Chapter 77

Let's talk about love

"That was daebak!!" Hyoyeon, who was standing behind me, patted my back as we took turns to board the bus.

The cheerleaders were already on board with the rest of the team as I walked up the bus. The moment I stepped inside, the whole bus erupted with cheers as they kept repeating the word hat-trick. I bowed my head slightly and smiled slightly as I walked to where Hara and Sunny were seated. I had to ask everyone to quieten down before I could start the conversation.

"Sunny, how's her condition?" I asked as I saw some sadness in Hara's eyes.

"She'll need at least a week to recover which literally means that she'll be out of the competition." Sunny said in a soft tone.

"Don't say it in such a sad manner. It'll make me feel upset all over again. I'm just glad that we won the last match, thanks to the hat-trick scored by Jae. Even though I won't be playing anymore, I'll still support the team from the sideline." Hara tried to sound cheerful but I knew she was not.

"Gomawo, Hara. You were great out there. I'm sorry that this had to happen to you. We're going to miss your accurate passes from now on. But I promise that we'll worked harder with you cheering us on from the bench." I smiled sincerely, trying to lighten up the mood as Hara nodded her head. "Rest well then. I'll go and take a seat at the back."

Slamming myself against the chair and leaning back against the headrest, I felt a pair of hands hugging my right arm.

"Tired?" I nodded my head as I turned to face a worried looking Jessica. "Anyway, you were great earlier. How many goals have you scored so far, Jaegi?"

I thought for a bit before showing her 6 of my fingers. "But the funny thing is, I don't really feel happy at the moment." I said as I gave her a sad smile.

"Because of Hara?" Jessica said as I nodded my head again. "I can understand how you feel, dear. To be out of the tournament after playing just 2 games, must have made her feel really upset with herself. But she did her best when she's on the court. Hopefully she will have more chances in the future."

"That was why I was really focus to find one more goal for our last match. I had a strong urge to win the match for Hara's sake. One-goal difference is too slim and we'll be at risk if they scored another goal. When Hyoyeon passed me the ball right outside their semicircle, I knew I've to make this shot count." I said as I felt Jessica's head on my shoulders.

"It was awesome seeing you turning and twisting around two defenders before shooting the ball in between the goalkeeper's legs. From where I sat, it looked like you were dancing." Jessica chuckled as I pinched her right cheek softly. "Let's get some rest, Jaegi. We'll only be reaching our campus in 45mins."

It was almost 7pm when I walked out from the shower and was rubbing my wet hair with my towel when I heard Taeyeon's voice calling me. I walked to the living room where the 4 of them were gathered as they were looking at Taeyeon's phone.

"What are you all looking at?" I asked as all 4 of them turned to face me.

"Ms Lee just send me a message about the 16 teams that qualified for the next round. We'll be up against Group B runner-up which is Jeju Univeristy." Taeyeon said as she showed me the message on her phone. "Chungmuro University will be going against Daegu University."

"It seems that the 3 new team had made it to the next round too." Yuri said as she pointed out that Busan University was the runner-up for Group E while YMC university was in first placing for Group H.

"I guess Ailee was telling the truth when she said that her team is good." I said as  I continued to dry my hair with the towel.

"What time is our match tomorrow? I need to make sure that I eat my breakfast." Sooyoung said while grinning dorkily.

"Yah, shikshin. Food will always be on your mind but lucky for you, our match will start at noon. What time will we be leaving our campus, Taeng?" Hyoyeon asked Taeyeon who were scrolling down her messages.

"Ms Lee told us to gather at 10.30am and also reminded us to have our breakfast first." Taeyeon said as she looked up. "Let's meet-up with our girlfriends at 9.30am and have breakfast at the cafetaria."

Everyone nodded their heads as we took out our phones to message our girlfriends. Hyoyeon then went to the kitchen to prepare some kimbap for us while Yuri went to take her shower. The rest of us chatted among ourselves, talking about today's match and also about Hara's injury. At around 10pm, everyone decided to turn in to have a good rest as we reminded each other to set the alarm at 7am.

