"Aarrgghhh.. Can't you do it with lesser force?" I frowned as I watched Sunny wrapping the elastic bandage around my wrist.

"It needs to be tight, Jae. So that it'll recover faster and also to avoid further strain on it." Sunny explained as I pouted.

"Is it really painful, Jaegi?" Jessica asked as she bite her lips with a worried expression.

"Anni." I shocked my head and smiled. "I was just disturbing Sunny."

Sunny was about to threaten me by pulling the bandage tighter when we heard a whistle sound from the court.

"Hey, Jae. What happened? Gwenchana?" Taeyeon ran up to me the moment the match ended. Sooyoung, Hyoyeon, Yuri and Yoona appeared soon as they took turn to hold my wrist until Sunny shouted, asking them to be careful with it.

I started to tell them about the incident that lead to my wrist injury. Our team were already leading with a goal each from me and Taeyeon. I was surging forward with the ball when I was tackled from behind by one of the XXX player. Due to the sudden rough push, I had fallen forward with both my palms on the floor, supporting me. It shouldn't have caused me any problem but the opponent clumsily landed on top of me, adding the weight on my right wrist causing it to be strained. Yoona had to replace me with 5mins left to the end of match after I signalled to Ms Lee for a change.

"I think they did it on purpose to stop Jae from scoring again. Luckily we've already scored 2 goals against them but the return match will be much harder if Jae is not around." Yuri said as everyone nodded their heads.

"Hey, don't say it like that. We still have other good players in our team. Yoona did well when she replaced me earlier. It's just unlucky that she didn't manage to head that ball in. If not, she'll be on the scoresheet too. Don't ever think that I'm irreplaceable okay. We are a team. Everyone has a part to contribute." I said as we heard someone clapping behind us.

Turning around, I saw Ms Lee clapping and smiling at us. "I like how you said it, Jae. By the way, good job girls. Even though it's a good result, it's a little sad because of Jae's injury. We have about 2hrs break until our next match at 2.30pm. Get some rest, eat something and come back to the hall by 2pm." Ms Lee said as we nodded our heads.

"I'm hungry." Sooyoung suddenly blurted out once Ms Lee had walked away, causing all of us to laughed at the shikshin.

"Let's go to the cafetaria, get something to eat and we could rest after that while watching the 2nd match between Busan and YMC. It should be really interesting later since they drew their first match with a scoreline of 0-0." Hyoyeon said as we all stood up to make our way to the cafetaria with Jessica helping me out.

YoonYul volunteered to get our food for us as the rest of us looked for a place to sit. From a distance, we saw Ailee at a table with one of her teammates as we gestured her to join us. Ailee then told us to give her some time as we nodded our heads.

"Hey Jae, are you going to be joining me at the bench later?" Hara chuckled as she took a seat at the table beside mine, along with Hyomin, Min and the other 3 cheerleaders.

"Maybe. I'm not sure though. If Ms Lee thinks that I should rest, I guess I should follow her instruction." I replied.

"But your injury shouldn't be affecting you much since it's only the wrist, right?" Min said as I saw Suzy leaning to her side and whispered something to her. "But Suzy said that it's better for you to rest so that it won't aggrevate the injury." Min turned to face Suzy who smiled at her.

"Are you both together?" Hyoyeon asked from the table behind us. She was seated together with Seohyun and SooSun.

"Anni, anni." Suzy quickly replied as we saw her blushing. "Not yet. We're just trying to get to know each other better."

Loud cheerings were heard as the teasings began until YoonYul came back with our food. After we explained to her what happened, the cheerings started again with the inclusion of YoonYul. We only stopped when we heard Sooyoung's stomach growling.

"I'll feed you first since you can't use your hand, Jaegi." Jessica said as she put her food aside and grabbed the bowl of bibimbap in front of me.

"But that will cause you to eat later." I pouted as Jessica scooped a mouthful of rice and asked me to open my mouth.

"It's okay. I'm not that hungry yet. You need to eat since you played earlier." She said as she smiled sweetly at me.

