The Love Score || Zhuo Zhi

64: The Fall by the Yan Juice

Both teams dispersed off to their respective courts, attentive and pumped with passion and energy that would keep them going for the day. I, on the other hand, was stifling a massive yawn with my palm while we watched the boys jog off. I shaded my eyes with the back of my hand from the glaring morning sun. Darn it, why did we have to wake up so early?

"Should've slept earlier last night, huh?" Xing Zi groaned as she leaned on me. Last night, Xing Zi, Ai Qi, Qi Ying and I had stayed up late watching two movies on Qi Ying's iPad while sharing the snacks that Qi Ying and Ai Qi had bought secretly from the supermarket.

I heaved a deep sigh. "Yup."

Yan Zhi Ming walked towards us, holding his black leather notebook in his left hand. "Morning, girls?" he raised an unimpressed eyebrow at our lethargic state.

"Morning, Senior Yan," I waved sleepily. I blinked for a long second, trying to collect my thoughts before pushing Xing Zi off me. "What do we have today, Senior?"

Ah Yan flipped to a particular page in his notebook, then pushed the black rectangular glasses up his face. "Xing Zi, I recommended to Xu Zi Ping that you keep track of Chen De Sen and Wei Ke Fei's training today, but you should ask your brother for more details concerning their exercises."

Xing Zi half-nodded and made a lazy salute sign to me before turning away to go find Yu Feng's Captain.

"And Yue En," Ah Yan glanced again at his notebook. "I assigned you to look after Mu Si Yang and Zhuo Zhi's programme. These two are the most all-rounded players in Yu Qing, with Lu Xia as an exception, so they have to sharpen their overall performance in tennis. They are likely to face as equally strong players in their upcoming games, hence it is safer if we let them practise on all their components."

He passed me a clipboard with a few drafts of his planned module. My eyes scanned over the numbers and words as my jaw fell to the ground. This is way more intense than the other training programmes I saw!

"Can they finish it all in one day?" I asked, shell-shocked and in disbelief.

Ah Yan nodded without even the slightest hesitation. "Trust me, this is the best way to guarantee a win over Yu Feng. I've tripled the others' exercises for today too, so Captain's and Zhuo Zhi's exercises aren't any less vigorous."

I blinked doubtfully at Ah Yan, to which he ignored and continued to flip through his notebook. "If you need any help, Yue En, I'll be in the indoor gym with Coach."

I watched my senior's figure slowly grow smaller as he turned and walked away from me. Ah Yan could seem pretty unfeeling and robotic at times. The only difference between him and my brother was that Si Yang's radiated a quiet but strong, resolute aura, whereas Ah Yan just seemed... unemotional, sometimes. Shaking my head, I trotted off to the court nearest to the building, where Si Yang and Zhuo Zhi were already warming up.

"Morning, Senior Si Yang and Senior Zhuo Zhi," I said as I approached them.

Zhuo Zhi was just finishing his last warm-up round around the court, ahead of Si Yang, and he jogged up to me. "Morning, Yue En." Zhuo Zhi had his signature slight smile casually plastered on his lips. A lock of black air was swaying in front of his left eye, and he carelessly brushed it back as he slowed to a stop.

I didn't know why my heart had skipped a beat at that. I conjured up a polite smile as I looked at Zhuo Zhi against the bright morning sun.

Meanwhile, Si Yang had also caught up to Zhuo Zhi and was hardly panting after his warm-up. "Morning," Si Yang answered me shortly.

"What do you have for us today?" Zhuo Zhi asked while I double-checked the notes again.

"Agility drills," I stated. "20 lateral plyometric jumps. Side-to-side running, 20 laps up and down the court. 40 shuttle-run laps. Then a 30-second break, after that 10-second dot drills, 15 sets," I gulped nervously as my eyes trailed down to the last note. "Then do the whole exercise again four more times, a two-minute break in between,"