SPIKE ; juric

chapter 3

Practice was grueling, to say the absolute least.

If Eric thought running the ten laps when he was late was bad, that was nothing compared to what Juyeon made him do throughout the rest of practice. Normally, Eric wouldn't complain: practices and drills are part of what it means to be on a team, and he was used to intense workouts as the season went on. Especially for a team of their caliber, it was expected for him to need to work a bit more than he usually did on his other team.

That wasn't the issue.

The issue he had was that it was so obvious that Juyeon was pushing Eric much harder than any of his other teammates. If he were to miss a serve, make a bad pass, or miss a ball by diving too late, Juyeon would remind him that he was not good enough, or that he shouldn't have been scouted for this team if he was unable to keep up. "You're perfect for the team," Juyeon would say. "As a benchwarmer ." Eric was having an incredibly difficult time keeping his mouth shut. The worst part is that if one of his other teammates had a slip up, Juyeon didn't say anything; just telling them to try again. It felt incredibly personal.

Every time one of his teammates told Juyeon to take it easy on him, he kept repeating that since Eric didn't attend summer training, he had to be trained extra hard now. Of course, Eric wasn't stupid. He knew that was just an excuse to piss him off. He was appreciative that his new teammates seemed to have his back, though.

Here's the thing; Eric didn't even technically understand why Juyeon was mad at him. Besides the fact that he 'crashed' into their dorm situation (which wasn't even his own fault), he hadn't done anything to warrant this intense of a behavior. Eric thought that at first, he was nice, but he only became rude to Juyeon in the dorm after Juyeon was rude to him. How could Eric be at fault? How come Eric was the one being treated this way?

Now, Eric felt that he had no choice but to win. Win what? He couldn't even properly explain the game he was playing with the captain. He just knew it would piss Juyeon off to see him succeed, and the thought of Juyeon being angry at Eric's success made him (admittedly) feel slightly happy.

So, Eric did just that.

After spending the first half of practice practically ridiculed in front of his new friends and teammates, he decided that enough was enough.

He spent the second half not backing down during any of the drills; diving at each cheap shot Juyeon purposely set for him that, normally, Eric wouldn't have even tried to save. He had something to prove; and hopefully Juyeon would loosen up as time moved forward and take him more seriously when he saw the capability of his skills.

When practice finally came to an end, Eric felt like he was going to pass out. He felt both exhausted physically and mentally. He hadn't had time to eat anything before he got to the gym, so he was sure that was partly the reason he felt lightheaded; while he also knew this whole feud he was having with the older, (which was really one-sided) was not making him feel any better.

Not wanting to deal with it, Eric started following his teammates back to the locker rooms. He wanted to get out of the gym fast so he would have been able to get back to his dorm before Juyeon got there. All he wanted to do was take a quick shower, get out of his damp gym clothes and grab his bag so he was able to go to his first class.

He had almost made it to the locker room door before someone tapped him on the shoulder. Eric turned around, hoping that it would not be Juyeon. He was really not in the mood to speak to him at all.

It wasn't Juyeon.

"Hey." Hyunjae smiled, wiping the sweat off his face with a hand towel and nudging Eric playfully. Eric couldn't help but notice that even after a grueling practice, Hyunjae still happened to look good. "How did you like practice? Aren't you excited for the season? We have a good team." It was almost as if Hyunjae was able to sense Eric's reservation at the moment, so he just backed away from the younger one slightly when he noticed.