Taeyeon gave her arms a nice long stretch and alternated between her left and right in preparation for her physical education class. She looked to the side of the oval where her friend was sitting with a frown on her expression and rolled her eyes. Sooyeon had created a big fuss over how boring it was just sitting there without anyone to keep her entertained whilst everyone else played dodge ball.

The teacher had changed his mind about the long distance running because the class was too different in their running pace and it was hard to keep an eye on the whole class which resulted in the class playing dodge ball instead. Taeyeon had to admit that the game was fun and felt sympathetic to Sooyeon who would have to miss out on probably the best P.E lessons of the year.

Sooyeon caught Taeyeon looking at her from the side and stuck her tongue out stubbornly to which Taeyeon returned with the addition of an eye pull. She desperately wanted to run over to the court and pull on the older girl’s tongue to teach her a lesson but she could probably only hobble over at a walking pace with her temporary crutches. With a heavy sigh, she accepted her defeat and leaned into the chair that the teacher had prepared for her.

As the class continued to stretch, Sooyeon spotted the headmaster’s daughter bounding through the entrance, dressed in what looked like another school’s sports uniform. Yuri waved eagerly at Sooyeon as she made her way over to which Sooyeon gave a polite nod to. Yuri stopped in front of the injured girl’s chair and gave a devilish smirk. Sooyeon gave her a warning glare, cautioning her to stop whatever evil thoughts she was having.

Of course, being the girl that she was, Yuri merely ignored the cold stare and crouched in front of the temporarily walking impaired girl. Considering the consequences for merely a millisecond before discarding them, Yuri gave a quick and swift slap to Sooyeon’s bandaged ankle.

On reflex, Sooyeon kicked the headmaster’s daughter in both revenge and instincts. Yuri fell onto her backside but was not harmed as she laughed heartedly. Taeyeon who was amidst her leg stretches turned her attention the source of the noise and saw Sooyeon kicking Yuri with her uninjured leg repeatedly. She wondered whether Sooyeon had kicked their newest friend a little too hard because Yuri continued to laugh throughout her vicious beating.

“Oh hey, Taeyeon!” Yuri called out and waved when she noticed Taeyeon looking in her direction. Taeyeon gave a small smile and nodded in acknowledgement. Just as she returned the greeting, the teacher tapped her on the shoulder to get her into position. Seeing how the game was about to start, Yuri got up off the floor and raced over to Taeyeon’s team to which the teacher merely shrugged and accepted.

“Dodge ball! My favourite,” Yuri beamed and slammed her hand against Taeyeon’s back. Not quite used to such rough acts, Taeyeon gave a few struggled coughs and took two steps away from the eager girl for safety measures. The students around them gave strange stares at the seemingly eager girl who was clearly not from their school. They continued to look back and forth between Taeyeon and Yuri, wondering what could possibly be happening. Not wanting the attention, Taeyeon returned their questioning stares with a shrug.

The curious class’ attention was then diverted back to the flag that the teacher was holding, indicating that the game was going to start very soon. With a wave of the flag, the game started. With surprising speed, Yuri rushed to grab the ball placed in the middle and returned to Taeyeon’s side to aim and throw the ball at an unsuspecting classmate. The older girl had to admit that Yuri was very quick and accurate with her throws, slightly thankful that Yuri had decided to be on the same team as her. Knowing what the girl was like during their few occasions, she could confidently say that Yuri would be aiming her the whole game.

Sooyeon watched lazily from the sidelines at the seemingly intense game of dodge ball. Most of the girls were squirmish and stayed well away from the balls as much as they could. Which was probably a good thing since it was a dodging game but it wasn’t doing much in actually winning the game. So with nothing else better to watch she kept her attention on the balls as it was thrown back and forth. The boys had a silent competition in their own teams on who could hit the other team the most whilst showing off their swift dodging skills. Sooyeon honestly started losing interest very quickly when most of the girls had been caught out and the game started to slow down. Everyone was aiming precisely to make each throw count.

The injured girl gave a small yawn and started scanning the line of people who had been caught out by the ball. She had expected Taeyeon to be sitting down as well but was mildly surprised when Taeyeon was nowhere to be seen in the line. She then scanned the court again and saw Taeyeon standing in the corner with Yuri standing in front of her.

A ball was heading towards their corner to which Yuri dragged Taeyeon to dodge. Curiously, Sooyeon continued to watch the two and felt kind of sorry for the girl being thrown left right and centre. She wondered whether Taeyeon being caught out would have been better than being thrown like a rag doll by Yuri.

Honestly, she was slightly annoyed that Yuri was able to play with Taeyeon and her classmates even though she didn’t even attend their school. What made her even more aggravated was that she was able to talk to Taeyeon. Taeyeon could hear her voice and actually understand the sounds that come from ; something that Sooyeon would probably never be able to do with Taeyeon.

Cursing the headmaster’s daughter multiple times over and over in her mind, she finally gave up and sighed. Perhaps having Yuri accompany Taeyeon wasn’t so bad. At least Taeyeon was around someone normal who would still be able to understand her through their knowledge of sign language. The mere thought of Yuri being a better friend made her feel sick. Sooyeon couldn’t help but feel as though Taeyeon would be easily replacing their years of friendship for someone who was easier to befriend.

Her eyes started stinging and her vision blurred slightly as she continued to watch Yuri protecting Taeyeon from all the balls thrown in their direction. There were only few people left and the game was nearly reaching its end. Having enough of Taeyeon and Yuri play together, Sooyeon buried her head into her knees and took deep breaths to calm herself down.

Once she managed to calm herself down, she felt someone tap on her shoulder. Sooyeon looked up from her knees and saw an unfamiliar girl smiling softly at her.

