GO-GETTER! | gyuricky

⋆ 10 ⋆

"Doesn't matter. What does matter is that we should call off practice today." At the suggestion, everyone's jaws went slack. Even Hao, who had no idea what went on during practice, was shocked at the revelation. The basketball team had never called off a practice before!

"What?!" Jiwoong exclaimed, standing up and fully facing Ricky as if that would help him understand better. "We can't do that. We have a game coming up— We have to be as prepared as possible!" he argued, stepping closer to Ricky to reason with him.

"That's my point. How are we supposed to be 'as prepared as possible' if we're missing a whole member? It's just one practice day. He'll be back by Monday." Ricky refuted Jiwoong's argument, using the argumentative skills that he'd acquired from being a part of the debate team for 4 months in the 8th grade.

"Dude, that's not a smart move, though! We should be ready for all possibilities—four members or five, we should be ready for anything." Jiwoong was ready to fight for his cause. He knew what Ricky was trying to do, and as much as he was a supporter of Gunwook's "Gyuricky" idea, he wasn't going to let it slide.

"What if he never heals? What will we do if we have to play with four members and we have no idea what to do?" Hanbin spoke up amidst the chaos, walking down the bleacher's stairs to have a one-on-one conversation with Ricky. "Ricky, I know you're worried, but we can't just cancel practice." he tried empathizing with the other to better convince him.

"I know that you don't give a shit about my feelings and that they shouldn't influence basketball, but listen to me this one time—" Ricky straightened his posture (as if it weren't already perfect) and readied himself for another rejection. "Gyuvin isn't deadly sick. God, Hao himself said that he'd be fine within two days. He's had these two days to heal and he'll have the rest of the weekend to get better too. Don't you trust Hao?"

Pulling the Hao card may not have been the best idea, but Ricky had to do what was right. He knew they'd get nowhere if they were missing a whole member—they'd already seen it when Keonhee had left for a tour of his new school a week before the competition. Nobody was yapping about "all the possibilities" back then!

"I–" Hanbin froze at the mention of his close buddy. Not wanting to deny his trust in Hao when the older was right behind him, he cleared his throat and responded; "Of course I trust Hao! I trust Hao just as much as I trust you and everyone here... I..." Hanbin bit his lip in thought, turning around and looking at the rest of the people in the area to read their faces.

Jiwoong looks agitated, telling Hanbin that he should not cancel practice. Hao looked supportive of both outcomes, giving the captain a soft smile and a reassuring thumbs up that did everything but reassure him. And Gunwook...

...He was playing Angry Birds on his phone. Hanbin thought it was safe to say that the younger male could not care less.

"...Fine." Hanbin sighed, giving Ricky the satisfaction he needed to continue on with the day. He could hear Jiwoong fall to the ground behind him, but the older was acting like a grown baby at the moment anyway.

"Thanks." Ricky barely smiled; his attempt at appearing grateful ended up looking sour and sarcastic. Hanbin tried to ignore that.

"Yeah..." Hanbin nodded skeptically, already regretting his decision. "Have a good weekend." he appended in an attempt to sound more normal.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm off." And as soon as he'd entered, Shen Ricky was gone.

🏀

Gyuvin was cold.

Out of everything the dorms had, the heating system sucked. It barely worked and always had to be adjusted, at least according to Hao it did.