Other than Mino, there were days when the other guys had stopped Roo in school and made her stay back with them to study. She was satisfied with how much effort they had put in to make her stay. As promised, everything went back to before. No one brought up that incident ever again, there wasn’t any awkwardness around them. Everything seems normal.

They were glad that the chapter ended on a good note.

It was finally their tests week. She was busy with her own tests as well as the boys. She stayed back to study in school with them until late night and helping them with their work. The tutors aren’t supposed to stay privately with them due to school policies since they were afraid the tutors might spill the test questions to them. Roo had assured them that she will coach them academically, and the boys were helping each other too.

“How was Maths paper this morning?” Roo questioned them. They were gathering in the basketball court during the break before the next paper starts.

“No comment” JongHyun answered, looking around.

Actually, they all had secretly planned not to tell Roo anything on how they did on the papers, they just wanted Roo to see the result. They all had worked hard and they were confident that they will be able to reach the goal that she had set for them.

“What about you Mino?” He shrugged. She turned to meet her eyes with Joohyuk and he avoided. “Why do I think that all of you are purposely ignoring my question? Fine. All the best for English paper this afternoon! Better do well!” She stood up to leave.

“Angry?”

“Nah, hungry” She replied.

“She’s really unpredictable” Minhyuk shook his head. “So how do you think you guys did?” he started the discussion.

Finally, it was D-DAY! Releasing of results slip. They had all agreed to talk to their homeroom teachers and requested to have all their results handed to Roo to release. She was unsure if she should do that but since it was what they all insist, she was more than happy to do that. She had a glimpse of her own results earlier that day and she was satisfied with her own results. Nothing new, top of her cohort.

They were all gathered at the basketball court. Though they had thought they would do well, they were still anxious to know their results, and it was the first time they ever felt like this. Normally, they wouldn’t even care to see. Roo had decided to tease them a little and purposely took her time to walk from her class to the basketball court. She had asked Bogum to be at the court first while she use the washroom, but in reality, she just wanted to tease them.

“Why isn’t she here yet! I am about to pee in my pants” ChanYeol complained.

“She said she was going to use the washroom, just wait abit more”

“She should’ve been here 10 minutes ago!” Sehun followed next.

“Seriously guys, why do you even requested to have it all passed to me if you all can’t wait to know your results” She strolled in.

“Just announce it already!” JongHyun spoke.

“I was looking through all your results slips while I was walking here-“

“Without us?! How could you! no wonder it took you so long just for you to get here!”

“shut up. You guys had worked hard for the past weeks. But your results….” She sighed, “there’s only one thing we can do about this”She took a look at all their faces, anticipating. She hasn’t even finish her sentence, yet they were all affected by it already. It was fun for her to see them like this. “Well”

“Just announce it already Roo.”

“That one thing is…. Let’s train hard for the league!! All of you have done better than what I expected!” She exclaimed, they were stunned for a minute before they could react. They jumped up from their seat and ran around the court out of happiness. ChanYeol ran up to Roo and hugged her. She was frozen from shock.

“Thank you Roo! I have never felt so happy for results before!!”

Sehun joined him in crashing Roo, and by the next minute, they were all having a group hug.

“Guys, I can’t breathe! Go away!” She struggled to remove herself from them. “Take back your results, and have a look at it yourself. good job to all of you” She smiled. “We will start training tomorrow, for now, go home and have a good rest.”

“NO! WE WILL START RIGHT NOW!” they shouted. Before Roo could even react, they had already taken the balls out from the storage room.

Vacation had started for all the high schoolers but not Team Sanspeur. They are working extra hard for the upcoming league. The school were still having a shock from the academic results that the 10 of them had produced that had pull up the school aggregate by quite abit. It was very surprising for them to get this results and they were even awarded with a $100 sports house voucher. Yeah you might say that it was too little for the 10 of them but that was what the school is willing to afford. Unsurprisingly, they used up the voucher to purchase their team’s necessities with that $100 voucher.

Roo just returned from the Basketball association after registering for the team, and had waited to get the school list they will be up against. She hadn’t opened the piece of paper yet, and she wanted to open it together with the team. They had all gathered, nervous about the schools they will be competing against.

“No matter what school appears on this paper, I want all of you to play like how you usually do, never get too afraid by stronger teams, and never get too complacent. Understand?”

“YES!”

Roo opening the paper slowly, “Richmond vs Yeongjin…. Hyangcho vs Richmond…”and the list goes on. Richmond had such badluck that 4 out of 5 schools that they wish they wouldn’t meet in the first qualifying round was on their list.

