Chapter 26 (1/1)

“DEFEND DEFENDDEFEND” Shouted the enthusiastic crowd. They had come thus far, and they were in their 16th-finals now. This was their 2nd last match of that round and it would determine if they needed another round to enter the 8th-finals. If they win this match, they would’ve clinched the 16th place already, and if they lose, they would have to go against another school to determine if they could enter the 8th-finals.The crowd has grown larger and packed in terms of the population head count. Richmond has become the talk of the town to have climbed up so far and so fast, from the previous no-position, to now fighting for the 16th position, or even higher. The previous championship, they barely competed in 25 matches and they were out, didn’t manage to even squeeze into the 3rd qualifying round. While now? They had won 27matches out of the 30 that they had faced. They do whine about Korea having to many schools, about how stressful schoolwork gets, about how tough training was and all, but they clench their teeth and got through all tough times. Even if Roo were to get chased out of school because she did not meet the promise with the school, she wouldn’t even regret, and wouldn’t even get angry at them because she knows that they had given their best and they had achieved so much. Even if they get the 16th position, it was more than enough for Roo.For Roo herself, she had gained too much attention these few months for being the “chased out VIP captain of Whimoon bring up the dangerous wolves of Sanspeur.” She caught too much unwanted attention and has been trying to stay away from the spotlights in school too. Many people have begun to gain interest in her as well as the boys and would try to get close to her. IKON visits often now and then, and train with the team. She was so glad that these two teams have yet to come face to face with each other but if Sanspeur were to keep moving up, they were bound to meet. Whimoon’s coach has been calling her asking her to return to the team and she ended up ignoring his call ever since the 3rd phone call he made to her. Her ex-teammates have been trying to phone her, sending her messages that she thought was fake.I miss you captain. Are you going to come back? You will always be the captain for Whimoon. Blah Blah Blah. They just wanted her back because she could help them get trophies. Now that she knew who was true and who was fake, she didn’t care about anything else. She didn’t need them in her life anymore. Well… she couldn’t play anymore though. As for her knee, she was so glad the team made it so far, pushing the tournament longer, so she wouldn’t have to undergo that surgery so early. Although sometimes, she does have a hard time trying to sleep at night, and she would take a longer time than usual to walk home from school, but she swallowed it all, because she loves what she’s doing now. Joongki too, stopped bugging her about the operation, he saw how much she had gave into the team, and she was glad he didn’t. Back to the game, it was getting too intense to watch. They were head in head with a school from Gwangju. Did I mentioned that their basketball skills had increased tremendously with the experience from all the matches? Well, they certainly did. “YAH! PARK CHANYEOL! REBOUND!” Hong Jong Hyun shouted. Roo was getting nervous and excited of the match but she controlled herself well, sitting at the bench and watch her players do their work. “YUGYEOM! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR! ATTACK!” Kim Woobin shouted from the bench. 4th quarter of the match, and the score was too near, with Richmond leading with only 90-88. Roo was biting her finger, composing herself. The match was coming to an end, leaving a minute to the end. And Richmond was only 2 points ahead of their opponent. They only needed a three pointer to win the match and Richmond was never going to let it happen. They were all defending now instead of attacking, they were dragging the time. “HERE HERE!” Jongsuk waved for Joohyuk to pass him the ball but Joohyuk was blocked. He was frantically dribbling the ball looking for a way out. “QUICK! THERES ONLY30 SECONDS LEFT!” Roo stood up out of nervousness, she squinted her eyes to get a better view of the situation in front of her. As well as all the other players also stood up to watch that intense last minute. They were shouting and chanting different techniques to use but they knew the players on court were too focus to hear them. At the last 20 seconds, Joohyuk decided to break through the blockage of the two opponents and threw the ball to JongSuk. The ball goes in to the hoop!“Congratulations to the winning team, this give them a direct admission ticket to the 8th-finals!!!!” the commentator announced.