Characters: Kibum, OC, SJ
Rating: PG
Chaptercount: 26/36
Summary: Soojin meets a guy who turns her world upside down but then there's a few dozen others as well.
A/N: This is one of my most beloved novels (not that I wrote THAT many, but still) and I think I will forever cherish the characters in this. This story also helped me shape my view on the different members and is the first of few stories in which I used first person.
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Wednesday came and went with its boring classes and not very interesting happenings, but there was one short conversation with Kibum that I still remember quite well. We were ditching another hour of History of the Arts and were sitting at the side of the soccer field, next to each other. He had very subtly taken my hand and entangled our fingers in between our two bodies, which had made me smile and look at him. He had then turned to me, a question in his eyes. I waited until he asked it, which didn’t need much waiting.
“Are we dating?” he asked me, causing me to chuckle softly.
“I thought you’d make the decisions and I’d go along.” I said, smiling amusedly, but I continued talking anyway, because I understood that he wanted me to decide about that too. “I don’t know, really. I have no idea how this all works. You’re the one who’s had a girlfriend before. Are we? Do we want to be?”
“The question is do you want to be? Because I have nothing against dating.” he retorted with a rather happy smile. I found myself smiling back immediately, feeling a warmth engulf my insides. It was really wonderful and strangely reassuring that I was able to find love with him. I oddly realised only now that it was something I had missed in my life before. A boyfriend.
“I don’t have anything against it either. So we are dating.” I replied with a smile, softly squeezing his hand as I said so. “Let’s just not tell anyone yet for a bit. I’m not ready for Heechul’s enthusiasm yet.” I then continued, mumbling because I was slightly embarrassed. He chuckled.
“Yeah, strangely enough I totally understand that wish.” he agreed, causing me to giggle. Right then, our friends started walking towards us and we almost immediately let go of each other’s hand, settling for just sitting next to each other in a very unsuspicious way.
After that nothing happened anymore until school was out, really. Kibum did ask me if I wanted to join him going somewhere, but when I told him about my plans of going to watch the boys’ soccer practice, he immediately encouraged me to get to know them better and not cancel that to go with him. So there I was that afternoon, standing at the side of the path that lead to the soccer field outside of the university campus. I had a happy smile on my face as I watched the group of five rowdy friends coming towards me, already noticeable from a good distance away.
Once they got to me, I stepped up to them, which made them calm down a little and Sungmin, Ryeowook and Sung Yeon eyed me in wonder. Both Yumiko and Hyukjae merely smiled happily at me. Siwon and Donghae, who were the only two majoring in European languages out of the whole group, still had half an hour of classes left, so it was Hyukjae who saved my day and told his three friends that I was invited to come and join or just watch their soccer practice.
When that was made clear, I was immediately welcomed into the group with open arms, thereby discovering that the soccer group was a very friendly bunch of people. Yumiko gave me a knowing smile and as we continued our way to the soccer field, she leaned closer to me and whispered a quick ‘I’m sure you’ll like them.’ to me. I grinned at her, because I was quite sure about that as well.
Once arrived on the field, the boys dropped their bags on the lowest bleachers and started to stretch their muscles. I eyed it in amusement, knowing how needed stretching sometimes could be as to not get sore muscles. Yumiko was meanwhile talking to Sung Yeon, who seemed to be a good friend of hers. Feeling like I didn’t really belong with them, I stayed out of the conversation, keeping my eyes on the boys. Yet Sung Yeon turned to look at me mere moments later.
“So Soojin, I heard a lot about you so far. It’s nice to see you in person for once.” she said, smiling a happy smile that I couldn’t help but smile back at. “Do you like soccer or is it just your friend who dragged you here?”
“Actually it really was Donghae who almost demanded me to come along once and Hyukjae agreeing to that, when they had driven us home Monday evening. I never showed a particular interest in you guys, so Yumiko never asked me to come. I’m very glad to be able to meet all of you, though.” I said with a slight guilty feeling. She laughed heartily.
“Ah, you know we never really see many new faces. I guess most kids are too intrigued by the soccer skills of your two buddies and that maknae over there.” she then replied with an amused chuckle. I looked up at the three boys to see who she meant, but couldn’t see anyone with ‘I am the maknae’ written over his forehead, of course. Yumiko luckily helped out.
“Ryeowook is a year ahead of his age. He’s in the same major as Zhou Mi now.” she told me. I smiled gratefully at her.
There was a short silence between the three of us and I felt rather uncomfortable standing next to them like a mute idiot as we watched the three boys kick a ball around, so I took hold of the opportunity to join the practice after all. The boys looked up in surprise when they saw me coming so I stopped a few steps away from them and nodded at the ball.
“Mind if I have a try?” I asked, looking from Sungmin to Ryeowook and back, as I already knew Hyukjae’s answer. They shook their heads and Ryeowook immediately reached out to pull me towards him.
“I’ve seen you play basketball, you’re great!” he exclaimed, putting the ball in front of me. “Now let’s see what your soccer skills are. Try giving Hyukjae hyung a pass.” He smiled happily when he looked back up. That happy smile and outgoing attitude reminded me so much of Henry that I wanted to pinch his cheek. I caught myself halfway the action, however, and quickly lowered my hand again, randomly giving a kick against the ball to get it in Hyukjae’s direction. The black and white piece of leather rolled rapidly over the ground, passing Hyukjae at about ten metres to his right. I watched it go and chuckled when the one I was supposed to have given a pass to ran off to retrieve the ball.
