Chapter 4

“There already somebody inside the gym in such early hour?!” In order to clear their doubts, they all entered the gym with the spirits of confidence. The scene of a group of guy played basketball reflected into their eyes.

“Is this basketball club practicing?” Kris’ deed and suppressed voice echoed loudly inside the gymnastic and caught all of the attentions. The audiences and the players all had their eyes on Kris confusingly.

A tall and fine muscular guy approached to Kris with the ball in his left elbow, and his playmates followed behind him. Standing in the front of the others, he had his eyes looking from the left to right and then he fixed his eyes on the position Kris standing.

“Who is the leader here?” Looking into the guy face to face, Kris threw out his question in a firm tone. The coldness Kris held attracting the audiences inside the gym especially the girl audiences as they praised the looks of everyone in Kris’ party in an audible voice.

“Sehun is the leader of our team, Oh SeHun.”  The player A talked and referred to the guy who stood in front of him. Along with that, Kris, SoEun and the other glued their eyes on the front guy named Oh Sehun. Unlike the other, SoEun seemed to react much more to the name Oh Sehun than Kris and his party.

So he was Oh Sehun, the son of the chairman of the Academic Affairs that group of boys and girls last night talked about at the welcome party. No less favorable than Kris and the other, he had quite good-looking appearance. SoEun looked up and made an eye contact with Oh Sehun unexpectedly. Things stopped for few seconds, the voice of Kris broke their gazes.

“I would like to challenge you, for the position of the leader of this basketball team.” All of sudden, Kris threw down a gauntlet to SeHun. The duel from Kris puzzled everyone in the gym.

“Wow! Are you guys the new transfer students? You guys truly get some nerves, aren’t it?” The player B was bearded with Kris’ challenge. Today was the first day transfer and all of them was looked down on us?

 “How was it? I dare you!” In line with his personality, Kris was not planning to hide his aggressiveness by saying so in a way of instigating.

“Challenge accepted!” Sehun was unable to ignore such provocations from Kris. He accepted the challenge without any expression on his face, but his eyes full of fighting spirit.

“Luhan, are you with me?” Sehun turned his head to his right and asked the guys stood next to him who also a very good looking young man.

“Why not? I would also think of show them that we are not someone that can be easily death with.” Luhan nodded his head to Sehun with agreement and glanced at Kris once. After then, Luhan shared a smile with Sehun for the silent convention between them.

“Class will start soon, come back here during lunch!” As the sentence ended, Luhan moved his eyes back to Sehun and communicated with him in order to tell me let get change and go to class. Sehun slightly nodded his head to show his understanding, and Sehun casted a sidelong glance at Kris as well as SoEun and the others before walking away.

Soon after, the school bell rang and students rushed to their home classrooms in a haste speed. Kris, SoEun and Chanyeol waved goodbye with Lay, Chen, and the others before they spilt up.

Kris, SoEun and Chanyeol waited outside the classroom for their homeroom teacher giving them permission to enter the class. Standing in front of all students, three of them introduced themselves individually in one sentence.

Being the first one walk into the classroom, Chanyeol learned that they are in the same class with Sehun and Luhan. Surprise distracted him a bit, but things turned back to normal hastily as he noticed that it doesn’t bother Kris from the start.

“Kim SoEun and Park Chanyeol take the seats at the back, and Kris, your desk is the one across the one of Kim SoEun and Park Chanyeol.” Kris’ desk was in front Luhan and Sehun. The seat arrangement from the homeroom teacher brought up a complaint from Kris. The desk next to me didn’t seem like occupy by anyone, shouldn’t Kim SoEun suppose to sit with me?

“If any of you was not satisfied with my arrangements, the only and one thing you can do is keep stay dissatisfied. My decision is a final decision.”  Before Kris speaking up for himself, he was forced to give up the idea under the dictatorship of their homeroom teacher. Thereupon, Kris had nothing to do but to obey.

