ambrosia [NCT DREAM]

13. Lightning Never Strikes Twice

The campers in the bleachers and on the grass yelled and cheered, excited for the next inning.

Felix hit the ball practically out of the park, running the bases with a wide smile and running to hug a small, mousey boy with big eyes and soft honey blonde instead of retreating back to his dugout. Sicheng sighed, having to grab Felix and pry him off of the other boy, muttering about how he should focus on the game.

Soobin pitched again, as fast as he could, but at one point he'd gotten hurt. He yelped, pitching down to the ground instead and doubling over. Soobin quickly grabbed his arm and winced.

Yuta ran over with Donghyuck. While Donghyuck examined Soobin's arm worriedly, Yuta told Soobin it was okay if he needed to quit the game (this time with concern, much different than when he'd told Jaemin that), but Soobin shook his head and decided to power through.

His vortex-like pitches were off, though. With his arm in pain, they continued the game, but the other team hit the pitches much more often than they had been.

Doyoung hit it (his face was way too cocky, like he'd expected to hit it all along), Giselle hit it high into the sky (which gave her time to run two bases at once), and Dejun even hit it far enough to run one base before the others realized that it was a foul and sent him back.

With each person, Jaemin whispered some sort of surface-level insult at them or tried tricking them to look away and become unfocused. But Yuta should have realized that Jaemin really wasn't the man for the job. I mean, what was he supposed to say to get under these people's skin? He'd never met them before, he didn't know them.

Well, he did sort of know one person.

Renjun stepped up to the plate and held his bat high, shooting Jaemin several dirty looks as he got ready to swing. He twirled the bat around with flashy gestures.

"Uh... um..." Jaemin grasped for something to psych out Renjun, but really didn't know what to say past basic insults. That wouldn't make a dent in him, he needed to think of something deeper.

He watched as Soobin reared back and got ready to pitch and leaned in close to him, as close as he could without getting whacked.

"Twirling around a weapon is overcompensating for how mediocre you really are." He blurted out, making Renjun gasp incredulously and miss his swing.

Renjun's eyes burned into Jaemin and he smiled at how upset the other boy was. So Jaemin continued:

"I dunno, it seems like everyone just kinda tolerates your small-dick attitude because you don't have anything else goin' for you." He whispered right before Renjun swung again, making him miss the ball completely.

Renjun's face was red beneath his helmet, glaring forwards. He gripped the bat tighter, trying to focus on Soobin's pitch, but nothing was really working.

"Go on. Hit it, Tiny." Jaemin yelled out right as Renjun swung the bat, making him trip up and miss again. One of the counselors blew the whistle again to signal an out and Renjun screamed, beaming his baseball bat at Jaemin, who ducked and smirked back as the next player approached.

Jaemin leaned in again; "You really go out in those shoes, Astro Boy?"

"Y'know, maybe your power is being a royal pain." Taeyong grumbled back, before hitting the ball out to third base, where Giselle was running to. Jaemin only shrugged before the next person came up to bat.

"Yuta sure is happy with Mark, huh?" Jaemin whistled, pointing at Yuta blowing kisses towards Mark from the outfield. Sicheng glanced quickly over and Soobin took the opportunity to pitch, making Sicheng earn a strike.