“Oh mannnnn, how are we going to even move up to second round like this, let alone top 10.” Sehun whined

“Have faith in the team!” Woobin bumped his first lightly on Sehun’s chest.

“He’s right. Have you all forgotten what you all have been training so hard for? All the hardwork is for this moment. It’s your time to shine! Don’t get disheartened before you even meet your opponent. They were very strong for you a few months back, but now, believe that your chances of winning them are high. Come on, let’s start training.” She stood up first then followed by her players.

“I want you all to play a game, with all the techniques that you’ve remember. I want to see how much all of you remembers.” She blew the whistle and the captain and vice-captain had automatically does their job of choosing their members.

10 minutes into the game and Roo hasn’t see any fights occurring between them which was a rare sight. She was feeling proud of them. She blew her whistle once again to signal them to stop for a rest. While she continues to talk. “Remember, when we step on the floor every second that clock is ticking, we are pedal to the metal, we run the ball, we pressure the ball, and most importantly, we control the tempo of the game. We make our opponent play Richmond Sanspeur ball. Understand?”

Time flew by, and it was the day that they have all been waiting and looking forward to. Their first match. They would have been ignorant and arrogant if it was last year, but thanks to Roo, they had all changed drastically this year. Academically as well as their character and attitudes. They are here to win, here to achieve the top 32 today and they trained too hard to lose. No one knew how much they had sacrificed and how much effort was put in other than the 10 of them.

“First opening match of the league, are you nervous Yoon SongJin-ssi?” Park Gyumin, the commentator for the season asked his partner.

“Honestly speaking, I thought this is going to be the most boring way to start the season don’t you think so?” He replied.

“Why would you say so?”

“Who doesn’t know how the worm team, Richmond will perform. They haven’t gotten any position since 10 years ago, and their results from last year was unbearable to announce.” He harshly commented.

“Well, there might be a twist this year!”

“That’s what you are hoping for”

“That’s not true, have you heard of their friendly against HyoNam, they actually trashed them! With the VIP of the Basketball world as their coach, they can’t be any worse.”

“That was because HyoNam subbed in their second team!”

“Rather than giving non-proven analysis, why not let the season begin. And we shall see if Richmond will be the old Richmond, or will they be the Fresh Wolves that they called themselves the Sanspeur!”

With that, they had announced the entrance of both teams and they began their warm up.

“How dare the Yoon SongJin look down on us! What does he know about us man!” Chanyeol complained. The team formed a small circle and did their warm ups as well as small prep talk.

“Shush, focus on your warm up. Are you all nervous for today’s match? Well I will be lying if I said I am not even though I am not even the one playing the game. I just want to let you all know that I have faith in all of you. Remember how much you guys have been through the past years. Now that you have gotten your jersey, your skills, your team name and the teamwork, I want you all to give it your all and show me that you deserve all these! I don’t care how you did the past years, I only care about what I going to happen from now on, from this match onwards. 5 games, you just have to go through 5 games, win 4 and we can move on to top 32. This journey is going to be a tough one, and every single one of you is a critical ingredient to this team. If you didn’t get the chance to play this time round, you will get your turn!”

“Roo, I have never been so nervous for a match before” JooHyuk confessed.

“You all will do well, no worries.” She patted him on his arm. Roo was nervous as hell that she thought she could Pee in her pants.

After all the warm ups and pre-match routine was done, they surrounded each other, with their hand placed in the middle, they were ever ready for the match.

“You’ve come thus far, show them what you’ve got! On three victory! 1, 2, 3!”

“VICTORY!” they chanted. The first 5 players moved on to the court. WooBin is the first up for jumpball.

“We’ve meet again Richmond, I think this will be the last time we meet though” YongJin tallest member, Zelo mocked Woobin as they came face to face for jumpball.

“Really? I think so too. Because this time round, you will be the one staying behind “ WooBin smirked. While YoungJin’s player were still in daze, the referee threw the ball upwards and WooBin was at an advantage. He hit the ball to Bogum and he had dribbled past his defender in time to give the ball back to their power forward, woobin, to shoot. He did a perfect dunk which left the commentator Yoon in awed.

“Well isn’t that a good start SongJin-ssi.”

“That was unexpected, but I am starting to look forward to the game” he replied.

“TAKE THAT YOU LITTLE !” Lee Jong Suk shouted from his seat with pride.

The game went on for the next 10 minutes and Richmond was leading by 5 points. They had around another minute and a half to go and they just had to pull the difference more. The big contrast on their performance compared to last year had caught YongJin off guard. 

“Song MinHo! Attack! What are you doing!” Roo shouted after she saw Mino kept defending his opponent.

