“All of you are getting along huh? All warmed up?” Seeing a few nods here and there, she continued, “Then up for some game?” They all perked up, looking as bright and excited as ever.

“Seriously? You approve for a game with Whimoon?” Joohyuk questioned excitedly, pumped up. Roo nodded and rolled her eyes.

“Since you’ve already kinda got to know them, then choose your first 5 to play with them. Just a heads up, HanBin is definitely playing in the game, so get ready for your asses to be kicked.”

“Wow, so much confidence” ChanYeol snorted sarcastically.

Whimoon laughed. They had never seen Roo joke around before unless it was with ChanWoo, and she had never joked with them before. It was kind of new and fresh to them.

“Quit staring Jinhwan hyung” ChanWoo whispered in Jinhwan’s ears, and almost instantly, his ears gone warm red.

2^nd quarters, 54-23, Whimoon obviously leading, but both teams still going strong, with WooBin, JongHyun, ChanYeol, Mino and JongSuk playing on the court and the other cheering on them. The 2 bench members of Whimoon surprisingly did not cheer for their own team but was guiding Richmond throughout the game, and it was none other than the two maknaes, DongHyuk and ChanWoo. They were in their first year, but they played far better than the year3s of Richmond.

Roo could see how Richmond’s player had let down their ego and listen to what they are saying and learn from them. Roo was grateful to Whimoon for being a great opponent for them, for giving their all in the game but at the same time, not being competitive but also coaching Richmond. Not everyone is willing to do that, especially someone who is at the top.

“If you block me from here, I will cut in from here.” JinHwan told JongHyun before proceeding to what he had said, he cut through JongHyun and got his ball in.

WooBin and HanBin got head to head next, the ball was in WooBin’s hand but HanBin was not going to let him shoot. He had been dribbling the ball for a good minute now, he was blocked by HanBin, he couldn’t pass the ball to another player neither was he able to shoot in this situation. “You could dribble for another 10 minutes, and you will still be here, find a way out. You are being cornered, not cuffed.”

He tried to knock pass HanBin but to no avail.

“Kim WooBin! When side is blocked, go under!” Roo shouted from outside.

WooBin got what she meant and bounced the ball right passed the gap of HanBin’s leg, distracting him and he used that chance to ran pass him for the ball which he successfully passed it to JongSuk to score.

“Hey man, good job”

“Thank you, you too”

Time was up for the 2^nd quarter and the players headed to the bench to rest. Richmond was sweating profusely and panting, while on the other hand, Whimoon was still as fresh as ever. Richmond was going to put the other 5 into the court for the 2^nd half of the game.

“They are too good” Sehun who has been watching from the sideline, awed.

“Opportunity doesn’t come easily, grab this chance and learn a lot from them, else, you would have to climb to the very top to meet them again.” Richmond nodded to Roo’s words.

At the 3^rd quarter, donghyuk and Chanwoo was up and JinHwan and YunHyung was swapped. As for Richmond, the other 5 members were subbed in as well.

“How’s things going, Roo?” JinHwan made conversation with Roo. Their relationship was also all about friendly games and that’s all, other than that, they were schoolmates. There wasn’t much they could really talk about nor relate to each other, it was rather awkward for JinHwan.

“All cool”

“They have great potential huh, is that why you chose here? Out of all the schools?”

“That, and it was nearer to my house” This made JinHwan laughed.

“They do have a lot of potential though. Especially Kim WooBin, he’s like an all-rounder, he might be a second Kim HanBin in a few years’ time, if carefully trained.” JinHwan acknowledge, recalling the exchanging of skills with Kim WooBin in the previous game.

“He’s the captain. He’s playing style is more of in between HanBin and Bobby, but speed wise, he’s still lacking in it.”

“They all seemed cold and arrogant, but they are all very willing to learn, I see why you are still here” He gave her a polite smile, she shrugged, “well, they weren’t as bad as what people said”

“You can’t judge a book by its cover. At first, I had almost given up the thought of coaching them but now, I think I have the responsibility to bring them to the top since they are already halfway there.” Roo said smugly, purposely irritating JinHwan.

“So, you are leaving Whimoon for good?”

“You might transfer here if I tell you how good it is” She joked.

“I might transfer here because of you” JinHwan wiggled his eyebrows, his comeback did catch Roo off guard. It wasn’t expected but coming from JinHwan, it wasn’t as surprising.

“Are you getting all flirty with OUR coach?” JongSuk came over, hanging his arms loosely around Roo’s shoulder, purposely emphasizing on ‘our’. Roo stared at him, signalling him to remove his arm away, but he just stared back. Roo looked away first, it was awkward for her, she cleared and stepped away, further away from them, keeping her gaze back at the game.

“She’ve changed. 2 months ago, she might actually kill you with a basketball” JinHwan chuckled.

“Were you guys very close?” JongSuk was curious, after looking at their interactions before.