SoEun’s POV

As I walked into the dome I could sense excitement that I did not expect to see such a large crowd already there when the warm-ups started. The fans were excited to see two good programs on the rise in school basketball.

Kris’ basketball skills were beyond doubt, and as a school team, they should be well matched. During the childhood time, I usually went to practice basketball with Kris, so I did have some knowledge about this sport.

Just then, I felt a set of long fingers grasp left hand as I looked around the gym. That was Kris who grabbing my wrist and dragging me to the center of the basketball court.

“She will be the referee for this match!” Before I know, I was already standing in middle of the two teams, and surrounding around by ten boys.

“Impossible! She’s one of you guys, how do I know will she being biased or not? Plus, she’s a girl, she did not qualify as a referee.” That guy named Luhan immediately lodged a protest over Kris’s suggestion. More than that, I had a feeling that he is prepossessing with a queer idea toward female.

“SoEun usually accompanied Kris to basketball practice, she is eminently qualified.” That was the voice from Lay to make a suitably retort and Baekhyun went after him, but his word mixed with some offense.

“Or maybe you guys afraid of being defeated? What? Having no faith on your skills?” Baekhyun si, you are gone too far. This match was nothing, but healthy competition. Some words should be avoided.

“Guys, let quit the argument!” I stepped between them and tried to stop their quarrel. Then I turned myself facing with Kris and told him that I’m not suitable for this position. But when I decided to open my mouth to talk, Oh Sehun spoke up after being silent for a long time.

“Let her do it!” Even though there were only four words coming out from Oh Sehun’s mouth, but it was enough to startle everyone out of their wits, especially Luhan. I tried to take a peek at Luhan just to see his reaction.

He was in shock to hear about it from Oh Sehun, but he didn’t seems to make any refute. As I see, two of them must be good friend just like Chanyeol si and Kris. One moment later, Oh Sehun reached out his hand to my direction with a whistle inside his palm.

Oh yeah, a whistle was required for a referee. I brought up my arm and attempted to take the whistle from him. Before that, Kris’s hand was more faster than me, which he passed my hand and snapped the whistle away from Oh Sehun.

He then helped me to put on the whistle around my neck. Soon after, the match for the leadership of the school basketball team now got started. Yet, Kris suddenly required picking the court. At first, the other teams went against this suggestion, but as Kris strived for it, the decision depended on the toss of a coin as the final result. The God of Luck seemed to favor Kris; he won and picked the frontcourt.

Therefore, the school team had to give up the frontcourt, which that seemingly was their usual venue. When the whistle blew, the game began.

The performance by all of players was very good. I could tell that they all work very hard in practicing for these events. Since they only need five players in one team, so Chen si was selected as a backup. Therefore, two of us were standing next to each other side by side to watch the game.

Whenever one-team scored points by getting the ball through the hoop, applause was the one sound could be heard inside the gymnastic. The game started out very one-sided with Kris putting on a full court press and stealing the ball often while holding school team to only 19 points in the first half.

I think it was obvious that the school team came out with more fire and was just out hustling Kris’s team. The Kris that I know was not a sitting duck that will waits unsuspectingly for doom. Then he changed his strategy and became more aggressive than before as he took the lead in just one minutes by two points.

In view of this, as a forward of the team, Luhan aimed for opportunity to score and he hit shots near the basket as soon as he stole the ball from Lay who are the shooting guard of Kris’s team. Although the forward should be the second tallest player from the team, but Luhan’s skill was comparable to be a center. The two sides were evenly matched that caught my attention easily. Oh Sehun and Luhan equalized the scores before the break started.

Then, I got my eyes following with Oh Sehun, who attempted to do the bread and butter shooting. That was a nice shot. However, did my eyes deceive me? I felt like the backboard of the frontcourt swaying every time the bread-and-butter performed.

In case any accident happened, I tried my best to keep my eyes on the two backboards as I turned my head side by side constantly until that time.

