Her Captain, The Gamemaster

Without You, Would I Shine As Bright Now?

~Continuing from last chapter~

*Soo-ah's POV*

. . .

RING.RING.RING.

'Ahh, I cannot wait to have Li-unnie teach me her serve. I cannot believe she took almost a whole game just from serving. Her team wasn't even that good nor was our team but she carried her whole team. Ahh, I'm so excited,' I squeal to myself, causing a few odd looks from passerbys as I enter a gymnasium after receiving a timetable from the counselor.

I walk in to see several dozen kids doing drills and I immediately search for Li-unnie amongst those people. To my big fat disappointment, she wasn't there. I walk around a little searching for her, giving up when the coach arrived.

'Before we begin today's training, I would like to say congratulations on winning the XinShan South-Asia's cup!' she chirped.

'Out of 115 schools in South Asia's XinShan primary schools, we got 1st, guys, be happy about it!'

But no one said anything. A few kids clapped, looking awkwardly at the coach who eventually gave up and sighed.

'Ok, stretch then begin the serving practice. After 15 minutes of that, begin the spiking training. Then half an hour before 5:00pm, we'll hold a few small game. Head to your usual spots,' she announced with a slightly miffed expression.

The large group of kids dispersed heading to their individual year groups. 'I almost forgot that there were 6 grades in here and there's like 100 people. This school is so big,'

I smile. 'I'm so happy to be here,'

I walk over to the coach, stumbling out odd English words, trying to ask where to go. After a couple minutes, she explained that there was only one other 4th-grader who practices alone in a separate gym. I wanted to ask why but the coach had to go to the 5th gym to check on something.

I knew that it was Li-unnie who practiced alone. After all, she didn't have anyone to talk to during homeroom. 'How sad. I'll go play with her!'

I find the gym that coach mentioned and I walk in. Right there, I see my new bestie lying against a pillar. 'Hi!' I yell.

But she didn't move. I walk up to her and crouch to her eye level. I see that Li-unnie is sleeping!

Giggling, I sit next to her and poke her shoulder a little. She looked so much smaller from this perspective so I study her pretty face. 'About 4'0, slim waist, small shoulders, slim bone structure and a pretty well-rounded body ratio. Her legs look so fragile but they have a few muscles hidden underneath a thin layer of fat so you can't see her true strength. That's probably how she hides her true abilities. I bet she can jump serve as well!' I think to myself.

Looking at her, I thought 'she's really pretty, isn't she?'

I poke her a few more times and she begins to stir, opening one eye. She turns to me, rubbing her other eye. 'What is it, Soo-ah?'

'You said you were going to teach me, unnie!' I exclaim, a tad too loud as she winced a little.

'Ok ok just be a little softer,' as she rubs her right ear, which was right next to my mouth.

'Mhm, alright,' I giggle softly.

'And I thought I told you to not use Korean honorifics. Besides you're older than me, Soo-ah,'

'WAIT, I AM?'

'Yea, you're older than me,'

'OH. Wait, how do you know that?'

'Easy. I'm the youngest in the grade,'

'Wait, why?'

'...How do I answer that? That's not a logical question,'

'What's alogical?'

'...,'

'...,'

'Never mind. I'm youngest because I'm supposed to be a year below you but the school made a mistake with my age because it was barely outside the range,' she explained, in a deadpan face which was funny.

I giggle.

'OH, that makes sense. You're younger than everyone but you are still in class 7?!? Wa~~~,'

She didn't say anything.

'So, are we gonna practice or...?' I ask her.

Nothing.

'Hello?'

She turned to me and looked at me dead in the eye. 'Woah, her eyes are so dark,'

'Please don't make me talk so much,'

'Huh?' I thought.

She saw the look on my face and got up. She walked over to the middle of the court before throwing the ball up, pulling her arm back and serving the ball neatly over the fence, hitting a small circle of tape on the other side of the court

'Woah,'

She turned back to me. 'You try,'

I feel my eyes widen. 'Like r-right now?'

'No, next year,'

...

'Yes, right now,'

'Oh,'

I walk over to the middle of the serving line and throw the ball up before hitting it. It didn't make contact. The ball landed in front of me right on top of the service line, on one of the tape circles. I look down sheepishly.

I feel her stare at me. 'Oops,'

*Li's POV*

Remind me again why I agreed to this. She's horrible. She threw it way too higher, way too forward and she swung her whole upper body and didn't make contact.

'You made the circle,' I say to her.

She blushes a bright red as I feel a headache come on.

'Go stretch,' I rub my nape.

...

'How?' I hear her ask slightly timidly.

I open my eyes, look at her for a solid five seconds before leading her to the corner, sitting her down, spreading her legs (omg why) before retreating to her behind and pushing down on her back.

'a-AHH, OUCH THAT HURTS,' I hear her scream, muttering a few curse words in Korean.

'Get used to it. You'll have to do this everyday before and after training or games,' I mention to her as I pushed her little harder, trying to ignore her loud screams. Then I push her onto her side and pull her leg over her upper body. I can hear her full-on yelling at this point and I stop.

After a few pants, she looks at me. 'Is it over?'

Instead of answering her question, I push her again to her other side before pulling her other leg over her upper body. 'oUCH OUCH OUCH,' she cried in pain.

I let go of her leg and stand up. 'You'll have to get used to that since everyone can last way longer than you can,'

She pants before frowning a little. 'Our team didn't do that,'

'Most kids don't play seriously until middle school. Besides the Korean branch of XinShan is filled with rich kids and future-celebrities, not sporting champions,'

'Hmm, that makes sense. But then why do you take it so seriously? What makes you different?'

I pause.

'Nothing. I'm the same as everyone else,'

Author's Note:

hey all you sexy ppl

im just continuing this flashback to reveal sum random childhood stuff. hope yall dont want to set this on fire.

thxx.