Basketball System: Rebound of the Underdog

Kai was confused as to why Suzy was calling for him.

He glanced at Lina, whose face was unreadable.

Then, before he could even decide what to do, Renren had already pushed him toward the door, leaving him with no other choice.

He sighed and turned back to his teammates, mostly Lina.

"I'll be back soon," Kai said before heading out to follow Suzy.

As the doors closed, the players snapped out of their trance.

Then, Jet broke the silence with a curse.

"Holy shit," he exclaimed. "Did THE Suzy Mei just personally call for Kai?"

Shang shook his head in disbelief. "You were going on with your speech, too. It was all useless! Kai actually bags pretty girls."

Dylan scratched the back of his head. "Well, he has always been relatively popular with the ladies, right?"

Sunny shook his head. "He's just been popular with pretty ladies. It really doesn't make sense."

Jinping clicked his tongue as he remembered Kai's reputation when they were younger.

"Yeah," he chimed. "It doesn't make sense why Eva came to like him, too."

Lina stayed silent all throughout the conversation, so Yuze threw her a worried glance. Enjoy new stories from empire

Meanwhile, Kai and Suzy stood outside of the court, the two of them stuck in awkward silence.

Some students who were on their way home pointed toward their way, perplexed as to why Suzy was talking with such a scary guy like Kai.

Kai sighed after a while.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "And why did you call for me?"

Suzy clicked her tongue. "Why? Can't I come to the court now? Besides, it's been a while since we've last spoken to each other."

Kai narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "The last time I've known, you didn't like the basketball team, so it's very strange for you to be here."

Suzy sighed and raked her fingers through her hair. "This is difficult for me too," she muttered, gazing at the ground to hide her reddening cheeks.

"What?" Kai asked, unable to hear her.

"What if that has changed?" she suddenly asked, making Kai even more confused.

"What do you mean?" Kai asked.

Suzy fiddled with her fingers as she continued to speak.

"Well, the team has been talking about it, and I think it's best if we also include the basketball team in our cheering list."

"So, you're saying..."

"We want to cheer for the basketball team come the Interhigh Preliminaries."

Kai was surprised. However, he wasn't really opposed to the idea. It was kind of disheartening to play against teams with loud cheerleaders. With this revelation, Kai felt like they were getting closer and closer to becoming a normal team!

Kai cleared his throat and straightened his spine.

"What caused your hearts to change, though?" he couldn't help but ask.

Suzy froze and stopped playing with her fingers as soon as Kai asked the question.

She had an answer in her heart, but she wasn't ready to reveal it just yet.

With that, she smirked and leaned closer to Kai, causing him to step back.

However, Suzy was persistent and suddenly went on her tippy-toes to give him a hug.

Kai froze, unable to move away. It was only for a brief second, too, so he didn't have the opportunity to refuse it.

Nonetheless, he didn't know what to do or say since he had never been hugged by the opposite gender before! Yes, he already had his first kiss with Lina, but that was accidental!

Suzy was actually hugging him deliberately, so he didn't know how to react.

As she pulled away, the smirk on her lips had gotten wider.

"You'll find out soon enough," she smirked before walking away from Kai.

"See you at your first game!" she called out before walking faster.

Meanwhile, the players inside the court were watching their interaction from the window, their jaws nearly dropping to the ground, shocked.

Jet pulled on his hair before collapsing to the ground.

"It really doesn't make any sense!"

***

It was the next day, and the boys had gathered once more for their afternoon training.

Kai walked inside the court and was immediately bombarded with teases after yesterday's interaction.

Lina, however, snapped them back to reality with strict instructions.

"Drills," she coldly said. "After that, we'll have a practice game."

Then, she made her way to the bench with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

Kai frowned in confusion as to why Lina was acting so cold.

Kai went to where she was and nudged her shoulder.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Lina calmed herself down by closing her eyes.

She knew why she was feeling as such, but she didn't want to act so petty about it.

At the end of the day, she knew that she didn't have the right to be jealous since she wasn't with Kai in the first place.

Moreover, it's not Kai's fault that he's just so freaking likable, right?

She found herself losing her temper, so she let out a deep breath.

"I'm fine," she said with a fake smile, causing a shiver to run down Kai's spine.

"Just start with the drills. We'll have a practice game later on."

Kai, despite knowing that there was something wrong with Lina, nodded and followed her instructions.

Meanwhile, the other guys still couldn't believe what was happening.

"So, Kai already has two girls wrapped around his finger, huh?" Renren chimed, causing Yuze to turn to him in amusement.

"You've noticed that she likes Kai?" he asked.

Renren clicked his tongue. "Only a blind man would be clueless."

Yuze chuckled in amusement. "These idiots don't have an idea, though. They think that they're just good friends."

Renren shook his head, also amused. "Well, these guys are also some of the stupidest people I've met. It's fortunate that they're good at basketball."

Yuze nodded. "Tell me about it."

With that, they started with their drills, with Lina acting stricter than usual.

So, by the end of it, the boys were quite tired.

They scrounged for their sports drink and laid down on the dirty flooring.

Then, Jet was about to complain when the door suddenly opened, revealing yet another unexpected person.

"So, this is what your court looks like."