Picture Us | Zhuo Zhi

twenty-four

s i p  o f  e v i l

Nam stands behind one of the benches where the team is gathered at practice.

"There are three days before the Municipal Qualifying. We'll start our training today," Siyang says to the team.

The boys will go against each other in drills, and the one that lost within each pair has to drink a cup of Yan juice. Nam watches all the boys back away in horror, including Siyang.

"That doesn't sound fun at all," Jiale says, while nervously chuckling.

"I don't think it's supposed to be fun," Nam quietly mumbles to herself.

Xinglong goes against Baiyang, and Baiyang ends up taking the Yan juice penalty. Between Dayong and Qiao Chen, Dayong loses. Nam winces as he misses the ball completely. Is something wrong? she wonders. Nam does laugh quietly as her twin drinks the juice after losing to Jiale. The three losers lay down together to recover from the bitterness.

Nam sits down on a bench next to Zhuo while Yan and Siyang stand, all of them waiting for Baiyang, Dachi, and Xia to recover. Zhuo also took the penalty of Yan juice when he went against Siyang, but he, of course, didn't need to recover from it.

"Lu Nam, you didn't get to try some Yan juice last time," Yan says, holding a glass in front of her face.

"Erm..." Nam starts, nervously laughing as she's unsure on how to get out of this.

Luckily, the captain steps in. "It's unnecessary for her to drink it," Siyang reminds them.

"Lu Nam seemed to enjoy Zhuo Zhi's spicy sauce. I want to also collect more data for my Yan juice," Yan says.

"Uh... spice and bitterness are different, though," Nam quietly protests.

"But it would be interesting," Zhuo interjects with a smirk. With those words, Nam accepts the glass and takes a sip. She then proceeds to collapse from the indescribable evil she's just drunk, her head laying in Zhuo's lap. And Zhuo Zhi, albeit slightly unsure, runs his hands through Nam's hair, playing with it while massaging her scalp.

"There was an 82% chance that this would be the outcome," Yan says, while Siyang just ignores what has happened.

-

All four victims of the Yan juice recover just in time as Coach Qi arrives, and everyone gathers around the bench. Nam takes in her surroundings, and lifts her head from Zhuo's lap with a jolt. Before anyone can make a teasing comment, or Nam embarrass herself further, Coach Qi starts talking.

Siyang and Yan look over the list of qualifying schools.

"Yu Feng will play against Xing Yao before we do," Yan says.

"We have to beat our opponents before meeting our greatest enemies," Xia says.

Nam leans closer to Zhuo and whispers, "When did he get so wise?" to which he just grins.

"Yes," Coach Qi continues, "we aim to win the national championship. All right, dismissed."

As Coach Qi walks off, Ying comes towards the court. Coach Qi asks the Lu twins to accompany her niece to get her own racket fixed.

"Uh... I can't, but... Xia will," Nam offers, trying to subtlety wink at her friend.

Xia just responds with a loud "huh?"