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The U-league volleyball championships had never seen such attendance and sports fans and journos alike all had a pretty good idea as to why this year's event had attracted that much attention. Indeed, everyone seemed to agree on the fact that Joongbu University's (JBU) team was stealing the show, all eyes focused on its star player, Jeon Jungkook.
Journalists predicted an international career for him since no one so far had been able to detect any flaws in his gameplay. By the time the final came around, all of South Korea knew his name, age, height, and preference in terms of ice cream flavour (mint chocolate). Most of South Korea also indulged in the fad consisting of sharing Jeon's memes, a collection of snapshots featuring the player's now legendary poker face that people could use in practically any given situation.
That biased coverage put a lot of pressure on Kyonggi University's (KGU) players who, according to some, did not even stand a chance in this final. "We'll show them how wrong they were to count their chickens early!" yelled Captain Lee to his teammates before taking to the court. They had won the coin toss and were relying on their best server to get them at least halfway through the first set, provided he delivered enough aces.
Kim Taehyung griped the leathery ball in his hands, fingers feeling the smooth surface he was about to hit. The whistle blew and Taehyung tossed the ball, leaping in its wake and striking it hard on its way down.
His signature serve aced, untouched.
The crowd cheered at the sheer talent as well as the prospect of witnessing JBU properly challenged in this competition. This game could prove exciting after all.
On the opposite side of the net, KGU's adversaries slightly adjusted their defence line. Their moves, however, had no impact on Taehyung's concentration who picked up another ace, thanks to his unfailing monster serve. With the ball never landing in the same spot twice, the defence had no idea how to play it. Soon, KGU enjoyed a comfortable lead as tension grew within the JBU team.
Yet despite his perfect score and not a single drop of sweat on his brows, Kim Taehyung was still merely human. The young man, feeling a twitch in his right biceps, realized his streak may soon come to an end. His next jump serve lacked precision and that's all it took for JBU's libero to make a successful diving dig, keeping the play alive. The setter managed to pick the ball up for a spike by non-other than Jeon Jungkook, their star hitter. And boy did he kill it. The spike landed right in front of Taehyung who had crouched in an attempt to dig but who ended up taking the rebound square in the jaw. Taehyung's chin went numb from the blow but he quickly dismissed his teammates concerns, asking them to focus on the game and not on the growing size of his lower lip.
KGU had reasons to fret. They had just lost service and on top of that, JBU's setter turned out to be quite capable of serving aces. KGU was steadily losing its lead. And even when their libero dug successfully, their hitter had to make do with JBU's blocking game, which was strong, to say the least.
