The Seven

Chapter 7: Hwan

"Ready, set, go!!" The referee called, blowing the whistle as the two players have been tossing the ball with their tennis rackets.

The guy wearing a red shirt was running from left to right while he was swinging the ball over the net.

The other one wearing a green shirt reached his arm out and spiked it across the area, much to the others' amazement, and hollered at him.

"40 love!" The commentator announced.

"Hah! Yes! I'm winning!" the guy with a green shirt burst out proudly until he saw his coach signaling his hands as a letter T.

"Time out!!" He exclaimed and put his hand on his hips as he watched his sophomore walk up to him.

"Is there something wrong, Mr. Gee-Sun?" He asked in concern.

"Not really. Someone wishes to speak to you," he informed and stepped aside to reveal the girl behind him.

"Hello, Jung Hwan," Valerie smirked friendly at him, much to his inquisitiveness.

At that moment, they both end up laughing at the funny stories that Hwan was telling and breathed out calmly in relief.

"Your face was censored with a happy sticker and captioned the words to protect 'Sunny's human rights,' that video of you at the roller coaster made everyone crack up," Valerie giggled constantly to shake her head.

"I was scared at that time, you know. My heart went straight out of my chest and my tears were on the verge of doomsday. I thought I was going to die," Hwan explained when he put his hand upon his chest dramatically.

"You didn't, you overcome your fear of rides and heights," Valerie said impressively.

"Probably. But I don't know. I haven't been to the amusement parks or the extreme stuff lately since my friends and I parted our ways..." Hwan trailed off of his words and tilted his head down in a crestfallen, which Valerie took notice of him pitifully.

"Do you miss them?" She asked softly.

Hwan stared at her and smiled halfheartedly while watching his teammates practice on the field. "Most of the time. If I hadn't left the group, then I wouldn't have met these guys. My life is normal and at peace and I couldn't be more grateful than ever."

"So what are you saying?" Valerie asked blankly.

"I'm very happy to become a tennis player and I will continue this career for the rest of my life," Hwan explained, grinning brightly.

Valerie nodded in understanding and interrogated gently. "I see. Could you elaborate on what has happened to your former group?"

"From what I've witnessed back in our last concert, Taeyun and Jiyoo were constantly arguing and I believe it has something to do with EXEL," Hwan recalled as he massaged his chin timidly and continued on. "I stepped in, but they ignored me."

"So that's the group that they were stressing about," Valerie thought in her mind and urged on. "May I ask what they were fighting over?"

"I don't know and I can't really comprehend this clearly, but all I know is that there is bad blood between Jiyoo and one of the EXEL members," Hwan pointed out, much to Valerie's suspicion.

"Who?" She asked curiously.

"Again, I really don't know," Hwan said, snorting out laughter and reminded hurriedly. "I'm sorry, but that's the only information I can give you. If we were close, I would tell you everything. Sadly, there's none. Anyway, I need to practice for my upcoming tennis tournament. Bye, bye!"

He waved with a funny grin at her and stood up from the bench that they were sitting on.

"Okay. Thanks and good luck to you!" Valerie said, giving him a thumbs up and smiled. She watched him exchange hand and fist bump signature moves with his friends. She nodded curtly and left the building, wondering what could cause the two most popular groups to start a war.

For some reason, she was starting to feel uneasy. Yet, she wasn't afraid of what may occur, but she was certainly afraid of what may not...