Strike | Xiuchen

05

I made it to the field before Xiumin. I tried throwing some pitches into the backstop, with the one ball I had. The ball with the 'X' on it. None of the pitches I threw were good.

"Have you eaten?"

"No."

"Why not? That's important, you know?" He motioned me over to the dugout, "I thought you might skip out," He put a convenience store breakfast burrito in my hand.

"You didn't have to go out of your way to buy me food."

"Just eat it."

"Thank you, hyung."

"Whatever."

"I'll make sure to pay you back."

We ate our breakfast in silence then got back onto the field.

"Let me see your hand," I held out my hand to him. He placed a ball in it and positioned my fingers so I could pitch it. Somehow I still couldn't get it, and that made Xiumin angry for whatever reason, "Why can't you just throw it right?! It's not that hard!" He pushed me down onto my butt.

"I-I'm sorry, I'll try harder."

"You're impossible! Literally impossible! I swear you can't get anything right!" This is the first time he actually made me cry. I never cried when he would hit me, but him saying this really hurt, more than a getting hit by a bat. I watched my tears turn the red dirt an ugly shade of brown, "Hey, stop that."

"You're right, Xiumin-hyung. I'm impossible and I'm terrible at baseball. I'll never be good at it."

"I didn't mean that I was just," He sighed, "Frustrated."

I really couldn't stop crying. If anyone else had told me that, I wouldn't be phased. There were only two people who could really get to me on the team: Suho and Xiumin. Suho would never say something like that though, he was very patient. I really looked up to both of them and the fact that Xiumin called me impossible really brought me down. I really admired him.

"Chen, I'm sorry. You don't have to stay here if you don't want to."

"What else will I do on a Saturday? You're the only person I spend time with ever," I said between sniffles.

"That's what I don't understand about you."

"What?"

"I don't get why you follow my orders and actually care about me. I'm an asshole," He crouched down so I wasn't talking to his knees.

"I look up to you. I want to be your friend too."

"Suho is the perfect guy for that."

"Suho isn't you. When I first met you, you seemed lonely and like you really needed a friend, but everyone was so scared of you. I could see through it though. You really aren't a bad person in my eyes."

He hugged me, but because we were in such an awkward position he ended up on top of me.

"Ouch, Xiumin-hyung, you're heavy."

He laughed a little bit, "Okay, let's practice batting for a while instead."

I could only hit the ball when I thought about his hands guiding me through the swing. I wondered if it'd be the same for pitching, "Xiumin-hyung, can you help me with pitching like how you helped me with batting?"