Take a Chance

Chapter 28

Fun fact: 'baesinja' in korean means traitor. And damn, someone wanted to translate this story into Arabic and I am V happy :)

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Baekhyun jumped,
and he fell.

He failed.

The ball was only a few millimeters out of his reach, and yet it seemed like it was all the way across the world.

It was all the way across the world, and Baekhyun was sailing the seas with a makeshift cardboard boat. The waves were simply too strong, and the tape on Baekhyun's boat was failing him. He kept on reaching until the last second; kept on rowing his boat until the dark clutches of water stole him away.

He fell, his fingertips not even touching the surface of the ball as his forearms scraped on the ground beneath him, followed by his body that landed harshly and rolled a couple of more meters.

The ball bounced right beside his head and jumped over him mockingly, rolling all the way until it hit the wall.

No...

With his face on the ground and his arms spread out, he felt dread grow inside of him.

It's not enough.

There's not enough time.

The referee blew his whistle and Baekhyun knew...

It's over.

"Out!" He called and as Baekhyun laid there, his mind emptying into the empty void of nothingness, he felt dry tears rising in his eyes.

He heard the beeping of the timer, signaling that there were five seconds left.

We couldn't win.

I failed.

I failed them.

In those last five seconds, he felt as if God was laughing down at his face, telling him that he was never meant to win anyways.

And Baekhyun believed his thoughts, because he was never enough. Never enough for himself, for his family, for his friends or for the person he thought was the most important in the world.

His heart ached painfully and he turned his head, looking at the basketball pressed up again the wall. At this point, he didn't even want to think about anything anymore.

The timer rang and that's when Baekhyun just shut the world out for the next moments, drowning in self-hatred and disappointment.

All of their wasted efforts fell into his empty hands and Baekhyun had thrown it away, scattering it somewhere else.

The feeling of loss was quickly hooking onto him and Baekhyun stared blankly at the ball he couldn't catch; at the ball that made them lose everything.

He so desperately wanted to lash out, scream and punch himself in the face for being so weak and terrible at everything. But even if he wanted to, all of it fell on his dead brain and he didn't move a muscle.

He stayed like that for minutes, rethinking what had happened in the game, all the right steps he could have taken, all the choices he shouldn't have made.

It all hurt him so much, the regret piling inside of his stomach and instead of burning in his stomach acid, it burnt him instead.

He wished he could go back to when fourth quarter started; could go back to when they still had a chance...