Credits go to kurogane, for this amazing poster.

[ Twenty One. Driftwood ]

“We made it to the semi-finals, but that’s no reason to slack off.” Coach Kush barked roughly at the basketball team of Seoul University, glaring menacingly. They were resting for a while in between their practice, and everyone was panting with sweat dripping down to the floor. “I don’t think I need to tell you how we barely made it in the last game. That kind of situation would not be acceptable if we want to make it to the finals! I will tolerate no mistakes! Complete concentration on the game and nothing else! Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, coach!” The guys yelled loudly, the sound echoing in the school gym.

“I said, do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, coach!”

“Mir, what are you looking at?” Kush yelled loudly, causing everyone on the team to turn to Mir, who had been paying no attention to Kush’s words. Instead, he was staring reverently at the bleachers. Everyone followed his gaze, and realized that he was looking at the one person who was sitting quietly on the bleachers. Dara, oblivious to how she had become the center of attention of everyone in the gymnasium, bobbed her head along to the music playing in her earphones.

“Mir!” The guy called on by Kush jumped and turned around guiltily to face the angry coach, avoiding Jiyong’s gaze. “A hundred push-ups for spacing out during practice! Alright, everyone else gets ten minutes break! Kwon, you brought quite a distraction to practice,” Kush commented dryly, clapping Jiyong hard on the back. “I have no objection, but you better be playing as hard as you can in the semi-finals. You hear me?”

“Will do, coach.” Watching Kush heading over to see Mir’s push-ups, Jiyong immediately walked over to the bleachers while the other guys on the team went to refill their water bottles and sit down to rest. Dara did not seem to have noticed what was going on around her, and continued to hum along to the tune she was listening to, jotting some words when she thought of the perfect words to go with the melody. Smiling to himself, Jiyong decided not to distract her for a moment, content with staring at Dara. Pulling her hair back in a ponytail and settling for a casual outfit of jeans and cashmere sweater, Dara had put little effort to catch anyone’s attention, and yet Jiyong found that it was all that his eyes could see.

He could not believe that they were really together, even more surreal that she had been the one to suggest that she would accompany him to his basketball practices. Despite Jiyong’s feeble warnings that it would be boring, she insisted on staying until they could go home together. It may not seem like a big deal, but to Jiyong, it meant the world.

“Is practice over?” Dara asked as she took off her earphones.

“No, we are just taking a break,” Jiyong answered apologetically. “Are you tired? I can ask coach if I can leave early-“

“There’s no need to do that. I’m fine waiting here. Besides, I’m getting some of my work done as well.” As if to reassure Jiyong, Dara waved her pen and paper in Jiyong’s face. “I already finished writing the lyrics to one song, and the chorus for the second song.”

“And here I thought you were here to watch my practice,” Jiyong complained playfully, pouting as he crouched down in front of Dara. Dara saw out of the corner of her eyes that some of the guys were gawking in disbelief at them. To his teammates who usually saw Jiyong as a commanding leader that constantly rebuked them rancorously, it was unacceptable that he was now as docile as a lamb in front of a girl. “You’re here, but you’re focusing on working on your music, not watching me play.”

Dara could not help but laugh. “Okay, it is wrong of me to not pay attention. From now on, I’ll watch you practice.” She put her pen, paper, and earphones away in her bag, looking at Jiyong as if expecting his approval.

“Since when did you become so obedient?” Jiyong asked astonishingly. First agreeing meekly to being together, now willingly putting away her stuff to watch his basketball practice? This was too much for Jiyong to take it at once. He must be dreaming, there could be no other explanation. It was too good to be true.

Dara rolled her eyes at him, and the sound of the coach’s whistle saved her from having to come up with an explanation. Stealing one last longing look at Dara, Jiyong grasped her hand tightly before leaving to go back to practice, the unwillingness to leave her visible in every movement. Throughout the rest of practice, Dara made sure to watch carefully. Even though Dara was not a big fan of basketball, she could tell that Jiyong was one of the best players on the team. She must admit that this side of Jiyong was not entirely familiar to her. It was evident in his swift and confident movements as well as the determined, piercing look in his eyes that basketball was a realm he was king in, and he gave it his everything to secure it. It was also not lost on Dara how Jiyong seemed tough, to the point of being a bit brutal, even to his teammates. When someone made a mistake, Jiyong reprimanded the person loudly before Coach Kush did.

“I suppose he would seem cruel and cold in a way.” Soo-hyuk leaned against his car as Dara listened attentively to his reply to her comment that Jiyong seemed different on the basketball court. They had finished practice, but Dara was still waiting for Jiyong to finish showering. After bowing and introducing herself to the other players, who seemed intrigued by her appearance, Dara found Soo-hyuk and decided that he was the one who can answer her questions since he must be one of the few that Jiyong trusts. “But he is a good person inside. Sometimes he just has his own strong way of solving problems and getting what he wants. In basketball, Jiyong, like everyone else on the team, is highly competitive and hates to lose. You might think that his behavior towards the other guys on the team is harsh, but in a group, we need someone like Jiyong, who can point out our errors and pull everyone together. That is what makes us improve, and increases our chances of winning.”

“He does not seem to be pulling the team together to me though. Rather, he seems to be the lone wolf, not belonging to the team,” Dara mused.

“It does seem like that on the surface,” Soo-hyuk agreed. “Usually the most hard-working and valuable people are the ones that are lonely. Jiyong is one of them.” For some reason, what Soo-hyuk said struck something in Dara. Jiyong is lonely, always distancing himself from people and careful not to get too close.

“You seemed to know a lot more about him than I do. How did you guys meet? Through the basketball team?”

Soo-hyuk remained silent for a moment that Dara thought he was not going to answer her. “No, we met at YG Club.”

Dara quickly looked up in surprise. She does not remember seeing someone like Soo-hyuk around YG Club in all of the times that she’s been there with Jiyong. As if reading her mind, Soo-hyuk said, “There was a time during high school when I messed around with gangs, and I hung around the district a lot. There was one time when I was cornered by another gang, and was getting beaten up. I thought I would die there. Then Jiyong appeared, and started punching the guys even though he was outnumbe