The week had ended and a new one had started.

Basketball tryouts were officially over and so was the anticipation that was eating everyone alive.

“Come on, they just posted the results!” a girl from the classroom next door grabbed her friend’s arm and the two of them rushed to the school’s main bulletin board.

I was walking with halls with Mark and Chan, drinking my chocolate milk, and making small talk with the two. It was our usual routine to spend time with each other before the first class period started.

At the news of the basketball tryout results being released, Chan and Mark looked at each other and in unison, “Last one there buys snacks for a whole week!” they shouted before taking off in a sprint.

“No running in the hallways!” A teacher yelled at them.

Quickly I followed, trying my best to not spill my chocolate milk. Upon reaching the bulletin board, I didn’t see either Mark or Chan, but a huge crowd of both boys and girls chatting about the results.

“Heejin,” a hand grabbed my arm. I turned and Karry stood there smiling at me, “Congrats.”

“Huh?” I asked.

“Making the team,” he pointed to the bulletin board.

My eyes widened and I began pushing past people to get to the front, “Excuse me,” I would say here and there. Finally I was able to reach the front of the crowd and scanned the bulletin board for the results, at number 5, there was my name, Gyo Heejin, I smiled to myself. 

“Congrats,” Karry said to me again as he put his hand on my back to pat me. 

“Thanks,” I let out a breath of relief I didn’t realise I was holding, “Did you make it?” I asked.

“Yea,” Mark and Chan answered in unison. The two of them were also in front of the bulletin board, standing on our left, glaring in our direction.

“Congrats,” I smiled at the both of them even though it was obvious that the two of them would make it on the team.

“We should get to class,” Mark pushed off Karry’s hand that was still on my back and pulled me towards him before turning the both of us around leaving Karry there.

During lunch Chan, Mark and I sat on the steps overlooking the soccer field.

“You know, we’ll have less time to spend together now that all of us are on the team,” I brought up as I began taking the crust off my sandwich.

“No, you’ll come over for sleepovers still,” Mark grinned as he popped a cherry tomato into his mouth. 

I elbowed him, “Yah, I only go when I need to get away from my mom.” I looked down at his lunch to see that all he packed were cherry tomatoes and steamed broccoli, “Do you want half my sandwich?” I offered him the other half of my sandwich I hadn’t touched yet.

He shook his head, “They put me on a new diet to lose a few more pounds.”

I sighed, both Mark and Chan went on extensive diets year round to meet the requirements of the agency and every time they ate something that wasn’t on the diet plan they would exercise even more to burn the calories. 

Chan took a sip of his water before saying, “You’ll still stay back for our games right?” 

I grinned and nodded, “Only if the both of you come to mine.”

“Deal,” the both of them said. It was our usual thing, the boys would go to my basketball games to cheer me on and I would stay back to see them play since both of our games were usually hosted at the same place.

“By the way what number are you picking this year?” Chan asked.

I pondered for a bit, “I don’t know actually, I haven’t thought about it.” Every year the coaches would let us pick out our jersey numbers starting with the older grade levels. Last year I planned on getting number 15 but that was taken by an older girl so I ended up with number 22.

“Let’s get matching number this year,” Chan grinned, “It can be our good luck.”

Mark scoffed, “You’re anything but luck on the court.”

“No, I set up your layouts half the time.”

“Please.”

“Pick number 21 this year,” Mark elbowed me. I rolled my eyes at him, 21 has been his jersey number since we all started playing basketball together.

“What number are you picking Chan?” I asked.

“Whatever number you’re picking,” he grinned.

“How long do you two have to pick your number?” I asked.

“I think Coach Ahn said next week?” Chan questioned himself.

I nodded as I continued to watch the other students playing soccer on the field as I ate my sandwich.

That weekend I stayed at home studying. It was saturday night and I was sitting at my desk staring at the writing problems I had just finished solving. 

Now for my break. What number should I choose for my jersey number? Mark is going to pick 21 and Chan said he would choose whatever number I picked. But Chan could also pick the same number he had last year that was 18. 

“Heejin,” my mother cooed from the hallway, “Heejin, my darling Heejin.” I could hear her stumbling with her steps. Every once and awhile her and that man go out to have drinks together and she comes home drunk. “Oh Heejin,” she burst through the door, “There’s my loving daughter,” she cooed.

“Ahyoung,” the man grabbed onto my mother keeping her from falling down as she continued to stumble with her steps.

“Oh darling, that’s my daughter Heejin,” my mother giggled as she pointed at me. I merely glared at the man that I was supposed to consider as a father now.

“Yes, we’ve met before. Now let’s put you into your room so that she can study,” he gave me a slight head nod.

“But why?” my mother complained, “I wanted to go get ice cream with Heejin,” she pouted.

Disgusted I turned away.

“Yes and I’m sure she would like to go with you too if you weren’t drunk,” he nodded his head.

“Then let’s go get some ice cream,” she turned to me, “Heejin?”

“I’m not hungry,” I coldly replied to her.

“See what you did?” my mother complained, “Heejin always wants ice cream,” my mother stomped her foot on the ground like a kid.

The man sighed before pulling out his wallet and held out his card, “Take this and go buy yourself some ice cream.”

I looked over at my mother before taking the card.

