Laces

chapter one

Lia's POV

Lia tightly pulled on the laces of her cleats, quickly tying them together in an effort to get out of the rowdy locker room. She knew it was the first practice of the season but jeez couldn't they calm down? She checked her phone as the time read '2:30'. Practice started at 2:45 so she grabbed her duffel bag and ran up the stairs into the gym. 

The cool breeze hit her face as she swung open the heavy metal door. Even though Lia was a senior, and therefore older than most of the girls on the team, she still was nervous about the first practice. Her eyes scanned the gym through the crowd of girls wearing white shirts for someone familiar, and they landed on a certain cat-eyed girl. 

"YEJI!" Lia quickly dropped her bag next to Yeji's and hugged the girl in relief she found someone she knew.

"Lia! It's been a while hasn't it?" she replied and wrapped her arms around her back. "It's good to see you made the team." 

"Yeah and it wasn't for lack of effort either. Tryouts were rough." she groans recalling the event three months prior. She hadn't practiced after junior season ended, so by the time tryouts came around she definitely was wiped out a bit more than the other girls. Still though, she managed to pull through and make the varsity team for her last year of highschool. "Although, heard they were a piece of cake for you, huh captain?" Lia smirked as she nudged the other's arm. Yeji flushed as she turned away at the praise. 

"No no, I put in as much effort as everyone else. I'm just honored coach Jessi chose me as captain this year. It's a big responsibility, especially with all these new underclassmen that joined this year, a lot more people to look after." she said as she looked around, spotting a familiar face walking towards them.

"Looks like this is one of them" Lia watches as the unknown person walks up. To Lia she seems familiar.

"YEJIII!!" the black haired girl pulls her into a hug as she squeals. "Isn't this so exciting?!" 

"Haha yes, a lot to look forward to today." she laughs as she pulls the younger off of her. "Oh, you two haven't met yet right?" Lia shakes her head. "Lia this is Yuna. She's one of the rising freshman, you might have seen her in tryouts." Lia realizes why she seemed so familiar. She was the fastest runner during tryouts, and got plenty praise from the coaches. "From what i've heard you better watch out for her." Yeji said seriously. "In middle school her team got to finals in 3 tournaments, taking gold in 1 and silver in the other two. All with her as captain." 

"THREE TOURNAMENTS?" Lia stared at her with wide eyes as Yuna smiled and nodded. It was extremely hard to make it to finals in tournaments, nevertheless win them.  And to be captain of a team and take them to gold? That took a lot. "Looks like you could learn a thing or two from her captain Yeji." Lia joked. 

"I sure could. I bet I am going to learn a lot from everyone this season." Yeji said as she stared into the crowd like she was in a movie or something. 

The three girls continued chatting about all the running coach was probably going to make them do, how cold it was in the gym, new players on the team and etc. 

Lia looked away as the two other girls kept chatting when the locker room door swung open. 

Short blonde hair flew up as the cold breeze hit, and a girl, with the most confidence Lia had ever seen, walked out into the gym and over to the coach. 

"H-hey," Lia, almost in a trance, tapped Yeji's shoulder, gaining attention from the two girls. 

"Who's that?"

A/N: So this was the first chapter I hope you guys liked it !! 

Also just putting this out there that they look here how they looked in the mafia era, so ryujin blonde hair, yeji orange/ginger hair, etc.