mind kinda flies to that one phrase Seulgi tells her whenever she runs late. "Naruto run doubles my speed!" and she almost bumps on another signpost, thankfully she didn't.

 

A surge of relief runs through her veins as she nears their school's gate, just in time to see their designated lift exiting the school premises. She flails her hand, unable to shout due to exhaustion, but luckily Seulgi caught the sight of her running.

 

"SON SEUNGWAN!!!" Seulgi suddenly screams from the bus, pulling half her body out the open window and reaching out one of her hands towards a running Wendy, resulting for her glasses, and also herself, almost falling off (if her seatmate and sister, Yeji, did not grab her quick) and the bus to suddenly halt.

 

Wendy stifles a chuckle as she saw her teammates panic at what her heck of a friend Seulgi did, but is replaced by surprise and relief when they saw the blonde running near.

 

The bus door opens just in time for Wendy to reach them, entering the lift immediately before she started gasping for air, holding the pole in front for support. Her other teammates were cheering and whistling because their team captain wasn't left behind while some were quiet, wary of the dark aura coming from the person seated in the first row, staring at the panting girl standing just in front of her.

 

Feeling the stern gaze in her, Wendy slowly lifts her head, meeting the owner of the eyes burning holes in her. She smiles sheepishly, slightly waving her hand. "Hey coach, you look beautiful today, as always." She says, wiggling her eyebrows with a small flirty smile playing on her lips. But Tiffany keeps her look, making Wendy gulp.

 

"Go take a seat and rest. Let's leave now or we'll miss the event. I'll think about your punishment later." Tiffany says her voice the most intimidating everyone heard.

 

With no more words, Wendy moves towards her seat, beside a Yeri who just woke up (due to their coach's scary voice) and dumps her bag at the ground at her foot, the bus now starting to move again.

 

"What happened?" Yeri whispers to her side, head looking around. "Wait, you're here!!" Yeri suddenly shrieks, only realizing Wendy's presence making the other laugh.

 

"Seungwannie!"

 

Wendy whips her head to the other aisle, seeing Seulgi lean over Yeji's lap, both arms reaching out to her, whining with a crying-like face, her glasses almost falling off. Yeji could only sigh and massage her temples at her older sister's actions.

 

Wendy laughed and just gave the four-eyed girl a high five, and she whined more. "I almost risked myself for you earlier and you'll just give me a slap on the hands?!"

 

"Thank you for the reminder Seulgi, you'll get punished too!" Tiffany suddenly shouts from the front, making Seulgi stiff and the others laugh.

 

"Coach!!!"

 

'This is gonna be a long ride.' Wendy thought as she grabs her earphones, plugging it to her device before playing her music playlist, slowly drifting off to sleep.

 

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

 

"Wan!"

 

Wendy lifts up her head from her shoes to see Seulgi, approaching her with two bottles of water. She finishes tying up her shoelaces before sitting up right and accepting the bottle from the four-eyed girl.

 

"Come on, let's go do some stretches outside." Seulgi says, drinking from her bottle before heading to the door.

 

"Wait, accompany me to the toilet!" Wendy hurriedly shouts, grabbing her cloth headband before catching up to Seulgi, closing the door to their locker room

 

"I'm not gonna wipe your , Wan." Seulgi says laughing, before evading a punch from Wendy.

 

"As if I'll let you."

 

Wendy started fixing her hair and kneepads as soon as they entered the lady's room while Seulgi fixed her ponytail and the band that keeps her glasses intact. "Anyways, what do you think will happen later?"

 

Wendy frowns at Seulgi's question, tons of possibilities ran through her head but she just shrugged, opening one of the faucets before washing her hands. "I don't really know but we'll do great. We've already reached this far."

 

"True, but I kinda want to meet the model we saw earlier at the gym entrance." Seulgi said, chuckling at the surprise look from her blonde friend.

 

"Wow, you gonna ask her out? Got no chance with that, Seul." Wendy says after washing her hands, drying them afterwards.

 

"Maybe. But I think she'll be playing at Archers today, and I'm kinda curious why she brought a whole damn luggage for a match."

