[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Coach Nakamoto

Yuta looked under his pillow, panicking when he didn't see his hair tie. Keeping it under his pillow was just a habit so if he needed it if he got up in the night he had it, but it not being returned was strange.

He checked his wrist to make sure he hadn't put it there, then double checked that he hadn't already tied up his hair and forgot about it. Nope, his hair tie was missing. Not that it was truly his hair tie. He had stolen it from Mrs. Suh.

"Whatcha looking for?" Shotaro asked, accidentally switching to Japanese.

"My hair tie. Have you seen it?"

"Nope. Why?"

"Yuta! We have to go!" Sungchan shouted down the stairs, causing Yuta to sigh.

"That's why. I don't want my hair in my face while we're playing soccer."

Sungchan's parents had finally let him join the soccer team after a literal contact was signed that his grades wouldn't drop, so Yuta had offered to teach him the basics and how to play each position. Yuta himself had been playing with a group of kids that got together almost everyday in the park for a couple of years, so he was taking him there.

Not that that was going to turn out well for Sungchan, but he'd get the perfect crash course on what not to do.

"Yuta!"

"Hold on! I need my hair tie!"

"Oh this?" Taeyong spoke up, pointing to his ponytail Haechan decided he needed.

"Yes! Can I have it?"

"Sure." Taeyong carefully pulled it out, shaking his hair down over his forehead and fixing it with his hand. He never wanted it up, he had just been too lazy to fix it after Haechan put it up.

"Thanks. I'll be back in maybe two hours."

"Don't break Sungchan!" Shotaro shouted after him as he ran up the stairs, throwing a thumbs up behind him.

"Finally! We're going to be late!" Sungchan took Yuta's wrist and started dragging him out of the cafe, calling out to Johnny where they were going as they did.

"There is no late, there's just a general meet up time. Calm down, child."

Sungchan didn't calm down, but he did stop dragging Yuta. The two made it to the park as a few others showed up to play. Yuta would've introduced him to the group, but he had no idea what anyone's names were. Even if he had been playing with them for a few years whenever he wanted.

So they split up into two teams, falling into their usual positions on the field. Yuta put Sungchan as the right center defender so he would be able to watch how they played instead of being thrown right into it, taking attacking midfielder for himself.

"All you have to do is keep the ball from going in that goal, and guard whoever comes at you, got it?"

"Well yeah, that's given. But what do I do?"

"You'll figure it out." Yuta patted his shoulder and moved to his position, waiting for the other half of the group to figure out what they were doing and start the game.

It wasn't a formal game by any means, but they did abide by the rules. Foul play was always stopped immediately, and even with no referees they made calls. More or less they all mutually and silently agreed when a call had to be made and just went on with whatever had to happen.

Sungchan, however, did not just figure it out. Not from what Yuta could see. The twelve-year-old was just standing there for most of the time, getting out of everyone's way. Not exactly what anyone on either team was expecting, but it gave him the perfect opportunity to observe how they were playing.

So Yuta started shouting instructions to him while playing, forcing him to do something. Most of it being where to stand, when to start coming up on someone, and how to guard. Yeah, throwing him into a group of varsity players and high school graduates with no prior experience was probably not the best idea.

Sungchan collapsed to the grass as soon as they decided they were done, too tired to get water.

"You did good for your first time."

Sungchan scoffed, turning his head so he could see Yuta.

"I think I should quit."

"You haven't even started! Come on, get up." Yuta held out his hand, waiting for Sungchan to take it. And when he didn't, he picked him up and put him on his feet.

"Go run a lap and then I'll explain the positions. You're not giving up that easy."

Sungchan thought having to run a lap was dumb, but he did it anyways, out of breath and even more exhausted when he stopped in front of Yuta.

"Alright, we're going to go over the positions and what they do, then we're working on passing and if you're lucky, penalty kicks. Your coach will go over all this, but the other kids will have experience and you don't."

So even though Yuta was tired, he spent the next two hours going over everything with Sungchan after spending two hours actually playing. It was a lot longer than he though they'd be gone, and it was getting dark by the time they got back.

That didn't mean they didn't have energy for racing each other to the shower, though.