"Come on Bae, you're not nervous at all?" Luhanna asks as she comes out of the bathroom stall, tugging up one red, knee-high sock.

"I mean, a bit, but I'm feeling pretty good with these tryouts," Baekhyun shrugs from the bench, bent over one knee while he ties up his cleats.

Luhanna just hums in a kind of 'speak-for-yourself' manner and then proceeds to tie her hair into her typical pigtails, securing the loose blond strands with a bobby pin.

"Where are the rest of the girls?" Baekhyun questions, hearing his voice echo slightly throughout the locker room, currently occupied solely by himself and Luhanna.

Luhanna swings one leg over the bench to face Baekhyun and then sits down, planting her other foot up on the bench to start on her laces.

"Oh, about that," Lu chuckles.

Baekhyun freezes, his shin guards in the process of being strapped on. 

"Tryouts are today, right?" he asks slowly, trying to still the now very present butterflies in his stomach.

Luhanna opens to respond but Baekhyun cuts her off. 

"Have we MISSED TRYOUTS?!" he yelps, hands flying up to tug on his hair so he won't start strangling Luhanna instead.

Luhanna looks up at him and blinks once, as if she just heard his question.

"WE MISSED TRYOUTS?!" Baekhyun full-out yells, and Lu gives a start and then stands quickly.

"Woah there!" she says quickly, placing both hands on Baekhyun's shoulders. "Jesus, no, tryouts are still very much present in our near future, don't you worry".

She let's go of Baekhyun's shoulders to scrutinize her blue nails, one hand on her hip.

"I was going to say we're early," she says with a smirk, ceasing her nail inspection to place that hand on her hip as well.

Baekhyun wants to punch her kick a soccer ball.

Really hard.

"And why are we early?" he sighs as he finishes up with his soccer gear.

Lu claps excitedly.

"Because we're gonna warm up a bit before tryouts, that way we'll already be ahead of them during tryouts and that way we'll ace their asses and make first string," she says in one breath, kicking a nearby locker with her enthusiasm and then hopping around in pain afterwards, still smiling brightly.

"They are never going to see you coming, my friend," Baekhyun mumbles sarcastically over his shoes, wincing when he receives a following whack on the back.

As soon as he sits up, smiling at the comfortable feeling of his cleats snug on his feet, Luhanna's ushering him up and pushing him out of the locker room with a chant of repetitive 'let's go's.

"Do you actually need to practice or is this more of a nerves issue?" Baekhyun questions once they're out on the field, and he almost forgets his question once he takes in the area.

It's huge, a luscious green soccer field stretching out in front of them surrounded on two sides by silver bleachers that shine in the sunlight. A red and black track runs around the perimeter of the soccer field, and Baekhyun spots multiple athletes running on it as well as several people up in the bleachers.

He's snapped out of his awe induced observations by a hand slapped down hard on his shoulder.

"Look, Bae," Lu starts, and Baekhyun could of sworn she called him 'babe', not 'Bae', but he's thrown off by the slightly panicked expression on his friend's face. 

"You don't understand what Coach is like," she continues. "Being on the team before does nothing to help now, so I have to do everything I can to make first string," she finishes seriously.

And then she releases her hold on his shoulders to set off towards the soccer field, breaking into a brisk jog as she heads to the center of the field where the soccer balls are.

"Let's go Bae!" she calls over her shoulder with a grin, and Baekhyun huffs before walking after her.

She definitely said 'babe' that time.

"No 'babe', ok? I don't like 'babe'," Baekhyun grumbles as he watches his blonde friend grab a ball and dribble it around a bit.

"No problem," Lu shrugs back, dribbling towards Baekhyun with the ball.

"Babe," she whispers just as she passes by, screaming and then breaking out into a sprint with the soccer ball when Baekhyun growls and lunges for her.

**
 

It's only after around fifteen minutes of dribbling with Luhanna when it happens.

It seems like Baekhyun learns something new every day. 

Initially, when Baekhyun had first started running around the field with Lu, he had felt very secure with his upper level (if you know what he means), especially after having strapped his added appendages on tighter than usual for that day.

However, that secureness didn't last long.

"Pass! Pass the ball, Lu!" Baekhyun calls out, enjoying the burn in his legs from running and the coolness of the sweat on the back of his neck.

Playing with Luhanna was proving to be quite the workout, because she was just as fast as Baekhyun had thought she'd be, not to mention how Baekhyun occasionally feared for his safety when she came at him with her towering height and long limbs.

Lu glances up from dribbling, slightly open in concentration, and passes the ball.

Unfortunately, as Baekhyun watches the ball sail through the air towards him, he instinctively jumps to bump it out of the air.

With his chest.

And due to the slickness of his chest from sweating, when the ball collides with the side of one of his faux s, it sends both of them spinning to the side.

"What the-" Baekhyun starts, cut off as his foot then slips over the soccer ball in front of him.

