“When are you guys going back to Seoul?” Roo was left with Whimoon as the rest went back home to rest.

“Tomorrow morning”

“What time is your bus?”

“8.15 am”

“Have a good rest then, becareful on your way back home. I am going by this way, so I will say my goodbye here. Till then” She nodded her head at them.

“It’s only 7pm, can you hang out with us longer? Since you’re not going back with us, and we don’t know when we will meet you again.” ChanWoo pleaded her to stay.

Roo took a look at her watch before agreeing.

They went to a nearby basketball court, not surprised, but this time, just chilling at the audience seat.

“Back at Whimoon, we don’t even sit and chill like now” DongHyuk voiced. “We were too busy with school and we see basketball as something we have to do. I finally understand why I enjoyed playing basketball so much previously. I got back those feelings while playing with Richmond.”

“Yeah, I agree with Hyukkie, it’s actually the first time we hang out with someone other than the 7 of us after basketball. We don’t even do that with other players of Whimoon.”

Everything they said felt like long lost memories of Roo. It was true though, her teammates certainly don’t do that, and with Whimoon boys team, they were nothing more than just basketball mates. Being here in Richmond, she felt the warmth. It has been long since she felt those distant treatments. They always say your teammates are like your family, she understood that in Richmond. She tugged her legs in and hugged while listening to their conversation.

“Was it hard for you?”

“What was?” She questioned JinHwan back

“Being here. Being a coach. Being a transfer student. Everything.”

She took a good minute before she could answer, “it was better than I thought it would be.” She paused, waiting for them to talk, but no one spoke up, as if waiting for her to continue. “Rather than being in a skilled team, it was less scary here. It was… more comfortable.” She took a deep breath. “There wasn’t much to think about.”

“I didn’t realise that Whimoon is so suffocating for you. you didn’t mention anything to me neither. And I kept on bothering you with my troubles.” Chanwoo said guiltily with his head hung low.

Roo reached out to caressed his head, “It’s not your fault ChanWoo, it’s okay to share stuff with me. It’s not a bother”

Everyone could see how caring Roo is, towards Chanwoo. She is just someone that needed a lot of time to get comfortable with. She isn’t as bad as what people perceived her to be. She just had a tough exterior, everyone forgot the fact that she’s just a high schooler, teenager that needed friends, and caring people in her life. After their interactions today, the remaining 6 then realised that, she was actually a little girl in the heart.

“I am sorry, noona”

“Silly, why are you sorry!”

“No wonder our Maknae likes you so much. You need to stop being a Part time nanny, Roo. It doesn’t suit your image.” YunHyeong laughed.

“Why do I keep thinking that you have something against me?”

Bobby grabbed on to YunHyeong’s collar and JunHoe laced his arms around YunHyeong’s neck. “Leave it to us, Roo. We will get rid of him for you” YunHyeong managed to break off from the two and ran away. They were playing their chasing game while the 5 of them just watched at the side-line.

“How’s ChanWoo doing right now?” The question was directed to the captain, of course.

ChanWoo immediately shifted his gaze to meet Hanbin’s. pleading him to say that he’s doing well. “ I am sorry Maknae, but I can’t lie” He grinned slyly at ChanWoo. “He is being distracted too much lately because of your absence. He missed quite a number of trainings too. Coach is considering to kick him out of the team.”

Roo had her eyes wide open. She was genuinely surprised to hear that. “Are you being serious right now?!”

“You know me, I don’t joke around” HanBin faked a stoic expression

“Jung Chan Woo” Roo is serious right now, if looks could kill, ChanWoo had already died a few times now.

“Yah! Hyung! You have to take responsible for the words you said!” ChanWoo was backing away while the rest of his friends just laughed at his misfortune caused by their captain. They didn’t know they captain can joke. “Noona! That’s not true! Hyung is lying!”

“Why would he lie! You come over here!” ChanWoo is now away from his seat, standing up preparing to run. Roo stood up, in position to chase him but was held on by a smiling Kim HanBin.

“I am kidding Roo, you can’t do much destroy to this kid yet” Roo raised her eyebrows, unimpressed.

“Excuse you Kim HanBin, am I seeing things right now? Did the cool captain just joked with me?” Roo removed herself from his grip and sat back down.

“ChanWoo is an ambitious kid, you don’t have to worry man. The fact that you are not around anymore, drives him to achieve more. Seriously, I think that kid live to impress you.”

“Anyway, how’s your leg, Roo?” That clueless JinHwan spoke up, received a nudge from DongHyuk. Roo heard DongHuk mouthing something along the line *told you not to bring that up!*

She didn’t want to make the atmosphere awkward, she cleared . Bringing up that past that was forgotten for a moment, “it’s healing well” she lied. DongHyuk was relieved when the awkward air he had expected, did not happen.

“So does that mean we will see you on court soon, legend?” DongHyuk got excited.

“probably?”