“Do you know where Kwon Yuri is?” was written and presented to her. Hesitantly, Sooyeon pointed towards the court where Yuri and Taeyeon were the only ones on their team. The stranger and Sooyeon looked towards the court just as the opposing team threw the last two balls.

Sooyeon noticed that Taeyeon was stuck in the corner and had no way of dodging it as the second ball prevented her from moving away from the boundaries. Wondering how it would play out, everyone watched with unblinking eyes.

Taeyeon immediately used her hands to cover her head and waited for impact.

To her surprise, nothing had hit her.

“Noooo!” an odd voice yelled. Taeyeon opened her eyes and looked up to see Yuri standing over her with her arms outstretched and her face facing hers. The confused girl questioned Yuri silently to which Yuri merely smiled and winked.

“I’m hit! Oh no!” Yuri cried with a dramatic and clearly fake fall. Taeyeon took a few steps back to accommodate the weight of Yuri’s body against her own.

“Yuri!” the unknown girl called from the side.

Taeyeon turned her head slightly to see who’d voice was calling out but was knocked out by a body before she could even register that there was person running towards her. Sooyeon quickly grabbed her crutches beside her when she saw Taeyeon being knocked over by the foreign girl and started hobbling her way over to the dramatic scene.

“Yuri! Yuri! Don’t die on me! Please, don’t leave me here!” the unknown girl yelled desperately. Yuri gave a fake wheeze and reached for the ceiling with a shaky hand.

“I see the light,” she strained her voice. Taeyeon on the side rubbed her sore elbow which had hit the ground and continued to stare at the two girls who obviously did not attend their school.

“You must…” Yuri paused to give a cough, “finish the fight. We’re so close.”

The unknown girl looked up at Taeyeon immediately to which Taeyeon flinched.

“You! You’re our only hope! Finish the battle!” the girl said desperately. Taeyeon backed away from the two dramatic girls cautiously. Perhaps the ball had hit Yuri in the head a little too hard. Just as she managed to scoot away a few feet, she noticed a pair of crutches beside her.

Taeyeon looked up and smiled awkwardly when Sooyeon was glaring down at her. The injured girl offered her hand to Taeyeon to which she thankfully took, careful not to drag the already injured girl down with her weight. Just as Taeyeon had stood up the unknown girl clutched on to her as if she was a desperate beggar, which Taeyeon was seriously considering if it were true.

“You… you’re the chosen one. You must defeat the demons of this dodge ball war and-”

A hand swiftly knocked across the unknown girl’s head. Taeyeon and Sooyeon immediately looked up at the abuser and gaped when they saw Sang-woo standing in between the unknown girl and Yuri.

“That’s enough of your dramatic scene you two. Honestly, I can see why you’re not doing acting,” Sang-woo scoffed. Yuri gave a light chuckle and got off the floor perfectly fine whilst the second girl crossed her arms and huffed in disappointment. Sooyeon clutched onto Taeyeon’s arm and pulled her back a few steps away from the delusional girl and the unknown girl.

Before any of them could exchange anything further, the teacher had intercepted them and reminded them that a dodge ball game was still in progress. Sang-woo swiftly held onto the collars of the two outsiders and pulled them to the sidelines. As he walked past Sooyeon, Yuri grabbed onto her arm and dragged her carefully with them, leaving Taeyeon alone on her half of the court.

Taeyeon panicked when she was left alone with nothing but a ball in her hand. The teacher waved the flag and the game resumed. Taeyeon looked at the opposing team and saw the two boys left. She only managed to survive until the end because she was thrown around and protected by Yuri. She had no hope of beating them all by herself now.

Wanting the game to be over and done with, Taeyeon weakly threw the ball. One of the boys smirked at her and walked up casually to pick up the slowly rolling ball that was approaching his feet ever so carefully.

“This is the end,” Taeyeon thought as he drew his hand back. She held her hand up defensively when the boy threw the ball.

As the ball left the boy’s hand, she closed her eyes. The whole crowd held their breaths and watched, waiting for the inevitable defeat of their cowering team mate.

The sound of a ball making contact was then heard.

The court was silent.

No one dared to breathe.

No one even blinked.

“Wow,” Yuri’s voice finally broke the silence.

Everyone’s jaws were left hanging at the sight in the corner of the court, Sooyeon’s especially.

For a side of the court, right in the very corner, stood a fragile small girl with her head tucked into her shoulders and her hands defensively in front of her. Instead of having the ball roll beside her after making contact with her and hence making her lose the game, a different sight was set before the class audience. Taeyeon alone held the attention of everyone, including the boy who had thrown the ball. In her small frail and unsteady hands was a worn out and torn dodge-ball.

Taeyeon opened her eyes one by one when she felt the soft material of the ball in her hand. When both her eyes were open, she gasped.

She had caught the ball.

Everything started moving again. The teacher waved the red flag and signalled the boy who had thrown the ball to leave the court. The game had ended and Taeyeon was not the one leaving to sit on the benches.

“Go Taeyeon!” Yuri yelled from the sidelines. The gym then was filled with screams of the students from Taeyeon’s team. Taeyeon continued to stare down at the soft ball in her hands and stiffly turned to the sidelines where Mr Kwon, Yuri, the unknown girl and Sooyeon stood. She could practically see Sooyeon’s tonsils with how low her jaw was.

The teacher then walked up to Taeyeon and gave a beaming proud smile. With a slightly harder pat on the back then intended, he congratulated Taeyeon for winning the game. Taeyeon was still slightly confused with what was happening until the boy who had thrown the ball at her came up and gave her a firm handshake.

“Nice catch,” he signed before walking off to the sidelines. It finally hit Taeyeon when she realised what the