 

"I didn't knew you'll be talking about me and my luggage, Kang."

 

The two girls whip their head towards the voice who spoke, the topic of their conversation emerges from one of the cubicles, now in her white and cyan themed jersey and hair in a high ponytail.

 

Sooyoung Park, also known by her nickname/alias Joy, is in the same grade as the both of them and Yeri, playing for their rival school since their first year of high school. They first met—well, more like faced each other in a volleyball match in their freshman years and been facing each other in matches since then, basically how their rivalry started.

 

"I think you got it wrong, Park." Seulgi says, slightly rolling her eyes.

 

"I don't think so. I was the only one who brought a luggage here. So what?" Joy scoffs, crossing her arms in front of her.

 

"I take back all of what I've said earlier." Seulgi says also scoffing, rolling her eyes. Wendy could only shake her head and sigh at them.

 

Joy and Seulgi don't get along quite well—if it's still not obvious at this point—and they always trashtalk each other, may it be on matches or not. They're like the physical form of their team's rivalry, in Wendy's opinion at least.

 

"Okay, calm down you two. Match haven't even started yet and both of you looks like you're ready to spike a ball at each other's faces." Wendy butts in, slightly chuckling to at least ease the tension between the two taller girls.

 

"If it's just permitted, I'll hit her hard."

 

"Oh? Try me babe."

 

"Don't even—"

 

They were halted when the door to the comfort room suddenly swings open, revealing a beautiful girl in the same high ponytail and jersey as Joy with a slightly expressionless face. She looks at the three of them before sighing.

 

"Long time no see, Rene." Wendy greets, smiling sheepishly while waving her hands, the girls on each side of her still killing each other with their looks.

 

Joohyun Bae—or Irene as she would like to be called, is just in the same situation with Joy in meeting Seulgi, Yeri and Wendy. But unlike the taller girl, she kinda gets along with them. As long as they don't start pissing the out of her.

 

"Knew it." She mutters under her breath, letting herself in before slightly smacking Joy's arms, the taller wincing a bit.

 

"Long time no see too." She answers, a small smile escapes from her lips. "I figured all of you met and I presume the both of you fought again?" she asks, pertaining to Joy and Seulgi, who just rolled eyes at each other.

 

"Yup." Wendy was the one to answer, throwing an arm around her still pissed, four-eyed friend. "We need to go. So I guess, best of luck?"

 

Wendy reaches her hand out to Irene, which the latter accepts and shakes. "Best of luck to your team too." she smiles, and the blonde smiles back. "Give your best, because we will bring you down."

 

"Bring it on!"

 

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

 

Heading out from their locker room, Team Eagles, who are already in their black and yellow jersey under their black sweatshirts, paired with uniform black knee pads, white socks, and black Asics shoes, lined up along the hallway doing some stretches and warm-up routines while waiting for their turn to enter the gymnasium where a large number of crowd awaits them, obvious from the muffled but loud cheers.

 

Meanwhile, after their heated encounter with their rival, the team’s seniors can be seen struggling in carrying the three large ice coolers, one for each of them, as what their coach Tiffany assigned them to do as part of the punishment of the two, with Yeri getting dragged to do the task just because. Well, what are friends for if they can’t join you at this type of situation, right?

 

"Remind me again why am I doing this?" Yeri snaps at the two, glaring at them with much intensity as she carries the heavy ice cooler.

 

"Because you love us so much." Seungwan replies as greasy as ever making the other two girls cringe.

 

"Bold of you to assume that I love the both of you."

 

"Are you really going to deny it after bawling your eyes out last night, telling us how you treasure your moments with us in and out of the court, and how you’ll mi—OUCH!" a slap on Seulgi’s arm, courtesy of Yeri, stops her from talking.

 

"Can you just shut up or I’ll let you carry this heavy cooler all by yourself?" Yeri replies, looking mad to the still wincing in pain, four-eyed girl.

 

"Why is everyone so grumpy towards me today? Geez." Seulgi complains, remembering her exchage of words a while ago with a certain luggage-carrying tower.