HanBin and Chanwoo who had just come back watched Roo’s movement, as well as her knee. They could sense something was wrong but did not mention anything.

“Hyung, I think noona is hiding something” Chanwoo and HanBin was walking behind the group as they others were too far to listen to their conversation.

“I think so too”

“I am worried about her… what if…” All sorts of negative thoughts were running wild in ChanWoo’s mind.

From: Karls Roo

To: Team Sanspeur

Library, immediately after school ends

------

Roo had gotten their progress report that morning after much hassle, from the office. They had been delaying the report because they claimed that they had many processes to go through before they can pass a progress report to a student.

That matter itself already had eaten up Roo’s patience. The fact that she had saw the nightmare numbers and grades in the report made Roo a bear with sore head.

She had ended class early that day and had headed towards the office to collect the progress report alone and went to the library to go through the report. Thus, she decided to meet them at the library.

“You could’ve told me to meet here before school ends. What’s with the sudden meeting?” Bogum strolled in first. Roo ignored him and continue to go through the reports lying on the table. He got curious and peeked at what she’s doing.

“What’s with that?”

“Where’s the rest? School ended 10 minutes ago”

“Well, they had to walk to the library. It ONLY ended 10 minutes ago, Roo. What’s wrong with you?”

She wasn’t in a good mood to talk to him. She wanted them to be in the library ASAP. The school isn’t that big. Because she was angsty, every little detail just made her mad. She took in a deep breath to calm herself down. Talking now would only make her mood worse.

Bogum was feeling ridiculous, he pulled out a chair and sat at the table beside Roo’s. He glanced at her.

A few minutes later, they rest rushed in.

“What’s up Roo” ChanYeol the clueless goat was about to tap Roo but was stopped by Bogum. He signalled him that ‘she’s not in a good mood, don’t disturb her’

“What’s the reason you gathered all of us here?” Kim WooBin politely asked and sat down in front of her. They all glanced at her curiously.

“Well, take a look at all your grades” Roo handed out their report to each of them. “Only 3 out of 10 are scoring the ideal grades that were stated on the contract,” she pulled out the contract, “that you guys had agreed and sign on before the start of the training.”

“So you called us here just for that?” JongHyun asked sharply.

“Just for that? That was our agreement before I started taking over the basketball team.” She speaks directly looking in to his eyes, disbelieved, “before I agreed to let you all stay in the team” She closed and open her eyes slowly, folding her arms. She was upset, disappointed. That was not what they promised. Well, they could probably just be brushing her off, signing half-heartedly just to stay in the team. Since they didn’t like her before anyway. “JooHyuk, Bogum and JongHyun are doing fine. Kim Woo Bin and Lee JongSuk, just a little bit more. The rest, I don’t see your effort at all. Those in the last year, are you going to continue staying here until you pass? And then what? You won’t be able to find a job because you are being judged for staying back in high school. Is that what you all want?”

“We will be the one getting judged. We will be the one not having a job and suffer the rest of our lives, not you, Roo. We just want to play basketball, what’s so hard? Why do you even care? You just have to do your job well, coach us well and bring us to the top.” Mino was enraged.

“My job here, is to train you as a basketballer. You are not a basketballer and will not be one, just because you play basketball. That will only make you someone who plays ball. A basketballer has respect for basketball and themselves.  If you can’t even show that bit of respect for yourself, then why be a basketballer. Basketball will never be your lifelong career. I am helping you to find a path here!”

“We don’t need your help Roo, I think we are doing just fine. Just for goodness sake, stop caring about other things, focus on your job here and we are good.” Minhyuk backed Mino up.

“Whatever you guys say, I am still going to keep you guys on the right track because that is our agreement from the start. You guys are on a lock out, no basketball until you reach a GPA of minimum 3.0. It’s the least you need to do to get a decent job, to graduate. Trust me, it’s not that difficult as long as you put in more effort.”

“It’s easy for you to say. Of course it’s not difficult for a freak like you” ChanYeol defended. “LOCK OUT?! Hell no”

Why is everyone against her so suddenly. Just because she cares? A freak? She got offended.

“You do know that the national competition is happening in 3 months’ time, with our standard now, you think it’s appropriate for this now? A promise to keep us on track, did you forget about the promise to bring us to the top 10?” Captain spoke up.

“I think it is necessary. National competition is coming up in 3 months’ time, your graduation is coming up in 6 months’ time. You can miss the national competition because you can always try the next year. Graduation? You can’t do that” She missed out the fact that she had an agreement with Mr Park. If she’s unable to bring them up to top 10, she will quit the school, however, that wasn’t important to her now. She could quit school, she could lose this opportunity but she couldn’t see them entering the wrong path when she had promised to help them. “Lockout and that’s final. Meanwhile, all of you will report here every single day after school and revise your work!”

They were in the secluded area of the library, and usually, there aren’t many students after school hours. So no matter how loud they were, no one really cares.