"I wished my wrist was hurt too so that Fany would feed me." Taeyeon pouted as she looked at us. Me, Jessica and TaeNy shared one table as YoonYul joined HyoHyun's and SooSun's table.

"Taetae, how can you wish for something bad to happen to you. I could still feed you even if your wrist is not hurt. You just need to ask me, Boo." Tiffany said as the rest of us cringed.

"Look at them being cheesy and they blamed us for our cheesiness." Jessica said as she meronged at the TaeNy coupled before continuing to feed me.

"Hi everyone. How was your match earlier? I went off to grab something to eat after the first half just now so I didn't watch..." Ailee came over to greet us with one of her friends helping her out when she suddenly gasped. "Oh my god. What happen to your wrist, Jae?"

"It's just a mild sprain. Fell down during the 2nd half. Anyway, we won the match 2-0." I said with a smile as Ailee touched my wrist once before taking her hands away.

"She was fouled by an opponent." Taeyeon explained further as the rest of the girls started to take turns to tell Ailee what happened while I opened my mouth to be fed by Jessica again.

It was during the explanation that another figure suddenly popped up and it was only when she coughed, did we realised her presence.

"Hi. Sorry to interrupt all of you. I just want to check if Jae is okay." She nodded her head slightly as a sign of apology for interrupting us.

"I'm fine. Thanks for the concern, Yu jin-ssi." I said as I opened my mouth again while tapping my hand on Jessica's thigh as a signal for her to feed me again.

"Slow down, Jaegi. Munch your food properly." Jessica said before she took my drink and held the straw for me to drink.

"Yu jin-ssi? As in Uee?" I heard Ailee gasping as she kept shifting her attention from Uee to me.

"Yes. That's me. And you are? I don't seem to have met you before. Are you from SM too?" Uee stretched out her hand as Ailee returned the handshake.

"My name is Ailee. I'm actually a cheerleader from YMC university. I'm friends with them." Ailee explained herself as she bowed slightly.

Uee's POV:

I had went off to the cafetaria after volunteering myself to buy some drinks for the team before our match started. Actually it was just an excuse.

I saw the incident when Jae hurt her wrist. That stupid clumsy player from XXX team had pushed her roughly and even landed on Jae. I saw how Jae's face scrunched up in pain as she gestured to her coach for a replacement. I watched as Jae walked to the sideline, holding her wrist close to her stomach after Yoona replaced her.

Sunny was there to examine her injury as I kept jerking my head around to get a better view of Jae since she was sitting sideways on the bench. Jessica had rushed to her side the moment Jae stepped out from the court. I saw how worried she looked as she squated beside Jae and just watched as Sunny wrapped an elastic bandage around Jae's wrist. Their coach also came for a while to check on Jae before returning back to the sideline.

I had to control myself from running towards Jae as my coach was quite strict about our team behaviour. That was why I volunteered to get the drinks for the team since I knew Jae and her whole team were at the cafetaria. But when I reached there, I saw the same girl from earlier touching Jae's hand once as the rest of the girls kept talking to her.

I walked slowly to their table but no one seemed to realise my presence until I had to pretend to cough to grab their attention. I saw how Jessica was feeding Jae and wished I was in her position.

Ailee's POV:

I can't believe that Uee will appear in front of us so soon but why did the girls looked so calm? I guess this is not the first time that they have met her. Did they meet her yesterday when I was not around? Damn. If I knew that they will meet her yesterday, I won't have skipped the matches but the stomach cramp was killing me so I still couldn't bring myself to attend yesterday's matches.

I could feel a little bit of tension between Uee and Jae. Jae seemed cold towards her, a sight that I've never seen before. When Uee suddenly asked me about who I was, I felt a little angry myself. Why does she sound as if she's not happy about the fact that I knew Jae? The way she looked at me, even though she was smiling, it made me feel a little insecured.

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

"Jae, I saw what happened in the court earlier. Are you okay? Does your wrist hurt?" Uee tried to touch my wrist but I suddenly moved it away.

