My name is Jaemin Na. I'm 18 and I attend East SM Highschool. I have straight A's, I play basketball and swim, I'm a mathlete, I'm in the science club, literature club, and play tournament chess. My parents signed me up for all this because they want me to be great. I'm not allowed to join choir or dance team because they aren't serious careers. It's a shame really because I love to dance and sing. But that doesn't matter. What does matter is the basketball game tonight. We play against the most ego-centric team in the league; West SM High.
...
"Okay Ladies! Tonight's game is the most important game of the season! We can't let those bastards of West SM beat us or we'll never hear the end of it. I want to see every single one of you giving it your all. If you aren't dying by the end of the night you didn't try hard enough. Now enough standing around. Go run 20 laps!" - Johnny
"If this is any indication of how tonight's going to go I'd rather just die now before we suffer." - San
"Me too!" - Hyunsuk
I could hear my teammates around me complaining about what's to come but I couldn't focus on their words. I was too distracted by the B I got on my Ap Calc test this morning. If my parents find out, they'll take my phone for being 'too distracted'. I was royally screwed. I was so distracted I didn't notice we had stopped running until I felt a ball crash into the side of my head.
"Jaemin! What are you doing! Start doing drills!" - Johnny
"Yes sir. Sorry sir" - Jaemin
I couldn't wait for this stupid game to be over.
...
6:30 pm. There was officially half an hour until the game started. We were in the locker room listening to Johnny's pre-game 'motivational' speech, it was more just him yelling threats about if we lose when we heard the warning buzzer signaling it was time for warm-ups. When we got to the gym, the other team was already warming up. They looked HUGE. We all could tell this wasn't going to be an easy game to win.
Two quarters in and we were down 27 points. The other team was aggressive and almost every single one of them was twice as strong as us. It was the most unfair game we've ever had to play. Even Johnny had stopped yelling. Everyone knew we were gonna lose this game. It's not like I cared either way, but I didn't want to let my team down. I may have been forced to be here, but the other kids weren't and I wasn't about to give up because I didn't care.
I stepped out on the court face to face with a boy a little taller than me, but he definitely had more muscle. We started to play and all of the sudden I felt myself fall to the ground. I looked up to see the same boy smirking over me. I had had enough with this god-awful team and their unfair gameplay. I stood up and punched that smug bastard right in the nose. I smiled as I watched blood stream down his nose which he was now holding. He was pissed at this point and started to lunge for me when the ref blew his whistle.
We were escorted off the court and placed in our respective team areas. Neither one of us would be playing again that night. I looked to the other teams' bench area and laughed when I saw the boy from earlier clutching bloody tissues to his face. He saw me and flipped me off. I flipped him off right back. We mouthed a few curse words back and forward, very respectfully of course, and then the game ended. His team left and our team was left to wallow in our own despair at the unfortunate loss.
"Well, team...that wasn't what we had hoped for tonight. However, each and every one of you did very well and I couldn't be happier with your performance. And Jaemin....... Nice punch kid" - Johnny
"Yeah! That was hilarious" - San
"You should have seen him crying on the way out!" - Xiaojun
"For such a big dude he sure was a baby" - Jisung
