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Chapter One
[7k words]

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Year 2019

"It's 7:30AM and school starts in thirty minutes," she calculated, muttering to herself as her eyes dart to the chirping birds and orange-ish green, drying leaves around the alley. She sighed softly and twinkled at the gathering before her, "So I might be later today unless —"

"YOO NARI!" shouted the young man across her. She looked around the road and paths, squinting because of the daylight.

"Geez, quiet down." she frowned and addressed them casually, "So what do you guys want to say to me?" she peeked at the shorter man over the guy's shoulder and beamed, waving. "The guy from yesterday? Hello!"

"T-The audacity that girl has! Bro, it was her!"

She glanced at her watch discreetly them scanned the group of delinquent-like students. Messy hair, rolled-up sleeves, some plasters and maybe some painted tattoos. Her face was probably sour and judgemental right now, seeing how they flared across her.

"It was her, right?" the guy at the front asked, pointing at her toughly and then snapped his face back to his buddy, "Hold on how the hell did you lose to a girl?"

"I-It was because I let my guard down and held back, Taejun believe me bro."

Her brows twitched. Mans quite literally ran like he saw magma yesterday. She just snickered bitterly, "Because I'm a girl, is that it?"

"Hmph, I won't be as soft-hearted as this cockroach over here —"

"B-Boss wait," one of his gang friends pulled him back with apprehensive whispers, "I think I've heard a little about her..."

'Kangbuk High School' logo. she squinted from metres away.

"What about her?" Taejun whispered back, raising a brow as if Nari wasn't staring right at them. She wasn't really staring for real anyway.

"She's a delinquent like us!" they whispered amongst themselves, huddling together.

"Is that surprising? Mhmph, look at these tiny plasters on her cheek and leg. Our battle scars are even more worth-seeing."

"No, no, I heard she took out Mujin's gang from Gyeongbuk High School by herself..." they said grimly, nodding again and again, "Exactly! The Mujin. I heard he hasn't come to school ever since... This might be bad, just saying, not saying you're not comparable to her but you see, yeah."

Nari flipped her hair and exhaled, "Exactly."

"We're still not letting you pass."

They took their stances in one line beside each other and she sighed, putting away her school backpack and stared back at them from their distances.

One charged at her without any supposed countdown or anticipation but so was her trick which was throwing a full bottle of mineral water from behind her, it hit the man flatly on his face and she took the sweet little opportunity to swiftly swing a kick right to his stomach, slumping the man against the red-brick walls beside the road. Ended one with ease in less than seven seconds. She didn't stop and kicked the man's butts on the ground, "My bad, I'm doing this on purpose."

"You —"

She snapped her gaze toward the other seven, cocking her head at their buddy. "Well? Next?"

"You're just lucky because of the underhanded trick, have a taste of my HIYYAAAAAH —!"

She ducked and slid her arm to grab him from under his armpit with one hand, the other on his other shoulder and then turned him over to collide with the rock-hard pavements in one swift motion, all the while flipping her locks out of the way and quickly glanced at her watch.

"CRAP, IT'S 7:34 AM ALREADY?" Nari gasped with widened eyes.

"BOSS!!"

"On god, I didn't think this through but back to these guys — have yall never learned actual ways to fight or something?" she whined, louder than she was supposed to when she recalled that she had high-school, "Right, the time, fine — Just come at me all of you, I have school!"

"This chick is so —" the other two got up and she stanced herself to take on all of them and noticed one of them already sprinting the other way, who was the one she beat up yesterday if she recalled correctly, "ATTACK!"

She raised a brow and calmly faced them, messaging her right leg, "Bring it on."

---

"And that's how it happened." she explained with a groan under her breath, side-eyeing the other high-schoolers beside her.

The cop stared at Nari unamusedly as the bruised delinquents beside her were trying to speak properly.

"Officer," she slammed the table gently, pleading hard with her frown and threw a look at the guys again. She sighed and looked at the cop, "I'm telling you, these bastards started all of it first when all I was doing was strolling for the fresh morning air."

"Both you and these — troublemakers."

"It was only between us anyway, please let me go now it's literally 7:50 AM and I have school." she clapped her hands together for a hope, glaring silently behind her arm when she noticed the guys sneering. She snorted, "What now, want another beating?"

"But sadly, miss, we also heard you caused some disturbances in the area just yesterday. And this almost happens every two to three business days,"

She gulped inwardly and then rolled her eyes, "You don't know the full story."