"It's fine. Sunny had wrapped it well." I said as I saw the dejected look in Uee's eyes. 'Did I hurt her feelings by moving my hands away when she wanted to touch it? I don't even know why I reacted that way.'

"Uee, Ailee. Why don't you join us and take a seat instead of just standing at the side?" Jessica offered as she pointed to the two empty seats at our table. "We can pull another seat for Ailee's friend."

"It's okay. I need to get back to the hall soon. I think the match between my team and YMC will be starting in 5mins time." Uee said after looking at her watch. "Aren't you two suppose to get back to the hall too since your team is playing against mine?" Uee turned to face Ailee and her friend.

"We've been excused from this match since Ailee is injured and I'm appointed to look after her." Ailee's friend answered as Uee nodded her head before excusing herself. "What's with her bossy attitude?" Ailee's friend commented after Uee had walked away.

I saw Ailee nudging her friend at the side and asking her to keep quiet. "It's okay. No worries. Just feel free to express yourself honestly." I said as I smiled at Ailee's friend. "Why don't you both join us since we're still not done eating?"

Once Ailee and her friend joined us, we continued chatting with the rest of the girls. While Jessica was feeding me, I caught Ailee staring at me as she just smiled at me awkwardly.

"Hey Jae, let me check on your wrist." Sunny came over and took my wrist before she removed the bandage.

"Sicababy, eat your food okay. It's getting cold already. Mianhae." I pouted as I felt bad for letting her food became cold while she fed me. "Because of me.. Aaaaarrrrgghhh.. Pain pain." I suddenly screamed when Sunny pressed on one of the nerves on my wrist.

Everyone was shocked to hear my scream as they gathered at my table. Jessica automatically dropped her spoon and placed her hand on my thigh.

"Jaegi, gwenchana?" I could sense the worry from her tone of voice as I could only scrunched my face as I tried to withstand the pain.

"Hhhmmm... I need some ice. Yul, can you buy some ice from the drink store for me? It seems that Jae's injury is worse than I expected." Sunny said as she frowned.

I saw that there was a part on my wrist that had became slightly swollen and it was bruised. I turned to my side and saw that Jessica didn't even start eating as she had her eyes on my wrist.

"Sicababy, eat your food please." She looked at me with her puppy eyes. "I'm fine. Everyone, I'm fine. I was just suddenly shocked by the pain. That's all." I said as I looked at everyone. I told them to get back to their seats when Yuri came back with a pack of ice. "Eat, please." I said to Jessica who nodded her head slowly.

"Okay, Jae. This might hurt a bit so you have to withstand the pain, okay." Sunny said as I nodded my head.

The moment Sunny pressed the ice on the bruised area, I could feel the pain seeping throughout my body. I gritted my teeth and cold sweat was formed around my forehead. Sunny kept asking me if I was fine as I nodded my head. After a while, Sunny stopped pressing and re-bandaged my wrist.

"Hey, Sunny. How bad is Jae's injury?" Taeyeon asked.

"She's suffering from Grade 2 injury. At first I though that it was just a Grade 1 injury. The difference is that for Grade 1, there's no ligament tearing but for Grade 2, it's a partial tear." Sunny stopped explaining when she saw the confused looks on the girls. "All I'm saying is that she'll take a longer time to recover than expected."

"Oouuhhhh.." Everyone had the same reaction and started to nod their heads.

"I need to inform Ms Lee about this. I'll make a move back to the hall first. I'll see you all later." Sunny stood up as Sooyoung followed her.

Turning back to Jessica, I saw that her bowl of bibimbap was still more than half-filled as I asked her about what's on her mind and if the food was not to her liking.

"The food is nice but I don't have the appetite to eat." Jessica said as she pouted and placed her spoon on the table.

"You're worried about me, is it?" I asked as Jessica just shrugged her shoulders. "You need to eat a little bit more, my princess. You'll be performing later during our half time break for our 2nd match. Please." I pouted and gave her my puppy eyes.

Jessica was about to start eating when the two of us heard someone giggling which turned out to be Ailee's friend.

