[FIC] It's Complicated

Title: It's Complicated
Characters: Kibum, OC, SJ
Rating: PG
Chaptercount: 12/36
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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The game started after we had all run around the court one time to warm up our muscles. I settled myself on the spot of defender, knowing Tae Woo could score better than me. The girls just randomly scattered across the court, not having the slightest clue of where the real places were. Shindong bounced the ball up and down a little, before going to the middle of the field. He called out a short ‘ready?’ to which Kyuhyun and Tae Woo nodded.

In a matter of moments, the ball was in the air and Tae Woo managed to get to it first, ticking it into Mi Cha’s general direction. The girl tried to catch it, but let it slip again. Heechul immediately came running, yelling that the ball was his. Mi Cha apparently understood out of this that she had made a mistake and the ball was for the other team, for she didn’t make the slightest movement and simply let him get the ball. That was my call to run over and save the day. I quickly tapped the ball out of his unknowing hands and set off with it.

“Yah!” he called after me. “Aren’t you supposed to be dead tired and unable to play?” I grinned as I easily went passed Kyuhyun by making a feint to the left and then dribbling to the right. Apparently the boys all needed a warm up before being able to compete, as I normally didn’t get passed them so easily. I chuckled at this notice, but had to quickly pass the ball to Tae Woo when Hangeng closed in on me. As we crossed each other, the Chinese part of the twins, as I had come to call Heechul and him because of their same age and brotherly love, and I exchanged fist bump, staying faithful to our old habits. I grinned at him, but didn’t wait for him to return my grin as I dashed back to my place at my own goal.

Tae Woo meanwhile calmly shot the ball at their goal, but unfortunately it was intercepted by Shindong, who immediately set off towards our side of the court. He passed to Kyuhyun, but Minji, who seemed to appear out of nowhere, cunningly caught the orange ball mid-air and ran off with it again. We cheered her on as she clumsily advanced to the other side. Heechul came to block her, but she passed to Namin, who immediately threw the ball in Tae Woo’s direction just to be rid of the thing. The guy then passed to Minji again, who apparently hadn’t noticed his intentions, for the ball hit her square on her back and bounced away.

As Mi Cha immediately ran over to her friend to see if she was alright, Hangeng caught the unguarded ball and set off to our goal after making sure Minji wasn’t dying. I was the only thing in between him and the goal, and sadly enough I was smaller than him. He easily threw the ball in a little curve over my head, right into the goal, scoring a point for his group.

The game went on like that for the next half hour as I watched the girls mess around on the field and Tae Woo struggling to try and save our dignity by at least scoring some points or preventing the guys from getting to our goal to score. He and I shared some desperate looks and shook our heads in despair at yet another girl failing to catch the ball as it was passed her way. The girls in their jeans and branded T-shirts were obviously no match for the trained and experienced boys. I was about to give up all hope when suddenly Mi Cha called a time out as we were about halfway the time we were allowed to spend. I eyed it in surprise, but walked a little closer towards my group anyway.

Tae Woo came to stand next to me as we eyed the group of three heavily discussing something. The girls were grinning, even though we were about 15 points behind on the boys. I eyed them in wonder as they chattered happily, exchanging a few fist bumps and high fives. I had no clue why the girls seemed like they were celebrating and figured that maybe they were happy about at least having scored some points themselves. That was until they happily came up to Tae Woo and me, lowering their voices to discuss their tactics with us.

“It worked.” Mi Cha happily announced the moment they had reached us. Both Tae Woo and I frowned at her words. “They’re slacking because they’re assured that they’ll win easily from us. Now it’s time to show them that we can actually play.”

“So I suggest you take the defender’s position, Mi Cha.” Minji added before we could react to this surprising news. “Then Tae Woo and Soojin can be attackers. Namin and I will be on the mid field, helping with both attacking and defending where needed. Let us teach them a lesson.” Tae Woo and I shared a look, before turning to the girls again.

“You actually know how to play?” I wondered out loud.

“Of course!” Namin replied happily. “We don’t always just sit around, you know. We do know how to play some ball and I believe we have watched these boys often enough to know the rules. Besides, we cannot just stand around and let them win, now can we? So let’s get out there and show them what we’re worth!”

The girls grinned and high-fived one more time, pulling both me and Tae Woo into their group hug before running to their respective places on the field. I slowly walked up to my place as an attacker, earning distrusting glares from the guys. Since I knew I wasn’t the ace of this game, I decided to slack off a little bit in order to confuse the guys even further.

When Shindong threw the ball up in the air again, I reached it before Hangeng did, passing it in Tae Woo’s direction. Minji immediately came running past me going for the attack together with the only boy in our team. I ran up as well, but in a completely off direction because the guys had their focus on me and followed my every move. So as they kept an eye on me, they didn’t notice what happened behind their backs. It was only when the ball nicely flew through the net after a lay-up from Minji that they realised I hadn’t been the biggest threat to them.

