get your head in the game

ZHAO TIAN . 16 . FIRST YEAR . PLAYER Future Basketball Star TAKING OVER THIS TOWN, THEY SHOULD WORRY. BUT THESE PROBLEMS ASIDE, I THINK I TAUGHT YOU WELL THAT WE WON'T RUN. AND IN THE WINTER, NIGHT SKY SHIPS ARE SAILING, LOOKING DOWN ON THESE BRIGHT BLUE CITY LIGHTS. AND THEY WON'T WAIT, WE'RE HERE TO STAY.

[kstian-blog]

ksxyoungmin:

youngmin nods as tian explains it was an easy mistake, still smiling wide, still outwardly excited about understanding where he’d gone wrong. his smile softens a little—though it stays just as wide—when tian offers to help him whenever he needs it, and youngmin’s gratitude towards his hyung sits light and bubbly in his chest. “you’re a good friend, tian hyung,” youngmin tells him softly, though it’s only a few seconds before there’s energy back in his expression. “but no getting all red eared and awkward about that one, okay? it’s not a compliment it’s just a factual statement cause you help me out,” he adds, nodding enthusiastically in tian’s direction.

he turns back to his math after a moment, working through the equations again, going at a much faster rate now that tian’s helped him. it’s not too long though, before youngmin starts to get bored again, and his eyes wonder over to his friend, wondering how close tian is to finishing. suddenly, youngmin gets an idea, and a sly grin spreads over his face. “hey hyung, what if I needed, like, a different kind of help? like, not homework related help?” he asks, resting his elbow on the desk and his chin in his hand, trying to keep his grin under control so he can look at tian as innocently as possible. “for example, what if I was craving ice cream real bad? and I was thinking about ditching this homework for now and going to get some. but I knew going to get ice cream alone would be pretty sad, so I’d need a friend to come with me. how would you feel about helping me out in that kind of situation?”

it was the right thing to do to offer to help the younger. if he needed the help then tian really didn’t see the harm in helping him out, nothing bad could come from doing that and if anything, youngmin was just going to get better and understand more so he wouldn’t need the help anymore. tian was perfectly fine with helping him, it was not like he was struggling himself with his own work and did need that much time to get things done. and instead of sitting there and wasting time he could instead spend the time to help someone else. “i’m not going to,” he huffed a little, brows pulling together into a slight scowl, “i don’t get awkward about everything.” just when he was saying the silly things about how smart and clever he was. 

now that youngmin seemed to have everything sorted on his end, tian went back to his own work, quickly getting through the rest of the questions without even having to pause much. the only time his pencil stopped moving was at the end when he was checking over all his answers and making sure all his working out was there because he knew how much that mattered towards the marks. though he did look over again as youngmin can up with this plan, lips pulling together into a slight frown as he glanced at the younger boy’s work. he was nowhere near done and he wanted to ditch and go get ice cream? “only if you promise that once we get ice cream you’ll finish,” he told him rather simply, “i feel obligated to make sure you finish this homework now.”

[kstian-blog]

ksminghao:

“oh, cool.” minghao nodded approvingly at tian, giving him a smile that was slightly less awkward than the one they had exchanged when they first met. he thought it was cool that tian wanted to go professional. minghao might not know a thing about basketball himself, but this guy was obviously passionate about it and minghao had always believed that it’s important to follow your own passions, and not listen to what anyone else expects you to be. 

minghao was surprised when his date seemed to think it was cool that his interests were more of the intellectual sort. most people, especially those involved in sports, usually disregarded him as ‘that quiet nerdy kid’, as if that was all there is to him. but it didn’t seem like tian thought that, which was a pleasant surprise. “that’s good!” he replied encouragingly. “a lot of people struggle with math, and science subjects in general, because there’s only one right answer, you know? you can’t really reflect much over the answer as you can with other subjects. so being able to keep up is good.” as he finished talking, minghao realized this was the most he had talked since he and tian met, and it had been about math. way to make a good first impression. 

he didn’t really expect minghao to get excited for him or anything, his response had been expected and so tian just smiled in response. it was quite clear that sports was not this boy’s forte, and that was just fine, some would say that it was better to be smart and good at intellectual things than to be good at sports. you were more likely to be able to get a good career from being smart than you ever were by being good at a sport. unless you were some sort of prodigy, which tian really was not. 