“Not bad, not bad.” Ryeowook said, causing me to give him a disbelieving look. He chose to ignore that as he continued. “Now try to give a kick with the inside of your foot, like this.” He showed me the way I was supposed to hold my foot and corrected my stance when I tried it. That’s when Hyukjae called and I looked up to see him kick the ball towards us from a long end away. Ryeowook easily manoeuvred forward to catch it on his chest and then pass it right into his hands. I stared in awe.
“Did you just manage to catch a ball that was kicked to you from all the way across the field?” I asked, impressed by the precise aim Hyukjae had and the awesome soccer skills Ryeowook was showing me.
“It’s called the pitch.” Sungmin then spoke up. “And yes, he did.” I couldn’t help rolling my eyes over his correction, but grinned anyway. He smiled back at me.
Once Hyukjae stood with us again, I had another try at giving him a pass, using the method Ryeowook had just shown me. This time it resulted in the ball rolling past him at a mere four metres distance. I immediately got praised for being better than Kibum, unconsciously smiling at the mention of the latter’s name. We did a bunch more of those passes after that. I enjoyed it quite a lot, but suddenly Hyukjae waved at someone and I turned to see Donghae and what looked like Siwon approaching. The latter immediately walked up to his girlfriend to greet her, while the first happily came up to our group after having dumped his bag with the others.
“So you decided to come, huh?” he asked me with a big grin. I chuckled.
“I told you I would.”
“It’s really nice to see you here! Are you going to play along?” he asked. I nodded, but then changed my mind and shook my head, making him pout. “Why not?”
“I am going to try and play along, but it’ll probably result into me messing it up big time.” I told him with a chuckle. He huffed, but then grinned widely, and both Hyukjae and Ryeowook laughed as well. Sungmin merely smiled. Suddenly Donghae reached out and happily hugged me. I froze in surprise at first, but then shortly patted his back. Right at that moment, I saw Zhou Mi approaching with a girl by his side.
As I let go of Donghae, the girl glared rather unkindly in our direction, but that expression disappeared as soon as it came, so I wasn’t quite sure if I had really seen it right. Yumiko, however, sent a rather obvious deadly glare in the girl’s direction, eyeing the friendly bantering between Zhou Mi and her suspiciously. I chuckled at this show of jealousy and when Donghae followed my gaze at our friend, he grinned as well.
“I don’t think she’ll ever pick.” he mumbled to me and I had to hold back my laugh.
“Well, she can enjoy both boys for two and a half more months and then she’s going home anyway.” I mumbled back, causing him to laugh out loud. I quickly looked back at Zhou Mi, as to not show who we were actually talking about, and was right in time to see how the girl said goodbye to him and left, after having sent another evil glare in our direction. I was a bit surprised over her hateful behaviour, but forgot all about it when Zhou Mi happily waved at us, before joining the two girls on the bleachers, immediately earning himself a happy hug from Yumiko
I smiled over all the jealousy going on, quickly giving a kick against the ball and thereby unexpectedly passing it to Hyukjae. He easily stopped it, kicking it back to me. Before I could stop it myself, Donghae intercepted it and performed some awesome soccer trick by kicking it up in the air with his foot behind him and then catching it in between his foot and leg. He stood like that with a stretched leg for a moment, before hopping it up and letting it bounce on his knee a few times. He then passed it on to Ryeowook, who caught it in the same manner, did some little tricks as well and then passed it on to Sungmin on his turn. Soon they were showing me their tricks one by one and even Siwon joined the group. I rolled my eyes with a laugh.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m impressed already. Enough showing off.” I exclaimed, grabbing the ball out of mid air and playfully launching it at Hyukjae’s head, who was the one performing his tricks at that moment. It hit him straight in the forehead and I couldn’t help chuckling, earning an offended look from him as he rubbed his poor attacked head, and laughs from the four other guys.
“Good throw, Soojin, that was spot on. You must have a great aim from all those hours playing basket.” Ryeowook told me happily, but I shook my head.
“No, I missed. I was aiming for his nose.” I said, still grinning widely. My words caused Hyukjae to freeze in his movements and look at me for a moment.
“This is a good time to run.” Donghae mumbled to me and I gladly took his advice, dashing off behind Ryeowook’s back onto the huge field. Hyukjae immediately came after me, letting out some kind of battle cry as he did so. I tried to scream in fear, but I was laughing at the same time, which caused me to almost choke from a lack of air as I stumbled over my own feet. Two arms caught me around my middle before I could even go down, and in the next moment I was swirled around by an evilly laughing Hyukjae.
“This will teach you to throw soccer balls at my face!” he told me, loosening his grip a little so that it felt like he would throw me away. I screamed in shock, but was still laughing as well and also trying my best to pull free from his grip, which didn’t really work as I was still lacking oxygen. In the end I just let him swirl me, because there wasn’t much I could do against it, laughing like an idiot.
Suddenly another battle cry sounded over the soccer field, however, and before I could see what was happening, Hyukjae was thrown to the ground, causing me to fall as well. I quickly scrambled away from him, still trying hard to catch my breath, and immediately turned around to see what had happened. Yumiko was basically seated on top of Hyukjae, tickling him violently.
“Don’t you ever touch my friend again, you filthy soccer player!” she called out, a wide grin on her face. He was dying from laughter too much to reply, but he did manage to reach out a hand to his friends, obviously calling for help. Siwon and Donghae came running as they understood his plee, respectively attacking Yumiko and me. That caused Sung Yeon to even out the odds by storming towards us and throwing herself on her boyfriend. Of course the other two guys couldn’t just stand and stare, however, so pretty soon the soccer field turned into a battle ground with Yumiko, Sung Yeon and me trying to defend ourselves against the five boys, and Zhou Mi standing at the sidelines acting much like a referee. It was the most epic tickle war I have ever been involved in.
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