“She told us not to be late, but it’s already 3.15 and she’s still not here yet” Song MinHo whined. The 10 grown-up men were sitting on the audience seats waiting for the arrival of their coach but there were no signs of her. “Hey, should we make her do suicides, since she’s late” He joked.

“That’s not funny hyung. She had injured her leg, she’s probably rushing here now. Just give her a break” JooHyuk spoke up for her.

“Seriously joohyuk, are you in love with her or something. From the first day, you have been helping her. Give her a break? has she ever given us one” Chanyeol riled up at Joohyuk trying to speak up for Roo.

“I just thought that maybe, maybe our team has finally found someone that won’t give up on us. Giving her all for us. Someone that can finally save us from falling in the last place of the tournaments. I just thought she was worth it. I can see that even if it’s only the 2^nd week of her trainings, we are all improving, slowly but surely. You can’t deny that your stamina are getting better. We got along better. We all listens to her well even when we are complaining. Do you know what this means? It meant that in every one of us, there is a little part that held our respect for her, that we are trying to persuade ourselves that we’ve found someone we could trust, it’s just that we didn’t want to acknowledge that fact.” He was speaking from experience. Richmond was given up by many coach that thought they couldn’t teach a bunch of losers. They left within a month after they join. The school even thought of closing down the team if not for their rebellious acts that they had put up to stop them.

“You are too naïve joohyuk, who knows that she won’t dump us when she realise we are a bunch of losers? Look around you, where is she now? Who knows she might already be running away from us. Don’t be a fool”

“I promise I won’t just leave you guys. This is my promise to all 10 of you here” Roo walked in with her crutches, She had overheard what Chanyeol had said, even when she didn’t know what’s going on, she just replied. “you can trust me on that. I am betting the whole of my basketball passion this time round. I have faith in all of you”

“What are we going to trust you with?” Yugyeom asked.

“I might not be the best coach out here, but I will soon make you all realise that, you all can trust me on this” She said. “and I am sorry I was late. What do you guys want me to do? Since I’ve always punished you all, this is your chance” She said nonchalantly.

“Why are you late?” Kim Woo Bin questioned.

“Well, you don’t have to know. We don’t have much time, punishment?” She scanned her eyes through all the present players making sure that there’s full attendance.

“You were always reasonable, that’s the least we could do. We hear your reason before we decide whether to give you punishment”

“Alright? I had a medical appointment at 1.30pm, I was supposedly to be able to reach by 3pm but it got delayed.” They all perked up at the phrase, medical appointment. Was this what she wanted to tell me earlier? Bogum thought.

“Did your leg got worse?” JongHyun who had that game with her, sounded very concerned. Probably because he saw how much she had endured through the game.

“It was just to check if I had to undergo a second operation” She clarify. “It was no big deal, I assume you all doesn’t want to give me any punishment, then let’s start the training.

“Firstly, I have something to address before I forget, Remember the captain vote? Well, all of you agreed on him, so we will go with this. Well, congratulations, Kim WooBin” He’s head turned so fast from the surprise, “you will be the new captain for this season.” He smiled meekly. “ and I would like to have Hong Jong Hyun as the vice-captain.”

“Me?!” JongHyun was bewildered. Roo just nodded. “Well, alongside with Kim WooBin, I am sure you guys will achieve more.”

“Thank you? I guess” WooBin scratched his head out of embarrassment.

“Don’t thank them too early, you have a hell load of responsibility to carry on your shoulder,” Roo joked dryly. “Second thing, I did mention that we need to have a new team name. the prelims start in 3 months’ time and registration is next month. Any one has any suggestions?”

“10losers?” Minho was once again trying to be a .

“Don’t be lame Minho. Anyone else?”

“Wolves?” Kim Woo Bin suggested

“Wolves? Why?” Roo was amused.

“Wolves are the only animals that dares to stare directly into the eyes of their opponent. Even at disadvantage, they don’t back down until their last breath. And I hope that will be us from now on” Roo nodded.

“I have something in mind actually. SansPeur. Which means no fear. That was what I want you guys to be.”

“That’s a great name”

“I actually quite like that. It sounds cool” With several acknowledgements, they decided to go according to Roo’s decision.

“PAUSE WHEREVER YOU ARE STANDING!” Roo shouted, stopping the players from moving in their position. “What are you doing? Raising white flag?” She pulled Joohyuk’s hands down slightly, “Hands down, open wide, legs bend butts down! Right hand, block him from escaping, left hand, block his ball. Understand?”

