Qin Lixin set the cap on his head, staring ahead at the captain of the other team on another side who seemed to be telling strategies to his teammates.
"Let's follow the same formation and strategy as we once did in high school."
"Discuss as many plans as you want to. We would still have the best strategy." Yang Feiyu continued staring with deep loathing at that person as he stretched his arms.
Xu Dong overheard that causing a look of disbelief to appear on his face as he approached from behind, along with Cheng Qi. "Woah! What exactly he did to you guys? You are going that far?"
Because the last he remembered, this technique was used to deal with someone worst than all of them combined. "Is he that worse?"
"He is unbelievable." Qin Lixin replied and went into the court followed by Yang Feiyu when the other team was already inside there. "He is going to be dead."
Cheng Qi watched the two arrogant backs moving to stand in their position. "I am the captain, and they didn't even ask my permission."
"Don't tell me you were expecting them to?" Xu Dong passed by him to follow the same suit.
-
Zhao Yuhui kept on sitting in the same place. The only difference this time was, all the other teammates who had been hesitating to sit by her side already dropped the shyness and got bundled up by her side to properly watch the match.
They still maintained a fair distance between them.
"I am feeling so excited to watch the remaining half of the match!" One of the boys exclaimed in joy.
"Me too, but...do you think they can play? What if they ended up losing?" Another one couldn't help but put forward his worry.
"I don't think it would happen. Didn't you notice how carefree Cheng Qi looks?"
Zhao Yuhui quietly listened to them talking. Looks like no one expected things to take turn like such. They all were so thrilled to see what would happen later on.
On the signal from the referee, the second match soon began. Zhao Yuhui still couldn't see the faces of the new members but she could identify them from the sport hat they were wearing.
"Miss Zhao?" a tentative voice called.
One of the teammates stood behind her and extended a bowl of popcorn towards her. He was nervously fidgeting at his place, not understanding how to interact. "Why don't you have some as well?" Hope oozed through his orbs.
An answer of denial was about to come through her lips when, after a moment of thought, she decided to pick some. "Thank You."
"The whole bowl is for you. We already have ours." He spoke while pointing at his teammates who had put their sole attention upon them. On finding her look their way, they pretended to look elsewhere and chat amongst themselves.
The abrupt action amused her. With a chuckle, she took it from his hands. "Than I shall not shy away from taking it."
Ever since the chat about the new arrivals had ended, everyone in the lounge had their eyes fixed on both of them. It didn't matter to them anymore whether they win or lose, they were more interested in knowing the drama among those three.
In the beginning, nothing appeared out of ordinary. Everyone played like usual.
Only after a while and with great undivided attention, one could discern that the new teammates kept on hovering around one person only.
The person in the other team had realised it too, hence, kept on moving away from them. He didn't understand why he was the one being targeted instead of the ball.
When they didn't stop playing the small tricks, he eventually got tired and was about to warn them and that's when he looked at their faces.
Blowing a smooth curse under his breath, he continued dodging them thereafter. Whenever the ball came his way, they didn't let it be with him longer than a couple of seconds.
On top of that, their discreetness avoided them from the referee's eye, and it just increased his frustration.
From the spectator's point of view, everyone played fairly but only that captain knew what was going on and how many injuries he got in the process.
Zhao Yuhui stayed there for another half an hour until Chen Peiling called. Once she informed her that she had reached the parking lot, Zhao Yuhui quietly bid bye to the other people in the room.
After making sure that Zhao Yuhui was gone, all of the teammates hurried to where she was sitting to pick up the half-finished bowl of popcorn.
"Give that to me! That's mine!! I touched it first!"
"So what? I was the one who gave it to her! I should be the one having it!"
"Let me touch the bowl as well!"
"Here! Let me at least have one piece. Who knows her fingers might have grazed it?"
_
Before the second half of the match had begun, Zhao Yuhui had messaged Chen Peiling to come and pick her up.
She had decided to ignore Chen Peiling for at least a week, however, a while back she remembered that she would need her later in the evening. It would be too awkward to be alone in the company of Sister Liu.
Because Zhao Yuhui had to walk all the way up to the parking lot, it took her almost ten minutes to reach the car.
Chen Peiling saw a body covered in black from top to bottom appearing from the rear-view mirror and came out of the car. She took the bouquet with her and waited for Zhao Yuhui to approach.
"Sister Zhao." She called and bowed ninety degrees as she extended the bouquet with her both hands. "Provide me with an opportunity to draw out an apology from the depth of my heart for what conspired that day." Her firm voice loosened up and she almost cried by the end.
"Sister Zhao, I promise I would never repeat it!"