Once again, the point guard from the school team passed the ball to Luhan. He held the ball with both of his hands. Then, he contested shot in a quick pace with a small jump. At the time Luhan got his feet back to the floor, dangerous things happened without notice. The backboard on top of Luhan’s head loosened and started to fall down to the ground.

“Be careful!” I screamed from the top of lung as I ran to Luhan’s direction in full speed before the backboard getting him in the head. When it about to hit him, I reached to his side and threw both of us to the ground and the backboard missed us by two inches.

Due to this, two of us hugged together on the floor and I was on the top of Luhan. But before I knew it, he pushed me away from his arms harshly and my bit the woody ground heavily. Just then, I felt some pain down on my right ankle, I must be twisted it when I fell with Luhan.

-----------------------------------------------End of SoEun’s POV-----------------------------------------------

“Kim SoEun!” “SoEun ah!” Kris, Chanyeol, Lay and the others all rushed to SoEun as the scene of the backboard fell off from the basketball bracket came into views. On the other hand, Oh Sehun and his fellow teammates also ran to the same direction as Kris.

Furthermore, this scene undoubtedly panicked all the spectators inside the gym. The noise of chatting was everywhere that exceptionally loud in the stadium.

When they getting closer to both SoEun and Luhan, SoEun got pushed away from Luhan and banged to the floor. Kris was the first one to pick up SoEun from the falling and Chen and the others walked right by him with concerns.

“Kim SoEun, are you okay?” Nervous and worry filled up Kris’ mind. Meanwhile, he lifted up SoEun and she now floated in the air.

“We will go to the nurse office!” Holding SoEun in his arms, Kris made a dash for it to the nurse room as Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and the other all rushed after Kris.

Leaving behind, Sehun gazed at the gym entrance at the time Kris and SoEun vanished in front of his eyes. Then he bent down and helped Luhan to get up. In the meanwhile, the fans of Luhan all rushed to his side and circled him; yet, their solicitude got no respond as Luhan heartlessly turned them down. Luhan looked at Sehun with anxious.

“Luhan si, ar-are you alright?” The other players of their team asked Luhan for his condition. Their voices were shaking as if they were on tenterhooks about the incident just had happened in front of their eyes. Luhan shook his head slightly to show he was fine.

“Then we-we go to clean the place, now.” Still, their voice was filled with fear. The three of them turned their back on Sehun and Luhan in a fluster.

“Sehun ah, what do you think we should do about it?” Luhan’s voice knocked Sehun, who has been deep in thought for a while, back to the reality. Sehun faced Luhan and he looked straight into his eyes; yet, before Sehun bringing up himself, somebody spoke up first as Sehun did.

“I think this was just an accident. The basketball bracket might be old enough.” This voice belonged to one of the players who was busying himself clean up the mess from the incident.

“You guys think so?” Sehun questioned the guys as his eyes narrowed on them. Thoughts started to fill up his mind. The three guys rolled their eyes side to side and then nodded their heads as hard as possible.

“Alright, then let it be since no one getting hurt. You guys finish up the cleaning, and then go back to class. Training will be suspended until we get the new backboard.” Sehun left his team members all behind and exited the gym with Luhan.

“Are those the words from your heart?” Being friends with Sehun for a long time, Luhan realized that Sehun was posturing minutes ago.

“Truth won’t reveal without looking into it.” Both Sehun and Luhan cried out the same statement in one voice. Shortly, they both were into smile and left the place with thoughts on their mind. 

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Hey guys? How was you guys doing currently? I'm hope you guys all doing good and still being anticipated to my story. I know that it always takes me so long to update one chapter, especailly for those that I laid aside for a while since I was planning to just focus on one story and complete it. I've never have one complete fanfic story and keep on publish new story which it's increasingly difficult to balance all the stories. But I will try hard to work on the story and update it. Hope you guys don't mind for the wait and enjoy the reading. Thank you