"I quote a neighbouring convenience store."

She went quiet, nodding a little to acknowledge but was glancing at the time again. She was definitely done for. She didn't expect police to be patrolling the area all of a sudden today.

"You're in trouble~"

"Silence." she shut them up with a hiss and turned to the officer again, "How do I get out of this situation?"

"Deliquency is a crime and you are already eighteen years old —"

"Officer, please?" she rounded her eyes desperately, "I can't have something like this in my resume and report card, my grandma would hate it..."

"Then you should've behaved better."

"You don't know what the guy who ran off even did yesterday, sir." she sighed.

"What did he do then?"

"HE SPILLED MY RAMEN AND DIDN'T PAY FOR HIS THINGS IN THE CONVENIENCE STORE, SO I HEARD AND CHASED AFTER HIM WITH THAT IN MIND TOO." she explained enthusiastically then exhaled delicately, "You can even ask around."

"Don't believe this witch, you never know if she's just making stories up, sir! We —"

"Let me go and call me again if I'm wrong since I'm not even the delinquent here." she said calmly, "Believe me sirs, I know these matters about recidivism." she raised her brows at the serious word, "So this won't happen again."

The officer exchanged an incredulous and tired glanced with his colleague and just gave a nod, telling her she could go.

"ISN'T THIS UNFAIR —?"

"Quiet down, you rascals." they sighed at the high schoolers and no satisfied smirk could be so content as the one on Nari's face then.

"At last, I'm free to go to hell." she picked up her backpack at once, ignoring the nervous shouts over her shoulders as she walked away. Once she was a step outside the police station, she sprinted at full speed so she'd get there at least in, "Maybe four minutes? I have time, I'm made for this!"

Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out as she ran across the street and hustled through sidewalks, the chirping of birds, cats and her online friends cheering on for her were enough.

"I'M DOING A SPEED RUN TO SCHOOL AND I HOPE I WOULD GET THERE IN LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES, PLEASE PRAY FOR ME."

Except there were missing syllables and typos because she was running.

"GOOD LUCK BESTIE!" said Jungkook and Hoseok supportively, "Also, did yall read the announcement in the forums and game last night?"

Yoongi and Taehyung were suddenly online and asking the same questions, "What was it?"

Jungkook sent a screenshot from the said page and she squinted slightly, reading while the traffic slowly clear way for her. She tensed and grumbled again but her gaze halted on her phone screen as their chatroom lightened up more with Jimin, Namjoon and Seokjin checking in.

"An announcement for the clans?" she tried to grasp more details but that was all she concluded from it, "Why are they keeping it so mysterious though?"

"It better be good news for us aka the number one clan." Yoongi said smugly, typing with a baseball bat in his lap.

"Why are you smirking so cool, Yoongi?" his classmates burst the door down and ran toward him, gathering around excitedly without aim and he just let them, "What's the occasion?"

"There's not much." shrugged Yoongi, keeping the proud thoughts to himself. He didn't strike himself as someone who'd characteristically brag after all, "And what's with you guys?"

"Makchun is excited because a lot of girls are going to watch this practice." laughed one of them, "Little would we know that they're all only here for this Yoongi guy."

"Sad story." the others joined with a low-spirited laugh and Yoongi was just on his phone, scrolling through the official page of the game.

"Well, it's just that our practice finally coincided with his PE class. There will be boys joining us too?"

"Well, all you guys have to do is play well and try to get that spotlight too then. I'm giving yall the opportunity." he said relaxedly, catching the ball that he threw above his own head, the other hand still tapping the phone screen. The store room was lively but his mind was quiet as the sea, not that he noticed anything when he was calculating something on his phone with a basketball in his lap.

"Man, look at him." they teased jokingly, continuing to have a friendly banter as they changed into their PE clothes.

"The fragments required for the gun is 150," he mused pensively to himself, one leg up on the bench, "I only need to log in everyday and complete the daily task for... 20 more days. The drop rates for Thunder Shells to complete the tasks have been good for me too..." he was checking his phone again, sighing under his breath.

"We can't laze around now that we're the number one though! Let's push harder, fighting!" Jimin said.

After two years of clan matches against other clans in the game, they finally accumulated enough points and wins to be the number one clan in the ranking for Asia's server, all above the other clans from other countries. Checking the ranking board again, his eyes narrowed slightly to take account of their rivaling players.