a small smile did drift over his lips for a moment. “i’ve never really struggled in school,” he admitted, “my parents always pushed me in school as well as in sports.” and he always did try his best in the classroom because he knew he had to to better to get his parents out of the situation they were stuck in. if the nba didn’t work out, then he needed to get a stable job and earn enough to help the people who had always been there to help him. his parents deserved that much from him. “but i need to get a good enough education to help out my family, or at least good enough grades. i know that this place is not the best, but i butchered a scholarship into another school,” and he wasn’t going to mention how he had butchered that chance. his knee was already aching a little just thinking about it. “but you know... it is what it is. just have to make the most of it.”

[kstian-blog]

ksxyoungmin:

the way tian whines and shakes his head when youngmin continues to call him smart is kind of (very) adorable, and the need youngmin has to point it out is very strong. he holds back though, pressing his tongue against the back of his teeth to keep the words from spilling out. he’s tortured his hyung with enough compliments for now. or, at least, for the next half hour. instead, he leans forward, resting his chin on his hands, and squints at the page, watching tian write. it’s kind of hard to see what he’s doing from this angle though, but that doesn’t stop youngmin from trying, craning his neck around to try and find a better angle.

he sits up properly though when tian slides his notebook back to him, looking down at the page front on and actually taking in what his friend has written. it takes him a little moment, going through line by line of his working compared to tian’s to see where he went wrong. but eventually it clicks, and when it does his whole face lights up. “oh! oh oh I see!” he exclaims. “wait..” he adds, chewing on his bottom lip as he tries out another problem, fixing what he thinks was the problem based on how tian solved the previous equation. it works, and youngmin looks over at tian with a wide grin. “I knew it was going to be something simple I was missing,” he says, though he seems much more excited about it now the problem is solved. “thanks hyung!”

tian honestly doubted there would ever be a time where youngmin would stop peppering with compliments. but that was sort of fine, he expected no less from his dongsaeng and he supposed that he would just have to try and get used to it. but that was probably going to be hard because every single time someone even said anything nice about him the tips of his ears started burning red. which then just made him even more embarrassed because then people could tell that he was getting awkward about it. that was just one never ending circle of going red in the face and getting embarrassed. 

“it was an easy mistake to make,” he continued with a small nod of his head and a smile, “you just got a couple things mixed up is all.” it was not like he was far off from the actual working out, all he had needed was a nudge in the right direction and he would get the answer. tian didn’t even mind doing the working out for him and correcting the mistake because maybe he wouldn’t make that mistake again. “it was no problem, though,” he added as he moved back to his own work again, picking up just where he had left off, “you ever need any help then you can come and find me, yeah?”

[seong-wu]

little baby

[kstian-blog]

ksminghao:

“ahh.” minghao nodded as tian told him about the sports he was participating in. despite never having been a very athletic person himself, minghao admired the ones who had the patience to dedicate themselves to a sport. after all, his older cousin is a very dedicated soccer player, and minghao has seen the amount of work he puts into it. “that’s cool. do you, uh, do you prefer one over the other?” he asked, not quite sure whether it was a stupid question or not. 

“no,” he admitted. “i’m taking a p.e. class, though.” he didn’t elaborate further. the only reason he was taking p.e. was because his therapist had told him it would be good for him. (something minghao honestly doubted, as all it seemed to be doing was make his anxiety worse. but hey, who was he to question a professional?) but that wasn’t something he liked going around telling people he’s not close to, so if someone asked, he just shrugged and told them it had fit with his schedule. “i’m… more of a logical person. i like math and i’m in science club.” 

tian had never thought he would grow up to want to take part in sports. a lot of his friends when he was younger hated a lot of physical activity, especially seeing as most of the time he hung around with the kids who preferred books and studying over everything else. but he had found basketball and it had simply grown into a passion and now he wanted to base his whole life around the sport. “basketball,” he responded with a nod of his head, “i want to go professional when i’m older. the swimming is more for fun.”

it turned out that his date for that evening didn’t do any sports besides p.e class, and that was fine. sports really wasn’t for everyone. though it did make sense as he went on to say he liked maths and was in the science club. yes, you did not get many people who liked maths and were part of the science club who also liked taking part in sports as well. those two were polar opposites. “cool,” he just responded, not really sure what else he could add on to that. “i’m alright at maths, it’s not my best subject, but i can normally keep up.” maybe he was being a little modest, he always managed to keep up with what was happening, but he didn’t mention that part. 

