"You're out!"
"Uugh.." Xiaolang rubbed his face and got up groggily. He quickly remembered to grab his fallen glasses and placed them back on his face. Damn that hurt...
"To the side, Li! Unless you want to get pummeled again.. Hahahahaha," Shen from team red sniggered. He was the one that had thrown the ball earlier and had specifically targeted Xiaolang's face. The glasses on the nerd's face were incredibly durable, to his dismay, but he wasn't too bothered by it.
"Are you okay?" Yingfei asked a few steps away from him. She had wanted to come closer, but she knew with the game still going on, that would have just made more balls come his way. She was currently dodging balls left and right semi-clumsily while also passing balls she could get her hands on to their team attackers.
A single glance would make you think she was average or doing pretty well. The movements she made were clumsy and had no sharpness to it. However, if you paid more attention, you would begin to realize she was doing many things at one time very skillfully. The balls she passed never went to the same person twice in a row. She could even pay attention to Xiaolang while still being aware of her surroundings.
Even when the coach had just blown the whistle, she could immediately detect the ball incoming as she was speaking to him. Unfortunately, not everyone was as aware or had as quick reflexes as she did.
"I'm fine..." Xiaolang answered her as he got up slowly. He was the first person out. He knew he wouldn't feel embarrassed about it but he never thought that he would feel disgruntled or wronged instead.
He walked over to the side where it was safe and sat down. This was his first time playing in a school team game. He wasn't against doing sports and was quite good at them but he rarely played with others as much besides close friends or family. He was too competitive for his own good and never worked well with teams anyway. He was honestly looking down on dodgeball and wasn't planning on being serious about it in the beginning, just following behind Yingfei. But after getting bashed in the face by that son of a gun, Shen, he was incensed.
Xiaolang looked at the guy in question with fury. Shen was dodging and throwing balls directly towards people's faces repeatedly. Xiaolang felt like wiping that horrible haughty sneer off his face.
Shen felt the strong gaze towards himself and looked at Xiaolang who staring at him. He replied with a provoking expression and middle finger straight back. He mouthed slowly, "Fuck yooouuuuโฆ"
๐ ๐ฎ๐ข๐บ ๐ฌ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐จ๐ถ๐บ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ... Xiaolang thought to himself with a twitch in his eye.
Forcing himself to ignore the gesture, he turned to Yingfei instead. The match went by a lot faster than he thought it would, with around eight players left on each team, they were evenly matched. He watched how the attackers attacked and was pretty impressed by their captain and even more impressed by Beifong. She was especially fierce and gave Shen a huge run for his money as she attacked him at any chance she could.
Xiaolang silently cheered her on. But he also noticed how most of the balls the attackers used were supplied by Yingfei herself. He started to pay more attention to the flow of the game, especially towards his own team members.
Since he had never been in a sports team like this before, he was new to the idea of such cohesive teamwork or putting in so much effort himself for someone else. Yingfei and many others were working so hard and had many chances to attack themselves but rather than take the shot, they were giving it to someone else to take the glory. No matter how he watched them, he just couldn't understand.
The numbers were hardly going down any further and everyone was panting at this point. It was only the first match! While the other bystanders were hyped up and cheering the others on, Xiaolang just stared at the game intently with confusion.
As he turned his focus onto Yingfei, it was at that exact moment that she got hit. As she was trying to pass a ball, she moved right into another ball's pathway causing it to strike her leg. She was usually so aware of her surroundings that it was an impossible mistake to make, at least for her. But she still made it.
He just happened to look and didn't manage to focus yet on what was happening to her so he could only pass it as a pure mistake.
"Yingfei, out!" the coach yelled.
She walked to the side and sat next to Xiaolang.
Not knowing what to do, Xiaolang pat her back as if to console her.
She was surprised by the gesture. This friend of hers hardly made many, if any, intimate gestures, at all with anyone. Yet he was going out of his way to make her feel better. He must have definitely opened up to her after all this time. Feeling touched and bad at the same time, she smiled at him sheepishly in return.
"It's fine. We'll get 'em next time," she said with a toothy grin. "I'll help you make the winning shot!"
Xiaolang's eyes widened in surprise at those final words. Help me make the winning shot..?
They were words that he could barely comprehend. Help him? Yeah sure that was normal. But help him in a way that he received all the glory?
Why?
โฆ..
7 years ago.
"Oof!" a hot-blooded young boy around the age of ten fell flat on his bottom, missing the only chance to score a goal against the man before him.
"Given up, Xiao Tian?" the towering man smirked at the child before him. Placed under his foot was the soccer ball he had stolen from his nephew. He wasn't usually free. But now that he was, he was all of a sudden tasked with the job of babysitting this young lovable nephew of his. So he decided on having a little... fun.
"You kicked me!" the one mentioned as Xiao Tian got up angrily.
His uncle just shrugged at the wronged expression he was making. "That's how the world works. People are always going to go against you. It's up to you to go against the pressure and rise up."
"But you cheated!" Xiao Tian fought back again defensively.
He earned a face full of ridicule. "Oh yeah?" The man suddenly dribbled the ball towards Xiao Tian at full speed, causing him to stagger into position. However, the lack of reaction speed cost the boy in the end.
Just as the older man was about to pass through him though, he gave Xiao Tian's foot a kick strong enough to trip him over.
"AHH!" Xiao Tian fell down hard. At this point, he was already past the point of being confused. He just wanted an answer. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT, UNCLE SHANG!?"
"Hahaha! Take this as a life lesson, you brat," Uncle Shang sneered at his nephew still laying down on the grass by his feet. "Things don't go the way you want just because you want them to. Glory only comes to the winners. For that glory, people will do whatever it takes, even if it means stepping on other people for it, discarding rules as long as they don't get caught," he kicked the ball into the goal behind him. "No one will hand that glory to you. Only you can grab it for yourself. Remember that. Only people who strive to get there will have their voices heard. You? Hah!" he spat next to him. "All I hear is whining."
Xiao Tian stared wide-eyed at his uncle above him. Maybe he was too young to fully comprehend the words being spoken, but he did understand one thing. He was being scorned.
After the heated scolding, the man went to grab the ball in the goal, ignoring the dumbfounded child still laying on the grass. But seeing as how even after coming back, the kid had yet to get up, an anger mark popped onto his temple. It seemed like his cute little nephew needed another lesson.
WOOSH!
Uncle Shang hurled the ball at him, with him barely catching it in time.
"Oof!" Little Xiao Tian looked up.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Again!"
โฆ..