It had been two years since the day Nari resoluted herself to be with her clanmates and together achieve this feat, also two years since she heard from Jin Daewi. Ever since, the CEO of Jin Corporation continued to make updates and contribution to the game, nothing really changed on the surface except that the previous top clan, Systema had been on a hiatus throughout the yesrs. However, it didn't lower their rank out of top five thanks to their slow but consistent points increase per weekly leaderboards, but it made her wonder what was really going on that her clan was eventually able to overtake them. She knew that one day her clan would surpass everyone else though. Other than that, Daewi's silence was deafening.

It could be that he was continuing his studies overseas. Money was still being sent into her accounts and it felt quiet. There was not a sign of Daewi even after his clan was surpassed by not one but four clans. She tilted her neck slightly as she walked into the school's front gate. Wasn't it way too quiet? She looked around suspiciously.

"Is the school closed today or —"

The shrieks and screams from beyond the school building startled her and she flinched, almost cursing because she actually hoped that school was really closed.

"Ah, they're in P.E class." she grinned to herself and waddled onward, maybe she could just sneak into the class and act like —"

Then she saw a teacher walking toward her with a reprimanding stare and her hope was shattered. She just strained a sheepish smile. Not even a month into this semester yet and she already bagged herself some demerits. She was holding herself back from pulling out her phone again, wanting to check the forums and see what had her online friends so chatty so early in the morning. She wasn't paying full attention to what the adult beside her was saying but followed after him from the school office to their vast school field.

"And if you repeat this again —"

"I know, sir." she accepted quietly, staring over the teacher's shoulder. Nari squinted to see through the sunlight, spotting her classmates and other classes, even some students with different school uniforms gathered to watch the game in the field, "You can trust that I know these rules, Mr. Seo, I've been there a lot."

"So why do you keep doing this?" the man sighed, scratching his head, "Your grades aren't bad but you have the potential to be a better student in all metrics if you were more punctual and not always absent for cram school."

She sighed softly, nodding under the pretense that she was just gloomy from scoldings when in reality she was dazed from watching the basketballers. No wonder the girls from other classes and schools too would come all the way solely to watch this one guy in the field.

"THAT'S MY BOY FOR YOU!" screamed their team's coach, cheering just as loud as the female students beside the field as Min Yoongi scored a clean, smooth throw into the hoop. She just stared from the building while the teacher flinched.

The sweat-glazed dark hair was swept back nicely as the young man gulped his water, bumping fists with his teammates. Under the sun, his pale skin was like the peach hue of a sunrise. Yoongi didn't seem to mind the people watching him and his buddies forcing him to huddle up together before their short break.

"My, what a period. Sungdeuk's hyped. Right, Nari were you even listening to me - hold on, aren't you supposed to change into P.E clothes? You're scratched up," he swallowed and gasped, "Don't tell me you —"

"It won't reach the school faculty, don't worry and it's not like I'm gonna play anyways since I'm terrible at sports." she chuckled casually, walking off to join her classmates at the benches. "What a nice morning air."

"Nari, you're late again?" giggled one of her classmates, pulling her to watch along with them.

"Sana, I'm —"

"You should've seen your classmates in the other round earlier, things were heating up." the black-haired girl with soothing voice next to Sana hummed.

"I didn't know you were into sports, Mina." Nari said blankly.

"I told my sit-in teacher that I was going to the restroom." Mina explained readily.

"Dahyun told her to be here to find you, actually." Sana said.

Mina nodded then turned to her, "She also wanted to talk to you yesterday but apparently your timetables always break off everything."

"She wanted to talk to me?"

Nari guessed it had something to do with Systema and TRO if Mina and Sana shrugged, since Dahyun wouldn't want them to know about their in-game matters, especially the clan issues. Mina had walked away to return to her class afterwards. Sana turned back to the field with excitement.

Nari was curious but her phone received a notification again.

"Can you guys be online from 5 to 7 pm today?" AgustD asked.

She subtly looked up from under her lashes after the text. She had known that AgustD was the Min Yoongi in her school and class all along. There was the live-streamed gameplay from that night two years ago and he had been more popular in the ever since, already a favoured jock in the school before the game. But of course, awkwardly, Yoongi probably still didn't know who his online friend 'Sol' was behind the screen, that she was his direct classmate all along.

"No problem with me." said Seokjin, "I just need to hand in some assignments first."

"College sounds like it hurts." Jungkook said.

"And after college, we start paying bills." she typed. "Oh and I'll be able to make it."

"Exactly, it doesn't end after the assignment." said Yoongi. She could see him on his phone from faraway.