His following cry is muffled into the grass below him, chest aching from the bite of the twisted hard plastic in between his body and the field.

"Ungh," Baekhyun groans into the ground, hearing cackles of laughter from Luhanna in the distance. But then he feels the thumps of his friend's steps coming closer, and before he knows it there are hands under his arms, firmly pulling him up.

"You ok?" Lu asks, at least trying to keep the grin off her face, but Baekhyun panics and instantly tries to twist away.

He's met with another face-full of grass.

Lu says something in surprise from behind Baekhyun, but he's already sputtering and stumbling to his feet.

'What do I do? Crap, what do I do?' Baekhyun panics as he stumbles away from the blonde girl, keeping his back to her.

He can't fix it right there, she'd definitely notice, but she'd also definitely notice if he continued playing with his new lopsidedness. Besides, they only had a little bit of time left before tryouts started, and then everyone would be there.

Well, .

"Bae?" Luhanna calls from behind him, and Baekhyun feels his heart thud loudly in his chest. 

There's only one solution Baekhyun can think of for this situation.

He's got to run for it.

And so, after firmly crossing his arms over his chest, Baekhyun starts sprinting back towards the locker room area.

Yes, he knows it's highly suspicious.

Yes, he knows Lu might follow him.

And yes, he knows that she's faster than him and will probably catch him quickly.

But he's sure as hell not about to let a soccer ball reveal his true gender.

"Bae!" he hears Luhanna call, and he glances over his shoulder to see the taller start running after him.

Internally screaming in terror, Baekhyun runs faster.

"I'll be right back! I've gotta change...something!" Baekhyun calls over his shoulder, shaking his head at himself afterwards.

But that should at least get Luhanna to stop chasing him.

"What?!" she shouts from behind him.

Never mind.

He dives past a group of students doing sprints on the track and then hears shouts and a "Sorry!" from Luhanna as she makes it past them not so gracefully.

Lovely, that means she's close.

Baekhyun's near the corridor that leads back into the locker rooms now, sprinting as hard as he can into the shade while his cleats clack loudly against the hard floor.

Rounding the corner and yanking hard on the malfunctioned plastic strapped to his chest, Baekhyun suddenly comes face to face with a young looking guy roughly his own size, topped with black hair swooping just above his eyebrows.

"Move!" Baekhyun shouts, dropping the girl tone he's been using and grabbing the guy’s shoulders to barrel past him.

He fails to see the bag of soccer balls slung over the guy's shoulders, too busy thinking of where to go to fix his problem to notice. 

He can hear Luhanna's cleats slapping against the hard floor behind them, but as he sprints down the corridor towards the locker rooms they suddenly stop.

'Finally, I lost her,' Baekhyun thinks in relief, but he keeps running, simultaneously tugging at his still lopsided faux-s as he goes.

Nearing the locker rooms, boys on one side and girls on the other, Baekhyun doesn't slow down too much as he bursts through one of the two.

And comes to a complete stop when he's met with a person only covered by a towel slung around their waist.

It's the thought that 'most girls wouldn't wander around completely topless' that snaps Baekhyun out of his confusion, and then he realizes; he chose the wrong locker room.

Well, the right locker room, technically, but the guys in this one wouldn't completely understand that.

Luckily, towel-guy's back is turned toward Baekhyun, so he quickly turns to head back out...only to see the door to the locker room opening again. 

Baekhyun gasps and spins to run further into the locker room, spotting the bathroom stalls and making a beeline for those with his heart pounding. He's sneaking past a row of lockers when he spots it on a bench, and after hesitating for a split-second, Baekhyun decides to 'borrow' the certain something.

And that is how, with his heart still beating nervously in his now fixed, and much more comfortable, chest, Baekhyun slips out of the bathroom stall a couple minutes later, checking all directions before sprinting back out of the boys locker room.

"Hey! Where'd my wrap go?" Baekhyun hears a familiar voice call out in the locker room behind him, but he continues through the door and into the girls locker room instead, his chest now wrapped securely with the gauzy material he'd found on the bench earlier. Baekhyun had found just enough of the wrap to circle his chest with a couple times, and as he slides past the mirrors in the girls locker room he nods appreciatively at the normal looking bump protruding from his chest due to his borrowed item.

He smirks as he slips the plastic s back into his locker, quickly shutting it closed after hiding them under some clothes.

He won't need them now anyways.

***

Suho is unhappy.

Not overly unhappy.

Just unhappy.

Or at least that's what he tells himself as he grumbles under his breath while stuffing his clothes back into his gym locker.

Minus his new athletic wrap.

Because, apparently, people can't just use their own stupid wraps, but instead feel the need to steal his.

Suho blows out a breath, slamming closing his locker and then turning to tie up his running shoes.

It really isn't that big of a deal, it's not like he actually needed the wrap for anything, it had just been something he'd received in the mail from his mom for whatever reasons she thought he'd need a bundle of stretchy athletic wrap for.