********************************

We were all watching the 2nd half of the match between Chungmuro and Daegu from our bench after we were done with our warm-up. Currently the scoreline was 1-1. Our match would be starting in 15mins time as I saw Ms Lee walking towards us.

"Okay, girls. Gather around. I know all of you are interested about the other match but we need to focus on our own match first. We'll be using the 1-2-1 formation with Hyomin and Min as our wingers. Yuri will be at the back with Taeyeon as our pivot. Sooyoung remains as the keeper. Our opponent, Jeju University, is a newcomer to this tournament but the fact that they had managed to come this far, means that they're a worthy opponent. I've managed to gather some info on their playing style from yesterday. We will attack them down both wings........." Ms Lee started to brief us about our tactics as all of us listened intently.

We were leading by a goal scored by Taeyeon when our opponent coach called for a time-out just at the 10mins mark. Our players gathered back at our bench as me and Sunny distributed water bottles to them. It seemed that the opponent would be replacing two of their players as the whistle were blown to restart the game. With the inclusion of the new players, Jeju team had a change of playing style as they became more attacking-minded with at least 2 players surging forward at the same time. Min and Hyomin had to track back to help Yuri in defense everytime Jeju team launched an attack. 4mins before the end of the first half, it was unlucky for us to concede the equaliser.

"Jaegi, I just realised that so far, I've only seen you and Taeng played together once during the group stage matches. Is there any reason for it?" Jessica who was sitting beside me tapped my thighs to grab my attention.

"I'm not sure about that. Maybe Ms Lee needed me and Taeng to take charge of each half of the game since we're the captain and vice-captain of the team." I replied before breaking into a smirk. "But if I was feeling arrogant about it, I think opponents won't be able to handle it if both me and Taeng are going against them." I chuckled when Jessica slapped me softly on my shoulders.

"Don't be arrogant then. I don't like it." Jessica said as she pouted.

"Is that the reason why you don't like Taecyeon?" I teased as Jessica rolled her eyes at me before she stood up to get ready to perform with the cheerleading team as I heard the whistle blown to signal the end of the first half.

We welcomed the exhausted looking girls as Ms Lee complimented them for their hard work. Hara who was not able to take part in the tournament anymore, helped out by giving light massages to the players to make them relax and to loosen their joints.

"Hyun Jae, Hyoyeon and Yoona, you will be replacing Taeyeon, Hyomin and Min for the second half. We'll be using the 2-1-1 formation for this time round. Yoona and Yuri will be the back two, Hyun Jae will play behind Hyoyeon who will be the pivot. Hyo, use your speed to cause confusion in the opponents half to allow Jae to roam freely." Ms Lee gave us further instructions as me and Yoona got ourselves ready to enter the court.

With words of encouragement from everyone, especially Jessica, I led the team to the court when the whistle was blown to start the 2nd half of the game. Just as Ms Lee had instructed, Hyoyeon went all out to distract the opponents in their own half with her speed and stamina.

We were awarded a free-kick just at the center of the court when an opponent tripped me earlier. I saw Hyoyeon, with a defender guarding her, lingering around at the right hand side of the opponents goalpost as me and Yuri stood in front of the ball.

"Yul, run to the left when the whistle is blown." I gave Yuri a brief instruction as she nodded just at the same time that the whistle was blown.

Yuri ran to the left as one of the two players from Jeju team who were standing in front to block us earlier, went after her. I surged forward leaving the remaining opponent behind with the ball on my feet as I shouted out Hyoyeon's name. Thinking that I will be passing the ball to my right, the opponent ran to the right side to try to block my pass but I kicked the ball to my left towards Yuri who did a controlled one-touch to the ball before returning it back to me.

By then, no one was marking me since the previous player had no time to react to the change in my running direction as I received the ball from Yuri just outside the opponents semicircle. Shouting Hyoyeon's name again, the goalkeeper slightly shifted her attention to her left side where Hyoyeon was as I took the opportunity to blast the ball at the bottom corner of the keeper's right side.