[kstian-blog]

ksxyoungmin:

youngmin’s not blind to tian’s reactions to his compliments. sometimes he thinks maybe he should pull back on them—he doesn’t mean to be overbearing—but he can’t really help it most of the time. his compliments always come from a place of genuine admiration for his friend, and most of the time he just says them without really realising they’re compliments. besides, there’s a part of youngmin that hopes that, if he keeps telling tian how awesome he is, that eventually, one day, tian might actually believe it about himself. “you’re smarter than me,” youngmin points out before he can help it. “and a lot of the people in our class, which makes you pretty smart.”

he does take the bait though, when tian asks if he needs help, nodding in reply and letting the conversation shift away from tian and onto him. “yeah, I think so,” he says, scrunching up his nose. he puffs out his cheeks as he looks down at his work again, squishing them with his fingers and letting out his breath, hard enough to lift the hair off his forehead. “I think I get it, like the formulas and stuff. but then sometimes I can’t get it to work? like with this one,” he slides his notebook over so tian can see it, pointing to the problem he’s working on with the end of his pencil. “I’ve tried to do this one like three times but I can’t get it to work and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.” he sighs, turning sideways and leaning over so his cheek is pressed against the desk. “I bet it’s something really obvious I’m missing, it always is with math problems.”

some people liked compliments. they liked people telling them that they were the best at something or better than other people. but when someone said that to tian, he just felt like curling up into a little ball and vanishing. he just got really rather embarrassed when people complimented him and he had come to find that youngmin was a huge source of said compliments no matter how much tian told him to stop. “i’m not that smart,” he just repeated with a small whine, shaking his head from side to side stubbornly, “it’s not like i’m a whizzkid or anything.” then again, if he wasn’t a player, that was probably where he would end up seeing as he didn’t really think he fit in anywhere else. not that he was going to mention that because no doubt that would just prove youngmin right and then the compliments about how smart he apparently was were never going to stop. 

at least no more compliments were now coming for his mouth, tian just nodding his head a little as the younger boy admitted he did need some help. that was fine, he’d gotten pretty far with the work himself so could waste some time helping his friend out. “let me look,” he just stated, reaching out to pull his work a little closer, eyes moving over what was already written on the page. instead of telling him exactly what was wrong, tian just started scribbling out the correct working out, pushing it back with a finger with a shrug of his shoulder. “now you should be able to get the answer.” maybe it would have been more helpful to explain what he did, but it was pretty simple to look at the working out and realise where he went wrong in the first place. “you were almost there, though,” he added as an afterthought. 

[kstian-blog]

ksminghao:

“oh,” he replied. tian’s reply made it seem like he didn’t have a lot of friends, or at least not many close ones, and it honestly made minghao feel kind of relieved. he felt bad about it - who the hell was relieved that another person had as few friends as yourself? - but at least it meant he wasn’t alone. “i’m not really… i mean, i’m not that close with the people i know who are going. so, uh, i won’t be hanging with them.” he finished off with a smile, mentally slapping himself at how badly he was stuttering. tian must think he’s a complete loser.

minghao tore his gaze away from the decorations, turning towards his date instead. “practice?” he repeated dumbly. “what do you play?” he asked. personally, he wouldn’t have minded if the decorations stayed up for another week or so. hopefully his p.e. class would be cancelled because of it. but he understood that it must probably suck for the ones who participated in any sport and were passionate about it.

no matter what he thought, he still rather thought that this situation was somewhat awkward. and it appeared as though he couldn’t just let his ‘date’ go off with his friends and make an escape as he stated that he wasn’t close enough to the people he knew were going. it looked as though he was stuck with him for the night. not that he could say that was a completely bad thing, but from the way things were going, he could already imagine how this wasn’t going to go well. it hadn’t been that long and already the conversation was lacking and it was quite clear there was some awkwardness between the two of them. 