Oh, and it had also come with a brand new package of tighty whiteys, branded with a large smiley face in black sharpie on the front of the plastic.

Sometimes Suho worries about how much his mom worries about him.

But back to the main moral of This Day with Suho: do not leave unnecessary athletic wraps unattended inside locker rooms swarming with thievish college boys.

Because they will be stolen.

"Well, guess what, thief?" Suho mutters under his breath as he plugs his headphones into his phone. "I don't even need the wrap!" he continues with a smirk, earning a look from a guy near his locker, who he narrows his eyes at in suspicion.

But Suho redirects his thoughts back to that of a relaxing jog awaiting him instead of making a move for the nearby potential wrap-thief, shaking out his limbs and putting his earbuds in as he walks out of the locker room.

Too immersed in the upbeat notes of music now playing in his ears, Suho also fails to notice a figure stealthily following him out of the locker room.

But not before pausing to gently place his Polaroid inside his gym locker, closing the door quickly to resume his hunt.

***

Baekhyun jogs back onto the field, spotting a lot more girls mingling around and the familiar puff of honey blonde hair standing near the group with a soccer ball under her arm.

On the plus side, the wrap Baekhyun borrowed is much more comfortable than those terrible plastic things that so unfortunately nearly gave up his secret.

On the not so plus side, Luhanna's expression, as Baekhyun draws closer, indicates that she still hasn't forgotten the previous incidents.

"So that was a sudden escape from nothing, Bae," is the first thing Lu says to Baekhyun as he approaches, narrowing her eyes up at the sky as if noting the weather.
Baekhyun gulps.

"Um, yeah, I had some issues," Baekhyun mumbles, tugging a short lock of black hair and giving a small smile, to which Lu drops the soccer ball to cross her arms in front of her chest instead.

It's slightly intimidating.

Needless to say, Baekhyun's following chuckle is higher than normal.

Not that he would admit it

"Yeah," Baekhyun continues, eyeing the ball in front of Luhanna as she starts to toe it back and forth. 

Baekhyun had never thought someone could make playfully nudging a soccer ball back and forth look dangerous.

But then why does he feel the sudden urge to move his hands from where they hang at his sides to the center instead, while his mind screams out warnings for his lower regions.

Baekhyun clears his throat, looking back up at the blonde but still keeping tabs on the ball.

"Yeah, urgent issues," he finishes in what he hopes is a convincing manner, knowing that he's screwed if she asks what his "urgent issues" are but going with it all the same.

Luhanna stops toeing the ball.

Baekhyun gives an internal scream and lets his hands drop awkwardly casually in front of his crotch.

"Oh my gosh!" Lu whispers loudly in what seems like shock and concern, her already big eyes wide with...sympathy?

"What?!" Baekhyun whispers back in his slightly hunched over position, eyes equally as large in fear and confusion.

"Today of all days!" Lu continues, stepping closer to Baekhyun who almost steps back.

"You could of just told me, given me a hint or something, you know, like 'Hey Lu, I'm sporting the flag of Japan today'," she rambles in her half-whisper, not noticing the lost look on Baekhyun's face nor the small mumble of "But I'm Korean" from the shorter.

"And I could of hooked you up, I've got the goods." Luhanna finishes proudly.

Baekhyun looks scandalized.

"With what?" he squeaks, giving the other a wary once over.

"Whichever one you prefer, I've got both in my bag," she responds casually, placing a gentle hand on Baekhyun's shoulder.

Eyes as wide as saucers now, Baekhyun just shakes his head slowly.

Because he's not going to accidentally agree into something when he doesn't even know what that something is.

But he knows one thing.

It sounds sketchy.

"Ok! Oh right, you probably already fixed yourself up when you ran into the locker rooms," Lu says in understanding, dropping her hand, and Baekhyun just nods quickly in relief.

"Well, then, we're just waiting for the rest of the girls to show up and then tryouts are starting!" she says cheerfully, kicking the ball up to start bouncing it on her knees.

Baekhyun, still feeling completely slightly confused, sits down to start stretching, glancing over at the other mass of girls.

"Woah," Baekhyun says, pausing in his stretching when he notices something.

"Cramps?" Lu asks sympathetically, still bouncing the ball around.

"What?! No!" Baekhyun says loudly, confusion mounting.

"Ok, ok," Lu mumbles, holding her hands up. "No need to get grumpy, you have the whole week for that," she continues, but Baekhyun's too busy observing his 'something' to fully catch that.

Or should he say someone.

"Who's the guy over there with the girls?" he asks, watching the vaguely familiar guy with his arms crossed over his chest standing stoically near the rest of the soccer girls.

"What do you mean who's that?" Lu mutters, finally stopping in her bounces with the soccer ball. "That, my dear Bae, is our Coach.".

"What?" Baekhyun nearly laughs, looking at his completely serious friend in surprise. "That twiglet is our coach?".