“Yes!”

“CONTINUE!”

They were practicing their position and skills with Roo correcting them along the way.

“No no no Yugyeom, you are doing it wrong! WooBin is towering over you, so why fight his height! Go low, stay grounded! Block his path.”

She continued correcting them when she finally watched them play for 10minutes without any mistakes. She stopped the game. She gathered them around.

“Next, we are going through defense. Australian men’s coach brett brown won the FIBA with his superb defense training. His drills caught my eye, and it wasn’t a normal drill. He described the drill as an art in learning how to win. And this will be our defense strategy, we name it brown.”

“Kim Woo Bin, Hong Jong Hyun, Song Minho, Lee JongSuk, Park Bogum come forward” The rest of the five stood beside and watched.

“Kim Woo Bin, at the power forward, Minho center, JonHyun point guard, Lee Jong Suk Small forward, and Park Bogum, Shooting guard.” After receiving her instruction, they moved fast to their assigned position, waiting for her to continue. “The rest of you, we will switch over after one circuit”

She limped her way towards the group in the court. “There are 6 phases to that drill, the first one, is your normal drill, passing from position one to position 5.” They demonstrated as she spoke. “Yes good job”

“The 2^nd phase, I need the other group over here! Take your position! Alright, You will switch to the next position with your opponent,”

The drill goes on and on for the next hour after both groups completed their drill, they were entirely worned out.

“It was refreshing, isn’t it?” Roo commented

“It was something new for us,” said Minhyuk, “and I kind of like this, I think my understanding of defense increased.” Roo smiled, for the first time, satisfied, but it disappeared as soon as it appears. She doesn’t know if the rest feels this way, but even if only MinHyuk feels this way, it was enough.

They saw her smile, and weirdly, they felt good. They had never see her smile before.

“I am already looking forward to training. That defense that she came up with was dope. And team name” JooHyuk told BoGum the next day at their locker, he was so happy when he mentioned team name that he was smiling so dreamily.

“Honestly, I felt that way too.” Bogum admitted, in fact, most of them agreed. They were all glad that they were learning something, gaining something, and doing something different from the other previous trainings. They were having a proper training, someone to guide them. “She’s quite something huh”

“Yeah-“

“What are you talking about brother? There is no way I am going for a second operation!” Joohyuk was cut off by a familiar voice down the hallway. Both of them turned their heard to the voice to find Roo talking on the phone with so much frustration. “I said I don’t want it. You know what could happen”

“I will talk to you later after school Roo. I am coming.” JoongKi hung up the phone, not giving her a chance to reply.

“Seriously” She muttered under her breath.

“Hey, you alright?” She turned her body around to find JooHyuk standing behind her. She composed herself, and told him she’s alright before leaving back for class.

“What’s wrong with her?” Bogum came forward to Joohyuk, the latter shrugged in concern before leaving for his class too.

Bogum arrived the class to see Roo lying her head on her table. He quietly approaches his seat beside her, and stealing gaze at her. She did not move an inch, and continue staring in to space. Class started shortly and he could see that she wasn’t paying attention to class. She didn’t even care if he was listening or not.

“Roo, I have been noticing you being off today, can you do this question for us?” The teacher aimed at Roo but she was still staring in to space. “Karl Roo?”

Bogum nudged her, “Roo Ji Hyun” the teacher called again.

Bogum nudged her harder this time and she finally came back to her sense, “huh?”, but she was obviously not in the situation. “The question” He whispered to her. Roo was still looking for the answer.

“May I answer for her, sir?” The teacher was taken aback by Bogum’s sudden volunteer, he never does that.

“Sure, go ahead” After he was done, Roo thanked him shamefully and tried to pay attention. The conversation she had with her brother was stucked in her mind. Her report from yesterday’s check-up was out, and she has to undergo the second operation in order for her knee to recover due to that match she had insisted on playing. However, if she were to operate a second time, there would be a worst post-operation effect for her, and this time, it will be a confirmation of her not being able to play basketball anymore. She would have to go back to Seoul for her operation because it was a policy for the hospital to not operate on a patient that got operated by other doctors unless emergencies. Going back to Seoul means going back to her past. She surely doesn’t want that, not before she found something she thinks that she has the confidence to show others. She didn’t want her teammates to see her, away from basketball, being a coach instead.

At the end of class, Roo rubbed her eyes, exhausted. She was dreading to leave the school, dreading to see her brother, dreading for him to bring up that topic again.