Heeding her work, Mino ran out of his comfort zone and attacked. He successfully caught the ball that was pass from the opponent’s team and did a perfect 3 points shot. Team Sanspeur shot up of their seat and cheered. They didn’t have any supporters apparently because no one expected them to win anyway. As the referee blew the whistle which signals the times up of the first quarter, they all sat down.

“Goodjob” they all encouraged each other. They could clearly see the coach of the opposite team getting angry and panicky because they obviously thought this would be a simple match. This should teach them not to take any teams easily. Roo walked in front of the current players, while their other players were helping them with towels and water. “Goodjob to all of you. this is the way to play! Keep up the good work. But Mino, observe your techniques and surroundings more.”

“Yes Roo!”

“2^nd quarter, I want the rest to be up.” Without anymore explanation, Roo decided. To them, they were not surprised because in the team, everyone is the main player, there wasn’t really any bench players or main 5. But to the others, they didn’t think the same way. They had all playersin different team before and there were no problem with teamwork. Roo was very confident that if they were to switch any players now, there will never be a problem with communication. She is very sure that they all play differently when they were with different teammates, and that was their winning point. No one will be able to catch their techniques, and no teams will be able to get used to their techniques because it is always changing. And that’s the purpose that Roo wants to achieve because everyone is a critical ingredient to the team and mixing different ingredient to it, the outcome will always be different.

“Is their coach out of their mind? The main players were doing well, and she had changed all of them out?Wa~ this is the first time I am seeing this.” Yoon SongJincan’t put his words to it. He was just surprised.

“This makes me wonder about their techniques, how are they going to win against other schools” Park Gyumin commented.

At the start of the second quarter, Sehun, Jongsuk, Joohyuk, Yugyeom and Chanyeol was up. Once they stepped on the court, shock was evitable on the commentator’s face. He double took the files again before commenting.

“Oh..ohGyumin-ssi, did you see the list just yet? The second team consist of 2 11thgrade, 2 from 12^th grade and only one from the senior group. That’s very unexpected.” He continued to double check the players profile again.

“Oh that…wow. Let us just watch how this game goes.”

The whistle was blown for the start of the 2^nd quarter with Joohyuk up for jumpball. He caught the ball and threw it to Yugyeom, distancing the ball away from the opponent’s basket. As expected, Richmond scored the first ball of the quarter.

“Well, maybe they had it all planned.” Gyumin commented with a satisfied tone.

The first ball seemed like a warm up to Yongjin’s player, they didn’t slow down their pace for the next 10minutes and Richmond were only leading my 2 points right now.

“Remember last year when you had a broken nose?” Yongjin’s shooting guard having his back one Chanyeol’s chest, still dribbling the ball, purposely elbowing him with every dribble. Chanyeol who is usually hot-tempered had controlled himself pretty well. “want another broken nose?”

“You think you could get me another broken nose? Fat hopes” Chanyeol continue to defend against him, blocking him from passing the ball.

“Why? You think you have a new coach now you can act differently? Last will always be last. No matter how hard you try, you won’t win.” The shooting guard elbowed Chanyeol before he threw the ball to his teammate and pointed his finger at Chanyeol, “because you all are losers! You will only pull that Crippled girl down with all of you losers.”

“ it” Chanyeol huffed out before pouncing on to the shooting guard. “YOU CALL US THAT AGAIN! I DARE YOU! I DARE YOU TO USE THAT WORD ON HER AGAIN!” he grabbed on to his shirt before giving him a good punch.

Everyone on the bench ran over to pull them apart. Roo ran over too to get Chanyeol back to senses. The referee blew on to the whistle to stop the game, but no one gave a dam about him with the situation infront of them. Woobin and Jonghyun was trying to get Chanyeol off him but he wouldn’t bug. The opponent team came to rescue their teammate too.

“Watching this scene, reminds me of a year ago. I guess changing a name won’t change the attitude of the team.” Songjin Commented.

“Two teams coach, please watch your player. This is a basketball court, not a fighting Ring.” That was the only thing the referee said.

“PARK CHANGYEOL! Cut your crap and get back here!” Roo shouted at him, frowning. He reluctantly got pulled up by Woobin before he looked away in anger. “What did I say about fighting!” She grabbed on to his shirt when he was about to walk away from her.

“Park Chanyeol, foul ejection for fighting! Team Richmond, please find another player to sub.” They could all see the Yongjin’s shooting guard smirking.

“Disqualified? Did you see how that player did that illegal personal attack on him?” Sehun said to no one in particular.

“Bogum, takeover” They could see how stern Roo’s expression have become.

“So this is what they going to show with the new sub-ins huh, gyujin-ssi.” Songjin said sarcastically.