Lu's nearly on top of him in a second, fiercely shushing him with a finger in front of and her other hand almost on his face as if to smother him.

"You can't say things like that!" Luhanna hisses, one hand clenched in his t-shirt.

"It's not like he heard me!" Baekhyun hisses back, but when he turns his head to look back over at the girls plus Twiglet, his stomach dips.

Because Twiglet is looking straight at him, eyes obscured by black sunglasses and his mouth set in a hard line. And despite the smaller stature of the guy, it's terrifying.

And that, apparently, is when Baekhyun's brain deems it ok to make the connection with Twiglet.

"Jesus take the wheel," Baekhyun mutters under his breath as his stomach dips further.

It's the guy he met in the locker room hallway.

And by met he means nearly bowled over in his mad dash for the locker rooms.

While tugging on his s.

That must have looked weird.

Noticing Baekhyun's current slack position underneath her, Lu tugs her friend's jersey quickly.

"What are you doing Bae? We need to at least look like we're practicing".

Baekhyun's snapped from his terrifying realizations as Twiglet turns his intimidating stare away from him, only to realize he's being shaken like a rag doll by the girl who is, mind you, still on top of him.

"Stop that!" Baekhyun says as he swats Lu's hands from his jersey. "And you have to get off me if we're going to head over there, I think most of the girls are here".

After shoving a very heavy, very uncooperative Luhanna off of himself, Baekhyun stands and offers a hand to his now-starting-to-panic-again friend and hauls her up, jumping slightly when she starts dusting grass off the both of them.

Baekhyun begins to head towards their coach when Lu grabs his shoulders and turns him toward her.

"Best of luck, my friend." she says solemnly as though they were heading into battle, and Baekhyun tries to ignore the pieces of grass sticking out of her blonde hair as he nods back.

Taking a deep breath, Baekhyun starts toward their coach, hearing Lu dribbling the soccer ball behind him softly.

He's a short distance from the other girls and his coach when said person turns abruptly to face him, eyes still obscured by black shades.

"Today is the girls’ soccer team tryouts, not the boys," he says smoothly.

Baekhyun freezes as his stomach dips further than should be possible.

He stares at Twiglet for a solid ten seconds, trying to see anything past those black shades, but the shorter male simply stares back, unmoving. Baekhyun's mouth opens and closes without sound as his brain tries to comprehend the circumstances, and it opens once more before he hears someone behind him.

"I'm not trying out, Coach D, just helping," comes a familiar, ever-so-slightly breathy voice from behind Baekhyun, and before he can turn, a taller figure walks past him, hands stuffed into black sweatpants.

Baekhyun quickly snaps his mouth closed as he watches this new black haired person walk closer towards the coach, and it's only when the slightly familiar guy stumbles and then gives a shaky laugh that he makes the connection.

It's one of the guys in his BioChem class, the one who seemed kind of flustered when he came in and tripped over a desk at the same time.

And if Baekhyun could remember his name that would be great, too.

But he brushes that aside because at the moment Baekhyun feels like he could kiss the kid for saving him from Twiglet's stare, even though it wasn't directed towards him originally.

Coach stares at the guy for a second before the unthinkable happens.

He smiles.

And then fist bumps their 'helper'.

"Good to have you back with the team, Sehun," their Coach says, and Baekhyun makes a mental note to remember the name before standing back at attention when the Coach drops the smile and turns his gaze back on the players.

"We're going to cut to the chase today, ladies," he starts, and Baekhyun could have sworn he heard Lu gulp behind him in the sudden silence on the field.

"For those of you who don't know me, I'm Coach Donghae," he introduces, turning around to view everyone. "Many of you know me from previous seasons," TwigletCoach Donghae continues, "many of you may get to know me, and many of you will never get the chance, according to how these tryouts go".

He removes his sunglasses after these sentences, and Baekhyun tries to cover his shock at how young the guy looks, just a little older than Suho appears.

But then Coach Donghae catches his gaze, and Baekhyun's suddenly made aware of how intimidating his stare is even without the shades before be quickly looks away.

But Baekhyun could have sworn he felt Coach Donghae's gaze linger on him for a second longer, and he prays the Coach won't remember him from before.

When he was sprinting towards the locker rooms.

And tugging on his plastic additions.

And pretty much bowling over his, hopefully, Coach to be.

Coach Donghae claps his hands together and gives the group an analytical once over.

"Well then, let's get started".

***

'In...

out...

now back in...

and out,'

It's the mantra that Suho's trying to concentrate on as he jogs around the track, in hopes that he won't focus on the negatives that are currently bugging him.

And he's not just talking about his stolen wrap.

Although that still irritates him slightly.

But that's ok.

Everything is ok.

But in answer to what is bothering Suho, well, there are multiple answers.

For one, the wrap.

Two, Suho had experienced a minor panic attack when his question about where his younger brother was going to college turned into a was his younger brother even going to college at all.

