Chapter 3

It was 3:50 PM in the afternoon. 10 minutes before the basketball team finished their weekly practice and the badminton team took over the court.

Hyosang was quietly minding his own business, setting up the equipment outside the court for the first years when he heard his name being yelled from the other side of the court. He turned around only to find a very angry looking Jenissi marching up to him in a threatening manner before garbing his collar and loudly proclaiming in his face "He is not on the team!"

"I know" Hyosang replied calmly.

"But he's really good!"

"I know"

"Why is he not on the team?! Hyosang what is the point of you being our team member recruiter if you're just going to let talent like that walk away?"

"I've offered, several times in fact, but he politely declined by laughing in my face then proceeding to walk away."

"Well do something about it! We could go to Nationals with this kid on our team."

"I can't very well force him!"

"Try persuading him!"

"I've tried! I tried everything. I tried talking to him, bribing him, I even tried bullying him into joining but he won't budge." Hyosang shook Jenissi's shoulders attempting to make him understand. "Why don't you try asking him. He seems to have taken a liking to you."

"What?"

"Yeah I asked him about the tournament this morning and he said it was fun." Hyosang recalled the conversation he had with Jiho. “He said you're funny when you're stressed out. If anyone's got a chance at persuading him to join it's you.”

Jenissi frowned as Hyosang went back to setting up the equipment.

---

Jenissi made sure to arrive early the next morning outside Jiho's classroom, well before the start of first period, leaving him enough time to talk to Jiho. Now this wouldn't have been an issue if Jiho was a good little punctual student who came in on time, but he wasn't. He was usually found running into class seconds before the bell rang and today was no exception.

Jiho rushed up the stairs and sprinted down the corridors only to come to a halt right outside his class when he saw a familiar hooded figure crouched down in the corner besides the door, who appeared to be dozing off?

The morning bell rung, signalling the start of the school day and waking up Jenissi from the short nap he was unaware he was having ...on the school floor? Confused he looked up to find Jiho crouched down directly in front of him with a stupid grin plastered onto his face.

“Jiho..” Jenissi blurted out still dazed.

“Hello” Jiho continued grinning, amused by lost look on Jenissi's face.

“I...”

“Ummm... what is happening?” Jennisi was cut off by Mr. Park their English teacher and also coincidentally Jiho's homeroom teacher, who was just arriving to his class with his morning coffee and was also confused as to why the two boys were sat on the corridor floor.

“It appears I have a stalker.” Jiho proudly proclaimed.

“What? No! I was just... I just needed to talk to Jiho but umm nevermind... I'll uhh do it later.” Jenissi babbled as he stood up.

“...Okay...? Well Mr. Shin, if you get into class right now I'll pretend I didn't see you coming in after the bell.” And Jiho bolted into the classroom at the speed of light. One more late slip and he'd have to sit through yet another Saturday detention. “Now Mr. Kim, I'm afraid I'm not able to show you the same courtesy so you'll just have to apologise to your homeroom teacher for showing up late.” Mr. Park paused. “But if they do give you any trouble, just tell them you were discussing an English assignment with me.”

That was oddly nice of him Jenissi thought. He bowed and replied with a quick 'Thank you' and was about to retreat when Jiho popped his head out of the door frame and called out “Meet me behind the cafeteria at lunch.” and disappeared as quick as he came.

---

Jenissi made his way out of their school building with his lunch, a BLT sandwich and two small cans of soda he got from the vending machine in the dinner hall. He arrived behind the cafeteria where Jiho had instructed to meet him and there he found Jiho with two of his friends sitting with their lunch on the broken brick wall of what used to be their school garden shed but was demolished last summer after another much larger shed was built on the other side of the field.

Jenissi cleared his throat as he approached them since Jiho was sitting with his back facing him causing his friends to elbow him in the ribs and nudge their heads in Jenissi's direction.

“Hey! You made it.” Jiho hopped of the wall when he saw Jenissi, his face instantly lighting up as he walked up to Jenissi. “This is Hansol and Byungjoo.” Jiho introduced him to his friends and they nodded their heads in greeting.

“Congrats on winning the tournament.” Hansol smiled.

“Yeah the whole school's been buzzing all morning about how our teams destroyed Bucheon Academy!” Byungjoo chimed in overly excited as always.

“Thanks guys.” Jenissi replied. “Jiho, that's actually what I'd wanted to speak to you about.”

Jenissi handed Jiho one of the cans of soda as they walked around the edge of the field. "Okay, so here's the thing." He began. "We at the Badminton club have a deal of the century for you." Jenissi attempted to play it out as if he had the upper hand in this proposition.

"Is that so?" Jiho played along, seeing though the other's facade.

"Yes and we don't make these kind of offers to just anyone you know." Jenissi held his ground.

"Oh really."

"We'd like you to join the team." Jenissi said the sentence he'd been rehearsing in his head all day, boldly in one go. "And not just as a first year trainee but as one of the members."

Jiho pretended to make an over exaggerated surprised face at which point Jenissi realised he wasn't fooling anyone.

"It would look great on a college application and the school handles the team's food, transport and accommodation expenses so it's totally worth it." Jenissi resorted to listing the benefits of joining the team.

"Well that's a really tempting offer but I couldn't even if I wanted to." Jiho flung an arm around Jenissi with fake disappointment on his face.

"What? Why?"

"I need a C average to partake in extracurricular activities."

"Jiho you don't have a C average??" Jenissi asked in a borderline judgemental tone.

"Hey! Calculus is hard!"

"You're struggling with Calc?" Jenissi's expression suddenly softened.

"Failing would be a more appropriate term."

"Calc isn't so hard. I could tutor you." Jiho's eyes immediately lit up. "I- I mean if you wanted. I got a B+ which I was pretty satisfied with." Jenissi offered.

"You'd really do that?" Jiho cocked an eyebrow.

Jenissi thought about it for a second before nodding 'yes'.

"Okay, well if you can get me up to atleast a C, I'll join your team." Jiho offered his hand for Jenissi to shake which he eagerly took in agreement.

"Deal! I'll bring in my Calc notes from last year, tomorrow."

"Also English please."

"Shin Jiho!"

"It's not my fault! Shakespeare hates me!"

---

Jenissi hit the back of Hyosang's head as he took a seat across him at the lunch table.

"You couldn't do something this easy?"

"Whaaat?" Hyosang whined half confused at what Jenissi was talking about and half pissed off at getting hit for no apparent reason.

"I convinced Shin Jiho to join the team."

"What?! No way! How?!" Hyosang stood up in shock.

"He just needed help with Calc."

"That's weird."

"Hyosang, if I remember correctly, you barely just scraped a C- in Calculus."

"No, I mean I tried everything to get him to join the team. I mean I even offered to get him cheat sheets-"

"Hyosang!"

"I didn't get them, obviously! But he still wouldn't budge. And you just stroll in there offering to tutor him with your inadequate calculus skills and he instantly agrees just like that?"

"Hey! I got a B+ which I was very proud of! Maybe it's because I'm a much better negotiator than you."

"Or..."

"Or what?"

"He has a thing for you."