"Ready for your first practice?" Jungkook emerges from behind my locker, and I jolt back in response. He's wearing our school's gear with our pretentious emblem on his chest, as everyone else, but the tank top's shade of royal blue and gold on Jungkook looks like it was made for him. I stop myself right at that thought before I get any further. 

"Ready as I can be," I say. Judging from watching this team's past games and their overall record last year, I don't expect to be impressed, necessarily. I'm just going to approach this as I am naturally; I definitely don't want to overdo and visibly put in more effort to prove that I'm better (even though I know I am), but I also don't want to put in minimal effort on the same level as everyone else (even though I can). Either way, it's a lose-lose situation for Yerin. They're going to get pissed off, regardless of what I do. The world isn't fair, and I've come to amends with that. 

"You're gonna be fine. I've seen your film, you're really rad," Jungkook says, and I give him a smile. 

"Rad," I repeat. "That's a new one."

"I'm serious. I kept playing back that one strike you made last season in your league, Week 8 against the female junior team? The one just a few moments before halftime?" Jungkook says, and I just look at him, eyes bulged out. He knows the week, the team, the time. And I thought soccer was my life. 

"You sure did your homework, didn't you?

"Well, soccer is everything I think about when I finish my actual homework," he answers, and the two of us make our way out towards the field as everyone else. "It was a beautiful strike, your knee was so fully flexed, it wan't surprising to see all of the power get released out once you were able to hit the center of the ball. And it was a perfect, dead center, too. Trust me, I watched it in 50x zoom."

"I never doubted you," I chuckle. My laugh softly fades as I take in Jungkook's words. He is a fanatic over this. I am too, and so is everyone else here, but Jungkook is on another scale. I think back to our previous conversations; I don't think Jungkook has ever talked to me outside of soccer. Every single exchange has been over this one topic, and I think that's just ludicrious. Yes, you can have a passion for something and indulge yourself in that, but to live, breathe, and survive over this one thing... that can't be healthy.

Just then, a boy slams his locker to the right of us, and reveals himself from behind the door. 

"Jin, my boy," Jungkook extends out his arm to give him a fist pump, and the two amicably collide knuckles. 

"What's up, Captain," Jin says and shows a toothy grin. "Looking forward to tonight." I witness as he takes a glimpse down at me, and then turns his attention away to another teammate behind us. I'm really loving this warm welcome from them all. 

I pull my attention back to our walk out to the field and breathe out a sigh. "These guys hate me, it's kind of comedic."

"They don't hate you," Jungkook assures, but I'm going to stick to my original judgement. "It's going to take some time, but they'll warm up eventually. It's not because you're a girl, I hope you know that. I'm sure they would've acted this way with anyone, girl or boy, that joins our team without a proper try out. Here's a little secret, though. Guys are really prideful. They don't wanna be beat."

"Wow! Thank you so much for that piece of wisdom that I had absolutely no idea over!" I sarcastically joke. Jungkook reaches out to open the door for me, and I exit first. I'm met with gleaming, warm rays of shine and freshly cut grass. The field is vast and is very much well kept; it looks identical any other field I've played on, but this scene is bit different for me. This soccer field is all I've ever wanted to step foot on, and play in, since I entered high school. I was shut down repeatedly, having to hear for hours that a girl's soccer team is "impossible, unprecedented, absurd," and best of all, "worthless". But here I stand, pink and white cleats sunken deeply in this field's grass. you, athletics board. 

Jungkook excuses himself away from me to say hello to the other guys, and leaves me in my sweet solitude on the grass. I take just another few seconds with my eyes closed, basking in my sunlight, and coming to realization that this plot of green will be my life for the next months. I take a deep breath in, and then I hear a deep breath out. 

But it isn't mine. 

I quickly open my eyes and twist my head to see Hoseok and Jimin. They're doing the same as me - taking it all in - and now we're all in a line of three, with a great view of the field and placed right under the sun.

"This is a little bit of a dramatic start to things, isn't it?" Hoseok says, and it breaks me out of my silent peace to a giggle. 

"You guys were the ones that copied me," I supply. 

"I like this," Jimin says, and I turn my head to give him a smile. "Call me a drama queen then, Hoseok. Just don't hate on my peace."

"Yeah, don't hate," I tease, and Jimin and I share a laugh together. This is my first interaction with Jimin, and just judging from solely this, I think he's going to be a nice guy. "Oh shoot - come on guys, we should join the rest of them." I point to a group of the other boys that's huddled around Jungkook, and they're quick to agree. We're last to be a part of the crowd; I tippy-toe and am able to see Coach Soo stand in the middle with Jungkook to his right.

"Alright guys! First official practice of the season, let's make some noise!" Coach Soo yells, and the pit of guys follow along in cheer. "Alright, I'm going to make this short and sweet. New season, so I am expecting all of you to get your head in the game and focus on the end goal: we are winning the state championship at the end of this all. I know all of you dream of that, but how many of you are willing to work hard and make that into a reality?"