"Both of you are so cute together. Like a couple." She giggled until Ailee told her that we really are a real couple. "Oh my god. Really?" Ailee's friend started to squel in excitement.

"Most of them are couples." Ailee said as she mentioned about TaeNy, YoonYul, HyoHyun and SooSun.

 "That is so cool. I wish I had a girlfriend too. Ailee, do you want to be my girlfriend?" Ailee's friend said with a dorky grin.

"Mwo?! Andwae! Not funny, Gina." Ailee replied as she glared at her friend. "Let's go back to the hall. The first half of the match should be ending soon."

Ailee's remarks caused all of us to look at our watches. All of us then decided to leave the cafetaria together.

When we got back to the hall, Ailee and her friend went off to their team while we walked towards our benches where SooSun were talking to Ms Lee. The moment Ms Lee noticed us, she called out to me to come nearer.

"Jae, let me see your injury." Ms Lee asked as I showed her my hand while Sunny took off the bandage. "Hhhmmm.. I'll go and get a wrist support for you. Sunny, continue to press an ice pack on her wrist to reduce the swelling. I think it's best for Jae not to participate in the return match."

After Ms Lee walked away, the rest of the girls gathered around us while Jessica sat beside me.

"Don't worry, Jae. We'll work hard to make sure that we'll advance to the finals. Hopefully by tomorrow, the swelling had stopped and there's improvement in your injury so that you can join us in the finals." Taeyeon said as I showed her a thumbs up.

Jessica then gently lifted my injured wrist and placed it on her thigh as Sunny passed her an ice pack. I saw from a distance that the score for the match between YMC and Busan was currently at 0-0. If the score remained the same, this match would be decided by a penalty shoot-out.

Even though Jessica didn't apply a lot of pressure while dabbing my wrist with the ice pack, I could still feel the stinging pain. But I put on a straight face so that Jessica won't know that I was in pain while my focus was on the match.

"Jessica, dry her wrist and help her to put this on." Ms Lee suddenly appeared  in front of me while passing Jessica a wrist support. "The rest of you, go and warm yourselves up." 

The moment Ms Lee ended her sentence, we heard a whistle and a loud cheering from the court. YMC university had scored a goal with just 5mins left in the game. 

"I guess YMC is going to the finals." Taeyeon said to me before she stood up to lead the girls in warming up.

"All done, Jaegi." Jessica said as I thanked her. "Do you think our team will make it through without you?"

"Of course they can. As long as they work hard and follow the instructions given by Ms Lee, they will make it through. I'm not irreplaceble in the team." I said as Jessica shook her head.

"You're irreplaceable in my heart." Jessica said before she covered her blushing face, causing me to chuckle at her.

30mins later, our team was preparing themselves for our return match against XXX university. As they listened to Ms Lee giving them a motivational speech, I could see that Min was feeling nervous. She was chosen to play in the starting line-up along with Sooyoung, Yuri, Hyoyeon and Taeyeon.

"Remember what I told you earlier. Hyo and Min, both of you are to track back to help Yuri in defence whenever the opponents have the ball possession." Ms Lee said as everyone nodded their heads.

"Hey Min. Relax. Believe in yourself and play like you always do. You've been great so far." I said to Min before she walked to the court.

As the match progressed on, I was amazed to see how the team was working really hard to defend the 2 goals lead that we had from the 1st match. Even Taeyeon was helping out in defence which actually meant that XXX university had been on the offensive since the match started.

"This is not good." I mumbled to myself but Jessica heard it and asked me about it. "We're being ultra defensive which is not good. The pressure will be too much for our players to keep on absorbing their attacks. They will tire themselves out, physically and mentally. It'll take just a momentarily lapse of concentration for the opponents to score. I need to discuss this with Ms Lee."

I stood up and walked towards Ms Lee who was standing by the side of the court.

