Fix you • Chanbaek

twenty three • turning point

"Does it hurt here? Can you bend it more dear, just a little, okay, good!" doctor Choi touched Baekhyun's knee after she brought him new knee support. He was sitting on a bench, flexing and laxing his leg.

"It's okay. It hurts less since I've started using that gel you gave me. I do exercises too." Baekhyun smiled and leaped up from a squat a few times to make sure his knee doesn't hurt under any angle.

"Awesome! I'm happy that you're taking your therapy seriously. And what about you, Mr Park? How's your arm?" she turned around to look at Chanyeol who was stretching.

"Never been better." Chanyeol grinned, lifting both his arms and rocking them with his hips jokingly.

"Stop doing that. You look idiotic." Kris said, elbowing Chanyeol who then curled in a squat.

"Looks like all of you are in shape, then! I don't need to worry if you would play this well or not." doctor Choi said enthusiastically.

"We will play better than ever!" Minseok hopped, accidentally smacking Luhan's head in process.

Their day D has come.

They were in the most important gym of their lives, preparing for the most crucial two days of their lives. It was a gym where National team played and trained, and by that also the fanciest and most modern gym they had ever visited (everyone except for Baekhyun actually, he was already there once during training camp for gifted players that were considered for Junior National team, and Baekhyun actually made it but it all occurred sometime around Kyungsoo's critical stage of illness, so he gave it up).

If they wanted to make it finals, they had to pass their group, which was group C, then to semifinals, and that would lead to the finals.

Basically, they had to beat four teams.

Four very good, if not amazingly good teams.

Baekhyun observed the large space around him. Balls being slammed against new, polished court, shouts of players coming from all sides and crowd that gathered to watch talking loudly, coaches glancing at each other while one talked to his team to see if he was pointing at anyone.

In volleyball, strategy is important.

But knowing your enemy, knowing their weaknesses like the back of your hand, is everything. It's the key to any victory, and Baekhyun knew that very well.

Since the first time he had picked up his father's old volleyball on the attic, he's been hooked onto it.

From day one, he didn't stop. Practicing until his palms, knees and elbows would get bruised, frustration because of hundreds of failed serves and a thought I can't do it crossing his mind every day.

But despite all that, he fell in love.

From the core of his heart he loved being on court, feeling a ball against his palm and landing from a jump when he knew he scored a perfect point.

There were days he wanted to do nothing but play volleyball, or at least do something that had anything in common with it. He would lay down on the grass in his backyard and toss to himself until his hands would go numb. Or he would play against the wall, or throw tosses into a basketball net. Most often though he would chase Kyungsoo around and practically beg him to play with him, but Kyungsoo would always brush him off because 1) He sucked at any kind of sports activities and 2) He had better stuff to do (read: study whatever he could think of).