I join the rest of the guys as we nod in agreeance. 

"Okay! Enough of that inspirational, frilly . We're doing shirts and skins; shirts, you'll be doing the footwork drills; skins, you'll be working on controls. In an hour and a half, we'll switch. Got it?"

"Yes sir!" We all say in concurrence. 

"The right half," Coach Soo extends out his hand and points to his right. "You all are skins. Now let's get to it!"

I watch as the guys in front of me look around, acknowledging who else is skins with them. They're nodding and fist bumping, and then, I'm weirdly able to meet eyes with some of them, and I watch as their friendly smiles fade into troubled frowns. 

Oh , I'm a skin too. I really don't give a ; I look down to my chest, it's good that I'm wearing one of my more supported sports bras. I shrug it off quickly, but I look back up to the sea of burrowed brows and realize that they certainly aren't.

"Uh... Coach? You made Yerin a skin," one guy says on behalf of everyone else. The group divides, until both me and Coach Soo are visibly on both ends. I give a soft wave and see Coach Soo awkwardly crack a smile.

"Ah, right. Well, uh, guys, this is, you know, our new normal. Ths is our team now, Yerin being a part of that, so uh - "

"I volunteer to be a shirt," I interject and take some steps to the other side.

"Oh, thank the lord," Coach Soo breathes out. "Thanks, Yerin. Alright guys, let's go!" 

I jog with the other side; Jungkook is also here, and also Taehyung, someone I know but very faintly. It's just been, what, 15 mins tops with this group so far, but I can tell that Taehyung is the ditsy, somewhat common-senseless member of the group that just livens the mood. Knowing that fact though, I'm relieved that I'll be spending the next two hours with him. Hopefully his jokes somehow trumps any awkward tension that I'll probably bring along. 

"Sup, guys," I say and thankfully, the guys I come across reciprocate. I watch as Jungkook lay out two rope ladders and lays it flat on the ground. One is placed vertically, and then the other horizontal. Pretty basic drill that I've worked through (mastered, honestly) many times before. A line naturally forms at the "start", and I take my place behind one of the guys that was nice enough to initiate conversation.  Jungkook's on the side with a whistle glimmering around his neck; apparenty, captains are assumed to be that good that they themself don't have to practice. 

I watch as the first guy goes - I think his name is Taejun (I should really start remembering their names) - and he's one of those that value speed over quality. I unconsciously squirm my face in second-hand embarassment as he hastes through the ladders, because his footwork is just all over the place. One foot stepped on the ladder itself, the next way too much skewed to the right, the next completely outside the rectangle plot... it's just not good. Jungkook eyes the same thing, I assume, because when Taejun takes his last step, Jungkook blows his whistle extra hard and whispers a few items to him. Taejun walks to the back of the line, dejected, but hey - this was your chance to show out any practice you did all summer, and you just completely butchered it. Sorry, but I don't really feel bad for him.

One after the other, I watch as the line in front of me shortens little by little, and the guys go through the drill. Alright, I know I shouldn't be acting like I'm hot - but looking at these guys' footwork, now I know I'm hot . I've had to stifle a few yawns, because I'm honestly so unimpressed. I shouldn't compare, but with my past teams, each lady has been able to go through this entire drill with 100% accuracy. I've been watching everyone, and I want to say the highest I saw was 80%, and that was the class clown himself, Taehyung. Granted, a high school team just has a few days of try-outs. The league monitored me for a whole summer, tracking my progress and growth. It was until that August that I endured two, grueling months of daily 6-hour workouts to find out I finally made it. 

Before I know it, it's my turn now. My lips naturally turn upwards as I notice the entire group of clothed guys turn their heads towards my direction. I crack my head to the side, look downwards, and just let my feet do its work. In, out, in, out, hitting the center of each every rectangle plot like I, unapologetically, always do. When it comes to the horizontal ladder, it's natural - my feet shift right to left with precise speed, and when I finally get my last foot off, I release a loud huff and whip my head up, ponytail smacking my sweaty cheek in the process. 

My eyes trail up to Jungkook, who's smiling widely at me. I watch him bringing up his hands from his sides and starts clapping, first in slow motion and then normal-paced as the other guys follow along. I roll my eyes, embarassed and awkward, because - what the hell! I'm not your idol, I'm your teammate! 

"Awesome job, Yerin. Didn't expect anything less from you," Jungkook compliments and I mutter 'thanks' under my breath. I walk back to my spot, and the guy I'm behind, Namjoon, twirls around and literally bows 90 degrees in front of me, and I've never felt more awkward in my life. 

"Yerin, you're like - amazing! No one has ever done that drill with your kind of accuracy. How do you do it?" Namjoon says; his voice f