“basketball,” he responded softly, eyes moving to the hoop one of the gym for a moment. “i’m also on the swim team as well, but at least that’s not affected by all of this.” because this was not a pool party, so even if the gym was closed for awhile and practice was cancelled, he could at least indulge with swimming. though he would much prefer unwinding with a basketball and putting in some good hours on the court. he hated going without practicing for long periods of time. “do you play anything?” 

[kstian-blog]

ksxyoungmin:

( @kstian )

youngmin’s not dumb, he can pass most of his classes most of the time, but he’s also not exactly the smartest kid in class. sometimes he has a little difficulty getting through his homework and he has to enlist the help of his smarter, taller, cooler, better looking friend. which is how he’s ended up here, sitting at a table in the library, opposite tian, his algebra text book and a notebook open in front of him. they’d been given an excruciatingly long list of problems to get done before the next class, and the second the teacher had assigned it youngmin had looked over at tian, hopeless desperation in his eyes. 

befriending tian might be the best thing youngmin’s ever done. for one thing he’s very glad to have an awesome friend like tian; and for another, tian actually agrees to help him out with his school work. youngmin always understands these things better when tian explains them, and where he probably would’ve been completely lost if he’d had to work on this by himself, he’s now making slow but steady progress through the homework. it’s starting to get boring though, and youngmin steals a glance over at tian’s work, eyes widening when he sees the older boy had finished more than double the amount of questions that he has. 

“wahh, hyung, you’re so fast!” youngmin exclaims, genuinely impressed. “can you let me borrow your brain one day? I’d like to know what it’s like to be an awesome smart person, even if it’s just for like five minutes.” 

tian doesn’t normally do work with other people, he always preferred working by himself simply because he didn’t like the distractions. but he did always agree to help youngmin out, they were friends so he did feel as though he had to help the younger boy. so, once again, the teenager found himself in the library with the other first year going through some homework, though for the moment he wasn’t doing much helping out, just silently going through the maths. it wasn’t all too difficult, though he could imagine how some people might struggle. it was not like algebra was easy or anything. 

he was quick to work out the next problem, scribbling the working out down on the page, going over it a couple of times just to make sure he still got the same answer. though he didn’t get the chance to write the answer out on the page when youngmin caught his attention again. an almost sheepish smile slipped onto his face, a small blush rising on his cheeks as he rubbed the back of his neck. “i’m not that smart,” he responded rather shyly. tian really didn’t like when youngmin kept complimenting him, he was always doing it and it always made him uncomfortable just because he didn’t believe most of the words coming from his mouth. 

though he did glance over at his friend’s page to see how far behind he was lagging behind. “need some help?” he just wondered, shifting over ready to help out with the other boy’s work, clearly trying to change the subject away from him. 

[kstian-blog]

ksminghao:

minghao was grateful that tian broke the awkward silence that had settled between them as they made their way towards the entrance, but at the same time, the thought of a conversation also made him nervous. it had always proved difficult for him to find the right words to properly articulate his thoughts. “uh, yeah,” he replied. he knew jungeun and taejoon were going, and while he wasn’t so sure he’d consider them to be his friends, exactly, he figured it was better to lie than admit to only having two friends, none of whom were going. “what about you?”

they got in without any problems, and once they were inside, minghao had to stop to admire his surroundings. the normally sweaty gym that he usually dreaded going to, had transferred into something that might even be considered classy. “wow,” he muttered, still looking around at all the decorations around them. “this place looks nice,” he commented. he realized he probably needed to say more to keep the conversation going, but as always, words were failing him.

tian hadn’t really been expecting the question to be thrown back at him, though he supposed he should have seen that coming. he did have to pause for a moment, almost hesitating as he tried to think. “i don’t know...” he admitted, trailing off as he anxiously chewed on the inside of his cheek, “i didn’t actually ask.” not that he really thought he had many friends, or at least anyone that he wanted to go and find and hang around with if things didn’t work out. he’d always preferred to be by himself most of the time, so it was a surprise he was good at a team sport, but at least while playing basketball he didn’t need to worry about holding any kind of normal conversation. 

when minghao stopped, tian also found himself drawing to a halt, taking a moment to look around. he’d seen a  lot of the decor go up and had played around it, but he hadn’t had the chance to see the final product until now. “yeah,” he just agreed with a small nod of his head, “though i hope they can clear it up fast because we’re supposed to have a practice tomorrow.” and they couldn’t use the gym if there were still decorations all over the place and tables in the way. 

