Owning You - A Na Jaemin Fanfic

24. The Game

So here I am with Suzy at the gym, watching See Lin High's Dream Team battle it out with our rival, Pei Chun High.

Jaemin is sitting on a bench, tipping his head up, drinking some more of his mineral water, then some more.

I catch my breath at the sight of him, at the splendour that is Na Jaemin.

The sun has set, the sky is indigo, the dim light casting a muted golden light upon him. How does one describe a sunrise to the blind? Or the sound of rain to the deaf? How could words ever adequately express the pleasure of this boy's beauty?

He doesn't know I'm here.

When we came, the game had already started. My heart leapt like a mad thing at the sight of that lean, lithe figure whipping around the court like an egg beater, a dizzying streak of colour and light and grace and limbs.

Halftime comes and I stand up to find the washroom. I don't know what's going on. I don't care, either. I just came to see him. I comb my fingers through my hair, and listen to a bunch of girls with long legs gush and giggle over how hot Na Jaemin is. Are they cheerleaders? Or fangirls? They are dressed in tight, identical tees with the words, SEE LIN HIGH DREAM TEAM in sparkly glitter. Looking at their legs makes me depressed. And those boobs are easily D cups. I look down at my very modest bosom and sigh.

It is during the fourth quarter, when there is a minute left in the game, that the opposing team makes a grand comeback, tying the Dream Team 72-72. I wouldn't have known this if Suzy hasn't told me, since I have spent the last twenty minutes picking fuzz balls from my sweater.

Na Jaemin stands at the free - throw line, preparing for the most important shot of the evening. Today he is summertime itself, young, luminous, lit from within by confidence, an unruffled self-assurance. He looks calm, like he already knows he is going to make it. The other players dim in his light, a cohort of pale ghosts outshone by his beauty and radiance.

For the first time, the gym is strangely quiet. Intrigued, I forget my fuzz ball picking, and sit up straighter. I want him to make it. Jaemin stands, gorgeous, tall; his honey-gold hair slicked back, perspiration beading that perfect brow. How gorgeous he looks, all male, all mine. I feel a surge of pride. That hot guy down there who is commanding everyone's attention belongs to me.

I turn to Suzy, who is rocking herself back and forth in an agony of anticipation. Time stands still. The audience waits.

My eyes drift back to the court.

I jerk.

Jaemin is watching me.

The entire student body is watching him and Na Jaemin is watching me. Before the ref can blow the whistle, Jaemin tucks the ball beneath his arm and jogs over to his coach.

"What's going on? What's going on?" Suzy is hopping from one foot to another, her pigtails bouncing.

Something doesn't feel right. I shift in my seat, cross and uncross my legs. Jaemin is handing his coach the ball.

I suddenly feel like I am sitting in a sauna.

"He's coming up the stairs, Haeri! He's coming this way!" Suzy squeals.

I slink lower in my seat. It can't be. He wouldn't dare...would he? No. No. No. No way is this happening! He is headed right for me! Oh, no. Help, somebody. I pretend to be busy digging around in my purse for something.

He stops next to my seat. I look up. Oh, no. Oh. God.

"Haeri," he says, resting on his haunches to look me in the eyes. "Kim Haeri."

I see Suzy's jaw drop open and a multitude of heads turn to look at us.

"What are you doing?" I whisper. And then, in a louder hiss, "Go back to your game!"

He ignores me. "You came." His voice is raspy, the kind that if whispered in your ear would give you goose bumps.

I clear my throat and say nervously, "Please, go play your game."

He laughs. His hair is damp at the roots with perspiration. I remember dragging my hands through it last night, drunk with drink and desire, while he kissed me feverishly and growled low in my ear.

He looks down at the floor then back at me. "If I make this shot, will you go out with me?" His gaze is travelling between my eyes and my lips. My face is burning. I duck my head.

There is a ripple of murmurs and an increasing rise in interest across the gym, people are standing up to get a better look at what is happening.

"Will you?" he asks again. He is leaning so close to me I can feel his breath on my face. It smells like peppermint. I hold my breath. My heart is pounding.

And then a brilliant thought strikes me.

"Miss it." He cocks his head. I lean closer, narrow my eyes. I speak slower this time, so there would be no confusion. "Miss it, and I'll go out with you." I don't know what prompts me to say it; perhaps, it is the sheer arrogance I see on his face. He knows he's going to win the shot. He has never been more sure of anything in his life.

I see the tenderness drain from his eyes. Asking a peacock to pull out his feathers is a hard thing to do. He stands up quickly, too quickly, and takes the stairs back to the court two at a time. I settle back into my seat with a smug smile. Bet he wasn't expecting that. Hotshot. Arrogant hotshot.

Suzy is taking turns looking from me to Jaemin. There is something like awe on her face. She opens her mouth to say something, but I hold up my finger to silence her.

"Shh," I warn her. I focus my sole attention on the figure standing at the free - throw line, not looking quite as composed as he'd looked a few minutes ago. The ref blows his whistle and Jaemin raises his arms with the ball held lightly in his hands. I try to imagine what he is thinking. He is done with me, no doubt. Probably angry that I would have the audacity to....I lose my train of thought.

The moment of truth is beginning. The muscles in his arms flex, as the ball spins from his hands and sail toward the hoop.

And then it happens.

The ball falls short a foot from the basket and hits the ground with a sickening thud.

I watch in horror as pandemonium breaks forth.

"No, no, no, no," I whisper under my breath. How could he do that? Why would he do that? What an absolute idiot!

"Haeri, I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear any of that," Suzy hisses, grabbing me by the wrist. "We need to go before someone kills you."

As she pulls me though the throng, I turn back to the court for one last look at what is happening. Jaemin is gone. Guilt has started seeping into my bones and it hurts right down to the marrow. I can't believe that he just did what he did. Na Jaemin surprised me and humiliated himself. Someone like him couldn't surprise someone like me...right?

The news that he sabotaged the game for a girl is all over the school the next morning. Since it was me he had been talking to minutes before his miss, I am prime suspect. Girls whisper when they see me and the basketball team has taken to giving me searing and menacing looks.

"Who is this girl?" I hear one girl say to another in the toilet. "His fiancée wouldn't like this." I almost want to burst out of my stall and say, I am the girl, and I am his fiancée, you morons, but I don't; instead, I duck my head in shame and disappear into the library.

He missed the hoop on purpose. He played my game and he lost.

"Haeri, there's a uuuh...delivery for you," Suzy calls when I come back to my classroom. A box is sitting on my desk. I open the box with a pair of scissors, and I stare into it.

I blink.

It's a deflated basketball. There is an envelope attached to it.

"Omg. It is the deflated basketball!" Suzy shrieks.

I swallow hard as I read the note:

Haeri, Time to pay up. Meet me in the library in ten minutes. - Jaemin.