 

"Okay, stop right there you two, we still have a finals to play. Use your strength on hitting the volleyball, not each other’s arm." the captain stated and started walking towards their teammates who are watching them with wide grins since it is their first time seeing the seniors carry those coolers. What a sight to see for them.

 

"Good morning, Apollo High Gymnasium! In a few minutes Spring Interhigh Finals volleyball match will begin. Are you guys ready?!"

 

The crowd started to get loud and hyped up. Half of the audience is wearing black and yellow, while the other half is wearing cyan and white, both shouting their respective team's cheer, no one willing to back down.

 

Everyone's going all out for this is the most awaited finals between the long-time rivals, but mostly because this is also the last game for the greatest batch of high school seniors in the league—namely, Irene, Joy, Seulgi, Wendy, and Yeri. They've been the most outstanding players ever since their rookie years that made everyone root for their careers, (well aside from the fact that all of them are hella good looking) some even wishing they could play on the same team, but the rivalry between them is too strong that it is impossible for them to play together.

 

Both teams started to enter the gym making the crowd's noise to double. Aetos High Eagles led by their coach Tiffany, headed to the left bench with the senior trio being the last ones to enter, still having a hard time carrying those coolers making Yeji and Ryujin, who were trying to hide their laughters since a while ago, approached their sisters and Yeri to help.

 

On the other hand, the right bench is being occupied by Apollo High Archers who are wearing their white and cyan jersey together with their also white and cyan warmer, white knee-long socks, knee pads, and Mizuno shoes, plus their hair all tied up in a high ponytail. Just by looking at their fit you can feel the team's elegance and power, and knowing their head coach is the one and only Jessica Jung, this team just speaks pure intimidation.

 

After checking if the net's height is correct, the referee then called the team captains for the toss coin.

 

"Wan, ref is already calling you. Choose heads by the way." Seulgi reminded while adjusting the strap of her eyeglasses, making sure it's comfortable and intact. She can't risk getting blind during the match.

 

"Dude, we're Eagles why would I choose heads? It should be tails." the captain argues, brushing her hair before wearing her favorite black headband on her neck and just leaving it there.

 

"Just choose heads this time, Wan. Believe us." Yeri added, now drinking her Pocari from her separate hydroflask.

 

"I've been choosing tails since forever, why are you two telling me to choose heads now as if a toss coin will affect our game?"

 

"JUST DO IT!" the two shouted at the same time slightly intimidating the hamster. In the end, Wendy caved and sighed.

 

"Okay, fine! I got it! Gosh, chi—"

 

"SON SEUNGWAN! What is taking you so long?!" it is now their coach's turn to shout, ready to slap the coaching board to the little captain for being the cause of delay once again.

 

"On my way, coach!" Seungwan evades the almost contact with the board then runs her way towards the committee's table.

 

"Hi there, ref. Sorry for the delay." she greeted, not forgetting to give the referee a wink after realizing that she's the same referee from almost their every game.

 

"Hello to you too, Ms. Son. Still going with the wink, huh?"

 

"That's just me being nice, ref." Wendy grins. "Nice to meet you again, Rene." she continues, acknowledging the presence of the other team captain.

 

"We just met a while ago, Wan." Joohyun chuckles. "Still wearing the same headband, huh?" The girl said, noticing the all too familiar black headband with the white "W" embroidery hanging around the latter's neck, as if it's her insignia.

 

"Lucky charm, Cap." Wendy replies, reminding herself to fix her headband after. "I could say the same with you and those magic tapes though." she continues, pertaining to the other girl's taped middle and ring finger.

 

"Gotta go all out for the last high school game with the rivals." Irene answers with a smirk, proudly looking at their enemy team captain's eyes.

 

"Same with me. Looking forward for our final match up, favorite rival." Wendy said, once again sending a wink.

 

"Alright, let's get this started before you exchange your numbers in front of me." the 1st referee butts in making the committee laugh and the two girls chuckle.

 

"Heads or tails?"