[kstian-blog]

ksminghao:

he returned tian’s smile with a nervous one of his own, anxiously stepping from foot to foot while he stood in front of the younger boy. tian might be younger than him and (at least he seemed like he was) just as nervous, but the fact that the younger was so damn tall made him kind of intimidating in minghao’s eyes. he didn’t quite understand why, but being around people who were significantly taller than him (such as tian) made him really nervous. maybe he just automatically assumed they looked down on him due to their height. 

“yes. right. we should, uh… we should go inside,” he replied, nodding slowly. he ended up standing there awkwardly a few more seconds, not sure if he should offer tian his arm or not. they were dates after all (albeit not by choice), and that’s what he’d observed dates do in his aunt’s stupid romantic comedy movies. in the end, he decided against it, figuring they would both probably just find it awkward. instead, he smiled awkwardly at tian again, before he slowly started heading towards the entryway, making sure tian was walking by his side. as they were walking in silence, minghao’s mind was browsing through a string of anxious thoughts. he hated himself for not even being able to make a good impression on the guy - this was the first time they’d talked to each other, and minghao was sure he had somehow managed to ruin it by being his regular, anxious self. this was going to be a long night.

yeah, he really was not set to deal with these kinds of events. he was just incredibly nervous about things and worried that he was going to mess something up and ruin everything. because now he had someone else to worry about as well and he didn’t want to be responsible for making someone else’s night completely terrible. he really shouldn’t have bothered coming, or he should have asked someone he was at least friendly with to go with him so he did’t have to worry about it. but it was a little late for that and there was not very much he could do about it now. 

maybe they were both inside he would feel a little better, but tian really doubted that, but he could always hope. though he also just stood there for a moment, thinking about how he wanted to go about things. would it too weird if they held arms or something like a typical date would. it just seemed a little weird to him, especially as this was a blind date (more so with the masks than a normal blind date), and because he was pretty sure the both of them were still a bit weirded out by this whole thing. eventually he did manage to convince his feet to start moving, almost stumbling after the other boy, though it didn’t take him very long to catch up, having to take shorter steps to keep in time with him and not end up pulling ahead without even trying. “so...” he just started after clearing his throat, really not finding this awkward silence very comforting for his nerves. “you have any friends going?” 

[kstian-blog]

ksxseungcheol:

There was a frown on his face when he saw the high schooler come in, tissue up his nose and a bruise starting to form at that appendage. As much as he knew the population detested the addition of high schoolers in Keisung—he wasn’t into the decision all that much either but the administrators had more hold over that matter. “Have a seat,” he said instead as he looked for a cold pack from his fridge and passed it over to the tall high schooler. He always saw to it that his first aid kit and his cold and hot packs were always ready for Minsu (and on occasion, the other two), but he never thought he’d offer it to someone else as well. “Put the cold pack over the bruise. It would lessen it a bit, at least.” Seungcheol knew guys would always pick fights, but it seems as if these college kids think it’d be fine to bully high schoolers. “Well then. Since he doesn’t want to do it now, he can spend the rest of his Friday explaining it all to Ara-ssi instead.” After all, from the time he spent with Jian, he’s pretty sure the guidance counselor’s girlfriend wasn’t fond of anyone giving her more work than necessary nor was she fond of unprovoked violence. He gives the kid a reassuring smile instead and offered him tea. “I never got your name?”

maybe he would get into trouble for trying to cover for someone else. tian hoped not, but you could never be all too sure when it came to the professors. some of them were nicer than others, but it was not like he wanted to be covering for someone, he’d sort of been forced into it. sure he could have refused, but then would have just gotten himself beaten up and tian really didn’t want that. “a....seat?” why did he want him to sit down, he had just come here to pass along a message and was sort of hoping to escape now. however, he did do as he was told, anxiously nibbling on his bottom lip, eyes nervously darting around the office. he did blink a little in confusion as he was handed an ice pack, but took it all the same with a small mumbled thank you, pressing it lightly against his nose. it didn’t even really hurt anymore, it was just one punch which had caused a nosebleed, and that was rather obvious by the tissue still stuck up there and the drops of dried blood on his shirt. “i don’t think he’s planning to go to any detentions,” he just added in a rather small voice, still feeling as though he was in some sort of trouble, even if the professor wasn’t shouting at him or anything, he still felt pretty rotten about it. “i’m tian... zhao tian. i’m not in trouble, am i?”

