When Hyerim signed up for her school's newsletter club and was placed in charge of sport photography, she didn't expect to form an unlikely friendship with the captain of the ice hockey team, Lee Haechan.
❆ High School Sport AU
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It'll be fun, he told her.
It'll be not too loud, he told her.
Hyerim was currently in the midst of her first college party that Chenle brought her to. Apparently one of his rich international-student friends was holding a "get-together" for Korea University students.
This was not a get-together. This was a full blown, drug-dealing, table-dancing rager.
It reminded her of her first highschool party with he-who-shall-not-be-named, being attached at the hip to Chenle who was currently talking his friend's ear off. Hyerim wanted nothing more but to go back to the comfort of her dorm room with her warm bed, cold air-conditioning, and a packet of honey-soy crisps with Gossip Girl playing on her laptop screen.
"Two months into university and my peaceful college life has already been disrupted," Hyerim muttered, but the orange-haired boy next to her paid no attention.
"Hyerim, go play beer pong with those people over there!" he squealed over the music, jabbing a finger towards a crowd that was gathered in the middle of the room.
The girl shook her head indignantly, but Chenle ignored her, shoving her towards the crowd, yelling "Coming through!" like a loud car alarm.
Now in the midst of the crowd, she watched as two groups of people surrounded the ping pong table, one from each team lining up the cups as the spectators whooped and hollered.
The game started off tame, the crowd cheering and letting out "ooh"s whenever someone landed their ping pong ball into the cup. Hyerim found herself laughing at the antics, especially when some guys started getting dramatic.
All was fun and cute until she saw a very familiar pink-haired boy in the crowd with his phone out, filming.
Na Jaemin.
She swallowed hard. If Jaemin was here, does that mean...?
Her worst fears were confirmed as she spotted the boy walking up to the ping pong table with a little plastic orange ball in hand, rolling up the sleeves of his purple sweatshirt and smirking. He had dyed his hair purple, a drastic change, but it suited him nevertheless.
Hyerim suddenly felt extremely nauseous and lightheaded even though she hadn't consumed any alcohol. Her heart dropped to her stomach and her began to feel dry. She felt her head begin to spin, eyes shaking as she frantically looked around for someone to hide behind so that he wouldn't see her.
She ducked behind some people so that she stayed mostly concealed, tiptoeing just enough to see him squint one eye, tongue poked out in concentration as he raised his hand. With a flick of his wrist, the ping pong ball made a perfect arc, landing in the cup with a plop. The crowd erupted, howling. Hyerim was jostled around, and she made a face, grimacing as someone's drink sloshed towards her. She stepped away just in time, however, this was her first mistake of the night.
