Jimin still finds it awkward to meet Minjeong after being jealous over some girl a few nights ago, but she have to keep it professional. She thinks maybe if Minjeong confronts her again about that night, she might smash her head for being a busy body. But Minjeong doesn’t seem to care at all, she’t too busy preparing for The Finals which disappoints her. Is she playing hard to get now? But sometimes she notices Minjeong gets shy when she accidentally (read: deliberately) touches her hand. Honestly Yu Jimin, what is that you want? She thought. But every time she did that, Minjeong would lose focus for a few seconds and she doesn’t want her childish act affect her performance, especially today is the semi-final round. Minjeong is up against the current world no.1.

“Yu seonsaeng-nim, please take a good care of me.”

It’s almost like a ritual for Minjeong to say those same words every single time she enters the court. Jimin likes that, though. It’s like the shorter girl always has her on her mind in every seconds. Again, she and her selfish thought. As usual, she sits at the corner of the back of the court, right behind the sponsorship board. The game is intense, it is dragged into the rubber set. She witnessed various type of emotions showed on Minjeong’s face. Her cute dimples when her opponent was tricked by her trick. Her frowns when she made an unforced error. Her screams when she won a long rally. Her pursed lips when she’s on serve. She loves all of that except one, her disappointed face when she lose the game.

“19 – 18, play.”

It last only for a few seconds before the score changed again.

“19 – 19, play.”

Jimin hears a groan coming from the court. Minjeong gives away an easy point through the failed serve. She mouthing something like ‘stupid, that’s short’ and her heart can’t take that. It’s always sad to see her saying something like that.

“19 – 20, play.”

Minjeong gains her confidence once again. She’s leading again, She’s one point away from winning. But that doesn’t last long as her opponent fight her way to gain another point, making it a deuce.

“20 – love, play.”

The Taiwanese serves and she is tricked. It seems like her opponent wants to make a low serve— a serve that barely skims over the top of the net and lands near the short service line but instead, she flicks it to send the shuttle high, pushing Minjeong to the back of the badminton court and isn’t fully ready for net shot. As a result, she throws herself in front of the net and her opponent easily ends it by pushing it to the end of the the court, exactly on the baseline.

“21 – 20, play.”

One more point. A point to decide whether the game will be still ongoing or will end. When she thought she makes a wonderful baseline smash, the line judge spreads his arms wide, meaning it’s an out. She hears a loud cheers coming from the opponent’s audience side. No. No way.

“Challenge!” Minjeong raised her hand in the air.

A player may challenge a line judge’s call where badminton uses technology to rule on contentious decisions. If a line call, after review, is deemed correct the player loses one challenge. Two incorrect challenges means a player will have no more challenges for the rest of the match. However, if the player challenges successfully, they do not lose a challenge. A player should clearly state ‘Challenge” to the umpire and signal their request by raising their hand or arm simultaneously. Now, all eyes are on the big screen. Few minutes later, a video illustration played, showing where the shuttle landed and it’s slightly out.

“Challenge unsuccessful, match won by TAI Tzu Ying, 21 – 19, 13 – 21, 22 – 20.”

And with that, marks the end of her first World Tour Finals’ tournament. She has done more actually. The KBA set her target to at least qualify into quarter-final and she advanced to the semi-final. But as a player, she can’t help to feel sad every time she failed to win. Jimin too doesn’t like this kind of Minjeong. She doesn’t want her to beat herself too much, so she asks her to meet her at the bus stop near their practice hall the next day.

“Why are you asking me to meet you here?” Minjeong asked right away seconds after the girl stepped outside the bus.

“Come.” She grabbed her hand and run to hall.

Confused with the sudden action, Minjeong let her body follows the girl in front. She looks up the sky. The moon graces the sky as if the sight of it can become a song in the eyes of the beauty in front of her. There’s a little laughter coming from the soft baby lips, melting away her sorrow that she felt yesterday. It’s a short but a blissful run for her. The latter let go of her hand, which she doesn’t want to and lay down on the court. She chuckles.

“What are you doing?”

“I heard that when you do this, all your worries will go away.”

“Oh, really?” She played along and lay down beside her.

“Yeah. All you need is look up the ceiling and don’t think of anything. Take a deep breath, clear your mind and you will feel calm, right here.” Jimin pointed at her chest. Like it’s something she has never know, she follows all her instructions.

“You’re right.” They exchanged their gaze for a few seconds before Jimin is the first to break it off. They stay silent for a while. A comfortable silent that she’s always been looking for.

“Ahh! Scrapped it! There will be another World Tour Finals next year. It’s my first time anyway.”

“Right! It’s your first and you already qualify to semi-final? How GREAT is that. Another record breaker!”

“Yeah. You ungrateful little flitch, Korea Badminton Association!”

“Hahahaha.” They both laughed.

“Hey, what’s short?” Jimin thought of her loud groans earlier.

“I didn’t explain yet to you?” She sat up.

“Aha.” Jimin nodded.

“Ah, so—,” She stood up, walking towards the net “—You see this line in front of the net? She pointed to the parallel line in front of the net.

“Yeah.” Couldn’t see, she sat up, sitting cross-legged.

“This is the short service line. A serve, whether singles or doubles play must reach the line to be legal. If it doesn’t reach, we call it as ‘short’. Point given to the opponent—,” She jogged lightly to the back “— and this is the long service line, which the serve should not cross in doubles.” She pointed to another parallel lines at the back of the court.

Jimin nods. Just how Minjeong says her eyes sparkling when she talks about medicine, her eyes too, shining bright every time she talks about badminton. We can’t learn anything about ourselves in a vacuum. Sometimes, you can know yourself better through other people. Minjeong opens her eyes to appreciate more about her now it’s time for her to return the favour. And also, she loves to see that— A bright Minjeong.

“Ah. That’s why back then Jason just let the shuttle be.” She thought of the time when the pairs just let the shuttle landed across the line and was confused why they got the point instead. At that time, she was ‘mad’ at Minjeong because of the reporter.

“Yes. As long as it crosses the line, the service is not count.”

“But, you can cross the line.”

“…..”Minjeong paused for a second.

“Am I wrong?”

“No, you’re not. Yes yes, I can cross the line.” She smiled to the girl. How she wished Jimin’s referring to her relationship status, not the badminton rules.

The night feels so short but it’s enough to make Minjeong feels like walking on air. They go to their favourite café, spending time to talk to each other. She doesn’t know too how can they never stop talking despite of meeting each other every day, texting when they both get home or talk on the phone when it’s off day and they can’t meet each other. It’s like they always have something to talk to. She always love to listen to her but for the first time in their meeting, she wished she can’t hear her that well tonight.

“My dad set me to a blind date, again.”

“O-oh. When is it?” She controlled her voices so that Jimin can’t hear her shaky voice.

“Tomorrow.” Jimin stared at her.

“O-oh. Okay. Good luck?”

“T-thanks.” Her eyes seemed like they want to tell her something but maybe it’s just her feelings, again.

“No problem. Now, get in. It’s getting cold.”

Jimin doesn’