[kstian-blog]

ksminghao:

( @kstian )

had minghao known he’d be paired up with a complete stranger, he would’ve thought twice about going to the masquerade. he had already been reluctant, but after making a promise to jungeun that he’d go, he supposed he had no choice. still, he thinks he definitely would have preferred going with jinyoung over a stranger, despite how torturous that would’ve been. well, maybe his date wasn’t a complete stranger - minghao knew about his existence and had seen him around the school, but the two of them had never exchanged a word, and were definitely strangers. 

when he arrived outside, he immediately started looking around for his date. it didn’t take long until he spotted him, standing rather awkwardly a bit away from the crowd. it gave minghao a sense of relief to see that his date seemed kind of awkward as well - at least they had that in common. “hi,” he greeted once he’d walked up to the boy. “you’re tian, right? i’m minghao.”

tian didn’t really know why he agreed to go to this masquerade. he didn’t have the money for some expensive suit and he was not exactly the sort of boy who liked dancing. but he had been convinced to come and now found himself with a date with some boy he only vaguely knew. minghao was in the same dorm suit, but they had never really spoken before, so tian was sure that this was all just going to be a little awkward and he would end up making some excuse to leave early in the end. there was very little chance that he would be hanging around until the very end, and he supposed that was for the best. he had to wake up early tomorrow morning and couldn’t be going to bed too late. 

he currently found himself waiting for his date, anxiously sucking on the inside of his cheek as he hovered a little away from the main crowd of people. thankfully, he wasn’t left waiting for very long as minghao eventually arrived. “that’s me, yes,” he responded with an almost nervous smile, one hand anxiously running back through his hair. “so, are we going to go in then? i mean, we could just stand here, but i think that defeats the purpose of coming in the first place.”

[kstian-blog]

ksyohan:

@kstian

If there was a time when Yohan didn’t find this school unbearable, it was during swim practice and that was because he enjoyed being in the water.  Yes, he did skip sometimes because he was either too lazy or something else caught his attention but he tried his best to be there for most of them.  Now as practice ended and he made his way to the showers, he wanted nothing more than to find something fun to do because there was no way he was just going to do homework or study when he felt so energized.  Of course, he wasn’t going to go by himself and he had someone in mind to go with him as he finished showering.  

Tian wasn’t in his year but since he was also on the swimming team, they had exchanged greetings.  The other was so quiet that the third year had to be the one to initiate conversation but that day he had decided that it was time to get to know the player.  Once he was done getting dressed and with his bag strapped across his chest, he waited for the younger to finish getting ready to talk to him.  “You know Tian, I think we need to get to know each other more since we are on the same team.” He said as he gave the younger a bright smile and then wrapping his arm around the other shoulders, he added: “Let’s go to the arcade, yes?” He might be older but he tried to sway the other with puppy dog eyes as he tried to get him to agree.

swimming was more of a pastime than anything. he just did it for a fun, and although he was pretty good at it and his height helped quite a bit, he had no intentions of taking it seriously. it was just more exercise and helped keep him in shape besides the basketball, though he was pretty sure his aching knee was not thanking him very much for it. but that was fine, he still just lied about the obvious scar and refused to tell anyone what had happened. though he did regret how he tried to cope with the pain and he was sure that his knee was never going to stop aching because he had messed up the healing process. but he was not the sort of boy just to give up because of a bit of pain. if anything, it just made him even more determined to keep going and prove that he could fight through it. 

another practice had wrapped up and tian was pretty quick to get dressed again, skipping on a shower as he was planning to shoot some hoops later and didn’t really want to have two showers in one day. he slung his bag over his shoulder, ruffling his hand back through his damp hair. tian turned to leave, but paused when yohan started talking to him. “we do?” he just responded, having to slouch down a little as an arm was slung over his shoulders. “i actually had plans...” he trailed off, awkwardly trying to get out from under the arm currently holding him down, “maybe some other time?”

