Timeout

Part 6

TIMEOUT - Part Six

"I don't know what's gotten into the coach lately!" Jooheon shakes his head as Kyun and his friends walk down the corridor. "He's more pissed than usual. My entire body hurts, he's going overboard with the practice days..."

Kyun smirks. Seems like he isn't the only one scared for the team's success since he's out. The last matches without him were a disaster. The team is so used to the passing game, the wide balls Kyun used to catch. But with Emery's miserable play, they had to change their entire strategy. Which requires practice. And since they're focusing more on run-plays now, Jooheon, the Running Back, has to work a lot harder.

"You won the last matches by the skin of your teeth. You wanna get into the playoffs, don't you?"

Jooheon just whines while the rest of the team chuckles.

"Speaking of. Need to talk to the coach real quick!" Kyun says and nods over to his friends to signal them to walk ahead to the cafeteria. He wants to get the game-plan at least so he can study the plays as long as he's not able to practice the usual way.

Sunken in his thoughts he hobbles into the dressing room to take the shorter way to the coach's office.

"Kyun!" a familiar voice makes him turn his head and he sees Emery and a few others of the team changing after a shower.

"Hey!" he says curtly and is about to turn around as he hears his teammates whispering and laughing. He wants to ignore it but then Emery calls his name again.

"How much do you hate it?" He asks with a smirk on his face. Kyun tilts his head confused. "That you won't make it into a good college cause you got injured. And instead, I get the chance?"

The anger builds up in Kyuns gut. He's been thinking about this for weeks now. And instead of this dude being somewhat grateful, he provokes him?

Scoffing, he shakes his head. "You might be the one on the field but the scouts will see that you have no talent at all. It's a mystery to me how you made it into the team in the first place!"

Immediately Emery squares up in front of him.

"What did you just say?" his substitute asks and he can see his hands forming into fists.

"You heard me!" Kyun replies nonchalantly and is about to leave.

"I will rip you into shreds, Im!" he suddenly hears and turns around again. "Maybe a broken leg isn't enough... shall we take care of your ribs next?"

Kyun's jaw drops. He can't be serious. All the anger and the frustration bubble up and he walks as fast as his crutches allow him up to him. Before he can consider this, he grabs Emery by his shirt and pushes him against the lockers.

"You should know your place on this team!" he growls and for a moment, his teammate seems to panic until he remembers he's not alone. So he smirks and chuckles while shaking his head.

"And you should know yours! You're nothing, Im! When you can't even play you're just a stupid little boy that has nothing to offer!"

Kyun clenches his jaw.

"SAY that again!" he groans and pushes him harder against the locker. He's not even surprised, his teammates don't interfere. They probably incited Emery to this - a classic wolf pack behavior to see who's the strongest. And Kyun hates himself more than anyone else in this room that he let himself get provoked like this.

Angry, he lets go of his other crutch and he's just about to smack his fist into Emery's face as he feels a tight grip on it. Confused, he looks back and sees... you?