“I told you not to call me Karls” He took her backpack from her shoulder and carried for her.

“That’s a beautiful name mum gave you, ungrateful child” She ignore him.

He opened the door to the passenger seat for her before throwing her bag in the back car seat.

“Why are you here at this time?”

“It’s my lunch time, what do you want for lunch?”

“I want to go home”

“Hey don’t be an , accompany me for lunch” he nudged her.

“Fine. Just choose anything and get there really quick” She demanded.

They arrived at this café near their house, since joongki knew his sister wants to get home fast.

“How was school so far?”

“If you haven’t realised, it was only the 3^rd day.”

“You can tell me what happened in these 3 days.” he said with his mouth full.

“Nothing much.” She continues slurping on her food.

He stopped eating and look at his sister, giving her a face. He was just trying to start a conversation with his sister, and giving her the care he couldn’t the past years. Why was she so cold? Sensing his look, Roo stopped eating and shifted her gaze to her brother.

“Why?”

“Nothing, continue eating” he shook his head and his thought away. “How’s your leg?”

“It’s healing”

“You want to come over on the weekend? I can give you a thorough check up, I am worried you know”

“What is there to be worried about. I am doing fine, brother.”

“You are doing things that worries us. Roo,” securing her attention, he continues, “I don’t know what happened to you in Whimoon that makes you come back, but like I said, no matter what happens, you will always have mum and a big bro with you. Don’t be disheartened”

“Why do I feel like you knew something even when you say you don’t?”

“I may or may not have googled your name” He admitted, embarrassed.

“Wow, big bro, did I hear right” Roo lightly laughed. “Seriously?”

“You can’t blame me when you don’t want to tell us anything. When you are someone who won’t say a thing even when you’re hurting!”

“Enough of this, it’s always about me. What about you? what happened to you all these years? Other than your boring life of being a doctor.”

“That boring job of mine got me a love interest” Roo paused, did she hear it right? Her brother just admitted that he had a love interest. Ever since young, all he cared about was studies, when he grew older, all he talked to her about, was his job. Now he finally had something different. She put down her utensils, giving her brother all her attention. Signalling him to continue.

“Well, I met her during one of my shift, she was quite a charmer. I thought she would be a sweet lady but i found out she was quite a determined girl. She focuses on her work more than anything else.”

“Does she feel the same way as you do?”

“I have no idea”

“Didn’t you ask her?” She was in disbelieved that her daring brother was doubting himself.

“Not really?”

“seriously brother? This is the first time I’m seeing you like this.”

“hey, everyone is different when it comes to love okay.” Did he just say that he loves her out loud? “I didn’t have the courage to do so. She just seemed so distant and way off my league. There are so many people going for her, she won’t notice my feelings for her”

“You are not touching the ball if your speed doesn’t improve!” She was making the team do suicides and she was expecting them to complete the same number of repeats in a shorter timing. She restricted them from handling ball with their current speed. “you think I make you run all day was useless? Think about your game! Why can’t your shooting guard intercept the ball, why can’t your center gain that one point that was supposedly Richmond’s? Speed is key.”

“Lee Jong Suk! Touch the line. Don’t make me commit homicides, I ASK FOR SUICIDES! Kim Yugyeom, you are dragging everyone down with your speed. Faster faster! Oh Sehun, I said hands to the line!”

“Would you shut your crap! We are trying hard like you want!” Park Chan Yeol stopped running and came up to her with sweat dripping off. Other players were just watching while running. Without fear, she met his burning eyes.

“What do you want Park Chan Yeol, get back and run! May I remind you that five hundred push ups are added in to your list right now.” His height towered over her, giving her a displeased look. “Didn’t you hear me? Or are you waiting for more push ups”

“You are just a normal transferee from Whimoon, what make you think you can talk to us this way?” He grabbed on to her collar, not giving any care about her injured leg, he pulled her towards him. 

“Let go of me right now. I am your coach during training. I don’t care what you think of me out of training, but right now, I am your coach.” His action made the rest of the team stop running. They were used to his rash behaviours but he had never get so riled up by a girl before. Park Bogum had focused on the situation before him, Roo was just a girl after all, with a broken leg I might add. Being the most rational member, he had to keep a look out for ChanYeol’s behaviour. “Aren’t you going to let go?” She held onto his right hand that was currently on her collar.

His eyes were showing something that made her uncomfortable, something that how her Ex-teammates used to look at her. She didn’t like it. Her eyes twitched.

“Listen up Roo Ji Hyun, you may think you are a coach right now but honestly, you are a nobody ever since you broke your leg. Sure there are news about you, it’s going to die down anyway. And you will just disappear from the world of basketball. No one is going to remember you.” Roo was gritting her teeth, she controlled her muscles well enough not to let herself show any emotion. She was very affected by his words though. She could almost hear her own heart shattered. What he said was not completely wrong neither, she was never going to return back on court, everyone is going to forget about her. Her teammates…Ex-teammates was going to make a joke out of her, they were going to laugh at her, they were going to humiliate her. That thought itself made her shook as she balled her fist, tight. Her eyes turned bloodshot.

I can give up my leg for my teammate, I can even give up playing basketball, so why are they treating me this way?

She sneered at ChanYeol’s outburst of hurtful words. “You think that’s going to bring me down? I am sorry, you are wrong.” With all her strength, she snatched his hands away from her before limping off. Of course, not forgetting, “You owe me a thousand push ups.”