[kstian-blog]

ksjian:

It was true that each position required some of the same skills but as with everything, if someone had been in each position, that individual had skills that the ones that had remained in one or two positions didn’t have. When the younger pointed this out, he simply nodded and once again, he saw the younger smile as he spoke about being a point guard.  It was obvious that if anyone wanted to make Tian comfortable, they just needed to ask him about basketball and the guidance counselor was a little proud that he was able to figure this out without meaning to.  “I do hope that you continue holding the point guard position and I’ll definitely go to the next game to see how the team is doing.” He meant what he said even though the last thing he wanted to do was to see how the coach was handling the team but as long as he was nowhere near the man, he thought it would be fine.  “A first year. I thought you were at least a second year but it seems like you have enough time to get ready for college applications and scouts visits. I look forward to hearing about you in the sports sections.” Even though he had always been a realist and never allowed himself to dream about going professional, part of him wished good luck to those who dared to dream.

he had actually completely forgotten where he was heading before this conversation started, but he supposed that didn’t matter very much. though he did have to wonder why this guidance councillor was still talking to him when he had been looking for some student. not that tian was going to point this out, so he just smiled a little and nodded his head. “i hope i hold that position as well, because if i want to play professional then i need as much practice in the position i want as possible,” that was just common sense, though he did suppose the win was more important to the team than his own career, so he would probably still be a flex player. a light blush took over his cheeks as he said he thought he was at least a second year. “most people think i’m already in college,” he just admitted, awkwardly shuffling a foot against the ground, “because of the height thing.” and it was annoying, but he was pretty sure he wouldn’t feel so awkward about it once he was actually in college. “i’m going to be one of the best basketball players ever,” he just added with a small grin, “i’m going to be on the cover of everything some day.” at least he hoped so, but actually getting to the states was the first step in this big plan of his. 

[kstian-blog]

because i am super fucking lazy, i can’t be bothered to do a moodboard. so here’s just what my kids are wearing and their masks below. and taeyun isn’t going because he’s a brat and thinks this is all a waste of time, so congrats keisung, you get a night’s break from him being an asshole xD

tian: outfit, mask jaebin: outfit, mask (which will probably come off in .9 of a second because he doesn’t see the point of hiding his identity when everyone can tell who he is anyway because of the hearing aids) 

also, please plot with my two kids for this event! tian will probably be standing their awkwardly and jaebin will most likely be flirting at anything with two legs. 

[kstian-blog]

ksxseungcheol:

The pile of papers filled with red marks had him incredibly frustrated. He knew history wasn’t a favourite among students, but for all the years he’s worked in Keisung, he’s never seen anyone make any some sort of effort for it. Or, well, there are a few others, but still. It was frustrating to no ends. A knock on the door takes him out of his reverie and he snaps his head up, wondering who could it be that was at the door. Besides Jitae and a few staff members, no one ever visited him in his office. Fixing the pile of papers in his hands, he puts them back in the envelope and fixes his glasses, a smile on his face as he says, “Come in.”

tian didn’t normally let himself be bullied and pushed around by older students, but when this college kid pulled him to the side tian didn’t really have much of a choice. this guy was a giant he towered over tian and that was saying something. he’d even been given a bloody nose, a taste of what else he would get if he didn’t listen and do as he was told. so that was why he was now standing outside the history professor’s office, a tissue sticking out of this right nostril as he raised his hand and knocked on the door. there was a pause and then the voice from inside telling him to come in. the first year swallowed the lump in his throat as he pushed open the door, standing there almost awkwardly like he was the one in trouble. “i’m just here to say... um...” he had to pause, trying to think of what he had been told to say, “that shim hojae won’t be going to his detentions later. he has... er... plans. yeah, that’s it.”

[nalalized]

[kstian-blog]

guanlliver:

Lai Guanlin gifs 101:

He’s so lovely…..