Love At First Kick

151

RIN POV

'Charging up time.' Jimin giggled cutely, pulling me into a bear hug so tight I almost coughed

'Jimin, we've got to go.' Coach Darby will kill both of us one of these days

'Coming.' He released me and gave me a kiss on the forehead before running off to the court

'Can I ask you a question?' Hinhyuk asks as we're both watching Jimin put on his shield

'Of course, hyung. Ask away.'

I didn't pay attention earlier because I was a crying mess, and I was too preoccupied with myself to notice, but he's ghost-pale.

'Hyung, are you okay?' I ask him, a bit panicked now, seeing how unwell he looks

'No, that's why I had a question.' He chuckles dryly. 'I wanted to ask your secret to staying calm? I asked Jimin, and he said it was you. Which is not of much help to me.'

Wrong time to laugh, but Jimin says some dumb things at times. 'Sorry about that, hyung. I know that doesn't help.' I chuckle. 'I don't know if it will help you because it didn't help him either when he tried years back, but I'll still tell you.'

'Please. Because I feel like poopin' myself right about now.'

I can't laugh. I can't laugh.

'What I do is I concertante on calming my heart down by breathing deeply and steadily. 4 seconds in, 4 seconds out. I also tend to try and think of it as one of the sparring fights from the training class. That doesn't often work, but it's worth a shot.'

He started breathing deeply, but it was far from steady.

'Here.' I offer my hand, and he looks at me like I'm crazy

'Just trust me. Together.'

He nodded and took my hand. His hand was sweaty, clammy. It was cold sweat. He wasn't doing the best.

'Now close your eyes, and I'll tell you when to breathe in and out.'

This reminded me so much of Jimin back at our first tournament. He closed his eyes and nodded, then took those breaths on my count.

About 30 seconds later, he seemed to have gotten a bit better. Unlike Jimin, it helped a little.

'This little truck is simple but effective. I don't know why I didn't think of it.' He finally speaks and opens his eyes

'When you're panicking, it's easy to forget the simplest of things. Like breathing.' I smile

'I'm sorry. I know you want to focus on Jimin's fight. I didn't mean to disturb.' He apologizes, letting go of my hand

'No need to apologise. I can see him just fine.' I smile brightly. 'He'll win this easy.'

It wasn't exaggeration. It was now 45 seconds into his fight, and he was running cirlces around his opponent, poking holes in his shield. The score was in his favour as well, with 2 points difference. He did prevent me from jumping and screaming, but it's probably for the better. My voice is half gone, and I need to save it for his final fight.

Jimin landed a back side kick into the opponent's head, knocking him down. The entire arena thundered, me included.

'You were saying?' Hinhyuk was laughing at me as I was screaming. It's only been half a minute since I said I don't need to yell. What a blatant lie.

The commentators in the gym went berserk as well, commenting on how this is a first almost knockout in the games so far. No one got brought down to their knees like this just yet.