Strike | Xiuchen

16

"Yeehaw!" Baekhyun was riding Chanyeol like a horse in the grass. He was jousting with Kai and Sehun.

"Don't you know, this town ain't big enough for the two of us!" Sehun said, holding his bat out like a jousting pole.

"Chen, stop watching them, it will make you stupid," Xiumin said.

"Hey! Knock it off!" Coach shouted, "Stop acting like dumbasses in front of the other team and your parents!"

"That's their natural state, coach," Xiumin said quietly. My parents were in the bleachers and they forced Jongdeok to come too. I was even more nervous now.

"Alright, ladies! In the dugout!" I kind of hoped I'd get to play shortstop so my parents didn't come here for nothing, but the lineup was the same. The other team scored two points before we got to bat.

"Chen, toss me my sunflower seeds!" Xiumin called from the other side of the dugout. I took some seeds for myself before tossing the bag to Xiumin. Every single seed seemed to spill out of the bag in slow motion, everyone stared in horror. This was like baseball taboo.

"I-I'm sorry, hyung," I bowed countless times, "I'm sorry!" I ran across the dugout and put the seeds from my hand in his hand, "I'm really sorry! I'll buy you a new bag."

Everyone seemed to be anticipating Xiumin's blow up, but it never came, instead, he smiled, ruffled my hair, and tossed the seeds into his mouth.

"I thought you were dead for sure," Sehun let out a deep breath as I returned to my seat.

"He's super pissed. He'll take it out on the ball though," I felt like Xiumin would probably be mad at me later though. As I expected, he did take it out on the ball. The other team must've been a team we'd never played before because all they could do was watch in horror as the ball went over the fence.

"Now I'm not mad anymore," Xiumin said as he took the seat beside me.

"Good."

"I'm still going to punish you though," he crossed his legs and folded his arms.

"Ahh, why! I said I'd buy you another bag of sunflower seeds," I leaned my head on his shoulder.

He thumped my forehead, " There's your punishment."

"Ow!"

"Hey, Chen," Chanyeol said, "I'm having a First-year sleepover at my house on Friday night. You in?"

"Hell yeah!"

"Chanyeol! You're almost up!"

We actually got through the entire batting order and once it was my turn we had two outs.

"Home run!" Xiumin shook the fence and winked in my direction. I licked my lips. I could do this.

I hit the ball so hard I almost forgot to run until I heard Xiumin yell, "Run, you dumbass!"

"I hit it! I did it!" Xiumin picked me up over his shoulder as the other team frantically called a timeout, "Put me down!"

"First home run tradition!" Baekhyun shouted.

"What's that? Put me down!" I kicked my feet.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun picked up the water cooler. Everyone was chanting "dump it!"

"Can't it wait? It's only the first inning! I'm going to be soaked the whole game!"

"It's tradition, bro! It can't wait!" Sehun said seriously. Everyone kept me from running away.