Like Night and Day

Clarity

The recreational building was larger than Baekhyun thought it would be, but the space was just what he needed. When they walked in, he took the opportunity to separate from the giant. The moment they entered, an advisor told the two to join the crowd of students all focused in on one speaker in the middle of the indoor basketball court.

By will, Baekhyun walked slower than the athlete who could sense what the activity was and walked a little faster than the brunet. Chanyeol joined his own group of friends and only paused when he realized that he had left Baekhyun's side without so much as a single thought. By the time he looked over his shoulder, Baekhyun had drawn his eyes away and approached Luhan who welcomed him with smile and a hand to his back.

When the soft blond leaned over and whispered things into the brunet's ear, which essentially caused the lips that never brightened to curve into a small grin, Chanyeol felt some sort of pang before Kris pulled his attention away and towards the man in the center of the floor.

"Like I said before, basketball is a sport that'll help build teamwork, because in order to win, the players must work together."

There were a lot of things Baekhyun would've liked to refute with that statement. As he watched the man toss the orange ball as if to emphasize his point that teamwork was the holy grail of all solutions, he mentally made notes that went against the idea. In Baekhyun's view, anything could be accomplished by individual merits and skill.

Voices around him began to sputter like white noise as his focus drifted to thoughts unrelated to his current environment. Before he knew it, the sea of students began to thin like diluted blood and Baekhyun was guided to one side with Luhan as his company. When his focus came back, he noticed that the student body had been split into four groups and he was suddenly herded to a box where he was instructed to pull out a red jersey.

His attention span was never such a thing that elongated for a lengthy basis whenever it concerned school, but Baekhyun figured that perhaps if he had listened, he would've been able to understand what the hell was happening. As half the student body sat down, it then occurred to him that he was on a team that was to play first.

Darting his eyes to the kids who took seats on the benches near the wall, he contemplated discarding his jersey and rushing over to blend himself in as one of those who had to sit out for the first run. Before he could side on a decision, he was pressured by the event counselors with their repetitive claps and cheers into going with the flow they intended to shove him toward in the first place. With Luhan's help, he was able to rid of his damp, rain-spotted jacket and managed to successfully slip the red jersey on over his plain white shirt.

While Luhan ran to the side to drop off his one piece of clothing item, Baekhyun scanned the opposing team for the giant's familiar face only to find that Kris and a few people he had tutored in the past were the only ones he recognized. As his teammates scattered and the other team walked to their end of the court, Baekhyun grimaced, turning his head to the side and spotting the athlete coyly giving him a grin (or smile—whatever that was). It was abundantly apparent how the latter thought it was amusing to watch the brunet struggle with his current situation, but Baekhyun found nothing to smile about.

He expected nothing, opting to stand by as the game went on. The only footwork he persisted on doing were moves that kept him out of the way of the ball and other players. The activity wasn't much any different from the physical education class offered at school—or so Baekhyun noticed as he received an equivalent amount of shouts from bystanders who kept on repetitively telling him to participate.