Chapter 17

Rowie arrived 5 minutes earlier. Her teammates were already in front of the gymnasium and were waiting for the others. Unlike before, they all seemed to be closer than before. They were laughing like they had known each other since they were born. On the other hand, Rowie felt a little out of place because of their closeness.

When Marcus saw her arrived, he approached her and greeted her. She greeted him back with a slight smile – a little guilty of not attending the basketball camp. That's why she immediately apologized with what happened.

"I heard everything from Patricia, though she didn't tell me the exact thing. I can understand. You don't have to feel guilty. But you need to focus more on your training and do extra works. Is that okay?" Marcus reminded Rowie with a smile.

"Of course. I'll do my best!" Rowie beamed at him. He gave him one last smile before gathering the whole team inside the gymnasium.

Marcus and Patricia decided to train together with the whole team. They both believed that the girls basketball team would learn more from them throughout the next three more months.

All the girls followed the same drills as the boys'. They had a little hard time coping, though. It was hell. Patricia was satisfied to see the whole team cooperate. No one from the girls said anything and they just did what they were instructed to do.

The whole varsity was starting to feel comfortable with each other. They thought that the whole afternoon would be awkward but the guys seemed to be friendlier than they thought.

Professor Martinez, the basketball boys' coach, and Professor Sanchez, the basketball girls' coach, were checking them from time to time. They seemed contented to what was happening with their teams.

Their audience started to fill the gymnasium even though it was only a practice game. They were equally guys and ladies. They could only shrug their shoulders and continued on what they were doing. The guys and the ladies were free to watch whenever they feel like it.

Even if the drills were hard, Rowie couldn't stop but feel conscious with Patricia's smirk. It was a playful one, not the satisfied one. It seemed like she was planning something that no one would be glad about. She was starting to get nervous as time passed by. The smirk on her face was still there and she was now looking at Rowie.

Something's not right, Rowie thought as she wiped off her sweat due to the difficult drills.

Marcus dismissed both the team and they all started cleaning the whole gym. They were all about to leave together when Kazu stopped Shin from walking. "Shin-chan, I think I forgot something in the locker room, can you come with me?"

"Oh, sure." Shin started checking his phone while walking behind his friend. It became his mannerism to do that every time they were done training. When he got nothing to do with it, he hid it from his pocket. That was when Kazu pushed him inside the locker room with a huge smirk on his face.

"I'm so sorry, dude. I was just a victim as well." Shin was about to punch his friend when Kazu already locked the door. He started to shout and knocked the door but he could only hear his friend's laughter outside.

"Open this damn door, Kazu. This is not funny!"

"Come on, dude! I know you'll thank me for this after."

"What the hell are you saying? Should I thank you that you locked the door leaving me inside?" Shin asked sarcastically. Kazu could only chuckle.

When he gave up, he sat on one of the benches inside and sighed drastically. "What was he up to now? Tsk." He whispered to himself. He couldn't think of something that may be the reason to his friend's actions.

Did he forget to take his medicine? Shin teased his friend inside his head.

"—is your problem? Wait! What?" He was busy thinking of ways on how to murder his friend when the door opened. There he saw Rowie being dragged inside by their captain, Patricia. Just like what Kazu did, Patricia locked the door when Rowie was inside.

"Open the door, Patricia. This isn't funny!" She shouted. Shin almost laughed when he realized that he also said the same thing to Kazu a while ago. What was really happening, really?

"I was just doing you a favor. You two need to talk. I'll cheer you on, Rowie. Good luck!" Patricia shouted outside. They both heard their two friends' laughters disappeared – it seemed like they left the two alone.

Rowie sighed and sat three meters away from where Shin was sitting. She chose to sit at the floor instead of sitting on the bench. They both stayed quiet and unmoving. No one dared to speak as awkwardness enveloped the whole place.

Rowie roamed the locker room with her eyes. She saw how clean the room was despite the fact that boys were staying there. This was also her first time inside the boys' locker room and she didn't know what to feel. It smelled manly but it still felt weird for her to be there. She wanted to go out and leave immediately.

Shin stared at her face while she was busy checking the place. No matter how many times he watched her, it still felt the same. He could only admire her light wavy hair that danced with the air every time she turned her head. Her eyelashes were long and her eyes were a deep blue sea. Her nose was small and the natural red lips she had, made her look more attractive in his eyes.

When Rowie's eyes landed at his, he averted his eyes quickly. He cleared his throat to hide his nervousness. Rowie spoke which added to the fast beating of his heart.

"How are you?" That was the most stupid question Rowie had came up with. But what could she do, she didn't know what to say.

Shin chuckled, trying to erase the awkwardness. "I'm fine, well, how 'bout you?"

"Well, not really fine but I'm getting the hang out of it."

Shin wanted to know what happened. He wanted to know why she left and why was she crying that time. But he's aware that he's not on the right position to ask. He was a stranger to her. It's not like they're friends. They hadn't even known each other's whole name.