Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: Rxel
Chapter 199 “Basketball?”
Woojoo tilted his head.
It wasn’t time yet.
He was curious, but he got up from his seat for the sake of the waiting teammates.
Woojoo waved to his siblings who said they would come to cheer him on later, and asked Han Taehyun, “Isn’t it too early for basketball?”
Woojoo glanced at his wristwatch.
They still had an hour left until the standby time that the production team told them.
Han Taehyun nodded.“Well, yeah. But we haven’t practiced together yet.”
“Oh.”
They only knew each other by face, so it seemed like he wanted to do some practice before the main game.
Who was on their team?
Woojoo was looking at the faces of the teammates when it happened.
“…”
Woojoo felt a gaze and turned his head. He was staring at Woojoo with a puzzled look.
“Why?”
“You’re weird.”
“I’m always weird.”
“Oh, right… No, that’s not it.”
He looked at Woojoo as if he was seeing him for the first time.
Then he scratched his head with a confused expression.
“You’re really weird.”
“What is?”
“You’re too relaxed for a practice game.”
“Too relaxed?”
Did he make a strange face without knowing?
The members teased him earlier for smiling every time he shot an arrow.
Woojoo was thinking about this and that when Han Taehyun blurted out, “You look too comfortable.”
“…?”
“You were stiff when we practiced dancing. You always tense up when you have to use your body. But now you look super relaxed.”
“…Huh?”
Now that he mentioned it, he was right.
When Woojoo was a klutz, he would freeze up whenever he had to do something that required physical skills.
But not now.
He was relaxed when he did archery, and even now when he was going to play a practice game with strangers.
He was at ease.
When he realized that, he stopped walking.
“Hyung?”
“…I.”
Woojoo was relaxed before exercising.
“Awesome…”
Wow.
This was amazing.
Woojoo made a grateful expression and he blinked.
“Why are you suddenly amazed?”
“There is. Something like that.” Woojoo said with a smile, “You don’t need to know. Idiot.”
“Hey, what is it.”
Woojoo ignored his questions and walked towards the stairs that led to the basement.
The sun shining through the window was warm like his mood.
The auxiliary stadium.
This place was located on the second basement floor of the indoor gymnasium. The shooting preparation was almost done.
The staff were walking around with relaxed faces, while the teammates gathered to warm up.
Hanjo and Woojoo did some national exercises and looked around.
“Is that the banner that the Roll Cakes prepared?”
“Yes, it is. And…” Woojoo whispered and put his hand over his mouth, “It’s Soufflé.”
“Oops…”
While Hanjo said ‘oops’, Woojoo turned his head with a smile.
Woojoo saw a black banner with white calligraphy that said ‘Do well in basketball, Jenmin’. It looked like it was prepared by the Soufflés.
Woojoo pointed to the banner next to him that said ‘Go Hanjo Go’.
“Wow. That’s the banner that the Cement guys prepared.”
“It’s Concrete.”
“Oops…”
Woojoo made an awkward face, but then they locked eyes and burst into laughter.
Hanjo said, “The fans will be coming in there soon, right? Our members will be cheering for you from down there.”
“Yes, I’m nervous.”
“I’m worried too. I want to do well…”
Woojoo wasn’t too nervous about playing basketball itself, but he felt tense thinking about doing it in front of the fans.
Unlike archery, where he just had to stand and shoot arrows, this required him to move his body around a lot.
And it was team play.
It wasn’t enough for him to do well alone, he also had to coordinate with the other team members.
“Come on, let’s gather up!”
Han Taehyun, who was the captain, called the team members.
As Woojoo stood shoulder to shoulder with the unfamiliar team members, Han Taehyun showed them a piece of paper.
“Before the director comes, I want to make an entry, but I don’t know the skills or play styles of the team members. So I was thinking of having a practice match…”
He looked around the basketball court and said, “We’ll do it on a half court. We’ll split into 5 vs 5.”
There were ten team members, but only five would play in the game.
The players would be substituted depending on the progress of the game, but it was important to be in the first lineup.
That was why everyone was eager to show their skills.
“Question.”
Hwiyeon from Teen Spirit raised his hand politely.
Han Taehyun nodded and the other asked, “What about the teams?”
“Um… let’s divide them by chance. Whatever.”
The ten idols gathered their hands together.
Someone shouted as if to start a chant, “Okay, then flip it over…”
“Flip it over?”
Everyone started to murmur.
“Isn’t it Dedenchi?”
“I know it as Ddyenddyenppo.”
“In my neighborhood, flipping it over is the rule…”
After a brief vote on the team-splitting slogan, they agreed on ‘flip it over’.
“Flip it over!”
After a few tries.
The palms facing up and down were exactly five each.
“…!”
They lifted their heads and checked their team members, then gathered together.
Hanjo and Han Taehyun were on the other side.
And on his team, there was Wild’s Woosan and…
“Ah, shit. I’m so thirsty.”
The pretty boy from Teen Spirit gulped down water.
