𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐌𝐄

#.. THIRTY-ONE

Jiseok loved watching Seungmin while he played volleyball - He was so fucking amazing and mesmerising. The way the ball collided with the floor in a matter of not even seconds, the way he jumped higher than the net was and the way he was just Oh Seungmin. The younger was an outside hitter, Jiseok didn't know anything about volleyball but he assumed that he was the one that was supposed to hit the ball at the other side. Seeing Seungmin repeat all the different drills was so satisfying, all of them were done flawlessly. 

Seungmin targeted to getting a scholarship at an university, because they want him on the volleyball team. This could actually happen, Jiseok manifested it for the younger day and night. Seungmin wanted to study education and history, wanting to become a history teacher. Because, quote, "We only have boring history teachers here. I wanna change that." And Jiseok believed that Seungmin will be the best teacher known to mankind - Kids loved him and he loved kids.

The warm up ended and a whistle trilled through the whole hall. Right, Seungmin had a game. They just warmed up. As the team's captain, Seungmin and the guy from the other team did some stuff with the referee. Jiseok took a quick look at his phone before noticing that he actually wanted to film the game.

As his boyfriend, Jiseok was allowed to stand next to the substitute's bench, being able to film everything from a close perspective. Seungmin returned from the referee, as he took his water bottle, that Jiseok had in his hand. "Good luck, babe" Jiseok grinned and pecked the other's lips as a lucky charm. Seungmin just smiled back and patted Jiseok's shoulder before he gathered all his teammates for a short group meeting.

The coach told them the line-up and they made a few jokes to each other before the whistle trembled again, signalising that they should enter the field. Their slogan echoed through the whole hall before they spread across the field, Seungmin to the left of the front of the field. Jiseok clicked on the phone camera and started filming everything.

The game was amazing, Seungmin was amazing. Having done most of the group's points and making them win the first round, he became a target for the other team. As they were switching sides, Seungmin kept complaining to Jiseok that he failed with the steps sometimes. "Dude, who cares about some fucking steps? You outdid everyone here!" He kissed the player's cheek, encouraging him. "And you'll do even better this time - Pinky promise!"

The second round started, the same line-up as before. But this time, always when a ball was spiked over to their team's half of the field, it was directed to Seungmin. They wanted to irritate him, which didn't really seem to work. Apparently.

Seungmin's knee was hurting a lot. When he tried saving the ball once, he somehow turned his knee funnily, resulting in a weird popping sound. Probably ruptured some ligament, he thought. It would be a sign for someone to ask for a time-out. But Seungmin didn't want to. He wanted to fight through it.

He felt unstable on the knee so he tried to not step on it as much as he did before. Seemed to work for some time, but then he noticed how unfocussed he became through that. At this point every team member fogured that something was wrong. And to top everything, a ball suddenly flew towards Seungmin, unexpectedly hitting him right in his face. He toppled backwards and landed on the floor, as he tried to secure him from falling with his injured leg.

The game was immediately paused as their coach and Jiseok came running towards the player lying on the floor. His knee was swollen and had one big bruise slowly forming on it, blood shot out of his nose, as the ball directly hit that place of his face.

He was escorted away, to the bench where he was laid down on. The opposite's wing spiker received a red card as it was obvious he did it purposefully. Everyone tried asking him if everything was okay but Seungmin wasn't listening. He felt like he just entered the gates to heaven, only seeing white and hearing nothing but loud ringing in his ears.

The game resumed with a substitute in for Seungmin, while the co-coach drove to the hospital, Jiseok insisting that he wanted to come along. Arriving there, they diagnosed a critical rupture of his ligament on his knee, he would need to get operated.

"And for how long can't I play?" Seungmin asked, more worried about the fact that he might not get his wished scholarship. "Six months." "Six months?!" It was the end of the world for Seungmin. He wouldn't be able to get a scholarship like that. Shit.