by the sidelines • haechan

twenty two

I bowed to him as he dismissed me, trudging towards the benches that were now empty because everyone had already left. Well, almost everyone.

"Let me guess, you asked if you could opt out, didn't you?" Donghyuck sniggered as I was taken aback by his spot-on observation.

"How did you know?"

"I was already here when Coach Lee joined, so you can say I know what he's talking about just by the duration and his expressions. Judging by how long you've been standing there, he most likely gave you a pep talk."

I couldn't help but scoff at his reply. "You're unnecessarily observant," I muttered, picking up my belongings and getting ready to leave.

"You're not really opting out, are you?" Doubt arose in his voice as I whipped around immediately.

"Don't worry, I'm not," I announced out loud, although I was still contemplating on the inside. I don't want to make a fool of myself in front of both clubs, but I would be a bigger fool to sit at the corner and spectate.

Donghyuck smirked as he walked towards me, stopping beside me and commenting, "We'll see next Wednesday."

Yeah, we'll see next Wednesday.

---

Ping!

My phone sounded with an incoming message as I picked it up to see who it was from.

---
Self-training
(3 members)

Ju Haknyeon
yo guys
since there's friendly next week
wanna train after training?
just for another 1h

Lee Donghyuck
you're gonna tire yourself out
at least omit the days we train
at night

Me
i'm in for anything
just let me know the time

Ju Haknyeon
oh yeahhhhh
every day until next week?

Lee Donghyuck
dude

Ju Haknyeon
fine
this sat and sun at 6?

Lee Donghyuck
👍

Me
alright see you

---

I threw my phone onto my side table and sighed loudly.

It all depends on your mindset, whether you're fixated on achieving what you want to achieve.

What do I want to achieve? Defeat Son Yeonhee? A gold medal? Point gap? No, those were my previous goals. What are my current goals?

You can train a thousand times with targets and planned attacks, but when it comes to actual competitions, you won't be able to do anything.

Sigh, it's not that I've never been to a friendly match before; I had tons of experiences with different clubs, both in and out of Seoul. And he was absolutely right, no amount of training can fulfil the role of these matches, they are what helped build my confidence up to where it was before.