Then he met Woojoo’s eyes and Hwiyeon quickly offered him water.
“Do you want some?”
“No…”
“I didn’t touch it with my mouth.”
Woojoo waved his hand at him with a smile.
“I’m not thirsty.”
“Oh.”
Then he emptied the water bottle as if he was thirsty.
Thump! Thump!
The sound of basketballs echoed on the court. It was the sound of the other team bouncing the balls as a demonstration.
As Woojoo watched them, he heard Hwiyeon’s voice next to him.
“Hyung. You’re really good at basketball, right?”
Oh. Surprise.
He got him.
“…Well, I don’t know yet. I don’t think I’m that good, even if I am.”
“No way. You look like you’re good.”
“…?”
As Woojoo gave him a curious look, he said with a confident voice, “People who are good at shooting arrows are also good at basketball.”
“…”
“Why?”
Why…?
As Woojoo looked at him with curiosity, he said as if it was obvious, “Because I’m like that.”
Oh. He wanted to brag about himself.
Woojoo gave him a look of admiration as he rubbed his shoulders with his school friends, and he nodded his head.
“Please take care of me.”
“Yes, me too. Sunbae-nim.”
The game started without any strategy meeting.
They divided the teams by rolling up their sleeves, and their side was blue.
The heater was not on yet, and Woojoo felt the chilly air of the stadium on his skin as he swallowed his saliva.
Thump! Thump!
The first attack was by the team with Han Taehyun.
Hanjo, one of the Street Boys, hit the ball with a serious face.
He looked like he played basketball quite a bit as a hobby, judging by his wrist snap and dribble.
Maybe it was because of his mature appearance, but Woojoo thought he looked like a handsome college senior bouncing the ball.
As he was dribbling, Hanjo suddenly accelerated.
He bent his body and lightly pushed away the person who was blocking him, and then passed the ball to someone else.
Clack.
The ball was in Han Taehyun’s hand as soon as it touched it, and their teammates moved quickly.
“Block him!”
Woojoo moved along with the others who were heading to the goal.
He still felt a bit awkward moving his body.
He wasn’t used to this.
It was fine when he played one-on-one with Junghyun, but now that he had to play a group game, his body didn’t adapt.
He had no focus.
People were shouting and moving everywhere, and he couldn’t keep up with their movements.
“Block him! Block him!”
“…!”
Uh oh.
Han Taehyun, who lowered his body deeply, made a paint motion and came towards Woojoo.
A short moment of 0.5 seconds.
At that moment, Woojoo thought he saw something like a smile on his lips as he tried to pass him.
“…?”
At that moment, Woojoo’s body moved without him knowing.
He didn’t know how to describe the feeling, but he had a gut feeling of what he had to do.
What motion he had to make in this situation.
He calmly stretched out his hand to match the angle he was advancing.
And then…
“…!”
The ball that was moving from his left hand to his right hand was snatched by Woojoo’s hand in the middle.
The spinning ball was caught in his hand with a thud.
“…?”
“…?”
Both of them were surprised.
Did he… succeed?
But there was no time to waste.
With his heart pounding, Woojoo quickly turned his body and got into a good angle for shooting.
Wow. It worked.
He felt like he was in a trance as he dribbled.
“Pass! Pass!”
“Block him!”
Their team asked for the ball and passed, and the other team followed him right away.
Woojoo looked for a pass angle, but there was no gap.
There was only one choice.
Woojoo bent his knees and naturally performed the shooting motion that he had practiced for the last few days.
He lightly jumped.
He kept his elbow close.
He threw the ball at a moderate height.
He put a spin on the ball with his fingertips and pushed it with his right hand.
After finishing the shot.
“…”
Everyone’s eyes were on the ball that was drawing a parabola in the air.
The basketball that flew with a picture-like trajectory soon went into the hoop.
Thud!
Without bouncing off the rim.
It went in perfectly and the sound of the ball wrapping around the net rang out. A small cheer erupted.
“Nice!”
“Well done!”
The team members with bright faces ran over and gave Woojoo a high-five.
Hwiyeon patted Woojoo’s shoulder with a pleased face.
“See? If you can shoot arrows well, you can play basketball well too.”
Their team was smiling.
The other team was also slightly ‘hmm…’ but mostly ‘oh’ in their reaction.
Anyway, this was just a game among themselves, and they would play together in the real game later, so it was a good thing.
Hanjo also passed by with a smile.
“Woojoo, you’re a hundred percent starter.”
“No, I was lucky.”
Woojoo waved his hand and denied it, but he thought that stealing the ball and shooting it just now was pretty convincing.
And…
Their captain, who had to make the starting lineup, was staring at Woojoo with a blank face.
“…What?”
Han Taehyun blinked his eyes.
While the other team members moved to their positions, he waved his fingers around with a confused face.
“So you stole the ball from me and… No, that’s not it. This is…”
“What do you mean, that’s not it?”
Woojoo smirked, but he still couldn’t relax his expression.
“Is this even… no, possible?”
“To be honest, I was just lucky.”