The whistle was blown to indicate a goal as I was hugged by Hyoyeon and Yuri. The 3 of us jogged to the center court where Yoona and Sooyoung were waiting to congratulate us. I looked to the sideline and showed a thumbs up as I saw the team celebrating.

"Yah!! Stop calling my name when you don't intend to pass the ball to me." Hyoyeon teased as she nudged me on my shoulders.

"Just stay alert, Hyo. You might never know when the ball will reach you." I winked at her and smirked as I heard the whistle sound to restart the game.

The opponents were pressing forward to find an equaliser but we were more prepared this time round. I tracked back to help Yuri and Yoona in defense, leaving Hyoyeon alone to wait for any passes from us. We were left with only 2mins of game play when Yuri conceded a free kick on the left side of our half, just above the center mark of the court. I guessed she must have felt the fatigue from playing the whole match when she accidentally pushed the opponent down while they were tussling for the ball.

Yoona and Yuri stood a few meters away from the ball as a blockage to the free-kick. Hyoyeon and me were guarding an opponent each as Sooyoung got herself ready. Once the whistle was blown, the Jeju player kicked the ball to her side to a running teammate who then crossed the ball in as Sooyoung sprawled herself to punch the ball out. The ball unfortunately fell to the feet of another Jeju team player who kicked the ball hard. Sooyoung was already down on the floor after her earlier save as we all watch the ball flew towards our goalpost direction. I was about to cringed my face when I saw Hyoyeon flew across the goalpost and headed the ball out of play as she landed right on top of Sooyoung.

The whistle was blown as me, Yuri and Yoona jumped on top of the pile, making Sooyoung screamed for help. We only pulled ourselves apart when we heard Ms Lee's voice.

"Good job, girls. But we still have the return match later so don't be too happy yet. Anyway, that was a great save from you, Soo and also thanks to Hyo for saving the 2nd attempt from them. Our next match will be at 2pm so all of you will have about 1hr of break. Grab something to eat if you can and rest. But be back here at 1.45pm." Ms Lee said before walking away.

"I'll go and grab some sandwiches for everyone while you all rest here, okay." Seohyun suggested as I saw Sooyoung's face lit up before she was knocked on the head by Hyoyeon. Tiffany then voluntereed to help Seohyun as Suzy also tagged along with them.

I took a seat beside Jessica who passed me a bottle of water and also my towel while she continued to grin at me.

"Wae? Is there something on my face?" I asked as I wiped my face with my towel.

"Anni. I just find it y, seeing you all sweaty with sweats trickling down your face." She said as she covered her blushing face.

"Why are you blushing when you're the one who said it? Kyeopta." I said as I pinched her cheeks softly. "If there was no one around, I would have given you a kiss for your cuteness but I'll keep it for now."

I continued teasing Jessica until she was about to punch my shoulders when we saw an excited looking Tiffany, entering the hall with Seohyun and Suzy walking behind her with bags of sandwiches and drinks in their hands.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!! Guess who I bumped into at the cafetaria earlier?" Tiffany said as she took a seat beside Taeyeon while the drinks and sandwiches were being distributed out.

"Who?" Taeyeon asked nonchalantly before taking a sip of her drink.

"Uee!!"

Spurts of water was seen everywhere as me and Taeyeon choked on our drinks. Yuri had her eyes wide opened while Sooyoung couldn't close that was filled with food. Hyoyeon had to clap her hands to get us back to reality.

"Jinjja?!!" Taeyeon said as she wiped the remaining water from the corner of . "Aigooo, I should have expected this."

"Wait.. Did you just say that you were expecting it?" I asked as I felt Jessica wiping away the water from my mouth with her hands. "You mean you knew? Is that what you've been hiding from me the past few days?"

"I wasn't hiding anything. I wasn't sure myself. I only remembered that Uee is studying in Busan university." Taeyeon said as I slowly nodded my head.

