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"You're too slow! How should we ever beat them at the game on Sunday?", Heeseung angrily yelled at his teammates, who all stopped at once on the field and stared reproachfully at their captain.
"What the fuck? It's not our fault. Jake just won't pass the ball to any of us.", Beomgyu complained. But the letter didn't seem to pay attention. Jake walked back and forth with his arms on his hips, minding his own business.
Heeseung looked across the field at him, but said nothing. "Stop making excuses and try harder.". In a harsh tone, he left the field to get a drink.
Beomgyu and Sunghoon frowned in annoyance. Sweat was already dripping off their foreheads, and they would be lucky if they could walk properly tomorrow. Sunghoon's gaze switched over to Jake, as he approached him with quick steps.
"What's wrong with you today?" he addressed him from a distance, which made all the players turn their heads curiously.
"What are you talking about?" Jake replied, of course noticing that the younger one already started boiling inside.
"You're not passing the ball. We're a team, and you're not a lone player."
His explanation made him chuckle for a moment. "We were in opposing teams.... Of course, I'm not giving you the ball. You're just too slow, Sunghoon.".
But his laughter immediately subsided as he faced Sunghoon's scowl. The other players also noticed the tension that was building between the two and slowly walked towards them.
"I hope for god's sake you'll sit on the bench next Sunday."
"What the hell is your problem? Doesn't your ego put up with me being better than you?". Jake didn't back away as Sunghoon took a step closer to him.
"BOYS! STOP THAT SHIT!" shouted Jay from further back, but neither of them listened to the older one.
"Stay away from Hyeona!" whispered Sunghoon, so no one else could hear.
"Well, obviously, that's what it's all about... ". A grin appeared on Jake's face. "You don't give a shit how I play. You're just mad at me for what happened to your sister. Why don't you realize that she can have feelings for someone, too?"
"But that someone won't be you, damn it.".
"You treat her like shit. No wonder she hates you."
"I don't treat her like shit. I just want to keep her away from idiots like you.". You could see Sunghoon's hands clench into fists in anger.
[Hyeona POV]
I left the school building together with Jungwon, my digital camera in my hand, and insecurely inspected the pictures I had taken the day before.
"I don't know. None of them seem good enough to edit well," I bit my lip as I skipped about 50 pictures with my thumb.
"Nah! This one is pretty good.", Jungwon pointed to the screen showing a pink colored peony.
Jungwon and I had taken a voluntary course at school to improve our photography. This will be very useful next year when we graduate with an art major.
From a few meters away, we could suddenly hear loud screams and shouts, which got our attention. Jungwon squinted his eyes and fixed them on some people arguing loudly on the football field.
"Isn't your brother in training right now?" he checked the time on his cell phone. But my eyes were focused on the only blond-haired guy in the group, who seemed to be the center of the argument.
"Oh my god, what the hell is happening there.". I muttered silently to myself, but the next thing I witnessed was a fist flying into the air and hitting the person across right in the face.
Immediately all the players sprinted towards my brother to separate the two of them and this was also the moment I started running, leaving Jungwon behind.
"SUNGHOON?! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?", I yelled at my older brother, whose face was flushed with anger.
My body turned around and met Jake holding his lower lip with the back of his hand. Jeongin was standing next to him, checking to see if the younger man was okay.
I gasped in shock when I realized that my brother had just punched Jake. "ARE YOU CRAZY?".
"I AM NOT CRAZY. THAT'S YOUR OWN FAULT.", Sunghoon yelled back while being held by both arms by two teammates.
"YOU FUCKING HIT YOUR FRIEND? HOW IS THIS MY FAULT?".
"I'VE TOLD YOU ABOUT...A HUNDRED TIMES TO STAY AWAY FROM MY FRIENDS, HYEONA!".
I opened my eyes in shock. "That's the reason? You're fucking sick Sunghoon."
Beomgyu had handed Jake a water bottle behind me to clean his bleeding wound.
"Jake has nothing to do with any of this! I was the one who kissed him!".
I noticed how Jay had almost choked while holding onto Sunghoon's left arm after my statement. "But you still decided to beat him up?".
"Hyeona, stop it. It won't do any good anyway.", Jake addressed me but Sunghoon immediately snapped me out of my thoughts.
"He was so damn proud. I just can't see his fucking grinning face anymore," my brother tried to justify his actions.
"Well, actually, Jake told me to fuck your opinion and finally just do what I feel like doing. And that was just a damn good way to show you that you don't control me any longer. I just thought that if I kissed one of your friends, you would finally see that there was no point and finally give me more space."
"You were trying to piss me off?".
"Yes, I mean, the way I revealed it in our apartment obviously suggested that I was trying to make you upset. But I never thought you'd be so sick and end up punching Jake. It's actually sad that you can't understand it any other way.".
Sunghoon now turned his gaze to Jake, but he didn't seem to pay any attention to him.
"Wow, good to know that you only kissed me to tease your brother.".
My head spun around in shock, and I saw Jake just eyeing me with disgust, finally walking off the field.
"WHAT? Jake, no! Wait!". I was about to run after him when Jungwon grabbed my shoulders from behind.
"Don't run after him now. There's no point in talking when everyone is boiling.".
The two boys finally let go of my brother's arms. He shook them out as he walked past me, stopping again beside me. "You've been nothing but trouble since you got here. Why don't you just fuck off back to America? You were obviously very popular there.". He finally walked past me, leaving me in the field with Jungwon.
My eyes filled with tears, no matter how hard I tried to fight it, because I knew he was right.
"Hyeo? Are you okay?". He whispered from behind me and slowly walked around me as no answer left my mouth. When Jungwon noticed my glazed eyes, he leaned in and hugged me tightly, which finally made me cry.
Even though I always tried to blame others, I was probably no better than anyone else.
***
Evening fell and after spending the rest of the day in my room, I finally got myself to visit the beach.
The promenade was well attended, which was not unusual for the summer vacations, after all, there were countless bars and discos that tied together.
I put my headphones in my ears, the tablet under my arm, while I walked along the beach for a while.
It really was one of the most soothing things to feel the warm water and soft sand under your feet while the wind gently brushed through your hair. I really missed that feeling.
In a quieter area, where only a few lights illuminated the beach, I sat down in the sand. There where the waves broke, and the spray tickled my toes.
I opened my tablet and, sighing, clicked on the website I had already opened at home. After searching for a few minutes, I finally found an appealing offer and scrolled down a bit. "29th of August. It's the only one available right?", I asked myself.
The brightness of my tablet was starting to hurt my eyes, so I locked the screen again a short time later and laid it down in the sand next to me.
I stared at the full moon and buried my feet under the warm sand while tapping my headphones a few times to skip songs until I reached one of my favorites.
"The only ones who would probably be hurt are mom and Jungwon.". I mumbled softly to myself as I pulled my legs up to my body and hugged them. Should I do it or not? I really had nothing to lose.
However, I decided to close the topic for today and think about it tomorrow. While I closed my eyes, I quietly hummed along to the chorus. "'Cause I'm off my face, in love with you. I'm out my head, so into you...". When a person appeared behind me, whose shadow appeared in front of me in the sand, I immediately stopped humming and removed one of my headphones from my ear.
"Oh, uhm Heeseung!", I quickly removed the other headphone as well and shifted in my place.