The next throw was between Tae Woo and Heechul. Somehow the latter managed to reach the ball first and pass it to Hangeng, but I neatly intercepted it and set for their goal. They still didn’t seem to believe the other girls much of a threat since they were mostly covering Tae Woo and me, so I passed to Namin who caught the ball with ease and dribbled free from Shindong, to then give Mi Cha a pass. The defending girl somehow managed to pass the ball on to me, over Heechul’s head and in between his grabbing hands. I caught it in a reflex and made it sail through the air again before anyone could block me, earning a nice two points for my goal.

It took the boys another few scored points by our side to realise that the girls’ sudden change in basketball skills wasn’t just luck and by that time we had already caught up with them. It was when Mi Cha evened up the score with a neatly executed two-pointer that the questions came. We didn’t answer the confused ‘How did you..?’s or the frustrated ‘What the hell?’s but just kept playing. By the time they decided to just do their best in stopping our sudden assault, our playing time was up and the game ended with a neat 35-40 for us.

As they all sat down to rest a bit, I stretched my muscles and loosened my shoulders. My legs were feeling a little weak, my arms hurt and my head was throbbing because of my lack of food and sleep before sporting, yet when I saw the guys’ confused and astonished faces, I knew that it was all more than worth it. Especially when that annoying troll - aka the Kyuhyun brat - spoke up.

“How did you do that?” he asked, showing a genuinely surprised face.

“We took the ball..and threw it in the goal.” Minji answered.

“How did you girls suddenly become so good?” Hangeng mumbled, chest heaving and falling with his exhausted breathing. Most of us were just as beat as him.

“Who says we weren’t good to begin with?” Mi Cha countered.

“Girls can’t be good at basket.” Heechul disagreed. “Even Snipe is only average.”

“Yah, Kim Heechul!” I finally decided to interfere, flinging my hand in the direction of his head. I missed, but had yet to decide if that was a good or a bad thing. “We just beat your sorry male butts!” My words earned me a frown from both the one I had been talking to and the troll.

“That is only because Tae Woo was in your team!” the latter then exclaimed.

“Cho Kyuhyun!” Namin immediately threatened. “Are you saying that I am not able to play basket and win from you with my own strength?” She pointed an accusing finger at him. “That’s two weeks for you!” I watched how Kyuhyun’s face turned pale and he immediately started apologising. A little surprised, I leaned a little closer towards Mi Cha.

“Two weeks of what?” I asked her in a mutter. She grinned and wiggled her eyebrows.

“What do you think?” she asked me, winking suggestively. Immediately, lots of very wrong and unwanted ideas popped up in my head. Right before I could call out a loud, disgusted ‘Ewww! Too much information!’ Mi Cha laughed and said: “Two weeks no computer games of course.”

My eyes widened in shock upon hearing the punishment and I even felt a tiny little bit sorry for the troll. Well, that was a first. I couldn’t stop myself from grinning though. I watched how my friends huddled together to talk a bit before we went off, but when I started to see black spots in front of my eyes, I had to close them and lie back for a moment. It didn’t take long for someone to notice my silence.

“Snipe, you alright?” I heard my arrogant friend mutter questioningly. Judging from the loudness of his voice, he was probably sitting quite close to me. I couldn’t help but smile, knowing that the whole group was discussing the previous match, whereas he had to come to check on me. At least that proved that he wasn’t always such a bad guy.

“I’m fine. Just a little tired and hungry.”

“Didn’t you eat?” the surprised question came. I opened my eyes slowly to look at him, giving him an disbelieving look.

“Oh yes, I did! Didn’t you see my collection of cookie wrappings under my pillow where I always keep a large amount of snacks for when I start munching while asleep?” I mumbled sarcastically, before sitting up and hitting his head. “Of course I didn’t eat, you moron, you dragged me here right out of my bed!” I then scolded. He looked at me with a sheepish grin on his face.

“Ah yes..” he started, but before he could continue, he was bombed with questions.

“Heechul! You didn’t even let her eat!?” Shindong asked in shock, making me smile softly.

“Yah! What were you thinking? Hangeng, weren’t you there too?” Mi Cha exclaimed, hitting the said person on his arm.

“At least take her home for lunch! You have to make up for acting like such idiots!” Minji then exclaimed.

And that’s how I was dragged to their house for lunch. I nearly fell asleep on the backseat again, but Heechul successfully kept me awake by poking my cheek and side every now and again. When we arrived at their house, I sleepily staggered through the hallway and made my way towards the living room where I decided to take a nap until lunch was made. Dragging myself into the room, however, I got the shock of my life, for the two boys had forgotten to mention that their sister was home.