"Is she a futsal player too?" Hyoyeon asked as Tiffany shook her head.

"I think she's a cheerleader, looking at what she was wearing earlier. Seohyun and Suzy were already walking ahead of me since I had to make the payment for the food and drinks. That was when I felt someone tapping my back. Turning around, I saw her smiling at me. We didn't talk much though. She said she saw me walking in which was why she came forward. But the funny thing is, she told me to send her regards to you." Tiffany pointed at me as I looked at her with a confused expression.

"She must have seen Jae yesterday morning." Yuri said as everyone's attention diverted from me to her. "Busan University is in Group E which means that they were in Hall 4 all the time since yesterday. The only time she could have seen Jae was during the morning assembly where every team was gathered to hear the opening speech." Yuri explained further.

No one said anything as some of them were still confused about what was happening since they didn't knew who Uee was. For those who knew her, the expression on their faces was that of someone in deep thoughts. Someone grabbed my hands and entwined her fingers with mine.

"What are you thinking about, Jaegi?" Jessica asked as she tilted her head and wiped the sweat that trickled down my side.

"Honestly, my mind is kind of blank right now. The fact that she's here for the tournament, I don't really know how to react." I looked into Jessica's loving eyes as I felt her tightening her grip on my fingers. "But I think what's more important now is the things that are right in front of me. The game, the team and most importantly, you. I can't lose my focus over trivial matters. I'll handle it when the time comes."

Jessica broke into a smile as she nodded her head. Ms Lee's voice took us away from staring into each other eyes as we listened to her instruction for the return match against Jeju University. The starting line-up would be me, Yoona, Hyoyeon, Min and Sooyoung. Hyoyeon and Min were assigned the defensive role with me as the pivot and Yoona supporting me from behind.

Since we had won the first leg of the match, Ms Lee instructed us to be more defensive and to counter attack when the opportunity arises. She anticipated that the Jeju Team would be going on a more attacking style since they need to score at least two goals if they want to advance to the next round. As I stood up to do some stretching, from the corner of my eyes, I saw Jessica just staring blankly at the floor. I turned and ruffled her hair, causing her to look up at me.

"Don't worry. I'll be fine. Don't overthink things, okay." I said as I gave her my sincere smile before walking towards the girls who were getting ready to enter the court.

We ended the 2nd match with a scoreline of 2-0 with goals scored by Yoona and me during the first half of the game. With an aggregate of 4-1, we advanced to the quarterfinals tomorrow. Since we were already leading by 2 goals in the first half, Ms Lee had replaced Sooyoung and me for the 2nd half with Sunny and Hyomin. Yoona moved to the pivot position with Hyomin supporting her. We played more defensive in the 2nd half with maintaining possession of the ball as our priority.

********************************

"So we are going against Daegu University next?" Sooyoung asked as she stuffed a spoonful of rice into while Taeyeon nodded her head.

We had reached our school campus at around 5pm and were currently at the cafetaria, thanks to Sooyoung who has been bugging us with her hunger ever since we boarded the bus.

"I really thought that Chungmuro will make it through the next round. They were really good during the group stages." Hyoyeon said.

"Does that mean Daegu University is better than them?" Yoona asked as no one answered her. "I can still remember how fast the players from Chungmuro were during our match. Me and Yul were totally drained by the time we were replaced. If Daegu team is better than them, I don't even want to think about it."

"Maybe Daegu team found a way to counter them. Whatever it is, believe in ourselves and our strength. Ms Lee will know what strategy to use." Taeyeon said with a grin.

"Worse comes to the worse, we still have Jae with us. She's very good at strategies." Yuri added on as she gave the same dorky grin as Taeyeon.

Everyone looked at me before they started being curious by asking Yuri and Taeyeon to explain about how good I was. Yuri then explained that during our middle school, we didn't really have a proper coach and most of the team strategies were planned out by me. Taeyeon added on by saying that the coach in our high school always asked for advice from me on how to counter an opponent team with different strategies. Hearing them exaggerating some parts of their stories, I shook my head as I heard Jessica giggling beside me.

