Music to my ears - Zhuo Zhi

Chapter 24 - Distracted

The tennis team was now preparing to face against No. 3 High School, the school they would face next.

Currently, Siyang was giving his team members a small speech. "Just because Ying Cai's team forfeited against us doesn't mean we can start slacking. The next matches will only get harder which means we have to work harder," he finished off, dismissing everyone with a final gaze.

The team dispersed and headed off, each to work on their separate training that A-Yan had especially designed for them.

Zhuo Zhi blinked, realizing that everyone around him was walking away, before moving too.

Turning on a tennis ball machine, he mechanically hit the balls as they flew toward him.

Noticing that Zhuo Zhi had missed a ball, something that never happened, Yan Zhiming walked over. "Zhuo Zhi, are you alright? You seem distracted," he stated, concerned.

Zhuo Zhi looked up. "I'm fine, I just didn't get enough sleep last night," he replied, flashing his best reassuring smile.

Zhiming tilted his head slightly in a nod. If he picked up on Zhuo Zhi's forced cheerful tone, he didn't mention it. "Okay, let me know if you need to adjust your training schedule today," he said, adjusting his glasses, before walking away.

The guy needed new glasses if he had to adjust them every time he talked.

Truthfully speaking though, Zhuo Zhi was distracted. He had been distracted since last night, and the distraction had kept him up until morning. As much as he tried to avoid it, every time there was a silence, Zhuo Zhi's thoughts drifted back to Zhihao. It was terrible.

At least that girl wasn't here at practice today, which brought a little solace to Zhuo Zhi.

Shaking his head out of his thoughts, Zhuo Zhi took a break from tennis, instead choosing to go bother Jiale, who was, as usual, dramatically sprawled across the ground. He needed a distraction from his distraction.

"You look like you need a Yan-Juice," Zhuo Zhi causally greeted him with quirked lips.

Jiale flinched at Zhuo Zhi's words, rolling over to his front. "Please don't. I'm suffering enough already."

Unbothered, Zhuo Zhi cheerfully continued, "I can get you one if you want, I'm sure A-Yan will be happy to provide one."

Jiale just grunted, face down on the floor, too tired to argue with Zhuo Zhi today. The standing man just sighed before giving up. How boring.

On an impulse, Zhuo Zhi then walked over to Siyang, already anticipating the scolding he would get for not practicing.

And of course, he was right. "Zhuo Zhi, why aren't you practicing?" The man immediately questioned him.

Zhuo Zhi just shrugged, a small grin on his face. "Didn't feel like it."

Siyang slightly exhaled, seemingly collecting himself. "Did you not hear me say that this is not the time to be slacking off earlier?" He reminded the man.

Shrugging again, Zhuo Zhi responded, "I heard." He in fact had not heard. Which Siyang had already figured, judging by the minuscule tightening of his jaw.

The captain took a deep breath, refusing to give into Zhuo Zhi and give him a reaction, before addressing the man again. "30 laps," he commanded in a hard tone.

Zhuo Zhi scrunched his face, about to protest, when Siyang cut him off. "And then go right back to your training."

Zhuo Zhi just sighed. How very boring. "Yes sir. Whatever you say, duìzhǎng." With a mirthless chuckle, he set off to jog around the court. (captain)

The genius was on his 25th lap, hardly breaking a sweat, when he got closer and closer to a gossiping Jiale, and realized that he was talking to Dachi about Zhihao when he overheard her name.

Ignoring the skip his heartbeat made, Zhuo Zhi sped his pace up, away from Jiale, away from his conversation.

I shouldn't be making this into such a big deal. It's just a small.. crush, Zhuo Zhi hesitantly used the word, trying to reassure himself that everything was okay. Nothing more. It's only because Zhihao is an interesting person to be around, that's why.

It'll go away eventually, right?

~~~

A/N: I don't really have an A/N for this tbh. Anyway back to his defense mechanisms Zhuo Zhi goes (I edited the Strangers/Friends chapter a bit to make his defense mechanism more clear)

I'm not sure if this is moving the relationship too fast. Idk about y'all, but I catch feelings real fast, but they're normally really shallow and just you know, small, harmless crushes. Which is what I'm kinda going for right here. It's not like the dude is in love or anything... yet.

Also I just realized that in Photograph, another fanfic of Zhuo Zhi (I really like it and recommend it btw), the oc is also Tang Jiale's sister.. I promise I wasn't trying to copy the author or anything, I just really thought that tang jiale was such a brother person... that's my bad 😬

- Apple <3