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

Jessica's POV:

I just watched as Jae walked towards Ms Lee at the sideline. Just by looking at her back, I could imagine how serious her expression would be when she explained to Ms Lee about her thoughts. I saw her left hand moving around swiftly as Ms Lee also used her hand gestures. I can't hear what they were saying but the whistle sound from the court distracted my attention.

XXX team had managed to score a goal against us as I looked at the clock. 5mins more before the first half ends. 'Just like what Jaegi had expected. Everyone looked really shagged on the court at the moment.'

I'm starting to feel worried now. Two things came to my mind. First is about the team. I'm worried that they might lose their focus after that goal. The difference between the two teams has been cut down to a goal instead of two. Secondly, I'm worried about Jae. Knowing how passionate she is about the game, I'm worried that she'll asked Ms Lee to allow her to play in the 2nd half. Just like how she played with an injured head last year.

While I continued to observe Jae who was busy talking to Ms Lee, I sensed that I was not the only one watching her as I looked to my right and noticed that Uee and Ailee were also watching her from the benches. Both of them were not seated near to each other but from the angle that they were having their eyes on, it's obvious that they were watching Jae.

I sighed as I pouted and looked down to the floor momentarily. 'Jae only has eyes on me. Her love is only for me.' I kept repeating these sentences in my mind until I saw a familiar pair of futsal shoes in front of me. Looking up, I saw Jae with a worried expression.

"What's wrong, Sicababy? Are you feeling unwell?" Her hands automatically touched my forehead as I shook my head slowly.

"Anni. I'm fine." I said as I heard the whistle blown to end the first match. I saw Tiffany and the rest of the cheerleaders stood up to walk to the court for our routine performance. "I'll be back, okay."

I was done with the cheerleading routine after 5mins and was walking back when I saw Taeyeon helping Jae with her shoelace. 'Is Jae really going to play in the 2nd half?' I fastened my walk towards them.

"Jaegi, are you really going in to play?" I asked the moment I stood beside Taeyeon.

"Huh?" Both Jae and Taeyeon gave me the same clueless reaction.

"Why are you tying her shoelace then?" I asked again causing both of them to look at each other with a more confused expression until I saw Jae's mouth turned into an 'O' shape.

"You thought I was going to play in the game just because Taeng was tying my shoelace, is it?" Jae asked as I nodded my head. "I'm not playing, Sicababy. My shoelace was undone so I ask Taeng's help to tie it for me since I can't use my hand."

I sighed in relief as I took a seat beside Jae while Taeyeon just smiled at us.

"Jae didn't want to play because she didn't want you to worry about her. Initially, Hyo did suggest for Jae to play in the 2nd half but Jae decline." Taeyeon said.

"It wasn't just because I didn't want Sica to worry. I wanted you guys to prove yourself out there without me. I have faith in all of you. Anyway, I've already discussed it out with Ms Lee about our next strategy. I believe we could do it." Jae said to Taeyeon as I just observed their interaction but I was surprised when Taeyeon sat beside Jae when the whistle was blown to commence the 2nd half.

"You're not playing?" I asked Taeyeon who shook her head as Tiffany passed her a bottle of water to drink.

"Yoona will b replacing Taetae." Tiffany answered. "It seems that Ms Lee and Jae had came up with a plan to counter XXX team."

"Taeng is already exhausted from the 1st half. Putting her in is not going to contribute much to the team. Min and Yuri will play in defence. With Yuri's experience, Min will be more confident in that position. Hyo will support Yoona who is in the pivot position. All 4 of them are good with speed and we'll take advantage of that during our counter attacks." Jae explained to us while we just nodded our heads.

As the match progressed on, I saw how serious and focus Jae was. 'How can someone be so cute and y at the same time?'

"Is there something on my face, Sicababy?" I heard Jae's question as I blinked my eyes a few times while shaking my head. "You've been staring at my face for the past 2mins."

I could feel my cheeks burning up as I just smiled at her awkwardly.

"I know I'm cute and y at the same time." Blinking my eyes rapidly at Jae, I saw her smirking. "It's not that I can read your mind. You were saying your thoughts out loud." Jae chuckled as I turned redder with her comment.