Honestly, when would she show herself to them? It might actually feel pretty underwhelming at this point for Yoongi to find out that his clanmate had been her all along, who knows. That was one of the things she dreaded other than any of them asking her why she didn't come that night. Namjoon also just coincidentally transferred here this year, making it even more suspenseful for her sometimes.

"Stop, goddammit yall are making it worse." groaned Seokjin inwardly, partly paying attention to his lecturer.

"Good luck, hyung! I have a dance class too later, but I think I can leave early." Hoseok said.

"Nice. How about the rest of you? Namjoon? Tae? Jimin?" Yoongi asked, letting one of his teammates casually messaging his thigh as his peaceful, small smirk widened.

"I'm free 😏"

"What's with the emoji, Taehyungie? And is it true you skipped school today just because your PC broke? 😭 that's unfair! You're leaving me alone today??"

"LMAOOOOOOOOOO" said Seokjin and Jungkook. She just laughed at it quietly to not be given weird looks.

"Yall didn't know? So I guess he was asking only me if he should skip yesterday." she sent, holding in a laugh.

"And you encouraged him didn't you." Yoongi's text felt very flat.

"No I didn't, believe it or not. He decided it before I replied."

"Yeah I have no problems." Namjoon finally replied, "But are you guys even paying attention to your classes?"

"Says you. I'm in P.E class right now and taking a break."

She almost sent a "same" but quickly put away her phone instead. She just sat with her friends at the benches beside the field, warm sunlight basking the red-bricks of the school building and the cold morning field. It felt off for her sometimes, she'd feel like a weird liar, but she would also remind herself why she started getting this paranoid of showing herself. The basketballer was still on his phone.

"YALL!"

Yoongi unamusedly just stared back at his teammate who yelled and ran over to them, "Why are you screaming?"

"What's this about?" though the others tuned in very enthusiastically, he just drank his water.

"PSTPSTPTPTPTPPT —"

"It must be luck," said the guy beside him with such grateful and dramatized whisper. Yoongi just listened, just exhausted after the smooth game.

"What is it?" he asked, groaning lazily.

"You know how we always had wanted your class to watch us play?"

"Yeah?" Yoongi asked again, raising a brow cluelessly.

"Your class has Yoo Nari and Sana for god's sake, how are you just so chill with it?"

"Ah," a slight hitch unnoticeably took over his brows for a moment as his teammates began stretching to cool themselves, or for some other matter. He chuckled lowly under his breath, "Yoo Nari, huh."

"She's a pretty but I don't understand why yall fancy her, to be honest." said one guy and he was taken aback by their silent stares.

"She's actually nice, you're just saying that because she fights."

"Just say you're scared." snorted Yoongi casually, putting away his phone for a moment, "She's not even a delinquent in my opinion."

"I guess you're up-to-date somehow?" they looked at him with surprise, still wiping their sweat and resting while Nari was seen smiling with her friends in the bench rows across them.

"How could I not, she saved Makchun's ass in front of me just a week ago." he said, an amused smirk curving on his doll-like lips as he brushed them, "And Makchun has had a crush on her ever since, if I'm correct with my hunch?"

"Bro —?" they turned to Makchun, the quiet guy on his left and when the guy went blank, even Nari and Sana sitting from miles away could hear their sudden wows and what sounded like playful teasing.

"What's going on over there?" Sana squinted curiously.

"Probably just their boy talks, who knows." Nari said, taking out plasters from her pocket to paste it on her collarbone, knee, calf and change the one on her cheek.

"You're always injured with some scratches." Sana chuckled half-heartedly with concern, "Aren't you tired?"

"Don't worry about it though." she brushed it off casually and then looked over to the peaceful field.

"So you're not going to come to practice later?" Makchun frowned slightly.

"Yeah, I have some plans."

"Must be TRO again," they laughed light-heartedly, "So like, when are you going to make us meet your clanmates?"

"I wanna play with RM so bad." groaned one of them and Yoongi stared impassively.

"Make a move then, Namjoon literally transferred just this year and right next to your class. Also, yall already meeting me everyday in school."

"My little brother envies me for that." laughed his friend as he chugged a water bottle, "It does feel unreal sometimes to have you and RM, two of the eight members of the top clan BTS in the Asia server... arguably two of the best TRO players... studying in the same school as me... playing with me... Whoa."

"Oh and I want to play with Jungkook so bad." one said dreamily.