The little brat still hadn't responded to his calls or texts, so Suho had finally decided to call his parents, which hadn’t been too helpful either.

Well, they confirmed that Baekhyun was going to college after all, but as to where, they informed him that Baekhyun himself would let him know.

Which is a load of crap.

But anyways, onwards:

Three, Suho's roommate, D.O. freakin' Kyungsoo, was nowhere to be found the night before, so that brings the amount of interaction between the two of them to a grand total of zero.

And four.

Four, upon getting out on the track, Suho had been made very clearly aware of the fact that of all days, today had been the day that Principle Heechul decided he wanted to get some exercise.

Which wouldn't be a problem, except for their Principle's certain desire while running.

Aerodynamics. 

In other words, their dear Principle seems to believe that if he wears skin tight clothing while running, he'll be able to go that much faster.

Which should be pretty damn fast considering the tightness of those outfits.

Suho cringes as he hears Principle Heechul call out greetings to some of the track athletes practicing sprints, one poor guy (probably a freshman unaccustomed to their Principle's ways) promptly tripping over himself and crashing to the ground as the small red head power-walks past them.

'Just jog,' he instructs himself, upping the volume of his music before setting off around the track.

Unaware, once again, of the set of eyes following him as he goes.

***

Baekhyun is about to die.

'Already?' you ask.

Of mortification.

As if he could experience any more humiliation on this day of screwing up disguises and annihilating coaches.

But it seems like he can.

Currently staring at the ground and his Coach's shoes against the grass, Baekhyun wishes he could sink into the ground if that would take him away from the awful stare Coach Donghae's fixing him with at the moment.

5 minutes prior: 

"Go, go, go," Luhanna whispers as she pushes Baekhyun towards the forming lineup of girls. "We have to get a good spot!".

"What's a good spot?" Baekhyun whispers over his shoulder at the blonde, struggling to stay on his feet from her pushing and avoid knocking into the various girls in front of him at the same time.

Luhanna simply continues her incessant pushing until the two of them are squeezed into the line Baekhyun doesn't even know where, now positioned right next to another girl who is nearly as tall as Lu.

Come to think about it, a lot of the girls on the team are taller than him.

'Lovely,' Baekhyun sighs mentally.

At least he's still got Twiglet with him on the height scale.

Baekhyun pushes aside the thought that being with Twiglet on the height scale would also make him a twiglet as he straightens up and peers down the long line of soccer girls.

Spotting Coach D at the end of the line, progressing slowly by each girl after saying a word to them that Baekhyun can't hear, his brow furrows in confusion initially. 

Before raising in terror.

With one thought running through his mind.

'Shirts...

or skins.'

Coach Donghae is three girls away from Baekhyun at the moment, said person suddenly starting to panic upon his new train of thought.

Because if Coach D decides to make him a skin instead of a shirt, well, having realistic fake s will be the least of his worries.

"I stole someone's gauze for this!" Baekhyun wails mentally, now nearing full panic mode.

He's almost about to silently slip out of the line in favor of hiding behind Luhanna's taller frame when she catches his gaze and winks.

"We got this." she mouths at him silently, and something clicks inside Baekhyun.

They do got this.

He's just going to have to persuade Coach D into letting him be a shirt.

Damn straight he will.

And so, that is why, when Coach D reaches Baekhyun, gives him an assessing once-over that almost makes Baekhyun pause, and opens his mouth, he's suddenly cut off by Baekhyun's sharp outburst of "Shirt!".

Luhanna stiffens beside him, eyes widening slightly.

Sehun makes an odd choking noise from behind the Coach.

And Baekhyun just stares straight ahead with his heart pounding in his chest as Donghae's mouth stays open for a second too long before snapping shut.

"What?" he barks, turning to face this new outspoken player while slowly adjusting his sunglasses.

Baekhyun gulps and dares a glance over in the Coach's direction, instantly wishing he hadn't.

For one, he's met with the realization that Twiglet is not as much of a twiglet as he'd initially suspected, seeing that what fills his gaze first is the Coach's shirt clad chest.

Or more specifically, the Coach's shirt clad pecs, which seem to flex simultaneously as another resounding "What?" cuts through the silence.

Baekhyun has half a mind to just congratulate the guy on his defined pectorals and then sprint the hell out of there, but he forces himself to look up at the Coach's face.

Nope.

Looking forward is better.

"S-shirt," he stutters out, before clearing his throat and repeating it in a slightly stronger tone. "I have to be a shirt".

Coach Donghae, with an unreadable expression on his face, quickly straightens and pulls out his clipboard.

"May I ask why you so passionately want to be a shirt...Byun?" he questions after leafing through the papers on the clipboard.

Baekhyun blanks.

"The sun." he says solemnly, wincing as the words come out of his mouth, equally due to the stupidity of the excuse, Donghae's silence, and the murmurs from the other girls in line.