 

"You do the honor, Rene." Wendy suggested, forgetting what her teammates-slash-best friends told her minutes ago.

 

"Okay. Heads, ref." The referee then tosses the coin in the air and it landed with heads facing up, meaning Irene gets to choose between Service or Court.

 

(Note: if the captain chooses Service, they will be the first server when the game starts. If they choose Court, they'll get to decide which side of the court will they play on the first set.)

 

"We'll go with service." Irene answers, sending an assured smile to her team.

 

"Alright then, we'll just stay on the same side, ref." Wendy agrees.

 

"Okay, great. Let's get this started, captains."

 

"Thank you, ref." both of the captains reply before going to the table to sign the score sheet.

 

"Aim sharp, Archers." Wendy said after signing, with her right hand waiting for the other girl to accept.

 

"Have a safe flight then, Eagle." Irene beams her most beautiful smile accepting the shake hands.

 

The two then went back to their designated benches to inform their team and have the final huddle before the game starts.

 

"Did you choose heads, Wan?" The four-eyed girl asked excitedly when Wendy reached them, as if something is about to happen—well, there is though.

 

"Why do you have to know?"

 

"JUST ANSWER!!" Yeri, Yeji, and Ryujin impatiently said at the same time. Although Ryujin just said it calmer than the Y named girls.

 

"Uhm, I kinda let Irene choose and she chose heads. So yeah, they got the first serv—"

 

"NO!" the other two seniors exclaims out of frustration.

 

"YES!" Yeji and Ryujin on the other hand rejoices, fist bumping each other, for they already saw what will happen on that toss coin, Wendy losing because she always let Irene decide. Their other teammates could only laugh at their antics.

 

"What do you mean? And why does a toss coin such a big deal for the four of you? Are you having another bet again?" Wendy asks continuously, the only one left in the dark.

 

"That, we always do unnie, HAHAHAHA!" their sisters can't stop celebrating for they will have another pair of shoes each from the now frowning Seulgi and Yeri.

 

"Tss. I'll talk with the four of you later, we have a finals to play." Wendy could only shake hear head at them. "Eagles, huddle time!"

 

Wendy and her teammates then went closer to each other holding each others shoulders. She clears before smiling, preparing her last message as their captain and an Eagle.

 

"Here we go. I just wanted to say I had fun playing and bringing such pride for Aetos High. It was a wonderful four years for me because I get to spend it with all of you. It's such an honor to be called your captain and I hope I did an amazing job leading you guys."

 

"Yes you did, Captain!" Her teammates answers enthusiastically with wide smiles on their faces. Tiffany could only look proudly at them.

 

"Thank you, guys. This is my last time playing as an Eagle, same with Seulgi and Yeri. And with that I just want us to enjoy this one. We've already reached this far, we've already achieved many titles together for our school. We've been through a lot and this one is no different from them, We can do this. Let us fly as free as an eagle and remove all those pressures and doubts you are feeling right now. Let's go all out for one last time but at the same time keep ourselves away from injury, okay? Always remember, believe in yourself and we will also believe in you. I got you always, team!" The team captain finishes her speech almost making everyone teary eyed.

 

"Let's go team!" Seulgi initiates, hyping up everyone.

 

"AETOS EAGLES!" Wendy then shouted.

 

"FIGHTING!" every Eagles then answers as loud as they can, making the crowd cheer louder.

 

"APOLLO ARCHERS!"

 

"FIGHTING!" another cheer coming from the other side of the court was heard, causing a much louder roar from the crowd as this is their home court.

 

"This is it, Wan." the opposite hitter, Seulgi, taps the libero's shoulder who is now done fixing her headband.

 

"Final wave for our high school year?" Another tap from her shoulder was felt, courtesy of their open hitter, Yeri.

 

Seungwan clings both her arms around her best friends' necks, kinda struggling to reach Seulgi because of her height. "Yes! This is really it. Let's do this!" She cheerfully replies, looking eye to eye to the other team's captain.

 

"Fighting." she mouthed, making sure her best friends didn't see it.

 

"Fighting."