"JK? Damn, you're just going to humiliate yourself." he said casually as someone who knew his friends' gaming patterns well, "Play with Jimin. He'll be nice enough to let you win. Sometimes."

"I just wanna be friends with J-Hope and V to be honest, I'd trust them with my life." another guy said.

"V? His PC broke and he took a day off just because of it. Not sure if you wanna trust that." Yoongi couldn't hide his fondness when he spoke of his friends though.

"Speaking of your top clan, what about Sol?"

He stopped humming as all their eyes settled on him, looking genuinely curious. He calmly shrugged after a momentary silence.

"Damn, what are they so mysterious for?" Makchun mused.

"I've watched Sol play from JK's livestreams and even encountered them once in Explosion Mode by luck,"

"Really?!"

"How was the game?" he asked confidently.

"Could never forget. Carried the team, their kill and death stats were 31 kills and 3 deaths, 24 of the kills were headshots bro and bro..." the guy dramatically slowed, recalling some memories. "From 7-0, they brought it to 7-9 and we won. Continuous round wins after they joined the match."

"As expected." said Yoongi casually, "What gun did they use?"

"Same old Great White Shark and M4G. They sound nice but the fact that no one knows their real life identity is bothering me a little, somehow."

Yoongi had heard this plenty of times from even his own clanmates. In their group of friends, no one was exactly shady and hard to approach, everyone was welcoming, nice and decent. The kind of group anyone would feel like the right ones to befriend in a school. Having one of them so secretive did feel off and unfair. He sighed softly and looked at his phone, reading some of his previous texts with Namjoon.

"But hyung, if that's true..."

Nari got a notification from her phone and looked at it. She blinked uncertainly. AgustD sent a private message; like a habit, she'd steal a short glance from Yoongi first whenever he said something in the chats, and for once, the other guy was looking back at her. It might have just been a brief coincidence though since he could be looking at anything in her direction.

"Sorry for always making you follow my schedules when I don't know whether you're a working person or not."

So giggled quietly to herself, "I'm definitely not jobless though."

"You're a student though, right? You said you were going to be late for school."

She paused with a silent gasp. But there's no way he'd catch something like that unless he was naturally that observant. She knew he bumped into her twice back in Myeongdong that night in Seoul and that Yoongi had asked her like a year ago why she was there and injured, to which she answered with made-up lies like she was almost hit by some heavy boxes from a truck by the sidewalk, and that she was there just to shop in the popular district. So why did this online conversation give the same feeling as when she was asked back then?

"Yeah." she couldn't really avoid replying that.

"N-N-N-N-a-Na-Nari!" Sana and her classmates stuttering and squealing pulled her out of her trance. She stared confusedly as to why she was being shook so hard.

"What? What's wrong?" she blinked, watching how they were looking back and forth between the field and her, or between her and Yoongi. She felt a bit incredulous and sighed hopelessly, because all the man was doing was looking their way. If she were to be honest though, it did feel unnerving knowing he was her online friend. "He just glanced this way because of the sunlight, calm down."

"Nanana, I'm pretty sure he was looking right at you." Sana shook her head confidently.

"Huh -?"

The girls' murmurs distracted her again and she turned to the school field. The basketballers had brought baseball bats out and it seemed like they were changing the game and it already started by the time she put away her phone.

Now she was not mistaken though, Min Yoongi made eye contact with her as he helped his friends and instructed their positions. Their P.E teacher Sungdeuk were discussing something with Mr. Seo outside their storage room, so she supposed he was the second-in-command or something.

"Everyone, get out to the field." he yelled calmly from below, calling out the female students as it was their turn to use the other side of the field.

She was going to follow Sana go down but she only remembered that she was still wearing their school uniform when he raised a brow at her from the distance. Awkwardly, mostly because her suspicions were lingering from their online chats, she just sat back down again as Yoongi headed back to his position.

She turned into a shell of boredom and loneliness in the bench rows all alone as her classmates' games started, yawning silently.

"...Maybe this is fine but it feels weird because I'm the only one sitting here." she just waved half-heartedly at her classmates below who were doing stretches for warm-ups. The forums weren't updated yet when she checked every five seconds. She just had the feeling that every TRO player was holding their breath for the promised surprise announcement that could drop anytime.

Her gaze went back to the sports team who were playing baseball. Yoongi even checked his phone last minute before taking his stance as the batter. A pro gamer, stable grades and an athlete, her clanmate turned out to be an all-rounder. Winds blew her long hair to cascade on her shoulders. She brushed away the orange leaf that fell on her dark blue blazer, sighing.

