EAR Ch 27

Class 4’s scoring was almost entirely taken care of by Seungpyo, and Jaemin’s active participation was concentrated on attacks under the basket. Because of that, Jaemin hadn’t even been able to try defending properly from the start. Just like Seungpyo, who had clung tightly right behind him earlier and applied close-contact marking, Jaemin tried to block him thoroughly as well, but unlike his intentions, it wasn’t easy. Seungpyo, who was close to 190 centimeters tall, was even nimble, so Jaemin missed his movements by a beat every time and had to chase after him in a flurry.

As the ball went into Seungpyo’s hands, Jaemin desperately narrowed the distance with Seungpyo. Seungpyo turned his body at an angle and dribbled, and Jaemin quickly followed and pressed him as if shoving him. Seungpyo also kept Jaemin in check and seemed to be gauging the timing as he took a couple of steps backward, then leaped high into the air just like that.

Growing hurried, Jaemin also stretched out his arm quickly, but the distance had already widened too much. The ball flew emptily over Jaemin’s hand and went straight into the net, and Seungpyo, who had leaped while leaning his body backward at an angle, landed leisurely with a smile.

“Whoa, a fadeaway!”

“Did His Airness come?”

The watching kids applauded and cheered. Oh Seungpyo ran away with a confident expression as if to say, look at that, and waved to his classmates. Jaemin kept his lips tightly sealed and swallowed down the anger that welled up. He was mad that he failed to defend, but he was doubly mortified because he couldn’t even understand what the cheers shouted by the people meant.

It was Class 2’s turn to attack. Jaemin, whose concentration had become much higher than a moment before, didn’t miss the movement of the ball and accurately received the pass while shifting positions here and there. And as he had done until now, he leaped without hesitation to shoot.

“Where do you think you’re going.”

Jaemin wasn’t the only one who stamped his foot toward the basket. Seungpyo, who leaped simultaneously, struck the ball with force, thwack.

It was a block suffered even before he could shoot properly. The ball dropped onto the court, and pushed away by the force of Seungpyo loaded into the ball, even Jaemin collapsed flat onto the floor just like that.

‘Did I just fall over?’

Left dumbfounded, Jaemin couldn’t even get up right away, blinking his eyes as he looked down at the green urethane floor.

“No matter how high your success rate is, isn’t your shot too one-patterned?”

At that moment, Oh Seungpyo’s voice was heard from above his head. Only then did Jaemin raise his head. Seungpyo was holding out a hand with the corners of his lips raised.

The humiliation of not only having his shot blocked but also rolling around on the floor was immense beyond imagination. Staring blankly at his face, Jaemin couldn’t hold back the rising anger and knit his brows without realizing it. When he swiped his hand away forcefully with a slap, Seungpyo’s eyes widened slightly.

Watching the back of Jaemin, who jumped up to his feet and ran to find his spot, Seungpyo muttered under his breath:

“What on earth is wrong with that guy’s temper?”

Anyway, the match wasn’t over yet. Seungpyo also immediately went to find his spot, and the two of them stood closely attached under the basket once more.

The competitive spirit of the school rank 1 really seemed to be no joke. Though he was a beginner playing a basketball match for the very first time today, just from having a single shot blocked, Jaemin’s momentum had turned ferocious like a beast of prey.

He might hit someone if he wasn’t careful. Grumbling inwardly, Seungpyo followed Jaemin swiftly and marked him. Jaemin’s movements had become even more agile, and feeling a sense of crisis, Class 2’s passes pierced through Class 4’s defense with all their might and came into Ryu Jaemin’s hands once again.

Jaemin dribbled with his back turned to Seungpyo and aimed for the shooting timing, and Seungpyo also concentrated without taking his eyes off such a Jaemin. And the moment Jaemin turned his body, Seungpyo leaped up to make a block.

However, Jaemin moved differently from before. Jaemin, who had only shot textbook shots, took a step backward right like that, leaped up just like that, and shot the ball up. The ball thrown with the distance widened flew far past the fingertips of the defense, and only the appearance of Jaemin landing while stumbling slightly out of balance after jumping lightly filled Seungpyo’s field of vision.

The ball that flew drawing a clean arc passed through the basket net.

Thump… Even while the ball rolled a not-insignificant distance after dropping to the floor, the court was strangely quiet. Even though they had succeeded in scoring, neither applause nor shouts erupted this time.

Sounds of the spectators buzzing were heard, and not only the Class 2 kids, but even the Class 4 kids, and even Oh Seungpyo were just looking up at the basket without even blinking with surprised expressions.

‘Did I commit a foul or something?’

Though he had hurriedly searched for videos and articles under the pretext of studying, he still hadn’t fully memorized basketball rules or play methods, so he lacked confidence. As the silence persisted, Jaemin began to look around cautiously, wondering if he had made some mistake.

“Did he just do a fadeaway shot?”

“He said it’s his first time playing basketball…”

Only after someone broke the dead silence and spoke in a clear voice did the murmuring gradually turn into cheers.

Crazy, out of his mind, he tore it up… All sorts of extreme exclamations popped out competitively, and rather startled by the people’s intense reactions, Jaemin stood rigid without even laughing and hurriedly went to find his position. The Class 2 kids almost let out shrieks, following Jaemin and making a fuss by bumping their bodies against him.

‘Is that bastard really a genius?’

Seungpyo couldn’t help but be startled this time either. The Class 4 kids didn’t scold Seungpyo either, asking why he couldn’t block the shot. Shooting a fadeaway shot while playing in a basketball match for the first time today was like a scam.

There were always plenty of people trying to imitate this shot, famous as a technique of NBA players and Michael Jordan among them, but not even half of them threw it properly. It was even more unbelievable because Jaemin seemed to have followed along just by watching Seungpyo’s movement once.

“He probably practiced.”

During a short timeout, one kid muttered. Seungpyo suddenly recalled Ryu Jaemin whom he had seen in the morning. Even though he was bound to take charge of under the basket since he was relying solely on his height and cramming for it, he had been practicing long-distance shots uselessly.

If Ryu Jaemin had simply practiced layup shots, no matter how talented he was, he wouldn’t have been able to imitate a high-difficulty shot with just having seen it once. Before he knew it, playfulness had completely vanished from Seungpyo’s expression.

“Hey, I’m just going back to a free role.”

“What about Ryu Jaemin?”

“You guys try to block him somehow. I’ll block him from even getting near the basket as much as possible too. I have to be the one running to score more points.”

The kids nodded. The match, which they had thought would be won easily, was becoming fiercer than expected. Tying up the ace under the basket just to block one Ryu Jaemin was a waste of resources.

Jaemin, who had staked out his position under the basket ahead of time, looked at Seungpyo. He had thought he would come this way again, but Seungpyo had no thoughts of leaving the center of the court. Only after the match resumed in earnest did Jaemin notice that Seungpyo no longer held the center position.

He had ended up waiting for Oh Seungpyo on the spot. It was an inner thought no one would know, but Jaemin’s face reddened a little.

The match continued, and Seungpyo darted back and forth across the court without showing even a bit of leisure. The Class 2 kids made earnest efforts to mark him, but it was too much to handle stopping Oh Seungpyo, who would strike into openings without hesitation as if spatial teleportation were at play the moment they let their guard down for even a second.

In the end, abandoning the early strategy even Jaemin came out abandoning the basket, but there was no other clever trick. Seungpyo’s shots, which he shot up from under the basket, from afar, from close up, from the left, and from the right, led to goals one after another…

“Ah, as expected, we shouldn’t have made a bet.”