“…”
Woojoo felt proud, but he also thought that it might have been a fluke.
He should try it a few more times.
As he ran with that thought, something came to his mind.
“Oh, right.”
“…?”
“I forgot to tell you this.”
Woojoo smiled at him, who still looked dumbfounded and incredulous.
“Thanks for the assist just now.”
“Hey!”
Woojoo ran away laughing from him who shouted.
Even after archery was over, he had said things like ‘You don’t know basketball’, ‘Dribble? You?’ to him. It was the moment when Woojoo finally got back at him.
Ah.
It felt so good.
The audience started to enter the auxiliary stadium.
The production team set up the camera angles, checked the sound and other situations.
Today, Yoo Seonghoon, the director of the basketball team ‘Left Hand is Just a Decoration’, calmly scanned the starting lineup.
‘Taehyun, Hwiyeon, Woojoo, Hanjo, Woosan…’
He looked at the faces of the five players written on the paper.
A handsome man who looked like he would have fun.
A pretty boy with a refined smile.
A creature who looked like he was from another world.
A college student council president.
A handsome Doberman.
While he was looking at the lineup, the audience was cheering and calling their singers.
The idol members sitting on the bench responded by raising their hands and shouting.
Director Yoo asked, “Are you going with this lineup?”
“Yes, Director,” the captain, Han Taehyun, answered. “They are all good and have similar skills, but we agreed on the starting lineup after the practice game.”
In other words, they had tried it once among themselves and picked the best five without any objections.
“Captain, wait a minute.”
“Uh, yes.”
He quietly asked the captain who came to him, “Who do you think is the priority for substitution here?”
“They are all so good…”
“Just tell me.”
“Well, Hwiyeon’s condition is not very good today,” he answered with a smile.
Director Yoo nodded as if he understood his evasive way of speaking.
“Then who is the one who can’t be taken out here?”
“I want to say it’s me, but…”
Han Taehyun pointed to a name with his finger.
“New Black Woojoo?”
“…He’s good.”
“Yeah?”
Director Yoo tilted his head.
He had participated in the Dolympic basketball section as a director last year.
Han Taehyun of TNT was a member who could say he was good at basketball among idols.
He had thought that he was the ace of this team before he came.
“How good is he?”
“I don’t know how to explain it. He’s not very strong or skilled, you know? His skill itself is not amazing, but… he has a huge presence in terms of teamwork.”
“Hmm… I see.”
He gestured as if he could go back now.
He could see the details when he entered the game anyway.
While he was checking the lineup, Director Yoo’s eyes turned to him who was sitting on the bench and shrugging his shoulders.
‘…He’s handsome.’
He looked like he would attract a lot of cheers even if he didn’t play and just stood as a totem.
‘He’s that good?’
He didn’t look like it at a glance.
As he looked around, he noticed that the other team members were occasionally glancing at Seon Woojoo while communicating with their fans.
‘They look so amazed by something…’
He was genuinely curious about what had happened during the practice match.
Meanwhile, after the ‘Left Hand is Just a Decoration’ team had entered first, the opposing team started to make their entrance.
“Wow!”
It was the ‘Zi Zone Basketball’ team, led by Jun, who was voted the MVP last year.
The ten players in red uniforms waved their hands to the audience as they entered.
Maybe it was because of their dazzling lineup.
Zi Zone Basketball, the strongest contender for the championship among the four teams this year, entered with confident steps.
A smile played on their lips.
‘We’re going to win this match.’
The other team was weak.
Except for Han Taehyun of TNT, there was no one worth paying attention to.
Hwiyeon and Woosan were pretty good, but there were plenty of members with similar skills here.
And the other two were rookies.
One of them had shown a dominant presence when he did archery, but this was basketball, where team play was important.
And their team had members of Daydream, who had been in the basketball club since elementary school to middle school.
The announcer’s voice rang out.
-Wow. They’re really impressive.
-They’re the most powerful contender for the championship this year, right? They have Jun as their captain, who was the MVP last year.
-He showed amazing skills last year, didn’t he?
As they listened to the conversation, the ‘Zi Zone Basketball’ team headed to their spot.
“…?”
By this point, the other team should be a bit nervous.
But that was not the case.
‘…?’
They looked more relaxed than them.
They smiled smugly, as if they had prepared some special trick, and looked at them.
Was it because of their green uniforms?
‘What is it?’
They looked like Slytherins with those expressions.
Feeling uneasy, they headed to their seats, when some of them looked at one of the members.
The leader of New Black, who had shot arrows like Jumong in archery today.
To be exact, it was not him they looked at, but the four handsome men who were waving placards enthusiastically in the upper seat.
-Jenmin, your face is a blessing
Woojoo’s face was blended with a gold medal, creating a huge poster that looked like a golden archer. They shook it at the same time.
But what caught their eyes was not the strange poster, but their expressions.
‘What’s with them?’
They were not even playing, but they looked very arrogant. They were the members of New Black.
“…”
By now, something felt weird.