"YOO!" shouted a guy from the field out of nowhere and she flinched in startlement, "WATCH US PLAY, OKAY? THESE DUDES OVER HERE WANT TO SHOW YOU SOMETHI -"

"SHUT UP YOU LIL' SNITCH, GET TO YOUR POSITION!"

She laughed awkwardly and just observed the smooth game since there was nothing much to do anyway, her palm on her cheek as she sat leaning forward, elbows on her lap relaxedly and eyes concentrated upon the game: Yoongi's bat didn't miss a single pitch with his sharp eyes she imagined he'd have whenever he played TRO. The satisfied smirks that came with his every successful counters were blinding if she were to be honest. It made her think of the AgustD in their team.

"Still, I should be sorry..." she muttered silently to no one in particular, "I really don't feel comfortable making anyone know my off-game identity."

"Yoongi, that was close!"

"Ah, my bad. I got distracted for a second." he laughed it off cheekily, the calm smiles seemingly never going to fade.

"He's doing very well though, didn't even miss that one." she commented quietly, still watching them play as the scratches under her plasters ached.

If she strived to be a professional gamer who would get invited to E-Sports Tournaments and competitions, she would eventually have to, no?

"Nari, can you come here for a moment?" yelled someone over her shoulders and she turned around. A teacher was calling for her from the school building, the next round continuing behind her. She couldn't hear the teacher well so she just got up with a little stagger.

She used kicks a lot to preserve her hands and fingers for TRO, didn't she. She only had herself to blame for this one. Yoongi might have unintentionally caught her almost slipping, his eyes widened for a second and he didn't pay attention to where he batted the ball -

"Hold on teacher, I'm coming." she said, looking back at the game with a short glance before moving through the long seats, feeling slightly disturbed somehow.

"Oh fuck, fuck."

"Mrs. Park wanted to see you for the special program, you are to meet her in her office now." said the teacher with a polite smile, her rulers and math-related books clutched in her chest.

"OH SHIT, YOONGI WHAT THE HELL?"

Yoongi completely understood their shock because he was panicked too, seeing the ball fly across and batted the other way, toward the stands where the baseball team could see their Maths teacher and Nari talking at.

"Mrs. Jihyo wants to see me? Ah, okay. Wait, now?" she blinked.

"It's fine, I will tell Mr. Sungdeuk about it. You should hurry —?"

"NARI, LOOK OUT!"

Swiftly she did but as the force-indused baseball throw thankfully missed her head, it bounced back to the benches and she unintentionally sprained her foot instead, shoving away the maths teacher without thinking about her own limbs turning recklessly out of the same panic.

"Oh my god!" the teacher gasped, clearly at first thought she was hit but then realized that Nari was on the ground with her hand over her already-patched foot instead. The field murmurred anxiously as the baseball team rushed over to the long benches, Yoongi in the front with guilt in his eyes.

Mr. Sungdeuk and the Mr. Seo had just came out of the storage room, the latter accidentally dropping his checklist. The girls' side on the field looked back at the stands confusedly, with confused and uncertain squeals when they squinted their eyes to see Yoongi holding out a hand to Nari.

"I'm so sorry, can you stand up?" He asked with his naturally deep, soothing voice but she felt embarrassed at the moment.

"I'm fine, the ball didn't even hit us." she said, trying to stand up and Yoongi frowned at her with clear worry on his face since she was holding in a grunt, "It's just a small sprain —"

"A sprain isn't a small thing!" her teacher sighed and looked around the gathering of athletes, "Yoongi, can you help with this?"

"Wait, wait, wait — yah I'm okay —?"

"I will, of course." Yoongi  had cut her off and gestured her to get on his back, "And you're still not okay, come on now."

---

At the infirmary, he just quietly sat across her bed as the staff helped with her foot and he'd turn away when he needed to. Her phone was muted just in case but texts wouldn't stop popping on her lockscreen, it was literally Yoongi's own texts.

"I think I almost killed somebody."

"Again?" Taehyung said.

"What do you mean AGAIN?" said Namjoon, his worry shooting out of the screen.

She couldn't read the rest as Yoongi deleted all of them quickly and she pocketed her phone.

"It's just a grade 1 ankle sprain right?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes, thankfully it's a mild one. You can walk with some pain but be careful." the school nurse replied and left for a while through the other room door, leaving the already-quiet infirmary quieter.

She heard Yoongi groan under his breath.

