Saturday, 9am, YME University Stadium

Chaeyoung followed behind Jihyo and Mina who were both wearing the YME cap and carrying a cooler box together. The two of them squeezed through the queue and presented their VIP tickets to the admission staff.

Although it wasn’t really the kind of sport that Chaeyoung would watch, she can’t help but feel excited when she entered the stadium. The atmosphere was really different compared to their high school games that were held in the normal field. 

“And here we are, C4 to C6.” Jihyo announces as she lets go of her side of the cooler box. Mina followed suit and pushed the box slightly forward so that they could all sit down comfortably. 

Chaeyoung sat down and noticed that they were actually seated extremely in-front, with a huge net securing the area, which Chaeyoung assumed was to protect the audiences in case the balls can’t be caught or hit. 

“Is this your first time watching a baseball game, Chaeng?” Mina asked as she passed a bottle of cold water to her. 

Chaeyoung shook her head no and muttered a thanks while receiving the bottle. “My mother is actually quite a big fan of baseball, so she has brought us to a few games when we were younger. But this is my first time watching our university team play though.” 

“Ohh you are in for a treat then! They are quite a strong team and if you look around, there are scouts in the audience too.They are always at these games to see if there’s any potential players for our national team.” 

Mina’s gummy smile was quite contagious as Chaeyoung found herself smiling back, “I can’t wait for the game to start then!” 

From afar, they can hear a distinct voice saying ‘excuse me’ every now and then. They turned around to see Joohyun wearing a baseball jersey with a number ‘53’ plastered to the left side. Another girl that dresses quite similar to Joohyun, except with a number ‘44’, followed behind her.

“Hi guys!” Joohyun greeted them once she was by their seats. “Oh Chaeyoung, fancy seeing you here. I thought you don’t like this kind of game?” 

Chaeyoung could only giggle awkwardly, “ I guess I wanted to try something new?” 

Joohyun made an O with before pushing the other girl forward, “Then I don’t think you’ve met Jisoo, she’s Lisa’s girlfriend. Oh and Taeyeon unnie’s younger sister.” 

Before Chaeyoung could ask, Joohyun continued, “Taeyeon unnie is the coach for our baseball team, she’s also an alumni from our uni. She’s right there.” Joohyun then pointed at the bullpen where most of the players were gathered.

Chaeyoung could see the back view of a girl wearing a jacket with ‘COACH’ imprinted on it, talking animatedly to another girl wearing a similar jersey that Joohyun and Jisoo are wearing, but with a ‘KIM’ and a ‘42’ printed on her back. Only when ‘Kim’ turned around did Chaeyoung realise that it was Jennie. 

Jennie nodded at whatever Taeyeon was saying and wore her glove after Taeyeon stood aside. Jennie then looked at the other girl squatting from a distance away, before getting into form and started practising her throws.

Chaeyoung didn’t notice that she had been watching Jennie for a long time until Jihyo nudged her side. “Psst, do you really have to make it so obvious?”

Chaeyoung only gave a soft smack on Jihyo’s shoulder before focusing again on what the umpire is saying.

After the basic rules and regulations were done, the umpire introduced both teams out and the two teams started jogging out.

Chaeyoung jumped up when screams erupted as the 2 teams stood in line, opposite of each other. She could see Jennie at the head of the line, followed by Lisa and a few other familiar faces. 

The players shook hands and muttered a few words to each other before the umpire screamed “Let’s play!” And the crowd’s atmosphere turned high together.

Since YME team is the home team, they moved to their positions on the field. Chaeyoung saw Jennie taking deep breaths at the mound, with her glove against her chest and her right hand playing with the rosin bag (*sort of like powder to help with sweaty palms).

Chaeyoung held her breath together with Jennie as she pitched her first ball. A deafening “Strike!” had Chaeyoung releasing her breath as she cheered alongside with the audience.

—-

The whole 2.5 hours of the game had Chaeyoung at the edge of her seat the whole time. She did not expect herself to be so involved in the game but she was really glad that she came, looks like she will be coming a lot more times now. 

“You know, I did think that you guys were exaggerating when you brought such a big cooler but I am extremely thankful to you guys now.” Chaeyoung said as she gulped the last of her 3rd bottle of water. 

“This is all from experience.” Joohyun laughed and passed her another bottle. “Looks like you need another one.”

“Thanks!” Chaeyoung drank a huge mouthful before continuing, “I didn’t think that I would be so excited too!” 

Jisoo then chimed in, “I almost thought you were a longtime fan.”

“Alrights, now that the game is over, shall we go and congratulate our players?” Jihyo said as she stood up, stuffing empty bottles into a plastic bag. The rest of them nodded and collected their bottles to throw into the bag too.

After packing up, the 5 of them started making their way down to the dugout where the team were having their dismissal meeting. 