“See she’s going to get ice cream,” he held onto my mother tighter. Turning to me he mumbled, “Feel free to use it to your expense and stay out tonight.” Putting one of my mother’s arms around his neck he began to shuffle her out of my room.

“Will you be okay?” the question came out of my mouth before I could stop it.

“Yes, thank you,” and like that he led my mother down to her room.

Taking my backpack out I packed a spare change of clothes and my workbook before changing into a hoodie and putting on my black Converse.

Going to the nearest convenience store I bought a chocolate Papico and started making my way down the usual path I took on nights like these.

Pulling out my phone I dialed the number that I knew I could rely on for nights like these, “Hello?” the voice heaved through the phone.

“Mark?” I asked.

“Yea, what’s up?” he asked sounding out of breath.

“Can I come over later?”

He chuckled through the phone, “Of course, but I’m at practice right now so you can just come to the practice room.”

“Thanks, I’ll see you,” I hung up.

I was walking past the basketball court and eating my Papico when a ball hit me in the back of the head making me drop my Papico on the ground.

“Watch out!” a voice yelled out but it was already too late.

My Papico went to waste.

I stood there staring at my Papico that was becoming surrounded by ants when a tap came at my shoulder.

“Hey I’m sorry, my ball hit the backboard and rebounded off the wrong way. I can buy you a new one,” a soft spoken baby faced boy with angelic features rubbed the back of his neck with his hand as the other held onto his basketball.

I sighed, “It’s fine,” I was about to turn to go when he grabbed me by the wrist, his touch was firm yet light.

“I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to hit you really. I just, I was trying to practice to get better and I didn’t mean to hit you,” he began to ramble. “Please if there’s anything I can do to make it up to you I’ll do it. See I’m new to the area and I don’t want to cause any trouble.”

Inspecting him closer he seemed average, about 5’7”. His red hoodie, black basketball shorts and matching red and black Jordans didn’t make him stand out. His black hair was matted to his forehead with sweat and he was still out of breath.

I quickly looked at the time, 10:08. “Alright, play me then,” I nodded my head over to the basketball court.

“What?” he blinked a few times.

“Basketball,” I pointed to the ball in his hand, “You’re not going to get better playing by yourself,” I opened the short gate to the court and he followed behind me smiling. Putting my stuff down on a bench I stood in the middle of the court, getting down into position.

He stood in front of me, “What are the rules?”

I smirked, “Same universal rules of basketball of course, but let’s say first to get to 30 to win? And loser buys the other one ice cream”

He nodded, “Sounds fair.” 

He pulled his basketball short up before getting into position again and throwing the ball into the air. The both of us lept into the air for the ball.

An hour later the both of us were panting, we had finished a game with me being the victor but he insisted that we played another but double the score. Currently the score was 55-59.

Approaching the hoop with him right behind me I jumped into the air and let go of the ball, his hand brushed against mine as he tried to swat the ball out of my hand but it was too late the ball had already gone into the hoop. The both of us landed back on the ground.

“Yes!” I cheered, “That’s game.”

He panted, “Again,” his hands were on his knees and he was knelt over.

“What time is it?” I asked him.

He pulled up his sleeve to reveal his yellow watch, “11:15.”

“We can play another time. How about you buy me that ice cream?”

“Only if you promise,” he held out his pinky.

I interlocked my pinky with his, “Promise.”

He went to grab the basketball as I grabbed my backpack.

The both of us walked down the street together towards the nearest convenience store.

“So what’s your name?” I asked. We had played basketball together for over an hour and neither of us knew each other’s names.

“Wang Yaun, but call me Roy instead,” he smiled.

“Gyo Heejin,” I stuck out my hand for him to shake.

“Interesting name you have,” I tried to start a conversation.

He nodded, “I just moved here from China. It’s supposed to be temporary but I’m not sure how long I’m staying.”

“Why here? Of all places in the world why South Korea? I mean you could’ve chosen the United States or even France.”

“My friends and I wanted to get training in Korea, we sing and dance. Our agency thought that it would be a good experience for us to get training where we would get a lot of help.”

“Two of my friends are in the same position,” I thought about Chan and Mark, “They’re both signed to different companies as trainees and stay up late to practice.”

“That’s great for them, I’m sure they’ll have a successful debut.”

I smiled at him “Yea, except I feel like they can’t do as much as they want to. They’re always busy with practice, I barely see them outside of school.”

He placed his hand on top of my head and ruffled my hair, “Sometimes we have to sacrifice our youth for what we want, but it’s all worth it in the end. I’m sure with you around though they don’t feel as though they’re sacrificing their youth. You make things fun.” He took his hand off my head and pointed towards the 7-Eleven in front of us, “Come on.”

A/N: Hello! I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this but i'm back after a many years hiatus! I got so busy with trying to get my life together, however I am back now and with better time management so I do plan to continue this fanfic along with a few of my others. The years have gone by and what started out at sr15b has debuted as NCT, but for the sake of this fanfic they will still be referred to as sr15b and smrookies. As of now, I plan to regularly update Friends Forever Right?, Pawns, and my newest fanfic for NCT, To All The Dreams I've Loved, and possibly working on a completely new au fanfic. Yes I know it's quite a bit to take on, but after years of hiatus I had the sudden urge to write again and I have so many ideas, some that don't even go together, but still I want to at least write it out and see where it takes me. So, if you're still reading this, thank you for waiting and welcome new readers!