Kim WooBin watched as she left the sports all. He had saw how affected she was with her teammates words that day at gym, he was sure ChanYeol’s words had affected her greatly. As stubborn as he is, he refused to give any care. Continuing his suicides, he urged the rest to do so too. While Chanyeol being Chanyeol, never want to oblige to such thing.

JooHyuk on the other hand was worried, he was fighting against himself whether or not to go to Roo but ChanYeol stopped him. “Stop making her feel like she’s welcome when she’s clearly not” He patted Joohyuk’s shoulder before leaving the school. Since he thought it was useless for trainings when he can’t even touch balls.

Roo dragged herself to the back of the school where nobody was. She hid her face in her palm and rubbed. She felt tired, she felt suffocated. It was only the 2^nd training yet she already felt like it’s all not worth it, that was so not her. Giving up never once happened in her life. Was she that conceited making everyone hate her? She had no idea. No one ever tell her what she had done wrong. all they did, was backstabbing her. She just believed more than anyone else, she just dreamt higher than anyone, she just talked lesser and achieved more. So what is wrong?

Frustrated, she let out a shaky breath.

“I see you haven’t given up yet huh, Roo”

“What do you want, Lee JongSuk. Get back to training”

He smirked. “Since there’s no coach, everyone left. Might as well right? We aren’t going to win even if we train all day and night. Let alone a little girl like you who thinks you can bring us to championship. Take a look at the team. It was all thanks to you, we don’t have a captain. All the top scorers left, now left, is only all the bench players.” He paused, giving her a snobbish hiss, “because of you”

“because of me?” She let out a disbelieved chuckled. “Gather everyone back to the hall, you have 5 minutes. If one player is not there, you all owe me 100 suicides each” She went back to the sports hall. JongSuk stared at her, with his mouth wide open. He didn’t say all that to make her go back for training. She was really unpredictable. He thought whatever he said would discourage her, and then she will quit.

It was quite a surprise how the team actually listens to her even when they disliked her. From the first suicides to now, they did it, even with a bit of complaints, they still complete it. No matter how rude Lee Jong Suk were, he still managed to gather everyone back, even Chanyeol, who were reluctant to come back, was dragged back by him.

“I know you guys look down on me because firstly, I am a girl, secondly, I am around the same age as you guys, and thirdly, I have a broken leg. As conceited as I am, I believes that I can bring you all up to championship, even with my broken leg.” She threw away her crutches, “Anyone wants to challenge me? Since you all thinks that I can’t do , then I am going to show you. who wants to go first?” She said confidently, not caring how much her injured leg throbbed when she had no more support from the crutches. Everyone stayed quiet. “Why? Scared?”

A low chuckle was heard, “Scared? Scared of what? Scared of you?” That familiar sentence from that familiar player. Hong Jong Hyun. “What’s the deal?”

“If I win, you all, will listen to what I say, and do as I say, as a coach.”

“I am okay with it, and if you lose?”

“That’s never gonna happen” She said smugly.

“I always win”

“O’really, I am sorry to say, but I never lose” Roo smirked, it irks him but she doesn’t give a dam.

“But just in case, little girl, you leave Richmond if you lose. And we will never ever see you again”

JongHyun came up and stood near her. She had to admit, he was tall, but it didn’t scare her.

“The first one to score 10 balls wins the game” Kim Woo Bin, being the representative, explained.

“Since you got a broken leg, shall I give you a head start of 3 balls? So you won’t cry for mama when you lose” JongHyun mocked.

“Well, there’s no need to. I am sure my broken leg works as well as your two useless legs” JongHyun’s face darkened.

The two stood opposite each other to jump ball. Roo was at disadvantage because obviously, she couldn’t jump. JongHyun had got the first ball in without sweat. It was Roo’s ball, she haven’t tried moving in her position since the jump ball. Cold sweat was dripping down her forehead when she stepped on her injured leg. As she dribbled the ball, she dragged her leg. Calm down Roo, ignore the pain. You gotta show them you are not just some little girl. Biting back her pain, she ran past JongHyun with great speed before he even has the chance to intercept the ball, it went flying in to the hoop. 1-1.

She opened up her arms and stood in a stable position trying to block JongHyun from passing through her. She was so close to him that he could clearly see her lips turning purple. It was only the first ball. For a moment, flash of concern was shown in his eyes but disappeared in the next second.

When he was dribbling the ball for too long, Oh SeHun shouted, “What the are you waiting for dude? Just knock past her, you can’t handle that?”

Taking his words, JongHyun bumped onto Roo to remove himself from her defence, but she was quick enough to snatch the ball away from him. He watched as the ball fall in to the hoop. That was fast, how did she do it.

Yugyeom whom had never spoken a word ever since Roo came in to the picture, started gaining interest in her.

Roo lifted up her index and middle finger signalling that she had gotten two balls in, and gave him a sarcastic smile.

After 10 minutes into the game, Roo had managed to lead, with a point of 7-5. Her leg was giving up on her. She couldn’t hold it in any further, she felt like she was going to collapse. Swallowing the lump in , tears of hurt welled up in her eyes. She closed her eyes, wiped away her sweat and tears before turning herself back to face her opponent.

“Giving up?”

“Why would I when I am leading?” She said, exhausted from the pain.