Chaeyoung was growing more nervous and awkward as they got closer and could hear Taeyeon’s voice giving what Chaeyoung assumed was a congratulatory statement. The team did win 7-5 against one of the stronger teams in the season.

“But other than those few pointers, good job guys! Hope this good 1st game of the season will continue to motivate you all to play well!” Taeyeon shouted and patted a few of them on the shoulder as the team hollered. “Now go shower! You all stink!” Taeyeon ended and walked out of the dugout.

“Unnie!” 

Taeyeon turned around and grinned when she saw Jisoo waving at her. “Hey! Are you guys here to find the monkeys?” 

“Well, we were hoping to find the clean human versions of them but we can see that you’ve just ended your long long speech.” Jihyo replied teasingly. 

“There there, we all know that you have meetings longer than my speech. Now, who is this?” Taeyeon looks curiously at Chaeyoung.

Chaeyoung could only widen her eyes in surprise before bowing slightly, “Hello, my name is Park Chaeyoung. I am the secretary of the student council.”

“Ohh, now which monkey’s girlfriend are you? Seulgi? Jennie? Or Jeongyeon?” Taeyeon tries to guess. 

“None! I’ve just wanted to learn more about baseball....” Chaeyoung exclaimed and smiled sheepishly.

Taeyeon laughs at Chaeyoung’s flustered answer, “I’m sorry, usually when girls come into the dugout, it’s one of their girlfriends. Now, you guys enjoy the rest of the day, I will be making a move first.” 

The 5 girls all waved bye as Taeyeon walked towards the exit. They were about to enter the dugout when Taeyeon’s voice was heard again.

“Jisoo! Tell Lisa she is allowed to stayover tonight, but no funny business alrights?”

“Yeah yeah!” Jisoo’s reply sounded like she was just trying to get rid of Taeyeon but it seems like Taeyeon is satisfied with that answer as she continued on her way.

“Does your sister really believe that you guys are that innocent?” Mina questions curiously. 

“I believe that she really does think so.” Jisoo replied, “But considering the number of times she has caught you guys in the shower,” Jisoo looks pointedly at Jihyo and Joohyun who looks away, “She know that us youngsters have needs so I think maybe she just wants to live in denial, thinking that I am still her innocent baby sister.” 

“Older siblings will always believe what they want to believe, now come on, let's go!.” Jihyo pulled Chaeyoung and Jisoo by their shoulders while Joohyun and Mina dragged the cooler box.

—- 

Upon entering the dugout, they could see that a lot of them were actually done showering. 

“Minari!” Momo stood up from the bench in front of her locker and ran towards Mina. Mina hugged Momo while Momo gave her a peck on the lips. 

“Ew, keep it in the bedroom.” A voice of disgust came from behind them. 

The voice belonged to Son Seungwan, who entered the dugout area and removed the towel from her wet hair. Her face immediately lit up as she saw Joohyun standing near her locker. “Joohyun unnie!” And they were not exaggerating when they say Seungwan is a very dramatic person as she went towards Joohyun, hugged and twirled her around.

“Keep it in the bedroom. Oh please, now look who’s filming a musical.” Momo said in a mocking voice and laughed loudly till she got hit in the face by the wet towel from Seungwan’s hands. 

The whole team laughed at Momo who fell on her from the heavy wet towel.

“Oh hey, what are you doing here?” Chaeyoung turns around to see Jennie walking towards her, rubbing the towel against her wet hair.

“I wanted to see how well our baseball team is doing, of course.” Chaeyoung replied without missing a beat. 

Jennie sat down on the bench and continued drying her hair. “So what did you think?”

“Well I thi- ”

“Of course we did amazing, I know, thank you.” Jennie cut Chaeyoung off and grinned annoyingly, making Chaeyoung roll her eyes with a smile. 

“Well I do think the team did well, but I think the pitcher might need to improve a bit, she seems like she was lacking behind her teammates, especially in her batting skills.” And with that, Chaeyoung turned back and started a conversation with Dahyun, who was in one of her classes.

Jennie laughs silently, knowing Chaeyoung was just teasing her from the way she looked back again, trying to see her response.

“Is it just me or is Chaeyoung unnie not trying to kill Jennie unnie?” Tzuyu whispered into Jihyo’s ear as she backhugged Jihyo. 

“Well, I certainly hope they can continue being this way. Knowing Jennie, she might annoy Chaeyoung to the point where they start squabbling again.” Jihyo shook her head, a small smile plastered onto her face, seeing Chaeyoung laugh alongside Dahyun and Jennie who had just joined the conversation. 

“O’rite guys! Who’s ready for lunch at TRiBe?!” Jihyo clapped her hands as she stood up, the whole team standing together as they grabbed their bags, hungry for lunch.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry for the short update :( so many things had happened in June for me and I couldn't really find time to updatee

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and stay tunee!