"What's so funny, Sicababy?" I asked as I suddenly kissed her on her forehead, causing her to be taken aback. "That was the kiss that I had kept from earlier. A kiss for your cuteness."

Jessica was about to say something when sounds of disgust were heard at the table. The rest of the girls were giving us funny faces as I just meronged at them.

"I can seriously get diabetes seeing the two of you. Even my Taetae is not as cheesy as you, Jae." Tiffany said as Jessica wrapped her hands around my left arm before giving Tiffany a cold stare.

"Taeng is not cheesy. She's just a Byun. A ert midget." Sooyoung said as she grabbed Sunny's bibimbap that her girlfriend couldn't finished and started to eat again.

"Yah!! And you're just a tall trash bin." Taeyeon replied as she tried to kick Sooyoung's knee from under the table but her feet couldn't reached, causing all of us to laugh at her.

"By the way, I noticed that XXX University had also got through to the next round. They're going against Handong University. You guys remember them right?" Sunny said as she stared at her phone. Ms Lee had sent to everyone of us the updated details for tomorrow's schedule. "Last year, we competed against them during the top 16 rounds. We lost to them during the 1st leg of our match but we managed to win our 2nd leg match to advance to the quarterfinals."

"It was due to my mistake of conceding the penalty that lead them to win the 1st leg of the match." Hyoyeon said with a sad tone as she remembered the mistake she made last year.

"But you went on to score a goal against them in the return match. Isn't that better? I remembered you wanted me to replace you because you felt guilty and didn't think that you deserve to be in starting line-up. But you proved everyone wrong. You've became a much better player after you learnt from your mistake, Hyo. So be confident of yourself and chin up, okay." I said as I showed her a thumbs up while the other girls cheered her on.

"But if XXX University wins, won't that means we'll be meeting them in the semifinals this year? They will surely want to seek revenge on us for their early exit last year." Yoona said as everyone was silent for a second.

"Let's take one game at a time, shall we?" Taeyeon said. " Our opponent for tomorrow is Daegu University. We should focus on that instead of dwelling about something that might not happen. One game at a time with total focus and great teamwork. Believe in ourselves and also in our teammates. Everyone has a part to contribute to the team."

Everyone cheered at Taeyeon's words but it was shortlived when we heard Seohyun's loud and clear voice.

"All quarterfinal and semifinal matches will be played in the same hall for the 8 qualified team but separated between the men's and the women's team. Hall 1 will be used for the men's team while Hall 2 will be for the women's teams." Seohyun stopped reading the message on Hyoyeon's phone as she turned to look at me who had a lost expression. "Doesn't that mean we'll be meeting Busan University team there since they have also qualified for the quarterfinals?" The minute Seohyun finished talking, all eyes were diverted immediately to me.

I scratched the back of my head, confused about their reactions and asked them about it.

"Yah!!! Pabo. Busan University?" Taeyeon said as I frowned but soon, my mouth turned into an 'O' shape as the news finally hit me.

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howlshimazu
#1
hey author can you make this story available for offline reading ?
Lodinyoko
#2
Chapter 12: It's been awhile since the last time I read this.
VipSoneMoomoo
#3
Chapter 30: Wait i already read that O.o
VipSoneMoomoo
#4
Chapter 30: Hope sica found out the true
Wheepup123
#5
Chapter 101: Damn this is so niceeeed
VipSoneMoomoo
#6
Chapter 101: Wowwwwww i love this #JaeSica
VipSoneMoomoo
#7
Chapter 73: No more fighting
VipSoneMoomoo
#8
Chapter 57: Jae x sica are the best :3
VipSoneMoomoo
#9
Chapter 46: Pray for sulli
And stop cyber bullying
VipSoneMoomoo
#10
Chapter 44: I love this hope they would be happy at the end