Not to mention the silent praying coming from Luhanna at his side as she shakes her head and crosses herself after the last comment.

"I'm allergic to the sun." Baekhyun continues, because Donghae's silence is slightly unnerving and if this is the excuse he's chosen, then dammit, he's going to stick with it.

"You're allergic to the sun," Coach Donghae repeats, enunciating each word slowly, and Baekhyun nods his head sadly.

"Very, very...deathly allergic, Sir," he finishes.

And waits.

Unfortunately, in Baekhyun's previous panic, he'd failed to notice that the words coming out of the Coach's mouth to the other girls had been one of one choice.

'Jersey'.

Otherwise, the Coach simply walked past.

Nor did he notice that the girls who'd already spoken to the Coach were all, in fact, wearing shirts, either their normal shirts or their normal shirts covered by a red jersey.

Or even the fact that in Sehun's arms was a large bundle of material.

Red jerseys.

Coach Donghae hums under his breath for a moment before straightening up once again to face Baekhyun.

"We like to accommodate here at Illyria," he starts, and Baekhyun nearly sighs in relief.

"So I'll follow you around with a parasol, does that sound alright?" he barks, and Baekhyun jumps slightly.

The Coach looks back down at the clipboard, turning to Sehun a second later to grab a red jersey.

"It is due to your...fatal condition...rather than the fact that I do not enforce the removal of shirts on my girls’ team, that I will grant your request." he finishes, and Baekhyun flinches with each enunciation.

Baekhyun pauses, slightly confused at the Coach's statement.

And then the thought 'You're a girl' floats through his mind, and Baekhyun is suddenly made very aware of his situation.

"I'm a girl," he mutters under his breath.

"What was that?" Coach Donghae's gaze snaps back to Baekhyun, who flushes and shakes his head in response.

"Good," the Coach says curtly, before tossing the jersey at Baekhyun, who flails as it smacks him in the face.

Donghae makes a mark on his clipboard, muttering something along the lines of "...would think I'd make girls go topless," in a scandalized voice before he moves on.

Which brings us back to Baekhyun wanting to die.

From humiliation.

He's staring at the red jersey in his hands mainly because he still feels like sinking into the ground when he hears someone clear their throat softly.

As he looks up sadly from the material, he's met with a particular Oh Sehun, sagging a little under the weight of the jerseys in his arms.

The taller sends him a timid smile, as if assuring him that he's not alone on this humiliation bus, and Baekhyun gives a small smile back.

He's starting to like this kid.

Upon smiling back, Sehun's smile seems to grow twice as large.

And then he takes a large, shaky inhale.

Baekhyun's kind of unsure on what to do.

But then Sehun's eyes widen slightly and a blank expression drops onto his face like a mask before he quickly moves on, muttering something under his breath.

Not entirely sure what that was, Baekhyun gives a small sigh before shrugging the thin jersey over his t-shirt. 

"Did your old coach make some of you play shirtless?" a voice whispers from beside Baekhyun, and he turns to see Luhanna looking back at him with an amused expression.

"As a matter of fact, yes he did" Baekhyun admits.

"I got nervous, ok?" Baekhyun whispers back quickly, shoving the blonde as she starts giggling quietly.

"Hey, at least we're on the same team for tryouts," Lu says as she waves her red jersey in Baekhyun's face.

And then he's fighting to keep his expression as neutral as possible when she promptly strips off her shirt, revealing a toned expanse of tan skin finally leading up to a hot pink sports bra.

Her own upper half is at least a cup size larger than Baekhyun's false packaging.

Not that that bothers him.

Not at all.

And it does not, in any way, relate to why Baekhyun then sends his chest a look and straightens slightly, puffing out a bit.

He honestly doesn't know what's gotten into him.

"Did yours?" he questions back sarcastically as Luhanna adjusts the meshy material of the jersey over her only-sports-bra clad torso.

She raises her eyebrows in response, resting her hands on her hips cockily. 

"I get hot quickly when I play, ok, and added in with my natural hotness-" she starts, leaning towards him with a grin, but Baekhyun gives an exaggerated gasp and shoves her away with a playful "Shut up".

A sharp whistle makes them both jump back into position, and Baekhyun cranes his neck out to see the girls at the end of the line starting to move.

"Let's go, ladies!" Coach Donghae orders, voice booming out like a drill sergeant as he walks down the lineup.

"We got this, Bae," Lu says again, looking like she needs the pep-talk more than her friend, but she shakes out her limbs quickly and slaps the shorter player's with a laugh before setting off on the field.

Baekhyun, once again regaining his old confidence, just grins and sprints after the blonde.

'It's tryouts for a girls’ team,' he reminds himself.

How hard could it be?

***

"How hard could it be?" Baekhyun whispers.

"How hard could it be?" he mutters slightly louder with a mirthless grin, and he feels laughter bubble up in his chest.

It could also be the urge to cry.

Or his breakfast.

He's not entirely sure.

