HYPEROXIA

Chapter 3. New faces

"Your dog with the money, that's great, but we've stopped hanging out together." And I'm tired of covering your ass for the coach. You have to come to the next training session." His friend leaned back in the chair and idly picked at his dinner plate with the fork. After chewing on a piece of stew, he continued. "By the way, the new guys came to our training yesterday."

"Instead of Yoon and Maen?" Sehun raised his eyebrows, remembering the guys who had left the team two weeks ago.

"Yeah, they are going to transfer to that sports school after all, they said that then it would be easier for them to take exams at the Uni." After taking a decent bite of his sandwich and washing it down with juice, Chanyeol continued with his mouth full. "The new guys are good, by the way, they were also on the football team at their last school. As I understand, they moved from the neighboring city. We played a little bit yesterday, I think they will be a good replacement for us."

"That would be nice, I don't want to lose the next game."

"We have a month, enough time to prepare, the main thing is that you should come to training as well, or the coach has already started to get mad, you know him." Chanyeol continued as he popped the last bite into his mouth. "He said he doesn't care that you play well, he'd kick you out of the team if you keep skipping."

  Sehun sighed in displeasure, feeling a certain apathy lately that he hadn't felt before. Of course, he would have to attend the next training session this week, last week he had been going to work every day and with some strange sense of disappointment he noticed that Kim Junmyeon had never appeared again since that one time.

"I will come tomorrow for training or the coach really will wear me out later." The dark-haired man picked up the tray, preparing to leave the dining room.

"Aah, I almost forgot, just tomorrow those new guys will come too, they want to meet everyone, and they promised to buy us drinks, so be ready." Chanyeol shoved his chair back with his foot and headed for the exit.

  The week passed with the speed of the first cold weather coming. Sehun's Saturday nights were free from his part-time job, so he went to practice in a good mood. The body was asking for warm-ups, and the brain - to take a break from the studies that had piled up in recent days.

  At first glance, Sehun didn't look like he was studying hard. For a handsome guy like him it was easy to charm women teachers, and with men he could always find common language and get their respect, thereby easily earning good grades. However, although Se used his charisma automatically, in many subjects, the guy had high grades, earning them rightfully by studying diligently. His passion was foreign languages: Chinese, Japanese. He caught on quick the grammar rules and new words, and this talent spurred interest in further study. Another passion of his was basketball. Sehun was tall, fast, and had played well in the team for three years. He easily played in several positions, for which the coach often praised his play.

  His new growing hobby was motorbikes. His desire was to save up for a bike during the year, and to buy one, not necessarily new but in good condition. That is why he needed a part-time job in order to gain the missing amount of money faster and make his wish come true.

  Entering the locker room and throwing his backpack and sneakers on the bench, Sehun approached the guys who were laughing loudly together.

"That's how it was, I'm telling you," Ben Baekhyun - their most cheerful teammate, as well as a point guard, continued through laughter, "two girls knocked him down, and his pants torn apart!"

"I saw him running home!" tall Park Chanyeol, their "heavy basketball artillery," was laughing, standing next to him.

  The two guys who were laughing like crazy, clutching their bellies, were the newcomers Chanyeol told about.