tsenyihan:
He nodded. “Yihan’s perfectly fine,” he allowed, reaching for the triangular rack on his end of the table. He made quick work of racking the balls. Though the question hadn’t been an invitation, it was too late to correct himself and it would have been far too awkward to anyhow. It wasn’t like this was a bad situation to be in. This would be a good way to familiarize himself with Ariella. Hers had been one of the few files he’d left largely blank. Just one word in the margins: Careful. Reckless, but not someone to watch closely. Not someone to worry over.
Yihan’s hands traded the rack for the cue stick beside him, already readied with chalk from earlier. He leaned over the table, left arm stretched in front and his right cocked behind him, firmly holding the cue stick in place. His eyes focused on the cue ball. Force was simple, inertia and mass were insignificant enough (situationally speaking, of course), but hitting the right linear and angular velocities—God. This was exactly why he only ever agreed to billiards after a few beers. He held his breath and fired before his mind could take off again.
The cue ball struck the formation straight-on and the balls clattered, hurtling and crashing and knocking every which way. Not bad at all for a half-baked shot. Yihan peeled himself off the side of the table and watched as the balls quieted to a standstill. One striped ball dawdled on the edge of a corner pocket, rolling to and fro, teasing his optimism… before finally coming to a stop. Yihan let out a light sigh, surrendering with ease. “It’s a shame I wasn’t given telekinesis,” he joked. “You’re… Ariella, right?”
A smile in response, her eyes followed his movements, a scene that was familiar to her, albeit the size, shape, colour of hands varied. She’d never preferred to be the one to break, usually leaving it up to whoever was playing with her, though there were days when she was feeling lucky enough to do so. Knowing the playing field was often an advantage, she found, even if it let her opponent take first crack at the balls.
Silence ruled for a moment as he concentrated on his shot, broken by the crack and clicking of the balls as they scattered. It was satisfying, in a way, though the sound one made when it was pocketed was a far more satisfying one. Both their concentrations were drawn to the one ball on the edge, her mouth quirking slightly when it stilled. “ Shame indeed, though I didn’t take you to be one who would cheat, ” Her tone is light, teasing, as she walks around to line up her shot near the other end of the table. Thankfully, there was another striped one that would be an easy shot. “ That’s right — ” A pause as she sinks the shot. “ — Glad you seem to remember me. ”
Of course, she’d assumed that he’d remembered from the earlier announcement, and the thought crossed her mind, if he was one with good memory, and if that would be helpful later on, but it was pushed aside as she lined up her next shot, tongue clicking in disappointment as the angle was slightly off. “ I seem to be a little rusty, ” A shake of her head in deprecation, as she leans back to watch his next move. “ How was your training? ”











