The New Student

Basketball (2)

He grabbed his gym-bag from the back seat while I exited with my backpack. The Floosom Stadium was huge!

"C'mon, lets go Mari."

We walked towards the entrance and opened the doors, only to get blasted with air conditioning.

"It's cold!" I rubbed my bare arms that were exposed by my short sleeved shirt.

Hansol laughed. "When you become an athlete, you start to appreciate the air conditioning and sometimes you want it to be colder. But here." He tossed me his gym bag, which I caught by surprise. He took off his black turtleneck sweater, revealing a white shirt underneath. "Now we trade." He took his gym bag from me while handing me his sweater. "Stay warm. Don't catch a cold."

I looked at him weird. Did he really expect me to somehow acquire a cold here?

"Hey, I'm just being an over-protective boy caring for a girl. You should appreciate me worrying for you. Hmph." He smiled in a funny way, making me laugh.

"Wait Hansol," I remembered something that he had told me in the car. "When are you going to eat?" I checked my phone. It was 4:30. "When does warm up start?"

"It starts at five. We still have plenty of time."

"What are you going to eat?"

"You!" He turned on me with a scary look on his face and I gasped with horror.

He snickered at my reaction. "I'm just kidding. I'm playing with you Mari."

I felt myself blush. "Hey!" I called out indignantly. "Whatever, lets go eat."

"There's a small food court in here. We can eat there. First let's buy your ticket for entry."

I paid four dollars and acquired a yellow ticket. I followed Hansol through a series of turns into a food court.

"Ta-da!" He smiled. "What shall we eat?"

It smelled really good. There were many fast foods available that smelled delicious but I turned away with much difficulty to face the salad bar. "Salad," I said. "If you're going to be playing that game, you're going to need some good, healthy food."

"No, Mari, let's choose something else..." He whined, sticking out his lower lip.

"No. We're eating salad. You're going to get a stomach ache while you play!"

"Fine," he agreed. "But, we'll go eat fast food together next time. Promise?"

I rolled my eyes, smiling. "Promise." We wrapped our pinkies together, a mutual sign of promise.

The salad was really good. It had fresh Romanian greens, tomatoes, chicken, carrots, and cheese. We ate quickly, filling our empty stomachs.

Checking his watch, Hansol looked at me apologetically. "I have to go soon. I'll lead you to the court and show you where to sit." He guided me back to the court, where the air conditioner blasted us with freezing air. "Here." He pointed to the seat right in the middle of the front row. "You get the best seat. I have to go now, see you after warm-up." He jogged into one of the doors to the locker rooms and disappeared.

I stuffed my earbuds in my ears and turned on HISTORY's "Might Just Die." Then I shivered and put Hansol's sweater on. Hurriedly, I finished my math and chemistry homework then turned to my novel for English. I didn't realize that my music was turned up so loudly that I didn't see the boys running out onto the court until a ball almost hit me.

I looked up from my book, startled. A player from Darmount had accidentally thrown a ball too far. He walked towards me to pick up his ball and winked at me! Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hansol glaring at the player. I smiled, lowering my book into my backpack and started to watch their warm-up.

For some reason, everyone on Hansol's team was wearing a navy blue shirt while the Darmount players wore a red shirt. I spotted Hansol's dark hair and hooked my attention on him. He was so fast! Every shot he made was precise and swooshed into the net. I recognized Yuta, Ten, and Taeyong among the group. They were all very talented as well, easily making practice shots and passing balls to each other. The Darmount team was also pretty good. All of the players were tall and incredibly fast, shooting the ball easily. There was one particular player that stood out to me. He was very tall, around 190 cm (6 feet, 2 inches) and the moves that he did were very smooth and natural. He was noticeably faster than the others and when he jumped to shoot, he jumped very high.

I studied both teams with an inquisitive eye, watching their moves. It was going to be a tight match. Checking my phone, I saw that it was 5:45. The teams broke up, going their separate ways. Oh no. The boy who had accidentally (or was it really accidentally?) thrown the ball near me walked toward me. What was I going to do?

"Hey," he said smiling. He had soft brown hair slightly covering his brown eyes and was very tall. It took me a moment to realize that he was the player that had stood out to me the most.

"Oh, hi," I said weakly.

He sat down next to me. "I'm Mark. What's your name?"

"Mari."

"Are you from OM High? I don't recognize you from Darmount."

"Yes, I'm from OM, but I used to attend Darmount."

"Really?" He raised his eyebrow quizzically. "I haven't seen your face before. If I did I'm sure I would've remembered.

"Oh." I was at a loss for words.

"So Mari." He leaned forward. "Can I get your number?"

Before I could respond, I heard Hansol calling out my name. He was walking towards me, smiling, although his eyes were deathly serious.

"Who's that?" Mark asked.

"Mari, come here, I have to show you how to dribble."

"Sorry," I told Mark. "He's calling me." I ran up to Hansol.

"So this, Mari," he paused and handed me the ball, which I took in my hands. Then he walked behind me and put his arms around mine, his hands over mine. "Like this Mari. Let go of the ball, let it bounce." I really didn't understand why he had to be touching me like this in order to teach me how to dribble. I dropped the ball and when it bounced back up, he held my hands and used them to catch the ball again. "This is bouncing the basketball. Now try this. Hold the ball with one hand." His face was next to mine and my skin tingled. "Drop the ball again." I did as he said, but this time, after I dropped the ball, he took one hand and placed it on top of the ball as it bounced back up. The ball went back down and when it came up, he repeated the procedure. "And that is how you dribble." Gently, he took his hands off of mine and went to go pick up the ball. "Cheer for me babe." He smiled and walked back to his team mates, spinning the ball on his finger.

[A/N: HISTORY's "Might Just Die" is the song that is stuck in my head right now and Hansol feels like he "might just die" from jealousy seeing Mark with Mari, ah Hansol, he makes me laugh]