But he is sure of one thing.

His current inability to move.

Which would explain why he's lying face down on the soccer field, unable to feel much besides his general wetness from sweating more than he thought was possible, the numbness in his limbs, and the pounding of his still-racing pulse.

He's not even sure where his blonde companion went.

To be honest, he's not sure about a lot of things.

Like how long they've been out there.

It feels like several hours to him.

It's only been an hour.

Along with if his gauze s still look realistic after being drenched in sweat.

Or if his gauze s are still there, because with everything he's been doing during tryouts he wouldn't be surprised if they'd fallen off.

Not to mention if tryouts are even still going on. 

They are.

Or if Coach Donghae's voice is actually in his head or if he's just hallucinating.

Almost as if on cue, the Coach's voice cuts through the sound of Baekhyun's heavy breathing, calmly stating "At ease, ladies".

"Oh god it's happening again," Baekhyun whispers against the cool grass, positive he's suffering from heat .

He feels like clutching his head because it's starting to hurt too, but his arms have decided to stop responding as they lay at his sides limply.

Someone shakes his shoulder gently, and Baekhyun rolls his head to the side with a small groan, expecting to see his long lost roommate.

Or maybe his mom, waking him up from a nightmare...

Ha.

That's wishful thinking.

The face that greets him turns out to be none of the above as the features of one of the upperclassman girls swims into view, smiling down gently at him.

"Come on, hon, tryouts are over," she holds out a hand, and Baekhyun accepts it gratefully so she can hoist him up.

His legs wobble slightly when she gives him a firm pat on the back and then jogs off towards one of her friends, seemingly unfazed by the torture activities they've been through.

As the team rises from the pushups they'd previously been doing, a lone figure remains on the ground across from where Baekhyun's standing.

Now he knows where Luhanna went.

She's lying on her back, eyes staring blankly at the sky when Baekhyun hobbles over.

"Do you think we made first string, Bae?" she asks, gaze still directed at the sky.

Baekhyun opens his mouth to respond when she suddenly holds up a hand, eyes closed.

"Never mind, don't say anything before we know for sure," she says quickly, and then holds up both hands for Baekhyun to help her up.

It nearly sends him back to the ground, but they manage to scramble to their feet, leaning against each other as they walk over to the circle of girls.

Coach Donghae stands in the center, hands clasped behind his back and his sunglasses finally off.

"I've seen a lot of energy and commitment out there today." he starts, circling to look each player in the eye. "And that makes a coach proud."

"Now, I want to split us up into first string and second string." he continues, and Luhanna stiffens beside Baekhyun.

"You second-stringers don't take it too hard, you're just as much a part of this team as the first-stringers."  Donghae states before pausing. "Apart from, of course, the playing the game part."

With the suspense among the circle of girls rising, the Coach takes out his clipboard once again, turning to beckon Sehun closer, now holding a new armful of second-string jerseys.

And then he starts calling names.

Baekhyun can't stop the feeling of dread and disappointment filling him up as the Coach tosses out the jerseys, almost positive that one of them is going to come flying at him at any moment.

What surprises him, however, is when a jersey goes sailing right next to his head, and Baekhyun looks up to see the Coach looking slightly past him.

"Lu," he calls out with an unreadable expression, and Baekhyun feels his stomach sink as he looks up and over at his blonde friend.

She's holding onto her jersey with a grim expression, but a slight smile makes its way onto her face when she meets his gaze.

"Like I said, being on the team before does nothing to help you now," she says in a small voice, but then she bounces back to her happy self with a nudge to Baekhyun's side.

"Good thing we still have you, Bae, we have a chance if you made first-string, which I'm sure you did!" she whispers with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

"Byun!"

Baekhyun turns just in time to see a jersey filling his vision, smacking him in the face once again before falling into his hands.

Luhanna gives a blank look at the two second-string jerseys held between them before shrugging.

"Alright, well that happened, but we still got this Bae!" she says quickly.

They look at each other for a second.

Baekhyun's the first one to crack, letting out a quiet snort that he hopes no one hears.

And then they're both giggling at this turn of events, leaning on each other once again as the coach wraps up whatever he was saying and the rest of the girls begin to head out.

"No, but really Bae," Lu starts again, holding her sides in pain from laughing. "We're gonna make first-string!" she says in an attempted-motivational tone.

Baekhyun tries to nod in agreement, but he's so tired he can't seem to stop laughing.

"Stop-laughing-" Lu says with mock-sternness in between deep breaths, directing a slap at Baekhyun's backside with her jersey.

Which sends her sprinting off towards the front of the pack of soccer girls when Baekhyun tries to swat back at her.

Baekhyun loses sight of his roommate as she darts into the front of the crowd of girls, so he walks along with the swarm of players towards the back of the group, too exhausted to run anymore.

That's when he spots him.

Heechul.

Ugh.