"Sorry again."

"It wasn't the ball though." she could see that he was feeling really guilty and that was quite enough. It was just on accident anyway, and he technically wasn't the one who hurt her.

"Yeah but if I didn't make that mistake, the ball would've never made you sprain yourself to move away." he stressed firmly as he faced her, "It could have been bad after all."

"Anyways, your apologies are accepted." she chuckled quietly. The breeze from outside the windows blew silent and gently into the empty infirmary.

Yoongi scanned her before him incredulously, sure he had known that the girl was just as laid-back as himself but he didn't expect her to be so forgiving. Actually, she never really stated that it was okay but just said that his apologies were accepted.

Way to converse with her for once, Yoongi. He sighed softly at himself, peeking a little.

"Don't worry about it, really. Thanks for helping me to get here." she said, smiling. Their phones were probably both still ringing with muted notifications. She felt nervous for that reason.

"They said you'll have to stay here for some hours?"

She nodded, not feeling down at all when she could use the time to secretly scroll on her phone. He nodded quietly, nibbling on his lower lips.

"By the way, do you play TRO?"

She was caught off-guard for a second, "That game?"

"Yeah." he casually nodded again, looking right at her with his head slightly tilted.

"No, why?"

"You don't?" he frowned and her eyes darted around.

"I'm not just terrible at sports but also at games, if you didn't know." she lied flatly with an ordinary smile in an attempt to get her way through this but damn the way he looked so unconvinced for some reasons was worrying.

"You can fight but you're terrible at sports?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Sports is so different from streetfighting, it doesn't have anything to do with batting and all that." she said conversationally. Why did it feel like he wasn't taking her seriously? She wasn't lying here.

"Oh, I understand now." he said sarcastically, he actually just wanted to tease her a little. "If you remember, I've talked to you like this a year ago and asked you some questions right?"

"Hmm," her mind speedily functioned to reply normally, "Yep. Why?"

"I still don't think your injuries that night were from heavy bags falling on your back."

Of course it wasn't, I was panicking last year when you asked me. "So - hold on, why are you so curious about that?" she frowned slightly and wasn't getting an answer. Sighing softly, she prepared to lie. "Okay so you see, as you can see even now, I'm always getting myself into fights right?"

"Yeah."

"Just the same thing happened that night." she nodded. Her natural doe eyes should be helpful at times like this and she added in a cheek-puffing smile.

"You got into a fight?" his gaze remained on her.

"Yep."

"When you were just shopping in Myeongdong?" he raised a brow.

"Yep."

"You're very odd. How are you even a —"

"I'm not a delinquent." she said, looking misunderstood.

"I get it," he chuckled again, "you seem too sweet to actually be one."

She blushed faintly and stared back at him but his gaze was so calm that it didn't feel like flirting, simply a casual statement. He didn't always look like the type to flirt, but there was this potential with that air of confidence always around him.

"Oh," she swallowed silently, "Anyways, are you going to be fine?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, momentarily dazed at her softened gaze as she sat at the edge of the bed across him.

"You wouldn't get into trouble from your teammates or the coach for this, right?" she'd hate to make him punished for it when she wouldn't even be at the infirmary if it weren't for herself.

"I think I'll get some scoldings. I should buy your lunch today."

"What? Thanks in advance!" she lit up brightly, smiling.

"You — I didn't think you would just take it so easily."

"I like free food and, you're definitely going to be forgiven with my whole heart for that." she said casually. Nari couldn't tell if she was being too casual or just being her own leisurely self, maybe because she mixed their online casualness in, "But you don't really have to do that."

"I literally could've broken your bones." he laughed amusedly, "I'm not joking now, I guess. I will just treat you today as an apology."

"The class has probably ended now, are you not going back to practice?" she asked, eyes on his hand. Now that she noticed it, he was wearing chain bracelets and earrings to the practice.

"You want me to go now?" he blinked.

"I think the staff will be back soon and... I just don't want to get you in more possible trouble," she shrugged.

"Talking as if I'm not the trouble," he sighed and got up, maybe she just needed a quieter environment but before he headed to the exit, "Wait. Right. You said you're terrible at games?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you really never played TRO? Or any games?"

There was no way he was still suspecting her like the two years before, was there? She shouldn't reveal herself even if she wanted to.

"The popular game that you're famous for being good at? This is the third time you've asked in total." she said, hoping to feign cluelessness with her little brow curve, "But no, I honestly don't even play games much. Why?"

