Chapter 887: First five

Meanwhile...

Penny paced back and forth in the hallway, nervously swinging the multiple locker keys in her hand. Mark, who was with her and already wearing a jersey, watched her intently.

"Miss Penny, you can’t take back the situation you created, no matter how much you pace," he said, starting to feel dizzy from watching her. "Just accept that it’s already come down to this."

Penny stopped, glaring daggers at Mark. He was the sixth member of Hugo’s team, and the reason he was here with her was because she had dragged him away earlier. Mark had to change into this jersey in another men’s room.

"I know, okay!? I wouldn’t have started this if I knew my husband would get dragged into it," she lamented, making Mark raise his eyebrows.

’So, if her husband wasn’t involved, she wouldn’t mind if her brothers were dragged into this?’ Mark wondered, unable to stop himself from questioning Penny’s relationship with her brothers. ’The more I get to know them, the more I realize their relationship is complicated—especially her relationship with her First Brother.’

"However, there’s a reason why there’s a sixth member!" she continued, holding Mark’s shoulder tightly. "Once the game starts, you’ll ask for a time-out and replace him, okay?"

"You want him to stay on the bench?"

"Do you want him to play? Do you know how dangerous basketball is?"

"No... until now, the way you’re talking about it, it sounds like a war."

Penny shook her head, thinking of all the potential sweat that might touch her husband. Although Zoren would regularly workout as part of his healing journey and sweat buckets, everyone on that court looked like rogues in her eyes.

How could her gentle, handsome, and fragile husband stand on the court with all those hoodlums?

"Miss Penny, I feel like you were just swearing some people in your head," Mark pointed out, snapping her out of her thoughts. "I’ll just do what you want me to do. After all, Benjamin already saw me... considering his big mouth, he’ll surely tell everyone—even those he doesn’t know."

Penny’s face twitched, sensing that depression was creeping into Mark’s life. "Don’t worry about Ben, okay!?" she exclaimed, watching him listlessly lift his eyes to meet hers. "I’ll sew his mouth shut if I have to, so he doesn’t say a word about it!"

"Are you... sure?"

"Do you think I’m not capable of sewing his mouth shut if necessary?"

Mark studied her face, his mind drifting to the time she had left Nathaniel to dig in the huge backyard of Zoren’s residence. To this day, Nathaniel was still working there as a gardener because Zoren didn’t need him, and Penny seemed to have forgotten about his existence.

"It’s a promise." Penny raised a pinky between them, nodding reassuringly at him.

Mark glanced at it, emotionless. "I’m not a child, Miss Penny," but ended up hooking his pinky around hers.

"Then, replace my husband after three minutes, okay?" she urged, and he nodded. "He comes first!"

"Alright."

As the two of them agreed on a plan to take Zoren out of this "brute" game, some people from afar couldn’t help but glance at each other.

"Did Miss Penny and Mark just do a pinky swear?" asked one of the men, keeping his binoculars up to his eyes. The other man beside him slowly lowered his binoculars, his expression strange.

"I can’t believe the Captain has always been part of something like this."

"Have you seen how the captain helped set up some of the things? He was even wearing a sash," a voice came through the walkie-talkie placed near the two men watching Penny from afar.

Then another voice came through the same walkie-talkie. "Don’t be too relaxed. Jonathan Pierson is also at the scene. Make sure no one else is watching him or us."

"We’re already on it. It seems the man came alone."

"That’s strange."

"As long as no harm comes to the boss, the madam, or the Bennet brothers, keep alert."

"But seriously, does the captain know that we already know?"

After a serious talk about the situation in the area, the conversation shifted back to Mark’s participation in the fan club. When they had heard about it during Slater’s visit to the residence, many of them were doubtful. Not that they thought Slater was a liar, but they simply couldn’t imagine Mark participating in something so silly.

Seeing him today proved that Mark was more human than they all had imagined. It was ridiculous.

All of these conversations happened via walkie-talkie because Zoren’s shadow guards were rarely in the same place—they were different units placed not just on Penny, but also on her brothers.

In other words, despite the festive mood in the school, everyone was clueless that this place was actually surrounded by Zoren’s people, with some even posing as school staff.

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Back at the school...

Hugo’s team walked through the hallway that led to the open court. Just as they were walking down the hallway, Penny stood leaning against the wall, biting the tip of her thumb. She kept her eyes down, not caring as her brothers passed her. But when she sensed Zoren, she snapped her eyes up at him.

Penny grabbed Zoren’s arm, stopping him and his team. Her mouth parted while Zoren tilted his head slightly to the side.

"Hey, Penny, you’re thirteen," Slater remarked knowingly. "Why are you holding a man’s hand like that?"

"Shut up," she snapped without looking back at her third brother.

"I’m okay," Zoren flashed her a smile, placing his hand on hers. "Are you trying to stop me?"

She did.

However, seeing that little spark of excitement in his eyes—so different from all the excitement she had seen in him before—Penny didn’t have the heart to tell her husband not to play anymore. It was then that she realized Zoren hadn’t experienced school life because he had been sadly sick almost his entire life.

Today was probably the only time Zoren could experience school life.

Sighing one last time, the corner of her mouth hooked up as her eyes glowed with determination. "Get them."

"That’s my girl." Zoren smiled in satisfaction before she released his hand.

With that, Penny watched her husband and the team approach the exit. As soon as they stepped out, she heard the cheers and roars from the audience.

Coming into the open court were Hugo, Atlas, Jonathan, Zoren, and their last player... Dean.