“Not exactly. Roo…She was distant. The only things we’ve said to each other was ‘goodjob’, ‘goodgame’, ‘Nice pass’, ‘Nice shoot’ and that’s about all. We would have 2 games after school together with the rest, and she would leave immediately. Only ChanWoo would dare to glue himself to her” He cracked up, “she has soft spots for him.  And Chanwoo is too attached to her”

“when she first came here, I thought she was rude. And she’s like a psycho when training us” Jongsuk made a face, recalling Roo’s first training.

“You guys improved a lot isn’t it?” Jongsuk nodded, agreeing with what JinHwan said. “She is really talented. She has her own way of pushing herself and trust me, she’s the coach that all of you need. It’s only been 2 months since she came, but all of you showed rapid signs of improvement in that short amount of time. It takes two hands to clap, I don’t deny that you guys actually have a lot of potential.”

“you are not bad yourself”

“Up for some dinner? Anyone?” Mino asked.

“Me! Me! Me!” Sehun excitedly exclaimed, “Join us too Whimoon!” Roo was too busy tidying her things to listen to the boys’ conversation. They were all gathered up after throwing all their belongings in to their bags.

“Why not? I am up” Bobby was the first one out of the 7 of them to agree. “You guys?” He questioned his teammates.

“I’m alright, I will go back first” HanBin rejected. He wasn’t exactly a social butterfly.

“Why~” Sehun whined, he really liked HanBin, he’s disappointed when he said he’s not going. “Let’s eat together huh? Just once.”

“Yeah let’s just go together hyung” ChanWoo persuaded his captain. HanBin considered, “you don’t have to think and just join us! It’s not every day that we get to come here. I want to spend more time with Noona too!”

“You guys can go ahead without me”

“You know we aren’t going without our captain. Are you really going to let the maknae sulk whole day?” Junhoe came over, sneakily giving the maknae a high-five. Having no comeback, Hanbin was forced to silently agree to their plan. They all knew how disastrous it would be if the maknae were to be in his bad mood all day.

“Roo, what do you want to eat?” ChanWoo ran over to her and asked her.

“Huh?” She was clueless from their talks, “are we eating together?”

“Yeah, the guys are eating together”

“oh? You guys go ahead, I should go off first.” Roo lightly hugged ChanWoo, “See you again soon ChanWoo-ah, takecare while you’re in Seoul” She speed walked to the exit leaving ChanWoo stoning there.

She has no idea how she ended up eating Chinese food together with 17 basketballers at the Chinese restaurant nearby Richmond. ChanWoo on her left and JongHyun on her right.

“Eat more” ChanWoo had his mouth filled with Jajamyeon, with his right hand holding onto a mandoo and right hand picking up sweet and sour pork to put on Roo’s plate. He was eating like a child, sehun was definitely a doppelganger of him.

“Yah! There is more than enough food, eat slowly” Roo scolded ChanWoo like a mom would do. As if planned, ChanWoo choked on his food and started coughing, Roo patted his back. “I told you so” When ChanWoo calmed down, she continues to munch on her food quietly.

“Why is she only nice to Whimoon people” Mino complained and snorted. Unfortunately, caught by YunHyeong.

“She’s only nice to ChanWoo, believe it or not, I haven’t even sit down and eat with her once” He explained.

“What’s their relationship?” MinHyuk who was sitting beside Mino, overheard their conversation and decided to clear his curiosity.

“Mom and son” YunHyeong joked, making Mino and Minhyuk laugh, gaining attention from the rest.

“Seriously? Roo will be the meanest mom on earth, she probably wouldn’t even talk to her son” Mino commented.

“I think she will be a great mom though, look at how she treats our maknae” YunHyeong said, as they observed Roo and Chanwoo across the table.

Roo felt eyes on her and she looked up to find the 3 guys looking right back at her. She mouthed “what” at them before they shook their head and return to eating their food.

“Roo” she turned to her right and a hand reached out with a serviette and wiped the corner of her lips for her. She was taken aback and stared right in to Jong Hyun’s eyes. “Taking care of ChanWoo but eating like a kid yourself” JongHyun held her chin with one hand and using the other hand to wipe her lips.

“Now they look like a family” Yunhyung laughed.

“Oh my gosh I am giddy” Diva Mino on the loose. “Our narcissistic of a vice captain is helping the Rude junior coach to wipe ?!”

Mino had voiced out his thoughts a little bit too loudly, causing the two mentioned person to react fast, and the others to snicker. Not forgetting him getting glares from the said people for his description of their character.

“You have death wish, don’t you Song Min Ho?” JongHyun glowered.

“Does JongHyun hyung likes noona?” ChanWoo asked curiously.

“ChanWoo shut up” Roo mumbled, cheeks flushed red.

While Hanbin who sat beside WooBin joked, “Isn’t she your girlfriend?” referring to the conversation they had at Cofioca causing the latter to choke on his food.