Baekhyun shudders as he flashes back to his first meeting with the Principal; the surprise, the panic, and the shock when he'd been told he was "figured out".

Thankfully, that discovery hadn't been concerning his disguise, in fact, it was something far from it, something Baekhyun hadn't truly understood and still doesn't until he'd asked Lu about it later that day.

Turns out, Principal Heechul enjoys meeting everyone; students, staff, athletes, in unique ways in order to truly 'understand' them when they're not expecting it.

Or something like that.

For example, Heechul had informed Baekhyun later on in their meeting that he was a 'feisty young lady, ready to take matters into her own hands in order to achieve her ends', which Baekhyun had initially thought was odd based off how he'd only just met the guy.

But considering how he'd acted upon first interacting with the Principal, well, that conclusion was understandable.

Overall, he'd left the Principal's office that day in shock, slight mortification, and utter confusion, which he only partially cleared up once he'd talked to Luhanna.

She hadn't been a ton of help either, only informing Baekhyun with a dismissive wave of her hand that their Principal had a "flamboyant flair", before proceeding to share a brief description of her own meeting.

Baekhyun only partially remembers what she said, but he knows it had something to do with "I left after waiting five minutes", "this red-head showed up at my dorm", and "I nearly stabbed him in the throat with my pencil like I was in freakin' Red Eye or something".

It's safe to say that Principal Heechul marked Luhanna as 'feistier' than Baekhyun.

But anyways, his experience with the Principle is not one Baekhyun would like to try again, which is why he hunkers down and slips deeper into the crowd of girls around him.

Besides, after looking closer and then looking far away, Baekhyun is given all the more reason to hide, because he would really prefer to avoid a close up of whatever it is the Principal has on today.

Yup.

The sight of certain parts of the 'flamboyant' red head practically saran-wrapped in skin tight spandex is not a good cool down for this intense day of tryouts.

Too caught up in avoiding the Principle, Baekhyun fails to notice where, exactly, the group of girls is headed, all he knows is that they're headed back towards the building with the locker rooms.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise when the girls on either side of him suddenly strip off their shirts, and he gets nudged from the back by another girl saying something like "shower time" in a relieved voice.

What.

Initially Baekhyun hopes that those girls are just eager to get back to their dorms to shower, but then he takes in his surroundings.

For one, he's in a different locker room from the one he and Luhanna were in earlier.

This one has a lot of red lockers and the Illyria mascot painted on the wall.

And showers.

Lots of showers.

Along with this new change of setting, as Baekhyun gets bumped further into the locker room he notices another 'surrounding'.

The soccer girls.

Girls chatting with friends as they undress.

Girls headed towards the showers with shampoo bottles and soap.

Even girls coming back out with a single towel wrapped around them.

And then there's Baekhyun, standing in the middle of the locker room with two hands clutching his jersey over his chest as his wide eyes dart around in confusion and terror.

The situation should be clear to him by now.

It's shower time.

And Baekhyun can't escape.

'What do I do, what do I do-' he thinks frantically as someone shoves a towel in his arms, and then he's internally screaming when a nearby girl drops her towel to get dressed.

"Oh god, I can't, I can't, I'm not ready-" Baekhyun mutters to himself semi-hysterically as he covers his face with the towel, turning to walk blindly away from the terrors in front of his eyes.

Suddenly someone grabs him around the waist, and Baekhyun actually screams this time, only to have the sound be muffled as his captor presses the towel against his face.

Initially Baekhyun thinks it's just Lu, just playing around with him like she usually does.

That is, until another pair of hands joins the first to grab his legs.

Baekhyun tries to kick out, now slightly scared because who would be grabbing him in a locker room full of changing soccer girls?

'Unless if I'm being forced to shower like some sort freshman initiation ceremony,' Baekhyun's mind supplies helpfully.

Which only makes him kick out harder, but his captors make no sound of struggle, probably because his kicks are so weak after going through tryouts.

They waited until he was weak.

And now everyone's going to know his secret.

Wonderful.

But he has no energy left, so Baekhyun allows himself to go limp, still able to breathe kind of despite the towel pressed over his face but blind to the world.

*****
 

A/N:
Hello again everyone!!! Here's the chapter I promised (late, I know, I'm sorry) I hope everyone enjoyed it! 
Hehehe I love cliffhangers btw, in case you didn't notice, but don't worry, we'll figure out who kidnapped Baek soon;)
*Quick info: I referenced the movie "Red Eye" in here (when Lu was explaining her experience with the Principal) and I just wanted to let anyone who hasn't seen it know that it is a thriller kind of movie and at one point someone gets stabbed in the throat with a pen. Just wanted to let everyone know in case that reference confused anyone, hope I didn't spoil anything;) 
Anyways, please comment about whatever because I LOVE talking to you guys, and late Happy New Year subbies!!:)
And as a little bonus for the New Year, I will be doing a double update:):) so LOOK OUT!
Byyye;)
~LateNightBubbleTea