He turned his full body to face her again, arms on his chest with a strangely thoughtful look. "That's strange..."

"How is that strange, not everyone is going to check out a game just because." she chuckled.

"Well, because last week, I happened to —"

There was a knock on the door at his back and they turned to the teacher who just walked in with some papers in her hand, the name tag 'Park Jihyo' on her blazer.

"Oh, right! I forgot I needed to see you," Nari scrambled messily but the woman and Yoongi had nervously held her to sit back where she was as if she forgot her own state. She mumbled sheepishly, scratching her head. "Sorry you had to come all the way here."

"No, don't worry about it because you're... scratched up again." Mrs. Park sighed unsurprisedly, referring to her foot.

"So she really does always get into stuff like this?" Yoongi said nonchalantly, hands in his pockets and probably felt her side-eyeing him.

"Frequently but she rarely ends up in the infirmary like this at least," the woman said as she handed her some papers, "Anyways, I was here to give you these forms."

"When do I pass it up to you?"

Yoongi found himself trying to peek or listen in to everything and ended up subconsciously concluding that she seemed to have good relationships with most teachers despite her reputation. Other than the tiny plasters and bandages on her, she had milky-like smooth skin, pretty eyes and he noticed that she somehow never injured her hands. She gave a short glance at him, raising a brow to say "what?" and he just calmly shook his head.

"Anytime, but before 13th April. You have 3 days, it's Tuesday today. Heal before that."

She just laughed as she looked through the papers in her hand, "I'll try to."

"Well then, aren't you supposed to be back at the field or class? See you then." the teacher asked him and he stuttered, but she already turned to leave them anyway.

"What's the form about?" he asked.

"You're so curious about me, back up a little will you?" she sighed, casually waving the papers to shoo him in a somewhat playful sense. As if they were friends. She covered her gasp when she realized.

"I am a guy, you know." he still went along and guessed that they were being too chill for her.

"It's uh, just for the special program." she answered anyway, reading through.

"Huh?" his calm gaze flickered slightly and she heard a little stutter as if he wasn't believing it? "I didn't... I didn't know you were part of the program."

"I've been a part of it for years, actually." she giggled quietly and grabbed a pen from her pocket to write. He was still standing there to watch her, not a comment.

It was a program to help financially-unstable students with lending some money and she had been relying on this for the past years. Of course, she was still being sent money by Jin Corporation but only used them for her grandmother's medicines and essentials like food. Why did he find it so surprising though? "You've mostly been outside classes since you have sports competitions and all that, I guess you just didn't know."

He eyed her again and she stared back, catching his gaze. He turned away quickly but it was obvious. She turned to the side-table beside the bed to place the papers.

"Did I not look like it because it's Apgujeong High School?" she hummed as she filled in some of the lines in the form, a calm smile always adorning her lips. I'm barely surviving. Since she'd pick off Jin Daewi's money too.

"I don't know how to reply to that." he said, still gazing at her.

"Sorry if I made you uncomfortable somehow," she chuckled, "You should head to the field now right?"

"Yeah, see you during lunch."

And he left by walking backwards. It didn't seem like he was going to bring up what he got cut off from asking earlier.

Wait. Did he say see me during lunch?

She probably shouldn't have accepted his treat, this was just keeping near someone who she needed to hide from. She muffled her whine into the table surface when she realized.

---

"Yah Namjoon," Yoongi was typing on his phone, walking leisurely in the hallway, the small frown on his face still pensive. "Yeah, she really is suspicious. I literally happened to see her heading to the PC cafe last week and her friends just casually told me that she always go there after school."

"Right? Why would she lie about that?" Namjoon pondered pensively, texting under his desk while listening to the teacher's explanation by the whiteboard. "And you said you're gonna eat lunch with her? You should be more discreeeet."

"Yeah but you know? The program thing..." He leaned against a pillar calmly, eyes on the phone.

"Yeah, that kinda spins it around. We all rationally felt that Sol was RICH rich since they organized that sponsorship two years ago..."

"I'm confused but she's still suspicious."

End of Chapter One

A/N: this chapter felt kinda slow-paced ngl and i havent even written any in-game parts yet but haha stay tuned for some centuries maybe, who knows 😭 readers prolly know a little of whats gonna happen in the next few chapters cuz of the long ass summary i always give 😩 And this might feel like a kdrama lmaooo I hope yall don't mind me using lots of gifs because I like to make the story feel uhhh light and real? Idk the right word but anyways...